[ SECRET POST #2631 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2631 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 048 secrets from Secret Submission Post #376.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

08. http://i.imgbox.com/sFtbgH9K.png

[(Anonymous)]

You've told us that your fics are well researched and historically accurate, but you haven't mentioned a thing about the quality of your writing.

Is your writing emotionally engaging? Are your plots compelling? Your characters nuanced?

Also, you aren't sitting beside other writers as they write, so you don't *actually* know how much time or effort they put into their writing - even if you seem to think that HS AUs are inherently inferior.

[(Anonymous)]

1. You should write what you enjoy, because no one else is going to do it for you, and it's a toss of the coin if other people will enjoy it.

2. While fanfic readers enjoy a well written story, many are not overly concerned with how technically accurate it is as long as it hits the emotional buttons they're looking for at the time (i.e. HS AU)

3. You can't control what other people enjoy.

[sarillia]

I think a lot of this comes down to the difference between "this is good" and "I like this". There tends to be a lot of overlap but they are still two separate thoughts. I think the majority of fanfic reviews are based on the second one rather than the first.

[intrigueing]

I understand how baffling it is when reall crappy fics get gazillions of reviews, but man, you sound really whiny. If your fanfic gets less reviews than you'd like, don't waste your time twisting your knickers over dumb fics for getting more attention. Find out ways to draw in more readers and get more reviews by crossposting, tagging, submitting to comms, befriending more fellow fans, that sort of thing.

[(Anonymous)]

If your priority is to be popular with the masses, write for the audience.

If you do not write for the audience, do not be surprised when you are not popular with the masses.

How are they supposed to know?

[elephantinegrace]

I mean, you've just said you spent tons of time researching it. Are you expecting your readers to spend tons of time researching it as well? Most people aren't pilots and accept stories that are Just Plane Wrong. Look at any movie that involves computers/hacking. Or geniuses (looking at you, House, Sherlock, and Numbers). Watch an episode of CSI with anyone who works in law enforcement. If people actually fired guns the way they do in media, they'd break their arms and run out of ammunition in about five seconds.

Basically, accuracy doesn't matter as much as pacing and plot. Tell a good story, and 99.9% of the time, people will be willing to overlook things.

[skippydelicious]

Is your fic writing as laced with angry-kitten style entitle-rage as this secret is? If so, well there's your problem. Go through them, take out every third swear word, then go through again and remove every second swear word from the remaining count, then add up all the swears still in it and hack that number in half. Once you've done that, you'll be ready to do some real rewrites.

[inkdust]

In addition to what's been said, a lot of fic readers are just looking for a silly high school AU. Those numbers get reflected.

[(Anonymous)]

It's your choice to write fanfiction, no one is forcing you. And people are not obligated to acknowledge your efforts on your hobby.

Most people read fanfiction to see something cute and AU about their favorite characters or ships. Some like epic AUs. And some like regurgitations of canon.

If you're hellbent on attention-seeking, write what people want to read.

[(Anonymous)]

Some things to consider:

1) what website are you posting your fic on? Is it ff.net? AO3? Different types of people populate different fanfic sites.

2) what canon are you writing from? Is it popular or is it obscure? Does it attract a younger fanbase or an older fanbase? I personally can't stand high school AUs but other people are absolutely gaga over them.

3) does your fanfic include a ship? Shippy fanfic tends to get more attention than gen. Popular ships tend to get the most attention of all.

4) is your story "fun"? As in fun for the fanbase? Some fanbases prefer thoughtless, sugary dribble over stories that are thought-provoking and serious. A look at other fic posted on the site (for your particular canon) will give you an idea of what's popular in the fandom.

Ugh.

[(Anonymous)]

Ditto. The stuff I worked the absolute hardest on in terms of research, word count, and time spent writing is virtually ignored in favor of my smut and my quickly written stuff. If it isn't a stupid AU or smut, fandom seems to ignore it.

[silverr]

1. If it's not fun, stop doing it.
2. Accept that you can't control what people read.
3. Accept that you can't control what people review. (I'll assume you're not one of those who'll hold updates hostage to extort reviews.)
4. Accept that the part of you that craves reviews and recognition (and that's happy to study the audience to give them what they want). I call mine The Storyteller.
5. Accept that the part of you that enjoys doing research, that loves putting one word after another, is different than the Storyteller. (I tend to refer to mine as The Writer.)
6. If what you're doing is making either your Storyteller-self or your Writer-self unhappy, refer to Step 1.
7. Just fucking write already!

tl;dr: Do what makes you happy.

[(Anonymous)]

Not that I have the exact same problem, but I hate when I write something (or read something that I thought was really good) and it has close to no reviews, and then some awful mary sue fic or something with horrid grammar and spelling everywhere has review after review of praise.
(Of course, it would probably help if I didn't write for hated pairings. Notably my most popular fic is one I wrote as a gift for someone featuring the fandom OTP. Try writing something stupid for whatever pairing your fandom is obsessed with and watch the reviews roll in. -_-;)

Waaaaah!

[iceyred]

OMG, the peoples dont like my super-well-researched stuff they only like the crappy inferior fic written by people who are not as talented and creative as myself! Waaaaaaah!

Grow up, OP. Seriously.

