justanothersaltandburn:

rosemoonweaver:

@justanothersaltandburn

I get you, definitely. Sometimes it feels easier to give up
or just write the porn dribbles folks seem to want – but trust me it’s not.
Your writing is AMAZING. I love reading your stuff for RSCC – smut and non-smut
alike, and your other fics when I get a chance to sit down and read for
enjoyment.

You’ve got a storyteller’s mind and you’re good at what you
do – plot heavy and rare ships show it (the porn is good too of course – but
you REALLY shine when it comes to plot).

The feedback is small and sometimes it doesn’t feel worth
it, but you’re still creating worlds and relationships and all these awesome
things that didn’t exist before. And those 5 or 10 people that read it and went
wow – that’s cool – their lives are just a tiny bit richer than they were
before. And that’s because of YOU.

You flatter me. *blushes*

It’s just a pain in the ass at times. I love doing it, don’t get me wrong, and I don’t think I’d rather be doing anything else, it’s just kinda lonely at times. It’s like, I want to scream at people about the stuff I’ve done and what I’m working on and have people ask me about the worlds I’ve created but that doesn’t happen as much as I’d like. Maybe if I wrote more or faster or wrote more “popular” stuff but honestly, that doesn’t make me happy. I don’t like a whole lot of the popular tropes or AUs, I’m almost defiant in my love for certian characters and I almost refuse to write smut in longer fics unless I feel like it makes sense with the plot. It’s like, I’m pretty sure I know what kind of things would be successful in fanfic but I refuse to do them because it’s been done and it’s not me. 

I guess I just want my ego stroked from time to time. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, thought. 

But in the long run, yeah, if I’m making just one or two people happy or sad or whatever emotion I was going for by writing a rare ship or a poly fic or a smut-less pirate AU then it’s worth it. That’s the whole point of telling stories, after all. I made someone feel something and that’s knd of magical.  

Reblogging this because I’m gonna end up leaving a mountain of replies again.

Fanfic writers get so much SHIT for what we do from “professional” authors but they really have no idea what it’s like. We’re right there on the front lines. We know within a week if our writing is a hit, a miss, or if it’s just kinda floating along the ‘less popular/unnoticed highway’ – that’s so damn hard but I think it’s a testament to our strength as writers and as people and as creators. We’re allowed to be pissed about it and vent about it, but then we stand up and keep going because that’s what we do. 

We make worlds. 

We take two completely unlikely characters that would never meet in canon and mash them together like Play-Doh and see what pretty color they make. We add in the colors of a new world or a unique trope and make it an even bigger rainbow. 

And some people are just colorblind. They don’t see that awesome thing we made, this beautiful rainbow of light and dark and shades of blue that have never been seen before. And we can scream and wave our new mound of colors at them all we want and they won’t notice. 

Then there’s a few people that see this new color and think it’s so damn awesome, and some of them, they go home and they play with that new color, see what they can do with it, and it shifts some more. 

Rare ships may never be the most popular or the biggest kudos and notes bringer. It may take you three weeks to get one fic out because damnit, how are X and Y REALLY supposed to meet up? – But every single one of them is worth it, I promise you that.

Thank you. Honestly, this makes me feel a lot better about the whole situation. 🙂 

You’re right. The creation of the thing is worth it if for no other reason. And if that inspires other people that’s great, too. It’s difficult, but something new exists because of us and that’s awesome.