Yapped about this a bit on bluesky before but it is apparently now the Thought of the Day after my reblog before and I'm taking my thoughts out of the tags. Of how lonely it is to be a fanfic writer nowadays compared to even like ten years ago because of the shifting fandom culture where everyone just consumes stuff but does not interact with it. I suspect that not even everyone presses the like/kudos button, but people definitely do not share or comment like they used to.
I have seen people do private "book clubs" too and didn't realize that this was a wider practice, and while it is great that people are reading and sharing and having fun it also completely isolates the writer themselves from this process which leaves them completely alone.
It's embarrassing to have to hound people for any kind of opinions on your writing just to get some echo back from the void. Not even in an egoistical sense but simply to have someone to bounce off ideas or to get feedback from, to not feel alone. And on top of that it feels like very rare people are able to form opinions nowadays. They seem nervous to say anything and 90% people's "feedback" consists of "it was nice", while they go on tangents about it in their private groups with friends.
As a writer, when you hear through the grapevine that someone had gone on a tangent about your fic (saying positive things), but then they only say "it was nice" to your face, you are left feeling weird. It feels like you are isolated on purpose behind a glass wall that people created perhaps because they feel intimidated to talk to the writer? Who is a fan as well just as everyone else. Who wants to gush about their own work and other's work just the same as everyone else.
Maybe I'm just beating a dead horse here and screaming into the void but the tumblr post I reblogged before made me feel these things more acutely again. Comment on stuff! Reblog stuff! Create human connections! Treat the writers like humans. Message fan work creators and make new friends. As long as you are being respectful it does not matter if you are awkward, we are awkward too. It's okay to be awkward and it's okay to tell people how the stuff they make made you feel.
