Yeah, I still DM with the reader of my series to this day.
Usually when I see AHers supporting each other in comments it's pretty constructive and in-depth. I dunno what you've seen, though. But yeah, it would be great if we could easily build community with readers outside of the forums.
There are a couple writers I'm in contact with where I'll read their stuff, they'll read mine, sometimes in the process of writing it, sometimes in beta. So it's not impossible. If you were to do something like that, you'd have to extract a promise from everyone that they be honest in their feedback, and be willing to accept honest feedback in kind, and that feedback should be constructive and not capricious so everyone knows it's coming from a place of genuine desire to help. That was basically how my prior writing group operated. Just totally blunt, if it sucked, they straight up told you "It sucked." Tough love, but we all understood that the reason for it was because we wanted each other's works to be the best they could be, and you don't get that by head pats and mommying people. Not everyone is cut out for that level of unsparingness, though, I understand. In my own review thread, I'm pretty straightforward, but since I don't know people as well as I knew that writing group, I don't use that same level of bluntness. My group met in person, which made it easier to look someone in the face and know whatever they said wasn't coming from a place of malice, but a desire to help, even if it stung like hell that the genius section you wrote turned out to be dogshit. They were almost always right though, and it's far better to learn your chapter sucked before you publish it.
Yeah, I don't personally see the utility in asking for reviews like that after publishing something. Especially if the story in question is one I care a lot about. Before publishing something is the time to get blunt criticism like that.
Ha, that's interesting. Because I've always advocated for the opposite.
It's certainly not foolproof, but I think it's possible at least to find a small group of people who can be honest without beating up on each other.I agree with much of that.
I would also say that it's impossible to judge the feedback that isn't publicly seen on the forum or in story comments.
I disagree, I think there's plenty of utility. It might not help for that one story, it's already out in the world unless the person decides to edit it, but you can learn things from feedback that you take forward and apply to your future stories.
Every story has its own unique needs, so rarely (in my experience) is that kind of critique actually helpful to future stories outside of grammar corrections. And even then, that kind of stuff is better ironed out in private before publishing. It certainly wouldn't be useful to someone not trying to write long term. I've seen some authors put out one or two stories here and simply not go further for any number of reasons.
Well yeah, but then no amount of feedback is useful for someone who isn't writing long term, doesn't matter if it's on the front end or the back end. Most of my feedback in my feedback thread goes beyond grammar. In fact, grammar's a minimal focus beyond "You did this wrong, here's how you should do this." I focus more on the craft side of things. Stories are unique, yes, but techniques can be brought between them. I want to help someone build out their toolkit, sharpen the tools they have, give them new ones to try out. For example, someone who writes a weak character is probably doing it more consistently than that one story unless there's a good reason for it (which there rarely is), so showing them how to write stronger, deeper characters is useful for them moving forward.
If they're not writing long term, criticism before publishing would be extremely useful for them to change and improve that one story. After publishing, the same criticism on that story wouldn't be helpful. Though I'm not entirely sure if I'm getting at your point here.
You know, that's actually a good point.
Why fear of success?
As the saying goes, you're only as good as your last successful story, music, film, etc. So, the next one better top it. Not sure if that made sense but I have other WIP I want to publish and I don't feel like I can publish those until I complete my current series where I've made mistakes while in the learning process of how Lit's series works.
Look at it this way, even if your next one doesn't go as well as you hope, the next one might. It's an up and down game, and the ratings and engagement aren't always a reflection of ability and skill. Sometimes there's just a mismatch of readers and story, or Pluto's in retrograde, or Alpha Centauri blew up Glorph and Glorph really would've loved your story, or who knows what?
I get this way of thinking. It makes sense to me.
Depends how you define success...with your audience or you personally.
I care about my stories too much. I've invested a lot of time and attention to them and have experienced the ups and downs/highs and lows of success here and at another site. It's the lows that make me question my ability to write a story. Which is where I'm at right now.
Sorry you've had a dearth of comments. I find this issue comes down to managing expectations and figuring out what you want out of posting.
Other writers may be better positioned to do so.
