One of my resolutions this year is to put more love out into the world. To tell the creators, the artists and the writers that the work they have put so much love and effort into has meant something to me, not to just put a cute heartsie on it and move on.
This has been surprisingly more difficult for me than I would have thought it'd be. As someone who constantly feels like I am doing something wrong, that I am going to accidentally insult someone or embarrass myself, leaving comments on things feels vulnerable and scary.
But back in my early years of writing fanfiction, when ff.net was the place to be and Ao3 didn't even exist yet, leaving a comment was the only way to let an author know you loved their work. I met my best friend and future roommate because of the comments she left on my fanfic. I fell out of the fanfiction game for a while in 2009, and somewhere between then and now, Likes and Kudos became the dominant way to tell people you liked what they made. And that feels impersonal to me. I'd rather have that than nothing, and I don't want to shame anyone for not leaving a comment. But I miss them. I miss the high I would get when someone would tell me they loved my writing.
So that's what I want to give to other people. Except now I am starting to get why people just heart a thing and scroll to the next. Commenting doesn't just take time and effort, it takes emotion. It takes moving past my minefield of insecurities.
But I want to, and I want to enough to try. I am going to tell people that their crackfic was funny, that their art gives me feels, that their smut is sexy. Because I want to put more love into the world, and encourage other people to do the same. We need more love.
