. Again, thank you all for the support and I hope to continueBlog entry #19-Chances · 1:54am Aug 6th, 2017
So after my latest review from one of the groups, I'm starting to notice something and it's not a good thing... For the last 15(Discounting deleted stories) stories, I seem to be getting worse in terms of relevence/noticeably. Typically, I have 3 editors (witch is why it takes me ages to publish something) but despite said editors(though no fault of their own), it seems they barely stand out whatsoever. The real kicker here my most liked story has 68-5 ratio and (from what people have told me) was written well and that was before I had editors. It seems even with the best I can get, I seem to be doing worse despite the fact I pour my heart and soul into them. My most recent story(witch took me four months to write and an additional month to edit and these are with characters that don't get used often if at all, making it far more unique in hindsight) but from what I've seen off that, it's barely gotten notice. To be blunt, it seems like I wasted 4(5) months on something I thought was unique. I'm afraid to imagine what my Siren story will do if(or when) I publish it and at this time, it's at 50K... With that being said, I have decided to place a bet/promise to myself-I'll give myself until my 20th(may 21 depending on if they're published before my B-day) story to either A)Get featured or B)Have some good results that matter. If neither one of those happen before my 20th(21)story, I will drop writing altogether. I apologize to my friends/followers for this but I see little reason to continue something that has no real meaning in the grand scheme of things...
Hey. 68 to 5 says that roughly 70 people had enough care to leave a thought with the thumb system. (I'm lucky if a story gets three votes, good or bad.) But the cute art seems to be one way to attract readers.
And while I most likely won't know what a story is about feel free to message me so I can look at the description and make sure everything looks neat. A second pair of eyes if you will.
4625142 A)The latter is a bit obvious but I feel it's mostly due to the fact is FlutterDash and they're the most liked on the mane 6. B) That was about a year ago. I haven't gotten anywhere near that amount since. C)I'll inform you when I'm about to publish a story
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I'm a personal fan of Twidash, but that is mostly due to stories that I have read. My other big one is Octascratch (no idea what the proper name is for Octavia and Vinyl is). This one came about from the show and the fandom. Naturally that includes Lyra and Bon Bon.
And don't stress too much about the first week or so. (More talk about me.) For me the first week or two are the weakest times. If I get twenty views then I consider that good, because I generally won't pass it very quickly. But there are times through the months when many of my stories get a small spike of views (possibly even votes). Heck the first time a story of mine actually made a total of ten votes was about five months after I published it (I think it was five... might have been more). What I am saying though, is that you have to give people time to discover your stories.
Don't quit writing just because people don't bother to like/dislike, or forget to do so. Keep in mind there are, what, 90k stories on this site? It will take a little while for people to find you, and that won't happen if you stop writing.
However, should you decide that you want to stop, it will be sad to see you, well, you know, stop.
4625261 A)Perhaps I should rephrase that. I don't plan on leaving if that's what worries you... I just plan on dropping writing. B)I wouldn't be so dishearten... if it weren't for the fact someone I know(who has 50 followers) had one of their stories featured and it was published 2 months ahead of mine and had one less like then my mother's Day story... that's what worries me.
First of all, I’d like to mention that I’ve been looking forward to that Siren story, so I really do hope you publish it. Multi-chapter stories tend to get more time on the front page and can get featured much more reliably, I’ve found, so if you’re regularly updating it I think you’ll get a good number of views even if they don’t all come right away.
I’m sorry to hear that you’re disheartened. If you’re passionate about writing, I think it’d be a shame if you stopped, because whether you have thousands and thousands of views or not, you’ve still created things that never would have existed if you hadn’t made them, and if people enjoyed reading them then you’ve enriched their lives in ways that nobody else has or will. I think there’s something beautiful about that, so if you want results that matter I think you’ve already done that. If you earnestly don’t think there’s any meaning in your writing, don’t feel like you need to, but if you still enjoy it I would implore you to keep going. It’s never too late to improve.
