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silveradept[Welcome back to December Days. This year, thanks to a suggestion from alexseanchai, I'm writing about writing. Suggestions for topics are most definitely welcome! There's still a lot of space to cover.]
This might be a personal thing, limited only to me, but it's something that I continue to deal with in regard to all of the exchanges that I participate in, so maybe it is something that other people deal with as well. Or perhaps you're all people who write assignments and a couple treats for all of your exchanges and there's no issues at all with regard to this. Then, enjoy this peek into my head and see what sort of strange creatures live there and come out to play.
Exchanges are usually a one-to-one ratio. I write a work, I receive a work, and everyone walks away happy, and then there's a collection to browse through of all the neat things that everyone has composed, and comments can be left, and the whole thing is just delightful. Sometimes you end up going out to the pinch hit list, but that still means basically a one-to-one ratio of gifts received to gifts sent.
For the most part, though, I don't tend to write treats, because I'm often working on two or more exchanges at the same time, and I want to make sure that I've gotten all of my assignments done before I start picking up extra work. I have done a few where I've answered the call for pinch hits, so some collections have more than one work of mine in them, but I'm not the most prolific author in any exchange at all.
For some exchanges, like Chocolate Box or Trick or Treat, the lower word count requirement is meant to encourage writing more things for people, and so sometimes in those cases I end up with three or more gifts for having written only one, and that starts to get a little at me because it feels like unearned largesse from others. Yes, fanfic is based around a gift economy, and so everyone is freely giving their works to their recipients as well as building their own presence in the place where those fics are stored, but there's something that's feeling unfair about giving one and getting three. When it's for the smaller exchanges, getting a few five hundred word fics doesn't feel like it was the biggest time commitment from the authors to me, and so it doesn't ping terribly, other than if you look at my profile, you'll see exactly that - more gifts received than gifts given. Which doesn't say anything about the wordcount of those gifts, or totals about words given versus words received, but there's a certain self-judgment that comes along with it, as to whether I'm doing it wrong by not having an even count of gifts to assignments fulfilled.
The judgment starts to get a lot louder and more insistent when it turns out I've given one work to an assignment and received more than one complete work in return for exchanges that aren't trying to be popcorn-sized. There's something in my head that starts wondering about the fairness of it all if I'm giving a complete story in 1,000-3,000 words, getting a story that was 3,000-5,000 words and then getting an additional gift on top of that that was 10,000 words as well. I can't control what other people choose to write, of course, or who they choose to gift it to, and that should, presumably, be enough to make that judgmental feeling go away, but brains are weird.
After all, I'm doing everything that I've been assigned to do, and I haven't defaulted, and someone else decided to write something extra and nice for me and others. And they're doing it of their own free will. And I don't know the details of what a gift is going to be until it's revealed, so there's no reason to feel like there's an obligation to give every word back that I've received, every additional gift having to get repaid in turn or paid forward to someone else. (See the rubber ducking going on?) It's not fair, no, if fair is supposed to mean a completely equal share of everything, bit for bit, word for word, gift for gift, whether to the person who gave the gift or to someone else.
And yet, I was talking about the differences between reciprocity and mutuality with others, and how reciprocity's older meaning used to mean things like "the things you do with all guests because they are guests and you are a civilized person, and that they will do the same for you should you be a guest in their house." And the relationship between the divine and the humans, where the humans make the sacrifices, say the prayers, and comport themselves according to the contracts and commands of the divine, and the divine responds in turn by blessing the people, the crops, and making sure the civilization itself prospers. Although there's enough wiggle in both entities' responsibilities so that you don't always get the specific blessing you asked for, even if it turns out to be the one that you needed. And sometimes what gets sacrificed is what was plentiful that year, even if what's normally been sacrificed is something different. Or the prayers change form because there's a new priest in town and the ritual needs to be a bit more spectacular in a time of trials. But the main idea remains the same. The specifics may change, but the agreement is in place.
It's easier to say that the gift economy of fandom is more about people as equals giving things to each other because they're equal and because they're fans, because there are stories that still need telling from our imaginations, canons that need fixing, because storytelling is definitely a human thing, and because charging money for this would invoke a lot of terrible lawyers and such. So it shouldn't matter how much gets given, or received, so long as everyone gets what they want.
...and still.
alexseanchai, I'm writing about writing. Suggestions for topics are most definitely welcome! There's still a lot of space to cover.]This might be a personal thing, limited only to me, but it's something that I continue to deal with in regard to all of the exchanges that I participate in, so maybe it is something that other people deal with as well. Or perhaps you're all people who write assignments and a couple treats for all of your exchanges and there's no issues at all with regard to this. Then, enjoy this peek into my head and see what sort of strange creatures live there and come out to play.
Exchanges are usually a one-to-one ratio. I write a work, I receive a work, and everyone walks away happy, and then there's a collection to browse through of all the neat things that everyone has composed, and comments can be left, and the whole thing is just delightful. Sometimes you end up going out to the pinch hit list, but that still means basically a one-to-one ratio of gifts received to gifts sent.
