bleh, whine

[extrapenguin]

Guardian rewatchalong, ep 12 is up!

All in all, this week has been pretty successful fic-wise, in that I've started publishing that 40k work for MDZS and put out that Guardian breeding kink one. (My Guardian porn log still has #5 from here and a Shen Wei/Ye Zun/Zhao Yunlan threesome that are written and need editing that is less than the editing the prior porn log ones needed, so yay!)

However. I know it's only one shortish chapter for the MDZS work, but the response has been abysmal. Some of it is on the form of presentation – though I didn't expect quite as big an allergy to undisclosed endgame ship fic – and the rest ... idk. My other works haven't gone down as badly! I know I write more thought-provoking fic for a fandom mostly reveling in quick emotional hits, but bleh. If I hadn't already written all of it, I'd abandon the WIP. :P (Even now that I have, I'm still sorely tempted. Never let it be said that penguins aren't touchy.)

I've decided to participate in a mini-rumble. I have one challenge done, but the "close crop" thing is surprisingly hard. I have several candidates but none of them work! There's no voting, though, so I guess I'll try once more tomorrow, then pick the one I most want concrit on and submit. Bleh. (Edit: Complaining about it on the internet worked! I have made one more and submitted my icons.)

(Other activities for the weekend: editing fic, incl. 520 assignment. Writing something short for the TGE filthfest. Posting ch 2 of the MDZS WIP.)

Oh yeah I'm also coming down with the flu! That is not fun. I hate it.

Comments

[china_shop]

though I didn't expect quite as big an allergy to undisclosed endgame ship fic

I honestly don't know how I'd feel about it, if it were in a fandom I read in. I think part of my hesitance is that it could feel a bit like the author toying with the reader, rather than the author and the reader being invested in the pairing together, which is part of what I love about fanfic. Idk. Also, I tend to prefer stories where it's fairly obvious who the main pairing is; if there's ambiguity, that says things about the dynamics in the fic, eg, that there's a love triangle or a bait-and-switch or something?

(You'll be excluding readers who have NOTPs too. They might be waiting for the pairing reveal just in case it's something they avoid reading.)

/random thoughts

So sorry to hear about your flu! I hope it's mild and passes quickly!

[extrapenguin]

I honestly don't know how I'd feel about it, if it were in a fandom I read in. I think part of my hesitance is that it could feel a bit like the author toying with the reader, rather than the author and the reader being invested in the pairing together, which is part of what I love about fanfic. Idk. Also, I tend to prefer stories where it's fairly obvious who the main pairing is; if there's ambiguity, that says things about the dynamics in the fic, eg, that there's a love triangle or a bait-and-switch or something?
Interesting point! I don't think my fic hits any of that, but of course no reader can know that just from the tags. (It was written with the endgame ships in mind; it just has a bunch of non-ship-related stuff happening as well. Come to think of it, maybe "Slow Burn" might work as a tag!)

So sorry to hear about your flu! I hope it's mild and passes quickly!
I'm already feeling better after a good night's rest. I'll just faff about at home today and hope I get better.

[rheasilvia]

(Sorry, replied in the wrong place before and then managed to delete the wrong comment. O_O Argh.)

the author and the reader being invested in the pairing together, which is part of what I love about fanfic

Yes, this! I hadn't quite thought of it like this before, but I feel the same way. The shared love for the pairing is part of the enjoyment.

There's always a contract between the author and the reader; the exact expectations vary according to genre and a lot of other indicators, but the reader does always have certain expectations going in (romance will have a happy ending, horror can/will be a twisty non-happy ending, thriller may kill a main character or characters... that kind of thing).

If these expectations are not met, readers will be disappointed or even angry, because they feel that the author has breached an unspoken agreement. In the case of romance, for example, part of the agreement is that the main couple is apparent at least at the half-way point, and that they will get together at the end.

With fanfic, I think the pairing itself is part of the contract for many readers, too.