WIP challenge: day 30 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

We're almost to the end of this month's challenge! How is the penultimate day going?

Poll #9324

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

View Respondents

How's the fic going today?

View Answers

Fantastic!
2 (14.3%)

All right
3 (21.4%)

It's... there
5 (35.7%)

Not very well
2 (14.3%)

DON'T EVEN ASK
2 (14.3%)

& what have you done?

View Answers

Wrote
7 (50.0%)

Edited
5 (35.7%)

Posted
2 (14.3%)

Sent to beta
2 (14.3%)

Researched
3 (21.4%)

Refreshed canon
0 (0.0%)

Took a break
4 (28.6%)

For discussion: This post talks about how the "like" culture (embodied by Facebook or retweeting things on Twitter or even just analyzing your site stats) can maybe make people focus too much on what other people want, instead of what they want to write/create.

Some people swear up & down that they don't care if they ever get a single comment on their fic, they're just writing for themselves. Other people say that they'd like to write something specific (different from their usual stuff) but their readers wouldn't like it -- & therefore they won't write it. I think most of us are somewhere in the middle -- what's your relationship with feedback on your fic like?

Comments

[lacerta]

Oh, this question is relevant to my interests. I'd love to say that I don't mind whether or not people read and/or like my stuff, but the truth is that it does play a big motivational role for me. With the last long fic I wrote, I basically pulled myself to the finish line by thinking about the big, shiny community that I would be able to post it to.

So, right now, I'm toying around with this plot bunny for a fandom that - well, to say it's obscure isn't exactly right, but I haven't yet found it in the fic-writing, art-drawing, icon-making kind of form. And to think that there's no one to read this fic doesn't exactly get me excited about investing a lot of time and nerves into the necessary world- and character-building. I mean, not that I don't get something out of it myself. I absolutely am excited about this story and these people and the "canon" if RPF has such a thing as canon. I just... Maybe I'm spoiled by being part of large fandoms. As it is right now, I get more enjoyment out of making and sharing things than just playing all by myself.

Then again, since nobody else is going to write this pairing, I might just do it myself anyway.

[littlebutfierce]

Wellllll... I live in small fandoms, so my perspective is different, heh. But I've written stuff that is unpopular even w/in the small fandoms b/c it grabbed me, & yeah, I'll never get fic for that pairing/character/etc. if I don't write it myself. I think those times are the closest I've come to feeling like I have to write a fic. It can be really satisfying even if response is low! & once in a while I even end up pulling people into reading stuff they haven't before. :D (I think I have converted at least a couple of people to my current OT3. \o/ )

That doesn't mean I don't wish my fics sometimes got more attention. Just... sometimes it doesn't matter (as much, cough) if there's an audience.

So if that fic is burning up inside of you, I say it deserves to see some light. :D

[lacerta]

Heh, I was actually thinking about you and your small fandoms last time I doodled around with this fic!

And I agree with you very much that writing something because I want to, and seeing the end-result and feeling that I have done something well, that's very satisfying indeed and surely makes up for a lack of comments and the like. *takes a little note to remember*

I'll keep playing around with it for my 750 words and see how it'll want to grow :)

[jordannamorgan]

& yeah, I'll never get fic for that pairing/character/etc. if I don't write it myself.

Oh yes. I've been a fanbase of one for certain pairings/relationships since I crept into a couple of anime fandoms. :Þ When I write my favorite pairing, I'm lucky if it even gets one or two "I don't ship 'em, but it's well written and convincing" comments.

As for asking for those pairings/relationships in fic exchanges and the like... forget it. So I do have to write them myself. (Also, writing them gets the bad taste of other people's pairings out of my brain. *snerk*)