The Lost Era

[Arkain]

You know, our Stories section has been a real downer ever since Princess Jei and Griever stopped updating.

I'd say without much hesitation they're probably the best pair of writers we've ever had..

Still, we ARE starting to see something of a revival.
Kara's updating, Taralynn, Thorn, myself... and others!

[Kyunji]

You mean the Stories forum used to be active? Wish I had been here earlier.

I would make some comment about how I hope to write another story soon, but chances are it won't happen, like anything I say I'll do. Guess I'll just help others out as much as I can through encouragement and critical reviews. (Encouragingly critical? Critically encouraging? It boggles the mind.)

[Jay Wrider]

I don't think she could be talking about the Stories forum because Griever and I never posted a story there. I think she might mean the stories section of the actual website because that was the only spot Griever and I posted.

[Kara-chan]

I beleive so, as I've never posted stories on the forum, only adverts for them! READ HELLS BELLS!

THAT MEANS YOU PEOPLE LIKE JEI AND TARALYNN AND ARKY AND OTHERS!

[Arkain]

Yes, actually.

I lament, my dear brothers and (mostly) sisters, for it seems to me that a Golden Age has passed. We languish now in the Dark Days of MSF Storytelling.

Also, it's He. Both myself and my handle Arkain are male ;D

[Xiao]

Eh, eventually a few more good writers will come along, or someone who is a good writer here but hasn't posted yet will for the MSF Renaissance.

[Mitera Nikkou]

This is a job for...!

...

Well, not me. <.<;

...

Although I do have some stories on the way. Though they may be equivalent to the French revolution...? O.o;

[Kara-chan]

Viva la France!

[Arkain]

Fur Deutschland!

No, seriously, post anything in the Story section!
Yes, I'm critical, but that's because I care. I want you to be better not just for me but for you.

[AnimaVex]

I'll do it when I actually have the time to type my stories. I write them down first, y'know...

PS: Blame my English essay on The Red Badge of Courage for my absences in the weekends and, likewise, my lack of time.

[Cow Belle]

Ok, here's a quetstion, What things make a good writer and what things are you looking for as a reader?

[Kara-chan]

Well, proper gramar punctuation and spelling. A sense of irony ^_^ of course helps. A good story and believable characters are nice too ^_^

[Moonlit Naiad]

Well, there's likely several reasons there's relatively little activity, both on the forums and on the site section

I tried a little experiment a couple weeks back, posting a couple links to stories I had recently uploaded to deviantart, even if they were a touch old. Neither of which, despite being old, had been previously avaialble to any other than a very, very select few to see.

Guess what I got from it: a handful of views and one comment on deviantart from before I linked it from MSF. If people won't comment on things, then those that generate the content won't bother sharing ... or perhaps won't even bother generating.

As a disclaimer, I must note that I don't do much reading of other people's work for two main reasons: First, I really dislike getting into a story only to find it not-complete (and maybe not ever to be completed). For this reason, I generally do not buy books unless I can get the whole series in one go, even. Second, as a writer/wannabe-writer myself, I have too many of my own ideas I need to develop, and I don't want to steal other peoples' either conciously or subconciously. As such, I can understand why some people do not comment much on the story forums.

But here's a quickie analysis of the ten most recently posted to threads on the story forum, excluding stickies/announcements.

1) Mecchen House - Kerina 1261 views, 39 comments
-- mostly Kerina posting about updates, a couple good feedbacks, some chatter and thumbs-ups

2) An Old fairy tale... - Cow Belle 83 views, 0 comments
-- link to something posted on lj, no comments there, either

3) Seals of memories - Gitskreig 69 views, 0 comments
-- lots of views and a relatively new poster requesting feedback on a fic in progress, no comments

4) The Magical Girl Academy - Thorn 1061 views, 31 comments
-- story in the posts, lots of negative feedback

5) Taralynn's Desk - Taralynn 764 views, 35 comments
-- frequently updated, but in general comments are all from the same couple that comment elsewhere. A good deal of non-constructive comments

6) Fellow Writers... i beg you... - Arkain 192 views, 10 comments
-- overly condescending/negative post followed by some posts attempting to balance it. tone is "make it perfect before you post it or I will flame you."

