management struggles are real

[seventhe]

not for the first time in my career, i am entirely thankful that my time and experience in writing fanfiction taught me so much about delivering constructive criticism.

odd to think that years of writing magic, bullshit, and dicks developed a skill i'm now using to fire someone, but you know, life is weird, she moves in mysterious ways.

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

Oooooooo. Sorry you have to fire someone. Dealing with that kind of situation and wrting that sort of thing is tough.

But as for everything else you said, so much truth. I wanna slap 1997!me, who used to believe that "fanfic is stupid and a waste of time" because that brat had no clue how much /more/ she could have learned had she jumped into fanfic back then. Fanfic writing, betaing & concrit, co-writing, receiving unsolicited crits, all of it. So much education for free about more than just merely writing crack stories about dicks, magic, and embarrassed Basch.

[seventhe]

Exactly -- it isn't just about learning how to make good stories, there's a lot of interpersonal exchange you learn that really comes into play when you enter the professional field. Plus, knowing how to communicate in writing! I DON'T BELIEVE HOW MANY PEOPLE DON'T KNOW HOW

[alwaysbeenasmiler]

Okay, I had a big laugh when I saw your icon; it's brilliant!

[seventhe]

WHY THANK YOU

[owlmoose]

Firing people is *the worst* -- I only had to do it once, and even though it was 100% the right thing for everyone, it was awful. I hope it goes/went as well as possible under the circumstances.

Totally agreed on the value of learning how to give and accept criticism as a valuable lesson from being in fandom. I also credited fandom with helping me learn how to participate in and manage group projects.

[seventhe]

firing people sucks for everyone involved even when it's the best possible outcome; in this case it's a performance issue, which is critical to address but ALSO very difficult to discuss quantitatively.

Group projects - that's another one! Also "gifting" fics - teaches you to understand what the other person wants, and that it may not be like what you as the author would want to see...

[novel_machinist]

Sounds like it's wine-o'clock

[seventhe]

its always wine-o'-clock