#and you are more than welcome to unfollow me because i didnt tag those posts for a reason

[gentil-minou]

You better cool it with the name insults. Don't insult others just because you went through something. I didn't put that on you, don't put that on me. TF is wrong with you?!

Well if you read the post I reblogged (heres a link for context in case you filtered that tag or something) and took a moment to understand why I said those things then maybe it would make sense.

I'm sorry for offending you. It must be soooo hard to hear someone mock your name or make jokes about it, for someone to sit there and take your culture and history and ignore it because they don't like the name you introduced yourself. It's horrible when someone takes the rich history behind your name and ignores it, or mocks it with stuff like "it sounds dumb" or "it's so weird". Must be soooooo awful to have your name insulted huh. Just the absolute worst. Gee wilikers I wonder what that's like.

[ren-c-leyn]

I have returned

Hello Tumblr, I'm back, and while I do feel better after my break, I still have a lot on my mind. Specifically, I think I know a large part of what was dragging me down before and what I'm going to do to keep it from getting to me again. I thought I'd share it with all of you, since maybe it's messing with your mental health too, or maybe it's something you never even thought of.

If you had seen my hiatus announcement, you probably recall that I mentioned the darkside of the writeblr community, but I'm slowly realizing it runs deeper than that, even. The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how toxic it can be here. I think I missed it in the very beginning because I neither followed a lot of people, nor did those toxic posts really seem to show up a lot on my searchs and poking around so I stayed and carved out my little corner on here.

Recently, though, they've been spreading like wildfire, even on the blogs of writeblrs I really, truely admired. And, the more I saw this stuff, the more I started realizing there's a lot of boarderline abusive and just generally emotionally draining posts here in the writeblr community, tumblr in general, really. And some of these posts made me feel awful. Made me feel like I was wrong for just existing, terrible for writing how I do, and just, generally bad. It took my entire break from here to realize that the stuff is a reflection of the people who wrote it, not me, but it still really drained me. I almost didnt want to come back at all. I don't think, or at least I would certainly hope not, that the people who wrote them meant it to be like that. I hope, they didn't mean to make people feel awful about the skins they're in and their creative work, but the sad fact is that that's the way it comes across.

I said many times in my welcome messages to new comers that this writeblr community is warm and friendly, and it really can be. I found a nice, welcoming corner of it when I joined. It was small but I loved it. At the same time, though, it can be very cold and cruel to people as well and it took me a lot longer to see that.

You see it in some of the help topics, 'always', 'never', do you understand what those words do to people when you tell them to never write how they love to, or always do something they can't stand even as readers? What saying flashbacks and dream sequences and other tools they like are only used by bad writers? That only certain groups can write well does to the confidence of the excluded groups? Yes, they're free to pick and choose what advice they want to heed, but it can be hard for someone struggling with their confidence to see that stuff, particularly if it's a popular post. It sows doubt, and doubt is something we writers have enough of.

Sometimes, you can see it in the double standards; the way we can say men can't write or the way certain groups adress the other or insist that people who aren't writing in their native tongue have no excuse for their grammar mistakes by people who only speak one. Sometimes these double standards are just how we adress each other, dropping the word people out of adressing other enthicities when we would hate it to be done to our own. And it all hurts someone.

There's also a closedness here to people with certain view points, certain walks of life, certain ways of thinking. Hate spread freely, never filtered or even poorly disguised. I find some of it tagged as humor, some of it tagged as anything but what it really is, and most of it isn't tagged at all. All the while, the other side of these view points don't really get the chance to just say 'please stop, it hurts' without being put down. Like that men can't write thing I ran across, the one that upset me so bad that I decided to take my hiatus to start with. The comments were just... horrible.

And I have come to the conclusion that I can't handle it anymore without jepordizing my own mental health and emotional wellbeing. The darkside on here is just, too dark, guys. Now, I'm not leaving tumblr, but I have decided to follow my own advice and do something for myself, to make my space a positive one. To do so, I am really sorry to say, that I made the choice to unfollow the majority of the writeblrs I had been following.

I want you to understand something if I unfollowed you. 1. I don't hate you. 2. I probably (almost definately) love and adore your writing, it is most likely the reason I followed you to start with. 3. I am only unfollowing you because you may occasionally post/reblog things that are messing with my personal mental-wellbeing.

If I unfollow you, but you still want me to see your writing, PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE, TAG ME IN IT! (With exception to horror, I'm sorry I really can't handle horror.) WIPs, Snippets, Poetry, Short Stories, Tag me in it all. Tag me in writing tag games. I do love reading your works, I do love seeing what tales everyone else is spinning, but I am not in a place where I can handle some of the stuff that comes with it. And you will Not bother me if you tag me in every single piece of your writing. If I don't want to be on a particular WIP's tag list I'll let you know.

For my part, I am going to become very critical about the kinds of writing help I reblog. If it uses never or always, I am more than likely not going to reblog it. If it is something that I feel might make someone feel horrible about themselves or their work, I won't reblog it. If I run out of more positive writing advice to reblog, I'll start making myself sit down write more of my own again. I am also going to be reblogging a lot more positivity posts. Not just writing, but general positivity. I am the positivity gremlin, and if you can't tell that when you first step onto my blog, then I need to roll up my sleeves and do more work.

