If the comments for a story assume things about your characters that you feel are untrue, would you correct them?

[Just4Sheets]

I have a story in Loving Wives (yeah, I know .. the minefield) that's sitting at 3 with a few comments.

What's bugging me is that some of those comments make assumptions about one of the main characters that I think totally miss the mark. People are saying she must have already been cheating, or that it was her plan all along, but in my mind, that's not her at all.

Obviously she's fictional, but I know her motivations. To me, those assumptions are flat-out wrong. I'm not sure why I care, but I wrote her as a good person and it bothers me that people think she was duplicitous.

So my question:

• Should I reply to clarify her character and explain what I was going for?
• Or should I just leave it alone?

After all, it's not like anyone would necessarily see or care that I responded.

J4S

 

[Statius]

Yeah, shit annoys me too. I had that with a character of mine as well. I walked away.
1. It's LitE.
2. As another writer on me told me, once you publish a story, it's 'the death of the author'. Meaning it's impact and interpretation are no longer up to you.

It's annoying tho, and depending on the attachment you have to a character (I get attached) it's hard to see that happen and let it go.

 

[Just4Sheets]

Yeah, shit annoys me too. I had that with a character of mine as well. I walked away.
1. It's LitE.
2. As another writer on me told me, once you publish a story, it's 'the death of the author'. Meaning it's impact and interpretation are no longer up to you.

It's annoying tho, and depending on the attachment you have to a character (I get attached) it's hard to see that happen and let it go.

That makes me sad. I wrote her as a good, honest person faced with a horrible situation and making the best of it. Knowing that people read it and (yeah .. LW .. I know) assume she's a manipulative bitch .. that kinda breaks me.

That being said, you're right. It's not my story anymore. It's the readers' story '

J4S

 

[Britva415]

Should I reply to clarify her character and explain what I was going for?

Let's think about what would happen if you did:

They'd feel like you were telling them how their story should go.

Ironic, eh?

 

[Just4Sheets]

Let's think about what would happen if you did:

They'd feel like you were telling them how their story should go.

Ironic, eh?

.. when you put it that way

J4S

 

[MrPixel]

The impression I have from the comments feature is it is not a conversational medium like, say, DMs or the forum here. It's a dump-and-run sort of thing, and there's the latency issue. The likelihood of a commenter (excepting certain crackpots) returning to read any "correction" is slim if not none.

FWIW, & YMMV.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I wrote her as a good, honest person faced with a horrible situation and making the best of it. Knowing that people read it and (yeah .. LW .. I know) assume she's a manipulative bitch .. that kinda breaks me.

Misogyny is rife in Loving Wives.

 

[Just4Sheets]

The impression I have from the comments feature is it is not a conversational medium like, say, DMs or the forum here. It's a dump-and-run sort of thing, and there's the latency issue. The likelihood of a commenter (excepting certain crackpots) returning to read any "correction" is slim if not none.

FWIW, & YMMV.

Exactly .. I kinda hinted at that in the last line of my original post here. Too bad you can't respond directly to a comment and have the writer of the comment know it. But I guess that's what these forums are for.

J4S

 

[Just4Sheets]

Misogyny is rife in Loving Wives.

Yeah I get that. But with this one story it really saddens me that readers missed the entire point of the story. I feel like I failed.

J4S

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

I have a story in Loving Wives (yeah, I know .. the minefield) that's sitting at 3 with a few comments.

What's bugging me is that some of those comments make assumptions about one of the main characters that I think totally miss the mark. People are saying she must have already been cheating, or that it was her plan all along, but in my mind, that's not her at all.

Obviously she's fictional, but I know her motivations. To me, those assumptions are flat-out wrong. I'm not sure why I care, but I wrote her as a good person and it bothers me that people think she was duplicitous.

So my question:

• Should I reply to clarify her character and explain what I was going for?
• Or should I just leave it alone?

After all, it's not like anyone would necessarily see or care that I responded.

J4S

Is the story part of a series? Can you somehow correct it in the *next* story? Maybe it's a place to make sure to clarify this character in the future?

Otherwise, wiser people than me have already chimed in. I doubt it would do any good. I think I saw a thread about Frankenstein on here recently (well, *I* saw it recently, I'm not sure the thread was recent) that basically concluded the same - Shelley doesn't get to drive the interpretation of the story anymore, the reader does.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yeah I get that. But with this one story it really saddens me that readers missed the entire point of the story. I feel like I failed.

