#fanwriter madness

[seventfics]

so, I’ve never seen the Twilight movies before

this is very important to share to everyone, I promise, to explain the mental turmoil I’ve been in, in the last month

so I’ve never seen twilight. it came out while I was in high school and I was very Against Mainstream back then. didn’t want to see the “sparkling vampires” everyone was really into joking about. didn’t wanna subject myself to a series that everyone around me seemed to agree was terrible fiction

I went all through high school only having accidentally seen that one scene from Breaking Dawn Part 2. you know the one, The CGI Baby Gets Imprinted On scene

then the Twilight Renaissance happened last year

something that I used to passively dislike became Meme Central. and it was fucking hilarious. the tiktok reactions, the tumblr posts. all the pictures of Edward covering his mouth in Biology class because Bella walked in front of a fan. the fucking baseball scene. it was a cultural reset

then Battison movie came out. I saw it with one of my best friends, a dear friend who had grown up seeing and reading the Twilight books. we game together every friday, and on one of these game nights, sharing the Twilight memes, I revealed that I had never actually seen the movies

this, to her, was a cultural sin

so we agreed to watch the movies. all of them. one movie every friday during August 2022 (the timing is key to my story, you’ll see in a moment). it was glorious. and painful. and boring. and hilarious. we did skip a lot of the last movie because the baby cgi was a little freaky, but the bestie would explain what I missed. they’ve seen them multiple times. I couldn’t phathom seeing them again willingly

but then we finished the last movie. I went home

and I opened ao3

now, it should go without saying, this is where the “explain the mental turmoil I’ve been in, in the last month” actually begins. you know who burrowed like a little show blorbo inside my brain matter? no, it wasn’t any of the main characters

it was daddy dear. mister blond bimbo. Carlisle Cullen

I read so much Twilight fanfic about Carlisle. there was a day where I actually stayed up 36 hours, reading 2 100k fics, pausing to go to work, and then going back to finishing it. I was unhinged. I think I lost a fraction of my eyesight

I read everything there was to my interests and curiosities. the obsession was quenched

and then I opened up a google doc

and in a haze, 4 hours later, I had written 7k of Something

and then the next day, it became 10k. and then the next time I could focus to write, it became 12k

on and on it grew, until two weeks later, it was done. a 34k monstrosity, half of which I don’t remember writing

and today, I uploaded it. because why suffer alone? I’ll subject others to my madness too

this fic is the most unhinged, most unbelievable thing I’ve ever written. there’s vampire worship. there’s blood feeding, religious bloodletting, human fanatical suicide and whole lot of vampire gore and death. there’s vampire gods, and a threesome.

I don’t even know if I’m proud, horrified, or relieved. to have the brainrot publicized. my next post is still gonna be the fic share link 💀

now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a tropical storm outside and I need to sleep for 3 days

#tt #fanwriter madness #carlisle cullen is my muse-of-the-month

[pochapal]

People are assholes sometimes, it sucks that they take the amazing gift of someone doing an invested close reading of this ridiculously long story and decide there is something shady there??? Incidentally I agree it's not impenetrable but this is why most people dont Get It this early, this story is over a million words, you and now Rose Reads are the only first-time close readers I have ever seen scale the mountain. In summary, you are great and I hope this stays as fun for you as it is for us!

yeah idk it's very much weirdo behavior but i remember people bringing up at some point that a sizeable portion of the umineko fanbase is unsavory as all hell so i guess there was always a risk of my blog breaching containment and going through something like this sooner or later. at least i'm shutting it down before it had a chance to become any kind of serious problem so it is what it is ¯_(ツ)_/¯

funnily enough i think the fact that umineko is so accessible with its thematic content is why it's so fun to engage with on this level. it's enjoyable to be given all these easy to understand frameworks to use to help you with the story's mysteries! i think it'd be a more miserable experience if figuring out how to read umineko took as long as it does to figure out how to solve umineko. it's very much an identical situation where people claimed homestuck was an impenetrable mess but you can fairly quickly understand the bulk of homestuck if you just listen to what the story is explicitly telling you lol. people are just mad and shocked that treating a piece of literature like a piece of literature leads to a more rewarding and insightful experience! who could have seen that coming.

