One Thing I Hate About the Sherlock Fandom

[rusty_armour]

If there's one thing I hate about the Sherlock fandom, it's the lack of support for writers on LJ. When I see a really good fic that has only received one comment, I can't help feeling disgusted. I could understand if it was a small fandom, but Sherlock is pretty popular. I just have to see the number of communities and writing challenges to know that. And, yes, I realize that we all lead busy lives, and I've certainly been guilty of reading a story and not commenting, but the lack of support in this particular fandom is really appalling. It seems as if it's every writer for herself, unless said writer is part of a clique or has a large network of friends. Thank fuck for A03. At least such writers might receive hits and kudos.

When I post what I hope will be my last Sherlock story (mostly because I'm supposed to be retired from fic writing), I might just post it on A03. I'm not sure if there's any point in posting it on LJ.

Comments

[rusty-armour.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're right about the Tumblr advocate's attitude not necessarily being typical of most Tumblr users. As you pointed out, she may have been feeling defensive. It's probably wise (as you've suggested) not to generalize too much. However, I think the Tumblr effect could be having an impact on the amount of feedback being left on LJ, especially if a lot of people are now spending more time on Tumblr than LJ.

The feedback question does boil down to good manners. While I don't expect readers to provide feedback for everything they read, I don't think it would kill them to take a bit of time to comment on stories they've really enjoyed. If nothing else, it encourages writers to keep writing -- something else you pointed out. Like you, I know writers who stopped writing because they weren't seeing any evidence that anyone was reading their work. I know that if a writer wants to write, she'll write. However, there's no guarantee that she'll continue to post what she writes (or that she'll continue writing fanfic at all) if she feels her work isn't appreciated.