Confessions of a Glory Hound: On Fanfic and Feedback
So, I've been meaning to write a big old thing about feedback for a while now and I'm finally getting to it. It seems particularly timely since there's been a lot of discussion, not always civil, in Big Bang Theory fandom lately.
I'd like to start with some assumptions/disclaimers before I get started.
1) I freely admit that I suck at writing meta-ish stuff.
2) I don't care for the term "reviews." I know it's a commonly used term in a lot of fandoms these days, including BBT fandom, but I find it to be kind of a misnomer. When we talk about reader response to fanfic, it's rarely an actual review of the story in question. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I prefer the old-school term "feedback," since it better describes what the reader is leaving for the writer. So, I'm going to go with feedback here. Your mileage may vary, terminology-wise.
3) I'm not going to touch the question of whether or not fic feedback is an appropriate place for constructive criticism. That's a topic that's been discussed since the time when dinosaurs roamed free in fandom and no one has ever been able to reach consensus on it. I'm not even sure how I feel about it.
4) I'm going to talk specifically about fanfic here since it's the form of fanwork that I'm the most familiar with. I'm sure some of this applies to art, vids, podfics, icons, and other fanworks but I don't feel qualified to speak to all of them.
5) Fanfic and professional writing are two completely different animals. So I'm not going to compare the two at all here. This piece is soley about fan fiction.
6) Writers aren't entitled to feedback from readers. And readers aren't entitled to fic from writers. Just to get that out of the way.
7) This will definitely be a rambling and semi-stream-of-consciousness piece of writing. Consider yourself warned.
Lately, there has been quite a lot of muttering in Big Bang Theory fandom about feedback and whether or not it's acceptable for a fic writer to write not only for herself and the story she wants to tell but to have the public reception of her fic as a motivating factor. The argument has sometimes grown heated and words like "attention whore," "glory hound," and "needy" have been thrown around to describe fic writers who care about receiving feedback and what members of their fandom think about their writing.
I'm going to talk about my own experiences and motivations here. Your mileage may (and probably will) vary greatly.
When I'm well and truly obsessed with a fandom and/or a pairing, I have stories that I need to tell. The fic somehow spontaneously generates in my brain and often the stories begin writing themselves long before I get anywhere near a keyboard or a pad of paper. I sometimes feel like I'm living in two dimensions at once. I can be sitting in a meeting, ostensibly paying attention, and Penny and Sheldon are having an argument in my head. My husband and I are talking about what movie to see over the weekend, but at the same time Laura has shoved Bill onto his rack and is unzipping his trousers. Sometimes when I actually sit down to write (and these are the best times for me), the story is so fully formed in my head that it's all I can do to type fast enough to keep up.
The greatest motivation for me when writing fanfic is telling the story that's currently living in my head and making it the best story it can possibly be. I can't speak for others, but in all the years I've been writing fanfic (twelve years, on and off), I have never heard a writer admit that she writes fic purely for the glory and adulation of it, or to be a BNF, or anything like that. Just about every fic writer of my acquaintance states that she primarily writes because she has a story to tell. Pure and simple.
Glory and adulation, or power within a fandom, is a pretty piss-poor motivation for writing fanfic, in my opinion. Really-what glory and adulation? A handful of glowing feedback comments and maybe some awards, what does it add up to at the end of the day? Fanfic isn't going to make a writer rich or famous. You can't cuddle up to your fandom at the end of the day. Most people can't even put their fandom activities on their resumes, like they can with many other community activities and hobbies.
So, having said all that, does feedback matter to me as a writer? Of course it does. It matters a whole lot. Like many other people in fandom, and in the world at large, I care about what other people think of my work.
Let's talk about my professional work for a minute. I want to do a good job and I want to be respected in my field. It doesn't mean that I need to be showered with compliments every minute of the day (that would get old really quickly), but when I go above and beyond the call of duty, or do a great job on a major project, I'd like to be recognized for that work. I don't think of myself as a particularly needy person. I'm relatively confident of most of my abilities. But I will admit that it's nice to hear that I'm going a good job and that such feedback on my work performance can motivate me to try even harder next time.
It's the same thing with writing fic. I really and truly care about the stories that I write. It doesn't mean that they're perfect and the best stories ever in any given fandom. I'm well aware that there are tons of writers better than I am and that there are a lot of areas where I could stand improvement. All I can do is keep trying to write the best stories I can, to learn from my beta readers and some of the really great writers in my fandom, and keep making the effort to improve my weaknesses.
