Reading, writing...and feedback.

[foxmonkey]

A couple of days ago I asked: If you write fic, do you read it as well? Not as strange a question as it sounds, but you'll have to go to the post to see why.

pjordha had an interesting response, and has graciously allowed me to use it for this post. Her comment:

I'll add to that question: If you write fic, do you read it as well...and send feedback after reading it?

So many times I've seen people talking about reading so much fic, and yet so many writers get so *little* feedback, so the math does not add up. If there's so much reading and enjoying going on, where's the feedback?

When I read something I like, I send feedback, even if it's only a "great story!", even if it's not entirely true. If I hate something, then I wouldn't send feedback, but nowadays I wouldn't bother finishing something I hated.

Sometimes I think writers (at least in popslash) are the worst for sending feedback. Either that or they only read the "popular" stuff. Readers-only or writers just starting out are much better at sending feedback in my experience.

Look at it this way: When a writer sees comments like "I read everything in XYZ fandom...save the really bad stuff," and that writer has written fic in XYZ fandom and never gotten any kind of feedback from those commenters, then they must only conclude that their fanfic is "the really bad stuff." Which is probably kind of demoralizing, I think.

The short answer: I'll be the first to admit that I don't send nearly enough feedback, but I'm making an effort now to let authors know that I love and/or like what they've done.

And just to play devil's advocate here, I've known writers who aren't enthusiastic about "great story!" responses. Since I don't know if that means they'd rather have had no feedback at all, I won't elaborate. Just tossing that out there as the flipside of the coin. ;-)

Thoughts?

By the way, pjordha's original comment is screened to encourage responses here. :-)

Comments

[powrhug.livejournal.com]

I actually wrote feedback for every piece of fic I read back when I was writing it. I felt it was only fair.

Now that I don't write it, I tend to not read it, and if I do read, I try to feedback, but don't always get it done.

[stungunbilly.livejournal.com]

I post feedback whenever I feel the urge; it's a pleasure, not a duty. I read much more than I comment, usually, and this is good! When I comment, I like to say only things I mean, so you can see why it's better if I don't comment to every story. I've been chewing on my nails not to correct the grammar of several recently, and I'm proud that I held my tongue. It would feel dishonest to say "great story" when I'm thinking "this would be so good if you'd let me fix your horrendous tense problem for you," "no Texan/Californian male would use the word 'fancy' unless he was mocking something" or "I enjoyed the plot, but it's 'was standing', never *ever* 'was stood' and if you won't grasp this I may cry," so I just sail on.

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

Yes, I send feedback. I wish I could say I send it 100% of the time, but I can't. I come pretty damn close, though, I think--probably 80% of the time. I try to say something specific about the story, something that grabbed me, pulled me in, hooked me, whatever. Sometimes it's a very simple "God, I loved this!" or along those lines--but yes. I do.

[jewelianna.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly awful about feedback, I'll admit. I'm much more comfortable sending it if I know the author. I'm particularly bad about sending it for older stories. I don't know why, but I am always nervous about sending feedback for stories that are a couple of years old.

My feedback is lame though- I can never think of more to say that "I liked that." I feel bad posting that when other comments in LJ-posted-fic have very specific things to say.

[brighton-girl.livejournal.com]

I don't write. But I read everything. And yes, I totally provide feedback, even to the not great stuff. Because I think it's important to provide encouragement and constructive criticism to keep the popslash fandom writing going on.

I will say flat out, I do not expect an author to reply to my feedback. It's nice when they do, but I never, ever expect it.

[mirroredimage.livejournal.com]

I don't read as much as I used to... I read a lot more when I was writing and since I don't anymore, it's hard for me to red it. But occasionally I still do and when I did, I tried to write feedback, but I didn't always and here's why:

I am not a fan of "great job" in writing feedback. I am one of those people who likes to write full e-mails about a story, even if it's just a paragraph about why I liked something. I feel that by writing a mere "good job" or "i liked it" that there's nothing there to help an author understand why it's liked or disliked. I once wrote an email to an author (for the JuC Swap nonetheless) that explained why I loved reading her story because I had been so turned off to any story that had sex in it for so long, but she did it in such a way that the sex barely registered as well, sex. It was a paragraph or two about it.

I just always feel like the one or two word feedback emails aren't real or aren't sincere. I know that's not how it is for everyone, but that's how it is for me, so I don't like sending those types.

And as you've seen here in this incredibly long comment, I like explaining.