For the most part, though, I don't tend to write treats, because I'm often working on two or more exchanges at the same time, and I want to make sure that I've gotten all of my assignments done before I start picking up extra work. I have done a few where I've answered the call for pinch hits, so some collections have more than one work of mine in them, but I'm not the most prolific author in any exchange at all.
For some exchanges, like Chocolate Box or Trick or Treat, the lower word count requirement is meant to encourage writing more things for people, and so sometimes in those cases I end up with three or more gifts for having written only one, and that starts to get a little at me because it feels like unearned largesse from others. Yes, fanfic is based around a gift economy, and so everyone is freely giving their works to their recipients as well as building their own presence in the place where those fics are stored, but there's something that's feeling unfair about giving one and getting three. When it's for the smaller exchanges, getting a few five hundred word fics doesn't feel like it was the biggest time commitment from the authors to me, and so it doesn't ping terribly, other than if you look at my profile, you'll see exactly that - more gifts received than gifts given. Which doesn't say anything about the wordcount of those gifts, or totals about words given versus words received, but there's a certain self-judgment that comes along with it, as to whether I'm doing it wrong by not having an even count of gifts to assignments fulfilled.
The judgment starts to get a lot louder and more insistent when it turns out I've given one work to an assignment and received more than one complete work in return for exchanges that aren't trying to be popcorn-sized. There's something in my head that starts wondering about the fairness of it all if I'm giving a complete story in 1,000-3,000 words, getting a story that was 3,000-5,000 words and then getting an additional gift on top of that that was 10,000 words as well. I can't control what other people choose to write, of course, or who they choose to gift it to, and that should, presumably, be enough to make that judgmental feeling go away, but brains are weird.
After all, I'm doing everything that I've been assigned to do, and I haven't defaulted, and someone else decided to write something extra and nice for me and others. And they're doing it of their own free will. And I don't know the details of what a gift is going to be until it's revealed, so there's no reason to feel like there's an obligation to give every word back that I've received, every additional gift having to get repaid in turn or paid forward to someone else. (See the rubber ducking going on?) It's not fair, no, if fair is supposed to mean a completely equal share of everything, bit for bit, word for word, gift for gift, whether to the person who gave the gift or to someone else.
And yet, I was talking about the differences between reciprocity and mutuality with others, and how reciprocity's older meaning used to mean things like "the things you do with all guests because they are guests and you are a civilized person, and that they will do the same for you should you be a guest in their house." And the relationship between the divine and the humans, where the humans make the sacrifices, say the prayers, and comport themselves according to the contracts and commands of the divine, and the divine responds in turn by blessing the people, the crops, and making sure the civilization itself prospers. Although there's enough wiggle in both entities' responsibilities so that you don't always get the specific blessing you asked for, even if it turns out to be the one that you needed. And sometimes what gets sacrificed is what was plentiful that year, even if what's normally been sacrificed is something different. Or the prayers change form because there's a new priest in town and the ritual needs to be a bit more spectacular in a time of trials. But the main idea remains the same. The specifics may change, but the agreement is in place.
It's easier to say that the gift economy of fandom is more about people as equals giving things to each other because they're equal and because they're fans, because there are stories that still need telling from our imaginations, canons that need fixing, because storytelling is definitely a human thing, and because charging money for this would invoke a lot of terrible lawyers and such. So it shouldn't matter how much gets given, or received, so long as everyone gets what they want.
...and still.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-19 03:38 pm (UTC)So, yeah.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-19 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-19 07:35 pm (UTC)One thing that helps me is the idea, in exchanges, that there are usually multiple people who are going to be delighted to see a given fic appear ( even in a fandom of one, there are probably other people who didn't know they'd like that thing.)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-19 09:08 pm (UTC)Could you say a bit more about those delighted people? I think I have the basic gist of it, but I'm not sure I understand it completely or effectively.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 01:08 am (UTC)So any new fanfic in those fandoms is a little moment of delight, not just (we hope) for the recipient, but for other people who will read through the list of fandoms with works, and go "Ooooh! Something for...." and be pleased. (And then, though rec lists have dropped off somewhat, reccing the good stuff around.)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 06:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 01:02 pm (UTC)(I do feel it's sometimes different in exchanges with different criteria and goals, but Yuletide, there really is an audience of people who will love things but didn't know they wanted the thing that just appeared.)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 03:56 pm (UTC)(I usually do a list when nominations happen and I go "Oh, I wonder what people will ask for that..." and then half the time I forget or ignore the list when works are released...)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-19 08:35 pm (UTC)I mostly come from the non-exchange portion, where inspiration rather than semi-obligation drives the works. Every now and then I see someone say "I wish that X existed in the universe" without expectation of me doing the thing, and a creative burr latches onto my brain, and writing is a delight. I'm writing it both for me and in hopes that the person getting it will feel unexpectedly happy upon finding it. It's the opposite feeling from a lackluster prompt and no kudos.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-19 09:12 pm (UTC)I can understand writing from "this thing needs to exist in the world" rather than the prompts of the exchange, too, although that doesn't hit quite as often.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-19 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-19 09:24 pm (UTC)