If I wrote for the feedback, I never would have gotten to the point where I am today; I would have given up years ago. The first few years of writing fanfic were very nearly feedback-less for me; my 'success' (in terms of feedback') only started about three years ago. I've been writing for seven.
Add to the feedback-less years the extremely long time it takes me to finish anything (two years, three years, four years...), during which, of course, there is no feedback at all, and I think it's safe to say that I have a lot of intrinsic motivation for writing. ;-)
>But I don't write for the feedback anymore. And I think that's why I'm growing to be less neurotic about it all.
As I said, I never wrote *for* the feedback. However, *getting* some feedback (and especially, getting *perceptive* feedback that told me *why* something worked, and getting good feedback from authors I admire) definitely helped *me* to become less neurotic. I'd always had some belief in myself, or I wouldn't have been able to keep going for so long with little to no outside affirmation, and I did see improvement in my writing over the years, but when there were finally signs that other people saw those improvements, too, and thought I was a decent writer - well, that helped immensely. You need an incredibly strong belief in yourself to keep on believing even in the constant absence of confirmation, and I found it hard, sometimes.
>In the beginning, when I was more about the reaction, I was also more about the late, late nights trying to figure out how to get the reaction. Now I'm about the late, late nights trying to craft the story the way I want it to go.
Heh. See, I was always about the crafting of the story. Still am, always will be (I hope).
>The reaction is awesome because it confirms or denies what I thought of the story.
Yeah, exactly. That's what I 'need' feedback for - to see if the story 'works' the way I intended it to work.
>(Re: Starving on the Jump Down - "very bitter" was mine, wasn't it?
Nope. Actually, you didn't give me feedback on "Starving..." (except for the quick beta-thing - 'No language problems at all. But you're very mean.' Okay, I guess that *is* feedback, of sorts. *g* Maybe I should add the 'you're very mean' to the post above.)
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I'm not writing for the feedback. I do treasure the feedback that I get, though.
Date: 2007-05-17 02:09 am (UTC)If I wrote for the feedback, I never would have gotten to the point where I am today; I would have given up years ago. The first few years of writing fanfic were very nearly feedback-less for me; my 'success' (in terms of feedback') only started about three years ago. I've been writing for seven.
Add to the feedback-less years the extremely long time it takes me to finish anything (two years, three years, four years...), during which, of course, there is no feedback at all, and I think it's safe to say that I have a lot of intrinsic motivation for writing. ;-)
>But I don't write for the feedback anymore. And I think that's why I'm growing to be less neurotic about it all.
As I said, I never wrote *for* the feedback. However, *getting* some feedback (and especially, getting *perceptive* feedback that told me *why* something worked, and getting good feedback from authors I admire) definitely helped *me* to become less neurotic. I'd always had some belief in myself, or I wouldn't have been able to keep going for so long with little to no outside affirmation, and I did see improvement in my writing over the years, but when there were finally signs that other people saw those improvements, too, and thought I was a decent writer - well, that helped immensely. You need an incredibly strong belief in yourself to keep on believing even in the constant absence of confirmation, and I found it hard, sometimes.
>In the beginning, when I was more about the reaction, I was also more about the late, late nights trying to figure out how to get the reaction. Now I'm about the late, late nights trying to craft the story the way I want it to go.
Heh. See, I was always about the crafting of the story. Still am, always will be (I hope).
>The reaction is awesome because it confirms or denies what I thought of the story.
Yeah, exactly. That's what I 'need' feedback for - to see if the story 'works' the way I intended it to work.
>(Re: Starving on the Jump Down - "very bitter" was mine, wasn't it?
Nope. Actually, you didn't give me feedback on "Starving..." (except for the quick beta-thing - 'No language problems at all. But you're very mean.' Okay, I guess that *is* feedback, of sorts. *g* Maybe I should add the 'you're very mean' to the post above.)