#but I'm getting better!

[mythals-whore]

Some thoughts on fandom engagement

Post got long but TL;DR engagement is low, Never Ever Stop Creating! fandom is community and everyone needs to participate

extended thoughts and personal anecdote under the cut:

For writers:

I have turned off Kudos emails from ao3. I found myself checking my email and feeling discouraged when I didn't get them. So i turned the emails off so I wouldn't know I wasn't getting them. Even now when I go to my dashboard, I specifically do not look at the bottom of the work to see those numbers.

This is not me telling you to do the same thing. It is easier said than done, and I understand that. But that's what I had to do to have a good time.

Because for a little while, posting made it less fun. I felt like people didn't like it. I was being overly critical of myself, couldn't write more than three sentences without feeling like I was garbage and my work was garbage and I should just quit. I would post a chapter and then immediately want to take the whole thing down. But then I realized...

I have about four half-finished projects in my WIP folder. I have written like 500,000 words that no one has ever read. Because I had fun doing it! Because I enjoy writing!!

And the point of this isn't to say writers shouldn't want or expect engagement. That is not at all what I'm saying!

What I am saying is that if you enjoy writing and you find that posting your work is making you feel unmotivated, discouraged, and you're not having fun anymore it is okay to take it down. It’s okay to make your work private for a while. It's okay to turn off Kudos emails or even comments. Whatever you need to do to make it fun again, do that. If you enjoy creating, please do not let the lack of engagement stop you!

It's been really helpful for me to find a community of creators! Without the support of @thedissonantverses @flowersforthemachines and @basedonconjecture I may have deleted my work months ago!

And that said, if you want someone to read your work, there are so many people (including and especially me) who would love to read and promote you! Participate in WIP Wednesday and Writing Weekend! Promote your own work!! Promote other creators' work! This is how we build community!

For readers:

If you love fanfic, and fanart and fandom in general engage with it. The urge to take down your work is real! And not unique to me! If writers don't get kudos or comments or replies on tumblr, they will delete their work. If there's a fic you find, and you enjoy it but you don't engage with it do not be surprised if you log on one day and it isn't there anymore. Or if it gets orphaned. Or if they simply stop updating it.

Fandom is meant to be a community. The whole purpose of it is to enjoy the things you enjoy with other people. If you're consuming free work (be that fanfic, fan art or something else) and you're not liking or reblogging or commenting then those people will stop sharing it.

And my personal take, while we're here: I do not get it.

I do not understand why there are people out there who do not jump at the chance to directly engage with authors and artists who make things that you enjoy. You can tell them personally how much you like their work! You can ask them questions! You can send them your unhinged ramblings on The Character.

And before anyone comes to my replies and says: I never know what to say ))):

Here is a non-comprehensive list of 10 slightly unhinged things that I've actually commented on fics (some edited for brevity)

I am chewing on glass.

bye i’m putting my fist through the wall 😭

These two are consuming my every waking thought

That ruined me i fear. I have passed away

THIS IS LITERATURE. absolutely tore my heart out.

You are sick in the head my friend

Im gonna sip on this sentence a while.🤌🏻

how could you do this to them? writing about this in my burn book brb

A) You absolutely cooked here B) how fucking dare you?

 kicking my feet and giggling!!!!!

And this isn't just for ao3/fanfic writers. Fanartists deserve love too! Artists love feedback!! The more unhinged the better!! Tell us we're evil! Quote our work back to us! Tell us you're smashing through walls like the Kool-aid man! Tell us that our work is making you scream and cry and blush!

No one is expecting you to leave several long paragraphs with an actual annotated review (not that that wouldn't also be welcome). Comment! Engage! Community is the whole point!

This also goes for finding Tumblr mutuals, by the way. If you want to make friends with people on here engage with their content! Like their posts! Reply to them! Send asks and messages!

Stop being afraid to enjoy things! That is like...all we are doing here.

[arrgh-whatever]

i hope no one who was commissioning from me was weirded out by my "machine-like" answers, that's my loophole for anxiety. I'm not being fake friendly! it's just if I'll ever say anything out of my regular set of questions and sentences I'll start spiraling

[breakfastteatime]

Shaved another 8 seconds off my swimming PB. BRB, off to celebrate by editing fanfiction (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[21ducky]

Do you draw humans ?

I've been trying to learn! It's kinda hard but I doing better than before :D I can do Frisk and Chara decently so 🎉yay!🎉

I can do bodys just fine, I just gotta work on heads and hair. It's easier to draw skeletons because I learned that first. (I'm also working on other characters like Papyrus, Gaster, Undyne, Toriel, Asgore, etc.) :D

[the-crow-binary]

Hi! I hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you draw anatomy? It looks really good.

Oh. 🥺 Hello. 🥺 It's okay I don't mind 🥺 And thank you, it means a lot to me 🥺🥺🥺 Here's a messy, quickly-done guide of how I do it

Generally, my bases are even messier than that lol

I always start with a circle for the head and then draw from there. Even if I always end up modifying it, it's a good start (the circle doesn't have to be perfect, nor does it have to be a circle lol, unless you want to draw a bald person with a perfectly round head). I can't really explain the proportions for the torso because I always draw it based on how good it looks, and if it doesn't look too long or too short. With time and experience it just became natural. But I do still sometimes uses little clues for the members such as the arms and legs, based on the torso, to keep it all well-proportioned.

