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It's well-known that many fans feel shy about commenting on fanfic, and some excellent feedback-writing primers have recently been posted to help them out. (Unfortunately, I can't find a single one of them to link to at the moment, so you'll just have to take my word for it. *g* ETA: the post I was thinking of is here.)
I was surprised, however, to discover today that many fanfic authors feel bashful about responding to feedback. I'd never heard of such a thing before... and I've certainly never seen any primers posted for them. So, in the spirit of Erasmus's De Copia--which offers over a hundred ways of saying "I was glad to receive your letter"--I hereby present:
Twenty Ways of Responding to Feedback - A Guide for the Bashful Fanficcer
1. The Reply Direct
Thank you for reading and commenting!
2. The Reply Hasty
Thanks!
3. The Reply Disingenuous
What--this old thing? Why, it was just lying around in my WiP folder...
4. The Reply Ecstatic
Wheeeee!!!!!!! Your e-mail made me run around the house, shouting for joy and doing the Happy Dance of Wonderful Feedback! Woohoo!!!!!!!!
5. The Reply Analytical
I found your observations fascinating, especially your second and third points, which really made me rethink some of the assumptions I'd left unexamined in this fic...
6. The Reply Perfectionist
AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!
I can't believe I used a semi-colon instead of a colon on page 47 of chapter 12! I am such an idiot! *smacks self in the head repeatedly* Thank you so much for pointing that out--I've taken the whole story down and will proofread it intensively twice over before re-posting.
(Oh, and thank you for your eight paragraphs of positive and thoughtful commentary.)
7. The Reply Canadian
Thank you kindly, ma'am. (Let me get that door for you.)
8. The Reply Metaphorical
Feedback is my sun and my moon. Thank you for bathing me in its golden and silver radiance.
9. The Reply Curmudgeonly
Thanks for making the supreme effort of clicking the "Post Comment" button and typing "I liked your story!"
In my day, we had to travel across the country to conventions to buy our fic in fanzines--and when we wanted to reply to one, we had to write an LoC by hand, walk it to the post office (up hill! in the snow! both ways!), wait for a snail-mail reply from the editor to find out whether it was good enough to print, and then wait another ten months (if we were lucky) for the next issue to come out... *grumble, mutter*
10. The Reply Existential
Without your feedback, my story has no being.
11. The Reply Poetic
I savour your thoughts
Like a ripe onion, golden
In every layer.
12. The Reply Sporting
I'm just here to help the fandom. I think everyone showed today that they came here to write, and the way I see it, if I keep logging on every day, giving it my all and taking things one word at a time, then--the good Lord willing--things'll work out for the best.
13. The Reply Textian
OMG! Yr LoC was 2gd 2B true! ^__^ U R teh best! L8r!
14. The Reply Bulwer-Lyttonian
It was on a cold, grey winter afternoon--the kind of afternoon that freezes the breath, chills the bones, and prompts USTing fanfic characters to share sleeping bags so as to conserve body heat; the kind of afternoon on which, three years ago to the day, I began to write my first fan fiction (an epic tale of magic, romance, and surprisingly excellent recipes for cabbage); the kind of afternoon, I say, when posting a story fills one with dread that it will go unlooked-at and unloved--that I glanced up and started violently to see the cryptic "Unread Message" alert winking at me from my otherwise quiescent monitor...
15. The Reply Fieldian
You like me! You really like me!
16. The Reply Shakespearean
To squee or not to squee? That is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to scoff at
The "God, you're brilliant!"s of outrageous feedback--
Or to be charmed by such a sea of comments,
Compose replies, and send them.
17. The Reply Obsequious
I should never dream of presuming to address a BNF of your Stature and Brilliance, were it not for the Remarkable Condescension you have shown in pronouncing my humble little story "quite promising."
"Quite promising!" Was ever a more welcome review offered by such an Awe-Inspiring LJer to such a Happy Recipient? I think not. I am in Raptures, I assure you. Raptures!
Your Astonishingly Kind words have convinced me to give up my day job in statistical analysis and devote my life to Writing!
I thank you from the depths of my Overwhelmed and Grateful Heart, which I hereby lay at your Beautiful and God-like Feet.
18. The Reply Non-Sequitur
My cat's name is Mittens.
19. The Reply Wildean
The only thing worse than being incoherently squeed at... is not being incoherently squeed at.
Thank you for your enthusiasm!
20. The Reply Heartfelt
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments. Your feedback really brightened my day!
Used with permission, Copyright © February 2004 nindulgence.
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