krokuswrites

[krokuswrites]

anyways, there’s a new app that is putting fanfictions from ao3 as an audible book without author’s permission. it’s called lore fm.

the only way to opt out is by emailing them? which is completely bs. ao3 is completely okay with it, unfortunately.

so as an author, im asking, please don’t put fanfics on here unless you ask the author specifically and they okay it.

#jfc... #ao3

[krokuswrites]

Hey I don’t know if this is being talked about on Tumblr but thankfully the AO3 subreddit has a conversation going about this app that just went live.

TikTok user unravel.me.now has just launch an app (lore.fm) she is calling “Audible for AO3”. It’s an app that uses AI voices to read out fics.

🚨She is requiring any authors who do not want their fics to be on this app to OPT OUT by emailing [email protected] 🚨 🚨She has not given an actual template or how you’re supposed to prove you’re the author or said how her team will process this or how she will keep these requests secure🚨

I do not have this app. I haven’t seen anyone use it yet. According to Reddit users, unravel.me.now’s earlier TikToks stated she envisions the app being able to create libraries stored on that app and to have version of “Spotify wrapped”. That implies that eventually data collection must happen, if it’s not happening currently.

I don’t know the actual capabilities of this app. I don’t know the legalities. I do know that it personally feels like this app is trying to turn AO3 into a content generation source and I haven’t heard of the app allowing you to leave a comment or kudos or interact with the original work.

I’m just sad about this.

#this is so shady #I hate this #ao3

[krokuswrites]

This is what happened when a fanfic site is profit driven. Wattpad sucks 😞

The email from Wattpad is so condescending imagine pressuring writers to update and work while they are doing it for free and fun. Also the discovery? Algorithm? Of Wattpad looks like a stressful popularity contest 😑

#wattpad #ao3

[krokuswrites]

You don't have to apologize, or perform authorial disgust, for dark, violent, sexual, cruel or problematic topics in the fiction you create.

Fiction does not exist to teach an audience a moral lesson. You as an author are not required to be your audience's moral teacher.

You can have bad things happen-- you can have a protagonist who is bad-- without having to explain to your audience that they are bad.

#this

[krokuswrites]

i made a character sheet. free to use as you wish, feel free to change whatever you want XD open source ass thing. spent all of ~maybe an hour on it.

Credit: the text in the insert-image box comes from this video, and the text for the top three lines (intense, complex, fruity) comes from this post. The actual image was made with the free NBOS character sheet creator, which is a sort of dated but free and solid text-layout sheet maker intended for ttrpg style character sheet creation.

#characters #character sheet

[krokuswrites]

the question, you see, is not ‘is it too ooc for this character to cry’ but rather ‘what circumstances would push this character to cry’

this is the whump wisdom, go forth and make that character cry

#characters

[krokuswrites]

I'm not looking to start shit so I'm not linking it or anything, but you may have seen a recent anti-dark-content post circulating with a lot of notes making rounds in the x reader sphere and while I have nothing against people posting their feelings in their own private spaces, every time I see these kinds of posts there's a lot of misinformation that gets regurgitated in the reblogs/replies and I saw what looked like a battlezone in the replies, so.

I know posts like that can be very jarring and affects people like my readers, so to combat misinformation/shaming for anyone who saw it, I'm going to share some of my information on combatting fandom puritanism/misogyny/kinkshaming in its most common forms.

The most important fact, if you read nothing else, is this:

Most women have rape fantasies.

62% to be exact. I think the most pervasive myth on this content is that consumers are "weird" for it, when the numbers don't indicate that. You're in the majority!

The vast majority of people who have rape fantasies do not put them into practice in real life. A variety of factors can determine whether or not they do, particularly specific psychiatric disorders. (X)

To specifically address common harmful and pervasive myths:

the "go to therapy!" line

Generally any academic or professional resource will immediately tell you that consuming and engaging in "dark" fantasies is accepted and encouraged by mainstream psychiatry and part of the professional education for psychiatrists. (This also used to be pretty well-known until like the last 5 years or so, not sure why that changed.)