and don't worry i am still very much having fun reading this story and sharing the experience! this was an unpleasant shock that rattled me a little but the joy hasn't been spoiled and i'm still looking forward to doing this! thanks for your kind words! <3

#yumantimatter #also. i'm a homestuck fanwriter with an academic background in literature and creative writing #of course i was gonna end up closereading and gaining more from a story on my first read than the average person #anyway outside of the initial shock i'm not that bothered since i'm an adult with a life who touches grass #couldn't imagine wasting my time getting weird and mad about someone overanalysing a visual novel lmfao

[olderthannetfic]

I'm in a moderate-small sized fandom, and it's become somewhat common for ppl in the fandom to deride the og creator because she once said something to the effect of "I don't care for fanfiction. Do whatever you want. It has nothing to do with me. I wrote the story I wanted to tell." This was in response to fans asking her if she'd ever read fanfiction of her work or if they could send some to her (I'd like to think the second part was a joke on the fans' part, but I'm not sure). After more pestering from fans on the topic of fanfiction, she said "I said I don't care because I don't care. I don't think of fanfiction of my work, and I don't want to read any of it. It just doesn't cross my mind. As long as no one else is making money from my story I don't care." This apparently got under some loud fans' skin who like to ask for money for fanfiction, I guess. But personally I don't see anything wrong with her response. What does fanfiction have to do with her? Why should she care about people wanting to read fanfiction of her works? Why should fans have the right to make money on something they didn't create from scratch when marketing is half the work of selling your writing? She hasn't done anything like Anne Rice where she tries to get stories from being written or taken down or stalked fanwriters. Is it an og creator's job or responsibility to actively encourage fanfiction? Do you or others have any thoughts?

--

My thoughts are that these fans are weak babies getting mad that senpai failed to validate them.

[ybetzarts]

Just watched prime S3, today, like after a month...thoroughly enjoyed it, and i get where most of the frustration is coming from. Hmm...i think by spoiling myself a bit, listening to people's reviews, i sorta braced myself and lowered my expectations. I think it made me...appreciate the show more, it exceeded my already-low-expectations. It has flaws, and one that stands out the most is the few interactions between the cast variants(edit: except for the Roses, which makes sense coz it shows that Amy's really that friendly, it's ingrained in her personality), and...the ending, like...wut? I get the feeling that the show's trying to be as realistic as possible, in terms of pacing.

Honestly, i dont mind these flaws too much, the show was enough to get my gears going XDD. This is where, fanartists/fanwriters/imaginations come to play, they fill up that void.

ALSO! This season made me appreciate Gnarly more. The very few moments i got of him jus goofing around where genuinely funny to me. I LOVE it! Am rewatching it as i type this down and Renegade calling Dread cap'n! ahhhh...and ooooohhhh boy! The moments of Renegade just being everything!? Still mad that there weren't enough Dread scenes argh. (might update this)

[More below⬇️]

Edit 02/16

Appreciation time. Despite its flaws, which i dont think were too bad that it deserves hate, Prime did what it means to do: to entertain. I love the voice acting, animation was consistent all throughout(and it being overdone, as some people have pointed out, was something i disagree with, but definitely can understand. Prime has this animation style that emphasized on its squash and stretch. It's jus, a style of animation, not overdone in anyway. Theyve been consistent bout it too, which i really like. What is the right amount of animation tho? Things like disney? Maybe? Prime offers you something different, and i really like that about this show.

ALSO, THE END BATTLE AGAINST MR. DR. EGGMAN. Notice who fought him. All the new yolk cast variants! Love it.

#sonic prime #sonic prime season 3 #knuckles the echidna #ybetzartstalks

[just-antithings]

I think one of the most annoying takes I've seen is that in order to be seen as Real Art fanartists and fanwriters have to be open to the same level of critique as people who are professionals. Like I'm sorry, but if someone wants to critique my fanworks on the same level as someone trying to do it professionally they can fuck right off. I write and draw for fun and it doesn't stop being art because I'm not open to "critique" which is absolutely just those specific people being mad they can't get away with openly bashing fanworks because 90% of those works are people just trying to enjoy themselves and have fun.

