bewareofchris

[bewareofchris]

What do normal people who haven't had half their personality shaped by the lord of the rings think about when they are scraping butter across bread?

#the dr Seuss movie #the butter battle book

[bewareofchris]

Some writers: *meticulously plan out every plot point and the tone and meanings before they start writing*

Me:

[bewareofchris]

[bewareofchris]

another one

[bewareofchris]

I've slowly been chipping away at drawing scenes from that imaginary Muppet retelling of the Princess Bride, figured it was about time to share what I've drawn on Tumblr!

[bewareofchris]

if u think im annoying now wait until i get over my fear of being perceived as annoying

#i've been called annoying since i was a baby #i have an auto-stop feature built in when i think i've reached a person's limit for being around me #D:

[bewareofchris]

we used to have normalized whump. remember what they took from you....

#feeling so nostalgic for early fandom

[bewareofchris]

Friend this is definitely a continuation of what I was trying to say.

Earlier fandom was very much about community. We were all there because we discovered that this cool new thing let us express our creativity and explore ideas that just weren't seen in the media we were fanficcing or fan-arting.

I remember being part of mailing lists and clicking through the websites that joined up in groups. There wasn't always the ability to leave comments on those sites so you kind of bonded to certain websites and authors and kept track of where they went. Fanfic.net allowed comments and there were generally a lot of comments because it was a very much community experience. Livejournal lived and died on community because there was no reblog feature or even a good search feature (if I remember right) so you made "friends" and watched their blogs for updates about their lives and fanfics and you watched communities where authors posted their stories.

Point was, all of this early fandom was personal. We exchanged ideas fluidly, in groups, building on one another's notions of fandom. We created our fanon together in those communities and wrote each other dirty fanfics.

Fandom today is built on an entirely different system. Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok and etc is very much about sharing content and getting adulation for it. The goal is the quantity of interaction over the quality of it. I've been on instagram looking over writing tags and its all very much a circle jerk. Everyone is complementing each other and promoting their own work in the same sentence.

Fandom today is, largely, very lonely.

There's so much of it and it has become so mainstream. The media we're altering is representing ideas that i literally only saw in fandom when I was a kid. I grew up in those community spaces surrounded by people who made genuine connections with me about the things we were writing about.

Ok sure on the surface I was churning out 8k of DBZ mpreg a day, but the things I was working out underneath those silly plots mattered to someone beyond me. We enjoyed those silly fanfics and we figured out how we felt about the things we weren't quite saying in our fics.

Writing a story is starting a conversation. But instead of focusing on finding someone that understands what you're saying and wants to talk about it too (a friendship, a community) fandom is begging for as many strangers as possible to show up and say anything.

Is this a simplification of the problem? Probably.

It boils down to this for me. Find and build a community. Stop looking for validation from everyone. Stop staying in the same empty room where you're sad and alone and lonely.

I've been on the writer's tag again.

Listen guys.

Nobody owes your fanfic anything. I know that you want validation and adoration and those are both completely normal things to want. But this obsessive demand for comments over kudos and reblogs over likes is A Problem.

I won't bore you with tales of yore where we literally punted our fiction into the world with no idea of how it was being perceived by others because the only way to know if anyone even glanced at it was by the incredibly inaccurate page counter on our shitty geocities page.

(But that was a thing and it's semi-relevant to my point.)

A lot of you are growing up in a era of social media and viral marketing. You are babies of the influencer age, raised on the myth that if you can just get enough attention you'll get famous for something. I don't mean 10 million followers on insta famous but famous in your specific sphere.

That will not happen for you.

Not because people aren't reblogging your shit or writing out loving comments but because it's a myth. The idea that if you shame, beg and cajole enough people into interacting with your creation you'll access some serotonin high and ascend to a greater state of being is also a myth.

Here's the truth:

Most writers do not know how the majority of their audience feels about their fics. Those very few novels that you see on booktok, X (former twitter) or wherever else you get your writing news represent an infinitesimal portion of stories written and books published.

Most writers do have writing buddies or trusted members of an inner circle that they share their writing with.

