I'm just putting this out there because I'm thinking about it and because I want people to know it's not just them.

I don't really read fic anymore. It's not because I stopped liking it, though. It's because I made a rule for myself that I'm not able to follow.

I told myself that if I read a fic, I should comment on it. And not just "I loved it!" but a detailed comment. A live reaction or at least quoting favourite lines. Maybe talk about symbolism or about references I caught or about characterization etc.

I did that because I loved the authors I was reading and because I'd received so many lovely comments like that and I wanted to be able to pass that joy onto others. But then I found it hard to actually comment like that.

I could manage it sometimes? Oneshots weren't too hard, for example, but multichaps? My rule was that I had to comment every chapter. And the kinds of comments I wanted to write, well that meant reading on my laptop because I hate typing on my phone.

Eventually, I felt so guilty when I read fic without commenting on it that I stopped reading fic altogether. Better to just not read if I wasn't able to hold up my end of the bargain.

I shifted out of my fandom not long after that, and I haven't found a new one that's sparked the same interest (ie obsession), so I don't know if I might be able to fix this habit if I ever get into a new fandom in the future. All I know is, don't be like me.

Comment as you can and when you can, but don't set up strict rules like I did. I can't speak for all authors of course, but I know that personally, I'd rather you enjoy my work without commenting at all rather than make yourself feel so guilty you stop reading it altogether.

ugh this is sadly relatable :(

ofc i still read stony fic, but there are times when i want to read something (usually late at night) but i'm too aware of the fact that if i read the thing i won't have enough brainpower to leave a decent comment, and if i read it and put off commenting until later i'll likely forget what i wanted to react to and the comment will feel flat, so i just do something else instead, and the thing might go unread for some time!

first and foremost, fanfic should be a joyous experience; never a chore. and if the prospect of leaving a comment your conscience will deem 'sufficient' is too daunting, then just read the fic and enjoy it! leave kudos* if you haven't yet! skipping the fic altogether doesn't serve anyone.

*also: leaving kudos but no comment IS NOT A CRIME! please leave a kudos if you read and enjoyed something. i've had people mention liking my story but haven't gotten around to commenting yet, which is totally chill, but so often they didn't leave a kudos, either (ostensibly bc they haven't left a comment yet and don't want to seem like the kudos is their only response?), which can be discouraging when you're wondering why your fic hasn't gotten the kind of engagement you were hoping for. KUDOS BY THEMSELVES ARE VERY APPRECIATED ❤️❤️❤️

I love the detailed, thoughtful comments, of course! Who wouldn't? But, I also truly appreciate a heart emoji! It doesn't have to be some treatise on the symbolism, I swear. It isn't a tit-for-tat arrangement, just a desire for some kind of engagement so I don't feel like I'm yelling into a void. It isn't an obligation, though, and ultimately, I write because doing so gives me pleasure and sharing it makes me happy. But, fandom, like any community, needs to be nurtured to grow. If it is only consumed, there isn't going to be much left of it after awhile. That doesn't mean everyone must leave comments, and certainly not super detailed comments, but it does mean that if you want content to engage with, you have to engage back in some way. Kudos, comments, reblogs (God, you guys, just a reblog is like pulling teeth these days!), asks, art, your tags (I read those!), chatting on Discord, a mention on twitter, a rec, like...anything. It's all appreciated.

Since Ao3 has temporarily disabled guest comments due to very mean and pornographic bots, now is a very good time for 1) readers with Ao3 accounts to comment on the fics they love and cherish to make up for those who cannot leave guest comments and 2) readers without Ao3 accounts to join the waitlist and make an account!

In the spirit of encouraging people to comment on fanfics while also making it easier to do so, I feel obliged to share a browser extension for ao3 that has quite literally revolutionized the comment game for me.

I present to you: the floating ao3 comment box!

From what I've seen, a big problem for many people is that once you reach the comments at the bottom of a fic, your memory of it miraculously disappears. Anything you wanted to say is stuck ten paragraphs ago, and you barely remember what you thought while reading. This fixes that!