4626113 A)The Siren story WILL be published for a fact. That I can promise you. I don't know when it will be published but I promise you it will. The only issue lies with the 2ND&3ed arc(the former being song/game related along with it being the most difficult and the latter being the down fall but easier). That and my editor left due to life problems so... Me and my Co-writer are stuck as of right now. The first arc is neatly complete. Just needs a massive edit/look over. I will admit I'm surprised you remember that although I don't recall telling you the details. Of course, I may have just forgot. B)I'll keep what you said in mind.
I'll play Devil's advocate for you, and while you might not like what I have to say, I think you need to hear it.
The blunt review given to you by BatwingCandlewaxxe was probably harsher than it needed to be, though that doesn't mean he didn't have a point. I'll give you some reasoning as to why you're not doing as well as you could be.
1. You write the same genre repeatedly, offering little diversity with your content. It's all sad, dark, EqG with cohesive but simple plots. It's written well enough, but it's not impactful enough to garner a lot of attention.
2. Your characterization of certain people is robotic, almost to the point of being uncanny. Paragraphs are long and the flow of the story is often disruptive.
3. You ask for a lot of criticism, but you don't seem to do anything with it. You neither experiment nor branch out of your comfort zone to try your hand at something new.
You need to understand that you have to be willing to also surround yourself next to people who are as good of a writer as you are, if not better. You won't get better if you don't have it in your head that you'll be the best.
4627167 ... Interesting. Didn't think you use that meaning but it's nice. *Clearing throat* I'll go over your three points one by one as to make it easier to follow.
OK, I legitimately can't deny that(Minus the dark part since I aim more for sad then dark. It just happens that they coincide). As for why, it's mainly to keep it relate able(more or less).
A citation would help on that. I don't doubt your comment but an elaboration would help as to make sure I have an understanding.
Hmm... not sure how to response to that. Example(the latter)? Also, I have started to get something new. Just need to have it edited/complete.
Um... I'm sorry but that's debatable at best(the former) since I do look around for great writers(You, King Of Madness, The abyss, eta). I try to find good editors but not always successful.
4627194
No change in dialect makes her sound almost posh, like Rarity.
Paragraphs are too long, you lose the attention of your readers quickly.
4627203 Really?
4627254
Yes, really. It doesn't matter how well it's written, your reader's attention is finite. They'll only read so much before they start skimming, and you don't want that.
4627256 ... I see. Sorry to hear that.
4627258
Don't be sorry, it's advice. You asked why you weren't getting as much attention as you should be, and I gave you an honest answer.
Take from it what you will, but you have the ability to be a stronger author if you really make an effort to improve.
4627262 I know it is... I was apologizing for not noticing this sooner despite having 3 editors... Well, my to be released stories might have a better outcome...
4627267
How long is it? I'd hate to be mean, but they just might not be thorough enough. I can look over it if you really need the help that badly.
4627275 Well, 3 of them are 20K words long, the shortest one so far is 7K and the longest one(The Siren story) being 50K.
4627284
If you want, I will look at the 7k one for you. Though I can't promise you that I'll work fast, considering I have an agenda of my own that I'm focused on as well.
4627289 Understandable. I'll invite you in a second.
I'm probably going to regret saying anything but...
Quite a few of the points you've mentioned can be countered, or have some flawed thinking behind them, and I have addressed each in turn for clarity.
1. It sounds like you're writing for what I'd consider to be the wrong reasons, or mixing up your reasons in a way that may not be entirely compatible. Who art is being made for is a topic discussed a lot over the history of man, but I think it really boils down to this: You can make art (writing, poetry, music, paintings, drawings, whatever) for yourself, or you can do it for others. Neither of those things are massively difficult, but combining the two is a lot harder.
So if you're writing for yourself, then you write the story you want to write, and as long as that's what you create, then it doesn't matter if no one else even reads it. Because either way, it's still the story you wanted to create.
