#so to any writers seeing this post:

[aromagpie]

people constantly arguing about "we need more aroace rep" "we need more alloace rep" "we need more alloaro rep" maybe we just need more aspec rep in general

#magpie posts #aspec #yes i do get annoyed when people talk about aspec rep and then point to a bunch of alloace romance stories #but we need those too!! #what we need is not less of X rep and more Y rep #it's so much rep we can all find stories for us #so to any writers seeing this post: #go write a sentence

[johnslittlespoon]

plsssss can we talk about bucky getting his revenge and edging gale

gale edging john post | yes we cannnnn !! eta: ykw. i need to just turn this into a proper oneshot since this ended up being over 1k words. new wip created </3

john may be a man of little self control, but after that incident, he decides he can be at least a tiny bit patient so he can catch gale off guard with it when he gets his revenge. because the next few times they're fooling around, gale's expecting a retaliation, john can see it in the way he tenses up and glances at his face before he comes like he's waiting for it, but john never follows through with it. he wants gale to let his guard down, and that he does.

so a week or so later when john's kissing him and feeling him up and asks ever so sweetly if he can tie gale's wrists behind his back, gale doesn't think anything of it. john likes to take control occasionally and gale sometimes likes the feeling of not having to worry about making decisions, getting to let john call the shots, and john always puts extra time and effort into the way he touches gale when he's restrained because he likes to watch his darling blondie squirm.

john has him sit in his lap facing him, letting gale lean against his shoulder to take the pressure off his legs while john works him open on his fingers, already riled up from the pretty gasps gale's making against his neck but reigning himself in because he's gonna need to have some self control for once.

he sweet–talks gale through it, telling him how good he sounds, how well he's doing as he sinks down on his cock, guiding him with hands on his hips so he doesn't unbalance himself without the use of his own hands where they're tied behind his back with a belt. he stays still at first, letting gale ride him slowly, keeping his hands loosely on his waist while praising him and talking him into that foggy needy headspace until gale's thighs are trembling and john takes pity on him (and frankly is so hard he doesn't have the patience to keep his own hips still anymore).

so he runs his hands down from gale's waist to his ass to hold him in place while he rolls his hips up into him, watching the way gale's eyebrows pinch and his pretty lips fall open in a silent oh as john angles himself in a way gale couldn't with his own movements. lets his mouth run as he slowly picks up his pace, all the coos of "so pretty", "you're taking me so well", "you feel so fucking good", loving how reactive gale is to every word and every thrust.

he moves his hands to gale's hips to get a better grip, can tell gale's getting close because he gets noisier, losing his filter and letting out breathy little "fuck"s and "john"s, head rolling back on his shoulders to bare his neck, rocking his hips down to meet john every time he fucks up into him. and then just as he gets the warning of "close", he pulls gale down by his hips to bury himself deep in him and stops moving completely.

the whine of desperation that tears out of gale's throat when he lifts his head has john knocking his skull back against the wall, cock twitching hard enough inside gale that he's sure the blond can feel it. he watches gale's biceps flex when he instinctively tries to get his hands free, feels his hips try to squirm out of his hands to keep moving, but he keeps him pinned firmly down, dizzy at the way he clenches down around him.

a plaintive "john" pulls a groan from him, but he composes himself, lifts his gaze back up to gale's face and lets the corners of his lips quirk up, purrs out a "yeah, sweetheart? something wrong?"

laughs at the way gale cusses him out, a rare sight of his little spitfire with a mouth on him, though the effect is a lot closer to being hissed at by a kitty than actually being convinced to move. john lets him run his mouth, murmurs a "cute" once gale's done, and then promptly hammers his hips up into him just once, swearing under his breath at the way it punches an open–mouthed moan from gale. rocks his hips up into him a few times before going back to a quick and rough pace, the sound of skin on skin getting both of them flushed.

it only takes a minute before gale's hips are twitching into his hands and whispered pleas are falling from his mouth and john thinks he's never had to use as much self restraint in his life as he does when he forces himself to stop moving again, once again yanking gale down against him, holding him still in his lap.

gale really fights it this time, enough so that it's a merciful distraction for john from how close he himself is (trust his idea to backfire as he ends up edging himself along with gale, he thinks) when he has to use proper strength to keep him in place. any blood that might've still been lurking around his brain rushes south the moment he sees gale's eyes getting shiny with frustration, cheeks all pink and lips red and flushed from biting down on them.

"not so fun, is it?" john taunts, but his voice comes out a bit more raspy than he would've liked, evident how much the stop and start is getting to him too. it's probably karma, because he knows he's being more mean than gale was to him, but he can't help it; those blue eyes look so pretty when tears are threatening to spill over when he's desperate and needy like this.

gale wriggles in his lap the best he can, still furiously chasing his orgasm, head finally falling back in frustration before he lifts it again, looking john in the eyes, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth and letting it go. he whines quietly and whimpers out the sweetest "please, johnny," almost crying in his impatience, and fuck.

john doesn't mean for his hips to twitch up at that, but they do, hard. gale sobs out a broken sound at the way john's cock hits just where he needs it to in his accidental movement, and gale spills over his stomach completely untouched, just like that. john swears and drives his hips up into him in an attempt to quickly amend his slip up, moaning loud at the wrecked noises that immediately start bubbling up out of gale as he fucks him through his orgasm.

he tips over the edge himself from the desperate sounds the blond starts to make as he crosses the line into overstimulation, feeling gale's hips jerk frantically in his hands, fighting to get away from the incessant rhythm of his cock inside him as john shudders through his own orgasm, fingers digging into gale's sides.

he slows down to a gentle grind of his hips when gale collapses against his chest, face pressed to his neck, shivering at the slow drag inside him and whining pitifully when john eventually pulls out, settling him down on his thighs while he reaches around to undo the belt and free his hands. his heart bursts at the way gale instantly wraps his arms around him, clinging to him as they both catch their breath, john petting his hair and showering him with praise.

he eventually huffs out a laugh, murmuring a "sorry buck. payback's a bitch, but that was an accident, i swear." gale groans against him in complaint, lightly nipping at his shoulder in retaliation, too tired to fight back, but john's sure he'll pay for it eventually.

it's confirmed with the "better watch your back, darling" that he gets when they're both pulling their clothes back on, but to john, that sounds less like a threat and more like a good time, and he shoots gale a crooked grin to let him know as much.

