How much feedback do you like before diving into a story?

[Deadman]

I’m working my way through the final chapters of a story and now planning out an entirely new one.

But I don’t yet know how to put it out there. It’s another series of one shots and I’m trying to figure out which characters to put forward and in what order. I’ve figured out what will probably be chapter 1 but not sure about the others.

So would you do a poll of your readers? If I put a poll out here, would you want to vote in it? Or should I just go with whatever works.

In previous stories, I just added each one shot based on whatever ones I wrote first.

Thoughts?

[Desiderius Price]

Only relevant discussion to my originals (as I’m not planning another fanfic).  TBH, as there’s an overarching plot/theme across all of them, I typically won’t consult readers, it’s about figuring out the universe I’m writing in (or making up a holiday/halloween oneshot).

[Deadman]

2 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

Only relevant discussion to my originals (as I’m not planning another fanfic).  TBH, as there’s an overarching plot/theme across all of them, I typically won’t consult readers, it’s about figuring out the universe I’m writing in (or making up a holiday/halloween oneshot).

I can understand that. This thought that I’m having is in part a result of another question I asked previously about when to add characters in.

I had a few people comment on my story Scooby Gang Time that they were looking forward to Willow being involved, and then within a few chapters I did include them and then reviews dropped off quite a bit. So I’m wondering if I should consult people who are fans of this other fandom.

[Desiderius Price]

42 minutes ago, Deadman said:

I can understand that. This thought that I’m having is in part a result of another question I asked previously about when to add characters in.

I had a few people comment on my story Scooby Gang Time that they were looking forward to Willow being involved, and then within a few chapters I did include them and then reviews dropped off quite a bit. So I’m wondering if I should consult people who are fans of this other fandom.

Hey, you get reviews, mine might get one or two from time to time.  So, if a review has a good idea, I’d say use it, but I write my stories for own enjoyment.  Posting them simply encourages me to actually complete them (well, they’re more complete than if I didn’t post).

[GeorgeGlass]

If I’m not entirely sure about which way to go with a story I’m working on, I ask for suggestions from one (or occasionally two) of my fellow writers. If the story is a fanfic, then I approach someone who is familiar with that fandom.

For example, I’ve been having a PM dialogue with GrayNeko about a Big Hero 6 story I’m doing preliminary work on. I’ve asked him for suggestions about the science-y aspects of the plot, bounced ideas off him regarding including music in the story, and kicked around thoughts about the title. He’s been a big help.

[Deadman]

17 hours ago, GeorgeGlass said:

If I’m not entirely sure about which way to go with a story I’m working on, I ask for suggestions from one (or occasionally two) of my fellow writers. If the story is a fanfic, then I approach someone who is familiar with that fandom.

For example, I’ve been having a PM dialogue with GrayNeko about a Big Hero 6 story I’m doing preliminary work on. I’ve asked him for suggestions about the science-y aspects of the plot, bounced ideas off him regarding including music in the story, and kicked around thoughts about the title. He’s been a big help.

Oh I totally get that feeling. My issue is that I don’t know how to sort the chapters. I have like 7 chapters figured out, each featuring at least one character, some which are more popular in the fandom than others.

So I worry about having the most popular characters up front in the first few chapters. If I do that, I might get less interest in the later chapters. But if I put the less popular characters up front, it might be harder to get people to wait around for the final chapters featuring the popular characters.

[GeorgeGlass]

45 minutes ago, Deadman said:

Oh I totally get that feeling. My issue is that I don’t know how to sort the chapters. I have like 7 chapters figured out, each featuring at least one character, some which are more popular in the fandom than others.

So I worry about having the most popular characters up front in the first few chapters. If I do that, I might get less interest in the later chapters. But if I put the less popular characters up front, it might be harder to get people to wait around for the final chapters featuring the popular characters.

This is easy for me to say, but I would suggest putting aside the question of character popularity and ordering the chapters in whatever way will make the most sense for the story as a whole. Readers are willing to forgive a lot of things if you give them a story that really holds their attention, and telling the story in a way that makes sense to them will help with that.

[Deadman]

1 hour ago, GeorgeGlass said:

This is easy for me to say, but I would suggest putting aside the question of character popularity and ordering the chapters in whatever way will make the most sense for the story as a whole. Readers are willing to forgive a lot of things if you give them a story that really holds their attention, and telling the story in a way that makes sense to them will help with that.

Well the individual chapters are one shots so it doesn’t necessarily tell an overarching story. I’m not really bound by focusing on what makes sense for the overall story. It’s more about what happens in the individual one shots.

[Thundercloud]

Doing a poll is generally only a good idea if you expect a representative part of the target audience to answer. Even worse you with low response rates don’t know if the same people or even the same kind of people are answering the polls.

