#i read a fic where the writer made their interaction SO GOOD and SO GENUINE. like!! nothing forced

[piosplayhouse]

Just came across someone in the mdzscql/tgcf fandoms with an "anti fic recs" list where they just linked a bunch of completely unproblematic ao3 fics from established writers in the fandom without permission and extensive and unnecessary criticism (most of it just disagreeing with characterization) just to make fun of them, had "regretful recs" where they wrote maybe a paragraph about how they liked the fic and then listed the author's "problems" which were just whether or not they had written noncon/somno/etc kink work in ANY other completely unrelated fics or even just used words like "queer", and didn't even read some of their "anti recs" on the list but just wanted to make fun of them on the descriptions and I'm absolutely fucking livid.

Even if you don't like certain types of content that shouldn't lead you to compiling authors you don't like on a "shame list" in public stocks to humiliate them all for the grand sin of making a character a bit ooc. Genuinely ghoulishly evil behavior. It's so difficult for me to even fathom what the point of making any recs at all are since doing something like that 100% just discourages ALL writers, even the ones who make "good content", by telling them that the art they made of their own free will and time just out of a love for a piece of media is going to be mercilessly scrutinized and if deemed unacceptable your name will be blasted through the halls like some sort of mean girls burn book. Just some abhorrently poor etiquette that stifles the creativity of an entire community.

I really wish the poster had linked their ao3 somewhere so I could warn ficwriters to block them immediately so they can't access anyone else's writing since they apparently hate it so much, but unfortunately they don't have it up. I don't want anyone to harass them because bad behavior shouldn't be fought with bad behavior, but if you want to know the account to block so you don't interact in the future and promise you won't contact them you can dm me.

#also theyre a whole 27 yrs old so. lol #cant even say theyre a teen who probably just hasnt learned yet 😬 #long post #long posts #fandom wank

[cherubispunk]

Damn, what a year right? As I’m sitting here stuffing my face with Christmas chocolate, I’m thinking about some of the bad stuff, but also all the good things. I joined the fandom at the the beginning of this year and in the middle of that I lost my account and hand to repost everything 😱😭

I know. SHITTY. But!!!! I’m taking some time to thank you all for making this one of the best fandom experiences I’ve had. Thank you for your interactions with cherub. Your love, support, re blogs, comments, all of it. It means the utter world to me and I cannot stress that enough. You are all such wonderful people.

There are loads of you out there who I want to thank but I’m going to stick to a few that have been my rock through the shitstorm of 2023.

First, @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin. Ange. You are one of the kindest most genuine people I know. Being your mutual is an honour. You’re so generous and always there for me to rant and rave or obsess with. For that I cannot be more grateful to you. Your fics are beautiful and so is your mind. The love you show me and cherub is more than I could ever ask for. So thank you. Xx

@chaotic-mystery and @tightjeansjavi I know we don’t talk as much as we used to when I first joined the fandom. But just know I think of you two often. I love love love!!! your work and if I’m having a bad day I always pop back to it to make myself smile. I hope you two are doing better and that the new year shines in your favour.

@planet-marz1 mari!! Where do I even start? Your mari mail makes me giggle every time I see hbo Joel and pixel daddy Joel in a tutu or a tiara, or even as a snail. I’d love them as a worm, and I’d love you as a worm. I’m so excited to see what more you have in store for us with your writing because from what I’ve seen so far you are insanely talented!

@joelslegalwhre Em, you’re so sweet. You really are! And I’m so happy that we’re mutuals. I can’t wait to obsess over more Joel with you and get to know you more too. I love seeing you pop up in my inbox every now and then.

@jenna-ortega OH MY GOD I don’t THINK YOU UNDERSTAND THE VERTIGO BRAINROT I STILL HAVE!!!!! I often re-read it as a bedtime story because the premise of that fic is just chef’s kiss! Can’t wait to read more in the new year of you choose to continue bby

@chloeangelic thank you so much for your kind words on cherub part one and two. It really means the work that you loved it so much. Your reblog made my Christmas. I was giggling and kicking my feet the whole time and read it over and over trying to let it sink in that such a great writer ENJOYED MY WORK!! So thank you again l, sending much love your way, chloe. Mwah!

A few more honourable mentions go out to @swiftispunk @netherfeildren @janaispunk @saradika @morning-star-joy @psychedelic-ink @persephone-girl @walkintotheriveranddisappear @worhols @pedrit0-pascalit0 @morallyinept @cupofjoel @cavillscurls @joelsgreys @joelsflannel @joelscruff @joelsversion @wannab-urs @notjustjavierpena @millerscoffee @beskarandblasters @dilfspitdrinker @bbyanarchist @angelofsmalldeath-codeine @reddedmiller @toxicanonymity @thetriumphantpanda @cool-iguana and so many more for their work and the interactions we’ve shared over the year.

I hope with all my fanfic writer heart that the new year inspires you and shows you love, warmth and happiness. Keep smiling cherubs! Xxxxxx

#love from lu #2023 recap

[vinelark]

fic writer meme

thank you [checks notes] @megafaunatic, @cairoscene, @englishsub, @yuebings, and @cafecliche for the tags ilu

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 15! which is solidly 14 more than i ever expected to have on there when i made the account

2. What's your total Ao3 word count? 277,844

3. What fandoms do you write for? on ao3: mdzs/cql, tgcf, shl, and dc. in groupchats/dms/my own head i’m running wild all over the place

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 🐉 this river runs to you 💍 i’ll have you and you’ll have me 🪐 i will be chasing a starlight ⚔️ you’re the trouble that i always find 🌊 a wave crashes to shore

5. Do you respond to comments? not often; i have made multiple attempts to start replying regularly but all have eventually failed in the face of me desperately wanting to show my earnest and genuine appreciation for each comment vs. wanting to hide my blushing face under a pillow every time. also, because of who i am as a person, each time i sat down to do it i ended up spending hours making little progress and eventually decided that i will make an effort to spend those hours writing or commenting on other fics instead. i am honored by each and every one though!!!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? while i tend to write angst it is always firmly of the “with a happy ending” sort. the one exception is my shortest fic (originally posted on twitter) never been away so long, which is more of an ambiguous/open ending with implied angst. i dooooo outline the eventual happy ending in the endnotes, though. also as it CURRENTLY stands buy back the secrets ends on one hell of an angsty note, but there are two more chapters in the works to fix that.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? despite the wangxian star trek au having like 20k of deliriously happy post-misunderstanding sex, i think trrty has to have the happiest ending because not only does the fic end happily, but there are also multiple very happy codas in which wwx gets a good night’s sleep, finally gets to bang his dragon boyfriend, and, my personal fav, one by aubreyli where wangxian go flying in a thunderstorm.

8. Do you get hate on fics? not so far, for which i am grateful but mostly lucky.

9. Do you write smut? occasionally; on ao3 there’s the aforementioned trrty coda, plus the aforementioned cowritten wangxian pon farr sequence 💪

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you have written? hmm, i’m not opposed to crossovers—i’ve read some really fun ones (recent fav crossover read here)—but i’d have to be really compelled by both source materials and have a very clear vision for how they interact to want to write one myself. i’ve written a few fandom fusions (aforementioned wangxian star trek au; i also started a wangxian dragon age au but again, no dragon age characters were going to show up, just the world/setting) but no full-on crossovers. i did have one partially drafted wangxian fic that was going to have a hua cheng deus ex machina, alas.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? not that i’m aware of! it’s not something i really go looking for/concern myself with, but so far, like with fandom hate, i’m grateful to not have encountered it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? yes! my wangxian wedding fic was translated to russian.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? i co-wrote seventy thousand words of published fic with @feyburner! and probably two hundred thousand words of unpublished fic and outlines and story ideas just for fun. even when we aren’t co-writing we tend to talk through our individual fics with each other so we’re pretty in sync when it comes to writing. i also spent like a year in @cairoscene’s DMs concocting whole outlines/zerodrafts for batfam fics together that i still cherish and reread (notable favs: tim drake ella enchanted au, concept where the waynes are cursed to suddenly feel nothing but apathy about tim and he has to deal with that, story where robin!tim gets de-aged and oops red hood is the first one to show up…). i’d say the OCBFEU is fic-adjacent and cowritten by a group of us. also shoutout to the mdzs threadfic @cafecliche and i brainstormed/zerodrafted where lan qiren gets cursed into an owl and post-cql wei wuxian is the one who unknowingly saves him.

14. What's your all time favorite ship? oh yeah it’s [loud truck goes by]

15. What is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? cyborg!wwx…i still think of you fondly. the only ao3 fic i’ve ever posted knowing i probably wouldn’t finish it but wanted to share just for fun.

