I mean...have you ever posted something fairly long (like...let's say 20,000 words) and waited less than five minutes before checking?
Yes. *is ashamed*
And then there's a comment, and you open it, and it's someone telling you that they're going to go and start reading the story, or that they're saving it now to read the next day. And then you're disappointed. Or is that just me?
I do find myself obsessively refreshing gmail for comment emails, however I never ever do the post-then-go-away thing... because the one time you (er, metaphorically you, meaning me) do that is the one time you forgot to cut-tag, or have "Voldermort" in your story, or put Snape's cock on backwards in the drawing.
And of course, I read the comment emails even if I've already had the comment show up (sometimes when people are chatty you get stuff that comes in while I'm replying to other comments, and it appears like magic when it posts the reply).
Oh god, yes. I have to re-read the story, like...five hundred times, and every time, I have to fix a comma or correct a typo or change a sentence or...something.
I like to post in the evening so there are, hopefully, some comments when I wake up. But half the time, I tell myself I can't go to bed until I get at least one comment. I try to watch anime or toku on my laptop, but I keep pausing it to refresh my recent comments page. Somehow, I think that's luckier than refreshing the story page or checking my email. (Anyhow, my email might be broken OMG.)
There have even been times, I'm ashamed to admit, that I thought about posting a comment myself just to check if comments were really working. Ashamed, but not ashamed enough.
I also try not to post about other things too close before or afterwards, because I have a theory that if people have recently commented on your journal they will be less likely to comment on the story post.
...although, you know, the after-posts are sometimes useful because you can say "hey, didja see I posted something? Didja? Didja?
I just can't quite bring myself to do that. I'm scared of sounding desperate and pitiful and needy! (Not that you ever do, of course.) Although if I can figure out a legitimate reason to off-handedly refer to the story and link to it...
I always do it now. Mostly it's, "Hey I posted fic at 3am when most of you were sleeping. Maybe you missed it!" Since I do post at crazy middle-of-the-night hours sometimes.
*leaves comment to add to your tally that doesn't say anything witty or insightful because a) I've only been up five minutes b) my parents are arriving "after lunch", which it technically is right now, so I should be doing something housethingly instead of reading my flist c) What was the question, again?*
*wakes up a little more*
I HATE that limbo period after posting a story before the first comment arrives. I always feel sick then. Once the first comment arrives, then I start to recover. It's okay. There's someone else out there. I can go away and actually do something else. Well, try, anyway. So yeah: comments = sanity. *g*
Yes! Except...then I'm all "Oh god, that was the mercy comment, and there won't be another one because all the other people are really reading the story!"
Oh yes. It doesn't pay to dwell on statistics for too long. Like, 800 hits and 30 comments: 30 people loved the story (or maybe just felt sorry for you) so are the other 770 just sitting back and laughing, or looking at you in pity? (Who, me, paranoid? *g*)
Seriously, after a day or so my rational mind comes back into play and I'm able to perceive the reality, which has to be somewhere between those two extremes, but at the time...
I will say, though, that I'm very relieved that my next story isn't going to take me four months to write, or be anything like 20,000 words long, becuase both of those factors compound all the posting anxieties like whoa!
(And yeah, still here. *looks unenthusiastically at house and thinks it's almost presentable as is*)
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Yes. *is ashamed*
And then there's a comment, and you open it, and it's someone telling you that they're going to go and start reading the story, or that they're saving it now to read the next day. And then you're disappointed. Or is that just me?
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And of course, I read the comment emails even if I've already had the comment show up (sometimes when people are chatty you get stuff that comes in while I'm replying to other comments, and it appears like magic when it posts the reply).
Mmmmmmfeedback *grin*
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I do that. I so do that.
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There have even been times, I'm ashamed to admit, that I thought about posting a comment myself just to check if comments were really working. Ashamed, but not ashamed enough.
I also try not to post about other things too close before or afterwards, because I have a theory that if people have recently commented on your journal they will be less likely to comment on the story post.
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(...although, you know, the after-posts are sometimes useful because you can say "hey, didja see I posted something? Didja? Didja?")
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I just can't quite bring myself to do that. I'm scared of sounding desperate and pitiful and needy! (Not that you ever do, of course.) Although if I can figure out a legitimate reason to off-handedly refer to the story and link to it...
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*wakes up a little more*
I HATE that limbo period after posting a story before the first comment arrives. I always feel sick then. Once the first comment arrives, then I start to recover. It's okay. There's someone else out there. I can go away and actually do something else. Well, try, anyway. So yeah: comments = sanity. *g*
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(have...fun with your parents! *g*)
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Seriously, after a day or so my rational mind comes back into play and I'm able to perceive the reality, which has to be somewhere between those two extremes, but at the time...
I will say, though, that I'm very relieved that my next story isn't going to take me four months to write, or be anything like 20,000 words long, becuase both of those factors compound all the posting anxieties like whoa!
(And yeah, still here. *looks unenthusiastically at house and thinks it's almost presentable as is*)
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