How influential are comments?

[ShelbyDawn57]

I find myself in the process of rewriting the ending of a story I published recently due to an overwhelming theme in the comments. The readers that chose to share their opinion seem to be of the same vein; they like the story but think the ending sucks. The scores reflect this. These are not really negative comments. I get lots of those, too. These are people that liked the story and the way I told it. They just didn't like where I took it.
I intentionally let the story sit for a while, similarly letting the comments simmer. When I went back and read the story again, I discovered I agreed completely. My ending sucks.

In response, I'm fixing the ending and will be publishing an update. To be clear, I'm not as much trying to quiet the dissenters. I can handle bad comments as long as they're honest. I'm doing it because I believe the story they want will be better than the one I gave them.

I'm interested to hear about any stories you have rewritten part of and republished and why.

The above is an extreme example. Other comments have inspired new stories, caused me to change something in a story I was working on(yeah, that didn't work like I though it would. Probably shouldn't do it again), or strongly influenced following chapters of a series. They've also made me much more aware of things like shorter paragraphs, the correct placing of punctuation within quotes, and the, overuse, of, commas.

How do the comments on your stories influence you?

 

[Bamagan]

The comments I was deleting influenced me to stop accepting comments, if that counts.
Prior to that embargo, I received very few comments that invited any kind of real dialogue, so any impact on my writing has been negligible. I have done an occasional alternate ending/branch based on direct or implied requests, or a continuation/spinoff.
From my limited sample, most of the critique-style comments I received were either about ideas I had actually considered but decided to do differently, or about things I never would have seriously considered in the first place. I can think of maybe two instances where I added material to a later chapter or story because someone asked for fetish content that was adjacent to what I was already writing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

How do the comments on your stories influence you?

In terms of story content, not at all. The story is what the story is, and I've only once changed content based on comments (from a person with paraplegia, who was extremely helpful in my Rope and Veil story, getting some details right).

In terms of the effect a story might have on readers, a lot. Someone once said a story gave her a "safe haven", a place to escape her obviously troubled life for a while, to escape into a story, to give herself pleasure. That touched me, and it's why I'll always say, think about the things you write, because words have power. It's my little push back against all those people who say, it's okay to write about anything, however depraved it might be, because it's only fiction.

If you can affect them for good, maybe your words can also cause damage, so at least think about that. It's a notion a lot of people reject.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've never rewritten a story based on comments, but I have been influenced by comments to write a sequel, and comments have influenced how I write subsequent stories.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I would never rewrite something due to reader feedback - not after I had published my final anyways. I always take feedback forward into whatever I write next though. When we write, we are trying to make a connection (not just to please - that's different) and the only way to know how and/or how well we are connecting is through the feedback, so if we want to improve our connections with readers, the feedback is invaluable.

 

[RejectReality]

I rewrote the ending of one chapter of Blackhawk Hall when a comment rang very, very true to me. What I'd written was out of character for Arilee, and the moment it was pointed out, it hit me like a sledgehammer. I rewrote the ending of that one, rewrote the beginning of the next chapter that I hadn't yet published to reflect the change, and the story was much better for it.

I've fixed a few terrible typos and name transpositions here and there. I rewrote a few lines of a couple of others for clarity, and put back in a sentence or three of one that I'd somehow lost in the editing process that gave a very bad impression and embarrassed the hell out of me. That's all I can really think of so far as changing an already posted story due to comments.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Was it https://www.literotica.com/s/the-pantyhose-prediliction ? I remember thinking it was unlike you. I liked it, but I see how others wouldn't.

 

[ronde]

I've never changed a story once it was published. The story is what I wrote because I thought that was the way it should be written. I do use comments to some extent in future writing, though I often get mixed signals from the comments.

- Too short/too long
- Just a stroke story/ not enough sex
- Good character development/ characters seemed shallow to me

In the end, I write what I feel like writing and let the readers sort it out.

 

[lovecraft68]

I write the story the way I was meant to. If people are not happy with it, it is what it is, I'll never rewrite anything based reception. If the comments are overwhelming something about the story sucks, I will accept the fact the story may have missed the mark and try to learn from it. Otherwise, it stays as is.

 

[THBGato]

I've only ever done minor edits (eg I got characters' names the wrong way round) based on comments.

That said, comments wanting a sequel/continuation the hardest step made me include the characters in the sidelines of Eve & Lucy.

 

[PapaRomantic]

I'm like others - I've not ever submitted any changes to the stories I have posted, even though I do have some serious flaws in a couple that probably need to be changed.

