Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[0bs1d1an_kn1ght]

That does make me wonder: what do people consider successful on FF.net? Do you measure success in reviews, views, favs or follows, or a mix of them? And what is considered good in that sense? I don't mean like top tier 600 reviews a day - i'm thinking more realistic here

I dunno, I was kinda wondering the same thing. Though, I believe a story is successful through a mix of reviews/favs, and maybe the number of communities your story managed to be submitted to.

 

[AceTrainer14]

What do you guys consider good views for your work on there? Does anyone actually pay attention to their views?

 

[0bs1d1an_kn1ght]

What do you guys consider good views for your work on there? Does anyone actually pay attention to their views?

First off, define "good views". I'm kinda confused as to what you mean.

 

[AceTrainer14]

The story stats page. Quite simply, what's a daily or monthly number that you are satisfied with: i.e. do people consider 100/200/1000 good? I personally don't think I have ever gotten 1000 views in one day on FF.net.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I think it's been a year and a half since I looked at Storm Island's submission on there, I couldn't even say if anyone's paid attention to it.

 

[0bs1d1an_kn1ght]

The story stats page. Quite simply, what's a daily or monthly number that you are satisfied with: i.e. do people consider 100/200/1000 good? I personally don't think I have ever gotten 1000 views in one day on FF.net.

I don't think a 1000 views in one day can happen, unless your story just happens to be REALLY good. My story, Explorers of Destruction, for example, has been on there for months, and it's just now barely hit the 700 mark. Some days, I'll get almost 100 views, but others seem to feel like a drought. So if you want a good view count, I believe the trick is in a periodic uploading schedule, uploading new content within at least a week or two to keep your followers excited. That way, you'll at least keep your story at the top of the browser list.

But I don't really measure a story's worth on its views- that's like saying you measure a company's consumer base by how their logo looks. Does it look nice? Maybe, but does the logo really measure the store's quality? I more measure on their reviews/fave count: it shows that someone has looked at it, and is impressed enough to keep coming back to it. Whereas I consider the views like the wandering pedestrians just walking past, checking it out.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Idk, I have alerts for some stories that I never end up reading XD I definitely prefer getting reviews - I actually posted one chapter of a new story there the other day and got five reviews in two days which surprised me - but I think views are worth paying attention to. With a longer story like Eight Easy Steps, it can be nice to see if it gets read a lot in one day that there is someone out there binge-reading it.

 

[Legacy]

I definitely had an unfair advantage with the old version of TPI on FF.net because (A) it was in the anime-verse and (B) it had Pokeshipping and Pearlshipping. It sort of feels like a good bunch of readers are looking for those things on FF, and a lot of OC fics don't get the views they deserve on there.

You could say I'm pandering for views, and you wouldn't be wrong lol. I just enjoy writing fics more if I know people are at least reading it. I have other writing projects I do that are more just for myself.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Yeah, shipping is huge on there. I think anime and stuff involving Red/Leaf do quite well. The First Warriors only has seven chapters but it's only got 900 less views then Dawn of Darkness. In my top five on FF, two of the stories are shipping and the other one is Red vs Leaf. Eight Easy Steps is most popular, but it does 104 chapters in total - it's hard for that not to do well for views

 

[Legacy]

My new version of TPI sort of tones down the multi-shipping love triangle bits, which will probably destroy my views. The old version currently has 21 chapters posted, 41k views, and 153 reviews.

Crazy too because when I go back and read it, it's garbage compared to most of the fics posted here at the Workshop. It just has what FF readers want.

 

[AceTrainer14]

I've always found it interesting that shipping hasn't ever seemed to take off here. I remember there was a category for it in the original awards but it only ever got one or two entries.

 

[Misfit Angel]

Phew. After two whirlwind sessions of brainstorming, I've increased the amount of Fakemon I have to work with from about 14 to a whopping 112. I get the feeling that 90+ of these will never show up in any of my writing, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared, I guess. If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

If anyone wants a few, I could share. They're mostly just names, types and broad ideas at the moment, nothing fancy like movesets, abilities, etc.

Edit: I should note that none of these are evolutionary relatives. Only thirteen of them are loosely related to each other, though a lot more are based off of similar animals.

