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[Mellz Bellz]

Ooh great topic Mare! This is a toughie!

Do you ever let peer pressure effect your writing?

For the most part no... In most stories if I have an end in sight or a certain plot curve I'm probably not going to change it unless I decide to take a different direction. I know that I have wrote things that piss off my readers. Unfortunately, in being a Nick romance writer most readers want happy endings, positive characters, and hot sex LOL. When I fail to deliver, BOY do I hear about it. God forbid my female lead is not this incredibly super confident, tough chick who lives just to please Nick... So in that sense I definitely stick to my guns there. I have dropped a few bombs that I think alienated some readers like not having a happy ending to UMS which a lot of readers of course blamed on my female character for not "being enough for Nick" even though Nick cheated on her. (Ha Nick romance readers can really be pretty screwed up . ) Another example would be having them lose the baby in A Little Taste of Sin. Readers kind of complained how it got pretty depressing near the end, but I felt like it would they needed some sort of karma like "punishment" just so they didn't completely get away scot free from having an affair.

On the other hand sometimes I do feel pressured because I don't want to be thought of as one of those crazy Nick romance fan fic writers. I do strive to have a little respect in the fan fic community as crazy as it might sound. I have a specific fan base and I don't want to alienate them, but I also don't want to find myself changing my style of writing to please them. I think that's something I have done in the past and reading through some of my older stuff it just sounds unnatural and not really "me." I also sometimes listen to some of the more experienced writers on this forum talk about how much they hate the romance genre and I know that I fall victim to a lot of the cliches. Sometimes i feel like maybe I should write a different genre just to earn creditibility. So yea... i think coming from the genre I write in there is perhaps a bit more pressure than certain other genres.

Also, how does your feedback influence what you write if at all? (Changing a genre to fit with the popularity of what people seem to want to read, or lack of feedback = lack of updates)


I usually do not change what will happen in my story just to please readers. I do however vale you their feedback and as someone else stated I have gotten ideas from things  they have suggested or inspiration from their perceptions of characters. I think feedback is really important for a writer and it helps thenm as they write in so many ways.

How thin or thick skinned are you when it comes to what other people say reguarding your writing or even talking about your genre in general? do you feel like you can handle it or does it make you stray from writing?

I think that whenever you put something out into the world for others to appreciate you need to be open to criticism , so you kind of have to have a thick skin. That being said sometimes I can take things very personal about my writing. Constrctive critiscism doesn't bother me so much but when people start to say negative things about my characters that weren't intended to be negative flaws it's hard not to take it personally especially since these are characters i've created.  Comments about which genre a person chooses to write in can also be frustrating and sometimes i have to remindf myself that what i like may not appeal to everyone, but it does appeal to someone. I'll admit though that after a while it got a little draining and that's one of the reasons (outside of being insanely busy) why I took such a long break. Even now getting back into it is really scary to me for some reason! I think in the end I am my own worst enemy when it comes to putting pressure on myself.

[Mellz Bellz]

I never do what the readers want me to do, because the readers will never be satisfied with the outcome. As for the feedback thing...it diacourages me a little when a chapter I am excited about gets none....not gonna lie.

I think that no matter if you get 12 reviews a chapter or 1 review a chapter or 20 reviews a chapter if you always get the same average number of reviews and for some reason one chapter gets a little less than normal it's pretty easy to get yourself psyched out and think OMG did they not like what I wrote? Especially if it's a major chapter that you are proud of. It can be a blow to your confidence even if it was just that people may have been busy and just hadn't read it yet.

[Carter-Orange]

I think that no matter if you get 12 reviews a chapter or 1 review a chapter or 20 reviews a chapter if you always get the same average number of reviews and for some reason one chapter gets a little less than normal it's pretty easy to get yourself psyched out and think OMG did they not like what I wrote? Especially if it's a major chapter that you are proud of. It can be a blow to your confidence even if it was just that people may have been busy and just hadn't read it yet.

Or it could be that the person is reading a few chapters in one go and reviews when they get to the end of the updates.  I know sometimes I might not notice an update and then have a couple of read

[mare]

^ I tend to do that as well, especially if it's an older story and am catching up on it. Sometimes I miss updates altogether depending on how quickly the story manages to disappear from the most recent page.

[Carter-Orange]

Yeah, when it's a busy day on AC I sometimes miss the updates.  I don't always check my emails either, so it might be a couple of days later when I notice my favourites are updated.

If I'm reading an older completed story, I don't usually review every single chapter, but every few chapters.  It doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.

[Rose]

I rely on update emails LOL. They are a godsend when it comes to keeping track of when my faves are updated lol.

[Carter-Orange]

When I checked my emails in work this morning I saw that loads of my faves had been updated.  It was great!  Plus it was dead in work, so I got to catch up on them all

[FrickingKaos]

I get the emails to my blackberry so I read as soon as it is updated....I am usually really quick to review lol. I get exited for updates more than reviews but that's just me.

