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afoolforatook · 3 years

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On fandom and tragic romance tropes, from someone who's lived it.

Okay, this is kind of…. Idk a very specific vent and tbh one I feel kinda bad about because I genuinely don’t want to make people feel bad for liking reading/writing romantic angst or tragedy and it’s really less of an individual issue than an overall attitude in fandom.

Like, it’s absolutely okay to like not happy endings, and angst doesn’t have to just be for cathartic relief. Angst isn’t only acceptable if it’s to process trauma, you’re allowed to like it just because that’s your taste.

But at the same time…. I can’t help but have very personal feelings about how a lot of fandom spaces treat tragic romance tropes…

(this got really long but... it's something I've wanted to address for a long time)

I'm far from secretive with the fact that when I was 20, my girlfriend Emma (19) was killed in a car crash, along with her younger brother, mother, and aunt, and that a lot of my art and writing is purposefully about processing and accepting that grief. Fandom has been a very important part of how I’ve gotten through the last five years, which I’ll get into a bit more in a minute, but tbh it’s also been a lot harder navigating fandom and especially anything ship-related since Emma died, because of how people tend to romanticize a character tragically losing a partner.

And honestly, it’s not just fandom, it’s media in general. And mainstream media focus on tragic sob stories, shock factor, and BYG tropes is definitely a big part of the problem.

But as much as fandom pushes against mainstream overuse of such tropes, there is a good portion of fandom that falls into the same type of issue. And not just ‘fandom’ in the usual sense, but literary communities, poetry, etc…

The amount of times I see stories or prompts about characters tragically losing their partner, and that being the climax of the story, and then next to nothing about that character actually navigating their grief or being able to eventually start a new relationship or just be happy is just…. It makes me feel physically ill.

Like, people saying how tragic love stories are more interesting than happy endings. Or seeing a post about tragic pairing prompts and people saying things like ‘or they think it's unrequited but then A dies and B finds a letter confessing and they really loved each other but now it's too late’ and more people being like ‘YES YOU GET IT THAT'S THE GOOD STUFF’

Just… really, honestly. It's okay to like angst, even really tragic angst. I’m not trying to guilt anyone out of that.

I just….. Most of the time people just talk about it like ‘oh yeah I love some of that good tragic love story shit’ and the stories focus on the build-up and the shock/trauma of the death as it happens and then the excruciating reaction of the survivor and then maybe a time jump to show them happy again.

But very rarely do people take the time to actually handle the grief. People like the good cry of a character mourning their partner, but the vast majority of creators and fans rush through or skip over everything after the initial drama and aftermath. The ‘tragedy’ is the only part they focus on, and then the story ends and they move on.

And like. Shit. I liked that stuff too, I wrote some of it, years ago. And I’m not saying you can’t ever just leave it there, or that if you want to write tragic romance you always have to explore all the long-term emotional consequences.

But try to have it in mind, to consider what message countless grief narratives that end after the funeral, or maybe a few weeks or months later, teach people about real-life grief. This goes for any kind of grief narrative, but the one I see most, the one I used to ‘enjoy’ most myself, is romantic.

But, after having actually lived it? And knowing I'll have to live the rest of my life as the part of the story that usually isn’t told? It turns my stomach the way it’s often handled.

Like seeing people gush about how angsty a fic/idea is, and ‘OH MY GOD SO SAD CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW TRAGIC HOW DARE YOU. I LOVE SEEING/PUTTING THEM THROUGH SO MUCH PAIN’ gets a bit uncomfortable.

Not because there’s something inherently wrong with ever reacting like that, but because most often I can turn around and have the same people not know how to react when I tell them about Emma, not know how to handle the same grief they were just gushing over in fiction, when it’s real.

Grief is isolating enough on its own, but then it just doesn’t feel great when the worst thing to ever happen to you is a huge trope that people gush over, while very rarely fleshing out the actual reality of what it feels like to go through that or how to respond to someone actually dealing with grief, and eventually having to deal with your own grief.

Tbh it’s why I really just kinda have an aversion to the word ‘angst’ in general, and don’t really like to refer to my own writing as angst, even though I know plenty of people might think of it as such. So much of fandom's handling of ‘angst’ has come to feel like voyeuristic tourism of the grief I deal with every day, and will for the rest of my life.

Just, I know people are always going to like tragic angsty romance, and that’s fine, and honestly, it's not even an issue of individuals, but of how fandom in general treats it.

And again, I really don’t want to make anyone feel bad for liking it, and it has its purposes. And even when it’s not for catharsis, it's okay to just like sad stories just because.

I just… I wish more people would keep in mind that it’s not just a tearjerker story trope. People really go through this. And they then often end up feeling very isolated because people around them don't know how to react to their grief, because their grief makes things awkward and a mood killer.

Like, if you love this kind of angst (and not because you personally relate to it or find it cathartic, but just because, just for fun) but then feel awkward around people talking about their real-life grief, maybe spend some time with that, and think about the topic as a real-world trauma and not just a dramatic story trope. (this doesn’t just go for grief. Any kind of trauma you don’t personally deal with, if you love reading/writing it but avoid actually listening to people talking about their real-life experiences with it, think about why that is.)

I just hate seeing loss and initial dramatic grief responses being this shock factor/tearjerker trope, without ever really seriously addressing long-term grief. Especially when it doesn't even do a time jump or anything, and just ends on the surviving character being forever destroyed; when it focuses on the idea of how sad it is for your favorite character to have to spend the rest of their life alone.

