make an effort to engage with fanfiction consciously!
[a lightly opinionated blog post by sol]
in the age where consumption by fandom is arguably at an all time high, it's difficult to find that sense of community when there are no more message boards to discuss your favorite fics, and when the biggest platform for kpop rpf is twitter, a platform where you literally scream into the void with a couple sentences per post and hope people respond back. it's not ideal for community building, not at all. (like seriously. what happened to the art of blog posting? twitter even discourages that, with their word count limit. but i digress.)
admittedly, i'm pretty young. i'm in my (very) early 20s and therefore never got to experience message boards of the 2000s. i grew up taking anonymous fandom quizzes, saving screenshotted tumblr posts on pinterest, and found out about fanfiction through those sites. i wasn't even around for the tumblr golden age, and by the time i was brave enough for twitter, it had already been transferred to fuckass elon musk.
but here's the thing. before twitter, before tumblr, i was a discord user. and that was probably the closest thing i experienced to an early 2000s messaging board.
it was a bubble of response and appreciation. people posted their fanart and talked about fan theories instead of ragebaiting for engagement (because engagement literally doesn't matter in a messaging platform like discord). you could go beyond responding- it was a place where you could discuss. it was wonderful. it was magical. and when i joined a new fandom on twitter (yikes) for the first time, kpop rpf, i wanted to see if i could find the same culture.
i thought to myself, maybe because it was focused on writing and creating rather than just regular stan twitter it was different! maybe because i was sharing a space with adults instead of kids this time it would be better!
(i was. so wrong.)
like many people, i soon found myself getting sucked into the consumption mindset and reading completed-only, high-kudosed fics. i was reading So Many fics per week, an uncountable amount, really, and i couldn't remember any of them. i only read through, and kudosed. rinse and repeat. and i didn't see a problem with this because everyone else was doing it.
i feel like a lot of people (at least the people i talk to) participate in fandom as a form of stress relief. it's somewhere to return to at the end of the day, and writing is also a way to kind of relax and have fun. i guess reading fic was similar as well, so it's easy to just want to shut off your brain and just . Read.
(that's how they get you!!! that's how the only-consumption-no-engagement demons grab you and never let go!!!)
i was thinking to myself. I Am Not Enjoying Fandom in a way that i Want To Be. but i didn't know how to change my mindset! but that's where my lovely mutuals swooped in and started doing beautiful things with my timeline...
a few months ago, i noticed a few of them were quote retweeting fic posts with their thoughts. promoting the fic itself, giving the writer more of a platform, opening up a space where people could read and comment and genuinely fostering a community. some retweets were for rare pair fics, some were more popular pairings- it didn't matter, because they were doing something beautiful.
i was so mesmerized! wanted to join! i started leaving comments on every fic i enjoyed even mildly, and i think this is the thing that's most important. i actually cut down on my reading so much- i read only a few fics, maybe a handful on the higher end, per week now. and i remember all of them, because i'm taking the time to leave a conscious comment and promote the fic on twitter if i can.
leaving comments can be so beneficial- to both the author and the reader! the author, for obvious reasons, it motivates them to keep creating. and for the reader, it locks the fic inside your memory for a bit longer. you're literally using your synthesizing + paraphrasing skills and all that stuff you learned in high school english class to analyze + pick out parts you enjoyed. that's an actual skill you're practicing!
anyway, i've been so inspired by my fandom friends. i'm in the process of revamping my bookmarks for easier rec purposes- slowly adding notes + my own tags and whatnot. and it's a great way to re-appreciate the fics i've loved/forgotten in my past!
as always thank you for reading :) remember to engage with fandom in a conscious way if you can :) leave comments, qrt the posts you enjoy, let authors know you love what they do, and maybe we can create mini communities once again!
