[ SECRET POST #4332 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4332 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 22 secrets from Secret Submission Post #620.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. https://i.imgur.com/bzlIpbZ.png

[(Anonymous)]

Nope, you can't count on your friends or significant others to say anything.

Only strangers will give you an honest opinion, because they don't have to.

[(Anonymous)]

This is a pretty weak generalization. If my friends ask for my honest opinion on something, they'll get it. Ditto family.

[(Anonymous)]

You can't rely on strangers to give you honest opinions either.

Trust no one.

[(Anonymous)]

Wonder what it means that so many of my friends pretend my fic doesn't exist but strangers seem to like it. Only people who don't know me will publicly admit to reading my work.

[(Anonymous)]

It means either your fic is good but in an embarrassing way, like a guilty pleasure or very idficcy, or that what you write appeals intensely but to a niche audience.

[(Anonymous)]

You're probably just not writing stuff they're interested in. Yeah, maybe they were nice at first, but no one's going to keep reading stuff that isn't their jam. I wouldn't take it as a remark on your writing ability or lack thereof.

Anyway, kudos are the only way to tell if you're connecting with people. Comments in general are very rare.

[(Anonymous)]

In my experience, when it comes to fanfic, 99% of the time the problem is:
1) nobody likes your pairing,
2) everyone hates one or more of the characters,
3) everyone hates some canon event that is also mentioned in your fic, or
4) nobody in your fandom likes that particular AU you are writing about.

Everything else can be ignored.

[(Anonymous)]

Do YOU like your fic, OP? Because that's the main thing - it really is <3 Keep going - I'm sure your fic is magnificent x

[(Anonymous)]

If it's that small of a fandom, people might have just run out of stuff to say, even if they genuinely really like and value your fic.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sorry, OP, I know the feeling :( Especially when the fandom's small but people seem to be drawn to other fics, just not yours? Or maybe that's just me. Makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong.

I agree with the above anon though -- write what you like. Is it fun? Then keep doing it. I felt inspired to write for an old TV series that had literally no presence on AO3 (I created the tag for it), knowing that no one was going to care -- I just had to do it anyway. It took 6 months but I finally got a kudos on it, lol.

[(Anonymous)]

We sound like kindred spirits, OP of comment <3

[(Anonymous)]

to be fair there's been a downward trend in people leaving comments on fics for a while now. It just - doesn't happen as much as it used to and I'm not sure why. It seems to be a pretty across the board thing, not just one or two fandoms and I've heard artists complain that their notes (and comments) are down too. So it might be you - or it might just be the general declining trend in fandom. It'd be nice if we could figure out how to reverse it.

[(Anonymous)]

It'd be nice if we could figure out how to reverse it.

Disable the Kudos and the Like buttons.

[(Anonymous)]

What makes you think people would write comments, if there was no like/kudos button?

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt

True. Just because they did it before doesn't necessarily mean people would revert back to writing comments. I'd like to think they would, but honestly... I think fandom has moved in another direction. Fic is seen more as a commodity that fans take for granted because there's just so much of it and it's all free. I think a lot of readers don't really consider that fic is produced by human beings who could probably use some encouragement if you like what they do. So many people react really strongly against the suggestion that they could do more than just consume all the fic they want and never give anything back.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, they either would write a comment or just not comment, but they wouldn't be invited to take the lazy way out by just clicking a button.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah that sucks. I have almost the same problem.. I get 1 review for my fic - the 20 k is read by one single person. But it's fine with me. My fandom is for a show that was cancelled in 2010. Fandom was small to begin with, I write only that rare-pairs nobody reads--and rather dark shit tbh...

Now and then I write for other fandoms (active and rather popular ones). For those stories I get kudos and comments. Maybe try another fandom, maybe u like sth else enough to write sth? At least u know if it's your writing or just your fandom.