Well I look so fine, but I feel so low

[dolorosa_12]

I've come to the reluctant conclusion that it would be a bad idea to participate in waybackexchange this year. All my nominated fandoms were accepted, but having looked at the final tagset, there is nothing I'd be comfortable writing, and I doubt anyone is going to offer anything I request. I feel a bit better about requesting unlikely-to-be-offered fandoms in bigger exchanges such as Yuletide, but the prospect of (yet again) being an unclaimed request that lingers on the pinch hit list for the duration of the exchange depresses me.

I'm also just feeling a bit burnt out and unhappy about exchanges at the moment. While I enjoyed writing last year's Yuletide fics, and liked the gift I received, I felt a lot unhappiness about things around the exchange (which I don't really want to go into detail about because I think it would sound bratty and ungrateful) and it overall wasn't a hugely fun experience, and I'm starting to suspect that's probably a sign to give exchanges a break for a while.

This the second weekend in which the UK is being blasted by a named storm — last week was Ciara, this week it's Denis. So far things aren't as wild as they were last weekend, but I'm still planning to stick fairly close to home, lounging around in my very warm Icelandic jumper, reading Benjamin January books.

This has been a slow week in general — other than seeing Birds of Prey in the cinema on Monday (ridiculous, over the top, excellent soundtrack, and a lot of fun) I've only left the house to go to work (or to go swimming before work), and it looks as if things are going to continue in this vein for next week as well.

I hope everyone else is spending the weekend doing things they enjoy!

Comments

I think I get out a bit more

[blaizedeeziere]

Hello. Forgive me for intruding. I caught you on Random Journal. I just wanted to thank you for clearing something up for me a little.

I am a writer, but I do not write fanfic. I know a lot of people that read it and quite a few that write it. I kept seeing long lists that people put on their journal, while hopping around with random journal, detailing what kind of fanfic they wanted written for them.

It seemed kind of pushy from my viewpoint to expect others to write you all that free fanfic, but I also understood their must be things about the community I did not understand. Every time I was around someone I could ask about it, I never remembered to do so.

I think I get now that it is a trade of work. If I had seen something where someone had posted what they were willing to write, also, I probably would have clued into that sooner.

Thank you for providing a little insight.

Re: I think I get out a bit more

[dolorosa_12]

Not a problem at all. Generally there's not an 'expectation' for others to write free fanfic — most people who write it are writing it for a combination of reasons (love of the characters or canonical material, the joy of writing, the sense of community with other fanfic writers and readers). The only instance in which there is an expectation or obligation is for fanfic exchanges, where someone (or a group of people) organise an event in which participants write a specified fanfic (e.g. a minimum of 1000 words, or 5000 words, or whatever) based on being matched to other participants' requests. Prior to this, everyone who wants to participate nominates canons and characters that they'd like to read and/or write about, every potential participant sees what has been nominated, and then makes offers and requests based on that tagset of nominated fandoms and characters. So what results is an exchange of gifts — or, as you say, a trade of work.

My post above was about one such gift exchange, waybackexchange, in which participants request and write for fandoms which have had no new installments for at least ten years (e.g. old books, movies, TV series and games). Other gift exchanges might be just for fanfic about Marvel film characters, or female characters, or for stories where worldbuilding is the main element, for example. But the vast majority of fanfic is not written as a gift to someone else — it's just written by people when their creativity is sparked, and if it finds an audience, that's just an added bonus. Probably what you're seeing in other people's journals are their 'Dear Author' letters for fanfic exchanges — where they can flesh out their requests beyond just their requested characters to include more details about the kinds of stories, tropes and themes they enjoy.

I hope that makes sense. There's a lot about fanfic community norms that is probably weird or inexplicable to those outside the community.

Re: I think I get it a bit more

[blaizedeeziere]

Thank you for taking the time to explain to me. It is very kind of you.

Even though even though the type of writing I do is original written and not fanfic, and I never got into reading fanfic, I have been part of fandom all my life. Impossible to not know what fanfic is. It was this specific thing that confused me. I kept meaning to ask my daughter or one of my friends about it, but it slipped my mind each time I was talking to someone that could answer.

I spent years writing stories for people who loved my character/ worlds and sending the stories to them, so I guess it is not that much different. Just more organized and on a much larger scale.

Again, thanks for the reply. I am finding it a bit of a challenge to connect to people on here, so always grateful for kind people.