Fic Talk > General Discussion
Questions to ponder part 11
mare:
I think the reason I take issue with people who say that is because it's usually after they complain about lack of reviews. They end with "Ah well...I just write for myself" which is clearly not true. lol
Out of curiosity, is there anyone who regularly posts on the forum that has a story with zero reviews? which isn't as one shot?
julilly:
I have two novels that only have two reviews, but none with zero.
RokofAges75:
All of my stories have at least 2 reviews, and all of my novels have at least 5. I have posted chapters that got no reviews, but not whole stories, at least not on AC.
I think in the beginning, I did write more for myself because I thought it would be fun, not for anyone else. I was so uncomfortable with the idea of anyone reading my work that it took a lot of guts for me to submit my first story to a website - but I eventually did, obviously, because there was a part of me that wanted to see what kind of reaction it would get. It took a month for me to get any feedback, and I was so thrilled with that one email that it didn't matter if I got any others. Now that I'm a more established writer in the fandom and am used to getting feedback, I do think it would bother me if I consistently posted updates with absolutely no feedback.
I still write because I think it's fun, but part of the fun does come from entertaining people. I don't think I would quit writing a story if I was having fun with it, regardless of how much feedback it got - 00Carter is proof of that - but getting feedback does make it more fun, so I think there is some correlation between the two.
On the other hand, there are stories that I've gotten a good amount of feedback on but haven't enjoyed writing. Guilty Roads is the most recent example to come to mind, but there have been others over the years. In those cases, I'm torn between forcing myself to write out of obligation to my readers and stopping because I'm not having fun with it anymore. I'm like Julilly in that sense. It's a lot easier to finish something you're enjoying writing, regardless of who's reading it.
FrickingKaos:
I partially write for myself but like some of you said, I like to entertain people. I don't have any stories with 0 reviews. If I didn't get a single one, honestly I probably would stop posting all together. It really bothers me when I see people give up on mine cause I don't update all the time. I feel terrible about it and then overthink it. I do plan on finishing. just right now there is no motivation to do it.
RokofAges75:
I'm in what I consider a "no pressure" situation when it comes to writing right now. I haven't posted anything in so long that I know no one is really expecting an update from me, which takes the pressure off and [some of] the guilt away and frees me up to write what I want, when I want. The problem with that is that, without any pressure on me, I end up being lazy and writing a whole lot of nothing LOL. Going back to what Mare said in her post about what she's learned about herself, I have never been one to give myself deadlines, but I do tend to work better under pressure, when I know people are waiting on me. That said, I don't want to make promises I can't keep and start posting stuff, only to get too busy when class starts again and fall behind on writing and updating.
What about the rest of you? Do you write better under pressure or when the pressure's off?
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