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blahblahblah feedbackcakes
There's one thing I don't think I've seen mentioned each time the feedback discussion surfaces. (And didn't we just have it within the last six months? I thought the cycle was supposed to be annual.)
As well as all the "feedback is payment for writing" or "feedback is a thank-you for writing" or "feedback is a precious and undeserved gift", for an author, feedback is kind of like market research. It's like being a retailer and looking at your sales figures to see what's moved the best.
I don't imagine that most of us cold-bloodedly look at our stories and tabulate the feedback and then make our to-be-written lists based on that. But still, if you have more things on your to-be-written list than you can ever write and all other things are equal, you're more likely to consider the type of story you think will get a good response. After all, why share a story that most people don't want to read?
If you spend three months writing a story and it gets X feedback and you spend an hour writing a drabble and it gets X feedback or even X/2 feedback, you might think twice about spending three months on your next story. Substitute pairings or fandoms or subject matter for length there and it still holds.
So, when you send feedback, you're not just saying "I liked that story", you're saying "write more stories like that one".
That is my theory, it is mine, and belongs to me and I own it, and what it is too.
no subject
Not for me. Of course, all of my stories are so similar it probably doesn't matter and I'm responding to that feedback impetus unconsciously, but I write the stories *I* want to read. Granted, being an OTP type shipper, I tend to write in the same pairings over and over again, but I cannot recall consciously thinking, "Hmm... that got a lot of feedback, I should write another just like it."
I remember thinking, "Man, why doesn't *this* get as much feedback as *that*?" but that's after the fact.
Having puttered along on 2-3 feedback emails a story for almost two years, I can honestly say that while I adore and crave feedback, it's never been the driving force behind my writing.
no subject
I do think that it's more of an unconscious than conscious thing -- an influence, whether we think about it or not.
What if your OTP wasn't a popular one? Say what you most wanted to write was Trelawny/Hooch, and there was very little fandom support for it. Do you think you'd still write as many stories about them?
Not trying to badger you, just curious what you think.
no subject
Hee!
You're asking the wrong person, as I feel my HP OTP *is* an unpopular, unsung one. *snicker*
Or, rather, the fic it inspires has a bad reputation within the fandom, even though half of HP online fandom agrees that Remus/Sirius is likely canon.
I tend to cast myself as an underdog/oppressed party no matter what I write, so I don't really think it'd be any different.
I went for almost two years in XMM fandom getting 1-3 feedback emails on everything - the Logan/Rogue (the pairing that ate XMM pre-X2), the gen, the bits of Logan/Scott slash I wrote - so even though my pairing was popular, my stories weren't, necessarily. But the fic produced in the pairing was mostly godawful and I wasn't being fed the stories I wanted to read, so I wrote them myself.
I managed with very little fandom support for quite a while, and only gave up when I didn't have any new stories to tell.
So, I think I *would* continute to write, regardless. I mean, obviously, 3 responses is more than none, and if there had been dead silence I might have stopped, but it doesn't take much to keep me going.