”Reading completed fics only is morally apprehensible”
I know this is my own fault for opening the tiktok app again, when I know fucking better.
This is part of a comment I found on a tiktok about reading or not reading incomplete fics. It’s a discourse as old as fanfics themselves and if you agree with this comment, I need you to come closer for a second and listen to this.
I’m almost 30. I have a job and a home to maintain. I have 3 other hobbies that take up my evenings. I spend 1 hour every night before bed reading fanfics. I leave kudos, I leave comments. I have drawn fanart, I have written fanfics. I go to conventions where most of my money gets spent in the artist alley. I buy from local small artists when I can. I’ve constructed cosplays and gotten 0 feedback on them. I was making AMV’s before some of you were born, and I didn’t do it for the community engagement, or for the amount of likes or comments I’d get. I did it DESPITE it.
I think I’m allowed the sin of reading completed fics only, without the morality police hounding my ass.
And the worst thing is, I shouldn’t have to tell anyone any of this. What I read and for what reason is My Business. There’s no such thing as a bad reason for reading what you read, and total strangers are not privy to that, nor is their right to judge people over them!
And it’s not like I don’t get what people defending incomplete fics are all about, but I don’t get the ‘defending’ part of it all. Yes, incomplete fics deserve engagement. No, no one is fighting that. Yes, people should read incomplete fics if they are so inclined. No, you don’t get to guilt trip people into doing it. Yes, incomplete fics ARE getting engagement! No, not all incomplete fics NEED engagement in order to get finished, nor does it always help. Yes, artists and writers deserve praise from the community. No, that doesn’t mean you get to witch hunt the people who don’t want to engage with the community aside from lurking. Can you blame them? Being part of most online communities fucking sucks!
The whole point of fandoms and fandom interactions and making art for fandoms is to INVITE people in! The point has and always will be about fun! And y’all are doing everything in your power to chase people away instead.
Who’s the morally apprehensible one, here?
