Of FFs, Comments and PMs - Page 2

I agree completely. I write because I like to write. And if you comment...yay for me. If you don't...thats OK too. My ego is healthy enough to survive. One thing I will say...there are many people on my buddy list who I know for a fact write FFs and they don't PM me...because I never asked for it. So..there are all kinds out there. And I really appreciate that..I don't enjoy being peppered with a gazillion pms a day...I might sound like a bitch, but I'm basically a nice person..so I don't enjoy ignoring people. Makes me feel guilty.

Originally posted by: Neemsundari

Before I say anything else, I'd like to say this:

Some of the FFs I have read on the forum have been far better in terms of writing, entertainment and meaning than the show itself. I think a lot of us will agree on that.

I will now come to the FF writers asking for comments.

I Only ever comment when the FF/ OS moves me to do so. Often all I do is Like and move on.

There are FFs I stalk to an extent that I read their updates before I receive their PMs. Some of the FFs by HeadoverHeels, Minimuffin, Nayika, Madmaxine, Napstermonster, Marybarton, Telefan, Lyra99, Marii, Chinnu, and OSes by Smitar, Mandira, Serialjunkie and more recently the FF by Inked have impressed me to the extent that I keep refreshing their pages to look for updates whenever I am online. Those names are off the top of my head---there are quite a few more, and they deserve a mention too---will update them as my sieve-like brain remembers.

It amuses me to see some FF writers PMing me (when I have not asked for it) and then sending threats on their posts and PMs about un-buddying me, not sending me PMs any more etc.

I write for a living, and have also written a bit of fanfic myself, a few OS es and one unfinished FF on IF, and I do know how much time and effort it takes to write them--- but personally, I write for my own pleasure, and couldn't care less if I don't get too many comments. I did PM a few folks who asked for them, but never told anyone I'll "clear my list" if they didn't respond with a comment!

So,

To all the FF writers I love: Your writing is well worth it, and all your threats are taken in good spirit. I understand it takes time to send PMs and comment love is your only incentive. I will comment when I have good stuff to say, which will be often, but probably not every time.

To all FF writers who send me PMs without my request: Please bear with me. If I'm bowled over with your work, I'll comment. If I like it , I'll press the Like button. If I'm ho-hum about it, I'll move on.

Happy to have got that off my chest!

In the end, I'd just like to say that however much I feel that show can do better in certain episodes, I have to say that the characters of Arnav and Khushi and all the others have been well etched by our CVs, making the reading and writing of FFs such an obsessive pastime on this forum.

this is a democratic forum & i guess i ve equal right 2 disagree with ur views. writers including me complain due 2 the following reasons:

1. i clearly mention in the PM either hit the LIKE button or comment. v want them 2 at least hit the LIKE button. if they dont like they can v well say y they dint like it. i always welcome constructive criticism.
2. in case u r not interested v writers simply request them 2 unbuddy us. all the writers clearly mention that. if u no longer want SPAM PMs frm that person y dont u simply UNBUDDY that writer. i ve 390+ ppl in my list. how do u expect me 2 find out who is no longer active & remove them. ls it not basic courtesy for the receiver 2 simply unbuddy me. life becomes so easy then.
3. finally i only complain coz i ve never sent PMs 2 any1 voluntarily. i send only 2 those who ve specifically commented on my story & requested me 2 add them in the PM list. so whose fault is it. i know a few writers whom i ve added in my list coz i like 2 read their stories. but they ve never ever read my stories. i got the hint & never PMed them with my updates.

hope u understand my view pt now.

Originally posted by: Pearl_mystic

First of all - an excellent post..!

I may be considered at fault here - 'cause I have once sent a PM with a similar message for un-buddying - for which I immediately felt guilty when some of the people who read my work regularly replied back; but then again, there are certain things for which I would like to defend myself and some other writers who have sent such PMs...

Some people genuinely read the chapters and you get to know the extent of their involvement into the FF just by reading the comment... As Tangam rightly pointed out that comments are something that come naturally...

But then what are you supposed to do when someone adds you to the buddy list expecting a PM for the next update - saying stuff like 'OMG - This is too good' etc etc etc and then never bother to open a PM - let alone read it? You can hardly group your buddys - one which you are going to send un-buddying PMs and the other without it!

