#building positive experiences

[adnauseum11]

Hoping I can convince some folks that I'm worth employing. Wish me luck at the interview. Part-time (perfect, I can barely handle leaving the house for a few hours.) and within walking distance means it's a good fit even if I'm nervous I'm not up to task yet.

[chrissy-kaos]

Lego and chill?

[drenched-in-sunlight]

saying this as respectfully as possible but. Do not put fandom content creators on a pedestal. We are also just fans contributing to a community just as you are. We have boundary on our own work and that’s it. What I say is not and should not be considered sth the whole fandom should listen to. I’m just a normal ass person ranting about things on my blog. If it does not have a fandom tag for others to engage in, do not make it out to be me trying to start fights or addressing the whole community. Because it’s not.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, my art, my lore talk, is biased. I’ve never tried to hide that I view Marika a certain way and will always develop my theory following that base assumption.

Aside from translation stuffs and pointing out in-game items, everything else I say you can look at it, agree or disagree, and move on to form your own opinions. Just because I draw stuffs doesn’t mean you get to saddle me with responsibilities about managing fandom expectations. What the hell? I’m a fan artist, I’m the last person who you should look at for “leaderism” (?) WHAT?

I can and will be a hater in my own space, like I know sometimes other artists will just post their stuffs and not engage too heavily with fandom, and for a while I did try to do that here (because I’m already a dramatic ass on twitter), that’s just not me though.

You will get art and you will get my opinions as well.

[canisalbus]

Since the modern Machete and Vasco are reincarnations of their former selves, do you think they might occasionally experience remnants from their past lives in the form of things like vague memories/dreams or feelings that they can't quite explain?

Such as how maybe Machete wouldn't be able to watch stabbing scenes in shows/movies without getting a faint ache in his chest, or an imaginary metallic taste in his mouth. Maybe Vasco would tend to get especially clingy and oddly concerned about Machete's well-being during a particular time of year(around whenever the previous Machete was assassinated).

.

[befuddled-calico-whump]

next time you try a new food or beverage, or light a new scented candle, or even try on a new outfit, I encourage you to find a new song or album to listen to at the same time

in my experience, tying multiple senses to a new experience creates a stronger memory:

paint while listening to a new favorite song and sipping a tea you've wanted to try, or check out that local nature trail with a new album playing in one earbud

and then the next time you feel stressed or overwhelmed you can play that song again, or light that candle, or make that drink, and it may help you feel a little lighter

[thexgrayxlady]

I think I like the idea of Murtagh and Thorn handling side quest type things for a while once they make it out to Mt Angor. As annoyed as Murtagh is that his already abbreviated training keeps getting interrupted, Thorn's the only mature dragon who isn't tied down to one location.

The first time, they're sent up to the north of the spine, near Carvahall. The longer they're up there, the more Murtagh suspects that the villagers did not need the help of a dragon rider to get rid of a particularly vicious cave bear, but he's already here and it's nice to feel useful and wanted and once he gets over himself, he gets to meet Roran. Reuniting with his brother wasn't nearly as horrible as he thought it would be. Adding a cousin to the mix shouldn't be that bad. Once the initial awkwardness is past, they get along like a house on fire. Even so, he tries to leave quietly once the bear's been tracked and dispatched.

Roran's having none of it. He and Thorn are family, even if he is a prickly grouch. They're at least staying for dinner. Thorn will not let him say no. Ismira is delighted by her uncle and his dragon friend. Dinner turns into a few extra days of helping around Carvahall and spending time with his family. By the time he actually leaves, he, Thorn, Katrina, and Roran are plotting to kidnap Eragon and bring him out here for Ismira's birthday.

Then they spend a few weeks in Illeria, trying to help Nasuada negotiate with the mages because the system, as it's currently set up, is a powder keg. They're happy to see Alin settling in nicely and that she's genuinely enjoying the outside world. Murtagh gets to be a fancy boy who knows politics at galas. He's having the time of his life dragging an ambassador for being a bad dancer. The four of them get involved in so many spy thriller shenanigans because Murtagh cannot go five minutes without kicking some kind of hornets nest.

They go north and fight a sea serpent alongside Uvek. Murtagh can only watch with horror while Thorn plunges into the icy abyss to stop it from dragging their boat under. Then lines on their harpoons go slack and come up cut. He's about to dive in after him when Thorn's head breaches the waves.

"She will not trouble your tribes anymore," Thorn says, dragging himself, panting, onto the pack ice, and adds softly, "I could not bear to destroy something with such a beautiful song."

They find more leads on the Draumar, only now they have enough experience to follow them safely.

