#you don’t see me bothering your tag and or comment section etc ????

[tisdae]

me whenever i watches a show: aww i identify with them and think they might be bisexual

me reading the comments: oh look at all the biphobia/homophobia

also me: ✨tries to ignore it the best i can and watches the show/movie while waving the bisexual flag in my thoughts✨

#most recent i read a comment saying that they were straight only bcus they had been dating the opposite sex but not once had they said that #they were straight it’s like the idea of a character being lgbt bothers people *coughs* homophobia biphobia etc #people just love to say that it’s ‘enough’ for it to be one lgbt couple on show why have more just let the other chatacters be #hello????? can’t they hear how they sound and how fucking rude that it??? #also shipping etc should be peaceful and we should just focus on our own ships #you don’t see me bothering your tag and or comment section etc ???? #LOVE IS LOVE #TREAT PEOPLE WITH KINDNESS #i want to rip out my hair ajdhsjdhhs i #love being bisexual but the biphobia is getting to me sometimes #im sorry if this doesn’t make sense im going to continue watching thy shuw #tisdae.txt #911 #evan buckley #eddie diaz #buck x eddie #buddie #911 fox #lgbt+

[stusbunker]

Spotless: Pizzicato

Chapter Nineteen

Featuring: Dean Winchester/Reader, Dean/Bela, Dean/Cas (unrequited)

Other characters: Miriam Talbot (OFC Bela's mother)

Word Count: 2567

Warnings, etc: Mutual pining, putting out other people's fires, and old baggage, unbeta'd

A/N: Castiel and Trouble's friendship is something I didn't realize she had been missing until he was in front of her. There are a couple of big truth bombs in this chapter and I hope I handled them respectfully. This is an AU and it is not indicative of this author's feelings on canon or any other fandom shipping practices.

Series Masterlist

Posting on Dean’s instagram account was par for the course as the band’s publicist. You bothered to know what a hashtag was, for one. For another it also allowed you to check traffic on posts and actively moderate things to help the comment section look best for Dean’s image. Afterall, Dean trusted you, you weren’t going to leak anything or make him look like an idiot.

You were a goddamn professional and this wasn’t the hardest thing you’d done in the last year, but Jesus fuck were you pissed.

Dean hated tattoos. Really, he hated needles. He was black out drunk when he and Sam got their matching flaming pentagrams. He actually had a panic attack the next morning after realizing he let someone “sew ink” into his skin. By sheer force of will and through the bond of shared grief, you got him to go with you for Jo’s memorial tattoo on the tenth anniversary of her death. It was in your all-time top five ultimate Dean-Y/N memories.

And now it meant jack shit.

You edited and cropped the photos, sent two back to Bela to post on her account and then posted the lion’s share onto Dean’s, making him look like the diligent boyfriend while Bela was busy in the chair. You thanked Billie for taking care of “his girl” and made sure the shop was the location and tagged. You wanted to punch something, it looked so good. Then you sat back and let the interwebs do its job.

Okay, in actuality, you emailed about twenty different people, had a conference call with the tour management marketing team, scheduled radio station drop ins and followed up with Meg on the expected release of Dean’s photoshoot and interview. These days it may just end up online, but you hoped she was able to score him real physical print space.

It was just as you were winding down for the night, when your phone rang. It was past any reasonable business hours and you were already done with your skin care routine, but then you saw the caller id.

“Miriam! Hi!” You tried to sound pleasantly surprised.

“Don’t Miriam me, young lady. What is going on out there? Is it drugs? I thought we missed this stage when she quit acting for college. You’d tell me if this hoodlum was pressuring her into risky behavior wouldn’t you?”

Which was a lot to unpack right off the bat like that, luckily you had experience dealing with Bela’s mother.

“It’s just a tattoo. She’s not on drugs, I promise.”

“And what about this Dean? I knew they were seeing each other, but this seemed a bit more intimate— not exactly in the public eye.”

Oh, she was good.

“He’s not on drugs either. And—- he actually isn’t thrilled with tattoos. This might be all Bela, if I’m being honest.”

“Have you seen the things they’re saying? The things they’re calling her, Y/N?”

You rolled your eyes and heaved yourself out of bed, you needed your laptop if you were going to continue this conversation rationally. 

“Let me look into it— what site were you on?”

“Oh, I’m not sure. Olivette, one of the boardmember’s wives, told me she read about it online during dinner.”

You inhaled deeply and started your usual rotation of sites, you’d have to add some new tags to follow Bela’s buzz more closely going forward. 

“And you’re sure this wasn’t just bad blood from Olivia? I’m not finding much besides general surprise.”

“It’s Olivette. And yes, I’m certain. She wouldn’t make me worry without a reason.”

And then you realized what you were missing, it wasn’t just People or TMZ you had to worry about. You went to Hello!’s twitter and you found what had Miriam Talbot’s friend in a huff. 

You started scanning the comments, gathering the most common complaints and judging their amount of influence via cursory glances. You did not know a lot of the news personalities or celebrity bloggers in the UK. You were going to have to meet with Bela and figure out a better approach going forward.

“Okay, Miriam, it’s almost eleven here. I know you probably called me as soon as you woke up, but consider me on the case. Alright? Bela’s fine and this is just a minor hiccup.”

“If you’re sure, Y/N, dear.”

You sighed. “Of course. I would warn you if there was anything to worry about. But please just let this run its course. You know how the tabloids are.”

“Unfortunately I do, that’s why I called. Please keep me updated if anything else comes up?”

“Will do. You have a good ni-day!”

“Goodnight dear— and thank you.”

You smiled at your lap. “Anytime.”

You let her hang up. Then you promptly pulled up your contacts list and warned Bela that her mother was sniffing about online and to call her at a decent hour. And finally, you spent the next four hours (or so) online until you had swam to the bottom of the cesspool and decided it wasn’t worth your time. At least not right then, not so exhausted.

Three days passed since the snobby UK gossip rags’ judgment rained down and, as expected, it had already just about fizzled out. You sat in a cafe with a quad shot flat white, waiting for your lunch date to arrive. Not truly a date, though it wasn’t a meeting either.

It was a diplomatic mission.

Then you spotted him and your stomach swooped, feeling the loss of his presence in your life all over again.

“Hey, Cas.” You stood and held your arms open for a hug, which he accepted with a timid smile.

“It’s good to see you, Trouble,” his gravelly voice murmured in your ear. He still smelled the same.

You pulled back and looked him in the eye, searching for anything but the sincere blue reality in front of you. He held no grudges, not with you, without even discussing it you knew he was still your friend. 

You then punched him squarely in the shoulder. “That’s for ghosting us all for the last nine months, assbutt!”

He grunted, and rolled his eyes. “I can accept that.”

“Good. Because I missed you. We all miss you.”

He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows in challenge.

“So— heard you have a kid, huh. That’s —- weird.”

Castiel exhaled and shook his head. “Who told you?”

“What? Nobody. I have eyes. And spend enough time online to draw some conclusions.”

“Kelly told you.”

“She didn’t have to. She’s amazing by the way— are you a thing now, now that you know he exists?”

Castiel looked affronted. “Me and Kelly? Oh, no. That was a teenage mistake. We were young. And we’ve both matured into vastly different people. But I respect her and I think— I hope I’ve earned her trust.”

“Tell me about him—- he’s what? Twenty-twenty one?”

“He’s twenty three and very talented. Kind, impossibly optimistic even.”

“Yikes, tough combo out here.”

“Tell me about it.”

You shared a look and he smiled at you like he knew what you were thinking about. Like you were reliving the same joke.

You blinked away the sting in your eyes.

“Go get your dark roast and get back over here, we’ve got things to discuss.”

His eyes softened, but Cas didn’t argue with you.

You sipped your drink and tried not to let all of the questions that had been building for months run away from you. He was back both too quickly and too slowly. You cleared your throat, the awkwardness you had been fighting back rushed to the surface.

“So— I presume there is more to you calling to get lunch. Not just asking about Jack and goading me about my latest tattoo?” Cas wasn’t one for small talk.

You nodded and swallowed around another perfect mouthful of milk and espresso.

Castiel’s face went through a journey when you didn’t quickly reply. “He doesn’t want to see me—- he made that quite clear.”

“And what about since everything?”

“What do you mean?”

“I know Dean’s called you. He might not have been big enough to actually apologize in a voicemail, but I know he wants to fix things— he misses you as his friend, too.”

“Then he should be able to suck up his pride and make the effort,” Cas snipped, the first sign of the lingering anger from his and Dean’s fight.

“I haven’t exactly seen much of your effort. Do you not want to fix things?--- And I’m not talking about coming back to the band— that ship has sailed. I’m talking about twenty years of friendships you just walked out on.”

Cas stared at his coffee, his eyebrow ring arched with his bitchy expression. He hated being corrected, you knew that. But this had gone on long enough.

“I’ve spoken with everyone but Dean,” Cas explained. “It’s not perfect, but it’s progress.”

“You never spoke to me,” you spat.

Cas’ eyes softened again. “I always knew where your loyalties lie, you took your time, too.”

“Wait— even SAM?!”

“Sam and I haven’t lost contact this whole time.”

You sucked in air. “Oh, he is so dead.”

“Y/N. It wasn’t like we were plotting or anything. He was worried about me, I was worried about Dean.”

“Yeah, but if Dean knew—”

“Ask Sam, but I don’t think he could hide anything from Dean if he wanted to.”

You knew he was right. Ever since Sam got sober, transparency had been something Sam put into his closest relationships anyway. Beside Dean being ruthless and stubborn, well, you supposed Cas was right. 

“Why do I feel like this band just doesn’t want me to be able to do my job?”

“Your position as group therapist is fairly tenuous. Especially with Pamela involved.”

“I meant my real job. If I had known you were on decent terms with, well, everyone but Dean, it would have made things a lot easier, young man.” You couldn’t help but smile now. Sure you were hurt, but the eggshells you had been stepping over for so long really only took up a single corner of the floor.

It was freeing.

“I never meant to cause you any distress.”

“That doesn’t make it go away, Cas.”

He bowed his head, but popped back up to meet your gaze. “I know. I apologize. I didn’t want you to think that I was done— with any of you.”

You pinched your eyes closed quickly and then reached over the table to squeeze his forearm. “Okay. So— you’ll come to Dean’s birthday party, then?”

Cas patted your hand with his left and sat back, breaking the contact and sat with the invitation for a heavy moment.

“What makes you think he’d want me there?”

You glared at him, all tattooed and handsome and absolutely clueless about how much his absence has affected Dean. Sure, Dean got to keep the band, but it wasn’t the same without Cas. Cas has had to start over entirely, become a dad and rebuild his career all without any of the support Dean has had around him through his own troubles.

“Look— I know you’re Mister Independent and I don’t want to set back any of the progress you’ve made without him needing you around. But he still looks for you whenever we all go out. And hanging out with Kevin, made it abundantly clear to him that you were available— you just weren’t interested.”

“Why do you always make it sound like we were an item?”

You rolled your eyes. “Look, we all know Dean has attachment issues. I’m not saying anything was kinky between you guys— that’s not my business. But, as friends, you guys deserve to at least get some answers— closure or forgiveness can come later, if you get there.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Really? You’re not just saying that to get me off your case?”

“Yes, really.”

You smirked and Cas’ smiled with his eyes, fidgeting his lip ring with his tongue.

Cas cleared his throat and took a sip of his coffee before changing gears. “So, your friend Bela and, uh, Dean?”

You groaned and hid your eyes in your hand. When you looked up he was laughing at you.

“What?!”

“Stop— we both know what it’s all about.”

“Kevin seems to think Dean’s whipped.” Mischief continued to dance in Cas’ eyes.

“Well, it’s about time.”

“I told him, the only one who has had Dean whipped in over a decade is you.”

You choked on your spit, sputtering at Cas’ bluntness.

“They don’t know it’s for show do they?”

You inhaled deeply. “Sam knows. Dean and Bela have their own private agreement about it all. But, uh, yeah, you pretty much guessed right.”

Cas watched you thoughtfully, futzing with his lip ring with his top teeth now. 

“How are you holding up?”

“Me? I’m fine, why?”

Cas nudged your ankle under the table with his combat boot.

“As someone who was definitely in love with him for most of my life— I know the symptoms.”

You sighed and shivered at being seen and having your long held suspicions confirmed. You rubbed your upper arm, trying to fight the goosebumps. “I’m fine. Nothing has changed. He’s just been working on himself and that is— distracting.”

Cas hummed, head cocking to the side as if looking at you with a different angle would give him more insight.

“I mean it. He’s in therapy and everything. Sam and him are working out. He’s been insanely focused on the latest album—”

“He’s doing penance.”

“Maybe. But he wants to be better. It’s not just guilt. I don’t know how to explain it. But, you’ll see what I mean.”

Cas eyebrow popped up again.

“You will,” you insisted.

“You always were able to read me weren’t you?”

You chuckled at the back of your mouth, short and knowing. “Guess it comes with being stuck with each other for so long.”

“Shared trauma response,” Cas teased.

“Or that.”

You finished the last of your drink and looked around the cafe.

“So, where we going to eat? I think we’ve had enough heavy— sushi?”

“You buying?”

“Phantom Traveler is covering this as a business lunch.”

Cas stood and pushed in his chair. “Okay, well then, bring on the seafood.”

You stood and let Cas walk you outside, his hand on the small of your back until he could offer you his elbow on the sidewalk. You smiled up at him and pulled him tight to your side.

“I’m glad you’re back, Cas.”

“Well, we’ll see if everyone agrees with you, won’t we?”

The afternoon passed quickly, catching up and sharing memories that were now tinted with the grief of the last lost year. Things made more sense the longer you thought about how the band had been acting, especially way back at the Animal Shelter where Cas’ niece had been more than willing to put in her two cents. You texted Sam while you waited for your meals, warning him where you were and what you knew.

‘Have fun.’

His only response. Asshole.