You might have made this post from your point of view, I agree - but again, I know even the writers you mentioned above - who are more than brilliant at writing - have faced the same thing at some point of time - people request PMs and then completely ignore them!!! Being on the receiving end, we may not realize what goes behind writing such PMs - and till the time when I had to send a PM with such kind of a message, even I never realized what the need was for all such drama! But there comes a point when as a writer, you just can't take the ignorance from people who have praised your work in the past!

There are some writers here that need to improve seriously on the grammar and the vocab front - and some merely copy stuff and ideas from numerous sources - and I'm against such PMs from these writers. But some of the story writers are so original and narrate the story with amazing finesse - and if you think from their point of view they aren't wrong. Most of them are not professional writers and they pen down their imagination at their leisure and a little appreciation is what they need in the end...

I don't know what caused this upsurge from you, but you need to think from both sides about this... And I think being a writer yourself, you can understand this better than most of the people. And if you seriously don't want PMs from certain people, there is always the option of blocking a person - just in case!

Sorry for the lengthy post! But I hope you understand my point'

Nothing in particular caused this upsurge, other than finding a gazillion PMs in my inbox I had never asked for.

I do understand how much effort goes into writing--- I make my living writing fiction---and I have tried sending PMs to folks who asked me for my FF (which I haven't finished, so sue me), and found it hard.

My whole point is this: if you're putting up your work in a public forum, do not expect to be compensated with appreciation/ criticism---people will read what they will. In the real world, I can't write letters to all my readers asking them to "better write me back!" about my stories! I know the forum is not the real world in general, but we are still real people here, real readers---so can the writers be real writers, have some sense of the dignity of their own work and stop asking for comments?

I do not want to hold my own work up as an example, but let me do that (thereby inviting joote-chappal-s)---if you go see any of my work, there is no appeal to like and comment---only gratitude expressed that people have bothered to do so. And all of them have got more comments than I probably deserve, because these are stories I typed out as my own brand of de-stressing.

Bottomline: If your work is good enough, people will comment/ like. Stop asking people for those. If you find PMing people such a chore, don't PM them.

Originally posted by: Lyraa99

I agree with u... I personally dont mind silent readers as i mention many times but i always feel that pressing the like button is the least they can do as an acknowledgement to the pm.. whether they are readers or not...

yes we are writers and we write for our amusement.. commenting should not be a compulsion... it should come from heart and not done just for the sake of it...

but yea readers should make it a point to hit a like button and unbuddy a writer if they dont want pms...(pming being the major issue here)

btw a good post

Firstly, Lyraa, I love your work, and am happy you don't think commenting should be a compulsion.

But I'd like to keep being buddies with people, sometimes I want to discuss something non-fiction but show-related with them, and then pm is the only way.

That said, I'll try and un-buddy the most annoying ones.

But receiving un-invited PMs is not the only issue here: I'm just saying that writers need to enjoy their writing enough not to have to threaten their readers--while I agree some of the best writers of this forum and on blogs do use threats like that, I find it in slightly poor taste. I'll take it from those who really write well, but not so much from someone who can't decently string a few sentences together.

I comment on those whose work makes me want to say something good about them--- and I don't think I've gone away from pressing the Like button on any of the stuff that I find decent.

Originally posted by: ss374

I agree with you every point Sai!!!
You have just penned down everything I wanted to say.

One more thing that I would like to add is that even I am not a great writer...there are many better writers in this forum...and I never force anyone to read my work...but then ppl ask for PMs and never bother to comment or even hit a like button.

So basically I also write for my pleasure...even if I get one comment...it doesnt matter.

Edit: And one thing more that I would like to add is that there are so many new good writers in this forum which are not appreciated at times...b/c they are new. Something which even tnagam has said above.

@bold : I 👏applaud that sentiment.

And as to those who ask for PMs but never comment--- you could always stop PMing them.

Law of reading and writing: If you write well, you'll find readers, and appreciation, sooner rather than later.