If you can setup a patron scheme then it makes sense to doing polls, but outside that I cannot imagine that it will work with AFF like stories or fan fics in general.

[Wilde_Guess]

Hi, all.

Unless I post a “story preview” with the direct purpose of seeing if someone will read it, I don’t look for feedback at all.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t listen to or even heed “feedback” from reviewers or authors who clearly know what they’re talking about; just that I don’t go looking for it or avoid writing because I haven’t received any.

My one “long” fanfiction on this site is a HP fanfic with the “Harry/Ron” erotic pairing as one of multiple pairings.  This is not a “popular” paring here or anywhere else.  So, if I were to wait until I received a lot of “positive feedback” for that story, I would be waiting for a long time, and still sadly disappointed after the wait.

The readers on this forum don’t tend to leave a lot of feedback anyway.  So, I would post your “collection of one-shots” chapters in whatever order makes sense to you.

Good luck.

[Desiderius Price]

3 hours ago, Wilde_Guess said:

Hi, all.

Unless I post a “story preview” with the direct purpose of seeing if someone will read it, I don’t look for feedback at all.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t listen to or even heed “feedback” from reviewers or authors who clearly know what they’re talking about; just that I don’t go looking for it or avoid writing because I haven’t received any.

My one “long” fanfiction on this site is a HP fanfic with the “Harry/Ron” erotic pairing as one of multiple pairings.  This is not a “popular” paring here or anywhere else.  So, if I were to wait until I received a lot of “positive feedback” for that story, I would be waiting for a long time, and still sadly disappointed after the wait.

The readers on this forum don’t tend to leave a lot of feedback anyway.  So, I would post your “collection of one-shots” chapters in whatever order makes sense to you.

Good luck.

The “feedback” I pay attention to are the hitcounts, simply because that helps me gauge that people are reading/enjoying what I’m writing.  Like I know on AO3 the “explicit” version to my potter fanfic is way more popular than my “clean” version (as I post both there).

Taking the bait to derail

Harry/Ron is totally viable IMO, not a bad pairing either, except if it’s exclusive, it undercuts Hermione.  (And yes, I do explore some Harry/Ron in the explicit version of my potter fanfic, but that’s no where exclusive, it’s kinda more of a four-way “group” overall.)

[Wilde_Guess]

25 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

The “feedback” I pay attention to are the hitcounts, simply because that helps me gauge that people are reading/enjoying what I’m writing.  Like I know on AO3 the “explicit” version to my potter fanfic is way more popular than my “clean” version (as I post both there).

Taking the bait to derail

Harry/Ron is totally viable IMO, not a bad pairing either, except if it’s exclusive, it undercuts Hermione.  (And yes, I do explore some Harry/Ron in the explicit version of my potter fanfic, but that’s no where exclusive, it’s kinda more of a four-way “group” overall.)

FWIW, in my HP fanfiction, Harry is also paired with Ginny, Ron is paired with Luna Lovegood, and Hermione is paired with Neville Longbottom.  Harry has only a sibling bond with Hermione, and Ron

Spoiler

isn’t interested in her, because he married her in his first life and was mortally imperiled by her in his second.

So, you don’t have to bash Ron to create a H/Hr pairing, or force an R/Hr pairing when Harry gets together with Ginny.

Hit counters are great, but knowing why the counters go up or don’t go up is better.  It takes more skill to tell a great tale that not everyone appreciates than it does to tell a sucky tale that everyone reads just because it looks like they might like it, even if they regret the effort to bring up the page after they’ve done so.

Cheers!

[Desiderius Price]

19 minutes ago, Wilde_Guess said:

FWIW, in my HP fanfiction, Harry is also paired with Ginny, Ron is paired with Luna Lovegood, and Hermione is paired with Neville Longbottom.  Harry has only a sibling bond with Hermione, and Ron

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isn’t interested in her, because he married her in his first life and was mortally imperiled by her in his second.

So, you don’t have to bash Ron to create a H/Hr pairing, or force an R/Hr pairing when Harry gets together with Ginny.

Hit counters are great, but knowing why the counters go up or don’t go up is better.  It takes more skill to tell a great tale that not everyone appreciates than it does to tell a sucky tale that everyone reads just because it looks like they might like it, even if they regret the effort to bring up the page after they’ve done so.

Cheers!

Mine… in the cleaner version, it’s Harry/muggle, Ron/Hermione, Neville/Luna, Colin/Ginny, know, pretty typical there.  In the explicit, it’s a bit more fluid, where it’s more like Harry/muggle/Ron/Hermione/muggle² and I poke a bit of fun at the Harry/Ginny crowd.

Wish I had more feedback than hit counters, however, few readers bother to drop reviews/comments, so gotta take what I can.  (FFN & AO3 let me track numbers of subscribers, favorites, bookmarks, kudos so a bit more to go on.)