Help, or possibly advice, from the peanut gallery?

[grundyscribbling]

Will preface this by saying that if sulien is thinking this is awfully coincidental, she's absolutely right - replying to one of her comments got me thinking.

I know as an author I love "meaty" comments. The ones where someone doesn't just say 'well done' or 'I liked it' but reacts or gives details about what they liked. These are the sort of comments I want to be able to leave as a reader. They are also the comments I feel I am worst at writing. (Seriously. Me trying to write one of those comments typically involves much flailing and handwaving, not all of it figurative.) I can say 'I enjoyed/liked/loved it!' but would rather say more.

Is there something I can do to get better at more substantive comments? I know Dawn Felagund has linked comment starters before. I'm not looking for a starter so much as a 'how do I get my brain to more reliably crystallize what about a particular story I liked/why I liked it?' And I need to convince my brain to do this in a timely fashion - while I've had some success with adding 'comment on [story]' to my to-do app*, in general if I don't comment right away, I don't comment.

*Yes, I have a to-do app. It's the one app that is on ALL my devices. It is key in getting me from the 'I thought about it' stage to the 'I did it' stage, not to mention extremely helpful in making sure I get repetitive but non-daily chores done on the regular and not just when I happen to think of them and am not distracted.

Comments

[heartofoshun]

When I really like a story and don't feel creative enough to leave a substantial comment, I often try to pick two or three (or even one!) quote from the story that moved me or that I thought was particularly cogent or that made me think, "I wish I had written that!" Often if I mention one or more of those it kick-starts my brain. If it doesn't, then I can tell myself that I love it when people appreciate a sentence or a phrase I use. (Afterall, we struggle to express ourselves so it feels great to know that someone noticed.)

If that doesn't work I might tell the writer how it made me feel--"made me laugh," "made me smile," "broke my heart." That's just me, of course. I don't have any self-consciousness about saying what I feel.

Worst comes to worst, I appreciate "Well done!" or "I really liked this story." So, something is better than nothing! Sometimes I just feel so low and yet I enjoyed the story, so, if it is on AO3, I give it a Kudo. (I hope Dawn doesn't come after me with a stick!)

[grundyscribbling]

I don't think I've used your 'quote from the story' technique very often. I'll try that and see if it helps - thanks!

I always at least leave Kudos on AO3, but I need to get better at actually commenting - I'm terrible at it.

[keiliss]

The 'quote from the story' always works. Elfscribe did that a lot and it always made me feel good because I could see what she'd responded to in the fic (also it makes the feedback way longer, which is never a bad thing). I sometimes make a note or two while reading if I find something I rather liked but might not remember to comment on at the end. Just adding you liked the setting or the way the writer perceived the protagonist or --- just a small thing the writer can in turn respond to -- would be a good way to start, and then try and expand from there (setting AND character next time maybe :D).

Having said that, I've never had a problem with 'I really loved this story/this was a good read'. Pretty much anything beats watching the anonymous read count climb and wondering if they all hit the back button after the second paragraph.

[grundyscribbling]

I know any comment is better than nothing, but I would like to be able to leave more than just a generic 'I loved it!' Quote/copy-paste from the story seems to be the go-to suggestion, so that's what I'm going to try to do more consistently. Thanks!

[spiced_wine]

I tend to copy sections that I especially loved, and say why I loved them underneath.
I generally type up comments that way and then copy-paste to the comment box.

But the best way for me is to read a chapter and be so excited about it I just have to comment then and there. And I don’t think authors care if you’re a bit sqee-ful and say things like OMG I loved this, etc.

And/or I say what I loved about a particular character and what they did/said etc.

[grundyscribbling]

'Quote from the story and then talk about it' seems to be the suggestion everyone is going with - I think that's the one to try. Thank you!

[makamu]

Like everybody else, I tend to work with quotes as prompts for getting my thoughts in order, both when writing recs and comments. Other than that, I try to get to my feelings on a piece of writing via the mood that left me in or by commenting on stuff that left me pondering the fic after (sometimes long after) I read it.

[grundyscribbling]

I am definitely going to try the quotes approach. Thank you!

[independence1776]

I am keeping an eye on this post because I'm in a similar boat. I used to be better at leaving both comments and meatier comments but fell out of practice and have lost the skill. So thanks for asking the question!

[grundyscribbling]

You're welcome. :)

[sulien]

Pretty much what everyone else said. Writing fiction takes a lot of thought and time that could be spent doing other things, so I really appreciate authors who share their work and want to make sure they know it when I like something. Some days that's just pushing the kudos button or saying "I really enjoyed this, thank you" on migraine/pain brain (or just plain brain dead) days.

As for the comments themselves, I've never had a problem stating my opinion on what I think/feel (boy, howdy). Just do that and say why a story (or a particular passage, or mood) evokes that reaction in you. Flailing around and fan-girling/boying isn't always a bad thing, sometimes a story is just that affecting.

[grundyscribbling]

I am pretty good with kudos, but I really want to improve my commenting - the number one thing that comes up in author discussion is a sense of demoralization at the lack of comments, so I'm trying to do my part. I think part of where I trip up is the 'why' of the reaction - I'm far better at analyzing others than myself. I'm going to try the 'quote something from the story' approach and see if that works out better than trying to zero in on the 'why' of my reaction overall.

[sulien]

"I think part of where I trip up is the 'why' of the reaction - I'm far better at analyzing others than myself."

You really are exceptionally good at getting into a character's head and making the reader see their emotions and motivations and how they shape the character's actions (you've certainly gotten me to look at the Fëanorions from a different angle). Maybe consider mentally stepping outside of yourself and looking at it as if you were writing yourself as a character reacting to the story? It won't necessarily help you in writing individual comments and reviews immediately, but the self-examination and increased self-awareness will help develop that ability to figure out the why of your reactions in future.

Pardon, still loopy here, so you're getting unfiltered stream of consciousness.

[hhimring]

Other than the quotes technique, you could try imagine yourself describing the story to someone else who isn't the author and doesn't know it, as an intermediate step.
This might seem a bit counter-intuitive. But if you develop your comments out of that, the author will see what you picked up on, in their story.

[grundyscribbling]

Hm. Not sure how that will work, but I will try anything once!

[bunn]

Do you use the Ao3 Review plugin? It give you a floaty comment box that follows you down the page so you can paste in lines you like. I don't usually use it on first read (who knows on first read if you are going to want to comment, or even read to the end?) but I find it very handy once I've got to the end and made the 'I must comment on this!!!' decision to goback to the the start and skip through copy-pasting good lines or just reacting to the storyline.

Not that I'm exactly a great commenter, mine tend to be a bit on the short side, but I think it does help.

On chaptered fiction, I like to respond to the characters almost as if they were telling me about what they did afterwards? That gives you comments like : OMG Fingon, what were you THINKING??? How are you going to get out of this one??? Which can be fun for the writer and I think are actually easier to reply to than pure praise.

[grundyscribbling]

I don't have the plugin, but I've always taken the tack 'if I want to copy paste, that's why some clever programmer gave us Notepad'. I'm inevitably commenting from a computer, not my phone, so it's always an option. (Despite my many devices, I don't trust autocorrect not to make word soup of any comment I compose... stupid thing tried to turn 'Nematron', an industrial computer/display maker, into 'Megatron' today. At least it was in a text to a co-worker who found it funny.)

I do the response to characters sometimes. Maybe I should try that more consistently...