133TFR33k
Bug Catcher
Ok so I've looked around enough to kind of get my bearings on how things work around here. You can post your fanfic here and some people might read it, but most of the people who are active write their own fanfiction as well and want their fic to be read and reviewed. That is totally understandable and honestly unavoidable. I think everyone is in essentially the same boat. In general folks are resistant to reading other fanfictions because it is not one that they wrote. Everyone writes fanfiction because of something they have a particular interest in. It can be very difficult to find someone else with very similar tastes.
Catnip is great for helping to get a little bit of feedback, but I think what most folks crave on here is a complete in depth review of their fic. My own fanfiction does not lend itself well to Catnip unfortunately. The introduction, prologue, and even chapter 1 are, in my opinion, weaker than the rest of the fanfic with no good way for me to change that in my opinion. As such my interest is much higher in feedback starting in Chapter 5 and beyond than Chapters 4 and earlier. Having multiple reviews that would stop at Chapter 1 of my story doesn't really do anything for me, so unfortunately catnip is out. Also, just because catnip can get a review process started, the author is not obligated to do a review exchange beyond that point and if their fic is good, I might want to read the rest of their story but would be without reviews I crave for the remaining chapters of my story. I like to finish what I start. I'm not trying to bash catnip though, just explaining my thought process. I think its great the board is creative with how it attempts to stimulate involvement and reviews. Anything that helps the boards activity/involvement/interest can only be a good thing here. Edit: K_S informed me that I can simply summarize the early parts of my story to the one who would review my fic and then start reading at a later chapter! That's enough incentive for me to participate and there is always the chance that the one who I review or the one who reviews me could be interesting in a larger scale review exchange after.
I have also noticed that everyone seems to have a wait-for-them-to-come-to-you approach. Just posting and advertising my fanfic does not seem like it will result in any reviews, so the only way to fix that is for me to do the work by researching the types of people on here and the types of fanfics they write and for me to reach out directly to the ones I think I would enjoy review exchanging with the most. Part of the problem here is that my enthusiasm after recently writing my entire fanfic and posting on here makes me very impatient. I have no problem being patient with anyone in particular for review exchanging with me, but if it takes a while, I would rather be involved with several people at once for review exchanges to keep a flow of feedback and reviews coming in. My hope, like I expect most of us here hope is that someone will read my fic, find it enjoyable, and tell me about it. If they can help me find ways to improve it which results in future readers enjoying it more, all the better!
But to get, you need to be willing to give. So I decided to post in the review exchange topic to be beneficial for anyone I reach out to regarding possible review exchanges. I expect to have that posted soon today. I don't inherently want to read other peoples fanfiction, but just because I don't inherently want to doesn't mean I won't enjoy doing it.
So far, I've started a review exchange with matt0044 and I've been pleasantly surprised so far by not only how enjoyable his story has been for me to read and how endearing his characters are, but how much satisfaction I get from giving him my thoughts and reactions on it all. Being almost the only one to have reviewed his story so far makes me feel special and I get the feeling that feeling special is probably a big part of what everyone here wants. If anyone is curious, his story is: Pokemon Heroes: The Black & White Chapter One (All Ages) (COMPLETED) https://forums.thousandroads.net/th...ck-white-chapter-one-all-ages-completed.1840/
I think I might prefer to review fics that have little to no reviews already. Being appreciated is a big motivation for me in terms of reviews and I crave feedback from the author on it too. If 6 other board members reviewed a story, I'm thinking it doesn't leave me with much I can really add to the feedback because I think most people who post reviews have writing and review skills considerably more developed than myself. Fanfics with lots of reviews I would be far more likely to only read if I interact with it at all and maybe provide a short review/feedback for the entire thing at the end, but that is less satisfying to me and probably less satisfying to the author.