Because I care about my stories, I also care what readers think of them. Granted, this may not be true for all writers, but it is for me and I'm pretty sure it's true for a great number of fic writers. If we didn't care, we wouldn't post them publicly on the Internet. We'd write a story, feel happy with how it turned out (or maybe not so happy), save it and close the file. Do I let the reception from readers define how I think of myself as a writer and a person? Of course not. That would be kind of needy and sad, I think. But I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not a little disappointed when a story I really care about doesn't get much of a reception at all or when I see a drop in feedback from readers for fanfic (not just my own, but a general drop in the fandom).
Again, feedback isn't my primary motivation for writing fanfic. It might not even be in the top five of my reasons for writing fic. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with admitting that when the general level of enthusiasm for fic and for leaving feedback in a given fandom declines, for whatever reasons, I can find it a less than motivating.
Many of us who write fanfic spend a good deal of time and effort on our writing. Some of us cancel social obligations to finish up a WIP. Some of us secretly write at work. Some of us temporarily ignore our partners, our kids, our other hobbies, because we just have to get this story done or we'll lose our damn minds. Again, we care about what we write. When we post something that means a lot to us, that we've invested a lot of time and care into, and there's a general lack of enthusiasm for it (not because the story's poorly written or boring, but because people just aren't reading, or are reading and not leaving feedback), it can cause something of a dampening effect on that happy obsession that got us writing the fic in the first place.
I want to restate that writers are not entitled to feedback. If you believe that, it's probably time to find a new hobby. But I think it's also important for those who read fic (especially those who don't write themselves) to understand that, yes, most of us do care what you think about our stories. Yes, we do love hearing from you. Yes, it motivates us to write more (even if it's not the main motivation).
Sometimes I hear people say that they don't know what, exactly, to write when leaving feedback on a story they enjoyed. Honestly? Write whatever. "I liked it" is great. Capslocking and keysmashing are fantastic. It doesn’t have to be a twelve-paragraph treatise on how the symbolism of part 23 calls to mind man's inhumanity to man and themes of pastoral beauty previously only explored by Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. I mean, hey, if you want to write that, more power to you! As a Russian major, I'd really dig it, but "that was a fun read" is fantastic, too.
I could probably blather on for another twenty paragraphs (and I didn't even get into fandom as a community and issues of supply and demand) but I'll cut it short and say that I love to write. I love to write fanfic. And I love to receive feedback on my fic. If that makes me a glory hound, so be it. I'll wear the title with pride.
Feel free to discuss in the comments. All are welcome, whether you're on my flist or not. Just keep it respectful, okay?
I'd like to start with some assumptions/disclaimers before I get started.
1) I freely admit that I suck at writing meta-ish stuff.
2) I don't care for the term "reviews." I know it's a commonly used term in a lot of fandoms these days, including BBT fandom, but I find it to be kind of a misnomer. When we talk about reader response to fanfic, it's rarely an actual review of the story in question. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I prefer the old-school term "feedback," since it better describes what the reader is leaving for the writer. So, I'm going to go with feedback here. Your mileage may vary, terminology-wise.
3) I'm not going to touch the question of whether or not fic feedback is an appropriate place for constructive criticism. That's a topic that's been discussed since the time when dinosaurs roamed free in fandom and no one has ever been able to reach consensus on it. I'm not even sure how I feel about it.
4) I'm going to talk specifically about fanfic here since it's the form of fanwork that I'm the most familiar with. I'm sure some of this applies to art, vids, podfics, icons, and other fanworks but I don't feel qualified to speak to all of them.
5) Fanfic and professional writing are two completely different animals. So I'm not going to compare the two at all here. This piece is soley about fan fiction.
6) Writers aren't entitled to feedback from readers. And readers aren't entitled to fic from writers. Just to get that out of the way.
7) This will definitely be a rambling and semi-stream-of-consciousness piece of writing. Consider yourself warned.
Lately, there has been quite a lot of muttering in Big Bang Theory fandom about feedback and whether or not it's acceptable for a fic writer to write not only for herself and the story she wants to tell but to have the public reception of her fic as a motivating factor. The argument has sometimes grown heated and words like "attention whore," "glory hound," and "needy" have been thrown around to describe fic writers who care about receiving feedback and what members of their fandom think about their writing.
I'm going to talk about my own experiences and motivations here. Your mileage may (and probably will) vary greatly.
When I'm well and truly obsessed with a fandom and/or a pairing, I have stories that I need to tell. The fic somehow spontaneously generates in my brain and often the stories begin writing themselves long before I get anywhere near a keyboard or a pad of paper. I sometimes feel like I'm living in two dimensions at once. I can be sitting in a meeting, ostensibly paying attention, and Penny and Sheldon are having an argument in my head. My husband and I are talking about what movie to see over the weekend, but at the same time Laura has shoved Bill onto his rack and is unzipping his trousers. Sometimes when I actually sit down to write (and these are the best times for me), the story is so fully formed in my head that it's all I can do to type fast enough to keep up.
