I Write Because I...
May. 31st, 2006 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
viciouswishesYesterday's SGA marathon made me think about what I write and why I write it. Mostly because I spent some time trolling on Wraithbait trying to find Rodney/Chuck hockey-watching fic and failed. Fanfic has always been, for me, a what if canon went that way, and usually, considering the nature of it, fanfic is often shipping possibilities. SGA is a particularly interesting fandom for me since 1) There isn't a character I overall dislike; 2) I can ship everyone with everyone; and 3) Fandom is extremely polarized to McKay/Sheppard. But I would say that there are a lot of those same three tendencies in Buffyverse, House, due South, and probably every other fandom I read. I think the only difference with my other fandoms is that there are characters and ships that I downright loathe. I've also been spoiled with Buffyverse as a fandom that has more than one "big" ship and authors who exhibit more flexibility when it comes to writing different pairings.
When I sit down to write a story, my plotbunnies aren't just things that I don't see on the show, they're also things that I don't see in fanfic. I haven't written McKay/Sheppard, because I can go read all those unread fics in my del.icio.us account, same goes with taking on a Fraser/RayK plot bunny. (House is probably the only exception to this rule as I'll write House/Wilson, but that's because the majority of fandom's interpretation of them makes me cry.) Instead, I write Buffy/Gunn or due South femslash or Sheppard as a heterosexual.
I've never been an author who gets a lot of feedback on my stories. If I get 10 comments, that's a lot. For a long time, I thought it was because I sucked (and yes, some of those stories sucked). I also drove myself crazy looking at authors who get pages of feedback for stories with crap characterization and horrible grammar. And then I started getting feedback here and there from authors that I admire, rec, and adore their stories to little pieces, which gave me much needed confidence.
Instead of moping around and feeling sorry for myself, I wanted to explore the feedback phenomena and started looking at my stories solely based on pairing, instead of quality. I set the quality bar at passable for English, which since I'm looking at feedback on my own fic, all my fanfic passes that bar. I'm glad I wrote all those holiday ficlets because that allows me to plug in pairings that I normally wouldn't have cared to write. (Note: I did not look at feedback from communities that these stories might've been posted in as I don't have those links stored.)
After cracking the numbers, I wrote 154 identifiably different pairing combinations. On average I received 4.1 comments for every fic that I posted in my livejournal. I received no more than 18 comments on any fic and received 0 on several. (Those zeroes were on both recent and older fic, f.y.i.) Overall, I seemed to get a pretty 3, 4, or 5 comment average on every fic.
For looking at pairings themselves, I took out pairings that I only wrote one fic concerning them in an effort to take out feedback and pairing flukes. (Also makes the charting easier for my pseudo-science.) My top ten average comment numbers:
1. 8.3 comments - Anya/Giles (3 fics)
2. 8 comments - Buffy/Willow (2 fics)
3. 7.5 comments - Buffy/Gunn (18 fics)
4. 7 comments - Gunn/Wesley (4 fics)
5. 6.7 comments - Angel/Wesley (10 fics)
6. 6.3 comments - Angel/Nina (3 fics) and Spike/Willow (3 fics)
7. 6 comments - Angel/Buffy (2 fics), Angel/Spike (8 fics), and Gunn/Gwen (2 fics)
8. 5.6 comments - Angel/Cordelia (3 fics)
9. 5.5 comments - Ethan/Spike (2 fics) and Jayne/Mal (2 fics)
10. 5.4 comments - Buffy/Faith (5 fics)
Pairings which received less than 1 comment per fic and wrote more than one fic about were Buffy/Giles, Lorne/Spike, and gen Pirates of the Caribbean.
The number of comments and pairings, both surprised and didn't surprise me. My most loyal feedbackers are those on my (mutual) flist. Those people are on my flist because I'm interested in what they're writing, which probably means we're writing the same thing or some of the same characters. My flist has a higher percentage of Gunn fans, Buffy/Gunn shippers, and femslashers than an "average" flist. I also see some of these ships as "Oh, I love that, but don't write it" so there's a demand for reading, but not a lot of writers. Interestingly enough, Buffy/Willow, Spike/Willow, Angel/Spike, and Ethan/Spike are pairings that I don't have a lot or anything invested in and believe that I wrote almost all of those for holiday request ficlets or ficathons.
Not surprisingly, all the highly feed fics, except one, are from the Buffyverse. This is two factors 1) I've written a lot more Buffy fanfic and 2) My flist is still polarized towards Buffyverse fandom. It's been interesting for me to see feedback come in or not come in for fics in fandoms I'm a relative newbie to.
