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evilminji · 20 days

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Been Watching Weird Fruit Explorer(?)... and I just...

W-Who let Bored Danny have BooTube?

Sorry, YOU-Tube. He has TWO Apps now. BooTube is bigger. Way more random, yet... somehow more niche? Meh. It's what happens when you get billions of billions of people who all have their own Obsessions to rant over, on a site.

Ember's channel is pretty lit, tho, ngl.

He stopped using YOU-Tube almost overnight. Too many ads, weird algorithmic pushiness. No thanks. It was too small and too "trying to take my money". You know?

Buuuuut? See.... TUCKER is the Tech guy.

Coding and that sort of stuff. HE does hands on work. You want a toaster? He can MAKE you a toaster! With LAZERS! Runs off The Goo! But a program? Eeeeeeeh? Hit it with hammer maybe? Monkey make fire? Hit with stick? Blergh.

Yeah, he can SORTA push through.

But he suuuucks.

And like... he had a headache, okay? His project had just, quiet literally, exploded in his face. So when he looked at his phone? All the apps were blobs. He clicked the one that LOOKED kinda right. Shoved his arm in his phone and brute forced a channel set up.

He figured he could ramble about Space!

It's not like he cared is anyone LISTENS or not! It's a "for him" thing, you know? Like a diary. But more... putting on a ☆~show~☆?

So he rambles from the floor of his Lair's Lab, crashs and wails in the distance, green sky occasionally visible as he lazily floats by windows. Dropping... juuuust past human knowledge understanding of Space. Talking like he's STUDYING somewhere. Referencing PAPERS no human will ever be able to find.

But a few they WILL.

Some of which, are currently? Only half written.

But then? Oh YEAH... he should eat! You know... Sam keeps bringing him fruits and veggies and stuff from her internship at that Botanical Lair. Stuff never seen before of Earth. Or hasn't been seen in centuries.

Again, like, a FEW that? Randomly? Have???

He picks up something sharply purple, bright orange insides. Crisp crunch. He makes a face. And starts to ramble about it, distracted from Space. "Weirdly mushroom-y" he notes. "Kinda bubblegum sweet? But like... CHEAP bubblegum. Like it hits you all at once and is kinda chemically. But it disappears real fast? Huh. Spicy too..."

It's the first video on the Playlist. One of hundreds. Two of the green Lanterns RECONIZE that fruit ad HIGHLY toxic to humans, can't recognize what planet they're seeing. Or how this alien teen got himself on YouTube.

He seems... unaware of how incredibly famous he's become.

But his strange techno Pharoah friend has not. HE is both perfectly aware and apparently amused. Has taken to feeding him rare and hazardous flora and fauna, to see if it tastes good.

....there have been an alarming number of plants from dead planets.

And the comments the kid makes? Alarming as hell.

Sam's just pleased everybody's getting their greens. Danny's glad him n tuck get to hang and do "try weird foods and fuck around, bro time". They've made lazers! Talked about stuff! Debated why Martian Manhunter is THE superior Justice League member.

Danny understands. Wonder Woman is a BAMF. But he's biased, Tucker. He doesn't CARE if she has a sword and flowy, impressive locks! Shape-shifting telepath! From MARS!!! *imaginary mic drop*

And Tucker? Is conquering the YouTube scene with this charming, weird, relatable young alien. Who rambles about Space, debates nerd stuff, eats weird plants and describes them, and makes sci-fi technology! Theme? WHAT THEME? Phantom is a weird channel, man. You never know what you'll find!

And no one can get rid of it.

Believe them, governments have TRIED. Censorship? Not possible. Not without removing the whole SITE.

#dpxdc #dp x dc #dc x dp #dcxdp #minji's writing #bootube to youtube au #internet famous au

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whitehotharlots · 1 year

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Actually, most stuff *isn’t* political; you are just insane

Over the last several years, what was once a niche academic observation has become something of a mantra in left-liberal spaces: everything is political. (Everything is ideological doesn’t quite mean the same thing, but in effect the two assertions are interchangable).

There’s a grain of truth here, as anyone who smoked pot in high school and just, like, had some really deep thoughts will confirm. In order to understand any statement or work of art--in order to communicate--there must exist some shared understandings and beliefs between senders and receivers. Okay, great. Whoopdee doo. That’s some real philosophy major-level shit. You should write a fucking book about.

In spite of being unbearably tedious, this observation has become an all-consuming basal assumption underlying every left-liberal analysis of social issues and criticism of cultural artifacts. No longer are artists and commentators allowed to insist that some things simply fall outside the lens of our manichean partisan binary. No sir. Anyone whose work isn’t explicitly progressive is actually a secret reactionary, and so every work--from sitcoms to video games to journalistic descriptions of city hall meetings--must soak itself in the treacle of cultural liberalism.

If you’re writing a scene in which a black guy and a white guy are friends, you better fucking include a soliloquy in which privilege is reflected upon. If you’re making a breakfast cereal commercial that doesn’t feature at least one person of every conceivable racial marking, you might as well sign up for a job with the Daily Caller. Anyone who tries suggesting that, hey, I’m sorry I didn’t think it was a big deal that we didn’t make the Honey Nut Cheerio’s Bee gender non-conforming, I swear to god I didn’t think this was political is an idiot liar who deserves something far worse than prison. Why? Because everything is political, politics can only be understood within the contemporary Democrat-Republican split, and fascism happens the second our vigilance falters in the slightest.

You all see how retarded this is, right? How much it’s ruining people’s brains? At the very least, you can grasp how this hampers one’s ability to just enjoy stuff, let alone be able to understand its artistic and cultural importance outside the very narrow and stupid and 99% inapplicable lens of contemporary American politics?

I’m sorry, but I’m tried of lying about this shit. There’s nothing political about Kramer storming into Jerry’s apartment. There’s nothing political about Charlie Kelly blowing cigarette smoke into a hornet’s nest. There’s nothing political about the Pink Panther’s appearance in Owens Corning Insulation commercials.

Yes, you can get a byline or a humanities degree suggesting otherwise, so long as you’re craven enough to ignore context and authorial intent and also you think comprehensibility is bad. Again, good for you. But the rest of us, we are not professional lying shitheads, we have lost patience with the bullshit and are begging you to please shut the fuck up.

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otrtbs · 4 months

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I have the craziest idea. How about instead of being rude and disrespectful to all the nice people that provide us with content we love for our niche lil fandom (you know…the ones that provide us with FREE fanart and fanfics?) we instead THANK THEM for being lovely human beings for giving us all this free stuff and if we disagree with or don’t like a fic or piece of art we move on without being shitty about it?

also guess what? If you don’t like a ship in a fic…there are filters. If you don’t like a trope in a fic…there are filters. YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ IT. Nobody is holding a gun to ur head (like Evan and Barty when Reggie interviewed James) and saying you will only live if you read a fic you don’t like the whole way through and then post ur horrible opinion online.

smh why are people like this???

