One Wank After Another

[coalcube]

A blank assignment is a funny thing, isn't it? When you have it, you don't appreciate it, and when you miss it, it's gone.

Wednesday 10 December: Default deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 17 December: Assignment deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 24 December: Main collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 25 December: Madness collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 1 January: Author reveals, end of event (9pm UTC)

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Comments

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

I think we've had a similar discussion on here before and the conclusion is:

1. some people will truly love any fic that has their blorbos in it and avoids a short list of things they dislike, because they mostly just love their blorbos

2. some people will truly love a good, well-written fic whether it has their blorbos or not, but the things that make it good and well-written for them are almost impossible to quantify, or they're things like "really accurate canon voices" or "really smart worldbuilding that makes me see canon in a new way" that you can't DNW for because you can't DNW "mid writing skill".

People in 1. are like of course you DNW everything you find annoying, why would you risk getting a fic you don't love. People in 2. are like of course you're probably going to get a fic you don't love that's just how it works because people have all different levels of writing skill and interest, that's not the point and it doesn't mean the gift was bad

Intuitively I feel like type 1 people are way more likely to be in year-round exchange fandom because that's how they get fic they really love. And type 2 people are more likely to be mostly-yuletide exchange people because yuletide is less about fic to order and more about sharing your rare fandoms and trying new things and such for a lot of people.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

I guess that's true. I'm definitely in group 1, and I do exchanges all year round. Most of my fics are good to excellent to me, but stuff like smart worldbuilding and writing skill doesn't really factor into whether I like or dislike a fic - beyond it being actually 'what is happening here? these are words but the way they're combined doesn't make sense' unreadable, but that's vanishingly rare.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

DC

Ha, yep, I'm definitely a type 2 person and have only ever done Yuletide, at least up until this year where I branched out into Casefic Exchange. I think of myself as having no DNWs because I just want good fic for my fave extremely rare fandoms, and the things that ruin a gift for me have nothing to do with content, it's all skill-level-related stuff you can't actually rule out with DNWs, like 'character voices don't sound enough like themselves' or 'painfully unfunny humour'. I put in a few token DNWs to stop people panicking about the fact I haven't listed any, but in general I don't like to rule stuff out, because someone going ODAO and writing something wildly off the map of what I usually read but that they were super into and passionate about is genuinely more likely to produce something that works for me than if the writer makes a very forced attempt at following my likes that they weren't feeling at all. If it feels like an in-character version of the canon characters doing whatever random-ass thing they're doing, that's automatically a better gift and more enjoyable fic for me than one where my blorbos in name only blandly act out a trope I said I particularly like.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

+1000 same here.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYYRRT

2. Oh, that's me. Got me in a box! Illuminating, coalie, thank you. Except for the part about being Yuletide-oriented, I'm a year-rounder.

Although I think there's some middle ground between the two, because I'm a lot more likely to overlook mid writing for the sake of a few nice moments if it's the rare fandom and blorbo of my heart.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

I’m more of a #2 in terms of whether I *love* a given fic— but I’m also only in tiny fandoms, so I’m willing to give just about anything a good-faith try and can probably find something I like about it. But I also just don’t find it that hard to appreciate a gift fic and write a generous comment emphasizing the things I liked even if there are some things about it that I find mildly irritating, never mind whether or not it’s s fic I would consider “objectively good” or even plan to reread.