And that’s not even folding in any kind of BYG/queer tragedy tropes in canon or fandom spaces.

And like… on a much more individual, less practical point, I just… there’s nothing wrong with angst but honestly (and especially for characters whose canon is in no way tragic) every time I see it I just want to scream WHY…. Why do that to them!? I’m not saying you have to stop, or that you’re not allowed to write trauma you don’t deal with personally. But I will never not cringe a bit at the ‘painful enjoyment’ of a character going through the traumatic loss of a partner. And it’s a sentiment I don’t really see people being okay with in regards to any other kind of trauma.

I don’t have actual numbers, but it sure feels like fandom treats stories about romantic grief very differently than most other traumas. Other trauma, even other kinds of grief, like a close friend or a sibling or parent, etc. tend to at least try to touch on a theme of recovery, or that the emotional turmoil being covered isn’t just a fun angsty trope to spend a little time in and then move on. And of course, this isn’t universal and plenty of people don’t handle these other traumas respectfully or as anything more than dramatic fuel, but this is the trend I’ve personally seen in over 10 years of tumblr fandom. And to that point, even when traumas aren’t respectfully handled I’ve at least seen people try to bring attention to that, with posts about how to respectfully handle disability or addiction or mental health or abuse. I can’t remember off the top of my head a single post like that about grief, let alone specifically romantic grief. It seems to be commonly accepted that while most kinds of trauma can be explored, but still handled respectfully, the death of a partner can just be done for the Drama. People tend to try to learn about abuse or addiction experiences before attempting big angsty stories addressing that. But doomed romance and a grief-stricken lover (it feels like, in my experience) are much more likely to happen on a whim.

Generally, it feels like other kinds of trauma, while still part of ‘angst’ also keeps a sense of awareness of how that narrative reflects real people’s experiences. It’s not just heavy because it’s big dramatic fictional angst, but because it’s grounded in real-life trauma that everyday people who come across it might relate to. Like... I just feel like a lot of fandom spaces treat ‘major character death’ and tragic romantic trope tags as just filters, like they’re needed because ‘not everyone likes angst, it’s just not their thing’ without really acknowledging that it’s a real trauma that everyday people deal with, where (again, often, but of course far from always, and certainly not in mainstream) other tws and tags like assault or substance abuse, people understand that people they interact with might really deal with those issues and they try to not just use them as dramatic fodder and to portray them respectfully.

But grief, especially romantic grief, seems different. The number of people who will come across a fic or edit or piece of art about a tragic love story, and will have had that personal experience of losing a partner, is much lower than people with real experiences with abuse, or addiction, or mental illness. That’s not a bad thing. I wish none of you ever have to know what that feels like.

But because of that, tragic romance ends up seeming like this distant thing. Like it’s only in dramatic tv shows or movies or literature, or lives solely in angsty fandom spaces as a way to get out a good cry. It seems grand and Tragic, off in its own world of dramatic emotional story tropes.

It’s solely pretty dark edits put to song lyrics, or striking art, or beautifully written prose that rips your heart out. It’s Tragic Romance.

And there’s nothing wrong with that inherently. But for many people, it seems like that is what it becomes: fiction. An angsty trope.

I genuinely hope that’s all it ever is for all of you. I wish I could ensure that that good angsty hurt will only ever be a trope you visit when you need a good cry.

But it’s not just fiction.

It's not just angst for sake of drama or fun or poetic storytelling. It’s not grand or romantic or beautifully tragic.

It’s unbearable. It’s physical pain.

That’s not exaggeration or metaphor. It sneaks up on me out of nowhere and it literally feels like someone is crushing my chest. I’ve nearly broken my hand punching a wall because I needed to make something hurt more than this thing in my chest that isn’t even actually there but it hurts so much.

Tbf I think a lot of my attitude towards this really stems more from fandom trends from when I was younger, and I think a lot more people actually try to flesh out grief more these days. But I just remember so much tragic romantic fic and fandom love from when I was a teenager that didn’t go deeper than ‘look how heartbreaking this is it’s so sad, I wanna make everybody read it and cry and it’s just fun and a story, oh my god I couldn't live with that’

no, of course I don't have a few specific old fics or posts from like superwholock days in mind, that I used to gush over too, and now just the idea of makes me feel actually sick

Idk… like I said. I don't at all want to make anyone feel bad for liking that type of angst, and I feel kind of bad for criticizing it. It just…

It hurts seeing basically your exact situation on angsty prompt lists with people gushing about how good it hurts. Especially when the same people would be (and have been) deer in headlights when they find out you’ve lived the same thing. (Again, this goes for any kind of trauma trope, but most others I’ve seen at least some kind of discussion about before)

Just please, try to be mindful of not just how you write stories about grief, but how you talk about death angst in general. (again, certainly not everyone, but more and more) People know to not just romanticize abuse trauma or addictions or mental illness, and to research, and ask for advice to try to be respectful.

And it’s much more common for someone in fandom spaces, in their teens or 20s or 30s to deal with those sorts of trauma than having experienced losing a partner.

But we exist. And while there is plenty of media out there showing tragic young romance, there is very little (in my experience, after nearly five years of desperately looking) real-world acknowledgment and support, or proof that you’ll be able to survive that kind of loss and still be happy, and even less so if they’re queer.

In a couple of months, it will have been five years since Emma’s death. From day one I have not been private about my loss, whenever possible.

And in five years of saying “When I was 20 my girlfriend died.” to new friends, classmates, potential dates, fandom spaces, therapists, grief support forums, etc… do you know how many other people have told me that they also lost a partner as a young adult, whether queer or straight, by accident or suicide or illness?