I'll give a little explanation on the features and how it works, but if you want to skip all that, here's the link.

The extension is visible as a small blue box in the upper left corner.

(Side note: The green colouring is not from the extension, that's me.)

If you click on it, you open a comment box window at the bottom of your screen but not at the bottom of the fic. I opened my own fic for demonstrative purposes.

The website also gives explanations on how exactly it functions, but I'll summarize regardless.

The best part? You can simply close the window the same way you opened it and your progress will automatically be saved. So you can open it, comment on a paragraph, and then close it and keep reading without having the box in your face.

Comments are what keep writers going, and as both a writer and a reader, I think it's such an easy way of showing support and enthusiasm.

HERE'S THAT BITCH IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR

Save a fanfic writer, leave comments on old fics

There is this a peculiar set of reasons and biases when it comes to NOT commenting on AO3.

They are all false, but here they are:

It can be summoned up as DO NOT ACT LIKE YOU ENJOYED THE WORK AND YOU LIKE THE AUTHOR.

It comes from the idea, that if you leave a comment on my old work, or leave too many comments, I will think you are strange, clingy, and gross.

Readers are imagining it as commenting on an old Facebook photo — only your granny and creepy strangers do that.

That is not the case with AO3.

Writers put their works there for long-term storage, and we expect, wish, and hope that you will like our works and tell us about it.

This all very interesting, not, but why should I care?

This has awful consequences.  Fanfic authors feel constant pressure to create more and crippling fear of being forgotten, useless, and being literally kicked away from fandom.

I’m online friends with a few great fandom authors, who wrote storied with thousands of kudos, but ALL of them at some point expressed this fear. Very talented people told me, “I’m not sure if I should have ‘writer’ in my bio. I didn’t post anything new in the last half of a year.”

Some young or entitled readers might say, “Hm, well, they are right. They should create MORE to be relevant. Isn’t that a good thing to push authors to write more?”

For better or worse, life doesn’t work like that. We are talking about real people, who go to real schools, have real jobs, families, and all the other important things outside the fandom. Some of them might push to create more from that fear, but most would only get more frustrated and depressed about the whole fanfic writing.

So, please, if you like the work comment on it.

Even if it’s old, even if it’s a multichapter, even if the author doesn’t have time and energy to interact. Especially in all those cases.

Encourage your authors, and show them your support.

UPD:

my previous post How to start writing comments

explanation about fics from 70s by olderthannetfic. Thank you so much for it.

This! Remember, if you enjoyed reading something, the author’s done you a favour! No matter when it was written!

I think another problem with the mindset of kudos/comments on AO3 is part of the “stalking” culture on instagram. If you like a picture that is months old on instagram, its “insta-stalking” because you had to scroll through that person’s profile in order to find those months-old pictures. That is NOT how AO3 works. It’s not cringe or embarrassing to find a fic that was posted in 2012 and like it. It is there to read. 

Sure, maybe some of us have some old works that aren’t up to our current standards of writing. But I, personally, am never going to look at a kudos email and think “ew omg I can’t believe someone found this fic from 2016 why are they liking it”. In fact, I am entirely going to go “nice! people are still reading some of my older works too, I’m glad they enjoyed it”. It’s an archive, it is meant to be a collection of transformative works, old and new, and you are meant to find them. 

In fact, if you find a work that is from five years ago and you really liked it? I bet the author would love a comment even then.

Stories are written to be read. 

Show some appreciation.

I love waking up in the morning and seeing that comments have been left on fics I wrote 5, 10, 20(!!!) years ago. 

