I will officially never write anything ever again if I can't make myself stay away from this thread...
Most importantly, write because you love it and not because you want FDK.
*applauds*
Yes, yes, yes.
I loved all your suggestions, Jojo, but that's my favorite. The writer's love for what they're doing and love of the characters shines through in the writing. It even has the power to overcome some technical imperfections, I believe.
Re: responding to feedback. I do try to respond to feedback, though perhaps not as assiduously as some of the others writing here. I always respond if asked a question, however, or if I feel a point needs clarification, and I try to thank those who take time to review, because I know it
does take time and effort.
However, we carry things with us sometimes from one fandom to the next, and I've picked up one (probably nutty) thing in my travels that sometimes deters me from responding to my own feedback threads. One of the fandoms in which I've been peripherally involved prides itself on being Very Very Polite. This manifests itself in a number of ways, but one of them is the firm belief that every author should have a chance to have his or her story at the top of the board for a reasonable amount of time. So not only is daily posting considered bad form, it's expressly forbidden. If you post more than once every three days (I think that's the number) your post gets yanked and you get put on some sort of probation.
I've never even posted a WIP in that fandom, but I've hung around enough to have the idea burned into my brain that burying someone else's story on the boards is impolite. So if I go to respond to one of my FDK threads, and I see that someone else has just updated a story, I'll often decide just to wait rather than to push my FDK thread to the top by replying. I do realize that most people here probably think that's
completely crazy, but I thought I'd throw it out there just because LabRat's post made me think of it.
And also, on a somewhat related note, is there some reason there couldn't be separate sections for FDK and stories? I've always wondered about that, and it was one of the few things I found very confusing about this board when I first came here. The blue arrow helps, of course, but it sure seems like it would be simpler to have stories in one forum and FDK in another.
Caroline