Zero.

No one. I’ve had people say how they lost a best friend or a sibling or a parent. And those losses, those kinds of grief are certainly not any less traumatic than the loss of a partner. But even in real life, they’re different. Losing a partner, especially at a very young age when it’s likely your main romantic experience, has different emotional effects, and can be harder to find people who directly relate.

Five years. Zero people dealing with the specific facets of grief as me.

The ONLY times I have ever heard about stories like mine in real life are either the rare article or essay or celebrity story, of which I can probably easily count on two hands.

All the other representation I’ve found is in mainstream fiction and fandom.

And of those stories, those fics, that art, the vast majority have had the partner die in the last half, probably closer to the 75% mark, of the story or arc.

If I’m lucky, that last 25% will focus on the immediate aftermath and grief (especially in fic, while a lot of media might give you a few scenes, and then move on to other character arcs).

If I’m really lucky they’ll show some kind of time jump, to say ‘see, they’re still haunted by their lost love but they’ve tried to move on or can pretend to be happy’.

And so much fandom reception is centered around ‘it’s soooooo SADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD MY POOR HEART IT HURTS SO GOOD. LOVE ME SOME ANGST’, or romanticizing the idea of being unable to live without them, and if they can, it’s often never really putting focus on all the pain it took to process their grief.

Again, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this individually, or that you shouldn’t gush and scream over fic or art or prompts that hook you because of angst. But it adds up really quickly, especially when, even when getting good genuine support from people, you still see no one else actually living with that feeling like you. The only place you find it is stories, and then you see people mostly excited over just how beautifully sad it is.

And that just feels… I can’t explain it honestly.

Just, think about how you react to or talk about fic or prompts or art about a character crying over their partner’s body, or attending their funeral, and think about whether you’d feel appropriate doing the same if instead, they were dealing with abuse, or addiction, or self-harm.

Again, that’s not to say you can’t ever gush or key smash or such, but is it all you do?

You don’t have to stop enjoying angst and tragic romance. But think about how I just said that.

Enjoy.

Do you only ever act like you ‘Enjoy’ it (and yes, this includes the ‘I’m such a masochist I just love to cry over them, it’s emotional release that doesn’t trigger me’ reaction), and romanticize it?

It’s fine to, sometimes. But do you also appreciate it, and try to understand the real-world weight of it? Do you know what you’d say to a friend if they told you they’d lost a partner?

That ‘love me some good angst’, Dramatic grief, being the main fandom attitude doesn’t just hurt me or others who have lost people close to them, partners or not.

A big part of fandom, and of just society, has no idea how to deal with grief, their own or others. It’s not a light conversation topic, it makes people feel awkward, or walk on eggshells around you, or tell you how they can’t possibly imagine having to go through that (btw, y'all don’t say this to people. About grief, or trauma, or disability or anything like that, just don’t. I’m begging you. And a rant about that kind of thing is for another day but... )

And then, when people inevitably face some form of major grief themselves, they feel ashamed for not handling it ‘right’.

It hurts, to try to find some acknowledgment of your grief, and only ever see stories that show just the first few weeks or months; the feeling of it never possibly being anything but constantly excruciating. Stories that end on ‘they were alone and sad and that is what their story, their love, will live on as; Tragic’. Or, that skip all the work and the doubt and the backsliding, and just show years down the road, when they’ve got a whole new life, and that grief, that love, is just a sad memory that they have ‘moved on’ from. Just a tiny trinket call back.

It feels impossible to survive, to ever be happy again, when you never see grief being treated as more than a tragic story point. And then, as you try your hardest to keep going, to process and heal, and connect to new people, while not forgetting the person you love, not letting them just become your tragic backstory, you see people gush over tragic love stories, over how romantic it is, over how characters loved each other so much they couldn’t live without them. (Thankfully a good bit of fandom seems to be pulling away from this, but it’s still common)

And, if that’s what it is to lose a partner, your soulmate… then… then how am I able to keep living? Even as painful as it is? If true love means not being able to live without the other person, does that mean I didn’t, I don’t, actually love them enough? Am I selfish for still actually wanting to live the rest of my life, even with this pain of the person I love being gone?

Would people read my, our, story and ‘enjoy’ it? Would they find this romantic? Would they scream over a prompt based on the worst event in my life, and have a good cry, and then move on, thinking how sad and beautifully tragically romantic that story would be? Would this person I love and miss more than anything, become just a Tragedy? Just an angsty sob story to gush about how wonderfully painful it was? Would it become about only my pain and heartbreak, and not about the cruelty of this other complete, unique, independent person who was robbed of their entire future?

Maybe that seems melodramatic or putting too much weight on tropes, or fandom. But remember.

Five years.

Zero real people saying ‘I’ve been there too’.

The only places I have seen my grief reflected (beyond a rare celebrity interview, or article) is in fiction, and mostly in fandom.

For over a decade I’ve seen people key smash and gush over angsty ships in fic and art, and I was one of them for a long time.

And then, when it became real life for me, all too often (not always, of course) people wouldn’t know how to handle my real grief. Even when I didn’t want to grieve, but wanted to remember all the reasons I love Emma. My real-life moments of ‘fluff’ that I cling to, become uncomfortable when they know the ‘angst’ to come.

And I don’t blame them. I’m not angry at them for not knowing what to say, for walking on eggshells. They’re not cruel for that, they’re not unsympathetic, it’s not that they just don’t try.