#bruh this was 1.3k i did not mean to get into so much detail #the keep reading button has never been more necessary #i wish i could crank out long drabbles like this for all the asks #but they take sooo long for me to write i am NOT a fast writer lol hence why i post a fic like once a month #but sometimes certain asks just itch my brain some type of way and then boom i've thrown up onto a tumblr post #anyway dacryphilia my beloved <3 #in any other scenario john hates to see gale cry. but i think in bed he would have an affinity for making him feel so good that he cries #have i thought about this extensively? perhaps. #i just think that pretty boys with pretty eyes and pink lips deserve to cry during sex sometimes. as a treat #johnslittlespoon asks #johnslittlespoon brainrot #johnslittlespoon spicy #buck x bucky #buckbucky #johnslittlespoon writes

[planetsano]

so… since its the new year can we collectively agree to get the vibes right and back to how they used to be on ani fic tumblr in 2020-2022?

#we had a TIME #no shade but #im seeing a lot of people just write for the notes and numbers #i have a sneaking suspicion thats why any other fics posted outside of jjk feels like they get borderline ignored #OR #fic writers feel like they can’t write for anything other than jjk because its so over saturated #overall the quality of person on tumblr seems like it’s decreasing #as well as the craft of writing. #tumblr feels like its turned into fast fashion

[ghl-osty]

fanfiction

i’d like to talk about fanfiction real quick because there are some issues really frequently that can make or break a story. and they’re avoidable!! and it makes me so sad when i’m trying to read a good fanfic and there’s so many errors that i have to stop.

NAMES

so this is one i see surprisingly often… please make sure you know how to spell a character’s name when writing a fanfiction. it’s usually something small like damian vs. damien or lucas vs. lukas but to me it’s so distracting and disappointing when there’s a beautifully written story with a character’s name spelled wrong.

SPELLING

this is a big one, too. when writing, some people don’t always have a spell check or an editor built in to their platform. if that’s you, please triple check your work! and here are a few frequent ones i see-

-shook vs. shock

i shook his hand

i was in shock that she did such a horrible thing

-peaked vs. piqued

-he looked like he peaked in high school

-they piqued my interest

blonde vs blond

-she had blonde hair

-he had blond hair

blonde is a gendered word. i’m not actually sure how it’s used with nonbinary people, let me know!

their, there, and they’re

-it was theirs

-she’s over there

-they were scared, and now they’re not

remember that they’re is a contraction of they are!

quite vs. quiet

she tried to be quiet, not making any noise.

they were quite bored with this whole event.

(thank you to @nathaaaan for the suggestion)

SERIES VS. SERIE

i watched a really good series yesterday

serie isn’t actually a word…

BILINGUAL CHARACTERS

please, please, please do some research if you write a character who speaks another language. even if it’s reading other fanfictions to figure out how your character’s language fits in with the language you’re writing with.

-having a character to say that it’s ’hard to switch back’ is… unrealistic at best. i wouldn’t recommend using it.

-please gender the words correctly! in most of the romance languages, words are gendered. make sure to add that in!

REPETITION

unless you’re going for a gimmick, i’d be careful with repetition. having a character say something more than once, especially in the same sentence, can be annoying and makes the dialogue sound forced.

especially the word antics…. i literally had to put a fic down because ‘antics’ was in every other sentence.

ex: “Lily sighed, annoyed. She was so annoyed!”

(yes this is a real actual example with the character name changed. don’t let this be you.)

FORMATTING

i think this can be overlooked a lot but format is important!!!

-paragraph breaks!! seeing a huge chunk of words with absolutely no breaks is overwhelming. add some space!

-“the punctuation goes inside the quotations.” he said

-i know i’m being a bit of a hypocrite, but capitalization! names, beginning of sentences, and places!! if you don’t capitalize, at least be consistent with it!

“This is how fanfiction, or really any writing, should be formatted.” Eli said with a smile

“And every new sentence should be a paragraph break,” interjected Alex, “Unless you’re going for a certain style. In which case, you do you.”

Eli sighed. “That’s true, Alex. What OP didn’t know was that tumblr has a formatting issue, so that when she posts this, the paragraph breaks won’t show! She hopes she fixed it. But it might not work!”

“We can always imagine the bullet points as paragraph breaks.”

-friendly neighborhood reminder that paragraph breaks happen when introducing a new idea as well!

-bolds and italics are important.

“I told him not to go,” acceptable, a bit dry.

“I told him not to go,” exquisite, flavorful.

and as always. please make sure they’re talking like people. not disney sitcom characters.

