Requests: better than the trash can.

[icarus]

Every now and then I get requests. I have a few approaches to requests:

- Requests for stories, pairings, etc., I listen to. If they spark a new fic I write it down in my notes, and often credit the requestor. Sometimes the idea rumbles and it's six months or a year before anything comes of it.

- Requests for sequels, updates... surprisingly, that's very effective. I get the usual pang of guilt, yes, but if the request is accompanied by a review it renews my interest in the story, draws my attention to it. I pick up steam when people tell me they're interested. Which, okay, 90% of the time doesn't produce another part of the fic. But there's always that rare 10%.

- Requests that I do things that are painful and difficult for me (running a Fic-A-Thon, website changes to Percyness, etc., etc.) all get a standard, "Heck, I don't have time. But if you'd like to do the staggering amount of work involved -- go for it!"

Oddly, if the project's a real pain in the ass, I don't get a lot of volunteers. In fact usually (although they were quick to ask me to do it) I don't hear back at all.

*smirks*

Comments

[theemdash]

I'm going on two years now for a request that I really wanted to write. I finally started it over Christmas and it just keeps growing. The person who requested it asked about it recently and I really felt like snapping, "It's bigger than me, all right?"

Sometimes it's nice to get requests, but other times they just make me feel guilty.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I once wrote a birthday fic for tinderblast. Er. I started it a little before her birthday in 2003. I gave it to her for her birthday in, um, 2004.

*sheepish*

Icarus