Nemesis Syndrome
You know what's strange? Audience reactions to your writing. Audience reactions, they can be very, very odd. In fact, there's a term I made up for having stories you struggle with/don't like as much ending up as the ones the audience likes best: Nemesis Syndrome. This is based on my friend n3m3sis42 and how that seemed to keep happen to her during The Real LiveJournal Idol. The name is chosen also for the simple reason that "Nemesis Syndrome" just sounds cool to me.
Anyway, Nemesis Syndrome has happened to me, specifically with my The Meeting of Breccan & Finbar universe (which still needs a better title). I struggled like hell with it when I started writing it, hating the story, yet writing it anyway for some reason I couldn't comprehend. It just sort of insisted I keep at it, so I did, while resenting it muchly. Eventually, I got into it and started enjoying the characters and their "dysfunctional relationships in a fantasy world" dynamic. It's a kind of odd story for me, with an adult (though still very young) male narrator who isn't remotely snarky. Apparently I don't need a snarky narrator to make my writing entertaining. Also, it's more character-driven and less plot-driven than a lot of my stuff. The characters in it have more of "minds of their own" than a lot of my others.
People seem to like to discuss it more than any of my other universes, and it's had the most fanfic (and planned fanfic) written of it, including a piece of "recursive fanfiction" by my friend lilycobalt. Recursive fanfiction being fanfic of fanfic. This bit of recursive fanficiton was a complicated piece because it was about a Breccan & Finbar character in n3m3sis42's Cliffton universe. I wrote a crossover fanfic of those two universes, and lilycobalt wrote fanfic of my crossover fanfic. That was neat!
So yeah, I started out hating the Breccan & Finbar universe, but people seem to like it and find it the most fanfic-able and fun to discuss.
Anyway, Nemesis Syndrome has happened to me, specifically with my The Meeting of Breccan & Finbar universe (which still needs a better title). I struggled like hell with it when I started writing it, hating the story, yet writing it anyway for some reason I couldn't comprehend. It just sort of insisted I keep at it, so I did, while resenting it muchly. Eventually, I got into it and started enjoying the characters and their "dysfunctional relationships in a fantasy world" dynamic. It's a kind of odd story for me, with an adult (though still very young) male narrator who isn't remotely snarky. Apparently I don't need a snarky narrator to make my writing entertaining. Also, it's more character-driven and less plot-driven than a lot of my stuff. The characters in it have more of "minds of their own" than a lot of my others.
People seem to like to discuss it more than any of my other universes, and it's had the most fanfic (and planned fanfic) written of it, including a piece of "recursive fanfiction" by my friend lilycobalt. Recursive fanfiction being fanfic of fanfic. This bit of recursive fanficiton was a complicated piece because it was about a Breccan & Finbar character in n3m3sis42's Cliffton universe. I wrote a crossover fanfic of those two universes, and lilycobalt wrote fanfic of my crossover fanfic. That was neat!
So yeah, I started out hating the Breccan & Finbar universe, but people seem to like it and find it the most fanfic-able and fun to discuss.