You are my Prereaders. · 4:00am Feb 4th, 2015
There are many reasons to write, many motivations that work for different authors, and opinions abound. No one is right, though some things are certainly more popular than other things.
Enough being vague, lets get down to brass tacks.
Some authors treat Fimfiction.net as a game. The goal of these authors is to get the high score, be it views on a story, upvotes, favoritesbookshelvings, followers, hitting the feature box, or in some cases (trollfics) downvotes or lulzy comments. Other writers have different styles of stroking their own ego, such as seeking praise in their comments or creating a fan following of some sort. Of these, a tried and true method of "playing the game right" involves putting out incomplete stories, either literally, or by drafting short one-shots that are really more accurately described as scenes of a much larger, lamentably unwritten story. The goal being to simply be active, productive, and to catch a lot of interest simply for having stuff for people to read.
I fit in a different and somewhat rarer group of authors. I don't really care one whit about the feature box, site statistics, or praise. Don't get me wrong, there would be some fleeting amusement if these kinds of things did happen, but I am simply not interested in doing the kinds of things others do explicitly in pursuit of these goals.
What I am here for is self-improvement, and to share some stories. In my view, what I put on the internet is going to be on the internet forever. It's currently 2015, but a story like The Break of Dawn will still exist in 2020, 2030, etc. Having hit a feature box or not, having a certain upvote/downvote ratio today will not really matter at all to some viewer looking through the vast piles of horsewords that already exist on the site. If they find my story and enjoy it, then I've met my goal.
To that end, I have no interest in putting some incomplete story out in order to try to milk viewership, hope readers put it on their bookshelf to track it to completion, or act like a webcomic/serial as many on the site do. When I publish an incomplete story, I am opening it up to you all to comment, give me feedback, and have a hand in making the story better. If you read a story of mine and you like it, upvotes and praise are of course appreciated, but not really expected. If you feel motivated to tell me something in particular that you liked about what I've published, that would be far more helpful and constructive. Similarly, dowvotes and "this sucks." comments are appreciated, even welcomed. If you dislike what I write, by all means express it however you please. If you feel like pointing out what it is you disliked, errors I've made, stupid grammar mistakes, or just that you disliked my choice of characters or premise, that sort of commentary will be valued even more.
With anything I publish, I have a story in mind. If I fail to convey that story due to my own limited writing ability and command of the English language, then any chance I have to improve myself and my story so that it successfully is conveyed, the better. If the story I have to tell is simply not an interesting one, that is feedback I crave to hear, so I can think up ways to improve the story itself, or to come up with better stories.
Feedback is the most valuable thing you can give to me, or any other author. I seek to be a good author, so I welcome any and all feedback. If your feedback happens to be especially helpful, then you'll be credited in my author's notes, just the same as any formal prereader or editor I approach and who works on my story with/for me.
Well said. You made a point I've been wanting to make (but kept coming off as condescending every time I tried) for a long time now.
Very well put. I will freely admit that, for a while, I was a part of the 'game' that so many seems to play with fimfiction. Now, I'm simply trying to improve as a writer. Thank you for taking the time necessary to type this out.
I'd be interested in pre-reading Hungry. Was looking through my Alt Universe fics in my favs list, and saw this link.