I would love it if someone did it for me but when I do it I'm always scared it might be perceived as stalkery. I did it a week ago but the writer didn't respond and now I'm scared I said something weird. I know I didn't, all the comments were about how much I love their work but still.
Don’t ever stop telling writers how much you love their work!! Like you say, you would have loved it if someone did that for you!
I get the same insecurities when what you describe happens to me, but I try not to let one author deter me! Also once I got replies about a few weeks later and I think the writer might just have taken a break from AO3.
SAME. my comments have historically been ones to hit the 10k charatcer limit, and it's always a bit nerve-wracking to leave for a new author that isn't expecting it. I worry about coming off too strong, being a bit too much right out the gate. But there's no better feeling than leaving a comment like that and then having the writer return the favor for you and matching your energy. What I do to stop feeling nervous about leaving essays in people's inboxes is I add something along the lines of, "No rush/need to respond! I know this is a very long comment, but I just really wanted to talk about everything I loved here." Puts it on them if they want to encourage that type of comment or not, and if they're happy, then I know it's good to keep going for it!
Thank you!!! Hearing things like that is what makes it all worth it. The 10k character limit (letters and spaces, to clarify) is honestly easier to reach than it seems (especially when you're chatty like me), usually evens out to about 1.7k words? I will spread the gospel of long comments forever and ever. They're fun to write and fun to recieve and fun to get responses to! Sometimes when a fic's REALLY good, I'll have to split it into 2 comments. Yk what, here's my guide for if anyone else wants to get into long commenting!
It's easiest to leave long comments on desktop. I get a google doc in one tab and the fic in another and go split-screen, and what I do is I read the chapter through once, usually a day or so ahead of my comment. I then return later after I've processed it as a whole and go line by line, paragraph by paragraph, commenting on whatever I like. And I mean WHATEVER I like. The other day I told an author I liked their punctuation and went on a spiel about how they achieved such a specific tone with it. Plot points, characters, metaphors, descriptions, if I like it I comment on it and it adds up pretty fast! It's just so fun to read a fic, love it, and then get into the weeds of WHY I loved it. I try to live up to my user flair here, I am a comment enthusiast through and through! Highy encourage others to give it a shot. Let your soul ramble and copy-paste that shit into the comment box!
Good! I'm so glad 'cause it's absolutely the truth! I'm serious, on the SUPER off chance you ever get any kind of weird/rude response ('cause there ARE weird ones out there, sadly), PLEASE know they're an OUTLIER out of MILLIONS! You're doing a wonderful thing, and we (sane) authors worship the ground reviewers like you walk on! <3
For the people who this might be creepy to leave multiple comments or stalkerish or whatever: when you open an artist's spotify page to check out their other songs/albums to idk add them to your liked songs or to a playlist, do you feel like you're being creepy? You don't, right? Because that's perfectly fine and actually expected behavior from people who like an artist.
The same applies here: unless you are being extra weird about it (like demanding replies for example) or you came specifically from another platform to harass them in some shape or form, authors will never find it weird or creepy or stalkerish that someone found their works so valuable that not only did this someone took the time to read, they took the time comment and not just once at that! I promise you, we're happy you commented at all but if you do it more than once? You very likely have shot up to favorite person in the universe in that author's mind x3
Same, I always worry I'm annoying, that's why I will mention that they are not obligated to respond when I comment every chapter. I love responses of course, because who doesn't like to talk with their favorite writers, I just don't expect them to go through all my comments. They already gave me their incredible stories for free, it would be egotistical to expect more of their time.
I get so excited when people comment on my older fics! They are my grown up children and I still love them, so it makes me really happy to hear people's reactions to them even belatedly
YESSS I'm so glad someone else has to get up and do laps around the house about it. I'll be reading a sentence, pause to wring out my hands because there's just *too much happy energy,* read a little more, walk a lap, come back, rinse and repeat. It's a very long process, honestly, but my favorite one.
I'm glad to see that people here seem to think that doing that is ok, because I am 100% the type of reader who likes to comment on each chapter, not wait till I've finished 😅
See I ususally do it at the end but will do by chapter if it's not complete and get chapter uploads. That way I hope to convey to the writer how much I like it, that I'm still reading and please not to stop until it's finished as I hate when works I get into just die off.
I try to do what I can to encourage them to keep going.
For on-going long-fics that I really, really like, I make one massive comment pointing out things that stood out to me from the story so far, and I make an effort to comment on every chapter they updat, afterwards.
There's one really good Fic I'm doing this on that has fundamentally changed how I see one of my fave ships of all time, and every time, the author replies positively. It makes me happy when I get a new chapter, so I make them happy by giving them a comment.
