I'm honestly not sure what would have happened if I hadn't written that remix. In retrospect it was the start of me transitioning away from one group of fandom friends to another, but I'm not sure to what extent that would have happened anyway. I started losing interest in D/C in the second half of S8, and I've never really gotten those shippy feelings back--I think it's partly that I'm angry at Dean in ways that make it hard for me to write him fairly, and partly that I feel like I've lost the thread of Cas in S9. So it seems likely I would have started writing Sam regardless. It might have been a very different version of Sam though--I often feel like my Sam is fan fic of de_nugis's fan fic. I think he comes as much out of her writing as he does out of canon. Whereas I'd written a lot of Cas before I did the remix, and my version of him seems quite different to me from hers.
I sometimes regret I didn't write fan fic back when I really shipped Sam/Dean (essentially the first five seasons). It's hard for me to recover those shippy feelings once they're gone, which is why I've written so little wincest, although I still read it. It's actually kind of remarkable how few stories I've written where Sam and Dean even talk to each other. I find it kind of challenging to get them in the same room. Right now my shippy feelings are entirely focused on Sam/Kevin for reasons I don't fully understand. Some part of my brain seems to have decided that since I don't identify with Cas anymore, I'm going to identify with Kevin instead.
I agree with you that I don't really care whether the relationship between characters is sexual or not. If I read a fic where two people I ship have an intense-but-platonic emotional scene, that can be just as satisfying to me as porn, and maybe more so. That's probably why I love hurt/comfort so much.
It's interesting that looking for a fic to remix gave you insight into what sort of fic you wanted to write yourself. It's cool you got some benefit from participating, even if you didn't end up writing anything for the challenge.
no subject
I sometimes regret I didn't write fan fic back when I really shipped Sam/Dean (essentially the first five seasons). It's hard for me to recover those shippy feelings once they're gone, which is why I've written so little wincest, although I still read it. It's actually kind of remarkable how few stories I've written where Sam and Dean even talk to each other. I find it kind of challenging to get them in the same room. Right now my shippy feelings are entirely focused on Sam/Kevin for reasons I don't fully understand. Some part of my brain seems to have decided that since I don't identify with Cas anymore, I'm going to identify with Kevin instead.
I agree with you that I don't really care whether the relationship between characters is sexual or not. If I read a fic where two people I ship have an intense-but-platonic emotional scene, that can be just as satisfying to me as porn, and maybe more so. That's probably why I love hurt/comfort so much.
It's interesting that looking for a fic to remix gave you insight into what sort of fic you wanted to write yourself. It's cool you got some benefit from participating, even if you didn't end up writing anything for the challenge.