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Comments and feedback.
I want to ask a question:
Commenters, guests, authors. What are the things that make you WANT to comment on a story? What kinds of things do you need to see, need to be able to talk about, to make commenting worthwhile?
In my time here, comments have ebbed and flowed. We're on an ebb right now, to be sure, and there are reasons for that -- a lot of general convo has moved to the Discord rather than taking place below stories here, and there are more places around the web as a whole for TG folks to find community and media that they like. Despite that, we still have a great community here, one that's always growing and adapting, and we have some of the most fantastic TG fic authors on the web.
Writers: as an author, you should be proud of what you've created regardless of the amount of response it gets. Every read is potentially someone who needed that exact story, and I want ALL of our authors to be proud of that work, the community they've built, and the lives they've improved by being here.
And, commenters? The same goes for each and every one of you.
Nobody should be left feeling that their contributions are inadequate. Every one of us makes this community stronger, and every one of us are giving something back just by being here.
But.
Back to my question.
I know that there are a few things authors CAN do to improve the likelihood of getting more active feedback. Responding back to comments in turn, for one. Engaging with readers via additional blogs and other forms of discussion. Even asking for specific kinds of feedback and information. All of this helps, because it's ways to make the reader(s) feel like they're part of the experience of the story.
Are there any other things that, as readers and commenters, you find particularly good to comment about, or that makes you want to engage with the story more?
Likewise, are there things that make commenting difficult or unattractive to you?
All in all, the point of having a community is that we're all in this together. Nobody is here to provide something directly to anyone else. Nobody owes anyone else anything, whether that's new chapters of favorite stories, new stories about favorite characters or from favorite authors... or feedback on the content that IS created. We all provide the things we do because we want to provide them.
Every person's contributions make BC a better place.
-Melanie E.
Comments
Author Comment
I'm so sorry to admit that I am guilty of not participating to the extent I'd like to this wonderful site. My participation and contributions came as a result of finding the site one day and wanting to contribute by writing a story. I was in need of something to really switch me off from some massive external pressures and it was a savior. I found myself switching off completely from daily pressures and making a few friendships that really saved me.
Who knows what causes us to go into freefall and where the parachutes will come.
So as I became involved I wrote a lot of stories and sorry if some were left hanging because I was so distracted by pressures and then a new idea and the urge to post a new story. I hope to go back to finished those stories that need a conclusion soon and I have another multi-chapter story almost complete that I've held back.
I posted a story for the September competition because I wanted to show support to the site and your efforts.
I'm not a key contributor just a fan of the site. I had a few health issues to overcome along the way but haven't we all? I was lucky.
I read some stories but mainly the Solo ones and I rarely comment because I feel the writer might feel like I felt and doesn't need feedback. Sometimes feedback influences the storyline of course that I found. It encourages cliffhangers and members participation. It's down to how we feel and the mood we are in.
My pressure was definately reduced by writing a story and posting it.
I really appreciate the efforts of those who run the site and who regularly comment or post stories. I hope they get the benefits I received from just putting thoughts down in writing and trying to make a contribution. I look back through some of my stories from time to time and I'm amazed at what I'd written. Did I write that? That's almost a true story.. Was that me as the author?
Keep up the good work. It's a great site. It helps a lot to be able to switch off from daily pressures.
Jules
Comments or not?
I have read the exchange of views with interest. Let me say that I enjoy the writing and the reading of the stories here, but there isn't much feedback except for a few stalwarts who remain supportive throughout.
I don't wish to add to the general discussion, but would like to make one personal point that I think is much more generally applicable than many of us might admit.
I know I am a bit of the way down the autistic spectrum. I have learned how to react to different situations rather than reacting to them empathetically. I was a school teacher for all my adult life and learned how both boys and girls appeared to me to think. I have never needed to change gender, rather I have no strong feelings about gender or anything else for that matter, but I do accept that I have a feminine side.
I do, however, enjoy writing about fictional places or events that I have thought up and equally enjoy populating those worlds with people based on my lifetime's experience.
My perceptions of a multi-ethnic and diversely gendered Society cannot be broadened or revised if readers do not help me to refine my ideas.
So please tell the writers if the characters resonate with you and if they don't, why they don't. Either the characters we write about are realistic or we become just fantasists, verbal cartoonists or even voyeurs in our fantasy worlds.
Columbine
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