I have noticed with my two most recent updates for The Lost Element that I have acquired a particularly large number of downvotes. More than 20 in under a week. This is a new record.
I am wondering. Is the quality of my writing decreasing? Does this surge in downvotes point to poor writing on my part?
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Actually if anything I'd say it's because they're jealous pricks trying to make you feel down because they can't write nearly as good as you can!
Don't let pointless numbers define how you write, just focus on those who do like your stuff!
Also I find the recent updates are brilliant as always! More development and lengthy chapters always worth the wait! Just keep doing what you've been doing I say.
Absolutely not. The story is as good as ever. I love reading it.
Personally, I find the most recent chapters to be a bit too long for my tastes; it's impossible for me to finish reading them in one go, and if I try, I often forget the earlier parts of the chapter. Also, because to me, the most recent chapters seems to be focusing away from what I perceive to be the heart of the story, and instead focusing on minor characters such as Trixie or Derpy.
Don't get me wrong! I quite enjoyed Trixie's apology scene, but I must admit that due to its length, I did little more than skim over Derpy's chapter.
TL;dr Shorter chapters, and a bigger focus on James' problems, rather than the issues of others.
1941488 Well, I add those chapters in to give the story a bit more of a feel like the show itself, where nearly all the episodes have little connection to the main plotline. And, as I like to put it, the unpredictability of life. You never know who might come passing through.
Also, if the chapters are too long to take in one sitting, there is a bookmark function on this site. Have you ever used it?
1941449 Thank you. I suppose jealousy is a possibility, though I never considered it since I really don't think I'm that good compared to other far more popular stories on the site.
If I may ask, how have the most recent chapters been in your eyes?
1941511
Nah, you are a good writer!
Aand I think they're pretty good, quite immersive in a way! In a good way though =p
The content actually flows well in the chapters and don't feel rushed or cramped at all so it's definitely good writing!
Honestly, with me just now diving back into ponies after a 4 month break, a 55,000 word chapter is just too damn much to attempt to read, let alone in one sitting. I like to believe I have a fairly quick reading pace, however 55,000 words would still take me upwards of two hours of solid, uninterrupted reading. And god forbid while reading on my tablet I have to multi task, or anything else that might force a page reload when I come back to your story. Let's face it, 55,000 words is the size of your average completed story here.
That's why I've moved it from Favorites to Read Later. I actually haven't voted one way or the other, and as for the 'decreasing quality' I'm uncertain. It's just extremely hard to follow a story when updates come out in the size of full length short-novels.
For one, Humanity, I would think that your story has gained the ire of me and a whole bunch of people that dislike you due to your misanthropy. James is a typical urban guy who probably has never been in true suffering (Really, when I got into the NCC here, I was kinda fucked over by my own squad.) and complains as if he has. Along with that, he's a boring character: Exciting things only happen because he is 'pure' and fights 'evil'
Still, the writing is not an issue, it's great writing but the material is just... blegh.
Think of it as me criticizing the painting while admiring the picture frame, capiche?
1941449 Ho ho ho, the 'they're jealous' argument. What are you? A twelve-year-old girl?
Really, that argument is stopped dead in it's tracks before I can even get to it.
In my opinion, you really shouldn't care what your rating or popularity is. Responding to constructive critisism and improving is one thing, but trying to please everyone will almost certainly drive the story into the ground. Write whatever you feel like, and do it to the best of your ability. Thats really all there is to it.
1941528 May I ask what the definition of misanthropy is?
1941554
Misanthropy [noun]
A dislike/distrust/hatred of humanity.
If you're going to say that James is not misanthropic, look at the chapter 'To Hell and Back'. He has no qualms of leaving family and friends, most of whom would probably be grieving or worried that he hasn't responded in a long time and he doesn't give a fuck.
Instead, he goes on a tirade on how humanity is awful compared to ponykind and yearns for Equestria. Nothing more than the tsunami and only a few things on earth before being sucked back to Equestria.
In all fairness, James is a good guy, just a traitorous kind of good guy who is hypocritical and gets on my nerves in real life. He's that kind of person that I would sigh and tell him to get up from the biased bed of opinions before sighing when he doesn't get the picture. (Yes, I have friends like that, all of which who are misanthropes themselves and have really crappy reasons to dislike humanity.)
So yes, it's not the quality but the material itself that I can see being distasteful to some. I won't be trying to start an arguement here, just stating what I seen in your story and the fact of the matter is that not everyone likes your story.
1941579 Did it ever cross your mind why misanthropy even exists?
1941585
Well, as a human myself and knowing that I am part of the problem, humans are naturally dicks to one another as an instinct to survive. Yes, I can see why James dislikes humanity but he never seems to include himself into the group, somehow saying that he is better than every other human that has ever lived.
Yeah, it's that feeling that gets to me. Those friends I mentioned? They have the exact same type of mentality: Humans suck but I am not.
To which I say: "Oh, so you're not a human anymore?" And proceed to keep working on my dad's fish farm.
1941590 Glad you understand that. And I am going back over the chapters and proofreading them and rewording things that in hindsight could have been written better. And while certainly still human, you can at least try to be better than other humans by acknowledging what is wrong and trying to not follow the crowd while just trying to be as pleasant as you can. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging the flaws of other humans while trying to make yourself a better person while defying the norm. I'll leave it at that.
Some entertainer (I think it might have been Bill Cosby) once said, "I don't know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
Authors and other producers of work should do well to remember this, including you. To hell with the dislikes; look at how many likes you have!