2002 me wrote a fic that made someone in 2020 happy? Fucking brilliant.

the most interesting thing I’ve learned from people responding to @ao3commentoftheday is that people don’t know that authors don’t get notifications when people subscribe and they use the subscribe button as like, a Super-Kudos. it’s good to know because I’ve spent way too long pondering subscription counts on oneshots where there really is nowhere else I can take the story in utter bafflement trying to figure out what the people wanted from me, and now I can just take the number as a compliment. the people subscribed to your oneshots don’t literally think there’s a possibility you might add more to it (although hope does spring eternal), they’re just trying to indicate they really loved it.

if I’ve ever commented on your fic:

please know that there’s a good chance I’m reading it at the ass crack of dawn half asleep so when I leave a comment saying “akdkf omg I loved this, so good friend” it actually means:

“This piece was so gorgeous, eloquent, and so brilliantly written that I felt like you dug your hands into my chest and gave my heart a tender squeeze. Your use of symbolism and mood was incredibly nuanced and beautiful, and I appreciate all the thought that went into writing this. Please know your work is appreciated and I support you as an author. Thank you for writing this!”

but I simply do not have the brain cells left to write that out

I feel like this applies to comment replies too.

Sometimes a comment is just so overwhelmingly lovely that I can do little but stare at it as my heart melts to goo.

I appreciate beyond words when people take the time to comment on my stuff and I often struggle to find the words to express my gratitude.

So if I take time to reply to your comment, it's usually because I'm writing and re-writing my response in an effort to properly express how wonderful comments on my fics make me feel.

a-candle-for-sherlock‌:

Something I’ve found being the commenter in this situation… They worry when you stop too. I’ve more than once been confronted with the fact I am Known and Acknowledged when an author’s been like ‘Oh thank goodness, you didn’t comment last chapter I thought you were sick of it’. I’ve also had authors hyped to hear from me if I’ve returned to a fandom after disappearing for a while. I’ve had one ask if I was ok because I disappeared for a while.  They know you and they love you. 

Can confirm my wife has a favorite commenter, when they leave a new comment on something she’s written I get ‘BABE BABE BABE COME HEAR I GOT A COMMMENT FROM X’ and I hustle to hear her read it out loud to me, her eyes shining the whole time, her whole body vibrating with joy, blushing her head off and smiling from ear to ear.  She reads them and rereads them and I can always tell by the look on her face.  Every comment from a favorite commenter is a love letter and listen friends you are loved in return.  

She speculates about what Favorite Commenter will think of things in the new chapter, if they’ll guess new twists coming up in the plot, if they’ll like how she works in a new character or a rarepair in the b plot of the story.  She talks about her hopes that Favorite Commenter will enjoy a new story she’s working on.  She says things like ‘Favorite Commenter was said something about Y and it’s not actually where I’m going, but it’s given me a new idea…’  Every comment from a favorite commenter is an inspiration, and they are writing for you.

And honestly, from my experience, having a favorite commenter can keep you writing even when you don’t have the emotional wherewithal to write for yourself.  A lot of people advise authors to write for themselves and to heck with anyone else, but there are times you can’t.  For years, I didn’t write for myself–I wrote for my favorite commenter.  It meant that was the only person who saw a lot of my writing.  But it also meant that I didn’t stop.  

Don’t ever hesitate to tell someone how much you love their writing or why.

Sometimes i get comments on my fics that make me wanna reread my own work just to see what on earth they’re on about

Sure sex is good and all I guess but what about when an author of a really good fic comments on YOUR fic about how good it is???

i might elaborate later but fanfic replies literally develop writer’s metacognition and make them better writers

so, Metacognition is the practice of thinking about thinking or identifying one’s cognitive process . in essence, metacognition is understanding how you prepare for academic challenges, exams, or tasks, and then being able to reflect on whether you did well, you prepared adequately, and what was most effective. in a writing setting, this type of self-awareness helps you transfer skills in writing, say, fanfiction into writing academically, competitively and professionally. 

here’s an article from brown university on the subject i’ll discuss further. there are 3 parts of practicing metacognition identified in this article: planning, monitoring, and evaluation. how might this look like for a fanfic writer? 

