The Joy of Writing a Comment
a guest post by Sky_King.
We’ve all heard about the importance of leaving a comment on the stories that we read. How important they are to the writers, how discouraging it can be to not receive any, or few, or, hell forbid, get an AI word vomit. There’s a lot of templates circulating on social media about how to leave a proper comment, as well as advice, tips, and instructions, but sometimes I feel we forget how fun it can be.
Stories posted to AO3 are oftentimes shared with the intention of reaching out toothers. To build a community, to have someone acknowledge the time and effort spent in writing a fic.
A comment is that, but it is also a bridge between reader and author. It is a shared space where we, as the reader, can connect with the author, with the story. The emotions and thoughts that the work provoked are held and preserved in that comment box, sometimes relived like you’re reading the story for the first time.
Have you ever read a fic that made you laugh out loud? That kept you up until dawn, hitting that Next Chapter button like your life depended on it?
Have you ever had a story affect you so deeply that you don’t know what to do with your emotions? That rearranged your brain chemistry one kink at a time?
Sitting down and pouring all of these emotions into a comment can be so liberating, so freeing. If it made you feel mushy and happy, commenting can stretch out the happiness. If the fic destroyed you emotionally, commenting can be part of the winding down, commenting can help put you back together afterward.
And there’s so many ways to write a comment.
A comment can be an incoherent keysmash because you don’t have any other way of articulating yourself. It can be a simple “Thanks for commenting!”. It can be a series of hearts, of emojis.
Writing a long comment lets you enjoy the story in a different way. You remember your favorite moments, the perfect dialogues; you share the love, the hurt, the joy, with the author, and with the world.
And sometimes commenting is not that deep, sometimes it’s just the quiet joy of knowing you’re making an author’s day, or giving a lonely fic a little love. It’s that second kudos you really wanted to leave. It’s that satisfaction at the end of a good read.
In this increasingly desolate online landscape, it’s a small sign that we’re still here.
To all of you that has left a comment on a fic: thank you.
ellievsbear
germansingergirl
areudirty
amandla
vaporwave