Because, if I’ve found so few real-world stories about this kind of grief, after looking so hard for so long, how can I expect them to have had much more luck?

If the only places I find stories about grief never focus on the reality of life after the funeral, and the process of not moving past, but learning to handle grief, then how can I expect broader fandom to know how to be comfortable around the ugly, boring, repetitive, not at all romantic parts of that grief?

Just, yes. Write, read, love your angst. But please just remember that ‘tragic love story’ happens to people, and while plenty of people might not want to read it because it’s just not their thing, or too depressing, there are those who see those dramatic prompt scenarios, and personally relate to them (I quite often say the events around Emma’s death read like a heavy-handed soap opera, or Queer Tragedy movie, and had had plenty of people agree, even before hearing all the details. And I have literally seen multiple prompts of ‘best friends secretly have feelings for each other, and then finally confess, only to get a short bit of happiness before one dies tragically’)

Write, read, love your angst, your tragic love stories, just please, be as respectful of grief (in any form, but this is mostly a shipping issue in my experience) as you would be (or should be) of other major trigger warnings. Gush and scream about the big dramatic ‘romantic’ tragedies, but don’t then ignore the raw, uncomfortable, vulnerable, cathartic explorations, or the real people dealing with real loss.

Because damn y’all, I’ve seen ‘I just love a good romantic tragedy trope, yes please rip my heart out’ said so many times, with the same tone as saying ‘That fake dating trope, that’s the good stuff’.

I’ve seen people gush over how much more interesting and beautifully cruel it is for young love to end tragically.

And I promise you. It’s not. It just fucking sucks. It’s not romantic or tragically beautiful or poignant. It’s devastating. And it goes on for so much longer than that last quarter of the story.

My grief is more than an angsty prompt. Our relationship, my love for her, is more than a dramatic sob story, more than just awkward sadness that kills the mood. Emma’s life, her memory, is more than my tragic backstory.

I want to be able to find my story in more than just fiction, I want to be able to get support from people who live with similar grief.

But I also want to see grief in fiction, in fandom, become more than a final character arc or Tragic love story; used for dramatic effect; grand and huge for a moment and then never fully processed, or mentioned again; just tragically romantic and heartbreaking and soooo good and angsty.

Grief is one of the only things we will all have to face throughout our lives.

I’m not just asking you to respect my grief or the grief of those around you. But your own future grief. I don’t want you to get there and feel like your grief is wrong, or means that you didn’t love someone ‘enough’ because it doesn’t manifest in a certain way.

Learning to accept grief; to be comfortable around raw, unpoetic, grief; to not hold up certain expressions of grief as Romantic or Poetic, but just honest, will eventually be personally useful for all of us, as much as I wish it wouldn’t.

I want my grief, everyone’s grief, to be seen, and understood, not just romanticized and dramatized.

My love story, Emma’s love story, isn’t beautifully tragic. It isn’t more interesting or poetic than a happy ending. The pain that I will carry with me for the rest of my life is not romantic.

But it is important.

#mine #my writing #tw #grief #death #car crash #fandom analysis #romantic tragedy trope

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nakasomethingkun · 3 years

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any advice for new writers? (i mean it’s not like i’ve never written anything before but,,, okay you know what i mean)

hi, anon! idk if i’m the best person to go to for writing advice, but here we go.

first: be fearless. it’s easier said than done, but i think that what impedes most writers is their fear and anxiety over the quality of their work. it’s a legitimate concern, sure, but stressing about it isn’t going to get you anywhere, so my advice is to just write and worry about everything else later (or don’t worry at all, lol). worried that it’s too indulgent? that the language is too flowery? that the trope is overused? that the pairing is unpopular or “”problematic””? WHO CARES!! just write whatever you want, however you want it. it’s YOUR story, after all.

second: have fun. it’s been more than a decade since i wrote my first fic, but i still occasionally get caught up in the stupid little things, like the plausibility, or the accuracy, or the grammar, or the OOC-ness, or how my fics aren’t as “popular” as i would like them to be, or how this AU has been done a dozen times, etc. etc., and all these things really suck the fun out of writing. in times like these, i tell myself this: keep writing, bitch, and have fun when you’re doing it. which means that when writing something feels more like a chore than a nice hobby, i normally take a break from that story and go write a different one. why should i slave over a story that’s exhausting me as if it’s my graduate thesis instead of having a kick out of it? nobody is entitled to you or your writing, and you should write whatever tickles your fancy and suits your mood and tastes. while you’re doing it, remember to sometimes ask yourself if you’re enjoying yourself. if you’re not, take a break, and then check in again with yourself. if you decide to drop the story, that’s perfectly fine. you can always come back to it if you ever change your mind.

third: read a lot!! read good fics and “”bad”” fics, read good novels and trashy novels, read fiction and non-fiction, read journals and the news - just read!! i think that the best way to learn how to write is to read a lot, so if you want to write, then remember to make time to read too. it’s how you learn what style you like or dislike, how to use certain phrases and slangs, what good character development looks like (or what it doesn’t look like), etc. and you never know if the thing you’re reading might inspire you to write your next project! and as a non-native english speaker, i have always found reading to be a good way for me to expand my vocabulary (this is my elementary school english teacher channeling her voice through me, sorry).

fourth: find writing friends! i’m using the word ‘friends’ loosely here, since some people prefer having beta-readers than actual writing buddies. having friends to talk to about what you’re writing is really nice if you need some cheering and support! personally, i don’t have beta-readers or people i talk regularly to about what i’m writing, but sometimes i do gush about it with certain folks and it always leaves me more motivated to write, and when i’m taking part in big projects like the big bang, i do get myself a beta. you don’t have to get a beta for every single one of your work, of course, but in case you want a different pair of eyes to read over your writing and give you their opinion on it, then getting a beta is the way to go.

this last point is related to the first and second ones, but here it is: don’t worry too much about following all the writing advice out there. you know how sometimes you’ll see a post that says ‘avoid using adverbs!!!!’ or ‘use all these other words instead of using ‘say’’ or something along those lines? yeah, i’m talking about those kinds of writing advice. it’s fine if you want to follow them, but there’s no one advice that fits all, so don’t get too hung up on stuff like that. again, you do you. write whatever floats your boat and have fun. carpe diem, or whatever.

hope this helps and good luck!