When you write for others, though, it's their approval that matters, not your own. If no one likes it, it's a failure, but it doesn't make a difference if you personally like it or not. So for the story to be a success, you have to write what others want to read. That means using the characters they want to see, doing things they want to see them doing, with the ending they most want to be true. So go to the search page and enter a story tag, and see what comes up as the most-liked result. I suspect you'll find that the biggest audiences are for the comedy and romance tags, with smaller ones for sad, dark, mystery etc. Then do the same with characters, or see if you can find on Google some statistics on the brony fandom. There was a big survey a few months ago, for example, which pointed out that the most popular non-mane-six character was Princess Luna (who was even more popular than Rarity). Something else it mentioned was that the Equestria Girls side of the franchise still only has a fraction of the fanbase of the Equestrian-based one.
So a basic starting point for an example story could be... What characters do the fandom love? Sunset Shimmer! Princess Luna! What kind of stories do they most like? Shipping! What kind of mood/tone? Light and fluffy!
So if you want the best chance of your story appealing to lots of people, write a happy shipping story about Sunset and Luna, and add it to the relevant character groups. It'd probably do quite a bit better than, say, stories about Sky Stinger and Vapour Trail.
...However. That's probably not a story you want to write. It's not one I'd want to write either. Because you've mentioned you like writing sad stories, and that's ok. I think you should write the stories you want to write, and be happy with them because they're the stories you want to write, regardless of their reception. That's what I do, and that's what I'd encourage you to do. I of course appreciate it's frustrating when you work hard creating something and it goes mostly unnoticed, but that doesn't make the story a failure in my eyes, or mean you should change it or write something different next time to appeal to more people.
I've written some stories that have gone down very badly, and I wouldn't change a thing about them. I've written some that have gone down much better, and I wouldn't change much about them either. Because in both cases, I wrote the stories I wanted to write. And if others want to read them, that's great. And if they don't, that's ok too. Being popular really doesn't matter, because I feel the same about my work either way.
I think that's the key to happiness as a creative artist of any kind. Make art for yourself, with you being happy with it as the end goal. Anyone else liking it too is just a bonus. I honestly think you'll be a lot happier if you take that approach.
2. The feature box isn't everything. It's only one measure of what the ten most popular stories on the site are at any one point. So that means they're stories that appeal to a lot of people, or appeal very, very strongly to a smaller niche of people. You're far more likely to see a story about changelings in the feature box, for example, than you are about sirens, because the changeling fans on the site massively outnumber the siren fans, and so their collective votes carry a lot more weight.
It's like getting a song to number one in the music charts - it's amazing, sure, but it's only really an option for certain genres, with songs that tick particular boxes. No eight-minute Prog Rock monster with multiple guitar solos is ever going to make it to number one, but that doesn't mean it's not worth doing. You can be in a Metal band for forty years, for example, and only get to number one once, but you can still sell 90 million albums.
You mentioned being jealous of your friend getting featured with only fifty followers - for all you know he's very jealous of your 125 followers, and might much rather have that than a brief stint in the feature box. There are many standards on this site by which we can judge a story's/user's level of success, and the feature box is only one of them. Follower count is another one. As is number of comments, number of bookshelves, number of 'User's Library' groups your story gets added to etc. What about when you're recognised by an author you admire? The first comment I ever received was from my favourite author saying he liked my story, and that meant more to me than every upvote the story's ever received. Likewise, the heartfelt comments where readers go into great detail about why they liked certain bits, in a way that shows they really understood and appreciated the story; they mean more to me than it being featured would be.
For what it's worth, the best author I know on this site has fewer followers than either of you.
Also, being featured doesn't last long. And you know that your story will never be as popular again as it was during that short period. That's why you often see 'Story featured on XX-XX-2017!' on the bottom of story descriptions, as authors try to maintain the excitement of the time when that story was super-popular. The other reason is that being featured can be seen as some official stamp of approval, and so those authors want future readers to know that their story met that standard, and might be more worth reading than one that didn't. Again, it isn't necessarily a sign of quality - the feature box just means that a lot of people read and liked your story in a short time. I have seen many stories in the feature box which didn't appeal to me, and even when just evaluating the writing skill as objectively as I can, there have been some which are not at all well-written. Whereas of the five favourite stories from other authors listed on my main page, at least one hasn't ever been featured, but to me it's much better than anything in the feature box right now, and objectively there's nothing technically wrong with how it was written.
