your under-loved fic/art

[lettered]

The AO3 stats meme is going around. I love this meme because people talk about their stories and their readership(s). I always sound like I'm whining when I talk about readership, but sometimes I really just want to make observations about why people read the things they do. Also, apparently I don't like to do memes I just like to do meta on memes. So here we go!

Please comment to this post with a link to a fic/art/meta you're really proud of having created, that hasn't received the attention you felt it deserved. Tell us what the story/art/meta is about, what you really liked about it, and tell us why you think it didn't get as many hits/kudos/comments/replies/recs/etc as you'd secretly hoped.

I'm not promising to read your story/meta/look at your art, because I might not have time, but I find this interesting and cathartic to talk about. If you are not a writer/artist, comment with a fic you like that you wish had gotten more love. Please feel free to direct people to this post so that they can share the fic they're proud of and discuss things like readership.

ETA: The fic doesn't have to be on AO3. Also, the hit/kudos/comment/whatever count doesn't have to be low. For instance, the fic I have that feels under-appreciated got a lot of nice comments and nice attention. I still feel sad that it didn't really get the wide readership I feel it deserves. This is your place to talk about that without feeling self-conscious about wishing something got more attention.

Comments

[likeadeuce]

This is harder than I thought because when I look at AO3, most of my lower-hit-count stories are ones I originally posted elsewhere (mostly Buffyverse) and most of those probably got plenty of comments way back when (when the fandoms were more active.) And then others are pre-AO3 Yuletide, and Yuletide feedback patterns are notoriously random --

But I guess of my Yuletide fics, I've always preferred the second-most-popular of my Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid stories, Clandestine. ie, the one without any porn. And while I like the porn-y one, I really enjoy the dynamic among Butch & Sundance & Etta in "Clandestine" -- which I think stands on its own pretty well, even if you don't know the movie (though adding young Newman & Redford to one's imaginings never hurt.) I partly wrote this because I couldn't find any other fics written in Sundance's POV, and his grouchy head is one of my favorite that I've ever crawled into -- and one that came so naturally to me, it felt like magic.

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Idk, the stories whose responses I feel most disappointed about don't have low hit counts. They're just lower than I wanted. Sometimes you write a story and post it not expecting much of a response. It doesn't get much of a response and that's okay. Or it gets a huge response and you're pleased and kind of overwhelmed. Other times, you write a story and really think that people will like it, that it's something a lot of people will enjoy and maybe even rec. Then that happens and you're pleased and proud and essentially very chuffed. Or it doesn't happened and you're kind of crushed, and you remonstrate with yourself, because you shouldn't have had those big-headed thoughts about how many people would love your story. It's the latter circumstance about which I wanted to talk. The three fics whose response has been most disappointing to me are also fics that have gotten quite a lot of attention, but they didn't get as much attention as some of my other fics that I don't think are as good, and they didn't get as much attention as some other fics by other people, and they didn't get the attention I wanted.

...It's really petty so most people don't talk about it, but I think it's alright as long as we all understand that our responses are really emotional and not always logical, and that it's not okay to say, "But that fic sucks and mine is brilliant so more people should be commenting on mine!"

Oh man, I was just talking about Butch Cassidy the other day. I haven't watched it since I was 9 or something and I didn't like it then, and I was talking about how I wanted to rewatch it since I'd probably have a different opinion now! I'll try to keep your fic in mind for after my rewatch!

[likeadeuce]

That's a very yuletide feeling, sometimes!

Anyway, you should rewatch BC&SK it is actually pretty amazing.