Do Reader Expectations/Comments Ever Influence Your Comic?

[JRHoch]

Many of us who create comics have a certain sense of direction for our plot and our characters. But what happens when our ideas conflict with our readers?

When readers want to ship certain characters or expect a character to behave or feel a certain way, do you stick to your guns or do you make adjustments based on reader views?

At what point does posting in installments change the creative process, making it more collaborative than you initially thought?

[mariusthered]

yes and no.
i write the whole story in one go so once it's down on paper it's law and could take up to two years to publish as comics. so if i were to start changing things it could easy mess up the plot lines and/or time line. so that main answer is no.
that said if readers started asking for a conflict between two characters or wanted someone killed off I would note this down ready for the next stories written.

[punkarsenic]

i have one commenter who was REALLY incensed by caths decision to essentially kidnap a little girl, which inspired me to tweak a major plot point so the little girl dies. i dont think i woulda thought of it if they hadnt reacted like that, but it makes the moment so much stronger

At what point does posting in installments change the creative process, making it more collaborative than you initially thought?

i remember hearing a story once abt dickens, who published his stories in installments in newspapers originally, talking to a woman who was disabled or her husband was, and she talked about what she didnt like abt dickens' portrayal of a particular disabled character. bc of that feedback, dickens changed the character in the rest of the story and made them a lot more sympathetic when released as a novel. afaik he responded a lot to the feedback of his audience.

the flipside is the final season of game of thrones - apparently theyd find people on reddit predicting their twists, and therefor completely changed the twists. the problem with this is those redditors are picking up on the signals youre intentionally putting down, so when you change it without any motivation beyond 'subverting expectations', youre just robbing your fans and yourself of a properly structured and meaningful story.

if i saw people predicting twists in my story, id be excited - stories are games we play with an audience, and if theyre following and making correct predictions, chances are theyre properly engaged and the game is going great.

[mariusthered]

the flipside is the final season of game of thrones - apparently theyd find people on reddit predicting their twists, and therefor completely changed the twists. the problem with this is those redditors are picking up on the signals youre intentionally putting down, so when you change it without any motivation beyond 'subverting expectations', youre just robbing your fans and yourself of a properly structured and meaningful story.

agreed . what they did was shameful and a lot of people like me felt robbed of ten years of watching, but I guess this rant can be saved for another thread.

[Rodimus13]

Only in that when people are NOT picking up what we are trying to lay out, we alter the script a bit to make it more obvious.

[JRHoch]

What they did was a crime against humanity! I want tribunals!

[irene_addler]

I would be very unlikely to change the plot itself unless a suggestion really resolved some issue I was having with some plot point and couldn't figure out how to fix it. I've definitely taken advice about making it easier to understand from a reader, just because I knew it would likely help other readers, but that was before I'd scrapped and restarted the whole thing.

[indagold]

I have a character several readers adored and wants to see again... I just added them as a background character later. Yeah i'm not gonna have an extra scene with a character I only introduced once.

[spicy_sweets]

No, I'm more influenced by my characters tbh. My readers don't usually say ships (bc I barely have any) When I have something planned that they think shouldn't be done, I tend to improvise until we come to a consensus.

That being said, if I get criticism that points out something I never noticed, I'm all for it.

[Jenny-Toons]

I have people in the comments predicting just actually who and what Christina is for Our Universe. Some have called her Mother Earth, some have called her an alien, some even think she's a God. And only a few just straight up refer to her as {REDACTED}.

They're getting closer to what I'm trying to reveal in the story, and I don't really mind. Our Universe is very much different from My Demon Valentine -- it has a longer plot, more subtle hints, and tiny Easter eggs. So I kinda want people to figure out things and make those predictions.

Whether or not they get it right is revealed when I finish the story, but even if someone does, I just silently pat them on the back without changing the plot. I dunno -- I like the idea of someone figuring out my plot along the way but still enjoy my work; at least for me, it shows that I was able to convey what I was going for.

[JRHoch]

My readers don't say ships either, but I know that's a big thing with some comics.

[revisionstudios]

I think it depends on the situation, and I generally agree with everyone here--there are times to do it and times not to.

There have been times I overreacted to criticism though (and by criticism, I mean like one or two comments), and changed course when I probably shouldn't have. I had some people say that it was getting really slow and that there wasn't enough action. So, even though my plan was to set up the character dynamics more and let the main character settle into his role, I got scared I was losing people and decided to switch around some things and move the next conflict up.

This unfortunately caused some of the silent, happy fans to be like "I really wish we had gotten more time to see the MC in his new role" cue me over here like "OTL

And it wasn't a short conflict, so... I'm only JUST finishing it up 180 pages later. I tried to intersperse it with scenes that still were character heavy, and it's not like it's not important to the plot... but it definitely made me learn the hard way not to let the minority reader expectations get to you.

[Darkstrong]

I never had to change anything in the story because of reader feed back, yet. Definitely not because the readers expect something or want something to happen. I have a sudden urge to change something, when I see a comment of a reader seeing through an upcoming twist or correctly deducing something that was not yet explained in the story. So far, I had strength to fight off those urges =)

[StrangeVision]

Back near the start of my comic, someone commented about a certain character being their favorite. She was going to die very soon, but I let her live based on that. I was hurtin' for readers and didn't want to turn them away by killing off their favorite character so soon after them expressing so...
She died eventually anyway, but I let her stick around a good while. I think it worked out better this way, fortunately.

[Rasp]

There was one couple in azure ink I'd originally developed a romantic plot line for but scrapped it when it proved too predictable and it was boring me... however both of my editors at the time loved the pair so I brewed up a romance plot with them.... only to kill it dead pretty quickly and to illustrate how I saw their relationship. I know it seems like I took the genuine feelings of my editors and lit them on fire... but I wasn't trying to. I was trying to give them a bit of what they wanted while keeping to my current vision. I guess I'd done my original job of giving the two great chemistry too well... there are worse problems a writer could have.

[inkycharland]

I think there is a line. I wouldn't forego my own plans for the story for readers. But I'm not above taking good advice or perspectives. I think you can do both. Sometimes people won't like your decisions no matter what you do. You just have to do what you want, and hope readers trust you to continue to make a good product.

[mariusthered]

shot in the face minding her own business was so sad (but awesome)

[AceRagz]

So far no. I've had a few expectations given to me and I feel they would all be spoilers if I addressed them here. But the main one which was posted in my comment section and I feel this is pretty spoiler territory but....eeeeh... It is expected my main character's mom is going to die soon. I guess this comes down to the Disney effect that if there is a loving parent in the picture and usually the mother they always die early in the story. This is something I want to avoid since my story has a lot of elements of the effects of parents on their kids both as children and as adults.

[tchotchkeco]

I think the problem is my comic is very lore and plot heavy to where there’s a lot of suspense and mystery. It gets hard to let readers influence the comic without it messing up the plot that’s already written. I will say though if a lot of folks are like “Wow! We should get more combat scenes!” Or something similar that then...sure. I’ll add more combat. Though I won’t say I’ll make certain characters date or things along those lines. I’ll always try to make choices best for the comics development.

[Anithia]

I have never been in that situation lol, but i wouldnt change the mayor plot or story, maybe some details, but changin the entire plot... only when my editor says (i dont have a formal sditor) or my proofreaders