#anon #ask #Anonymous

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faccal · 4 years

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Fic Writer Questions!

I was tagged by @simonxriley Thank you!

I'm not sure who to tag for this other than @keeganxlogan so, if anyone else wants to do this feel free!

Let's talk about tropes (full warning ahead of time, I'm not good at these.)

1: Do you enjoy the occasional trope, do you love them all, do you hate tropy stuff with a passion?

I do enjoy a good trope every once in a while. I don't love them all, as I feel some are over used. (I've used an overused one and I'm not proud of myself.) I don't hate tropy stuff, I think quite a bit of it is fun to explore and also read.

2: Which tropes are your favs? Which ones do you avoid? Have you written any yourself or is there one you really want to write?

I have to agree with @simonxriley that angst with a happy ending is also one of my favorites. I love writing this as well. You put a character or characters through a lot, and in the end it gets better and most if not everyone is happy.

Do Prince AUs count? As I said I'm not good at tropes. I really enjoy fantasy and science fiction, so usually when I write these I do so in the future. I don't know what it is about Prince AUs, I just find them fun to write.

Usually I avoid a/b/o however I was working on a werewolf AU for COD Ghosts, and I was deeply ashamed of it when I first wrote it, and I'm starting to get annoyed with it again, but I'm going to try to fix what I don't like so I can finish it, and make it great for those who do enjoy the story.

I will also mention, that when I write one-shots, they're always one of three things: smutty, Angsty, or soft. Sometimes I combine them, and that gets weird.

3: Do you have different preferences for reading than you have for writing? If so, is there a reason for it?

Yes, definitely. I've noticed I'll read stories involving zombies, but I've never really written one of my own. A long time ago I did try to write a zombie apocalypse AU for SNK, however I did not like it and deleted it. Recently, I feel the zombie apocalypse is overdone and I actually stopped watching the walking dead a few years ago because I was tired of seeing zombies everywhere.

I do love reading werewolf, which is why I tried to write it I think? I'm a huge fan of fantasy and science fiction, hence the werewolf and Prince AUs.

I'm also writing a modern AU, which I'm not good at modern storylines unless it's mixed with something like werewolves. No idea why. I'm trying to make it work, planning on rewriting it. It's kind of funny because I don't always like reading modern AUs.

I don't know of there is a specific reason for these, I just think some people are better at writing certain things than me, and as for the modern AU, I just wanted Keegan and Logan to have some form of normalcy.

#logan walker #keegan x logan #i was tagged #keegan p russ #fic writing #tropes #as i said i suck at tropes

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thewollfgang · 5 years

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Any advice for beginning fic writers? Particularly about finishing and publishing fics? thanks!!

1. Have Confidence In Your Work! You’ve worked hard on your story and maybe you think it will appeal to no one else but you - Own it. Don’t waffle and don’t downgrade your own work. Don’t “I suck at summaries”. Don’t “this probably isn’t very good”. All writers will feel their work sucks at times. All of them! But don’t present that to a reader who has no familiarity with you. It’s easy for a person to see “this story sucks”, agree, and move on. Don’t let them move on, new writers! Hook them in! Which brings us to number two.

2. A Summary Is Not an Author’s Note! Save the chatting for readers inside the chapter page. Don’t explain why you’re writing the story, how you got into the fandom, that it’s your first fic, inside the summary. All of that information is grand, if you choose to impart it - but that’s for an author's note, not the summary. You’ll only turn off potential readers who might have clicked on your fic if you’d teased them with it instead of chatting inconsequentially.

3. Get A Human Beta! Writing programs do wonders, but they can’t discuss characterization or flow or have the same eagle eye as a human beta familiar with the fandom. You certainly won’t fail if you don’t have one, I often start in a new fandom without one, then make some friends with fellow authors and cultivate some willing betas. Betas are fantastic at pumping you up when the inevitable insecurity hits and are great to bounce ideas off of and offer up helpful criticism to make your story the best it can be. Truly invaluable. If you don't have a Beta, I highly recommend reading your story aloud. (Actually, it's always good practice to read your story aloud.)

4. Know Where the Story is Going! You don’t need a full, play by play, scene by scene outline, but have an idea of where you want the story to go. (Although outlines help very much!) Start thinking about how you want it to end, what sort of resolution you desire for the characters. The rest will fill in…hopefully.

5. It Doesn’t Have to Be a Novel! Especially in the world of fanfiction, a short, but skillful story can make a much larger impact than a longer, meandering fic. For someone just beginning, don’t put pressure on yourself to write that 100k story.

6. Avoid Bad Writing Pitfalls! New writers can easily fall into these common pitfalls. Overuse or inappropriate use of epithets (like: the blond looked at him), avoiding the word said at every opportunity, lots of -ly adverbs, over describing character appearance, constant POV sliding, telling vs showing, tense changes. Do your best to keep these mistakes out of your work.

