rivers_bend | A poll about YOU!!

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poll,
writing

A poll about YOU!!

I have somehow ended up having a conversation about these topics with four different people in the last two days, so I decided it's time for a poll. Plus, POLL! What's not to love? Polls are FUN! I made it so no one can see who says what, so you can answer honestly, with no embarrassment, because I promise not to judge you, no matter what.

I know I used the dreaded radio buttons for some of the questions, but you can just answer with how you most often feel. (and if you're both and artist and a writer, or whatever, and the answers would be totally different, you can pick one medium if you want) It doesn't have to be for every time; I know there will always be outliers, and there is always space in the comments box if you want to explain. I have comments set to screened, but will reply (and thus unscreen) unless you say "keep screened" in your subject line or the comment itself.

[Poll #1527751]

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This is fascinating. I'm really interested to see if other people's feelings about our work in general continues to have this mid-to-high level impact as more people fill out the poll.

Ok, so. Many of those answers didn't apply at all, so I just skipped them, sorry!

Hi there! I don't know if I'm one of the people you've talked about this with recently (well, not in the last two days 'cause I haven't talked to you in the last two days) but I know we've talked about this stuff at length, so you're probably not surprised by any of my answers.

I don't know if there's any way to capture this in a poll, but one thing I'm finding is that, as much as I still LOVE comments, the presence or absence of comments isn't quite as much of an emotional roller coaster as it used to be when I first started writing, and I am starting to be able to like/dislike my own fics independently of what other people thought of them. I guess that's progress of a sort?

Also: I miss you! I know we met Tuesday but we didn't get our Thursday hangout so it feels like I haven't seen you in forever, which is silly, but whatever. I don't see you until next Thursday?? DDDD:

*smishes*

I write so much of my stuff for other people, that I don't care about the comments as long as the person I wrote it for enjoys it whether in a comment, in an email to me, in the delicious tag, whatever, as long as they've told me.

Recently, I participated in some anonymous fic exchanges, and I had to determine if my story was well-received by the number of comments garnered, and it made me extremely nervous. I didn't like it.

I also haven't finished anything that is I can post this month and I think those two things are directly related.

Edited 2010-02-20 02:14 (UTC)

I don't understand "How much of a role does fandom/character familiarity (to you) play in your opinion about your work?" What does that mean?

I found I can't just pick one answer for the 2nd question because my overall feeling is really "It depends". It depends on whether or not I liked what I came out with, whether or not a day away from it has changed my opinion on it. Sometimes when I sleep on a fic my opinion will immediately switch from one side to another, or sometimes not at all. My beta comments I will usually be like 80% in agreement with and 20% ignoring and saying "artistic license" t myself about. It doesn't make me hate or love a fic more, just gives me an outside/objective insight into it which is always needing during the editing process. If I hate the fic but the beta loved it, it doesn't make me love it; and vice versa.

And random sort of thingy on the "I'm ashamed to tell people I don't like my creative output"-question: I dunno if "ashamed" is what I feel? And massively editing and re-phrasing this, I think in the past when I try to say to others that I think I missed the mark, I don't always get straight answers, and I worry people think I am fishing for compliments, when I'm rather fishing for concrit, if that makes sense?

Edited 2010-02-20 03:18 (UTC)

First box - I generally like the idea of my fic but I'm never satisfied with the execution, if that makes sense.

I don't understand the question about fandom/character familiarity. If I'm not familiar with the fandom or characters I'm not interested in writing about them to start with.

What I've wondered for awhile is if other writer's get kind of a 'writer's high?' once they finish a fic and then a slightly less kind of 'high' when they post?

It's like you're nervous but excited and then you get kind of a floaty feeling when you know you're done with a fic. Even before it's off to beta, you know you're done with the majority of it.

Or maybe that's just me?

Okay, I don't normally admit to this in public, but: I feel awkward about receiving/answering feedback in general. There are days when I really, really want to turn off comments altogether.

On the one hand: feedback is lovely, it's an ego boost, and people like to comment on stuff they've enjoyed. So I leave comments on for those reasons, and because sometimes you can strike up great conversations that way.

On the other hand: I think not responding to feedback is, well, impolite, unless you specifically state somewhere that you don't do it. BUT. When I'm blessed with lots of feedback, I feel obliged to respond to all of it, and this is where the awkwardness comes in. Because it's really difficult to not repeat myself (which I hate doing) when responding, or else trying to think of something interesting to say, and I often end up feeling like an idiot and wondering if anyone really cares whether I acknowledge their feedback or not. And not in a 'my first world writerly problems' way--I don't need to feel popular; I just don't want to be rude!