16. What are your writing strengths? pangs… mining little character details for humor (or, more often, for more pangs)… i also think i’ve really improved my action writing/pacing over the last few years.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? i write actual drafts/prose fairly slowly, which can be frustrating for me. also like @yuebings i often get very caught up in trying to perfect one small part of a draft before moving on. ummmm describing outfits/settings for reasons other than immediate plot-relevant details, i’m terrible at that + remembering to do it—i literally make myself do a What Are We Looking At Here Pass while revising sometimes.

18. Thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics? i’m not totally sure what this question is asking tbh, but it’s something i think can be done incredibly well—and, like with many things in storytelling, it’s the sort of thing where if you don’t actually speak the second language you need to be willing to put in work beyond a cursory google to try to achieve what you’re doing, and be willing to admit if it’s beyond your capabilities. i really like how the portuguese dialogue in bbts ended up and that’s 100% because @tigerjpg translated it for me and also already understood the scene/concept/characters; without them i would have found a different way to approach that scene. also, stylistically, i personally like when dialogue in other languages isn’t italicized unless there’s a real reason for it to be.

19. First fandom you wrote for? oh it was [a second loud truck whooshes by]

20. Favorite fic you have written? right now it’s bbts, because i think it’s also the fic i’ve had the most fun writing. trrty, though, will always hold a special place in my heart.

and i tag! @tlumeti, @burins, @smilebackwards, @bonesbuckleup, @hearteyeshayley, @sonosvegliato

#this was so fun thank you #also i loved getting tagged so many times because i could immediately go read everyone's writeups #like a very fun trip down memory lane #my fic

[chiyoso]

HALL OF FAVORITE WRITERS

▶PLAY. contains personal letters to each person tagged.

▶NOTE. yes, there was absolutely no need to make this, but i wanted to, just to show how deep my love is for the writing fandom, and those who i've encountered along the way.

▶EXTRAS. yes, i'll be adding more writers. too much people have impacted me and left me in awe. been wanting to do this for a damn good while too. (totally not making this as a shortcut so i can go to all of your blogs & stories with ease.)

i. 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐘𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 — @teapartyspilled

SFW, R-18; Genshin Impact Writer.

♡ letter ! nat, i don't know how many times i've said this, but that day, the day where i read your alhaitham oneshot, you truly, truly had inspired me that time, back then i was still in contemplation to return to playing genshin, i wasn't that much of an alhaitham nerd even, but that- that fic, it seriously broadened my views towards writing and fanfiction by so, so much. you literally opened a whole new world for me, inspired me to the point where i began pursuing writing too, i cannot stress that enough, and with that, thank you, thank you and thank you. i hope you're doing okay nat with how life is going for you, ILY, stay safe.

♡ recs; ICONIC two-part Lyney angst that GENUINELY MADE ME CRY SO HARD IN BOTH PARTS. Scaramouche Angst Series (heh made me hate scara for a bit, Alhaitham oneshot that kickstarted it all for me.

ii. 𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐄 — @ainescribe / @lychniis

SFW, R-18; Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail Writer.

♡ letter ! AINE. One of my first few supporters who supported my first work (Cynosure's Ascendance), wrote so much sweet things to me in my time of need, and also a fucking AMAZING writer. how the fffuuuck did you even manage find me??? SHIT like, i was no one, i was new to tumblr, and then somehow you managed to find the very first fic i wrote where my inexperience was VISIBLE to everyone, even to you—whose fics left me mind fucking blown from how skillful, poetic and your words can be. Fuck Aine, thank you for your continuous support to me, even if i haven't been so damn interacted, ilysm ilysm ILY.

♡ recs; This made me cry (i love you neuvi, zhongli). THIS made me cry harder. THIS STOPPED THE TEARS. THIS was so fucking impactful for me (zhongli oneshot).

iii. 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 — @wanderingconstellations

SFW, R-18; Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail Writer.

♡ letter ! YUAAAA MY CRUSH. MY WANDERER. HEHE. YUA YUA YUA was one of many smut writers that kickstarted my obsessions towards Wanderer/Scaramouche, AND the one who made me think “Mmm... maybe I can write smut for Scara next time,” so YEAH. YOU'RE A WHOLE ASS INSPIRATION TO ME TOO!!!! Let's not forget your sweet ass asks and interactions with me, making me all blush n' all that. I've been noticing your absence lately too, I hope everything outside tumblr is okay, and I wish for limitless opportunities of positive choices to you!!! (I miss you and I hope you're really enjoying the banner I made for you <3)

♡ recs; Threesome with Wanderer & Scaramouche that keeps satisfying me til' now. Breeding w/Scaramouche after he consoles you (My ask). Manipulating Bully!Scara (My ask). Lyney HC THAT MADE ME BLUSH SO HARD.

iv. 𝐅𝐔𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐃𝐁𝐘𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐎 — @fueledbysano

SFW, R-18; Tokyo Revengers, JJK, AoT, Bluelock Writer.

♡ letter ! i plead guilty, your honor. i haven't interacted with you as much, but i really, really genuinely loved reading your tokyo revenger works robyn. you're actually one of the reasons that made me explore more of my writing styles, hence the creation of my hsr fic 'the mara's will' - i created it just perhaps a few days or weeks after reading your if/then series, you inspired and impacted me a FUCK TON TOO. you're also the main reason why i started to take things a bit more seriously and realistically in a writing aspect, given the message you telling me about the words power hold? yeah, that message changed me. thank you for existing and being a writer, robyn. <3

♡ recs; her if/then mikey series. i had a long ass manila mikey-crush phase because of this HNNH. THIS manila mikey bday oneshot hit fucking home.

v. 𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐙 — @antimatterz

SFW; Honkai Star Rail Writer.

♡ letter ! HIII!!! hi enyoo!! i haven't interacted with you a lot, but as a reader (AND FAN) of your works, i seriously SERIOUSLY love the way you write, as well as the poetic goodness you bring in your works!!! your specialty? bringing so, so much comfort with a set story. i was in a state of spiraling depression and was going through a rough breakup when i read your fics, it was after the blade banner too, (the start of my blade obsession cough) so reading your self aware AUs, genuinely impacted me so much at the time, hence inspiring me to make that one jing yuan self aware au comfort fic. you're one of those impactful writers, please remember that! thank you ily <3

♡ recs; all of their self aware hsr AUs (heh) they're all SO comforting it hurts. AND her normal fics, i envy your poetics so much hnn. THIS SELF AWARE BLADE ONE IS MY FAVORITE OUT OF ALL.

vi. 𝐌𝐄𝐎𝐖𝐙𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐙 — @meowzfordayz

SFW, R-18; Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, MHA Writer.

♡ letter ! fuuuck i haven't interacted with you in awhile too, BUT PLEASE ALLOW ME TO PRAISE YOUR WORK IMMENSELY. i also... couldn't find your tanjiro poetry fic, i wanted to include it in too hnngh. okay but PLEASE KNOW YOUR WRITING IS SO- IT LEAVES ME SO SATISFIED SO MUCHHH!!! i don't know how to word it, but its just... your writing genuinely leaves me full of emotion depending on the genre, like you know how you eat good ass food, your mouth wants more but you can't cause you've been well fed? YEAH THAT, but with emotions. I FUCKING WANT MORE FROM YOUUUUU RAHHH, another explanation is like- the warmth is addictive??? the bubbly, gushy feelings after reading your fic- its so addictive, its why i suddenly yk, come bursting your notifs at random times PFF sorry!!!

♡ recs; my emergency req (sanemi) fuck i was such in a low place at the time. THIS ONE WAS SO FUCKING HEART WARMING AND i just ADORE his characterization here RAHHHH. your honor, if i were to die, let it be near my man sanemi shinazugawa, ty. POETRY W/TANJIRO.

vii. 𝐕𝟑𝐋𝐕𝟑𝐓𝐅𝟎𝐗 — @v3lv3tf0x

SFW, R-18; Writer for a lot of fandoms heheh.

♡ letter ! fuck, you're kinda proving to be my no. 1 most interactive mutual pfft, i've seen you hover eagerly around my blog, always quick to gnaw at my updates, reblogs, all that—WHICH I FIND HEAVILY ENDEARING AND YOUR SUPPORT BRINGS NOTHING BUT GIDDY, ACCOMPANIED WITH DELIGHT. that and you are so damn underrated its insane, no matter what, you are an amazing writer, and i hope numbers won't stray you off from that opinion of mine. genuinely, when you sent off that gojo drabble of a depressive reader pov, shit, did i mention i had a crying spree at the end? i first felt happy finishing the fic because it was inspired by my words, then the dread settled in, the shittiness of my situation, cried a fuckton, then after i calmed down, i went something along the lines of “fuck, shit, that was a good ass crying session” THEN i asked for an alternative good end (since i'm not the type to push people away) FUCK IM RAMBLING OMFG NOT AGAIN

♡ recs; at my time of need, you put out such a HEAVILY comforting satoru fic- or drabble, either way, this one is close to my heart. here's the alternate end to the 1st link nnh.

viii. 𝐕𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐘𝐑𝐘𝐒𝐌 — @vampyrsm

SFW, R-18; Jujutsu Kaisen, MHA, Obey Me Writer.

