What do you do when you want feedback...

[Matrix Refugee (formerly Morraeon)]

... But no one seems to be giving it?

I've been writing and posting (on my LiveJournal) a series of snippets of a larger fanfiction I've been pecking away at for almost a year now and I've been enjoying myself... But I feel like a singer who's meeting dead silence from the audience after every song. I'm about ready to start offering cybersex in exchange for feedback on this thing (whole new meaning on the phrase "review whoring", ha ha ha.) or threaten suicide (partly true, since I'm feeling so worthless right now, I feel like I could disappear without anyone noticing). I just feel like if I tell myself I'm doing good, I'm only kidding myself, but if I hear it from another person, it's somehow more validating...

Maybe this should go in the Open Mic in the Angst Corner forum -.-

[Kris_W]

Really, the only thing you can offer that matters is your writing. If you're getting no answers then, well, that's a pretty clear response. You need to work on the writing more.

Bummer, neh? Here's some tips -
- Make sure every piece you post has a beginning, middle and end even if it is only a few paragraphs. It is easier to respond to pieces that have closure than to pieces that just float there unattached.

- Give the readers some idea what you are looking for, such as - Cheerleader, Grammarian, Character Arc critique, plot holes finder, fact checker and continuity. Pick one of these, not all of them - focus on ONE thing only. Ok - two things. Also ask them to let you know the point they stopped reading. This gives them permission to not finish the piece and still give you feedback.

- Don't mess over friendships in an effort to get responses. Give responders a time frame and let them off the hook if they don't reply by then. Something like 'If you haven't gotten to this by DATE / TIME don't worry about it'. And then after that point in time let them know you moved on. Then drop it.

- Do not argue, correct or get mad at people who give your responses, especially if the response is silence. No matter what sort of response you get, your correct reply should be 'Thank you'.

- You have to mean that 'Thank You', too.
 

[Starbeam]

Are you asking for responses when you post?  Some people just don't comment unless there's a question, even if it's just along the lines of "What do you think?", and sometimes people just don't have anything to say.  Or they don't know how to respond.  Is it posting in a specific community or just on your normal LJ?  Are the people who read people who would be able to comment?  Is it possible that color combinations might be difficult for people to read, or something like that?  I'm part of a small forum and don't comment much on what's posted because it's white text against a black background, and my eyes don't like that. 

For me personally, I just stopped posting writing on LJ.  I got pretty much the same sort of response, nothing, when I would post pretty much anything, so mine tends to be more just to keep up with a few people who still post.  I also get frustrated really easily with most comments on my writing because they tend to be "this is good" and never helpful to me.  Instead I just write, and if I decide I want any kind of feedback, I ask my b/f.

[LizW65]

I'm not familiar with Live Journal, but when I gave my manuscript to several people to read, I included a questionnaire with very specific questions about character, plot, historical accuracy, continuity, and so on, to hopefully avoid the "It's great!"  "It sucks!" type of critique that so many people seem to get.  It's been very useful, and I've found that making up the questionnaire and also just getting away from the story for a while is helping me to get a grip on some problems in the manuscript that I knew were there but was a little too close to.
(Oh, and I wouldn't recommend threatening suicide unless, God forbid, you're actually contemplating an attempt; it'll likely freak people out.

[Matrix Refugee (formerly Morraeon)]

Whew... Thanks for all the advice: I'm less of a wreck than I was last night, but I'm still depressed about this (not enough to stop writing it, but enough that I'm still questioning why I'm writing it...).

@ LizW65: I'd offer a questionnaire to my readers, but I'm afraid of coming across like I'm grilling people about it, or (God forbid), one of those telephone survey wonks from "consumer interest panels", which I swear are the Trojan Horse-laden spam of Real Life.

I'm past the suicidal thoughts, but while I wasn't actually going to make an attempt on my life, I was at the point where I felt so hopeless and useless that I was seriously wondering if anyone would notice (or care) if I just disappeared.

