annsparksthegmr

[annsparksthegmr]

[annsparksthegmr]

does anyone else remember being terrorized every single commercial break by the madagascar 3 trailer on every single cartoon channel in 2011-2012

[annsparksthegmr]

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.

[annsparksthegmr]

i'm genuinely having so much fun writing a jock protagonist. can't believe i never tried this before. all these years i've been limiting myself needlessly

[annsparksthegmr]

wait do people read first person stories and think they're the ones in the story???

Saw people talking about not liking first person, which is fair, but their reasoning was like "I would not do that" and I don't understand that mindset.

First person stories are still about a character. A character making their own decisions. First person isn't about you???? At least I thought it wasn't. What am I missing? I've always seen first person as just a more in-depth look into a character's mind and stricter POV. Not as a reader stand-in.

[annsparksthegmr]

Oh hello there, fic idea that I'm gonna fantasize about for days/weeks on end but not write. Nice of you to drop by

[annsparksthegmr]

Now you can have that crazy old man from pokemon leaf green/fire red laying on your blog because he hasn’t had his coffee

[annsparksthegmr]

Honest question: Why do pop culture references work and get a laugh in things like Shrek, but in others they just come across as just being lame and forced? What makes a pop culture reference work? 

[annsparksthegmr]

[annsparksthegmr]

ratatouille went so hard and it didn’t even have to

[annsparksthegmr]

Gatekeeping is so good and important

[annsparksthegmr]

hope is a skill

[annsparksthegmr]

don't give up

[annsparksthegmr]

[annsparksthegmr]

[annsparksthegmr]

[annsparksthegmr]

How come more Pokémon don’t have nicknames? I don’t mean like “why don’t more players nickname their Pokémon” I mean how come barely any characters in the games actually do? There are some traded Pokémon and like a couple of times someone in the overworld has a nicknamed Pokémon (shoutout to my man Yellow the Psyduck) but you never battle anyone with a nicknamed Pokémon. And no major story relevant characters have any nicknamed Pokémon. Ah, yes, your sisters stolen purrloin, Purrloin. Your dying mabosstif, Mabosstif. Where’s the individuality. The character. Would it kill the Pokémon company to have you fight someone with a pachirisu named Bert