♡ letter ! its like im writing to a celebrity who doesn't know my existence, but you do. fffuuuuuckkk can i just say how much of a SKILLFUL WRITER you are????? the research you have to do for cor unum, perhaps even greek mythology to your other fics- you put so much calculative thought into your work and word building its INSANE. i aspire to write like you (tough aspiration considering my consistent burnout) BUT EITHER WAY, you're so admirable, i love how you handle gorey, realistic topics, and even if its just fanfiction? the realism is just so scrumptious, you're one of many major inspirations why i've decided to try and handle sensitive topics like cor unum too! and with whatever you're going through- prevail.

just like how sukuna would.

♡ recs; cor unum. cor unum. cor fucking unum. did i mention cor unum? this is a series i fucking wait for EAGERLY in each update (sukuna x you). greek mythology x bakugo is hot as hell HNNGHHFF.

HAH. ty coffee for letting me stay alive by the time i published this, which was somewhere 5am, i need a fucking snack (gojo) 'n yeah, ill be adding more writers since there's still a lot more i wanna mention, BUT I NEED TO PASS OUT NOW TYVM BYE

#— [THE MOON SHINES WITH ORDER] •• #` 2023 CHIYOSO. All media made by me.

[wri0thesley]

Hello! It's up to you or not to post this, but here are some bsd x reader blogs that I recommend, but please read their rules/Dni before following/interacting. Some rarely post bsd content as they are interested in something else, inactive/assumed hiatus, and/or completely stopped writing for the series. Some include yandere, others don't, so proceed with caution last anon:

dear-yandere

spacexseven

amusedyan

snailsgoingdowntown

shumidehiro

after-witch

yandere-sins

honeydazai

bandaged-writer

yandere-daydreams

yandere-romanticaa

Also, while I'm here, I just really wanna say I love your writing. Especially the sampo x naive(?) Reader! It's totally something he would do, but at the same time I feel like he's the type to fall harder - for example, when the reader was very obvious with her crush, it kinda felt like he was genuinely happy about it, not just for the sake of getting her virginity by 'acting.'

It's the vibe I got throughout the fic. Sampo was very cunning in it, using the reader's personality 'against' her in both a twisted yet 'loving' way. I also like how he decided to stay with her after the deed, but part of me feels like he's forcing himself to think about the sex even though it feels/looks like a genuine connection is there.

It's 2am where I'm at so I apologize if nothing made sense, or if that wasn't the theme you were going for. Good night and thank you for your content!!

thank you very very much anon! i am posting this for that anon and also for me if i ever get around to watching/reading bsd. important information i need: in the sanrio collab, is the guy they put with purin a Good Guy. has purin gotten what he deserves??? important. whether purin is being respected may sway my decision

and oh, no, i absolutely intended for sampo to feel like he was in control partly as a way of not showing just how charmed he was by cute naive reader!! he is so so used to being used himself, or acting as someone else to charm . . . the fact that reader seemed interested in him and genuinely liked him even when those flashes of his real personality came through really flusters him a bit! i do think, partly, that manipulative yanderes who do it because they do like you so much are the scariest of all - those who do it for fun usually know when to call it quits, but a yandere who's genuinely into you won't take no for an answer....

#nat.txt #yandere for ts

[nono-bunny]

You think the ATLA fandom would have done a better job writing the show?

Thanks for the ask!

Honestly? Absolutely not. Treating the ATLA fandom as one entity here is a bit of a misnomer here imo. When talking to @phoebester, I mentioned that I kinda feel like I'm more a part of the Zutara fandom rather than the general ATLA fandom- !nd that's for good reason! Zutara fans are inherently more critical because we like something that deviates from canon, and I find that the ATLA fandom are large much more closely matches the disposition of casual watchers, who maybe watch the show once and never think on it further- which is also a valid way to interact with media, it's just not my way, especially with media I find lacking in some way. ATLA is great overall, but it has some glaring flaws -some of which are more controversial than others- and I feel that only fans would really bother to ruminate on those in the way I find a lot of Zutarians do. I'm certain some Kataangers or fans of other ships also have issues with canon, but I feel that no one moreso than Zutara has such beef with it.

So if the question is simply about the fandom at large? No, that's unfeasible, a whole fandom can't write a cohesive story when it already has such huge disagreements about where canon ended up... But I gather that's not what you really meant, anyway. I have read fanfics that feel like they genuinely fixed a lot of the bad writing decisions of the show, but there are also many that made it very clear to me that not everyone necessarily understands/are capable of recognizing the core issues behind them, which makes it difficult to fix them. I've read fics retelling the whole story of the show that change one core thing, but fail to recognize that it would then mean that events don't happen in exactly the same way (Zuko joins early and Aang not being the Avatar are frequent offenders here). So like? At the end of the day, it once again comes to individual writers and their ability to write this story in a competent and engaging way- ATLA had good writers on board, which is why it succeeded despite Bryke being shit ones. I definitely believe that there are writers in the fandom that could've done a better job than Bryke, but like... At its core, the issue with them is about control and entitlement- they don't care about being the ones to put forth solid writing, and it shows. Quite frankly, under Bryke's supervision, no one could've made a better show than what we got, and as tragic as it is... Without them there would be no show, so this is all kind of a moot point in the end, unfortunately.

Also, to me "a better show" would've meant Aang getting completely rehauled, removed, or changed to a villain, and that's a bit of an extreme position because I know that plenty of people do enjoy at the very least season 1 and 2 Aang, but like... Yeah that's just not something I can vibe with anymore unfortunately, even if I tolerable him lol. I also believe in Azula redemption and that Aang should've killed Ozai, both of which are yet again controversial issues, so like.. What to me would be the perfect, most sensible version of show would really not jive with others, which is why a lot of different fics exist!

Adding this in immediately after posting: Also endgame Zutara but that's like. Literally my whole bread and butter so I forgot to add that because of how obvious it seemed to me

#avatar the last airbender #atla #anti kataang #anti aang #anti bryke #atla critical #zutara

[compacflt]

my apologies if this is too simple or juvenile or personal a question but HOW did you become such a proficient writer? and do you have any tips or pointers to keep in mind? i know you must do a lot of reading and a lot of writing, but your skill is just incredible to me. your prose!! your cadence!! when we get around to talking about it is genuinely one of the best things i've ever read and i'd eat it if i could!!!

this ask was so sweet thank you!! rly made my day when i needed a boost. Hope you don’t mind i took a couple days to think about it cause no one’s ever asked me for writing advice before

idk how i became a “proficient” writer bc I really don’t write that much. something about my fic gave me brainworms and i went into overdrive but that’s…not my usual MO. which is why it’s weird for me too. admittedly i am studying english/creative writing as my second major at uni, but i haven’t learned anything in any of my classes you couldn’t learn by just reading and writing on your own. honestly i should’ve stuck with my IR major instead, i find structured cw classes a complete waste of time. but here are some little tips i thought of that would’ve helped ME:

This is more a “do as I say not as I do” because I’m really bad at habits like this, but keep a diary. You can write about the big events (went to the store, did homework, got laid etc.) but that’s boring—focus on the details (watched someone at west side market throw a glass bottle of olives at a rat, broke a pen and permanently stained my dorm desk and won’t get my deposit back which pissed me off because I move out in a week, this guy’s breath smelled like lemon pledge and it made me wonder if he drank window cleaner before kissing me etc.). Real life is really interesting! How can you write about interesting real life in an interesting way? It’s a good way to practice. You don’t have to do a big reflection at the end of the day or anything. It’s okay to jot down something you saw & then immediately forget about it. It’s the act of figuring out how to translate life into words that’s important

If you type, learn how to type FAST. This is just my experience, but I think typing faster makes your cadence, clause length, dialogue, IDEAS flow better/more naturally. We think in words/sentences, not letters.

