Largely I write fic because I want to read it. I almost never get caught up in a fandom’s juggernaut pairing and I like some pretty narrow, messed up specific dynamics. That said, most of what I write never sees the light of day, let alone gets finished.

I particularly love teasing out the details of world-building AUs (i.e. fusion cross-overs, one detail changed butterfly-effect type things, etc.) or how two characters would interact in weird situations. There’s something really satisfying about fitting all the puzzle pieces together. I’ll also tend to write spite-fic where I’ll go against a popular headcanon from pure contrariness, but I rarely post those.

So I’d write fic for those reasons regardless of whether they ever ended up leaving my hard drive. But the motivation for polishing a fic and actually getting it done, well, I’ll admit anon that for me, readers and their appreciation is the strongest factor for actually posting in that context.