Comments, concrit, nada at all?
I have a question for you lot on my flist who are writers (gidget_zb , bugsfic , artaxastra I'm lookin' atchu especially):
Sometimes, when I really like a fic, I will feel inspired to leave a comment saying so. However, I always have a great deal of trouble articulating what exactly it was about the fic that I liked -- for example, I just read a fic by one of the writers on my flist, and a commenter said, amongst other insightful things, "I love...how smart [this character] is..." And stuff like that just honestly never occurs to me, though it makes perfect sense afterwards. Usually, if I comment anything, it will either be mindless flail, possibly with allcaps, or an inane and smutty side note, or at best "Oh, of course [x or y thing in the story happened]" or "I LOVE that [x or y thing that happened or that character said]".
The thing I want to know is, is it worth it leaving those comments? I would point out things I specifically liked, if I could, but I have trouble identifying them if the whole fic is a good one. I feel like I'm just taking up the author's time and space in the LJ, though. Is it better to leave comments that don't really say much of anything and possibly sound like simpering brown-nosing, or just not leave a comment at all, and assume that the author knows the fic is enjoyed based on comments that other people have left? What do you writers think?
Sometimes, when I really like a fic, I will feel inspired to leave a comment saying so. However, I always have a great deal of trouble articulating what exactly it was about the fic that I liked -- for example, I just read a fic by one of the writers on my flist, and a commenter said, amongst other insightful things, "I love...how smart [this character] is..." And stuff like that just honestly never occurs to me, though it makes perfect sense afterwards. Usually, if I comment anything, it will either be mindless flail, possibly with allcaps, or an inane and smutty side note, or at best "Oh, of course [x or y thing in the story happened]" or "I LOVE that [x or y thing that happened or that character said]".
The thing I want to know is, is it worth it leaving those comments? I would point out things I specifically liked, if I could, but I have trouble identifying them if the whole fic is a good one. I feel like I'm just taking up the author's time and space in the LJ, though. Is it better to leave comments that don't really say much of anything and possibly sound like simpering brown-nosing, or just not leave a comment at all, and assume that the author knows the fic is enjoyed based on comments that other people have left? What do you writers think?