This is a super lame tip that’ll make you roll your eyes, but read poetry. Poetry is all about how words/ideas/images sound and interact with each other. Don’t get hung up on one poet—im not really recommending any for precisely this reason—read poetry you love (for me, Ada Limón, Jack Kerouac, Frank O’Hara, ghazals etc) AND read poetry you hate (for me, Rupi Kaur, Emily Dickinson, Whitman, etc)! Read all genres you can get your hands on. (I think there are like “great poetry anthologies” you can find for free online if u don’t know where to start. Also you can’t go wrong with subscribing to/reading a variety magazine like the NYer. It’s pretentious but it exposes you to all kinds of weird topics, ways of writing about them, etc.) Figure out how certain combinations of words and punctuations make you FEEL, and why, and why the writer chose (or not) to make you feel that way. Figure out which literary sounds you like and which ones you don’t. For me, i figured out that I REALLY like alliteration, comma splices, zeugmas, the rule of three, and

“he’s [verb]ing again… yeah compacflt’s characters are [verb]ing again… big shocker”

If you have an idea for a piece, figure out what it is you really want to get out of it—to say something? to experiment with a different style? to see your fav characters do something? to have fun?—and then figure out how, on a technical level, you should write to match that goal (this is where the poetry training comes in handy). If you’re just writing to have fun, don’t listen to any writing advice (incl. mine), because most of it is bullshit and over-generalized and will make you feel bad about yourself. Just take the advice that you think will work for what YOURE trying to write.

But if you’re writing to explore some political idea, then you should think about HOW to best write about that idea. What would be a convincing story/allegory/scene to engage with this idea vs. not convincing. I talk on this blog all the time about how disappointed I am that my very-adult-grown-up attempt to deal with the dynamic of “immovable internalized homophobia vs unstoppable falling in love anyway” is rendered a little childish/immature by some pretty unconvincing plot points like the characters buying a house together—I really should have considered how that plot point would interact with the characterizations I’d built already (hint: poorly). You can think of writing as kind of a military structure if that helps—you have strategy on the overarching campaign (plot/character growth/allegory/theme) level, the battle (scene that advances the above) level, and the tactical (sentence-level construction/syntax/wording) level. They all have to work together. If a scene is failing to properly engage with the idea you’re trying to convey, you’re losing a battle that will weaken the overarching campaign. Same thing if you choose a weird word in a sentence/write in a style or tone that’s weirdly out of place with your idea—it makes your engagement with the theme/idea less convincing. just try to be purposeful and consider your strategy on all levels of your work as you’re writing it!! At the very least it’ll make editing easier lol.

But then again when I read my own writing from just a couple months ago I cringe out of my skin, so like—just also accept that it’s a process and we’re all just making it up as we go along. Be proud of being embarrassed of your old work, because it means you’re growing. Own that shit. When I finished writing WWGATTAI i thought it was the best thing I’d ever written, and maybe it was. But since the day I finished working on it, it’s the worst thing I’ve written since then. That’s a great feeling. Not to be like writing grindset obviously bc it’s supposed to be fun—but if what you want is to get better at writing, the strategy is to WRITE a whole bunch of shit, and then own your embarrassment about how much you’ve grown since you started. And know you’re still always growing and learning. there should never be any “goals” where skills are concerned 👍🏽

#fake it till u make it #the good part about fiction is all you’re really doing is makin shit up #no rules!!! #fiction is just trying to sell a lie right #so it’s all on a sliding scale of convincability (at least that’s how i judge fiction) #and figuring out how to convince people of your lie is where the art is #anyway. #not top gun #asks #writing tips #idk how to tag this #also i love ao3 because trying to get published traditionally genuinely made me hate writing/MY writing #i have indeed had the cliche 100+ form rejection letters experience #unfortunately writing is also one of those things where you can see it as a competition so easily #(admittedly a small part of why i don’t read other TG fics—i don’t wanna read people doing it better than me😭) #BUT you tailor your experience to have a healthy life. it’s not a competition if you don’t make it one. put yourself first

[cannibalismyuri]

way to take things out of context <33 lemme show u some things i said in the actual post that aren't taken out of the connotations i meant to imply them with?

"they also are popular bc they're seen as Better than other creators and put on a pedestal. which is both uncomfortable for them and Highly discouraging for others." this was the whole sentence. way to take things out of context huh.

"many people just disregard other rlly talented creators in favor of the already popular ones (who are popular for a reason. their art / fics / wtv Are really good and i read their stuff too! not trying to put them down here, just trying to lift other people up)" so where in this sentence do u see me saying that they aren't good writers?

"also bragging rights? babe nobody's bragging abt how they get more interaction. that's rude asf and entirely out of the question. and those popular writers ur talking abt who Could brag if they wanted to DON'T. bc they aren't despicable human beings who love to put others down." so did i or did i not clarify that i think the people byler tumblr puts on a pedestal handle it gracefully.

also the way u phrased this is Exactly what's wrong with this fandom. have u ever read anything that wasn't be the 10 writers u idolized? i've found some AMAZING, FREAKISHLY TALENTED, SWEET AND ALL-ROUND LOVELY writers in fandom whom i never would've found if i didn't Specifically try to broaden my horizons. the way you phrased this implies that there is simply nobody who compares to the writers with most engagement and like... how would u know? isn't this exactly the kind of behavior i was saying was Not It? ur putting them on a pedestal and refusing to acknowledge other people, no matter how talented they may or may not be. i'm not saying everybody is an amazing writer right off the bat and that these writers aren't amazing; i'm saying that others may be just as good. i know Several amazing writers eho dont get half the recognition as mediocre writers in other fandoms (NOT! TALKING! ABT! BYLER! HERE!) based on luck and when exactly they post. u guys will never branch out and Try to support these other fic writers who are helping keep this fandom alive and contributing Beautiful fics and then say that the tag is dying just bc UR personal favorite creators aren't creating as much. this doesn't in any way diminish the obvious prowess and skill of the Big writers, bc they're amazing writers and people, but u suggesting that nobody else even comes close? this is NOT nyt bestsellers this is FANDOM. its common courtesy to atleast respect people who write these fics for free and if u can't provide basic respect by trashing others' writing that u haven't even read bc its not one of the Big writer's writing... ur part of the problem.

and im going to say it for the last Fucking time. dont bring my fics or engagement into this. im speaking for so many other people and im trying to demand support for Everyone. this was never just abt me. i said this previously too, but i made a whole ass EVENT to shine light on less popular writers. bylerficrecweek was made for a reason. if it was just abt me and my engagement i never would've wholeheartedly put my whole heart into that project. and don't u Fucking dare insult my writing. "maybe you're not as good at it as you think"? im fucking tired of u coming on my blog, claiming im saying a bunch of BULLSHIT and recontextualizing everything i say and insulting my writing on top of that. you won't see this bc ive blocked u now but. im genuinely so fucking tired. im turning off anon. clearly who ever is sending these has a problem with me personally; so say it with your whole pussy to my face now. ok thx and im Really Fucking Tired please read the post for what its meant to be before mindlessly accusing me of shit.

#sara says #discourse #all of u just shut up fr. theres only sm a girl can handle before i just start telling u all to kys 🥰

[kvothbloodless]

As someone who’s followed you for a long time, and a fellow writer….do you genuinely support chatGPT? Even if it has been proven to scrape people’s writings without their consent? And the fact that its a soulless husk of what actual writing is?

So Ive done my best to avoid AI discourse, but I am bad at it. So to put it clearly.

I dont Support chatgpt specifically. Its a program made by a corporation because they can make a profit from it, and curtail its capabilities in line with their goals. I use it sometimes because its fun ans convenient, but I dont pay for it or anything. I think pretty much all legitimate concerns about AI are really just concerns about corporate ethics, at which point the AI specifically becomes irrelevant

I also dont really think the situation in general is one where "support" is the right word to use; its like asking if I support cameras.

I want to be clear im not trying to be vague though; i think in general AI is pretty cool, and that 99% of the arguments against it are factually incorrect, based on inconsistent or bad moral frameworks, or both. Im not going to get into all the reasons AIs are cool, since I dont feel up to doing a Big AI Post, but I do want to gesture vahuely in the direction of how much more accessible this makes artistic creation and experimentation, and all the insanely fun things people can use AI for. However, i do want to address the common arguments against it, especially since it feels like a lot of people are just misinformed and falling into the very easy tumblr trap.

1. Scraping fics without consent: if you post something on a public site for the public to read, and someone downloads it to read it, its not stealing. Tumblr is generally pretty firmly against strict copywrite laws, so its a bit weird that so many people are Very concerned about AIs "stealing" their work in a way thats even less direct than fanfiction. Like, "your writing is so in character" and "wow youre really good at imitating the authors writing style" are common compliments on fics.

To be clear, there are absolutely ways of interacting with free public content thats bad (like reposting). But AIs arent frankensteining stuff together, or copy pasting anything; they literally could not do that. The training/model files are so insanely tiny compared to the amount of training data that it would be impossible for them to be storing that sort of thing. An AI learning from your writing isnt really any different than a human reading your writing, going "oh I like that" subconsciously, and using that to inform their future writing.

