I feel like some people in fandom spaces have forgotten that fic writers primarily write out of enjoyment and not because we want to Win At The Numbers Game or cater only to what interests others.
Writing fanfic well is a slow process. It can take months or years to develop a story well, and with social media increasingly pushing quick-form entertainment I feel like there's been a shift towards thinking of creatives as little more than idea generators who need to satisfy that easily digestible, instantly consumable, short-attention-span desire for "content" that should have a broad appeal.
And I honestly feel like that sort of perspective completely undermines the integrity of the creative spirit. Even reading fic is not an experience that can be digested in a few seconds before moving on to the next product. I promise I get it-- it can be intimidating to see a 100k+ word fanfic, even one that you've heard is well-written and worth the time it takes to read! I, too, have a few longer fics I've been meaning to get to. But it's a little disheartening when a five-minute doodle or meme edit I made gets a ton of notes if a fic that's taken a month or more to write comes and goes without much of the excitement I had been hoping to share. Reading and engaging thoughtfully with fanfic takes time. Readers can't reduce it to an experience that fulfills a consumerist-driven want for instant gratification, and I think that's one of the reasons that fanfic and writers are often not treated with much respect recently and are often the first to notice that attitude towards creatives.
Since my main creative medium is writing, I think I've had a different experience with online consumer-minded fandomgoers than creatives are primarily digital illustrators, or animators, or voice actors, or whatever your hobby may be, and I do wonder if that might be due to the inability to consume fanfic and be done with it. But the drift away from thoughtfully engaging with visual mediums are a related issue too; even the fanart that we might look at for half a minute is likely to have taken its artist days or months to create
Fanartists and fanfic writers create what we want because we enjoy it. We're sharing it because we want to be able to share the joy of creating with others, not because we want to fulfill demands made of us. If you're polite and we are open to requests, or if you ask questions/share your favorite details that get our inspiration flowing, we might jump on that! But let's not expect hobbyists to create for us.
Pestering writers who tell and share their stories for fun and for free and treating them as content generators is just one symptom of this. Writing, drawing, crafting-- no matter what you're doing, the process of creating rather than the finished product is the point and makes having creative hobbies worthwhile. Get consumerist attitudes out of fandom spaces