[jeno]

There might also be an issue in where you're posting. Most readers on LJ are generally there for the fic - original stuff doesn't get nearly as much traffic. If you want specific people to go over your stuff, there are communities on LJ, like find_me_a_beta, that might be of more use.

[Darwinist]

Anyone care to paraphrase exactly what Livejournal is? I've never heard of it before. Sounds interesting, and a nice escape from Facebook.

If Livejournal is a drag, check out workshopping websites. The one I'm at is full of d-bags right now who got pissed when I told them I hated most Vampire stories. So in retaliation, they stopped reviewing my posted stories. Didn't help it was on a website for an author who writes a lot about vampires. Probably my own fault for not knowing my market there. Still, could it hurt to strike out on originality at all? Seriously... get away from the Bram Stokers and the tweenage Twilight crap. The only thing worse than vampires, is angsty whiny self conscious ones.

Also, is that cybersex offer still on the table?
/giggity/giggity

[Starbeam]

www.livejournal.com

[Darwinist]

obviously, but what exactly is it. Hell, you could link me to Facebook too but that wouldn't exactly explain all the intricacies of the service. Try explaining Twitter to a lay person, or Blogging. They just won't get it simply by being directed to a website.

There's WHAT the service can do, then there's what it DOES. There's what it was DESIGNED to do, and then there's what it's actually USED for. I'd rather not make the assumption, and instead ask for a qualified response to someone who uses it.

[mightyutuvan]

I too have a question about LiveJournal (LJ).  I have noticed more than a few published authors use LJ.  Does it provide significantly different services than say Facebook or Google's Blogspot?  Is the choice technical (more services provided) or cultural (more authors join LJ because more authors are on LJ, kind of a self fullfilling prophecy)?

[jeno]

I too have a question about LiveJournal (LJ).  I have noticed more than a few published authors use LJ.  Does it provide significantly different services than say Facebook or Google's Blogspot?  Is the choice technical (more services provided) or cultural (more authors join LJ because more authors are on LJ, kind of a self fullfilling prophecy)?

Honestly? A lot of published authors use LJ because they started on LJ, usually in some kind of fannish community. These are the authors who (unsurprisingly) know who to use LJ to its fullest advantage.  Check how many people are 'Friends' of this author's LJ. Hint - it's the number that starts with '6' and has three more digits after it. Some authors who aren't native to the LJ community may join LJ in order to connect to fans, but by and large they don't know how to use the platform to their advantage very well. Lots of times those journals float into obscurity in favor of an independent webpage.

Livejournal communities promote creativity to an insane degree, usually in fictional form.  If you write a story and it's really, really good, you can get  nearly a thousand comments on it , which is pretty awesome for one story. (And that's just the people who comment - lurkers outnumber posters like, 5 to 1.)

But even for people who aren't BNFs (Big Name Fans), whenever you post an entry, you almost always get instant feedback from people on your flist (Friends List). That's more of a cultural thing in the fannish communities - it's good manners to give feedback, even if not every one does it. And the better you get, the more people will read your stuff. And they'll tell their friends, who tell their friends, who make public recs, and so on and so on.

LJ is different from Facebook in that LJ promotes a hell of a lot more creativity in its users, firstly based on its Journal platform and then enhanced by the culture of the fannish community. Its different from Blogspot/Wordpress because 1) there aren't nearly as many widely connected users on those services and 2) the comment system allows for more direct and informal interaction between users.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Basically, LJ is all about the text.  It's a format that enables the long thoughtful essay over the short-attention-span back and forth much more so than facebook or myspace; and many of the circles I move in there are people who moved there from Usenet, back in the deeps of prehistory when text was the medium available. 

(Don't talk to me about Twitter.  The average sentence that comes out of my mouth won't fit in 140 characters, let alone a reasoned argument to make any point worth making.)

[jeno]

Yup. A whole bunch of people moved en masse from Usenet to mailing lists to Livejournal.

[SCARPA]

I dont know anything about the other formats / systems but I have had great experience posting chapters as notes on my facebook page. Comments are general in nature not line items but it works great for what I am looking for. For more intimate commentary I deal with editors I know on an individual basis.