#i'm not even actively sharing my writing on Tumblr atm and the like-reblog ratio has me laughing out loud

[lale-txt]

Good luck with your challenge, I stopped commenting because I never got a reply back which sucksss 😭🥱

in all honesty, writers don't owe you a reply.

and i get where you're coming from; it is nice to get a reply to a comment you left! but expecting one back feels a bit entitled, doesn't it? you already got a fic FOR FREE. you leave a comment to thank them for this gift. and then you expect them to thank you in return?

i don't mean to sound ungrateful because i can promise you, it's not like us writers are getting swamped with comments LOL. i have many writer friends and no matter for how many years we've all been actively writing, a single comment will still make our day. no matter how small that comment is! just a simple "hey, i loved reading this" or "it's 4am and i'm reading this instead of sleeping" or a silly keysmash shows us that someone out there really enjoyed what we wrote.

idk but hearing you say you stopped commenting simply because you never get a reply back left a really bitter taste in my mouth. maybe the person behind the fic is out of spoons, maybe they simply forgot to reply, maybe they're keeping your comment in their inbox and stare at it lovingly because it gives them fuel for the entire week. the reasons for it are endless. not getting a reply to your comment doesn't mean the writer is ungrateful. it's just a really shitty thing of you to say.

i'm gonna keep commenting on my fav fics because it makes me happy that i get to show my gratitude. it's a little kindness that doesn't hurt anyone and honestly the energy you spent on sending this ask could have been used to do the very same, but oh well.

#you don't come into my house and complain like that without having me reach for my sandal LOL #i could have blocked and deleted this but honestly i feel like quite a lot of people think this way and it bothers me #A LOT #and i'm getting so tired of repeating the same things over and over again #everyone and their mom is having a menty b when AO3 is down but no one bothers to leave a little loving comment #i'm not even actively sharing my writing on Tumblr atm and the like-reblog ratio has me laughing out loud #it's really a mess and we all sound like broken records at this point it feels #so excuse my little rant there but i'm tired #lale.ask

[lifeofkaze]

Warning - rant incoming.

Having been a writer for more than a decade overall and an active one for almost two years now, there's a question that has been bugging and making me anxious over and over again, and that is:

What kills a writer? What kills the joy writing sparks in us? What makes us want to go and just stop?

And no, I'm not talking about like/reblog ratios here on Tumblr, lack of kudos on AO3, or non-existent interaction (even though these all suck in their own way).

No, what's been grinding my gears over and over and over and over again is when people are lying. You think that sounds rude? Well, so is this kind of behaviour, imho.

For the love of God, please...

... don't say you have to read an author's work when you don't mean to. And no, I don't mean "I really want to engage with what you do properly, but I'm really short on time/motivation/attention span atm but it's sitting in my drafts and I WILL get round to it". Like, that's me, all the time. The number of tbr posts sitting in my drafts is ridiculous, but anyone who knows me knows tI eventually gets around to all of them. No, I mean those people who say things like these because they feel it's expected of them and don't want to say, "Listen, it's cool what you do, but it's not my jam." And I mean, I get it, it takes a lot of courage to say that, and not everyone is mature enough to separate this from the feeling of not being liked or appreciated. BUT - as someone who's been told exactly that and gotten her hopes up of getting interaction and having people to talk about with what's really close to my heart - let me tell you, this kind of behaviour is crushing, and it rings more empty every time you hear it. You stop trusting in people when they say it, and eventually, trusting in what they say altogether. If you are not interested in someone's work, don't make them think you are.

... don't pretend to interact if you don't care. Striking the same cord, if a work doesn't appeal to you or you lost track of it, or you cba with it atm, don't act as if you read/engaged with it with generic or just plain false comments. And again, no, I don't mean generic comments are bad or anything, not at all. But trust me, people can tell if you actually read their work, or just looked at someone else's comment and rephrased it, or skimmed it and possibly got a wrong gist altogether. We can tell. We can always tell. And because we do, it leaves a very, very bitter taste in our mouths every time we get a reaction like this. Interaction should be based on excitement and involvement, not on a quid-pro-quo mentality. You should interact because you want to, and not just so the other person feels compelled to interact with and boost your own content as well. That's not how this is supposed to work. If you like a creator but don't want to engage with their content for whatever reason and are scared they won't like you anymore, just hit them up and talk to them. I've yet to meet another author who will be angry at someone reaching out.

Take inspiration, but do not steal. I know it's virtually impossible to create something so original that it's never been here before in the history of mankind. Tropes are here and beloved for a reason, and every author has that one piece/scene/line they took from something they love. Really, we all do, and inspiration is a beautiful thing to have. That being said, there is a very big and very important difference between getting inspired and copying. I cannot stress enough how upsetting and frustrating it is to a creator when their work is blatantly copied, or something is "inspired by them" that is just a carbon copy or an unsolicited addition to something they never intended to share in the first place. Just because something is put out there doesn't mean anyone has the right to go and grab it for themselves. There's obviously no means to stop anyone from doing so, but just think about how you would feel if something was done to a piece of content/character/art you created. If you want to add to someone's work or it inspires you to do something similar, take the second out of your day to contact the creator and tell them about it to see if they're okay with sharing. Often they are, and if not, they might just have another idea to make things work for both of you.

Oof. That was nice getting off my chest. If you feel offended by what I said, maybe stop and take a moment to think about why. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

#writblr #goes for any fandom/creative process #but for me specifically #hogwarts mystery #hogwarts legacy #hphm #hphl #hpma #magic awakened #don't kill the fandom by driving people away like this #it's sad and frustrating