advice for people who are trying to leave more Ao3 comments
there is old reliable, which is thank you so much for the chapter or I like this fic
There’s incoherent screaming/keyboard smash
If you like the plot that you can’t explain why you like the plot what I would recommend is just saying the part of the story that you liked and then normally your brain will make you explain why that’s so impactful and you’ll type that as well
You will not leave your great comments on popular Fix. Great comments are left on Fix with less than 100 hits that you have a parasocial social relationship with the author of. This is not a rule. This is just an observation I’ve noticed.
readers shouldn't leave hate comments on fanfiction. i absolutely understand complaining about published books but FANFICTION ?
that's honestly insane. if something really angers you, write it yourself. literally. that's all there is to it. obviously if it's constructive criticism and the writer asked for it then it's fine. but rating fics, scamming writers is insane. like stop.
First of all, let me say-- there's no 'wrong' way to write a fic comment (unless you are being rude or offering unsolicited concrit). Short comments are good, emojis are good-- all of it's good! Don't take me making this explainer to mean you have to write long, analytical comments. Express yourself however you want! Authors love hearing about how much you liked their work no matter how you choose to tell them.
This is meant to be a guide for people who want to do this, but don't really know how, because they find it difficult to express themselves, or don't know what authors like to hear. If that's you, let's continue below the cut!
EDIT: Also, here's a post by bourbon-ontherocks about how to add a floating comment box to AO3, in case you want to grab quotations you like as you go! Thank you @flowersforthemachines for finding it <3
Why should you do this?
because it's fun!
because you really like someone's work!
because it's motivating for an author, and can sometimes inspire them to post more, or re-post old stuff!
because it's usually a great conversation starter! Some of my best fandom friends have been made in comment threads on AO3!
What do authors want to hear about in long comments?
Many things, but primarily:
What you liked about their work
Why you liked it
You can show them what you liked by quoting their work back at them (I find it useful to put quoted text in an indented section; the html code for this is <blockquote>text</blockquote>), talking generally about which events or characters you enjoyed most, or, if you have thoughts about it, what you liked about the structural parts of their work-- i.e. plot, pacing, sentence structure, etc.
As for telling them why you liked something, getting into emotional reactions is great for this-- you can tell them where you laughed, or cried, or where you felt moved by something they said. If you found the way they had the characters talk or think realistic or relatable, tell them that! If you want to, authors love hearing that people noticed them foreshadowing events, or planting clues within the text.
You can also tell them where you were when you read it, or your overall experience -- did you read at 3 am? Do you have school or work tomorrow, but you just had to finish reading? Did you read their fic in the club? Tell them! And if you're feeling especially brave or you want to share, feel free to tell authors how or why you related to the text. If it makes you uncomfortable, don't worry about it, but those are some of my favorite comments to reread.
How do I comment on specific parts/lines of a fic?
Okay, a demonstration! I am going to pretend to analyze my own work here, for convenience:
He dreams of it, ceaselessly. It seems to echo throughout his days; he cannot let his mind drift too far, lest he fall back into it. He has to cling to this world, like a drowning man to a raft, though it rarely feels worth the effort.
Okay, so let's pretend I read this section and I really liked it. If you want to talk about that, stop and consider what about it was special, for you. Maybe I thought that the third sentence really captured what it felt like to be depressed, or the second reminded me of something that happened in my own life. I might say:
"I really loved this part! I found the way you wrote about [the character's] feelings in this paragraph so relatable; I think you captured exactly what it feels like to feel consistently hopeless."
You can also take a look at the way the author has written the sentences-- try reading them out loud. If I think the last line has a nice sound, I might say something like:
"I liked how you chose to structure the last sentence! The grammar you used gave it a really nice combination of phrases and stops. I loved how it sounded, and the rhythm the punctuation created."
Another thing you could talk about was how the sentence or paragraph made you feel about the character. If that section made me feel particularly sorry for them, or if this was the point in the story where I connected strongly with them, I might say:
I think this part worked really well to demonstrate how [character] felt! You communicated the pain they were in really effectively, and I was very connected to them, during this part.
You can also just express your excitement! I love great writing, and sometimes I just keysmash, or put a million exclamation points, or say AHHHHHHH!!!
Okay, that's all the advice I have for writing long comments, for now! If you have any questions, or would like to talk about similar things with me, please feel free to ask or DM me at any time! Thanks for reading, and happy commenting!
Writing is a passion, and fanfiction is just the same. Fellow writers know just how many hours are spent drafting, editing, and publishing.
We appreciate the likes and follows, but it's the reblogs and comments that truly matter.
Reblogs help promote our accounts to others. Commenting shows us that there is someone actually reading our work and not just another pixel hearting it.
I'm very grateful for all the likes I get, but there's no communication between us. If I write a request, then a comment is considered payment-- especially if the request was free.
There's no need to write a five paragraph essay in my comments analyzing my writing style, a simple "I really enjoyed [this aspect of the fanfic]" or "Thank you for writing this :)" is enough to make someone's day.
Comments make me feel like there is someone actually reading my work. Comments allow for communication and communication is key for great writing.
I figured I should probably make one of these posts since this blog has a purpose! I am Moo!
As you can read in my bio, I offer comments/constructive criticism on fanart and fanfiction if it is wanted! Just, ✨feedback✨
I try to reflect back to the creator what their art communicates, point out the details I like or what I think was done particularly well, and (for fanart) find bits that that don’t match up w/ the rest of the drawing. I also won’t exclude any fandoms so long as it is appropriate! (any NSFW, smut, all that fun stuff. I don’t read it and I don’t like to see it, please respect that!)
If there is something specific you’re worried about, feel free to note that and I will look for it and tell you what I think! Please know that I don’t have any official experience, I just love to see what people make, and analyze things!
So, how do you share your content with me?
You can Submit, send an Ask(you don't have to be submitting content to send me an ask), tag me in your posts, or DM me if you don’t want it to be public! So far, I’ve take about 1-3 day(s) to respond and I am working on shortening that!
For submitting fanfiction: You can include a link to the tumblr post or 3rd party(AO3, ff.net, wattpad) and send that. If you put the entire work into my inbox, please include a ‘Read More’ thingamajigger if it’s more than 500 words and include any warnings that apply! I do not read smut at all, please keep that in mind!
For submitting fanart: You can do so in the same way as fanfiction, I simply ask that you don’t submit NSFW works. You still deserve feedback, but I am not the person for that!
When you’re writing, you’re bound to notice things about your writing that need fixing, places where you want to do more research. Background characters whom you haven’t figured out names for, etc. Now you could go ahead and stop what you’re writing and go fix it, research it, whatever.
Or, you can just mark it in-text. And then keep writing.
What I do usually is <<<insert comment here>>>. Having three of the little arrow things makes it really easy to find with the find and replace function, and it also means that I can make my comments as long as they need to be, and keep them distinct from the actual prose.
Not all authors use this marking method (actually I’m pretty sure that a lot use TK to mark the spot), so I encourage you to figure out what you think is most useful and try it!