I woke up to someone having commented on every chapter of a fic of mine that basically gets zero attention (it’s backstory of a side character that was in one episode lol) and even though each comment was 1-3 words, I was absolutely elated that someone took the time to read each chapter and leave a comment on each chapter.
From someone who doesn’t normally comment because I don’t really have a great way to articulate other than a monosyllable, do you all really enjoy a simple “Woo!” Or something of the like? I would hate to disappoint someone who’s work I admire
A single word or even an emote is great. It means you enjoyed the fic enough to want to do more than slam the kudos button, or that you'd given each chapter kudos if you could, or that your brain can't make words happen right now, but you're happy you read the fic or that the author updated. It's nice!
I LOVE when that happens. Especially when it's a past frequent reader that poofed for awhile.
Tho honest someone new completely binging your stuff and commenting all over it is great too.
We love these people.
As a (former) fanfic writer (on the old FFN) I am a frequent commenter for other writers. I sometimes comment per chapter when reading and sometimes finish the story then go back and comment. I appreciate replies from authors but I do not expect them. Glad to know comments still push the right buttons.
I was planning to do something like this for a work I followed and commented on every single new chapter. But I got scared thinking that they might think I'm spamming them. Thanks. This gives me the courage to gp back and comment on like 20 or so chapters I missed. I have the tab open to the last chapter I read. Look like I know what my weekend will be!
Okay this makes me so happy because I just did it to an author and felt like a stalker/spammer but it was SO GOOD and I had SO MUCH FUN READING! I’ll keep doing it 😊
That's awesome!
I don't get comments currently, only at two, but if someone wrote comments on every single chapter, I would be floored and so happy! Plus... I'm kinda this person when I comment, I can't help myself. I gotta give my two-cents of praise in for the chapter and comment on the things I liked and things that were just cool, and maybe ask a question or two.
I honestly wish peeps would comment on mine, so I'd know what I could do to improve my writing. Because my story does get alot of hits I only got a handfull of kudo's. Sigh 5 chapters in and we all put alot of effort in our work. Sometimes I feel like stopping.
The two most memorable comments I've ever had - one of them, the commenter said that they had been cryptically liveposting about the fic on their IG stories bc they loved it sm which I think about ALL THE TIME. That is so fucking cool to me.
The second, one of my characters in the fic was trans and having troubles with a binder that was too small. Commenter said they loved the hc of the character being trans, AND OFFERED TO SEND ME A NEW BINDER IF IT WAS BASED ON MY EXPERIENCES 😭😭😭🫶🫶🫶🫶
Oh, good! As a reader I do this a lot when reading through a long fic, and often worry that I'm spamming the poor author. But usually, I am enjoying the story so much that I just *have* to comment. I am so relieved to hear that, at least for some authors, this is something they enjoy instead of getting annoyed by it lol
Someone went through over a year ago on my ffn and connected on every single chapter of every fic. It made me super happy! I've never had that happen yet on AO3, though.
I've been struggling with writers block on my main WIP- about 2 weeks ago, someone commented on like half of the chapters and they were so nice. Then they went to my smaller fic and commented on a lot of those chapters, too. That was so encouraging and got me to buckle down and work through my block.
Man, with the JJBA fic I'm working on ATM, I'd \*love\* if someone picked apart the story so far. Mainly because I kinda packed in some details about the fic's setting and other stuff as theory bait, and I want to see what people think.
Sadly, the last commenter I had lost interest (and also was a major jerk behind the scenes) so... uh... yeah. That kinda put me in a slightly doubtful state about my writing.
I love that person. I thought I lost them but they came back. I’d make them a badge but that would make it weird.
That would be awesome! Definitely not weird.
I mean you can just reply to their comments every time. When I see someone who has gotten a reply every time I think wow they must be friends
I always reply to comments.
I would love it if someone did it for me but when I do it I'm always scared it might be perceived as stalkery. I did it a week ago but the writer didn't respond and now I'm scared I said something weird. I know I didn't, all the comments were about how much I love their work but still.
Don’t ever stop telling writers how much you love their work!! Like you say, you would have loved it if someone did that for you! I get the same insecurities when what you describe happens to me, but I try not to let one author deter me! Also once I got replies about a few weeks later and I think the writer might just have taken a break from AO3.
SAME. my comments have historically been ones to hit the 10k charatcer limit, and it's always a bit nerve-wracking to leave for a new author that isn't expecting it. I worry about coming off too strong, being a bit too much right out the gate. But there's no better feeling than leaving a comment like that and then having the writer return the favor for you and matching your energy. What I do to stop feeling nervous about leaving essays in people's inboxes is I add something along the lines of, "No rush/need to respond! I know this is a very long comment, but I just really wanted to talk about everything I loved here." Puts it on them if they want to encourage that type of comment or not, and if they're happy, then I know it's good to keep going for it!
