#i could talk about the fanartist community and its dynamics for hours

[vnzndt]

Honestly like this is gonna sound really annoying or whatever but finding out that he doesn't run the fanart acc after the initial sort of disappointment it was like. Kind of really relieving for me because I left twitter completely a few weeks ago, and it was the only thing that made me wanna go back was the sliver of a chance he might see my shit but. Idk. It makes me feel better about leaving. I got my rt and my reply I think that's enough :)

nooo i don’t think it’s annoying at all

imo there’s been a lot of unspoken jealousy and competition in the fanartist community when it came to the dranart account and i think it clouded a lot of artist’s vision and motivation when it became such a driving factor in posting fanart. it definitely was not dream’s fault and it’s also not any artist’s fault because jealousy is a very natural emotion which is bound to be triggered ESPECIALLY when posting on a platform as toxic as twitter (which essentially feels like literal high school with its cliques and popularity and weird hierarchies, not a dttwt problem, but an every fandom on twitter problem)

all in all i think relief is a super valid reaction to all of this and i definitely feel it too even if i don’t plan on leaving twitter. the need for validation via a dranart like was affecting me a lot more than i realized and that sliver of hope he would notice it was definitely a driving factor behind my motivation & how it somewhat shifted from drawing for fun -> drawing for attention

i think it’s been both disappointing and eye opening and i hope more artists feel comfortable enough to talk about the burnout that was unintentionally caused by the nature of twitter & its algorithm, including how that swayed who got a dranart notice or not, not wether dream actually “liked” your art or not.

i also hope this is an opportunity for growth when it comes to the community uplifting artists, not just dream, which i think is something we’ve struggled with as a fanbase in the past. i think that alone plays a big part into the toxic mindset a lot of us have developed where dranart notice = huge boost from the community, huge boost from the community = feeling insecure about a lack of interaction on posts that didn’t get a dranart notice, when it could easily be somewhat avoided if non-artists uplifted art by simply looking for it out of their own volition and not because dranart put it on their timeline

i’m yapping so much but my point is it’s okay to be relived and i think we should embrace it & acknowledge that there’s a reason as to WHY we’re relieved, because that relief doesn’t just come from nowhere 🥸

#i could talk about the fanartist community and its dynamics for hours #what 4 years in dttwt does to a mf #ollie asks #yapping

[historians]

rian, why do so many people have to be negative about fanfiction? it makes me feel kind of uncomfortable with myself, honestly :(. can you maybe name some ways in which fanfiction (+ shipping etc.) can be good? because 1. i think the world could use that right now and 2. in real life situations i can never think clearly enough to come up with reasons myself.

i actually went off about this on twitter a while back!! from a writer’s perspective, albeit, but you can read it here. (tl;dr: fanfic is uniquely useful writing practice and shouldn’t delegitimize a writer’s talent or potential) but like. now i’m gonna go off. i could talk about this shit for hours.

in general though, there’s a lot of reasons why fanfic/shipping/etc are often good and productive things! aside from the importance fanfic and shipping has to marginalized communities in fandom (who disproportionately write and consume them), in general they provide a space to creatively engage with media to personal and creative benefit. media a reflection, but it’s also a form of escapism. if you’re not reflected in it, the escapism part requires a little bit of creativity. for fans who don’t see themselves in media very often, or at all, it’s a powerful way to feel the same connection to media that we can’t get just by passively consuming it. for creators, especially ones interested in crafting narratives, fanwork is a creative outlet to examine the themes and boundaries of other works using your own medium. it’s invaluable. writing and reading fic has made me a better writer than classroom knowledge or talent alone ever could. full stop. at its most basic level, all fanwork, including fanfic, is a way for fans to connect with the content we love, and let it push our own creative boundaries. (to whatever extent you let it, that it is). the very nature of being a fan of anything makes its existence inevitable and necessary. 

i’ve seen people argue that fanworks/fanfic itself has credibility, but shipping within it doesn’t. (or straight up-discredits it.) it’s an arbitrary line to draw. shipping can be easily done in a way that is unhealthy (y’all remember misscribe?) or problematic (republican coworker who ships wincest but thinks lesbians are weird, i’m talking to you.) but even in the fucked up places it can sometimes wind up, the practice itself (imo) isn’t that hard to understand. it’s wish fulfillment, and extreme examples or ‘not getting it’ aren’t legitimate reasons to dismiss anything that includes it when wish fulfillment is all but inherent in fiction. i can’t speak for everyone, but i started shipping things because i wanted to see experiences i felt like i could relate to, and i write shipping fic because it’s an incredibly useful and fun way to play around with character dynamics, emotions, and motivations. it turns out it’s pretty good at doing those things! but more importantly, if it’s fun for you, it’s really fucking fun for you. some people get their kicks from watching sports teams win. others get their kicks from reading about two cartoon dudes falling in love. life sucks, you cling to what you can, and wish-fulfillment has never been an acceptable reason to dismiss the value of creative work. 

fanfic gets an unfair rep, and i can’t help but feel there’s a correlation with how often it’s presented as mostly shipping related (aka sexual, aka written for female sexual gratification), and how that’s conflated with low-quality writing. it’s frustrating how fanfic is still seen as harlequin romance for nerds, especially when it feels like other forms of fanwork are starting to be seen as legitimate skills. in reality, fanfic is just like everything else. there’s bad fanfic, with all those awful cliches and shoddy continuity, but we also have a very bad, very distinct sort of image that pops into our head at the mention of deviantart, don’t we? (no, not the furry porn.) but there’s also good fanfic, and fanartists who turned into the reason you picked up the pen. with anything, there’s a spectrum.

good fanfic is written by talented, skilled people who have spent years and years honing their craft and are choosing to do labor-intensive work for free out of passion. i’ve read countless works, with and without shipping, by people who are clearly publishable, but are gifting the communities they love with substantial works of art (bc writing is an art!) its detractors never seem to really grasp this. there are works that contain just as much technical skill, just as much character depth, and just as much emotional nuance as the majority of what you could pull off the shelf. the author of your favorite fic has probably put in just as many hours and years writing as the best fanartist you know has drawing. it can be really fucking good.

but honestly like who fucking cares if people don’t like it bc the principle itself is fucking harmless and we’re going to die someday! life is short! anyone who thinks it’s weird or fucked up can eat my whole entire ass!

#this could have been answered in two sentences but no gotta write an essay how predictably me #long post #i sound so pretentious jesus #Anonymous #witness testimony