Anyone ever get surprised by the feedback/reviews they get?

Be it positive or negative?

The reason I bring this up is because I was recently messaged by a person on FF.net about one of my Phineas And Ferb stories, Realize. The person liked my story so much that he apparently wants to do some fanart of a couple scenes in it, and wanted my permission for him to do so.

I literally had to stop for five minutes to think about the entire situation. Someone liked my story to the degree of them wanting to do fanart of it. My mind almost can't comprehend that. I thought that kind of thing was only done by the well-known people, not someone like myself.

In face, ever since I started putting my stuff on FF.net, I've been generally surprised by the amount of positive feedback I've gotten. I know that most people aren't generally dicks and bash stories either for the lulz or on purpose, but I feel like I was expecting at least something along those lines, since some of my viewpoints tend to...differ than most.

On the negative side, there was one review I got that was negative beyond belief, but it was so beyond Completely Missing The Point it wasn't funny, so I basically ignored it.

Anyone else find themselves surprised by either overly positive or overly negative reviews that they've gotten?

I'm usually surprised when I get favorable reviews, especially if it's a long time after the story was posted. I think the most surprising negative review I've ever received was for an SG-1 Sam Carter/Daniel Jackson fanfic...apparently one reader thought the pairing was too much like incest. Umm...okay then.

edited 4th Oct '11 2:08:28 PM by LoganLocksley

I've been told 2 of my oneshots were "hot", which is good since that was what I was going for, I was just surprised to hear it, especially since they were a bit... unconventional.

I had another scene that people have consistently said was "gruesome" and mind screwy, even though I hadn't described the violent bits in much detail, and I had been going for In Medias Res and not deliberately trying to mind screw the reader.

I was always surprised how seriously people took a certain joke I made.

Was it the temple thing?

I was so surprised that someone liked one of my fanfics enough to make this out of it.

Merlo: Yes. I wanted it to be slightly kooky and abnormal (mostly to show the world is Like Reality, Unless Noted as well as the fact that there is intentional Anachronism Stew at work). I was told by a guy it was incredibly stupid and cluttered and made no sense.

edited 4th Oct '11 2:50:37 PM by MrAHR

I'm just surprised by any feedback or reviews. I used to post things on Deviant Art, and a majority of it went ignored, but the occasional comment or two was always welcome, regardless of its content.

Whenever I receive really good feedback/reviews I get very surprised (and I blush a lot). I only really show people my original works, so hearing good feedback about it makes me feel warm and squishy inside. It's one of those, "They like me! They really like me!" shock reactions.

Of course, I've received constructive criticism for my work, but as of yet I haven't had any, "THIS IS HORRIBLE. I HATE IT." reactions from anybody; but I don't show my work to everybody either.

edited 4th Oct '11 3:13:46 PM by MechaJesus

Actually, no.

I've never really published anything anywhere, but I have shown my work to people I know, and one thing I've found is that their opinions, good or bad, very frequently match up with how I felt about that work. Generally, they do tend to view my work more favorably then I do, but I'm a negative thinker by nature, so it's natural I'd focus more on my perceived failings then most people.

Sometimes, my positive reviews surprise me more than my negative ones. I was expecting a certain amount of negativity when I wrote a three-part story involving rape, and indeed, the first part got the lowest average rating I've ever gotten. I definitely wasn't expecting that the final part would average a 4.5 rating out of 5. (In retrospect, the story wasn't even that good, and it's not the story I would pick to best represent my writing.)

edited 4th Oct '11 4:08:11 PM by feotakahari

I'm kind of surprised by the people gushing about it. I've seen really good work, and mine isn't. Other than that, not really.

On FF.net, what really surprises me is when someone likes something I wrote so much that they add me to their Author Alerts. Liking my writing is one thing - I usually don't post it unless I'm really proud of it - but wanting more? That always makes me feel extra warm and fuzzy...and reassures me that they didn't just say they liked it to be nice.

I still get "favorite story" alerts for crappy things I wrote years ago.

Confuses the hell out of me.

no one really likes to give feedback on my stuff apparently, idk why. maybe the stuff i post is too long

Back in those dark days when I wrote fanfiction, most of my stuff was largely ignored (because most of it was largely crap).

I did a single one-shot that got attention though. Mass Effect / Dragon Age crossover. It was so popular they asked me to continue, and I got decently far before I gave up on fanfiction. It was the only one I regretted taking down, actually.

One of my fanfics got mentioned on the Tear Jerker page. That startled me. Then more people chimed in with additional Tear Jerker moments from the story. I wasn't even trying to be particularly tear-jerky. But it was incredibly flattering all the same.

edited 4th Oct '11 6:24:09 PM by Karalora

"Favoriting" seems to be some people's way of saying "this story is kind of good"—I've looked at what else gets favorited by the people who favorite my stories, and a good proportion of it's stuff I sincerely doubt was actually a favorite story of theirs. (It's a bit like people following you on Twitter without reading your posts more than once a month.)

edited 4th Oct '11 6:27:11 PM by feotakahari

People keep telling me I have a sick mind 0_0 ... the strangest story I've ever written includes a lesbian(romantic two-girl friendship) between two kidnapped girls(six and eight years old), one being a psychic and the other a fairie princess.

I realize that's a little weird, but you'll all agree it would be tame considering our community, or at least the memorable works within it.

Of all the things the guy could have picked on...

How... enlightening.

Well, if it's true, he has a point— the main character's name shows up most often, so if it's ugly, it'd be annoying.

But it's fixable, at least.

Whenever my mom sees my recent writing, I've noticed that she seems to have a low standard on what constitutes good prose. What I think honestly sucks compared to some of the writing I see in this forum is something that she considers absolutely amazing. It's a little hard to tell where parental bias and true criticism ends and begins.

So I tend to take her criticisms and compliments with a grain of salt.

It would have bugged me a lot less if that wasn't the only line in the review, though :l

I think the judgments that prevail in the FF.net community, which is the only place I routinely receive feedback, in regard to prose quality are rather...undemanding. I actually think that that's one of my better traits, but again I see and know much better, and seeing people who seem to think that I'm a Really Good Author is...weird.