coaltide | C.R.E.A.M

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2021

C.R.E.A.M

Coal ruins exchanges around me - spitey spitey fic y'all.

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What examples have you seen of this in letters?

I will never get people who are so super into a ship and incredibly enthusiastic about it, but haven't commented on any of the tiny handful of fics on AO3.

Sure, maybe the answer is "they suck" (although I've read the fics and they don't suck), but...in this fandom you really shot yourself in the foot, because those writers are definitely your best bet of getting a fic.

If I was one of these writers, I would focus my efforts elsewhere in a case like that, because I would take your noncommenting as an indication of one of the following:

1) you don't comment on anything
2) you haven't actually read any of the fic, even though you claim to love this pairing so much and want anything with them
3) you HAVE read my fic, but you didn't like it (so why would I write you more?)

Eh, I'm someone who uses separate AO3 accounts for reading/commenting and one just for participating in exchanges. Not interested in showing the exchange community my fic reading history.

TBH I think this comment is a demonstration of someone shooting themself in the foot. What difference does it make if they haven't read any existing fic? Maybe it never occurred to them there WAS any. That's happened to me before. Or maybe the existing fic had tropes they didn't want, or was set in some era they didn't want.

Either way, you're depriving yourself of an enthusiastic recipient by ascribing all these actions and motives to them that might very well not be true.

I can't imagine taking the time to search through every potential treat recipient's commenting history in our fandom before deciding to write them a treat.

SA I've just tested this out now on one of the people I'm planning on treating. They've commented on zero of the recent fic in our fandom. And then I checked their commenting history on their gifts, and they leave lovely long comments on every one of their gifts. I'm definitely treating them.

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 19:32 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 20:03 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 21:07 (UTC) - Expand

lol

It's not going to be the no. 1 deciding factor in who to game for or who I'll treat, but all other things being equal, if I have to make the choice between someone who never commented on any of my fics vs. someone who's commented on my stuff and where I already know they like my writing, I'll always choose the latter.

Agree completely.

Especially in tiny fandom if you're one of a few, or even the only author writing for a certain ship. Then someone is like, I wish there was fic of this as if there isn't. Hm. If nothing else, they don't want your fic.

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 20:10 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 20:53 (UTC) - Expand

If they have read your fic and didn't like it, how exactly are they shooting themselves in the foot by putting you off the idea of writing for them? (Not writing ‘more’ for them, since you weren't writing for them in the first place.)

You sound incredibly wanky and self-important. If anything I did caused you to elect not to write for me, I'd consider that a bonus.

You do you, but personally, I'm not really into the writing just to make sure I get a perfect comment and flounce if someone's commenting standards aren't up to my demands. If a prompt or letter looks interesting, I'll sign up/write for that even if they've never commented on my stuff before. Sometimes, people just read exchange fic and nothing else. Sometimes people leave great lengthy comments only on their gifts. Sometimes people use different names. Sometimes... you can assume the worst about the person and write them off as an irredeemable asshole not worth your time, or you can give them the benefit of the doubt and maybe gain a new reader.

And if you're writing for a tiny fandom and you love the pairing too, why wouldn't you want to see it grow?

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 20:29 (UTC) - Expand

Say the fandom!

Maybe they just haven't been reading fic? You can be very into a ship and still not have read fic yet, or not have had time to. I will also admit that I'm sometimes lax on actually commenting these days but I always comment on my gifts.

You're petty, weird, and massively insecure. I look forward to following your promising career in wankery.

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 22:23 (UTC) - Expand

I never read fic outside of exchanges these days. I don't have the time to sift and I have too many small fandoms to trawl through all of them regularly to see if a) there's any fic, and b) it's well-written, and also c) it doesn't contain any of my squicks or triggers. Exchange fic isn't necessarily going to fulfill b, but I can find my fandoms easily in a handy list, and common DNWs are more likely to be tagged. If I read your work during an exchange, I'm more likely to look you up and see what else you've written after, and I'm likely to subscribe to you, but unless you've posted this ship to an exchange I'm in, I have no idea you exist yet.

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 22:23 (UTC) - Expand

where are assignments

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 22:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 22:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 22:18 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 22:24 (UTC) - Expand

Or the fic doesn't suck but isn't to their taste, which is why they're requesting the pairing for Yuletide, where their writer will hopefully write to their likes and prompts.

If you're not willing to do that, then they aren't shooting themself in the foot by putting you off, they're dodging a bullet.

what if they are a sock?

I’m requesting a relatively new-to-me fandom this year that I just haven’t yet gotten around to reading fic for (it’s not my only fandom and I’ve just been busy) so I guess someone could assume that doesn’t say much about my enthusiasm. And as much as it annoys me sometimes that yuletide is full of casuals who don’t care as much about these fandoms outside of this event, that’s just the reality of it, I don’t assume they’ve seen my fics before.

In addition to everything said above on why OP is the one shooting themselves in the door instead of the recipient doing so, I’ll add that sometimes people DO like your writing, or they would, but the stuff you write for yourself contains elements the recipient doesn’t click on in the wild. For example, there might be writers in my fandom who have a lot of fun producing vampire AUs and kidfic. They’re very talented in terms of technical writing skills, plotting and characterization, but I DNW vampire AUs and kidfic. As long as they’d be happy to write something else about these characters for Yuletide, I would love a fic by them! So, an author writing me off because I’ve never commented on their fic would be a mistake. However, if they’re really wedded only to the vampire AUs and kidfic, then I hope they continue to live their best lives writing that stuff, while gaming away from me.

I’ve seen letters over the years that very subtly but clearly signaled “Hey you, fandom writer who I see doing this exchange! Can you please not include this innocuous (but not to my taste) thing that you always include when left to your own devices? Thanks.” I’ve recognized myself as the person they’re talking to once or twice. I just laughed and left the thing out. And then got my first comment from that person!

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-24 23:49 (UTC) - Expand

I personally am going to stop commenting on all fics so your insecure wanky ass never tries to write for me.

OP

Yaaaas, my wankbait successfully got us through to assignments! :P

Re: Shooting yourself in the foot

(Anonymous) - 2021-10-25 02:38 (UTC) - Expand

Is your fic exactly something I prompted with some of my likes and none of my DNWs? I may not have a problem with your writing, it just wasn't the plot/tropes I wanted. If you wrote a fic to my tastes, I'd be over the moon and my comment would show it.

I'm also in a LOT of fandoms while also not having a lot of time to read fic. I read them in exchange collections and not outside of them. I really love the fandom, but my interaction with fic is via exchanges I participate in. I know some people have exchange accounts and reading accounts too, so maybe they have read and commented on your stuff under their reading username, who cares?

That said, if you're so focused on yourself rather than truly being excited to write a gift for someone who loves your small fandom, I bet your exchange fic isn't that great so you can happily not write for me!

Writing good comments requires time and effort (and for me, getting over the fear the writer can instantly tell I'm a pleb who isn't a tenth as skilled as they are and my comment is drudgery for them). Plenty of people will put in time and effort for someone who's done a specific act specifically for them - write them an exchange gift - but not for every random fic in the wild they like.

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