I prefer not to equate story value with social value, because I suck at one of those things, but I can see that some people do equate them

An excellent point.

I think the people most fanfic writers are complaining about are those who read something that really touches them, they talk about it all over the place, but they don't drop a line to the writer saying 'I really loved this.'

Which is exactly what I'm guilty of. Bad Lizard.

I save all my feedback, I've got a Yahoo folder just for it that I go into when my ego is fragile. The biggest thing I do is look at all the counters on my website and see how often and how recently someone's read something. And I started all at them at 0, just to see. I tend to giggle a lot when I look at those numbers.

I don't know. I never started writing fic because I wanted someone else to read it. That's, like, a great byproduct. I don't think I could write something simply based on the reply it might get. Then, for me, it loses the magic of the storytelling.

There's a connection between the author writing the story and the audience that will read it; but it's not really been a focus, for me, because I have no clue who'll read it. I mean, I send my fic out to a number of lists, boards, and livejournal. And I get some occasional feedback, often on specific stories in a specific fandom. But the amount of feedback compared with the amount of stories I've written doesn't even compete. And had I been writing just on feedback, I'd've stopped long ago. This isn't to say I don't love feedback, cos I do. I just don't depend on it. It's flighty.

I started out writing for just myself, but soon it wasn't enough of a high. So I showed it to Amy, and for years that was enough. Then, well, the highs weren't so high anymore, so I sneaked it onto a smallish website of a small fandom. That was enough, but, gosh, the highs were crashing faster and faster, and I started writing Buffy stuff. I put it on the board, then the next thing I knew I had my own website.

I don't know, I might need money next to get that high.

Just say no, Connie!

May I just say, I adore the Internet for research? I'm finishing a story for another fandom, and finally it occurs to me to actually check if htere's a U.S. embassy in Monaco. There's not. The consulate (or is it a fullfledged embassy? Must check again) with jurisdiction over Monaco is in Marseilles. Which means I need to revamp a major setting. Better I do this now than when it hits the Net, though.

To be honest, I write for me, but I send out for a potential audience. I have stories I'll never share, or that I'll only share with a couple of people for various reasons. Maybe a handful of happy ending alternatives for my sanity, or just silly things that wouldn't leave my head. They're things I don't want comments on, or want other people to read unless they happen to be close friends.

Everything else, well, it's like I'm shipping my babies off to school for the first day, and I'm worried that no-one will like them, that the other kids will tease them. The whole nine yards.

t bofq Every community has a different take on feedback. I started, like Nutty, in a newsgroup/list environment, and as a result I tend to think that only private email really constitutes feedback. Which is stupid, I know, but there it is. You can rec me to the heavens, but if you don't tell ME what you liked and didn't like about the story, it's not feedback.

(Once or twice I've come across someone who says publicly that they love my writing, that one of my stories is their absolute favorite, or some such business -- which is very nice. Except invariably I don't have any feedback from that person in my saved folders. Which just seems odd to me, as if Buffy spent all her time telling Willow she loved Angel but never informed Angel of her feelings. ::shrugs::)

Yes, this is insane troll logic, I am aware. But I don't like having to trolling for feedback by surfing the boards and FFN and so forth: I like having it arrive in my inbox where I can save it and pull it out on bad days to remind myself I don't actually suck after all.

I send fb when a story touches me, generally. But I'm not consistent. I'm better about feeding people I know (I'm better about reading people I know), and giving them honest criticism of what worked and what didn't. Occasionally I kick my own ass and send a bunch of feedback to strangers/newbies, since I know how hard it is to be new in a fandom, trying to get anyone to acknowledge your existence. But I'm very very demanding, and if I can't finish a story because it has spelling errors, infelicitous syntax, or no story at all (i.e., pure navel-gazing dressed up with over-pretty prose), then I'm highly unlikely to feed the writer. ::shrugs::

t /bofq

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It's called "Lost Luggage," it's Joyce and William, and it made me cry. I always recommend the stuff that makes me cry. 'scuse me while I give feedback.