| Current mood: |  contemplative |
| Current music: | Secret Garden - Adagio |
Solving the Mysteries of Feedback
Incredibly, this is a pretty snark-free entry. You've been warned.
I
like to master things. Part of this means knowing how they work,
slicing them down the middle and sticking my hand inside, pulling bits
and pieces out, weighing them, studying them. I'm happiest wallowing in
minutiae, analyzing until there's no flesh left on the bones. It's
really an annoying and gruesome habit, but it explains why I keep
autopsying the same topics.
I want to understand how to write
good feedback. I can't do it. I've actually been experimenting with it
lately, switching from long, analytical public LoCs to shorter, drooly
private ones, and even combinations of the two. I'm still not doing it
right.
I can't use my own reaction to feedback as a yardstick,
because I have, and it doesn't work. I'm doubtless missing something,
as I frequently do, some little twist or curve. I've written feedback
that I would've blown the devil for, long, ecstatic stuff where I'm
trying to tell the author how much the story mattered to me, and been
grunted at or ignored.
Maybe I'm not sounding enthusiastic
enough. Maybe some part of me goes too editorial, which happens when I
don't realize it, and I sound too cold. Or maybe I sound too
enthusiastic, and that makes the feedback suspect. Maybe my LoCs are
too much about my reaction, my thoughts--maybe the comments should be
less reader-response and more general enthusiasm, less, "I loved how
you..." and more, "It was so great when..."
Or maybe it's simply
who I am, or rather, who I'm not. I think this is probably the closest
to the truth, that feedback matters more when it comes from the right
people, whoever they may be, and no matter how good, excited, smart or
insightful my feedback might possibly be, it matters more whose name
comes at the end of the message than the message itself.
___
On an entirely different note:
A
couple of days ago I revamped my LJ to something simpler. I've even
exercized my mad photoshoping skillz and made myself this gorgeous
header at the top. I still need to figure out how to customize a few
things, though, 'cos I know nothing about CSS, but nevertheless, I'm
quite satisfied with what I've done so far. I wanted something elegant,
clean and simple, 'less is more' kind of stuff, and the layout is sort
of meant to put focus on the content. What do you think?
Also,
my God/Lucifer fic is now finished. It's a bit lengthy, so I'll
probably break it into two parts when I post it. If you're interested
and won't faint at an NC-17 piece featuring a hot young God and a
rainbow-winged Lucifer in a story that revisions Creation, then keep an
eye on the next entries.
![[info]](feedback_files/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
boyan_fraser) wrote,
