I mean, I definitely take reader feedback into consideration. Though usually that manifests less as me changing the story itself so much as clarifying things that readers found confusing.
Interesting question. I think for me it depends. Would I ever change something about the characters or the plot/ending? No. But I do take feedback into consideration, but you have to think about the fact that this your story. It's just not possible to please everyone and have everyone be interested in your story. Sometimes readers start to dislike where your story or plot is going, but changing the plot just because of that would take away the reason why you decided to make the plot this way. You always have to remember that your readers don't know everything about your story, so most of the time they simply don't have enough understanding to suggest some major changes to you. Of course, feedback when it comes to pacing, grammar or flow of the story should always be considered along with critique of any kind. But I think you will have to keep in mind that you can't please everyone with your story and changing it majorly just because one (or more) people said they don't like this about character name's personality or about the plot/universe in general would be bad for you and your loyal readers that do enjoy the story. Of course, fixing plot holes reader notice is a good thing to an extend, so I truly think it depends. But personally, I would never change a lot or something drastic because of reader's reactions.
Only when it comes to readability and accessibility. My best friend is partially blind so he's my reference point. If he can read, then the comic is fine.
Story based, I plan a lot before I get into a project. And I try to simply things without dumbing them down. Again for accessibility.
Not really. However, I do sometimes get inspiration from my readers as I read through their comments.
Generally no.
My readers are reading my comic and thereby expecting me to tell them a story, for better or worse.
Sometimes if i can tell by the comments that almost everyone entirely missed the point of a scene, I'll try to show "subtle" things and undertones more clearly in the later storyline though.
not really, since it's my story, though I might have evaluate some parts that has similarity opinion which I accidentally didn't notice that it was a flaw in my story, but generally I will not.
I try not to change the plotline, even if people in the comments have guessed correctly what's going to happen, because they don't always hit the mark on their predictions, and rather than cheating to make it so they were wrong, I'd rather they get the satisfaction of their attentiveness to the clues I dropped paying off. Like yeah, you caught me, Excalibur totally got pulled by X like you thought, well done!
I think I do subconsciously alter how characters and jokes are written or the pacing based on reader feedback. I've been a Dungeon Master for tabletop games for... god... something like 15 years, and I now have a sense for when people are losing engagement in a narrative or they're just not feeling something, as well as when they're really interested in a particular character. For example, if people hadn't really warmed to Subo in chapter 2, I would have pared back his role to just what was necessary, or toned down his character a bit, but since readers actually reacted really well to him, he got more jokes and funny moments where he was the centre of attention. I think it's going to be a similar process with Jules this chapter; how much Jules can people take? Does this character engage readers or are they tuning out? I'll probably steer things based on how people react.
Nope. The only thing i would change in an edit would be something like I refer to a location being west, when I meant east, or someone's eyes are written as green when they're supposed to be grey - eye color being an important thing in really only two or three stories of mine.
No changes to the story or characters, but I have made extra side episodes based on readers' comments. I have also put more thought into some background elements that weren't supposed to be more than that, but people being interested in them gave me inspiration.
I just find it amazing that people spend their time reading my story and leaving comments. It would be difficult for me to just ignore their reactions.
Not really. Sometimes people vocalize things they dislike that I can’t really change at this point. My whole comic is in greyscale and someone said to “add color”. I have also had someone dislike a character’s design but I am already 200+ pages in. The amount of time it would take to “fix” that character would take far too long, and I would rather be working on newer pages.
maybe a little. I don't think I could change the ending but part of the fun of a long-form thing like a webcomic is getting to see audience reaction as you write. In one of my earlier chapters the main character has a throw away line about wanting tome to Chicago, which originally wasn't supposed to be a big deal but since a couple people in the comments were wondering what significance Chicago has, I ended up incorporating it into his backstory (without actually making any major changes to his backstory or goals. But I'm definitely sticking to my guns in regards to tone and the ending.
Yes. Not for plot, but mostly for pacing. Twice.
One of my characters is a bully, and in my plans he was way harsher and more annoying than he is now. I wanted to make sure that everybody hated him, but turned out readers already hate him before he could do 30% of the bullying that was planned lol. So I just removed the other bullying scenes because I thought it might be redundant and repetitive.
The other time was a fight scene. It was going to end in one episode, but then the readers seemed just so hyped I decided to extend it to not disappoint them. I regret it though, that fight ended up too long.
I wish I could predict the readers' reactions, it would make my life easier. I like to plan everything beforehand, but it's impossible when I want to change based on readers' feedback...
What happens in the story - no I didn’t.
A lot of people liked getting a second POV though so I did add more chapters from the other POV. I was re-writing the story and it was fairly easy to just reiterate what happened from Wren’s side as I worked on the next chapters.
Plot/character arcs/etc are all figured out before I start posting and don’t change based on readers
I only move things around in a minor scale. Having more or less of a character in scenes where anyone works, or in theoretical scenarios, if people start looking for the story because it's funny, I'll probably tone down some of the dark scenes so people arent taken out of it; and vice versa. But the plot only changes on my terms as I get a better handle of the story, not because someone guessed a twist or because some type of scene is trending.
I don't particuarly want to as I have a clear direction for my story, but there's a character people have already told me they'd like to see more of, so I can work with that! (He happens to be my fav too, so I'm totally okay with him appearing more) 
Only once, and it wasn't for a very huge thing and didn't really change the story.
One if the characters is intersex, originally I was going have them present as female, but readers got so excided about the idea of a they/them character in the story that I decided to make them present as they/them instead.
No I do not. Though, I do take into account of how my audience views the characters and it helps me see what these characters are from a 3-point of view, which in turn helps inform my writing.
I do, particularly if the emotional accents I wanted didn’t work or adding extra scenes.
Sometimes I ask the readers questions to help me fine-tune content in follow up editing. Some readers are very, very helpful!
I am also in the reading clubs, which are designed for feedback. I gather as much as possible before doing a final story revision.
Suggested Topics
| Topic | Category | Replies | Views | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What are your couples age gaps? | Questions | 24 | 591 | Dec '24 |
| Quick Q: Profanities in Forums? | Questions | 9 | 377 | Jul '24 |
| What top reasons make you drop a webcomic? | Questions | 21 | 802 | Jul '24 |
| Artists help me please! | Questions | 3 | 315 | Apr '24 |
| What do other artists and writers with ADHD do to manage it? | Questions | 5 | 280 | Dec '24 |