But everything kept from you, kept from Dean, wouldn’t last forever. It couldn’t. Now you at least could control the narrative a bit more by being in on it all. Or most of it at least.

Tagging:

@deans-spinster-witch

@mrswhozeewhatsis

@cosicas-cuquis

@fics-pics-andotherthings-i-like

@suckitands33

@ladysparkles78

@deans-baby-momma

@stoneyggirl2

@sassy-pelican

@leigh70

@globetrotter28

@winharry

@lastactiontricia

@rockhoochie

Chapter Twenty: Arpeggio

#spotless series #rockstar au #slow burn #dean winchester fanfiction #dean angst #dean/reader #dean/bela #friends to lovers #it's no longer a love triangle or maybe it was bela who made it a square

[99fandomproblems]

I’m always supporting the creators from the fandom that I’m in – I compliment their creations, I reblog them and I leave comments as well,- but whenever I post something, I hardly get the same support. And maybe I'm being selfish/childish, but it makes me not want to support them anymore. Maybe I’m the problem, maybe my creations are bad, maybe I should stop. I keep feeling like, why do I even bother? I don’t know, perhaps this is a very me problem and not a fandom problem. You can ignore this.

Hi, Nonnie!

I understand your frustration and I think most of us have, at some point, been in the same position.

This situation, of putting in more than you get back, is not uncommon. It happens to so many of us in nearly any situation; online, personal life, working and professional life, etc. The important thing is how we react to this when it happens.

Let me use a tea party example: if I were to visit the same tea party every week and make all the cakes and sandwiches myself, which is a lot of work, I would at least expect some sort of acknowledgment from the people who eat all my cakes and sandwiches. A thank you, some gestures of appreciation... but if the same people at the tea party ignore me, or ignore what I brought to the table, I would be asking myself is it worth repeating this behaviour and spending all my energy on this specific group of people who ignore me?

That's a question for you to ask yourself, Nonnie.

Now, if it were me in this situation I'd say to myself, I think I'll look elsewhere for people who appreciate me, and appreciate what I bring to the table. There will be other people, and other tea parties, out there: you just need to look.

 

You have to get out what you put in, or at least have a healthy balance.

That goes for any type of relationship, online or otherwise.

If it's Tumblr interactions in question, then I'd suggest browsing the tags (all variations of the tags!) for more active fans posting content, or just posting to chat.

Browse other tags too. Maybe this is a great time to check out a different section of the fandom! A different ship, another character. Meet some new fans. I've often found that levels of friendliness can vary from ship to ship, character to character.

It also varies on platforms; maybe Tumblr isn't the right fit for you, Nonnie (it can be ever so cliquey and hard to break into sometimes). Perhaps you'd get more engagement if you focus on other platforms, such as ao3, Twitter, Discord groups, etc. Tumblr isn't the only place to do fandom.

There's no 'good' or 'bad' creations, Nonnie, and you do belong here in fandom. But if one particular group of fans in one area (Tumblr) aren't vibing with you, I really do recommend you stop focusing on them. Focus on yourself, keep posting on Tumblr or more platforms, and keep your eyes open for other fans. If you keep posting (and tag your work so other fans can find it!), and check to see who engages on your posts, focus on these fans instead. Broaden your social circle, expand your horizons.

And don't lose heart! Just keep posting. You give yourself more chances of meeting new fandom friends the more you post and interact; just be mindful of where you direct that energy to. Take a break from the people who aren't reblogging you, take a break from reblogging them. Have a look around for other fans, open yourself up to making new friends. Using the tea party example again, if I waste my time at a party where no one talks to me, I'm not happy, but if I take my cakes and sandwiches home again and pout by myself there, I'm not happy either. So, the solution is to pack up my wares and pitch a stall somewhere else, take a look around for an active social space where other people are, and say hello to a few people. By doing this, putting myself out there, I'm upping my chances at meeting new mutuals, new fandom friends. The more chances I give myself, the more the odds are in my favour.

The choice is yours, Nonnie! I want to see you make some new friends.

Good luck! I'm sure you can do it.

I answered a similar Ask here, Nonnie, and I think it could also help you:

Also this Ask about posts not being reblogged:

#99 fandom problems #answered asks #fannish culture #clique culture #fandom #commenting and community #making friends #mod lilah

[vrishchikawrites]

Ok so like

This is by no means an insult, attack or anything of the aort to you personally, i enjoy your content and opinions and i fully mean this respectfully....

But i find it so interesting that some people can hate a particular character and not read fics about them?

Like, from my first interaction w fandom in general, i could read any relationship/ plot/ ooc as long as it is well written. Even if i hate canon characters, i can usually read them in a positive light. Hell, i can read any JC fix as long as i know if it's positive or negative so i know what to expect

And then i found tumblr discourse

Again, this isn't something I'm criticising, just an observation I'm curious abt, since detachment from the source material seems to be so scarce fandom wise

Ok, so - here's the thing. The problem isn't fans loving JC and writing him favorably. If that was an issue, many reasonable people in this fandom wouldn't be so miffed about it.

The problem is - we can't avoid them. You said it yourself, "as long as i know if it's positive or negative so i know what to expect"

We don't know what to expect.

Everyone wants to tailor their fandom experience. You mentioned you can read almost anything as long as it is well-written. That's a good thing because it opens up the entire fandom for you. But some people have specific tastes and triggers. They would want to look at the content they like and avoid what they don't like.

That isn't possible in this fandom.

I write canon characterization of JC. I am forced to tag is anti-jiang cheng. People write fanon characterization of JC. They don't tag it Jiang Cheng-friendly.

We get fics where JC is suicidal and people are gaslighting WWX - making him feel insecure - in the main Wangxian tag. And that is presented as ok for JC to do. They say it is suicidal JC, they don't mention that JC, Jiangs, and everyone is gaslighting the fuck out of WWX.

Then we have a perfectly good fic that we get invested in and find ourselves in a hole where WWX has crippling self-esteem issues, the Jiang family is abusive, but is brushed aside. There's no tag mentioning OOC WWX with self-esteem issues.

We have fics where Wangxian cheat on each other - with JC. And there's either one or more abusive partner involved. Partner abuse isn't tagged.

We have fics where all of WWX's morality is transferred onto JC. But JC isn't tagged as OOC.

THIS ISN'T TAGGED.

In fact, we have people using deceptive tags like angst with happy ending - Wangxian only for the happy ending to be for WWX to die at the hands of his abusive spouse. Again, no warning. The problem is so common and so many readers are blindsided by it that people have told me they clock out of the fandom because of it.

It isn't something as simple as an attachment to the source material. I am the last person to say fanon characterizations aren't allowed. I have been writing fanfiction for over two decades. Fanon characterization doesn't bother me at all.

There are fandom olds, good people, who will tag fics that are favorable to JC as JC-friendly and I don't think many of us have an issue with them. The problem starts when it becomes difficult to find a good fic where a canonical antagonist isn't allowed to walk all over the canonical protagonists. It is difficult to find a fic where everything that makes WWX so great in the canon is turned over until he only has surface characteristics of WWX but underneath that surface, he's someone we don't know.

Detaching yourself from the source material is one thing. But do you know many fics are out with WWX or LWJ having a bucketful of mischaracterizations? I have a near-crippling problem with depictions of severe self-esteem issues. I was drawn to WWX because, despite everything, he doesn't have severe self-esteem issues. So many fics include WWX with low self-esteem, severe self-deprecation without tagging? Because they consider it canon? I noticed that because I'm sensitive to it. But there are things I am not sensitive to, but other people want to avoid. Those things aren't tagged either.

It is frustrating for people who want to experience fandom, who want to be comfortable in fandom, but somehow have to deal with poor tagging, strange characterization, abuse justification, morality discussions, etc.

Fan content longer a favorable space for many fans. There are only so many fics you can clock out of before you start feeling completely disgusted by the situation.

So the response to all of that shit? Create a fandom vent space where people who do not like all of these things can come together, vent, and share their thoughts on. Venting in the story's comments section or in the author's space is bad form. A venting to people who have experienced similar things away from the creator's space? Fun and good form.

Also, added bonus, every time I see a meta, discussion, or answer an ask that forces me to think - my understanding of characters improves and I incorporate it into my fics.

to conclude - people can be detached from the original source material. But you bet people will rebel when someone tries to shove them in a particular direction. The more stans try to shove people in the direction of fanon characterization, the more people who like canon characterization will cling to it and defend it.

That's human nature.

All of this discourse? A response to being shoved and forced to bear fanon interpretations with complete disregard.

As people keep saying, the Chinese side of the fandom doesn't experience any of this shit.

Also, to clarify - I mean none spitefully or disrespectfully, despite my blunt language. This isn't a criticism of you or your ask, but of the state of this fandom.

#reader asks #long post #vent #re: jc #re: fanfic #re: fandom

[gracieryder]

Podficcing Advice for Beginners

So, a friend of mine came to me last night and told me she wanted to try out podficcing and asked for some advice. And I realized I had a lot to say to her, so I’m going to share it all here in case it helps someone else. :)

First of all, I’m not going to get into the details of how to make a podfic. I recommend reading A Newbie’s Guide to Podficcing if you’re looking for that information! It’s very detailed and goes into a lot of what you need to know. It also links to other good resources.

This advice is more just little things I’ve learned along the way and my personal experience based on what people tend to assume about podficcing as a whole.

1. Do not get into podficcing if you’re looking for clout. I mean this in the nicest way I possibly can. I’m putting this first for a reason. If you write fanfiction especially, you’re used to getting feedback. You’re used to Kudos and Comments and lots and lots of gratitude. You will not find that here. It’s not malicious. It just kind of comes with the territory. Scroll down the Podfic tag on Ao3 and compare kudos and comments to hits if you don’t understand what I’m saying right now. People will download podfics to enjoy on walks or at work or in the car or wherever and not even consider going all the way back to where they got it to say thank you. It just doesn’t occur to them. It’s not that they’re ungrateful. It’s just the way it is. Then you of course have to take into account that podfics in general aren’t as popular as written fic, etc. etc.

2. This pretty much ties into number one. Podfic for you and you alone. If you’re going to make a podfic, it should be of something you personally enjoy and want to listen to. Because unlike with writing, a lot of the creative process for podfics is technical and therefore tedious. You will burn yourself out if you podfic things for other people that you aren’t personally interested in consuming. I might record something short for close friends, but I’m well-aware that people who do not podfic have no idea how much time and energy goes into creating one. I personally do not take requests. And I highly recommend you don’t either. Maybe it will work for you, but honestly I get fed up even doing paid narration jobs when it’s something I’m not interested in. This may be more of a personal quirk, but especially for beginners, I recommend sticking to what you’re passionate about and enjoy. Because like I said in number one, you’re not going to get much outside validation. You have to really enjoy the process, the source material, and the finished product on a personal level to really want to continue podficcing.

3. Podficcing is a very time consuming process. Be prepared for that. A lot of people seem to think podficcing is just recording yourself reading something and then posting the file, and it is not. There’s a lot more that goes into it (see the guide linked above). Following my personal process, I can expect to spend around 3.5-4x the length of a finished podfic working on creating and editing it. For example, a 20 minute podfic would probably take me about 1.5 hours of work. A ten hour podfic I posted recently took me somewhere between 35-40 hours. When I first started making podfics, it took me longer even because I didn’t really know what I was doing. Some people are probably faster than me. Some are probably slower. Idk where my process falls on the scale exactly, but please understand that you will be spending a lot of time on these. Hence why #1 and #2 are so important. Especially if you do longer fics. Most people who record podfics stick to one-shots under around 10k for a reason.

4. There’s an entire section in the guide on permissions, but on a personal note, if an author has a blanket statement that they “do not allow translations/etc. of their work so don’t ask”, I just assume they probably won’t allow podfics either (even if that’s not true) and don’t bother approaching. I don’t want to step on a possible landmine by asking about something they feel they’ve already addressed and asked people not to come to them about. As the guide will tell you, most people are super on board with having podfics done of their work. Please do not read this and think you can’t approach authors. This is just a personal thing I do when it comes to authors with blanket anti-translations statements.

5. If you have pets, please shut them out of whatever room you’re recording in. I can’t do that anymore. My cats have figured me out, and you have no idea how often I pause recording and stare at the ceiling and wish for death because there are cats wrestling three feet away from me.

6. Always test your equipment. You don’t want to waste an hour and realize your mic was never picking up any audio. Also, use a desktop computer if you have one. If you have to use a laptop, there’s a good chance that (like me) you will only be able to record when it is not plugged in. I can’t record when my laptop is plugged into the wall because even my cheapest of mics pick up audio interference because of the battery charging and it’s a mess.

7. Don’t spend a bunch of money on equipment. Seriously. I have professional equipment for audiobooks, and I use absolutely none of it for podfics. I use a $20 Logitech USB Headset. Because I don’t want podficcing to feel like work. I want it to be fun. Less formal. Not like a job. I want to be able to recline under a blanket while I read. Not lock myself up in a soundproof area with super technical equipment that picks up every breath in a 20-mile radius.

ANYWAY! These are just bits of personal advice that may help you decide if this is something you really want to do.

I hope I didn’t scare you off! We need more podficcers in the world. Hahaha! I just would much rather people know what to expect and not end up discouraged and disappointed when they decide to try this out and it turns out differently than they imagined. 

