No, but what you're saying about romance tropes is true about fan-fiction too. I think it's not the tropes alone, but also the general spirit. People write trope-y OW in exchanges as a hobby and they post it on an AO3 collection for an audience of fanfic readers who are into those tropes. The most important thing is writing the trope/ship dynamic/kink well. I'm not saying there aren't things in common with pro-writing, but if I have to write something professionally, I feel a lot more pressure and there are other things to keep in mind, to the point that it's like a different activity to me. I don't know, I used to be confused about OW in exchanges when I started doing them, but after seeing the kind of things people requested and wrote, it made perfect sense to me to see them as part of the fandom experience.
Re: Reveals wank prediction
No, but what you're saying about romance tropes is true about fan-fiction too. I think it's not the tropes alone, but also the general spirit. People write trope-y OW in exchanges as a hobby and they post it on an AO3 collection for an audience of fanfic readers who are into those tropes. The most important thing is writing the trope/ship dynamic/kink well. I'm not saying there aren't things in common with pro-writing, but if I have to write something professionally, I feel a lot more pressure and there are other things to keep in mind, to the point that it's like a different activity to me. I don't know, I used to be confused about OW in exchanges when I started doing them, but after seeing the kind of things people requested and wrote, it made perfect sense to me to see them as part of the fandom experience.