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE TENSE

you would not believe how much i see this messed up. and it’s easy to get wrong. remember, you can always look something up if you aren’t sure. but stay consistent with your tenses!

past tense

She walked up to the drab, grey building, trembling. As she pulled the door open, a bell rang, signaling her arrival.

this one’s probably the most used. notice that it’s almost like we’re retelling the story, after it’s already happened (hence past tense)

present tense

She walks up to the drab, grey building, trembling. She pulls the door open, and a bell rings to signal her arrival.

we have to change quite a few words for the same sentence to make sense in present tense.

future tense

She’ll walk up to the drab, grey building, trembling. She’ll pull the door open, and a bell will ring to signal her arrival.

i honestly don’t think i’ve ever seen future tense used in a novel unless it’s used in dialogue. but it’s almost as if you’re speaking hypothetically about an event.

but please make sure you’re consistent with these! don’t use one and then switch to another!!

now of COURSE writing is a form of creation, and you can ultimately do whatever you want! if you want to write something, write it. this is just a little guide for some of the mistakes i see most often!

but all in all just double check your writing, always!!! there are so many good works out there that could be great.,… if you don’t have someone to beta read you can always send it to me or put it in word <3

#writing #creative writing #fanfic #fanficiton #fanfiction writer #ao3 fanfic #archive of our own #ao3 #ao3 writer #wattpad #look i’m tagging wattpad to not leave anyone out #but i don’t use wattpad #just to clarify #writers on tumblr #writers and poets #writerscommunity #writeblr #writer stuff #writer on tumblr #writer on ao3 #fanfiction tips #fanfic tips #too many tags #long post #writing is hard #but you can do it #pinky promise you can #please let me know if you see any errors #i know i act like i know everything but i’m wrong #so often

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

hold on ok i belted out a brief laughingstock Scene for possible future use that i Had to write down bc if i didn't, i'd never remember it. and why not share?

~

“Barnaby? Barnaby, old chap, are you with me?” 

Barnaby blinks, registering the green fingers snapping in front of his nose. He huffs a laugh and pushes Howdy’s hand away. “Yeah, yeah, I’m listenin’. You were saying?”

Howdy gives him an exasperated look, a fond look. “Thinking about running off to a farm again, were you?”

“Nah, just the clouds. They’re a lot less work.”

“Well I’d rather you didn’t. Who would I talk to during the long hours if you went and floated off?” Howdy winks before turning to his shelves, already yammering away about something or other.

Something or other that Barnaby is once again not listening to, because what was that? Barnaby quickly presses his cool paw-pads to his burning cheeks, feeling the bristling fur there. 

Has Howdy ever winked at him? Now that he’s noticed it, Barnaby can’t recall. If it’s new, then why? Why a wink of all things? What did that mean? And that look Howdy gave him… 

Barnaby adjusts his abruptly too-tight tie. It’s unusually warm in the store, isn’t it? Howdy must have forgotten to turn on the AC. 

Gosh, what is Howdy even saying? He’s still talking, but Barnaby hasn’t absorbed a word. He can’t even tell if Howdy is still speaking english. It’s all garbled.

There’s something wrong with Barnaby. He must be coming down with something… or he’s just overthinking it. Overworking the ol’ noggin. A good long nap should set him right. 

“Listen,” Barnaby interrupts, patting the counter, “I uh, I don’t know where my head’s at. I better go find it - I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Oh… alright, then,” Howdy says, a tinge of disappointment in his voice. 

Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Barnaby slaps that thought out of the park. He doesn’t want Howdy to be disappointed, that’s absurd. That’s something a bad friend would think. Barnaby may be many things, but a bad friend isn’t one of them.

“I’ll whip up a joke that’ll knock your socks off next time I see ya,” Barnaby promises. He smiles around the discomfort and the entirely new feeling squirming around each other in his chest. 

“Now you’ve gone and brought up my expectations,” Howdy says. He leans on the counter and grins. “Are you sure you can back up such a claim, Mr. Beagle?”

Another hot flush races under Barnaby’s fur, and to his growing mortification, his tail starts wagging at breakneck speed. He lets out an uncharacteristically nervous laugh and backs away from the counter. To both of their horror, his back hits a shelf, making it rattle and tip.

“Oh, sh-” Barnaby lunges to right it before it can topple. He whips around and laughs again. Howdy’s wide-eyed stare burns. “Sorry ‘bout that! Talk about a bulldog in a bugshop, geez.”

“When you find your head, make sure to screw it on nice and tight,” Howdy says, a strange look on his face to match his tone. “And check your temperature while you’re at it - it’s not like you to be off-balance.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m off-balance,” Barnaby says. He inches towards the door, willing his stupid tail to calm down. “I just have ears instead of rearview mirrors.”

“Uh-huh…” Howdy slides to the side, trying to peer around him. 

Barnaby fumbles for the door. The scrape and bang of his search for the handle echoes in the quiet store. One of Howdy’s eyebrows creeps higher the longer Barnaby stands there, making a complete fool of himself. 

Finally, the door clicks, and Barnaby nearly tumbles over backwards in his haste to get out. He stumbles down the steps and briskly walks away, adjusting his hat and tie. As soon as he’s out of sight, he slaps his paws to his face and sags against the bodega.

“Idiot,” he hisses to himself. He presses his back flat against the wall and slams the side of his fist against it. Normally, Barnaby would use a situation like this to his advantage. But Howdy wasn’t laughing, and Barnaby wasn’t being funny. “Bulldog in a - gah, idiot!”

Great. Now Howdy thinks he’s not only a clumsy oaf, but that he’s losing his touch too.

Barnaby growls in frustration, pushing off the wall and stomping away from the plaza on all fours. What does he care what Howdy thinks of him? Others’ opinions of Barnaby have never been anywhere near his list of top priorities - barring Wally’s, of course. If they were, he'd never tell another joke again.

Yes, Howdy is a good friend of Barnaby’s. A close friend, even. But since when has he had such a - such an effect? Barnaby shakes his head, growling again. 

There was no effect. Barnaby is just going insane. Or he’s getting sick, like Howdy implied. That would explain the sudden hot flash, the loss of typically impeccable coordination, and, oh yeah! Barnaby’s brain leaking out of his ears.  

