Peeve

[maderr]

I loathe, despise, and detest writers who leave their job to the readers. I fucking hate it. It's your fucking story, write it. Don't make polls for the reader to decide how it should end, what will happen in the next chapter, etc. That's lazy and pathetic and weak. Your story, make the fucking decisions. I can't even comprehend it, honestly. My stories go the way they go, and I'm often the last one to know what's going to happen. I can't tell you how many times I've typed something and been left going "....when did that become part of the story, you assholes?" It's why I seldom bother with notes.

So, to leave that shit up to the readers. I'm sorry, I think it's stupid. Call me a bitch if you want, I really don't care. If the writer does the bidding of others, rather than the bidding of the story...then, I don't know. It seems to me that's not much of a writer. We're all attention h0rs, in some way shape, or form. Who doesn't like the reviews and comments and shit? I'd be lying if I said I didn't. It makes me feel like I'm worth something to the world at large. But, I care about my stories first. I don't understand a writer who would give up control of his story to anyone else. It just seems wrong to me.

Comments

[evilgeniuskoji.livejournal.com]

I can see what you mean and understand that as well. I think some authors do that because they lost track of the story, or they can't decide where to go next. They've hit a block, and they want someone to tell them what to do for once. Obviously they don't have to listen to the readers, but I think they like a little guidance, especially for those who are just starting out. Don't be too harsh on them. Sometimes it's just to see what readers think anyway.

[gossymer.livejournal.com]

WORD.

I jut know that when I see polling like the ones you describe, I go WTF and drop the story asap. I'm fine with collaborations and round robin fics (where one author may write one chapter or one character's POV or something) but leaving it up to the reader to decide where the story is going to go? Dude, no.

A better strategy would be to take something not central/crucial to the plot and poll the readers on that to generate discussion. So perhaps the authors asks readers if they want the couple to go to a pizza place or a cinema for their date. In any case, the date is an absolute disaster but readers get to read what they want in some ways without effecting the core storyline...

[chilayse.livejournal.com]

What if they include a disclaimer that the poll doesn't affect the story(or even better the story is already written!) they just want to know what people think should happen?

[maderr.livejournal.com]

No. It shouldn't matter. What happens, happens. If they want to know what people think, then post the story and wait for comments. In my experience, readers love to tell me what they think, especially when they think I'm wrong.

[chilayse.livejournal.com]

I don't write enough to know really. I've also never actually seen a vote what happens next poll...

[hartfully.livejournal.com]

Agreed x1000.

Unless it's one of those 'choose your own adventure' books! Which probably is an entirely different beast altogether but this post made me think of those and how much I miss the old ones I use to read and I should probably find them.

Uhm. Yeah.

[kiyoshi-chan.livejournal.com]

Hey sweetie, this is totally unrelated to your post, but I was just wondering if you'd heard/seen Garth Nix's Superior Saturday yet? I thought I saw it on the shelves the other day... (ONE MORE BOOK AND WE CAN SLASH ARTHUR TO OUR HEART'S CONTENT! ...Well, no, I suppose we could slash him now even. Oh hey! I found another fan of older-than-he-currently-is!Arthur/Monday's Noon (who used to be Dusk). XD She's also into Noon/Arthur/Dusk. :DDDD

...Man, describing these pairings are hard. :P Too much backstory.)

[animeartistjo.livejournal.com]

Seriously. And then it's just not satisfying to ANYONE. Not the author, since it's not their original idea. Not the readers, because they want the AUTHOR'S story, not another author.

Then again, I often run out of ideas, but hash things over with a human sounding board of my acquaintance. XD

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

I've seen it done a couple times. *shrugs* Occasionally I enjoy it, it's kind of fun. The author is playing with us and the story. They are comfortable enough in their writing to let others choose which of their ideas to use, it's almost like taking prompts and writing them into a story.
There's a series of books called, "Choose your own adventure", that are done in this format. They are good for involving reluctant readers into the stories, even if not the best fiction.
I personally feel not all stories have to be the same, some can even have poetry in them and be enjoyable.

[rainbowfantasie.livejournal.com]

I've sort of tried it before, for some non-slash things I was working on, & it was an absymal failure, because opening the story to other people meant that those people seemed to think that the story would definitely come out the way they wanted, & when it didn't, they dropped my story anyway. Even though I had a disclaimed saying it wouldn't necessarily turn out quite the way they wanted, & that I was just looking for ideas. Now I just let my characters do whatever they want. It works much better for me. >.< If I don't fight them, they won't fight me. Or something.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Heh. I have learned the hard myself, that the author is nothing but a bitch, and a good bitch does what the characters say, or else. I sometimes forget this lesson, and it always causes pain and suffering. It's like a master/slave relationship, only I get no sex out of it, that's just one more thing I have to write Or Else.

[rainbowfantasie.livejournal.com]

Yes. Exactly. I'm struggling to convince my characters to at least let me have voyeuristic sex, but nope. Nothing doing.

I've had a set of characters that I planned to use in a certain universe that keep popping up in AU drabbles. It's driving me absolutely crazy.