RESULTS of my survey on fanworks exchanges.

[apple_pathways]

In the end, I had twelve respondents to my survey on fanworks exchanges. (If you haven't taken it and feel you'd like to, please do go ahead: I won't close it.)

I really, REALLY had to fight the urge to pimp it out to other comms and beg for more responses; as I said, I am a social science geek who loves surveys, statistics, and data. However, coming up with a "representative sample" of fandom on my journal is just impossible. And no matter what I like to pretend, I am NOT a legitimate researcher!

So, anyway: 12. Thank you to that twelve! (And to the thirteenth person who expressed her opinions in the comments.) The results of the survey are naturally skewed, as all of the respondents came from my flist, and let's face it: you guys are most definitely a better class of fan than the average rabble! However small and skewed my sample was, I did draw a few conclusions.



First of all, pretty much everyone who responded acknowledged experiencing some type of stress from participating. The vast majority of respondents chose "fun but STRESSFUL" as their general opinion of exchanges.

The most interesting question, to me, was this one: "What do you enjoy most about fanworks exchanges?" Two-thirds of respondents cited "writing for someone else" as their most enjoyed aspect, while the other third chose "reading all of the other fics produced by the exchange." NO ONE chose "receiving a fic" as their most enjoyed aspect.

As for requests and what people ask for in these exchanges, the level of detail provided was split between one-third of respondents who chose either "very" or "quite" detailed, and the remaining two-thirds choosing either "not very" or "not at all". However, no matter how detailed the prompt, everyone acknowledged that it was best to give their author a range of options for their gift.

Concerning the finished product, a quarter of respondents said they expected their author to "pretty closely" match their request when writing their story. The other three quarters didn't care how closely the author followed their prompt, so long as it was a good story that involved characters they enjoyed. No one expected their story to exactly match their request, and every respondant allowed for at least a little wiggle room/author prerogative.

Since you're all fantastic and well-mannered people, you all cited the importance of providing positive feedback on your gift, with slightly more than half of you willing to stretch the truth just a little in order to preserve the author's feelings, and slightly less than half preferring to keep their feedback completely honest, even if it took a little dancing around to get there.

It's good that everyone was so accomodating, since everyone expected positive feedback on the gift they wrote! Every respondent expressed a wish that the giftee should enjoy the story in order for the author to consider it a success.

Now, how do we complainers who badmouth a gift fic? Well, one quarter of respondents thought a bit of complaining was justified if it looked like the author didn't put any effort in, or if they included characters or squicks the giftee asked them to avoid. From the comments, I gather that while it might be OK to complain a little about the gift you received, it's important that this venting should be done somewhere the author won't stumble upon the negative review.

Everyone else thought complaining about a gift fic was inappropriate in all circumstances.



CONCLUSIONS: To me, the most telling piece of data is the revelation that NO ONE from this survey cited receiving a gift tailor-made to their interests as their most enjoyed aspect of the exchange. While a few people admitted they expected their author to adhere pretty closely to the scenarios they provided, most people were just happy to receive a gift that showed a little effort on the author's part. This is good news for those of us who stress ourselves out trying to come up with a story to please our recipient! The fun comes from taking part and having a batch of new stories to read, not in receiving THE PERFECT STORY. Everyone gets stressed out participating in an exchange, and so giftees are likely to be understanding so long as an author tries their best.

From what I can tell, the important rules to follow for fic exchanges are these:

• It's important to be specific in what you will or won't write in order to avoid an awkward matching.
  
• When making a request, be specific about what you don't want, and give several options/scenarios for what you DO want.
  
• Read your recipient's request thoroughly, and make an effort to include at least the characters they like and to avoid at all costs the things they don't like.
  
• Effort is the key point, so even if you can't come up with an idea that perfectly matches everything on your giftee's request, start writing your story with enough time to polish and perfect before turning it in. A well-written story that misses some of the marks is better than a hastily cobbled-together one that matches the request exactly.
  
• When you get your gift, be sure to say "thank you" and provide a list of aspects you enjoyed. If you're so inclined, it's OK to exaggerate a little; if you prefer to be completely honest, get creative in your praise! (More enthusiasm is better.)
  
• If you want to complain about the gift you received, be careful where you do it: remember, you're talking to fellow fans who know how stressful writing for someone else can be! Unless your story was clearly a rush job that included details you specifically asked your author to avoid, people aren't likely to be sympathetic to your whining!
  

Comments

[alias-amy.livejournal.com]

Wow, this was fascinating! I missed your first post on it; I feel like I've neglected my flist entirely since Winterval started. But yes, I think your conclusions were spot on with what I experienced.

I'd never participated in a fic exchange until this year and I don't write fanfic in general/at all/ever before, so I was doubly nervous. I found it incredibly stressful, so even though I did enjoy the fic I received, I couldn't really take any pleasure in it until I got the obligatory squee from my giftee. I feel weird asking her if I can post it; I suspect that they are written well in an absolute sense but not in a fandom sense, that if I was really familiar with the fandoms and was used to writing fanfic, they would have been better. Ultimately the pleasure comes in feeling that the effort I put into it is either appreciated or reciprocated more than the gift itself.

I wasn't very specific about what I asked for so I fear I may not have given the capslock squee reaction my gifter was hoping for; even though I liked the gift plenty, it just wasn't a pairing or scenario that could hit that extreme pleasure center of the brain. On the other hand, I didn't want to create an impossible situation for my gifter either. I think, all in all, for the novice fanficker like myself, I'd rather have a more open-ended exchange and be grateful for the effort/tolerance of my gifter/giftee.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

This was my first year doing exchanges as well! I only started writing fanfic this year, but I've been reading it for years, and have a pretty good feel for what people expect from certain kinds of stories. (Unfortunately, I do often approach my fic with a literary style that doesn't quite push the fandom buttons fic is meant to target. But for exchanges, I do try my best to write the genres/tropes my giftee likes, which is how I end up writing fluff, Mpreg, and the like!)

