Another question, O flist...and pictures!

[tabaqui]

Or, rather - links to pictures. Remember when i posted about my books being mostly unpacked and bookshelves up? And i had pictures of said shelves?

Some of you were all 'i can't read the titles!' and i said i'd take pictures that showed the titles. I did! Of a few shelves. But they're *very big*, so i'm only putting the links here, rather than actually putting the images up. So click at your own risk! :)

Shelf one.
Shelf two.
Shelf three.
Shelf four.

And now...and observation. Or, the question. And this is not - let me be clear, *not* - a plea for more comments or a whine about how 'nobody wuvs me!'. It's just something i noticed and thought was interesting.

When i posted the first installment of Aftermath, it ended up with an astonishing 221 comments. Now, take out half of those for my replies, and say another ten for back-and-forth, that's still a *very*, very amazing 100 positive comments. The second and third parts, respectively, earned 133 and 95, or - 60 and say....42. Very, very nice. But why such a drop?

Was it because the second part didn't immediately follow on the first part, and people felt cheated? Was it because even though the header says Sam/Dean, there isn't any actual sex and in fact, only one brief kiss? Is it because it's 'unfinished' in that i don't have a number of parts and they can see how long until the end? It's odd.

And like i said - not begging for more comments, i'm perfectly happy with the amount that i get - my flist is amazing and wonderful and strokes my ego *quite* nicely. But the difference between parts one and three is really just...thought-provoking.

Any thoughts?

:)

Comments

[tabaqui]

Yeah, seems to be the 'consensus'. It's just odd to me, as i definitely comment on every chapter as i go, unless i do a 'read it all at once' thing...

:)

[tabaqui]

Heeeeeee.
I know!! I have to bookmark stuff and friend things just so i don't miss stuff. Sad!

*smooches you*

You roxor with the commenting and the luuurve, bay-bee.

[rahmi.livejournal.com]

I know I don't tend to read WIPs unless there's a projected number of chapters. *g* I hate sitting here going, "Is it done in this part? This one? THIS ONE?" and I get really twitchy when I see a Part 3/?. Makes it seem like people don't know what the plot is or how they're going to write the story.

I'm picky.

*twirls you*

[tabaqui]

HA!
Yeah, i generally have no clue. I usually have about half of something written when i post, and then i finish as i go.
:)

[rahmi.livejournal.com]

*grins* Yes, I am the dreaded "leaves no feedback until the last part" reader. If I leave feedback at all. *is a v. v. v. bad reader* You'd think I'd be better since I, you know, write. But, ah, no.

[tabaqui]

No cookie for you!!

[realtsunamigirl.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

I forebear.

[missus-grace.livejournal.com]

Love the book shelf pics. I think it should be a meme!

Not sure what to say about the drop in comments, but let's try an experiment. Start a new Spike/Xander story and see how many comments you get over a 3 chapter posting :)

A girl can hope, yeah?

*hopes desperately not to be flamed by SPN fans because I love the show, but I don't fanfic it*

[tabaqui]

If i could conceive of an original, good idea to write three parts of Spander, i would do it tonight! Sadly, i seem to come up with nothing fit for public perusal.

Never fear - no flames in this lj.
:)

[reremouse.livejournal.com]

People do that, man. Fact of life. I don't like it but there you go. I might get upwards of thirty comments on a first chapter but later ones are lucky to see ten. It's especially frustrating with second to last chapters - that get very little feedback as a rule - when it's a cowritten thing and someone else wrote the very last chapter. I'm pretty consistent - I either comment on every chapter or only on the last one if I read all at once. If I stop commenting it pretty much means I stopped reading.

There's days when it makes a body wonder why it bothers posting.

[bendtothesun.livejournal.com]

Books! So many good books and Little Bear! Firehouse Cat! I read those to the kids at my daycare all the time. Also I just want to come to your house and read. Mmm books.

Honestly with Aftermath verse, I read the first story liked it and commented because it was good but it wasn't my thing so I didn't come back. And I know a lot of people have a thing about WIP which I've never understood because well I've never been able to wait. :)

[tabaqui]

I find it *very* odd. I try to comment on all posts if i read them one at a time and yes, if i stop commenting, i'm probably not enjoying.

We post because...we must!
Writers!
:)

[tabaqui]

Hee. I luff my books.
:)

I can't wait, either! If the story's good i must have *more*....

[laazikaat.livejournal.com]

Yes! What missus_grace said!

Start a new Spike/Xander story and see how many comments you get over a 3 chapter posting *g*

*Spander fans unite!*

[tabaqui]

Heeee!
*wracks brain for decent idea that hasn't been done to death*

[kellifer-fic.livejournal.com]

See, I do too, but I totally understand that not everyone does. I think I collect lurkers which I'm perfectly fine with... :)

I do see people rec me places and they haven't commented and that's their way of feedbacking but sometimes you never know... :D

[innie_darling]

In my case, I absolutely loved the first piece - I thought it hit everything just right. I think because the first part felt like a finished story, I didn't think the other parts were necessary - not that they're bad stories, or poorly written, or anything like that. Just didn't have the impact that the first one did, because I thought the first one was all the verse that was needed.