I was also curious about the Spike Factor, considering he's the most popular Buffyverse fic character and has a rabid fen. I wrote Spike in 20 different parings and received an average of 5.6 comments. I do not consider myself a particularly talented or prolific writer concerning Spike, but his presence guaranteed at least 1.5 more comments than average.
What trends do you notice? What happens when you change fandoms? Do you notice a significant drop in feedback based on pairing? How is your flist centered? How has it changed as people change?
When I sit down to write a story, my plotbunnies aren't just things that I don't see on the show, they're also things that I don't see in fanfic. I haven't written McKay/Sheppard, because I can go read all those unread fics in my del.icio.us account, same goes with taking on a Fraser/RayK plot bunny. (House is probably the only exception to this rule as I'll write House/Wilson, but that's because the majority of fandom's interpretation of them makes me cry.) Instead, I write Buffy/Gunn or due South femslash or Sheppard as a heterosexual.
I've never been an author who gets a lot of feedback on my stories. If I get 10 comments, that's a lot. For a long time, I thought it was because I sucked (and yes, some of those stories sucked). I also drove myself crazy looking at authors who get pages of feedback for stories with crap characterization and horrible grammar. And then I started getting feedback here and there from authors that I admire, rec, and adore their stories to little pieces, which gave me much needed confidence.
Instead of moping around and feeling sorry for myself, I wanted to explore the feedback phenomena and started looking at my stories solely based on pairing, instead of quality. I set the quality bar at passable for English, which since I'm looking at feedback on my own fic, all my fanfic passes that bar. I'm glad I wrote all those holiday ficlets because that allows me to plug in pairings that I normally wouldn't have cared to write. (Note: I did not look at feedback from communities that these stories might've been posted in as I don't have those links stored.)
After cracking the numbers, I wrote 154 identifiably different pairing combinations. On average I received 4.1 comments for every fic that I posted in my livejournal. I received no more than 18 comments on any fic and received 0 on several. (Those zeroes were on both recent and older fic, f.y.i.) Overall, I seemed to get a pretty 3, 4, or 5 comment average on every fic.
For looking at pairings themselves, I took out pairings that I only wrote one fic concerning them in an effort to take out feedback and pairing flukes. (Also makes the charting easier for my pseudo-science.) My top ten average comment numbers:
1. 8.3 comments - Anya/Giles (3 fics)
2. 8 comments - Buffy/Willow (2 fics)
3. 7.5 comments - Buffy/Gunn (18 fics)
4. 7 comments - Gunn/Wesley (4 fics)
5. 6.7 comments - Angel/Wesley (10 fics)
6. 6.3 comments - Angel/Nina (3 fics) and Spike/Willow (3 fics)
7. 6 comments - Angel/Buffy (2 fics), Angel/Spike (8 fics), and Gunn/Gwen (2 fics)
8. 5.6 comments - Angel/Cordelia (3 fics)
9. 5.5 comments - Ethan/Spike (2 fics) and Jayne/Mal (2 fics)
10. 5.4 comments - Buffy/Faith (5 fics)
Pairings which received less than 1 comment per fic and wrote more than one fic about were Buffy/Giles, Lorne/Spike, and gen Pirates of the Caribbean.
The number of comments and pairings, both surprised and didn't surprise me. My most loyal feedbackers are those on my (mutual) flist. Those people are on my flist because I'm interested in what they're writing, which probably means we're writing the same thing or some of the same characters. My flist has a higher percentage of Gunn fans, Buffy/Gunn shippers, and femslashers than an "average" flist. I also see some of these ships as "Oh, I love that, but don't write it" so there's a demand for reading, but not a lot of writers. Interestingly enough, Buffy/Willow, Spike/Willow, Angel/Spike, and Ethan/Spike are pairings that I don't have a lot or anything invested in and believe that I wrote almost all of those for holiday request ficlets or ficathons.
Not surprisingly, all the highly feed fics, except one, are from the Buffyverse. This is two factors 1) I've written a lot more Buffy fanfic and 2) My flist is still polarized towards Buffyverse fandom. It's been interesting for me to see feedback come in or not come in for fics in fandoms I'm a relative newbie to.
I was also curious about the Spike Factor, considering he's the most popular Buffyverse fic character and has a rabid fen. I wrote Spike in 20 different parings and received an average of 5.6 comments. I do not consider myself a particularly talented or prolific writer concerning Spike, but his presence guaranteed at least 1.5 more comments than average.
What trends do you notice? What happens when you change fandoms? Do you notice a significant drop in feedback based on pairing? How is your flist centered? How has it changed as people change?