Anyway…thanks sm for ahb I absolutely loved it and it’s the reason I want to do art history a level <333.

hi !!! love you!!! <333

the thing is the person who made that tiktok makes art for the marauders fandom ??? like genuinely where is the disconnect there?? what if ppl started making videos just ripping their art to shreds ??? they’re just a creative bashing other fandom creatives for some tiktok likes and engagement. truly vile behavior.

and it’s open season in that comment section. fandom is supposed to feel like a loving or supportive community and those fuckwads are content to make it as hateful and divisive as possible as long as they get a few tiktok likes from it. pathetic!

also it’s not a “you’re just mad ppl hate ur favorite fics/something u wrote” issue. bc no one is saying that. nothing is going to be universally agreed upon. like not everything is everyone’s cup of tea. it’s how you move on and talk about the things you enjoy instead of the ones you hate that make fandom a place for experimenting and make it an encouraging creative place. like grow up. talk about your issues w fics privately w friends. blasting it on the internet is just so fucking loserly.

N E WAYZ please let me know how your a levels go and thank you for being so sweet !! xx

#asks

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tippenfunkaport · 1 year

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Quickstart Guide to getting into the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power fandom on Tumblr

(Maybe someone has made one of these already but i am behind because of NaNoWriMo so I am making my own because I do what I want.)

Welcome to Tumblr, new or returning user! It's lovely here and the SPOP fandom is still quite active. Here's a quickie guide on how to become a part of it!

Finding content

Confusingly, this fandom uses three main tags: SPOP, She Ra, SheRa (Tumblr ignores case as well as the - in She-Ra so using She-Ra is effectively exactly the same as using just She Ra or she ra). Then there are tags for individual ships (some of the most popular ones are Catradora, Entrapdak, Glimbow, Seamista, Scorfuma etc).

To find content, search for either one of the main fandom tags (spop, shera, she ra) or the tag for your favorite character or ship. They'll be a big blue follow button under the tag you can press so that Tumblr will automatically pepper new posts from your followed tags into your dash.

Then, while you're looking at the search results, take note of who's posting stuff you like and start to follow the people whose posts you dig so they'll appear on your dash. (Understand that some blogs are side blogs so the blog that you followed and the one that follows you back or likes your stuff may have completely different names because one is the side blog and one is the main.)

Looking for something niche? Try a combo of terms! (Tumblr recently changed things so you can search within post content AND tags. So if you're getting, say, Hunger Games and My Little Pony results while trying to search for Glimmer, try searching for Glimmer SPOP instead to narrow the results down.)

Just remember that search results and tag results are different things! Search results show all posts with those terms anywhere in the post while tag results are literally only posts tagged with that exact phrase.

Sharing your content

When posting, make sure you tag your content in the tag field at the bottom of the posting form, each tag separately. As you start to type, the site will helpfully suggest popular tags to get your started. Unlike on other sites, you CAN have spaces in your tags (so it's Best Friend Squad not BestFriendSquad). No need to add the hashtag, Tumblr will do that for you after you hit submit.

At the least, you'll want to include the base fandom tags (spop, shera, she ra) and then any ships or characters in your post (Catra, Adora, Entrapta, etc). Other tags it might be helpful to add are any triggers, descriptors like fanart, fanfic, meta, incorrect quotes, etc or something for your own blog organization (like "my art" or "fics by me"). In yee olden days of Tumblr, you had to do things like make "Catradora fanart" or "shera catra" a tag (and some people still do this out of habit) but the way Tumblr has changed search, if you just make Catradora and fanart separate tags, it will show for anyone who searches for both.

Making Friends and Followers: Reblog and interact!

Tumblr lets you be as social (or not!) as you want. The reason the site is called Tumblr is posts get tossed around and around with other users adding tags and notes that (in theory anyway) make it better and get you more engagement: like a rock tumbler making dirty rocks all shiny. There are a million posts already on here that say this but I'm going to say it again: Likes do nothing. They are basically bookmarks. The way to connect with people on here and to keep the fandom alive is to reblog content and, if you want, add comments or tags.

See a cool headcanon? Reblog and add your thoughts! Someone posts a fanfic idea? Reblog and let them know how excited you'd be to read that! Every post on Tumblr is a collaboration and reblogs are how you pass posts around and support the content creators.

If people don't want you to interact with their posts, they will turn reblogging off so you never have to worry that your commentary isn't welcome. Reblogging your own stuff with commentary is a great way to get more engagement on it (say reblogging your fanart a few days after you posted it with some behind the scenes trivia about what gave you the idea for it or what brushes you used or reblogging to add some of your favorite reader comments from your fanfic).

Reblog the stuff you like and if you really like it? Reblog it now and queue it up to post again later. Reblog your own stuff multiple times. Don't worry about being annoying, that is 100% the culture on here so you'll fit right in. There's no algorithm so your blog is less like a book people will read in order and more like a TV channel: not everyone is watching at the same time so reruns let people catch the stuff they missed.

The more often you post about something, the more likely you are to find others who are into the same thing you are and that will help you find your happy little corner of Tumblr where you can thrive.

Discourse and drama

There is, blissfully, far less discourse and drama on here than other platforms but blocking on Tumblr is secret so feel free to block with wild abandon and no one will ever know. Want to be a little hater yourself? Know that it's a major faux pas to put ship or character hate in the tags. So if you really hate Melog, and you tag your anti-space kitty screed "anti Melog"... just know that everyone who searches for Melog will see that post unless they have specifically blocked the tag "anti melog" because Tumblr search includes tags. If you want to drink your haterade in peace, don't use the main fandom tags on anti posts and tag it as "discourse" or "drama," two commonly blocked tags. If you are a messy bitch who loves drama and WANT the people who love the character or ship to see your Big Angry Fandom Feels... just don't be surprised when the people who do love the characters or ship you are hating on interact with your posts or block you. And, on the other side, blocking the haters is as easy as blocking the users themselves or the hater tags (examples: "anti spinnerella" or "anti swift wind").

Which is all to say, be a little hater if you want but Tumblr is very much an f around and find out kind of platform so choose your experience wisely. And don't be surprised if people choose to block.

Which brings up a very important thing we're already seeing play out with new users: if you are used to a site with an algorithm such as TikTok or Twitter, you probably didn't realize how much it was coddling your fandom experience by specifically showing you posts it knows you'll agree with. Now that you're on a site with no algorithm, you're free from the insular feedback loop that you were in before and many of you are realizing that what you took to be popular takes are actually fringe opinions. It's jarring to realize you've been duped but you should be directing your anger at the platform that manipulated you, not your fellow fans who haven't been brainwashed into believing whatever you swallowed.

Other cool stuff

Download the xkit desktop browser extension for some extra features that make Tumblr even easier to use

Your blog has a queue which lets you stock up posts that Tumblr will release for you on a schedule of your choosing. VERY useful for when you go on a spree and want to reblog a billion things in a row but don't want to completely take over your followers dash. Throw all those posts in your queue and your blog will look active for days to months without you having to do anything. (This is actually the only way I blog, almost everything you see on my blog was queue up in advance)

Open up asks for art or fic prompts, questions or other conversation starters (You can block any annoying askers, even if they are anonymous!)

