Comments · 11:13pm Sep 7th, 2014
So I'm gonna talk here a little bit about a few things.
I should probably start off with the usual updates about my stories. Imposter is going smoothly. Missing Dreams is going smoothly. The rewrites to Just a Joke are almost finished; I want to do one more edit tonight then send it in to EQD.
Comments. A single comment is more valuable to me than a thousand views on a story. Negative, positive, bland or interesting, if you took the time to comment you've had a bigger impact than the 100 people who liked and didn't comment. Simply put, views and likes and dislikes are nothing but numbers. Statistics. Impersonal, anonymous facts. They don't tell me anything about you or why you liked or disliked or anything. They tell me you were there and clicked a button. You are a line of code to me and nothing more.
But comments... comments are personal. They put a name to a statistic and make it.... they make it real. Just a Joke was featured and garnered over 4000 views, with 90 comments, some of which were my responses. 90 out of 4 thousand... it's like only 90 people looked at that story. Despite the sheer numbers. Because that's all they are; numbers.
If you want to do something, leave a comment. Tell me why you're pressing that like or dislike button. Tell me why you read the story in the first place. Tell me specific parts about what you liked or didn't like about the story. It'll make everything so much more than just numbers. I try to respond to every comment I get that actually has something to say, and every comment with a criticism I listen to and try to take into account in either the next chapter or the next story.
When I wrote She Said No and was literally flooded with comments (it's over 500 now) I tried and failed to keep up with them. But as soon as the flow stopped, I went back, and I read every single one of those comments. On top of those comments, even, were PM's over fimfic. I had people apologizing for the people who were attacking me personally instead of the story, I had people telling me that it was amazing and thoughtful and that I should just ignore anyone who says otherwise. I even had a person outright thank me for writing it, and telling me that it emotionally moved them. If a comment is worth a thousand views, a PM is worth 100 comments. To add that extra layer of personality and to go the extra length to say something specifically and privately to me about a story makes every story I write mean so much more to me. It's no longer a bunch of numbers or names saying it's good; it's an actual person taking the time to tell me that they liked it and that I should keep going. It goes beyond putting a name to a number and makes it personal.
I get a lot of views these days on most of my stories. Some more than others, some flop and some soar, but the sheer numbers don't matter much to me. Yeah, the numbers are nice to look at, but even better are the individual comments I get. When I log on to fimfic I check my notifications, and when I see 20 meta and 1 social, I look at the social first and give the meta a cursory glance. A lot of the time, the people who comment are either the "MOAR NOW" people or the "Sequel?" people. Those comments honestly drive me nuts. That doesn't tell me what I already put out is good, that tells me it isn't good enough. That it needs more. That it's flawed.
Maybe that's not the intention behind the comments, but that's what it sounds like.
Writing means something to me. It's one of the few things I get offended about if people start insulting it. I have punched people who mocked my writing, and I'm not a violent person in any sense of the word. It's what got me through the day for a long time, and it's still what I look forward to at the end of every night, even if I tend to procrastinate a bit. Writing is my hobby, my goal, my dream, and my future job.
And getting comments about my writing makes everything worth it at the end of a crappy day.
So if you want to let me know you enjoyed the story, before pressing the like button, leave a comment saying so and why. Put a name to the statistic.
I have an idea for a new story that'll be... interesting. So far it looks like it'll end up being a chapter fic if I end up writing it.
Until next time,
Kodeake out
I don't like to admit it, but I don't often write comments. (I blame my e-reader(and mostly myself))
I also put comments over views and favorites, but there are two things that are even better.
The first thing are requests. I'm always so happy when someone asks me if I could draw something for him/her.
And I also love it when some one asks for permission to use something from me for a cover or something like this.
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I comment as much as I can. Sometimes I admit to simply having nothing to say, but most of the time I'll try and find something. Mostly I comment on new author's with a review of their fic, since Twidash has been seeing a lot of those recently, but even the big, popular ones I try and take the time to type out my thoughts.
It's literally the least I could do for someone who took the time to write out whatever it was. I know exactly how long it can take and hard it can be sometimes, so I feel guilty when I leave a fic without a comment.
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I have a really hard time to leave comments.
I know it's silly but the few short comments I leave usually takes me about the same time to write as the time it takes me to read an average chapter. And suffice to say I'd rather spend my time reading.
However I do agree with what you are saying, and I do try to get better at leaving comments.