Lots of Fanfiction Authors Want to Be Popular
No matter what the fandom, fanfic authors want to be popular. When it comes to being a popular fanfiction author, they want thousands of views, hundreds of comments, and hundreds of Kudos on Archive of Our Own.
The issue is most people will never be popular, and yet most people who write fan fiction want to be popular in the fandom. The issue is that most people, myself included, are not going to be popular, and there are a lot of reasons why. In this article, I’ll cover some of those reasons.
Fan Fiction Authors Write Well, but It’s Not Fun to Read
I know not every fanfic author complains about this, but I’ve seen people complain that they're better writers than the average fanfic author and yet they’re not popular.
When it comes to fan fiction, there is no standard of quality; you can read something a 13-year-old wrote at two in the morning, or you can be reading something by someone in college. Because there isn’t a standard for how good an author is, besides being subjective, you might write better than most people, but readers don’t care.
Just because something is well written doesn’t mean readers will gravitate toward it. Since fan fiction readers usually don’t read fandom blind and are already familiar with the source material, they usually go for plots, characters, and tropes they like, and if a fan fiction has multiple tropes the readers like, they will read that fic over the one that has more polish but fewer tropes they like.
Since all of this is free, people aren’t obligated to buy something, so there is no barrier to entry to get into a story, unlike the source material, which can’t always be acquired for free legally.
When something is free, like fan fiction or a YouTube video, authors and content creators have to fight for readers and viewers. Sometimes, I think authors forget that you’re writing something that’s free to access, so you have to make yourself stand out on any fan fiction site you use, but I’ll reference Archive of Our Own because it’s the most popular website.
Authors Worry Too Much About if Their Story Is Good
Both fiction authors and fanfic authors are always wondering, “Is my story good?” Don’t worry about if your story’s “good”; you should worry about if you can finish it, especially if it’s a long fic.
If you don’t have the confidence to say, “Yes, my story is good”, then it’s probably not that good. There’s a difference between “I write better than every fanfic author, and I deserve more attention and interaction,” and hoping that your story is good.
While you don’t need to boast about your writing skills online, you still need to have confidence in the story you’re creating. If you don’t have the confidence in your ability to plot a story, you can look up videos about plot structure and find one that fits your writing style.
Since this is a hobby and it’s for fun, the story doesn’t have to be amazing or perfect; it just needs to be readable and at least spell-checked.
Authors Are Motivated by Attention-Seeking Rather Than Good Storytelling
Not every fanfic author wants to become “fandom famous,” but a lot of people do. There is a lot of complaining whenever an author uploads a new story or updates an existing one about how they’re not getting comments, kudos, subscriptions, and bookmarks.
I know that everyone likes attention for their fanfic, but let me make this very clear to all the new writers. You are not owed anyone’s kudos, comments, or bookmarks. Fan fiction is free, and because it’s free, you really have to stand out to get the attention of your readers.
These days it’s usually the smutty fanfics that get a lot of attention. People whined and cried about the video “Fanfiction Ruins Everything” by Hillary Layne and I’m not an immature crybaby who screeched about that video. The only thing she got wrong in her video was that she thought Twilight was a Harry Potter fanfic. She is right about how all fanfic writers want is to be completely self-indulgent about everything, but smut seems to be their favorite.
It was absolutely embarrassing to see the fanfiction community die on the hill of underage smut, misery porn, non-con smut, and BL. The whole “Not all fanfic is porn” reason worked a decade ago when AO3 didn’t exist, but AO3 is still made up of mostly smut, and before you start crying about numbers, there is technically “more” non-smut than smut, but it’s barely more than half of it is non-smut, depending on the fandom. Fanfiction.net has more non-smut than smut, but MA-rated fanfics are not allowed on the website, so there has to be more non-smut by default.
People write smut on AO3 specifically, mainly because it’s allowed on the website, and yes, you will get more hits for anything above T, especially if there are “spicy” scenes in it. There are very popular T-rated fanfics, but they are usually very trope-specific and have a fandom-specific plot that is very popular.
People say they care about their stories and that they want them to be good, but they get demotivated by the lack of “attention and interaction”. If you really cared about your story, you’d finish it so at least your readers would have a complete story.
I get writer’s block a lot, so it’s not that I don’t care about my story; I just get stuck on what to do next, but lack of comments isn’t why I stop writing a story; I usually hit a brick wall and run out of ideas.
Newer writers need to understand nobody owes you anything- not comments, bookmarks, not Kudos. Nobody is just going to give you a compliment just because you put up a story. Because this is a free platform with no barrier to entry, every single author is fighting for the readers’ attention.
Because you’re fighting for attention from readers, you have to stand out to even get a comment from people. Many people post links in the fanfiction subreddits to draw attention to their stories, but you are not entitled to anyone’s attention or feedback. You can do comment exchanges in subreddits if you are that desperate for feedback.
Fanfiction.net has way more social features than Archive of Our Own, but it’s a mess right now, and people prefer the newer AO3 website over the old fanfiction.net site.
Many authors say they want to make good stories but immediately lose their motivation when they don’t get attention. They might care about their story, but they care about the attention the story brings them more.