But I have taken comments into consideration as I've written a series and published as I wrote it instead if writing the complete work before submitting any of it. Also, my most commented upon story was going to be a stand-alone story, but I left it open with no resolution and got hammered for it so I felt obligated to write the follow-up.

 

[WhiteTailDarkTip]

I submit corrections rarely and i don’t recall ever doing so in response to a comment. A couple of comments made me think about it, but then I made myself a cup of tea and had a nice sit down until those thoughts went away

 

[nice90sguy]

A positive comment from someone who clearly gets what I was going for in the story is really motivating. I try and shrug off negative ones with "well, different strokes for differnt folks". And by "strokes" I mean... well, strokes

 

[MrPixel]

I've slightly adjusted my writing to accommodate several (...I think...) fans of one of my characters, elevating her presence in some of the stories. That she happens to be modeled after my wife may be an influencing factor, as well.

 

[StillStunned]

I doubt I'd ever rewrite a story, but after @Devinter commented on my series "The Dome" that he'd like to see more of life inside the Dome I decided that was a good idea. It's added a lot of depth.

The other day @Djmac1031 commented on "Full Moon on Old Jack's Hill" that he'd have liked to discover the background to the supernatural events. I wasn't going to do anything about it, but now there's an idea in my head about 17th century England, a witches' coven and a Puritan witchfinder...

 

[lovecraft68]

The other day @Djmac1031 commented on "Full Moon on Old Jack's Hill" that he'd have liked to discover the background to the supernatural events. I wasn't going to do anything about it, but now there's an idea in my head about 17th century England, a witches' coven and a Puritan witchfinder...

Your example always makes me get into the debate of when less is more, and how sometimes things are better left as a mystery to let the readers imagine run on their own. Keep in mind if you delve into a full history of something, you are then locked into it, as opposed to being vague and being able to let it serve you as needed as things progress.

I remember back when the coolest thing about Marvel Comics Wolverine was for over two decades no one knew his origin. Things were alluded in bits and pieces, but nothing solid. Then they decided to release the "Origin" mini series to tell it in every detail. Stan Lee warned it wasn't a good idea, going with the "sometimes you don't need to know everything' and he was dead on. The story itself wasn't bad, but being the morons modern Marvel is they couldn't stop themselves and continued to embellish it, change it, and the character became so over exposed he was no longer interesting.

But the best example for me is HPL's Necronomicon written by the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. The book that could drive someone to madness just by reading it. People wanted him to write it and his answer was simply put, he'd built it up so much that nothing he could come up with could deliver.

I have a coven in my EH series and although I have a history of it I wrote for myself to use as notes, I've only released bits and pieces of it. I think lore should never be fully divulged

 

[StillStunned]

Your example always makes me get into the debate of when less is more, and how sometimes things are better left as a mystery to let the readers imagine run on their own. Keep in mind if you delve into a full history of something, you are then locked into it, as opposed to being vague and being able to let it serve you as needed as things progress.

I'm a big fan of letting people fill in the blanks. So if I write it - and that's a big if - it will be as an entirely standalone story. Not to explain what happens in the other story, but as a complete story that needs telling in its own right. I have the germ of an idea, and I'll see whether it merits developing or not.

 

[designatedvictim]

I'm a relative newbie (one story, six parts, three months) and I don't have one of the thick skins the old-salts here have developed.

Comments - and views and votes, regrettably - have been few and far between, so far.

I got two comments on the first, most-read part, one of which was about as mild a critique as you could imagine ('A bit slow but very nice'). That, on the whole, is a net positive.

The third part seems to have five comments. Three are actually replies by me, the original critique and his follow-on 'The story in general is good though! Keep it up' - which I obviously liked.

So, really, only three comments, but the writing-centric comment in part 3 I felt was spot-on. Another Lit writer didn't like how I was applying speaker-tagging. Or, not applying it, in this case. I thought it was being pretty clear in the overall context who was speaking at each time. There were only two people it could be and it should be obvious who it is at the time.

After I read his comment, I started re-reading it from the start and realized that just because I knew who was talking, it may not be as clear to some people.

Once I saw the issue, though, I couldn't unsee it.

As I said in my comment-reply at the time:

With only two people in a scene, when one goes ‘“What time is it,” he asked’, due to context, I don’t feel any burning need to phrase things like ‘“Quarter-past twelve,” replied the only other person in the room’.

I wound up editing the first, second, and third parts and re-submitting them.

I didn't add missing speaker-tags everywhere one seemed to be needed, but I did add it to most places to ease any confusion.

