When you feel too tired/sleepy/overwhelmed/at a loss for words, just write 1 sentence down and you're done! The goal of this is not to be perfect. In fact, forget about perfect! Forget about needing your comment to be special, or that the author might not appreciate such a short comment. We're taking baby steps here and the most important thing you can learn this week is that something is better than nothing.
So start with something generic. Pick something short and sweet. Use one of the examples above. Leave it on every fanfic you read.
Let me repeat that for the people at the back:
Leave it on every fanfic you read.
Leave it at the end of that chapter you're reading. Comment on that fic you just opened. Just write those 2, 3, 4 words. Tell them LLF sent you. That we made you do it. Even if it doesn't feel great just leaving such a short sentence, do it. You can change it for the next fic. But start.
Start with something, even if you're not 100% happy with it. Don't worry about not getting it right the first time. You can iterate and change it up in the next fic or chapter you read and comment. And you can keep changing it up until you get something you're happy with. Even if it doesn't work out this week, there's next week. This will be your go-to sentence. Something that you can use without thinking. So keep it stupid simple.
Now, once you've started, you can stop and hit post on your comment. The only learning for this lesson is that you write something and develop a catchphrase for yourself this week. You can leave more than just your catchphrase in a comment, but it must be included in your comment.
And that's it!
I'll be asking how the week goes for you next weekend, and if you need more help getting started, my ask box is open.
Remember:
When in doubt, comment your catchphrase.
Something is better than nothing.
Goal of the week:
Leave your catchphrase on every fanfic you read.
And for the 10% of you who always leave a comment, I have a question for you:
Since people were interested in how to leave detailed comments, here they are! Remember that even an I loved this will make a creator's day!
You are welcome to use this as a resource or ignore it, reblog it or send us an Ask if you'd like some specific help or ideas for writing a comment!
Contributed by @flightsfancy1
Table of Contents:
How to leave Feedback on Fanfic: Best Practices
What is a good comment? / What is a bad comment?
Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Feedback for Fanfic
Additional Reading
How to Leave Feedback on Fanfic: Best Practices
Fanfic feedback can be anything from “SQUEEEEEE!” to “FLAIL!” to insightful literary analysis. Most authors would say any (positive) response is better than nothing, so even if all you can manage is an emoji, kudos, or ‘like’, do it!
However, if you want to leave more meaningful feedback, the section below offers feedback options geared at different levels of engagement. If you’re new to offering feedback, start with something basic and work your way up!
What is a good comment? / What is a bad comment?
There’s a section below on comment types and different ‘levels’ of feedback, but really: any positive comment is a good comment. Basic feedback (brief comments to let the author know you read and enjoyed the story) is just as ‘good’ as extended commentary, and much, much better than not commenting at all.
However, a “bad” comment is anything that is critical of the story and/or the author’s choices. Again, if you disliked something about the story, you should not tell the author (unless specifically requested).
Also, comments like, “Please post the next chapter!” or “Can’t wait for the update!” can sound flattering, but they do sometimes cause a writer extra stress, guilt and anxiety if they aren’t able to continue the story right away, or have been slower to update. While you can always let an author know you’re enjoying their work and want to read more, please avoid demanding an update (especially if the story has not been updated in several months).
Remember: posting thoughtful in-depth reviews of chapters without asking for updates is far more likely to inspire and fuel a writer than just asking for “MORE!”
Feedback Options: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced
Basic Feedback
Brief comments are always appreciated.
Examples: "❤" or “Loved this!” or “Thanks for writing!”
A specific comment about one element you liked. Just pointing out something you enjoyed about the story is a great form of feedback.
Examples: “I love the way you wrote Character X.” or “Your idea about ____ was really cool!”
Quote/highlight something in the story that stood out to you. It might be your favourite sentence, the line of dialogue that made you laugh, or an event that you’ll probably be thinking about tomorrow.
Examples: "“Geralt felt some hidden faultline in his heart crack open, releasing all the fear and tension he’d been carrying for the years they’d spent apart.” ← This was a good line! It made me feel happy/sad/etc."
Tell the author why you enjoyed the story: was it the plot? The steamy sex scene? The picture the author painted in your mind? What inspired you to comment in the first place?