[mare]

I know Tracy, it's so funny sometimes I'll just be clicking off on AC after letting everyone know on twitter and the forum and already see you have reviewed. LOL I'm always like "How does she do that so fast?"

I never tend to get those update emails unless someone writes a brand new story. Sometimes AC doesn't like me lol

[RokofAges75]

You are always the quickest, Tracy!

Sometimes I read updates right away, and sometimes it takes me a few days, depending on how busy I am.  I leave the update emails in my inbox until I've read, though, so I don't miss anything.

There are a couple of stories I'm intentionally behind on, though, because they update so infrequently that I've found I can't keep track of what's going on because I keep forgetting... so rather than having to go back and refresh my memory each time, I've decided I'm just gonna wait until they're finished and read them all in one shot then.  I wouldn't blame anyone for doing the same thing with some of mine that I've neglected LOL.  It's easy to lose the flow of the story when months or years pass between chapters.

[mare]

Do you ever let peer pressure effect your writing? For instance, if you plan on killing someone off in one of your stories and all your readers keep saying "I hope you don't kill him/her off" do you find yourself sticking to your guns and not straying from your original plan or do you cave and do what your readers want you to do?

Not really anymore. At first I did. I only wrote a sequel to my first story because all of the people reading it insisted that I do. Since I was so brand new to even having readers I was all "Dur...okie dokie then..." lol I have since learned my lesson. I also always know how my stories are going to end so even though I do take what some readers say into consideration, I generally just stick with my game plan. I will admit to a time or two changing some plot twists when people saw them coming beforehand lol

Also, how does your feedback influence what you write if at all? (Changing a genre to fit with the popularity of what people seem to want to read, or lack of feedback = lack of updates)

Feedback doesn't really change anything for me. Going into a story, I kind of can gauge how it will be recieved just by the storyline. I do admit it's disappointing when there is a lack of it from time to time but it doesn't make me not want to write. My ten second attention span is usually the cause of my lack of writing and this stupid NKOTBSB thing going on right now.

How thin or thick skinned are you when it comes to what other people say reguarding your writing or even talking about your genre in general? do you feel like you can handle it or does it make you stray from writing?

Generally I think I have a pretty thick skin although I have to admit my skin wasn't as thick when I was writing Lurks. It had been such a long time since I had written anything, I had so many emotions writing that one and getting dismayed etc... I also have to say I never really have been flamed before, except on one of those anti awards sites. And I would be kidding if I said it didn't hurt. It actually hurt like hell since I was so new to the fanfic world. Because I had won a bunch of awards, people felt the need to rip me apart and assume I was this horrible person and reading some of the things being said and the stupid awards I got nominated for, almost turned me off of writing fanfic in general. That was before I came to realize that there were and still are really douchey BSB fans out there lmao

I'm glad those days are over!

[FrickingKaos]

LOL well now you all know my secret but yeah....I always review. If I didn't its cause I was working.

[Purpura Lipstick]

Do you ever let peer pressure effect your writing?  

 No I don't think I've ever changed a story because people asked me to/not to do something.  In fact I like it if I have people begging me not to do something and I know that's exactly where it's heading.  I want to see their reaction when it's complete.  

Also, how does your feedback influence what you write if at all?  

Feedback does drive me to write more. I know it shouldn't, but when I'm writing sometimes I need someone just to say “that was a great idea” or even the begging not to do something.  It spurs me on sometimes.   I, unfortunately, have written stories that are supposed to be in the popular genres and I wasn't happy writing them.  I felt if I was writing the popular genre then I should have had more reviews and I just wasn't getting them so why not write what I want and not get the same reviews

I did, now that I think about it, stop writing a story and I know I asked if anyone was reading it to let me know because if someone was reading and wanted me to continue I would but I wasn't going to write it anymore because I've been attempting to turn that storyline into an OF.  Because nobody expressed a desire for that story I stopped writing it, it wasn't for lack of reviews it was because of the OF, I love that fanfic. (not sure if that makes sense I'm typing at work and my brain is weirded out by a question I just had)

How thin or thick skinned are you when it comes to what other people say regarding your writing or even talking about your genre in general? do you feel like you can handle it or does it make you stray from writing?  

 I've developed a thicker skin than I used to have.  It has made me stray in the past but I've always come back and damn it I will write what I like.

[Mellz Bellz]

I get the emails to my blackberry so I read as soon as it is updated....I am usually really quick to review lol. I get exited for updates more than reviews but that's just me.

I don't know how I lived before smart phones LOL. Now anywhere I am the minute I see a review I can check it out and I get an e-mail the minute something has been updated. Then I can actually read fan fic right on my phone. I get amazed by the little things lol.

[Carter-Orange]

I've got a Blackberry too, but cancelled the email service to save myself £5 a month.  But I can still use my phone for reading fics, Twitter and Facebook.

I want an iPhone!

Sorry, that is totally off topic, lol