Those two points both turned out much longer than I was planning. I'll try to be a bit more concise on the rest.
3. A good editor does not a good story make. A good editor can certainly make a story better, but they can't turn a bad one into a good one. So having three editors won't necessarily make your story stand out more. Think of the story as a lump of rock, and an editor as the person chipping away at the rock to reveal the beautiful dinosaur fossil concealed inside. Without the editor, the story would look like a rock just like any other, sure. But without the author, there'd be no fossil to dig down to, and an editor could hack the whole way through the rock and find nothing of value within.
If good editors were truly the main requirement for a good story, every publishing house would hire the best editors around and have them working 24/7 editing every mediocre author out there and churning out masterpieces. I'm not calling you mediocre, by the way, this is just an example.
So I think it's great that you're working with an editor, and if three do a better job than one, fantastic. But a story being good has to come from the author in the first place, an editor can ultimately only refine it. That's not to comment either way on how good your stories are, just to point out that the onus is on you to make them good, not your editors.
4. Pouring your heart and soul into them won't necessarily make them good, either, or popular. This site has some strict rules about discussing other users, and it's the sort of stuff I only really know about my own work, so I'll use my own stories as examples here. That's not a suggestion that you or anyone else reading this should read them; just that these are the specific examples if that helps.
The story I put the least effort into and cared about the least is the one that did best (with one exception). I wrote it in one night, having thought of it that day, and even at the time it was something fun to do, rather than something I cared passionately about. The only other time I've written something pretty spontaneously like that, it went down worse than anything else I've written. The story I think is probably my best is the one with the most downvotes. And the thing I wrote immediately afterwards just to dispel the tunnel vision of doing nothing but writing Rainbow Dash for two weeks did a lot better.
The point is this - it doesn't matter to the audience what you as an author went through to get the story onto the page. All that matters to them is the words there, as they're presented. And you attaching huge significance to a story as an author does not mean that the readers will, too. Pouring your heart and soul into something isn't any guarantee of quality. And if you let your sincerity and strength of feeling blind you to being able to treat the story neutrally and judge what's in its best interest objectively, it'll suffer for it.
5. Tied into the above, what a story really needs is focus, and honest evaluation. If you want to write better stories, learn to be a better author. I'm sure you recognise the familiar tune of 'I'm sorry, I'll try harder next time and do better' - that isn't the answer. No one's doubting your sincerity. But you're expecting that to be the solution, which it isn't. Case and point in that sentence, by the way, with the word 'which.'
'Which' is the spelling we use when talking about choosing between different things ("I don't know which hat to wear"), 'witch' is the spelling we use for a scary old lady on a broomstick ("I know, I'll wear my witch's hat"). You've made that mistake twice in one paragraph of blog entry. How many times in comments have you used the word 'option' instead of 'opinion'?
You're welcome to argue that spelling, punctuation and grammar don't create a good story, and that some authors with appalling linguistic skills have nevertheless written some excellent stories (usually edited by others). But these aren't mistakes someone should still be making when they have 15 published stories to their name on this site, not if they've put much effort into improving their craft. I would guess that if you'd ever written 'witch' in place of 'which' in a story that an editor would pick up on it, and would hopefully report the mistake back to you so that you could learn from it.
That's the goal, by the way: to learn from it. To do that, you need to be trying to foster an environment in which people feel happy to point out any mistakes, so that you can improve. And that's not as simple as saying 'Your thought/criticism is greatly appreciated' - you need to act in a way that will encourage others to speak up about stuff like that. That means not trying to shoot them down when they do. Perhaps try this: when someone offers a criticism, assume they're correct. Don't try to argue, don't try to explain why you made those choices, just assume that they're right. And instead, ask what you can learn from it. How could the story be made better, or you become better as an author, if their criticism was taken on board? In the case of spelling mistakes, that's an easy fix. If it's much deeper than that, 'Your characters all sound the same,' for example, then it might be too late for the story it's mentioned on, but useful to bear in mind for the future, and watch out for next time.
That's not a good idea to stick to permanently, because some criticisms may well be unhelpful, or even damaging to take on board. But I'd suggest trying it for a while, because you're likely to learn a lot more and become a much better writer through listening to criticism than from arguing back against it.
