🛠️📚 “Where’s the Love?”: The Struggles of Writing Gen Fanfiction
Every time I hit “publish” on a new fic, I brace myself — not for hate, not for mistakes, but for silence. And more often than not, that silence comes when I’ve written something without romance at its core.
Because let’s face it: if your fic doesn’t have shipping, it’s statistically doomed to underperform.
💔 According to AO3 data, more than 85% of bookmarked and hit-count-heavy fics are tagged with romantic or sexual pairings. And when you look at Tumblr reblogs, Twitter/X rec threads, and even fanfic awards? The trend is clear: love stories dominate. And if your fic is about found family, grief, personal growth, moral conflict, or slice-of-life friendship moments... well. Good luck breaking 500 hits.
And that’s not wrong. Romance is powerful. It’s emotional, it’s validating, and it drives plot with satisfying clarity. A well-written ship can change how we read canon — and ourselves.
But still. Sometimes I wish that a fic about a character rebuilding their identity post-trauma got the same attention as one where they kiss someone for the first time. That we could crave inner worlds as much as we crave intimacy.
🔍 Writing gen (general) fiction isn’t just harder to get read. It’s harder to get noticed, categorised, or even respected. You tag it as “gen,” and people assume it’s dry, boring, plot-only, or worse: that you’re playing it safe. That you’re not going deep enough.
But I am going deep. I just want to explore the ache of legacy. Or the cost of violence. Or what it means to be loyal when no one asks you to be. And yes, sometimes those things matter more than “will they or won’t they.”
📉 I've seen incredible character studies sink unnoticed while fluff-fics soar. And again: romance isn’t the problem. The bias is.
We all say we love worldbuilding. Character arcs. Quiet moments. But fandom attention doesn’t always reflect that. And for those of us who write gen, it’s easy to feel invisible.
I'm a romance writer, at least, always with a bit of romance. I shouldn't be complaining… but I am. Or rather, I reflect, I reflect on my own bias, on whether I review Gen fanfics or not, on how I organize my searches, on whether I'm being unfair to myself by not giving my soul different stories to feed on.
🧠✨ If you’re one of the readers who leaves kudos, reblogs, or comments on these kinds of fics — thank you. You’re rare, and you make all the difference.
And if you’re a writer feeling discouraged? I see you. Your work is powerful. Even if it doesn’t trend. Even if it doesn’t get shouted about. Even if it’s read in silence, at 2 a.m., by someone who desperately needed it.
Keep writing. Not everything that matters gets bookmarked.
[Naoko Takeuchi]