👆👆👆👆👆

#mod erin #ask #just anti things #just asshole things #i wholeheartedly agree anon

[amrv-5]

T R H for ask prompt :))) happy holiday <3

HELLO LIVV and HAPPY HOLIDAY!! wishing you continuing safe travels...!!!! Also this is so fucking long I'm so sorry. It was the writers question. It got me................

T: Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

Heh. I have a distaste for anything that -- this isn't a wildly common trope, notably, just one I see on occasion -- anything that portrays Hawk as helpless / passive. I think he gets fandom-ified sometimes into somebody who Needs Saving (and given some canon events, like, I Get It), but part of why I love him as a character so terribly much is his ridiculous scrappiness. He really doesn't take mistreatment / his situation / even his own negative emotions lying down. Guy's a fighter, even when he wishes he wasn't, and I don't really gel with fanon takes that leave him without some degree of agency in action (with the notable exception of him being literally drafted).

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

[sickos voice] YES!!!! HAHAHA!!! YES!!!! I'm sure I've said some of these before, so sorry for repeats, but addition of fanwriters makes this particularly exciting yaaaay okay.

Non-fanfic: Well. God. Sorry for the particularly cancellable white-male-loquaciousness double-whammy of Thomas Wolfe and David Foster Wallace. Always chasing Wolfe's sort of deeply poetic, emotional, very sensitive way of writing--how reflective he is, his insane force / presence on the page, and some other intangible quality that just makes me go "jesus fucking christ I have felt exactly this, how did he put it into words" every other page. Makes me insane. As for DFW, well, sorry again -- get a lot out of that sort of grounded intellectualism-feel in his writing (we can argue about its value / veracity forever, but push to shove it really works for me as a reader).

Uhhh Vonnegut obviously, so much so that I almost feel like I don't need to say it 'cause I'm always transparently in writing trying to be even 1/100 as funny, sensitive, and useful in my cynicism as him.

Virginia Woolf!!! Man to render somebody's internal state of being so so vividly. I think I clearly ripped her off in S2G2 ch4, but my god how can you Not she's brilliant. Following from that Alison Bechdel because, talk about your intellectual prose. Man. Can I say fucking Voltaire without anybody getting mad at me. Sorry. Candide novella ever and probably the only thing that will get me through learning French.

Now. Fanfic authors --

First and foremost, cleanwhiteroom, wherever they are. I got into Pacific Rim late, but Designations Congruent with Things is genuinely one of the most meaningful texts I have in my life, fanfic or no. Insane. Brilliant, intellectual, warm, approachable, funny, wildly original. Also, Parker lore, 80% of the reason I was a physicist until I wasn't.

Uhh I can't possibly list everyone in MASH right now, but a quick skim -- Granspn (brilliantly written and beautifully imagined), yukiawison for skillful inventiveness and tackling exactly the themes I always want to see, yaroantheo for the just. MAN!!! the so-well-rendered warmth and depth of feeling and kindness in Homecoming, Remyfire's grasp of physicality and vivid tangibility, gayfranzkafka for really effective formatting play, raven/singlecrow for a Hawk I'll never forget. I am CERTAIN there are others, these are just top of the head.

And, maybe a surprise contender given that I don't talk a ton about BCS -- jimmymcgools does things with landscape and light that make me fucking nuts. I've gone back and just stared at their descriptions of place, light shape and quality, land, etc. -- master at work fr.

H: How would you describe your style?

I do not think there is a single question I could possibly be less objective or accurate on LMAO. My first thoughts in order were: Bad (nonspecific and too mean to Parkers Past), Sprawling (this seems accurate), Concerned With Realism (not actively ATTEMPTING it, notably, but -- concerned. I am Concerned with Realism. Feels true). Melodramatic but maybe not with as much pejorative sentiment as the word usually carries. Verbose. I try to gesture in the direction of comedy? In general summary: Freakin' weird, dude.