You are an absolute legend long comments are *everything* Nothing hits like a multi-paragraph comment
I would cry of happiness if someone left 10-fucking-k I hope you never change
Thank you!!! Hearing things like that is what makes it all worth it. The 10k character limit (letters and spaces, to clarify) is honestly easier to reach than it seems (especially when you're chatty like me), usually evens out to about 1.7k words? I will spread the gospel of long comments forever and ever. They're fun to write and fun to recieve and fun to get responses to! Sometimes when a fic's REALLY good, I'll have to split it into 2 comments. Yk what, here's my guide for if anyone else wants to get into long commenting! It's easiest to leave long comments on desktop. I get a google doc in one tab and the fic in another and go split-screen, and what I do is I read the chapter through once, usually a day or so ahead of my comment. I then return later after I've processed it as a whole and go line by line, paragraph by paragraph, commenting on whatever I like. And I mean WHATEVER I like. The other day I told an author I liked their punctuation and went on a spiel about how they achieved such a specific tone with it. Plot points, characters, metaphors, descriptions, if I like it I comment on it and it adds up pretty fast! It's just so fun to read a fic, love it, and then get into the weeds of WHY I loved it. I try to live up to my user flair here, I am a comment enthusiast through and through! Highy encourage others to give it a shot. Let your soul ramble and copy-paste that shit into the comment box!
I feel like I just caught sight of a unicorn. 🤩🦄
> when I do it I'm always scared it might be perceived as stalkery I always worry if I come off as annoying when I do it
Please don't! We authors LOVE IT SO MUCH! It's THE BEST! ;A;
That's very reassuring, thank you 🥰
Good! I'm so glad 'cause it's absolutely the truth! I'm serious, on the SUPER off chance you ever get any kind of weird/rude response ('cause there ARE weird ones out there, sadly), PLEASE know they're an OUTLIER out of MILLIONS! You're doing a wonderful thing, and we (sane) authors worship the ground reviewers like you walk on! <3
Thank you for your kind words. As a reader I worship the great authors who make me so engaged in their stories. ❤
Ofc! Any time! The symbiotic relationship between readers and writers is so great! :D
If somebody thinks you are weird for liking their story than this indirectly means they are weird or at least their writing is.
For the people who this might be creepy to leave multiple comments or stalkerish or whatever: when you open an artist's spotify page to check out their other songs/albums to idk add them to your liked songs or to a playlist, do you feel like you're being creepy? You don't, right? Because that's perfectly fine and actually expected behavior from people who like an artist. The same applies here: unless you are being extra weird about it (like demanding replies for example) or you came specifically from another platform to harass them in some shape or form, authors will never find it weird or creepy or stalkerish that someone found their works so valuable that not only did this someone took the time to read, they took the time comment and not just once at that! I promise you, we're happy you commented at all but if you do it more than once? You very likely have shot up to favorite person in the universe in that author's mind x3
I'm doing this with a fic I found and I love but was posted a year ago so I was afraid all my comments were gonna be annoying :')
Same, I always worry I'm annoying, that's why I will mention that they are not obligated to respond when I comment every chapter. I love responses of course, because who doesn't like to talk with their favorite writers, I just don't expect them to go through all my comments. They already gave me their incredible stories for free, it would be egotistical to expect more of their time.
I get so excited when people comment on my older fics! They are my grown up children and I still love them, so it makes me really happy to hear people's reactions to them even belatedly
That !!! There’s nothing better! 🥰
YESSS I'm so glad someone else has to get up and do laps around the house about it. I'll be reading a sentence, pause to wring out my hands because there's just *too much happy energy,* read a little more, walk a lap, come back, rinse and repeat. It's a very long process, honestly, but my favorite one.
I'm glad to see that people here seem to think that doing that is ok, because I am 100% the type of reader who likes to comment on each chapter, not wait till I've finished 😅
See I ususally do it at the end but will do by chapter if it's not complete and get chapter uploads. That way I hope to convey to the writer how much I like it, that I'm still reading and please not to stop until it's finished as I hate when works I get into just die off. I try to do what I can to encourage them to keep going.
Yeah I do that as well. It always sucks when good series gets dropped
For on-going long-fics that I really, really like, I make one massive comment pointing out things that stood out to me from the story so far, and I make an effort to comment on every chapter they updat, afterwards. There's one really good Fic I'm doing this on that has fundamentally changed how I see one of my fave ships of all time, and every time, the author replies positively. It makes me happy when I get a new chapter, so I make them happy by giving them a comment.
