Apropos of nothing at all

[mad_jaks]

I wonder what it's like to have enough comments to a piece of fiction that they run to more than one page?

I'm not soliciting a commentfest to get me there you understand and I totally accept that while I'm not posting to comms in a major way it's not likely to happen to me (or even if I was really...)

BUT

That's got to feel good, right?

Comments

[donutsweeper]

I've had it happen a few times, but more often than not it was due to massive commentfests. Actually getting 30 or 40 different people to comment on something I've written is ridiculously rare but amazingly wonderful!

[mad_jaks]

Commentfests are fun and do fill up a page.
30 to 40 people commenting on anything I've ever written/will write would probably result in me dying from shock!

[donutsweeper]

usually I get some of my flist and one or two random people to comment. 15 or so if I'm lucky. although I've a bunch on my f-list they seem to have gotten quieter and quieter of late.

If I post to torch_wood I might get a few more (usually more than just if it's in the newsletter). My non-tw stuff is rarely read by people.

[mad_jaks]

BUt but people read your NCIS don't they???

I am developing a pet theory that reading goes up in the winter months...

[jadesfire]

I actually dropped in to say your postcard arrived. Thanks!

More than one page of comments is very, very cool, but for me, it's always been on the silly Jack/Ianto stuff I sort of tossed out there. Unless you're a really extraordinary writer (and we have a few in TW, a few more in SGA) most gen-type pieces only get a few comments. Which is why I focus on writing for my own entertainment and learning. Especially considering only about 1 in 20 or so people who read will comment, you just can't go on the sheer numbers.

[mad_jaks]

OH good, my mum's arrived today as well :D

most gen-type pieces only get a few comments
Yep, I know how that feels and gen drabbles tend to get even fewer.

you just can't go on the sheer numbers.
In my first fandom us authors relied on email feedback. I'd be cahtting to kethni in MSN and she'd be telling me how much so-and-so had liked something I had written and it would be total news to me because though they'd told her they hadn't mailed me :(

[fajrdrako]

My impression is that drabbles are getting fewer and fewer comments than ever. I wonder why.

[itsarift_thing]

Now then there's a question.

There's a train of thought with some people that drabble writers are out for all the attention they can get so that the quality of the writing will, necessarily, be crap.

[fajrdrako]

I've wondered about that, but that way lies madness.

[mad_jaks]

bwahaha Yes I can see that it would. The thought just flittered across the back of my head. maybe I should have chucked a shoe at it?

[fajrdrako]

Scare it off with a broom.

[mad_jaks]

That was my other option...

Comes back to flail at your icon!!

[padawanpooh]

Agreed! I don't *think* I've ever had a 2+ pager, but lets face it, if you write fanfic you write it for yourself first and foremost, and if others like it it's a bonus...

[mad_jaks]

Oh yes, definitely for myself more than other people (unless I'm writing to request that is ;-))

[aeron_lanart]

I've had one fic that ran to 2 pages of comments - there was 63 including my own (I always try to remember to say thanks for commenting). It was for my one and only 'straight' Jack and Ianto fic which doesn't really surprise me as that's what the heaving mass of Torchwood fandom wants to see, not crossovers with a long-dead show that half of them won't have heard of and 2 thirds of them won't have seen

[itsarift_thing]

hehehe - and in reverse order - yes, it's waaay longer than my entry *snigger*

I think quite a few of my f-list cater for quite a few niches and a lot of that is probably to do with the fact that Who and Torchwood are so easy to crossover.

My first ever drabble in dw100 didn't get a single comment but I didn't let it put me off. I do think it's the reason that now I am a mod over there I try and comment on just about everything, though.

I am way behind in my reading over in your journal *scuffs toe in dirt*