Responding to responses.

[icebluenothing]

smithy161 asks a question I've thought about a lot:
"If you are a writer and you post your work somewhere people can respond to it, do you feel obliged to reply to every comment you get?"

I commented on her post, but it bears repeating here:

I never, ever know what to do with responses. I have this weird feeling that filling a thread with responses to responses seems kind of -- unseemly and self-serving, somehow? Like you're basking in it, taking too many bows. I just don't know. On the other hand, I don't want to ignore people who say nice things. Gahh.

I generally only respond to very specific comments -- like, if someone says they liked a particular section or line of dialog, I might thank them for that and mention why I wrote that bit. That sort of thing. Even better is if they ask a question -- then I definitely have reason to start a discussion with them about it.

So, yeah. But I'm kind of neurotic, so you might not want to use me as a guideline. :)