1941600
Glad you see that. It's just that I take things one step at a time: My countrymen listen to either fear or anger so I provoke that and they take my words seriously, otherwise, I'm a xeno smartass.
Also, maybe you should listen to some of your critics and not downvote them into oblivion. Maybe listening to some of the critics that are harsh: Trust me, I grew up being smashed into the dirt for being an idiot and now, I'm not so much of an idiot with a broken jaw.
I mean, go to page 7-9 of your comments of TLE (settings should be 'Newest First'. Don't judge me.) and look at the critics, especially IkioStar and bizzniz: The harsher and coarser critics there. You might just get something.
1941611 I do listen to the critics, though some point at issues that are planned but have not yet occurred. Sometimes you just need to wait and see where the story goes.
1941630
Well, I'll wait till the end before coming to poke at the body. It's in my best interests, I believe, if I want to not get pissed off every couple paragraphs and have to go outside to do stupid shit to calm down.
Just remember that some of us critics tend to be skeptics and the overly childish nature of your fic might get to some of us. No offense, though some might fully agree with me to use said words as ammunition.
1941639 Childish, hm? Well, to each their own.
1941649 Well, what can I say? Rushed pacing, typical 'good fights evil and wins' scenario, hero gets the girl. Yeah, some people find it childish. I personally find it mature at points but generally unrealistic (We're talking about magic ponies so, I guess there's a point)
But, as you said, to each their own. I prefer dark 'it will always be able to get worse' kind of situations where there are a few ups and downs. Working on my own fic that embraces the pain of losing someone and using violence to solve it, only to see that it probably wasn't worth it. (Yeah, God of War and Logan's Shadow binge. Bite me.
)
1941656 That kind, huh? Well, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised in four chapters. The third arc will probably be the darkest thing I will have ever put out.
1941657 I'll be watching, though I'll have to dig through everything else first, having forgot the entire story. Still, glad to know you have something better than just Sunny Town and Nightmare Moon's fight to be dark. Oddly enough, I predict a Discord breakout and colourful chaos, seeing how your readers would prefer that.
Here's hoping Scootaloo or Fluttershy gets mauled, seeing you say that it's 'dark'.
1941663 Well, the third arc is titled Mortal Chaos for a reason. If you enjoy watching massive psychotic breakdowns and descents into insanity from a first person perspective, then this one will be for you.
1941669 Well, good luck on making a light-hearted villain truly evil.
Gonna go off topic a bit but it would seem that, to me at least, the stone cold suits seem to be a lot more scary than the flaming psycho. Just saying, Cordell (Logan's Shadow) is probably the scariest motherfucker in the game and way more so than Bitar and his gang of pirates because he was able to tear a hole into the Agency that your character works for and crumble it to dust before outright carpet bombing an entire city to get rid of his own mess.
Comparing that to, say, Tricky the Clown (Madness Combat: Every single one of them). He's crazy and all powerful but he does nothing with his powers other than use them to piss one guy off by killing him repeatedly. Sure, he wrecks the world but the goal was never large and the world remains in pieces even after they managed to murder him for the final time.
Your take on this? Just curious.
1941677 I wouldn't know since games and movies like that are not my cup of tea.
A light-hearted villain turning truly evil? More along the lines of making you wonder who the true villain is as the chapter drags on.
1941681 Pfft, I suppose Tia's gonna be all 'He's evil! Get rid of him!' and off James or something though I would really like to see James use this 'evil' to defeat the villain and show that humanity has two sides to it like a coin: Both may be different in colour but they are one and the same.
That would be something I want to see from James, and make him eat his words about humanity being only good or only bad.
1941528
Just stating a common thing that runs through society these days. But hey! If you wish to be an arrogant prick and call people 12-year old girls based on bloody text on a screen then be my guest. T_T
Just trying to show support for this guy, I mean excuse me if my wording ticks you off. Yeesh. ¬_¬
1941686 Not quite what I have in mind. Though I'm surprised no one can even guess what I have planned despite the hints I drop.
1941697 Well, to my slightly psychotic brain, I came to the conclusion of genocide way before we got to this point. I'll leave you to your tales and be back next year to take a look at the story.
And if the hints are in the story, I haven't read it in ages but I'll do so to catch up as I get there. In the meantime, it remains disliked and in my read-later list. (Unfortunately for you, I suppose.)
Don't forget that since it's been awhile prior to these most recent updates, newer people will have come across the story. Fandom default is to hate HiE stories because they're typically so god-awful bad with crappy self-inserts and the 'story' sounds more like something someone should keep in a private diary about what they'd do in Equestria.
So. 20 downvotes is quite normal. Then there's people who complain about the length of a chapter, who shouldn't even be on a website about reading stories if they /can't read stories/.
In short, don't worry about it. Keep on keepin' on.
I enjoyed it, I just came to the story recently. I think you should just keep doing what your doing. Maybe a little conflict in the relationship of him and flutter. Keep up the good work.
1941697
I'm deliberately NOT trying to think ahead, sometimes its best to let yourself be surprised.
As for the mass of downvotes, a good chance most of them are troll related, they happen, fact is your story is too good to be thought of as anything else. and the numbers don't lie in this case, the large number of upvotes still outweigh the downvotes by a significant margin, and I suspect that they always will.
The last couple chapters for me were unnecessarily long and kinda boring. Though I won't change a vote over just that.
1941972 I agree.