All my love, y’all. <3

#podfic #podficcing #audiofic #podfic reference #podfic advice #there are people more knowledgeable than me out there but she asked so here you go! #mist speaks

[lillupon]

So, I've got a very long rant/opinion here and Idk really know how to say this without coming off kinda bad but I'm gonna say it anyways. I agree with the fact that the seventeen tag has been kinda dry lately on most fanfic places, but it's really only in the smut area. It's the sane way with other groups too I feel like. All of the nice little innocent tags are boomin to this day and thats completely fine. I think the smut tag is dry tho bc lately I feel like a few social issues (like sexualizing people and disrespecting them and their identity) have crossed over into kpop and have been ?blown out of proportion? Lately there's been a rampage of people who like to say that writing smut about someone is disgusting and is dehumanizing because people want to assume that it would make the idols uncomfortable which could equate to some morality issues on how you are reducing someone only to their body without their consent and a bunch of stuff like that. It kind of pisses me off bc this is fiction. About grown adults. Clamping down on horny people who simp over hot asian men isn't going to solve the issues we face in real life. I think a shit ton is wrong with the world we currently live in, and deciding to come after something that isn't even real bothers me. Like what does that actually accomplish. But yeah, I think thats a reason why smut has been dying down. I mean, on youtube almost every video about unpopular opinions, or things they dont like about kpop will include something about shipping idols in fanfics. And then everyone in the comment section will talk about how its all fine and dandy in moderation, but once people start writing smut it's crossing the idols personal boundaries. It's something I've been seeing a lot more often and I think people who are interested in writing smut are being turned away from it bc we've gotten to a point where people are being called disgusting for having fantasies.

Hi Anon, thank you for sending in this Ask. 

I want to preface this by saying: when I write or talk about Mingyu and Wonwoo fucking on my blog, it is a fantasy. I am not speculating about what the real Mingyu and Wonwoo might be like in bed. I am imagining the versions of Mingyu and Wonwoo that I have created in my head, that exist only in my stories. None of it is real. I understand that this can be a blurry boundary for some people. But for me, the separation between fantasy and reality is well-defined. Now, on to your Ask!

You’ve hit the nail on the head with this one. You’ve also touched on many of the issues I have been struggling with myself as of late. It’s difficult to argue about morals since everyone has a different set of values, as well as different comfort levels. Some people think real person fiction (RPF) is a gross invasion of privacy. Others are fine with it. And others don’t care one way or another. There is no single answer; I can only offer my answer. Which means, of course, people are welcome to disagree with it, or parts of it. 

In this essay (LOL But forreal: this is an essay), I will be sharing my experience in the k-pop fanfic community from 2014 to present, the etiquette I personally abide by as a reader and writer of RPF, as well as my stance on RPF in general.

I started reading and posting fanfics back in 2014/2015 on a website called AsianFanfics (AFF). Obviously, no one on that site had a problem with RPF, since AFF is a platform made specifically for sharing stories about Asian celebrities. For many years, I read and enjoyed RPF with zero guilt. I scribbled away by myself in my own corner of fandom and curated my own content. I didn’t interact much with other fans, readers, or writers. I didn’t have a Twitter, and I only used tumblr to reblog memes. As a result, I’ve been able to avoid a lot of anti-shipping discourse, as well as purity and cancel culture. I had no idea there were so many negative opinions about RPF. It wasn’t until I became active on the subreddit r/Fanfiction last year that I learned about all the discourse surrounding RPF. 

This newfound ‘awareness’ does make me feel guilty at times—but only because after mulling this over, I still don’t think this is something to feel guilty about.

Here’s what I remember, first and foremost, when I create and consume RPF: fanfics and my favourite ships are fictional, and fiction is fantasy. This is basic etiquette when it comes to RPF, and most people in the k-pop fandom understand this. Delusional fans exist, of course, but they are not representative of the entire k-pop community. 

Another point of etiquette is to keep fanfics within fandom spaces. I would never push my fics into celebrities’ faces, or go around claiming that my fanfics are accurate representations of a k-idol’s life or personality, in any way, shape, or form. I would also discourage directing ship-related questions to official accounts, or bringing them up during fansigns or other face-to-face interactions; I believe that in these instances, shipping does have the potential to strain real-life relationships.

So with basic etiquette out of the way, let me share my approach to RPF in general.

As much as we like to think we know our favourite celebrities, we really don’t. All we see is their public persona. And this public persona is intentionally controlled, managed, and curated by a team of people: directors, tabloids, editors, makeup artists, publicists, etc. How “real” are these celebrities? We are so distanced from them that they may as well be fictional.

I draw from the public persona that idols project, and I work them into my own writing. But at the end of the day, these personalities are my own interpretation. My interpretation is probably nothing like an idol’s actual personality. I just use the “public persona/character” that idols portray as inspiration for my own stories, which are set in wildly different universes.

More than anything, I think of k-pop idols as “actors” in my fic. You know how when you write an original novel, you scroll through Google images, looking for the perfect person to portray your original character? RPF is literally that, except you might build upon pre-existing dynamics and personalities.

When it comes to explicit fanfiction, two main concerns are prevalent: one of consent, and one of sexualisation.

If we argue against explicit RPF due to lack of consent, we should be willing to apply the same lens to all explicit works. How do we know that the creator of a movie, book, series, etc., is okay with us using their characters in our stories, explicit or not? We don’t. Perhaps some creators encourage fanfiction, but don’t want their lovingly crafted characters engaging in sexual acts or experiencing trauma. We just don’t know. I feel this line is even more blurred when we talk about characters from movies or TV series.

Let’s take Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, as portrayed by Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan, from the Captain America movies as an example. I am willing to bet that when people consume and create explicit fanfiction about Steve and Bucky, they are imagining Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan in their heads. I doubt many people are imagining the 2D cartoon versions of Steve and Bucky, even though they’re technically the exact same characters. Why? Well, it could be because movies are more readily and easily consumed than comics, and so people are unfamiliar with comic book Steve and Bucky. But it might also be because fans find Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan attractive. Is this really any different from RPF, where fic authors make up everything about a celebrity’s life?  

When readers and writers of fanfic talk about how hot Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes is, those comments are about Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan’s bodies. When reading explicit stories, fans are going to picture Chris and Sebastian’s bodies in their head, doing sexual things. Can we say, “Well, it’s not really you, Chris/Sebastian”, when in a way, it is?

The reality is, people are going to thirst over celebrities, regardless of whether or not explicit fanfiction exists. They’re going to post thirst tweets on Twitter. They’re going to talk to friends and strangers online about how hot [insert celebrity name here] is. They’re going to fantasize about dating and having sex with their favourite celebrity. Or, as it is in my case, they’re going to make up stories in their heads about their favourite idols dating and banging each other. People are going to do all of this without ‘getting consent’ from the celebrity. Cracking down upon and shaming writers of RPF isn’t going to change any of that.

To be honest, I’m not sure why people think it is disgusting to imagine sexual scenarios about real people. It is okay and normal to have these kinds of fantasies. I suppose the alternative is to fantasise about having sex with cartoon characters instead? It’s a very binary way of thinking to say that if you imagine/write real people in explicit scenarios, you are immediately sexualising, dehumanising, or objectifying them. There is more to dehumanisation than writing smut about our favourite celebrities. For one thing, you can love someone and appreciate all parts of them, and still want to fuck their brains out. And generally, fanfics come from a place of love—love that is not only sexual in nature.

Is it the sharing aspect inherent to fanfiction? The possibility that a celebrity might stumble upon explicit works about them? The chances are very low, I think, of the k-pop idols I enjoy writing about coming across my English fics. But I also believe in curating your own content, and that applies to celebrities too. Perhaps a celebrity should not go searching for fanfics about themselves. And of course, people should not show celebrities their fanfics, unless invited.

Another argument I hear against (explicit) RPF is, “How would you feel if someone wrote fanfiction about you?” First off, I don’t like this argument because there’s a difference between someone who decides to be a public figure versus someone who decides to remain a regular private citizen. Celebrities should and do know what they’re getting into when they choose their occupation. (This is not to say, “They are celebrities; sexualise them all you want because that’s what they signed up for.” Here, I am only acknowledging that people might have sexual fantasies about celebrities they are attracted to. Presumably, celebrities are cognizant of this.)  

If someone (whose existence I am not even aware of, mind you) decides they want to write explicit fanfiction of me in some tiny corner of the Internet, I wouldn’t care so long as: (1) they don’t shove it into my face, and (2) they don’t harass me and ask invasive questions about my personal life and relationships. It’s not hurting me or negatively affecting my life, so it wouldn’t even register as a blip on my radar. When fanfiction remains within its appropriate spaces, it is largely harmless. 

Now, if a k-pop idol were to ask their fans to stop writing fanfiction about them, would I? Yes, I would. However, I can’t imagine that happening. Judging by the number of ‘sexy’ concepts, fanservice moments, and variety shows such as ‘We Got Married’, I am certain that k-pop idols realise they are the stars of many fantasies—some of which are explicit in nature. Considering the prevalence of shipping in the k-pop industry, I would argue that shipping is subtly encouraged.

It’s sad that so many talented writers are shamed out of fandom, or feel that k-pop cannot be the medium through which they tell their stories, or explore their sexuality, or cope with trauma, or simply have fun. Professional works and Hollywood love their RPF—readers and writers of fanfics should be able to, as well. 

As you said Anon, “clamping down on horny people who simp over hot asian men isn't going to solve the issues we face in real life” (this is a lovely sentence, by the way). The kind of person who dehumanises another and reduces them to a sexual object will do so some other way, if not via fanfiction. I don’t think the issue of fetishisation can be fixed simply by telling people not to write explicit RPF. In my experience, people who read and write RPF are more respectful and thoughtful about these things than the general public. We’ve all seen the general public say highly sexual things about celebrities in the media and to their faces, or tag celebrities in their thirst tweets. Are these things less invasive than fanfiction? Personally, I don’t think so. And in my opinion, there are more pressing and damaging issues in stan culture than fanfic.

In conclusion, I don’t think there is anything wrong with creating and consuming RPF, both explicit and non-explicit so long as we:

Remember we are writing fiction

Keep RPF within its appropriate space, and

Do not harass celebrities about their personal lives and relationships

RPF is not for everyone. There may be people who enjoy RPF, but draw the line at explicit stories. This is fine. Everyone has their own personal preferences. What is not fine, however, is attacking people for creating things you don’t like. I’m not sure what kind of moral crusade people are on and what they hope to achieve by shaming writers of RPF, explicit or otherwise. Ultimately, fic authors are writing a fantasy. It’s not real; no one is being hurt. I think it’s important for people to curate their own content, and AO3 makes it very easy to filter out explicit works and unwanted tags. 

Maybe this is me trying to justify my own participation in explicit RPF—I don’t know. What I do know is that I love k-pop, and fandom is an important part of my media and entertainment experience. I adore the k-pop idols I write about, and I just want to imagine them being happy and getting lots of love and orgasms. Let a bitch be horny, goddamn… 

Some bonus fun facts!

At the time I am writing this, on AO3:

26.2% of Stray Kids fanfics are rated M or E

26.3% of Seventeen fanfics are rated M or E

29.0% of Merlin fanfics are rated M or E

34.9% of Captain America (Movies) fanfics are rated M or E

40.1% of BTS fanfics are rated M or E ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Coincidentally, I saw this post on Reddit this morning: Can we have a RPF positivity post?

#asks #my writing #fic & fandom #I keep coming back to fiddle and add things to this answer #but I think I've said all I wanted to now...

[transgenderteensurvivalguide]

Kinda off topic but idk who to ask I follow another lgbt account and they have a list of triggers and I don't understand tham. They won't explain them to me and it's driving me crazy. I'm not trying to be rude but my stupid neurodiverse brain won't give it up. What do I do??

Lee says:

It’s like if I posted “I like a certain type of jewelry...” and then didn’t specify. If you ask me to explain whether I’m talking about rings or necklaces or earrings and I say “NopE! I’m just never going to tell you!” that might be frustrating for you, and you might wonder why I even bother talking about something if I won’t give the details or context you need to really understand what I’m talking about.

But if you continue to harass me about it and send a bunch of asks when I’ve said “conversation’s over, I will not discuss this topic further” then you’re upsetting both me and yourself and gaining nothing here. Even if I didn’t have a reason to withhold info (which applies to the jewelry example but not triggers, as there are legit reasons why someone might not want to talk about triggers) it’s still my choice to stay mum and you can’t force someone into telling you anything. Sometimes you just gotta let it go. 

Let’s recap here.

Someone has something on their blog

You don’t understand the thing 

You want to understand the thing

They won’t explain the thing

Not knowing the thing upsets you

Now you have two options:

Just accept that you don’t know the thing they’re talking about and probably won’t ever know the thing and continue to follow the blog

Or unfollow the blog so you stop being exposed to the unknown thing and move on

Getting more specific to your situation, sometimes people are triggered by a specific thing because it was associated with a traumatic memory.

Let’s give a hypothetical- say I had a traumatic experience involving a Honda Odyssey. Now whenever I see posts with a Honda Odyssey car shown or mentioned, I get panic attacks. So I ask folks to tag things that are related to the Honda Odyssey vehicle. 

But I might not want to explain why I have that particular trigger because then I have to talk about something that I find really hard to talk about or think about, or maybe I don’t want to share something traumatic and personal with the whole world wide web. 

So maybe I was hit by a car once and was left with a traumatic brain injury and the car happened to be a Honda Odyssey. Or maybe I was abused in the back of a Honda Odyssey by a family member once. And so on. There’s a lot of things that can cause someone to be triggered by a random object/show/topic/etc and sometimes they’ll ask for their mutuals to tag it without them also wanting to explain why those things are triggering. People have the right to privacy.

Nobody “owes” you an explanation of their deepest traumas- but you don’t owe anyone a “follow” either. If you can’t accept that you don’t know what their triggers are or why they’re triggering and it’s becoming an obsession for you, you need to take a step back, disengage and take care of your own self.

There’s going to be a lot of stuff on the internet you find upsetting. There will be people who are intentionally trying to mess with you, there will be well meaning people who you have misunderstandings with, there will be hostile people, people who will refuse to explain themselves, people who are mean, rude, transphobic, racist, abusive, etc. There will be posts and blogs with triggering things and videos that are disturbing or have misinformation.

You need to take care of yourself, which means avoiding places you know will be upsetting, whether that’s certain blogs or entire websites, the comments section on most websites, particular tags, etc, and recognizing when you’re getting stuck on something that’s frustrating or harmful to you, and trying to redirect yourself.