7) *pokes in for a brief moment* - Moonlit Naiad 49 views, 0 comments
-- two links to stories posted on deviantart. one comment on one story therein, nothing here

Hells Bells Discussion! - Arkain 371 views, 14 comments
-- some good feedback, some not-so-good feedback, a thread not started by the author

9) With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore - Chibi Amanda 206 views, 7 comments
-- Aeternalized version of a holiday song, a couple comments from wider than the usual responders

10) An amusing fairy tale - May-chan 99 views, 4 comments
-- something found elsewhere and crossposted, which perhaps warrants the lack of comments (can't really offer suggestions/criticism if it cross-posted, not own work)

4155 total views / 105 total comments - which means there is roughly one comment for every 40 views of the thread, with the ratio even worse if you consider that some of the threads have multiple posts by the originator which really shouldn't be counted as a comment.

For comparison, the ten most recently posted-to threads (barring stickies/announcements) in the Art room have a total of 10461 views and 369 comments, roughly a 29:1 ratio (again not as good if you consider subsequent posts from the thread originator should generally not count as a 'comment'). One of those threads even has more views than the ten most recent ones on stories.

Then consider the "TG artwork I've found" thread has more that a 153 thousand views, and more comments than the entirety of the story forum. To be fair, it is a fairly long-running thread, but the disparity between the attention accorded it and the attention accorded the story forum should say something...

Though, I am of split opinions on the dearth of comments. While there seems to be some genuinely good constructive criticism as well as some warm-and-fuzzy "Hey I liked it" comments, there seems to be a significant number of comments such as "i don't like the idea of good demons" or "grammar sucked" or "I hate fukus" or "it didn't flow very well" - without any real insight into what the perceived problems were and how to fix them. I think that personally I'd rather receive no comments at all than ones that repeatedly tear down.

--

Kerina's also made a post on "what do you want to see in the story room" - from the handful of replies, the biggest wants included more challenges/prompts. Well and fine to want, but... nobody seems to do anything when they are provided. I went back and looked at the 9 challenges/prompts I posted from when I was doing it. 22 total replies. And then counting Kerina's prompts, 27 replies across 7 threads. Some of them actually have several hundred views as well, making it generally a lot of looking but not a lot of doing.

The question I asked myself then - when I was still story room mod - was "why bother?,' and it seems to apply still today. If I get no feedback/input on what I write, there seems to be no need to share what is written, or even bother writing. Instead, should I need an ego-stroking, I'll build and share another generator/changingroom of sorts, which in the one thread has received more feedback/comments than any ten things I've written, combined.

[Arkain]

Sad, innit? All that effort and nothin' for it.

Drawn art is easier to look at, takes only a moment. A story requires you to sit through it...

[AnimaVex]

Yeah. Actually, that's where the death of... Well, I'd rather count them out loud:

1) Altaria (First attempt at writing the story. Failed horribly.)
2) Digimon: DigiCard Revolution (An attempt at an Digimon Season 3-related storyline. I still have the idea going 'round my head.)
3) A Magician's Learnings (This was my pride and joy. It would have had more than one chapter, but I only got one "Oh, cool" in DA. And it was from the same person I had sent it to make sure I should have put it in DA in the first place. I'll probably end up adding a second chapter or so in my vacation.)
4) Paranoia: Station 18 (It started with a dream. No, really: and it was my inspiration for a cool story. This one generated the most comments: 2. And it WAS cool. Just... probably not superbly written.)

I have more, actually. I have 6 or so stories, and all of them bit the bullet after the first chapter. Why? Well, just as Naiad mentioned, I only got 3 comments in those four. And I doubt that I got that many, actually.

Isn't it sad when you've got so many ideas but no people to critique? I mean, I even add "Please comment and say what's wrong with it" in the descriptions. Doesn't help.