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rynlingI recently saw a thread on Tumblr (that I will not link to) with the usual handwringing over why no one leaves comments or kudos on fanfic anymore.
I totally understand this frustration, but what I want to say in response is that people are definitely leaving comments and kudos on fanfic. In fact, people are currently leaving Harry Potter levels of comments and kudos on fanfic.
If your stories aren’t getting that sort of attention, it’s not that there’s something wrong with 15yo kids; it’s that you’re not writing the sort of fic that gets attention from 15yo kids.
If you really wanted to, you could familiarize yourself with Hazbin Hotel or The Amazing Digital Circus and use Gen-AI to help you write reams of angsty romance about the cartoon characters that are currently in vogue with younger Gen Z kids. If you really wanted to do some kudos gainsmaxxing at this specific moment, my recommendation would be to write an epic horror romance between Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary and Markiplier in Iron Lung (not joking about this btw).
But maybe this isn’t what you want to do, because you’re a grown adult. And that’s okay.
Or you could go in the other direction and appeal to the 40yo women who never stopped reading Harry Potter fanfic and have since expanded into whatever mainstream tv show is currently popular. I’m reading a Heated Rivalry non-sports AU longfic (don’t ask me why; it’s complicated) that hasn’t updated since early February but still gets dozens of kudos and comments every day. The author doesn’t interact with readers and (based on her Tumblr) has completely moved on from the fandom, but that doesn’t matter, because this is what people want to read.
People want to read this so much, in fact, that there are dozens of spin-off stories that use Gen-AI to finish what the original author started, and they all have hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of kudos and comments.
I can’t emphasize strongly enough that, despite everyone publicly claiming to hate Gen-AI, ChatGPT and Character.AI have become completely normalized, so much so that people now seem to have trouble reading “messier” writing that hasn’t been generated by a chatbot or fed through a machine. I hate this, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
I’m not saying that everything that gets positive feedback on AO3 was written by/with Gen-AI, of course! I have friends who would never touch Gen-AI and are currently enjoying positive feedback anyway, and that’s fantastic. And obviously I’m not saying that people who write for popular fandoms are only doing it for the numbers.
Still, this is how the wind is blowing at the moment, I think. If it’s not currently blowing in your direction, no worries. The wind has been known to change.
Between the relatively large number of highly engaged people online and the accessibility of Gen-AI writing, it’s now easier than ever to post stories that get loads of comments and kudos on AO3. But maybe that’s not how you want to spend your one precious life on this earth, and that’s fine. It’s probably best to consider yourself lucky that you have ways to use your creative energy that don’t involve creating “content.”
I hope everyone gets lots of good positive feedback! At the same time, it’s not your fault if that’s not happening; it’s just a strange time to be a writer right now.
I totally understand this frustration, but what I want to say in response is that people are definitely leaving comments and kudos on fanfic. In fact, people are currently leaving Harry Potter levels of comments and kudos on fanfic.
If your stories aren’t getting that sort of attention, it’s not that there’s something wrong with 15yo kids; it’s that you’re not writing the sort of fic that gets attention from 15yo kids.
If you really wanted to, you could familiarize yourself with Hazbin Hotel or The Amazing Digital Circus and use Gen-AI to help you write reams of angsty romance about the cartoon characters that are currently in vogue with younger Gen Z kids. If you really wanted to do some kudos gainsmaxxing at this specific moment, my recommendation would be to write an epic horror romance between Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary and Markiplier in Iron Lung (not joking about this btw).
But maybe this isn’t what you want to do, because you’re a grown adult. And that’s okay.
Or you could go in the other direction and appeal to the 40yo women who never stopped reading Harry Potter fanfic and have since expanded into whatever mainstream tv show is currently popular. I’m reading a Heated Rivalry non-sports AU longfic (don’t ask me why; it’s complicated) that hasn’t updated since early February but still gets dozens of kudos and comments every day. The author doesn’t interact with readers and (based on her Tumblr) has completely moved on from the fandom, but that doesn’t matter, because this is what people want to read.
People want to read this so much, in fact, that there are dozens of spin-off stories that use Gen-AI to finish what the original author started, and they all have hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of kudos and comments.
I can’t emphasize strongly enough that, despite everyone publicly claiming to hate Gen-AI, ChatGPT and Character.AI have become completely normalized, so much so that people now seem to have trouble reading “messier” writing that hasn’t been generated by a chatbot or fed through a machine. I hate this, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
I’m not saying that everything that gets positive feedback on AO3 was written by/with Gen-AI, of course! I have friends who would never touch Gen-AI and are currently enjoying positive feedback anyway, and that’s fantastic. And obviously I’m not saying that people who write for popular fandoms are only doing it for the numbers.
Still, this is how the wind is blowing at the moment, I think. If it’s not currently blowing in your direction, no worries. The wind has been known to change.
Between the relatively large number of highly engaged people online and the accessibility of Gen-AI writing, it’s now easier than ever to post stories that get loads of comments and kudos on AO3. But maybe that’s not how you want to spend your one precious life on this earth, and that’s fine. It’s probably best to consider yourself lucky that you have ways to use your creative energy that don’t involve creating “content.”
I hope everyone gets lots of good positive feedback! At the same time, it’s not your fault if that’s not happening; it’s just a strange time to be a writer right now.