Our Mental health page has a few links you may find useful, and I’d suggest getting a therapist because they can help you work on coping when you get stuck like this.

And yes, you gotta stop asking them about it.

#Lee says #abuse m #trauma m #not trans related #triggers #ableist language m #stupid / #Anonymous

[sienna-writes]

Butterfly Blood // update 1

woo! first writing update on this WIP so far! (Finally!!). Since I don't want to include huge spoilers on this book, as I might one day end up publishing (who knows), I will be splitting these posts into chatting about my process, character development, edits etc. and then include extracts that aren't too spoilery! I think it'll be okay for the first sections of the book, especially as alot of the first few chapters is character building and imagery to set the scene, tone and atmosphere.

Also, the working title of "Bleeding Out" that I HATED with a PASSION is finally gone! My novel is now called Butterfly Blood based on a excerpt way in the future of the story. (Which I'm very excited to share c: )

I wrote the prologue after I’d finished the first chapter, to introduce the book and it’s mystery in a more captivating way than it had initially been introduced.

Frog finds himself underground in the middle of a forest with no knowledge of his surrounds, his past, or his identity. He clings to one certainty, that he is and was raised by frogs. (This book is a bit wack, just roll with it.)

As he crawls into the middle of the road, a truck starts hurtling toward him and careens off the road last minute. The driver drops down and searches for for Frog, but cannot find anyone.

There is no blood, no screaming, no mangled man wailing on the ground. Reluctantly, the driver withdraws from the dark and locks himself in the enclosed cabin of his truck, steadying his breathing.

As the exhaust sputters to life again, and tires tug against the initial friction of the gravel, the disappearance twists the driver’s thoughts.

His passenger clings with sticky tree frog palms to the trucks stomach; well-oiled organs huffing heat and fumes onto his face.

So this book actually began with a very horribly written chapter. The structure was a mess and for some reason I kept bombarding the reader with information about my main character Rowan and really pushing forward the idea that she’s an energetic person... Which was stiff and just poor writing, honestly. (Also, I've changed my ideas since about how I want to characterise her.) But out of the 3000 word (approx) start, there were salvageable aspects, and those went into the first chapter along with a lot more fleshing out of the scenes, setting and character. I also finally decided on a tense and perspective after being super inconsistent with it and unable to make my mind up.

But! We got there in the end, I just thought I’d share my struggle since writing is not a perfect process and there is a lot of rearranging, and sometimes it feels like pulling teeth.

The premise of this chapter is to set the scene of Blackerwick (a fictional, dreary british seaside town), introduce Rowan (our main character), and the complex relationship with her father, who has become insular over the past month before the story starts.

—excerpts;

A little world building and set up!

Everything about the sleepy town Rowan’s family had moved to is soaked in a distinct achromatic despondency. Inland residents slumped and slogged in their routines, never caring to change them, almost afraid of living. It had confused Rowan at first when she’d come here from Ireland at fourteen, how much the dull town contrasted its landscape. It seemed undeserving of such beauty; a tall mountain range to the left of Blackerwick, and beyond it a city; wide stretches of moors headed toward the forests, and beyond the forests—the ocean. It was as if all the world’s natural beauties had congregated here millions of years ago as the earth slid into place, waiting for settlers to enjoy it. They didn’t even seem to notice.

    Fading out of view behind her, a mangle of dark rooftops mesh amongst each other, a severe contrast to the pallidly painted house fronts, and chimneys slice into the sky, puffing endlessly on their pipes.

Hot air is exhaled from the horizon, tugging striking, unruly orange hair from her heavy ponytail as it whistles past her face. She closes her eyes peacefully against the feverish winds, her clothes buffeting and pounding as if fighting it off. Grinning, she leans toward the sea, trusting its breath to hold her weight.

In the course of this chapter Rowan has had an altercation with her teacher and gotten a detention, pushed through the forests toward the beach, and now is returning home. She rouses her dad’s attention by feigning a headache, because he doesn’t bother with her unless he sees she is in pain etc. Now for some quality mild gore!

    Turning, she leans in to hug him when she realises there’s blood gushing from her nose.

    “Oh shit! Shit, shit, shit! Not again!” Rowan scoops shaking hands to her nose, tacky blood spilling over her fingertips. “Dad, Dad!”

    He is already on it, tipping her head back into his cupped palm, holding tissues tightly to her nose. She wheezes and sputters, the world spinning as she lurches toward the sink, clinging to the draining board to keep her balance. Everything red, the four walls of the kitchen, red. Her blurring vision, red. Everything bleeding like her gums beneath grinding teeth as she bites down on the impulse to say something. She wants to scream, or throw up, head swimming as her world tilts upside down. Her skull rests in her father’s strong palm, a fleshy safety net.

Wash your mouth out with soap, ma’am. 

I was considering having Rowan not swear around her father, but her mother is pretty aggressive and her dad (Karmen) swears regularly, so it doesn’t seem too outrageous anymore. (I could never, my mum would flip).

When the bleeding slows finally, and her chin closes in on her neck again she notices her father’s shirt is covered with dried, grubby gore. It looks like he is bleeding out from a deep gash notched into his chest. His heart clawed savagely from its dwelling. 

Karmen being a worried dad is best dad;

     “You said not again.” He says finally, as she gathers herself, filling glass after glass with water and gulping hungrily, throat tilted toward the sky.

    “I’ve been getting more than usual recently.” She replies nonchalantly.

    “That’s shouldn’t be normal.” He says.

     Rowan shrugs, “I’ve always been prone to bleeding and bruising.” As if to defend herself or prove her case, she pulls down her jeans slightly, revealing a black contusion on her hip. It fades into swarthy purple and blue; a gradient discolouring her pale freckled skin; a deep ink blot, as if the flesh had been punctured with a fountain pen.

    Her dad hisses sharply. “How did you do that? I told you not to go into those woods anymore!”

Ok! Enough blood! I really made nosebleeds overly dramatic lol.

Anywho!

the first 2000 ish words of this chapter follow Frog (he's later named Mint), and let me tell you, his perspective came so naturally, and was such an interesting world view to write in. I'm not saying i like him, but I enjoy writing him for sure.

This chapter was initially 2100 words and I intended it to be a brief introduction of mint, but I merged it with the next one because I thought they joined together nicely. The other aspects of this chapter introduce more of the friend group (honestly the only relevent characters within this group are Damian and Jamie, the rest are low-key assholes) and set up later events.

—excerpts;

Mint is wandering in the forest, and hunting.

He slinks into step with the deer as it rises, shaking his head as it shakes its placid mane. Serenity slices the air in two.

     Frog strikes.

    The blade almost glitters in the air as it shoots toward the limpid animal’s vulnerable throat, veins pulsing beneath frosty, translucent fur. Incorporeal beast. A surreptitious streak in the night, headfirst, embedding with a gurgle and a coarse, barbaric scream. Deer’s aren't meant to sound like this. Like a human, like something capable of feeling and hurting. Frog wriggles the blade out of its fleshy sheath and exhales into a whistle. He looks gleefully at the drowned grass damp with blood. Gushing over his squirming toes.

      Its crown tumbles to the soil, antlers embedding deep into the foliage at Frogs feet. He sits beside Stag on the floor laden with pine needles--wreathing its glazed face like christ’s crown-- and strokes the un-bloodied fur of its forehead, holding its unblinking, waxy glare. Frog is the victor.

Frog/Mint is hunting! He kills a stag! Then he brutally dissects it;

      Peeling away at the thick membrane enshrouding Stag's skull, with tender interest, Frog carves muscle and fat from its head, pellucid and opaline, dropping the pale crumbs of carcass onto the ground. The deer’s dense ghost is not yet cold in his crimson tinted hands. 

Rowan feeling numb, because oh boy us writers like to see our characters in pain;

The water is scalding. Rowan breaks out in goose bumps. Catching her reflection in the rippling bathwater she almost doesn’t recognise herself. Flushed, pale cheeks. All sharp edges, cheekbones slicing beneath the eyes, graceful slanting nose scooping down into a slight point. Her lips protrude from her face, full and large, accommodating an easy smile. Rowan pulls her downturned lips into a small grin. The constructed happiness blurs in the water. Holding her breath, she leans into the baths hot grip, filling with her fiery hair.

    The silence smudges in her ears.

I also wrote some banter-y dialogues but I think I'll share them another time... After they've been edited.... a heck ton... There's an over exaggerated smoking description in this chap too but I've shared that before heh :)

I hope you enjoyed this LONG overdue chapter update! So far there are 7 chapters, so I have a lot of updating to catch up on! :)

I don’t have a tag list at the moment, but if you’re interested in this wip and want to be on it, then please send me an ask or a comment and I’ll add you :)

Tag list, ask to be added or removed;

@alicewestwater @elaz-ivero @coffeeandcalligraphy @hanwatchingmovies @sirfitzroys @chloeswords @nev-953

#writing #writeblr #chapter update #writing update #novel update #chapter excerpt #excerpts from my writing #writing excerpt #novel excerpt #wip excerpt #wip #novel wip #novel drafting #butterfly blood

[yibuo]

love your hot takes! was wondering if you could give your two cents on shipping/rpf in relation to idol culture, how more often than not these pairings are subtly if not overtly used as a marketing tool etc. I’m all for freedom of expression / fandom consumption as long as the fourth wall is respected but given recent developments in c-ent I feel like we’re treading on thinner and thinner ice....

EDIT you asked for my two cents and i gave u my entire bank account. nice

ok i wasn’t sure how to answer this tbh without possibly getting attacked but i have a pretty strong opinion of rpf/shipping and how people take it to the extremes and i talked to oomf who validated me so here i go

tldr i mean people can take part in shipping/rpf if they want to and if they keep it lowkey but there’s a boundary as to how far shipping/rpf can go and there are too many instances of where people insert rpf/shipping in places that are unacceptable and this goes for all real ppl pairings 

i’m not meaning to offend anyone, and in no way are my opinions discriminatory, but also, if you’re someone who’s gonna make HUGE stretches regarding to celebrities and push your favorite ships in totally unrelated things, maybe you should step back and think about how your actions can affect your favorite people

and i’m totally stealing this from oomf, but here’s a thought:  if you ask yourself  'if i met this person irl, would i feel embarassed if they looked me in the eyes and i read this out loud to them' and if the answer is 'i would look like a pervert stalker' then like........maybe don't do what you’re doing?  

pls respect ur faves is all n don’t make them uncomfortable ! ! and also pls don’t fetishize same sex relationships !

anyway

ok so let me start by saying i’m a seventeen stan and when i was 15-16 y/o i shipped svt members, read rpf, etc, but never really was into overanalyzing every touch or gaze. i obviously enjoyed my favorite pairings interact and i read romantic fics about them. i wasn’t really into reading smut because for me, personally, fics using the members’ names and personalities even in au kinda made smut feel like visualizing the members in a sexual context and i felt like i was crossing a fan boundary, like, would my idol be comfortable with me seeing them in a sexual context with another member they tell us they consider as friends/brothers/sisters? or just in general, would they be comfortable with me thinking of them sexually? but hey, if it was a good fic i would just skip over the smut because good fics are good fics. now idk if it’s because i’m older, or other changes? i don’t really do romantic shipping or read rpf, i stick to reading fics about fictional characters because that’s what makes me comfortable (like if i ever rb two members’ interactions on my main, i stick to just tagging the members instead of their ship name, same goes on here for real people) and i still very much am uncomfortable w/ real people smut literature and art, but that’s just me

ok you see shipping a lot in idol culture because idols are in groups and members spend a good 90% of their time together, so whatever cute interactions you see  kinda lead to people shipping two (or more ig) members. i never really thought about idol shipping culture from a marketing perspective, so i asked some of my friends, and one of them made a really good point about how some ships are more popular than others, and these interactions on shows and stuff might be a strategic/marketing tactic to lure in new fans because of the “ships” being cute. i don’t know how true this actually is, but it kinda made sense. for example, in svt, mingyu x wonwoo is a super popular ship, compared to ships like the8 x vernon which no one ever talks about, even though we know that all the members love each other equally and wholeheartedly. so yeah, there probably is a subtle pushing of certain ships in order to gain momentum in attracting more fans to the group

also i’m gonna be using wonwoo and mingyu as examples but i’m not targetting anyone or anything, just hypothetical situations w/ an idol ship that i noticed to affect the members because how out-of-control SOME stans are

so as i said in my tldr, i don’t really mind romantic shipping, as long as it’s 1) lowkey 2) not pushed in places that it doesn’t belong and 3) not mentioned among the members

keeping it lowkey- pushing ships in everyone’s faces gets annoying. sometimes fans just want to enjoy idols’ content as they give it to us and frankly, it’s a little offputting when you’re trying to watch something or enjoy something and hoards of fans are fangirling over a gaze or a touch between 2 members. keep it on your private acct, or in a group chat, not in the youtube comment section of the video. but still, men and women are allowed to touch each other and show affection without it being romantic, and i feel like shipping culture kinda invalidates the platonic relationship. like unless a pairing is confirmed to be dating, why even bother with overanalyzing these gazes or touches. and no, it’s not homophobic for non-rpf fans to be annoyed, because sometimes fans just want to see the members as they portray themselves to be rather than finding a deeper (and unconfirmed) meaning behind every small thing. fans being like “bro it’s just the touch of two hands it’s not that deep” is not the same thing as fans going “ewww i’m’ not supporting them if they’re not straight” . and sometimes i feel like people try to twist non-rpfers words and call them homophobic if they’re not for shipping when sometimes people don’t wanna romantically visualize 2 people if they’re an unconfirmed couple. how can you use lgbt struggles, which is an issue in society, to fight against people who simply don’t do rpf?? how are you use that as a weapon and for what ??? (also a good amount of people who do this are lgbt fetishizers who aren’t lgbt themselves bye i said it) why can’t we all jus be friends dudes

ok but if you’re against your idols dating someone of the same gender, that’s homophobic and you needa get that checked

but that’s different from treating two members as friends rather than bfs

but this being lowkey concept applies to any pairing, straight or gay, just keep it lowkey dudes. (like for ex we see yibo and meng meiqi shippers, which also doesn’t make sense to me because it’s based off of literal crumbs but ok) it’s ok to be rpfer or non-rpfer as long as you’re respecting the idols and keeping their best interests in mind

respect ur faves pls

not pushed in places that it doesn’t belong- people need to stop bringing up ships and pairings in randomass places. for example, if wonwoo is doing a interview, with mingyu being nowhere in sight, and he’s talking about his hobbies and interests without ever mentioning mingyu, what’s the need to bring up mingyu?? people do it and it’s so... weird? like wonwoo can do things without being constantly associated mingyu? one of my BIGGEST pet peeves is when shippers make these ships such a HUGE part of a members’ identitiy, when the members are doing so much w/ their lives? like no, not every move wonwoo makes, and every breath he takes is related to mingyu, but people still wanna have the audacity to mention mingyu in something completely unrelated? what’s your point?

