There's some truth to the fact that this is a transitional season, as autumnia commented. I myself haven't been on LJ as much since school finished, and I haven't commented on the latest chapter yet. I'll leave you a review on FF in a few minutes... :-)
But there may also be such a thing as transitional chapters. I've written fanfic too, and there are chapters that just for some reason seem to get fewer comments. Not always the chapters the author expects, which is frustrating. You can put significant work into a particular passage and no one says anything about it, and then the passage you toss in at the last minute gets remarks. But that doesn't mean the transitional parts are less important, just maybe the readers are waiting for the other shoe to drop, sort of. Especially if you write slow-burn kind of stories. Especially if your readers are the kind who try to leave more meaningful feedback than just "OMG POST MOAR NOW PLZ!"
Not sure why this last chap didn't get as many, since after all, there is major plot progression. But the end does have the sense of setting up something to come. I wonder if you maybe shoot yourself in the foot by saying that you divided a chapter in half, and then you end this one with sort of a cliffie. I wonder if that makes people wait to comment until you post the next part?
I went back and looked at chapter 4 and it was similarly transitional, IMO. It moves from the fluffier humorous beginning of the story to something a little more serious. Maybe you lost a few readers. But you've also gained some every time. Win, lose. It evens out. Those who stuck through perhaps needed some time to respond to the new tone of the story.
I'm just throwing ideas out there, and have no clue if this makes any sense because I'm typing as I think. Basically, I think you monitor this WAY too closely and give yourself a lot of unnecessary pain. Since I've started following you, you've scarcely posted a chapter without mentioning on your nervousness about the comment level.
no subject
But there may also be such a thing as transitional chapters. I've written fanfic too, and there are chapters that just for some reason seem to get fewer comments. Not always the chapters the author expects, which is frustrating. You can put significant work into a particular passage and no one says anything about it, and then the passage you toss in at the last minute gets remarks. But that doesn't mean the transitional parts are less important, just maybe the readers are waiting for the other shoe to drop, sort of. Especially if you write slow-burn kind of stories. Especially if your readers are the kind who try to leave more meaningful feedback than just "OMG POST MOAR NOW PLZ!"
Not sure why this last chap didn't get as many, since after all, there is major plot progression. But the end does have the sense of setting up something to come. I wonder if you maybe shoot yourself in the foot by saying that you divided a chapter in half, and then you end this one with sort of a cliffie. I wonder if that makes people wait to comment until you post the next part?
I went back and looked at chapter 4 and it was similarly transitional, IMO. It moves from the fluffier humorous beginning of the story to something a little more serious. Maybe you lost a few readers. But you've also gained some every time. Win, lose. It evens out. Those who stuck through perhaps needed some time to respond to the new tone of the story.
I'm just throwing ideas out there, and have no clue if this makes any sense because I'm typing as I think. Basically, I think you monitor this WAY too closely and give yourself a lot of unnecessary pain. Since I've started following you, you've scarcely posted a chapter without mentioning on your nervousness about the comment level.