THE MISCONCEPTION ABOUT COMMENTING ON FIC

THE MISCONCEPTION ABOUT COMMENTING ON FIC

I’ve read all kinds of posts both from writers and readers lamenting about comments on fic. Authors are upset when they don’t get any, readers don’t know what kinds of comments to leave, etc. And it finally clicked in my brain why I think a lot of people don’t bother writing comments. 

And this is what it boils down to:

Writers do not want praise.  We just want to talk about our story. 

I can’t speak for everyone obviously - but I think the majority of writers don’t care so much for the “omg you’re a brilliant writer!!” comments as much as we just want to hear your thoughts on the story. Even if it’s just your thoughts as you’re reading of “oooh x happened! I can’t believe y said this! What’s going to happen now that z has happened?!” We literally just want to talk about what we’ve written like you would with a friend about a tv show. We’re not out here demanding praise like some entitled narcissist. 

While praising our writing skills or writing style is appreciated, it doesn’t need to be said on every fic and every chapter that you read. If you regularly comment on someone’s work that’s telling enough that you like our technique. Readers shouldn’t feel pressured to have to praise a writer’s abilities every time they want to comment. 

In the grand scheme of things, talking about the fic/chapter is actually more helpful to us writers instead of spewing praise. It’s the same with artwork. As nice as it is that people tell me “wow your art is so pretty!” it’s a LOT more useful to me to get comments like “I love their expressions!” or “the lighting on this is gorgeous!” because then I know WHAT people are liking about it. If no one ever comments on my backgrounds, I now know what to improve. If most people comment on liking the expressions, I now know the strong points of my art and can use it to my advantage to make even better art in the future. 

The same goes for fic. If multiple people tell me they liked a certain part of the story I now know that things similar to that are a hit. It’s feedback I can use to improve the story and give my readers more of what they want. Without that I have no idea what they like about the fic.

Talking with a writer about their story also gives them inspiration!! Nothing gets us more in the mood to work on a fic than to have people wanting to talk about it. A lot of times just talking about one of my fics with someone will give me that push to continue working on it. Getting a comment that just says “great chapter” or “you’re a great writer” doesn’t do much to motivate us to continue that particular fic. But if you talk about the story and the characters it gives us motivation to continue working on it, may even give us ideas for future chapters. I would hope that those of you with “comment anxiety” find this approach so much easier than trying to praise the writer every time you read.

So that fic the author hasn’t updated in forever that you’re dying to read? Talk to them about the fic and the elements of the story! It will make the writer want to talk to you about it and will get their mind thinking about it, hopefully inspiring them to continue where they left off. Fics that are left in silence are more likely to be abandoned or even deleted because nothing feels worse than putting your heart into a story to have no one say anything about it. 

TLDR; Writers do not want praise, we just want to talk with our readers about the story itself, and these are the kinds of comments that inspire us to keep writing more. 

@neil-gaiman needs to hear about this!

I had the most bizzare dream last night. I was in a hotel/convention center of some sort, wandering around with some people. Probably characters from different shows, but I don’t remember who, just that at least one was very OOC…. 

We found a door that lead to a section that hadn’t been there before. The rooms were decorated more like someone’s apartment so we left. When we asked the staff said in an offhand manner, that it was a haunted area. So of course we went back and summoned the ghost. 

She was a very sweet old lady who hadn’t quite realized she was dead. Her whole reason for hanging around was that she was waiting for the next book in one of @neil-gaiman‘s series to come out. None of us had heard of it so we went to find him and ask about it. 

He looked very sad and said he had no intention of completing that series. It had been difficult to write and the motivation had left him a long time ago. He went with us to talk to the ghost since he felt so bad that she was hanging around for an impossibility. Once we got there, she looked so thrilled to be meet him. They had a long talk and he came up with a summary of what was going to happen. She gave him a hug and looked so peaceful as she disappeared.

This was a strong reminder to me as a fanfic writer that you never know how much your stories affect people or who may be waiting for an update. It always makes me sad when I go back to read a story and it’s been deleted. 

Also from what I have heard of Mr. Gaiman, this would absolutely be something he would do in heartbeat. I hope this isn’t upsetting to him. I know there are works I’m super behind on and at least I one I may not finish. @one-time-i-dreamt not a submission but something that I thought you might like?

low empathy in autism is often misunderstood. i want to explain it with some examples here to hopefully help you understand how it can affect people (this is how it affects me)

low empathy actually looks like: i don’t understand that what’s fun for me might not be fun for you. i might think i’m sharing Good Feelings with you by telling you about something i love or making you play my favorite game with me, and not realize that you’re not enjoying it because i have a hard time distinguishing that people interpret and enjoy things differently. i might be confused or upset when you don’t want to hear about something that makes me very happy, because it doesn’t make you as happy as it makes me and that’s hard for me to grasp. it is hard for me to put myself in your shoes and consider that other people might not get the same excitement and joy that i get out of these things. conversely, i might refuse to participate in something most people enjoy and come off as a “buzzkill” or self centered because i don’t understand that other people enjoy something that only makes me upset. i may be confused as to why everyone is engaging in something so upsetting or simply boring, like watching sports or listening to music that i don’t want to hear.

low empathy does NOT actually look like: i don’t understand that other people have feelings and therefore, i do things that i know are wrong because i don’t care about how my actions affect other people, or don’t understand THAT they affect other people. i am mean and rude because i don’t think it has any consequences (as opposed to being rude without realizing it, which is related to social skills, not empathy)

I think it'd be fun if one of these days when the evil overlord type is like "I Need A Queen. To Rule With" one of the little henchmen is just like "um 😳 if I may, sir, I would like to volunteer 👉👈" and overlord is just like. Okay sure you're cute aha

What’s so bad about periods

If you want a good documentary series that goes over the atrocities committed by the United States during Vietnam, check out the Ken Burns documentary series on the Vietnam War. Ken Burns documentaries are about as unbiased as a history documentary as you can get. You'll learn so much about the war and its surrounding events on both sides.

Kent State University