[Alassante]

This forum is mainly for the Tolkien Archive but some aspects would apply to the TV/Movie Archive as well.

I've often wondered why one person can be a top writer on one site and be unknown on another. When I first started writing fanfiction, I was frustrated because I couldn't seem to find a target audience. When I first stumbled (literally) upon OSA, I didn't start out with great expectations that it was anything different than the other sites. Luckily, I have found more success since I first came to here back in last 2004, and honestly consider OSA my main archive and my 'home'. While I post some of my stories other places and I visit other sites, I post ALL my stories here and visit OSA many times throughout the day. I consider most of the 'regulars' part of the family and think the Admins here have done soooo much for us with both site improvements, protection from flamers and sporkers, and continuing to make this the best archive for me.

Whenever I've branched out to other sites, I once again find myself frustrated at times and others very pleased despite what others have said about their experiences on those sites. I honestly feel that if I hadn't found OSA I wouldn't have ever improved as a writer and would have eventually given up. My stories do fairly well on 2 other sites and go virtually ignored on 2 others. But after checking out some of the 'popular' stories on the sites where I felt ignored, I realized that the type of story was totally different in 'spirit' from what I write so it made sense that I didn't do well there. You don't post elf fictions on a hobbit based archive, right? Its extremely important, and difficult, to find your target audience in the world of fanfiction, in my opinion and the more successful ones at each archive have lucked into finding that archive rather than spending years being an unknown on another archive. Some of the top writers here don't post on some of the other archives or if they do, they don't have the type of success that they find here. And some of the top writers at sites like HASA, Tolkien Fanfiction, Stories of Arda, Lotr Fanfiction, Fanfiction.net (to name a few) aren't as well known here.

What is OSAs audience in your opinion? Is this the romance, angst, humor, or OC driven stories archive? Do drabble and short story or big epic adventures do better here than gapfillers or poetry? What is the 'spirit' of OSA and who is the audience here in your opinion?

[SpaceWeavil]

One thing that made me come back to OSA again and again was actually that it seemed to me there was a greater variety of audience preferences here. Like you say, there are elf-centric archives and hobbit-centric ones, but there seemed to be groups here into almost any race or character.

Certainly romance is very popular on here, I think, overall. I mean, when I used to look through the most recommended stories, I think the majority of them were quite large scale romance stories, and the ones you hear mentioned again and again, like 'Cursed Queen of Angmar' or 'Trust to Hope' or even Zee's Rider, they're all usually stories focussing on a couple, either OC / canon or canon / canon. I know just looking at my own story page, I have mostly gapfillers and the likes, and very few romance stories because I'm one of the few who doesn't really go for that, but I think if you added all their reviews together, 'Alliance', which was an Elrond / Celebrian fic, would still have more, and out of all my WIPs on here, the only one anyone has contacted me about to ask if I would continue it was 'Surrender' (which was also Elrond / Celebrian).

I'm not sure if you could pin down any particular race or character (to me it seems as if there are more elf stories, but that might just be because I notice and read more of those), but I would think in terms of type of story, romance has it.

I don't know if that applies to all the new fandoms as well. I know my work has been immensely unpopular on every Harry Potter site I've ever posted on, and actually OSA is the only place I've ever gotten any hits or reviews on most of my stories for that. I was told that they're kind of the same in terms of leaning towards romance, but that they're more into certain characters, as in they're usually only interested in either the Hogwarts kids or the Marauders and don't really read any others. I don't know how accurate that is, but that was the explanation I was given as to why I was having no luck attracting readers (they might just have been being kind and not telling me I suck, though, lol).

Basically though, I get very few readers no matter where I post now, but if it's a case of writing something that doesn't interest me for the sake of getting readers or just doing what I like and remaining unpopular, then I know which I prefer, to be honest. It means on the rare occasion someone does review something, at least its something I'm proud of and it's nice to have someone like something I really felt while I was writing it, if that makes sense.

SW

[NancyBrooke]

I wonder if the difference at OSA isn't the forum. I only frequent (and that hardly at all any more) one other site, and that has no forum. Consequently, I don't feel like I 'know' the writers.

