Fandom is not an obligation.
It is not a job.Ā It is not school.Ā It is not a contract.Ā Ā Participation in fandom is voluntary and it is not binding (commissions and paid work aside).
Yes, within fandom you should be bound by some sense of ethics or general decency: donāt steal art and fic, donāt willfully deceive people, donāt be a jerk or a garbage human, and so on and so forth.Ā But everything else?Ā The writing fic and the doing and the participation?Ā It is voluntary.
So if you are writing a fic and youāre seven chapters in and you have eight chapters to go and youāre just tired and you donāt want to do it any more?Ā You can stop.Ā If youāve been running a blog and writing about every single episode of every new anime show thatās come out and you canāt for three weeks?Ā Donāt.Ā If you told your 5 billion followers you were gonna post a piece of fanart and youāre just sick of it and you donāt want to do it any more?Ā Give it up.
Sure, people will be disappointed and upset and some will complain.Ā But life is disappointing and upsetting sometimes, and it goes on, and no one can sue you for not finishing a fic that they were enjoying the hell out of for free.Ā No one can accuse you of not living up to the terms of your contract when you donāt post that fanart you mentioned three weeks ago.Ā Because fandom is voluntary.Ā Itās something that you participate in because itās fun or fulfilling or important to you, and when it stops being those things, you should stop, too.
You are not bound by the asks in your inbox.Ā You are not bound by comments on a fic or a piece of art.Ā You are not bound, in fandom, by other peopleās disappointments or their expectations.Ā
Fandom is voluntary.Ā Donāt let people pressure you into thinking that it is anything else.