Of course, half the time they either create or stumble into far more problems than they wanted. Murtagh can escalate taking care of some small time bandits into a narrowly averted major diplomatic incident between the Broddring Empire and Surda in under three minutes. At one point, they go to take care of some minor smuggling and somehow, wind up leading a heist in Ellesmera and both refuse to elaborate on how those two things are connected.

Eragon looses count of the number of times they come back far later than anticipated, and when questioned about it, Murtagh's first answer is just, "Fucking Durza!"

Thorn continues his side quest to get Murtagh laid, only now he's armed with the knowledge of romantic ballads. His arranged meet-cutes with any of the men or women he deems acceptable are met with a resounding lack of success.

Thorn builds his confidence up with bandits and wild animals and more of the little surprises Durza left around the continent. He learns drinking songs and ballads in taverns and from harvest festivals and on the road and eventually starts to share his own work. He watches people change from approaching him with fear, to caution, to acceptance, and eventually to joy.

And slowly, but surely the people of Alagaësia stop feeling dread at the sight of the red dragon and his rider and instead, feel safe.

[ihazyourkitty]

That feeling you get when you see someone post a video on YouTube about why Moo Deng is an example of a good zoo.....

Look, to be fair, he did specify that the behavior of the guests is irresponsible. I'm not going to link this video, this is a smaller creator who means well. He seems passionate about zoos, but just doesn't presently have much familiarity with the nuances of animal care.

This is also a good time to mention that, yes, animals breeding is a positive sign in terms of welfare. That is NOT the only sign you look for, however. You can have both positive and negative welfare inputs at the same time. Some species, or even individuals, are just more picky than others when it comes to breeding.

I also want to clarify that I'm not making a judgment about that zoo's overall quality. Zoos can be a mix of good and bad. What I am saying is that the way the keepers have been interacting with Moo Deng, and the internet turning this into a big meme, is uh... maybe not the best example of why zoos are good.

[thedreadvampy]

The thing is I am definitely not happy or chill in the Immediate Sense lately but I am, big picture, so fucking happy with the person I am.

It's like. My brain was made by and for consistent trauma and since that trauma stopped about 5-7 years ago, it is incredible what the amount of resilience and cleverness and flexibility and thoughtfulness I developed to survive can do when it's not being all spent on surviving. like I had a hundred ton weight on me so I had to get REALLY STRONG to stay in the same place and not get 100% crushed, and when that weight came off I found I can use the strength it used to take to stand up and I can leap tall buildings in a single bound.

I was talking to my mum the other day and she said, "you've got the 'fuck it' energy at 30 that most women don't find until their fifties at least" and I'm like yeah man. Imagine how unstoppable I'll be in 20 years.

[pastafossa]

how long did it take for your fanfiction to start getting some recognition? did you "advertise" it or "promote" it in any way?

i know that people say this doesn't matter, but i feel like even if you love writing the feeling that you're just talking to yourself gets pretty exhausting at some point. so i'm not talking about having thousands of readers but rather like. what's your advice to have readers at least?

- someone who hasn't even started writing their ideas yet...

LONG POST INCOMING.

First I want you (and everyone else reading who may be struggling with this) to know I'm absolutely with you and generally think 'it doesn't matter' is a horseshit answer. It's this weird thing we do in fanfic that we generally don't apply to other artforms that I've seen. If you're a painter, a playwriter, a novel writer, and you say, 'I want at least a few people to love my paintings, I want some people to come see my play, I want my novel to be published and do at least ok' we all support them, we nod, we agree, we talk about how they can do that successfully. It's considered normal to want some amount of success. But hold up fanfic instead and it becomes, 'how dare you want that praise, you're being egotistical, you should be writing only for yourself'. I'm not saying you can't do that - there are some who do - but it's definitely this bizarre switchup to say there's this single artform in which we can't want attention on our work and that there's something wrong with us if we do. That can be an absolute creativity killer depending on what kind of writer you are (hi, extrovert writer here who only gets writy writy juice from social interaction - aka comments and discussion. So I totally get it being exhausting just doing this on your own).

So let me say this categorically: you're allowed to want things. You're allowed to want kudos, comments, and hits. You're allowed to want messages and asks. You're allowed to want some readers you can talk with about your story.

You. Are. Allowed.

Ok, now that that's out of the way.

Edit: more below the cut cause I didn't realize the length of this on mobile

TRT definitely didn't get popular overnight. The first four chapters were sporadic, and then I took a hiatus due to life things for a couple years. During that time, it kept slowly ticking up bit by bit on AO3, with occasional comments. Iirc it was hovering somewhere around 700 kudos by the time I came back in Jan 2021 - and that's a awesome! It's big! But it's also a number that was gained over a few years, to put it in perspective. It absolutely took off after I came back though, and over the past 2 years both TRT's popularity and the stats of my one-shots in the fandom have grown. Part of that's just the time frame (TRT's been up about 6 years), but it's also due to a couple things that I think built up TRT's popularity.

