I am a writer who writes selfishly. I had an idea so I wrote it. I want to explore this moment, so I wrote it. Someone just asked what if, so I wrote it.
I am also a writer who literally uses writing as therapy. Not in the "here are my issues inflicted on my characters" way, but in the "if I put myself in their heads, sometimes I think my own issues out from a different perspective", so I write.
However, until recently, I have been a notoriously short-form writer, with a love of drabbles. A lot of my niche fandom I am stuck in are actually 1k or longer because that is the number of words I needed to explore the premise. My friends (especially my wife) always tell me that they need ten or more words for every one word I use, to accomplish the same thing.
I sometimes envy them, as I know from the reader side (and have been told regularly by said readers) that my fic is too short.
Which is all a long-winded way of saying 'if you write it, they will come'. As my self-indulgences acquire readers from somewhere. Sometimes those little snippets, when shared, will spark a reader chatting at you about them, about possibilities, and then you can write something larger from it. Sometimes, the reader IS just looking for 'what was Natalie thinking in THAT moment'.
A joy of fanfic for me as a reader? Is when I find soap opera fics. Soap Operas sprawled across daytime and nighttime television all my childhood. And while there would be PLOTS (sometimes?), they were more about people living their (extraordinary) lives day to day. So when I come across fics in fandoms I love where Things Happen but mostly it is life for them, I am a cheerful reader in the kind of tapestry I prefer.
no subject
I am also a writer who literally uses writing as therapy. Not in the "here are my issues inflicted on my characters" way, but in the "if I put myself in their heads, sometimes I think my own issues out from a different perspective", so I write.
However, until recently, I have been a notoriously short-form writer, with a love of drabbles. A lot of my niche fandom I am stuck in are actually 1k or longer because that is the number of words I needed to explore the premise. My friends (especially my wife) always tell me that they need ten or more words for every one word I use, to accomplish the same thing.
I sometimes envy them, as I know from the reader side (and have been told regularly by said readers) that my fic is too short.
Which is all a long-winded way of saying 'if you write it, they will come'. As my self-indulgences acquire readers from somewhere. Sometimes those little snippets, when shared, will spark a reader chatting at you about them, about possibilities, and then you can write something larger from it. Sometimes, the reader IS just looking for 'what was Natalie thinking in THAT moment'.
A joy of fanfic for me as a reader? Is when I find soap opera fics. Soap Operas sprawled across daytime and nighttime television all my childhood. And while there would be PLOTS (sometimes?), they were more about people living their (extraordinary) lives day to day. So when I come across fics in fandoms I love where Things Happen but mostly it is life for them, I am a cheerful reader in the kind of tapestry I prefer.