Examples: "I loved this story because you really made me feel like I was in the Kaer Morhen hot springs. I loved the description of the old keep and its isolated mountain location!"
Intermediate Feedback:
Comment on the writer’s style or storytelling approach (specify why you like it):
Examples: “Your writing is so descriptive/compelling/unique: you use such interesting vocabulary and really draw from a range of experiences to make your characters come alive!”
Identify specific literary elements (metaphors, allusions, intertextual references, all the stuff your English teacher desperately hopes you remember!)
Examples: “I loved your metaphor about love being a rock slide, and alluded to it again when Character X felt like they were buried under “an avalanche of love” in the last chapter."
Share your interpretation of the story’s theme (what lesson did the characters learn?)
Examples: "The central conflict between destiny and free will was reflected in Geralt’s decision in that last chapter to “love Jaskier because he wanted to please himself, for once.” I thought that was interesting because of his first line of dialogue in the story, when he explains that Witchers are “fated” to walk the Path and always be alone."
Advanced Feedback:
Go beyond basic observations about the characters/storytelling devices and try to articulate what you think the story is trying to say, and how it goes about saying it.
Offer a more in-depth analysis of the theme, tone or structure of the story, with some quotes to illustrate ‘how’ and ‘what’ ties the section back to the greater whole.
Bring in the meta: how did the writer incorporate or resist certain fan tropes, characterizations or common metaphors? How does the story’s version of the characters/setting/plot match up with canon?
What if I don’t know anything about writing? Or if I’m not familiar with the canon or character? Can I still comment?
Yes, absolutely! You do not need to be an expert to join in and comment on a fic! Even if you’re not a writer yourself, you are more than qualified (as a reader!) to explain what you liked, or how the story made you feel. Your feedback doesn’t have to be lengthy or too technical: any opinion you have, as long as it’s positive, will be welcomed by the author.
Additional Reading:
LLF Comment Project by @longlivefeedback
Your Guide To Reviews by @tsunderesasuke
“Can I Say This?” Culture, Comments, and Concern by @longlivefeedback
A Brief Guide to Supporting Authors by @longlivefeedback
Commenting on Fanfic: A How-to Guide by @littlethingwithfeathers
Some ideas for leaving good AO3 feedback by @bettsfic
Helpful 'Comment Starters' For Leaving Comments on Fics by @obversa
A Homestuck’s Guide to Fanfic Commenting Etiquette by @mercurialmalcontent
robie deserves those novel length comments! as a person who gets hopelessly tongue tied in a03’s comment section i thank you, you’re doing the lord’s work!
Rocket's Methodology for Commenting on Fic:
1) keysmash
2) Make ridiculous metaphors
3) Use the words "amazing" "fantastic" "great" or "wonderful" more times than a 7th grade book report
4) quote back anything that made me laugh/cry/want to jump out my window because of Emotion
5) "1345346/10, 7 stars will absolutely recommend, you're amazing, will cry about again" as a closer
6) mildly/lovingly threaten the writer with mild inconveniences i.e stealing shoelaces, leaving bread out on the counter, hiding pencils, etc.
Follow all of these and YOU TOO can become your favorite writer's beloved menace/commenter
I read most of the fics you recommend and I love them but I'm too nervous to comment on things because I feel like the authors will think my comments are dumb. I try to kudos everything I like because I feel like the least I can do is hit a button, but do you have any advice for getting braver about commenting?
just starting out, the easiest thing is to keep it simple, straightforward, and positive with comments like, i really loved this story! or wow, this was great! authors def get lots of comments just like this, so you’ll be in plenty of good company even if you never do anything more complicated than that. (def no one is going to think your comment is dumb.) if you do want to say something more extensive or meaningful though, here are some general dos and don’ts...
