lettered | (no subject)

Have you ever written a fic that got a bigger response than you were expecting . . . and you're not sure why? You wrote it really fast, you just don't think it's that good, it had huge plot holes . . . but you got more comments on it than you were expecting? More nice things said about it than that fic you poured your heart and soul into--you know, the one that got that one lonely comment that was like, "This is good. I guess . . ."? I don't mean you were necessarily unhappy with the fic, or that you thought it was bad, just that you were surprised by the response, especially in comparison to what you expected, or what other pieces you've written have gotten.

If this has ever happened to you . . .

What fic was it?
Why do you think you got a bigger or better response than you thought you would?
Do you think the fic got more praise than it deserved?
If yes, what didn't you like about the fic?

If you haven't had that happen to you, or even if you have . . .

What fic do you wish more people had read, or wish had gotten a better/bigger response?
Why do you think it didn't get the response you wanted or feel it deserved?
Why do you like this fic/what do you think is good about it/why are you proud of it?
If you could let a potential reader know anything about this fic, what would it be?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yup. I'll never ceased to be amazed by the attention Stick Shift (my Buffy/Spike pegging fic) gets. I guess I figured at the time it would get a decent comment count, because it was porn featuring a popular ship, but it still gets recced, six years later, with lines like, "This is my favourite PWP of all time." Someone wrote a frickin' grad school paper around it! It's incredibly lovely and flattering, and I hope they never stop, but at the same time it embarrasses me, because I can't read that story anymore without cringing. I'm really aware of its style and pacing flaws, and dubious, now, about some of the content, the assumptions it makes, or at least the tee-hee way it addresses them. I think maybe some of this is not the story's fault. My vantage point and interests have changed. And so has my narrative voice, and it's possible that what I'm cringing at is the memory of my younger, OH SO MUCH YOUNGER AND MORE FOOLISH, self. (I have absolutely no doubt that what I'm writing now will be equally mortifying to the me of 2018.)

I'm about to go propose a CON.TXT panel about boy!pussies. HA. Were there boy!pussies on the Star Trek kink meme, did you ever notice, or are they peculiar to Glee?

What fic was it? Recently, I think probably the Sam/Jo+Dean babyfic, i would rather start a family than finish one
Why do you think you got a bigger or better response than you thought you would? I really am not sure. Jo? The pro-choice aspect of it? The gender-bending, where Jo doesn't want the baby and Dean does? This fandom being so terrifically id-driven that any babyfic is good babyfic? Except those things are not all compatible; it's really not that iddy. So I don't know.
Do you think the fic got more praise than it deserved? I don't dislike it. I wouldn't peg it as anywhere near my best work, though.
If yes, what didn't you like about the fic? It was written pretty broadly; not a lot of subtlety. Also, as with a lot of my fics written in a hurry, it ended up sort of front-heavy and petered out in the second half.

What fic do you wish more people had read, or wish had gotten a better/bigger response? Can I whine here for a bit? Because my feedback rate has pretty much stunk lately. I think it's largely that I'm having trouble finding my audience, which is a product of writing in Buffy (a fandom on its way out) and SPN (a fandom in which I haven't really found my niche yet). But it's discouraging.

That said, I wish my Dean/Ellen fic, Respite had gotten more attention.
Why do you think it didn't get the response you wanted or feel it deserved? Because this fandom truly doesn't care about het? Because Dean/Ellen is too weird? I honestly don't know.
Why do you like this fic/what do you think is good about it/why are you proud of it? I think I worked out a lot of my Dean vs. women issues in that fic, I really liked how the relationship developed, and I was proud to finally write a fic for the first time that built the relationship from the ground up.
If you could let a potential reader know anything about this fic, what would it be? Dean! Ellen! Angsty and low-key and technically canon-compliant. Also, Sam quietly being an awesome little brother.

Now, what about you? I'd like to know your answers for this one. (Actually, I suspect I know one of your answers for the first one, because we talked about it. But I'm very curious about the second.)

Dean/Ellen rocks my socks. I have several of your fics saved up to read.

Can I whine here for a bit?

That's what this post was really for ;o) I totally understand about feeling like you haven't found your audience. I dunno, BtVS fandom was just so . . . welcoming. I wrote difficult, abstruse things and people tried reading them and really, really appreciated things I was trying to do. Though yeah, about 5 people read that Faith fic.

Now, what about you?

Whenever I do a post like this, it's because I wanted to answer the questions myself and then realized I was being self-indulgent, and I actually am interested in what other people have to say. Plus, if I answered that first set of questions, I would look like such a douche, because that story (and yes, it's the one you're thinking of) got such a good response.

For the second set of questions, I guess I'm kinda sad about the reception of my SPN fics. Even though Chuck Writes got quite a bit of attention, I still hoped more people would read it. But right now I'm angsting about an HP fic that is still anonymous, so I'm not going to link it. The response has been super nice, and of course I can't speak to what will happen once reveals go up. But I suspect that due to the nature of the fic it won't ever get as much attention as the one above, which is disappointing to me, because I'm prouder of this fic than anything I've ever written for HP.

FWIW, I'm pretty sure Chuck Writes is going to go down in fannish history. Like, in ten years when people have panels at fannish cons and talk about metafic, that one will get mentioned. Maybe you're not getting feedback for it anymore, but I'm positive people are still reading it and will keep on reading it.

Also, I am totally willing to whine for you about that Faith fic, because the Faith fic was wonderful and amazing and should have gotten tons of comments and recced all over the place. I really think it's timing; sometime last summer, the activity in Buffy fandom took a nose-dive, and I don't think it's ever going to recover. I think we are in our last gasps as a live fandom. /doom