Postive or Negative Comments?

I have a on-going discussion happening discussing if an author shall invoke negative items in their story to the point of some readers becoming very negative in their comments (not about the author but about the story itself). I argue any comment is better then no comment, and sometimes a neg reaction can keep a series going longer then all positive ones. The other side is of course some things are so negative that they can ruin a story to the point readers comment negatively and do not go back to the story.

So the question is: should a author write something in a story that they know will invoke a strong negative reaction from their readers? The authors clear intent is to get a response from the readers of some type. Secondly if a author gets a strong negative reaction to their story, should they re-write the story to negate the comments?

Some people like things, some people like other things. Some people are offended by some times, others see them as a turn on. If you post a Good Girl spanking story on a hard core B&D board then you will get negative comments. If you post a hard core B&D story on this board, well, some will like it - others won't.

I strongly doubt that anyone would write and post a story just to get a reaction - at least not here. As for changing a story to suit one reader, I can't see that happening.

That said, I've received some negative comments - and some of them have helped me grow as an author. I've had other negative comments that simple told me that I wasn't writing towards one person's kink. Those were interesting but not worth re-writing a story over.

Goodgulf

I don't know if I agree with this, sometimes I write and hope to get a reaction, good, bad or indifferent is all the same sometimes, but I do want a reaction. If we do not write for reactions how can we tell if our stories are any good or people who comment are merely being polite. Maybe I am wrong but I don't think so.

I think it's up the writer. I have the story worked out in my head and won't write it any differently because of the possible reaction. I generally don't write anything negative as such, at least I don't think I do. I do want a reaction, because comments not only tell me if anyone enjoyed or didn't the story, but also help me as a writer and sometimes give me a different view of the work.

Methinks all writers love feedback on their stories whether 100% positive or helpfully critical. I personally wouldn't deliberately write a story to gain negative feedback or cause a political stir... I tend to write what amuses or entertains me and naturally hope that a percentage of readers here will be equally entertained.

Well if we limited our comments to all being positive they would cease to have any meaning in my opinion. There are definitely some authors who like to push the boundaries in the same way that there are some who don't like it if they get negative feed back but that's human nature. I don't agree with people removing work because it gets negative comments, you have to ask who they are writing for, themselves or to please others? People pleasing is a soul destroying activity...

I would never write anything into a story with the intention of provoking a negative reaction. That being said, I wouldn't hesitate to write (or submit) any story simply to avoid negative reaction. (I would, however, hold back a story that didn't meet up with my own standards). I don't mind constructive criticism, or comments that merely reveal the reader has prefers a different type of story. I find satisfaction in readers enjoying my work and letting me know, but I want that to be because they really do like what I write, and would never cater to what they say they want UNLESS I find what they ask for of interest to me.

There are three very different kinds of situations where stories can evoke negative comments.

1) Situations where negative comments are essentially entirely results of differences in tastes. These comments are often a kind of backhanded compliment because the fact that the reader took the time to comment suggests that the reader likes the author's writing enough to wish the author wrote stories more to his or her tastes.

2) Situations where negative comments indicate that the author succeeded in evoking the emotions he or she intended to, but that some readers don't like where the author took their emotions. If these kinds of comments are strongly negative, it may suggest that it would be polite for the author to put warnings in future stories likely to stir similarly strong negative emotions so readers who are going to dislike them can avoid them. But overall, such comments are indications that stories accomplished what the author intended.

3) Situations where negative comments indicate that the author made a mistake or miscalculated how readers would react to something. These comments are the most valuable in helping writers improve their writing, and should therefore be welcomed as long as their tone is civil. But at the same time, they are something authors should try to avoid creating reasons for, and that writers may want to respond to by modifying their stories to get rid of the problems pointed out to them.

I don't think it's a good thing for writers to deliberately make stories controversial just because they want comments and don't care whether the comments are positive or negative. That kind of attitude is unfair to readers unless they are given a fair warning, and over the long term, readers are more likely to read stories from authors whose work they expect to enjoy than whose work often bothers them. But when writers think the elements that make a story controversial make it better - at least for the tastes they are trying to appeal to - they have good reasons not to allow fear of negative comments from people with different tastes to interfere with their work.

I post very few negative comments - if I think a story is irredeemably awful I keep quiet as there's nothing to be gained by this. I did post one yesterday where a school story which I was led to believe would have some authenticity as it related to a specific known location (and was actually well-written) ended up going into realms that would never have happened in real life, or if it had would have resulted in prison sentences.

The author wasn't entirely gracious pointing out that it was fiction after all - but I still thought I ought to have said what I did, maybe I needed to praise the bits I did like some more.

For example TEM recently advised me that in my most recent story I slightly overdid the dual adjectives. This is very helpful criticism, I re-read it and thought how right you are! In fact it is not slightly overdone either! If I had skipped some of those dual adjectives it would have read much better. That is the sort of criticism one needs! Helpful intelligent criticism. Next time I shall certainly watch those dual adjectives.

Recently you, CS, strongly criticised my villainous schoolmistress, Miss Taylor, saying she was cruel and really shouldn't be teaching young people! You were confusing reality with fiction! I like my fictional schoolmistresses to be cruel and ruthless, so your criticism was wildly missing the point! Happily I have a sense of humour and was amused by your criticism rather than offended by it. I certainly wouldn't dream of altering a plot to cater for popular taste as when all is said and done like most people in the library, I write for myself.