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Art Wishes
2022-02-08 16:25So I'm making a slow, laborious sweep of all the wishlist entries submitted to FSC, and I've got a bit of a suggestion. It's just my suggestion, it might not be universally applicable, and other artists might feel differently. (If you're an artist with a different experience, I'd like to know! Maybe I can learn from your approach!)
But here's the crux of the suggestion - most people who would like art of their fics aren't making it very easy. There's a lot of people, a lot of fandoms, sometimes hundreds of fics per account. I see some people narrow down to a ship they would like art for above all others - that's already a huge help! One step further would be even help-ier.
My theory is that wishes formatted something like this would have more staying power -
It not only reduces the choices and provides a foothold, it also immediately gives a breakdown of the ships and fandoms most important to you so others know what else they might expect.
Otherwise, the experience is decision paralysis. Looks like this author has 10 whole pages of fics to choose from. Hmmm, well... no. Too many choices. If I read every summary for while one I "like" best, that would take me the rest of the day. Let's close this tab. Okay, found someone else who has somewhat similar fandoms as me. Hmmmmm.... many fics... close. And I definitely close tabs faster and faster the longer I do this.
I suppose I'm sort of assuming that most people aren't naming any specific fics to hedge their bets - just in case artists aren't into those particular things, maybe they'll like something from the full catalogue! Specificity might seem scary, but it's actually a great way to flag down someone who LOVES that specific thing and would crawl through broken glass both ways to fill art for it. So this format would do both - have specificity for your favorites AND be a catchall. The other thing is that people might make wishlists for their flist and just link to it on snowflake incidentally, so that's a separate case. I'm talking about actually wishing for random serendipity art from someone new.
I thought I'd type this up since so many people put art on their wishlist, often with comments about it never working. I don't know how many artists there are on DW, or how many wishlists can even feasibly be touched upon, but maybe this format would grease the wheels somewhat?
But here's the crux of the suggestion - most people who would like art of their fics aren't making it very easy. There's a lot of people, a lot of fandoms, sometimes hundreds of fics per account. I see some people narrow down to a ship they would like art for above all others - that's already a huge help! One step further would be even help-ier.
My theory is that wishes formatted something like this would have more staying power -
"Art of my fics! Any fic, but preferably (Title/Link) (Ship), (Title/Link) (Ship), or (Title/Link) (Ship), or else maybe something (Ship or Fandom category)."
It not only reduces the choices and provides a foothold, it also immediately gives a breakdown of the ships and fandoms most important to you so others know what else they might expect.
Otherwise, the experience is decision paralysis. Looks like this author has 10 whole pages of fics to choose from. Hmmm, well... no. Too many choices. If I read every summary for while one I "like" best, that would take me the rest of the day. Let's close this tab. Okay, found someone else who has somewhat similar fandoms as me. Hmmmmm.... many fics... close. And I definitely close tabs faster and faster the longer I do this.
I suppose I'm sort of assuming that most people aren't naming any specific fics to hedge their bets - just in case artists aren't into those particular things, maybe they'll like something from the full catalogue! Specificity might seem scary, but it's actually a great way to flag down someone who LOVES that specific thing and would crawl through broken glass both ways to fill art for it. So this format would do both - have specificity for your favorites AND be a catchall. The other thing is that people might make wishlists for their flist and just link to it on snowflake incidentally, so that's a separate case. I'm talking about actually wishing for random serendipity art from someone new.
I thought I'd type this up since so many people put art on their wishlist, often with comments about it never working. I don't know how many artists there are on DW, or how many wishlists can even feasibly be touched upon, but maybe this format would grease the wheels somewhat?
