Challenge: It's Something We All Can Do
Apologies to mods in advance. I hope it's acceptable for me to share this here, and I'm not quite sure how it should be tagged. It isn't quite a fanfiction challenge, but it's a challenge that I feel could benefit fandom in general:
I'm hardly part of Five-0 fandom. I've written one story, barely seen a couple episodes, and only read fic for it from time to time. Still, this post really spoke to me. I've been feeling a lot of my enthusiasm for writing begin to drain in the last year. Part of it may simply be burnout, but a lot of it has been just how quiet fandom seems to have gotten of late. I write because I love to, and because the stories that pop into my head will drive me crazy if I don't, but there are times when I feel like no one is reading, and I really begin to question why I even bother.
I really feel this challenge could benefit everybody-every fandom, every community out there. I think that just by acknowledging authors and posters whenever we can however we might be able to inject new life into the internet places we all love.
I'm going to be sharing this in the comms I am the most active in, and I encourage you to do the same.
Originally posted by tkeylasunset at It's Something We All Can Do
4thoffive made an interesting post about the current lack of Hawaii Five-0 fanfiction. Lots of interesting points were made about the decline in fanfiction. I know that when I write a story and get almost no feedback, my muses suffer. We don't write purely for acknowledgment but it sure goes a long way in encouraging us to write the next story or chapter or even Woman's Day post!
And in what I have to admit to as full disclosure, I love getting comments. I am the worst at leaving them. I know how this sounds, I promise! But I'm a natural introvert who is convinced no one will care about what I think. "Just get over being shy," I've heard. Well, that's a little like asking me to get over having brown hair.
So here is my challenge to myself:
I will comment on every story I read, every post which speaks to me.
Will you join me?
I'm not suggesting we leave a novel length comment on every story or every post. "Hey - that was great!" can make someone's day! "You really rocked that pic spam" may make the difference between someone making (and posting) another one and fleeing the internet forever.
If you read the entire chapter/story, there must have been a reason! Tell the author! "Love your description of the clouds in chapter 4." Don't lie. But don't bash either. We can all find something we enjoyed or we wouldn't have kept with it! One sentence. Four words. That's not so much to ask in response to an author who has spent weeks or even months researching, writing, revising, perfecting their story. Obviously, if you want to gush over a story, no writer is going to mind, I promise!
And you know what a bonus to this may be? You'll make new friends! Yep - rock solid guarantee! Almost all of my LJ friends came from their response to my posts or my response to theirs. (Maybe you aren't looking for new LJ friends and that's cool. But you never know when you'll find someone who gets you in a way you never expected!)
What do you say? Will you take the pledge? Will you join me in spreading the Fandom Love?
(And because I love a poll, I've made one here for the Fandom Love Challenge.)
I'm taking the Fandom Love Challenge. Will you?