For most fandoms, fanfics are so plentiful it's like going into a mall sized grocery store that sells only apples and then demanding the customer review every apple they touch.

For those few fanfics that you see that have an outrageous number of comments there are three possible explanations: 1. that person is what we used to call a "Big Name Ficcer" and they have amassed a following through consistent production of whatever that fandom is into, 2. that is a fic so long you have to sign a waiver to start reading it and despite the fact it was started seven years ago its still getting updated, or 3. that person is writing a viral fic in a fandom that is presently on fire.

Your self worth and self esteem cannot be tied to writing and posting fanfiction. It might be a fun outlet or you might be looking for your viral moment, but either way the moment you start weighing your worth as an author or creator based on what a bunch of strangers on the internet think of you is the moment you give up on yourself.

Social media has brainwashed you into thinking that you must be recognized and rewarded for the things that you put onto the internet. Or maybe it hasn't brainwashed you, maybe you just want to get a comment because you worked super hard on something and you feel like if you can't even get one decent response then its all been wasted. (I.e. you've been brainwashed into the feeling that you need the validation of strangers for happiness purposes.)

So what are you going to do about this?

Get off the internet. I don't mean permanently. I don't even mean literally. I mean take yourself out of the spaces that reinforce the idea that you need validation from strangers to be happy. Stop going on the social media sites for a few days (or a few weeks). If you've got a friend in fandom that you share fics, headcanons, ideas or anything with start chatting with them about something you want to write. Invest in them, in what they're doing and their opinions and how they react to your creations.

Put your shit on the internet like you literally don't give a fuck about anyone's opinion. Explain nothing about your writing choices. Put warnings, no more than 5 tags and drop that shit into the world like a newborn giraffe. Then ignore it.

Teach yourself to seek validation from your accomplishments: write a slightly longer fic, write a fic in a different genre, write a fic in a different rating, write a fic in a different fandom.

Find an actual friend that you actually interact with whose opinion you know matters because you agree on the important stuff.

Stop begging strangers for compliments like a cartoon hobo shaking a cup for coins. You're better than that.

[bewareofchris]

This made me laugh so hard. Altair was relentlessly assaulted by the plot. That's what you get when you fall in love with an anonymous Malik with impossible to meet standards.

For me, now that I'm past the part where I'm deeply into the process of writing it, I think Altair is actually my favorite of the two. He changes and grows so much? Malik just becomes very, very, very slightly less difficult to be around. But also I love that Malik basically never changes because he is absolutely that hateful, high-standard person.

(Although I maintain Desmond/Lucy is the real love story in Sass.)

Summary: Slowburn – Malik hates rich playboy Altair, and starts a blog to educate the tweens on what a sexist dick he is. He just didn't expect Altair to find it and become its fan. Taking place over three years, we follow how both characters become better people, before they even meet in person.

Author: @bewareofchris

Note from submitter: This is my favourite slowburn, and despite how insanely long it is, I've read the whole thing three times, and I'm always thinking about starting that fourth time. It doesn't have much to do with AC apart from a few references and using the characters. Please, go read it if you like slowburn!

[bewareofchris]

Summary: Slowburn – Malik hates rich playboy Altair, and starts a blog to educate the tweens on what a sexist dick he is. He just didn't expect Altair to find it and become its fan. Taking place over three years, we follow how both characters become better people, before they even meet in person.

Author: @bewareofchris

Note from submitter: This is my favourite slowburn, and despite how insanely long it is, I've read the whole thing three times, and I'm always thinking about starting that fourth time. It doesn't have much to do with AC apart from a few references and using the characters. Please, go read it if you like slowburn!

[bewareofchris]

these are my best friends in the whole world. my anchor when im in a storm. My lighthouse on a stormy night. The definition of i would know him by touch alone. Shout out to the keyboard bumps.

[bewareofchris]

I've been on the writer's tag again.

Listen guys.

Nobody owes your fanfic anything. I know that you want validation and adoration and those are both completely normal things to want. But this obsessive demand for comments over kudos and reblogs over likes is A Problem.

