#I always reply to comments on AO3

[originalartblog]

Happy new year! 🎉🎉🎉

Thank you all so much for being here again or thank you for joining us this year!

I haven't said thank you for all your wonderful and kind words in a very long time! All of you who sent me asks, whether is was to share how much you liked something, an idea, a thought or an event, and to all of you who leave comments in the form of compliments or commentary in the tags and replies:

THANK YOU!!!!! ❤💞💖💕

You make sharing my art on here so fun and you keep me going. I reread them frequently and wish I could find a way to answer you all more often.

I wish you all a year that brings you all you need and that you may come out the other side safe and sound💖

[marimbles]

It seems to be pretty well established that most fanfic authors don’t mind when readers leave comments on old fics and in fact welcome it. But what about authors replying to old comments?

Do readers care in general whether an author replies? Is it expected and seen as rude if they don’t? Is it nice when they do but not expected? Is there a time limit to the welcomeness of replies? Like is it nice if they respond within a few weeks but if it’s been months or years it feels awkward because you don’t remember the fic anymore? I’m curious!

[burningvelvet]

some people have left comments/likes on some of my fics lately and idk if they follow me on tumblr or not but i just want to make this post about how much those little things mean to me. i'm glad to know i brightened someone's day and that they brightened mine. i'm glad that we were entertained by the same things. that we love the same things. carry on <3

[yellowwwcrayon]

gah, I feel acomplished. I actually replied to some comments today 🫶🏻🥹

[organizechaoss]

as we get closer to the end of posting my fic (we’re professionals), I’m feeling less inclined to reply to comments? Which I never thought I’d say. But ppl are theorizing and I know if I let myself loose imma spill the beans and idk if I wanna do that for the finale of the fic <3 but idk, it would feel weird to just have them sitting in my inbox and also I want ppl to keep commenting…

[courfee]

sorry @ all yall to whom i am only now replying 110 days after you left a comment i promise i am trying so hard to be more consistent with this but i am struggling

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Speaking of Megaman, someone just left a comment on one of my very old Megaman fics from 2018 saying they printed it out years ago, and when their anxiety doesn't let them sleep, they reread that story and it helps drain the tension out of them.

; ____ ;

[pipperoo]

there’s nothing crazier than receiving comments on a fic, like you liked it enough to type something out!!! what?!?! i’d literally do anything for you!!!! i’d kill someone for you!!! you have no idea how much i love you right now!!!!

[rotworld]

Hi, I sent an ask a long time ago and just wanted to know if you'd get back to answering them or if they got deleted perhaps?

answering this partly as an apology and also to explain why i might not get back to someone (in a timely manner or sometimes at all), this message itself is fairly old at this point. i have over 400 asks in my inbox. they build up for a lot of reasons, sometimes i'm just not on tumblr for a little while and don't think to check, sometimes i hold onto them thinking i'll get to them later, and i also just don't answer every single question (esp. very specific writing scenarios). i also get overwhelmed if i receive a bunch in a short time, which isn't anyone's fault, it's just another reason i'm bad at replying.

[sapphicstacks]

me, the literal author of the fanfic who knows exactly why a character does something: this character does this thing

readers, commenting on ao3: here is my theory on why this character does this thing

me: woah that’s such an interesting theory, that would be a cool explanation!

[bejeweledmp3]

tell me why i'm considering opening the doc and writing fanfiction during my lunch break. ON MY PHONE

[badolmen]

Me: I know lots of fic authors say they love people who long comment on every chapter but when I do it I feel bad especially if the author is the kind to reply to comments but none of my comments have replies - not to mention on WIP fics it feels borderline manipulative because yes I’m commenting to tell the author what I liked but I have the secondary motivation of wanting more chapters so I’m basically evil -

*email notification*

nevermind I think I’m getting a good grade in fic reader something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve

[mimzy6bunny]

Theres quite a few comments on my fics that ive been meaning to respond but- but im like literally speechless. ppl are so kind to me and idk how to translate into words the overwhelming happiness i feel from even a short simple comment like 'love this!' ........

[duhragonball]

Nanwum VII Update: 34,518

So I am well past the two-thirds mark and I'm only six days in. Yesterday I made another successful attempt to break my one-day word-count record, and I pulled it off. The new top score for me is 9383.

