Hi Steph, how are you? I hope youāre doing well!
I wanted to share something as a fic writer, and Iād really love to hear some wise words on the matter from you and the other lovelies.
Iāve been writing for various fandoms, including the Sherlock fandom, for about seven years now. While Iām not a BFN, Iāve definitely had great responses to my work. I started writing Sherlock fic years after the show finished, and there was (and still is) a solid readership, which has been wonderful.
But over the past year or so, Iāve noticed a significant drop in reader comments. Iām not sure if this is something only Iām experiencing, but these days I get a āYouāve Got Kudosā email from AO3 almost every day, while actual comments on new fics have become very rare, even right after posting. And while I truly appreciate kudos, I really miss comments. Not in a greedy way, but because they let me know the story resonated or that someone genuinely enjoyed it.
This seems to be happening across the board in my various fandomsālong fics, short fics, one-shots, WIPsā¦ you name it.
I used to compare myself to other writers who get an incredible number of comments, but Iāve realized that comparison is never wise. My fics also tend to be heavier and angstier, and they donāt always have immediate payoff. I don't care about the *numbers* of comments so much as a knowing readers are enjoying reading them, and that there's a so called "point" in writing them, and that I'm not just writing to an empty space.
Still, Iād love to hear your thoughts on this, and maybe also gently remind fic readers that commenting really does mean a lot to us fic writers (or at least to some of us, myself included). I know some natural-born writers don't mind writing for themselves and themselves alone, but for me personally, fic writing is a way to participate in fandom and a huge part of that is the engagement with others.
First of all, I want to apologize for putting off this message for so long; I feel it's an important one and I wanted to make sure I was able to dedicate a bit more time to it than I have been when I reply to asks these days.
Secondly, I also want to apologize because I myself am guilty of this very thing about fics, and have only recently started commenting on everything I've been bookmarking.
I am part of the problem, Nonny. And I am sorry. It's so weird because I used to be SO DILIGENT on FFNet and DeviantArt about commenting on everything I bookmarked and faved because, as an artist myself, I KNOW I really like comments and assumed other artists and authors like them too. The habit stopped for me when I became unemployed for six months over a decade ago, when my mental health took a huge hit and I literally slobbed around all day at home, in bed, bed-rotting before it was a really fucked-up internet trend that should never be celebrated because I was in the throws of deep depression, and had little motivation to do anything other than click "kudos" and bookmark.
And when I did get "better" (lol I'm still fucked up, just now I have a therapist, LOL), when I started feeling I had purpose again, and especially when I started gaining traction not for my meta but my fic recs, I SHOULD have started making sure I commented on everything again. But I couldn't, because it overwhelmed me with how many fics I DID have already bookmarked to file, so, it just never happened again, apparently.
I dislike myself for this. It is no excuse because I SHOULD know better as a creative myself.
I state this anecdote about myself because I think it's good to not only show that I understand where you are coming from being somewhat of a comment-thirsty girly myself, but also that, sometimes, it's just as simple as "it's too much sometimes and I needed an escape".
Another couple reasons I can think of it being are these:
Social media has created a culture of instant gratification and short attention spans, and, to a degree, a culture of rudeness and entitlement. Some people generally just don't think it's necessary because, well, "you got your stinkin' heart, be happy with that", or "you made this for me, so meh". A bit harsher than I wanted to explain, but yeah, that's what my little Brain Gremlin is telling me to write.
The younger folks just don't know that it's good internet etiquette to heap praise on authors and artists and reblog things you enjoy.
And really it could be just as simple as that.
But, I am in this past year am TRYING to be better at going back to commenting on stuff. And I think that's a good start for me. I don't read a lot of new fics these days, and anything I re-read I have downloaded into my iBooks and read directly from there rather than on AO3.
And I think I justify it to even myself by saying "well, I rec literally hundreds of stories a year! So they KNOW that I appreciate them!".
And therein lies the problem.
Which segues nicely into this goal I think I should start doing for myself, and something I am now going to encourage all of my Lovelies and Lurkers to do too:
When one downloads a fic from AO3, it ALWAYS ALWAYS has a hyperlink ON the ePubs back to the original story... at the top AND bottom of the story. There is NO excuse for us to NOT go back to the original AO3 link after I finished re-reading them, and commenting on them. So Friends, if you are re-reading a story, even if you've already commented on the fic, I think we should try to comment on stories more often, to let our Friendos know that we love their stories and that they are continuing to bring joy to us all. I know that a comment on an old piece of my art brings me immense joy, especially when I am hitting my bouts of SAD and chronic blah-ness.
Because you are right, Nonny. Fandom thrives on engagement and on community, and we SHOULD be encouraging y'all to keep at it. I know that all the happy comments I get even just on the work I do here on this blog GIVES ME the reason I continue doing what I do here. It makes me happy, and knowing someone else is happy makes me happy.
So Lovelies, let's all do a bit better at commenting and sending love on stuff even if we've already done it before. Trust me when I say that the authors DO love when you give them comments even if you have already done it before. Even just "LOVE THIS STORY" is more than enough if you're in a time crunch.
I welcome additional commentary on this post from both authors and artists and even other bloggers! If you guys have ever taken the time out to compliment me and my blog, PLEASE, I implore you, do the same for just ONE FIC right now, and let your favourite authors who might be having a rough go know that we love them <3
Thanks, Nonny, for prompting this discussion. Again, I am sorry that I am part of the problem, and I will try to do better š¤š
AND as an aside, Nonny, if you ever have a fic you want promoted REGARDLESS OF FANDOM, let me know (if you haven't already, of course)!! It's ALWAYS an honour to share fics with people.
