[ SECRET POST #6746 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6746 ⌋

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


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 13 secrets from Secret Submission Post #965.
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.

Comments

[fscom]

04. https://i.imgur.com/ViUzB0c.png

Transcript by OP

[fscom]

I made up an OC for one of my longer stories (focused on canon characters mostly, but the OC is important for a few plot points). My friend fell in love with OC. I wish I could be as enthusiastic about OC as she is.

She makes a lot of fanart for OC, constantly thinks about OC and wants to talk about them etc. I KNOW I should be nothing other than grateful. But the thing is... OC is by far not one of the most interesting characters I've drawn or written and I felt kind of meh about them from the get-go. It's not for me when people center stories around their fanmade OCs (nothing wrong with it, just not my cup of tea). Point is, I don't even like OC that much and my friend's incredible enthusiasm is kinda pushing me to dislike OC and to dread getting to the part of the story that centers them.

I don't want to tell her, because I know it would hurt her.

Of course I would never show anything other than gratefulness and happiness for the stuff the fandom friend keeps making/writing for me and try to find things to compliment about it. Sometimes I feel like I cannot fake it and try to wait on replying until I am in a better mood.

[iff_and_xor]

Shit, that’s a hard position to be in. I can imagine feeling a mix of frustration and guilt. It sucks to have someone else’s enthusiasm grate on you like that.

[(Anonymous)]

Oof, weird spot to be in Secret OP. I wouldn't know how to navigate that.
You don't know what others will find interesting in your works. And that's art, you can't control how people react to your work.
What's important to you might be nothing to someone who adores your work.

Kind of like Alien Ant Farm putting all their chips into "Movies" as their debut/single-after-the-big-hit but their only hit is their cover of "Smooth Criminal".

Or this is like a cousin to the situation where a fic writer's most popular/praised fic is their poorly written smut one-shot that they barely edited, meanwhile the works they put more effort into don't get quite as many eyes on them.

I hope this doesn't stop you from continuing to keep working on your projects.

[(Anonymous)]

Has your friend told you why she likes the character? Do you think she'd be hurt if you asked her? You could just say something like "I didn't set out to give them them to have any fans as big as you when I created them, so I'm interested in what makes them click with you." You could frame it like you're seeking advice on what to keep in mind for future OC creation. Even if that's not something you really care about, her answers might at least give you a better idea of where she's coming from.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe this is just my personal experiences talking, but I think (even aside from it being a turn-off to you), I would be wary of this friend. The obsessiveness seems a bit excessive -- could be an indication this character has become a comfort character for your friend, and they're likely to be very disappointed by the part featuring this character even if you do end up writing it? It may end up totally not the case and it's probably worth it to keep interacting with the friend as you have been, but my jaded/hypervigilant side is like internally preparing for a messy falling-out at some point (I've had too many experiences in fandom where gushing love turned into unreasonable expectations and entitlement, which then turned into annoyance and resentment, especially when the writing didn't go the fan's way).

In any case, that aside, this doesn't sound like a pleasant thing to be going through, and I don't know how to handle it other than to keep going as is, or very carefully probing what is going on with your friend and trying to subtly steer them away from this character, or starting a fight by dropping the character or letting your friend know that their quite kind behavior is actually making it difficult for you to write this character anymore, etc.