In a 'world' where there are so many contributors, it's hard to stand out. Even a really excellent fic can easily go unnoticed, unless some buzz is created about it or about the writer. For me, it's the chatter on the forum that makes the difference. You, Alassante, Space, and I are three of the noisiest contributors. Even casual readers of the forums can quickly get a grip on who we are, what our interests are, and the quality of our work. There's also that handy dandy Self-promotion thread, which lets readers know when we've posted something new.

That's the difference for me. When I post a story, I feel I can count on at least a few reviews coming from the coterie of most active contributors. I almost automatically read anything you post, Al, or you, Space, because I 'know' you and what you're capable of. That informs me more than any summary can.

Perhaps the admins - in their copious free time - could do a little numbers crunching on characters or genre, but that would still only tell part of the story.

[Alassante]

[eiranae]

I don't post very often, and I haven't submitted a story yet either, but the reason I come to this site almost every day and have read more stories on this site than all the others I've been to put together is the maturity level of the writing. I've visited some other sites and tried to find stories I liked there only to be disappointed by silly stories with no plot that I stopped reading after the first page (if I even got that far). OSA stories have depth. I have been hesitant to submit a story myself because I do not feel as if my writing is up to the standards of others here. There are stories that I have read on this site not only once, but several times over. My opinion is that the expectation of good writing here gives you confidence that you will not be wasting your time when you click on the title button.

[Rhapsody]

First define top writer. Does having a huge nr of hits or plenty of reviews mark you as a top writer or is something else that defines this? Makes a quantity of this make a person a top writer or not?

[Ottis413]

I just like it here.....

[Alassante]

[ghettoelleth]

[Scribe]

I don't know if I'd call it a het - romance site although I have to confess, Do and I initially set up shop because the effect of one too many Pippin/Boromir pairings were starting to show on my CT scan . Also I had come across sites like PPC and Godawful etc, where you had people who were more than willing to tear a new author a new one but not one of them had a solution to offering guidance.

I mean my thoughts were and still are - if you are so effing brilliant that you can slag off another author, you should be to put your money where your mouth is and at least try to help them.' At its height of the movie fame, it was mostly younger writers who were expressing themselves with awful stories. That's right young writers....KIDS. Kids who were having fun and people who take shots at the Mary Sue who writes the Princess Imsowonderful/Legomance seem to forget that.

Oh I've heard the argument...if they're old enough to write they deserve it.

I'm sorry but I missed the class where they said it was okay to tear strips off children just because they put pen to paper.

I've heard a lot of criticism aimed at OSA that we mollycoddle our writers. Its sad because they can't tell the difference between mollycoddling and nurturing.

Every good writers starts somewhere. Its a process. Maybe 50 percent of the Mary Sues will get over their fad and forget about writing when the next best thing comes along. However, there are the remaining 50 who do want to learn, who want to improve as writers. I think OSA fulfils a function by giving these new writers a place to develop and grow.We give them access to writers who have good advice, who knows that characterisation is a trial and error process and can take years. No one starts out like Shakespeare. Hell, there's a deep hollow in of the world where my 15 year old secret agent got it on with Snake Plissken okay? We've all been there.

What's the purpose of this rant? Not much I guess except to say that I'm not fussed if we don't fit into a niche because that's not why we created this place. It was a refuge from slash, a refuge from those who thinks critique is crushing a writer's spirit underfoot and place where people could ask questions about the craft and generally have fun doing it.

Even if my interest in the Rings has waned somewhat, OSA will continue because its become more than just about the trilogy but really about the folks we have here.

[ghettoelleth]

Here here, Scribe. I didn't think of that aspect of it, but through the years that I've been here, the environment has evolved even more so toward nurturing new writers. It is one of the things I love most about the site, the willingness of most people here to offer support to those coming up the ladder behind them. It is the rare site that offers that, and unfortunately, it is not appreciated much at all in many cases.

[Rhapsody]

[Alassante]

[Alassante]

[NancyBrooke]