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rynlingI wrote a short fluff story about Barret and Cid for the Romancing Barret fan week event on Tumblr (here). The story is called “Good Old-Fashioned Grunt Work,” and it’s on AO3 (here).
This is me getting way back on my bullshit about “engineer husbands,” which started with Setzer and Edgar from Final Fantasy VI. I actually deleted those stories from AO3 because they only had a small handful of kudos, but maybe I should repost them. Maybe.
One of the most common pieces of advice for creatives is that you shouldn't worry too much about the reception your work receives. To a certain extent, that's true. Art exists for its own sake, as well as the joy of the process for the creator. Speaking personally, my own sense of self-worth has very little to do with how many likes or kudos my work gets, which is (almost entirely) stochastically random.
At the same time, we live in a society. I don't judge my work by its numbers, but other people do. It goes without saying that people will adjust their behavior toward you depending on how they view your rank in their community, and reception metrics are the most visible indicator. There's also a snowball effect in which people are more likely to "like" or share or comment on something that already has high numbers. So for me, it makes sense to weed out and delete my more poorly received stories from the archive.
Speaking of deleting things, I also uninstalled FFVII Rebirth from my Steam Deck. I've tried to play the game twice now, and both times I've gotten bored after the opening section in Nibelheim + Kalm. I loved FFVII Remake, but maybe Rebirth isn't for me. I just think that maybe I enjoy the fanfic more than the actual game. And that's cool.
This is me getting way back on my bullshit about “engineer husbands,” which started with Setzer and Edgar from Final Fantasy VI. I actually deleted those stories from AO3 because they only had a small handful of kudos, but maybe I should repost them. Maybe.
One of the most common pieces of advice for creatives is that you shouldn't worry too much about the reception your work receives. To a certain extent, that's true. Art exists for its own sake, as well as the joy of the process for the creator. Speaking personally, my own sense of self-worth has very little to do with how many likes or kudos my work gets, which is (almost entirely) stochastically random.
At the same time, we live in a society. I don't judge my work by its numbers, but other people do. It goes without saying that people will adjust their behavior toward you depending on how they view your rank in their community, and reception metrics are the most visible indicator. There's also a snowball effect in which people are more likely to "like" or share or comment on something that already has high numbers. So for me, it makes sense to weed out and delete my more poorly received stories from the archive.
Speaking of deleting things, I also uninstalled FFVII Rebirth from my Steam Deck. I've tried to play the game twice now, and both times I've gotten bored after the opening section in Nibelheim + Kalm. I loved FFVII Remake, but maybe Rebirth isn't for me. I just think that maybe I enjoy the fanfic more than the actual game. And that's cool.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-16 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-16 04:41 pm (UTC)At the same time, I think probably 2/3 of my bookmarks on AO3 are stories that have fewer than 20 kudos. I flip through a fair number of fiction magazines every month, and these stories I've bookmarked on AO3 are in the top rank of my favorite things I've read in recent years. I think you and me and most of us who actually write (or create things in general) know from experience that numbers ≠ quality...
...but yeah. We live in a society.
Also god bless the ability to be completely anonymous online. That's something I miss more every day.