That covers passive-aggressive arguing too, by the way. That means the letter thing of A) point one, B) point two and C) point three. You might think it makes things more clear, but it comes across as very confrontational, and gives a very bad impression. If you assume that most criticisms are made to try to help you get better, then that kind of defensiveness really isn't necessary. And if you respond like that, commenters or reviewers are very unlikely to want to help you again.
Something like spelling is a tiny, easily-rectified problem. And we all know what you mean, even if you spell something wrongly. But it's also an indicator of how dedicated you are to improving, and therefore whether it's worth commenters taking the time to point out things you could get better at, often much more serious things than spelling. Asking for feedback is the easy bit; welcoming and learning from it is much harder and much more important.
And that extends to editors and proofreaders: you have to listen to what they have to say, and take note of what they've suggested changing, because they're not being paid anything and are only there to do you a favour. If you ignore them, or let them correct the same mistake time after time without you learning to do it yourself, then they won't be as keen on working with you in the future. That's not to say you have to make every alteration they suggest, or implying that you haven't been already; I just thought it worth pointing out that defensiveness there won't do you any favours either.
6. Writing little-used characters, or unusual combinations of characters, will definitely make your story closer to being unique, as you say. But there's also probably a reason those characters are less used. Usually that they're less liked. So what you gain in uniqueness, you lose in popularity. It's your decision, of course, whichever you'd prefer to have, but don't think that going for unusual characters will only boost the appeal of a story, because it may well reduce the potential audience, too.
Would I have written all this just to insult you, or to be mean? It's all intended to help you improve, because something to me sounds wrong with stopping writing because your stories aren't getting enough attention.
4635676 Um... I didn't write this to not be counter. If I wanted to do that, I'd be far more specific. As for shipping, I just published a Vapor/sky story and it has so far little notice so... also, it's easy to use overused characters. It's hard and far more rewarding to use underused characters. It's like how easy it is to write clop. People kill for that where it's (in my option) far to easy and sleazy to do. As for editors/proofreaders, I don't know if it's a fair thing for you to say that. If only because you don't know them/me well enough to give that statement. To prove a point, you can talk to them and I can promise you that I listen and even ask for advice. I do write for fame in a sense but also to branch out to people and connect to them. Of course, that's my 2 cent.
4635676 Also, no disrespect but how did you come across this? I don't recall you on my follow list. Or maybe you followed me and I just forgot
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4635725 OK, you lost me. In what way have I/did I represent myself as A)Passive aggressive and B)Not be thankful for reviews(example here, here and here)? I'm aware that I'm flawed but then again, who isn't. Also, I noticed you completely ignored my comment regarding the overused and underused bit along with how you came across me. No disrespect. I was just wondering on the latter.
4635725 OK, better question-Have you read any of my stories/comments that would make this whole bit make more sense
? If so, please elaborate. If not, then it seems like your jumping the gun to early.
4635725 Or, if you wish to not answer the previous two, then please anger this- What do you want from me? And by that, I mean what is that that I'm lack?
4635735 Every. Single. Sentence.
Reread that first reply of yours. Literally every sentence you wrote was defensive. I don't doubt you feel attacked right now, but you need to push through that part of criticism if you're to learn and improve.
What do you gain from arguing back about specific points? What do I gain from it? How will either of us benefit?
Just reread the quoted section in my second message again.
4635773 In this/that instance sure but you messaged me and I just pointed out a few things. I kinda have to be "defensive" in this case since you didn't provide any proof previously. also,
You missed my previous comment since I stated before that I do ask said questions/help(see previous link for proof). If I didn't, then why are 40% of the comments section related to replying back, thanking/apologizing to them? Before you continue, please look at links as they will provide evidence.
4635784 What would I gain from trying to prove it? Why would that be in my interest? Even if I could 'prove' you were the worst author on the site, that wouldn't be of any use to me, since I'm trying to help you, not attack.
