The 'write for yourself uwu' culture shift has done real damage to fic writers imo. I recently had a post on the importance of strategic commenting break containment and I'm surprised by how many strangers who rb it in agreement feel the need to reassure in the tags that they do write for themselves, but...
There is a kernel of truth in the heart of this sentiment--if you only chase stats, you are unlikely to find joy in your writing. At the same time, I think we've veered too far in the other direction.
It is only natural to want engagement and the write for yourself crowd often overlooks how communal an effort fic writing usually is. So many story ideas are born from casual discussions about h/c's and favourite scenes and what ifs and the comment box is a cornerstone of this process. Not only can the discussions in the comment box be a hub for idea generation on their own, but even when the said idea generation takes place in DMs or Discord chats, commenting is often the first/easiest way into befriending authors; it's where community building starts.
Further, the write for yourself crowd similarly overlooks that the things a writer can write for themselves are often vast and many at any given time, and relative engagement levels across fandoms/ships can play a large part in which of those ideas a writer chooses to pursue--or whether they choose to publish their finished work at all.
In sum, I don't think we need to be this apologetic as writers for wanting feedback and engagement for what we post -- writing is hard work and it's only human that we want something external out of it in turn, however rewarding the process might intrinsically be.
it rules to be a transgender writer because writing trans themes is easy as fuck. it's easy as fuck dude. trans themes basically write themselves. change is the fundamental motor of storytelling. guess what else is all about change bitch
Iâm seeing so many posts about Goncharev 1973, but whereâs the love for the 1968 novel Katya, Forgotten that inspired it? I know itâs not a very well-known piece of literature, and Matteo made up a solid 70% of the plotline, but a good portion of the Goncharovâs backstory present in the movie is from this book! Yeah, the Italy stuff is new to the film, but Katyaâs entire life up to the wedding is laid out in the novel, and itâs tragic that people arenât even mentioning it.
That said, Katya, Forgotten is a then-modern AU expansion of the 1842 novella Daughter of the Jewels, but that one has basically no connection to the movie, and even the influence on Katya, Forgotten isnât common knowledge, so I guess thatâs more understandable.