“13irgit replied to your post: I think it’s great...”
I think there's much to be done about it! if you are AWARE that you only read stuff by the same person, maybe your awareness could cause you to actually broaden your horizon. I mean, there are fics with thousands of kudos and they seriously never pop up in the rec lists, and I don't think that's right. I do it too, constantly (re)-read the same stuff by the same people, but I'm aware so I always look at the updated list and I read as much new stuff as I can. Support new talent is important.
So yeah, I really get all your points (I do it too), but I don’t believe it’s unavoidable at all. I don’t want people to accept that only three or four of the soooo many amazing writers are being appreciated for what they do. It’s frustrating and unfair.
And then, I mean, there was this time I only ever read my Harry Potter books, if I’d stayed in that lane I would definitely not have broadened my horizon the way I have now. It’s good for you to read different stuff, much better for the mind.
And it’s not just individuals, I mean, I asked jonxsansafanfiction once ‘why do you always recommend the same stuff’ and I just got such an annoying 'we have our list and we always tag everything, so you can find it there’ response, like, that’s a lame excuse and not at all the answer to my question. I even named stories 'why is this not in here and this?’ And the answer was literally, 'we tag everything, find it there’ dude 👎
There’s a few different thoughts here I’ve tried to respond to.
there are fics with thousands of kudos and they seriously never pop up in the rec lists, and I don't think that's right
I tried not to say this in my first post but--if it literally has upper hundreds or thousands of kudos, there’s a good chance (80%+) that I did read it and didn’t like it, and therefore didn’t rec it. Full stop.
(Or that I did like it but not enough for it to survive the winnowing to my favorite 14 or whatever. There’s only so much time and effort I’m going to put into a recs list.)
I hate being negative in recs, but I also don’t like glossing over things I dislike/things I think other people might dislike in those fics, so I end up not reccing them at all. There are whole categories of fics I’m not going to rec:
stuff that has is really good in one way but not in others (super interesting concept + iffy writing, for example, or hot smut + characterization that makes my eyes bug out)
stuff that is objectively or technically good but just doesn’t hit my buttons, or contains elements I dislike - tropes, kinks, certain interpretations of canon/characters (since we’re friends I can pick on @jonnsansa here and say I think she’s a great writer and I love her stuff, but if her A/B/O fic updates there’s a good chance I’m not going to pay much attention because that trope just isn’t for me, you know?)
WIPs that are promising but still in the early stages; if I’m going to rec a WIP, it has to be substantial (@mon-blanchetts fr ex; I really dig her writing and it makes me have a lot of feelings [THE SHEER ANGST, and also a really admirable ability to delay explanation of what’s going on in a nicely suspenseful way], but the fics I’d rec just have a couple of parts right now. So if you’re cool with that, go read her stuff! But hopefully it’s understandable why I wouldn’t put it on a recs list until it was further along?)
Maybe this is just me being super picky, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don’t really care? It’s a free internet, I can be as picky as I want.
But if you catch me in a more private space I’m okay with criticizing more freely. If you like a story and want to ask me what I think of it, feel free to privately message me and I’ll be more candid.
Supporting new talent is important.
I am “new talent,” so to speak, so it’s not like I’m part of some cliquey cabal of “old guard” friends who only read and rec each other. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, for that matter. Life is too short. Read & rec only your friends if you want!)
But there are several new(er) writers that I did include because I really like their stuff--@jonnsansa, @toyhto, @aknightfornawt (@maybetwice? how new are you? Ugh, this is what I get for coming to a fandom super late, the room is on fire and I have no idea what’s going on). I’m pretty sure I recced literally everything @aknightfornawt has written for Jon/Sansa except maybe one (such a tremendous writer y’all), and we started writing for the ship around the same time.
It’s good for you to read different stuff, much better for the mind.
I’m in fandom for fun. Broadening my horizons and improving my mind is what my graduate degree was for.
At a fundamental level, I’m doing this for fun. Like you, I don’t have a lot of time--it’s mostly taken up by other less fun stuff. Like, you know, my multiple jobs, and also my PhD program.
I just don’t think I have an obligation to force myself to read more of a fic if I don’t like the first chapter, or to keep giving a writer more chances if I know I just don’t like their writing style and that’s unlikely to change.
At bottom, all my recs lists were saying is “here are some things I like.” I never said it was an objective assessment of quality. I didn’t pretend it was comprehensive. It was just some things I happen to really like. Lots of other people already liked lots of them. Oh well.
