Off-topic? Is this thread off-topic? Whew, there you are my dear old FFL; I thought I'd lost you forever. ;;
Heh, I've been busy with the holidays myself, but now that the gift-preparation rush is over I'm in a reviewing mood again, so any of you people desperate for reviews; hands up so I can see them. I can't promise it won't sting, but I'll promise to be thorough with my work. I try to review the stories with the least reviews myself, but I'll (reluctantly) admit to only being human.
As for attracting reviews...it should start with being reader friendly, really. Clean formating, proper spacing and sensible length already go a long way in making sure that the people who click their way over to that thread don't just punch the 'back' arrow and leave at the first sight of your writing. To me as a reviewer, few things are as off-putting as seeing a scrunched-up, paragraphless messy wall of text in bright colors. Make your text easier to process and you will find people more willing to read it. Also, do your best to make your introduction as involving as possible. I've read and enjoyed a number of lengthy fanfics, but all of them achieved this by setting up a compelling introduction that simply made me too curious to just put the fic down after the chapter was finished. A problem I see with a lot of fanfics here (particularly journey ones) is that the opening chapter is such utterly generic cookie-cutter material that the only distinction between one and the next is names and the ever-present unnecessarily detailed character description. No-one is going to trudge through several chapters of generic nothings waiting for you to get to the point; if the first chapter fails to impress or entice at all then odds are good that most readers won't look far beyond it. Also, if you aren't getting any reviews at all then that's the time to slow down, especially if your chapters are lengthy. The more there is to read, the more inclination and time any prospective reviewer will need for the review.
Beyond that, give it attention. Make a shameless plug in the fanfic announcements thread, natter about it in the fanfic lounge and use it as material to respond to those fancy boldfont questions, link it in your sig, and keep an eye out for reviewers willing to take requests and so on should they be around.
That's...pretty much all I can think of for the subject. In general, if your fanfic isn't getting any comments at all then odds are it's just plain not making an impression. Not bad enough to attract scoffing or n00bsmackers but not good enough for anyone to find something worthwhile to say on it either; either that or people just looked at it and went 'tl;dr'.
When writing in first person, should the way of writing reflect the character's personality exactly?
I believe it should be quite exactly. Well, rather, it should reflect what is going on in the character's mind as they narrate. If the character in question is conceited/self-agrandizing/etc. then that should certainly reflect in their narration, even if they deny it in their words, similarly an extremely modest character would do anything but refer to themselves as such. Not all people are honest with themselves about what they're like, so it stands to reason that not every first person narrator will explain who they are directly.