Okay, and now that that not-so-cheerful announcement/explaination is over, I'm going to get to writing up that short for the last follower celebration. Thank you, so, so very much to everyone who decided to particapate in it. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone found in their prompt scavenger hunt while I've been away. =D

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day,

~ Ren

[bellameblake]

how did you become so popular? i’m just starting out and want to do well on here yeah sorry if you don’t want to do this.

Hey nonny! I have to admit i laughed a little at this just because I don’t consider myself popular, not by a long shot! This message is really kind of you and kind of amazing! So welcome to tumblr! So this is probably going to much longer than actually needed by anyone so i’m going to put this under the cut!

So first make tumblr easier for yourself and download xkit. Basically on desktop you can reblog from you dash, tag this automatically, and a bunch of other amazing things that make tumblr 6743 times easier. You can find xkit here.

Then okay so this probably sounds bad but having a good mobile and desktop theme goes a long way. desktop themes can seem super scary especially with no coding experience what so ever but i promise it is easy to change a theme and it makes a world of difference. here is a pretty quick and easy tutorial. Okay, so where do find codes? well there are tons of amazing theme makers on tumblr I reblog themes i like and you can see those here. and if you find a theme maker you can go to their page and see what else they made! then onto mobile theme. Like everything else there are some amazing icon and header makers on tumblr. For icons you can see mine here, also try @bb-8, @grumpybell, @alecsizzy, @harrydraco to name a few! For headers and icons you can go to @johnmurphe (brooke makes amazing icons and headers!!)

Also having a navi page can be really important if you are in a lot of fandoms or even just one! that brings me to TAGGING! tagging makes a world of difference. i probably over tag things but being so multi fandom and i’m just organized i have to tag. some people wont follow you unless you have a tag system. it makes it easier to blacklist things you dont want on your dash! tagging can be from just the show #the 100, to #tv: the 100, to character names full or not. anything you want basically.

so that’s most of the basic stuff it comes down to who you follow and what you post. tumblr is yours. you decide who you follow and unfollow and what you see on your dash. you dont like something someone is posting either backlist their tag or unfollow them. people tend to hate things just for something to do which sounds exhausting to me so curate your dash how you want it! There are tons of networks out there that are about one specific character or show so check them out! a network is a blog run by a group of people usually post edits and things and reblogs the newest edits! so an example is my network @bellamyblakepositivity (small self promo ;) )

Now i know some people thing you have to make gifsets, edits, headcanons, write fics, graphics, icons ect. to get followers. you really don’t. can it help? hell yeah haha making things and knowing how to tag edits helps even more! (this is for original edits) There are a million tutorials for learning how to make gifs and things i used tutorials to teach myself! you can dig through my tag for tuorials if you want to try that. but like i said you dont have to make things to enjoy yourself and make friends on this site! Please if you make things cite where you get ideas like quotes and things. and do NOT repost other peoples work. making things takes a lot of time and effort. i’m not saying you will but i am saying it is a sure fire way to get no where fast and its just rude. kindness goes a long way here even though it seems like it might not.

I was for the longest time the blog out in the dark that didnt make things and didn’t talk to anyone. I’m shit at starting conversations so i just dont do it. luckily people started conversations with me and i have made some absolutely amazing friends on this site. Like @flawlessbellamy I asked for a blog rate or tagged her in something and she sent a message to me and that was a year and 3 months ago and we talk daily! So if you see an edit you like, or a fic or something message the creator of it! i know as a creator i love love LOVE hearing from people (i read the tags on my posts and the give me life)! A lot of the time we are all just awkward beans who want to talk to each other but are too damn afraid. I see a blog on my dash and think i want to know that person but that and actually messaging are two different things but i implore you to try. some people like @broodybellamy are social butterflies even when they say they aren’t they totally are and just talk to people like its nothing. i am not like that. either is completely fine start small by tagging someone in something like a tag game, join blogrates, anything and go from there!

I made a lot of my friends by joining networks. so i said above what networks are a blog run by a group of people. there used to be a bunch of different types but those have since died off and now i see networks as almost a but more professional? like there is an admin then members and things are supposed to be updated and all that but if you join a network usually you just have to reblog some some stuff to keep the blog active and make something if you can and if you cant thats totally fine too!! networks usually have group chats either via blog or by group texting apps like whatsapp and discord. There you can get to know lots of people some you get along with and some not so much. from joning one network i met some of my closest friends and i am in about 15 different chats with different variations of the same people! networks are a huge help in getting to know people.

I honestly don’t try to do well i mean like i just reblog what i like and go from there i dont try to actively think about followers and things of course it’s inevitable for me to check my follower count and the notes on my edits but its more fun if you do you and see where it takes you. pick a theme you like, people an icon you like, the header. follow the people you want and unfollow others. tumblr is what you make of it!

if you want to know more about anything im happy to answer specific questions. i generally have a tutorial for just about everything and if i dont have it i can find it lmao! see i told you this would be longer than anyone needed or wanted!