Building a tumblr presence was huge. Ironically I didn't really intend to do it for advertising; I just wanted a place readers could ask questions or we could all freak out about Matt or I could post some drabbles or updates on the fic. But considering the fact that AO3 and tumblr are the top fic sites online, I wound up promoting my fics unintentionally just by being a friendly, happy tumblr user and fandom goer. All I did was follow the courtesy rules I knew - post stuff regularly, reblog, comment, make friends with other writers, just be friendly in your neighborhood because you love the lady with the gif flower shop on the corner or the wise old pizza maker who serves hot fandom takes all day long. I built familiarity with my writing and name by posting short fics, and by taking part in challenges and prompt lists and short requests for drabbles if I saw them, though that's something that's hard to do if you don't have time (I've got less time now, but I started this blog in the early pandemic so I had aaaaall the time in the world to write and was using it to stay sane). I tagged religiously because I LOVE tags, but that helped, too. Tumblr's search system is half broken but the half that works means people CAN find your writing even if they aren't following. Doing all this over here got me a huge boost over on AO3.

I will say that if you can have a fandom tiktok presence, there's a lot of fic reviewers, edits, and good stuff that can get your fic some readers (I've had some people do this on tiktok for TRT and it sent a surge over). I personally haven't done anything there yet, in part because while I'm on tiktok I try to keep my actual, real person accounts separate from my fic/fandom accounts and i haven't bothered to make a second account solely dedicated to the Pasta name yet.

Longfics on AO3 have the advantage in fic stats in the sense that every time you add a chapter, it gets bumped to the top of the front page and you get seen again. Eventually a lot of people will click out of curiosity. They may not, however, give you a lot of user subs or add to your other fic stats at first, whereas if you do a bunch of oneshots you're more likely to get user subs but less hits on each fic. This is a decision you'll have to make, and I know folks in both camps who built their followings using different methods on each. Either way, it helps if you're posting regularly, either in a long fic or one-shots. I call this the Stephen King method, who said he just writes a ton and throws it all at the wall, and eventually you get enough good despite the bad that you start building a following.

Learn learn learn. This is standard fic advice I always give, but it's still relevant. I think one of the reasons imo TRT has done so well is that I've spent a lot of time over the years learning how to write and edit - I read a ton of books (sometimes just to figure out HOW good authors structure their stories), I took a lot of English classes, I've taken some creative writing courses in my spare time. That two year hiatus was heavily spent doing a lot of research and practice around an original novel I want published one day. And I used ALL of that in TRT, just to see what it was like to put it all together. Be hungry for knowledge, be hungry to learn. The more you learn, the better your fic will be, and the more people that will click.

That learning also includes a looooong string of fanfics that started at a very novice level (hello 12 year old me), to fics that were ok and did moderately well but weren't anything huge. Hell, I had a tumblr account for my previous fandoms before I wandered over to Pastafossa, and while those fics did decently, I never had the huge reaction I've gotten here. But I used each and every one of those fics to learn and grow and adapt. Treat your own fics the same way. If it doesn't get hits, try to learn from it before moving on to the next idea a little wiser and a slightly better writer than before. There will always be people who start to follow you along the way.

A small one, but important: I swear to god, do not shit-talk yourself. Not in the summary, not in the tags, not in the A/Ns. I'm not talking, 'this is my first fic!' That's fine. I mean trashing your own work. Shit like, 'ha ha this sucks, it's terrible but oh well' will absolutely lower your stats, because people will believe you and will ditch your fic. On top of that, it's just mean to yourself, and as I said above, you want to be a good person in the fandom neighborhood. That means not breaking the windows of your own house.

People generally think of summaries as a side note, but a shitty summary can absolutely tank your stats. Treat it like the rest of your fic - this is the trailer before the movie, and it's a huge element of what gets people interested in the first place.

Lastly, like I said at the top, the biggest factor is time. There are people who post one fic and explode in popularity, absolutely. But far, far more little followings are built on the bones of time, of abandoned fics, of muttering and highlighting phrases in books in the middle of the night, of trying and trying and trying until we have at last have a breakthrough and then drag that breakthrough forward with us to the next fic. TRT is absolutely one part lightning in a bottle - the biggest success I've ever had anywhere with my writing, a confluence of fandom factors and world events that gave people (and me!) time to write and read. But it's also standing on the back of whole lot of fics I wrote that look like everyone else's: ones with no comments, low interaction, insults; ones where I had precisely zero idea of what I was doing, but wanted to try anyway. And the way I got through that, as a writer who needs interaction in order to create, was by building friendships in fandom so that even when a fic didn't do all that well, I still had friends I could talk to about the characters, the world, the fandom itself. I asked friends to look them over and give advice. I had friends being my cheerleaders. And if you're an extrovert like me, or just a writer who needs that to create, then those connections are vital as you build up a following.