#THANK YOU LIVV these were fun!!!!!!! #love writer questions.... yes... yes... #ask game

[youngster-monster]

MY APOLOGIES FOR THE LACK OF ASKS i have been a. learning spanish, b. getting zero sleep because im busy going like "oh no oh god i oughta remember how to say my name in spanish or my spanish teacher will break down my door and kill me (my spanish teacher is not going to do this)" which is of course the reason that c. i have been forgetting to take my melatonin. so. uh oh. my brain is at full capacity for once

i was so young when i was on that forum i think that it made me sentient too like what.. i Never thought that hard about the consequences of my actions before then. real talk though id still make a gazillion accounts if i found another site without a confirmation. call me a bastard but i know opportunity for comedy when i see it

fanwriting is SO FUN!!!! i have a bit of a hard time sticking to any one thing to write in terms of ideas so i have a thousand unfinished ideas and by the time i start to stick to an idea i lose motivation to work because of all the previous failed ideas... im workin on it . maybe if i hit myself with a wrench it will fix my brain and i will be able to crank out three billion fics in 2 minutes (< - - - - coping)

BLUE DOT.... ON MY TUMBLR DOT COM........ most important thing ever for real

communing with the spirit of baby you is really fun tbf its like . for me its like wish fulfillment almost. all the things baby me wouldnt or couldnt have done in 2012 or something, i can do NOW!!! thats crazy to me. a lack of fake accounts is sadly the price to pay for silly mode i think

hello again anon!! I sympathize with your language plights, I too still get stress dreams about highschool German. Although I hope your learning of Spanish is more. Like. Willing.

Yeah the telltale wips under the floorboard are a real thing. You gotta learn to embrace them or let them go for good or they'll drive you Mad

Previous abandoned ideas are mulch! For the soul!!! No love however brief etc etc. Also you never know when motivation will circle back around to kick you in the head so that's fun ( < recently wrote 50k words of a fic idea I had and abandoned years ago)

Only one account is definitely a small price to pay for Baby Wish Fulfillment!! I wish I could send my own fics back in time I think 12 years old Kangoo would go crazy about them

#Asks #anonymous #While a lovely woman my HS German teacher would absolutely have kicked down my door #Screaming about declinations or god knows what else #Monac 3 was one of the tell tale wips for a BIT if the three years starting date didn't make it clear enough #But I got back around eventually and I'm so glad for it. Love this little guy #The 50k fic in question is my ff8 one if that wasn't clear. I haven't finished Another old wip #Tho I wish

[eirian-houpe]

For your TMI Tuesday! :) (Or 3 Things Thursday?...not sure how your themed days work.)

This is probably a very basic question, but I am curious what has led you to focus your fandom/fic-writing efforts on the Rumbelle ship. I only watched the first couple of seasons of OUaT, so I am only vaguely familiar with them, but what inspires you most about their characters and relationship? Is Belle your favorite fairy princess, even outside of the show?

Hi there! Thanks for sending the ask. It works for TMI Tuesday. Three Things Thursday is asking three things about one subject, like a fic or process, that kind of thing. :) Anyway... so... to answer your specific question(s)...

For the longest... /longest/ time, if you would have looked at my fic account, (on ff dot net) you would have thought my focus was Stargate: Atlantis, and before that, The Mummy franchise, and then /after/ SGA, I started writing for a certain tall and handsome Elvenking - an epic undertaking in Laer o Faen - a sprawling retelling of the first through 4th ages, told through Thranduil's eyes.

I still write all of those fics, especially the Tolkien, because that's my comfort place - Middle Earth and especially the Woodland Realm, and will ALWAYS be my very favorite fandom - recent ugliness notwithstanding. But Laer o Faen takes such a lot of time to write a chapter, there's a lot of translating involved.

However, Rumbelle is so versatile, and I'm a writer with ADHD, and like a magpie, a gravitate toward whatever is shiny. The dynamic between Belle and Rumplestiltskin is fascinating. The idea of True Love being able to transcend realms and break any curse... amazing. But the versatile thing, yeah... the couple can, and has been written in all kinds of AU situations and worlds. Belle has been included in other IPs in which Robert Carlyle plays a character, (e.g. Cobra, or Stargate: Universe) - to create offshoot fandom ships (Sutherelle and Rushbelle). Secondary characters too - especially Jefferson (The Mad Hatter), has been linked with Rumbelle, and adds another interesting and irresistible element. That, and I've made a lot of good, accepting friends in the Rumbelle fandom. Outside of the fandom, I don't really have a favorite Disney princess.

How about you? How, when and why did you start your fanwriting?

#TMI Tuesday #asks answered #sotwk

[thesuperiorlokiseries]

Disappointed by the shitty four-hour long setup for Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness and Ant Man: Quantumania otherwise marketed as the Loki Series? 

