I disagree.

 

And you have that right. That doesn't make you right.

Any author worth their salt isn't going to let a lack of reviews stop them finishing a fic. The ones that feed on reviews either fizzle out or write garbage.

Edit because I'm being harsh: Look, I know what you're saying. It's part of the reason DLP exists when the likes SIYE died. DLP actively tries to help authors with our wba section. If you don't get the help you need there no amount of one line reviews is going to help.

 

It's more about the author thinking they're simply not writing something interesting if their stories are not getting any attention. Yes, some will just power through and keep writing, but some will do what I said earlier and try something else. I disagreed with Zombie because he spoke as if that wasn't possible, and it absolutely is. I think the problem here is that you're all expecting masters with years of experience in the craft, instead of the beginners that fanfic authors are.

 

Motivation and inspiration are fleeting. To actually accomplish anything requires discipline instead. To succeed as a writer, you'll need to write hundreds of thousands of words that may never see another person's eyeballs. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

 

That's... overly simplistic. With fanfiction.net alone, there are several ways to show attention- favouriting authors or stories, following authors or stories, direct messaging, and finally reviews. You're acting like only reviews exist, so they should be used to encourage writers in general no matter the situation. Remember that if all you want to do is encourage the author you can message them.

Unless of course you want to be publicly seen as encouraging the author, in which case by all means keep misusing the review system by leaving inane comments of "loved it, keep writing".

Really though, beginners in writing who need encouragement to continue should write short stories to get used to being able to write satisfying stories that actually end. Yes, short 2-3,000 word single chapter fics won't get seen by hundreds of thousands, but they will still be seen by some and those people will write reviews for things they like. Even if an author's concept won't fit in a short story, they can still do a 10-15,000 word story which is much better for getting feedback and encouragement than attempting a 200,000+ word epic.

If authors write to get comments and encouragement, then the best method to do that is to write ever increasing stories that never end, which never try anything unique or shocking. That's not good for beginning authors, or anyone in general.

 

I understand your points. Well, I'll keep reviewing chapter-by-chapter, hopefully with more than a "good job." Forty words or so seems hardly an ordeal to show I appreciated the effort the author put in. If that'll help keep the stories I enjoy being updated, then good for me, I guess.

 

I prefer PMs and I think I haven't reviewed anything in over two years.

It mostly stems from my interest in holding an actual conversation with the author if I enjoy the story a lot. I like to talk about characters, plotlines, theories, writing techniques, anything really. And it's easier to just send a PM with my thoughts because normally it's the best way to actually start a conversation. I recognize that with stories that are immensely popular with thousands of reviews its hard to find one out of the haystack, so I'd rather ensure that the author has seen my thoughts through PM.