There was a short period in 2007 when I DID turn off comments, and only accepted feedback via email (particularly for Big Bang). It was something of an experiment, but also mostly because of the above awkwardness. I did observe the feedback I received was ... not "better", but more detailed, and geared more toward points of interest that were also interesting to me as the writer. There was also much less feedback than I would probably have received if I'd left comments on, but this didn't bother me, because of the aforementioned detail/quality of the feedback I did receive. It was of interest in a cynical sense, though.

Bottom line: I like everything I write, because if I didn't like it I wouldn't write it in the first place, let alone post it. My general aim is to write the sort of thing I like to read--which is why I often go back and re-read my fic, even if it involves cringing and eye-rolling and occasionally, pointing and laughing.

... talk about overthinking it. I think I need a beer. And to get back to wrestling with the fic of the moment.

SO many interesting questions here!

I virtually never use a beta, so some of them don't apply.

Others... if I'm struggling with a story and it went somewhere unexpected for me, I have reservations about it. If it's a new fandom, my confidence is MUCH lower.

And sometimes I like things better after I post them. Though I'm still on the fence about the J2 thing I posted this week-- I seriously thought about just burying that locally at my journal, and finally decided that there was an audience for it and put it up on the comms.

And there's the poem thingy I tried to write for

maehrys's birthday, and wound up writing a drabble instead. I kept struggling with the poem and wrangled it out of first person and fixed the final phrasing... and posted it only at my journal. Only to have it get recc'd at a comm, so I don't even freakin' know sometimes.

There have been a few in various fandoms where I do not understand why people go nuts over "that" fic as opposed to some other one I sweated blood over ("Icicle Palace" for Prison Break, and "Bedside Manners" for SPN). But sometimes through the comments I see what's resonating with other people, even if it wasn't clear to me (I probably shouldn't admit that!)

And it's true, my expectations for comments DO depend on the fandom. My first fandoms were Prison Break and SPN, and the readers really spoil you with thoughtful comments and meta. In one of my other, smaller fandoms, most of the comments tend more toward, "Loved it" or "Whee!" That took some getting used to!

As for the "cooking time" for a story... I tend to wait a day or so on longer stories, because I'll re-read and see if the flow/pace are good through to the end and if the conclusion is solid. Sometimes, those last few paragraphs get tweaked for exactly that reason.

Drabbles, on the other hand... some need to wait for exactly that reason, and others I just know are _done_. But all of the pace/flow/finality is much easier to see over that shorter form.

I found that this poll makes me realize how much my opinions on this have changed, dramatically, in the last five years. I can't really explain why, I'd have to analyze it further, but wow. I'm a different writer now that I was.

Fascinating poll.

I find myself not being ashamed at all about admitting that comments play a large part in the overall satisfaction I feel about a vid. (And really, I'd like that not to be the case.. but there it is).

And my beta/feedback givers play a huge part in how I feel about a vid also. They can make me either feel confident about a vid that I'm not feeling so confident about or make me feel down about a vid that I was pretty previously feeling confident about. And that latter part is totally cool- in that I don't blame them for making me feel down, rather I'm down on myself for not being successful in my vid attempt. If that makes sense.

I sometimes wish I didn't care so much. It would be easier. But then if that was the case I probably wouldn't put so much effort into what I do in the first place. It's all part of the creative process. The highs and lows. Can't accept one and not the other I reckon. (That's what I tell myself anyway!*g*)

Interesting... :)
xx

Good poll. Although I'd be interested in how polling about con-crit turned out as well...

I actually can't post something if I don't like it. And sometimes it takes literally months and months before I achieve that likey-ness. I'm a tinkerer.

Comment numbers... don't really bother me (which is good because some of my things have teeny comment counts and some HUGE and I don't know why for any of them). Because I won't post until I'm happy enough. Maybe not rapturous, but solid enough so that I know I won't care if everyone hates (ie comment-ignores) it. :D :D :D

One of the interesting things from my latest story (which is wing-fic so DON'T READ IT :D) is that lots of people (a really high percentage) found it sad (even with a happy ending). My Big Bang was sad, but I knew it was (it made ME sad). This latest one... I guess was sadder than I realised. Which made me wonder if I have secret sadness I'm writing out by writing stories! I'm not sure even after wondering. But it was interesting to ponder.

