When someone comments on your fanfiction, do you reply?

I don't have a ton of comments on my writings, really. But I've got a few. Are you expected to reply when someone asks a question or is it best not to?

@spitfirepanda: I try to respond to everyone, but I probably miss some. To me, the whole purpose of posting in a public forum is to see what others have to say about it. These are set up as threads to promote conversation, so it seems kind of weird not to respond. Not that everything needs a response. Some people are just trolling to provoke anger, and some just post something that only requires a "Thank you."

Also, I don't see it to be as true in Fan-Fic, but when I was more active with blogs in other forums, I found that the fact that I responded often led people to read two or three more blogs, and comment on those as well. So ideally there's a nice give-and-take to it.

@cbishop: Thanks for the advice :)

How do you respond to advice? My story is finished, and someone is pointing out inconsistencies. I know it's not perfect, and I don't think they're being mean. Should I argue my case and defend what can be defended or just say "thank you"?

@spitfirepanda: (Sorry, this got long. I do that.) ;}

You kind of have to gauge that on a case-by-case basis. Some will just be mean, but generally speaking on the Fan-Fic forum, we tend to offer advice because we want to see your story be the absolute coolest it can be. We all want to tell a kick-butt story, but we want to read kick-butt stories too.

If they're not meaning to be mean, then don't respond mean. There's nothing wrong with defending something you think is right, but if it's wrong, just "thanks" or "nice catch" or "I'll change that," or whatever. If it's a lot of a particular thing, sometimes the only thing you can do is say, "Yeah, that's a problem, and I'm working on it." Not everyone edits, and no one is flawless. This being an international site, some people are dealing with English not being their native language, and once you know that you just have to overlook some stuff, or a thread can get bogged down in nitpicks.

Of course, if there's a reason for the "wrong" thing, there's nothing wrong with saying that either.

What do you mean by inconsistencies though? If it's something like "Jada ran down to the beach," but last paragraph she was "lounging in her mountain cabin," then that's probably a problem that needs to be addressed- how did she get from the cabin to the beach? Now if the explanation is "she was dreaming" or "she was teleporting," then as long as there's eventually an explanation that she was dreaming or teleporting, then it's all good.

Sometimes people will go to the trouble of picking out every little mistake in your writing and pointing it out. If they do, it's usually because they have the impression that a) your story is good despite the mistakes, and that b) you probably want to improve, so they dissect it so you can see problems that need work.

Generally, if someone reads a story and it's just horrible, and the writer posted something that indicates they think it's the greatest thing since Superman or Star Wars, then they're probably not going to respond well to critiques. So no one will point out their mistakes, because it's not worth the time and the argument. If they're pointing out problems with your writing though, then they probably think your story is cool, and they want to see you get better. :)

Also, keep in mind that not everyone offering a critique is right. It's okay to disagree, and like I said, these things are set up to promote conversation. If someone gets out of hand though, that's what we have moderators for.

I try to. Never ran into any trolling on comicvine. (Fanfiction.net though... Don't even get me started.)

Sometimes things just warrant a thank you. If it's constructive criticism consider it. Or if a reader has questions about what you wrote, answer. I try to do all that when replying and when I leave comments I try to point out things I liked or if something needs more detail point it out as gently as possible.

@cbishop: The inconsistency in my story involved a young/small character bringing six suits of armor to some main characters. This character has had at least one crazy strength feat (for her size) in the canon, though. That's arguably toonforce, but she's hauling mail armor with help from her friends in my story so I think I could make the point that she could handle this. You could probably make a valid point that she couldn't, too, so I don't know what to do. So far I've just thanked the person and moved on, though I'm still considering arguing my case.

@spitfirepanda: If someone asks you a question, why wouldn't you respond?

@spitfirepanda: Ehhhh, that kind of inconsistency, I say "whatever." If your story is more real world setting, then maybe address that. If it's more just fun, forget about it- she carried six suits of armor up the hill while juggling the swords that go with them. ;)

Thanks for all the advice, folks :)

I tend to respond to people who either have a question or a point about something in the writing. I don't bother with replying in any way to negative feedback since... what can you do? And I generally save the stand alone 'thank you's' for the bottom of the next chapter.

I love replying, and getting feedback. I wish more people did so. You can tell many "SAW" what you wrote, but not what they thought. Isn't that the reason we put ourselves out there? Good or Bad?

Yeah it is a problem knowing people read but don't comment. To be honest though, aside from the terrible trollish comments, any feedback should be seen as a compliment. I'm really convinced to start a book club style thing where a group of us choose one or two fan-fics for the week (from group members) and comment on a PM.

Not sure if anyone would agree to that though

If you want the comments, you can send the mail, and ask for feedback. I don't do that way because I let the readers decide for themselves, and then choose whether they want to comment or not. That depends if they want to read it. It's like an author expecting his/her books to get sold by customers rather than asking to pick them up. I'm not sure if that's how it works, but I believe there's some marketing strategy involved in selling a book.

Since this is fan-fiction, it's alright to ask for feedback. It wouldn't hurt because you get to know what you did right, and what you did wrong. Or maybe, the readers don't want to point out the mistakes, and the writer might disagree. It's alright to disagree, as long you don't get it turned into a heated argument. Sometimes, you have to agree of what they say. That way, you can fix the mistakes. People have different opinions about the stories being written, just like they have different opinions of watching movies. Some of them will say, the movie was good, and the others will say, it was bad. It's like yin and yang. Agree or disagree. Also, you'll have to answer the questions if the readers were confused of what you wrote.

There's another case that someone might get busy, and probably don't have the time to read fan-fics. I've tried to read all the fan-fics, but I just had to do something else. People also work. Sometimes, if I see an interesting fan-fic, I tend to read it, maybe one or two, and then make a comment. If I have nothing else to do, then I might read most of them.

I don't yet have a lot of comments, but I definitely respond to the ones I get. So far it's mostly feedback, and all feedback is good feedback at this point. I try to keep it going, because the more comments that show on my threads the better.

This was bumped by a spammer. The post has been deleted.

Woot! :)

When you delete a spam post from someone, does their account get shut down too?