How do you handle readers' expectations?

[colonel_ressentiment]

What do you do when readers expect - or actively propose - that your comic go in a different direction than you intended? For example, you want to draw a slow-burn love story with the leads overcoming their respective emotional trauma before being able to confess to each other, but your readers start clamoring for makeouts the moment they have a quiet moment together.

Do you get stressed out if readers expect something different? If you changed your comic to be more in line with reader expectations, how did you feel? If you didn't change your comic, how did your readers react?

[mariusthered]

respect and support your readers, but don't pander to their every whim, will take your story to places you dont enjoy and and that point you wont find it easy to push on. I have had to tame the content in my comic and to be honest I struggle making it now, it's only a few loyal fans that keep me going.
your fans are reading your story and doing so for free, it's you doing all the work!

[Heliox14]

Personally, I would just carry on with the story with how you want it to be. You're the one who is making it, not the fans. As said above,

respect and support your readers, but don't pander to their every whim

.
But, if you really want to cater that wish, you can make that scene into an omake (blooper thing) of some sort, or even make another branching story where they make out and change everything.
Heck, you can even make THE FANS write it for you, and it would be presented as "fan work" or something like that.
Just offering my two cents here.
-Heliox

[Aura-Redwood]

Sometimes I feel like what people say they want and what they actually want can be two different things in this situation.

Like if you make them make out now, it's done. They won't keep reading and the story won't be as nearly as good. So in the end they won't like the story as much as if they waited.

Maybe make a one off art page of them making out for Christmas or something?

[akemikae]

As a reader and a creator, I can admit, I get carried away by the fun sometimes while reading comics. I'm a huge fan of slow burns myself.(I actually really love colonel_ressentiment's comic (omg, how do you tag people...can you??))

I definitely leave some comments that are more out of excitement for a comic, rather than expectations. It really takes a lot for me to get angry at the way stories progress. (and it's usually from bad writing, rather than the actual event itself. I.E. It came out of NO WHERE.) Honestly, if I don't have anything good to say, I try not to comment, Though, I feel I am more inclined to leave an overly excited comment on smaller comics, just to show support.

As a creator who writes a slow burn, I knew from the beginning I was gonna deal with people getting impatient. I did warn people from the very beginning though. My love story is so slow, that even I get frustrated with the fact they haven't gotten anywhere yet. (I am not the fastest at releasing a lot of content).

So...I guess just do what your story is supposed to be, and just let them complain/leave dumb comments/tell you to change stuff. It's really your decision.

[mg78]

im a reader too, and i have learned (in all these years) that reader must not have expectations.
as creator, the story it's above everything. if readers like it, they re in and im glad about it. if not... well, life goes on.

[Sanz]

i don't think you can please everyone and I agree if you try to you comic will spiral out of your liking and intent especially for longer stories. i was told once by a reader to change the perspective so it focuses on the " hero " of the story..... ha not gonna happen... however i would say the best thing to do is stick with your script/writting. if YOU feel it should be changed then change it.

[Tycade]

you do you, as much as you WANT to appeal to the crowd, make your art and story yours.

[shazzbaa]

Anybody actually telling you "you should do x" is overstepping imo, and while it absolutely is frustrating, I feel free to mentally think "lol nah" and ignore the demand.

But people yelling JUST KISS HIM might be actually wanting that to happen, or they might just be expressing excitement. Like, if you're watching a horror movie and getting really into it, and the protagonist walks up to a creepy house, and you yell "NO!!!!! DONT GO INSIDE!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING???" and then the movie somehow hears you say that, and makes the character change their mind and leave the creepy house alone and never come back, you'd be extremely disappointed! That wasn't what you wanted the story to do, not really -- you were just excited and in the moment and feeling desperately for the protagonist.

So I sometimes think of myself a bit villainously in this way -- like, obviously, there's the voice in my head going "haha omg i hope you guys dont hate this ;v; ...." and I definitely do worry, but when I'm doing something that I know will go against reader desires, or when someone starts shipping something that I know isn't going to work out, I like to think of myself smiling serenely and tenting my fingers like some kinda evil mastermind. Trying to look at it as "muahahaha I'm going to make you wait~!" even if I feel like "ahhhhh you guys want this to happen but it's going to take forever ahhhhhhhh...."

---

For your situation specifically, I wanna mention a fanfiction I read once that, despite being weird non-canon human AU homestuck fanfiction, stuck with me over the years. It was written for a smut prompt, and the author apologised often for not "getting to the action" as she took 7 or 8 chapters to quietly build up this relationship -- and then in chapter nine, for the first time, the characters held hands. Her readers were screaming, one yelling that they didn't understand how these two characters just interlocking fingers could be as intense as if they'd actually done something steamy.
That comment stays with me. Even people who are primarily there for the make-outs can appreciate the power of what slow burn does for a story.

[UrMom]

I've gotten a couple people similar to that, but since my comic isn't a romance they voice how they want my main to make-out/or that my main wants to make-out with every dude he interacts with. (a fujoshi thing I guess?) Usually I'll just entertain them in the comment section, or ignore them, and keep drawing whatever I want. Unless I was making a thing purely for monetary purposes, what would be the point of changing things I didn't personally want to change? It wouldn't be my comic anymore if I catered to what people wanted (outside of them wanting me to improve objective flaws).
If a reader or two have a problem with how the story is going they can go read something else, no skin off my back. Although my readers are pretty cool, they're there to see what happens and haven't actively tried to get me to change anything so far.