I've ticked most of the 'I pretty much always like my fic' boxes, but the thing is that if I don't like something, it doesn't get written. If I start not liking something, I just abandon it - if I don't like it, and I'm writing it, than why the hell would anyone else like it? Besides, the main reason I write is to make myself happy, and writing something I don't like isn't going to make me happy. I don't have the motivation for it.

And because I have such a bad memory, when I go back and reread fic, bits of it are often a surprise for me, and I almost always get a warm glow of 'I wrote this, and it's good.' Unless it's stuff I wrote before a certain cut-off point, when I'm just incredibly shamed, because it seems I was writing badfic. But, the point where I think of my writing as getting readable pretty much coincides with the beginning of my time in SPN fandom, and I don't really pay attention to the fic before that, so it's okay.

Commentwise, it annoys me sometimes how dependent I am on them. I have an 'average amount of comments' that I get, which tends to go up or down a bit depending on length, rating and slashiness, and if something gets significantly less than that (like ET did) I begin to doubt it. When I reread ET, I was surprised that it wasn't as bad as I'd been assuming it was, and now I just feel kinda sorry for it. Like: 'I still love you! Even if no one else does!'

If I get more comments than I was expecting, on the other hand, it makes me like the fic more. I try not to do this, but it seems like my favourite fics are also the ones that have got the most comments, even though I'm sure I liked other fic more when I was writing it. But then, fandom reaction usually matches up with my gut feeling about something, so it's not like I'm constantly re-assessing all my fic.

Ugh, tl;dr, sorry.

This was really interesting, especially looking at it from the point of view of an artist, rather than a writer.
It's funny how much comments and "Views" do matter, even though it really should be all about how YOU feel about a finished piece of work.
There have been times when I've really liked something and no one gives it a blind bit of notice, and other times when I've thought something was a bit crap and people have loved it. Very odd.

What this has also made me think about is how eager I am to share my artwork/writings/whatever to complete strangers online, and yet I really hate it or hide them away when people in my real life want to see. For some reason reading a nice comment from a stranger means a lot more to me than if a family member told me something I'd drawn was good. That's odd isn't it? It shouldn't be like that.

I am diffident about the quality of my work, because I've never really considered myself a fiction writer. I try to set challenges for myself, but I don't think I am a good judge of the quality of my own work -- so I really on comments (but don't get many). So I do get sad about my work, especially when I've made something I really like, and it vanishes down the black hole of few comments. Despite not wanting to think so, I do feel like it's worse because I primarily write gen.

Do word semantics matter? I would say when it comes to how proud I am about my work, it's generally a feeling of 'embarrassment' rather than feeling 'ashamed'? Like, I might be more sheepish than humiliated to publicly be all "BWAAAA MAN I LOVE MY ART LIEK SO MUCH, GUYS, IT IS SO AWESOME", y'know? XD

My answers can be summed up thusly:

AUUUUUUGH I HATE EVERYTHING D: D: D: D:

What an interesting poll!

I answered with my graphics in mind, because I generally like the stuff I make, whereas writing and everything related to it pretty much traumatizes me, so in the end I gave it up. I clicked on "something else" for the last question: I wouldn't say I don't care about comments at all, but getting two or twenty doesn't make much difference to me. Making graphics is primarily a form of relaxation for me, but since I make mostly icons, I'm pretty sure I would stop posting them if I never got any comments and do other things, such as only making wallpapers for my own use or something because people using them is kind of the point of icons.

Wow, that was a convoluted paragraph. :)

Interesting poll. I like seeing what other people think. Some of the questions don't apply to me (I don't use a beta), but I never stop and think--this isn't a test, I don't have to check every box lol. School mentality, I guess.

Comments don't really matter much to me. They are nice to get, but I post almost exclusively in my journal or directly to whomever the story was written for, so I don't worry when I don't get a lot of feedback. I'm also an obsessive tinkerer, so probably three quarters of what I write never gets posted at all. Even if I do post a story, I sometimes go back a week or a month later and 'fix' it, because nothing is ever finished with me lol.

I do like reading comments for other authors, esp. my favorites. I like seeing what others get out of a story and comparing it to what I enjoyed.

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feedback issues, I has them

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