7. Develop Good Writing Habits! Study how dialogue tags should be written, learn how paragraphs should be divided up, use good grammar. The only way to get better at something is to practice, so try to write as often as you can! A good writer is also good reader. Look at your favorite stories. What makes them so popular? Get a feel for how fanfiction sounds for each fandom. Get a feel for the characters. Stretch out your vocabulary.

8. Someone Will Not Like Your Story. No matter how incredible, no matter how technically perfect and in character your story will be, someone won’t like it. Know this and don’t let it stop you. It might be a trope they dislike, it might be a story decision you’ve made that doesn’t jive, it might be a myriad of reasons, but the fact is, people will click that back button. Some will go even further to tell you that they didn’t like it. You didn’t write it for them. You wrote it for yourself and the other people who enjoyed it.

9. Remember to Have Fun! It can be easy to get caught up in the technical aspects of writing, but remember why you started writing in the first place! The excitement of a new idea, the fun of crafting a brand new narrative, the delight in sharing it and having other people like it, too. That’s what will help keep you going when you get bogged down.

10. Take the Plunge! Publish That Fic! Do it! Hit the button! The world is a better place when there is another storyteller added to the bunch.

#writing advice #fic writing #new authors #asks #idkintj

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 5 years

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Why do you think the Animorphs fandom doesn't have as many AU stories as some of the other fandoms? I don't mean non-cannon stories, but those where the characters are taken from the Yeerk Invasion concept enitrely and dropped into another sandbox: coffeeshop AU, Hogwarts AU, etc. Even really common additions to the cannon world such as soulmate AUs seem to be less used with Animorphs. Any thoughts as to why?

Reason 1: The characters are 13.

Technically they grow up to ages 16 - 19 before dying horribly the series ends, but their problems and concerns are very much those of actual early adolescents. They don’t drive (not even cheat-driving with mopeds or helicars like in other teen superhero stories), they don’t go on real dates, they don’t have jobs, and they don’t use money except for occasional emergency purchases of shoes or tacos.

Obviously that doesn’t preclude the protagonists from suffering through romantic clichés, but it means that there’s less material to work with than in a series such as Harry Potter or Supernatural where the characters do have these kinds of classic adult concerns. It also means that (and fandalites are classy af so they tend to recognize this) there’s an inherent squick factor in hardcore romance, even in AUs where the characters have been aged to 18+.

Reason 2: There are no love triangles.

Probably the closest we get is Rachel realizing in #27 that she has romantic options other than Tobias… which leads to her realizing that Tobias has what she wants and needs in a romantic partner, whereas a civilian guy simply doesn’t. Other than that, we have the moment in #44 where Cassie realizes that she’s flirting with Yami… which sets up the realization that Cassie might be better off with someone who has more capacity than Jake to make her happy. No one cheats, no one fights rivals, and no one experiences much jealousy.

Characters dealing with their romantic feelings in mostly-healthy mostly-transparent ways, whether in or out of relationships, doesn’t leave much room for rom-com miscommunications and the like. Ergo, there’s no room for characters being forced to date or to confess their feelings by circumstance. Even Jake and Cassie’s unhealthy dynamic remains unhealthy for, like, a book and a half, before they have an amicable post-breakup goodbye in #53. Not much room for romantic angst. Speaking of which…

Reason 3: Do we really need MORE angst? REALLY?

This series is about six mostly well-adjusted kids having their entire lives destroyed by the horrors of war. If angst is your jam, there’s no need to add it by introducing backstory elements or hurt-comfort premises that we didn’t already see in canon. You can literally just grab that time Jake watched his cousin drag his internal organs off the ceiling (#16), that time Cassie killed an innocent prisoner of war on reflex (#19), that time Tobias was tortured into insanity (#33), those times Marco committed matricide (#15, #30, Visser) and you’re off to the races. A lot of fan fiction tropes are all about angst (Tony Stark’s dad never loved him, Stiles Stilinski wishes he was special, etc.) and where Animorphs is concerned, there’s really no need. On a similar note…

Reason 4: Adding ridiculous humor would be redundant.

This is a series where running gags include (but are not limited to): the hawk kid getting his talons stuck to cetaceans when he tries to acquire them, “These Messages” (e.g. commercials) and CinnaBon being the only artistic creations of humanity worth saving, the main villain of the series being a Cat Person, all the Animorphs debating whether it’s cannibalism to eat fried chicken in seagull morph, the resident alien being unsure whether vinegar and motor oil count as beverages, and the kids getting out of obligations with excuses that range from “I have to go buy a nicotine patch before I become a teen smoker” to “my cousin — and not the one you’re thinking — just got into a fistfight with a six-year-old over Raisinets.” Coffee shop humor, de-aging humor, and other whacky fan fic premises simply can’t top what we already have. Not only that, but a lot of the whackier fun AUs — animal transformation AU, gender mashup AU, evil twin AU — have already been done in canon.

Reason 5: The cast is already pretty tight.

By this I mean that the cast is tight in that there are few wasted or tangential characters, and that the cast is tight in that there are few intragroup conflicts. It’s not really possible to “break” the dynamic in ways that would feel organic (e.g. Civil War AU) without losing a ton of what makes the series itself. There are also relatively few minor characters that one can add to the original six’s dynamic in meaningful ways (although yours truly is guilty of trying), because they’re so isolated and codependent. Writing AUs in which the characters just meet for the first time during the fic is... possible, but IMHO would feel deeply weird.

