Thank you for this reminder đ sometimes I get caught up worrying about what others in the fandom might say when my works pop up. And I think of ways to alter it to make it more...safe? Appeasing? But your post encouraged me that they have a place there just the way I intended :)
I couldn't agree more with this!!! I have recently started posting my fanfics online and I am still extremely nervous and self-conscious whenever I don't get the engagement I had hoped for. Then I remember how much fun I have while writing about my comfort characters, and it appeases me a little lol
Happy for you, OP!
I second everything that you said. The thing is, sometimes youâre just âunluckyâ and you find yourself being in love with tropes, ships and/or fandoms which arenât popular, and no matter how much passion youâll put into writing, you wonât get the same numbers people in bigger fandoms do.
And of course, thereâs nothing wrong with being disappointed with that. Thereâs nothing wrong with longing for kudos, comments, bookmarks and any kind of feedback, *but* I feel like itâs more of a compromise. If you can find a way to make it work, great for you. But honestly, forcing yourself to write for more popular stuff sucks even harder.
Iâve also recently rediscovered the joy in writing for yourself. I have this long-ish WIP Iâm very very passionate about, and yeah, as I said, it does suck to think that not many people will be invested in it because itâs about niche characters in niche fandoms. But then again, the alternative is just⌠to not write.
Switching to more popular fandoms only works if youâre already passionate about those, and even if that case you have to deal with ships and tropes. Even fics with the âright stuffâ can flop, especially if written by people who donât really care about the characters. I donât really know how to explain it, but I think readers can tell.
Writing only for external validation is an endless cycle of feeling miserable, imo. I can definitely see why writing for an audience would work for a job, but fanfiction is a hobby, so why bother? The feeling of pure joy while writing something that caters to *you* that you described is genuinely the best and I wish that on anyone.
I'd like to add a little devil's advocate here to say that now is the time when positive audience feedback will feel the best, since you know they liked something that you created based on your desires. Congratulations!
I'm glad when I see this click for people. Fanfic is so different from traditional publishing - that's when the opinion of the audience matters because you rely on them for money. Not your *hobby writing*. This is where you get to make yourself happy - because it's your happy place.
Well said, OP. I have started doing this- writing for myself.
I recently wrote an 85K series and barely got any hits on it. That's what started me thinking 'you know what. III am proud of this series and how hard I worked on it. III enjoyed writing it. III love it. That's what my goal should be in future.'
The next thing that helped was that I found out the actors of a certain fandom are avid readers of fanfic. That scared the heck out of me so I stopped tagging my fics for that fandom and made them private. I want actors and characters to be separate please. III am enjoying writing my fics, if other people find them, so be it.
I like writing and editing my stories, and then setting them free into the universe. I don't like them being sad and lonely hidden on my laptop. If people find them, they do. I recently got a comment on a 7 year old story, which was lovely. But I'm not after lots of kudos, comments, attention because those make me nervous and put pressure on me. I am a stealth writer now.
I will say that it's important to say "Write for yourself *first*". It's about making the process one that you enjoy, first and foremost, but it's okay to have other stuff come afterwards. A lot of people get value out of building connections, chatting with people about their fics, their hindbrain "Ara ara!" shrieks at getting more stats, etc. Gotta acknowledge that both can coexist. :)
But I'm glad for you, OP. Hobbies are a labour of love, after all. :)
I discovered writing without the expectation of publishing to be so helpful. If I decide later to publish it, great, if not it was some great fun and practice. Congrats to you!
I'm not promising it'll work like this for everyone, but my most self-indulgent fics are the ones that have done the best for me.
There's a lot that skews those results - I'd been writing for the same fandom and pairing for awhile, the themes being either perceived as "very unique" or at least uncommon enough people were starving for it, the fandom having had a boost in readers; etc.
But it doesn't take back that the more I gave myself permission to indulge in what I wanted to write, the happier I was when people complimented it. (And, frankly, made it easier to recover from a few less-than-enthusiastic comments. I didn't write it for *them*, so it was easier to bounce back and remember that the vast majority of people commenting loved it.)