Here are some particularly insightful resources:

1) This article by Dr. David Wahl, in my opinion, hands-down does the best job of simply and thoroughly explaining why these fantasies occur and why couples practice CNC, as well as the fact that they are both harmless, psychologically beneficial to those with them, and not at all correlated to real-life rape.

2) Dr. Claudia Six has some of the best and most thorough material out there on the subject, specifically explaining why this is taught in mainstream academia psychology and how it is incredibly helpful to rape victims (X).

3) Lisa Diamond is a professional who focuses on this subject a lot, and was featured in the documentary "The Dilemma of Desire," in which she specifically focuses on how these fantasies are not correlated to real-life desires. (X)

4) Dr. Casey Lyle has specifically talked a lot on his socials about how fantasies, even in men/the perspective of the offender, do not correlate to actual risk of offending.

5) This article is not by a professional, but from the perspective of a survivor discussing how it is beneficial to survivors.

the "why would you want that?" line

The idea that fictional tastes = what you want to happen to you in real life is actually of misogynistic origin. I don't want to seek out or add links on this one, but if you're really curious, you can research about how the idea that "women read rape fiction, that means they secretly want rape!" was originally a classic "red pill"/MGTOW/4chan talking point that made its way into mainstream dialogue and thus the public mind in the last 15 years or so due to the incel epidemic popularizing those communities.

the "it's only valid for survivors then!" line

On one hand, yes it's very important to acknowledge that trauma victims use it to cope, however I feel that over-emphasizing that gives the impression that non-victims should be excluded from consumption of dark content, so to clarify, it's a very valid means for all women. Many women who have not personally experienced rape still fantasize about it, and that's fine.

The full explanation as to why this is true for many of them would be lengthy (and addressed in the aforementioned Dilemma of Desire documentary), but in the simplest terms, nonconsensual sex is the only context in which patriarchal society permits women to have sex at all without feeling guilt. For many women, particularly those in more heavily misogynistic or religious cultures, these fantasies are appealing because the idea of consensual sex may give them feelings of shame, guilt, "sin," etc. These fantasies allow them to experience the feeling of being desired without guilt of participation.

No society on earth is free of the psychological grip that cultural misogyny has on women, and shaming women for adapting to the conditions they are forced to exist under is as harmful as the misogyny that causes it itself.

ALL women experience a form of psychological trauma inherent to female childhood and female adolescence in a patriarchal world, and that is just as valid as coping with individual traumatic events.

Good resources on the subject of why women have these fantasies and how they are helpful in general:

(X) (X)

The "what you consume will make you do it in real life!" myth

Although the resources above already address this, it's important to establish why this myth is so prevalent and what its origins are.

The idea that consuming media with dark themes leads to or indicates desires to replicate those acts is a residual element of two major events:

1) Puritan revival culture, popularized in the US and UK in the 90s and 2000s (also known as "Satanic Panic"). A major facet of this movement was TV megachurch preachers making money off of exploiting well-meaning but paranoid parents into believing that your child playing Dungeons and Dragons or Pokemon would make them future serial killers and lure them into satanic cults. (X)

2) at the tail end of this, it was cemented in the public mind as a cultural ripple aftershock of the Columbine shooting, where this sentiment became popularized as the general public blamed violent video games like Doom and "dark" music like Marilyn Manson (whose life was temporarily completely upended by the events and took him years to recover/be safe from) for the 1999 shooting. This event had MASSIVE permanent and global effects in all sorts of ways that the public often underestimates the sheer scope of, notably that it solidified, prolonged, and, in the minds of many, "proved" the paranoias of the preexisting Satanic Panic. (X) This established a precedent, leading to virtually any major horrible event being blamed on the perpetrator's media consumption, including murder and sex crimes.