Whats that quote about "to get better at writing, read more"? If you believe that statememt is accurate, then Im a bit confused how youd be upset about an AI "reading" your writing and learning from it?

All of the Actual ways this could be used badly (copying someones art style and then selling art cheaper, etc.) arent actually unique to AI (a person can also do that!), and also usually arent really a thing thats happening enough to be a problem (most people who want art from an artist enough to commission them, are going to want it to actually be done By that artist). Using AI to make an original work, or even to finish a fanfic someone else wrote, is no more theft than if you did it by yourself.

2. "Soulless Husk": im sorry im genuinely trying my best here to be gentle and respectful, but this talking point genuinely makes my blood boil a bit, so im not trying to get personal or insult anyone specifically. Claiming that art made by humans is automatically deeper, that art is all about Meaning and Struggle, comes off as extremely pretentious and just doesnt engage with the reality of art. Im having trouble articulating a good argument here, but like. Art doesnt have to be deep, it doesnt have to have a Message, and the necessity of struggling in order to learn about and create art is an unequivocable bad thing.

Many many people make art (visual, written, etc.) becuase they want to see or read something cool or because they think others will find it fun. Many many people who would like to create art do not do so because it requires talent/practice that they are not willing to put the time and effort into developing, and this is not a moral issue. As Ive said before, laziness is a virtue and self-indulgance is a goal we should aspire to. Using a tool to make the incredibly fun act of creating easier and more accessible is awesome.

Also, who gets to define what "actual art" is? Genuinely seems a bit arrogant and presumptuous to declare that something is or is not "actual art" based on your own preferences.

The posts that Really annoy me are the ones that are like "cant understand the people RPing or playing a TTRPG with AI becuz its soulless. I only ever RP with other people because the fun part is being social or collaberatively building story" or whatever. Cool. I rp and play tabletops because i like to have fun and I enjoy those activities. Im gonna be honest, i find it a bit offensive and kinda.. dumb, to act like its somehow morally superior to only enjoy oneself in a way that Builds Community or Has A Meaning. People do meaningless things because they enjoy doing them and so long as no one is being hurt, thats fine.

3. Replacing workers: This is the only argument that has Any weight, but its still a bad argument. Its absolutrly true that AI is gonna put people out of work. The fact that more people will be out of work and struggling is a bad thing. This is also what happens when literally any new technology is developed, dating all the way back to the industrial revolution (at the Very latest). Automation is almost always a massive net benefit to humanity (im aware this topic could be its own series of posts but You Know What I Mean, please dont start industrialization discourse here), and the fact that it puts people out of work isnt actually an argument against it. Lots of radio operators lost their job when telephones were invented, but that doesnt mean people should have never used the telephone and obstinately stuck with radios. When phone technology advanced, a lot of phone operators lost their jobs, but that doesnt mean people were Morally Wrong to use the new developments that made phones far more convenient.

As in all things, el problema es capitalismo; AI isnt preventing anyone from doing art, its just reducing how many people can get paid to do their art. The correct solution to automation putting people out of work is not to stop the wheel of tech development, but to change society so that one doesnt have to slave away in order to survive.

This also raises the adjacent point, which is that halting tech development like this is impossible. Once the cat is out of the bag, its not going back in. AI tech is going to develop and become more widespread and theres literally nothing you can do to stop that. If you want to be upset about that, its your perogative ig, but im gonna be excitedly waiting for the dam to break and we get an open source LLM that I can use without worrying about data privacy or corporate filters, so I can have fun and RP however much I want and finally be able to write the stuff I want to write but cant do on my own because I have adhd and chronic fatigue, and Id kinda prefer if people stopped trying to rain on my parade because they think im not having fun or creating art in the "right way".

EDIT: I did want to add one more thing! A US court ruled that you cant copywrite something created completely by an AI, and i think thats an awesome move and I hope it gets expanded a bit and spreads elsewhere. This isnt a position based on whether something produced in this way counts as "real art" or is morally bad or whatever, I just think that reducing corporate and IP grasp on anything is good, and that AI specifically is going to be most enjoyable when its free and open source.

#AI #discourse #im genuinely happy to discuss this so feel free to send more asks or reply #but im turning off reblogs because im not a fan of online discoursing

[nishions]

writers you love/fangirl over on blr?

omg i have a lot >< a lot of them were actually my inspirations to start a writing account as before this i only had a reading account 😣😣 a lot of them are also my moots surprisingly and im soso grateful for that ^^

@okwonyo jiah!! almost everytime i see her posts i squeal out of excitement bcuz they're just so good?? when i first came to blr i immediately fell in love with her blog >< i wish we could interact more but i will say im a teeny bit scared...nonetheless she's definitely my biggest inspiration :3!

@star-sim vanya (my viet queen 😇) definitely has the best long oneshots 🤭 i remember the first time i read her spider-man jay fic and oh gosh...i loved it so much — to this day i still reread a lot of her works bcuz they're so well made and amazing to read ‼️

@palajae where do i even start omg...when i saw that she followed me i literally jumped and i thought it was a mistake (still think it is tbh) but jae's works are literally something else 😣😣 the first fic i read from her blog was hypegirl and i loved it so much (still do) i've said this a lot but im being so serious when i fell in love with her works omg

@boyfhee i love her works sm it's insane — literally every time i read her works i giggle and kick my feet so hard 😓😓 it makes me 10x more delusional than i already am and that is surely a sight to see!!

@jlheon peng my filo twin 😖 we don't interact often either (i hope we do soon tho) but HER ‼️ WORKS ‼️ her writing is so so SO amazing i love her blog lots and whenever i read her works i definitely do fangirl a ton (as i do with everyone else on this list)

@byhees im not actually sure what i've read from her specifically but i just remember reading a lot of her works and viewing her blog a ton when im bored :3 her themes are always so pretty and her writing and majestic idk how to explain it 😖😖

@isoobie RI!! i love her lmb smau it's so funny 😇😇 but seriously — i was genuinely so shocked to see that she followed me and i SCREAMED bcuz as i do with everyone on this list, i stalk their works and reread them to my hearts content 😚 and her works are just MWAH i love (but when do i not)

@hoony2k i remember so clearly reading her idol enhypen au and genuinely just fell in love and laughed at the hcs 😇😇 i love it when fics silly and her works definitely have that

@yenqa i've followed her for quite a bit on both my old account and this account and every time i see her work on here i just giggle and always look forward to reading them 😚 i love her jay streamer au, it was so cute and heartwarming i was so sad to see it end 😖😖

there's a lot more authors that i love but this post is quite long so i might just have to make a fic recs blog so u can go check out all my favs!! i probably shouldn't have expressed my love for their works as um this post is lengthier than i wanted to be but i couldn't help myself so ><

#₊˚⊹♡ ( love notes !? ) #anon #when u said fangirl i took that to HEART #i love love love everyone on enhablr #all the works r so amazing and cute #but!! as i've stated these are a few authors that i've followed for quite a long time and have inspired me to start this blog 😇

[katcoquette]

july bookshelf (recs!)

starting something new! I think it will be fun for me to keep track of what I was reading & loving each month (and who had a grip on me cough hangman cough) so here is that. hand picked by me for me but also to share with you!

I got a little bit carried away but there's just too many good fics had to include them all & I'm positive I still missed some but here it is- give your writers love because we do this for free :')

I adore every single person on this list, thank you for creating content that has added immensely to my life <3

☻ indicates smut / 18+ | ⁕ indicates a series

{ Jake "Hangman" Seresin }

✿ soft (☻) by @bradshaw-fanclub soft asshole is a superior trope, this one is a fave

✿ coveted facade (☻) by @inklore just so hot I don't even have words, hangman running his mouth

✿ spin the bottle by @topguncortez top tier angst for FREE ??? & also a perfect portrayal of hangman

✿ right where you left me by @bradleyfuckingbradshaw prepare to cry because just like the song, this fic is a tearjerker

✿ lucky piece by @wildbornsiren another amazing portrayal, playful friends to lovers, kicked my feet & smiled at my phone while reading

✿ rendezvous at midnight by @kyber-crystal when harry met sally vibes, so good

✿ hangman caught leaving your room by @write4tomorrow just good old banter with the team & the cutest couple

✿ don't touch my wife by @sebastianstangirl01 protective man HELLO hot in the cutest way <3

{ Steve Harrington }

✿ the long haul by @barnesafterglow two cute friends that kiss w/ a fun marvel cameo and clear communication, I loved this

✿ to bring you home by @pellucid-constellations just made me so soft, fantastic portrayal, & I felt like I was there

✿ pillowtalk by @sinclaiirs so comforting, so sweet, bf steve

✿ 11:11 by @sinclaiirs comfort fic fr, I've felt this and could've only dreamed of it being handled this well <3

✿ moral of the story by @refiwrites I am so excited for the part two of this the ANGST was real & so good

✿ stained windows, wandering hands (☻) by @clints-lucky-arrow hot car sex, must I say more?

