I Had The Weirdest Comment Thread On A Story Of Mine Last Night.

I had the weirdest comment thread on a story of mine last night.

At the end of a 3k first chapter of a 150k, 18 chapter story that’s ongoing, they left a comment about how much they loved the story.

Great. Welcome to my story. I hope you enjoy it.

Then they proceeded to ask several questions about the plot and characters in the story.

I replied to each question, but each answer was basically ‘you’ll have to read the story to find out.’

Then they responded back that my story is too long, so they probably won’t read all of it.

Ooooookkkkay. So you just want me to write a cliff notes version of my story for you? Umm. No. Skim if yourself if the length of my story burdens you. Why did you start reading in the first place? It’s not like the length of the story is some hidden mystery.

Weird, right? I mean, I LOVE getting comments. But I really didn’t know what to make of that.

Anyway, moving on. I hope to finish the next chapter (of a different story) and get it posted soon (today maybe?).

It’s finally here! Tim and Lucy are finally going to see each other for the first time in forever in the next chapter of my story, Worth the Wait.

A few minutes later, as Aly and Lily were explaining every last piece of artwork on that particular segment of the wall with excruciating detail, Tim’s ears heard something that he never thought he’d hear again. Laughter. But not just any laughter. The joyful, melodic, and sometimes even boisterous laughter of Lucy Chen. He immediately recognized it, even though it had been over seven years since he’d heard it in person. He looked to his right and saw just a few feet away from him the woman he never thought he would see again, at least not outside of his dreams.

His hands dropped to his sides as he turned his whole body toward her in complete shock.

“Lucy?” Tim said, his voice an octave higher than normal as his mouth hung open with his eyes as wide as saucers.

“Tim?” Lucy said breathlessly, as though the sight of him had knocked the wind out of her.

They stared at each other for a moment. Tim allowed his eyes to roam down from Lucy’s face to examine the rest of her. He felt like his mind was transported back in time to nine years ago. She was wearing, as far as he could tell, the same gorgeous green dress she had worn to Angela’s almost-wedding, and she didn’t look like she had aged a single day. She still wore her hair long and wavy, just like he remembered it. Time had done nothing to dim her beauty. His breath caught at the sight of her moonstone ring on her right hand that had led him to her in the desert so many years ago. To his surprise, he did not see a wedding ring on her left hand; there was just a stripe of untanned skin there.

Lucy felt her body warm under his intense gaze until her cheeks were a rosy pink color, but she couldn’t deny that she was checking him out in just the same way. The last seven years had surely treated him well. There were little streaks of gray hair around his temples, and his smile lines seemed a little deeper, but being away from the LAPD didn’t seem to alter his exercise routine at all as his muscles still bulged against his shirt the way they always did. Damn. That man could wear a suit better than anyone else she knew. Just like Tim, her eyes also went to his left hand where she noticed he didn’t wear any ring.

As Tim and Lucy were frozen staring at each other, Lily, Aly, and Sam exchanged victorious smiles and all-knowing nods.

“We were right!” Sam said, standing behind Lucy by a step and looking at Aly and Lily triumphantly. “That’s exactly how she says his name in her sleep! Like she just finished exercising, and she’s out of breath.” He paused for half a beat. “Well sometimes she screams it, too…” he continued.

“Sam!” Lucy said, her face quickly flushing to a beet red color. She grabbed him by the shoulder. “How do you know about…”

“You talk in your sleep a lot, Mom. And Tamara says…”

“Okay. Okay. Enough,” she interrupted him. “You’ve said more than enough,” she said patting him on the back as she cleared her throat. Lucy dared to glance over at Tim whose shock had morphed into several different micro-expressions, including confusion, surprise, and smugness, until it settled into a slightly amused expression with his lips pulled in tight, trying not to smile.

“Excuse me. I just… I… I’ll be back in a bit,” Lucy whispered as she glanced back at Sam and then Tim and the two girls that must be his daughters. Then she turned and started walking to escape to the nearest bathroom, planning to text Tamara to find Sam and watch after him. After everything that had happened to her over the last week with memories of Tim surrounding her and then Sam’s confession that she dreamt about Tim… it… it was just too much. She needed to escape for a minute to compose herself.

Read more here:

20 Low effort meaningful comments to leave on fics when you can’t think of anything to say that most authors love and appreciate (and you will too).

1.) Thank you for writing this!

2.) This really helped distract me from the horrors of reality, thank you for writing it!

3.) I really really really loved this.

4.) <3

5.) Literal keyboard mash q3kjt2uh0erjiurjfnejkrgnkejoiiueirnf!!!!

6.) My favorite part was when they ____.

7.) I laughed at ____.

8.) How dare you! /affectionate.

9.) I am very excited to read this story in its entirety!

10.) I really enjoyed the first __ chapters, I cannot wait for more!

11.) This gave me everything I was hoping for!

12.) 10/10 fic, thanks for writing!

13.) I am going to be thinking about this fic for a long time, thank you for writing!

14.) This made me feel a lot of emotions and I cannot describe them, so thank you for that. I really enjoyed this.

15.) This was the best ride I haven taken in a long time, wow! Thank you for writing this.

16.) If I had the ability to bind this as a real book I would, I loved it so much.

17.) I'm not good with words but I just loved this so much.

18.) This is complete perfection.

