After 470 days of Ashley, we finally hit 1000 followers!! I don't even know how to express my gratitude. This blog has connected me with so many amazing people and I feel like I've truly created a little community.
Thank you to everyone who's joined me on this journey. Every like, reblog, comment, and DM fuels me like no other. You have all made me feel so special.
This feels like the right time to share something i've been working on for a few months now, as well.
AotD has expanded! I now have an official Pinterest for this account where I've been consolidating every photo I have. You'll find a much more organized gallery of all the pictures that didn't make the cut for this blog as well as everything I've posted here. Funny story actually, the same day this blog hit 1k followers, ashleyjohnsonarchive reached 100!
Thank you all once again. Here's to another thousand!
and i've been wanting to do like a follower celebration type thingy!
By my count there are about 30 active blogs that actually interact with my account (some of the others I'm sure are real, they just rarely interact/are inactive)
18 for 3tan. 25 for 3tan and hit;record. and 26 please!
18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.
okay, so i literally took forever to find something to talk about bc i wanna talk about so much dfdsf so if you want another passage, i guess send 18 again! but here's what i landed on, from forfeit:
The you from a year ago was brave enough to come here in the first place. You’ll be damned if the you a year from today wonders what could’ve happened if you stayed.
nothing changed, this was the first draft. but the backstory is just from everyday thoughts and thinking about would've/could've moments. i don't want to sit here a year from now and think "damn, why didn't i do that thing i wanted to do? why was i so scared?" i also wanted reader to have this realization that they were brave before, so they can be brave again.
and from the rest of the events in forfeit/flutter.. imagine what would've happened if reader left. absolutely none of that. so be brave and stay/talk/do what you're scared of doing.
25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?
3tan!tae's favorite jelly is strawberry and he gets a very specific jar from a farmer's market<3
hit;record!jin's lucky tennis racquet is silver and black, and he kisses the sweet spot of it before every match :'))
26. How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?
so there's another message in my inbox with just #26, so i'll get into more detail int that ask! i can say i do regret going in some of their heads sometimes. it takes a huge toll when there's a lot going on in there.
Gentle reminder that very little fandom labor is automated, because I think people forget that a lot.
That blog with a tagging system you love? A person curates those tags by hand.
That rec blog with a great organization scheme and pretty graphics? Someone designed and implemented that organization scheme and made those graphics.
That network that posts a cool variety of stuff? People track down all that variety and queue it by hand, and other people made all the individual pieces.
That post with umpteen links to helpful resources, and information about them? Someone gathered those links, researched the sources, wrote up the information about them.
That graphic about fandom statistics? Someone compiled those statistics, analyzed them, organized them, figured out a useful way to convey the information to others, and made the post.
That event that you think looks neat? Someone wrote the rules, created the blogs and Discords, designed the graphics, did their best to promo the event so it'd succeed.
None of this was done automatically. None of it just appears whole out of the internet ether.
I think everyone realizes that fic writing and fanart creation are work, and at least some folks have got it through their heads that gif creation and graphics and moodboards take effort, and meta is usually respected for the effort that goes into it, at least as far as I've seen, but I feel like a lot of people don't really get how much labor goes into curation, too.
If people are creating resources, curating content, organizing the creations of others, gathering information, and doing other fandom activities that aren't necessarily the direct action of creation, they're doing a lot of fandom labor, and it's often largely unrecognized.
Celebrate fan work!
To folks doing this kind of labor: I see you, and I thank you. You are the backbones of our fandoms and I love you.
You may be a minor and have parents that are overprotective of you or worse, are neutral about the whole thing or is supportive of one side.
But you don't need to speak up about Palestine on your own post. You can always reblog a post with the click of a button. Reblog posts just like this one.
I know it's hard to do much and I know you're sometimes feeling like you aren't doing enough. But you can take it with little steps at a time.
Don't stop talking about Palestine. Your voices need to be heard.
I got some early copies in the post today and getting to actually hold 'em made me cryyyyy - I'm so happy and I still can't believe my art's gonna be in actual bookstores out in the big wide world 🥹💖📖