planning: asking oneself ‘what is my goal?’ ‘what strategies should i use to meet that goal?’ ‘how much time/length do i need to meet my goal?’. so maybe my goal is to write a meet cute where two characters kiss. i’ll need to use a perspective, an upbeat tone, and forward characterization to do this. it’ll probably take 5000 words and two days to write. 

monitoring: asking oneself: is my story making sense? am i reaching my goal, or do i need to summarize more succinctly to keep it to 5k? maybe you started with a lot of exposition and now you’re 6k in and the characters haven’t met yet. what went wrong/changed? is it ok that it changed or did you not realize it got away from you? what now? 

evaluation: asking oneself: did i reach my goal? was it effective? what would i change next time? 

this is where comments come in

it is incredibly difficult to evaluate yourself. comments like “i love this!” actually do begin to touch on the evaluation step of metacognition. it means, in general, the writer is on the right track. comments like “i loved the dialogue between x and y” or “the emotions of this section really hit me” begin to answer the questions of was it effective, did i reach my goal and conversely answer what would i change next time (by adding more of whatever was specified as working well). HYPER SPECIFIC comments, like analyzing the story between the lines or pasting in a line that you really liked and explaining why, is like jet fuel for the metacognition process and i’m not exaggerating. specifically pointing out what was effective and why is incredibly useful 

i can straight up credit my writing style to all of my friends and readers who have given incredibly detailed comments. when i found a community who gave feedback like that, my writing improved a thousand times faster than before. so! i guess what i’m saying is give feedback! it goes so much further than you realize!

Wired: Leave comments because it makes your fav writers feel good

Inspired: Leave comments because it will make them write better

Eureka-d: leave comments because it will make YOU write better too. It develops your meta cognition as well

On fanfiction and commenting.

Ok look, every writer thinks and feels differently about this topic, so please read on with the understanding that I am speaking ONLY for me here.

Yes, I do need reader comments in order to fuel my writing.  For me, writing is a social activity, and if there is no personal connection between me and the people consuming the product I put my time, energy, and emotional bandwidth into creating, then my brainweasels convince me that the readers are not really there at all, and the world at large is probably only faintly amused at the pitiful spectacle I make out here, slinging irrelevant words into a void that wouldn’t miss them if they were deleted tomorrow.  On bad days, the brainweasels can even convince me the world wouldn’t NOTICE if everything I wrote disappeared tomorrow.

Comments from readers who liked my work are what keep me anchored in THIS reality instead of sliding into that one.  The ability to go back to comments on my stories, read them, and take it as proof that yes, I AM good at this, yes there IS a reason why I should keep doing this, and yes, the work I do IS worth the time it takes me to do it.  And yeah, I’m exposing a vulnerability here, I realize that, but it’s one that I think most people looking at this post can understand and respect – impostor syndrome is an opportunistic Bitch, and is more than ready to roll out a symbiosis with any amount of depression, anxiety, illness, or PTSD that might cross its path, after all.

So for me?  Yeah.  I am literally relying on people to comment on my work in order to keep producing my work.  And I am also relying on people keeping nastiness and pettiness out of their comments too, because nobody here’s got TIME for ship wars and woobie defense squads – and to reiterate, by here I mean on MY AO3.  I may have opinions on how you act on other people’s accounts, but if it’s not my lawn, I don’t get a say on who’s allowed to poop there.

All that said, if you spot a typo, or a continuity error?  Something TECHNICALLY incorrect, rather than subjectively not to your tastes?  Then yes, I’m happy to hear about it.  I can’t catch everything, and even when I can run a story through multiple betae, they’re not going to catch everything either.  I’m happy to fix a word misspelling, an awkward translation, mismatched cultural ‘ism, a messed up HTML code, or a problematic issue I didn’t think to warn for in the tags.  I am not Anne Rice – I don’t believe every word, every letter I write down is the embodiment of perfection.  I make mistakes.  If readers tell me about mistakes – again, not subjective preferences, but actual mistakes – then I’m better able to fix them.  It’d be great if you could also tell me something you liked about the work while you’re pointing out the error, but that’s not something any writer can require of their readers, is it?

