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I write "The only Real Magic," a piece of fluff, and I get over 20 comments and it is quickly read by thousands. I write quality stories such as "Victor and the Witch," "Broken Glass," and "The Death and Life of Maxmillion Kagen" and get practically no reviews and low reading results. Am I missing something?
My intergrity insists that I write each story as quality.
shalimar
Comments
Little Jackie Paper
Fluff the magic dreg -- gives readers glee.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Controversy
Your story contained what some people call "identity death". It's a good story with an element that sets some people's teeth on edge.
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Length
Hi Shelly. I think a lot of it may have to do with length of article. I would imagine that like me, most people save it off and read it later and then fail miserably in getting back to leave a comment, because they aren't on line at the time, and then they just often don't get back to it. This is a big failing of mine. And I imagine others as well. This is not a good excuse, just a possible reason.
The abiguity of the shorter story ...
A short story like The only Real Magic by it's nature leaves out a lot of details that a longer story like Victor and the Witch had the time and space to flesh out.
The very brevity of the shorter story left open far more latitude in it's interpretion because there is less information for the reader to go on. I have heard in coments here and in PM's from some of the authors here that their extreamly short -- page or two -- stories generated far more controversy and comment that far longer stories they put great effort into.
So look at the disparity of comments as due to a short story being more likely to get read than a very long one and that either you hit on a hot topic -- like identity death -- or somehow something was lost in editing or is missing that is confusing the readers.
That or we don't understand pure fanatacy.
Broken Glass I put off reading for several years because I don't always like the SRU stories -- though sometime they are great -- and Kristal Nacht is a scary historical event. My mistake, that is an excelent peice, one of the best SRU I've read. The Death and Life of Maxmillion Kagen is heartwarming but with a fun twist of fate on the end.
Oh well. Who knows what the readers will like?
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
The effect of short stories
Shalimar,
Whenever I check out BC, I more or less follow this procedure:
1) reading new serial chapters for series I'm following
2) checking out the description of other new stories
a) anything that's small size and looks like it might be worth a look I check out first. The advantage of a short story is that I can finish it in a short time and possibly get a feeling about the style of an author I'm not familiar with. I did read "The only Real Magic" that way and while I found it rather creepy I also learned that you have above average talent with words. I didn't bother to join the discussion in the comments regarding identity death because I felt it was another repeat of things said about similar stories
b) anything that's big or a series will take much more of my time and therefor I'm a bit more picky regarding my choices. When I'm already reading one or more major stories, there's not much chance of me adding yet another one. Until yesterday, most of my attention was focussed on Aardies "Warrior" story (which is pretty long).
c) even when I'm not reading anything major, I pick out a few of the most appealing looking stories and explore if they are what I hoped. Sometimes, I'm so disappointed that I simply stop reading after a bit. That could be because the subject doesn't agree with me or because the story telling is of very low quality. That last is seldom the case on BC, but often a reason for me to dump a story on FM.
I did see the announcement for "Victor and the Witch". I read the synopsis. I love stories with a "hero(ine)" main character (call me a romantic if you want) and the idea of following the story of a punished rapist didn't sound very attractive to me. Add to that your warnings regarding strong language and religious issues and I was even more hesitant to give it a try. I currently have the story listed as "try this one out if there's nothing left that looks better".
I know I could do you a great disservice with that evaluation. I didn't read the story. It could be a masterpiece. But the "sales pitch" for the story didn't appeal to me and for longer stories that's what I base my decission on.
I actually much prefer long stories. I consider them the expensive dinner in contrast to the snacks of short stories. I like a tasty snack from time to time, but even the best short story is worth just a smile or tear and is soon forgotten. It's the longer stories that I still remember fondly years after reading them. And like you are likely to be more carefull where you go to eat an expensive dinner while you take a snack without much thought, I'm more carefull about picking my long stories.
Apart from all that I also believe that the first person to make a comment is an important issue. Many people seem to be hesitant to be the first to say something. When you look around in the story comments, there are many entries that are more a response to other comments then to the story itself. In the case of "The only Real Magic", the comments seem to be more about the concept of "identity death" (using your story as an example) then about anything else.
When I look at longer stories, there are usually a few starting comments (how people feel about something that happened in that story, about a character, speculation where things are going if it's not finished..) and most other comments are reactions to those first ones (agreement, disagreement, different viewpoint, ...)
Hugs,
Kimby
Hugs,
Kimby
What Kimby said
I pretty much follow the same procedure as Kimby, evaluating a story by the information given and the length, with the short ones making first claim on my attention.
To emphasize one thing, in addition to the keywords chosen, I place a lot of importance on the synopsis. If a synopsis describes a story that I might find interesting, then it is more likely to be read. Two things I dislike, a "cute" synopsis that doesn't tell anything about a story, and a multi-part story with the same synopsis for all the chapters. If I don't have at least some idea what the story is about, or if the author has so little originality that they can't come up with a decent description of each chapter's events, then it drops to the bottom of my reading list.
As for commenting, I love to be the one of the first to see a new story or chapter, and if I enjoyed it I can't wait to comment. If there are already a dozen or so comments it does take some of the fun out of it; I hate to post a "me too" comment, but I will when it's an excellent story. If it was more so-so, and the comments adequately cover my feelings, I'm less likely to comment.
So, a writer has to sell that story in order to get it read, especially a longer one. Accurate keywords and an informative synopsis will get my attention, what happens after that is up to the writer.
Karen J.
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." Anonymous
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin