Anyway, this week I'm getting back into a game from 2019 called Fire Emblem: Three Houses. With this entry in the series, they leaned further into the aspects that had made the DS/3DS games successful with a wider audience, particularly options for easier gameplay, and more interaction with the characters (this time for both playable units and NPCs). They went a little too hard into minigames and dialogue scenes until the actual battles get to be like half the playtime or less, depending on how long you wander around the monastery that functions as base camp and talk to people or go fishing. The avatar character this time does technically have a personality, but is more project-able than others like Robin or Corrin due to having much less dialogue, all in the form of 2-3 short answers chosen by the player.
Which brings me to fanfiction. I don't read a lot of English-language fanfiction, partially because it can skew younger and more amateur than Japanese stuff and partially because I am a much bigger writing snob in my first language. What I've seen in both, though, is that for this game there is a ton of fanfiction, but almost all of it is based around the player avatar and one of the three main heroes (choosing between the three at the beginning leads you through a different game path starting about 1/3 through). I had trouble finding fics featuring minor characters, which is obviously normal, but a bit weirder in this case, since absolutely all the playable units in this game have personalities and backstories and tons of fully-voiced dialogue.
There are a few pet sad boys (no shade, trust me) who get a lot of attention, but most of them, especially the girls (all the shade, c'mon y'all) kind of get ignored. Which is not, like, a big deal, except it is when your brainworms are about a minor character and you think they'd go great with anyone other than the player avatar.
Anyway, I've written almost 10,000 words in the last week about a minor character and what he's doing in the background of the plot and how he falls in love with a character he doesn't actually have a single conversation with in the game. Real credit to Fire Emblem that their minor characters in this game are robust enough that I can do this without particularly needing to invent personality traits.
Coming full circle, if you want to write a long project or create anything at all for yourself and only yourself...do it! Who cares! Haters back off. Leisure time is leisure time, and creating is creating, and the point doesn't have to be about getting an external reward. It can just be relaxing and fun.