J4S

My experience is that there are two reasons why your work is misinterpreted. Something you did / didn’t do, and just an issue with the reader. You can by all means reflect on the first scenario, but it’s perfectly possible that you did everything right and yet got this result.

I’ve had successive comments which complimented me on how neatly i had brought all the threads together at the end, and then another reader saying it made no sense .

At the end of the day, the purpose of art is to provoke a reaction or feeling. But you can’t control the nature of either.

 

[SimonDoom]

Not necessarily. I accept that when I publish a story I have no control over how a reader reads it. They may see the words differently from the way I do, and there's nothing authoritative about the way I as the author see them. The disconnect is an inevitable part of the author-reader conversation. It's not a sign that either you or the reader have done anything wrong.

 

[Erozetta]

I have a story in Loving Wives (yeah, I know .. the minefield) that's sitting at 3 with a few comments.

What's bugging me is that some of those comments make assumptions about one of the main characters that I think totally miss the mark. People are saying she must have already been cheating, or that it was her plan all along, but in my mind, that's not her at all.

Obviously she's fictional, but I know her motivations. To me, those assumptions are flat-out wrong. I'm not sure why I care, but I wrote her as a good person and it bothers me that people think she was duplicitous.

So my question:

• Should I reply to clarify her character and explain what I was going for?
• Or should I just leave it alone?

After all, it's not like anyone would necessarily see or care that I responded.

J4S

The reality is that you can lay it out neatly, holding their hand straight through with big bold neon signs, and some (not a majority, not even most, but some) readers will still misinterpret things because the story you're telling doesn't match their expectations/experiences and they need the stories to be exactly what they expect or have experienced. Anything else is just asking too much of them.

 

[IWroteThis]

If it's something I know, but didn't actually cover in the story, I tend to ignore the comment and consider what I should do different the next time.

If it's something that I hinted at or implied in the story, I tend to point it out and ask if it was confusing or too subtle. It's often not the original commenter that replies, but I've still learned from those exchanges.

If it's something that was laid out pretty well, I point out where I covered it, often quoting the relevant passages from the story. Then I examine how I could have done it better.

Basically, in all three cases, I use it to try and improve rather than taking it personally.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I will almost never interact with the comments, regardless of the reason. I think I've answered a comment in LW three times total, and maybe one or two times in other categories.

The truth is that even if you address a specific reader's concerns, they will almost never be swayed, and that assumes that they ever actually see the comment. Beyond that, sometimes readers (regardless of category) will have their headcanon of what happened in the story that can bear... let's say little relation to what's on the page. Hell, I've had readers write lengthy comments about how X happened in stories where I specifically say X does not happen; it's jsut going to happen.

While it can be useful to pay attention to feedback if a LOT of people aren't seeing what you think you wrote (because at that point it can be an issue with how you told the story, as opposed to the story you told), if it's some random jackass? Forget about it.

 

[crookedletter]

I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of Loving Wives -- feels a bit to me like a wilderness, a shadow on the Lit map, and I have no plans to venture there. Here be dragons.

But that aside, in general, if comments/feedback on a story suggest my readers aren't understanding a character's motivations or interiority the way I think they should, I would take that on as something to look at in the clarity of my writing. Maybe my character development isn't as clear on the page as it is in my mind. That's why feedback from others is of use in the first place: they'll see weaknesses -- and strengths, hopefully -- in your writing that you can't see yourself.

Than again, some people will always just be wrong. And if you disagree with any feedback it can always be ignored. I don't see the upside in pushing back.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

It's easy to build the character in our minds then decide "that's who they are", but did you effectively communicate that? It can be a real challenge, particularly in short fiction.
My suggestion would be go back to your story and annotate everywhere you establish the aspects of your character that are in question.

Then decide, is that enough "evidence" to convince a reader they were an honest person who changed?

 

[Just4Sheets]

Is the story part of a series? Can you somehow correct it in the *next* story? Maybe it's a place to make sure to clarify this character in the future?

Otherwise, wiser people than me have already chimed in. I doubt it would do any good. I think I saw a thread about Frankenstein on here recently (well, *I* saw it recently, I'm not sure the thread was recent) that basically concluded the same - Shelley doesn't get to drive the interpretation of the story anymore, the reader does.

Unfortunately, I have no plans to continue that story. I really love the story - it's a true redemption arc. But the readers feel everything was engineered by the woman to "cuck" her husband. I hate that (that they twisted someone I wrote as a genuinely nice, innocent person).

