Hi. Why yes, I am distracting myself.

[scarletmorning]

I hate Sandman and Neil Gaiman. And Alan Moore writes boring stuff. That's why my brain wanders. And today it made me think about reviews.

This incoherent rambling is not directed at anybody nor is it triggered by someone on my flist. If I would have to name a source of my thoughts, it would be the German ff.de.

So I was thinking about my attitude to reviews and the attitude of other people. And I noticed that yes, I get very few reviews. Especially since I seem to write mostly about minor characters that few people care about (Brokings). I don't think I have a big audience or people interested in what I write. Which is fine for me. There is also always the fact that people might be turned off by my English, but I have to admit that this thought doesn't cross my mind often (Yep, I'm either that confident or that uncaring).

And I don't particular care. I don't really care if a story doesn't get any reviews (like Rose and That dear child on ff.net). I do love every review I get, of course, but getting no reviews doesn't gnaw on my confidence. Now I was contemplating where this sentiment comes from, especially when I read about people being sad or annoyed that nobody comments. And sometimes I don't understand them. Yes, comments are love, but I don't need them.

Part of that I contribute to my personality. In real life I don't care that much about what other people think about me or about what I do (there are always exceptions) as well. So I care even less about the opinion of anonymous internet people.

Then again, I come from a tiny, tiny fandom. And yes, that fandom is Fire Emblem. Let me explain: I've started writing fanfiction in German. And there are whooping 62 Fire Emblem stories on ff.de. There were, I believe, less than 30 when I started. I am used to getting almost no reviews, because that is normal when almost two third of those stories (62) are written by me. There are maybe two or three active writers (I am excluding myself, because I haven't written anyhting in German for months). So I am reverse-spoilt. I'm used to getting no reviews.

I don't know if the people complaining about getting no reviews are used to get many or if they just complaining because. I don't really get it.

Anyway. I'll continue writing minor characters and family and sibling stories and gen and romance nobody cares about. Deal with it. <3

Comments

[raphiael]

Complaining about review count, in any fandom, is just bad form, IMO. No one is obligated to review anything, really.
That having been said, it seems to me like there are a lot of factors that go into getting reviews or not getting them. Shorter stories are more likely to get a lot of attention than really long ones (just in terms of oneshots). Popular games (FE7, FE9/10) will probably get more than others. And then, popular character/pairings will draw more people in. It also seems to me like romance stories are really popular.

Like, in my own work? "The Essence of Wisdom" is really one of my favorite fics I've written. Compare that (not really popular game, unpopular character) with something I've written about a really popular guy like Lucius, and it's clear which one gets more hits and reviews.

But writing quality? Doesn't often factor in. Look at all the shitty fics that have huge review counts. Often those reviews are something like "waaa so cute" or "I like ur OC" or whatever. Whereas the smaller stories often have more in-depth, thoughtful reviews and followers - particularly the ones for smaller fanbases and odd characters.

TL;DR: Reviews are nice, but the number you get really means jack-diddly about your writing.

[rethira.livejournal.com]

Begging for reviews - particularly the type where the author says they won't update until they've received X amount of reviews - really annoys me. If I want to review, I will. If I don't, I won't. Begging doesn't help their case.

Not getting many reviews is just one of those things. But it's really nice to see authors who really deserve reviews getting them, without ever asking. I just get warm fuzzies whenever I see a huge review count for a really good fic.