DO
be positive. tell them you enjoyed the fic. how you do that is up to you, but that’s always the baseline starting point.
make this author and this work the central focus of your comment. you’ll see some examples of how NOT to do this in the don’ts section below, but the entire point of commenting on a fic is to tell this author that you like this particular thing, so make sure that’s what you’re actually talking about.
express how it made you feel. i couldn’t stop laughing when ___ or my heart broke when ___ or even just a straightforward this fic made me so happy.
quantify your reading experience in a way that shows how much you enjoyed the fic. i was up till 6 am finishing this story or i read this for 4 hours straight or this is at least my tenth time reading this fic.
give short anecdotes about your reading experience. i was reading on the train and got so involved in the story that i missed my stop or i squealed so loud at ___ that i woke my dog or i read this on my porch in the sunshine, and it made for such a perfect afternoon.
highlight your favorite parts. it can be lines of dialogue, plot points, characterization, whole scenes... you can just say that the part was a fave, or you can also talk more in-depth about what makes it a fave.
point out things the author does particularly well. if there is something about the writing that stood out to you as something that an author is really good at—maybe their prose is really sharp or their characterization is really spot-on—tell them so. it’s even better if you’ve read multiple works from them and can point out things you consistently love throughout their complete oeuvre.
ask questions about things you enjoyed. most authors enjoy talking about how they write their fics, so if you want to hear more about the things you liked, ask open-ended questions about them. wow, i love that you had them do ___, how did you come up with such a unique idea? questions are an obvious way to start an actual conversation and maybe even make a new friend! (i’ve legit made friends this way)
say what comes next. if you’re now going to go shout the merits of this fic from the rooftops to recommend it to everyone you know, or if you’re going to go read everything else the author has written, or if you’re immediately going to start reading it all over again, let them know.
DON’T
give criticism or corrections, even if you think it’s constructive, unless it’s expressly asked for (and even then, be exceedingly gentle). you don’t want to be the “mean comment” that’s the reason someone gives up on writing entirely. the one exception i will make to this rule is that if there’s a problem with formatting that’s making the story difficult to actually read (like coding has broken somewhere and so suddenly halfway down the fic, everything is written in a tiny column), most authors will appreciate you pointing it out, as kindly as possible. and still, in that instance i would try to message them privately rather than post a public comment, if at all possible.
spill all the details of your personal life. giving a quick example of how you relate to something in the fic is usually totally fine, but if you find yourself going in-depth about your life in the comments, pause and ask if it’s something that the author really needs to know. with fics dealing with heavier subjects, for example, an author might like knowing that their fic about grief has helped you with your own or really resonated with you in whatever way, but it can be a lot to deal with when people are pouring out their own trauma into your comments in response. and it’s not just heavier fics where this is a don’t. i’ve def seen people do this with PWPs, too, and that’s also often Very Awkward for the author. (just because we’re writing sexy things, it doesn’t mean we need to know about your own sex life in response.) and in fact, there are consent issues with all of that—an author can’t consent to bearing your trauma or reading the details of your sex life or whatever before you write about it in their comments—so it’s best to just avoid getting too personal in most instances.
compare the author to others you’ve read. even if you’re doing it in what you see as a positive way—this reminded me of ___’s story, which is one of my all-time faves—that may not seem like a positive to the author. maybe they don’t actually like the other author you’re comparing them to. maybe they’ve never read the other author’s works and therefore your comparison won’t really mean anything to them. or maybe the other author is their friend and you’ve just said this is WAY better than the one by ___ about this same idea. there are just a lot of ways to put your foot in your mouth by comparing authors, and all the interpersonal dynamics of it aside, it doesn’t show appreciation for the fic on its own merits, which is what you should be aiming to do.
disagree with an author’s choices or ask questions about things you don’t like. if you find yourself frowning as you ask, why would you choose to write it THAT way or what makes you think that character would ever do ____, it’s best to just say those out loud to your cat or your significant other if you need to and then let them go. don’t ask authors to defend choices with which you disagree. you can either ignore those parts in your comments or just choose not to comment at all if you can’t come up with anything positive to say, and that will always be better than making an author feel badly about what they’ve written.
demand updates or sequels. you can definitely show your excitement for further chapters of an in-progress story with comments like i’m loving this story so far and can’t wait to read the rest or for completed stories with things like i’d love to read more set in this universe if you ever want to write more, but comments like when are you going to post more? or are you ever going to finish this? or even you need to write a sequel to this because i need more, while perhaps well-intentioned, can come across as pushy and demanding. it’s just a matter of being careful in how you phrase things; you want to show your appreciation, not make the author feel like they’re a dancing monkey who is supposed to perform when and how you please.
none of these, of course, are hard and fast rules. authors all have their own personal preferences, and things definitely become more flexible when it’s an author with whom you already have a rapport, but this is still a good general starting point.
if you’re really worried, you can always take a look at what other comments an author has gotten on the fic you’ve just finished to get a better idea of how other people have responded to it and, if the author has replied to their comments, possibly what kinds of comments they seem to respond particularly well (or poorly) to, and then model your own comments after that.
