Conversations

In some ways the interaction between the author and the reader is like a disconnected slow conversation.

The author pours their thoughts and hopes into a story and releases it into the ether, to be read, and thought about by an unknown audience, or possibly even ignored. The author's lives continue down their path, other tales taking shape in their minds and sometimes being born into print, or at least text. All the while, there are the nagging questions in the back of the mind, ‘Did they like it?’ ‘Did they understand what I was saying?’ 'Do they want me to write another one?'

When the reader comments on a story, the tale becomes not just something told, but is now part of a conversation between author and audience. Every author craves this feedback. They have spent the hours of their lives molding simple words into a story and want to know that someone somewhere found the work worthwhile. Waiting for validation of their work is a lonely feeling. We've all felt it.

I was reading Tim Norland’s tribute to JD today, The Galactic Shortlist, which got me to thinking about the things that she imparted to me about StoryStar. One of these things was the lack of comments by readers. She had gone so far as to hire a couple of commentators for a few months to try to get some momentum going. I think that one of the primary reasons that she chose me to carry on for her was that I tend to make some kind of comment on almost every story that I read.

I believe that the author deserves to hear from us how we felt about their story. Was their effort worth it? 

I challenge each of you to be more considerate of our authors and to join their conversations. Give a comment. Say what you liked or didn’t like about a story. Offer advice if improvement is warranted. Offer praise if the story was particularly good at something. If you read a story all the way to the end, surely there was something about it worth mentioning, and if you couldn’t stand to read the entire story, then there is a way to say that without stepping too hard on toes! Any feedback is better than no feedback. To paraphrase P.T. Barnum, Say what you will about a story, just spell the word right. Without constructive criticism, how will our authors get better?