As no one has C&C'd chapter 1 yet in any way shape or form, I can only
hope someone will this one, because I had some trouble doing this
chapter, and hope it comes over okay. (What does it take to get C&C
anyway?) 

Second, send C&C yourself; if I recognize your name as an active FFML
participant, I'm that much more likely to C&C your fics when you post
them.  If you'd sent me C&C on one of MY fics, I'm quite likely to return
the favor, too.

Vince Seifert    Network Analyst     seifertv@csus.edu

As a corollary to that principle, I have another suggestion for 
future reference to help increase your C&C.  When you get 
commentary on your story, respond to it.  A good rule of thumb
is to give your response roughly the same depth that your 
reader gave to you in his/her C&C.  If you get a "Hey, that was
cool" message, just send back a "Thanks, dude."  If you get
ten paragraphs of analysis about your story, then give that 
reader a thoughtful response.  

It's very easy to respond to positive C&C, but rather more difficult
when the critique is negative.  I'm not talking about flames - if 
someone says your fic is bad, that's not a flame.  If someone says
that you are a bad person for some reason, that's a flame.  Negative
C&C can be tough to swallow, and you don't always have to agree
with it.  But if you only listen to people who praise you and ignore
everything else, you won't improve as a writer.

If you respond to a reader's C&C, whether you agree or not, you 
vastly improve your chances of getting more comments from that
reader and engendering discussion about your story from other
readers who may not have commented the first time around.  

Good luck, 
Grayson Towler
grayson@rigroup.net

http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless