Baffled (and disgruntled, there's a surprise)

[quasar273]

I wrote two fics for Yuletide. The first was in a fandom I'd never heard of before reading the request. But I caught up with the canon and wrote what I felt was a nice, meaty story that captured the author's voice and style pretty well. I was nicely satisfied with that story, and I looked forward to posting it here after the author reveal.

Then I volunteered for a pinch-hit, and despite having a better familiarity with the source material, I just couldn't get that one off the ground. I had one piece of inspiration that allowed me to put some realistic detail in, but I couldn't find a plot. So it turned out to be just a vignette, some conversation about what happened after the end of canon, not even twice the minimum required story length. I was not satisfied with this story and figured I probably wouldn't even bother to post it here later on.

Then the archive went live, and the comments started coming in, and I got just as many (sometimes nicer) comments for the vignette as for the plotty story. In fact, the vignette got two recommendations! And none for the story I thought was much better. I am baffled.

So, what's up? Is it relative popularity of the source material? I didn't think they were that much different -- both bookfic, although one is more recent than the other. Is it the combination of a rare fandom with a long story, making people unwilling to try the meatier story unless they know the source? Or am I just that wrong about the relative quality of the stories? Soon, friends, you will be able to judge for yourselves!

But I still think the long one is way better. Hmmph.