Ok, so I've been wondering something today. · 11:05pm Dec 26th, 2015
First things first, I'm new to this whole 'having fans who actually read your shit' thing. So, feel free to ignore this, especially as it's only vaguely, tangentially related to Overlord.
Ok, so over the past few days I've been watching some drama unfold over another popular story. I'm not going to name it, or the author, or reference it, and if you do somehow work out who/what please don't add to or import any drama here.
No, the point here is I want to ask you lot, the thralls who feed my insatiable desire to be recognised by a small corner of the Internet; what's more important, the writer bouldering on with whatever idea they have in their head and damn the expectations of the readership, because it is my story to tell, or is changing and flowing events and world elements around your readers to keep within their comfort zone better overall?
Ok, I've kinda biased the question, but let me lay out where I am anyway.
When it's come to style, I'm more in camp A. I've said before in my own tiny slice of comment drama that "I'd rather no one read it all than dumb it down to the lowest common denominator." The way you write your story is very much your own, and while you should compromise if your message is hopelessly lost, if you give up your natural style then you give up what makes it your story.
If you're reading this, you've read Overlord. It's pretty freaky-deeky when it comes to the way of conveying the story, and while I'm still in many ways refining and adapting it, I wouldn't change that style for millions of readers.
The narrative though, the actual plot? For me, that's camp B. You need to keep the story making sense to the readers. If a plot point or world element has your readers going "whoh, wait what!?" and that wasn't the reaction you were aiming for? You've done something horridly wrong.
In response to comments, I've revised whole future chapters to include clarifying elements, or even devised how a rule can be used just to clear up a mess of misunderstandings. If this was a more traditional narrative styled story I'd probably have actually gone back and revised published chapters. It's only because an air of slight confusion and constantly missing puzzle pieces is how this tale is stylistically structured that I feel that some slightly confusing chapters can remain in place, provided that a clarifying piece of the puzzle is added later.
I very much belive in not biting the hand that feeds you, and you your comments are my delicious food. Your confusion only pleases me if I know that you're supposed to be confused. If I've left you scratching your heads while I'm sitting there going "huh? But it says right there!" than I honestly sit back and go, "Now where did I fuck up?"
A clear example of this was the cell block naming. When I first introduced it I wasn't aiming for it to be so hard to work out. So over the course of several chapters I added in more elements and references while watching to see whether it was getting any clearer. In the end, I wrote a whole chapter on it.
So, to sum up the question I'm asking again,
If a serious and significant chunk of your readers come to you part way though and say "Mr Author, this story really isn't what I came to read at all, I'm not sure I want to keep reading anymore," should you be finding a way to clarify things for your readers, possibly by changing some of your narrative, or do you doggedly push on and 'tell the story you want to tell'?
As an aside, I'm planning a writing binge tomorow and maybe Monday. I promise two chapters, maybe three to four if the spice blood cocaine juices flow.
Aftermarket edit:
Just to be clear, I'm very happy with how Overlord is going, and how it's being received. This question is asked in the context of the drama I was reading elsewhere.
I only came to read for the comedy purposes... And was not disappointed.
All and all, it's refreshing to read a different style of writing and narration. People always expect you to write different, to write the 'correct' way. The English classes don't help in that matter.
Frankly I don't care what they think. I'll write my own stories any way I please. And reading this blog, you agree.
I'm a little bit of both. I usually sick to what I want to do, but it is unwise to completely ignore what your readers want.
Occasionally, I'll nic an idea from a reader, or even change a few things because they raised some good points.
The best thing a writer can do for themselves and the reader is to have a strict destination but a flexible path. Sometimes the fans have good ideas while other times they have insane unreasonable demands. Generally though, if your readers are expressing large scale dissatisfaction, stepping back and asking yourself 'What can I change?' isn't a bad idea.
As for clarity it is in fact VERY important. after all something that's obvious to the author isn't necessarily clear to someone who didn't create the narrative universe. Sometimes just providing 'word of god' can go a long way towards easing reader discomfort.
Overlord was the first fic I've read that's told out of chronological order and in little snippets. After reading dozens of standard fics this was an intriguing change of pace. Each chapter has been just enough to keep me interested without being cluttered and bogged down. Not going to lie though, there have been a few moments where I wanted to be able to read to the left and right of what was written in the chapters. Selfishly hoping you come out with a formal story that fills in some of the gaps.
Knowing the story in question, but to avoid any identifying details : The issue present there is one of whiplash. People were presented with one thing, liked that one thing a lot, and then suddenly it is a different thing. It is going to a pizza restaurant, only to be told tonight they are serving cheeseburgers.
And while you may like cheeseburgers, you do not go to a pizza restaurant for them, and so are understandably annoyed.
So : I would say that if a significant chunk of your readership is going 'Help, we have whiplash' and you did not intend for it, then you as an author have made a mistake somewhere. At the same time, as an author, it's always your right to tell the story you want to tell - the best response the author could have made if they intend to stay the course is to go 'I am sorry this isn't what you wanted to read, I shall try to avoid repeating the same thing in future stories' and move on.
