On Writing Gen
When you write fluff or smut or something along those lines for a reasonably popular pairing, you can expect a few things:
1) People who like the pairing will read it.
2) People who like the pairing will tolerate or even want a fairly formula plot.
And thus, a thousand Ike/Soren hurt-comfort fics were born.
Despite my bitching, I still read them. And every now and then I like one. But this isn't about me as a consumer. This is pretentious me thinking about what a writer can get away with when they write pairingfic.
This is just a reality of producing work that ties into familiarity with another work: a great deal of your potential audience will consist of people who are looking for their favorites doing things that please them. Yes, even the snobby people who promote gen. A recent poll around these parts showed that people read fic overwhelmingly for the sake of reading about their favorite characters. In the last year, I myself have even skimmed longer works just to read the bits about Soren. Favorite characters tend to beget favorite pairings, and well.
I say pairingfic, because although there are many other kinds of fic that are readily consumed by a large audience, pairingfic is by and far the broadest and most time-enduring type of fic. When you write pairing fic for a pretty well-loved pairing, you can downright expect responses and appreciation. Basically, you know for sure that there is an audience for your work. In a smaller fandom like Fire Emblem fandom, you can also be reasonably sure that they don't really have the luxury of choice either, and their expectations will be much lower for pairing fic than otherwise.
The fact that they're reading for their favorite pairing means they're also pretty okay with a highish level of rehashing ideas they've seen before. Actually! Departing from these established norms can even alienate readers. After all, any innovation comes from the writer's interpretation, and a difference in interpretation can quite off-putting. You might say that, if you're looking for a good response, it's best to "play it safe" by treading along the path already traveled.
All this adds up to the fact that the audience for pairingfic lets you get away with not thinking too hard about what you're writing and how it's different from anything else or, to a large extent, even if your writing is entertaining and if you're keeping the reader's attention. The character names are entertaining in themselves.
This is not the case for genfic. The people who read genfic generally do so because,
1) They want something that stands out from everything else offered,
2) The story somehow looked interesting independent of biases, or
3) You just happened to hit someone's obscure favorite jackpot.
Let's put 3 aside for now.
I think the challenges are clear off the bat. You do not have an audience certain to appreciate your work. You have to somehow lure them in with what limited means you've got, whether it's through an attractive summary, or aggressive self-promotion. Then you have to somehow keep them there, and the names of the characters alone are not going to help you with that. And hopefully you delivered on (1), or they're going to be a bit grumpy that they chose you over something else, like that bit of pairingfic smut. The smut may have been equally predictable, but damn, Soren is hot in a suit. Hey let's stop reading this bit of gen and switch tabs back over there. Mmm.
What? Oh yes.
When you write pairingfic, you can assume that people are interested. When you write gen, you must fight for their attention. It's not even a case of "more is better". Get too weird and you get alienated/apathetic readers. It may be nearly as laborious as trying to interest people in your original fiction.
But wait, you say, what about all those people who claim to like gen?
Yes, there is a "market" for gen, but the audience is mostly composed of irritatingly picky people who are frequently either too intimidated, shy, arrogant, or busy to read and review.
If you're looking for adoration, I don't suggest writing gen. In my limited experience, offbeat humor with good execution tends to get the best response for the effort involved.
If you write gen, it should be firstly because you want to, and secondly because you think it would be okay if just one other person likes it too.
There are upsides besides the glory of doing whatever the hell you want. Writing gen can force you to learn. So can writing pairingfic, but over time it's easier to fall back upon a formula, since it's possible to do that and still get positive feedback. Writing on a formula means you no longer have to think too hard about the details of story construction, or even characterization. And skills that you don't use tend not to improve.
And remember: If irritatingly picky intimidated shy arrogant busy people take their time to say something disappointed them, it means they believe in your ability to become great.