RESPECT UR FAVES

not mentioned among the members in an uncomfy manner- like if you’re interacting with a real person, why are you gonna bring up a ship they’re included in when you have so many other things to talk about?? like ok it’s one thing to ask someone on a livestream “hey this event you guys did on xxxx show was funny, what’s the tea behind that” but it’s not okay to just mention a ship with no relation and no context to the situation. again, this counts as rpf-ers and shippers attributing a single ship to an idol’s identity much more than what it actually counts as. no, wonwoo is not 70% made of mingyu lover and vice versa. we actually saw this between mingyu and wonwoo as people kept pushing meanie (the ship) to their faces, and we saw (and  still see) a much more decreased amount of interaction between them compared to them predebut, because shippers couldn’t stay in their lane. so yes, out-of-control shipping DOES affect idols and can be harmful to their relationships if you don’t control it

^ so y’all see why i feel so strongly about this, because it literally can affect these idols’ relationships on screen

JUST RESPECT UR FAVES

again, this applies for any pairing of any sexuality, i’m just using wonwoo x mingyu as an example because it’s something i saw when i was into rpf. i love both mingyu and wonwoo and they are wholesome together. i have friends who ship them and i’m completely ok with that because they do it without posing any harm to the members, but some people just need to take a chill pill and a seat and calm down ????

so i completely understand that shipping/rpf serves as a creative outlet for lgbt+ folks and that’s completely fine, inspiration, love, cool cool cool. just don’t be so pushy about small interactions especially directly to idols. and as for rpf-ers, don’t let rpf give you a reason to start fetishizing same-sex relationships, that shits weird and problematic...pls

again, if you ask yourself  'if i met this person irl, would i feel embarassed if they looked me in the eyes and i read this out loud to them' and if the answer is 'i would look like a pervert stalker' then like........maybe don't do what you’re doing?  

lol so this is why i’m much more comfortable w/ fictional shipping, because these people don’t exist in the real world and don’t have actual lives and relationships to protect 

just respect ur faves omg and we’ll be fine

“given recent developments in c-ent” and me being a yibo stan and you sending me this strongly leads me to believe you’re referring to out of control bjyx cpf (yizhan shippers)  LOL

i don’t follow much c-ent besides xnine, uniq, r1se, and sometimes unine and the nine percent members, and honestly im not too into the fan culture so i dont follow ships there? so i’ll focus on. this ship

to be completely honest, shipping for idol groups makes some sense to me because idol group members are with each other most of the time, that’s literally their job

shipping actors who haven’t confirmed that they’re dating/no proof doesn’t really make sense to me at all--they work on one project together, and they’re off to their next., with or without each other . we don’t know if they keep in contact every day, much less if they’re into each other, but each to their own! my opinions and takes aren’t perfect and as long as you’re respecting your faves, it is ok~

ok so i’ll start of with saying: obviously, i love yibo. i love xiao zhan. they’re cute nd wholesome and evidently had good times together and learned a lot from each other regarding acting and being in the industry and just developing as people together. good for them, we love character development. amazing

is pushing bjyx a marketing tactic? most definitely yeah by tencent thanks tencent. i think you can see this through the amount of bts videos there are with just bjyx in comparison to other bts videos/interviews, even though there are many more important characters apart from wwx and lwj in cql, we don’t see as much side cast interactions as bjyx, and if we do, there aren’t that many w/ other cast members and yibo and xiao zhan?? relatively speaking

so yeah i think pushing this yibo x xiao zhan thing definitely was a tactic to further the momentum that wangxian was already having to attract stans, and it worked. like i LOVE watching yibo and xiao zhan bts videos because they are two goofs. love them. love my boys. love their camaraderie. and if people wanna ship, then go ship. cool! just be casual pls

i think where this becomes a problem is when people start projecting wangxian’s relationship onto yibo and xiao zhan because...the latter are real people. yibo and xiao zhan =/= wangxian !!!!!! (ok first of all yibo is a gremlin how can he be the wang in wangxian in real life)  what wyb and xz show us in videos is nowhere near what wangxian is hJKNDJNWD and i see so many people just equate the two pairings...nooo... and combining everything mxtx writes about wangxian in the novel and projecting that onto wyb and xz...i don’t think that’s the move dudes they have their own lives they’re not wangxian

my BIGGEST pet peeve is when people wholly credit wyb’s development as an actor and as a person to xz and vice versa. i cannot tell you how many times i see posts saying “wyb brought xz out of his shell” and vice versa and things like “xz looks like he’s having much more fun than he is when he’s with xnine, they’re soulmates” and etc

both wyb and xz have had years of industry experience before getting to know each other. they’ve gone through some of the lowest points of their careers before even getting to know each other well, and they’ve both found Their People in the industry before finding each other. to say that wyb brought xz out of his shell in a summer’s worth of filming based on some bts videos is just so unfair to the bonds xz has made with his other colleagues and xnine  members and the accomplishments he’s had before cql. same with wyb and his career prior to cql. and his uniq members, his ttxs bros, and all his other colleagues. these 2 have gone through some shit with their idol groups and it’s just not fair for cpfs to erase the significance of their career prior to cql to support and find a leverage for their shipping. i’m not saying all cpfs do this, but there is  a Good Amount That Do and it pisses fans like me off

they are not each others saviours bye

also  “xz looks like he’s having much more fun than he is when he’s with xnine, they’re soulmates”, if you guys ever watch xnine videos, you’ll know that xnine is Loud. with members like wu jiacheng and peng chuyue being so loud and extroverted, it kinda makes xiao zhan relatively quieter. but he’s still a gremlin and troublemaker and it’s not like he isn’t having fun. he’s just louder w/ yibo because yibo is more introverted than xz. relationship dynamics are relative to the relationship cmon people !!!! this is basic knowledge !!!! anyway that was a side tangent but ya

but ya my point is, wyb and xz have their own careers and they’re doing their own things now, and it’s unnecessary to bring up xz in an unrelated wyb post/article and vice versa, and it’s just so so unnecessary to link them in everything??? like i heard that cpfs prevented xz from keeping his nomination for an award because yibo wasn’t nominated so xz lost the nomination ./rolls eyes

anyway my point being, if you wanna ship them then go ahead! just do it normally and don’t bring up the ship in unrelated places (like other dramas, tv shows, etc where they’re not together), don’t spam them with bjyx related things, don’t make weird stretches/connections?? the other day on twt i saw a twt about uniq wenhan’s drama, where he was being referred to as xiao zhan (little zhan) in the drama (different  “xiao” and “zhan” characters than actor xz’s name) and i saw cpfs go “omg theYRE CALLING HIM XIAO ZHAN??? IS THIS FATE OR” like no it isnt maam it’s just a name stop reaching

ANYWAY UNNECESSARY SIDE RANTS BUT MY MAIN POINT is that people are allowed to be shippers and take part in rpf, but don’t make their identities “____’s lover”, don’t look past their current and past achievements for the sake of your ship, don’t erase their relationships with other people for the sake of your ship, stop bringing your ship into things that are only related to one person/aren’t related to your ship, stop saying creepy things about your ship (if you think the ship people would be uncomfrotable with what you say about them you probably shouldn’t be saying it)

just. respect ur faves pls no matter who they’re with ...just respect them ty

stan yibo stan xiao zhan stan uniq stan xnine

comment ur fav yibo and xiao zhan moment below

like comment subscibe

ok bye mic drop 

#this is long please dont read #dont hurt me #bye #reply #if u make ur favs uncomfy im sending huo mala to eat u #Anonymous

[threelivesthreeworlds]

Anonymous asked: Hello sorry if I was unclear. What I meant to say is that most people have a superficial view on intimacy of any sort, and so while I love Tang Qi's portrayal of romance, I hate most people's physicality-obsessed interpretations. Dunno if it's a western thing, but fanfiction is so out of alignment with canon romance themes that the characters are barely recognisable anymore. (1/4)

Secondly, Most readers/viewers do not give characters like Yehua or Lian Song a chance before making stereotypical assumptions about them. I love their real personalities, flaws and all, but I hate the sheer hyperexaggeration the fandom makes out of it (e.g. hating on Ji Heng). People just cannot see a character as a whole but put them into one category or the other. (2/4)

Thirdly, I just added that I relate to Lian Song(depression etc) because I kinda share his views on romance/love and don't really care for physical aspects that much. I'm aware he's a playboy, but he's also not a stereotypical one (which is unfortunately how most people interpret him) so it's a relief that your blog instead backs up my interpretation of him with facts. (3/4)

Lastly, I'm so sorry for ranting in the Q & A section. Making several points with a word limit really compromises what I'm trying to say 😆. But the bottom line was that fandoms' misinterpretations of your favourite characters makes it hard to see them in an objective light again. (4/4)  

(this 4th one came in after most of our answers were done, so we apologize if it comes off a little ??? we weren’t aware of the end goal for the anons received. We mean no ill-will in how we come across, just elaborating on things and we hope that’s alright with you. <3)

(Admin Lin): Hey! Thanks for sharing your opinions, though these anons are starting to get a little haughty for our own comfort to continue addressing. Both admins have our own grievances with the fandom / how it views particular characters (Ji Heng being a prime example here), however the fandom still offers plenty of good things from it. This is not only a western fandom “issue” (I say as this physicality isn’t necessarily an issue), it can be found in the eastern fandom as well for not only this series but others as well. Both admins are in fact western fandom despite Admin Ro being Asian.  

        As for when it comes down to interpretations - Peach Blossoms is written in first person and hard to find on the western side of the internet; Yehua has an extra from his perspective but that’s the only direct contact we get with him that isn’t through Bai Qian’s eyes. Qian isn’t a romantic person nor does she necessarily find what he does romantic, she’s been engaged to him for so long she kind of considered their engagement troublesome due to her past experience with his Uncle Sang Ji. When it comes to the drama’s take of Yehua, we get a clearer idea of him but at the same time it’s easy to see where others can’t grasp him in his entirety or simplify things when in a fanfiction. Or, for the likes of me, knows what he’s like but can’t formulate a more articulate summary or introspective version of him because of his extensive complexities and in some ways, the knowledge of a Chinese household of some fashion to express the intricacies of his upbringing. It’s merely harder. 

         In the case of Lian Song - the Western fandom doesn’t have access to the information that can be found on this blog as easily because Lotus Step is in the middle of a hiatus but will continue serializing by next year. So, it’s no one’s fault for misunderstanding what kind of playboy he is since that was only addressed in the fall of last year and the dramas both make it clear he’s a playboy / amorous person but never elaborates on it. So it’s an easy assumption to make that he may be a typical playboy by fans of the other available media because he’s not featured beyond Yehua’s uncle or Donghua’s best friend with touches here and there of his connection to Cheng Yu. It’s only in his novel that we get to see a different side of him that will ultimately have a shift at some point to what we see 50,000 years down the line. So, I’m not actually bothered by this myself, personally. It is bound to happen because no one on the western side of the fandom has as much access or want to read an untranslated novel. 

        With TQ’s stance on romance writing, I will say the concept of eternal love or a love that lasts 3,000 lifetimes is a very Chinese one that unless one digs through it with patience and interest in Buddhism / other Eastern religions, that it can be a harder nuance to grasp for those unfamiliar. 

(Admin Ro): We’re sorry you’ve had bad experiences with “fanon” material. We’re thankful that you like the content on this blog enough to comment on it! These are my opinions on the whole affair: as a Chinese woman who reads Chinese novels, from a perspective of writing tropes, hyper-exaggeration is already frequently utilized...in canon. And - from a personal standpoint, when the tropes hit right, I - don’t necessarily mind. Depth can be dug out of the text, but it’s understandable for people to simplify when they’re simply writing or analyzing for their enjoyment.  

        I’m ace, so maybe I understand, Nonny, when you say that you don’t care for the physical aspects of love.  I personally, in my life, don’t necessarily want or need that kind of intimacy, and I don’t find myself straying into the smut tag too often to read about it as it stretches my comfort limits. Granted, I am not sex-repulsed, and it takes a great deal to upset me - however, if everything is in layers and someone enjoys writing smut, then they simply enjoy that layer. Romance isn’t less good and interpretations aren’t less good if there’s a degree of physicality in it. Heck, Admin Lins and I have discussed extensively the physicality of these books - we keep it off the blog 80% of the time because tagging, but it’s a present theme. And, all of us enjoy different things. At the end of the day I think we can’t say the tropes aren’t good when the tropes are the lead-ins that drew us into the more extensive stories.

         Furthermore, a lot of what is on this blog is “read,”and I will never say my read of a character or a part of canon is “right” - or that it's “right”-er than someone else’s. Yes, there’s room for passionate debate as evidenced by many, many essays, but I’m not upset when I can’t change anyone’s mind. People are not automatically wrong when they disagree with me - even if there’s textual evidence, there is difference in interpretation of that textual evidence. I understand why fandom thinks the way it does - though, you’ll have to forgive me, my brain is 90% of the time focused on Pillow Book. Regardless, whether you walk out of a book thinking “this character has this much depth and this many flaws” or “this character is just a flat out antagonist” is very much dependent on you. Yes, we as a blog synthesize textual evidence to make that synthesis easier, but ultimately we are no better judges of anyone’s personality than anyone else out in the fandom.

