A general comment about Fanworks subforums

[towermaster2]

This has been troubling me for a while now, but I feel that I have time get this of my chest. Fanworks subforums are one of the most brutal areas on the Internet, not because they are unfriendly, but because of the fact that the people on these subforums have high expectations and detest change, no matter how interesting, ambitious or quirky that change may be. Being a fan fiction writer myself(kind of) I haven't had much sucess, mainly because of certain barriers.

The first major barrier is the fact no matter how much you update, people are going to lose interest. Some people don't have the time or energy to write or draw everyday, and even if you want to some event is going to get in the way. The damage is not done to the object of interest, but the creator of said object. It can be quite disheartening to see people essentially ignore your work, even if they are interested. People don't seem to realize how important a comment on work actually is. A bit of praise or constructive criticism can fuel people's desire to work because they feel like they have made a difference, a change that has affected someone positively.

The second barrier is people's expectations and customs. There is little to say here except that people should attempt to be open minded and read what they normally wouldn't. Not only for the people who are writing these, but also for yourself. You might like something you though you would hate, or vice versa.

I thank you for essentially reading me rant.

[rewdew2]

Well, i agree with this (mostly)

I used to write a fanfiction for KSP, however, people quickly lost interest, and I sort of gave up on that.

now i mostly make 3D pictures, because they're easier for me to make than a 3000 word story.

Now that I think about it, I haven't really been ready many of the writings, and I guess that's on me.

In fact, now that I think about it. I mostly only look at 5 or 6 threads in the fanworks area...

[DMagic]

It can be quite disheartening to see people essentially ignore your work, even if they are interested. People don't seem to realize how important a comment on work actually is.

This is very true. It's always nice, even if it's just a "thanks for this" or "that was great" kind of thing (it doesn't hurt that it bumps your thread up, too). Though I'm probably guilty of not doing that enough on others' threads, I should try to change that. To be fair though, some of the longer 'writing' posts can be a little daunting if you don't want to spend much time reading on the forums.

[NASAFanboy]

This is true.

I don't know whats wrong with my work-I've deleted entire chapters that I found "unneeded" or "cluttering", and am rewriting everything, plus adding humor.

This happens to most AARs I post, not sure on what's wrong.

Will try to rework in future.

[Will Fawkes]

In general lack of feedback or commentary outside of what you get from hunting people down and sitting on them while force feeding your manuscript down their throat is disheartening. It saps your desire to keep going even if you actually like riting because that fear creeps in that you're hounding up the wrong tree and even if you write 'for you' when you post somewhere publicly accessible there is an expectation that it'll get some small amount of traffic and hopefully some feedback. Not getting this just plain kills any momentum you had

Source: I've been writing off and on for years. Just not anything KSP related.

[KSK]

A bit of praise or constructive criticism can fuel people's desire to work because they feel like they have made a difference, a change that has affected someone positively.

The second barrier is people's expectations and customs. There is little to say here except that people should attempt to be open minded and read what they normally wouldn't. Not only for the people who are writing these, but also for yourself. You might like something you though you would hate, or vice versa.

I thank you for essentially reading me rant.

Agree with these points in particular. I like to think that I'd be persevering with my own story regardless but being honest with myself, at the least, I would probably have been a lot slower to release updates. Getting feedback has been a huge motivation booster, whether on thread, through rep comments or from PMs.

About the second point - I would add to this - go and watch or even listen to things that you might not normally try. I definitely have a bias towards writing threads ( ) but there's good stuff on these forums in all sorts of media.

[Xacktar]

Part of the problem is that when the people here start reading about KSP, their hands automatically boot up the game and alt-tab to it out of sheer addiction... That's not just me, right?

XD

Seriously, though. What you said is pretty common around all fan-art places. The fan-art crowd is normally pretty small, and worse, insular. So there is only so much traction a piece can get when its released in a small art club every week. Two things help with this.

First, write/draw/design for yourself first. This is good advice for any situation. Make it so that as long as you did a good job, it doesn't matter how many people like it or comment on it.

Second, spread it around. We live in a digital age with tons of avenues to discus the same thing. I know KSP has a facebook, twitter, steam page and these forums... oh, and reddit? (never used reddit, don't know much there) You might get lucky and your stuff gets noticed in one of these places.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Xacktar

[czokletmuss]

Crap, I wrote a long, long answer to this thread but I accidentaly deleted it >_<

So just a short summary:

1. Write for yourself

2. Low expectations is a key to not be dissapointed

3. Treat it like fun, not like a job/challenge/quest to have a lot of views/comments/whatever

I may expand on it later but now I'm just frustrated that I've lost 15 minutes of preparing the post...

[Krevsin]

Well, my AAR was cut short by the fact the save file got even more corrupted and whatever attempt at trying to fix it resulted in my game exploding, so I just stopped doing it.

Otherwise, I still have a few AARs planned, but my current schedule is too busy to accomodate them.