✿ best thing I never had by @hairrington sucked me in I couldn't get enough, friends to lovers, jealousy, protective soft friend UGH I can't it was perfect

✿ right here by @xcatnapsx made me feel comfy also love the interaction with dustin

✿ make it better by @kiss-inthekitchen so so so good I can't express that enough, banter & top tier dialogue

{ Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw }

✿ do it right (☻) by @bradshaw-fanclub a dream for me genuinely and with my whole heart I'm obsessed

✿ nobody to mourn you by @bradshaw-fanclub one of my fave bradley fics of all time and such a good way to confess feelings

✿ no regrets (⁕) by @in-class-daydreams I'm fully invested in this one and the reader is so badass I love everything about this and the plot pleaseeee so good

✿ a glimpse of them by @bradshawsbaby this is the fic that convinced me to watch the first top gun can't thank you enough for writing it

✿ first impressions by @ohcaptains ROOSTER CATCHES IT I love proving men wrong and also this just made me happy

✿ leavin' on a jet plane (☻) by @bobbyonboard the most perfect wife!reader fic on this earth I can't even explain

✿ sleep clothes by @fandomlit I've never wanted to be in a story so bad this made me GIGGLE

✿ rooster blurb by @fitzells yeah casually ripped my heart out but not in a sad way in a cute way that made my heart ache

✿ thunk! (⁕) by @cherryblossom-enthusiast so well written & I wish it was my life

{ Bucky Barnes }

✿ broken by @clints-lucky-arrow made me see the scene in a completely different way plus I love a dramatic grief moment and this was perfect

✿ what you've got by @pellucid-constellations part of an amazing college!baseball au that I highly highly recommend, but also a cute stand alone that made me soft

✿ brooklyn honey by @sanguineterrain happy!bucky but so so sweet and made me cry bc then he has to leave

✿ cosmic love (☻) by @barnesafterglow this reminded me of the memory of a book I have for some reason I don't know what it is but just so good and I wished it was even longer

✿ eyes bright, uptight (☻) by @balenciagabucky nahhh.... cause I felt this one... like... so-

✿ for you, from westview (⁕) by @junexxvi such an interesting plot and I'm so excited for the rest of it, this is the perfect example of what fanfiction should be I'm in love with it

✿ sky full of song (⁕) by @wkemeup the greatest pirate!au I've ever read and EASILY one of my favorite series ever, such good writing, such a good plot, and....my fave trope I have coined as soft asshole (would do anything for her)

✿ I'm with you (⁕) by @wkemeup read the entire series in a single sitting, when is it my turn to meet a hot stranger in the airport and then emotionally support each other during important life events ??

{ Steve Rogers }

✿ phone tag by @star-archer the end is so satisfying and I love the keep-missing-you trope, so so good

{ Robert "Bob" Floyd }

✿ my love, forever by @robertcallsignbobfloyd literally made me sob SOB once I realized what was going on (took me a minute) I literally exclaimed out loud alone in my room

{ Eddie Munson }

✿ eddie blurb by @luveline so soft, so cute, eddie my love your time is coming for me, amazing writing, short but made me feel so much

#rooster top gun #hangman top gun #steve harrington fic #bucky barnes #eddie munson fic #katesrecs

[cleo-fox]

The “When Are You Updating?” Ask

I should say up front that this isn’t in response to anything I received. This topic came up in a Discord server that I’m in and another friend of mine got a similar ask shortly after.

I’ve alluded to the fact that this Tumblr isn’t my first account and that I’ve written for other fandoms previously. What I haven’t talked about is why I’m taking an extended hiatus from that fandom or why the majority of my work in this one has been one shots.

Historically, I’ve been a long fic writer. On my other pen name, I posted a long fic that had a fairly decent following in that particular corner of fandom. I’m a slow writer under normal circumstances but when the pandemic hit, I started having more trouble writing and my updates slowed a lot. I worked in a public facing role and the stress I was experiencing was unlike anything I’d ever dealt with before. About a year into the pandemic, I got pregnant.

To sum it up: I was pregnant, which put me at a higher risk for developing complications from Covid. I was working in a public facing role, which increased my risk of catching Covid and had the added factor of people being aggressive about not complying with mask mandates. Because of my pregnancy, I was not able to take critical medications, which then negatively affected my focus and energy levels. I was dealing with other chronic illnesses that were exacerbated or changed by pregnancy, as well as the physical symptoms of pregnancy itself. Then there was also the delivery, which had complications, as well as adjusting to life with a newborn and then going back to work.

I was upfront about all of this. I said that my fics weren’t abandoned, but that I didn’t know when the next update would be because I was dealing with a lot.

I still got asks asking why hadn’t I updated yet.

I knew that these asks came from a good, well-intentioned place. I loved that people were so excited about my writing that they wanted to read more. I loved that they cared so deeply about my characters. I didn’t want to sound ungrateful for their enthusiasm or their support, nor did I want to initiate a pile on with a snarky reply or make someone feel bad for asking a genuine question. I often struggled with how to word my replies, to find a way to be grateful for their enthusiasm while also reiterating that I had a lot on my plate and that I would write more someday, but that I didn’t know when someday was.

It didn’t seem to matter, though. No matter how many times I said the same thing, the asks still kept coming. The worst ones were the ones that scolded me for taking so long because the sender didn’t know how long they would be in this fandom or the ones that included the phrase “I know you had a baby but…” Those hurt. Those made me feel like people saw me as a content creation machine and not like a person.

Eventually, this started to negatively impact my desire to interact with that community, as well as my desire to write that story. When you log in and you know that there’s a good chance your inbox is going to have one of those notes, it’s hard to feel enthusiastic about logging in at all.

So I decided that I needed to take a break. I still check that pen name every so often and I still intend to finish those other fics, but I need some time. This pen name was created out of a desire to give myself the space to write on my own terms, and I’m grateful for all the people here who have let me do that.

And honestly? If you want a writer to update, it is far, far more effective to talk about what you love about their fic. There are so many times when I’ve been pulled out of a writing slump by a comment or reblog where someone talked about what they enjoyed about my fic. That kind of engagement is more motivating than a request for an update could ever be.

There’s that one post going around with the compilation of crazy AO3 author’s notes—the ones that are like “sorry this chapter is a day late, I spent the night in federal prison lmao.” It’s a great post and I love that there are people like that. I admire people who can create art despite their circumstances. But for every writer like that, there’s someone like me who’s going through some shit and doesn’t have the time or energy to write the same way that she does when things are going okay. I wish people would remember that.

TLDR: be kind.

#fanfiction #fan fic #fan fiction

[thirstforsalt]

the good omens meta post

this is not going to be very nice, and it will contain all the spoilers

I am a Good Omens book fan. Moreover, I am a Good Omens fandom fan, a fanfiction reader and writer since before the show ever came out. Also, I love Michael Sheen and David Tennant so much that I watched all three series of "Staged."

So when I say I found the show disappointing, I don't just mean as an adaptation, but as a piece of media that has to stand on its own feet. I know, for any viewer who wasn't invested in the Aziraphale/Crowley beats of the first season, it was basically unwatchable. I know because I tried to get a lot of non-shippers to watch, and the only people who could enjoy it at all cared about the love story at its heart. That's okay. It's nice when things are made for us.

The thing I love about shipping culture, and fan culture, is that it's a corner of the internet where soft-hearted people with big feelings and the desire to indulge in those feelings can be together in community. It's a place where we can intellectualize those feelings, or simply scream together. I've been in fandoms for more than two decades, oh my god. It's one of the only places I feel wholly seen, and totally accepted. (I mean, I've been a victim of online bullying, but who hasn't?) I deeply love my fellow fans. We are so creative, so sensitive, so observant. I really love us: what we make. What we do. How we speak. How we interact with media and transform it into something greater than the sum of its parts.

That's how I feel about Good Omens fandom. I think the works this fandom makes-- the art, the fic, the everything-- are overall of a higher quality than the book and the show. And that's okay. Some fandoms are like that. Not everything is eternal art, perfected to the highest aspiration of the medium. It's still valid. It still counts. It still carries a lot of meaning, for me personally and I know for you, if you're reading this.

