Poetry week day six – final post

[meridian_rose]

I didn't even manage five poems, given the lack of interest, and have resorted to graphics tutorials and, today, recs (in the vain hope what other people have to say is more interesting), so day six will be the last post of poetry week. Still, have a haiku

poetry is one
way of expressing one's
deepest hopes, dreams, fears

Rec's:

Themes of the week were creativity, the highs and lows:

see the whole comic strip here

And the importance of audience:

If we write a book and no one reads it, does the book really exist? Or is it simply a collection of words caught somewhere between yesterday and eternity, destined to float silently through the universe until it disappears altogether?

read the whole article here

It's pretty ironic that for most of these pieces where I'm writing about the importance of audience, I don't have one. There's always people saying "you should totally…" write more poetry/publish a book/finish that fanfic/make a record/learn to edit vids, when what they mean is "You should totally do that but I won't read/listen/watch". It rather reminds me of Zoolander's Hansel enthusing about his "hero", Sting:

Comments

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha - that gif. Priceless!

Are you feeling unread? Is there some kind of exchange you're wanting to have with your LJ flist or is this all across the board? I, personally, detest the "kudos" on AO3. I think the way most fanfic readers are reading today is on portable devices and the kudos is just the easiest way to acknowledge a fic. It upsets me. I agree with you that writing fanfic isn't really about "writing for yourself". It's an exchange within a fandom.

[meridian_rose]

Zoolander is so quoteable :)

It's mostly LJ/DW; I can get more likes/re-blogs on Tumblr (or kudos on AO3) from people I don't know at all than comments from people I've supposedly built up relationships with here.

Kudos is not the problem. Kudos are not instead of comments; they're often instead of *nothing*. I've got 213 hits on my Sleepy Hollow fic, 0 comments and 13 kudos. As far I can make out the other 199 readers didn't finish the fic, thought it was "meh" or outright hated it. At least 13 people thought it had merit! If there were no kudos function, I'd maybe have one comment. And probably the kind of comment that is equivalent to a kudos, like "nice work".
I read a *lot*, and kudos is a quick way of me saying "nice work"/"I finished this fic and didn't hate it" (especially in small fandoms where I'm trying to be extra encouraging) or "I've downloaded this novel length fic to put on my ereader". In the latter case, if I enjoyed the fic, I then go back to my Read Later list, find the fic again and leave a comment and/or bookmark-rec it.
You can only leave kudos once though, so I left a comment the other day on a new drabble in a series saying "I'm still reading and enjoying these" and I hope that brightened the author's day :)
If I write a comment on LJ I'll try to give an indepth review, choosing favourite graphics, quoting favourite lines. If I really loved a fic at AO3 I'll wax lyrical too. I like my comments to be meaningful :)

Exactly, though; if I write for myself and keep it on my pc/in a notebook then it's personal. The moment I share it, it's meant for a certain amount of public consumption.

[jlvsclrk.livejournal.com]

I've really noticed a sharp drop off in comments on LJ - I kinf of blame Tumblr and all the other places where you just click like and move on. I know I'm as guilty of it as any other. But its a real drag when you put something out there and feel lucky to get more than two comments on it. Oh well.

[meridian_rose]

Yes, without a 'like' button, I can't tell if anyone is reading at LJ/DW :( And there's too much emphasis these days on shiny-gifs-at-tumblr above all else :(

[et-tu-lj.livejournal.com]

The lack of response is a familiar frustration for me too. I've gotten to the point where I only post what's useful for me, and I still feel like I'm wasting my time when I should be doing other things. And the less I post, the less reason there is to bother listening to me anyway. It's a very depressing cycle.

[meridian_rose]

I always enjoying seeing your posts :)
The only way to increase participation is to be out there, I guess, but it's depressing as hell when no-one is reading or at least commenting so I know they're reading. Again, ironic that I've got more comments on this "stuff other people say" than on my actual "putting things out there"!

[meridian_rose]

Spoilers are the bane of the internet; so many people just tell you to shut up because a "real fan" would have watched it when it aired or illegally downloaded the second it had aired and was online! Which is not going to happen! So I understand - and I try to mention spoilers for particular episodes or give an indication of a season if I think that's important :)
Thank you for the reassurance :)
minor edits made for clarity.