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

[ratcreature]

I don't think I make a difference between old and new finished stories. I try to leave at least kudos when I bookmark a story after I read it, but I don't comment on AO3 as much as I did on LJ. In part it is simply because on LJ when I commented I got the comment with the story mailed to me (I had a paid account back then) to not loose fanfic I read, so that took care of saving the story into my (searchable gmail). On AO3 downloading is that step and more convenient for me, because now I just organize them as ebooks with the tags attached.

If it is a story that posts in a few huge chunks, and the author says it is five parts or whatever, I'm likely to just wait until it is finished. Reading of actual WIPs which I also enjoy is often more interactive for me, you comment as the author is writing it, and I often have an easier time to say something, like along the lines of "that was an evil cliffhanger to leave him dangling from a helicopter" or "I hope X happens" or such.

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

I also like posting in chunks because it's nice to sometimes see what people think of certain sections and it does have a more interactive effect.

Curious about commenting on WIPs vs a finished story posted in parts. Do you think you're comments will impact what the author is going to write?

[ratcreature]

I have no idea. I dislike outright "choose your own adventure" type gimmicks authors sometimes do for plot twists, but I have seen points raised in comments that made an author cosider something in the worldbuilding or motivation that they hadn't before. So it can have more subtle effects.

I actually don't care much about the impact, for me it is more that the serial model gives an easy way to talk about something in a casual way, that doesn't demand from you to "properly" review a finished thing. I think it is similar to how weekly series generate more conversation than series Netflix releases all at once. It's not just the time factor.

[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.

[jimandblair.livejournal.com]

i actually like also teasing people. Some of the co-op cliffhanges were purely evil and storytelling