I say all of this to contextualize why I felt season two was so genuinely mean-spirited. It felt cruel. I am a major fan of fan service, and I love being a fan who gets serviced. But this fan service reminded me of the book "How To Date Men When You Hate Men," in that it might well have been subtitled "How To Service Fans When You Hate Your Fans." It pointedly retconned moments from season one where people had written the most fill-in fics, e.g. having?????? them go???????? to a nightclub?????? AFTER A BLITZ BOMBING?! You know what people in London did after a Blitz bombing?! They hid in their homes or shelters with the blackout curtains on the windows until daybreak! I couldn't help but feel the zombie Nazis plot (what was that?!) was being used to make sure there was no room for the formerly ambiguous night after Aziraphale fell in love. After season one, fic writers had imagined hundreds of little sexy rendezvous after the Blitz bombing scene, but no more. Now, they can't be canon. In fact, nothing set in the past 6,000 years can be canon, now. So much of this season felt engineered to poison the sweet little ambiguities of season one, and you will never convince me it wasn't intentional.

I think it's important to say what we all know: fan activities like fanfiction and fanart are extremely femme-coded behaviors. Regardless of your personal gender identity, fanfic writers are majority female, and the other activities fans perform (making fanart, cosplaying) tend to be gendered (in the media and by outsiders) as somehow female. It's important that we acknowledge this even if it isn't true-- it's similar to the ways that careers like teaching and nursing are feminized, regardless of who actually teaches and nurses. This is also extremely important to acknowledge because women are PAINFULLY underrepresented behind the scenes of television.

Fewer women than men actually get to make the art that eventually inspires fandom. There were no female writers on Good Omens. There were no female directors. The cishet male creators, by which I mean to include both writers and the director (of Sherlock infamy, by the way), have no cinematic or narrative vocabulary for the androphilic gaze. [That's the gaze that sexualizes and objectifies men, a term on loan to me from a non-binary academic friend. It's the gaze we use when we write m/m slash. This is a larger discussion, but the reason you have predominantly femme writers and consumers of m/m erotica is in part because it is a break from the male gaze-- there is no man objectifying a woman in these stories. You might have a queer identity, too, and that might be part of it, but the fact is that one of the appealing functions of m/m erotica is the absence of a woman being objectified. We, the readers, get to do the objectifying-- in complete and utter contrast to most media. It also bears reiterating that regardless of your gender identity and sexual orientation, you exist in a world where Western media is constantly feeding you film and television from the POV of the male gaze. That is why m/m erotica especially, and to some degree f/f erotica, is transgressive, by the way. It's also transgressive to just find more than one man hot, because we're not supposed to.] Anyway, creators like the men who made Good Omens might really think they speak our language, but it will always be a second language to them, and a lot of nuance gets lost. In my opinion, that's why the kiss scene was so devastating. It was joyless.

I know people will say (and have said) that it was joyless and passionless in service of the angst, but fanfic readers know: having even a second of passion followed by the angst makes the pain that much sweeter. It would have made the conflict, and the cliffhanger, even harsher. The writers and director behind that scene do not understand what every fanfiction writer with a vibrator knows. They fundamentally do not understand us. It breaks my heart to say it, because I don't think it has to be true across the board, but I felt it so strongly with Good Omens, season two. I felt so strongly that they were trying to speak our language without having the humility to speak with us, to understand us. They understand us only as viewers and as consumers. They don't understand us as collaborators, because they don't think they have to collaborate with us. But fans are, in a very real sense, collaborators-- collaborators in making meaning, and collaborators in making other people money. Understanding that symbiosis is what transformative works are about. This season felt like it was intended to remind us that these characters are not ours. We are welcome to play in our own sandbox, but we are not a part of theirs. And if the show had bothered to hire any femme creatives, there may have been someone above the line to bridge the gap between what they thought they were doing and what we took from it.

I also can't help feeling that we're being held emotionally hostage to get the ransom money of a third season. IMO, the second season was genuinely bad television. Like, sincerely appalling storytelling. I'm talking about everything before the kiss, too. (I can't even discuss the kiss right now.) The so-called "mystery" of Gabriel's memory was nonsensical. We had no reason to care and the "clues" we followed were incoherent until the finale. It wasn't a fun mystery we could follow, and let's be honest, we were all just there for the Aziraphale/Crowley moments. Even those moments were wasted, imo.

What was the purpose of the magic show and the miracle blocker? Was it just for all the sexual double-entendres of giving and receiving and shooting guns? Because, I mean, I love a good dirty joke, but what was its utility in the structure of the season? What did we learn? Did anyone change? Did anyone go on a journey? It failed at every screenwriting 101 lesson I've ever been taught.

Why even have Crowley and Aziraphale setting up the lesbians if the lesbians aren't going to be set up? Why have a monologue about how you can't force two people together just because you want them to be together? That whole storyline felt like subtext (and not particularly subtle subtext) of the author stubbornly wresting narrative control from fans.

And it was FILLED with squandered opportunities. One of my favorite moments was Crowley referencing humans in the rain confessing their love a la Richard Curtis movies. Wow! What a beautiful set-up for his confession later in the-- wait, you're not even going to use that perfect set-up? OK, but you're going to do a set-up, right? Oh, you're not? You're just going to have the lesbians tell Crowley that he and Aziraphale have "never REALLY talked" and think that's a set-up? Girl, I guess!

I don't think on the basis of writing, Good Omens season two earned a third season. I would be very surprised if it got one. And if it doesn't get one, that's frankly justified! No one is going to watch this show who isn't there for Aziraphale/Crowley, which-- again-- are my people. But we are simply not enough, and a good show knows that it has to engage both shippers and casual viewers. My guess is that they don't get a third season, because no one but us hardcore fans will watch that trainwreck again and again, and then Ne*l Ga*man and the actors will do some kind of staged reading of a third season-ish script for charity or something to tie up the loose ends. I'm old-fashioned in that I think you should use the money and time and resources you've been given to tell a story, not just set up a story. I feel like fans are being held emotionally hostage to push Amazon to pay the proverbial ransom of a third season (and it is a ransom, it does line pockets that are not yours or mine). I feel like Ga*man made that explicit in some of his Tumblr posts!

Which is not to say the show might not have been more successful if indeed it had been the pure fan service everyone is saying it is. But also, it wasn't pure fan service. This was not an exercise in giving the people what they want. It was an exercise in asserting narrative control, which to me is the opposite of what fans want, need, and deserve.

#good omens spoilers #good omens 2 #meta #fandom meta #good omens

[rollercoasterwords]

Ok so i just read ur post about criticizing fics about being unnecessary and about how u should just not criticize fanfics because it’s a hobby and not ur personal perfect story. While I completely agree with u and also think u should just leave authors alone and read what u like and skip what u don’t, I just wanted to ask: so in cases like ATYD where (as far as I’ve been informed it was corrected before I read it) there used to be like harmful racist Roma stereotypes. And in a case like this what do u do? Do u still just skip the hat u don’t like it do u inform the author about what u found maybe not wrong but like misleading or sth.? I’m honestly just curious about how to deal with situations like this cause I honestly don’t know.

so, i actually just recently answered that question abt atyd here and i also talk in this post abt what i personally think is the best way to address instances where ur concerned a fic might be genuinely perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

but. basically. if u come across something that seems like a harmful stereotype in a fic, and you are genuinely very worried that it could perpetuate misconceptions, the best approach is probably going to be reaching out to the fic writer directly and privately and politely explaining your concern. in most cases, the person is probably just misinformed and not intentionally trying to perpetuate anything harmful. however, u should keep in mind that you don't personally know who wrote this, what experiences they might have, or what groups they might be a part of, and u should be open to any response u might receive from the writer. it's possible that something u view as a harmful stereotype is something that another person views as important representation.

if the writer doesn't respond or u can't reach them, for whatever reason, u have 2 options.

1 - accept that a single individual posting fanfiction on the internet may have some internalized biases they need to work through, and may have made some misinformed decisions in their writing, and just....move on. in the grand scheme of things, even the most atrocious portrayal in a fanfic is not going to be egregiously harmful irl.

2 - if u are really, really concerned and can't sleep at night because ur worrying that random people might find and read this fic and not have the critical thought to draw their own conclusions + understandings abt it, then. sure. make a post. explain that this one aspect of x fic may be misinformed or misrepresented, and request that anyone who interacts with the fic educate themselves using sources outside this one fic to learn abt the community being misrepresented. don't try to "cancel" the fic or yell at people for reading it at all--that isn't productive, and it isn't going to encourage people to actually educate themselves.

at the end of the day, fanfiction, just like any form of literature or art, will sometimes be biased or misinformed. but we should be approaching fanfiction as a community space that exists outside any consumer economy. that means giving the fic writers u are in community with the benefit of the doubt that they either had a good reason for writing the way they did, or they're simply a bit misinformed and would be open to educating themselves. and it means giving the other fic readers u are in community with the benefit of the doubt that they are just as capable of critical thought as u are, and they aren't simply going to absorb every stereotype they come across uncritically. we should start by assuming the best in each other, not the worst.