#context from My Brain: #barnaby's chatting with howdy as usual and howdy does Something endearing #or was it like... idk one of his personality quirks pops up #& barnabys like 'aw hes doing The Thing. its one of the things i love about him' #and obviously has a moment of 'whoah wait Love?? haha where the fuck did that come from. whatever *proceeds to panic*' #essentially: the first domino falls #laughingstock #aaaaand not tagging as anything else #if people see it they see it #i havent posted Any of my recent (and rare) writings so this is slightly mortifying! #its been too long since ive posted fic i need to buckle down on my wips #not this one obvs since its not even really a wip #just a tidbit for future me to edit and implement #my dc wips... who i still want to continue & finish so so badly... #the mermay timber one... the timkon cannibalism... cowboy hat rule... and many more... #anyhow i can feel my writing confidence atrophying #i glance at one of my wips and my entire brain recoils like its the worst thing since (insert bad thing here) #shaking myself by the shoulders 'Its Not That Bad You Are A Decent Writer Whose Fics Are More Often Than Not Well Received' #my brain is trying to convince me everything is terrible i need to forcibly shut it the hell up

[boomerangguy]

Kiyi, seeing Zuko: Hi there Zuzu!!! 😃

Azula: No, no, no. Like this...

Azula: Hello, Zuzu. 😈

Kiyi:

Kiyi:

Kiyi:

Zuko: Azula, this is ridiculous. Don’t you have something better to teach her than how to torment me——

Kiyi: Hi there, Zuzu. 😈

Zuko: mmmoooooOOOOOOMMMM!!! 😰😭

#Comic writers: Hey so we’re gonna give Zuko the angelic little sister he always deserved to replace the demonic bad seed known as Azula #but if they had any brains at all they would have Kiyi be Azula’s sidekick #either she or Izumi are the key to Azula’s redemption imo because they’re the only family members capable of granting her a clean slate #and they’ll see her as a person rather than the Epitome of All Evil in the Universe #anyway Azula mentoring her little sister/peewee sidekick with shenanigans like this is adorable and I want to see it in canon #GIVE ME A WHOLESOME AZULA & KIYI AND/OR IZUMI RELATIONSHIP IN CANON DAMNIT #aight anyway that’s all for today folks #azula #kiyi #zuko #avatar the last airbender #atla #atla incorrect quotes #avatar incorrect quotes #I think I posted this in discord once but it never made it to tumblr

[sardonic-the-writer]

A reminder that if you wrote today, even if it was just a little, you did an amazing job

#you see im posting this becuase #i causualy mentioned to my dad the other day (who writes when he can which is rarely) that one of my works had 7k ish words #he was shoked by that and started talking about how that was a lot! and how he could never write something as long as that! #while im over here thinking that if my fics arent at least 9 to 10k words long then theyre worthless #so a reminder that any amount #is the right amount #even if its just 500 words #sardonic rambles #writeblr #writing #writer

[bisexualamy]

I see people talk about fanfiction and novels being different mediums a lot, and while I don’t necessarily disagree, I don’t feel like I understand either. In your opinion, what makes them different mediums from each other? What decides that two things are separate mediums like in general? It’s totally cool if you don’t wanna answer this btw, I know it’s kind of a lot

No worries I think that's an interesting question! With any categories, the boundaries on this are going to be fuzzy, but the reason I believe they're different mediums is that fundamentally, on a metatextual level, the languages are different. What do I mean by this? Let's use film as an example, a medium that I'd argue is very obviously a different medium than novels, even if we may not be able to articulate all the reasons why.

What are some attributes of film that differentiate it from novels (another storytelling medium) or paintings (another visual medium)? Films and novels are both storytelling mediums, but films have visual and auditory components. They also mainly consist of storytelling through visual cues and dialogue. Exposition is given visually or in media res by characters speaking. In a novel, your omniscient narrator giving you a few paragraphs of background on your main characters is common, and so expected it probably flies over the reader's head. In a film, a narrator doing the exact same thing for all the main characters often comes off clumsy. It takes you out of the story in a film, where it doesn't in a novel.

Film is also a time-based medium. A film unfolds over time, and you cannot experience the entire film in one moment or glance. That's not true of a painting (at least traditionally). With a painting, you can view the whole painting in one look. Now, you can sit with a painting, pick out details, analyze the craft or ponder it for a long time and watch as new aspects jump out at you. Fundamentally, however, if you wanted to view a whole painting in one look, you can, and it would still make sense. You cannot do that with a film. On the other hand, a painting is typically not an auditory experience. To do so would be an experimental use of the form. In modern film-making, the exact opposite is true. Music, dialogue, and environmental sound, all of these things are essential to how a film tells a story. To not use them would be considered experimental or odd.

These are three different mediums with three different "languages" in how they interact with their audience. They may share parts of their languages, like I said above, but they don't speak the same language. What works well for one medium can come off clumsy or strange in another.

I believe fanfic and novels have sufficiently different languages that they should be considered different mediums. Both of them are short or long form written mediums telling some sort of story. But fanfic's relationship to its source material is such an inherent trait that novels do not have. The relationship doesn't have to be positive (it's often, in fact, argumentative or strained or dismissive), but the relationship exists. Even in AU fanfiction. Even in fics full of OCs.

In canon compliant and even canon divergent fics, this relationship is more obvious. These fics are both conversations with the source material as much as they are stories. They're playing in the author's sandbox, or they're wrecking their sandcastle and building something else. They're saying "I like/dislike what you did with this specific story, and I'm going to show you that by rewriting or expanding it." They take large aspects of the author's story whole cloth: the characters, the setting, the magic system, the tech, etc.