So, rather than requiring me to prove anything, your response should be to think over and reread all the things you've said to people in comments on your stories (and others'), not just the examples that back up your point but every example, and seeing whether or not I'm right, even occasionally. Then you're in a position to do something about it.
It's not someone else's job to push you into improving. You're the one who stands to benefit from it, so you're the one who ought to put the work in.
4635801
Um... I'm sure your not being serious with the latter but at no point did I say you were trying to attack me. I was merely saying that your saying these things(without providing any proof witch doesn't help matters)but I'm trying to prove that I'm doing everything in my power to get better, improve, eta... that's all I was trying to do. It may have been poor wording on my part but please consider what I am saying(in and out of context)as well.
Never said it was... like I tell everyone, I pour my heart into everything and make sure my stories are the best they can be. However, even someone as optimistic as me has limits if you don't have people showing/telling you how good/bad your doing. Please consider what I've been saying as none of it is intended to be hostile nor going against you.
4635816 As in proving about being the worst author on the site? No, I wasn't suggesting you were, my point was that even if I proved you were wrong in everything ever, it wouldn't achieve anything, and it's not what I'm trying to do.
Important question: Do you want to be doing everything in your power to get better? Because if that is what you're doing, and you don't think it's working, then you're kind of stuck. Or, do you want to find ways that you're not doing already to improve, ones which might work better than those you're doing at the moment?
Ok, looking just at the Blunt Reviews group, is this enough 'proof' to start with? Here, here, here and here. I'm really not interested in arguing about the specifics there, but is there enough there for you to see what I mean?
For contrast, here are a handful I've received. Please take note of how I've responded to them. The most important thing at all times is that you don't want to come across as thinking of the reviewer as the enemy. They're doing you a favour, and the last thing you want to do is risk coming across as ungrateful.
Review (third one down), response.
Comment (second paragraph is the important bit), response. Notice here how the commenter suggested something to be a problem, but didn't give a specific example, so I thought about what he could mean, looked through the text and found something that looked to fit with what he'd said, and asked if that was what he meant. I provided the example from the text myself, rather than demanding the commenter do so, because I'm the one who stands to benefit most from the knowledge. He didn't have to reply at all, so it was in my interest to make things easier for him.
Comment, response. Like here, where the initial commenter didn't respond after I asked. But still, look at how I phrased it, suggesting some examples of what might be wrong before asking for specifics. And when I did, I worded it in the manner of the commenter sharing their knowledge, which is complimentary to them and rather polite. And I then offered the disclaimer of sorts that it would probably be too late to change now, but would still be useful to know next time. This was an advanced warning so that if the commenter came back and listed several specific problems, they wouldn't feel like they'd wasted their time if I then said it was too late to change it; I gave them that knowledge in advance and left it up to them whether or not it was worth their while going through with it.
This is exactly my point. If you don't take criticism on board, you won't learn and improve. This means going out of your way to try to understand what people mean when they offer criticism. The harder you make it for them to help you, the less likely they are to try.
My suggestion for comments and reviews in future is to try answering them in-character as Fluttershy. Quite seriously. Do everything you possibly can to make sure there's no way that even a single part of a sentence could in any way come across as rude, demanding, defensive etc. Pony faces are useful for that, too
If you read every reply back before posting it, and make sure every part of it sounds like something you could imagine Fluttershy saying, then hopefully you're good to go with hitting the Post Comment button.
...I'm going to take a stab at answering your final sentence honestly, but I don't think you're going to like it
I find this hard to believe. I would disbelieve it entirely, but I have noticed you often put disclaimers on things sometimes, saying you don't mean to be construed as rude or improper, so it's possible I'd be wrong. With that in mind, I see two possibilities:
The first is that when you say something like "none of it is intended to be hostile nor going against you," you don't really mean that on a deep level. You may think you do, because it's a nice thing to think about yourself, but that doesn't mean it's true. For an example of what I mean (not based on you, just a general example), it's easy to snap, "I'm not angry! I'm behaving perfectly calmly, thank you very much!" when anyone else can see you're clearly furious, but you may not acknowledge or possibly even consciously realise it at the time. The defensiveness or passive aggression you often display (which even your main page bio acknowledges, "I'll admit, I come off as passive-aggressive(I don't mean to BTW)") I think is unlikely to come from anything but anger, it just may be too deep down for you to admit/realise that that's what's responsible. If this is true, there's plenty you can do to work on it, but you have to acknowledge it first. The first step to solving any problem is admitting that there is one.
