How to judge a story

When I first started with The Library, I used the "Favorite" for stories that I wanted to find again, so that I would want to read them again. This might have been wrong in my approach to stories that I really enjoyed. If I labeled all of my enjoyable stories as "Favorite" I would have almost as much stories as I had commented.I have a lot of stories that I really enjoyed. Should I "favorite" all of these stories? I do know which authors that I very much enjoy so that I can always go back to their stories. I had used the "favorite" just as I would "flag" an e-mail.

I agree with the sentiment expressed by SNM. I write for my own pleasure and I'm happy to share my stories with any who are interested. I prefer that they be well received, but the sun will come up tomorrow even if they're not.

I've only been on here actively since March, so I never knew a time when the comments were rare. I enjoy getting comments and I've formed the habit of commenting on most of what I read. It took me a while to form that habit too - that was not automatic. When I was getting started here, I usually sent my comments as popups rather than using public comments. (You're WELcome!)

I see the "favourite" designation as a "bookmarking" function - I only designate stories as a favourite if I intend to go back and read them again. It was last week before I designated enough favourites to run over to a second page and six or seven of my first page are by Susan Thomas. I often neglect to "favourite" stories I really love. Even if I hadn't "favourited" them though, I'd still get back to "Orion's Belt" or "Accepting the Unfair" or "Ancient and Modern" or "Attitude Adjuster" Certain stories stick in one's head.

I think "views" are generally correlated with how well a story is received, but it's definitely not a tight linear relationship. I've noted many times that a new story will get "viewed" but then the reader "views" something else in the same minute. I'm pretty sure that not many people can read one of MY stories in less than a minute!

I had barely noticed.

Personally, I judge a story by how much I enjoy it. There's one series of mine here that has less than 50 read throughs (or did the last time I checked) but since I enjoyed writing it (and writing it helped me conquer my problems with the first person voice) I rate it as one of my better series.

And if I'm in the minority there, well, numbers aren't everything. Years ago I saw a T-Shirt that captured the "popular doesn't make it right" attitude to a T:
"EAT SHIT - 20 BILLION FLIES CAN'T BE WRONG!"

Goodgulf

Good is a fairly objective thing. What one person thinks is the best thing ever, someone else may loathe. Popularity only goes part of the way to determining whether something is good or not. The Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer have been phenomenally successful, but they have as many detractors as they do fans. There's also the state of mind the person is in at the time of reading. Going back to the Twilight books there are people who thought those were the bees knees when they were in their early teens and they first hit the streets, now they can't even believe they read and liked them.

More than some (not mentioning any names, here), fewer than others. And perhaps someone else's friends don't comment as regularly as my Marlowistas.


What kind of standard is that? Geesh!

Seriously, I 'judge' my own stories pretty much as GG does his. I still use other metrics (comments, favorites) to see 'how well received' they are by readers in general.

You say there are 20 billion recommendations for eating shit? hmmm....

This truly is an interesting thought to ponder as there are so many variables involved. I guess views to comments plus favourites ratio (as Rollin suggested) gives a good indication as to whether a story is well received...so long as the comments are praiseworthy. So many variables contribute to the amount of views a story gets and many readers feel shy about leaving comments even if they thoroughly enjoyed a story...especially newer members...so even a low comment ratio should not leave an author despairing! My stories generally get a good comment/view ratio (having been loaded since the comment increase)...but interestingly my personal favourites (of my own stories) have the least views of all my others. So I guess at the end of the day, I would have to say that the measure of a story depends on whether or not the author is proud of it ;-D

Jools, I think you made an interesting observation about your own favourite work drawing the least number of views. I know you're not the only one with that point of view, because I feel the same way about a couple of mine.

I think Pink's observations are also both true:


It's certainly true that there are several very active authors here, who, every time I see they've made a new post, I rush to read it. And I probably comment at least 9 of 10 times. I click on them because I expect their new story is going to float my boat. And it's usually true.

Conversely, I virtually never click on other active authors' new work if their past work is not of my taste. I don't click on their story and comment about how my taste is blah, blah, blah, or the way I would have written it is thus and so - who wants to hear that? Would I really expect that they're going to adjust their theme or their style to suit me? I don't believe they should - they should keep writing to their own taste/style. So, instead, I just read stick to reading my favored writers or exploring the older stuff from undiscovered (by me) writers who write to my sweet spot.

On some post somewhere recently, someone made reference to the formation of "cliques." I don't like cliques because they lead to exclusion and isolation of those on the "outside" and they stifle dialogue. There are many frequent flyers on this board who have a lot of friends who reference a lot of history and inside jokes. Even when I'm not part of that, I'm often entertained/amused and I find it to be a big part of the magic and charm of this wonderful library.

One thing's for sure and that is that the stories I consider my best are not that popular with the readership. I am constantly amazed at what seems to strike chord with readers and what does not. Part of it, of course is genre---there are genres I don't touch. But part of it is the difference between what I am most proud of artistically and what sells. I suppose that's an old story, though. There are a few works here that I am really, really proud of for varying reasons, but they have for the most part, faded into obscurity. See the "old gold" thread. Maybe some day they will be rediscovered, but I think Pink is right---most people hover around the "latest read" and "activity" pages and don't go prospecting. But I'd encourage new readers to do just that. The genre search is a good way. So is the "most commented" stat and the "most favorites" stat page. Maybe those pages should be expanded.

Rollin makes a good point about using the search function. Februs has done a good job setting it up to allow a reader to search for stories that take place at home or school or work, etc. You can select the recipient's gender and age category. It's a great way to discover works from authors who perhaps don't post many new stories or who haven't posted anything new in years.