Disgusted by how Marvel and Disney would much rather make a self-cest relationship canon before a homosexual one? 

Otherwise salty about how immensely the writers butchered and retconned Loki's previous characterization?

Dreading the very idea of Season 2?

Desperately looking for fanfiction to soothe the wounds canon has left on your soul?

We've got good news for you! 

Announcing the Loki Series Rewrite Project, where we reject MCU canon and substitute our own, vastly better fanwrite, which features such great hits as:

A main character that is not depowered, humiliated, sidelined for a poorly-written Girlboss™ or otherwise clowned upon for cheap jokes at every turn!

Generally coherent worldbuilding!

Actual queer and neurodivergent rep written by actual queer and neurodivergent people!

Zero unnecessary romantic arcs, self-cest or otherwise!

Zero blatant racism, queerphobia or sexism hidden under the guise of performative progressiveness!

Heavy topics such as abuse, trauma, internalized-racism and authoritarianism treated with the care and respect they deserve!

Brought to you by: fans who care deeply about the character and generally possess some modicum of competence in writing!

Coming soon to Archive of Our Own!

taglist for crew:

@worstloki

@latent-thoughts

@sundial-at-night

@stellophia

@hydr0phius

@wnnbdarklord

@flyingbooks42

@willow-of-stars

@space-ravioli

@nikkoliferous

@lucianalight

@lookimtryingmybest

@notachair

@loki-lover-1234

#loki series #loki series rewrite project #the superior loki series

[flootzavut]

Cheats for commenting

For people who feel they cannot leave a "good enough" comment on a piece of fic. A by no means exhaustive but hopefully helpful list.

1) MOST IMPORTANT: whatever you comment is good, even something as simple as "yay I loved this" is better than no comment. "I'm mad I can't kudos twice" "I really enjoyed this" "I was so excited to get the notification for this story" these are ALL GREAT COMMENTS, you might feel like they're "not good enough" but I assure you you're wrong for most writers, most of the time.

2) quote your favourite line(s) back at the author. if you then comment on the line(s), awesome, but having my writing quoted back at me with 😍 or 😭 or ♥️ = awesome awesome comment.

3) keysmashes make great comments. there are a handful of people I've met who don't appreciate a good adjfjsllfjfnjdjd on their fic, but in my experience they're wildly in the minority.

4) gif responses: code as follows

<img src="LINK-OF-IMAGE-HERE.GIF">

If the image is small you can also add in another piece of code which is

width="100%"

(Goes before the >)

Make sure you keep the " in, they are important.

You can use a different percentage, but percentage rather than pixel size is best because then it adapts to the size of the device.

A gif is like the pictorial version of a keysmash: "I am not able to express my feelings in words, please have this gif of my Emotions™!"

5) where appropriate/true: "headcanon accepted"; having someone say they're adopting a specific thing of mine into their personal headcanon? That's good shit, folks.

6) this was so in character! again, don't lie about it, but if that was your reaction, that's an excellent review - I'm always delighted by these!

7) I can picture this happening in an episode! another one that is never stale.

~

If you leave a review with a combination of these things, you stand a genuine risk of your fanwriter crying and/or promising you their firstborn.

In conclusion: No question, any writer is going to be over the moon if you come and leave a long, in depth comment that details your reactions to specific bits of the story or compliments a specific aspect of our writing or our characterisation or our world building, those reviews are golden, they make my week/month/year. When someone comes along and writes a miniature essay in appreciation of my fic, I die of happiness. If you are able and willing to leave such a comment, your fic writer will be delighted. By all means, do it!

BUT

Just saying "adndndjksd i loved this 😄 thank you!" IS A GREAT REVIEW and honestly it's hard to find anyone who wouldn't have their day brightened. No matter how simple or inadequate it may seem, trust me, it is not.

@wolfiethewriter suggested one that's too good not to add to the original post: "how dare you hurt me like this" or variations thereupon is an excellent comment for Ze Angst 👍🏼

Also for smut, "I had to close this because I'm in public" will make your writer very happy.

