Completion blues

[obstinatecondolement]

I posted the last chapter of a fic I've been working on since December and it has gotten very little response. I don't believe in a transactional view of fandom and I don't think anyone owes me comments or anything, but it is always a little sad when the things you put more effort into sink without a trace.

On that note, it's so hard to know what will responate with people! Probably one of my most popular fics in Cobra Kai fandom is about 600 words of nonsense I wrote in half an hour to amuse a discord server. I don't want to be frustrated by that, but I kind of am. I suppose if all I cared about was sheer numbers though I'd just set sail for a big fandom and write the main OTP, but I always go where the love is and the love tends to get increasingly niche as time goes by.

Argh. Anyway. I'm also a bit down in the mouth because now that my story is finished I don't know what to write today for my GYWO goal. It's amazing how long 410 words can be...

Comments

[pauraque]

it's so hard to know what will responate with people

This is so true. I've had the same experience of a story I labored over for ages not really doing it for people, while some random ficlet I came up with in an hour gets a passionate response. It can definitely be frustrating. I guess I try to look at it optimistically--whatever I write next might be the fandom's next surprise hit.

[obstinatecondolement]

That is certainly a good way to think about it! I will try not to begrudge the success of that random ficlet of mine, because at least some things I am doing do resonate.

[tiltingheartand]

it's so hard to know what will responate with people!

Oh my god that’s so true. My most popular fic (period, actually) is like 1800 words of solid crack for a ship nobody cared about (well, that I thought nobody cared about, anyway). *baffled emoji* Idek.

[obstinatecondolement]

It's like the aliens in Toy Story with the claw. The claw is our master: it decides which fics will be a hit and which will flip. All very mysterious and beyond our ken though.

[juniperberry]

It is super hard to know what will strike a chord. One of my most popular fics is for a fandom I haven't been in for over a decade (and for which I saw all of 8 episodes, and which I never plan on returning to). Another most-popular is such because it got recc'd, but it's not at all what I think of as my best work, even in that fandom.

*shrugs* Fans, man. We're weird.

[obstinatecondolement]

We sure are!

[kiestan]

Probably one of my most popular fics in Cobra Kai fandom is about 600 words of nonsense I wrote in half an hour to amuse a discord server.

:'D I feel that. Sometimes I think when it comes to fics I've labored over, something about their spontaneity can get lost, compared to works I bang out really quickly whose vibe just hits the readers at the right time and place. I dunno if it's the similar case for you?

Then again that's also not consistent; I've also had fics where putting in the extra effort to clean it up do a lot better than lower effort ones. Which can make it frustrating to figure out what resonates and what doesn't.

Either way you're not alone! :')

[obstinatecondolement]

Thank you! It is always reassuring to know that other people go through similar things with their writing. As you say though, it's so hard to know which are the things where the extra effort will correlate with reader enthusiasm and when it... won't 😂

I guess the main thing is to write primarily for myself, but it's hard to remember that sometimes.