#a natural born lurker who loves to create fanworks so i end up getting out of my confort zone to share my stuff with the world

[dvrtrblhr]

What is your Twitter? 😭❤️

Hello! I'm very bad at being social so I... don't have a twitter 😥 I have been meaning to create one for very long, but then that guy bought the thing and my interest waned.

I wonder... do you people still think it's worth it to be there? Would you prefer/ find easier to find my art there than here on tumblr? I'm just VERY unfamiliar with twitter's environment so I find it... unnerving.

But it's something I have considered, so maybe I should take the plunge? IDK...

On another note, I do have an instagram account (I'm babittia there) and AO3 (dvrtrblhr - fic only).

[kuriquinn]

For the Future of Fandom

I decided to make a whole other post for this, just to drive the point across. 

As creators, the most important motivation for us to create art is an inborn desire to do so. We will create things whether or not we share them with the wider audience because that’s what we do. We were born with this drive to convey our emotions with whatever means possible, be it writing or pictures or sculpture or whatever. Our art is for us.

But more often than not, we want to share it with others. Be it family or friends or an entire world of the audience out there in cyberspace or at conventions and such. And we do that because we want to know what people think of our work.

We’re not putting it up to be ripped to shreds, or copied by other people, or as an ego-boost for ourselves (trust me, there are easier ways to get those than the uncertainty of posting our creations for the masses to consume). It’s a, “Hey, I did this thing, I think it’s cool/that you’d enjoy it, what do you think?” kind of move. 

Which makes getting feedback on our work probably the second most important part of being a content creator. It’s the motivator, the thing that makes us go, “Wow, people really liked what I did last time, maybe they’ll like *this* too”.” and keep creating. 

The less feedback we get, the less we get the message that people want to see more of our work. And that makes a lot of creators decide to forgo the uncertainty of posting things/sharing their work online, and instead keep it to themselves or a select few chosen souls who they know they can get honest and consistent reactions from. 

Feedback is SO important to us. 

But I also understand that some content consumers have trouble with leaving feedback. Some are too shy to leave more than kudos and likes (and ao3 is awesome for having the kudos feature!), either not knowing what to say or worried they’ll say the wrong thing or worried they can’t express themselves properly in a foreign language or just being hugely intimidated interacting with the author(s) of their favorite stories. 

There’s also a generational thing. 

When I first entered the world of fandom (like 20 years ago, omg I’m old!), it was practically second nature to leave a comment on every chapter/every story/every piece of artwork you liked. It’s just what we did. It was understood to be part of the fandom process. 

That being said, every comment was not positive, and there was a LOT of unnecessary flaming, abusive, insults disguised as “constructive” criticism. And those kinds of reviews put some content creators on such a defensive that when someone came along with the genuine wish to leave feedback, even if it was well-intentioned “you did this aspect so well, but I’m not sure I liked this, but I’m still going to keep reading because the other thing you did was awesome” kind of criticism, those creators got defensive and snappish. They responded with annoyed review replies or passive-aggressive rants in the next chapter of their stories. 

And the only thing that accomplished was making content consumers very wary about leaving any type of feedback. Which made feedback itself dwindle, and new consumers coming into the fandom didn’t get to see the absolute waves of reviews and comments and feedback that used to be left on fanworks. 

So now, 20 years later, the older generation of creators is trying to figure out whatever happened to all the comments, while the younger generation coming into it doesn’t understand that feedback used to be the actual norm. The onus for this disconnect doesn’t fall only on content consumers or only on content creators, it’s something that has evolved badly. 

But that doesn’t mean this is how it has to be forever. 

So many people in fandom are newbies who don’t really understand the etiquette of consuming fan works. Especially in the younger generation where so much in their world is accessible for free and with no need to pay it forward. How can we expect a certain reaction/behavior if we’re not willing to teach and encourage it? Sitting back and complaining that “it’s not like the good old days” won’t do anything. We have to actually engage and be active in changing the discourse on feedback culture. Come up with solutions instead of just bitching out the silent lurkers (which discourages then from even trying in the first place).

To that end, I’ve recently been experimenting with something I saw online somewhere, where the author provides a kind of rubric to help the reader out. (And this really appealed to me as a teacher, because I’ve used a similar type of thing in my class for reading responses and student evaluations of lessons and there’s always been a good response!) 

The short version is, creators fill it with whatever reactions they hope for and leave it beside their newly posted chapter/picture/photo/poem/etc. as a guide.

Ex.:

I want to know what you think of my story! Leave kudos, a comment or as many of these emojis as you want and let me know how you feel!

❤️️ = I love this story!

😳 = this was hot!

💐 = thank you for sharing this

🍵 = tea spilled

🍬 = so sweet and fluffy!

🚔 = you’re under arrest! the writing’s too good!

😲 = I NEED THE NEXT CHAPTER

😢 = you got me right in the feels

(Feel free to substitute whatever reaction/emojis you want)

And it’s been working!

I started writing recently in a new fandom and wasn’t getting any feedback on a bunch of stories I was putting my everything into. And then I stumbled upon this trick and suddenly I’m getting loads of feedback in emoji form.

And as readers have become more familiar with my work across the chapters? They’ve actually started leaving personally written feedback too!

I’ve had half a dozen readers even comment how much they like the idea because it takes the pressure off them thinking up what to say and can now leave feedback with the same ease as leaving a kudo/like. And as the creator, it’s kind of run to look at your emoji legend and see what your readers are saying in emoji shorthand.

This is just one way to do it. 

I’m sure there are tons of other ways you guys have figured out how to improve the exchange of feedback between consumers and creators, without pretty much ransoming your work behind paywalls or “I-Will-Not-Continue-Until-I-Receive-X-Amount-of-Comments” disclaimers. 

And I’d love to hear them and repost them to share with anyone else!

The point is, generally, content consumers just need a starting point, dipping a toe in the water to get used to leaving feedback. As creators, it’s not wrong to want to have feedback from our audiences and this way we can gently encourage them to do so across the board.

I highly recommend trying this out. On your next few short chapters or pieces of fanart or whatever, leave an emoji legend with whatever comments you are hoping for (or just copy the ones above) and see if there’s a difference in the feedback you get. This worked really well for me and I’m confident it can work for you too!

Remember, content creation and consumption is not a quid pro quo thing. The minute it becomes that, you lose the fun of it. But by the same token, feedback is the only payment a lot of content creators receive for our hard work.

Obviously, we’ll continue to create whether audiences interact with our work or not. 

But we might stop sharing our creations, or stick them behind a paywall. 

Enough of the world has been monetized already. If we intend to keep fandom creations accessible to our communities and new generations coming in, we have to look at a way of maintaining it in a cooperative way. And creators shaming consumers for not providing feedback is as bad as consumers shaming creators for not creating on demand. 

It’s a new decade. Let’s be better about this.