"Reread kudos" aka "I'm rereading this fic and I don't have words, but I'd give you kudos again if AO3 would let me" is lovely. Like any time someone tells me they're rereading a story I wrote? I'm living for it. Even if that's all they say, I'm 🥹

Another couple of excellent ones by @fanpersoningfox:

My personal favorite is just describing your physical reaction: "this made me smile" or "I'm in physical pain reading this OMG" or describing the circumstances you're reading the fic in: "I'm on public transport, why am I reading pwp on public transport, I should know better" or "it's 3am and I have to get up in four hours but holy shit"

@whatafuckingdumbass says they comment like a drunk girl complimenting another drunk girl in the bathroom, and honestly? That sounds like an amazing comment philosophy, if in doubt, do that 👍🏼

#fanfic #feedback #fandom #ao3 #archive of our own #fanfiction #writers #readers #how to review #how to comment

[gluku-pikron]

the mad scramble of every mtl fanwriter trying to finish their fics before new canon drops :’)

#metalocalypse

[debatenarutooocs]

A multiship oc woman fanwriter crossing multiple men’s boundaries isn't cute, it's creepy and abusive. Especially when its been repeated so many fu**ing times her lust interests can't be interested in her promiscuous ways and she just doesn’t respect them. if they tell her no, and then get mad and insult them if they keep denying her.

Ahhh this!! And they get mad when people call their self insert oc a "whore".

#bnha fluff #bnha #debatenarutooocs #opinion #oc #boku no hero academia #class 1a #debatenarutoocs #mha #bhna #bnha headcanons #bnha imagines #bnha 336 #bnha fanart #bnha art #mha fanart #submission #but oh well #boruto #boruto naruto next generations #boruto uzumaki #boruto next generation #uchiha sarada #kawaki #sarada

[juliusschmidt]

3, 19, 26?

From this fun WIP ask meme. (Cause I'm over-the-moon excited to talk about For the Right Reasons, my upcoming bachelor au.)

Thank you so much for playing along, Jinny!!! <3 <3 <3 <3

3. How has the WIP changed between starting it and where it is now?

I have a document entitled, "Bachelor Fic Go Back Facts," which includes a lengthy list of things I learned about my characters, their history, quirks, and motivations, as I wrote. Number one on the list is: Harry has very sensitive nipples.

This has been one of the most fun things about writing this story-- getting to know these characters so well.

19. Do you know how your story ends before you start writing?

Yes, and no. Because I write romance (like many of us), I know they end up together and happy, or at least hopeful. And I usually have a series of climactic events and a setting in mind.

However, I was looking back at my original notes for this WIP and the resolution scene I'd outlined was very different (in terms of relationship dynamic) from the one I have drafted now which might look very different from the one I publish. I'll just say, it was slated to look like a very typical Bachelor proposal scene, but, as of now, it does not.

26. What is the worst writing advice in your opinion?

This doesn't exactly answer the question, but, over the years of fanwriting, my philosophy with writing advice has been to reject anything that steals the joy out of writing for me. I write fanfiction for fun. So anything that makes it not fun anymore-- I'm out.

Ex: A few years back, I was all mad about 'show, don't tell,' because what I wanted to write about was emotions and inner dialogue. So, I just didn't worry much about it. (Now, I am on a 'show, don't tell' kick, trying to use metaphors and body movement/sensations instead of naming emotions. But it's brining me joy in a way that it didn't used to and echoing my own self-compassion/mindfulness journey.)

ask me another question about my wip

#bachelor au #asks memes #bachelor fic

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

(Spoilery) thoughts on the Body Swap pop quiz

CARD PIECES!!! AS! BATTLE!! REWARDS!!! Yayyyyy!

finally MC is the culprit. FINALLY.

I mean okay Solomon gave them the spell but who actually went to try it? xD

they didn't learn at all and just caused the same disaster again after like 15 seconds xD relatable!

I was given a chance to be mean to Belphie, this event is 10/10

Asmo and Mammon actually expressing how they care about MC is *chef's kiss*

also the fact that Luci's personality taking over Mammon makes him demand MC to tell him they love him. Just like Lucy did. And MC can even lampshade that! 😆 also wonderful that Mammon doesn't really want such confession to be forced ❤️

Blood in Roses overly dramatic music in absolutely hilarious places. Well, and one piece I cannot place and it drives me mad. I bet on Guard Me Sherlock like some other songs though.

