snowflake challenge 3

[aliensamba]

Challenge #3: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

In your own space, tell us who, from one of your fandoms, would you most want to have dinner with (or tea, or a random afternoon visit), And why? This could be a creator, an actor, a costumer, a set designer, a director, a character, a composer, anybody! What would you talk about? What are you dying to know?




In theory, this would be great but I know that when faced with new people I am reticent and prefer to listen than to converse. I am not quick to interact with people who I admire [and even with people I have just met].

I can talk about my favorite in a fandom but I don't know if I can talk to them face to face. I think it's difficult to interact with someone I admire because I already have this idea of them in my head and I think the interaction would by clouded by these pre-conceived notions.

I sometimes worry that I might offend someone when I leave a comment [in a fanwork, in an FB post, etc] because my conversation skills are rusty. I find myself reading and reviewing whatever I comment to see if it will not be misinterpreted.

And in the end, I sometimes end up saying "Kudos!" on a fanwork and feel as though it's not enough.

 

Comments

[paulamcg]

Thank you so much for sharing this! It's wonderful that you're aware of how you tend to feel and act and what you prefer. Myself, I'm relieved that this challenge is just makebelieve and I won't really have to talk to a celebrity. :)

In any case, I'd like to encourage you to talk (in comments on fanworks) to the fans whom and/or whose work you like. I'm sure you're able to make it clear enough that what you want to say is positive. And as far as I know, we all love all feedback on our works. ♥

[aliensamba]

Commenting is going to be one of my 2021 resolutions. I want to be comfortable expressing my appreciation for a fanwork/anything.

[paulamcg]

I trust you yourself, too, will feel happy after giving feedback. By all feedback (above) I meant kudos, too. And as others have said below, kudos, too, makes writers happy, and I didn't mean to give you pressure, urging you to write comments. But you've now also got that great piece of advice that you can look at other people's comments so as to become more confident. And you'll see that a lot of people say only "Kudos" or "Lovely", and such comments are always appreciated even in case the same story has got detailed comments, too. (And people who don't want comments can turn that function off.)

[sjh2009]

For years I was like you, worried about interacting with people because I wasn't sure what to say or afraid I would say the wrong thing. But I read something that someone wrote once about how lovely it was to receive comments on their stories, even if it was just a quick 'I really enjoyed that' sort of thing, so I started braving it and leaving comments myself. To start with I looked over the comments that had already been left to get some inspiration, which is a good way to start :)

[aliensamba]

I will start reading comments to learn how to comment better. I've seen that sentiment too (about how lovely it was to receive comments on their stories...) at tumblr and that it makes them (the authors) feel appreciated and continue to write more.

[sjh2009]

That's great, I know authors will appreciate your comments.

[dreamersdare]

As a fanwork creator, I'll say that a 'kudos' comment is more than enough and you shouldn't feel bad about it. I think fandom gets a bit caught up in the quest for feedback sometimes - we forget that, in the same way that creators don't owe consumers anything (because we're all doing this for fun), consumers equally don't owe creators anything either.

I actually turned off the comments on my AO3 when that option came available; sure, they're nice enough to get, but I don't need them, and I hated the sense that people were feeling obligated to make the 'perfect' comment, and it was impacting on their enjoyment of fandom. I figure people can now just read and enjoy (or not) the fic as they see fit, and they still have the option to hit the kudos button if they want to let me know they liked it.

There's no 'right' way to take part fandom; you do you!

[aliensamba]

Thank you! Sometimes it feels that way (the obligation to react with a perfect comment).

I'm grateful that there's a Kudos button at AO3 so I don't have to feel pressured to write something witty in the comments.

And if sometimes I feel that the Kudos button is not enough, I write "Kudos!" in the comments.

[dreamersdare]

I think the kudos button is a godsend for those people where writing feedback comments does not come easily.

I did see someone suggest that you could always add mutliple kudos using the comments. So, hit the kudos button, and then leave a comment that says something like "Extra kudos!" or "Kudos x3".

I think, from an author's perspective, it gets your appreciation of the fic across perfectly!