Something for Everyone

It makes me happy that even fics I hate are often loved by someone. Tonight I've been doing more gathering of stories for my Lifetime Fic Bingo game. This involves visiting the Fanlore articles of fics published in my target years, and those articles often include quotes from past discussions of the fics in various venues. Tonight I was fascinated to discover from these that moonlightmead not only loved castalia's Sunshine, my least favorite Pros story (at least among those I've finished), but described it as the fic that hooked her on the fandom. Whoa!

I have been on the other end of this, as well. At the last Bistocon, someone mentioned Endgame by Tarot as a story she was sorry she'd read. I, on the other hand, like that story very much. I even named it as a favorite in the recs I prepared for the previous Bistocon. This diversity seems to me like a joyful thing. If people love different fics, then more fics get loved.

(Though I admit that I sometimes have difficulty keeping that in mind. I can feel attacks on fics that I like, especially if they come from particular people, as attacks on me, implying that I am stupid or bad.* I'm working on getting over that, however, and the fact that other people love some things that I hate is helpful, since I know that I don't think those people are stupid or bad.)

(*ETA: This is one reason I tend to throw softballs in my fic write-ups.)