#I'm not the writer. I'm just the reporter

[clarekirener]

I read a post claiming fan engagement doesn't matter. Fan engagement is a factor in 2024, and especially for Amazon Studios, a reactive company. I watched Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime give into their biggest fanbase after years of saying it wouldn't happen.

Amazon has a consumer research department that gives Jennifer Salke head of Amazon Studios feedback about TROP consumers (screenshot below).

McPayne have said they listen to feedback and that S2 was shaped by S1 response- they also make note that S2 was written before S1 (screenshot below).

Just last week, Amazon sent out TROP surveys through Amazon Preview asking opinions on characters, storylines, and what people would like to see in future episodes. They said this feedback would be passed along to the writers.

Amazon has other shows that have responded to fan demand. The rumors around Mrs. Maisel were that Amazon execs mandated making Lenny/Midge canon after years of denial because of the Midge/Lenny fanbase (screenshot below).

The Artful Dodger's showrunner came out citing the show's fan engagement as the reason they got renewed.

I'm plugged into metrics as a PR professional so if anyone wants me to make a post detailing positive engagement for Haladriel via TV publications like The Hollywood Reporter highlighting Haladriel in s1 and missing their scenes in s2, Reddit (yes), Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, I will.

If you don't want to engage in this aspect of fandom, don't. No one can force a stranger on the internet to do anything. And the ship does fine on its own. I disagree with some of the frantic messaging about producing content because we don't need it!

And by the way, no one pays attention to Tumblr or AO3, other than the fairly young on these teams. Social media analytics for entertainment typically include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok, and of course all official accounts. TROP also pays attention to Reddit and Tolkien influencers, as well as TV critics. These all matter just as ratings do. They might not listen to every voice but yes it matters.

Haladriel art is getting 67,000 likes on Instagram in 4 days (screenshot below). Haladriel content consistently goes viral on Twitter, Tiktok and Insta. Interviewers were constantly asking about Haladriel in pre-s2 interviews and the TROP cast and showrunners got questions about them at SDCC in July.

We're fine.

Correction to the original post: It was The Artful Dodger's showrunner who cited fan engagement and TikToks as the reason the show got renewed. Not My Lady Jane.

[screaming-pickle]

Unpopular opinion about writing: most people aren't self-taught.

Think about it, English class. It has you read books and do book reports on them, and my mother's classes at least had creative writing built in. They teach you grammar, punctuation, and how to analyze a book (that most people end up taking as this is how books are structured).

Three act structure is not a standard except in modern English writing. It started out as a way to analyze a book with snobs saying, "This is how books are structured. If it's not just like this, it's not a book!"

If you try to force this onto old stories, you'll find that people will have a different opinion on where the inciting incident is most of the time! But that's all besides the point.

Unpopular opinion number 2: You don't have to be a consumer of a craft to do the craft. Painters can be good painters without going to museums. A pencil artist doesn't have to study tutorials for different techniques with different pencils to be a good artist.

Why do we have to read to be a good writer? It's just what it takes to be a traditional writer. You can consume stories in different ways. Find your own way of describing it ended up leading yourself to being very unique. I'm not saying you shouldn't read. I'm saying we shouldn't devalue people who don't and still insist on writing. Sometimes their bad writers, but so were you at some point.

[sparklepocalypse]

Soapbox moment incoming --

We love a rarepair writer, but -- there's evidence that one of the most prolific Alex/Raf posters on Ao3 right now is using ChatGPT to generate their fics instead of actually writing them. They removed the line when they were called out on it, but when they initially posted one of their works, they left "Chat GPT said..." at the top of a chapter. They've also evidently systematically deleted any comments suggesting they're using AI.

This same user "wrote" a POV switch of a fic that another person in the fandom put actual, significant mental energy and time into creating, and there's no doubt in my mind that this was also ChatGPT-generated. I have blocked this user on Ao3, but blocking someone on the site only prevents their works from showing up in search for you, and prevents them from commenting on yours. It doesn't prevent them from seeing your works, or you know, copying and pasting them wholesale into a natural language processing site or app and having it word vomit out "their" version of a work so they can post it as their own "writing."

