whining about original fic writing

[anghraine]

I think that most of the takes on fanfic as an incubation tank for bad writing habits are ... uh. Wrong-headed at best. At most, some kinds of fanfic feed habits that can be obstacles to writing original fic (which may or may not be the fic writer's goal, anyway!).

That said, one of the things I struggle with re: original fic is that, even when I feel inspired, there's little to no feedback. Fanfic often (not always; it's different for rarepairs and small fandoms, of course) supplies a built-on audience who are going to show up for the ship tags or whatever and stick around if they like it. It's not I don't put a lot of effort into it, but I get reasonably frequent reinforcement from people who like/don't like the characterization, who are curious about what happens next because they already care about the characters and the setting.

In fairness, I've always had an inclination to throw in original characters and that's a steeper hill to climb, but even so, the investment in the people and setting those OCs are connected to gives me a boost up. I have occasionally had readers who follow me from fandom to fandom, which is really nice, and probably the closest thing to original fic support, but I don't think there are enough of those who'd follow me to original fic to make connecting the identities worth the risk.

I occasionally get feedback from my best friend and the friends I both trust and think might be interested, but very intermittently and partially as personal favour, anyway. But otherwise, it's just me, trying to imagine how things might come across to an as-yet nonexistent audience, and yeah, fanfic habits do make that more difficult.

(I actually came to fanfic comparatively late, around 19, but wrote a lot of original fic before that, and before I wrote fanfic, I had little difficulty motivating myself to write original stuff. Lots of it was fairly derivative, but not enough to "sell" as fanfic, and I just happily drove myself along. It helped that back then, I didn't give a single fuck about acquiring an audience and in fact didn't let anyone except my fave English teacher see what I was doing. But I've definitely been conscious of having been spoiled by fanfic to some extent there. Attracting an audience, and an audience who actually likes your work, is part of the whole deal of writing original fic and I know it, but ... nevertheless, meh.)

Comments

[primeideal]

I don't have anything specific to add but I'm curious how the difference between short story/novel/stuff in between lengths plays into this.

[anghraine]

Oh, interesting! In my experience, it's rougher with novels, perhaps because there are so many more occasions for reaching a major point and then realizing no one cares. But that may be because I'm very much more inclined to novels and have generally written short stories for classes/workshops, where the feedback is baked into the process. And it's easier for my friends to find the time to look over a short story.

[primeideal]

Yeah, I think that's probably true. At least when someone gives me a novel and is like "here, read this" I can be pretty sure it will have an ending (...usually), whereas in the fanfic world I'm not necessarily going to click on Chapters: 1/50.

[anghraine]

Yeah!

[chestnut_pod]

For what it's worth, I'd certainly follow you! I think your writing is clear and sharp in a really satisfying way.

[anghraine]

Thank you! That's genuinely very touching and reassuring :)

[nnozomi]

But otherwise, it's just me, trying to imagine how things might come across to an as-yet nonexistent audience, and yeah, fanfic habits do make that more difficult.
Agree! Also I feel as if the audience is not just as-yet nonexistent but generally more vaguely conceived--if I post something to AO3 in a given fandom I have a good idea roughly how many people are likely to read it and react to it, and (especially as a mostly small-fandoms person) I probably know some of them personally too, whereas with an original novel there would be just...the general pool of people who might read books in this language and this genre...?

I console myself for the lack of feedback while writing original stuff by rambling in non-specific terms on DW about how it's going at the moment, which involves a little bit of interaction and at least makes me put into words whatever the problem of the moment is, or gives me a chance to brag about something I feel like I pulled off well, and so on.

(I would also be curious about your original work!)

[anghraine]

Also I feel as if the audience is not just as-yet nonexistent but generally more vaguely conceived

Very true! I'm like, okay, this is a high fantasy novel about four mages between 12 and 16, it's for ... idk, people who are into that ... but every single person who has read it is very emphatic that it's not MG and probably not even YA, but could have some amorphous adult audience, which is really difficult to try and navigate around.

The talking vaguely about it and occasionally getting responses approach does help, yeah!

(I would also be curious about your original work!)

Thank you very much :)