I mean, with Overlord, I read it because I enjoy parts of it, but I have given the overall story a downvote for a while because I feel that it relies too much on the heroes falling victim to the hero tropes rather than the genre savvy villain decisively thwarting them. The biggest flaw here is when it's clear that Twilight knows about nefariousness a good yearish ahead of time and yet somehow he manages to chug along no problem. Well, that and the contrived 'Luna goes bad' bit but I'm pretty sure you've gone ahead and said 'Yea, I did that for giggles, I admit it's stupid' so it gets a mostly pass.
And, well, I admit I have a soft spot for Celestia, so 'Here you go into fiery pain chamber havefunbaibai' makes me sad and yea. So that bit is on me.
So, I guess, on the main question, it depends :
If you get that reaction because people don't get it - for example, failing to foreshadow well enough - then sure, go back and add in additional foreshadowing. It's why The Writeoff Association is so nice, because most everything I write ends up as part of these contests first, and so I can get that 'Hey, you foreshadowed this badly' from my small audience and be able to revise it before general publication.
On the other hand, if you get it because of why said aforementioned story got it - well, that really does come down to 'You, as an author, have some learning to do'. I mean, ultimately, if you want to troll your audience, you can, but I'd suspect most don't - and so what it's really exposing there is a weakness in your technique, where you need to ask yourself 'Okay, why did this happen, and how can I stop it from happening?' It may be possible to 'fix' the existing story, and if so, go for it! But a lot of the time it's too far in and it's better to just chalk it up as 'Mistake, sorry guys, wish it hadn't happened', tell what you want to tell, and learn from it.
Just avoid insulting your audience. Yes, when someone says 'The sun is actually a giant balloon made of cheese' it is fair to tell them they are wrong, and why they are wrong. When someone says 'I did not enjoy this experience', telling them all the reasons they're wrong for not enjoying it is going to make you look like a jerk. The best you can do there is say 'Here is what I/others find good in it, knowing that, does it change your opinion?' If yes, congrats, you win - and if no, then okay, so it goes, accept you see things differently and again move on.
So yea! Lotta rambliness, I know. Hope it helps.
3644846
A facinating and thought provoking response.
Thank you.
3644845
I'm honestly not sure I could do it justice as a proper 'traditional' story.
I'm going to look into lots of options as/when/if we get to the end.
3644829
One of the hardest things for me when reading responces is not giving anything away by being too clear.
This very much only applies to Overlord though and asynchronous puzzle piece stories like it. Even bearing that in mind, finding the right level of opacity is one of my biggest worries.
3644807
I think we've all had a few 'yoink' moments.
Firstly, let's establish the following: nobody pays the author on sites like these. They write because they want to. They could just as easily write in a scrapbook and hide it from the world forever. They didn't do that, however, instead letting you read their story - again, for free. If you're entertained - yay, free entertainment! If not - too bad, go search for something else. Somebody else probably likes what the author wrote, so it's still good of them to have published it.
On the other hand, there's a reason people do publish their works. And that is because while there is no monetary pay involved, there's a different kind of gain to be gotten from posting a story - namely, positive feedback and appreciation of your work. From this point of view, everything is natural: if you want to get "paid", write a good story, and your readers will praise you. If you only care about writing what you want, and what you want happens to make for a really shitty read - that's completely fine, but don't expect praise (or "payment" as we established above). The important point here is that you can't both completely ignore all feedback and criticism and yet expect to be showered with positive comments (unless you're just that good of a writer, of course).
So to reiterate: as long as you're completely fine with your readers blowing up a shitstorm and abandoning your story, feel free to do absolutely anything you want.
So with that out of the way, there's the another problem, and that's "telling the story you want to tell". Simply put, a story isn't a collection of words and punctuation - a story is a collection of concepts and events, conveyed through words and language. Often, criticism will aim to help you convey your story better. Ignoring that will actually prevent you from "telling the story you want to tell", since your crappy writing may well tell a very different story from what you had in mind.
And sometimes, the story you want to tell is just shit, and full of plotholes and stuff. Here, we have to go even more abstract and define a "story" as a vision, a collection of ideas and emotions and abstract concepts. You an arrange them into a sequence of events and concrete concepts, but if you do it poorly you won't be able to convey your vision, just like how with poor writing you won't properly convey your storyline. So, again, changing up your concrete story according to feedback, in order to better convey your overall vision, is the right thing to do.
Assuming, that is, that you're aiming to write a good story. To reiterate again my very first point, you're completely free to write crap if you want. It's up to you, as the author, to decide.
Both of the above points, of course, are just my opinion and the way I see things. Although they seem pretty logically sound to me.
And since this comment isn't quite long enough yet, let me add some examples. First, we have the matter of whiplash, as discussed by Morning Sun 3644846 . Did the author want that? Megatrons Pen, for example, in his story D = S - M, purposefully tried to piss off his readers by explaining as little as possible, putting cliffhangers literally everywhere, and killing off characters at his whim. So if readers get annoyed, that's exactly what he wanted.