If your immediate response to this is "Telling people not to use AI to write is ableist," you can shove that bullshit right up your ass, because they're stealing words that other people in the fandom have created and claiming they put the same sort of time and energy into them as people who actually write. But, if your immediate response is "Yeah, fuck this noise, who the fuck does this person think they are," then you are precisely my sort of person.

And listen, I'm not saying AI isn't useful. There are certainly a lot of practical applications for AI. However, there's a line about a mile wide between using AI as a tool to help you when you're stuck or looking for ideas (or hell, using it professionally to turn your recorded meeting transcript into meeting notes), and just saying "fuck it," and passing off AI's regurgitation as your own work. It's not your work, nor will it ever be; it's other people's work and you are using AI to steal it, and then basking in the easy dopamine hit from the recognition that it gets once you hit post. Fucking stoppit.

If you find works on Ao3 that are generated by AI, please note that while AI-generated works are not in and of themselves banned by the site (because, sadly, it'd be almost impossible for the Ao3 team to identify and ban them all at this point), plagiarism is explicitly against the site's Terms of Service and you should report plagiarized works for content violations. (Don't submit more than one report per user; their small but mighty team of volunteers doesn't need to be spammed about the same person to address a concern.)

[smartylina]

Dear Readers!

I found such a shocking story!

You know Kuzco gets quite a few interesting fanfictions right?

Well

the one I saw was about him

Romancing a Spanish girl...

And to think he got super mad around Ramon 🤨

The audacity!!

[kissykalachuchi]

bakugou katsuki was born on weed day 420 and he's in love with a boy the color of weed (green midoriya izuku)

oh my bkd i figured it out

[redo-rewind-if]

Time for my end of week check-in! Hope y'all had a good one! 😊🥰

Next Update (Chapter 3 & 4? Maybe?):

Intro Scene (if not on music fest route): 100%

Music Fest Routes (Solo, V, and Amara): 100%

Club Pyre Path: 90%

August Part 2 Electric Boogaloo: 0% (not started)

Avoid Death (Eventually?): 0% (not started)

Work Time! (End of Chapter): 0% (short outline, not started)

Ahhh, the club path is so close to being done. I feel like I say that every week, but this time it really is!! Just need to finish one path and add a few variant scenes and it'll be done! Then it's editing time.

Let's just hope I don't get carried away editing and adding new stuff lol.

[fromtheseventhhell]

The worst part of the GOT and HOTD adaptations is that they remove any sense of narrative or themes being explored from George's writing. The showrunners rewrite characters and change plotlines on a whim and remove any sense of cohesive storytelling. There's just...literally no point to the story and the writers struggle to come up with sensible explanations for the changes they've decided to make.

[outofmymindbebacklater]

I have a great percabeth apocalypse AU written out but I'm not a story writer so it's point form and I just have to imagine it when I go to sleep at night i guess

[laufire]

ch. 8 of "investigating lois lane" talks about the period of months following superman's death and it's making me want to entertain a story where superman stayed dead, just the same way I often think about that re: batman in the late 00s era.

[deathbringer]

OH WE ARE SO UNBELIEEEEEVABLY FUCKING BACK, KIDS.

image description under cut.

Image description:

a screenshot of three panels from Issue #2 of Batman Beyond: Neo Gothic.

Panel 1 contains Terry's (Batman's) speech bubbles "It's the legacy. / It's what Batman is. / Hope." Kyle the Catboi watches Terry.

Panel 2 shows Terry walking ahead as Kyle's speech bubble, lagging behind, says "Even when the last guy got it wrong?"

Panel 3 shows Kyle catching up to Terry. Terry turns to look at him, accompanied by a speech bubble saying "Especially when the last guy got it wrong."

[lyssentome]

I'm coming to terms with the fact that the only thing I have going for my writing are: a) dialogue and b) emotional scenes with way too many flowery phrases. Idk how to do anything else. I have no spatial ability. Why the Fuck am I even a writer if I can't visualize shit.

[a-river-of-stars]

follow me for more bullshit I came up with, because I’ve done too much research to keep it all to myself

[cantstayawaycani]

*personal

[badcircuit]

Look man I don't need or expect anything to become canon. That's what FANfiction and FANdom is for...for the fans.

[kelin-is-writing]

need jobless and immature peoples on tumblrdotcom to grow up seriously 💜

[rustedleopard]

Privatized all my fics yesterday. If you wanna see 'em, you'll need an AO3 account.