Sorry about going MIA last weekend, but I'm back with Lesson 3 💪 But before we get into it, how are we doing with describing the indescribable and commenting in general?
Has this Commenting 101 series been helpful?
Yes! The tips have helped me comment more/start commenting. More please!
It's helping a little bit, but I'm starting to not comment again.
The tips haven't helped me. I still want to comment but can't/don't for reasons.
No. The Commenting 101 series is irrelevant to me because I don't comment ever.
N/A to me cuz I already comment, but the series is helpful & should continue
Not helpful at all. LLF should spend their time elsewhere.
I just found this post and have no idea what the Commenting 101 series is.
Other (Send an ask or put in notes?)
Voting ended onMar 12, 2023
Alright. So let's talk about quoting bits of the fics and commenting on them in a comment. Personally, it's one of my favourite ways to comment because I find it easier to focus on a specific thing/sentence/paragraph/turn of phrase that I really like and gush about it to an author. By doing this, I can also focus on the bits of the story that I really really liked, and not worry about the parts that I didn't like so much. Win-win for everyone!
The one downside of this particular commenting technique is that it does take a relatively high amount of effort and is not as easy as a keyboard smash or entering a bunch of smileys and a catchphrase into the comment box. But hey. Some fics are worth it :)
So, here are some tips on how to quote while commenting:
Keep 2 tabs open.
Use a third party browser script that gives you a floating review box.
Paraphrase.
1. Keep 2 tabs open
Easier on a computer, but I've done it on mobile before. This is literally having two tabs open to the same chapter/fic as I read. When I get to a sentence or phrase that I really like, I'll copy it from my reading tab and paste it into my second tab which has the comment box open.
Sometimes I'll notate what I am thinking in the moment for that quote, and sometimes I'll leave it for the end and experience all the bits I loved again 😍. My comment at the end usually looks something like this:
"Sentence I really like"
~~ I really love how you described this character!
Everything from "Start of a paragraph/section..." to "...end of paragraph/section" is giving me life!!
"Paragraph I really like"
~~ This was perfection and made me cry 😭
and so on and so forth.
It's nice when I notate as I go, because when I'm done reading, I've got quite the comment already written and I usually just round off the comment with a catchphrase like "This was all wonderful! Thank you for writing and sharing!" and hit post, easy-peasy.
2. Use a third party browser script that gives you a floating review box.
This is not something I personally use, but the people who do have really loved it and I love the concept of it so here it is for you to try and see if it works for you!
There are a couple of scripts:
AO3 Floating Comment Box by ScriptMouse. This is a script to create a floating comment box at the bottom of the page for works on AO3. Box will be closed by default, and can be open/closed using the button in the top left corner of the window. Thanks to @memorizingthedigitsofpi for the link!
AO3 Review + Last Chapter Shortcut + Kudos-sortable Bookmarks Tampermonkey script by @ravenel. Click on the link to take you to the original post describing the tool and here's a follow up tutorial post by @bourbon-ontherocks on how to install the script. Credits to @altschmerzes and @castillon02 for the links!
I think these are only for browser on computers (so no mobile?) but please feel free to correct me in the notes if anyone knows.
3. Paraphrase
Let's be real. While Tips 1 and 2 are really just giving you tools to make commenting easier, when it gets down to it, commenting really requires you to, well, comment on something.
So what to do if you forgot to take notes as you read, didn't feel like doing it as you were reading, or found it just too hard to wrangle on mobile?
Paraphrase.
Just refer back to that one thing that caught your attention ala:
"I really love how you described this character in that part!"
"That part where you wrote about that thing that happened to that character is giving me life!!"