What this myth ignores in the cases it references (the slenderman stabbings, columbine, sasebo slashing, batman shooting, etc) is two crucial facts: that hundreds of millions of people consume the same media with no negative effects (helpful effects even), and that in every single case cited as "evidence" to the claim, the perpetrator had a preexisting psychiatric condition correlated to acts of violence (which usually went ignored, downplayed and even accelerated/worsened by those around them rather than the help they needed).

Sorry for the wall of text, but I feel an ethical obligation to combat this kind of misinformation, and I hope these resources are helpful for those who may be negatively affected by common misunderstandings.

You are not abnormal or wrong for the fictional content you consume or the fantasies you have!

#dark content #important

[krokuswrites]

i looooove characters who are sacrificial lamb coded. characters who have never lived for themselves. characters born to be a tool, a weapon, a sacrifice, all of the above. a character raised by the heroes to save the world, at any expense, even their own health, even their own life. a character raised by the villains to end the world, at any expense, even their own health, even their own life. characters who are denied personhood so they can be used as tools instead. characters who never even had a chance to be people because they were shaped into something else from the moment they were born. characters who were born to die.

#characters

[krokuswrites]

If u interact with my posts, just know I respond like this:

[krokuswrites]

even more job ideas for your western/cowboy oc that are not outlaws, bounty hunters, or sheriffs

wanted poster sketch artist - try your darnedest, some of the descriptions folks will give you will be really... something

owner of a small inn/old trading post in the middle of nowhere - days are slow, but ever so often you get travelers stopping by to rest or replenish their things

stablehand for a traveling wild west show like "Buffalo Bill's" - working with performers is tough (they always think they're the main character ugh), you prefer the company of animals and enjoy watching shows from behind-the-scenes

a small town's local barber... and dentist... and surgeon...

saloon piano player - inebriated patrons amuse and annoy you

snake oil salesperson - do you brew your own magic juice or are you just a pawn in a larger business?

sunday school "teacher" - you were not quite educated yourself, but you were the only able-bodied adult in town without kids or family, so you got assigned daycare duty

#I don't have any cowboy OCs #even though I love western so much ;v; #maybe one day #writing #ideas #characters

[krokuswrites]

tumblr-Nutzer an den Iden des März

#pffff #omg lmao

[krokuswrites]

Do you guys listen to music while writing? If so, what kind?

For a while I mostly listened to a bunch of Hozier and Florence + the Machine songs bunched together into a playlist, then a few months ago I started to listen to songs in languages I don't speak so I wouldn't pay as much attention to the lyrics. Curious to see if anyone else does anything like that.

#I tend to listen to nature sounds or movie scores #writing #music

[krokuswrites]

Fanfuckingtastic writing advice!!

Beating yourself up about your writing DOES NOT HELP YOU WRITE! Cut that shit out, be nicer to yourself, take breaks, and remember it's a marathon not a sprint and also nobody likes running ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#you're not wrong #but sprinting can help #especially during drafting #writing sprints are a common and popular exercise #like writing as many words as you can in like 15 minutes or so #and nano isn't this popular for nothing either #sprinting helps getting the story onto paper #especially if you get stuck often during drafting #don't beat yourself up over your writing if something isn't working out #and breaks are important #but putting things off or dragging them out bc you're convincing yourself it's a marathon isn't helping either

[krokuswrites]

Just in case anyone was confused or concerned.

Drafting is a skill. And it's a skill you can learn. If you ever look at your first draft and go 'actually this is good' do not immediately go 'no it's can't be good it's a first draft'. If you've been writing for a while (like years) writing a draft that is perfectly serviceable and only needs some editing without a ton of cutting is like... fine.

I spend a lot of my time 'writing' and 'rewriting' drafts 6-10 times in my head and when they finally come out as my 'first draft' (or a second in some cases) it's already been through 2-8 revisions. The work has been done and the words I'm writing are the culmination of those revisions. I just didn't write it down.

