Many moons ago, I wrote this meta post explaining why I was installing feedback polls at the end of my fic posts, and wrote up an analysis of the results for the first three stories with the feedback polls here. Here is the second installment of my results and my analysis of the most recent pieces I posted with polls: Hallelujah & No Termination Date. I did also write an Oz outtake, but alas, totally forgot to put in a poll. Anyway, the results ( behind the cut.Collapse )

As some of you may or may not recall, I've been experimenting with putting feedback polls at the end of my stories. I have a more detailed post about why I decided to do this here, but the short version is: polls are a way of gathering information on how many people made it to the end of the story and liked it enough to, well, vote in a poll. It's somewhere between getting a comment and simply viewing a hit statistic, and so far the experiment has been going quite well!

I put polls at the end of the most recent 3 things I wrote. Two were the in the Star Trek Reboot fandom, while one was Dean/Castiel. I will discuss my expectations for each and the results ( one by one (and bear in mind that my #s for the comments are calculated removing my own responses to them):Collapse )

I read some really interesting meta over here about an author who uses polls as a method of gathering non-comment feedback and information about the number of readers of her fic. As we all know, I adore polls and gathering information about readers, and lj statistics are helpful but don't give a complete picture of whether a reader went to an entry and immediately hit the back button. The poll is included at the end of the story as a means for giving readers who don't want to comment (for reasons such as social anxiety) a way to let the author know that they read and enjoyed a story without having to put it into comments. The basic format is this:



The reason the meta-author decided to include these polls at the end of all her stories was due to this equally fascinating entry over here where one such reader wished that authors left polls at the end of their stories. I can certainly see why the idea of including these feedback polls hasn't caught on in a large way throughout fandom because they may come off as needy or clamoring for feedback. There's also the fact that not everyone has a paid lj account that would allow them to include polls even if they wanted to.

But as a reader I know I would love to be given the option to simply tick a couple of boxes that tell me I read a story and enjoyed it. Sometimes I don't have anything much to say in response to a story beyond that, which leads me to either write a very brief comment out of a sense of obligation, or leave no comment at all and just move on (both of which are unsatisfying ends).

Don't get me wrong--Dean/Castiel fandom has been extremely generous to me in terms of comments and I have zero complaints about the number of responses I get. I also know that there are some readers out there who comment consistently on 90% of everything they read, and for whom a poll would likely not change their commenting habits at all. The poll is directed at the huge community of lurkers out there who I know read fics and answer polls (some of which are mine) but never leave comments for whatever reason--and frankly, I am interested in knowing that they are reading my fic as well.

So in conclusion, I may begin experimenting with including these polls at the end of my fic in the near future. Luckily, I have no shame or sense of embarassment over being perceived as greedy for information because, well, I am greedy for information. I also think the people who like to comment will, and the people who don't, won't, but may be persuaded to vote in a poll. Here I end with yet another poll:



Thoughts, anyone?

Feedback/Concrit: I read a rather interesting discussion over in spnwriterlounge about leaving constructive criticism in comments, and I decided to post and make clear to everyone who might be debating leaving it for me: I welcome it. I will also add a note to my fic master post that states this as well.

I'm an obsessive writer who reads over every story post 10 or more times to scan for typos. I literally change the wordings of sentences after my betas have gone through it, after I've made all my changes, and after I've posted. I constantly tweak. I've gone back and reread the earlier posts of Oz and fixed typos I just noticed. If you notice a typo, feel free to comment on it. I'll change it.

On constructive criticism: Look, I've been writing for over ten years now. I started out as an insecure badfic writer, and I am infinitely grateful to all the people who read my stories and were kind enough not to point out just how bad they were. Frankly, if they had pointed out the multitude of flaws, it would have crushed my ego flat and I never would have written another word again.

But it's been ten years, I've matured, and I've developed a thick skin. One of the primary reasons I write fanfic at all is in order to grow as a writer, and there are two processes I've identified where that growing happens: 1, in writing and 2, through feedback from others pointing out what I could improve on. I've written a lot, and I've done my best to challenge myself in my writing--all of which has definitely helped. But there are limits to the growth that can be achieved by teaching yourself through practice alone, and that's why tutors and teachers exist to make the process go faster--although in this case, I suppose I want the internet to be my tutor.

To illustrate using an example from when I used to play the flute: my instructor assigned to me a piece of music to play for the next lesson the following week. So I went home and practiced every day until I got the fingering right, because it was a challenging piece (for me, anyway). I went to the lesson the following week quite proud of myself because I had practiced till I could play it almost without looking at the music. But after I was done playing the piece for him, my instructor told me I'd played all the wrong notes. Turned out that I had misread the music and practiced to perfection something that was totally off. Would I have figured it out on my own eventually? Maybe, but probably not. In the end, his one comment had a bigger impact on my flute playing (namely, it taught me to read the music more carefully) than all the hours I had put in the previous week. That can be the power of constructive criticism.

I'm not saying everyone that comments to my stories should concrit; in fact, my ego adores all feedback, especially the positive squees. And I know I certainly do not point out the flaws of otherwise decent stories 99% of the time for several reasons: I don't know if that particular author is open to it, I'm a busy gal with other things to do, and I don't want to antagonize anyone in fandom accidentally. But if you're ever curious about whether you should post some constructive criticism or not: I am open to it and appreciative of it. If you don't feel comfortable posting it in a comment that the world can see, you can also Private message me as well.

The Snow Queen: I'm actually doing really well when it comes to writing according to my deadlines. I'm done with 2/3 of the story (though the second third is decidedly unpolished at the moment) and I should be able to finish up the last third this weekend. Yes!

To all the tens of readers out there who read my stories and comment: I love you.

To all the tens of readers out there who read my stories and don't comment for whatever reason: I love you too.

To zelda_zee, my patient and speedy beta: much love to you too your help, and for putting up with my rambling, nonsensical emails that rival my story chapters in length.

I know how fandom works. Supernatural isn't my first fandom, and it probably won't be my last. I know that fandoms are cliquey, fickle, and in a fandom this huge, it's easy to get overlooked. I also know that it is, like everything else in life, an 80/20 split: BNF's get 80% of all the feedback out there and everyone else in fandom gets to divide up the last 20%. And hey, I don't begrudge BNFs for their lion's share: some of them are very talented writers and certainly deserve it.

But what that means is that I am totally f'ing thrilled by any and all comments I receive. Seriously. From the shortest "OMG" or <3 (although truthfully, I haven't gotten any that short yet) to the longest comment discussing how the reader feels and what lines they loved and whatever--I love it all. Maybe not equally, but everything thrills me. I embrace words, smiley face emoticons, l33t speak, languages which are not in English, constructive criticism, and even unconstructive criticism. Frankly, if one of my stories disappointed/infuriated/annoyed someone so much that they felt the burning need to tell me so, hell, that's better than languishing in mediocre obscurity.

I've only been hanging around SPN fandom for less than a year--basically since Castiel busted onto the scene in season 4. I didn't actually start writing anything till June and that was like, a het AU. The fact that anyone at all is reading my Welcome to Oz WIP, much less commenting consistently (which I love, btw) is shocking to me. I have no fandom name or track record. I'm writing a wackyass domestic intrigue mystery thriller with Dean and Castiel at the center of a suburb. By all rights, my story should be dead in the water surrounded by radio silence. But it's not, so yay!

Bottom line: I am open to all comments and am just so freaking happy whenever anyone posts them. Also, my friending policy for this lj is open: you friend me, I friend you back. Mostly this is a fic posting journal with intermittent posts discussing my writing (because man, do I love to navel gaze and writing is how I do it) so I probably won't clutter your flist up too much.