Much of this is my observations. It is not meant to be negative and I hope it is not taken that way. From what I can tell, Thousand Roads is perhaps the best place to post Pokemon fanfiction, read Pokemon fanfiction, and to interact with the fanfiction community. I appreciate its dedication to respecting the members who are on here, the avoidance of plagiarism, and the general culture of acceptance. I'm genuinely curious to the types of stories I will end up reading and look forward to the interactions I'll have here in the future.
Catnip is great for helping to get a little bit of feedback, but I think what most folks crave on here is a complete in depth review of their fic. My own fanfiction does not lend itself well to Catnip unfortunately. The introduction, prologue, and even chapter 1 are, in my opinion, weaker than the rest of the fanfic with no good way for me to change that in my opinion. As such my interest is much higher in feedback starting in Chapter 5 and beyond than Chapters 4 and earlier. Having multiple reviews that would stop at Chapter 1 of my story doesn't really do anything for me, so unfortunately catnip is out. Also, just because catnip can get a review process started, the author is not obligated to do a review exchange beyond that point and if their fic is good, I might want to read the rest of their story but would be without reviews I crave for the remaining chapters of my story. I like to finish what I start. I'm not trying to bash catnip though, just explaining my thought process. I think its great the board is creative with how it attempts to stimulate involvement and reviews. Anything that helps the boards activity/involvement/interest can only be a good thing here. Edit: K_S informed me that I can simply summarize the early parts of my story to the one who would review my fic and then start reading at a later chapter! That's enough incentive for me to participate and there is always the chance that the one who I review or the one who reviews me could be interesting in a larger scale review exchange after.
I have also noticed that everyone seems to have a wait-for-them-to-come-to-you approach. Just posting and advertising my fanfic does not seem like it will result in any reviews, so the only way to fix that is for me to do the work by researching the types of people on here and the types of fanfics they write and for me to reach out directly to the ones I think I would enjoy review exchanging with the most. Part of the problem here is that my enthusiasm after recently writing my entire fanfic and posting on here makes me very impatient. I have no problem being patient with anyone in particular for review exchanging with me, but if it takes a while, I would rather be involved with several people at once for review exchanges to keep a flow of feedback and reviews coming in. My hope, like I expect most of us here hope is that someone will read my fic, find it enjoyable, and tell me about it. If they can help me find ways to improve it which results in future readers enjoying it more, all the better!
But to get, you need to be willing to give. So I decided to post in the review exchange topic to be beneficial for anyone I reach out to regarding possible review exchanges. I expect to have that posted soon today. I don't inherently want to read other peoples fanfiction, but just because I don't inherently want to doesn't mean I won't enjoy doing it.
So far, I've started a review exchange with matt0044 and I've been pleasantly surprised so far by not only how enjoyable his story has been for me to read and how endearing his characters are, but how much satisfaction I get from giving him my thoughts and reactions on it all. Being almost the only one to have reviewed his story so far makes me feel special and I get the feeling that feeling special is probably a big part of what everyone here wants. If anyone is curious, his story is: Pokemon Heroes: The Black & White Chapter One (All Ages) (COMPLETED) https://forums.thousandroads.net/th...ck-white-chapter-one-all-ages-completed.1840/
I think I might prefer to review fics that have little to no reviews already. Being appreciated is a big motivation for me in terms of reviews and I crave feedback from the author on it too. If 6 other board members reviewed a story, I'm thinking it doesn't leave me with much I can really add to the feedback because I think most people who post reviews have writing and review skills considerably more developed than myself. Fanfics with lots of reviews I would be far more likely to only read if I interact with it at all and maybe provide a short review/feedback for the entire thing at the end, but that is less satisfying to me and probably less satisfying to the author.
Much of this is my observations. It is not meant to be negative and I hope it is not taken that way. From what I can tell, Thousand Roads is perhaps the best place to post Pokemon fanfiction, read Pokemon fanfiction, and to interact with the fanfiction community. I appreciate its dedication to respecting the members who are on here, the avoidance of plagiarism, and the general culture of acceptance. I'm genuinely curious to the types of stories I will end up reading and look forward to the interactions I'll have here in the future.
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