#ask #ranting and raving

[forest-hashira]

i need to be honest with you guys

i really don't want to be Like That and say that i've succumbed to the whole "my writing is worthless if it isn't popular etc. etc." mindset but like. i think i kind of have. i know that my writing has worth even if nobody reads it, and for a long time i was fine with not getting much attention on my works. i was happy with what i was writing, i didn't really care if anyone else read it, because i liked it, and that's what mattered.

and then i started writing Noble Blood, not just a bunch of mini fics that had no worldbuilding and very little plot.

Noble Blood is very precious to me. i've never put as much time and effort into a project that has actually turned into anything beyond some very vivid mental images and a handful of bullet points in a google doc. Noble Blood means so fucking much to me. and as much i desperately wish it didn't, the fact that it has not done well over the last three months has really, really hurt me. i know that engagement isn't everything, and i know it doesn't signify how good or valuable my writing is, but it's also not wrong for me to wish that people would interact with it in some way, because without those interactions there's no way for me to know if anybody's even reading it at all, much less if they're enjoying it.

and beyond that, i feel like whatever little niche i may have had before is gone, or at least expanded to the point that i feel like i've been pushed out. i don't want to make anyone feel bad, so i'm definitely not going to name any names, and again i really don't want to make anyone feel bad or like i'm attacking them. that is not my intention. i am just trying to be honest about what's been going on in my head lately. but i have writer friends who used to mostly/only write smut with little to no plot and are now branching into fics with lots of worldbuilding and plot and little to no smut, and i'm happy for them! i'm glad people are comfortable and confident enough to do that, and i am more than excited to read those things as they're published, genuinely i am. but i feel like that was what i had going for me, what made what i was writing stand out from everything else. and now i feel like i don't have that anymore.

i'm not entirely certain i know where i'm going with this, or what i'm trying to say. but this has been weighing heavy on me for a while. i don't want this to come across as me whining because my stuff hasn't gone viral, or begging/guilting people into reading my works, or anything like that, and i don't want anyone else to feel like i'm upset with them or think that i feel like they don't deserve the attention their works get, or anything like that, because i don't think or feel that way; i'm genuinely so happy that people are exploring things that interest them and are enjoying writing those ideas. i just wish it was working out for me like it's working out for them.

this isn't a post to say i'm quitting writing forever (i don't think i could even if i tried to), and it's not me saying i'm going to delete everything i've posted and disappear, because i'm not going to do either of those things (though i can't say the thought never crosses my mind). I am just struggling to find a reason to keep doing what i'm doing, because my disappointment and frustration with how poorly everything i post here does has now been bleeding into the enjoyment i usually get from writing, and it's making writing feel Very Unpleasant. i don't want to quit but i don't know what to do anymore.

to anyone who does read & interact with my fics, mutuals especially, i will never be able to thank you enough for your support. it seriously means the world to me, and i owe you an eternal debt of gratitude. i love all of you from the bottom of my heart.

if you read this far, thank you for listening to my (probably pointless) rambling, and i'm sorry for taking up so much of your time. i hope life is treating all of you well, and that you're taking care of yourselves as best you can. i love you guys 💜

#fallon rambles #anyways... yeah. sorry. i don't know what i thought this would accomplish #i just felt like i was gonna be sick if i kept this to myself any longer #i really really really don't want anyone to feel like i am attacking them or i'm mad at them or anything like that at all. #i truly am not upset with any of my fellow writers. if i'm upset with anyone i'm upset with audiences #fandom etiquette has just like. died. and it fucking sucks. #to all my moots (writers & not) and loyal readers: i love you all forever and ever and ever. kissing u all on the forehead.

[hydriotaphia]

Anon2 here from yesterday - I wasn't bashing the antwina fic. I was bashing the character's actions within the fic, and explained why I felt that way based on details in the fic. If anything was worded too harshly as a result of my annoyance at the characters themselves, then my apologies. Also, saying that the characters felt like original characters rather than the characters wasn't me being mean; I provided details from the story for why i felt that way. I genuinely found the fic interesting, it was a unique take on the relationship between the three, as much as it required my suspension of disbelief. However, for any fic I read, I don't believe in pandering to the author and talking only about the positives. I put thought into why I felt the way I felt, and pointed to parts of the writing as reasons why. People analyze books the same way, and i don't like holding fanfiction to a lower standard than books.

Nor at any point did I say you were 'wrong' about writing your story the way you did. You wrote them based on your views. I only brought up what I agreed/disagreed with between you/anon1 bc I have different views. If you don't want to discuss the fic that's fine, I saw the posts from the anon1 and thought it was open for discussion.

I understand most of the fandom is harsh on edwina. Sometimes the hate is unwarranted, but sometimes the criticisms are not. I've seen people provide sound arguments based on moments from the show to support their claims. I don't describe some of edwina's bad qualities just bc kate is the main character, and it's not coming from thin air. The reason why most people agree on her flaws is probably bc everyone watched the same show and interpreted her actions based on what was shown. As for what I said in my original ask, I pointed out her youth, lack of experience in running a household as compared to Kate or other older women, reliance on kate, and tendency to have things centered around her. I can point out specific moments in the show that led me to describe her in this way (and youth is literally just her age). I also don't think any of these descriptions demean her character. For the most part, she is that way because she has been raised that way. She may also grow out of those qualities with time and experience. If there are other qualities I'm not seeing, I'd truly like to hear about them and what moments in the show you base them on.

Hey Anon, thanks for messaging to clarify. I’m going to reply in good faith too and I'll try to reply to some of yesterday's ask as well. I’m not sure how long and varied your time in fandom has been, but there are a few fandom principles I follow and would ask anyone interacting with me in a public space to keep in mind as well:

We don’t have to like the same things. This includes the 3 laws of fandom [Don’t Like Don’t Read; Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That’s OK; Ship and Let Ship], but it also extends to the perceived quality of what’s produced by other fans.

Public constructive criticism of fanworks is not warranted unless you are specifically invited to share your perspectives by the creator and you know what kind of criticism they are open to taking on board. You wouldn’t seriously criticise someone’s for-fun pottery attempts or your kid’s macaroni art. It’s the same with fanfic – it’s made with love and it’s not meant to be treated the same as published fiction. Not because it can’t be as good or deep or complex, but because fandom is meant to be a fun space that rejects the commercialisation of our hobbies and interests, and it’s meant to be welcoming and supportive.

I didn't write the fic you were talking about. In order to answer the ask, I would have had to publish your ask in full. So, when you put criticism of someone else’s fanfic in my ask box, I would’ve had to publicly share this where the author might see. I think you are aiming for objective by saying ‘textual analysis’ but, as a writer, 'bashing' character choices in a fanfic is pretty close to bashing authorial choices. These are fictional characters and authors make choices about what we think the characters would do. I hope you can understand why this made me pretty uncomfortable with answering yesterday.

Having said that, I get where you’re coming from, I really do! I also love textual analysis and I do it for fanfic I read with close friends. I am happy to talk about my choices for a fic and what drove those – I've done that extensively on AO3 for Malebolge for example. But I also play with premises and style across my work; there isn’t a ‘single’ head-canon. Half the fun to me is figuring out how to make a scenario work while still trying to keep someone in character. So I think your style and mine are fundamentally different and I question your premises as you question mine.

Specifically, from yesterday's ask:

“—even if I try to imagine them as real people who aren't guaranteed to be together, I can't see Anthony ever getting over her. While it is true that for most real people, time heals heartbreak, we don't see this sort of all encompassing love in reality”

Anon, I disagree. You seem to be arguing that ‘the only possible representation of Kanthony is that their love transcends reality so you can’t apply a realism lens.’ It reads like a tautology. Again, you are absolutely free to not buy my premise but I have no trouble imagining and accepting the possibility of a real life viewpoint. In a fic that applies a lens of reality as I’ve already explained, theirs is a big, heart-breaking love but eventually you deal with it and they were prepared to - that was what the whole scene in the park was about.

I do enjiy getting asks about interpretations and headcanons, but I hesitate to get into a back-and-forth in my tumblr askbox about this given we don't seem to be approaching B'ton character interpretation similarly?

For example, and I mean this as gently as possible, lesbian Edwina is not a great example of drawing conclusions from canon… I have no problem with it but there’s nothing objective about that characterisation. It’s not even hinted at in the show unlike say Lucy Grantham and Genevieve. You’re making choices based on reading into the show and that’s fine. Pretty much all of slash fandom and most fanfic is us reading into things (barring Stucky - I will die on that goddamn hill because it is in the text)!

#asks #bridgerton season 2 #anthony marries edwina AU #writblr