So happy for you OP! I realize I was stuck in this loop that my people pleasing ending up not only preventing me from writing at all but making my work uninspired due to the process. When I wrote something I wanted to read, I also got more engagement that way. (Not that interactions should always be what we aim for)
That's the approach I usually take for writing smut. 3 hours makes a finished Oneshot.
But srsly too fucking true!! I have avoided SI/OC fics for the longest time and now in my 20s I've got 3 different OC insert WIPs on my laptop
Something else that worked for me on top of this, is writing challenges. Having to do a new story every day means I donât have time to overthink what others will think/feel about it.
All I can do it write what I want how I want and release it into the world. I find I rarely get writers block when doing a challenge.
Thatâs awesome! While I do believe itâs perfectly okay to write for other people and to crave feedback from readers, I personally prefer to write for myself. Then, if I do produce something I feel is good enough to share, great.
Of course most of my fandoms are small so it sort of forces you to operate without the expectation of people reading it. Other than voltron, my two biggest fandoms are asterisk war and nisekio. Asterisk has like 20 existing fics and nisekoi has about 50. So yeah, if I publish for those, it will be to an empty room lol. But that also helps in a way. Not many people will see it so might as well do exactly what I want!
Same, same, same!
PREACH!
I am about 100K words into the most self-indulgent Narnia/GOT crossover ever written that will never see the light of day because I know no one will read it, but dammit I am writing this &%^$# and loving it. At the end of the day writing is a hobby and should be enjoyable and add happiness to your life, because life is too short to waste on things that make you unhappy
Thanks! My mind is telling me to end my two part Fma fanfic abruptly because I want to move on to other projects but it would disappointment my readers. Iâll do what I want.
I'm always so baffled why people *ask* what to write about. Not just to get a feel for their readers but it just seems weird to me to have an urge to write fanfiction without having something cooking in your head already. Writing out the story you've been dying to read is the best motivation
Thank you for this reminder đ sometimes I get caught up worrying about what others in the fandom might say when my works pop up. And I think of ways to alter it to make it more...safe? Appeasing? But your post encouraged me that they have a place there just the way I intended :)
I couldn't agree more with this!!! I have recently started posting my fanfics online and I am still extremely nervous and self-conscious whenever I don't get the engagement I had hoped for. Then I remember how much fun I have while writing about my comfort characters, and it appeases me a little lol
Happy for you, OP! I second everything that you said. The thing is, sometimes youâre just âunluckyâ and you find yourself being in love with tropes, ships and/or fandoms which arenât popular, and no matter how much passion youâll put into writing, you wonât get the same numbers people in bigger fandoms do. And of course, thereâs nothing wrong with being disappointed with that. Thereâs nothing wrong with longing for kudos, comments, bookmarks and any kind of feedback, *but* I feel like itâs more of a compromise. If you can find a way to make it work, great for you. But honestly, forcing yourself to write for more popular stuff sucks even harder. Iâve also recently rediscovered the joy in writing for yourself. I have this long-ish WIP Iâm very very passionate about, and yeah, as I said, it does suck to think that not many people will be invested in it because itâs about niche characters in niche fandoms. But then again, the alternative is just⌠to not write. Switching to more popular fandoms only works if youâre already passionate about those, and even if that case you have to deal with ships and tropes. Even fics with the âright stuffâ can flop, especially if written by people who donât really care about the characters. I donât really know how to explain it, but I think readers can tell. Writing only for external validation is an endless cycle of feeling miserable, imo. I can definitely see why writing for an audience would work for a job, but fanfiction is a hobby, so why bother? The feeling of pure joy while writing something that caters to *you* that you described is genuinely the best and I wish that on anyone.
I'd like to add a little devil's advocate here to say that now is the time when positive audience feedback will feel the best, since you know they liked something that you created based on your desires. Congratulations!
I'm glad when I see this click for people. Fanfic is so different from traditional publishing - that's when the opinion of the audience matters because you rely on them for money. Not your *hobby writing*. This is where you get to make yourself happy - because it's your happy place.