SO TO REITERATE – that is me, and only me.  My preferences.  My writerly needs. Other writers feel very differently about this, and their wishes and preferences should be respected when you, the benefactor of their work and experience, are deciding what (or whether) to type into the comment field.

Above all, I feel this – When you’ve finished reading and are looking at the comment box, imagine that Mr. Rogers is going to be the one who reads it first, and then act accordingly.

Yes, this! I imagine stories in my head for fun. I do the work of writing for engagement with others and validation, believe me.

Dear Fanfiction Readers,

If you’re afraid to leave a review/comment because you think it’ll sound stupid, don’t be. Just leave an incoherent reply in all caps. We love that shit.

Sincerely,

A Fic Writer that needs constant validation. 

This

Wait really? Because for the past three years or so I was too afraid to leave comments and I still am, but I’ve gotten better at it so when I really like something I just comment < 3 Are fanfic writers really okay with, “OMFG I LOVED EVERYTHING EVERY MOMENT EVERY WORD I LOVE YOU FEEL MY LOVE AND AFFECTION FOR YOUR CREATION YOU BEAUTIFUL DYING MORTAL.”? I need answers.

Listen to me. Fanfic writers love that shit. The idea that someone liked what u created to the point of incoherence is extremely validating. Also, I have literally left (what I thought was) incoherent walls of text & had writers tell me “I was putting off updating this but then I saw your comment and remembered how excited I was to write this”

tldr u don’t have to be coherent to express excitement & all writers want is to know someone out there is excited about their work

I would still cherish your comment even if it is just ajskajsksks

It’s true!

When I say “Fanfiction is free” part of what I’m saying is yes, you did not pay for the thing.

But I saw a comment from someone that made me realize the rest of the intention behind these words is being lost.

Fanfiction is provided for free, but it is not produced for free.

Authors pay their effort, including physical and emotional and mental. Authors pay their time, in planning the story (mental time) and writing the story (physical time). Sometimes it’s less than an hour for something quick and dirty, like askbox prompts. Sometimes it’s years of their lives in epic fic hundreds of thousands of words long. Authors pay additional time to alpha read their own stories, trying to make sure that they’re free of SPAG errors and make sense and sound good. Beta readers pay their time and effort alongside the authors for editing the stories. Authors pay for posting their stories with all of the anxieties that come from allowing their work - which to this point they have invested all of the above - into the public eye because while it has certainly cost them a good amount to produce the story, fandom history has proved that many other people out there enjoy fanfiction, and authors believe that at least someone else will enjoy their story, too.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is that it costs the writers a lot of something in order to produce it. A lot has already been paid into a piece of fanfiction by the time it is available for readers to read. The expense of fanfiction creation is, by and large, resting squarely atop the shoulders of writers.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is that readers don’t have to pay the cost of creating fanfiction.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is that readers don’t have to pay in anything - not time, not money, not effort, not anything - in order for fanfiction to be created. It’s a donation. It’s a gift. It’s available for you to take or leave, at the expense of someone else.

Writers have, for a very long time, requested donations of one thing as remuneration for everything they put into making fanfiction: comments. Authors have asked, in so many different iterations: “If you have consumed what I have labored and invested in to create and if you have found any enjoyment in it, please tell me, so that I can recharge enough to do this again.” Some of them may recharge on critical comments, but most of us don’t because we’ve already paid everything we want to pay to create the story.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” isn’t just that it doesn’t cost you any money. I am saying “Please respect the time and effort you didn’t have to pay into creating this thing you enjoyed, by respecting the individual creator’s requests.”

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is “be kind to authors, they have paid a lot for this gift they’re sharing with all of us, and they deserve to feel like it was worth it.”

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is “please don’t charge authors more time and emotional effort than what they’ve already provided you at no absolute cost.”

