While I don't deny that this happens during the writing process. I'd like to take the opportunity to bloviate put down my thoughts on the post-creative process, or my version of it.
There's a scene in the first Back to the Future where George McFly explains his reasoning for keeping his stories private: "Well, what if they didn't like them? What if they said they were no good?" It's an echo of what his son Marty had said about not submitting his music to the industry; it's also the nagging fear I have every time I put something up on the web.
I'm generally stuck on the 'This is awesome' stage of the process Mélusine described above, but I also know very well that my tastes are not shared by a large number of people out there; what I think is awesome is likely to be thought of as "bleh" by others. So every time I post anything, I'm biting my nails and sweating blood, waiting for the inevitable person who doesn't like my stuff and feels compelled to inform me about it to speak up (as such). And every time that I put something up and the crickets chirp, I'm convinced that it's because nobody likes it but they're too nice to actually say so.
So, is this a familiar state of affairs for anyone else?
Oh yeah. And Crumpite has pretty much hit the nail on the head.
(For the record, this is my first visit to this thread, drawn here by your plaintive tone in the Disqus comments.)
For my artworks, I generally get stuck on the 'I am s***' phase. I go away and leave them for a few years, and after forgetting about them completely and unearthing them again, I get to 'This might be okay.' Any works I considered Awesome also get demoted to 'This might be okay.' In fact, the fact that I have been accomplishing and sharing art is new this year (2016), helped immensely by the anonymity afforded by a pseudonym.
For my writing, 2016 was also the first year I did *any* writing (conveniently forgetting teen angst poetry from 35-40 years ago), so I am always surprised whenever anybody likes any of it. I'd prefer not to hear the crickets chirp, but they do and I can deal with that. (That's a lie: I dearly love crickets, and cicadas and wetas, and am bummed that there are none so far in this cold so-called summer.)
Is everything you write awesome? Yes and no.
- Some writings hit you right away, and some take time to percolate through.
The Forum moves so quickly that it really isn't the done thing on *any* thread to comment on something from several pages ago, although I have no difficulty leaving kudos & comments on older AO3 entries.
You write across an array of genres and include AUs and crossovers. There is such a volume of fanfic to enjoy that when I'm not familiar with the other half of the crossover, it's an easy filter. AUs sometimes leave me a bit cold, too (says she whose biggest work posted on AO3 is an AU), much like the Holodeck recurring story device in ST:TNG.
It's possible that some of your fellow writers (present company included) don't want to be seen putting in a generic comment that doesn't give usable feedback on that particular story. Just composing this message has taken me the better part of an hour, and I was supposed to accomplish some RL stuff (and some work on the next chapter of said AU monolith) this evening - ooops. When I 'Post' this, that's me for the evening.
*}hugs{ for LooNEY_DAC*
I will say you're probably the only writer around here who could get me to read a story about the Kastrup reclamation or giant Danish tanks, based on that gem about the Cleanser cycle.
Right, laundry and processing of today's green bean harvest calls.