[(Anonymous)]

A quick guide to the amount of reviews and/or kudos your fic will receive:

Contains any of the main pairings of the fandom. +20
Contains THE pairing of the fandom. +50-200 depending on the fandom
Contains any of the popular tropes. +10 per trope
Smut. +30
Well-written smut. +100
Well-written smut with popular kinks. +200
Popular AUs. +100-1000 depending on the AU

This will get you started.

[(Anonymous)]

I do a lot of research for fanfic too, because a) I write a lot of historical/fantasy/sci-fi AUs, b) I enjoy worldbuilding, and c) I actually like research on random things and will wander off for a couple of hours reading shit before I actually remember that I'm supposed to be writing a story over here.

However, I'm a lot more laissez-faire about what actually makes it in to a story, because unless what I'm researching is integral to the overall plot, mostly what it's for is flavour? Unless that paragraph you mentioned is a very important/plot-critical paragraph, I'm not overly pushed about it. Researching little details to put in adds flavour and builds stronger worlds, but it's the plot critical stuff that has to be accurate. The rest I'm prefectly happy fudging a little for the sake of the story.

It's the shape and strength of the story itself that matters most. I'm writing fanfic, non-profit and for a hobby. Accuracy isn't the key thing here. Most of what people want is to see their favourite characters in a (hopefully) good and new story, doing things canon maybe didn't provide for various reasons. Worldbuilding counts because it builds a stronger story, but it's there to serve the story, not the other way around. So long as I acknowledge plot-critical inaccuracies and I'm not trying to make a political statement off shoddy research or anything, I tend to think research is more for fun and flavour than the backbone of the story.

Which isn't the way everyone writes, I know this. But if you're concerned about putting in energies for no payoff, it might be something to consider? In fanfic, I think most people tend to read primarily for their favourite characters, and will forgive a lot of inaccuracies to see those characters in a good/enjoyable story. Well. Same with a lot of pro fiction too, really. See hilariously inaccurate adaptations of historical works that people adore anyway. If you want to keep the joy of worldbuilding but increase your bang for buck ratio a bit, adjusting your plot-critical research vs your fun-and-flavour research might be something to look at?

[(Anonymous)]

Or the best question of all:

Do you really want to write for whatever audience you're trying to reach?

I've found that I just don't want the attention. So I write what I like to write.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I feel your pain, OP.

In my experience, most of the stories that require in-depth research are thinky fics. Very few of them are written to indulge the id. And we all know the masses crave their idfic. So yes, I've seen fabulous writers who get little to no feedback, even though their fics are works of glorious imagination. They just DON'T HIT THE BUTTONS. It saddens me, because so many of them drop off the radar, but... that's the way most fandoms work.

You're probably a decent judge of whether your fic is well-written or not, but if you really have any doubt, seek out a writer you respect and ask for some honest feedback. (My guess is that you're pretty damn good, though.)

P.S. I know people are dogpiling you for the tone of your post, but it's hard to express pent-up frustration without sounding whiny. *hugs*

[(Anonymous)]

This is why I like posting most of my fic anonymously. It keeps me from wrapping too much of my ego into it. And, if I'm absolutely looking for a gushing review fix, I can write something that panders without publicly sacrificing my "artistic integrity" (lol).

[tasogare_n_hime]

...I spend a lot of time researching things because I'd rather get fewer reviews than hundreds of them telling me how I got something wrong.

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently there is just more demand for fluff in your fandam than for whatever you are writing. It happens.

Just write a silly fluff piece now and then to feel good about your shit-ton of reviews and then get back to the serious stuff if the lack of comments really gets you down that much. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I understand this frustration. But unfortunately, the bigger the fandom is, the more this kind of thing happens. You can either find a group within your fandom that isn't obsessed with HSAUPWPLOLOMGWTFBBQCHICKEN, or learn to deal with the fact that this is the way things are, or just find another, preferably smaller, fandom altogether.

This isn't me telling you to STFU or anything because like I said, I get it. You work your ass off only to have the latest "trendy" fic that probably took as much thought as the act of passing a wad of toilet paper between one's legs get all the attention and gushing, but in the meantime, that thing you wrote might or might not have crossed someone's radar.

On the bright side, at least someone IS reading, as you've indicated. Can't you just write for them, if not for yourself? Fuck whatever else is going on, it's not important if all it does is serve to hinder your progress.

[blueonblue]

This sounds like my complaints about writing for Prince of Tennis. Maybe this secret was created by my younger self and has floated around the internet for the past 10 years before coming to rest here. There's nothing like spending hours and hours getting the moves right, only to receive comments like "I skipped all the tennis to get to the sex."

People don't owe you a review because you worked hard. If you're not getting the kind of feedback you want, maybe writing fanfic won't be the most satisfying use of your time. I'm currently writing case fic for Sherlock, the most unpopular fic genre, so if I expected the attention PWPs get, I would be waiting a very long time.

[(Anonymous)]

If you truly are in it for positive feedback, perhaps you should bow out. Obviously the type of fic you are writing doesn't have as wide an appeal as the teeny-bopper fics. But if you believe in the integrity of your process you might be better served to appreciate the comments you do get, think of them as coming from a more enlightened fandom.