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redrover1980 has a post about feedback. It got me thinking about something I think about a lot. I never want to whine, beg, cajole, plead for feedback, and I can never express the very real thrill I get from every little piece of email, every little encouraging word. redrover1980 explained sufficiently, so I'm not going to type it all out again, because I'm lazy. So go read her post. But anyway, the thinking part. I've seen writers state they write for themselves, and if you don't like what they write, well, you can shove it in your ear. Shoot, I've said it. When people announce (and they have) that they'll never read another thing I write again, my first reaction, before the shock and betrayal, is "I don't care." But there's another side to that, isn't there? Because if writers were honestly, truly writing for themselves, they wouldn't post it in a public forum. They post it in a public forum because they want to be validated. And I include myself in this "they" description.
I truly feel that if authors who say they just write for themselves really just wrote for themselves, they wouldn't be compelled at all to share their writing. They do so because they want validation, recognition, or they want to communicate.
And that's why feedback is important.
People don't want to talk to a wall. If writers feel like they're communicating and nobody is hearing and nobody is listening, why should they continue to post? Note: I said post, not write. Because writers write always, and if people are only writing fanfic for love, they're probably not very good.
Writers write because they have to, but they post because the simple act of writing is enough enough to validate their drive. Post, publish, send out to a circle of friends to read, put in a bottle and cast to sea, whatever.
Rereading, it sounds like I'm going to into lecture-mode. Which I don't intend to do at all. This has been a conundrum that has puzzled me for months.
sadbhyl routinely gets a dose of it. If I write because I'm a writer and therefore, I must write, why do I feel the need to post? If I post for validation, does that mean I'm not a real writer? If I never get a review again, would I still bother with fanfic? How much do I write because I need to tell a story and how much do I write because you need to hear a story? What's more important? The author's desire or the audience's need? Where's the balance? See, now I got started I'll just keep going until I work myself up into mild hysterics.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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mlahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
I'm bored, though.
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On the other hand, I love to get feedback. I admit, I like complimentary feedback, but that's partly because I'm incredibly insecure, and like to know there at least some people who have read what I wrote, and think it has some redeeming features. And the possibility of more feedback is one more thing that prods me to write. Maybe not the initial writing, but it prods me to fill in gaps, and edit, and proofread, because those aren't parts I usually feel inspired or compelled to do. And the validation helps, because it gives me more confidence to try more ambitious things.
I also think the act of posting makes you more needy for feedback. I can be perfectly content with a piece of writing, but the minute I post it to my website or LJ, I get nervous, and if I hear nothing, then I feel that either the silence is damning in itself, or I need to post somewhere that gets more traffic, because I can't expect to be stalked fanatically.
But I've never once started a piece of writing because I wanted to get feedback. Not because I'm too good a person for that, but because the desire for an egoboo doesn't actually translate into an idea for a story and the compulsion to write it down. But that doesn't mean the desire to communicate isn't a valid reason to write or post. Am I making any sense?
caia
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I have written things specifically because I needed the ego-stroking. I won't deny that several of my shorter smut pieces were for that purpose and that purpose only. But, alternately, the longer pieces were purely labors of love and though my mood would change with the number of reviews I did and didn't get, there was never a doubt in my mind that the stories would be finished, regardless.
But I've never once started a piece of writing because I wanted to get feedback. Not because I'm too good a person for that, but because the desire for an egoboo doesn't actually translate into an idea for a story and the compulsion to write it down. But that doesn't mean the desire to communicate isn't a valid reason to write or post.
I think this might not be a major issue in fanfic. I mean, what do fanfic authors really need to communicate? "Spike is worthy of Buffy's love...awwwww...." This might be more of an issue for the guy who works and slaves over his ms for five years and then sends it off to 10,000 publishers and pounds the pavement looking for a break. Because damnit, he's got something to say...
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I guess I don't mind that you (or others) write oneshot smut to get a positive response, because while good writing is still crucial, we don't usually read PWP looking for literary merit. I think what you were saying about the pitfalls of writing for feedback have more to do with people who only write at ALL for feedback. Which almost invariably results in less quality fic if not outright badfic. It's that fine line between "feedback makes me happy and might encourage me to post faster" and "Plz give me feedback if you want more or there won't be any!"
caia
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