i'm curious (i haven't read ace of spades and i won't bc of the mcd, so i'm not even looking at it bc i know i'll start reading it then): is there a big difference in hits and kudos to your other fics? i've always wondered if a mcd really stops a lot of people from reading fics or if that's just me.
it really does, yeah. surprisingly only my hits have taken a, well, hit. and my comments i guess but those always vary wildly anyway tbh. my kudos are super high for what i was expecting, which tells me not very many people are reading but those who are really like it. whatās fascinating is that not only am i getting decreased traffic, iāve lost about 10 user subs on ao3 and 30ish followers on tumblr in the last 3 days. normally i wouldnāt attribute it to the fic, but i havenāt lost any on twitter and thatās the only platform iām not using to promo AoS.
so yeah, the negative power of MCD is strong, which is why i kind of wish it wasnāt an archive warning at all. i know the ao3 founders are pro-Choose Not to Use, and i was going to go that route for a while, because tagging something MCD is always major spoilers, but that doesnāt mean itās acceptable to do or that i wouldnāt get crucified about it later. so i opted for full disclosure because if i were a reader, thatās what i would want. tbh i wouldnāt touch AoS with a ten foot pole unless someone linked it to me and said no you donāt understand you need to read this and then i might give it a chance.Ā
the reason iām writing it even when i wouldnāt read it is because i love a good tragedy and the emotional catharsis that comes with it. i have a lot of Opinions about tragedies and how they should be written and i get so pissed off at a majority of the emotionally manipulative bullshit out there (speaking in commercial terms, not fanfic) so i wanted to try my hand at it and see if i could do it any better, in a way that doesnāt take any cheap shots to try to wrench feeling out of you. Ā
iām a little bit hoping that the handful of people who enjoy it are gonna be likeĀ āyo you gotta read thisā and the gentle encouragement of word of mouth might overcome the hesitation of MCD. if not, iām really enjoying the feedback iāve gotten so far. iād rather have a few engaged people who loveĀ a fic than a thousand unengaged people who like it and move on.
