People feel pressure to write long plotty fics that will get lots of comments, and feel like they've failed if they don't do that.
Yes! There is a definite pressure to do that. Although length has nothing to do with quality (fic-wise, lol) I do notice the longer stories tend to get the most comments. Also, I feel like I can't give my giftees teeny fics when everyone else gets longer ones (despite the fact that a deftly written short fic is more satisfying than one which is longer but poorly done). When the fest isn't an exchange, my fics definitely tend to be shorter.
For newer and non-established writers, there's also a sense of auditioning with anonymous exchanges - will this fic get me an invite to such and such comm?-- which can also be stressful. It's easy to lose touch with the goal of just pleasing the giftee, and to try to please everyone. Then you look at your comments and the number of comments other fics got, and if yours got less you feel you've failed somehow.
Nevertheless: fests and exchanges do create excitement (at least the major ones do), and it also can stimulate authors to get writing, motivated by the ever-looming deadline.
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Date: 2007-06-20 06:05 pm (UTC)Yes! There is a definite pressure to do that. Although length has nothing to do with quality (fic-wise, lol) I do notice the longer stories tend to get the most comments. Also, I feel like I can't give my giftees teeny fics when everyone else gets longer ones (despite the fact that a deftly written short fic is more satisfying than one which is longer but poorly done). When the fest isn't an exchange, my fics definitely tend to be shorter.
For newer and non-established writers, there's also a sense of auditioning with anonymous exchanges - will this fic get me an invite to such and such comm?-- which can also be stressful. It's easy to lose touch with the goal of just pleasing the giftee, and to try to please everyone. Then you look at your comments and the number of comments other fics got, and if yours got less you feel you've failed somehow.
Nevertheless: fests and exchanges do create excitement (at least the major ones do), and it also can stimulate authors to get writing, motivated by the ever-looming deadline.