Schedule posts in advance such as for your favorite character's birthday or holiday / date specific stuff

tags are for visibility... but they are also for chatting and commentary? it's weird but you'll get used to it

there's no visible follower count so we're all pretty much on equal footing no matter how many followers you have

dates are hard to find on posts by design! posts never expire and old post make the rounds again all the time. It's NEVER "creepy" to go through someone's blog and like or reblog a billion old posts but every much encouraged. In fact, going through old posts to fill your queue is a great way to not only give yourself content but also give a blog you love new life!

Welcome to the SPOP fandom on Tumblr, we're happy to have you!

And that's all I can think of at the moment! Questions? Feel free to ask em and I'll do my best!

#spop #shera #she ra #catradora #tumblr #fandom #If you are an active SPOP tumblr blog you fully have my permission to promote yourself on this post #might as well make it easier for people to find each other #catra #she ra and the princesses of power #netflix

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unstabledumbdoll · 8 months

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I get why you're scared to use main fandom tags for posting darker stuff but remember that antis are essentially a very loud hateful minority. Unfortunately % of them are higher in some fandoms, especially newer fandoms on places like tiktok.

I'm a content creator of relatively 'messed up' stuff (although in relatively old fandom) and thankfully hardly ever encounter those haters. Ofc it's bit on luck's side plus fandom being niche and uninteresting to teenagers but here are few tips that helped me throught the years:

- block antis on sight. No discussion, no debate - hard block. And not only that but scroll through anti tags, blogs, comments etc. scroll through notes and block anyone exhibiting anti typical behavior. Rake through their blogs and block those who reblog posts from antis. I know it's time consuming and can't be done overnight. I've been doing that for 2 years and 9/10 times when I see someone complaning about antis I'm happy to realize I have that anti blocked

- ommit using proship tag on posts that aren't about general fandom attitudes (meaning posts like how people should ship and let ship etc.). 90% of all hates I've attracted had been from social media posts using word proship. Truth is antis aren't too bright, they react to buzzwords like proship, age gap, anti anti etc. Plus are bullies that are seeking target via those tags. In case of just tagging art of darker ship with ship name and no proship tag you'd possibly have just antis from that fandom on your back, not all antis. Sadly proship label has been dragged through the mud over the years and people are known for jumping the gun. There are legit younger folks out there who think it's a synonym with a child molester or something. Unfortunately most antis fall into cognitive bias, hence trying to tell them their views on certain things are off-mark would fall on deaf ears

- when joining new fandom rake through tags and blogs for search of hateful individuals in that particular fandom. Block them and anyone with proship dni in bio that you can find

- never respond to hate where said hater can see. Talk about it with friends on DMs or somewhere you're sure antis can't see. They're like leaches, they feast on negative energy they create in fandoms. All they care about is winning an argument, no matter the cost. Responding and explaning yourself does sounds intuitive but in actually is counterproductive as it creates more drama which adds more fuel to the fire. Block anon who sent hate, block whoever leaves hateful reblogs or replies and act like that person doesn't even exist

- best remedy to a callout post or controversy is to ignore it and let it die out. Close anons and go private on social media for time being until dust settles down. Block the drama starter and all of those who interact with drama post. Don't post anything for few days if drama really gets out of hand. Haters are in for fast burning drama, source of drama being unresponsive won't be of interest to them. In a week or two they won't even remember what has happened, they'd move onto a new thing or target cuz capitalism consumption of internet stuff - nothing can hold their interest for too long

aww, thank you for those helpful tips anon! maybe when i get enough courage to post in the main tags of a fandom i'll use those! ❤️

#anon ask #asks #proship #antis dni

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alliluyevas · 3 months

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Fic Author Interview (meme)

I was tagged by the lovely @heckofabecca. Thanks, Becca :)

1- How many works do you have on AO3?

71...I honestly was a bit surprised it was that many. I guess I've had that account a while and it adds up! Almost all of them are oneshots, though.

2- What's your total AO3 word count?

204,091.

3- What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

They're all ATLA, which makes sense when you think about it. ATLA is probably the second-biggest fandom I've written for other than ASOIAF, but ASOIAF is so big it's sometimes hard to get noticed. That being said, when I sort by hits, three of the top five are ASOIAF so I guess more people are reading those and not liking them. It probably helps that my top-kudos ATLA fics are all Zuko-centric and he's one of the most popular ATLA characters in fic whereas I think the ASOIAF topics I focus on are perhaps a bit more niche.

tongued with fire (728 kudos)

i got soul, but i'm not a soldier (714 kudos)

cold fire (655 kudos)

we die with the dying; we are born with the dead (597)

the sword and the pen (577 kudos)

4- Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! I'll respond to all comments on recently published fic (unless it's a hate comment, which I delete) and for older works I try to respond, especially if it's a substantive comment. I like to engage with readers, especially since I tend to write a lot of really niche fandoms and it's nice to connect with other fans.

5- What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

probably either another atla fic that's set right after ursa leaves zuko and azula behind or this big love fic which has an ending that is... not necessarily angsty for the narrator but super bleak in context.

6- What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I don't typically write fluffy romantic fic (I usually do more bittersweet gen focused on family relationships) but I did when I participated in the Jaime/Brienne ship exchange a few times and this bakery-themed modern AU is probably my fluffiest/happiest ending. Exchanges are kind of fun because this is very much the type of fic I would not have ever written on my own.

7- Do you write crossovers?

I have not!

8- Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes, lol. My Lannister twins genderswap fic was very controversial among a certain subset of fans who vocally disagreed with my characterization (I will sum this up as them basically believing that genderswapped Jaime would just be canon Cersei which...lol). That's the only fic I've ever got hate comments on, though I did get a really bizarre comment back in ninth grade on FF.net before I migrated to ao3 where the person enjoyed the fic but also used the comment to grandstand against abortion, a topic that in no way was mentioned in my fic. Sir This Is A Wendy's.

9- Do you write smut?

I do write sex scenes but I wouldn't describe them as smut because they're non-explicit and mostly like fade to black stuff.

10- Have you ever had a fic stolen?

YES LMFAOOOOOOOO SOMEONE TOOK A MULTICHAPTER FIC I WROTE ABOUT NINA AND OLEG FROM THE AMERICANS AND SELF-PUBLISHED IT ON AMAZON AS AN EBOOK.

11- Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think someone asked if they could translate one of my fics into another language but it was years ago and I don't remember if they did it or not or which fic it was or even which language it was.

12- Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, my first ever fic! Me and my best friend wrote it in sixth grade and it's an unfinished sequel to Ivanhoe. We never published it, though. It's really, really bad lol.

13- What's your all-time favorite ship?

Tony and Carmela Soprano. sorry. Not ship in the fandom sense but...relationship of all time. (I honestly tend to write for canon pairings that I want to build on, anyway). In the traditional sense of "wanting them to get together in canon", probably Jaime/Brienne.

14- What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I honestly don't really have a lot of published WIPs, because I tend to do oneshots and if they're not ready they're just not published. Right now I do have a two-chapter Greek mythology/Iliad retelling I wrote in high school that is absolutely never going to get updated ever, but frankly I don't feel particularly strongly about finishing that. I did have an actual multichapter WIP with the Lannister genderswap fic that I really felt bad about not working on, but I finally finished it!

