"Eye Witness" big fail & feedback in general

[wiseheart]

Okay, I knew it won't be such a big success with the antigwennites - after all, it has no Gwen-bashing, due to the acute lack of, well, Gwen. But I posted the first chapter to FF.Net, too, and it has been all but ignored so far. Apparently there are no fans of Tosh and the 9th Doctor out there anymore.

The main story, "Travellers' Tales" got a few enthusiastic reviews, but very few ones. That I can understand; all that 12th century Japanese stuff must have been intimidating for most casual readers. Unfortunately, I can't post the rest of "Eye Witness" to FF.Net, because it contains a lot of rewritten original dialogue, and I don't want my account yanked due to some idiot reporting it.

I thought "Without Dreams" would get me a few comments, after all, it's really short (yes, I can write short stuff, just not very often), and I wasn't "mean" to any popular characters in it. Well, I was wrong. My heartfelt thanks to disthrainsdotte, who actually was kind enough to read and comment - she was the only one.

Correction: my one-lady-general-support-club, artemis10002000 hasn't failed to make my day, either. Thanks, hon! *hugs*

"Arthur's Quest" has moderate success; again, perhaps too brainy for the casual reader, if the drivel that has overflooded the "Merlin" section of FF.Net is any indication. On hiddenrealms it got virtually no comments, but again, that's not such a well-known comm. You'd say I should be more active on various Merlin comms, but as my fate in the Tolkien and Andromeda fandoms shows, that won't help too much, either.

It's really disheartening sometimes. :(

Comments

[jsks.livejournal.com]

hugs to you and don't give up. i love the fact that your fic includes so much detail and promise to check out your other stories.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thanks, hon! I know I sometimes overextend my readers with all that brainy stuff. It's a mistake to expect everyone to be so obsessed with detail and background trivia as I am, just because I enjoy such things enormously.

[jsks.livejournal.com]

it was the details in your stories that have kept me hooked. i love learning new things and if i don't know a detail that is what google is for me. as for merlin the fact that 'gwen' was in it caused me not to give it a fair chance. might just test the water on it again.

you mentioned a gwen/mother-in-law tiff and i would love to read it after all the rtd naff please.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yep, fanfiction can teach you a great many things. I'd never have learned all that incredible trivia about 12th century Japan, had I not written "Travellers' Tales" for my beloved Tosh.

I'll PM you the link to the story.

[jsks.livejournal.com]

thank you.
frodoette@yahoo.com

[dr-doomsduck.livejournal.com]

Bluegh, I hate to see you so disheartened. Though, I must admit, I made a valiant try at the Travellers' Tales but like you guessed the thing was a bit to much history jargon to follow along properly, if it'd been history I was familiar with I would've properly finished it.

BUT!!

Eye Witness was absolutely brilliant and yeah, I suppose there aren't that many fans that love Tosh and disliked Ten and Rose (god knows why, but sure). Even though a lot of folks aren't really all that interested, I think that Tosh deserves to be the real hero for at least a while, without Gwen or Jack or Ianto or Owen or the Doctor to steal her thunder ('cause Tosh really ain't in it for the shine, is she?) so, me, personally adore the Tosh centrics, they give a background to a character that was severly underused.

sunnova! why do I always miss it when people post stories not on Livejournal!! I've just given up on FF for a long while now, since most of the stories there aren't well...very inspiring to put it mildly. I'm just gonna go and be late to the party, dig up my old FF account, and read and review it.

I don't read merlin, because I don't watch the show, maybe I will sometime in the future, but the show doesn't really appeal to me all that much. If I don't watch a show, I don't read the fic, because the fic won't make sense to me.

edited because I would forget my head if it wasn't attached

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know, "Travellers' Tales" is an acquired taste - one has to be really obsessed to read it because of all that historic stuff. The Yoshitsune romance wasn't even intended, originally - it just happened along the way as I was working on the story.

The following episodes of the series will be more sci-fi-oriented, I promise. Next, they'll go to a different planet, and there's gonna be technobabble. If I ever find the time to write it, that is.

As for FF.Net, thanks for the review. You don't have to check there regularly, though. Whatever I post there, goes to the LJ comms as well; the Tosh nightmare scene will go up to otherworlds_lib as soon as I've finished posting "Eye Witness". I just didn't want to put it up in the middle of a different story, that's all.

You're right, reading fic to a show you aren't watching is no fun; even if you read it as an original fic, you miss all the hints. Merlin is an absolutely adorable show, though. I think you might like it if you gave it a try. And then, when I finally get around to finish my Merlin/Torchwood Exit Wounds fix-it story, you'll know what the warlock boy is babbling about. ;)

P.S.: Eve Myles features in the Merlin pilot as an ugly, evil old witch and Merlin killes her character by the end of that episode.

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

I wish I could read and leave feedback. But you already know I have never seen the shows that are your current fandoms, so you would know that I have no knowledge of what I'm talking about. (How was THAT for a confusing bit of English?) I think it's wonderful that you've found more fandoms that you like to write in... I'm just too ignorant to be able to discuss and review. Sorry!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Dear heart, I don't expect people to get hooked on brand new fandoms for my sake! Especially since some of my friends (like you) are so buried in Real Life work that they don't have the time even for their old favourites. I understand that. It's the fandom-intern ignorance that's disheartening, that's all.

awww...

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

...you are very patient with me. If we ever have a TV again, I'll be able to watch the Cadfael videolibrary we acquired shortly before our TV died. And then I'll be Real Reviewer again!

Re: awww...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

And you'll be mightily welcome, any time.

However, I must admit that I wasn't all that impressed by the Cadfael TV-series. First and foremost, I found Derek Jacoby seriously miscast as Cadfael, and so were quite a few other characters. Some of the episodes were fairly good, most of them were so-so, and a few of them were positively outrageous... like any other TV series with a low budget, I guess. Only that since the source material is such high quality that twisting some of it into something nasty is personally insulting for me.

[artemis10002000]

*hug* I hope you'll regain your enthusiasm soon!

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

I think readership drops in summer - I noticed this last year. And don't despair -I think of your stories like a fine brandy - too good for most people, but a delight to those who appreciate the best!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The experience of the last decade shows that this isn't a seasonal ebb where my writing is concerned. I'm actually used to it... it just frustrates me from time to time.

And it's not so that I wouldn't appreciate my faithful readers - I really do. :)