Yes, this. Even anon. Somebody sweated over those words, and pushed through their trepidation to post the fic. If it provoked thought or emotion in a reader, it's manna to a writer to hear that, that it was worth doing for at least that reader

It's manna to *some* writers. I know sometimes, some of them find comments like that weird. Apparently, though, I have left kudos. So I'll continue to waffle on the comment-or-no thing. I don't leave anon comments unless I'm in an anon comm.

Kudos is more like, "read it. didn't hate it."

This is totally not how I use them. Read it, didn't hate it means I don't do anything other than not nope out. I don't leave any metrics beyond that I've viewed the page for that. Kudos mean, "I like your thing! Yay!"

My day is made if somebody tells me my fic might have nudged their opinion a click or two, or cracked their awareness a notch wider.

I think I don't normally write things that would get that kind of response, TBH, or I might feel differently. Origin Story, my most-commented pre-AO3 story, hit a nerve with people re: exclusion of Barbara Gordon in the Nolanverse, is as close as I'm going to get, I suspect, and even then, the response was more, "YOU FIXED THINGS! FISTBUMP!"

God knows Look Alive, Sunshine isn't going to provide any sort of enlightenment to anyone. I don't think it would even if it were in a fandom of more than five people. I'm vaguely afraid of getting lectured about using choose not to warn, about perhaps not making it clear enough that I'm aware it's a problematic story, about having the end game pairing fuck, sometimes in loving and explicit detail, with other people.

Generally, I'm more likely to get, "What exactly were you smoking?" if anything. This probably informs my ambivalence.

That said, I care a lot about the comments I get from my Yuletide recip, because I want to know that they were satisfied with the customer service.

You know what I miss, though? From when I had a critical mass of people in the same fandom as me? Workshopping. Writing's such a weird isolated experience for me now: I talk about it A LOT, esp. on Dreamwidth, but I'm talking about the process, and not... the words?

I mean, I don't feel like putting my stuff in the fic thread is a good use of that space: the number of people there who'd know the source AND want about 70k of it workshopped through there? Pretty much zero. But... I still miss it.

Like, I want to actually have enough people who I can talk to about the fact that my whole first chapter basically starts with a slow-building 1500 word panic attack on the part of the POV character. Or to go over my themes per chapter while shoving the writing at them and saying, "Okay, read, then look at this, then re-read and tell me what hits and what misses."

I think the combination of those years when I was fannish in a source where my friends weren't on top of my anxiety and depression issues during that same time, changed how I approach writing for good or for ill. I"m not sure, even if I had a critical mass of people here in or at least caring about my small fandom, that I'd even be able to do the sort of workshopping we used to do here. But I miss it.

Plei,

You mentioned a few posts back the tag "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat". Where'd that come from? (I've seen a good bit of it in Avengers fic, usually on fics dealing with HYDRA and/or Bucky.)

Tumblr, right? These days, the answer so often is Tumblr.

Well, Arrested Development, but then also as someone's apparently tongue-in-cheek suggestion on Tumblr because people get sick of pearl clutchers.

It was, as I recall, after yet another in the endless wanks about U R DOING FANDOM WRONG!!! where, of course, no amount of tagging will make some people happy, so someone basically said, "Okay, let's agree on a label so that you're not even tempted if you don't want to go there." and use the Arrested Development reference.

This person was apparently pretty much joking, but people, people who were tagging or warning, or EXPLICITLY STATING THEY WERE CHOOSE NOT TO WARN, ENTER AT OWN RISK! ran with it. Because I have seriously seen someone flip a lid at someone on something that was tagged for noncon because the felt it needed even more tagging because they read something into the story that wasn't there.

Which, you know, I am choose not to warn. I cannot be put in a position of responsibility for the mental health of adults who are not me. I can't. It is detrimental to my own mental health. I will tag as best I can, but I am not going to give notes at the bottom summing up what might be problematic in the chapter or story. I am not going to go through and painstakingly check for something for someone I don't know. I may, if I have the bandwidth emotionally, be able to give a guess, but I can't give an assurance.

I, err, have strong feelings on the subject.

I will warn if something is dark or skates close to my own edges, but I won't give specifics. I'll just say potentially disturbing content, with the proviso that my work is meant for grown ups who can make their own decisions. Hopefully someone who knows them can recommend it to them.

I am thankful for the whole trash party tagging thing, because it means I can protect my own mental health by staying far, far away.

When you guys tag, do you tag in a particular order? Like the ingredients lists on the side of the box?

Or alphabetical? Or just in the way that makes the words sound best together?

I am thankful for the whole trash party tagging thing, because it means I can protect my own mental health by staying far, far away.

See? It serves a purpose! I can find, you can avoid! I do tag. I just don't WARN. There's a difference. Damn it.