15- What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good with dialogue and characterization! A lot of my fic focuses on precanon/younger versions of canon characters ("flashback fic") and I think I'm pretty good at developing backstories. Also if I may say so myself, I write decent prose.

16- What are your writing weaknesses?

Plotting, which is why I tend to do shorter character-study stories. I really struggle with doing actual plotlines. (This is also a problem in my original fiction, lol. I'm always like. Okay I have these fascinating people in an interesting setting. Now what the hell are they going to do).

17- What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If it makes sense in context, like a bilingual character, sure. I do think it should probably be written so that it's clear what is going on to readers who only know the primary language of the fic, though.

18- What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Other than the aforementioned Ivanhoe sequel, it was Harry Potter.

19- What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Can't really think of anything!

20- What's your favorite fic you've written?

I'm very proud of the Lannister genderswap fic because it's probably my most significant achievement in terms of plotting, which as I mentioned is hard for me, and I'm really happy I returned to it after over a year's hiatus and finished it! I'm also really proud of this big love fic because I appreciate the effort I put into fleshing out the characters' world (including historical research) and I think it is a really good work of character study.

Tagging @when-did-this-become-difficult @ofhouseadama and anyone else who wants to do this, I can't think of many mutuals on here whose fanfiction output I'm particularly familiar with.

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tavina-writes · 4 months

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Have you any suggestions for someone who has started recently (few months ago) to publish fics on ao3 and doesn't get a lot of hits/kudos? I feel a little down and insecure, and I don't know if it's my writing the problem or the fact that the pair is not the main and not liked much

Hi Nonny!

This is a difficult conflict to have with yourself, and I'm sure that like, you've seen all the posts about how like "you should be self indulgent! you should write for yourself! who cares about engagement!" and this both is and isn't true. But also even if you think it is true and you'd like to get some of that energy it's very difficult and for that sending you so many hugs. It is very normal to feel insecure about sharing something you've made, and I think writers of all levels of experience and "engagement" feel down about themselves like this in cycles.

idk if I'm qualified to say a ton on this topic, but I've seen lots of "unhealthy relationship to stats page" and could tell real stories about horrible things that have happened so I guess here goes nothing?

A few things to keep in mind:

what do you consider "not a lot" ? 10? 100? 1000? One of the major problems of focusing overtly on hits/kudos/comments/and other things you can't change is that inevitably if you achieve the "number of your dreams" you will....get a new number that you want. It will be bigger. Chasing this type of external numbers based validation to the exclusion of other stuff is very difficult because it is one of those sliding slope black holes to never being satisfied with what is currently going on. This is my primary thought on why focusing on stats isn't very good: it's very easy to get into a never ending cycle of never being happy.

as someone who's written for several years: we're coming up on the winter holidays, end of the semester, winter break type time period in many parts of the world but esp for northern hemisphere english speaking fandom, so if you're seeing a decrease in hits/kudos/comments/the feeling that someone out there is reading your work in general, this could play a big role. If you've only been publishing for the last few months the first time this happens can be really jarring! But it has nothing to do with the quality of your writing or if people are interested in reading and everything to do with brickspace taking up a lot of time right now. (I imagine this might also be true for Chinese speaking fandom around New Years, but I can't say since I don't engage there very often to notice trends.)

Depending on the fandom, (which, unless you, like me, are into Naruto which seems to thrive on niche AUs from now until forever), main pairings/fandom popular juggernauts will always get more people reading than a rarepair. That doesn't mean the people who write for rarepairs are doing a bad job or that writing for a rarepair isn't rewarding to the writer in other ways, but that may mean modulating expectations on like "how many people will click on my work?" and "how much feedback will I get?"

So overall, I feel like there's a combination of factors here for why you might be feeling down, but there are ways to help with this!

For one: talking about your writing and your work and what you're doing! This, I've found, is a great way to make friends. (also to anyone who says that this is obnoxious and attention seeking, this is the attention seeking webbed site, if you don't want attention why are you here????)

For two: locate friends and yell your thoughts at them <- I have found this to be 100% a mood picker upper when it comes to "am I doing a good job at writing?"

For three: find what makes you really happy about your own writing! This doesn't mean that you have to seek to improve your writing, but just, stuff that you enjoy, a line you really like, a relationship you enjoyed, a fic you thought was nice, and be kind to yourself about it.

Again, sending you hugs nonny! I hope some of this helps!

#asks and answers #I've never gotten asks like this before and idk that I'm qualified to provide advice but like #if other people who see this want to chime in with what they do or how they deal with it please do!#I think getting down about your own writing is a universal experience #every writer I've ever known gets it from time to time

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inkforhumanhands · 2 months

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fandom asks: 1 2 8 11 12 17 23 24 25

list 3 positive things about your current fandom(s)

a) I love that the Daredevil fandom has been kept healthy with several events over the years: shout out to @daredevilexchange for all the work they've done! b) My mattfoggy buddies are all so sweet and supportive; I know I can always count on someone to leave a comment on my fics even if they're occasionally a bit niche! c) I'm currently loving the surge in podficcing! We've not only got longtime veterans doing podfics for other people's work, but several of us have dipped our toes into the waters and have begun to podfic our own work. Not only a neat part of fandom but a step toward some more enjoyable reading for our friends who primarily use screen readers.

2. a headcanon you weren't sure about at first but have come to like!

I think at first I wasn't super big on the whole "Mike is in love with Foggy and obnoxious about it" thing, but as anyone familiar with my fics knows I've since come to embrace it.

8. you hope more people will come to appreciate ___ (a ship, a trope, an episode, etc)

Honestly I'd just like people to write more fics and draw more art directly inspired by comics storylines, especially some of the older stuff! That's what I'm hoping to get people to do with my upcoming DD comics bingo event. :D

11. if you're a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

At the moment I'm really proud of Hearsay, which is a comics volume 1 wip. I just think it's very tightly written.

12. compliment someone else in your fandom

@mutuallyprime is as lovely and supportive as it gets! You can count on her to boost you up if you need it 🥺 and she's written some truly great fics! The DD 2003!Matt/Milla fic is never leaving my brain.

17. the thing in canon that everyone loves and that you also love

Already answered this one with Matt and Foggy's friendship, but I suppose I also love their frequent divorces. 😌 Great source of drama, I think we can all agree about that.

23. the fandom you're curious about because of a mutual

lol sorry this is a boring answer but at the moment... none! I have in the past however been influenced to watch things, including Hannibal (loved it), Interview with the Vampire (loved it), and BBC Merlin (hated it lmao).

24. how has fandom positively impacted your life?

I've made so many friends!! It's lovely to wake up in the morning and be able to go and say hi and chat about this thing we're all obsessed with. Far less lonely. :D

25. a piece of advice for taking care of yourself in fandom spaces

literally don't listen to anybody telling you you're doing fandom wrong because you do/don't do x, y, or z. it's your life and anybody espousing these opinions has a very narrow and limited view of other people's interiority. get the hell out of there if you see a post like this. you deserve better.

