#the IRONY of me answering this with 27 unanswered comments in my inbox looool

[heytheredeann]

Do you have any advice on responding on commenters on fics. I want to interact with commenters but I don’t know what to say and I feel awkward doing it.

Ooooh alright, I feel you LOL. Bad news is that it does still feel kind of awkward to me, because I'm BAD at taking compliments and I never feel like the way I answer can properly convey how excited I am that this person liked what I wrote... but, to be fair, I don't think ANY answer could really capture that excitement LOL.

Still, I do answer comments as a general rule, so hopefully I can be of some help anyway! And of course, if anyone else has any suggestions feel free to drop them in the replies or in a reblog.

So.

There is no real “rule” for answering comments, I think it’s important to remember that it doesn’t need to be a formal interaction, you are just two people with a shared love for some characters/ships (A LOT of love, I’m assuming, considering that one of you is writing fics and the other is taking the time to interact with said fics), so try to treat it like a casual conversation, not a performance!

Also very important to remember, what you are doing when you are answering a comment is, at its core, giving validation to the reader. You are letting them know that you appreciate their comment and that you wanted to take the time to say thank you, which readers, in my experience, DO appreciate very much. So like, even just saying “Thank you very much!” or “Thank you, I’m happy you enjoyed it!” is a good answer that is nice to receive. This kind of answer is a good baseline for answering comments imo, if you can’t think of anything else to say just leave it at that! Just like a short comment is very much appreciated and way better than no comment, a short answer is very much appreciated and way better than no answer.

And if you fear that you are being too repetitive in your answers, remember that you are the one writing ten answers in a row, the reader is only getting one thank you!

Still, if you want to come up with more elaborate answers, I’d say try to “mirror” what the comment said.

Meaning that, for example, if someone points out a line they liked, you can thank them for the compliment on that, or say that you are happy they liked that, or, if you can, add some commentary on it (which in my case would be about the thought process behind the line, or about what’s going with the characterization, or something along the lines of “LOOOL yes, they are idiots”).

Or, if someone points out something else that they specifically liked, for example a scene, or bits of characterization, you can discuss those, for example by sharing what you think was going on in the non-POV character’s head during that scene, or discussing how else that scene could have played out by changing certain details, or discuss headcanons that you have related to the fic, maybe what would happen after or what was happening during a time jump, etc (readers, as a general rule, do love to hear about this kind of stuff!).

And, again, it doesn’t have to be formal! Since I have the charming bad habit of writing a lot of pain, sometimes people leave me crying emojis and/or screams as a reaction (which, btw, is DELIGHTFUL LOOOL) and my answer tends to be something along the lines of “SORRY, MY BAD *collects your tears in a jar*”, so like. there LOL.

Also, I had never thought about this before, but you can add pictures/memes/gifs to your reply if those help you express your feelings, that could be fun! (Maybe I should try too loool)

It’s also nice, imo, when a reader leaves a row of comments, to let them know in one of your answers how much you appreciated that! Let them know if you grinned for an hour, if you kept checking for notifications and were delighted when you saw them leaving more and more comments, if you were having a bad week and that was an excellent pick-me-up, etc. (letting them know how they made you feel could be a good idea in general, even if you are answering just the one comment).

That is pretty much all that I can think of at the moment, hopefully there’s something useful in here loool Mostly I think it’s just a matter of trying to let yourself have fun with it, it’s not serious, it’s not a performance, you are fine! <3 (Said the extremely anxious bean, very hypocritically. I swear I’m getting better at letting myself go LOL)