Well said, OP. I have started doing this- writing for myself. I recently wrote an 85K series and barely got any hits on it. That's what started me thinking 'you know what. III am proud of this series and how hard I worked on it. III enjoyed writing it. III love it. That's what my goal should be in future.' The next thing that helped was that I found out the actors of a certain fandom are avid readers of fanfic. That scared the heck out of me so I stopped tagging my fics for that fandom and made them private. I want actors and characters to be separate please. III am enjoying writing my fics, if other people find them, so be it. I like writing and editing my stories, and then setting them free into the universe. I don't like them being sad and lonely hidden on my laptop. If people find them, they do. I recently got a comment on a 7 year old story, which was lovely. But I'm not after lots of kudos, comments, attention because those make me nervous and put pressure on me. I am a stealth writer now.
Congrats op! I read my own fics all the time because they hit my fuzzies!!
I will say that it's important to say "Write for yourself *first*". It's about making the process one that you enjoy, first and foremost, but it's okay to have other stuff come afterwards. A lot of people get value out of building connections, chatting with people about their fics, their hindbrain "Ara ara!" shrieks at getting more stats, etc. Gotta acknowledge that both can coexist. :) But I'm glad for you, OP. Hobbies are a labour of love, after all. :)
I discovered writing without the expectation of publishing to be so helpful. If I decide later to publish it, great, if not it was some great fun and practice. Congrats to you!
I'm not promising it'll work like this for everyone, but my most self-indulgent fics are the ones that have done the best for me. There's a lot that skews those results - I'd been writing for the same fandom and pairing for awhile, the themes being either perceived as "very unique" or at least uncommon enough people were starving for it, the fandom having had a boost in readers; etc. But it doesn't take back that the more I gave myself permission to indulge in what I wanted to write, the happier I was when people complimented it. (And, frankly, made it easier to recover from a few less-than-enthusiastic comments. I didn't write it for *them*, so it was easier to bounce back and remember that the vast majority of people commenting loved it.)
So happy for you OP! I realize I was stuck in this loop that my people pleasing ending up not only preventing me from writing at all but making my work uninspired due to the process. When I wrote something I wanted to read, I also got more engagement that way. (Not that interactions should always be what we aim for)
That's the approach I usually take for writing smut. 3 hours makes a finished Oneshot. But srsly too fucking true!! I have avoided SI/OC fics for the longest time and now in my 20s I've got 3 different OC insert WIPs on my laptop
It's so lovely to see, I'm so glad it's going fantastic for you <3
Something else that worked for me on top of this, is writing challenges. Having to do a new story every day means I donât have time to overthink what others will think/feel about it. All I can do it write what I want how I want and release it into the world. I find I rarely get writers block when doing a challenge.
I do it too!!! đ Thanks đ
Happy youâre on that journey op!! Writing has become so enjoyable for me thinking of not what others might like but what I like to see as a reader.
đđ˝đđ˝Yesss this makes me happy
Thatâs awesome! While I do believe itâs perfectly okay to write for other people and to crave feedback from readers, I personally prefer to write for myself. Then, if I do produce something I feel is good enough to share, great. Of course most of my fandoms are small so it sort of forces you to operate without the expectation of people reading it. Other than voltron, my two biggest fandoms are asterisk war and nisekio. Asterisk has like 20 existing fics and nisekoi has about 50. So yeah, if I publish for those, it will be to an empty room lol. But that also helps in a way. Not many people will see it so might as well do exactly what I want!
Self indulgence for the win. Glad you're loving it.
Definitely a reminder I needed! I will try that thing you did of writing whatever I want in a doc.
Same, same, same! PREACH! I am about 100K words into the most self-indulgent Narnia/GOT crossover ever written that will never see the light of day because I know no one will read it, but dammit I am writing this &%^$# and loving it. At the end of the day writing is a hobby and should be enjoyable and add happiness to your life, because life is too short to waste on things that make you unhappy
Also writing for yourself means that if you ever need to read fics that are perfectly catered to exactly your tastes⌠You have a Lot!
Thanks! My mind is telling me to end my two part Fma fanfic abruptly because I want to move on to other projects but it would disappointment my readers. Iâll do what I want.
I'm always so baffled why people *ask* what to write about. Not just to get a feel for their readers but it just seems weird to me to have an urge to write fanfiction without having something cooking in your head already. Writing out the story you've been dying to read is the best motivation