#if you ever get to witness a book club/lkiterature class where people excitedly engage in discussion about

[redvanillabee]

It is generally that a WIP fic on an archive site like AO3 is not the same as, say, a half-cooked meal, or a half-finished painting, or a half-finished sewing project. With all these other examples, you can reasonably say to the artist that their project 'looks great! Can't wait to see the final product!'

Fanfiction, like some TV projects, is meant as something that can very much be enjoyed as is it being written. Heck, a lot of multichaps, both old and new, follow this model. It is even meant to be enjoyed even if the author abandons the project. That has always been the norm of fanfiction, and it is something that is still followed.

Anon, I will assume that you have a preference for completed fics. Maybe you don't like the suspense of waiting for new chapters, maybe you prefer to binge. These are all valid reasons. But given the history and culture surrounding fanfiction, saying you would rather read the finished product can very easily be misconstrued as...pushing the fic writer to get a story done. Or that this assumed understanding between author and reader (that a wip fic should very much be held in the same regard as a finished fic) is not being respected.

As AO3CoTD says, if you want to show the author appreciation, maybe comment on the premise. Maybe comment on what is already available ('I love how you write X in chis chapter!'). If you really want to, you can also let the author know why you might not be able to keep up update by update ('Work is kinda hectic right now so I might not be able to read when the new chapter comes out, but I'll catch up once I wrap my current project!'). This helps multichap writers, especially those who are writing as they post, know that their stories are being appreciated, and it is still being appreciated even if updates may not be getting as much response.

The last thing most writers want is to be seen as a mere Content CreatorTM, where the focus is on the drop or debut of their product, rather than a fellow fan who is revelling in the process of crafting a story.

I've got a question about the general feelings? etiquette? of commenting on in-progress fics with "so excited to read this when its completed" or something along those lines. Because I personally like them, and thought they were generally well recieved and encouraging, aka I've seen authors replied positively. But then the one time I tried to leave a similar comment, the author basically went "I don't know why you comment if you hadn't read it." So, whats the general feeling?

Oof. This is one of those things that's kind of a crap shoot anon. Some authors will take it as a compliment, others will absolutely hate it. It all comes down to how that author feels about readers who don't read works in progress.

Some authors don't post their works until after they've finished writing them - or at least not until they have enough chapters finished that they have a buffer built up and then they can post on a schedule. Other authors post each chapter as they write it.

In either case (but maybe more so for the latter group), authors rely on getting feedback as they post a work in order to know that the work is being received well by its intended readers. If there's silence (a lack of kudos or comments), the author might decide to stop posting the work. They'll assume no one wants to read it and therefore they shouldn't bother to post it.

For a writer in that mindset, someone saying they won't read it until the work is complete feels... bad. Like that person doesn't want to support you during the hard part (writing and posting) and is only going to show up when the work is done.

An even bigger factor, and one that could be in play no matter how the author goes about writing their story, is that comments are kind of a big deal to most writers. They're few and far between and each one is precious because it's a signal that someone is reading and they care and they're telling you that they're reading and they care. But your message explicitly says that you're not reading (yet) - which some authors may take to mean that you don't care, but which either way means that they saw that wonderful comment notification only for it to be "check back later".

Obviously not every author is going to feel this way about things, but I hope that by explaining why some might you can understand it a bit better? Some suggestions for other comments that might be more universally appreciated:

this is just the kind of fic I love!

this one's going in the bookmarks!

this is such a great premise!

All of which you might mean, but they leave out the part where you won't be reading the fic itself for weeks and/or months.

I will caution, however, that if you leave a comment like this when they post chapter one and you don't come back again within a couple of chapters, a certain percentage of authors (and it's not a small percentage) will assume that you loved chapter one and hated chapter two and that's why you didn't come back to comment again.