#asks #softasawhisper #thanks for the ask and sorry it took so long to answer!#daredevil

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sarahowritesostucky · 2 months

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Hi! don't know if you answer asks like this but just curious as a fic writer do you feel different fandoms have cliques where some writers only comment or promote writers they're friends with and not all? and in relation to this, do you think stats are the most important thing to a writers success in a fandom? I know this might seem random but just admire your writing and wanted to hear your thoughts

Interesting ask. Okay well, first off, I squee whenever somebody says they ADMIRE my writing *fans self with nearest flat object, in a flattered, flustered, and ego-inflated emotional state*

second off, I'm fairly new to Tumblr, so I am not the most knowledgeable about this

that said, I think that people on Tumblr do a pretty pitiful job overall of promoting content with reblogs, and comments are even rarer!

I have a core group of people whom I've noticed will always reblog my fics, and I absolutely have friendship-y feelings for them even though they're internet strangers, lol. (I love you guys! 💗)

I think that if you're creating quality content and you aren't an asshat, people will eventually catch on and wind up flocking to you. It's the quality of the content you're putting out there that matters most.

But also be smart and try to post regularly, try to write things you know people love (certain tropes, pairings, kinks, etc). Post at peak times of day, make sure your queue is full and set to post at least several times per day. Stuff like that.

If your OTP/fandom is less popular, commit to writing some micro fics about more popular pairings/fandoms/tropes, just to draw more readers in--They will then be more likely to give your niche stuff a try!

As your followers # grows, you'll get more promotion, just because of sheer numbers. So yes, I think having more followers is important if you want to see more engagement with your content overall. (but again, that follows smart posting and quality content)

However, it only takes a handful of awesome supporters to make for a great fandom experience on Tumblr!

As to cliques, I have experienced some pretty hateful bullying and exclusion on the platform, related to an incident where I was abrasive and made a point about free speech, censorship, being willing to discuss vs cancel, and people who are reactive instead of rational (antis).

long story short, my old account was sent death threats, constant harassing, and vile anons, before being vindictively deleted by a rogue staff member (yes, I've gotten confirmation that this is abuse from other Tumblr representatives)

Antis and trolls definitely flock together in cliques, so exclusion can happen there. Cliques can be helpful in that they weed out the nasties fast.

For example: on my new account, I have noticed that perhaps 20 or so accounts have me blocked--most of them are smalltime/not so great bloggers, but about five of them are very popular Chris Evans or Sebastian Stan authors whose content I would probably otherwise be reading and commenting/re-blogging.

I don't think I interacted with most of them directly on my old account, but they are in the cliques that the antis were in, so they hopped on the block-Sarah train based off of whatever their mutuals said.

I don't read other people's fics on Tumblr so much as I do on Ao3, and I'm more about posting my own stuff on Tumblr, so the blocking isn't really an issue with me (mostly they're the ones losing out on the content promotion I would be doing for them, lol).

I think if people are going to be nasty, negative, reactive-not-rational, not willing to discuss, and just generally mean spirited, do you really want them promoting you anyway? Probably not.

As to the people who are not that way, I'd say: PEOPLE NOTICE WHEN YOU REBLOG AND COMMENT on their stuff.

so the more YOU promote other content creators whose stuff you like, the more they will feel affinity for you and promote your stuff!!

I suggest following TONs of people who are in your fandom--many of them will notice and follow you back. That's the best way to get started if you want to grow your account. But also like I said: put out quality content--honey draws bees; and promote other people's content to create good relationships with mutuals.

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more-better-words · 23 days

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20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @iamstartraveller776! Thank you! ☺️

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 49 (that number will be changing soon)

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 538,126 (a full third of that is a single story 😅)

3. What fandoms do you write for? Ummmm....I have written for numerous fandoms over the years, and most of them you haven't heard of! (no seriously)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? The four fics that make up my Star Trek: Enterprise series Built to Last, (and one other lol).

From the Ground Up

What We Build Here

For the Duration

The Place We Call Home

Lay Down the Beat (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency)

5. Do you respond to comments? Heck yeah! I love comments. I'm such a comment ho, bring 'em on.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I have kind of an allergy to angst, so...none, really. Okay, What We Build Here has a slightly angsty ending, but that was ONLY because I knew I was writing a followup and the angst would be healed! Bittersweet is about as hard as I go.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Hmmm...Almost all of them? 😄 Destiny and Venturing the Uncharted both have pretty darn sappy happy endings, and of course, the whole point of the Built to Last series was to provide a happy ending, so... yeah. Come to me for all your "everything's gonna be okay" needs.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Haven't on AO3. Tumblr, though...that's another matter. (Which never fails to bewilder me. You're gonna take time out of your life to send anon hate to ME? ME?? Who the actual frilly heck am I to warrant anon hate??)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Sort of? Kind of? For years, I didn't try, and now I have, and it's all rated M because I don't think I have anything more explicit in me, but I'm enjoying it? (it's all extremely fluffy, though, because I'm just a fluff merchant at heart)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? No, I never have. I'm not sure my brain's wired for that.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of, but the majority of my fic is so niche I would be stunned if I did.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? See above, re: niche

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Sort of...years ago, I co-wrote some Baldur's Gate AU fic with a friend that never got published anywhere. Which is a shame, because it was good stuff.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Whichever one I'm writing at the moment lol.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Probably the sequel to In a Strange Land. Of all the stories I've started and never finished, that one stings the most.

16. What are your writing strengths? Dialogue. I like to think I have a pretty good ear for it (so to speak).

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Plot. 😅 I'm great at having characters sit around and talk, but I'm terrible at having things actually happen.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Complete neutrality. I've never done it, so I don't give it much thought.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Buffy the Vampire Slayer! And if you managed to dig up my old LiveJournal, you could still read it!

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I love them for different reasons at different times. 😄

Tagging anyone who wants to play!

#tag game #writer stuff

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zenkindoflove · 8 days

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How did you get people interested/willing to read your fics when you first started? I enjoy writing for myself but I get discouraged when no one interacts with my stuff in any way.

Aww anon I really want to hug you. 🫂 I'm sorry you're getting discouraged.

I want to answer your question with care as I think that this is a very complicated question and emotionally hard for a lot of writers. First, you are not alone in wishing for engagement and not getting it back. This happens a lot. I would argue that in fandoms as saturated as ACOTAR, which I think you must be in if you're sending anons to me, it's actually quite hard to get noticed. At least in terms of my own 20 years of experience in fandoms, the ACOTAR one is huge. My early experience writing in fandoms were for much smaller, niche fandoms. Small fandoms are a lot easier to get people interested in your stuff because there is demand but not a lot of supply. So a lot of people are just grateful for having anyone write something.

I would say that is not the case in ACOTAR as has not been the case in other large fandoms I've written in. This fandom in particular has so many factions throughout the community of what sort of flavor of fan someone is. I imagine if you find a very specific niche, then it can feel like a smaller fandom but ultimately there is just so much content being made. It's hard for people to keep up and they will find a few writers they like and stick to reading their stuff and only their stuff. Basically if you have a preference someone probably writes for that.

