if there's anything I've learned in 2024 it's this: leave comments on fanfic you like. I can't count the number of times someone told me I made their week by telling them I liked what they wrote. It feels good!
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I like to tell people their art and photography are pretty, their pets are cute and they look great. It's a feel good for both of us and the world, particularly the online world, is starved for positive feedback.
Making strangers happy has always been something I derive great pleasure from, and on ao3 it's soo easy! Just be a little sincere, a little heartfelt as thanks for the lovely writing - it costs nothing and goes a long way!
I’m trying to be better about this. I love the fic I read & appreciate all the authors so much but I’m often listening to a podfic & driving or on the train or something.
I get self-conscious about my words. This leads me to overthink, and the words become a garbled mess in my head. Should I be simple and just say, "I like this art," or something? It feels not enough... but better than nothing?
(I feel self-conscious about this post. Ha ha.)
Thanks! ^w^
Trying to convince myself this fact has been tricky, but having someone else confirm it... Thank you.
(Might still be quiet, but I think I can get myself to be more vocal now.)
It's not just the weekly joy you bring; I had the opportunity over this Christmas interregnum to binge scroll through 20 years of Questionable Content and suffered through my beloved eyeballing me as I broke out into random giggling.
I go back and reread the comments on my works a lot. it's a real treat to know someone liked my stuff. especially when those nice comments are on chapters I personally thought weren't my best work, haha
same!!! and recently someone told me they'd actually read my original fics back in livejournal days and it really made them feel like they'd come full circle to get comments from me. so nice!!
I got a comment on my three year old 81k dearly beloved fic on the day after the election and burst out in tears in the gym reading it because I needed it so badly.
How do you feel about also getting good feedback via socials? I have found a few who've written some of my faves and followed them and left comments in both places.
if it's a social where I or the author has linked the work, yeah! I do think a comment on AO3 or something more static is a little better because it's easier to revisit in the future. I can right now read comments left on AO3 in 2013 for instance
one of the lessons of cohost, really. if someone creates something you like, tell them! likes and reposts and algorithms be damned, words mean a lot more to people's hearts and human connection feels good.
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And now i need to get my friend to believe her fanfic poem is Good Actually. It is, tbh!!
(I feel self-conscious about this post. Ha ha.)
Trying to convince myself this fact has been tricky, but having someone else confirm it... Thank you.
(Might still be quiet, but I think I can get myself to be more vocal now.)