The second possibility, which I think unlikely but not impossible, is that you really aren't acting out of defensiveness, and you just come across that way by accident. This would be really bad. Yes, morally it might seem better to be misunderstood than in denial, but that means you've profoundly misjudged an enormous number of social interactions. Put it this way: If you're not acting passive-aggressively, you're doing a very, very good impression that you are, and it's quite scary to think that that could be happening without your knowledge or subconscious intention. It's also incredibly bad news for you as a writer, as your whole purpose in that role is to convey how characters are feeling, and if you can't control how you yourself come across, you're doubly stuck conveying others doing it. Of all people, writers shouldn't often have to apologise for how they come across, because they're supposed to be masters of using language to set the mood and express how people are feeling.
4635988 I figured but asked just to make sure.
But I have... almost everytime I should note. As for the passive aggressive, it's the latter, something I've noticed it when they comment on it. As for Blunt reviews, that's a gray area. Mostly because the reviewer (or the most recent one) sounded like he was attacking rather then giving points. I am not the only person who noted that so that is one of the few times where I've not been so nice. Ignoring that(not because your wrong but because it's a very hard area to comment on due to both sides being in the wrong). Let me go back to my previous comment, if I'm truly wrong and I'm "forced" to comply to using overused characters to have notice, how on god's(or Celestia's) earth am I suppose to be unique and stand out as someone new? I believe the problem is people don't like new most of the time. That and I'm not in a main top chain so it provides even a harder time. To put it simply, once I get noticed/featured, I would not mind doing more known characters but as it stands, I prefer to be known as the guy who was seen as doing something new and was loved as a result of that.
4636034 There was an interesting blog post somewhere I read a while ago about different kinds of feedback, which mentioned that nice comments are among the least useful comments to you as a writer. They're nice, sure, but they don't do much to point out areas in which you could improve. Which is fine if you're the best writer on the planet, but otherwise, unhelpful.
We learn from our mistakes, right? And mistakes are what people point out when they criticise, and from that you learn not to make those mistakes again. The more free people are to point out your mistakes, the quicker you'll learn and the better you'll become.
Giving criticism from a more advanced writer to a less advanced writer is easy. You just point out the mistakes you used to make, and explain why they're unwise. That's why lots of users love jumping on the lowest quality of stories on the site, with one author in particular - it makes the commenters feel like better writers by comparison, because they can point out all the mistakes they've spotted and feel superior. And if they believe the author is a troll, well, then they have a perfect excuse not to worry about hurting his feelings. Some people are nasty like that. Anyway, the difficult thing with giving criticism, especially on a site about the magic of friendship, is phrasing it in a way that gets the point across without hurting the author's feelings too severely.
The point is, it might feel nicer receiving criticism that's delicately worded and makes you feel only a little bit bad, but it's much easier to point out problems if you don't have to worry about that so much. "I'm sorry, but this plot feature dampened my enjoyment of the story" doesn't quite have the impact of "this plot feature doesn't work, and it derails the whole story," but only the latter may make you realise how serious the problem is, and how important it is you change it. And that is the entire purpose of Blunt Reviews, in a nutshell.
It really doesn't matter if you think the feedback is kindly phrased or openly attacking you; if your aim is to learn as much as you can from it, then you can still do so. Only short, personal insults are unhelpful, everything else can be twisted to some useful purpose for honing your craft if that's what you try to do with it. And that's what you need to do to become better.
If you have a bad teacher for a subject at school, and you fail the class, you're welcome to blame them. But you'll still be the one who failed the class, not them. It's in your interest to try to understand and learn from these things.