These fanfics often have little exposition at the top because they presume a familiarity with the characters, the world, or both. This alone makes them really different from novels. Creatively and seamlessly integrating exposition, immersing your audience in a new world and convincing them to stay, is a really important aspect of a novel that these fics don't have to contend with. This alone fundamentally changes how you'd structure a story.

For AU fics, both fics in AU settings and AU fics full of OCs, the above still applies. These fics are still a conversation with the source material. Something about the source material compelled an author to flip it and remix it and change it around. That conversation might be "in the source material, these characters suffered, and I don't want them to suffer any longer" or it could be "I felt the story had a vacancy that this OC fills" or it could be "if these characters had the time/awareness/ability to grow closer, they would've fallen in love." These are all direct commentaries on the original work.

An exercise that I believe illustrates this point the best is to try and adapt an AU fanfic to an original work. Try to file the serial numbers off. I've done this with some of my fic, and it just doesn't work. You don't realize how much you presume the audience knows until you have to cater to an audience who knows nothing of the source material. That hilarious joke you wrote? Turns out it's only funny because it's a nod to this character's original characterization. This awesome climatic plot point that ties the whole story together? Turns out in relies on a specific bit of lore, a quirk of the magic system, or an aspect of the character's past history or personality. Now that this is a novel, you have to back-fill all of that exposition. And you can try to do that, but watch how your story gets clunky and bloated. You will have to start viciously killing your darlings, as you realize that your favorite scene is beautiful in a fic, but sounds awkward and out of place in a novel. Soon, you're basically just rewriting the whole thing to fit a different medium.

Many fanfic writers are extremely talented. And much of that talent, that wit, that perfect line that you can't get out of your head, is integrally informed by your knowledge of the source material. The irony falls flat without having read the source books. The relationships suddenly feel shallow when you don't have seasons of backstory to deepen them. You do not realize how much of fanfic writing consists of this back and forth until you go looking for it.

And here's the thing: if your fanfic has a totally AU setting and it consists of completely original characters, I'd argue that's just a novel posted to AO3. If all you need to do is change the names to make it work, that's a novel. This is why Clueless is inspired by Jane Austen's Emma and not an AU fanfic of it. If you've never read Emma, if you went into Clueless not knowing that Emma was the inspiration for it, you'd perfectly understand the movie.

In fanfic, the source material is always present. It can be obviously present with canon compliant fic. It can be antagonistically present with canon divergent or AU fic. And it is still present, floating in the background, with totally AU fic. Ultimately, the changes a fanfic author makes to the source material are, themselves, as integral to the fanfic as the words on the page. It is a dialogue with the source material: what it did well, what it could've done better, what this author believes is the essence of the story, or the world pushed to its limit, that even though we're in space or in a coffee shop or 1920s New York, we're still, on some level talking about the source material.

This is an aspect of fanfic I love that novels do not have. Novels have a lot of other great stuff! I love novels! But while novels are often engaged in a dialogue with their present society or their predecessors in a genre, that conversation is much more nebulous than it is with fanfic. You can read Slaughterhouse-Five or Gravity's Rainbow, and while knowing their contexts helps you understand them on a deeper level, that is unnecessary to their enjoyment. They are fundamentally more standalone works than fanfic will ever be.

This is ultimately why I think comparing fanfic and novels is comparing apples to oranges. They're different mediums. They use different languages. They require different skills and they fill different artistic niches. You might as well be comparing a film to a painting just because they're both visual art.

#ok to rb #this is not the point of the post but people do often compare films to paintings ('every frame a painting etc') #it's perfectly valid and super cool to compare fics and novels as two different mediums #by doing so we gain a deeper understanding of both mediums #bc all art is a conversation with other art #but this is not what these posts are doing when they say 'see! fanfic writers are more talented than lots of published novels!' #they are treating both as the same form and making an argument that fanfic is slighted within this medium for a presumed lack of skill #which to me is like comparing a film to a painting by saying #'reblog if you know cinematographers who compose more beautiful shots than any jackson pollock painting!' #hailing frequencies open #Anonymous #thank you for this! i'm recovering from bottom surgery and this was excellent enrichment that i could do from bed #apologies for the long post but i feel like it's better than putting the whole thing under cut #long post ///

[sysig]

DAX is just so expressive ♥ (Patreon)

#My art #SCII #Helix #DAX #Lol #Have I mentioned I love him lately #As if I ever stop talking about how much I love any of them lol #Okay but genuinely these were really nice as warmups they were really easy to just knock out one by one #He's very expressive as Dexter! *handwaves about human neurochemistry and expressions* lol #I had to make his Neutral look extra dead inside to make up for the rest haha #Funnily enough I have actually been watching a series of streams of like VAs and visual artists and writers and stuff #And they are constantly uptalking 2D talksprites as mood-setters for dialogue #So it was really fun to make these with that in the back of my head like ''Yeah! :D They /are/ good at that!'' #Very cool expressive medium :D #See if you can spot the first drafts for a few of these :3c #I'll give you a hint: Scared and Sad(? Regretful ig lol) were from some posted doodles #His grumpy one was also a doodle but I didn't post it so it doesn't count lol #Oh yeah and and a lot of these had little accessories like the fear bursts and the little sigh bubble lol I just...forgot them here lol #They're there in spirit please feel the grump lines and sweat drops in your heart <3 #I had a heck of a time trying to keep his face consistent with different angles lol aren't VUX nervous to move their necks me #Just gotta actually get into 3D modeling properly smh #I keep finding myself wanting to make more now that this set's done but I'm not sure what expressions! Confused? Focused? He's so subdued #Oooh he'd suit an expression meme wouldn't he <3 Now there's an idea #Might even open an ask game for that if I can find a good one :3c Hehehe