         Rather, I think sometimes for the sake of finding reasons or understanding, or when we look for evidence fitting our own assumptions about characters sometimes we lean into a softer read, maybe entirely without realizing it. This is a big no in the world of analytical writing for the sake of, ironically “objectivity”  - but this is for enjoyment and not academia. There are times when textual evidence is untouched by the author's tone in terms of connotation and so when we take it for our reading and we have our pre-formed opinions we fall a little more between the lines. Admin Lins and I obviously differ in where this happens as we each have our own, minutely different vibes for characters in question. We know where our confirmation biases in interpretation might lie. Everyone has those. 

         Up till about February or March this year, I, like a lot of the rest of this fandom, wanted to roast Ji Heng on a spitfire. That is my bias. We are humans, and I think we are perhaps incapable of reading something and staying entirely objective to each character. I clawed my way out of my bias (I say ‘clawed’ because it was difficult), however, by looking at the book, looking at my own opinions, looking at other people’s opinions and asking myself: which parts of this is most likely to be true? I think the only way of striving toward objectivity in terms of portrayal is to consider other people’s portrayals, even if you don’t like them - and see if there’s any truth you can see past your bias. And to accept that truth, even if it’s a hard pill to swallow.

         I guess what I have been trying to say, for this entire time, is that we are not the authority on what is and isn’t objective, on what is and isn’t right in these characters, interpretations, and this blog. We are glad to be an interpretation you enjoy - but that doesn’t mean the rest of the fandom who have different opinions are wrong or misinterpretations. I realize we can come across like that sometimes because we make salty memes and because we write long paragraph essays when we have opinions, but ultimately, no one is wrong. Our bubble of enjoyment is our bubble, and no one has to agree with us.

#three lives three worlds ten miles of peach blossoms #three lives three worlds the lotus step #Yehua #Lian Song #admin lin answers #admin ro answers

[fr33ksncr33ps]

Country Roads, Take Me Home

Hey so I got an idea from the comment section of this song to write a thing and I was like >:) spooky time

So thank you, No This Is Patrick, for the idea/prompt lmao

I should preface this by saying I don’t normally post my writing online, but I thought this was p decent so why not

TW: horror, woods, car crash depiction. roadside grave site, description of gore, description of blood, mention of slavery and the civil war

If there is anything you want me to tag or censor, please let me know!

 As a child, I had always hated Kentucky. It was my home state- I had a right to hate it. My friends and I used to call it ‘the place where nothing ever happens”, which was true, in a sense. Nothing ever really did happen. 

 One thing I didn’t hate about Kentucky, though, was the scenery. Most who live in Kentucky would call me insane- after all, it’s mostly hills and trees when you’re not in one of the cities like Louisville or Frankfort. But in a way, there was comfort in that. No matter where you were from in Kentucky, you could lose yourself in her hills and valleys; one way or another. There was always something old about Kentucky, particularly the roads. The way that the trees overhang so that you can hardly see the sky, the hillsides and mountains that sandwich either side of the road. I would find solace with my home state in car rides, the ground vibrating comfortably under the car, my only care being the crazy ass deer or an out of state driver. 

My buddy Hadir and I were driving back to his home state of West Virginia for a family reunion, and since i was the most familiar with the roads I offered to go with him. I drove at night through the near silent woods of my home state while he slept, he drove in the day time. 

We had just drove away from a gas station, bellies and throats burning with the after taste of Ale8 and shitty food. Hadir has already settled further back into his seat, basically becoming one with the blanket he had snuggly wrapped himself in. He was a heavy sleeper, even snoring on occasion, so I turned on the radio

. Static. Static. Bluegrass. Static. Static. Static. Some bible sermon. Static. 

I cursed under my breath and furrowed my brows; what was I expecting? I really should have brought a CD or something. I tried to keep my eyes up on the road while my fingers manhandled the ‘scan’ button on the radio. More static. The occasional “Super Sandy’s Super Sale”, which I snorted at. Was it really a Super Sale if it was always happening? More static. My eyes flicked up to the road as we continued down another gut flipping curve. 

My impatience died down as I finally reached a half decent station. The familiar opening lyrics of ‘Country Roads’ crackled through the radio, like it was fighting with the static to be heard. I smiled to myself, remembering that time in highschool some older kids brought their bluetooth speaker on the bus and played this until the bus driver got so sick of their shit that he pulled the bus onto the side of the road and ‘waited’. God, we were little shits.

My eyes focused back onto the road as it started to rain. ‘Shit’, I thought. ‘I can’t be drifting off like that when the roads are slick.’

As I regained my awareness, I began to realize something was sort of,, off. Nothing too terrible, but it was the radio. It was the same Country Roads, it had to be. But somehow it sounded,, sadder. Desperate, almost. 

The keys. The keys were different. I sort of laughed at my own jumpiness- my anxiety about driving on a rainy night must have manifested in some bullshit way, that’s why the song sounded different. There wasn’t a ‘Country Roads’ but in minor key released to the public, that was ridiculous. Even if there were, no radio station would play it. The rain began to beat down on the car, harder now.

But even so, I couldn’t fully get rid of the sinking feeling in my stomach. Before I had known it, I was almost to the verge of tears. The desperation, the need to be heard, the guilt in “ I hear her voice in the morning hour as she calls me “. It was all too much. There was a pit in my stomach, a pit that this song was crawling out of., and clawing up my throat, threatening to spill out in a loud sob. I gritted my teeth as tears made my eyes just as hard to see through as my windshield. I turned on the windshield wipers, and wiped my own eyes.

“Goddammit, man” I growled to myself as I looked back up to the road. There was someone walking on the side of the road, alone, probably drenched. My headlights barely caught them.  If I hadn't have been paying attention just them, I could have hit this guy, or crashed the car and killed Hadir. What would I say then, to his parents? “Oh sorry I killed your son by crashing the car, the song on the radio was just really sad”.

It was a long, dark stretch of road, the guard rails rusted and falling apart, with the only standing ones having small reflective squares attached to them. The trees loomed over in a shapeless silhouette, the sky nearly invisible save for a sliver of dark clouds. Against the grey and black, the person barely stood out. Almost like they were a part of the landscape. Their grey coat was probably slick with rain, a darker grey hat sticking to their head as the rain poured down. I felt a twinge in my stomach, a twinge of pity.

I weighed my options quickly; there was two of us, me and Hadir, and Sikh’s are supposed to carry those tiny ass swords right? So if the person were to try anything, we would both probably be okay. After all, I had taken a couple of self defense classes in my youth- and by self defense classes I mean my cousin and I choked each other out in the living room while my uncle told us how to probably subdue a person.

As my car drew nearer, I made my decision. I slowed, rolling my window down as I approached. Anxiety knotted in my stomach, but my mind told me it was at least polite to offer. After all, how would I feel if I had to walk home in the middle of the night in the rain? 

As I pulled up, the stranger turned to look at me, and the knots in my stomach instantly tightened. 

He was and old man, about 70 or 80, with crows feet wrinkles around his soft eyes and a flat, freckled nose. His scruffy grey beard covered most of dark face, but I was still able to see his gentle smile. He reminded me so much of my grandfather, and my heart couldn’t help but break at the thought of my Papaw having to walk home so late at night in the rain.

All apprehension from before hand melted away in an instant. “Hey!” I said, sticking my head sort of out the window, trying to appear friendly.

“Howdy” He replied, in that sort of garbled way that really old people do. Where you can sort of understand them, but it sounds more like they’re mumbling.

“Where ya headed to?” I asked, sort of slipping back into the accent of my home state.

“I’m uh, headed home.” He smiled, like he was trying to ignore the rain soaking him from head to toe.

“Is that far from here? I can drive you if you’d like.”

“Oh bless yer heart, I’d appreciate that but my home’s on the other side of the bridge, in West Virginia.” 

“Well hey, you’re in luck, ‘cause that’s where I’m uh, headed.” I reassured him.

“Are ya sure? I’d hate to be a bother” His eyebrows creased as he glanced from me to Hadir, who was asleep in the seat next to me.

“Oh nah, it’d be fine.” I grinned at him.

After more convincing, I managed to coax him into the back seat, where he settled into the reflection of the backseat mirror. Once he had affirmed that he was buckled up, I drove forward and further down the road. He introduced himself as Wallace Stanfield.

It was only a few moments later that I remembered the radio, the song. I fumbled with the volume knob, apologizing. He grinned and reassured me it was all fine.

I continued to turn the knob to the point where it would be silent, but the song protested on through the speakers. I eventually decided to leave it be after I exclaimed “I dunno what’s wrong with this dang thing” to which I got a soft chuckle in response.

 “So, where is your home anyway?” I inquired, trying to gauge how much gas I needed, if I would need to buy any, etc.

He explained he lived on a property off in some holler in the boonies, that it was a farm property his mother had inherited from his grandfather, and so on. 

Soon enough I was invested in the story of his family, about how his great great grandfather had bought the land he had once been a slave on after the civil war, and how he had taught his children how to farm, and how they taught their children, all the way down to him. The farm hadn’t done well in the past four years, so he went to work everyday at a factory that was across the bridge, on the Kentucky side. He said he hated driving home, that the late nights made him drowsy and that he had fallen asleep at the wheel a couple of times, so he usually walked home in the summer and spring.

In my conversation, I had ignored the radio. Still, it rambled on. I never remember the song being this long? Was it always this long? As the stranger and I fell into a silence, the radio seemed to grow louder, clearer. I refocused my eyes on the road ahead, trying to get this guy home safe. 

Slowly, the car grew cold. It was almost like I was the only one there, not Hadir, not the stranger in my backseat. I could scarcely hear the rain over the song at this point, the beat of the windshield wipers like an after thought. I remembered when I was a kid, how I would look out the window and pretend there was something running alongside the car. I had to fight the urge to look to the left of me, out the window. I don’t know if it was caution towards to the road, or if I was afraid of what I would see. 

The radio started to glitch out, repeating that “take me home” part, over and over. Each time the radio repeated it’s line, the more distorted it became. Over and over, the radio cried out it’s plea, “take me home”,

I did see something, up ahead. A flash of white at first. Fear that I had somehow brought that horrible figment of my imagination into the world of the living. Even as I began to make out what it was, the sick feeling did not leave me. It was on of those roadside crosses, the ones marking car crashes. I had seen my fair share of them along winding roads as a kid to know exactly what it was. I scarcely made out what the name inscribed on it was. “Wilbur Hatsfield”? Maybe, I couldn’t really tell.

“The radio reminds me of my home far away

Driving down the road, I get a feeling that I-”

A wailing cry snapped me out of my trance, like I had been pulled into ice water. It was the sort of guttural horror that I had never heard before, a shriek pulled straight from his rib cage and out of his mouth, like god himself would smite him if he did not scream.

I glanced into the mirror; it was him, the man. Or at least, I think it was him, from what I could see. His face and skin were shredded almost, the skin of his face peeled harshly back like he had been dragged down the road, teeth exposed and tongue poking from his ram shackled jaw. His clothes soaked in blood, fragments of his bones poking out of his limbs in every which way. He shrieked in a way that I can only describe as agony mixed with guilt.

His neck creaked and popped as he snapped it to look at me. 

“I should have been home yesterday” he cried in desperation, tears pouring from his eyes, his throat bulging as he gasped for air.

I didn’t know what to do- why was this happening, is he okay? Why isn’t Hadir waking up? Do I say something? What do I do? 

All I could do was accelerate the car faster, the screeching of the tires making poor attempts to drown out the man’s screams. The bridge came into sight, the bridge that connects the two states. I slammed my foot on the petal, not know what else to do.

Just as we passed over the bridge- it stopped.

And I mean it all stopped.

The screaming had been cut off at its crescendo, the radio shut off or died in it’s haste, even the rain seemed to halt. As I sped past a sign that read “Welcome to West Virginia” the only thing I was left with was me crying, Hadir snoring, and an overwhelming sense of sadness.

That sickening feeling never left me, even as my eyes grew heavier and I felt I should pull over and let Hadir drive. God, I missed my family, my girlfriend. I wonder how they’re doing?

I really should have been home yesterday.

#country roads #long post #long read #horror #horror writing #writing #tw car crash #tw blood #tw gore #tw racism mention #tw slavery mention #tw civil war mention #cryptidcore #ghost #ghost story #kentucky #west virginia

[thetaylorfiles]

I feel so bad for him, imagine looking on Twitter or ig and seeing people talking about how the way you talk/walk etc means you're not with your wife and that your faking it or you're not "man enough" oe whatever stereotypical bullshit they tag him in and then reading other shit like that.. I always felt bad for people who are brought up in this shipper fandom crap

I don’t feel bad for him. I mean, technically I do sorta. I don’t think he deserves disrespectful treatment like that.

But I don’t feel bad because I doubt it bothers him. He’s living a very full, very busy life. He’s married and he’s running businesses. I don’t think it even bothers him a little what some tiny subset of people online are saying because it’s so outlandish.

Not to make such a weird and overly dramatic connection, but it’s kind of like when I get “hate” from anons. It literally doesn’t bother me at all. I swear on my children, it just doesn’t even matter to me. If anything, I genuinely find it amusing. It doesn’t even annoy me.

So I can’t see someone like Josh being bothered by that sort of talk. About his wife whom he shares a life with.

What I can see annoying him slightly is her comments section constantly filling up with Kaylor stuff. It’s probably why he limited his own comments. That’s got to be annoying.