I have to say though the event is very rushed. As usual, you have to get through all the bros. There's only so much space in those 2 chapters but episodes are... very short? There's almost no content in some episodes.

in the end the idea was fun and interesting but the execution didn't let it shine. Now everything's on the heads of the fanwriters.

also the fact only Lucy gets a kiss? Seriously...? -_-

#body swap pop quiz #obey me! #obey me

[selkies-world]

A little bit of a rant?

"X magazines to publish your fanfiction"

"X self-publish methods to publish your fanfiction"

"X best companies to publish your fanfiction"

Sound familiar? Yeah, these posts have gotten pretty popular over the last year or so. Initially I didn't have an issue with them. But then I realised - "publish your fanfiction". As in "sell your fanfiction". As in "earn money from your fanficiton".

And that's when I got.... not mad, definitely not mad, but something along those lines that my brain won't give me a word for in English at 5am.

Because all of these posts are not only telling you how to earn money from your fanficiton, but that it's alright to. Which, honestly, it's not.

Fanfiction - itself and the community it creates and sits within - is built on being indulgent, selfless, and for sheer enjoyment. Just enjoyment. The enjoyment of others, the enjoyment of fandom creators, the enjoyment of imagination, whether it's purely self indulgent self-insert or if it's en masse indulgement through a popular trope and dynamic.

It's meant to be profitless, in the sense that no one earns money from it. That's a core part of fanfiction - in general, and especially on ao3. For fans, by fans, with no personal profit.

When did that get forgotten?

Now, it's true that fanfiction writers often get overlooked within fandom communities, since a lot of people put more emphasis on fanart. Fanartists earn money from their work, so surely fanwriters ought to be able to, right?

Wrong.

Fanart is entirely different from fanfiction. Why?

Because fanart is self-explanatory and open to interpretation, legally speaking.

Fanart, while it may be very distinctly obvious which characters / celebs it's portraying, is open to interpretation. By which I mean that an artist can create a piece of art for a specific fandom, and it can be loved by people in that fandom, but someone from another fandom can come along and see that same piece of art, and interpret it as something to do with a different fandom. Another person from yet another fandom can come along and do the same again. And again. And again. Even if the artist states "this is x and y from z", viewers are 100% open to seeing it as a and b from c, if they really want to.

Yes, fanartists often have patreons and go-fund-me's, but they also usually have multiple pieces, OC's and original content, too. When they make a profit, it's arguably from their style and skill, rather than directly from a piece of fanart.

And if a company, celebrity or the original content creator decided to sue or take legal action against the artist, the artist has that small net to fall back on - the "I created this piece of art inspired by x but it wasn't intended to reflect x directly, and I didn't make any personal profit from it".

But fanfiction? No. There's no questioning which original content is getting written about, there's no interpreting the characters as anything but the ones they're literally stated as, regardless of if the fanfic is canon-compliant or not.

Writing fanfic is 100% ok. Uploading it to a non-profit platform for others to enjoy is 100% ok. Read and let read, and all that. But publishing it, even for yourself? Not ok.

Because officially publishing fanfiction - in any capacity - goes against the core of fandom communities: for the fans, by the fans, with no personal profit.

As soon as you publish something, you're stating "I deserve recognition for this", and "I deserve money for this".

Fanfiction is meant to be created out of pure indulgent love and enjoyment, not out of the desire to be recognised or celebrated or to make a profit. And I think somewhere along the line, that core, fundamental part of fandom communities has been forgotten.

It's not fundamental just out of some hippie-dippy "free love and enjoyment man" energy. It's fundamental because it has to be, for legal reasons.

If the original content creator tried to sue a fanfiction writer for copyright infringement, the fanfiction writer's only defenses are "I didn't make any personal profit from it" and "I didn't breach your copyright or personal rights because I didn't distribute it in a way that could be interpreted as gaining personal profit from it without your consent".

Because that's happened before. More than once. And it can happen again.

As long as fanfiction is written for free, out of your own spare time, and is on a public platform, which the creators do not earn a single penny from, it's legal. But as soon as you cross that line by self-publishing your fanfiction, you lose that small net to fall back on if you're called on it.

