As a fan creator, you are your own “boss” and therefore you decide on your own workload. However, if you are enthusiastic about the fandom or if you’re one of a small set of creators or if you’re trying to “keep up” with other writers, you might take on more work than you can reasonably handle.
A lot of fan creators feel a strong sense of responsibility attached to their posting schedule, for example, or feel guilt associated with not writing on a particular day. Self-imposed deadlines can become hard and fast rules rather than personal goals, and there is stress and anxiety related to not meeting those deadlines. Missing a posting date or taking too long of a break from uploading content can feel like a risk, like your audience will be disappointed and might even disappear.
Workload becomes a problem when you feel overwhelmed by what you need to do. This might be because you have accepted prompts from others, because you’ve started several works in progress but not completed them yet, or because you’ve signed up to participate in fandom events.
If you find yourself overloaded and stressed out by your to do list, it’s time to prioritize and deselect.
What fics are you most interested in writing? Put those at the top of your list. What are you not at all interested in doing? Remove those from the list. If that means that you won’t fill a prompt, let the requester know that you won’t be able to write it for them. Generally speaking, people are understanding. Telling them also means that they are free to give that prompt to another author.
Fandom event organizers would also rather you let them know early that you’ll be pulling out. The more time you can give them to find a replacement for you, the better. Most organizers have “back up” writers available who will take on unclaimed prompts for people who are unable to complete the challenge or event.
Be open and honest with yourself and with others about what you can really do. It will be better for everyone involved. A sustainable workload is necessary for you to be able to continue creating long-term.
Because of the amount of time and energy being devoted to fic and the exhaustion that results from overwork, authors who are experience burnout are more likely to need more rewards from the community in order to feel like their effort is worthwhile. If the reward they are receiving feels too small for too long, these authors might complain about a lack of comments or kudos, insist on more interaction from their communities, or maybe even stop writing altogether.
Unfortunately, no amount of reward will help them restore their depleted energy.
It’s important to note that you can feel burnt out, even when you’re doing something you love. Because it’s something you love doing, you are more likely to push yourself to do it even when you’re tired or otherwise need to rest. This is even more true when fic writing is something you’ve done in the past to help you relax from other life stresses.
If you are feeling stressed out or overwhelmed or like you have too much on your plate take a step back. Give yourself some time off. Remember that writing is your hobby and ultimately the only person you are responsible to is yourself.
Rest, recharge, and let go of the things that aren’t working right now. Take care of yourself first and you’ll be better able to take care of others later.
Okay. This is really important.
As someone who writes very long, involved fic, takes a loooong time to plan them and an even longer time to write them, and also has (if I push myself and do not much other than work and write fic) around 20 hours a week (seriously... this is me at DOING TOO MUCH stage), it is important for me to adjust expectations.
As a creator, especially in rpf fandoms but I imagine similar things apply to TV show fandoms or webcomics or any fandomwith daily/weekly content updates, there is this constant pressure (self-imposed, MAYBE*) to stay relevant. It can be overwhelming if you're in a position like me where it might take you at best 2 months to write a fic. By the time you're done it can feel like your content isn't relevant and fandom has moved on to some new thing that happened last week.
Friends... that pressure is terrible.
I spend so much time thinking "work harder. Write faster. Why are you so slow? This happened a year ago (or more), NO ONE EVEN CARES ANYMORE." This absolutely leads to burnout and not bothering to finish things I had a lot of energy around because they're irrelevant. It's like no matter how hard you work, you're always behind and trying to play catch up.
Now... about the very important (*) I dropped earlier.
*Not all of this, in my experience, is necessarily the author pressuring themself. There is a certain degree of fandom energy around pairings or events or whatever, and it can be fleeting. So if you are writing to try and capture some of that energy, you feel this outside pressure to get things done before everyone moves on. That's different, sort of, than self-imposed pressure, because it's being driven by an external source. Most of us, to some degree, create content so people can consume it. If potential consumers are signaling us that they no longer care by the time we are ready with our content, there can be a degree of "what's the point." So, you are faced with the choice of do more faster, or stop doing it. Neither is a good option if we're wanting content to be created.
More insidious, I think, are the readers constantly asking "when is the next chapter?" Or "when are you writing this fic?" Or repeatedly saying "Pleeeeeeaaaase give us this content right now!" And I get it. Content consumers are excited to consume the content. As a creator, I love it when people are excited for my work. It feels GOOD. And as consumers, if a writer is doing a good job, you're supposed to be left needing OMG MORE RIGHT NOW. But I think you also have to understand the pressure that puts on creators. They're so happy that you want this content and that you love it, and they want to deliver it to you ASAP. But if their time/energy to create is a finite resource, there may be nothing at all they can do to deliver the content faster, which can lead people to feeling like they failed or are repeatedly letting down their audience because they haven't figured out a way to add 2 more hours onto their days so they have time to create faster.
So... I urge everyone, creators of content and consumers of content, to be realistic in your expectations. For what you can create. For how quickly it can be created. And for how long it takes to create and how much time/energy the creator can afford to invest.
We're all out here working for free amidst the chaos of our lives. Let's be gentle with ourselves and one another.