 

[AetherX]

If you put them up in a blog I'd probably read it all because I'm a nerd.

My new version of TPI sort of tones down the multi-shipping love triangle bits, which will probably destroy my views.

Triangle? Man, that was a pentagon at least.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I don't know what's good, but surprisingly The Long Walk usually gets the best part of 100 views within a few days of posting a new chapter. In fact I dare say that is good for an OC-centric fic with no recurring canon characters, no humans turned into pokémon, and no GRIMDARK. And it does rather seem like ff.net readers and authors have something of a contemptuous outlook on original characters

I have to say, I lose interest very quickly if the author's idea of a summary is a list of shippings. I read one or two, just to see if what I understood by "shipping" is what people are writing. Some of it really baffles me. Apparently, characters hanging around in the same general area is a shipping scene.

 

[AceTrainer14]

I thought Pokemon would be one of the most written about franchises, but wow, it isn't even close. It's the top game one, but Harry Potter and Naruto cream it. I'm also now looking through some of the other fandoms on there, and it's hilarious how often 'Hurt/Comfort/Angst' come up.

Shippers are, quite frankly, odd. I can understand shipping main characters and stuff, but I find it really weird when shippers put two completely random characters together (someone at work told me how much she loves Hermione/Marcus Flint ones....) and also expect their random ship to be acknowledged and respected.

 

[0bs1d1an_kn1ght]

I thought Pokemon would be one of the most written about franchises, but wow, it isn't even close. It's the top game one, but Harry Potter and Naruto cream it. I'm also now looking through some of the other fandoms on there, and it's hilarious how often 'Hurt/Comfort/Angst' come up.

Shippers are, quite frankly, odd. I can understand shipping main characters and stuff, but I find it really weird when shippers put two completely random characters together (someone at work told me how much she loves Hermione/Marcus Flint ones....) and also expect their random ship to be acknowledged and respected.

Honestly, I can't stand self-insert shippings, or as DeviantArt has formatted, the "_XReader" fic. Like, some characters are okay, I can see why you like this character. It's just not my thing.

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

I think one of the main problems with One Big Conspiracy was that, as Beth described, it didn't know what it wanted to be. It sort of went from a parody of conspiracy theories to being more focused on Jimmy/Flannery and Wallace/Winona to being pretty much straight action. That's probably because I didn't do a lot of planning beforehand, and if I wrote it now, the shipping wouldn't be nearly as important.

and I have motivation to write guys I swear

 

[Beth Pavell]

I think the mistake shipping authors often make (Which, admittedly, is something that few of their fans will care about) is to treat the shipping name as enough in itself. Either the plot doesn't properly support it (With the wackier shippings it flat-out can't), or the shipping is supposed to be the plot in itself. In the latter case, it should really just be called romance, in my opinion. In any case, I never get the sense of a real relationship - or at least a real romance - from these, so much as half-hearted box ticking before the kissing scenes start.

 

[0bs1d1an_kn1ght]

I think the mistake shipping authors often make (Which, admittedly, is something that few of their fans will care about) is to treat the shipping name as enough in itself. Either the plot doesn't properly support it (With the wackier shippings it flat-out can't), or the shipping is supposed to be the plot in itself. In the latter case, it should really just be called romance, in my opinion. In any case, I never get the sense of a real relationship - or at least a real romance - from these, so much as half-hearted box ticking before the kissing scenes start.

Well, I usually just stay away from shipping altogether, since most more or less end up being the same story with the same pairing.

 

[diamondpearl876]

Phew. After two whirlwind sessions of brainstorming, I've increased the amount of Fakemon I have to work with from about 14 to a whopping 112. I get the feeling that 90+ of these will never show up in any of my writing, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared, I guess. If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

If anyone wants a few, I could share. They're mostly just names, types and broad ideas at the moment, nothing fancy like movesets, abilities, etc.

Edit: I should note that none of these are evolutionary relatives. Only thirteen of them are loosely related to each other, though a lot more are based off of similar animals.

Yesss, someone else who thinks overdoing is worthwhile. I don't think what I've been researching and brainstorming about will be half as useful or can be integrated as much as fakemon, though. The thoroughness does, however, make your story's world feel more complete, as one of my friends puts it.