#why comments matter

That being said, I want to talk about something that's bothered me for a while.

I logged onto my AO3 for the first time in a bit to find I had two comments on my story, Unbreakable Bonds, and I hadn’t noticed them before. They were very sweet and fairly short, and I had this little twinge of nostalgia for my older works that have been left in limbo, and I wanted to talk about it.

Aside from my publishing journey, the reason I haven’t been writing or updating any of my fan works is that, as far as I understand, no one wants me to.

Let me start off by saying that the fact that you guys follow me and like my stuff and look forward to it is humbling, and I appreciate it so much, but let’s be clear: I earn this shit.

Writing is hard.

It is time-consuming, exhausting, and makes you want to rip your hair out. Writing fandom? That is a special kind of labor of love.

Because there will never be rewards or gains from it, because the world is not ours to profit from. I’m just playing in the world that George Lucas created, just dancing with his characters that at one point and time were no different than my rabblings scribbled into notebooks and on scraps of paper. I understand clearly that I will never reap financial benefits from Unbreakable Bonds—and I’m certainly not owed anything. But at the same time, neither are you, the reader.

There are lots of people who will be quick to tell me, ‘we don’t owe you comments’ or interaction of any kind, and you’d be right. But you’re also not owed my time or the creative works in my head that so many of you proclaim to love and look forward to.

I’ve been writing fanfiction since the early 2000s. My first fanfic was Lord of the Rings, and it was, I’m sorry to say, the dreaded Tenth Walker story--and it was pretty bad, and that's why you'll never find it. And although I’ve taken breaks from writing, my love and interest in fanworks has remained constant. Fanfiction.net, AO3 Wattpad, Tumblr.

Fan works are wonderful. They are the purest form of love and appreciation that I can think of, and they’re a way for many of us to dip our toes into writing. There have been lots of works that started as fanfics that found a place with mainstream publishing.

50 Shades of Grey came from Twilight. Love Hypothesis came from Star Wars. City of Bones came from Harry Potter. The After Series came from One Direction. Point Pleasant came from Supernatural.

Fanfiction is powerful and never ceases to amaze me. That being said, I don’t think we are giving the genre the respect it deserves, and we definitely don’t respect the writers. I may ruffle some feathers here, and I may upset some of you, but I’m willing to bet that those who are upset by this are not writers but consumers of fan works. 

. People want to complain about how their favorite stories were never finished or the author hasn’t updated in months, maybe years. But when was the last time you sat down and spent a minute to really engage with the work and its writer? I’m not talking essay-length comments or reblogs with dozens of tags and kind words, but when we as writers get comments as simple as ‘Update’ and that’s it? It feels very rude and bare minimum to me.

I don’t speak for all writers, and I don’t claim to, but if you have the time for a comment like ‘update’, then I think it’s reasonable to add a few more words. I don’t know a single writer who would look at that comment and be anything other than disappointed and possibly irritated. Especially when adding a few more words would make all the difference. It doesn’t take much effort to go from ‘update’ to ‘I love your story and I hope you update soon.’ We love to hear you like the words, connections, and characters we’ve written or expanded on, and yes, something as little as that makes a big impact on us.

It matters.

I once made a post on Tumblr announcing that I would be taking a temporary break from one of my works I’d poured a lot of time and energy into because I had received virtually no interaction, and I had assumed that there was little to no interest in it. So I would put it on the back burner and work on other projects because while you should write for yourself, no one wants to just write and not receive any feedback. I almost immediately got a comment telling me that I didn’t have any right to ‘hold my works hostage’ just because I ‘wanted praise’ and if that’s what you think, then you are entitled.

There is a difference between saying ‘no updates until I get five reviews with more than one word’ and ‘this work doesn’t seem to resonate with anyone, so I’m going to work on something else for a while, and maybe I’ll come back to it later.’

This new culture of demanding content without interaction has been growing for some time, and I think there’s a strong correlation between it and the binge culture we’ve curated with the advent of things like streaming services and on-demand content. We want to be able to sit down and read a whole fanfic because it’s commonly known that readers will DEVOUR a 100k word fanfic, but a 100k word novel is sometimes a little harder for some to digest.

Fanfic is created on our own time as we are able to. We have jobs, families, and other hobbies that take up our time. If you’re waiting around for a story to finish being written before you tell the writer how much you loved it, then I’m sorry to say that one: there’s a good chance it never will be. And two: you’re part of the problem.

TV shows have writers and producers and constant feedback. Novel writers have the assurance that, at some point, money will be involved. Fanfic writers do not. It is illegal. We can’t create patreons for our content or bind and sell our fanfics for any sort of financial compensation (Looking at any of you who have purchased or sold bound copies of Mancled.)

Writers are tired of putting our hearts and souls into these stories and getting nothing back except single-word comments and messages that say ‘update’ and nothing more. 

You don’t have to tell us our work changed your life or that it inspired you to live better—we know that it didn’t and will probably never be the case. But telling us how much you love that we gave a neglected or tragic character a happy ending that they absolutely deserve? Or that you loved reading a ‘slice of life’ story in a chaotic fandom that felt happy and cozy. Or seeing your favorite bad guy get what they deserve? That resonates with us so deeply. It means the world to us.

I realize I’ve probably lost some of you by now, and just so we’re clear: I’m not here saying ‘leave me comments’ and ‘feed my praise kink’ because let’s be real, most fanfic writers do have one. But I know DAMN well I am not just speaking for myself.

I am not calling anyone out. If you’ve ever liked, commented, given kudos, or reblogged my stuff or messaged me, let me be clear: I appreciate you so much, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put into words what yours meant to me.

This has gone on quite long enough, and I think I’ve done my best ot make my point, so I’m gonna cut myself off here before I repeat myself.

TL;DR: Fanfiction is free because we love doing it. But even love runs dry when met with silence.

PLEASE

Interact with your favorite stories. Leave lovely comments, simple ‘I love your story, I can't wait for the next update’ is just fine. We don’t need essays or love letters or groupies. But please, guys, tell your favorite authors you love their stuff before they lose their motivation to keep creating it. Because I promise, they will more than likely choose to abandon something they think that only they love before powering through it under the assumption that ‘someday’ the comments and love will come.

If you put things online and people regularly come to see it; you have an audience. 

I have not hidden the fact that I’m internet ‘old’ or whenever I get the feeling of being disconnected from my audience. As well as the fact that I am trying to make a little side money from my art. (My goal is to make my art a self-sustaining hobby. Just make enough money to fund doing it.) For this goal to come true I have been researching marketing, social media tips and tricks, art guides, references, how to videos, and artist improvement tricks for 2020. But after a pandemic lock down and continued research I found one artist that broke it down like this-

IF your audience asks you- How did you do this? or says I’m just here to watch you grow. They will never buy commissions/prints from you. They want how to guides.

IF your audience says- This is beautiful! This is awesome! I can’t wait till you post again and who are you going to draw next. That audience will buy merchandise from you. 

If the audience says nothing you sell nothing. 

It did not take much more looking around or thinking to realize just how wrong I have been doing things and why I am so far away from goal. No matter what I believe about my art or how long I’ve been doing it; if I can’t connect with my audience I am not being a good storyteller. So I will work on things till I reach a milestone of audience feedback! 

Please tell your favorite creators what you love!