So, how do you get people to interact? I think the real way is to make friends. Which is harder to do than to say. But when I first started writing 20 years ago, I quickly made friends with some other fanfic writers whose stories I liked. We commented on each other's fics and through our friendship we became invested in each other's writing. And when you have friends who will hype up your work and share it, that also can help others give your stories a chance.

I do want to emphasize something though. You should keep writing for your own happiness. I know, comments and likes/kudos are like drugs. It feels so so good to have people see your work and comment. But do not think if people aren't reading or commenting it means you're doing something wrong. There are a lot of reasons people won't comment. People read stuff all the time that they genuinely enjoy and then...just move right along. It takes effort to leave a thoughtful comment and sometimes people get lazy. At the end of the day, if you get enjoyment out of writing, you should do it. It's easy to compare yourself to others. You should keep in mind if you are just starting out, some of the people you are comparing yourself too have been writing for years, maybe even decades. They have a lot of experience under their belt when it comes not only to story crafting but also what their voice is. And once you know your voice, and you feel comfortable writing from that place, I think it can bring others to see your vision too and want to read more. So never stop writing. Even if you don't share everything, write if it calls to you. The more you write, the better you get at it just like any skill.

I do understand the discouragement though. I feel it too as I am not immune to the siren call of following my AO3 stats and checking my Tumblr notes. It's natural to want acknowledgement and praise for something you put a lot of creativity and effort into.

I think one thing to keep in mind, to sort of inoculate your brain a bit from the discouraging voice, is to remember that fandom and creating fanworks is first and foremost, a community exercise. In some ways, fandom never changes, but I have noticed some differences in it since I started back in 2006. Social media and chasing views and engagement has become very engrained in our online culture in a way that didn't exist back then. And I think some of that thinking has leeched into how we see ourselves as creators. We now have this idea of a "content creator" which is sort of this demonic, capitalistic creature in our psyche that uses relatability and parasocial connection to pull us into buying things. I can see some of this creeping into fandom spaces, which I hope we can mostly resist as fandom - to me - has always been an anti-capitalist force to take back storytelling and art from the powers that be and make it something that belongs to the people.

So, that is a very long, probably too political way of saying that when you make the goal of participating in fandom to be about making friends and connections and sharing things with each other that you make because you love it rather than seeking validation and entering the mindset there is competition, it helps with the very natural instinct we have to be liked and told we are doing good. But of course we want our butt pats. I know I certainly do. But when they don't come, I do have quite a bit of time and experience that tells me that even if I'm the only person who enjoyed what I wrote, that meant it was worth writing. The sting still happens but it's easier to bounce back from it and keep going.

So anon, I don't know who you are but you are doing good! You are doing something most people never try which is writing fiction. You are channeling your creativity and it's bringing you joy. That's the most important thing!

#anon asks #writing

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oddball-artz · 1 month

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OMG YOU HAVE SPOONS!!!!!! YIPPIE!!!! (probably bc you got a good night's sleep)

And if you know me at all, be prepared for the sea of questions>:]

1) Go into detail about Dalia and Sabrina and their family in the second Gen au. Any Hcs or stuff?

2) Nyx and his relationship with his family.

3) (idk if it was onyx or nyx who had the ED, I forgor their names are so similar).Go into detail Abt thier ED, tho.

4) For the love of God drop Hcs till I die, I don't care for who, I just NEED them.

And, if you have spoons don't be afraid to look in your inbox for any other asks I may have sent/nf (bc both me and you forget about the asks tbh)

And as always, ily platonically, man :333

It is not the sleep, I don't need sleep, idk what it was if it wasn't the sleep, but im not being proven wrong /j

I've only got a couple, and they're pretty Dalia centric, but you can have em

Dalia picked up a bunch of tips and tricks for dealing with kids both from helping raise her siblings and from treating kids as a nurse, uses them all the time, her personal favorite thay she's picked up is doubling bedsheets when kids are sick so that if they get dirty you can just take it off and make it a later problem while you comfort said sick child. Dalia is also very sentimental as a parent, cries at every ceremony and graduation. Sometimes she'll say something that sounds like her mother and she goes quiet for a while after that. I have a feeling that Sabrina and Dalia's house tends to be the designated 'safe house' for Vee and Jasper's friends. Dalia's actually kind of happy about this, in her mind it's confirmation that she's not her mother. (This may or may not be based on the fact that my house irl is the safehouse). All I have rn, sorry

Next up Nyx, my boy. He feels like a walking second place trophy compared to all his siblings. Brushes it off in an Rottmnt Leo sort of way, through humor and a facade of confidence. Desperately wants anyone to be proud of him. Takes his little siblings out crimeing™️ together sometimes, and is like the number one supporter of their shenanigans. Let's them steal his shit, as long as they don't get caught(bc he taught them better than that). The only thing he'd put up a fight against having stolen is his binder, but that's about it.

Oh and Onyx is the one with an ED, she has anorexia specifically. It started with her just trying to lose weight, she's fairly light, but her frame is wide, so she didn't see any results and things got drastic from there, especially when people started making fun of her for her body. She's super sensitive to comments about her body, and the bullying just made it so much worse. She hates looking at herself, in mirrors, in pictures, anything. It's like her eyes pick out the flaws every time and she can't stand it. So she's trying to 'fix' herself, much to the worry of the people around her. She eats in the dream bubbles, but that's only because she knows that it isn't real. Harlow noticed this and has started sneaking food into the dream bubbles just so Onyx eats for once. Onyx still hasn't caught onto this.

And various hcs about the sillies

Onyx spins her drumsticks between her fingers when she's bored, she can do it really fast too

Nyx's hoodie he wears in his sprite is his dysphoria hoodie

Gray has a lot of little interests she keeps hidden. They tend to be niche and geeky, so she hides them to protect her image

Nyx can project his voice loud enough to yell over the band

Onyx is only ever quiet when she's flustered or thinking about somthing, other than that there's usually at least a dull chatter coming from her

Onyx is very physically affectionate, she straight up tackle hugs people.

Gray was a pageant kid,and his parents were very competitive about it. They still have all their sashes from it too

Onyx doesn't fight for herself, but if you say something bad about someone she cares about that's when she starts a fight. Starting fights like that is what got her thrown through a window that one time

Onyx is the one who started calling Alison peepaw, and it just stuck after that

When Alison sleeps she doesn't snore, she shuffles through radio channels under her breath, kind of like sleeptalking

Speaking of Alison, he's insecure about the radio affect his voice has

Alison is very protective of the kids she's 'adopted' (usually underclassmen, but they've also taken most of the radio class under their wing)

#Alison Akari (oc)#Nyx Roughhouse (oc)#Dalia Kalmeren (oc)#Gray Arison (oc)#Onyx Brighton (oc)#asks #answered ask #oc headcanons #epithet erased oc #oc lore #pretty much just an infodump lol

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ignitesthestxrs · 9 months

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I may have missed it but did you watch Shadow and Bone on Netflix? What were your thoughts on it?

i watched the first season! i think i have spoken about it on here before but i didn't tag it because i wasn't very nice, and i didn't want to like, spring that on the greater fandom tag lol

uh overall i think that the show flattened a lot of the things that i enjoyed about the books, and did not improve on anything i disliked from them.

the way the show engaged with race was deeply performative and one dimensional, like, jump-scaring the viewer with ISN'T THIS RACISM SO BAD AND AWFUL in a way that seemed intended to induce the viewer and the show itself to feel good about having noticed that they just got punched in the face.

like right before six of crows came out, i did Representation Math to figure out who was going to die lol and i was Correct and that's the kind of ethos that the show persisted with. coupled with the vibe from the books that has been increasingly sinophobic, i just uuuh Didn't Like It, it left a bad taste.