I’m not saying any of this to argue. It’s a fact that authors pay into providing fanfiction. They do it for fun. They do it out of love. They do it because they enjoy writing. No one is making them do it. No one is paying them to start or finish the story. That doesn’t mean it’s not WORK. And the only return they get on what they put into the story is the kindness of strangers that invest a little bit back by leaving a nice comment. That is why they stay, that is why they do it again, that is why we have fanfiction.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is “please don’t be the one charging authors so much more that they leave.”

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is “please keep it that way.”

I’m not saying “you should comment and if not you’re a bad person and violating some kind of unwritten contract of fandom.” I’m saying, “please comment, because it’s really discouraging to fan fiction writers—who are not being paid for their time and effort—to write a story and get no encouragement to do so again.”

This!

“please comment, because it’s really discouraging to fan fiction writers—who are not being paid for their time and effort—to write a story and get no encouragement to do so again.”

I teared up at:

“If you have consumed what I have labored and invested in to create and if you have found any enjoyment in it, please tell me, so that I can recharge enough to do this again.”

You have no idea how draining it is (sometimes cathartically, and sometimes not) to produce content if you’ve never done it.

Reblogging to make sure you all see @tanukiham ’s perfect tags:

“Some of them may recharge on critical comments, but most of us don’t because we’ve already paid everything we want to pay to create the story. ” This resonates so hard for me. Each work of fanfiction is a balance between Good Enough and As Good As I Can Make It and sometimes, you can only give so much to a piece. So critical comments are pointless because it’s not that I don’t know it would be better if I put a few dozen more hours of work in, it’s that this is what I’m capable of right now given what I’m willing to spend on it.

As a fic writer, i need every reader to know that:

This is really important. There’s an area between “write for yourself” and “but we post for the feedback or why post at all?” 

The thing that sticks out most for me is “most of us are never really satisfied no matter how much validation you get.” Your desire for feedback rises depending on how much feedback you get, and it can’t ever be “enough”. That’s not to say it doesn’t suck to get nothing. It can be disheartening, because the whole point of sharing is to have others engage with it, but in the end, disconnected validation, even a lot of it, loses its strength to motivate you if there isn’t something more for you in fandom.

If your relationship with creating for fandom is to post and hide, waiting for a response, most likely, you’ll burn out. IMO, the best part of fandom isn’t the comments and kudos and tags and reblogs, it’s the community. A comment from a friend carries a special positivity with it. Exchanging gifts with someone you talked to on Discord and getting their squees back makes that piece one of your favs, even if no one else comments on it. Engagement is a two-way street.

Obviously, it’s not a requirement that you engage at all to be a part of fandom, I love everyone in this bar, lurkers included, but if you’re feeling down and you want to reinvigorate your feelings for fandom, I whole-heartedly agree that the best thing you can do is spread around some happiness. And the truth is, the more people you connect with, the more your art will spread around. Friends follow friends, reblog, share, rec, and hype. Friends can beta/critique and help you improve. You can find other art and fic through community groups that you wouldn’t have found otherwise, and feed those creators’ desires for more feedback. Ultimately, motivation does come from within and from without, and if you need more from without, you might have to actively seek those people out yourself. I wouldn’t still be in this fandom, creating as much as I do, if it weren’t for the individuals I’ve met and bonded with, regardless of how much feedback my work gets. 

That’s excellent advice, and I share the sentiment. I’m in a quiet fandom writing for a rarepair so it’s sometimes difficult to find a community, but I reblog all art, comment all works I like, sometimes send asks to the artists, and it does make a difference and i’ve had a few pleasant chats (and sometimes even built friendships) with other fans. Probably wouldn’t have stayed in the fandom if it wasn’t for those connections. I know it’s harder if you’re a bit shy or socially anxious, but other fans are waiting for you, looking for you and you’ll rarely be a bother. Give it a try? It sure makes my fanfic experience more pleasant.