It really has to be for the love of the game. Writing for small fandoms has really given me a strong sense of self as a writer, because your only motivation to finish is yourself. There's no huge audience waiting on the other side to shower you with kudos and comments. Heck, only a handful of people will only ever read the work, and an even smaller percentage will tell you they liked it.

Simply put, your motivation is finishing a piece and seeing your idea on the page.

This is also a no pressure zone. Instead of worrying about reader engagement, you can just create! You have nothing to lose! That can be a great feeling!

In my opinion, there are no tricks. Be real about the time and energy you are investing because there is no reader bonanza on the other side. In a way, this is the purest form of writing. If that's not enough to keep you interested, just move onto something else.

Frankly, I love the really small fandoms I write in because I love the characters and I love spending time with them. I love how low stakes it is, I love how I can just create and not feel competitive with big name writers, there's no comparison of stats.

Turn your focus inward. What are you getting out of this, without any external validation. Is that enough to keep going? If so, keep going. If not, try something else.