Fic Talk > General Discussion
Do you try to read your readers work?
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: starbeamz2 on March 26, 2007, 03:58:13 PM ---That's the worst! Every time I see a story like that, after the first chapter, I refuse to read it again. I think it would be very Good Samaritan of you to fix it for her :P
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That's what I thought... But one of my friends over there called it "abusing my powers"... And I was like, well, is it abuse if I'm doing it for the good of the board communnity? :D
MellzBellz:
I think you have the paitence of a saint Dee... I've tried going through and editing other writers paragraphs. Its just not worth the aggravation sometimes.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: MellzBellz on March 26, 2007, 04:03:22 PM ---I think you have the paitence of a saint Dee... I've tried going through and editing other writers paragraphs. Its just not worth the aggravation sometimes.
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Well, I haven't actually done it. :D
I just go, "Ooh, the fan fic forum is updated! Gah!!! It's one of her 'lord, who knows who is speaking' fan fics'!" And then I ignore it and just mark the whole forum as having been read. :D
RokofAges75:
A lot of my loyal readers end up becoming friends of mine, and if they write too, I usually end up reading their stories out of interest because they are friends of mine or because they, knowing me and liking my work, ask to be hosted on my site. I've discovered a lot of really talented writers that way. Sarah (starbeamz2) is one of them. :)
That said, I don't have much time to read for fun anymore, so except for the stories that I've been following for the last few years, I haven't read much fanfic lately. On AC, I will sometimes check out the profiles and stories of people who leave me reviews, just out of curiosity, but I don't necessarily feel obligated to read their stories. I appreciate the fact that they read mine and review, but as Mare pointed out, I hope that they did that because they genuinely like my work, not because they were just trying to plug theirs.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: MellzBellz on March 26, 2007, 03:26:04 PM ---Thanks for all your opinions! Yea I wouldn't want reviews because someone feels obligated. I hope they'd enjoy my story anyway if they are reading it. I agree with Kelly though about it being sad that a lot of us are "bored" with fan fiction. How do we write it if we're bored by reading it? If so many of us are bored then that must mean less people are reading in general. Could it be because ts just a dead period with the guys right now?
I know the tendency of many fics is for the SAME things to happen and certain plotlines seem to go in cycles. (Is it just me or am I seeing a lot of rape victim stories lately?) That does get boring after a while, but I personally try not to rule out one particular genre or plotline right off the bat. I at least attempt to start it because there have been cases where I've read a story in a genre I'd normally glance over such as sci-fi or fantasy and have actually enjoyed it. Plus, then I feel like I'm ignoring talented authors who don't get read as much because of their genre. If I get bored or can't follow the plot then I give up, but I like to try not to juge a book by its cover or the number of reviews it has. I know some GREAT stories who have hardly any reviews and some not so great ones that have a couple hundred.
I also try to take into account (especially in longer fics) that the beginning may have been written awhile ago and the author has improved quite a bit over the course of the story. I can think of a few stories that in the beginning I really had to force myself through thinking it was a "teeny" fic but in the end the pay off was amazing.
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I totally agree with everything you said here. I unfortunately don't read as much as I used to, but I still like to read; I don't think I'm "bored" with it. I have several reasons for not doing it as much as I used to. One is time, and, related to that, if I'm reading, it means I'm not writing, and I love writing and don't have enough free time to do it as it is, so if I have the choice and am inspired, I'll usually try writing on my own story instead of looking for another story to read. Another reason is that anymore, I do find it hard to find a story that really sucks me in... part of it is me, being too picky and having too short of an attention span, and part of it might be a lack of stories with that nice balance between originality and total "out there"ness. I get tired of seeing the same old stuff all the time too... and yeah, the rape fics have always been a big one. That storyline's never really appealed to me though, except in one case, but of course, that story was never finished. Blah.
On the other hand, I try not to rule a story out just because of its genre or storyline either. Cause I've read fantastic stories of all genres and with all those cliched plots. Opening act romance... one of my favorite trilogies starts out as one of those. Bus crash fic... Whitney Richter's "Where Can We Go From Here" is one of my all-time favorites. Cancer fic... 2 words: Swollen Issues. Kidnapping/Stalker story: I've read quite a few awesome ones with this sort of plot. I think a lot of these storylines become so overused because they're GOOD! With the right author, that is. A truly good writer can take an overused storyline and pump some new life into it and come out with a really amazing story.
And I know personally, my story Broken is a perfect example of what you said last, about the beginning being crappy, but the story improving as it goes on cause the writer got better. ;) Not saying that the ending is amazing, but it's certainly better than the beginning, I think LOL.
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