With regard to defensiveness in the face of criticism generally - do you think you can argue someone into thinking you're a good writer? Can you talk someone into liking your story? I don't think so, not often. However good your defence, you're very unlikely to win someone over with it, because the bottom line is that they still didn't like your story. So you're pretty much wasting your breath trying. And they're wasting theirs with paragraphs and paragraphs of trying to phrase things gently, when perhaps one or two to-the-point sentences would be much clearer, and would leave them feeling less like they'd wasted a long time trying to carefully and convincingly phrase several points on how you could improve when you just throw up defences every time, no matter how delicate the criticism.
I think you're missing the point in what I said about characters. You're welcome to write stories about whoever you like, I really don't care
The point is that if you think writing unusual characters will only increase your views, you're wrong. It will have some positive effect, yes, because it's unusual and you'll be one of the few catering to that market. But it will also have a negative effect, because that market simply isn't very big. If we massively simplify it and look at it as a maths problem: 1000 readers want to read stories about Luna and 10 want to read about Vapour Trail. Let's say there are 2 stories about Vapour Trail, one of which is yours. So, if everyone just reads one story (they don't, of course, but no one reads everything on the site, so it roughly evens out), then yours gets 5 views, as does the other Vapour Trail one. But even if there are 50 Luna stories, each of those will get 20 views.
I have no idea what the actual numbers would be in that scenario. The reality is of course enormously more complex. But I think it demonstrates that some advantages come with writing unusual characters, and some disadvantages too. And your initial post mentioned you felt your story was closer to unique because it used unusual characters, and suggested that you thought that should have helped it do better. I'm explaining why that may not have helped it at all, and even perhaps had a negative effect. I can't remember, for example, ever seeing a siren story in the top slot of the feature box. But changeling stories are in that slot most weeks. Sirens are less used, sure, and they definitely have their own dedicated fanbase. But the changeling fanbase is a lot bigger. There's just no denying that. A changeling story will therefore face stiffer competition, but reach a wider audience. And the feature box often provides the answer for which one wins in terms of mass popularity, if that's what you're going for. No one's saying you have to write anything, but if you're thinking unusual characters may be the ticket to big audiences, you might well be wrong.
I don't think being new is the problem. I joined the site only a couple of weeks before you did, so you aren't that new. To pick some other examples, Sunny Days has been a member since 2015, but only published her first chapter four months ago, and that story has been featured. CGPH has been on the site for much longer, but only published his first chapter four months before you did. He's doing pretty well, having found his stride, and been featured a couple of times. And neither he nor Sunny Days had massive established friend networks to draw on, both their stats pages show them only gaining their first followers around the time of first publishing a story. Tethered-Angel's most recent story has done very well, again being featured, who only joined the site six months before you. And Snowflake Dissonance has made quite the impact on certain scenes, despite only being around for four months. No feature for her yet, but soon I expect.
So I don't think it's fair to say that people don't like new most of the time, and I've certainly never let that hold me back. I'm not sure what you mean by a main top chain though?
Let me try spelling this out very clearly:
Your defensiveness is putting people off helping you get better. It doesn't matter if you mean to do it or not, you need to learn not to if you want them to help you improve. That's the thing you need to change to move forwards.
4636272 Noted. Still, while I can't 100% deny I was somewhat defensive, I try to avoid going to far. I even tell them that they aren't completely wrong. As for Blunt reviews, I'm well aware of the fact of what they're suppose to do. However, I wasn't the only individual who spotted this. If it was just me, I'd agree with you 100% but I wasn't. That's where my issue came in. Not with the story but with how he portrays my editors(who take time out of their lives). It's one thing to say they didn't do a great job. But he went well beyond the means witch is why I(along with a few others) rightfully called him out. To place it simply, I try to do whatever I can to write the best I can and give good content. Speaking of, I don't know any of those users so I'll take your word for it until told otherwise. I'm still going to stick my guns and see where the next 5(6) of my stories go and hope for the best. I could go on about taking constructive criticism and this, that and another but I realize that doing so is pointless. Actions speak louder than words. It's like a certain character says- "Talk is cheap". Only fate knows what will happen to me as a write and what will happen in the future.
4636307 I agree, time to let this drop
That sounds like the best thing to do, writing what you want to write. I just hope you're happy with how the stories turn out, regardless of how they're received.