It’s also a fairly fundamental aspect of what makes Animorphs unique that there are no mentors anywhere in the series. The kids get occasional information from Erek or the YPM, but they have NO ONE they can turn to if they want to ask for advice. ALL of their attempts to seek mentors end in said adults revealing themselves to be incompetent (Elfangor, Gonrod, Ithileran), morally bankrupt (Alloran, Arbat), unwilling to help because they have their own agendas (the Ellimist, Toby, Aldrea), or simply less experienced in relevant areas than the kids themselves are (Eva, Jara, Mr. Tidwell, Sam Doubleday). It is possible to add adult characters to the team through crossovers or other AUs — but to do so is to fundamentally alter the structure of the series.

Reason 6: The plot is already pretty tight.

Animorphs isn’t a perfect piece of coherent plotting, but it also doesn’t have any huge glaring plot holes. There’s nothing that the whole fandom agrees needs to be “fixed”: some people want Cassie to be wrong more often, some people would like direct queerness, some people dislike the tragic ending, some people think the late-middle sags, some people want more Tobias-narrated books, some people (*cough* me) want the series to be 55 books long so that Rachel gets to narrate one last story… None of these represents a majority opinion, the way that the “what have you done to our Jaime Lannister!?!?!?” outcry is currently dominating the Game of Thrones fandom to the tune of 800,000+ signatures on the world’s silliest Change.Org petition.

The events of the series follow pretty logically from one another, which means that there aren’t tons of divergences on a single theme, and also that it’s pretty easy to invent divergence points from canon itself. There are occasional modern AUs and college-age AUs, but a lot of the time they have to differ dramatically from the source work to pull off the effect.

Here’s where I acknowledge my bias: I dislike the majority of super-popular AU ideas. Some strike me as harmless romantic clichés (hatebanging AU, accidental dating AU) or wealthy-American-kid clichés (college AU, wedding AU). Some strike me as sacrificing character for plot (fake married AU, sword-and-sorcery AU) or not having much plot at all (wedding planner AU, elaborate-miscommunication AU). Some are downright problematic in their magical codification of power dynamics (omegaverse, sex pollen) or deeply concerning consent issues by definition (soul mates, coffee shop AU). Most of them are perfectly good story ideas, but most of them are not to my taste.

All of these AU ideas can be done well and have been done well, because every cliché becomes a cliché by being genuinely brilliant until overused. I mostly avoid these stories anyway because too many of them are plagued by setting rather than motivation forcing the characters to go from Point A to Point B or even forcing the characters to become romantically involved. So there is a distinct possibility that there are Animorphs stories out there that use these ultra-popular AUs, and I just haven’t encountered them.

#animorphs #animorphs fic #fandom #fan fiction #animorphs fandom #game of thrones spoilers #consent issues #fan lore #q word #there are probably more reasons i haven't thought of #if so hmu

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birdsgoflying · 7 years

Text

Letting Go Ch.3 Behind-the-Scenes

Here is my behind-the-scenes analysis of chapter three of my fic, Letting Go!

Link to chapter three: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11512686/chapters/26083806

Links to previous behind-the-scenes posts:

Chapter 1: https://birdsgoflying.tumblr.com/post/165566140213/letting-go-ch-1-behind-the-scenes

Chapter 2: https://birdsgoflying.tumblr.com/post/165600823428/letting-go-ch2-behind-the-scenes

CHAPTER THREE:

Wally had never really believed in the afterlife. He thought he would die, and poof, fade to black. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. It’s over. Your consciousness just dissolves away and that’s that. No more Wallace Rudolph West.

But, here he is. Wallace Rudolph West, still existing. … He is literally stuck in this weird swirly orange-ness, and he’s pretty sure he’s still literally dead, but he’s still conscious.

He isn’t entirely sure what he’s supposed to do with that.

He doesn’t know where his body is, and he doesn’t know if that means his consciousness had been separated from it at some point during the dying process, or what. He briefly runs through the implications of a separation between body and mind (So I’m dead but conscious, and that would make me a zombie – way cool – except that I don’t have a body. So does that mean I’m a ghost? Can I haunt people? Cuz I can think of a few amazing pranks to use on Hal…) before giving up. He’s tired. He feels like he has been running for years.

All of Wally’s parts are such incredibly fucking fun for me to write. I wanted to showcase their personalities by changing the “voice” that I used when writing their respective parts, so I wrote Dick’s and Wally’s parts slightly differently. Dick and Wally both use humor to cope, but Wally is more flippant - even when referencing his own death, he cracks jokes about it. Dick is definitely the pun lord and eternal jokester in canon, but I figured that he would be a little more closed off given the circumstances.

Dick purposely chose Metropolis as his new dwelling place – the last place he would ever otherwise choose to go – and traveled there by a series of cabs and trains rather than an easily-traceable Zeta tube.

I legitimately don’t know why I chose Metropolis. I wish I could say that it was a purposeful choice because Metropolis is canonically near Gotham City on the map, or that it is meaningful because it’s where his idol (Superman) lives and he was subconsciously drawn to it, but I honestly don’t have a good answer for why I chose it. I just did.

When he woke up the next morning, Daniel was nowhere to be found, but he noticed a neat pile of hundred dollar bills on his bedside table.

