commenting on past fic -- to do or not to do, that is the question?

[sealie]

so the comment thing on past fic is an interesting affair. I posted the latest ‘Uhane H5O TS fusion, and I got a few comments on it (which is awesome), and a bunch of new and/or repeat readers (based on numbers and increase in the number of kudos) on all the other stories in the series, and all my other stories including the out-there stuff. But only one person has commented on the old stories.

Why not comment on an "old" fic?

Comments

[sholio]

As someone who has written/posted WiPs quite a bit, I can definitely say that comments do influence future chapters! Not in major ways, generally -- I usually have an idea of where the story is going, even when it's being written as it's posted -- but definitely with people pointing out things I hadn't thought of as I was writing. It's sort of like getting a live plot beta as the story goes along. One recent example was the "Sam and Bucky stranded in the woods" fic, where some of the comments pointed out technological things I hadn't taken into account, that shaped the way I put together future chapters. Occasionally if a lot of readers want a particular thing to happen (a certain minor character to show up, say) I'll go ahead and do some variant of what they want, as long as it doesn't conflict with my plans. That kind of thing.

[jimandblair.livejournal.com]

yeah comments impact on the future fic. I wrote one of my short ts fusions (not on A03) purely in response to a comment. when I was writing the Co-op it was quite interesting in that I was generally 4000 to 10,000k ahead of the posted parts but the comments has relevance, and provided insight to part that I was writing.

in the main, we writer-and-reader share a similar 'mind field' but there was the occasional OMG why didn't I think of that!

[sholio]

but there was the occasional OMG why didn't I think of that!

Yes, exactly! :) I've found it really handy, on occasion, to have a sort of reality-check from the readers as I'm going along. It's much better to realize I've done something stupid after three chapters than after twelve.