Feedback, by score alone? Can it be satisfactory?

[Framboise]

When I submitted (double entendre intentional) my first story, I was wishing for a 5.0 and enough fireworks to light the entire North American continent for a whole week...

...hoping for something above a 4.0...

...and praying that I wouldn't go below 3.0.

I got a bit better than I had hoped, but not so much that I am entirely happy, or overconfident, and not so much that I can't see some areas where I could improve my story...but I am happy enough with my first effort, and thus won't edit it further.

However, I have gotten no comments on the story page itself at all - good, bad, or ugly - and I am not certain that that is entirely positive...

...but I won't beg for comments in my stories, either - or should I? (Begging for feedback comments here is okay, though, isn't it?)

Your thoughts on scores? Merci!

 

[estragon]

Welcome aboard, Framboise. I will now repeat the mantra: The readers who come to this site, or indeed any site, owe the writers nothing. They need not be fair, helpful, reverent, thrifty, unprejudiced, learned, clean in mind and body (fer sure!), marginally literate or anything else. Of course, they may be all of the foregoing, and just not feel like voting or commenting or feeding back. Whatever, they are not conducting a course in creative writing or trying out for a job at The New York Review of Books. So it's perfectly fine to seek feedback there, or here. Just don't be disappointed if you don't get it.

But be satisfied that you gave your story the best you had. Be happy you wrote the truest declarative sentence you could. Be unsatisfied that you still could do better, and try to do better next time. Whatever anyone else says or doesn't say, it's your story, and you must tell it your way.

And yes, I'll echo a certain writer: the internet does not make us all equal, and every opinion is not equal.

Finally, I'll echo a much better writer: "You can't always get what you want, but if you try some time, you just might find, you get what you need. Oh yeah."

 

[Darkniciad]

There's nothing wrong with asking for votes and hinting that you'd very much appreciate comments in a closing note. I do it on all of mine.

I think you'll find that your number of votes and comments increase if you actually ask for them.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

There's nothing wrong with asking for votes and hinting that you'd very much appreciate comments in a closing note. I do it on all of mine.

I think you'll find that your number of votes and comments increase if you actually ask for them.

I second that. If you really want comments mention that comments/feedback is appreciated. If you want scores, mention voting is appreciated. It isn't "begging" it is simply saying you'd like to hear what folks think about what you've written.