fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4043 ]

[ SECRET POST #4043 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4043 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 37 secrets from Secret Submission Post #579.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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04. https://i.imgur.com/SZMHB13.png

Nah, more like turns out you were confusing a broad commercial-writing audience for your industry brand/blog with a creative-writing audience for your fic for specific shows. Naturally the latter audiences will be much smaller.

Commercial creative meant to entertain and inform is still under the broad umbrella of creative work, but it's not the same thing as writing fic for the sake of storytelling. Fiction/literature and content-writing/marketing aren't the same industry for a reason.

"Fiction/literature and content-writing/marketing aren't the same industry for a reason."

And it's MUCH easier to land a steady paying job doing the second one.

-someone who does it

This. I don't know that it has anything to do with fandom sucking. Like... fandom totally sucks in many ways, but your writing not being recognized by fandom while it's recognized outside of fandom isn't the metric I'd use. Honestly, I feel like this is like complaining that you weren't recognized by the amateur waterskiing community, but as soon as you started building amazing birdhouses, the world beat a path to your door therefore waterskiers suck and birdhouse appreciators know what's what. Two very different things.

I don't think that analogy holds up well because both of OP's examples involve a single skill: writing.

Yes, but as others have pointed out, there's quite a significant difference between writing fanfiction and content writing for websites/companies. Calling it a single skill is over-simplifying it. I suppose if you want to insist, change my analogy to waterskiing vs. synchronized swimming, since both involve water.

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(Anonymous) - 2018-01-28 23:04 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2018-01-28 23:44 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2018-01-28 23:49 (UTC) - Expand

NAYRT - Fiction and non-fiction writing are very different skillsets. Certainly, some people can do both, but some people can do ballet and swing. Does an essayist have to worry about character arcs and worldbuilding? Does a fantasy author have to remember to reiterate their key thesis in the last chapter of their book?

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(Anonymous) - 2018-01-28 23:20 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2018-01-28 23:39 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2018-01-29 00:31 (UTC) - Expand

I would strongly argue that this one is less on fandom than on, you know, contemporary society, and the structure of social media and the Internet, and capitalism, and the nature of what human beings pay attention to.

It's good advice not to measure your worth by fic feedback or the lack thereof.

This.

I totally do this, though. And I write bizarre pairings for a small fandom. Then I get sad when I get no comments. I'm a fanfiction masochist :)

you and me both

seriously, OP, what the fuck does writing fic have to do with your career?

apples and oranges.

I know, right?

Like... did OP honestly expect job offers for writing fanfic or something? I don't get the point of this secret.

Clearly they didn't expect job offers, but I think they're saying they expected more interaction than they got? And thought it was their fault they didn't get it? Until they found a medium/genre with an active, engaged audience and realized they had some writing/communication skills after all?

I don't get how you don't get that.

NAYRT

I think everyone gets that, we are all puzzled about why they were comparing fanfiction to content writing in the first place.

Especially since they are doing the latter thing now. They should know it's completely different and not realistic in the least to compare the audiences and declare that one sucks and it was the fault of that audience that the OP didn't get the recognition they crave.

If you write mature humor to young people and they don't respond, then write mature humor to mature audiences and they love it, declaring "aha, it was the young people that sucked all along!" is pretty awkward because it was that comedian expecting unrealistic returns from the wrong audience.

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(Anonymous) - 2018-01-29 00:28 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2018-01-29 02:58 (UTC) - Expand

Maybe they expected to get popular and live off from Patreon like some artists do?

OT but I'm always glad when I see successful people in fandom. Makes me feel less like I'm doomed to a life of unwashed hair, poverty and to die crushed under a pile of pointless fandom memoribilia and bobble heads.

Wat.

Is this a fandom secret or...?

I'd definitely be more interested in reading an entertaining, informative blog about a field I'm not in than a fic about a show I don't watch, so there's that.

I'm fucking jealous of you, anon OP. :\

It's not that fandom sucks. It's that you're not good at writing fic.

You're good at writing about yourself and about your field. Great! Good for you! But that isn't at all the same thing as writing compelling fiction. And it doesn't speak well of you that a) you can't tell the difference and b) you're so far up your own ass that you're blaming fandom for not eating out of it.

I’m glad you found a use for your talent and it’s working out for you, but fandom doesn’t suck because your fandom didn’t recognise your fic-writing genius. All fandoms have issues and the bigger and more popular they get the more problems there are, and the harder it is to get noticed. But it sounds like you’re just better at writing about yourself and your job than writing fiction. It’s like blaming the editor at a SF&F magazine for rejecting your short story and saying they suck because you get lots of paid work for technical journals.

While it's true fandom in general is entitled AF and for some reason feels it doesn't have to fb writers for their labor, I think your comparison is flawed simply because the two venues are so different.

But yeah, unless you are in a blockbuster fandom writing the main OTP, you're SOL getting comments. And that really, really didn't used to be true.

got any SEO protips for the rest of us OP???

asking for a friend ;)

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