Interesting link: people don't comment on webfiction

[alpharaposa]

Hat tip to haikujaguar for this one: http://www.ergofiction.com/2010/07/surveying-webfiction-feedback/

One of the commenters on the article (oh, irony, that I link to it but do not comment there!) mentioned a writer that uses buttons on the bottom of their posts for quick feedback. Others mention that they receive emails.

Livejournal is an excellent place for comments, but less so for buttons and emails. If I wanted to have the instant feedback, it'd have to be a new poll with every writing post. The question is, would you enjoy having the poll? Is that the sort of thing that you'd find fun or annoying?

What about emails?

[Poll #1597980]

From personal experience, my one serial project I was trying to write, rockworm, died from a lack of comments, due to the nature of the story. I was using the serial more for world-building than to focus on a particular narrative, and so the comments on the social and physical characteristics of the world were vital to me.

Unfortunately, this is a constant temptation in my writing. I love simply peeking into a "day in the life" for a character in order to look at an interesting place or people, but I often forget to have a conflict. Or if there is a conflict, I have no plans on how to resolve it and fall in love with the little details of the setting over the story itself. Without having an idea of where I'm going, I end up needing comments to steer me, or else I lose focus and find that I can't keep the story going.

If I do go forward with another serial (and I have ideas), then I would need to have a skeleton of a storyline ahead of time in order to avoid that pitfall. Or I'd need readers that answer polls or make comments to give me suggestions I can throw into the mix.

Comments

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>The question is, would you enjoy having the poll? Is that the sort of thing that you'd find fun or annoying?<<

For me it depends on the type of writing and relevance of the poll. In The Flight of the Godkin Griffin I loved the polls, because they influenced the story. In Sythyry's Vacation I think I answer about half the polls; some are fascinating but others just seem silly to me. So if the polls connected strongly, I'd be find with frequent polls. If they're not as crucial, one after every post would probably be annoying.

The use of email vs. comments depends on ease. I'll use comment functions if they're quick and easy, like LJ. If I have to register for a whole new site to comment, screw it. I'll use email occasionally if the contact info is there, but not as casually as comments; more if I'm really into the story and want to converse with the writer.

I've actually had writers respond, repeatedly, "Hey, you're giving away the plot!" to my comments. So that cuts down on my choice to comment on webfic. If I have to stop and think, "Will this comment be acceptable?" then I am much less likely to comment at all on that storyline. But if the writer responds enthusiastically to my feedback, I'm more likely to do more of it. So I have to wonder, how much of the low comment rate involves things the writers are doing that they could change, vs. how much is innate to readers?

Re: Hmm...

[stryck.livejournal.com]

It does make me wonder what things we do unintentionally that discourage participation. Comments, poll answers, and even like/dislike buttons are often registration dependent with many blog/social networking services. This argues that a writer who wants participation would be well served by either having multiple web presences to cultivate portions of several audiences, grow a very large audience in one venue, or to find a service that allows for the anonymous.

Just looking over the responses to my poll so far, several people find polls interesting, but some would just skip them. It seems that, no matter what options for feedback a writer uses, some people just won't take the time. The only way to capture the real numbers would be through something like Google Analytics.

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>Comments, poll answers, and even like/dislike buttons are often registration dependent with many blog/social networking services. This argues that a writer who wants participation would be well served by either having multiple web presences to cultivate portions of several audiences, grow a very large audience in one venue, or to find a service that allows for the anonymous.<<

Yes. That's something to consider for the crowdfunding hubsite: if only members can use it, that undercuts the functionality. But some things would be a lot more useful if we could track who's doing them (like recommendations).

>>The only way to capture the real numbers would be through something like Google Analytics.<<

That would be really useful.

There seem to be three broad categories of reasons why readers lurk:
1) Conditions or qualities of the reader ("I don't have time." or "I'm too shy.").
2) Functionality of the service or site ("Registering to post a comment is too much trouble.").
3) Actions or remarks from the project's author ("The last time I commented, the author complained that I was giving away future plot twists.").

Re: Hmm...

[stryck.livejournal.com]

There's not much we can do about the readers who don't feel like they have the time or just don't want to comment. But we can do things to get rid of the obstacles. Some people who might want to comment otherwise don't because it's too much work or too intimidating to them.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>Unfortunately, this is a constant temptation in my writing. I love simply peeking into a "day in the life" for a character in order to look at an interesting place or people, but I often forget to have a conflict. <<

One thing I love about Torn World is that it enables worldbuilding ... and the kind of stories that don't require conflict. We have some day-in-the-life stories; we also have vignettes that aren't plot, but are all characterization or local color. In this context, that stuff actually works. If you haven't taken a look at it, I recommend that as an example of how shared-world structure can lead to very different types of storytelling and worldbuilding. There's a LiveJournal community with samples: torn_world.

[clare-dragonfly.livejournal.com]

As an author I would love to have feedback tickies like Shirley has. Unfortunately, the plugin that would do that on my site (which uses Drupal) only allows registered users to check the boxes. That defeats the purpose for me--I'm pretty sure that if the registered users who don't comment had anything at all to say, they'd comment, and I want to make it easier for the people who don't want to bother to register to give some feedback.

As a reader, I think I would check boxes in something like what Shirley has (I don't read Eclipse Court, but I'm sure I will eventually), but I would rarely if ever participate in polls that were unique or plot-relevant.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how the nature of the poll would change the nature of the participation. Your answer is basically the opposite of ysabetwordsmith's above.

[zeeth_kyrah]

As you might note with my own new project, I'm taking a "day in the life" type character, and throwing him into a series of adventures. While I'm sure a few overarching threads may form, the whole thing is just another "gag a day" comic strip in written form. Instead of trying to create a coherent story, I just want to get everyone way out on the far side of nowhere and then bring them back mostly alive.

rockworm started as a narrative, with the idea that there is a whole background that informs this narrative. And you were building forward... but instead of running wild, well...

I didn't realize how vital the comments were to creating story out of the background.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

I wrote the story mostly to explore.. and without people to ask, "what next?" I found that I couldn't write to the same level of detail that made it interesting. Small things, like how shelters were made or how Jasper saw a beast-king tradition, were the things that I wanted to write about, not the plot. I reached a point though where I had plot, but nobody was asking questions or commenting on the little stuff anymore.