(obvs i am White and it is not my job to claim Good or Bad Job overall, or assign myself Progressive Points for having this take, but it is the way it hit me at the time of watching and after discussing with friends who are better positioned than i am to comment)

the casting of nina really bothered me, and bardugo's open support of it, while i get that it was probably a sensible choice for her, REALLY bothered me. like if you're going to create characters based on which Diversity Niche they fill, then it's incumbant on you as a creator to hold firm to that vision and use your power and your voice to push back on attempts to uuuuh hollywoodify fatness. like it was just a fundamental betrayal that...sure, i get, that's hollywood, but also this character was explicitly created as a balm to the hollywoodification of fatness, and the response to her casting was basically 'well so long as she's plus size that's what is important'. idk like this is not the fault of the actress at all, but it is: tiresome. the actress is not Fat.

also her costuming was terrible in a very un-nina way that felt like it was trying to disguise how unfat she really was/frumpify her

but aside from That Stuff, i also think that the show misunderstood the fundamental point of two of the core Alina relationships in a way that was deeply boring and in fact more of a problem in the case of the darkling in particular.

like a thing that the books does really well actually is the arc of mal and alina's relationship? in which they start off with a fundamental misunderstanding of what they mean to each other that results in them growing further apart to the point where they both have to change who they are as people to actually fit together properly again. it's a really good example of like, puppy love not working out because values and life circumstances change, but then character growth enables the characters to come together as new people with a different perspective.

because the show starts mal off in his Clear Devotion phase, it makes a lot of the potential growth in that relationship way less meaningful? lol i know a lot of people don't like book malina and...whatever to that, frankly, but from a Craft Perspective, they gave this man his character from the Third Book without giving him any of the Growth Triggers that got him to that point. i only care about I Am Become A Blade mal because he had to fight to get to that point.

re: the darkling on the show lol the show has this weird ethos that their relationship is somehow more ethical if the darkling is Really No For Real In Love With Her from the beginning, which is just SO off base with what the actual problem is with that relationship. the show tries to girl bossify Alina by have her take the darkling off guard/having him experience Real Emotions For Her without considering the fact that this just means that,,,someone who loves her is using her? that's not better! she doesn't have More Power in this relationship because she's shown to be more proactive in the romance side of their relationship, because he's still using her! she hasn't won something from him by making him experience an emotion or desire, she's just wound herself deeper into his web - but the show presents these moments as though she has gained some kind of control over a situation that she literally cannot have control over.

like the whole point of the relationship in that first book is that alina is being groomed, but instead of showing that, the show said 'oh grooming is bad, alina should have more agency!' and shot a situation where she literally cannot have agency because vital information is being kept from her, as a 'yas queen make him obsessed with you!' kind of situation. he's already obsessed with her! because she's a tool to him! it's not agency to make a man want you when he is already using you for his own purposes, it's being groomed!

i need shows that are engaging in depicting problematic relationships to fucking lean into that rather than wriggle out of it. because when they try to wriggle out of it, they always, always end up depicting something that's still fucked up, only now the narrative doesn't seem to be aware of its fucked upness.

anyway uuuuh those are my main thoughts on show, i did not watch the second season and probably never will lol

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willel · 8 months

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Since I've been getting a few asks about it btw, I wanted to make my position clear. I don't discuss relationships in the show a lot and you probably only see me speak negatively about some aspects so some clarification might help.

I'm not against the general idea of romance in shows.

When done right, I think a romantic subplot in a show or movie or game can be really good. It can tie together all the themes while not distracting from the main plot. Sometimes even when it's distracting from the main plot, it makes sense and is worthwhile and adds to the main plot.

If you've known my blog for a long time, you'll know I'm not exactly an avid tv show watcher. I still want to provide an example of what I mean though so I'll reference one of the manga I've been reading since I was a teenager.

It's called Skip Beat! I honestly don't know if it's considered popular or niche but I'll give you a general synopsis. The main character, Kyouko Mogami was a girl from the countryside who was basically a glorified maid for her childhood friend, Sho Fuwa. Due to her harsh family circumstances, she grew up in Sho's home and from what we know about their lives, she was being trained (groomed???) to be his future wife. She was fine with it because she loved him.

But Sho wanted to be a star, so against his parents wishes, he took Kyouko with him to the big city to make it big. Which he did and it gave him a bigger head than he already had. He tossed her aside in favor of his new life in a pretty cruel way.

Kyouko vowed vengeance upon him. She would become an even bigger star than him and run him out of town. She vowed to never fall in love again and closed herself off. I know I'm writing this as if it's a sob story, but when I say it's a vengeance plot I mean that literally.

From there, the plot revolves around how far she'll go just for her vengeance. But, as the plot moves along, you can start to see how her icy heart is melting for someone else and how much anguish that brings her. The main plot is about her becoming a star, but the part where she learns to love again (someone else mind you) is a crucial part in all that.

I would suggest you read it butttttt it's the slowest burn in the history of all histories so you might suffer just as much as I have.

I really appreciate how this story might have a big romantic sub plot but it ties in nicely with her goals of self improvement and wanting to be a star, moving on from all her pain and being happy.

When it comes to Stranger Things...... I just do NOT feel that way at all.

Skip Beat! has a love triangle. Honestly at this point, it's more like an octagon and yet it doesn't bother me. There is a lot of "Will they won't they" but it still doesn't bother me.

It may be that Skip Beat! just has a more interesting subplot so the little baby half baked romantic drama in Stranger Things is just boring for me?

Maybe it's that I feel like the romantic drama and tension in Skip Beat! is actually leading somewhere and leads to character development while the romantic drama in Stranger Things feels played up for audience reaction and fandom discourse?

Like sure, Skip Beat! has some fandom discourse but everyone is pretty much on the same page or can, for the most part, respectfully discuss their preferences. With Stranger Things, if you so much as comment on a ship in the wrong way you'll have a gaggle of people harassing you over fictional characters.

To summarize,

I think romantic stuff in tv shows and movies and all that can be really fun, interesting, heartbreaking, all the entertaining things one could want.

I, personally, feel none of that when romantic stuff is happening in Stranger Things. Maybe in the first and second season but beyond that...? For example, while I wouldn't exactly call myself a shipper, I am and was rooting for Jopper from the getgo. (I say that because I think a shipper would be much more invested in the pair. Like fanart, fanfiction, following dedicated blogs etc. I don't really do that)

If the show writers decided to reintroduce Lonnie into the plot and then acted like he had a legitimate chance to get back with Joyce because she starts wavering between Hopper and Lonnie.... do you really expect me to freakin' care? Am I really supposed to care about this love triangle introduced? You actually expect me to get invested in such lazy writing? I just cannot.

