Praise in Public Criticize in Private, words to live by when talking to other authors.
A story is much like someones baby, if you have put a person on the defensive they are no longer listening.
Kudos are a no brainier. If I have read a complete story I click it, Erotica turns me off if a story offends me I don' finish reading it or click kudos,.I also tend to avoid forced fem or humiliation. I put myself in the place of the character and tend to experience what they do. I don't lik emotional pain.
Comments are different because I love them, so I always try to leave a comment. Usually it is my first impression due to my short term memory loss names of characters will be a problem, so some of my comments come out rather inane, sorry about that. But it is part of my ethic to leave one.
Occasionally I forget. Very real brain damage does make me chaise squirrels more, and the WWW is nothing but distractions.
Question my blogs tend to be autobiographical I have been tempted to write a story all about me, bad idea? Go through my blogs you get my transition, complete with pictures.
Comments
Well Stated
Thanks for your astute comments.
When a person enters Big Closet they have assumed certain responsibilities. Some of which they will ignore either out of choice or necessity:
1.) Be an appreciative reader. Even if you don't leave a kudos or a comment you will send your positive thoughts out there into the universe.
2.) Give the story a kudos. They are appreciated more than you might expect.
3.) Leave a positive comment. If you have a criticism, please send it by PM, if you feel you must. Remember . . . these are amateur, unpaid authors.
4.) Make a donation toward the cost of running the site.
5.) Write a story and post it here.
6.) Volunteer in some capacity to help sustain the site.
Big Closet is a communal activity because it has to be to remain viable.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I would add re-reads or just discovered an old story to that
I might add a seventh suggestion to that list.
I love comments or a PM or Kudos on an older story too that I have written. It really means something too. In fact, sometimes even more than comments on a currently published story.
So, if I could add something to that list, it would be to say -- On an older story that you found because you went searching, heard about a story, or clicked on a story because you were reading the current release of a new to you author, or maybe just re-reading a story you enjoy of theirs, let them know it mattered. It could just inspire them to write again.
Exactly Jill
Even if you don't like the story that much, and don't finish it, give a kudo. The unpaid, amateur author spent several hours writing it.
Karen
I'm Slowwwww
I spend about eighty to one hundred hours on my average story. That includes research and very slow typing. My average story is about 20K words. I can't even imagine how many hours are spent writing some of the sagas on BC.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Re: I'm Slowwwww
My average writing speed, that I've noticed while writing various pieces, is about 500 words per hour, or about eight words a minute.
Most of my chapters are between fifteen hundred and thirty-five hundred words in length. Going by that presumed base rate of 500 words per hour, they would take me between 2.5 and 6 hours to write, then post. There is some variance, though, I had one story/piece moving like a freight train on speed; from starting to write it to editing, then posting it, was done within ninety minutes total.
My longest chapter/single piece is 24,250 words in length and took me over 38 hours to finish and post.
I'm likely not the slowest typer here, although I may not be far from that point, but stories progress at their own speed.
Typing fast or slow isn't the mark of a well written story or chapter, it's that you're happy with it when you post it for others to read.
I'm fast but
I can type at 40 to 60 words a minute in 30 minute bursts over an eight hour day for an output of about 6000 words. BUT, I rewrite.
I rewrite a lot. A 2000 word section after two hours of rewriting ends up at 3000 words. Then I split that in two and spend two hours on each half ending up with two 2000 word sections. Then comes proofreading....
It takes awhile, even with someone who can type reasonably fast. It ends up with an investment of two to six hours per 1000 words.
And I am fast. This, BTW, doesn't count THINKING time which can actually be as much as half of the time spent in work you can see.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Thinking time
I came close to doing a ROTFLMAO moment when I saw you post the thinking time bit.
Then I took a few seconds to think about it, and realized that I sometimes do that while writing myself. When it happens, it can easily add anywhere from a third of the time spent to half or even more of total time invested in the piece.
time taken
For me varies considerably - some writing just flows from the fingers in which case a 2k Gaby chapter might be under 4 hours or it could be 6. My typing technique is essentially 2 finger yep, I can't type but whilst sometimes it's annoying, at others it let's me think about what i'm typing more as I go along.
I don't always have a clear idea of where a conversation or even the actual plot is going before I write it - again the thinking time adds up somewhat.
And then there's research. Often I write from knowledge garnered from personal experience / travel etc. Other times I can end up spending hours checking out maps, looking up information about places, checking spelling's etc.
So the new Nena story was based on an actual trip I took last year - research was effectively taking an eight day trip. The latest Gaby trip in book 22 involved a huge amount of route planning and checking out information to make things as realistic as possible.
I happily spend this time on my writing - every trip, journey, experience could easily end up in my writing.
And of course there are days when I can write for 12 hours straight, others where the PC gets turned on and I can't write a word!
Apart from out and out abuse / misrepresentation I consider any feedback to be positive - someone has read my scribbles and good or bad been moved to comment on it. Of course I prefer positive remarks but dissention from the party line doesn't make the comment any less valid.
My stories each have their own audiences, some people might not like that, not enough of this or that, too much of the other, not the way they thought the plot should go.
Writing fiction is a 2 way thing, yes readers should respect the writers but it runs the other way too.
Mads
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Yup yup
Good things to remember.
Hugs
Jenna
Also you have to remember some of your readers are
very damaged,I suspect I will be fighting depression until the day that I die If a story is painful enough I will not finish it nor leave a kudo. I literally transitioned as an alternative to suicide which because of my kids and history is not an option for me, I really did not want to be trans. I have accepted me now but it was traumatic doing so.