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The Old Guard looks forward to a new year—

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A year after the events of Netflix’s The Old Guard, the girls ditched the guys for a long weekend getaway.

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Matthias Schoenaerts as Gabriel Oak in Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)

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Binge watched Bridgerton on netflix and I really liked it ♡ I was really looking forward to this series. It took me longer than expected because of the background 😅 but I think it came out pretty well. Hope you like it 😊

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10 reasons to wear low kudos counts as a badge of honor

You wrote a trope that isn’t popular in fandom right now and isn’t high on search lists—you’re expanding fresh content

You wrote an out-of-the-box characterization 

You’re learning to be proud of your work without external validation, which is a hard process and every little time you do it improves you

You didn’t write smut and a lot of readers only click on fics with smut, while other readers are grateful for new G&T-rated fic

You did write smut, a specific kink many people avoid, but other readers are thrilled to find it

You tackled a difficult topic that might trigger readers and your warning tags rightfully reduce your readership but don’t diminish the importance of the work

You wrote gen fic or wlw or a rare pair and are boosting content in underserved areas

You wrote a longfic that takes readers longer to consume, which is an awesome accomplishment regardless

You had a story in you that needed to come out, and you put it into the world

Even if the story was awful, which it probably wasn’t, you took the risk of doing it anyway, which is how you get better every time you write, and that commitment and grit is 90% of the battle

Kudos are not a measure of merit, which can be hard to remember. Kudos are affected by a million factors, only some of which involve merit. Kudos trickle in over time. Kudos are affected by fandom trends, and how many followers you have. Kudos are affected by who reblogs or recs your fic, which is pretty random itself. There’s no end to the factors that go into it.

Want thousands of kudos? Go to high-traffic fandoms, pick the most popular ship, find the most popular tropes, and write a good fic in that trope. Put in the work of making friends with big names and hope they reblog your stuff. Turn fandom into a transactional experience if that’s what you want. But is that following your muse? Is that what will make you happy? Maybe; if so you’re lucky. But if not, realize that choosing to follow your muse even though it takes you elsewhere is an incredible thing, and the lower kudos counts that result are not evidence of lack of quality or reader hatred. 

Almost all of my fics have fewer than 300 kudos. A handful of longer ones have more, and my top kudosed fic is a silly short coauthored 8th year that is not at all what I’d consider my best fic. My longest fic (105k, took me two months of full-time writing) has only 200 kudos. I’m still super proud of it and feel like it had a great reception and amazing comments. I have a bunch of shorter fics with under 100 kudos.

I think there’s a misunderstanding that it’s expected to get a high kudos count, and in my experience that’s just not true, so I don’t really understand why we talk about it that way. Let’s change the conversation, and focus instead on our pride in our writing and our love for other fics, and move away from using kudos counts as a proxy for worth. You’ll never feel satisfied if you’re turning to ao3 stats for your self-validation.

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WIP meme

(I saw this on @lightdescending​‘s feed & I loved the idea, given that sign-ups for the wipbigbang open tomorrow!)

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and i’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs—(or, you know, do whatever you want!)

The Options:

The Old Guard

The Art Expert (new series: Beautiful Fictions)

Asterisk (new series: Shady Characters)

Bellona

Blackpool

Bodice-ripper

The Dunkirk Variations

Fugue

Kompromat

Lovell

Permanence

Killing Eve

Please (Don’t) Pretend With Me

Ricochet

Mercy

If you’d like to join in and post your own wip list, feel free to tag me!

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Andy and Quynh through the ages

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There is a reason that most fanfiction authors, specifically girls, start with a Mary Sue. It’s because girls are taught that they are never enough. You can’t be too loud, too quiet, too smart, too stupid. You can’t ask too many questions or know too many answers. No one is flocking to you for advice. Then something wonderful happens. The girl who was told she’s stupid finds out that she can be a better wizard than Albus Dumbledore. And that is something very important. Terrible at sports? You’re a warrior who does backflips and Legolas thinks you’re THE BEST. No friends? You get a standing ovation from Han Solo and the entire Rebel Alliance when you crash-land safely on Hoth after blowing up the Super Double Death Star. It’s all about you. Everyone in your favorite universe is TOTALLY ALL ABOUT YOU. I started writing fanfiction the way most girls did, by re-inventing themselves. Mary Sues exist because children who are told they’re nothing want to be everything.

{UnWinona}: The Importance of Mary Sue  (via ultralaser)

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A study of hands in The Old Guard (2020)

Based on this gifset by @beanabouttown​

(Please don’t remove caption or repost without permission)