Writers Feedback

So a couple of days before Christmas I posted a full-length novel on Literotica.com. Threads: The Island, the first in a series of stories I've got written about interconnecting characters, mostly normal people pushed into extraordinary circumstances.

Threads: The Island is a story about a guy who has his life flipped on its head after a visit from a lawyer, and he has to try and cope with everything that follows. It takes place over the course of a week and it's all about the characters, how they feel, how they react, how much they're affected by their emotions and their own journeys. 

So I posted it, all 150,000 words of it. 42 pages on Lit. The feedback was a real eye-opener. 

The first few messages I got, either comments posted on the story itself or emailed to me through the contact page were harsh, very critical about the size of the story. One guy even called me an 'Utter Cunt' for cockblocking his available wanking time with a story that was too long for him to jerk off to. Nice. Other comments included 'No-one's ever going to read it' and 'It should be in chapters you dumb fucker'. After twentyfour hours online, it was sitting with a rating of 1.26 out of 5. Talk about gutted - I always aim for the red H, a marking that indicates a rating of at least 4.5 out of 5. 

I gave some serious thought to pulling the story offline then and there.

Then I started to get the feedback through from those who read the whole tale. Wow. Blown away. People really loved it. So much so that it went from 1.26 to 4.84 within the following 48 hours. Some of the comments from people were so kind, so enthusiastic about the characters that you couldn't help but see they'd bonded with these fictional people I'd created. What a feeling as a writer to know that people really connect with your creation. 

Since then it's pushed itself to the top of the toplist, number 1 out of 25,500 or so stories and I've felt both delighted and stressed about that fact. Delighted because people have enjoyed it so much that they've rated it that highly, and because if its at the top of the top-list, people will continue to read it. Stressed because how do you top that with your follow-up? 

I've been speculating in my own head that perhaps it might have been better not to allow voting or comments, but then I wouldn't have had some of the wonderful inspiring words that I've had, and the two hundred or so people who have used the comment form on my member page would stilll have contacted me anyway. If I hadn't rated it, then it would have slipped off into Lit-obscurity by now, with maybe a new reader in a fortnight. As it is, it's still going strong. Over 110,000 readers in eighteen days. 

I continue to get feedback, and for the most part, it's very heartening and inspiring for me. To know that I've written a novel that's made people stay up until two, three or four in the morning just to finish it is an awesome feeling. 

But it really is a double-edged sword. If they love it, will they love the next one. When they tell you what they enjoyed, they tell you what they want to see in the next one, and if that's not what they want, will they be disappointed. There's a flip side to every coin, and for every positive comment there's a negative possibility. 

I think the only way to deal with their expectations is not to bow to them, but continue to write my story the way I want to write it. If they like it, then great. If not, then that's okay too. That's just the way it goes, but at least then I'll know I'm writing my story for me and being true to that. 

And let the feedback fall as it may.

JJ