That's a lot of what I've done. I know there are other ways to build a following, but this is generally what I've done, what I've learned to do, and it seems to have worked. Just remember that there are no bad fics - just learning opportunities. Learn something, and that fic's a success, and work as hard as you can to make those fandom connections to carry you through the process.

I absolutely hope to see your work around one day, so that I can be on of those followers!

[adnauseum11]

There’s been a lot more tears than anticipated today. My own, not anyone else’s. Frustrated to the max. Wishing I had stayed home. Nothing is going ‘right’ and it all feels bad.

[slocumjoe]

You ever think about Shaun and Danse interacting and cry a lil bit

[perenlop]

it’s not even funny how dot’s quaxwell is easily the best written starter so far…

floragato is still my favorite of the three, and she gets points for her great backstory and personality, but it is kinda annoying that theyve only really done One kind of episode with her (jealousy arcs) and fuecoco’s just The Silly One and they’ve sorta passed on doing anything super interesting with him so far.

quaxwell meanwhile has been consistently endearing and has had a good amount of interesting screentime and interactions, and has the most interesting dynamic with his trainer where he’s basically her older brother trying to look out for her and help her get comfortable with herself, rather than the reverse we typically see. this show’s gotten me to like the quaxly line more than i did initially tbh

[genshin-projection]

i don't think i can be normal about Sunday guys

[ganymedesclock]

Hello! I hope your week has been kind to you. May I inquire of your thoughts about IDW Eggman written by Ian Flynn? I noticed his reference in one of your posts, and i would like to know how you feel about the direction Ian is taking the Sonic characters in in the Sonic franchise. I would also like to know what you think about Surge and Kit, the product of Dr. Starline's unethical experimentations. Mimic, the traitorous mercenary as well if you don't mind. Remind yourself to eat your meals regularly and to maintain a limber body!

I admittedly haven't gotten to sink my teeth in IDW- I'm currently following through @thankskenpenders' take on archie which I would like to finish before I start that. What I have seen is promising, but I don't consider myself educated to speak on those characters. I think Surge, Kit, and Mimic have very fun designs and seem to have a lot of potential, and I love the way the former two (and Starline himself) are nods to classic glitches.

As far as IDW Eggman, as I've said, I'm very interested in what Flynn and Stanley do with him! They're definitely a bit darker than I've always liked my take on Eggman- my formative Sonic game was Sonic Adventure 2, which featured Eggman as a protagonist in his own right, albeit a "dark" one. I've always liked the idea of him as half-honorable, and it's a balancing act to frame that with just how brutal and ruthless he can be. But I've grown to be fond of that- I think half-honorability stands out a little more when the other half is that... coldly efficient.

As I said in the post, I think it's interesting to take Eggman as someone who may have had noble intentions as a 'fixer' once but who's gone a good few strides further than that. In a warped way, he always 'helps'- but you may not appreciate his help. I think that plays well with him as a manipulator and a trickster who tends to play people against each other for his own profit and amusement- if he's always harmless or always terrifying that's a potentially fine character (there's much I like about SatAM Robotnik after all!) but it doesn't really hit me as Eggman in the same way.

Almost everything I've gleaned secondhand about the Mr. Tinker arc is fascinating to me because of that. Especially the way Sonic confronts Eggman afterwards, and makes it clear he isn't opposed to Eggman regaining his memory (Sonic is not someone who likes to take power or options away from even his worst enemies) but upset that Eggman threw away everything he had as Mr. Tinker, to which Eggman replies, almost wistfully, that that kind of life was "peaceful"- but he's got bigger fish to fry.

As I said in a previous post, at the end of the day, Eggman's meant a lot of things to a lot of people, and while I'll always have my own takes on the Sonic cast, the biggest thing I can hope for is that new versions of the story will experiment further. That willingness to try new things boldly is, in my opinion, one of the things that's kept the Sonic franchise as youthfully full of vitality as it is. I can't really find it in my heart to hate any version of Eggman- they've all got something going for them, from the silly to the horrifying to the aforementioned half-honorable to the completely vile.

[kalechipswithasideofkale]

i need a cigarette im gonna try to rewatch it to fully wrap my head around it because maybe theres some things im missing that could be awesome and sexy upon second glance

[purityvalentine]

Even though it's just a contractor position and not like, actual staff

Working where I do now really reminds me of how good it is to work somewhere you love, with cool people, creatives and ambitious folk, it's truly...

it really makes the difference. Feeling like you're doing something. Feeling supported.

I missed it a lot, the last time I felt like this was at the arcade, and that was about 7 years ago now.