How was your first story received?

[H0LL0W]

That's a very difficult concept for a first story. My first protagonist also was someone disabled, it was a very hard concept to write and I learned a lot from it. I can't even imagine the trouble to travel in time, the plot needs to be considered so carefully and you need a good memory and writing skills to write similar storylines interestingly or creating situations with the variables available. My respects.

Thanks. That means a lot to me, especially since I wrote it all in third-person as well.
I have an entire notebook dedicated to timelines, and when the story began I made "rules of time travel" so the plot would make sense. It's helped quite a lot.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

FIRST Novel? Two readers loved it (one of whom I was dating so I took with a grain of salt - and she gave it to the other to read without telling her who wrote it because she felt THAT friend would be unbiased). An agent had "no confidence" in it so only two printouts were ever made and I no longer have any way to access that disk (software it was written on has been obsolete for 20 years!).
First one here? Well, pretty much posted two at the same time. One had a little activity at first then nothing, and still gets an infrequent hit, the other had almost nothing for a few days then suddenly hit trending for about four hours before falling off trending and, AFAICT, never getting back on it again.
(As an aside - first story posted to PocketFM is doing well, second is getting crickets)...

Oh, and I missed the question about motivation. For the most part, the stories ARE the motivation. They exist and want SOMEONE to tell them. I just hope I'm good enough for them to finally get out there.

 

[Eldoria]

I wonder how your first story was received. I'm genuinely curious about that.

I had created a novel just to learn English. Initially, I received great support in the comments from the writer Baeon on this site. His curiosity and comments were so captivating that I was fascinated by the ability of writing to engage others in my ideas from that point on.

Have you had a Baeon in your careers? That first reader who motivated everything?

And what motivates you to write?

My first novel was unplanned, I wrote it as a rebellion against clichéd tropes, I looked for alternative stories that suited my mood but all the novels disappointed me until finally I wrote my own novel. For the reception was quite good, although it can not be compared to popular novels that have hundreds of thousands to millions of readers. So do not be surprised if my first novel is very different from mainstream novels. If mainstream novels provide romance-harem, power, with a cool and badass male MC. So I wrote a novel that is the opposite, maybe mainstream novel readers will not be happy, but I wrote it not for fans but to realize my idea.

 

[Supperset]

It was recived badly, deleted the story shortly after and started writing stories for my own amusement(I am never gonna post those). Then posted a story to SH somehow it has good... traction? I don't even know why they like my story.

I missed the part about motivation. I can't really explain but I like writing and reading. They are more of hobbies that I spend too much time without expecting anything in return.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

I tried to write something, but realized I had nothing to say. ?
I can’t really complain that no one reads my stories. They’re people who’ve shown interest in my ideas.
But I also can’t say that any of the readers truly support me.
One of the reasons I stopped publishing new chapters is the lack of feedback.
The only thing I can analyze is the number of views.
So, I keep writing and editing but for now I’m not publishing anything.
No one’s suffering because I stopped uploading new chapters.
On the other hand my views on RR are still slowly growing even if it’s gradual.
But on Scribble Hub, the numbers completely stalled about a week after I stopped posting.

 

[MarikoRawralton]

If I talk about my earliest, earliest works, then I can't remember. I just straight up don't remember.

If we're talking about my first novel... Well, it took a long time to polish it up and start getting good reception. Scorewise, it did really well on Royal Road and Wattpad. I even got third place in a little writing contest I entered back in WP, back when that still had forums.

I've had some low points, though. People used to call my story "boring yuri" and I got some actual mild flak for having a bisexual protagonist in the past. It doesn't happen much anymore, though.

Overall, I'd say I've probably gotten more good feedback than bad, but my brain focuses too much on the bad.

 

[Macha]

Carefully.

 

[Bobple]

My first story didn't start with much attention. When it started getting attention it was mostly positive? From what I remember. People pointed out my many grammar and spelling mistakes.

 

[RepresentingPride]

Damn right, I'm still waiting for the next chapter.

 

[Seaspecter]

I was told I was a terrible writer and that it had no redeeming qualities, so I kept writing it anyway lol.

 

[Cookiez_N_Potionz]

If I could get 100 readers in the future that would be cool, but I appreciate the few readers I have now

 

[Joeing]

My first novel (6 LN books) has like 50 readers so it's not too bad haha. I still love that novel and plan to reread it again after so many reads. (yes, I read my own novels, I'm the biggest fan, actually)

 

[Frowfy]

I was told I was a terrible writer and that it had no redeeming qualities, so I kept writing it anyway lol.

Wow that's a very shameless reader. No first story is perfect. Hope you stay strong.

My first novel (6 LN books) has like 50 readers so it's not too bad haha. I still love that novel and plan to reread it again after so many reads. (yes, I read my own novels, I'm the biggest fan, actually)

I also read my novels lol. I even think some characters are cute even being just a part of my mind, it doesn't make sense but I like to read as much as I like writing.

And well... I read it at least 5 times before publishing it to fix the grammar.

 

[Naravelt]

Well, the current one is my first. I appreciate all the readers so far. at least there's one comment in RR for every chapter. I've already made the general outline from start to finish, so most likely, it will be completed