19.) I am in awe of how you described ____.

20.) This means so much to me that you wrote this. Thank you.

The more you comment, the better you will get at it and the more enjoyment and fulfillment you will received out of saying thank you.

insp.

Six Sentence (Paragraph?) Saturday

Haha. 😬🫣🤦🏻‍♀️ I couldn’t cut it short.

This is a throw back to a favorite scene of mine that I wrote back in February in the last chapter of Snowed In. Tim and Lucy meet after he’s in Metro (Ashley is gone), and she’s a detective at North Hollywood (Chris is gone). In this scene, Tim has to take care of some paperwork, and he brings her to his office for the first time. The link to the story is below. Enjoy!

Tim opened the door and squeezed through the narrow space to his desk. There was a small stack of papers waiting for him there. “Have a seat,” he said. “This shouldn’t take too long.” He picked up a pen and started writing at a frantic pace.

Lucy looked around the office and walked from one end to the other, which only took about seven steps to do. She went to the window and pulled the cord to bring the blinds down. Then she pulled the cord on the opposite side to see how well they closed. “Hmm,” she observed. That’ll work, she thought to herself, opening the blinds again. Then she took two steps back to look at the door. “Does this lock?” she asked in an innocent voice.

“Of course,” he said quickly. The moment the words left his lips though, he realized what she was really asking. He raised his head to look at her more closely. She had a mischievous glint in her eye. “Later. Soon,” he said, repeating her words back to her with a smile.

Lucy smiled back at him and tucked that little tidbit of information away for another day. Then she moved over to examine the small couch. She pushed on it a couple of times to see how springy it was. Then she laid down on it. Lucy was disappointed that she barely fit, so Tim would definitely not be able to lay down comfortably on it. “Too bad,” she muttered to herself.

Tim looked up when he heard her voice, but he couldn’t tell what she was saying. “I can see the wheels in your head spinning.”

She turned and walked back to his desk in response. Lucy grabbed the edge of the desk with both hands and gave it a little shake. She made a high pitched ‘hmph,’ and said quietly “That should work out well.”

“Lucy,” he warned but with a laugh he was trying to stifle. “I’ve got to finish this paperwork. If I speed through it, we can be done in 15 minutes. But if all I do is envision… utilizing this space with you in the future, then it’s going to take much longer.”

“Fine. I’ll be good,” she promised. “Maybe I’ll wander around the station for a few minutes.”

I love these two in love.

Read more here.

Fandom Etiquette

Over the last several months, bad behavior has been on the rise. I’m going to mostly chalk it up to an influx of younger fans, or people that are new to fandom in general, but as a creator it can be incredibly frustrating when these types of behaviors persist. So as a general reminder:

Posting to Ao3

Ao3 is an archive. It was essentially created as an immense library of people’s fanworks. It is not a social media site. There is also no algorithm that curates which posts are shown to people. Any post created on Ao3 that is not a fanwork (or original work) that is posted is actually in direct violation of AO3’s terms of service. Your post will get reported and eventually your account may be suspended or terminated. These posts include:

Lists of prompts that you’d like to see written

A post asking for people to send you prompts or to tell you which prompt to write next

Posts asking for help looking for a specific fic or fic recommendations.

All of these posts belong on social media sites like tumblr or twitter. Both sites have strong fandom presences and you’re more likely to be helped. You can also try a dedicated discord.

Why does it matter? As mentioned, there’s no algorithm on Ao3. It’s equal opportunity in that the most recent posts appear at the top of the page. Inappropriate posts bury actual creator content and this frustrates writers. You may think it’s not a big deal because ‘it’s just one post’, but think about what would happen if everyone did it. There are more readers than there are writers on Ao3. If everyone made posts like this, the actual works that people devoted hours into creating would get lost, driving down engagement which also drives down motivation. Your flaunting the rules encourages others to do the same. And no, it doesn’t matter if you intend to ‘delete it later’.

Commenting on works

As creators, we all love receiving comments. For most people it’s the single biggest motivator to create more. But please think about the way your comments can come across before you post them.

The main type of comment that I’m talking about is the demand for more

Update please

This needs another chapter

I need an update

Etc.

You may think these comments come across as complimentary but unless you’ve added something else substantial (like an explanation of what you’ve enjoyed so far, or even just a real indication of your enjoyment), they don’t. Most people I know would much rather receive a single emoji (send me a heart! That’s great! I appreciate it!) than one of these comments.

What I think a lot of people tend to forget is that no one is getting paid to write these fics. A lot of your favorite creators are adults with careers and families that write as their hobby. These comments make everything feel transactional. They suck the joy out of creating. They make working on a fic feel like a chore. For a lot of people, receiving an ‘Update’ comment will actually have the opposite effect, causing them to avoid working on that fic for a period of time.

We are not your favorite TikToker or YouTuber. We do not owe you anything, Please act like it.

Getting called out on your behavior

Please. If someone calls you out, telling you that your behavior is inappropriate or upsetting, learn from it. Don’t get defensive. Don’t double down. You can absolutely curate your space— mute or block the person that you’re having a disagreement with. It won’t hurt anyone and honestly everyone will probably come out with a more comfortable experience for it.

But at the end of the day, fandom is an adult space. Younger people are still welcome, but a certain level of maturity is expected. When spaces become hostile, creators leave, and we’re all left poorer for it