[stardustfrin]

i think it's really funny how people just go on the internet and tell lies

#this post is about nightheart #i went into every book following river horrified that theyd ruin him #but man im just #not #seeing it #at all #nightheart is a misogynist? nope! thats the writers #nightheart doesnt respect sunbeam's boundaries? wrong! nightheart has done nothing but respect her boundaries #nightheart undermines frostpaw's problems by comparing them to his? wrong! hes empathizing with her #its to the point im wondering if im reading the same book as you all. how did you get this impression of this dude. #i think the last one in particular stems from nightheart's conflicts not being taken seriously. yes #its dumb #this was never a prior issue for any of firestar's kin #but it is happening #and that shit is so damaging let me tell you #and also #calling him a misogynist is just gross im gonna be so fr #the AUTHORS are misogynistic. we know this. this is not our first rodeo. #that fact just seems to be projected on to nightheart instead of pointing the finger at the erins #it is misogynistic that these characters are being conveyed the way they are. but the fact remains is that its whats on the page #and nightheart has every damn right to be upset about it #AORRY I AM LIKE. PASSIONATE. ABOUT THIS. i like nightheart a lot and see myself in him #i dont think its bad if people dislike him #but a lot of the reasons ive seen arent even valid reasons because they arent accurate representations of his character #tldr; stop blaming the authors' shitty writing decisions on nightheart pleaseee 😇 #nightheart #warrior cats #i would not blame anyone if u said i aint rwading allat tbh this was not meant to get so out of hand

[tacagen]

please please lets talk about how barry and hunter percieve thawne and his relationship with barry. like im sure barry had no idea of thawnes crush on him (along with what even was his motivation in general before rs) like up until 'the only time' confession and him calling thawne pathetic for that is his live reaction to this realization under the influence of negative speed force. and we KNOW he knows at the very least after that because of these mfs!!!

they are fear constructs and they are based on barrys fears!!! THEY ACT EVEN FUCKING GAYER AND CREEPIER THAN THE ORIGINAL ONE!!!

and barry oh poor sweet barry. he had no idea that this!

was thawne meaning time with barry and barry alone! and barry didnt fucking see that! barry related to these words because they reminded him of his parents and naturally he supports The 25th Century Flash! AND THAWNE HEARS THAT 'I UNDERSTAND' AND THINKS THAT BARRY UNDERSTOOD EXACTLY WHAT HE MEANT!! THAT BARRY FEELS THE VERY SAME FOR HIM!!! JUST LIKE HE IMAGINED ALL THESE YEARS!!! AND NEVER QUESTIONS THAT CONCLUSION!!! AND LATER CALLS BARRY A LIAR FOR THAT!!! FOR NEVER FEELING THE SAME DESIRE TO SPEND TIME TOGETHER WHICH BARRY NEVER ACTUALLY IMPLIED!!!!

and what about hunter? oh he saw the events of running scared alright. and more, he has an unlimited access to the info about thawne, both personal experience and flash museum archives. he relates to him, he finds fucking comfort in him and his story. he is just like me fr! thawne is his poor little meow meow too and hunter takes it so much more serious than i do due to percieving him as Tragedy Personified!

in fact thawnes death in running scared fucks him up so badly he gives up his ideals and beliefs about flashes in favor of 'they are unfixable and deserve only to suffer'. besides, hes a profiler, he studied psychiatry. like, that guy should understand thawnes character deeply, right?

..............

hunter. hunter my sweet summer child i dont know how to tell you. this is SO not the reason thawne kept it.

he is the BIGGEST (and the only) fan thawne ever had. he knows about him SO MUCH and yet he straight up cannot figure out the most obvious thing about him because he PROJECTS HIS OWN ISSUES AND BELIEFS ABOUT FLASHES ONTO HIM AND REFUSES TO THINK FURTHER. yall im fucking crying. no comments.

THE CLOSET IS GLASS AND NO ONE FUCKING SEES THROUGH AND I AM PERFECTLY NORMAL ABOUT IT!!!!!!

#eobard thawne #professor zoom #reverse flash #the flash #barry allen #hunter zolomon #zoom #eobarry ig? #please excuse my exclamation marks im on a lot of caffeine rn and this is the most hilarious thing ever and i will never get over it #i love that mess of an era and i hate none of it was actually intended by writers. like EVERY speedster is on a whole different level here #like. williamson sincerely believes both thawne and zolomon are Tragic Characters and that he wrote them accordingly #and i may also be wrong (tho i cant see any other explanation to the every second is a gift and barry=liar origin) but yknow. #never as wrong as hunter 💀💀 #sorry my brother in reverse flash brainrot your projections dont slay like mine do :( #also if he gets resurrected hes gonna be in SO MUCH TROUBLE FOR STEALING THAT RING AND SUIT AFTER THAWNES DEATH #LIKE DUDE. HOW DO YOU CARE AND KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT HIM INCLUDING THE FACT HE NEVER DIES PERMANENTLY AND EVER THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA #3rd day of pride month going well #also yeah. in relation to my previous post and due to those fear constructs im afraid you could say barry is _canonically_ homophobic.

