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azdak at 12:58pm on 09/09/2005
azdak at 12:58pm on 09/09/2005In the comments following ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nakeisha's post on how many people will follow an lj-link to read a story the question was raised of why people will read fic and then not comment on it. I'm someone who's very "guilty" of this – I read a fair amount of fanfic in three different fandoms, and unless I know the author very well (well enough that they will expect me to see their story) I don't leave comments. The reason for this is simple, even if it sounds harsh – most of the fic I read simply isn't good enough. I don't want to send feedback that isn't honest and say that a story was great when it has all sorts of flaws, and I don't want to send feedback that discourages the author, because writing fic is a hobby, not a profession, and I don't see why someone should be slagged off for not attaining a high standard in something they do for fun. So I only send feedback when I feel the impulse to do so, and that only happens when I read a really excellent piece of fic (by my definition of excellent, obviously). When this happens, I like to write a fairly lengthy response detailing what I enjoyed about the piece, because to my mind generalised squeeing that doesn't justify itself isn't worth the pixels it's written in (I will also tentatively mention anything that I felt detracted from the general outstandingness, because if something's really really good, then the author can usually handle criticism). This isn't to say that I don't read a lot of good stories, just that they're not good enough to inspire me to spend the time and effort analysing what I liked about them and articulating this for the writer.
It's probably relevant, though, that I believe the fic itself should be far more important to the author than the feedback it gets – I believe a writer should strive to make their fic as perfect as possible, for its own sake, regardless of whether it ever gets even one damn comment, and I suspect that the culture of feedback encourages writing to please an audience and hence a focus on servicing kinks, rather than on form.
nakeisha's post on how many people will follow an lj-link to read a story the question was raised of why people will read fic and then not comment on it. I'm someone who's very "guilty" of this – I read a fair amount of fanfic in three different fandoms, and unless I know the author very well (well enough that they will expect me to see their story) I don't leave comments. The reason for this is simple, even if it sounds harsh – most of the fic I read simply isn't good enough. I don't want to send feedback that isn't honest and say that a story was great when it has all sorts of flaws, and I don't want to send feedback that discourages the author, because writing fic is a hobby, not a profession, and I don't see why someone should be slagged off for not attaining a high standard in something they do for fun. So I only send feedback when I feel the impulse to do so, and that only happens when I read a really excellent piece of fic (by my definition of excellent, obviously). When this happens, I like to write a fairly lengthy response detailing what I enjoyed about the piece, because to my mind generalised squeeing that doesn't justify itself isn't worth the pixels it's written in (I will also tentatively mention anything that I felt detracted from the general outstandingness, because if something's really really good, then the author can usually handle criticism). This isn't to say that I don't read a lot of good stories, just that they're not good enough to inspire me to spend the time and effort analysing what I liked about them and articulating this for the writer. It's probably relevant, though, that I believe the fic itself should be far more important to the author than the feedback it gets – I believe a writer should strive to make their fic as perfect as possible, for its own sake, regardless of whether it ever gets even one damn comment, and I suspect that the culture of feedback encourages writing to please an audience and hence a focus on servicing kinks, rather than on form.
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