Meh · 11:00pm Jul 10th, 2017
I've been batting zero for a quite while now with my fics. I haven't had a hit in ten months (Page Two was my most recent well-received work). Even my first RCL feature I earned recently (Motherly) was not a popular story.
Normally this wouldn't nag at me, but I really like where I'm headed with Irreversible, and I'm surprised by the terrible response it's getting. I did make a mistake early on with one of the characters, but I don't think that should make the views so underwhelming. Granted, it's harder to get readers interested in multi-chapter (or Incomplete) stories unless they're M, but even then this one's scraping the bottom of the barrel relative to my follower count.
Pretty sure this would get more hits. No: totally sure.
I suspect that my 495 followers (or at least the active ones among them) might predominantly be TSJ readers who aren't interested in tamer fare, but I could just be shooting blanks. I literally never know what to expect. 
I was thinking about finally joining the Patreon sellout bandwagon, maybe making each 10,000 words I write worth one donation period or something like that. That way I could be better motivated and have an easier platform to determine what my watchers are looking for. But I can't justify a move like that until I do something at least marginally popular again, and I have no idea when that might be. 
Well, I haven't read it, but not getting views doesn't equal not good writing. It just means it's not click bait lol. Besides, I think a lot of people around here don't read as much as they used to, so I'd say there's a sort of... famine of readers.
I like irreversible for whatever that's worth.
well, I can't speak for everyone or even on every story you write, for me your mysteries; which seem to to be stories you put a lot of time and effort into; have to much mytstery. Everything you know is wrong, you can't trust anyone or anything. It removes any sort of solid footing from the story and I end up not even trusting you as the writer, because this definitive fact you put in to clear things up, could be a red herring to misdirect the characters and readers or even a sequel hook.
Like for example TSJ. At this point I would not be surprised if that journal is being read by a member of the Resistance against the evil Queen Twilight Sparkle of the vamponies who are trying to find out th e true nature of the vamponies, how she came to power and how to defeat her
The problem with Irreversible might be that you know where it's going, but its not clear/interesting enough to your readers. Also, quifons is such a weird word. I don't know if that spelling is a vital part of the story, but it is kind of...distracting(?) to me whenever it comes up in the dialogue.
That being said, I am interested in where the story is going, but I can see where others might find it boring.
I feel bad here, because I still haven't read it, it's sitting open in the next tab over D: And no, that's not because it doesn't interest me. There are four other stories open in tabs right now too.
I'm not sure about patreon, it seems to work out for some and not for others, and honestly I don't pay attention enough to tell why. :/
It's can be super hard to keep up writing when you're not getting a good response back--I can say that and I don't even freakin write. What will garner attention? Man, that's a question for the ages.
But. I know it's not beyond your reach, Trick.
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Some of it is timing, tbf. As pony fandom wanes, it becomes harder and harder to amass a following. There are terrible stories that were written during season one that are still household names to bronies.
You should just do what I do which is 'Do what's fun and don't give a damn about popularity or not'.
It works a lot better.
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Oh, I'm still doing that. I'm just disappointed in myself.
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that's a remnant of being around when there was a lack and having time to amass a legend
I'm very interested in Irreversible, for whatever it's worth; it's one of the stories in on my "Reading Along" shelf that I leap on notifications for right away. I didn't see any major problems that soured me on it, but, uh, I don't know how discerning I'm capable of being, really, so I don't know whether that means anything. (Also, TSJ really wasn't for me at all, for whatever that's worth.)
A lot of your writing has a style that I really like, and the dark themes in it often hit a lot of the right places for me.
So… yeah.
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Four, hum? Let me check.
... 140+. My God, I'm a tab hoarder.
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You two make valid points there, I think. Mysteries, especially complex ones, are difficult to get into. Irreversible is difficult to get into.
By contrast, M-rated stories with a "sex" tag, you at least know you'll get something sexual at some point. And sex is visceral.
I feel you 100% on this. I feel like my last few stories have been on a downward spiral in terms of bringing people in. My buddy Moose tells me it's because I'm writing stuff that's a lot more niche than I might've done before. I think that's definitely part of it, though I think the bigger point is that it's hard to tell what's going to take off and what isn't.
...Though as I check the views & votes on some of those stories, I think part of it might be the bar you set for yourself in terms of the kinds of numbers you want to see in order to be good with a story's performance. I only very rarely pull the kinds of numbers you do these days, for whatever it's worth.
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How dare you criticize the classics!
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Embrace it.
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Click here.
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My life 100%.