 Now in the interests of all fairness, Dr. Merlin does know authors for whom a review of "I liked this" would in fact be unwelcome.  However, Dr. Merlin has been assured these authors are seeking the proper dosages of their respective medications and will be feeling better soon.

Reviews are polite, and as everyone knows, manners are the lubrication of society.  Someone has just spent time entertaining you, and as you cannot applaud, sending a note is the next best thing and will probably make someone's day, regardless of the brevity.  Also, it is in one's self-interest to leave feedback for authors writing one's preferred fandom/pairing/etc., as this encourages more stories to be written and posted, and everyone is happy.


When sending out a new story to the world, the fanfiction writer's dream is to receive a basketful of glowing reviews.  Who wouldn't want to hear that one is a genius in loving emails from complete strangers?  (If you just held up your hand and said "ME!" then I humbly suggest you refrain from posting fanfic online.)  But how does one do it?

That bastion of democracy http://www.fanfiction.net is by far the largest fanfiction archive on the planet, and lucky for you, dear reader, FF.net makes it very simple to leave a review.  Simply point and click at the bottom of the story you have just finished reading, and you don't even have to log into your account.  Many large fanfiction sites include review features in order to make it easy on you to drop a note to the authors.  Some older fanfiction archives lack this functionality, alas, and so if you are going to leave feedback, you will need to use the author's email address, if given, and the older the story, the less likely that email address will be current.  (I've gone through a number of email addresses, but I've had what I now use as my main contact address since 1996.)  Going the extra mile to leave a review is always appreciated, but if your author makes it too difficult, the best you can do is sigh and perhaps recommend the story to your friends instead.

But should you be able to contact the author, what ought you say?  Is a simple "I liked this" enough?

It is.  Let no one tell you otherwise.  You have told the author that you enjoyed her or his work and thus thanked her/him for sharing the story.  If you'd like something slightly more elaborate, I submit the following examples, to be used as desired:

These and other permutations on the same idea --- that you liked the story --- take very little thought-process or effort, and can send an author over the moon.  Dr. Merlin has often read stories which reduced her brain to piles of gibbering glee, and has found these responses to be useful while she recovers. 