I think I already went over my planning for this, but I feel like I really need to capture this for future reference, so to summarize...

I took a bunch of time off work

I got as much IRL stuff done as I could in October

I'm planning writing hour-by-hour instead of day-by-day, which makes my schedules more realistic and practical.

I'm switching to some side-projects and personal writings whenever I get stuck on the main thing I'm working on, which helps maintain momentum.

Part of my plan was to schedule three attempts to break my one-day record, so that way if I fell short, I'd have another chance. But things went so well the first time, I decided to just go for the hat trick, and... yeah, so far so good. Try #3 is on Thursday, and if all goes as planned, I should hit 50k before the end of the week.

Beyond that, I have a Plan B if I crash and burn, or it makes for a nice overrun if I stay on schedule. But it's nice to put the first 34,000 words behind me no matter what happens next. In the past, I used to struggle a lot between 20 and 35k, and this year I've blown past it so quickly that it's not even a factor.

It's a little spooky, really. I'm kind of waiting for some downside to reveal itself, or I'll just collapse into a burnt-out husk at the end of this. But let's be real, I've been doing this for several years now. And when I'm not working on one of these, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to improve my performance. Is it any mystery that this got easier for me? Maybe it won't last, but it's not a weird twist of fate that I got to this level.

I will admit that the isolation is starting to take a toll, but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before. Right, Nappa?

[gittetj]

To @novafirst1 who's been leaving so many funny and thoughtful tags on my old End of the World art (waving back at you - yes I see and appreciate you, thank you so much), I saw you were wondering about some things regarding the fic's development and whether my drawings still fit in or not, and I thought maybe I should officially clear that up or whatever, because I don't think I ever have?

So, some things to keep in mind about my drawings:

1) I almost always draw scenes while I'm drafting them, not after they're done, so often they diverge from what ends up in the fic. This is especially true of anything from chapter 21 and forward. The story takes a big turn around there and it's where I started fucking big things up in my old, old first draft. Sometimes I feel like deleting some of the art that has nothing to do with what actually happens in the fic anymore, but I also have a lifelong policy of never deleting anything, so…

2) My OC Ren was written out of the story a long time ago because she was introduced way too late in the story and her role could be redistributed between other characters, mainly Serizawa. I still love Ren, though. I've stored her away in a little corner of my mind, hoping some day she'll be of use in a different story.

3) Shimazaki was also written out of the story quite long ago. I honestly don't remember what his deal was that well because every time I change something in this fic, the old version is immediately purged from my mind so I don't confuse myself too much. Ehh, he kind of had the role Iida has now, except not really? Like, the end purpose of that role was similar, but his methods and motivations were wildly different (and more uninteresting) and it was executed in a way where it forced other characters into situations instead of letting them decide to go there on their own, taking too much of their agency away. It didn't work well, so I axed him. I don't miss him. Well, okay, I had one scene where he dumped Shou in the middle of a desert, I kinda miss that one, but apart from that, don't miss him.

4) I don't know if this is very apparent from just my art, but several of my OCs/might-as-well-be-OCs (like Shou's mom or Fukuda, Higashio, and Ootsuki) have been tweaked quite a bit along the way. For example, speaking of Iida, he started out as some random Claw henchman, and now he's one of the most central characters to the main plot line. Whoops? Satsune and Himiko's personalities drifted from what I originally expected from them, affecting their actions in the story. I've recently made some huge changes/additions to Higashio's scenes because I felt like you didn't get to know him well enough. I know I'll have to do the same for Ootsuki. The list goes on...

5) Bottom line: Everything is fluid! Sometimes I draw stuff and then change my mind with reckless abandon the next day. Nothing is real until it's on AO3

[jandjsalmon]

Fun Story to Share.

I got my (now 18-year-old) daughter into Ao3 back in 2021. I taught her she should always comment - even if the fic looks old or abandoned or whatever. She did.

Well - she got this email this morning:

The fic was written in 2014 and essentially abandoned.

Bethy read and reviewed in 2021 (and was actually the only person who had commented at all).

Today in 2025 - the final chapter was posted by the author and this was her reply to Bethy’s comment.

———

Never question whether a fic is too old to comment on.