[mittensmorgul]

I would like to get my fics seen more, increase visibility; should I have a blog just for my fics? I don't really have one that i maintain regularly, nor do I really have the desire, and if i made one for fics, it would just be to get higher traffic from the tumblr crowd over to Ao3. So i'm wondering if it's worth the trouble. I don't write just to get views/kudos/comments, but i have to admit it is a little disheartening to put a ton of effort into something and get little response.

Oh gosh, hi. :D

I long ago abandoned my writing sideblog, @mittenwraith, which I only made because I was dumb enough to choose a different pseud when I signed up for AO3, and I figured people would be confused if they found me talking on the tumbls about my fic but with a different name... I realized I’m of the “we blog all our nonsense in one place” types of people. Either that or I’m just too disorganized to maintain two blogs, and most people who are here for fic are already following my main blog anyway. It seemed like a lot of work for little result.

I have no idea how, but I seem to get a lot more traffic on my fic on AO3 than I do on tumblr. I might get 100 notes on a fic on tumblr, but thousands of hits and hundreds of kudos on AO3, so I have no idea how that works. I’ve also been here writing and posting fic for nearly five years now, and had time to build up a decent subscriber list, so a lot of those people generating hits and kudos likely clicked through from the AO3 email, too, and never went through my tumblr at all.

I wish I knew of some sure-fire way to increase traffic on my fic. I don’t typically write tumblr one-shots, and I always post multi-chapter fic all at once rather than dragging it out WIP style (which generates an artificially inflated hit count anyway, and I’m not here for artificially inflated anything... if my works are gonna have hits, I want them organically... :’D)

And yeah, I absolutely do write because I want to read my stories myself, whether or not anyone else cares to read them. I love it, but it just hit kinda harsh doing that top ten tumblr posts thing and even with my (relatively, compared to like... gif makers and artists, and even the popular one-shot writers) paltry original post notes totals, none of my fic even came close to being among them. I get most people probably follow me for SPN meta, because following me for my original fic would be an exercise in tolerance considering I only post new fic on average about once a month. Hopefully the people who DO read and appreciate my fic are happy with what I post, though. In the end, that’s what matters most to me. Are we all having a good time? Yes? Then I feel really awkward complaining that I average something like 300 kudos on a fic. Because to 300 people, that fic was important to them in some way.

As for tumblr notes... I’ve been at this (writing fic) for almost five years now, and I haven’t discovered the magical secret to getting notes, so I think it’s probably about 90% luck, honestly. To everyone who has liked and reblogged my fic posts, I LOVE Y’ALL THE BESTEST. :’D

I used to think I would be happy to “artificially inflate” my notes total by posting chapter by chapter, but I realized I just... don’t care about notes bad enough to bother doing that. I figured if it was something I was truly fussed about, it would be worth it to me, but meh...

I’ve also noticed a large migration of fic writers to twitter, and considered publicizing the fact that I do have a fandom twitter account that I pretty much never, ever use... and just tweeting my fic there. My regular twitter is not for fandom stuff. I’ll occasionally reply to fandom twitter with it, but most of the people who follow me there aren’t in the fandom, so I avoid crossposting from tumblr, or posting my fic there. That’s probably another avenue to getting your work seen, though.

There’s also using the tags-- destiel tags, of course, and some of the fandom community tags if you’re part of something like the @profoundnet or the @writersofdestiel. Reblogging other writers’ works also leads to those writers reblogging your works. Participating in challenges that reblog your works to a wider audience can help, too, on top of having your works as part of those collections on AO3. It’s like having your fic shelved in the bestseller section, you know? The hope is that people who otherwise would never have found your stories will see them through those collections. And on tumblr, there’s also reblogging your own fic, several times over the first few days after posting, but also randomly throughout the year. For example, I reblog all my holiday fic around the holidays every year, and even four year old fic will see a nice little resurgence of interest. Outside of that, I think it’s just a matter of luck regarding which fic will take off.

I mean, with the series ending in just a few months, I expect there to still be a happy little community of fandom creators that will hang around, but we’ve already lost a ton of creative types to the tumblr nippocalypse, to regular fandom turnover, etc. Like original Star Trek, there will probably always be SPN fandom online, even if we’re not as active as we’ve been in the past. I figure if I’m going to continue creating for this fandom, it’s something I’ll have to set expectations to, you know? Because I’m not going anywhere, you’re stuck with me forever :’D

#the mysterious ways of fandom creatives #Anonymous

[sleepykalena]

“It’s not a problem if you don’t look up.”

I’m a POC and I love Jyn Erso.

And lately it seems like there are some folks (literally just a few folks, afaik) who seem keen on painting parts of the fandom with such a broad brush that their shouting has made their way into my corner. It’s such an angry brush, and I understand where the frustration comes from. But I’d like to remind anyone who’s bothered to actually look at this post:

Fandom is what you make of it.

I mean this in the intended sense as well as with regards to the things you create and put out there in the fandom itself. I don’t want to contribute to the anger or the fighting. I go out of my way to try and not pick fights with people. Yet somehow the fighting finds me. The real life has me tired. So tired. Between the Orange Skull, the racist white folk who decide to actively trash my POC friends and neighbors in one of the most liberal areas of the US, and politics within the industry I chose to have a career in, I just want to sit in my corner and do my thing on my own terms, with the people who’ve supported me, in my own little section of the Rebelcaptain fandom.

So here’s the thing about Jyn Erso, and why I love her so much: “it’s not a problem if you don’t look up.”

I have been raised as a second-generation Asian-American to keep my head down, stay quiet and don’t cause a stir, and just try and climb your way out of your social class and aim for a higher rung on the ladder. I was blessed to be raised with a level of privilege that the military comfortably provided me, with an income that brought food to the table and helped pay my tuition.

But that doesn’t change the atrocities committed against me as a female and a POC- the emotional manipulation, the sexual assault, the slurs thrown at me from people of all walks of life.

Regardless, I kept my head down and didn’t bother to “look up”. I literally do not like to look people in the eyes, because it implies I’m itching for a fight or a confrontation. I kept quiet where I could. I tried to make change where I was able to, knowing full well that it would make a difference. I would try my hardest to help others (and sometimes a little too hard if I think back on the last few months), only to find myself still beaten down by some other entity- be it the people I once trusted, by the powers that be in government, or even down to the people who try to fight for causes I also believe in. But if you piss me off enough, if you push my patience to the very edge and test me, then I will lose all sense of remorse for whatever I do unto you when I snap.

Jyn’s emotional development and attitudes aren’t too different from my own, and I love that this was written in to her character. Her character arc lines up so well with my own life and experiences that I will continue to write about her and draw her until my wrists break.

I also love Cassian Andor, but it has less to do with Diego Luna and more to do with my significant other (who, for the record, is also Latinx).

It seems expected that I would like him, given that I’m a rebelcaptain shipper, Lunatic, and likewise a fellow POC. But if it weren’t for my partner and all the qualities I see in him as I see them in Cassian, I don’t actually think I could be as fervent a rebelcaptain shipper as I am right now. Cassian’s brightest character points, as well as his darkest ones, are very easily found in my partner. In the same way that Cassian gave Jyn hope, my partner gives me hope in a world that deserves to be burning in the depths of whatever hell you happen to believe in. In the same way that Cassian internalizes all his character flaws, so too does my partner try his hardest not to dwell too much on the negative aspects about him. He’s quiet, a man of few words, and even fewer true ones. Cassian speaks just enough for people to be appeased, but the words carry little meaning, a ploy to comfort people to make sure he can live to fight another day. His words of honesty, of thoughts in his mind, are rare, and shared only to those he finds himself trusting. My partner is hardly any different.

But, if there’s anything he let himself admit to me, it’s that he loves that I’m there for him when he needs it, and that I’ve taught him to be less apathetic. Me, the cynic, the one bitter with the real world, had taught him to be less apathetic. Who’da thunk?

In every piece of fanfic I write, I almost inevitably fall back on this: Jyn teaches Cassian something that changes him for the better. It brings me immense joy to be told that I, a Jyn, had helped him, a Cassian, to be less apathetic, to care just a little bit more about his actions, how they affect others, and why he should take more effort to visibly care just a little bit more.

Is it a problematic trope? Sure, according to some of those folks in the fandom. But I write these stories because, for once, I made a difference to my partner’s life, to someone’s life. To me, Jyn teaching Cassian a thing is a result of her finally making a difference in a galaxy where she was inundated with the idea that her existence doesn’t matter, that what she does makes very little difference. My reasons for writing fic are intensely personal, and there are bits of me and my partner scattered in all of them, in various proportions.

What I don’t appreciate is being told that, as a POC and based on my personal experiences, my “silence” and refusal to be loud and join this tirade of sorts makes me complicit in what is allegedly rampant sexism and racism in the fandom.

Being a POC, particularly a WOC, puts a target on my back on the internet. I keep quiet, especially with regards to my racial identity, precisely because I know how dangerous it can be to open my mouth and scream too loudly into the void. Out of all the fights I want to pick, fandom “discourse” is far and away from my list of priorities. I’m busy trying to get my representatives in to make actual difference in my city, state, and country, informing myself for the broader problems that exist outside of this fandom, making money to put food on the table, etc. All I want to do is enjoy my corner of the fandom in peace, and not have an extra “duty” to fight this racial fight at the risk of looking like “a bad POC”. If anything, that puts an onus on POC to be “perfect” with all that preaching, and not only am I far from perfect, I also think that expectation is damaging to the movement as a whole.

Much like Jyn, you could ask me if I care not for the cause. Much like Jyn, I do. But, cynically, I have to say again: “It’s not a problem if you don’t look up”. Making that much noise to fight a cause is a huge waste of my time and effort because I’m surrounded by people who either 1) are so fully-formed in their development that they’re set in their ways and are otherwise unchangeable; 2) are already are aware of these issues and tropes, and thus I’d be preaching to the choir; or 3) don’t care for my existence because I’m not really a big name in the fandom.

But the biggest reason why I don’t make a huge noise about it is because fandom is what you make of it. These people literally have every right to write whatever trope they want, including exceedingly problematic ones, because- you guessed it- it’s their space too. I acknowledge that their presence exists and I refuse to share my space with them, but so long as you’ve written your line in the sand over your space, I won’t interfere with your space. Don’t interfere with mine. Any overlapping peers who happen to like us both are free to cross to and from the borders. My kink is not your kink, my headcanon is not your headcanon, but so what? I’ll still tell people to write that stuff anyway. Because that’s what they want to make of fandom, whether or not it’s canon/fanon, whether or not I like it.

I fight problematic tropes by setting an example. If kudos, views, notes, and comments are currency, then I, as one could phrase it, “talk with my money”. And believe me, some people have got me feeling pretty stingy. I think it’s far more effective to incite change in this small fandom by creating content that (hopefully) sets an example that inspires others to do things a little more like the way I do them, rather than trying to scream at people. I try my hardest not to adhere to these tropes or dynamics I find disagreeable. I boycott content from certain users if I find their presence and/or actions a threat to my enjoyment of the fandom. And I block people who regularly engage in fandom wank and abuse the tagging system. In a fandom that seems to be increasingly sensitive to note counts and feedback, my withholding of attention is a more than effective tool at showing people that I don’t like their stuff.

Does it create an echo chamber? You betcha! But this is my echo chamber; the real world is already looming over me with its own set of drama. Creating an echo chamber for my corner of the fandom and making a safe space out of it is something I deserve as a human being.

I’m relatively confident that others have taken the same policy and thus do not give me their attention to any of the things I’ve created. And that’s perfectly okay. It sucks, but it’s perfectly okay, because I don’t owe them my time just as much as they don’t owe me theirs.

I will fight by encouraging change to those in my purview in my own terms, in my own way. I refuse to be painted with this brush of being uncaring and complicit, especially when all I’ve seen from those people is hate against the enemies and very little uplifting, encouragement, and love to the ones they claim to fight for. I don’t even think they’ve read or liked a single thing I’ve ever made in the fandom; I am, in short, a POC not worth supporting. What’s more, their shouting had become so loud and so angry that I nearly cancelled a fic because it was a modern AU in which Cassian is Mexican-American and speaks Spanish off and on depending on the situation. I planned for him to speak Chicano English by default, but use Californian English whenever he’s outside his own home. I chose them because I think his identity and accent matter to the plot. These people, who were so fed up with the use of the Spanish language and Mexican identity for Cassian, had me scared to ever write this fic even though people I’ve discussed the story with insist that this upcoming fic is perfectly fine. It was hard to hear their support when the loudest voice in my head repeated all those gripes that other people had about the depiction of POC in the Rebelcaptain fandom, and it took several tries and a relentless barrage of support to give me back the courage to draft this fanfic, which has a huge socio-political slant specifically targeting the POC of the Rogue One squad.

The people who encouraged me to do it? Still predominantly white folk (and I deliberately choose not to use the word “women” here). I get support from people of different racial identities as well, no doubt (and one POC in particular comes to mind because she’s been my loudest supporter since I officially entered the fandom), but most of them have been white. 

My corner of the fandom has been peaceful and the least problematic, and the people are, at their very core, truly lovely people. I’m sorry that people mistake my alleged silence for compliance. I’m sorry that people find my work so uninteresting that it’s not worth their time to give me their support. I’m sorry that some people are finding their corner of the fandom violated and full of toxicity that no amount of blocking can help matters.

But please, for the love of every deity in human existence, keep your anger away from my corner of the fandom. I only get a few hours each week to myself, and I’ve chosen to spend it here. I want to make each minute count. And the next minute, and the next, on and on until I’m satisfied with my contributions here, or until the minutes are spent. Let me love Jyn and Cassian in my own way. Let me celebrate their relationship in my own way. Let me fight my fight in my own way. If you don’t like it, that’s fine! Use that currency I mentioned earlier and take your money elsewhere. But do not dictate how I should act within my space and place expectations on me because I’m a POC, and do not make assumptions about my character.