This chapter contains the transition from ‘drunk runaway Dick Grayson’ to ‘actual prostitute Dick Grayson’. I have to be honest, I knew that it’s where I wanted this story to go, but I struggled in figuring out how to get from point A to point B. I always try to frame the characters’ decisions in a way that makes sense given their situation and personalities, and it took me a while to figure this one out. Dick wouldn’t just throw himself into being a prostitute without preamble, no matter how drunk he was. That’s why I made the decision to have him mistake a request for sex for pay, as a date; it just kinda… happened to him, and he went with it because he was drunk and bored and it ended up picking up steam until, before he knew it, he was a full-time prostitute.

If his first mistake was leaving the team, his second mistake was staying with Artemis for as long as he had.

I knew I had to have Wally moving on from Artemis fairly early in the fic, or it would not have been believable for him to fall in love with Dick – which, as Birdflash is endgame, is obviously the goal.

When Wally really focuses his thoughts and searches the orange swirling orb around him, he can see flashes of his friends and family’s lives as they carry on without him.

I wanted to show Wally struggling with not being able to help his friends and family move on after his death. I based his reactions largely on the lyrics from the Coldplay song ‘The Hardest Part’ – “The hardest part/ Was letting go, not taking part”. Those lyrics are so beautiful, and it’s a perfect way to describe how he feels. He’s not the type of guy to sit still when someone else is hurting, and he’s forced to do just that as he watches his friends and family mourn over him. It’s torture for him, honestly.

And some time later, when he peers through the orange swirl and sees Artemis kissing Kaldur, he can honestly say he’s relieved.

I knew from the very beginning that this is the direction I wanted to go with Kaldur and Artemis. They have a lot in common now, since Kaldur lost Tula and Artemis lost Wally. They have complementary personalities - Artemis is brash and upfront and unrefined, and Kaldur is polished and reserved and soft-spoken. I think they would be quite fantastic together; they’d balance each other out and cover each other’s weaknesses.

Now, here’s the thing. Birdflash is obviously endgame, but part of writing a good fic is arranging the plot in such a way that it makes the character’s actions believable and in-character.

Artemis moving on is very believable. She is not the type of person to get stuck after experiencing loss. She has a sensitive side, but she’s also tough as nails after all of the shitty stuff she’s had to deal with in her life. She picks herself up and moves on. She even said at the end of season two that she took up a new identity as Tigress because Artemis was Kid Flash’s partner and she wanted to distance herself.

HOWEVER - Wally moving on easily would not be quite as believable. Even though their relationship was clearly a mess towards the end - speaking strictly from the source material, there were several moments in season two where I felt as if Wally and Artemis had a strained conversation that pointed towards problems – Wally is a loyal guy, and he has five years (!!!!) invested with Artemis. I don’t think he would have moved on easily, and when he finally did, he would have felt a deep sense of guilt over it. If Artemis is romantically available when Wally comes back, even if Wally admits to himself that he is in love with Dick and not with Artemis, it would have create a lot of tension within the Dick-Artemis-Wally dynamic because Wally would know that everyone would expect him to get back together with Artemis. Wally would expect Artemis to want it, too. And not only that, but Artemis would be expected by everyone else to want it. It would cause a hugely awkward situation that, frankly, I didn’t want to deal with later on. It would cause a lot of drama, and I didn’t want THAT kind of drama in my fic. I want the potential reunion to be happy, not strained.

And it sounds terrible, but hear me out – in order to achieve all of this, I needed Artemis out of the way. I wanted her unavailable when Wally comes back, because otherwise, Dick would not feel okay about pursuing Wally and it would be unrealistic to expect Wally to move on from her if she was still available; he would go back to her out of guilt or habit or caving to what everyone else expected of him, if nothing else. And honestly? In order for my desired outcome (Birdflash) to happen, Artemis can’t be a viable romantic partner for Wally anymore. Artemis has to get with someone else in a permanent kind of way (more on that in a later chapter). Kaldur was the obvious choice, because I honestly SHIP IT SO HARD YOU GUYS they would be so damn cute together, such a power couple, and they would have the cutest babies that have ever graced this planet.

…So, yeah. I had to have the moving-on process happen early. One of the most important parts of writing this love story is that I wanted Wally to move on from Artemis completely independently of falling in love with Dick.

If we’re talking about a character being emotionally/romantically available, I wanted both Dick and Wally to be available by the time the reunion happens. I didn’t want Wally to ever feel as if he had to choose between the two of them. No fucking love triangles, thank-you very much. This isn’t that type of angst fic.

My honest opinion on love triangles is this: it’s overused. It’s boring. There is virtually no way to make it feel creative and original to the audience. It’s cheap angst purely for the sake of creating emotional pull. It’s lazy. There are so many better ways to create emotional pull. It’s a trope, and not even a good one. Whenever I see a love triangle in a story, it just feels so fabricated and pointless. I’ve literally never seen it happen in a way that felt refreshing and original. From the point of view of creating a rich and meaningful story with mature themes and believable character development arcs, it just doesn’t make sense to me. It just feels like the equivalent of junior high cafeteria drama.

But at the same time, I have to be true to what the characters would be feeling at the time; I can’t just make Wally magically get over spending five years with her, and have him fall in love with Dick the next day. I have to allow him time to let go of his previous relationship, but I didn’t want him to do that because of Dick. I wanted him to do it because he realizes that he shouldn’t have been in the relationship for as long as he was in the first place. So, to avoid that cheap drama pitfall, I decided to show the moving on process early in the fic.

(Sorry if any of you actually like the love triangle trope. I have a deep love for many tropes that most people would consider lame – fake relationship or accidental marriage, anyone? – so I really have no place to judge. I just really hate that trope.)

#letting go fic #birdflash fic #birdflash #young justice fic #young justice #birdsgoflying #kateshines

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