But in general, yes. The quickfire, surface-level, use-once-and-throwaway culture permeates art these days - all glitz and no substance. My more recent style is more pared down for reasons above, but I've experimented with and celebrate other styles too - stream-of-consciousness, long rambling flowery language, everything in between.

I refuse to rearrange my writing to "hook" my readers within the first sentence and make it a blockbuster action script, and maybe I won't be able to get published traditionally due to this, but I can't deal with reducing the richness of human experience down to how desperately I can hold onto a tiktok-addicted teen's attention span.

Sometimes when an author sees that the fic has activity, it encourages them to continue it.

That's not why I reblog but sometimes it does happen.

There's been lots of talk on here about how there's so little interaction that it's demotivating to authors. Maybe if you read that fic and commented or reached out to the author in a pleasant way, they might come back to it. A little kindness goes a long way.

The reason I’ve done this is that I get comments still from people reading, re-reading, and discovering what’s already there - it’s a real boost to your own interest and confidence in returning to a story.

The idea that fic writers exist in some kind of vacuum and that they ought to be writing “just for themselves” is utter nonsense - if that were the case, these stories wouldn’t be posted at all. They’re up there because people are invested in the characters and are keen to engage with other people who feel the same - but life gets in the way, and enthusiasm and creativity can wane.

Unfinished fics are still worth reading. Many times, they're left in a good place, too, and just because the chapter count indicates it's not done doesn't mean there's not a satisfying conclusion in that last posted chapter.

And you never know--your comment, your reply, your reblog might be the one to inspire the author to posting another chapter. The question you ask about a character's choice or motivation or the theory you pose about what happens next might be what inspires the author to figure it out themselves!

No author wants to leave a fic unfinished. Those hang on us for the rest of our lives. (I have unfinished fics from the Fandom That Shall Not Be Named that still wear on me sometimes, and I have zero intention of going back there again.) There's usually a good reason why we haven't finished them... and most of the time, it's not necessarily lack of engagement, but lack of inspiration.

So comment. Ask questions. Pose theories. Pull out the lines that made you smile or laugh or cry or squeal. Who knows--you might jar that creativity loose, and get us writing again.

yassified David Mitchell in the radio times: