The fanservice issue

Let's talk about fanservice today.

As you all know, fanservice in fanfiction is something you include in your story to please the fans. A moment of "giving the fans what they want" if you will.

But you can't simply write fanservice all the time, if you do your story may end up derailed and you could end up writing yourself into a corner.

Good ways to include fanservice are knowing what elements of your story people like, or what is popular in the franchise, or if most of your readers are male or female.

Let me give you an example.

A while ago I told you about a collaboration I'm writing with DaisukiFox titled Lost Together for the Ranma 1/2 section.

In this case we both knew what was popular amongst our readers and we also knew most of them are women, so we decided to include two scenes in our latest chapter that would not only advance the story but also work as fanservice of sorts.

To complement one of these scenes I suggested I drew an illustration showing that particular moment. Now, keep in mind I normally don't draw fanservice, (I normally don't draw at all) but in this case I thought it would be a good idea so I did my best.

So far the response for the chapter has been very positive, and it appears our readers are happy with the scenes we included, something I'm very glad about.

In case you're curious, here's the illustration I drew for the story; feel free to let me know what you think.

Should you write it? Well, that's not important. Let me tell you what's important.

So, you have this new great idea for a story set in your favorite franchise. You are very excited about it and think it's great.
But this is the point where you should ask yourself.
Should I write this?
Now, you may say that the whole point of fanfiction is to write whatever comes to your mind and that there are no limits.
And you would be correct.
So yes, you should write it. But the point then is not if you should or shouldn't.
The point is how.
You may have the idea, it may sound silly, it may be controversial, it may be something everybody else has done already (I'm looking at you thousands of Harley Quinn origin stories), and that is why you have to focus on how you're going to write it.
Because how you do it is what will set your story apart from the rest.
An original idea can only carry you so far.
A quirky or silly one can only capture attention up to a point.
That is why you have to pay attention and write your idea well, with good grammar, good presentation, good sentence structure, good characterization and attention to detail.
Because quality validates the idea no matter how strange, how controversial or how many times it's been done.
Or at least that is how it would ideally work. If all you want is attention, you can always write a popular pairing in your franchise of choice and end up with a ton of reviews regardless of quality, but that's something we can talk about some other time.