Round 18, Hour 31

[lothithil.livejournal.com]

Here we are at hour 31 of the Fic_Rush. I have two cats, asleep, at my right hand, a sweating glass of pomegranate soda on my left, and hours to go before I sleep.

And another penguin melting on my desk.

Rico:
Urg! Ack! Hork!
... mumble...

Translation:
Hope the writing is going well. The night (at my current position on the globe) is good for writing... no interruptions. There's a lightning storm brewing over the central plains. I can smell ozone.

... or that could be the dynamite I ate earlier...

Comments

[isdon-isgood9.livejournal.com]

It's not the writing that's the problem. I'm pretty sure that if I opened a document I could be spitting out words by the thousands but what's the point when no one reads or comments to the fic. It's only made worse when authors from one of the fandoms I'm in complains that they only got five comments on their last fic when for me that's the best outcome out there.

*shrugs* It'll go away in time. It always does :(

[lothithil.livejournal.com]

It is hard to write without feedback. It is also difficult to not come to rely on it. I try to remind myself that there are many more readers Out There who don't comment than ones that do.

'Writing for personal pleasure is more important than public approval' is another of my mantras. Writing for cookies is far more rewarding than writing for peer reviews.

*snaps fingers* Hey, waiter! More cookies, table two!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad you got some timely motivation from belantana! Even though this comment is hours late (pesky time-traveling penguins, putting me in the wrong time zone), I wanted to also chime in and try to give you some encouragement to write despite the lack of feedback. If you're writing fic that attracts a rare audience, someone somewhere is that rare person who is searching for that rare type of fic, and it may take awhile, but when they finally find your fic they are going to be over the moon! Then they may be shy and not feel comfortable commenting -- or feel awkward about commenting about an older fic -- but they are over the moon! Seriously, the number of comments is not a good indicator of the extent to which your readers enjoyed your fic. Also, and most importantly, do you like your fics? Do you feel accomplished when you've written them, and do you like to go back and re-read them? If so, then that's more than reason enough to write them!