#1 #2 #rebelcaptain #jyn erso #fandom wank #sleepy rambles #a hell of a lot #tl;dr: let me do fandom things on my own terms and gtfo my lawn please #to co-opt Chirrut's line: #let me pass in peace

[fangirl-on-bitches]

To all anti-sakura’s supporters.

Okay so I’m doing this “letter” cause I’m sad and disappointed

I was re-watching Naruto Shippuden, around the chapters before the 4th war, when the 5 kages meet.

If you watched this chapters you know about Sakura’s decision to kill Sasuke on her own to: stop Naruto taking all the burden on his shoulders and to stop Sasuke on his path to darkness and revenge.

I was really bothered by the fact that, while the chapter load, I just glanced at the comment section and everyone was criticizing Sakura.

“She’s so stupid” “I hope she’s dead on the next few episodes, it’ll be a relief if she just goes away” etc, etc, etc

I know people have differences, and you know, maybe she was a little dumb on taking that decision on her own, but most of all she was brave. Her motives were noble, Sai was the one to communicate exactly what I was thinking at least, at the moment. She couldn’t see how Sasuke was loosing himself on the “dark side”.

I find it kind of pointless how many people just criticize her, but if someone else planned the exact same thing they would be all positive and shit. Not only that, but many people in the fandom just despise her for being annoying. I don’t hate anybody on Naruto, or in an anime, but I know so many annoying female characters that don’t receive half the shit Sakura’s character does.

You want to hate her for being annoying, okay, but please don’t deny her abilities. Suck up your pride and recognize she’s a capable ninja who grew so much she can be at Naruto’s and Sasuke’s level. Recognize her effort, she doesn’t have a Kekkei Genkai from birth or a Bijuu, all she earned was hours of practice and effort.

With this I’m not saying Naruto or Sasuke didn't work hard, they did, but so did Sakura and the fandom just dismisses her.

What also bothers me is how incapable people is of accepting canon. I understand you wanted Naruto and Sasuke to be together, but it didn’t happen, Kishimoto decided to finish things how they did.

Sarada is Sakura’s and Sasuke’s daughter, and even if she’s not her biological mother (which, according to Boruto’s Manga and Anime she is) she was her mother. She was with her all the time, Sakura raised Sarada as her own child and loved her as much as a mother loves her daughter.

And last but not least, I hate, but it really just pisses me off how people who are anti-sakura fans just tag posts on the sasusaku tag, or in pro-sakura tags. 

C’mon people, you are more mature than that, let me enjoy beautiful fan art and fanfics without being interrupted by a shitpost on how “Sakura is so annoying, Sasuke derved better”. You keep it to your anti-sakura tag, don’t plague other tags.

Thank you for your attention, if I got any. 

#naruto #sakura #pro-sakura #sasusaku #multisaku #boruto #sarada

[writelively]

So you’re nervous about leaving comments on stories!

(From someone who has written over 150 stories online.)

First I’m going to give some tips for people with anxiety or those who are just nervous about offending a writer! You can skip this though and go straight to the second part if you like. 

The second part (look for the 2′s) will be actual comments that you can copy and paste into the comment section of any story!

Something is better than not commenting at all, I promise!

I get it, it’s hard to come up with things to say that sound genuine and won’t waste the writers time. Well, the good news is: Comments take seconds to read and if you’re not being nasty, it’s never a waste of time!

Yay!

So I can write a short comment and they won’t be upset?

I don’t know about other writers, but (very) short comments are almost all I ever get. And they still make me smile and my heart flutter. Comments are what drive me as a writer! Short ones still make me happy, so don’t worry about it, if that’s all you can manage!

Isn’t it a bit shallow to ‘write for comments’?

What else am I writing for, buddy? I am writing for the fandom, not just myself! I write because there’s a sense of community and it’s fun to talk about the things I love and to make people feel !!~EMOTIONS~!! is the best feeling I get with my writing! It’s what has made this hobby take up so much of my life for a decade and a half.

But what if I want to give constructive criticism? 

Will the person be okay with that? Good question. One good way of telling if they’ll be okay with what you say is: Did they ask any sort of question in the author’s notes? If they did, they are definitely trying to hear your voice, so don’t be afraid to speak your mind!

If you want to give advice or say something that bothered you about a fic, you can say 2 positive things before the negative comment and 1 positive comment to wrap it up. This way, they have lots to be happy about and are more likely to take your negative comment as good natured.

IE:  “Wow, your characterization is so on point! I loved the way you described Frodo’s eyes! I didn’t feel like the fight scene with Legolas really fit the tone of the story, but the part when he rests his head on Gimli’s shoulder was both adorable and hilarious!”  

As a writer, a comment like this would tickle me to death! I would literally go back immediately and reread the parts you talked about. (Ok, I’ve never written LoTR fanfics, but you get my point.)

But I’m not that good with specific writer things like ‘tone’ or ‘characterization’?

Also fine! How about this:

IE: “More of those kisses and cuddles plz! :D Ahh Captain Kirk was so cute! The story could use more dialogue, but I love all the fluff!”

Totally okay to use emojis, keysmashing and text talk. They just further show how you’re feeling and we LOVE that!

But I hated it, disagreed with its content, the pairing, etc? 

Time to read something else, buddy! It’s not worth the stress on your body to give attention to something you hate. If someone was passionate enough about something to write about it, you won’t change any minds. Give your attention and passion to what you love and support the writers who write your interests! It’s better for everyone. I’ve been in fandoms for 15 years now and I can tell you that you will NOT be changing anyone’s mind. For yourself, move on.

I only felt ‘meh’ about this story, do I still have to comment?

Depends! Did you read the entire thing? If you did and still aren’t super ‘into’ it, but also didn’t hate it, maybe just write a simple single line like the ones I have listed below. If it was SO meh, that you actually regret reading it, don’t comment negatively. It could be a new writer and we don’t want to discourage new writers from writing!  You could leave constructive criticism like above, or something small like below.

This writer is clearly very popular / the story already has comments.

Before you decide that a writer has ‘too many comments’ or ‘too many notes’ remember that on sites like Ao3, replies and replies to replies count as ‘comments’. If the writer replies to most of the comments, the number is going to look like it’s double what it actually is. And we always appreciate every comment!  On tumblr, ‘liking’ something counts as a note. Reblogging with out tags or comments also counts as a note, but it’s better than just a like. 

Remember, we love attention. We love to hear what you have to say. I’ve never seen a writer put in their bottom notes ‘Please don’t comment, I don’t care.’

If something has 400 comments or is super old and you think that the author probably won’t care, it doesn’t hurt to write something small! Just give it a shot! Even if they don’t reply, they still might see it.

I see people commenting on my work from 10 years ago and though I barely remember the fandom, it still makes me giggle. I love it!

But in the end, the judgement call on whether or not you’ll comment is yours to make.

I want something to happen in a later chapter, can I tell you that?

You can, but do not demand or expect that someone will steer the story line off where they were going for you. You may want to word in a way that makes it seem like you HOPE it will happen, rather than you ASKING for it to happen.

IE:

NOT this:  Please let them kiss in the next chapter!!  DO this:  Aaaahhh, I hope they kiss, the tension is killing me! NOT this: Make Harry ask Luna to the dance. DO this:  Luna keeps staring at Harry, and he keeps noticing. I see what you’re doing thereeee~ SIDE NOTE: Demanding any sort of smut/kinks/AUs/pairings/etc that the writer might be uncomfortable with and haven’t been brought up in the story is probably not okay. If you want to make a request like that, make sure the writer is OK with requests and if they are, request a completely different story.   

If you’re worried a request might freak them out, try and do a little research. 

Remember, tons and tons of teens and kids (underagers) write fanfics. Many of them may be writing things that are above their age grade. If you accidentally read one of these, just back away and don’t interact. It is illegal.

If you ARE a minor writing things like smut, remember: It’s still illegal. If you have any more questions about this, feel free to ask. But remember, always keep it SFW when you’re talking to an adult. If an adult knows you are underage and still wants to talk to you about / show you / RP smut and the like, back away. That is predatory and real kids AND teens have gotten hurt in this way.

OKAY! If you have more comments or suggestions, feel free to reblog and add them!   Now for the copy and past part of our topic here!

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PART 2: COPY AND PASTE COMMENTS!!

Simple one-liners that you can use and reuse when you’re too nervous to write something yourself! Like I said above, writers will love anything! Just pick one (or more if you like) comment from below that you like, copy and paste it into the comment box on other sites or put it in your tags or ‘reply’s on tumblr! 

No need to mention you used the list AND you can customize them as much as you like!

Many of these are based on comments I have received in the past, that have made me smile! I am not adding numbers, so that they are easier to copy and paste. Feel free to save this in your drafts, if you want easy access in the future!

Here we go:

This is really cute and I would love it if you continued.

This is really good! I like this idea. If you are still thinking about updating it I would be excited to see this story progress.

Awesome :D really hoping you'll continue

This was sweet and I would very much like to read more!

I can’t wait to hear more about __________ !

Love this so much!

Very interesting start. I look forward to reading the next chapter.

I'm already hooked... It's very well written :D

I was already hooked by the summary and I was ready for more by the end of the chapter. 

To put it quite simply I loved it, and I hope you write more chapters.

This is really interesting, you have yourself a new fan. Update soon? 

I can't wait to see where you go with this story!

OHMYGOD YESYESYES

HOW CAN YOU LEAVE US WITH A CLIFFHANGER LIKE THAT?! 

_______ was my favorite line. love it.

You write beautifully, I love how you describe emotions!

This is interesting! I would like to see how you could make your short story ideas into a full story.

I like the character's interactions with each other, very interesting dynamics.

Ohh, please, update soon. Seems interesting and cool.

This looks very promising! 

You kept me on the edge of the seat, but sadly it ended!

Will you update this? I wouldn't mind reading more of this!

I'm into this story already! Please update soon! :)

I started to read this out of curiosity, kinda thinking 'What? This can't possibly work!' and the next few minutes of my life were spent squeeing in joy.

You have converted me into a shipper!

UGH THE PAIN! You’re so evil, my heart hurts! (And I love it!)

I just started reading this as a sort of masochistic dare with myself... Dammit, why does this pairing just... work? 

You're gonna turn me into a shipper, I swear to God.

I beginning to love this couple and it's all your fault!

Thank you, this is really cute!

I freaking love this pairing and it sucks that it isn’t more popular! Thanks for adding to it!

This was fun to read!

They are such an adorable couple

So few views?! That’s just wrong, this was so awesome!

Hmmm well now I kinda like this pairing...

I like this, it's sweet :') think you should continue it!

I would very much be interested in reading more if you were willing to write it. I like your set up in this chapter.

I would like to read more

S’good! And cute!

Brilliant! Please post more soon!

I can hardly wait for an update! :)

The way the characters are written is fantastic and believable, keep it up!

By any chance are you going to continue with this fic? It's quite good.

I hope your thinking of continuing this! I seriously love it!

This is honestly one of the best _________ stories that I’ve ever read.

Your stories are pretty good I must say, but this one really sticks out at me.

I beg you to continue your story if you have more to tell!

Should you post more I will definitely read your updates.

Please post more, I NEED to know what happens!

ASKLDJHS LKJFHKJSFLF ALSKD JC

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hjasfg;aoiuhfiwlfidsaifu

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh;;;

The part with ______________ was really clever!

Oh, no no no! You can't leave it like this! It will haunt me forever!

Love this story! Even though the chapters were short, your story had a lot in it!

It was never lacking mystery and had me on edge waiting for the next chapter.

Wow... what's going to happen? *_*

I love it and I hate it, it’s so awesome, but it hurts and I hate it and I love it. WHY.

ok. I wasn't expecting that. That was really really really sad....

I  cant believe you ended it that way!

GREAT FIC! I LOVE IT! PLEASE UPDATE SOON 

MORE! MORE! MORE!...Ahem... sorry... I absolutely loved it. Please write more!

The little sinister things are what intrigue us to move onward. So keep writing! I'll be waiting for the next chapter with anticipation!

I think it was an adorable chapter, maybe a little OOC, but still cute nonetheless. :)

Wow, what an unexpected ending!

gah this is beautiful ❤

I love everything you write!

Holy shit dude yes

Everything. Literally everything about this. Just... yes. 

I love this, it’s really good!

You’re a fantastic writer.

I can’t believe you were nervous to post this! I’m so glad you did.

Bravo!!

Bless you man. This is lovely!

The characters, the set up, the descriptions, the dialogue... All of it was perfect!

You write them exactly as I see them! Thank you!

Characterization was perfect, holy crap.

DUUUUUUUUDE!!!!!! 

Great now I’m all bothered~

*wipes away sweat* wow that was hot

*wipes away a tear* oh my god....

Such good content to stumble upon, thank you for writing and sharing!

HELL YEAH!!

HELL YEAH?!

Woah. Just... woah.

My heart is shattered :’(

Holy shit that’s gonna keep me up at night....

Excuse me while I go find a shoulder to cry on!

I need a hug after that!

THANK YOU!

That is all I have time for today. I may add more in the future and you can always feel free to add some if you like too! 

THANK YOU AND REMEMBER TO ENJOY ADDING COMMENTS BECAUSE YOU MAKE WRITERS DAYS, WEEKS AND SOMETIMES IT CAN MAKE A LITERAL WORLD OF DIFFERENCE FOR US!

END NOTE: I wrote this up because I see a lot of posts from writers talking about how hurt they are that no one bothers to comment and people retorting that they’re too nervous to post. So I made this to make it easy!      99.99% OF WRITERS WILL LOVE YOU FOR COMMENTS!

Writers can’t do commissions like artists can, so this is the best way to support us! (Yes, I understand commissions are POSSIBLE, but it’s very difficult and in most of the instances I’ve seen people try it, someone is always disappointed. Most of us just want you to talk to us!)

#fandom advice #not sure what to even tag this as so please reblog so nervous people can see it? #social anxiety #i just want to help #feel free to ask questions #over chat or anonymously or not anonymously but tell me not to post it #it's all okay #i am here to help and answer questions!