Sometimes I reply to threads without considering my words (or current sobriety). Tonight I told myself that I didn't need to chime in, that I would only end up upsetting someone (even if it's just myself). But I'm going to say a few words and then hopefully read, re-read and edit liberally before I hit "add reply".
Years ago I wrote in another ficdom. It had been going strong for at least three years before I got there. It went on long after I lost interest. I don't read any of those stories anymore, nor do I have a desire to do so. I have two good friends from that long-ago era of my life that I still keep in touch with but our conversations have long since ceased to mention anything related to the fanfic we wrote.
Those two friends of mine encouraged me in a little experiment all those years ago. You see, after about a year of posting and writing my darndest I had reached the point where I felt accepted by the overall community. Not the "icons", but I'll get into that in a minute. But, and this was especially true of my early days there, it was *very hard-won*.
The eternal question of newbies being overlooked by the "icons" existed there. My friends and I knew that the bias existed, even though we had all finally clawed out our little niche. So I wrote a story, as a "newbie". It was carefully crafted (and smutty as all get-out). I kept it short (only five pages printed out). I fully expected that it would *bomb* big time. After all, only two people knew the real identity of the author and they were just dying to see me fail (we were weird that way). None of the other people who followed my stories knew I had written it.
That story caused ripples and debates because everyone was certain that it couldn't have been written by a true "newbie". The furor over "who wrote it?" was almost as gratifying as the feedback I received for it (and somewhat insulting since the possibility that I might have written it was discounted early in the guessing game). I honestly received more feedback for that story than any other I had written (or would write) in that fandom. To this day, I still get the occasional e-mail about it. To my utter delight I even heard from an "icon" about the story (one who never wrote me about any of my others - and who I heard through the grapevine was *distressed* to learn she had inadvertently praised me).
What I learned from that experiment was that, in the end, it's the story that matters. Is it hard to get noticed as a newbie? Oh, hell
YES! In this ficdom my first story had multiple parts that didn't even get *one* comment. (The Next Step PG version: parts 2-5 had 0 replies. Nfic version: parts 3-6 and 8-10 had 0 replies) Some of that was my fault - I didn't realize then that the way to garner feedback is to deliberately withhold the story. Maybe I would have given up on writing if I were doing this solely for the FDK. Like Caroline said so astutely - I *write* the stories for me, I *post* them for the FDK.
I am a terrible person because I know how much that FDK means and I still am lazy about replying. Mostly it's because there's very little time in my day that can be spent on fanfic and I usually end up using that to either write, beta or both. So I tend to leave feedback on the stories that I read as a beta. I keep meaning to be better and read more so that I can support the people who have been so lovely and supportive of me, but the time just slips away.
If you're new and you're discouraged I can only offer my heartfelt hope that you'll continue writing and posting. I know it's a daunting thing to post a story. I still feel nauseated each time I post something (other than cheeky replies like this). Like Nancy said, just getting a smiley face can make your entire day. It's so nice to realize that there was someone else on the other side of the computer monitor who read your words and cared enough to take the time to reply. And, if they don't reply, or only a couple of people reply (as with my first story) just keep going. Write it for you. Get a beta. I put a plea for a beta out there when I was writing my first story and.... <crickets chirping> I finally had to start e-mailing others who were also looking for a beta before someone finally took pity on me.
My biggest piece of advice would be to write an nfic story.
There are so many authors who post on the G side that it seems like everyone tends to get lost in the shuffle.
And now I've used up all my time for tonight. I should probably go back and re-read this but I'm too tired to see straight anymore. I hope I haven't upset or offended anyone - that was never my intent. This is such a wonderful little corner of the web and I count myself lucky to have found it.