The greatest motivation for me when writing fanfic is telling the story that's currently living in my head and making it the best story it can possibly be. I can't speak for others, but in all the years I've been writing fanfic (twelve years, on and off), I have never heard a writer admit that she writes fic purely for the glory and adulation of it, or to be a BNF, or anything like that. Just about every fic writer of my acquaintance states that she primarily writes because she has a story to tell. Pure and simple.
Glory and adulation, or power within a fandom, is a pretty piss-poor motivation for writing fanfic, in my opinion. Really-what glory and adulation? A handful of glowing feedback comments and maybe some awards, what does it add up to at the end of the day? Fanfic isn't going to make a writer rich or famous. You can't cuddle up to your fandom at the end of the day. Most people can't even put their fandom activities on their resumes, like they can with many other community activities and hobbies.
So, having said all that, does feedback matter to me as a writer? Of course it does. It matters a whole lot. Like many other people in fandom, and in the world at large, I care about what other people think of my work.
Let's talk about my professional work for a minute. I want to do a good job and I want to be respected in my field. It doesn't mean that I need to be showered with compliments every minute of the day (that would get old really quickly), but when I go above and beyond the call of duty, or do a great job on a major project, I'd like to be recognized for that work. I don't think of myself as a particularly needy person. I'm relatively confident of most of my abilities. But I will admit that it's nice to hear that I'm going a good job and that such feedback on my work performance can motivate me to try even harder next time.
It's the same thing with writing fic. I really and truly care about the stories that I write. It doesn't mean that they're perfect and the best stories ever in any given fandom. I'm well aware that there are tons of writers better than I am and that there are a lot of areas where I could stand improvement. All I can do is keep trying to write the best stories I can, to learn from my beta readers and some of the really great writers in my fandom, and keep making the effort to improve my weaknesses.
Because I care about my stories, I also care what readers think of them. Granted, this may not be true for all writers, but it is for me and I'm pretty sure it's true for a great number of fic writers. If we didn't care, we wouldn't post them publicly on the Internet. We'd write a story, feel happy with how it turned out (or maybe not so happy), save it and close the file. Do I let the reception from readers define how I think of myself as a writer and a person? Of course not. That would be kind of needy and sad, I think. But I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not a little disappointed when a story I really care about doesn't get much of a reception at all or when I see a drop in feedback from readers for fanfic (not just my own, but a general drop in the fandom).
Again, feedback isn't my primary motivation for writing fanfic. It might not even be in the top five of my reasons for writing fic. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with admitting that when the general level of enthusiasm for fic and for leaving feedback in a given fandom declines, for whatever reasons, I can find it a less than motivating.
Many of us who write fanfic spend a good deal of time and effort on our writing. Some of us cancel social obligations to finish up a WIP. Some of us secretly write at work. Some of us temporarily ignore our partners, our kids, our other hobbies, because we just have to get this story done or we'll lose our damn minds. Again, we care about what we write. When we post something that means a lot to us, that we've invested a lot of time and care into, and there's a general lack of enthusiasm for it (not because the story's poorly written or boring, but because people just aren't reading, or are reading and not leaving feedback), it can cause something of a dampening effect on that happy obsession that got us writing the fic in the first place.
I want to restate that writers are not entitled to feedback. If you believe that, it's probably time to find a new hobby. But I think it's also important for those who read fic (especially those who don't write themselves) to understand that, yes, most of us do care what you think about our stories. Yes, we do love hearing from you. Yes, it motivates us to write more (even if it's not the main motivation).
Sometimes I hear people say that they don't know what, exactly, to write when leaving feedback on a story they enjoyed. Honestly? Write whatever. "I liked it" is great. Capslocking and keysmashing are fantastic. It doesn’t have to be a twelve-paragraph treatise on how the symbolism of part 23 calls to mind man's inhumanity to man and themes of pastoral beauty previously only explored by Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. I mean, hey, if you want to write that, more power to you! As a Russian major, I'd really dig it, but "that was a fun read" is fantastic, too.
I could probably blather on for another twenty paragraphs (and I didn't even get into fandom as a community and issues of supply and demand) but I'll cut it short and say that I love to write. I love to write fanfic. And I love to receive feedback on my fic. If that makes me a glory hound, so be it. I'll wear the title with pride.
Feel free to discuss in the comments. All are welcome, whether you're on my flist or not. Just keep it respectful, okay?