Status and Support

[honeybee]

Well, I just finished the one-off challenge fic "Contact Points" and it was hard. I took the challenge from Lady Rainbow to do a medical mystery and not being Distracted, it was hard to come up with something. But it was a good challenge, especially trying to figure out what the medical mystery would be.

Aquarius, take your time on my challenge. The right episode will just come to you at some point.

Now I'm working on just my Mirror Universe story. It's tricky because I don't want it to be as dark as say BluenBlack's Payment (which I love but I'm not that dark) but I still want these people to be the MU versions of themselves. Especially since T'Pol is tougher than her RU counterpart, but she's the one enamored of the RU and has an idealistic streak.

[WarpGirl]

Well you can be an idealist and still survive. And honestly the vibe I got from MU T'Pol is that she survives because she can't give up and it comes from her being an idealist. Still I think it's gonna be awesome!

[Asso]

I would try not to take it personally if someone doesn't review your work. Just because it's not to their taste doesn't mean it's not good. It's just not to their taste. Or their real life is busy enough that they're only reading the stuff they can't resist. It happens.

That could be resounding right, but ALWAYS there's something enjoyable in a story. Maybe you don't love the story itself, or the way the writer perceives the characters, or whatever else you want, but, frankly, (and honestly I challenge whichever to deny this truth) when you didn't get - ever - anything from someone, it's difficult to think that means only a lack of time, more or less, specially if you see what sort of enthusiastic comments this someone is in habit to put in other stories, always. This sort of behaviour resounds as personal, in my perception, and, even if this is absolutely wrong, it could push (after that this behaviour is reiterated many times) to do Tit For Tat.
But please, take all this simply as a consequence of my stupid Italian way to be: we are individualist, always ready to "have flies on our noses", like we use to say here, and VERY fussy.
Anyway, I restate: it's obvious that each writer writes for himself, but it's equally obvious that each writer likes that people put in his stories their comments.
Sure, time is tyrant, and not always it allows us to cast a glance at what there's on the site as for new stories (for example, it will be needed a lot of time, for me, in order to read the new stories which are up now, but I will try to do it, and I regret if sometimes I wasn't able to do it), but I think it's a manner to show respect and comprehension in regard to those persons who share our same passion.
And I agree: Dinah is the best. She doesn't display absence of criticisms, but she is capable of underlining what there's in a story which doesn't ring right and, at the same time, what there's in this story which is enjoyable, and all this with a gentle balance.
But you know: the more a writer is great, the more this writer is a good reader.
And I don't think anyone has anything to say against this personal statement from me, above all if this statement concerns Dinah.

[WarpGirl]

ALWAYS there's something enjoyable in a story

I don't know about ALWAYS. But here you can usually see people worked hard.

[Alelou]

I am not as experienced at most if not all of you. I Tried FFNet just to see what reaction I would get. so I posted Mates, T-Pol's and Trip's POV.

T-Pol's got over 400 hits and 400 some odd visits. But, only one reveiw and that was just a question if there would be a chapter two. Trip's Pov only got a little over 100 hits and no reviews. I wonder how 400 some odd people can look at (hopefuly read) a story and at least some of them leave a review. If nothing but a criticism.

I didn't think that stoires were THAT bad.

Your readers who know you and feel like saying "good job" already read those here -- that's all. Believe me, a TINY proportion of the readers at ff.net leave reviews. I had a banner month once with something like 6,000 visitors. Meanwhile I had maybe 12 reviews and many of those repeat reviewers. So don't let ff.net get you down. Instead, I recommend you rejoice in those 400 readers you didn't know you had before. And check out the countries they came from because that's kind of cool.

[honeybee]

The country of origin thing is really cool. Croatia? Slovenia? New Zealand? It's amazing to know that there are trek fans all over the world who read your stuff.

[Asso]

The country of origin thing is really cool. Croatia? Slovenia? New Zealand? It's amazing to know that there are trek fans all over the world who read your stuff.

That's true, even if sometimes I find difficult to understand the mechanisms which are the basis of the reviews on that site, but probably that is due just to the great variety of countries.

[WarpGirl]

Actually, comparing the type of site FF.net is, to the type of site TRIS is, isn't possible. FF.net is not a privately owned site, so it's two different beasts. The review system itself isn't different than the one here. But since this site doesn't have all the niffty hits, reviews, country of origion, bells and whistles. It's just more obvious. If TRIS did have those things I doubt that the stats would look too different.

[Transwarp]

Speaking of Reviews:

I don't review everything I read, and (until now) it never really occurred to me that someone might notice the absence of my reviews. This got me thinking, though, and I realized I really didn't know my own criteria for reviewing or NOT reviewing a story, so I decided to do a little soul searching.

First, let me be clear that there are a bunch of stories that are still in progress that I have elected to wait until they are done before I start reading. (pdsldl's 'double vision', escriba's 'mirage', and panyasan's 'captives' come to mind, but there are more.) This is just because I have a hard time keeping up with too many ongoing stories at the same time. In this case, no review means I haven't read it.

Many stories I actually read, but don't review. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1) I have nothing pertinent to say about it, good or bad. I will usually skip reviewing a story that is competently written, but which isn't my cup of tea, because the author can't DO anything with a review that says "Your story isn't my cup of tea." I will also skip reviewing a story where the problems are things that I have no solution for, such as a story where ALL the dialogue sounds stilted and jerky. I can't tell someone how to write dialogue that flows smoothly. All I can say is, "trust your ear," but if your ear isn't working? I don't know. I feel like I'm just slamming them if I tell them in a review: "Your dialogue is jerky. I suggest you make it smooth." Right. How, exactly?

2) I don't have the time to do the review justice. Sometimes I can think of things to say that would make a good, constructive critique, but I don't have the time to write them. So instead of just writing "Good story", I write nothing.

There may be other reasons, but these are the only two I can think of off the top of my head.

[panyasan]

First, let me be clear that there are a bunch of stories that are still in progress that I have elected to wait until they are done before I start reading. (pdsldl's 'double vision', escriba's 'mirage', and panyasan's 'captives' come to mind, but there are more.) This is just because I have a hard time keeping up with too many ongoing stories at the same time. In this case, no review means I haven't read it.

I am very curious about your comments, Transwarp and like to know your opinion about The Captives. Guess I have to wait a little longer. Maybe nice to know your stories are on my list of "must take time for reading this great fic". From what I have read so far: you're doing a great job. Just to let you know.

[Asso]

I'm substantially in agreement with Transwarp.
The only little postscript I could add is that to know the others' opinion, chapter by chapter, might be helpful in order to fine-tune the shot.
But obviously people have many other things to do, certainly they can't read stories every day and every hour of their life.

[panyasan]

The only little postscript I could add is that to know the others' opinion, chapter by chapter, might be helpful in order to fine-tune the shot.

I try to incooperate the comments in the next chapter - sometimes with surprising results.

[Asso]

I understand you perfectly.

[panyasan]

I'm trying to finish the next chapter of The Briar Patch before I start my challenge story for Silverbullet, but as usual, things are not progressing at light speed. My goal is to send the chapter to my beta this weekend, but then those have been my plans since New Years Day. I guess I need to focus.

I looking forward to your next chapter.

[WarpGirl]

Oh amen. I'm in desperate need of a pick-me-up. All this stress is not good for me. As a matter of fact I'm an idiot... Why don't I just re-read Thorn In The Rose and Briar Patch again. I need something to pull me out of my head spinning with Russian stuff.