Originally posted by: columbia

wow i am really surprised at such a post. becos i have never seen a post like this b4. writers i know put in lot of effort to write and if they demand a comment let them do so. if they threaten on a PM say it back to them on a PM why all this on a public forum. the best way to respond to a writer's ott antics is to stop reading his or her ffs. i have read quite a few ffs here and there are so many its amazing. but i must say one thing, about this forum's writers. very few of them finish what they start and no one has bothered making a good index of all the ff- cataloging them as incomplete/complete. in most forums i have been to - when you catalog as complete/incomplete- automatically writers pull up their socks and readers comment.

I don't want to PM each writer individually because I want to address all the writers on this forum.

My message is this: I appreciate the work writers put in to their work and their PMs---but that should not automatically mean they should expect comments. If their work is good, they will get comments and Likes---I don't think there is a huge need for them to PM bunches of readers. It is easy to keep track of an FF once you've commented on it, it appears in "My posts".

I find that some people still hound my unfinished FF (yep, I know, bad form to leave it unfinished---but the show isn't very inspiring these days) despite not being sent PMs.

Originally posted by: madmaxine

I agree completely. I write because I like to write. And if you comment...yay for me. If you don't...thats OK too. My ego is healthy enough to survive. One thing I will say...there are many people on my buddy list who I know for a fact write FFs and they don't PM me...because I never asked for it. So..there are all kinds out there. And I really appreciate that..I don't enjoy being peppered with a gazillion pms a day...I might sound like a bitch, but I'm basically a nice person..so I don't enjoy ignoring people. Makes me feel guilty.

And honestly...I don't comment on a lot of stories. Because I am lazy as hell and I don't read most of them. (Yeah...kill me. I write FFs, but I read very few!) But I shouldn't feel guilty, because I never asked anyone to pm me with their stories...so its not like I made a commitment to read anything regularly.

So, yeah man...I hear you. Thanks for saying it.

@bold: precisely my point.

And you're one writer whose work I would use my spare time to hunt out on the forum. I don't need PMs---I'll stalk you.

This is what I want to point out to all writers---if they write well, the readers will come. Just be persistent. No point hawking things and then getting upset if no one shows up at the party.

You know you could just stop reading and take the people who add you on purpose off of your pm list

Originally posted by: Angels11

this is a democratic forum & i guess i ve equal right 2 disagree with ur views. writers including me complain due 2 the following reasons:

1. i clearly mention in the PM either hit the LIKE button or comment. v want them 2 at least hit the LIKE button. if they dont like they can v well say y they dint like it. i always welcome constructive criticism.
2. in case u r not interested v writers simply request them 2 unbuddy us. all the writers clearly mention that. if u no longer want SPAM PMs frm that person y dont u simply UNBUDDY that writer. i ve 390+ ppl in my list. how do u expect me 2 find out who is no longer active & remove them. ls it not basic courtesy for the receiver 2 simply unbuddy me. life becomes so easy then.
3. finally i only complain coz i ve never sent PMs 2 any1 voluntarily. i send only 2 those who ve specifically commented on my story & requested me 2 add them in the PM list. so whose fault is it. i know a few writers whom i ve added in my list coz i like 2 read their stories. but they ve never ever read my stories. i got the hint & never PMed them with my updates.

hope u understand my view pt now.

Of course, you're welcome to disagree which is what the forum is about.

1. If you read my posts on this thread, you'll realize that all I'm saying is: if your work is good, people will automatically like/comment. Asking them to do so is going against the dignity of your work. If you welcome constructive criticism, here is one of the post you have made here: Writers write in complete sentences, not text-speak, even on forum posts. Hunt out all the good writers on this forum--they never shorten their words.

2. Sure, folks can unbuddy you if they don't want updates, and that is a valid request. But my point is not about annoying PMs---it is about the attitude of a writer---I've bolded out my message in Point 1.

3. Completely with you there---if you only PM folks who asked for it, that's fine... As long as you remember that my only message is that your work should speak for itself--- you shouldn't need to PM anyone. I did PM a few folks who asked for them about my few OS and half-finished FF, but gave up soon afterwards. For a writer, it should be important to enjoy their writing, any comments are an added bonus.