I drew only slender bodies here because the clues I wrote are basically the same for all body types, and it's also the body type I draw the most lol (with the only twist being that I had a little bit of muscles sometimes, wich shows with slightly bigger/rounds pecs, rounder arms, visible abs...) Here's an example of one of the very few muscular characters I drew (i just added the red lines)

The chest and back are much bigger, the arms much rounder, every muscle is more visible, but the elbow stil reach the hip, you still can put one head between the head and one shoulder (the shoulders are just larger), and the hands still cover the face.

If I can give one advice to how to learn to draw the muscles, it would obviously be to use references. I still use some today tbh, especially for the most muscular body types that I don't draw often. One thing that is nice, and that you can use to learn to draw anything, not just human anatomy, is to trace pictures and make your own base out of it. Example:

(found the picture on pinterest)

Now you draw your base however you like, what fits you the best. The goal of this exercise is not to mindlessly trace a form and then draw whatever you want on top, but to understand the forms you are learning to draw, so you can progress. I used a clothed model here but a half/completely naked one works better lol (well, depending on what you are trying to learn). I could've put more details in my own base (such as drawing the parts hidden by the hands and arms to fully get the forms it's suppose to have), but that's just an example. I use digital pictures because I'm on ipad (and have been drawing on computer for a few years before that) but if you draw on paper, you could very well use pictures from books, comics, etc... you can use any source, any media and any style (if it's drawn). Just keep in mind to give credit if you ever post your exercise online!

Of course you can also draw on a blank piece of paper while looking at and trying to replicate the picture, wich is also a good exercise, but tracing might be easier to learn the anatomy, especially at first. This being said, there's a plethora of guides out there and examples of bases, but that's how I do it and learned! Just add a lot of practice and a few blood sacrifice :')

[starfallandsilver]

-

[thatruerealmwalker]

I-

I am a bit guilty of not rebloging, just liking. I did it a bit in the early days of me being on the site-

Now it's because It's 1 am and I feel lazy- I'll like this then reblog later.

I also don't want to spam my blog with reblogs- so I'm using the Queue to slowly blog them all.

But please read and reblog anyways. It seems very important.

i am begging you all to stop treating this site like instagram if you dont want it to be content free by next year

[ionomycin]

temple at the end of the road

[wardensantoineandevka]

is that piece of media actually bad, or is it just not following the blueprint you projected onto it? is that work actually not good, or are you just demanding something from it that is absolutely antithetical to its themes, genre, tone, and narrative goal? is that story actually poorly written, or do you just dislike that it is not the specific things you wanted from it that it never set out to be, never was, and never is going to become? is it actually bad, or is it actually well-executed and you just dislike the story it chose to be because it isn't catering to your specific desires and expectations?

[solheemao]

I can breathe through my nose again! 😊

[katsinspats]

I think my copy of the game is broken they've been doing this for 30 minutes

Crop of the Biolizard edit I did bc it makes me laugh:

[captainjonnitkessler]

You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

[laughingcatwrites]

As a reminder that good exists out there, a coworker recently confessed to me that he found out his child is questioning their identity (kid's gender redacted for this post). The kid is keeping it from him, so he can't say anything to them or show that he knows, but he's doing his best to get mentally prepared and educated so that he'll be ready whenever his kid does feel comfortable enough come to him.

For context, this guy is a big, bulky middle aged dude who loves sports and typical outdoor "manly" activities. As his coworker and friend, I know he's a kind and sweet teddy bear of a person, but his kid probably views him as a stern, authoritarian figure, the way most teenagers view their parents. His family lives in a conservative area, so I'm sure between that, their dad's looks and interests, and the fact that their dad is a Figure of Authority, the kid is worried that they won't be accepted.

But you know what? When he found out about his kid, the first thing he did was reach out to his closest queer friend and ask for resources for parents of questioning children. His biggest fears are that his kid will be bullied or discriminated against and won't feel comfortable enough to be themself. His second action was to find himself a mentor in another parent who went the same situation (kid coming out in a conservative town). The other person is preparing him for some of the struggles his kid may face and the fights he may need to take on as a parent to make sure his kid is safe and treated well.

Something I want to emphasize for people focused on language as the primary method of allyship is that when we spoke, he used some outdated terms and thoughts about gender and sexuality. That does not make him bad. These were the terms and thinking used about questioning teenagers when he was growing up and he never needed to learn more current ones. But now that he does have that need, he's throwing himself in head first because that's his kid and he's darn well going to make sure that his kid feels welcomed and has a safe place to be themselves even if they never come out to him.

[egophiliac]

Malleus' bday is coming up, thoughts on what his sleepwear might be?

anticipating that reveal any time now, so gotta get my predictions in real quick (aka extremely fast drawings) (I'm sorry)

[catboy-beckett]

Kim Kitsuragi is a fascinating character because there's not that much fun or interesting or compelling about him. And yet somehow over the course of playing Disco Elysium the game rewires your fucking brain around him. He's the middest man you've ever seen in both appearance and personality but at some point he says something kind to you or something critical of you and you feel like you just got hit by a truck and you need his approval like you need oxygen and like how tf did this happen. what are you

[lgbtlunaverse]

Nothing will dispell the "the curtains were just blue" myth faster than writing something yourself, because the amount of pretentious symbolism i am putting in my silly little fanfics is ridiculous. I mean SO much with these words, literally every single one of them. This fic has twenty five typos and zero correct uses of punctuation but if there's curtains you bet your ass I put thought into what colour they were.