As soon as you self-publish your fanfiction, you're intentionally profiting and / or distributing with the intent to personally profit off of someone else's property without their consent. Because that's what you're doing - you are taking someone else's property (the original work) and redistributing a version of it (your fanfiction) with the intent to claim rights and recognition for it (putting your name on it) with the intent to earn something from it (money or otherwise). Which breaches 99% of copyright agreements that original creators put in place.

Which makes you liable to being sued.

On top of that, when you self-publish, you give the publishers - no matter how big or small that avenue or company or magazine is - at least partial rights to your creation. Rights which, as fanfiction writers, you do not have in the first place. Because those characters are not yours, and they are not your property, physical or intellectual. No matter how you've spun the story, no matter if you have your own OC's in it, as long as you have at least one of the characters or settings or places mentioned in the original work, that is not yours to claim and it is not yours to hand over to another party (the self-publishing company).

When you self-publish something, you give the company rights to distribute, and the rights to earn their own profit from that distribution (they have to earn a living somehow and to pay for the inks and papers used in creating the printed version). They then hold onto those rights for a certain amount of time, and you can not undo that (as in you can't change your mind and tell them to cancel it after handing your work over to them. If they want to continue distributing your work, they can) or take those rights away from them after giving them up in the first place.

As a fanfiction writer, you do not have the rights to those characters, places or worlds in the first place. Only the original content creators have those rights. If it's a book or series that your fanfiction is based on, then the original author and publishing house hold those rights. If it's a TV series, the director and producer hold those rights, along with the filming company. If it's a movie, same again.

And if your fanfiction is based on / surrounding a celebrity, then your self-publishing it goes against their human rights. Because you're then profiting and / or distributing with the intent to profit off of them, without their consent. Them being a celebrity does not entitle you or give you any right over their autonomy. I'm sure everyone reading this can think of at least one case where celebrities have said "we love our fans but x kinda makes us uncomfortable / x feels a little bit odd / but we just try to avoid x because it's objectifying".

Writing fanfiction about them isn't illegal by itself, as long as it's free. But as soon as you self-publish that fanfiction, you're handing over rights that only that person has, and you're handing them over to another party (the company) to distribute as they wish, with the intent to profit from it. You do not have those rights to hand over in the first place.

Now, I'm not a lawyer. And I'm only 20. But I'm sure some older generations of fandom creators will be able to back me up in saying that fanfiction platforms of the past have been taken down due to copyright infringement. I'm sure they'll echo what I've said here. And I'm sure they'll have their own anxiety-driven story of waking up one day and finding all their writing just gone, because the original creators or celebrities threatened to sue the platform they were on, and the platform buckled. And those fandom creators knew they had no legal rights over anything they had created, and so had no argument to stand on to get it back.

If that's what happens when fanfiction is free, imagine the legal shithole you'd find yourself in if you made someone (including yourself) pay for that fanfiction.

Fanfiction is amazing. Please, please, please stop trying to profit from it, and please for all fandom creators sakes, stop self-publishing it.

#selkie prince talks #fandom #fanfic #fanart #legal stuff #someone who knows more about legal stuff please add on here #and someone from an older generation of fandom creators too #like please

[criptochecca]

5, 8, 11 for pokemon

5) Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*Not really. Nah I dont think so. They tried to ruin originalshipping to me but im too powerful lmao

8) Have you received anon hate? What about?

Oh damn yeah. My pronouns. How i draw characters with darker skinned/mixed (once i got a very antisemitic ask about izuku too). My pronouns again. A bunch of people getting mad because i said lesbians sometimes fantasizing about men doesnt make them any less lesbians. Someone tellign me to "go get some dick fake lesbian" about this discourse. My pronouns. Again. A bunch of people telling me im a worthless armchair sjw. I also got some anon hate directed at cole but written to me because cole had anon off and they were cowards lol. Nothing about pokemon tho i think.

11) Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?Trying to think about this, there are so many characters in pokemon ahahah maybe Oak? since everyone still unironically think hes a bad granda because he didnt remember Blue names when in pkmn lets go theres a joke about that and its officially non canon? i cant think of anything else (not that im the biggest Oak lover but i really cannot think about any other character)... ive also seen a few fanwriter writing Lance very... weirdly? and ooc?? and making him kinda mean?? and i love him and hes good with kids so i really dont get it also hes sexy

#dirtycar