Encouraging Stuff
Originally written for the Slash Haven as part of a discussion about wanting to see things other than slash/romance over at the Padded Cell; use of the generic 'you' throughout and while this was written about slash/romance, it holds true to any "I want more of X" situation
If you want to see more non-slash stories, be they action, het or gen but you don't want to write them yourself (understandable, sometimes it's nice to see others' takes on things), there are two things you can do.
1. Review: If you find a fic that hits your buttons, let the author know that you liked it. Fanfic writers aren't writing for money, so feedback is the coin of the realm. Speaking for myself, a review can boost my spirits considerably and can inspire me to start working on a fic (or, in some cases, get back to working on a fic).
Slash and romance are popular, in part, because people encourage writers by commenting on their fics. Lack of comments can discourage writers. Or lead to 'hostage situations' where an author demands X number of reviews before continuing a fic. As silly as I think that sort of thing is, I can understand the impulse to try and find out if anybody is reading. Particularly when other fics are getting comment after comment.
This isn't to say that all writers are sitting around pining for reviews like some laboratory mouse punching a bar, trying to get a food pellet, but speaking for myself, my 'production' tends to go up depending on how positive I feel about my writing and reviews are part of that positive feeling. Nothing sucks quite like putting a lot of effort into a fic only to have it sit there without comment.
2. Recommend: Pimp that fic; recommend it to other people, let the world know that this good fic is out there and that you think it's worth them taking a look at. Prowl/Jazz grew from one person writing a pairing she liked into a pairing so popular it has its own LJ community and has even spread into the movie!verse.
Reviewing and recommending fics helps encourage writers -- not only the one who originally wrote the fic, but also ones who might be looking for something to write. Fics can inspire writers to try their own take on an idea -- sometimes because they loved the idea, other times because they think the idea was silly and want to do it better. But people can't be inspired by fics they don't know exist.
If you want to see more non-slash stories, be they action, het or gen but you don't want to write them yourself (understandable, sometimes it's nice to see others' takes on things), there are two things you can do.
1. Review: If you find a fic that hits your buttons, let the author know that you liked it. Fanfic writers aren't writing for money, so feedback is the coin of the realm. Speaking for myself, a review can boost my spirits considerably and can inspire me to start working on a fic (or, in some cases, get back to working on a fic).
Slash and romance are popular, in part, because people encourage writers by commenting on their fics. Lack of comments can discourage writers. Or lead to 'hostage situations' where an author demands X number of reviews before continuing a fic. As silly as I think that sort of thing is, I can understand the impulse to try and find out if anybody is reading. Particularly when other fics are getting comment after comment.
This isn't to say that all writers are sitting around pining for reviews like some laboratory mouse punching a bar, trying to get a food pellet, but speaking for myself, my 'production' tends to go up depending on how positive I feel about my writing and reviews are part of that positive feeling. Nothing sucks quite like putting a lot of effort into a fic only to have it sit there without comment.
2. Recommend: Pimp that fic; recommend it to other people, let the world know that this good fic is out there and that you think it's worth them taking a look at. Prowl/Jazz grew from one person writing a pairing she liked into a pairing so popular it has its own LJ community and has even spread into the movie!verse.
Reviewing and recommending fics helps encourage writers -- not only the one who originally wrote the fic, but also ones who might be looking for something to write. Fics can inspire writers to try their own take on an idea -- sometimes because they loved the idea, other times because they think the idea was silly and want to do it better. But people can't be inspired by fics they don't know exist.