[wolvertooth]

(Ultimate X-Men, issue #11)

yall think if i say Nuh Uh enough times it’ll make them be niceys to eachother

god fucking damn this comic has me in a chokehold. actually. i wanna put IT in a chokehold. also some extra context for vics little ‘i hate u’ speech -> the previous issue literally has someone hes working for call him ‘poor mans wolverine’ so i dont think he formed that opinion on his own. i think it came from always being 2nd in weapon x after wolverine showed up, despite being the only one who actually signed up for it. no matter how much he killed and tried to prove himself, they always still prefered wolverine. he went from being the best by just being himself, to now having someone who could replace him. replace his comfort, replace his worth. like most sabretooths, i assume this one also had to constantly fight to be worth something, having the need to be worth something, anything, in others eyes. he found a place where he was able to show what everyone says hes good at, the only place where hes really allowed to do so, a place where everyone there says he belongs(even if its in a degrading way), and now that role gets taken by someone else. even if theyre literally torturing wolverine more, sabretooth sees it as them giving him more attention. hes no longer special. the things that alienate him arent special anymore, now theyre back to just being bad. unworthy.

wolverine didnt do anything to make sabretooth hate him, he just hates him out of jealousy and fear. and he doesnt really even hate him, he just hates the attention he gets. victor needs to be better or else hes not useful anymore.

for some reason in my last post about this series, i neglected to include this bit here⤵️

hes been so affected by the need for weapon x’s approval, to be the best at being the worst, that hes convinced he cant exist anywhere else. theyre only good as weapons, they cant be anything else, theyre living trash.

and yet, hes terrified of being thrown out.

and i think hes also scared to recognize that hes an individual as well.

its either be all the things that society hates about him and not have to worry about it, while being at a place that he has a warped sense of ‘belonging’, or have to actually fight for himself. he’d rather fight society than fight against society. cuz then its the world against him, rather than him against the world.

#sabretooth #victor creed #posting late at night so none of the sabretooth fans are awake to see him being a dick lol #whoever made that issue was like ‘yea make him the prettiest hes ever been. great. now make him an asshole.’ #the coat…the fingerless gloves….the ponytail…..dreamy sighhh #THE BOOTS ALSO THE BOOTS #then under the coat is a bunch of useless belts around his arms just for the aesthetic #and that gay lookin headband ARGHHH #WHYD U HAVE TO BE SO FUCKED UP IN THIS ISSUE WHILE LOOKING SO GOOODDDD #and he calls him ‘precious’ im gonna kill the writers #anyway i will write an essay defending any and all sabretooths. i’ll find a way.

[fiapple]

society if dc hired a writing team of colour who could acknowledge the racial coding of starfire & raven, explore vic's status as a Black man in modern america who's specific disability further means his body is going to be read a certain way by certain people no matter what he does, along with potentially finding a way to sort through the racisim + fetishization that went into prior depictions of dick's heritage:

#i say team as i think team books would probably benefit from more co-writers anyway. allows for more perspective. also pays more artists. #also i think a prior lack of racial sensitivity on the part of major corporations calls for paid opportunity to- for lack of better terms #because i'm stoned & can't find them- fix the fucking mess of it all #there's so much you could do irt to sociopolitical commentary if you just hired the right fucking people. i'm so over this jesus fuck. #dc #ntt #teen titans #the titans #like and even ignoring that there's so much you could do with the idea of friendships & teams as communities if the job was given to #someone who actually fucking CARED about any of those things. #anti tom taylor #legit if i see anyone on the dash praising it i will lose all respect for their opinions. #this man is worse than every insta poet put together and we could have had SO MUCH FUCKING BETTER. #cis white guys write the most absolute crap-paper worthy at best stories&comic companies are just like ''here go. fuck up even MORE stuff'' #am angry #if you see the version of this post with a typo just say nothing. yes my brain was just going ''why why why why'' that hard.

[hamletshoeratio]

The difference in how Hen and Eddie's cheating is treated/being treated by the fandom v how Buck's is... I wonder why...

#911 #911 abc #911 season 7 #911 spoilers #eddie diaz #henrietta wilson #evan buck buckely #evan buckley #like not defending any of them for cheating but funny how the white man doesn't get half as much flack as the black woman &the latino man do #its so transparent #right i lied I'm defending Hen like it was s1 the writers didn't really know what they doing with these characters #she was a victim of a bad storyline idea #the show properly clicked in season 2 #but anyways #and like i didn't like taylor #mainly because of how she did her job #speaking someone in the same profession she needed to go back to ethics 101 because christ #theres a reason why you wait for statements from official bodies before reporting #her reporting on Jonah before the (911) lapd released a statement also meant that victims' families might not have been informed in time #that is a huge no no in ethical journalism #taylors truth at any cost shtick really rubbed me off the wrong way because there is a huge cost involved #BUT she didn't deserve to get cheated on by Buck #and i love Buck but he was squarely in the wrong #eddies still unfolding so final thoughts on this scenario pending arc completion #but do i see him going further with kim than he already has by going on dates with her? i don't know #but i do see him heading towards a breakdown because he's been building towards one for multiple seasons now #I'll explore that more in another post methinks

[commsroom]

when it comes down to it, however much i think about eiffel's memory, whatever my reasoning might be, i think there's a much simpler core explanation for why i feel the way i do. i've said before that, if eiffel did regain his memory, i would want it to happen through 'an eiffel version of change of mind' i.e. a personal inner journey where the narrative he tells himself amounts to some greater reminder, self-confrontation, and self-realization. and that's just it:

eiffel regaining his memory wouldn't be a cop out to me for the same reason that lovelace not actually dying isn't a cop out: it's not just a story beat, it's a catalyst for character development & a better understanding of lovelace as a person. eiffel has spent his whole life trying not to be the person he is, and i just don't feel wolf 359 is the type of story to let him off the hook for that, when the ending is as much about accountability (to ourselves and to others and all the ways those responsibilities overlap) as it is about hope. i think there are ways you could argue that eiffel can still be eiffel without regaining his memory, but i think i've convinced myself that the symbolic resurrection / self-confrontation and acceptance of all the people he's been in the past, in order to move forward, is the more compelling option, especially for what it parallels, and the "eiffel is still eiffel" part is non-negotiable. it doesn't even feel like a question to me.