Does that make sense?

(If it helps, my decision to have the Ben/Dean scenes end after scene twelve was based on the same reasoning - there's no more story to be told in this same way, in this same verse. Maybe at some point I'll write Ben and Dean, thirty years later, but it doesn't belong with the rest of the scenes.)

[tabaqui]

Oh, that makes perfect sense. I've felt the same way about many things. And i didn't have any plans for a 'verse when i wrote the first one. But i didn't like leaving the boys hanging, either, heh.

I do agree that the first one is more...something...than the others - i totally recognize that.
*pets the boys*

They really aren't *fixable*, or, Dean isn't, but i can't leave him in such misery, either.
:)

[tabaqui]

Now that's one thing i *always* miss, is if someone rec's my stuff. Unless they tell me, i have no clue whatsoever. It's cool if they do, though, although i would feel weird rec'ing a piece and never saying anything to the author.

*pets my lurkers*
The more the merrier!

[reremouse.livejournal.com]

Must be! I sure as hell wouldn't still be writing and posting Buffy exclusively if comments were my main motivator for writing and posting!

And yeah - sometimes I'll just be busy for a few chapters and then catch up all at once. But sometimes a cessation of comments does mean the story stopped being my cup of tea.

Insight into one lurker's mind

[lisas-secret.livejournal.com]

I rarely leave feedback, (even though I love everything you have ever written that I have read. I didn't read these stories because I am creeped out by Wincest, just a personal issue. But I have read all your Spander... repeatedly.) -- because I feel really, really self-conscious -- it's an anxiety disorder symptom that even my meds don't completely control. So, just to let you know, I love your stuff mightily and will try to give more fb. As for the drop off, if I had made a comment on the first one, I wouldn't do another because I would feel that the first was a major accomplishment. :-)

Re: Insight into one lurker's mind

[tabaqui]

Heh.

Good to know!
We writers love *whatever* fb we get. Well, okay, not so much the 'omg, you suck!' kind, but...
Yeah. Even a smile face is good.
:)

[randomstasis.livejournal.com]

LOL- Your bookshelves have the same *ahem* "personal organization system" mine do! (i.e., I've given up trying to sort by subject, and now they're pretty much size-graded, although I do try to keep non-fiction out of the fiction)
And I should have known you were a Gene Wolfe fan, just by the fascinations your writing displays.

FB- Haven't commented on the latest yet, just because I didn't realize it was posted- busy summer, so I didn't see it pop up on the flist, and I'm not sure I expected more in the 'verse.
The original was presented as a finished one-shot, and was great, so a lot of people came to read and comment, just because it was very timely too. The second and third were less so, (right now there are a lot of post finale fics- I think yours kicked off a whole lot of PTSD fics, in fact, so the sequels are tending to get lost in the crowd) & required reading the first, so it's a WIP, and that puts people off- most will wait and comment at the end. Besides, As I recall, you weren't committed to anymore than the one sequel, and at first even insisted it was only a one-shot.

And yeah, sequels, meh- you know!
And Wincest does scare many off- it's just kind of "eeuw" that this fandom's OTP is incest.
Many prefer case fics & gen to porn, slash and especially incest. (I'll never understand how females manage to consider M/M slash the hottest sort of sex, myself- never thought sex was a purely spectator sport before fanfic!;)
Thanks to folks like you and Astolat, I've been forced to reconsider my kneejerk rejection, though..hate to miss good fic because of prejudice! Even so, it's not something I go looking for.
And yeah, the people hoping for porn might have felt cheated.:) too bad!
Double whammy on the wincest warning there though!

[tabaqui]

Heee!
I have a sort of organization. I've got things grouped by umm...dunno how you'd call it...theme?

So i've got things like 'The Town and the City' with 'Shogun' and 'The Last Temptation of Christ' because that's modern lit, then things like 'Robin Hood', Keats, and 'My Antonia' together because....it's not? Hee.
Not *terribly* thematic but maybe it's more the feel than the actual content.

I wasn't really sure, as i finished the first one, that i *was* going to write more. But then it just seemed to cruel to leave Dean hanging, and i felt like i wanted to tell more - hopefully get him to a better place. So, a 'verse is born! :) I haven't seen *too* many PTSD fics, but i'll take your word for it. I imagine it's a pretty common 'bunny' right now.

Sequels, meh? You don't like sequels? :)

It's funny, but incest as far as in a movie/book/play has never bothered me. Or - let me qualify. Sibling incest doesn't bother me. Parent/child *does*, and i don't touch that, or read it, but some of the very first 'grown up' characters i ever wrote were brother and sister - usually twins - and always involved in some way. Either 'too close' or actually physically involved. I dunno why - it's just always been part of my writing. So Supernatural is like...nothing new, heh. And even if i write a story that's gen, in my head, they're together.

I cheat people on the pr0n a lot these days! Heeee.

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

I think I actually missed the second part. And I'm on your flist. Maybe that's happening with other people too? They aren't reading because they're not seeing them, since you are posting them in between gaps.
*strokes your ego, just for good measure*