I won't bore you with tales of yore where we literally punted our fiction into the world with no idea of how it was being perceived by others because the only way to know if anyone even glanced at it was by the incredibly inaccurate page counter on our shitty geocities page.

(But that was a thing and it's semi-relevant to my point.)

A lot of you are growing up in a era of social media and viral marketing. You are babies of the influencer age, raised on the myth that if you can just get enough attention you'll get famous for something. I don't mean 10 million followers on insta famous but famous in your specific sphere.

That will not happen for you.

Not because people aren't reblogging your shit or writing out loving comments but because it's a myth. The idea that if you shame, beg and cajole enough people into interacting with your creation you'll access some serotonin high and ascend to a greater state of being is also a myth.

Here's the truth:

Most writers do not know how the majority of their audience feels about their fics. Those very few novels that you see on booktok, X (former twitter) or wherever else you get your writing news represent an infinitesimal portion of stories written and books published.

Most writers do have writing buddies or trusted members of an inner circle that they share their writing with.

For most fandoms, fanfics are so plentiful it's like going into a mall sized grocery store that sells only apples and then demanding the customer review every apple they touch.

For those few fanfics that you see that have an outrageous number of comments there are three possible explanations: 1. that person is what we used to call a "Big Name Ficcer" and they have amassed a following through consistent production of whatever that fandom is into, 2. that is a fic so long you have to sign a waiver to start reading it and despite the fact it was started seven years ago its still getting updated, or 3. that person is writing a viral fic in a fandom that is presently on fire.

Your self worth and self esteem cannot be tied to writing and posting fanfiction. It might be a fun outlet or you might be looking for your viral moment, but either way the moment you start weighing your worth as an author or creator based on what a bunch of strangers on the internet think of you is the moment you give up on yourself.

Social media has brainwashed you into thinking that you must be recognized and rewarded for the things that you put onto the internet. Or maybe it hasn't brainwashed you, maybe you just want to get a comment because you worked super hard on something and you feel like if you can't even get one decent response then its all been wasted. (I.e. you've been brainwashed into the feeling that you need the validation of strangers for happiness purposes.)

So what are you going to do about this?

Get off the internet. I don't mean permanently. I don't even mean literally. I mean take yourself out of the spaces that reinforce the idea that you need validation from strangers to be happy. Stop going on the social media sites for a few days (or a few weeks). If you've got a friend in fandom that you share fics, headcanons, ideas or anything with start chatting with them about something you want to write. Invest in them, in what they're doing and their opinions and how they react to your creations.

Put your shit on the internet like you literally don't give a fuck about anyone's opinion. Explain nothing about your writing choices. Put warnings, no more than 5 tags and drop that shit into the world like a newborn giraffe. Then ignore it.

Teach yourself to seek validation from your accomplishments: write a slightly longer fic, write a fic in a different genre, write a fic in a different rating, write a fic in a different fandom.

Find an actual friend that you actually interact with whose opinion you know matters because you agree on the important stuff.

Stop begging strangers for compliments like a cartoon hobo shaking a cup for coins. You're better than that.

#writing is hard #fanfiction #on writing #i would love a rebuttal #but nobody fights me #i understand #i'm too scary

[bewareofchris]

[bewareofchris]

have you joined the chronic pain club today? it's not too late!

[bewareofchris]

[bewareofchris]

AC Mirage is like: what if we remade Ezio's game. Which is fine, but it would be better if it didn't literally feature a character from a very, very different game. I have enjoyed all the games in student ways, but to go from Valhalla to this is weird.

Also? It's irritating how few options there are? Like idk, I don't like any of the weapons or clothes enough to care about them? The buffs dont impress me?

This is just middling to me. I wish I'd waited longer to buy it so I would have paid less.

[bewareofchris]

imagine this, you died and they read that ao3 fic you posted when you were alive out loud during your eulogy

#that's going to be the longest fucking funeral #can you imagine someone being like #alas we knew her well #and now we shall read 650k fanfic #slowburn #refreshments will be distributed between chapters