Rant Warning! Fanfic Frustrations

[dreiser]

So I'm a huge nerd, right? I have been since birth I figure. I'm not blaming my parents. I think it was genetic, like my being a big homo. Being a huge nerd I've been ensconced in fandom for years and years. Sadly, I've written fanfic since I was sixteen and dude, my early fanfic it sucked so hard. The first one was a big enough piece of shite I've had it wiped from the interwebs.

Or so I hope.



Now that we've established my nerd xp is 100+ lets move onto my need for a rant. The same things that irritated me as a horrible baby dyke fanfic writer at sixteen still irritate me now as a slightly improved middle aged dyke fanfic writer at thirty.

1. Self entitled demands.

2. Fanfic review ransom.

The first is why I started this post. For some godforsaken reason I'm posting my All My Children fanfic on fanfiction.net. Something I might change my mind about later tonight and overall that place is pure dredge for feedback but I figured, what the fuck, how many places can you really post an All My Children slash fic anyway? I get minimal reviews and they're the usual, update soon, nice fic, and then I post a new chapter and get this.

please continue with greater frequency

For some reason my initial reaction on seeing this is pure annoyance. I immediately want to click reply and type, "No." Which is bitchy of me and in character because, you know, I'm a bitch but even with the please added in there for what I'm assuming is some measure of politeness I found it just really demanding and self entitled. I never like to get the standard update sooner pleas because I tend to be a fairly slow writer overall and the more I get those on dying projects the slower they make me write out of some perverse form of reverse psychology when it comes to me sitting my ass down in front of my various computers to type out my dinky thoughts.

The second is my biggest hate on about fanfic writers. I hate hate hate when they demand feedback or OMGIWONTFINISHTHEFIC! Stop being such babies and just write the fucking story or post saying you don't feel like finishing it. I have no aspirations or delusions of being a published writer one day. This is a hobby for me and since it's a hobby I'm writing for myself. Yeah, I like feedback and yeah, I really love constructive criticism when people tell me why I suck and how to improve such as my habit of writing flowery ass prose and having rambling long sentences. Something I try to fix but dear god, it's hard and someone needs to spank me when I write it to make me stop.

Okay, that sounds kinky.

Moving on! I like feedback too but doesn't feedback lose all its worth when you're only getting it to appease your ego? It's not genuine and it's not coming from a place of real interest on the reader's part. It's just petting your baby id and making you feel warm and fuzzy about yourself. I'm sorry, I rather get that random review pointing out my weird grammar errors than the one that says, "Itz gr8! rite more!"

End rant.

And now I feel sort of bad about being irritated about that review but I still dislike fanfiction.net. Why must I post on a place that is such a pit of dreck? I'm a fandom masochist, that's why. It's how I continue to watch a show that Ilene Chaiken produces despite its steady descent into poopy caca.

Comments

[meingeheimnis.livejournal.com]

i get similar reviews and have a similar reaction.
i mean, it's touching that people care and want to read the next chapter. but patience is a virtue. and comments/reviews like that just tend to piss me off, make me not want to write for a few days.
fanfiction does not pay the rent, feed me or keep me physically healthy. therefore, it falls below all the things that do in priorities. seriously. we are people. we have lives. this is a hobby. unless someone wants to start paying me every time i publish a chapter, you will have to be patient for me to find the time to sit down and write.

[dreiser.livejournal.com]

I know! Dude, the demanding updates makes my brain refuse to write. lol. I don't even do it on purpose sometimes. I think it turns a switch in my brain that activates writing laziness.

I wouldn't ask for any money to write fanfic. That's like Cassandra Claire asking for laptops fandom wank shit. So wrong. lol.

[meingeheimnis.livejournal.com]

despite all my crackpot schemes to make cash lately, i think writing ff would probably be the worst. haha oh dear. . . i can't even imagine. it makes my brain hurt.
fanfiction is definitely a hobby and if it became anything else then i would lose interest in it immediately.

[kberr.livejournal.com]

From a reader/reviewer (only rarely rarely) pov…
I have to agree with you about FF.net and the amazing (and not in a good way) reviews/author comments etc.
I don't write but I enjoy a nice distraction like reading good fanfic. I always check out the reviews/author notes before I
read and seriously, some of the comments made by reviewers and even authors amaze me. And yes, I do leave reviews at times and they are mostly useless and say "yippee, well done, can't wait for the next instalment" - but why demand updates? I just don't get it. I'd rather read something that was well written and of good quality and took months to update than to read something half-assed and thrown together just so it's updated daily. Also agree with not finishing the damn story - very annoying. Perhaps they simply didn't get enough reviews…

Honestly, I think you are in the small minority of writers that don't want their ego stroked. And really, your fanfic is of a much higher quality than the majority.

Sigh.

Totally off topic, but love the muppets links - I love the swedish chef and sincerely wished he would have cooked big bird. Bad me.

[dreiser.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I like getting compliments as much as the next writer. It makes me happy to know people like my stories and enjoy reading them. But I rather have a comment that appears to take some degree of brainpower and brings up some faults in my writing than one that just asks for me to update sooner. One takes more effort than the other, you know?

I love the Muppets. Watch their new Christmas special December 17th! It will be filled with the funny. And I sort of wanted Big Bird cooked too. They didn't have all the clips of that special but I remember Swedish Chef trying so hard on various occasions to trap Big Bird and cook him.

Interesting . . .

[careofsoul.livejournal.com]

I just started reading fanfiction this past summer. Lots of it is junk and the reviews are pretty mindless, but I am amazed at how demanding some readers/reviewers can be!! However, I think that at times it speaks to how good the writer is . . . and you are exceptional. Look at the fanfic section of the Bianca Reese - you have well over 2,000 readers for your story. If it were a book - it would be a page burner - where the reader can't get enough fast enough. I have read your 6 chapters and each time I have to reread it 3 times to even get it - because I go too fast and am too eager to find out what happens!!! If this fanfic were a book - it would be one that I stayed up all night to finish. Now - that being said I am never going to say "update sooner", but I try to SLOW down and enjoy it!!!

[xanjames.livejournal.com]

How about sending your stuff to Passion & Perfection? They have an AMC section, albeit filled with old B/M and B/L fics. I've got my ER stuff housed there and it's a great forum.
In my experience, asshats who demand 'feedback or else' are usually crap writers. 'Nuff said.