Still, those first three parts have the coveted Red H and they got there even before the edits, so it couldn't have been too-bad for most readers.

But, for me, the criticism lead to edits and an overall improvement.

 

[Cagivagurl]

I find myself in the process of rewriting the ending of a story I published recently due to an overwhelming theme in the comments. The readers that chose to share their opinion seem to be of the same vein; they like the story but think the ending sucks. The scores reflect this. These are not really negative comments. I get lots of those, too. These are people that liked the story and the way I told it. They just didn't like where I took it.
I intentionally let the story sit for a while, similarly letting the comments simmer. When I went back and read the story again, I discovered I agreed completely. My ending sucks.

In response, I'm fixing the ending and will be publishing an update. To be clear, I'm not as much trying to quiet the dissenters. I can handle bad comments as long as they're honest. I'm doing it because I believe the story they want will be better than the one I gave them.

I'm interested to hear about any stories you have rewritten part of and republished and why.

The above is an extreme example. Other comments have inspired new stories, caused me to change something in a story I was working on(yeah, that didn't work like I though it would. Probably shouldn't do it again), or strongly influenced following chapters of a series. They've also made me much more aware of things like shorter paragraphs, the correct placing of punctuation within quotes, and the, overuse, of, commas.

How do the comments on your stories influence you?

Shelby,
I would be concerned that you let the comments get to you.
If you were happy with the ending when you wrote it. Why change?
When writing a fictitious story, as a writer you develop the story and get to a point where you are happy...

To then change it because a few commenters don't like where you took it.... Nah, that won't work. You can't please everybody. Not sure what your score is on the story in question, but.
I imagine more people liked it than disliked it.

To please a couple of readers, you're gonna piss off a whole bunch of others...

It's easy to be influenced by outside things... Don't let other peoples opinions change your perspective.

Cagivagurl

 

[GlennJenko]

I haven't let comments influence much story-wise, though a comment in the first part of my published series gave me an idea that minorly changed a scene in the third part. I've also made some minor edits to one story, though that wasn't because of comments. I just noticed a few grammatical errors and a formatting inconsistency that grated on me so I altered it.

I do appreciate even some of the negative comments, like "good writer, wrong story" because it at least shows they think I have some talent even if they didn't like the plot. So much more useful than just spewed hate that doesn't let me know if all of my story is bad or if it's something like what I just said.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I did something very similar. I'm glad I fixed it.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

As a pretty new writer here (on my third month!) I haven't gotten a ton of comments on my stories, but when I first started out there was a clear pattern that some folks wanted the plot to move in a direction I hadn't intended. I had a long conversation with my partner about it and I came to the final conclusion that I was telling stories and building scenes that I wanted to see. Some folks don't like the things I like, others do, and if I changed what I was writing because of what the handful of commenters were writing, I'd be compromising the story.

So, while I like the comments, and I have used good comments to help tweak the narrative a bit, I don't let them be too controlling. My most frequent commenter actually told me he liked the story better without the sex!

 

[LittleTitLover]

I certainly take them to heart. If someone takes the time to read and comment on it my stories then I will certainly take what they say to heart.

 

[Bazzle]

I find myself in the process of rewriting the ending of a story I published recently due to an overwhelming theme in the comments. The readers that chose to share their opinion seem to be of the same vein; they like the story but think the ending sucks. The scores reflect this. These are not really negative comments. I get lots of those, too. These are people that liked the story and the way I told it. They just didn't like where I took it.
I intentionally let the story sit for a while, similarly letting the comments simmer. When I went back and read the story again, I discovered I agreed completely. My ending sucks.

In response, I'm fixing the ending and will be publishing an update. To be clear, I'm not as much trying to quiet the dissenters. I can handle bad comments as long as they're honest. I'm doing it because I believe the story they want will be better than the one I gave them.

I'm interested to hear about any stories you have rewritten part of and republished and why.

The above is an extreme example. Other comments have inspired new stories, caused me to change something in a story I was working on(yeah, that didn't work like I though it would. Probably shouldn't do it again), or strongly influenced following chapters of a series. They've also made me much more aware of things like shorter paragraphs, the correct placing of punctuation within quotes, and the, overuse, of, commas.

How do the comments on your stories influence you?

I am going through my back catalogue one by one rewriting them. Editing the ass off them...because of truthful comments.

They mean a lot to me, even the negative ones.
B

 

[Rob_Royale]

They make me feel good. I get very few critical comments but when I did, I did take a second look at the work.