"That part where you that happened was perfection and made me cry 😭"
Yes, this does require you to remember and be able to point out and talk about certain parts of the fic. It can be a lot to remember particularly if it's a long chapter. So, as I've stressed in previous lessons, don't let it paralyze you. Just pick one thing you can remember and have the ability to comment on.
Remember:
Just quoting and commenting on one thing is better than nothing.
When you cannot quote, paraphrase!
And as always, when in doubt, comment your catchphrase.
If you want more help constructing a comment or validation that you're writing good comments, please send in an ask or submit a screenshot!
How are we all doing after the first week of finding our catchphrases?
I'm doing...
Great! I have one now and use it to comment on fic all the time!
I don't/forget to comment sometimes but I'm getting used to commenting more!
I'm still deciding if I like doing it. No change in my commenting habits.
I don't like it. It hasn't helped me comment more.
Hate it. Awful experience. Author berated me for it.
Other (explain in notes)
Didn't participate (yet) / I already have a catchphrase but I want to clicky
Voting ended onFeb 27, 2023
Ok! So here's step 2 to help you comment more:
Describe the indescribable
Expressing yourself if hard. Many of you indicated in the notes on the original poll that you felt overwhelmed after reading and eventually just walked away without saying anything in a comment in the fic. As a writer, I get it. Writing is hard. Expressing the chaos of thoughts and emotions in your head is hard. If you want a tip on how to handle this and how to communicate even a little bit to the human being who wrote that thing you just read and who caused all those feels, do this:
Accept that you can't describe everything.
Pick one thing to describe.
Use words if necessary.
If you use your catchphrase at the beginning or end of the comment, you got the start of a real nice comment ;)
1. Accept that you can't describe everything
Just sit with your emotions for a while. Let your thoughts be chaotic. Take a breath. It's ok to feel and think a lot of things. And much as the author would love to know all your thoughts and feelings, they understand that it's hard to write it all down on a blank space. (Trust me, they went through the exact same thing to get that fic you just read out into the world and posted.)
So what do? If you cannot pick apart and describe those thoughts and emotions, it's ok to tell the author so! You can write things like:
"I'm sorry, I have so many thoughts and emotions about this story I don't even know where to begin! Just know that I loved your fic!"
"There's so much I want to say but I can't word properly right now this was amazing!"
"Putting a placeholder here for when I have the energy to comment properly!"
For the last one, you can come back and edit your comment as long as no one has replied to it yet. If they have and you can't, just explain in the thread or write a new comment! :)
2. Pick one thing to describe
So much to say, so little time and energy. Remember our first lesson? Something is better than nothing. So. Pick the first thing you remember. Pick the last thing that set you off. Pick the thing that you've been hung up on since the middle of the chapter.
Talk about it. Try:
"There's so much about this fic, but I want to mention this one thing..."
"Person A doing that thing made me cry!"
"I loved the moment when A and B kissed!"
"That part where that thing happened made me laugh aloud!"
"I'm just a mess of emotions at the end of this fic I can't even"
Check out @dawnfelagund's 101 Comment Starters for more examples.
The LLF Comment Builder was also designed to help users learn to comment using instructional scaffolding, as well as to remove other barriers to leaving feedback such as dysexecutive syndrome, anxiety, mobility issues that make typing long reviews difficult (particularly on mobile), language fluency, and mobile commenting functionality in general. Check it out to see if it helps for when you just aren’t sure what to say.
The key is to pick one thing, and know that that is perfectly okay. Don't let not being able to say everything paralyze you and prevent you from saying anything.
3. Use words if necessary
A picture is worth a thousand words they say...😏 So go wild.
Use emojis, add gifs, and (my personal favourite) the keyboard smash.
"This fic was just asldkfjas;dlkfjsdofwekl 😭🙏💗💞💖❤️🔥💕"
Enough said, yeah? :)
Remember:
When in doubt, comment your catchphrase.
Saying something is enough, and it is better than saying nothing.
If you really can't word, just spam hearts 💕💗💕💗💕💞💖❤️🔥❤️🔥
Since people were interested in how to leave detailed comments, here they are! Remember that even an I loved this will make a creator's day!