Not all revisions have to take place in meat space or as text on a screen. Revisions happen as you play out scenarios over and over again in day dreams or bed time stories. Your first draft is not something that Must be conquered and tamed into something presentable. Sometimes you nail it because you've spent all the revision time already.

This is not something that comes to everyone. But it is something you can get good at. You do not have to agonize over a 5th rewrite if the first time you've put words to paper is already the 6th revision that's gotten better every time. There's a lotta 'you gotta suffer to make a book good' in writeblr I just don't agree with. You can just nail it the "First Time". Not every time. But you can.

#took me a long time to realize that #even in my current wip #I rewrote some scenes in my 2nd draft currently #but some scenes I kept as they were #and I still struggled like 'this is a 1st draft where's the catch' #it's something I have to keep telling myself while I keep working on the 2nd draft rn #writing #writing advice

[krokuswrites]

43 character motivations for your fictional characters

To protect their loved ones.

To avenge the death of a loved one.

To save the world/town/community.

To find a lost loved one.

To solve a mystery.

To right a wrong.

To achieve a personal goal.

To gain power or influence.

To find their purpose in life.

To overcome a fear or obstacle.

To learn to trust again.

To forgive themselves or someone else.

To find love or companionship.

To start a new life.

To leave a legacy behind.

To make a difference in the world.

To simply survive.

To gain revenge.

To seek power.

To find redemption.

To follow their dreams.

To escape their past.

To find their true self.

To connect with something larger than themselves.

To understand the world around them.

To experience something new.

To simply have fun.

To make a mistake.

To learn from their mistakes.

To grow as a person.

To become the best version of themselves.

To help others.

To make a difference in the world.

To leave a legacy behind.

To be remembered.

To be loved.

To be happy.

To find peace.

To find hope.

To overcome despair.

To survive.

To thrive.

To live.

Copyright © 2023 by Ren T.

TheWriteAdviceForWriters 2023

#writing tips #writing

[krokuswrites]

Thanks for the tag 💚

5 songs I currently listen to daily at least once

Regression - Ayanga, Hoyo-Mix

Capolavoro - Il Volo

Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames - Lorna Shore

イ工ス - Acid Black Cherry

New World - L'Arc-en-Ciel

I'm tagging: @boundinparchment @sirbotik @sam-glade @aziz-reads @zevarcollan @ryns-ramblings @egotisticalrose No pressure ofc 💚

🎶✨when you get this,put 5 songs you actually listen to,then publish. Send this ask to 10 of your favourite follower🎶✨

✨First ask✨

The story of us - Taylor Swift

War of Hearts - Ruelle

Hits different - Taylor Swift

Born for this - The Score

Trouble - Valerie Broussard

Tagging with no pressure (sorry if you've already been tagged 😭)

@his-littlefox @kazbrekkersfedoraaintgotshitonme @starrynightsxo @rowanfaerie @agirlwiththoughtsandnegativity @darlingod @oomens-eyeball @chaiichait @jesyverse

#tag games #krokus talks #I will eventually get to all the more writing-focused tag games #I'm writing so much rn that I end up not having time to translate anything for these games sorry :') #I currently listen to the first song multiple times a day #I'm having a HI3 phase again #or rather specifically #I have a lot of Otto feels :') #also I wanted to shorten the post #but I forgot how to do that #boomer moment rip

[krokuswrites]

Short List of common nervous tics for your OC

1. Tapping or Drumming Fingers

2. Leg Shaking

3. Foot Tapping

4. Nail Biting

5. Lip Biting or Chewing

6. Hair Twirling

7. Throat Clearing

8. Sniffling

9. Eye Blinking

10. Shoulder Shrugging

11. Head Tics

12. Finger Cracking or Popping

13. Gum Chewing or Popping

14. Repetitive Sighing

15. Tongue Clicking or Clucking

16. Stuttering or Stammering

17. Pacing or Fidgeting

18. Scratching or Picking Skin

19. Humming or Whistling

20. Repetitive Swallowing

#writing #characters