[Ayusaurus]

I have a friend who's created a fairly popular comic and she says that there's times she wishes she hadn't watered down a character due to the fact that she catered to the younger fans. Her story was never meant to be as friendly for younger readers since the topics and things in the comic are a bit more for mature readers. (That's not to say that younger readers can't read it due to the fact that it's not all mature topics and there's a lot of humor and some slice of life type episodes, but there is definitely a certain maturity level that benefits from her comic.) However, that being said, the romance part of her comic between the two characters is def slow burn and it's not even clear if there will be any kind of canon official thing between them. That's something she hasn't faltered on and I'm thankful, as a reader, that she hasn't.

I'd rather a creator be able to tell the story they want to. While the story might please others if you let the whims of the readers guide you, your story and content will show that you aren't enjoying it as much as if you continued to tell the story in the way you want. I know my comic is going to be told how I'm planning it, and sure there might be a couple things a person may say that might wind up being a better path than my original plans, but I have a fairly good direction I'd like to lead the plot.

I think with things like romance, it needs to be told at the pace that's right for the characters interacting. I think a few suggestions of having it be like an "Omake" or just a side comic that has nothing to do with the plot would be a good and happy medium area for you to indulge in what readers want without taking your comic in a direction you weren't intending.

[Shanny8]

I dont do my comics with the purpose of pleasing everyone. I have to do what is true to my vision; if I dont tell the story the way I envisioned it then it's not my story.

[punkarsenic]

you want to draw a slow-burn love story with the leads overcoming their respective emotional trauma before being able to confess to each other, but your readers start clamoring for makeouts the moment they have a quiet moment together.

let them wait out every excruciating second of sexual tension til the bitter end. theyve done it before.

[Daknight]

I just started so haven't had this problem, but if you start to do the story based on fan reaction it'll get out of control and you won't be able to get it back on track. If you have an ideal already on events to happen and when it'll happen stick to that. We do leave in a time of instant gratifications, but people also want the tension and build up to make the moment more impactful even if they type 'kiss already!!'

Of course taking fan input into consideration is also important, but not to the point it moves the comic/story from your original idea. Maybe have a certain character more on screen times when fan began asking more and more for him, stuff like that.

[joe_galindez]

I always have an ending in mind when I work, so getting derailed isn't a problem for me. But thanks to my readers I've had a throwaway character become much more important than I expected. Eirik was supposed to stay behind while the main cast rode off into the sunset, but audience reactions saw him become the main character's apprentice and the lancer's straight man.

[Croik]

My partner and I have a lot of chapters written in advance, so even though we leave some wiggle room, satisfying the readers' demands in terms of plot would be tricky. Thankfully our subscribers seem to be along for the ride so far :). I think the only major changes I would ever want to make for a work based on reader feedback is if something in the story just didn't make sense, or if (gasp of horror) someone discovered a continuity error I missed.

Which HAS happened already but it was just a bad date and easily fixed! Phew!

Other than that, I always say have faith in your story and stick to your guns.

[shazzbaa]

Maybe make a one off art page of them making out for Christmas or something?

But, if you really want to cater that wish, you can make that scene into an omake (blooper thing) of some sort, or even make another branching story where they make out and change everything.

oh p.s. also -- I would think REALLY CAREFULLY before doing this kind of thing if it's an option you're considering. Stuff happening outside of the comic still influences the way you see the characters, and can absolutely emotionally resolve an element out-of-comic or change expectations within the story proper -- heck, look how much fanwork can influence perception of popular characters and create weird "fanon" versions, and then consider how much more of an impact it has coming from the creator.

That doesn't mean "don't do it," since if you just want people to be able to have fun with the characters it might make sense for you, and a lot of creators enjoy doing this sort of thing! And I don't wanna cast aspersions on the suggestions, since it's absolutely an option. Just make sure you're thinking about the effect it'll have on perception of the characters, and make sure that that's something you're okay with!!

[jurinova]

My story moves very slowly, especially the romantic elements of it, so I do stress a bit about readers expectations. However the story is mine, so I don't want to change major elements because of what readers expect. I do think that in the end I wouldn't be happy with myself if I took the story down a different path because of what other people want. I do also think that readers may think they want things to go fast but end up enjoying the build up more than they thought.

At least I hope my readers enjoy the build up, because it's gonna be a really slow one, heh.

[keii4ii]

This was the bane of my existence for a long while. Though my case might be a little different? It wasn't people wanting something to happen in the near future; it was people misinterpreting the content so far. Drove me NUTS. It didn't make me want to deviate from my plan to cater to their expectations, but it did make me feel I was doing a terrible job as a creator. Like I was trying to draw a horse, but it was so badly drawn that everyone thought it was a cat. Except it was a writing issue, not a drawing one.

[DiegoPalacios]

you want to draw a slow-burn love story with the leads overcoming their respective emotional trauma before being able to confess to each other, but your readers start clamoring for makeouts the moment they have a quiet moment together.

That`s a good sign. Apparently you wrote them well in a way people can relate and project themselves into it. Make them wait for it as long as necessary, no more, no less.(overextending a plot is as bad as rushing it)