About the giving of Good Feedback - a reader's point of view
In my first post I wrote that I got this account to give feedback and how bad I felt that I hadn’t done that earlier. Well, about two hours later, I stumbled over several posts about the topic, written by some of my idols (
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I was reading the newsletter for TS and accidently clicked on your journal, instead of the rec you'd done and since I was here... I read your posts.
I hate the word lurker, I prefer to think of myself as scouting out the territory when I used to read tons of stories and not comment. I, too, had some concerns about why anybody would want to know what I thought, and likewise, some practical problems with emailing. For me, I was worried that if I emailed people, my email address would be buried under spam. That hasn't happened. And the first author I emailed didn't let me know she got my comments, and so, since I didn't get any response, it made me back off. Now that I'm more experienced, I realize her spam filter could have kept it from reaching her, or her email could have been wrong, or maybe she didn't care about acknowledging a response. But the vast majority of writers I've given feedback to have acknowledged me back.
I wandered into LJ land about... oh, maybe a year and a half ago, and I started commenting on people's journals. It was easy, and less sticking your neck out than private emailing. I always signed my name, though. I was encouraged to try my own lj and also -- because I thought what would I do with it that I couldn't do with just commenting on other people's journals? -- to try writing. I've really enjoyed taking the writing plunge and since I was in that position myself, I know that more people read my stories than comment on them. And that's cool. I like feedback because it helps me see where people are being effected by a story and because -- yes, I worked hard on a story and hope somebody thinks I did a good job. So, even a brief response is very welcome. The fun stuff with commenting language, such as sticking actions within colons like ::hugs you gently:: is something I think readers pick up from exposure. There are tons of abbreviated sayings like LOL (laughing out loud), that I didn't get and some I still don't know what the heck they mean. I just ask now,if I'm really puzzled. Now that I think of it, it would be helpful to have a translation key. Maybe somebody's done a post about it somewhere.
starwatcher307 has a very well written explanation for doing the html coding. It made a lot more sense to me than the offical lj help pages. You mentioned her in your post, and you are experimenting with the coding stuff, I believe, so that might be helpful to you, if you haven't already read it.
lit_gal also has a section on her journal about what she as an author finds helpful and enjoys about feedback, in case you wanted to check it out.
And go you, for driving the Crack Van. That would be intimidating to me to do.
If an email address comes up with Outlook, what I do is just use the copy/paste function to stick it on my own email system. That way I can contact the author without using Outlook.
Anyway, welcome to lj
Laurie
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Anyway... thanks again for your kind words. I hope you enjoy my recs at the Crack Van!
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