On All My Motions

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About seven months ago, something started happening through Fanfiction.net. (I know, FFN isn’t exactly well-regarded by many of those who write or just enjoy fanfic, but it’s one of several platforms where I keep my work posted.) Since near the end of August, 95-99% of the ‘reviews’ I get there are suddenly messages saying, basically, “I love your story, I’d be happy to do artwork for it for a very reasonable price.”

After the umpteenth time I got one of those, I formulated a stock reply that I send to every one of these disingenuous opportunists: “I keep getting these notes from various people. The reply is always the same: I don’t pay for artwork for my stories. Ever. Not under any circumstances. If you genuinely liked my writing, thank you.”

I may stop doing even that much. I don’t blame them for seeking customers, but I resent them lying about enjoying (or even having read) any of my stories. Since I’ve received SO MANY of these, from so many separate sources, I now suspect that these are just mass mailings to, possibly, everybody who’s posted recently to FFN. As such, simply ignoring this dishonest crap would be as legitimate as hanging up on phone spammers without even responding to their opening spiel.

It’s a minor annoyance, but it is annoying. Enough to be worth complaining about, which I’ve now done.

What I said before about trying to turn out more fic before 2024 ends? I immediately turned out a brief story comprised of five linked drabbles …

Which somehow didn’t satisfy me. So, over the next several days I went back and expanded each part, and added a few things to make a larger story. I’m going to continue to look it over for proofing and sharpening while I work on other things, but I now have some limited confidence that I can have at least three stories for the year. (“the Uncanny Valley”, the shortfic I just finished, and the longer one I’ve been working on-and-off for months.)

And, who knows? Maybe more than that. Still have three-plus weeks to go.