Some days it's meta, some days it's wank, I guess. Depends on if you agree with it!

[amanuensis1]

On Veela, Inc., peachus said she was thinking about how some writers are happy to hear requests for sequels to their stories, while others go stark staring ballistic. And why it wasn't just a case of not having been polite enough in the request (she knows perfectly well that, "WRITE A SEQUEL NOW OR ELSE" might be flattering to some but risks being seen as pretty damn rude, for the most part, but even gently-phrased requests seemed to set some people off anyway).

So I opened my big mouth.



While I am not annoyed, exactly, by requests for sequels, they make me shake my head sometimes. There are two reasons for this: the first is that every writer tries to learn when the story is done, when it has been told, and when any more would be superfluous (what dear Lillypearl calls "tying it up with a bow," which I quote all the time and which is meant to be A Bad Thing in a story). A good story should leave you feeling just slightly hungry for a little taste more. But a good reader should know that it's important not to actually take that bite-- where it's important to say, "If I eat even one bite more, even if I could, I'd be overstuffed and unhappy." (I like food analogies, don't mind me.) Over the years, I've gotten better at knowing when a story should be done-- and "I'd love to read a sequel" requests either fill me with doubt at my ability to know when a story should end, or put me on the defensive and make me think uncharitable thoughts about the reader: "You silly person, you don't really want what you think you want! Tying it up with a bow is never good!" And I don't like to think uncharitable thoughts. Takes me back to the "why am I being defensive, are they right? Was the story unfinished?" cycle. Blah.

The second reason brings me to another food analogy: Imagine that you prepare a special holiday dinner, and after it's been eaten, you're met with, "That was great; what's going to be for breakfast? Are you making quiche? I like quiche. How about pancakes, oh, aren't pancakes good..." You'd feel rather disappointed that no one commented on your use of cardamom in the chicken, the dijon vinaigrette you made from scratch, or the nine-layer torte that had just been consumed.

"SEQUEL!!!111!!!" does not make me want to write a sequel, any more than "So what's for breakfast?" makes me want to cook breakfast. It makes me want to never cook again, if no one can tell me that they appreciated what effort I put into that dinner. No one gets addicted to that kind of "praise"-- the feedback we get addicted to is the stuff that actually takes a person a bit of time, the feedback that says what bits were particularly liked, that quotes lines that really got you, or paraphrases them-- do you know how flattering it is to have someone care enough about your lines to try to remember them off the top of their head, getting them not quite right but with their own unique take on your lines? It's INCREDIBLE. Yeah, you write me that kind of feedback, and I'll be so terrified by the thought of never inspiring that kind of in-depth analysis of my creations ever again that I'll never leave the keyboard! And who knows? I might discover the wish to continue that particular story in a sequel, too...

And yes, it takes effort to put together that kind of feedback. And yes, I'm ecstatic for the short little "That was really sweet! Thank you!" comment too, I'm not saying that all positive feedback must go on and on or it's insulting; no, hardly. Short notes to say "I liked it!" are worth their weight in gold, and please don't mistake all those "Please send short feedback replies to the author and not the list" messages for some idea that short, took-you-ten-seconds-to-compose-and-send-them feedback emails are somehow not welcome to the author. (The list moderators are just trying to save their webspace from clutter.) But understand that pleas for sequels to stories that look completed often make the writer feel that you've ignored the effort they put into writing what they did write.

This is all from the point of view of someone who does not post WIP's as a rule, mind you. I don't say that this applies to those, but to completed stories. On the other hand, if a sequel has been promised, *cough third story in Droit Du Seigneur sequence cough*, then I think the writer's earned the pestering and shouldn't bitch. ^_^ (Well, I think they shouldn't bitch anyway. 'S not polite.)

Comments

[lagoonlady.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, I don't feel it has that much to do with my story at all. Sometimes, I think calls for sequels or "updates" are part of a "feedback ritual." The reader like the story all right and so they post the same ritualized response that everyone else does. "Write more."

This isn't just a feeling I've gotten from FF.net. I've had it over at the FA cookie threads, too.

[ekaterin.livejournal.com]

I have asked a writer to 'write more' on a few occasions, but by that I do not necessary mean a sequel to the story I am reviewing, just that I like the author, and want to read more stories written by that author. So it might also mean just: write more, I want to read more of your work.

[lagoonlady.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Read my paragraph again. I wasn't refering to people requesting sequels, specifically.

I was saying that people write a lot of their feedback by copying other responses. They feel that they kinda liked the story and they really should leave feedback, but they don't have anything to say about it, really. So they get their ideas about what is appropriate by copying other responses that they've seen.

They say "write more" or "update" or anything else because they can't think of anything to say about the story they just read.

On the FA boards, everyone acts like cookie jar story is the best story they ever read. And that just can't be true.

[ekaterin.livejournal.com]

I misunderstood your post, sorry. English is not my first language, so that is probably why. I do not review very often, because I never learned how to do that. So I rate, if possible, but usually do not review, unless the author asks a specific question.

And if I really like a story, often I do not know what to say. So then I only have the: please write more comment. Now I have read how that can be misunderstood, I'll remember to add how the story affected me, if I cannot do anything else.

[lagoonlady.livejournal.com]

You did misunderstand my post. And I snapped back. Eek! Bad me.

If you want to give good feedback and don't know what to write, tell the author about a favorite sentence or sentences or a particular moment that affected you most. Specific is good.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

In an ideal world, we'd all know to put, "I'd love to read more of your stories," and the message would be plain. It would be complimentary to the writer without implying that it was a sequel that was being requested-- just more stories. Aren't ideal worlds convenient? ^_^

[lagoonlady.livejournal.com]

I ordered an ideal world from a phone salesman once, but it failed to arrive in the mail.