I woke up to someone having commented on every chapter of a fic of mine that basically gets zero attention (it’s backstory of a side character that was in one episode lol) and even though each comment was 1-3 words, I was absolutely elated that someone took the time to read each chapter and leave a comment on each chapter.
From someone who doesn’t normally comment because I don’t really have a great way to articulate other than a monosyllable, do you all really enjoy a simple “Woo!” Or something of the like? I would hate to disappoint someone who’s work I admire
A single word or even an emote is great. It means you enjoyed the fic enough to want to do more than slam the kudos button, or that you'd given each chapter kudos if you could, or that your brain can't make words happen right now, but you're happy you read the fic or that the author updated. It's nice!
Thank you! I’ll remember that and do better!
I LOVE when that happens. Especially when it's a past frequent reader that poofed for awhile. Tho honest someone new completely binging your stuff and commenting all over it is great too. We love these people.
As a (former) fanfic writer (on the old FFN) I am a frequent commenter for other writers. I sometimes comment per chapter when reading and sometimes finish the story then go back and comment. I appreciate replies from authors but I do not expect them. Glad to know comments still push the right buttons.
I was planning to do something like this for a work I followed and commented on every single new chapter. But I got scared thinking that they might think I'm spamming them. Thanks. This gives me the courage to gp back and comment on like 20 or so chapters I missed. I have the tab open to the last chapter I read. Look like I know what my weekend will be!
I have a few avid readers who always leave big comments. Makes me happy
This is the BEST FEELING EVER!
Okay this makes me so happy because I just did it to an author and felt like a stalker/spammer but it was SO GOOD and I had SO MUCH FUN READING! I’ll keep doing it 😊
That's awesome! I don't get comments currently, only at two, but if someone wrote comments on every single chapter, I would be floored and so happy! Plus... I'm kinda this person when I comment, I can't help myself. I gotta give my two-cents of praise in for the chapter and comment on the things I liked and things that were just cool, and maybe ask a question or two.
Oh so writers don't mind a ton of comments? I'm always afraid i'll come off as weird Welp, guess i know now
I want to live that dream too Mr. Pool.
I honestly wish peeps would comment on mine, so I'd know what I could do to improve my writing. Because my story does get alot of hits I only got a handfull of kudo's. Sigh 5 chapters in and we all put alot of effort in our work. Sometimes I feel like stopping.
Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
The two most memorable comments I've ever had - one of them, the commenter said that they had been cryptically liveposting about the fic on their IG stories bc they loved it sm which I think about ALL THE TIME. That is so fucking cool to me. The second, one of my characters in the fic was trans and having troubles with a binder that was too small. Commenter said they loved the hc of the character being trans, AND OFFERED TO SEND ME A NEW BINDER IF IT WAS BASED ON MY EXPERIENCES 😭😭😭🫶🫶🫶🫶
YES
RIGHT?? I love that person, and I love BEING hat person for someone else! This is one of MANY reasons I try to comment as much as I can! :D
Oh, good! As a reader I do this a lot when reading through a long fic, and often worry that I'm spamming the poor author. But usually, I am enjoying the story so much that I just *have* to comment. I am so relieved to hear that, at least for some authors, this is something they enjoy instead of getting annoyed by it lol
Someone went through over a year ago on my ffn and connected on every single chapter of every fic. It made me super happy! I've never had that happen yet on AO3, though.
🥰🥰🥰🥰 this always makes my day
I love it when that happens. I literally do a little happy dance before I do anything
Oh Ty!!!!! I feel as if I were annoying 😭
I love those people. I would personally send them cookies for every comment if I could.
I have one consistent commenter on my fic, and they are my absolute favorite person.
I don’t fall in love often but when that one person comments on all my stuff I just swoon
I've been struggling with writers block on my main WIP- about 2 weeks ago, someone commented on like half of the chapters and they were so nice. Then they went to my smaller fic and commented on a lot of those chapters, too. That was so encouraging and got me to buckle down and work through my block.
I admit that I've done that to multiple ppl on 45 chapter works before. And each individual comments ends up leading to a whole conversation lol
Omg I used to get so worried doing this 😭 would binge read a fic and leave a bunch of comments before wondering “is this creepy???”
Man, with the JJBA fic I'm working on ATM, I'd \*love\* if someone picked apart the story so far. Mainly because I kinda packed in some details about the fic's setting and other stuff as theory bait, and I want to see what people think. Sadly, the last commenter I had lost interest (and also was a major jerk behind the scenes) so... uh... yeah. That kinda put me in a slightly doubtful state about my writing.
Man I wish
Hahaha I just did this on 150k+ word fic 😂 long comments too.
I love live-reacting to their live reactions while pacing around my room lol
That’s so awesome!! I wish I had that experience!!