My interest in Jopper would probably be eradicated to be honest because they just wasted time with a love triangle instead of developing them as a couple. All that wasted time could've been spent developing the main plot which in turn would've given them more opportunities to write them a s couple working together, protecting each other, etc. You know, substance.

See what I mean? I just... cannot care about Stranger Things ships. It's great if you can though, there are so many reasons to watch a show. Maybe for you, love triangles are the bees knees and the best thing since sliced bread so you'd be eating up another triangle like nobody's business. But that's not me.

I would much rather they focus moving the plot forward, which would naturally create moments between the characters we all care about.

Fandom behavior factors into a bit of this as well of course. Kinda hard to care about or get invested in a relationship if all you see all day is people arguing about canon (which at the end of the day doesn't matter) while also doxxing and harassing each other. Not to mention taking the worst possible interpretation of characters possible just because you think they're in the way of your ship. Dunno how anyone can care about or enjoy a shipping fandom like that.

SO yeah. That's it. Romance is stuff is fine and all, but I just don't jive with how Stranger Things rolled out it's romance stuff so I prefer to think about other things.

#stranger things

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zyrafowe-sny · 8 months

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What should you do if you feel like loser and absolute waste of space and garbage in the writing community? Like everyone hate you (all the talented well known people at least), your ideas suck, you'll never be popular or get request or anything like that and you'll never have the same amount of friends or support or love as others because you're stupid and annoying and your writing suck and everyone hate you and nothing you do matter? Like you'll never be successful or reach mile stone no matter how much you try like you had opportunity to but you screw it up because you stupid and annoying and dumb and now it's too late?

Hi Anon,

I don't really feel qualified to respond, but I'm going to give it a go anyway and hope that any of this is helpful.

The "writing community" is anyone who wants to try their hand at writing. It includes both the second grader putting together a handmade book during rainy day recess and the award-winning, bestselling professional author. There's no cap to the number of writers. There's no such thing as a waste of space.

"Hate" seems like an awfully strong word. I know it's frustrating when fics don't get the engagement that you want - and don't get attention from people you admire - but sometimes fics have a niche audience and sometimes people are busy. Personally, I've had stretches when I just can't read much at all or only very specific things (like stuff under 3k and nothing too intellectual). Reasons include: life being busy, general executive dysfunction, (rare) stretches when I am super-focused on writing, not wanting to read things too similar to what I'm working on, etc. For several months I just felt overwhelmed by the thought of leaving thoughtful comments and that tricked me into just not reading at all (don't be like me).

Popularity is... complicated. "Success" is complicated. If you're just looking at kudos... a not insignificant chunk is being in the right fandom at the right time (while also writing what lots of people are interested in). Here's a good overview about writing for kudos and how that doesn't relate to quality. You can have super-interesting ideas, but sometimes those ideas have a small audience (and that's ok if that's the story that speaks to you!). Honestly, I think all writers need to write at least one super-niche fic to readjust expectations about AO3 stats.

As for requests... Not all writers like getting them and not all readers like making requests? If I see that someone shared a prompt list ask game post, I'll send an ask, but that's usually it.

As for getting support... sometimes it can come from outside your fandom and from Internet strangers (or real life people in writing groups). I've been trying out this WIP Wednesday game because I wanted some encouragement to make progress, and a good chunk of people who nudge me to write don't follow me and won't ever read the final fic.

As for writing quality... That's also complicated. For one, people have different tastes (my eyes start to glaze over during long fight scenes or long descriptions, but other people eat that up). There are seemingly more-objective criteria (spelling, grammar, etc), BUT: people's knowledge of "the rules" isn't static and can be improved, sometimes it's fine to ignore "the rules" for style, lots of non-native English speakers write fanfic and that can lead to some charming (if less standard) writing, and one of the joys of fanfic is that it doesn't have to follow the norms of published fiction. If there is something that you want to work on in your own writing (for example, description and plot don't come easily to me), there are ways to practice. But only if you want to. Only if it's part of the fun. (Fun doesn't always mean easy.)

As for milestones... I don't know what milestones you're going for, but word count is the one most in your control. Getting that up isn't trivial, but the important thing is to keep chugging along.

I *know* it's hard not to obsess over AO3 stats or compare yourself to other people. I *know*. But try to remember that it's not a race or a competition. Writing is supposed to be fun (as much as writers like to complain about it sometimes). It's fine to want validation and encouragement, but stressing too much about the numbers/how much engagement you're getting can suck all the fun out of the process.

And it's never, ever too late. I took a loooong break from creative writing and sometimes I regret that, but I had other life experiences during that hiatus that help inform my writing now. We write when we have stories to tell and the life circumstances that let the words come out.

I don't know if any of my rambling was useful, but I wish you all the best, Anon. Take care and be kind to yourself. No one else can tell the same story that you can.

#ask box #friends in my phone feel free to weigh in if you have any thoughts #writing

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saintescuderia · 1 month

Text

an open letter in celebration of creative pursuit

(aka: an open letter to thank those who championed me)

dear you,

you are, in fact, many people.

you are the mother of my friend who is seven years younger than me.

you are the best friend that drifted away.

and you are the reader of my old wattpad fanfiction.

firstly, to the mother who always believed in me. you never read my work but you always identify me as a 'writer.' you take it seriously and it makes me feel silly because you take me more seriously as a writer than i take myself. if i have doubts, you unknowingly wash them away and remind me that i am a writer. it makes it all the more real and not a private dream.

now, to the friend who inspired me to write the poems. i won't even forget laying on the mattress in my old yellow bedroom, the phone on loudspeaker resting on my chest as i laid there and listening to you read my poems. your verbal reactions when you came across the ones dedicated to you, the ones about you. the line where your name made its rhyming appearance.

you didn't make me feel silly or stupid. you encouraged me, reminded me about it - like that time in the car with you and your mother when we all went dress shopping for your wedding. we were talking about careers and i was debating degrees to become a teacher or a psychologist. and you said, 'yeah, but what about writing? you want to be a writer.' in that moment, i forgot about it. it was buried deep. and you always were someone to bring it to the surface.

same to him. despite everything and how it ended, he always got offended when i didn't take it seriously. his praise was unlike anything i had ever encountered and i got a little drunk on it. my inner artist thrived at finally having someone have her back and believe that she was good enough, that she should give it a shot.

and finally you. my first 'fan.' you posted, commented and always connected with me. you messaged when i fell off. it was the first time i ever saw someone who i didn't personally know read my stuff and like it. there was no bias. you knew nothing about me but my words. and you liked them. pure objective proof that my niche fic content ideas were worth a damn. that my writing isn't as shit as i think it is. i will never forget you.

the small wattpad exchanges are something i'll carry with me for the rest of my days. it's literally why i do what i do: so someone somewhere can escape into story - the same way i always did. and do. we're all just sharing in the words. connected by them.

you're proof that i can do that. and will only get better at it.

love,

me

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