As you could probably tell, I have a very analytical mind (to say the LEAST!), so I tend to approach new experiences head on with a desire to dissect and understand them. I learned a lot about how these things work this year, and if anything, I'm excited to try my hand at more! (I've collected my data and generated my hypotheses: now it's time to re-test!)

Other than the beautiful and fantastic alt_universe_me who is just an all-around lovely person, I haven't received a lot of squee and enthusiasm for my gift fics. I'm fine with it, though: I put in the effort and came up with what I felt were some entertaining stories. They can't all be home runs!

Being specific is important! It's a big lesson I learned this year. Can I ask what fandom you were writing/requesting in?

When you say more open-ended, in what aspects do you mean? How would you change the exchanges you partook in? (Sorry, I've now moved on to the 'qualitative interviewing' stage of data collection!)

[alias-amy.livejournal.com]

Ha! I'm very analytical as well so I don't mind the follow up at all. By open-ended, I just meant that I'm not in any fandoms so it only came up because of pulped_fictions, where the mod was given the herculean task of pairing people up across diverse fandoms. I requested Dr. Who, Sherlock, Human Target, Nikita, Futurama, 30 Rock, Community, Burn Notice, The Glades, Justified, The Good Wife (Alicia/Will), Top Chef, also X-Files, Twin Peaks, Better Off Ted, Pushing Daisies. I got the wonderful katyscarlett76, who I'm guessing only had DW and Sherlock in common with me, just given that my tastes are so American. Since I don't ship any particularly pairing, I left it open and got a really lovely fic about 10 & Donna's relationship.

She had a bunch of specific pairings, but I had the same problem I suspect she did: I only had DW in common and also the West Wing (I may be the only PFer that doesn't watch Merlin.) I went DW for her icons, and then for her giftfics, I wrote a West Wing one which I think was my best because I actually do like that show very much, I wrote an HP R/T fic because I had a friend who wrote R/T and could beta it for me, and a Jane Austen one because I've read Pride & Prejudice and seen the film/tv adaptations. But she's like an Austen expert, and I'm not even British! So it just couldn't have been that good, but I did try.

So in this context I didn't want to make it impossible for the gifter but I also probably made it impossible to exactly hit the capslock squee. In contrast, etiam_quietus is my buddy, she knows how much I absolutely detest a character on Human Target and so she wrote a giftfic that killed her off and I went batshit insane with happiness over it. But that's not something I felt like I could have requested at PF.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm gonna have to go back and look for your Austen fic! You certainly wrote a lot for your recipient--I managed one smallish fic and two icon sets. I only had one fandom in common with my giftee, but that's not unusual, since I only have two fandoms! (Doctor Who and Sherlock.) It would be better if I were familiar with more shows, but I'm just...not. (I don't watch Merlin either! High five!)

It really is hard to get at what other people really want unless you know them well.

I finished my final exchange fic today (HUZZAH!), so other than my Baubles to It entry, that ends all of the stories I have committed myself to write. (Thank goodness!)

[alias-amy.livejournal.com]

I should also add the my giftee was more than generous in expressing her appreciation, and it made me very, very happy. I'm just trying to draw the distinction between "this was great! I loved it!" and "OMGIMGOINGTODIE that was so good!" I think its not realistic to expect the latter unless you're very in tune with each other.

[alt_universe_me.livejournal.com]

Lab rat here, lol.

Interesting conclusions. I just wanted to say I just posted my last ficathon fic, and thank god, my recipient loved it. I don't think I could handle another one with no comment from my recipient, like my TW fic. Although, I did check my recipient's lj, and they haven't posted in a really long time, so maybe they are just away?

This was a good experience for next year, though. I did three, so maybe not so many next year, so I can spend more time on them. A lot of the fic writers really went above and beyond, especially for dwsanta, and especially you, my dear :) My fics ended up being towards the shorter side of things, and I think maybe next year I'll attempt less ficathons, but more fic.

Anyway, happy new year! (soon)

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Although, I did check my recipient's lj, and they haven't posted in a really long time, so maybe they are just away?

Away, or perhaps dropped off the face of the earth? That appears to be what happened to the person I originally wrote my dwsanta fic for. That's another reason I was so happy Jessica was able to re-gift it to you: I would have been really disappointed if I had put in all that effort to write a specific scenario, only to have it gifted to the comm, most of whom would be apathetic to the particular type of story I wrote. It was good she had another person who enjoyed the characters and style of my recipient's request to re-gift it to!

Anyway, sometimes people disappear unexpectedly from fandom, and that's probably what happened to the person you wrote for!

Some of the dwsanta fics were epic! However, longer isn't always better; a well-written short piece is far superior to a 10,000 word epic that doesn't work. What I look for is a good/interesting idea to support the story, and I don't mind if it's done in 500 words or 5,000, so long as the word count fits the strength of the idea!

(Just as soon as all this holiday madness is over, I'm going to catch up on your fics. I noticed you posted some, but haven't had time to read them!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[alt_universe_me.livejournal.com]

Ha, it's very possible my recipient did drop off the face of the Earth, or at least the fandom :P

I'm still catching up on so many fics! So. Many. Fics! Ahhh!

:D