You are welcome to use this as a resource or ignore it, reblog it or send us an Ask if you'd like some specific help or ideas for writing a comment!
Contributed by @kuwdora
Table of Contents
Definition & Examples of Fanvids and Animatics
Best Practices/Suggestions
Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Feedback for Fanvids
Additional Reading
Definitions & Examples of Fanvids and Animatics
A fanvid is also known as a songvid, a video edit, tribute and sometimes a fancam. GMV is also a popular term for video game specific edits, just like AMV is for anime music videos.
This fanwork is usually some kind of television or film source with clips arranged in a certain order to create a narrative that is set to audio (usually music and/or dialogue and sound effects).
Example: War Pigs (2:17) by Grabel424 - a gen Witcher Netflix vid focusing on the theme of violence from season 1. This has some very sharp editing that matches the beats of the song to some really interesting visuals from the show.
Example: Just Like Fire (3:33) by Tami - an Eskel, Ciri, Geralt, Triss and Yen vid featuring their perseverance from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The vibe and lyrics of this song give emotional weight to the clip choices as they fight and survive the events of the game.
An animatic is a type of fanvid that features storyboarded illustrations and is set to some kind of audio (music, sound effects, dialogue).
Example: Ciri Portrait | A Witcher 3 animation (0:27) - by abuzzybee. This animatic features a Ciri scene with incredible sound effects and illustration style.
Example: Hard To Be The Bard | A Jaskier animatic (0:59) - by CosmicWahoo. These illustrations are so fun and well edited to a song from the musical comedy ‘Something Rotten.’ This features a song sung by the Shakespeare character himself. Very fitting for Jaskier!
But I don't know ANYTHING about fanvids!
Vidders value ALL feedback they receive, even from–especially from–from non-vidders. Vidders are spending hours making their vids and putting it out in the world. Vidders REALLY want you to watch their vids and know what you think!
This type of fanwork has typically received less comment activity than fanfic over the years because people are afraid of not knowing what to say or saying something wrong. If this sounds like you, please join me in learning how to make a vidder’s year by leaving them some feedback.
Best Practices/Suggestions
Watch the vid more than once!
Just like watching a film or TV episode for the first time, you are absorbing new material. Watching a vid a second time will allow you to absorb the song choice, lyrics and narrative the vidder is trying to tell with the character, pairing or subject.
Vidders watch and rewatch their vid and song a hundred million times during the process of making the video.
If you watch the vid multiple times, tell the vidder what you took away from the vid during your first watch. Then on the second viewing, describe if you saw anything new or had a better understanding of the lyrical associations with the character or ship or narrative.
Ask questions!
There are MANY ways to make a fanvid and every editor has a different process. They use different tools, techniques, and ways of telling a story. Different sources of inspiration and tricks they picked up along the way to finish their vid.
Ask about music selection. They might reveal their inspiration and how it influenced the way they arranged the clips to tell their narrative.
Example: A common question is "Did you have the song idea first or the pairing/narrative idea first?"
Ask what software or apps they use to make their video. You can ask them how long it took (some people can work fast, other people will spend months or years to complete a single project). This will give you insight into the work they undertook before they even started putting the story together!
Ask about their feelings about the subject they're vidding. The canon. The characters. The pairing or themes or emotional content of the vid. "Why did you choose this character's story arc from the first season?"
Insights from a Vidder
In my 15 years of watching and making fanvids, you never know what the vidder planned and what happened serendipitously unless you ask.
Some vidders spend hours or days on a 5 second sequence that no one will notice.
Many, many times the vidders will create amazing sequences, effects or clip choices by pure accident, serendipity, or trial and error. It's rarely what a viewer assumes when you're watching a vid unless you are familiar with a vidder's process or style.
Learning the story of how vidder's make their story can give you insights of how they approached a canon's visuals, character's emotional arcs and what choices they are making to create the story they are sharing with you. This can reveal new or different ideas of how to view characters, pairings, and themes in a canon source.
Basic/Advanced/Intermediate Feedback
Basic Feedback (Examples/Suggestions):
Simply showing up and saying, “I liked watching this!” will mean the world to vidders. So will a string of emojis, keyboard smashing and gif reactions.
