hoo boy, here comes some serious talk about fandom mentality.
I feel like thereâs a huge failing on readersâ parts to communicate to fic authors how much they appreciate their works or how much it affects them, unless the fic is âfandom famousâ for some reason. sometimes it gets translated into demands (which are awful literally do not demand updates from an author ever).
more often than not, it gets translated into silence, and coming from a writer, the silence is probably the worst. you never know if they like it, you never know what the reader actually thinks about it. or even if they read it at all. and itâs⌠heartwrenching, and nervewracking and you start constantly questioning yourself and wondering if youâre actually good enough or if you belong. and you start comparing yourself. to the people who are popular, to the people with huge followings, to the people who get questions and art and compliments up the wazoo. and you start wondering if you should have bothered writing at all. in some cases you start begging. and in some cases, you do worse.
and itâs terrible. a writer shouldnât have to beg. a writer shouldnât have to only get attention when theyâre frustrated or upset. a writer shouldnât have to doubt themselves every time they pick up a pen or open their laptop. a writer should never feel so unimportant that they consider deleting their workâand do. and then be subjected to questions of why they deleted it.
(which, by the way, is kind of a rude thing to do. itâs their content, and they can do with it whatever makes them comfortable. and more than thatâwhy wait until itâs gone to just suddenly unleash your appreciation for it?)
if, at this point, you are thinking, âwell, writers shouldnât write for attention anyway! writers should be writing for themselves!â then you are missing a Very Huge Point about the intricacies of and emotions behind creating art. of course art comes from the self, but art is meant to be shared. with people. like you. art is created for people to talk back to, to engage with, to live alongsideâand yes, that in turn bolsters the creatorâs own securities and motivation. itâs also a sad testament to the fact that we as a people have come to condemn the notion that anyone, especially content creators, should want attention at all.
and thatâs toxic, and an awful mentality to have. (itâs also atrocious marketing. but, thatâs another discussion for another time.)
what Iâm trying to say here is this: a lot of this could be prevented by one simple thing. if you read a fic you like, *speak up about it.* make some kind of sign. about whether you like somebodyâs work, or whether it excites you. reblog it to share with other people, gush in the tags, leave a comment/review if itâs on ao3 or ffn. (authors read tags as much as artists do, trust me.) kudos and likes are fine too, but like with any other kind of art, theyâre very invisible. be vocal, y’all. spread the love.
and above all, *tell the author directly.* send them an ask, write a comment, tag them in an appreciation post. I canât stress that enough. youâd be making someoneâs day, relieving some securities, visible or not, instead of being complacent in this system, this mass way of thinking, that only popular writers deserve attention, that it has to be earned through working yourself raw instead of asked for. it causes these cliques and hierarchies and ultimately people start or keep maintaining this idea that people who are at the top deserve to be at the top, and people who get ignored deserve to be ignored. (which I have, in fact, heard people say, and thatâs⌠I donât even have a word for that.)
I just. something has to give, you guys. we have to stop doing this. we have to stop letting this happen. we have to be kind to our writers before they disappear.
and yes, you can reblog this post. in fact, Iâd highly encourage it.
As someone who has been ficcing online since 1999, I can confirm that feedback is incredible for us. We like to know if thereâs something you especially like or dislike. Kudos are nice and all, but is our characterisation okay? What about the dialogue? Did you find the plot slow/fast-paced?
Iâve been lucky lately, in that I have a solid core of people who tend to review a lot, but for nearly 7 years, I was in tiny, tiny, tiny fandoms where you were lucky if you got even one or two comments.
Itâs encouraging when people do say something. Even if itâs just to say âi like when character X said Y, because it felt in characterâ. How do we know if weâre doing something right if no one tells us?