I’m not saying that comments and feedback aren’t important, but if you care about that maybe you should focus on finishing a story, even if it’s a one-shot so you can share it to get that feedback and attention; but attention shouldn’t be the only reason you write fanfics. A lot of authors in this hobby don’t want to admit they just want attention for their writing and don’t have any motivation outside of attention.
Fandom Culture Has Changed
A lot of people who write fanfic that are on social media will say, “I write for myself” and then complain that they aren’t getting comments. Fandom isn’t like it was 20+ years ago where I could just post a story to fanfiction.net and it would get a lot of hits and reviews just by being on the site. Now everyone’s fighting for attention on social media and fandom has changed. Fandom is less community-oriented, and now people are reading fanfic like consuming content on streaming services or YouTube.
It doesn’t help when people make threads in the subreddits complaining about comments that are even slightly critical of a work. Commenters live in fear of being the subject of one of these annoyed author Reddit threads. They feel they don’t want to “offend” the author so they have no idea what they want to say, even if it’s positive.
There’s also the feeling that people can’t criticize fanfic because it’s free, and they also fear they can’t do it because of authors getting annoyed and complaining and then deleting the comment. Even when people do criticize fanfic somewhere else like Discord, sometimes the author finds it and complains in the fanfiction subreddit, leading to the feeling that it’s not worth commenting on a fanfic unless you kiss the author’s butt and shower them with only praise.
Authors are also worried about offending people, especially if they’re left-leaning; they’re always worried about upsetting someone, because they’re Woke, they try hard to be “inclusive” and “Diverse” and try not to be offensive, except when it comes to sex; they don’t care if they offend you over sex. Unless you’re an older fan and like all the crazy stuff like Dead Dove, Do Not Eat, and go for gross-out and disturbing content, then you don’t care if you’re upsetting anybody.
Not to mention all the discussions of Pro-Shipping and Antis, when it comes to fandom culture, it’s too exhausting for some people, and they feel it’s not worth it to engage with fanfic outside of reading it.
Sometimes, people don’t feel they need to leave a comment at all; they just don’t care to.
Authors Say They Write for Themselves, but They Don’t
Fanfic authors always say, “I’m writing my fanfic for myself,” and then they stop when they don’t get attention. Professional or aspiring authors are writing their book manuscripts without getting any attention, unless they’re recording their author journey for social media.
If professional writers can write without calling attention to their work, outside of asking for feedback on social media about what people think of an excerpt, then fanfiction authors should be able to write without feeling the need to only write for attention from random people on the internet.
Fanfic writers need to admit they’re not really writing for themselves but for strangers on the internet.
Because fan fiction is released in segments of chapters rather than the whole thing at once, people get used to the idea of getting feedback. Sometimes authors do this with their original fiction on their website, but fanfiction authors say they thrive on the feedback they receive from people. But fanfiction authors who are only motivated by feedback have no idea how to motivate themselves when they don’t receive any.
A fanfic author will be in a much better place when they decide to write their story, regardless of receiving comments or not, because they have a story they want to tell. If you are only motivated by getting attention, you should probably start a YouTube channel; it’s easier to get attention that way than writing for a bunch of people you don’t know, hoping you’ll get attention that way.
It’s one thing to say, “I’m writing this story because I want to write this fanfic,” but would you do it if you got no comments or even a single Kudo? Most people in the fan fiction space would probably say, “No,” because they like getting attention.
I get it; writing when you don’t get comments is hard, but it means that people haven’t found your work yet. Especially if you’re a new writer in a new fandom, people have to find you before you can even think about becoming popular.
Comparison Is the Thief of Joy
Comparison is the thief of joy. Fan fiction authors feel they aren’t popular because they’re not getting as much feedback and attention as an established fan fiction author with readers that are regularly commenting on their work.
You’re not going to become “popular” overnight. You’re going to have to earn your popularity. You earn popularity by writing great stories, whether you’re writing short one-shots or longfics.
Writing just so you can become popular in fandom spaces is a bad motivation for writing. You need motivation outside of popularity and feedback to keep your story going. If all you want is feedback, then you need to actually finish your story first before posting so your readers will feel happy to read your fanfic.
Popularity Should Not Be Your Only Motivator for Writing Fan Fiction
Popularity shouldn’t be the only reason you write fan fiction. If you’re only trying to get popular, then you will lose your motivation. Also, remember that just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s high-quality entertainment.
Many fan fiction stories that are very popular have average writing or spelling mistakes. They might have imperfect interpretations of the characters. Characters might be out of character in the story, but readers don’t care because they find the story is entertaining.
There’s also the fact that popular stories have big spikes in popularity; they might have a big burst at the beginning, or they become popular over time.
Chasing popularity in a hobby is just going to lead to stress and being unhappy, and the misconception that you are a “bad” author because people aren’t leaving you comments gushing over your work.
You need to get over being popular on AO3, because you aren’t special and nobody cares that you wrote a fanfic. People need to get over your ego and just enjoy writing a story because it’s fun, not because you’re writing to get popular in a fandom that always shifts; people come and go. Focus on writing great stories, not on trying to impress a bunch of strangers that only want you to make them content.
In conclusion, don’t lose sight of writing for fun and don’t chase being popular; it will only ruin something that’s supposed to be a fun hobby.
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