Describe how you felt while watching the vid.
Example: “I am SOBBING, this vid has ruined me.” or “I cannot stop laughing because Jaskier is DEFINITELY Taylor Swift… OMG.”
Ask the vidder a question about the song or clip choices to gain a better understanding of what story the vidder is trying to tell.
Example: “Is there an additional meaning when you used this shot of Yen looking sad to [specific lyric]?”
Intermediate Feedback:
Did this vid make you see a character, ship or subject in a new light?
Example: “I would have never guessed Fiona/Donkey from Shrek would parallel with Yen/Jaskier so perfectly…WTF omg 😍”
Let the vidder know if you made a connection between their song choice and subject matter.
Example: "The lyrics of 'Control' speak about being trapped by the world, by your own demons. It fits so well for each of the women in the Witcher. Fringilla and Yen and Ciri all wrestle with villains that live inside their heads. And all these characters really ARE bigger than their bodies or the boxes that society has put them in, whether it's the Brotherhood or Nilfgaard... oh my god. This has me all thinky!" (a comment I have about "Control" by walktheeagle)
Advanced Feedback (aka quoting a line of fic, except it’s a clip or sequence of clips, to the vidder):
Identify specific visual or emotional elements in the video. You know something in the vid wowed you and you don’t know how to express it. Rewatch the vid and note a timestamp where the thing happened that made you sit up and go “OH MY GOD???”
Example: “Oh my GOD at 0:35 i started screaming because of the lyrics of this song for Yen!!! ‘Some of them want to use you / some of them want to be abused..’ and you used the shot Sabrina STABBING Yen on ‘use you.’ And THEN you put that shot right next to Yen kissing Geralt on the ‘abused’ lyric at 0:40!! It made me SCREAM because Geralt does walk himself into that connection with Yen and gets abused. That violence and softness parallel is so good.”
Example: “And then at 0:41 the cymbal crash is timed to the opening of Yen’s eye!!! I liked that!!” (comments I have for the vid Sweet Dreams, a Yennefer vid by mithborien)
A starter pack of places to discover some fanvids
AO3 Vid Tags
Fanvids (13,776 results)
Embedded Video (5,143 results)
Fanvids, Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types (50 results)
Since people were interested in how to leave detailed comments, here they are! Remember that even an I loved this will make a creator's day!
You are welcome to use this as a resource or ignore it, reblog it or send us an Ask if you'd like some specific help or ideas for writing a comment!
Contributed by @elle-ja-bell
Table of Contents
How to Comment on Audio Fanworks
Ideas For Comments
Additional Reading
How to Comment on Audio Fanworks:
A couple of quick tips for commenting on audio fanworks.
Everything we learned in Commenting 101 still applies! Be kind, be specific, and most of all be present. Even a short comment is better than no comment at all, but if you want to level up your comment game for our audio fanworks here are some things to keep in mind.
Try to comment on the medium and not just the story. If you loved the story or the source content, great! But try to make sure you are also acknowledging what this creator brought to the experience.
Examples: “I love the way you sang this” or “You did such a good job with this character.”
Make sure to keep in mind that, as opposed to fic, with audio fanworks you are often commenting on someone’s body. The way they speak or the accent they have are things they cannot change and so it is better to not say anything about those unless you liked it. A good rule of thumb with this (and all comments) is “is this something I would want said to me/a loved one.”
Ideas for Comments
Want some ideas of where to start for commenting? We’ve got you!
Tone/style: Was it tender, dreamy, bold, smooth, calm, intense?
Acting: Was there a specific character or voice you liked? Did they bring humor or sadness to the story? Were you engaged?
Editing: Good editing is often invisible and leads to a smooth and balanced listening experience. Volume and pacing can be adjusted here too to make for a more pleasant experience. Comment on it! Sometimes creators also add cool music or effects. Comment on those!
Context: Tell us where you were listening, or what you were doing. Tell us how it made you feel.
Additional Reading
Podfic Feedback Toolbox: 5 ways to give great podfic feedback by podklb
Commenting on Podfic: vocabulary by yue_ix
Story love, body love, performance love by greedy_dancer