But if the author is trying to write a good story? Then the problem must be fixed. To use Morning Sun's example, you either stop serving cheeseburgers and go back to pizza, or rebrand your shop as a cheeseburger shop. That will then give you the desired outcome, which is happy customers.
Another example: what if your story became decently popular, then everyone started complaining about your writing style? Would you still "not change that style for millions of readers"? Perhaps, if that's what you want. You would then have to be prepared to anger and lose a large portion of your readers. But if you were aiming to write a widely-enjoyed story, you would then have had to change your style to something better.
(Note that this is an abstract what-if scenario. I'm not saying your current writing style is bad.)
I'm always gonna say that the writer should write in the direction that they wanted to go in the first place. I may criticize, but that's more to provide multiple opinions, just in case the author never considered it and would incorporate it into their story.
Ignoring Overlord because everything is fine, if unconventional, there, there is a very important thing to understand about feedback that has not been discussed yet and is in a way more important than anything else. While getting positive feedback telling you that you are doing a good job feels nice, what really helps you learn and grow as a writer is the criticism. Many of the people reading your story are either writers themselves or have read a lot of stories of varying quality so they will be able to approach your story from an outside perspective and spot problems you could not because you are too close to the work in question. It is critical to carefully consider what they are saying and compare it to your plan to figure out if there are major changes you need to make, especially when you recognize talented authors and/or observant readers pointing out problems because you can trust them to have valuable criticism and meaningful suggestions on how to improve the story. In some cases you may realize your original plan was weak and should be revised or that you made a major blunder with your earlier chapters which created misleading expectations (in tone, plot twists are different) and need to seriously overhaul the story. You do naturally need to temper this with some loyalty to your original plan to hold true to your foreshadowing and accept that sometimes the flaws are too deeply woven into the story to fix without completely rewriting the story, but it is still critical to acknowledge problems so you can do better in the future.
There's something of a subtle difference. if your response is 'Huh? wait, what, let me go back a few chapters to see what's what' you've done something wrong, if the response is 'waita minute.... no... really, that happened?" you've done something right. the problem is you have to wait until after people've read it.
I like to read your fanfiction. It's really that simple. I could not give any less of a fuck about anything else.
Just so long as they keep coming, I'm good.
To put it bluntly, my opinion is this.
Authors should just write whatever the fuck they want, and to hell with what the readers think. You, the author, are the one making this shit up, what's wrong with doing it how you want to?
If I, the reader, like the story, I'm going to read it. if I don't like it, I may still read it anyway and bitch and complain why I hated it. However you, the author, should ignore me in that case. Because fuck the readers, this shit isn't solely for them and their personal satisfaction. People need to learn that not everything is going to be the way they want.
3644846
Aha! Now I see what you're talking about!
You see at first I thought it was "that" story, and then after reading your comment I was like huh, maybe it's that story. But then I reread it again and I was like,
silly me, of course it's not any of those! It's that story! I should have known all along! 
Oh, and the points you made were good too.
3644846 Good Points. I was going to write an answer but you pretty much cover my opinion.
I can't help it, I'm curious. Can somepony just pm me The story were The drama occured?
Write whatever you want.
I'm about 90 percent sure i know which story you're talking about but I won't mention it.
I agree you should write what you want (exceptions only possible if there is money involved) So long as it is good quality writing
3645164 I'm pretty sure it's about Bucking Nonsense. That or TheMyth, or Kildeez. People get way too self entitled and feedback gets overrated a bit.
I get especially ticked when people assume that hiveminds are canon in Equestria. I posted my Changeling King picture to some and I was met with comments like "But changelings have hiveminds they can't have civil wars" or "Changelings are insects they don't have Kings".
Fuck em. Fuck em all. Fuck em hard. Sometimes the audience is just plain stupid.
3647853 Bucking Nonsense is my assumption as well because that is one of the bigger pieces of drama I have seen around here and the only really recent huge one I know of. It also centered around his complete inability to accept constructive criticism from people I recognized as talented authors and observant readers which makes it extremely likely that was what motivated this.
That said, you do have a point about idiot readers as well because there are definitely some of those, especially with the stupid hive mind which is explicitly contradicted in the show when the changelings mistakenly attack each other in the fight.
I'd say to go for the middle of the road. You have an idea, a vision, of how a story should go, and why it should go that way, and that is YOUR story to tell, even if it is with someone else s characters (fan-fiction for the win), but at the same time, you do have the audience, who are just as invested. Really, when it comes down to it, you SHOULD consider what the audience says, but if you truly feel it, NEVER compromise your own ideas/visions. At the very least, there is one person that should be happy with the story, you, the author. Use what your fans say to temper the story, but do not let them forge it themselves, because even if it comes out fine, it will no longer be your work. Or...
TL:DR use their thoughts to see what is good, but don't change what you like just to make some else happy.
personaly i am camp A while i dont have and written right know i do plan to right some but these are me wanting to share them i make my stories because i enjoy making them not for fame or likes.