(and it makes the most sense to me in the context of eiffel's survivor's guilt - "of course i was fine. the driver's always fine." - and tendency towards a type of self-sacrifice and self-punishment that the show ultimately denies him / that doesn't address his real problem. he thinks sacrificing himself for the people he cares about will make up for something, but it won't. having him make that sacrifice and then keep living and keep being doug eiffel, with everything that means, feels like the natural extension of constructive criticism.)

in another story, or in a more theoretical context, there are all kinds of questions you could ask about whether eiffel's memory loss means he's a different person now, but in this case... i think it's better understood in narrative terms and what it represents for him as a character than any broader philosophical conclusion about the nature of the self and human consciousness. (and it is in no way as absolute as people sometimes behave like it is, considering he still has a concept of, like... everything. but that's a whole other topic of discussion.) most importantly, i just don't believe wolf 359 is a story about ideas as much as it is a story about people, these people, and in order to (hypothetically) continue to tell a story about doug eiffel, well. he has to still be doug eiffel. one way or another.

#wolf 359 #w359 #doug eiffel #this was supposed to be a short post just to get some thoughts out #i don't know if it'll even make sense to other people like it makes sense to me. #obviously i have plenty of other thoughts about this. which belong in more structured posts #but i will say i still believe the question 'am i still doug eiffel?' is answered by its context - #that he's already asked 'am i still that same person?' - a different question. the answer to which would be 'no' even before #and that 'am i still doug eiffel?' is the set up for 'wanna find out together?' #that's the actual question being asked. it's the answer to the previous question and what the show leaves you with #when asked about the show the writers talk a lot about their fondness for 'earned happy endings' in those words #so i can only see the finale and any post-canon hypothetical through that lens #it's not a tragedy so any option that would make it feel like one just doesn't resonate #and i will say it feels important to me that he regains his memory but equally important that it doesn't happen right away #like i'm sure of this from a narrative perspective but from an in-universe one it has to be something he grapples with #the fact that eiffel almost certainly doesn't want to still be eiffel is the exact reason why he has to be. #it's the same 'earned happy endings' principle in my mind

[giantkillerjack]

ur post about queerbaiting and the dismissal of people in fandom to critical analysis is so incredibly true thank you. i feel like marcille's writing in the anime has been super misogynistic a lot of the time and every time i bring this up all anyone wants to say is "well maybe this isn't for you! and you shouldn't watch the show!" like. i don't think this is about taste lmao, i am analyzing the text in front of me and coming to conclusions about the craft of it.

[This is in reference to this post]

YES!!! THANK YOU!!!!!

It is so so frustrating!!!!

It's like being at a restaurant and being served a bunch of delicious appetizers, but then one of the bread appetizers is literally just a plate of crumbs; and then when you're like, "Hey, uhh, why are we being served literal crumbs?", a bunch of the other folks eating at the restaurant are like,

"WELL HOW ABOUT YOU JUST DON'T EAT HERE THEN??!? YOU MUST NOT BE THAT HUNGRY, SO JUST FIND ANOTHER RESTAURANT AND DON'T EAT WITH US!!"

And maybe they say it politely, but "Aw, sorry, maybe this restaurant just isn't for you 💖" is just trading out an aggressive dismissive tone for a patronizing dismissive tone. It's the same message.

And it's like! I was honestly happy to move on from the crumbs once my complaint was acknowledged because the meal overall is still delicious, but then all these folks got SUPER WEIRD AND DEFENSIVE ABOUT IT, so now I find myself double-checking all the other dishes -- and, actually, you know what those eggs DO look a Iittle misogynistic undercooked!!!!

#original #queerbaiting #dunmeshi #dungeon meshi #falin x marcille #marcille x falin #marcille donato #delicious in dungeon #dungeon meshi marcille #listen i like marcille but u r right she is basically there to be a wet blanket a LOT of the time and that is a sexist trope #i think the bar is super super low for female characters in adventure anime and the lack of constant ogling maybe makes the female #characters feel better written than they are. i mean falin basically has no personality. she's got an innocent heart but that's nothing. #and i think these conversations are worth having bc no piece of media is perfect and this is how we learn to do better #also like. I've seen media criticisms that make me go 'oh you straight up should reserve commentary bc you #haven't watched the show and you're wrong' or 'i see what you're saying but you are simply incorrect' but like #i don't think I'd tell someone to just NOT watch Hazbin Hotel bc they have a bad take - and certainly not bc they have accurately #pinpointed a real flaw about the show (of which there are more than a few but frankly not what became the biggest subject of Disc Horse) #Angel is actually an amazing character & i think people mistook a criticism on the way abuse is glamourized as actually glamourizing abuse #like his song about abuse is called Poison and he's trapped in an abusive performance contract - bringing to mind Britney Spears #i think it is a wildly triggering and painful scene but i think a lot of people took the pain it gave them to mean it was bad art #but tbh they are still allowed to eat at the table if they so choose!!! #sorry i got sidetracked - as an abuse survivor Angel just matters a lot to me. i have a couple serious criticisms of vivziepop's work but #Angel is very much not one of them #also in regards to the actual subject of this post i think the most audacity of the responses i got was the one that said #that by complaining about queerbaiting I was 'de-incentivizing writers to write any interaction b/t women that could look even a little gay #and I'm just like. good. I hope they stop writing entirely. if the takeaway from 'please don't sell me bread and then serve me crumbs' is #'WELL NOW I JUST WON'T BAKE ANY BREAD PRODUCT' then that person is a bad chef. they should find a different job. #or at least do a whole lot of work on themselves. but either way i wouldn't be too broken up to know i won't be getting any food from them. #'just leave then' is so obviously a gut reaction defense mechanism & it implies media criticism should only be for things you don't like