After I posted my latest fic I started paying attention to some of the stats on other people's fics as well and please listen to me when I say this: you need to leave a comment if you liked it. I've seen fics with 15000 kudos and less than 400 comments. I did the maths on some of these and maybe five percent of people who leave kudos also write a comment. As a writer, that is incredibly frustrating and demoralising.
Fanfiction is a way of participating in fandom as a community. Sure, I write because it's fun and because I want to, but if I didn't care what other people think, I wouldn't bother posting! Writers invest hours and hours and hours into their work and then you see how many people clearly enjoyed it but their only response is a vague thumbs-up in passing? That's sad. Sometimes I can tell that a fic has been shared or linked somewhere because it suddenly gets a big influx of kudos overnight but not a single comment. I want to know what you think! I want to know what you liked! I want to feel like a part of the community rather than a provider of content for you to passively enjoy!
For the last couple of weeks, I've challenged myself to leave a comment on every fic I read all the way through. I'll copy a line or two that stands out to me and mention at least one specific thing I enjoyed. I thank the author or tell them I look forward to reading more of their work. Fandom should be a shared playground for us all to enjoy and that doesn't work if we don't talk to each other :)