J4S

 

[AwkwardlySet]

As Kellie said, the character you imagined in your mind is not necessarily the same as the one you put into your story. The behavior and traits that seem obvious to you might not be the same as the ones that the reader sees.

Of course, there are readers who will always see what they want to see, no matter how you write it. There's nothing you can or should do about it. Let them have their fantasy.

 

[Just4Sheets]

My experience is that there are two reasons why your work is misinterpreted. Something you did / didn’t do, and just an issue with the reader. You can by all means reflect on the first scenario, but it’s perfectly possible that you did everything right and yet got this result.

I’ve had successive comments which complimented me on how neatly i had brought all the threads together at the end, and then another reader saying it made no sense .

At the end of the day, the purpose of art is to provoke a reaction or feeling. But you can’t control the nature of either.

I'll get one comment like this that makes me feel it was all worth it:

I don’t like either character - but what an emotional jack-hammer.

Brilliantly written.

And then one comment that makes me feel like nobody understands what I wrote:

You would never be able to convince me she wasn't already playing around, the way she took to it so quickly and so coldly. Divorce would be the only salve for that discovery.

J4S

 

[Just4Sheets]

If it's something I know, but didn't actually cover in the story, I tend to ignore the comment and consider what I should do different the next time.

If it's something that I hinted at or implied in the story, I tend to point it out and ask if it was confusing or too subtle. It's often not the original commenter that replies, but I've still learned from those exchanges.

If it's something that was laid out pretty well, I point out where I covered it, often quoting the relevant passages from the story. Then I examine how I could have done it better.

Basically, in all three cases, I use it to try and improve rather than taking it personally.

In my case people are just making assumptions. A woman is put in a situation she didn't want and makes the best of it. And instead of reading how that comes out, people seem to want to believe that she engineered the whole thing like some Lex Luthor behind the scenes.

J4S

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I have a story in Loving Wives (yeah, I know .. the minefield) that's sitting at 3 with a few comments.

What's bugging me is that some of those comments make assumptions about one of the main characters that I think totally miss the mark. People are saying she must have already been cheating, or that it was her plan all along, but in my mind, that's not her at all.

Obviously she's fictional, but I know her motivations. To me, those assumptions are flat-out wrong. I'm not sure why I care, but I wrote her as a good person and it bothers me that people think she was duplicitous.

So my question:

• Should I reply to clarify her character and explain what I was going for?
• Or should I just leave it alone?

After all, it's not like anyone would necessarily see or care that I responded.

J4S

Nope. Comments are static, the person that makes them is transient. The maker of the comment isn't notified if you answer their concern, and are very unlikely to come back and check to make sure you 'listened' to their advice. Us the feedback as a learning tool and, if you feel it's appropriate, use what you learned on your next story.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I'll get one comment like this that makes me feel it was all worth it:

And then one comment that makes me feel like nobody understands what I wrote:

J4S

At the risk of sounding trite. If just one person gets what your intent was, that’s kinda magical. You’ve made a deep connection with another human being.

I’ve had stories where the majority didn’t get what I was trying to do, only for one reader to play it back to me exactly as I had intended. I view that as a win. My audience is the people who get it.

 

[Just4Sheets]

I will almost never interact with the comments, regardless of the reason. I think I've answered a comment in LW three times total, and maybe one or two times in other categories.

The truth is that even if you address a specific reader's concerns, they will almost never be swayed, and that assumes that they ever actually see the comment. Beyond that, sometimes readers (regardless of category) will have their headcanon of what happened in the story that can bear... let's say little relation to what's on the page. Hell, I've had readers write lengthy comments about how X happened in stories where I specifically say X does not happen; it's jsut going to happen.

While it can be useful to pay attention to feedback if a LOT of people aren't seeing what you think you wrote (because at that point it can be an issue with how you told the story, as opposed to the story you told), if it's some random jackass? Forget about it.

I have written a total of 2 comments for my stories, both in Loving Wives. The first was just a cheeky way to thank people for all the comments - even though most of them were very negative. And the second was "almost" an apology for not putting an author's note at the top of a story. I was genuinely upset that people felt that I "baited and switched" them into a story they'd rather not read.

J4S

 

[Just4Sheets]

It's easy to build the character in our minds then decide "that's who they are", but did you effectively communicate that? It can be a real challenge, particularly in short fiction.
My suggestion would be go back to your story and annotate everywhere you establish the aspects of your character that are in question.

Then decide, is that enough "evidence" to convince a reader they were an honest person who changed?

I honestly thought there wasn't any question there. I was completely blindsided by the comments suggesting that.

J4S