#but given the major fic im writing for the fandom this is something i think about *a lot*

[voltstone]

S4 WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD AND WEIRD

I love the fourth season. It does so many things right. But also. …it's kinda a mess.

Like a very pretty mess. But a mess. And I could write a wholeass essay on it. Don't feel like it right now.

I will say this one thing now though: it has always confused me how of all the seasons, S2 is the one that really explores being a kid in an apocalypse without really an adults to guide said kid, and not…S4?

Sure, there's adults in S2, but Clementine is stuck in this weird grey zone where she can't really rely on them, and has to be her own adult. And this does include Kenny, depending on what people choose to do, and what they interpret. Because he was easily just as bad given the specific scenes. Better, given other scenes, but the bad was…really bad.

But then there's S4. And like, yeah sure, the schoolkids are there to represent a healthy but struggling community—in that there's things to work through, but they genuinely care for each other, and they do whatever it takes to survive, regardless of what they think a "liability" is.

But like. The season never really explored the extent of what being abandoned by adults really would imply??

Like why is S2 the only one where exploring substances as a kid is a thing? Clementine can smoke and drink there, and that's with adult influence. Whereas with S4, nothing. Even though the fishing shack looks like it's a hotspot for booze.

I dunno if I'm making sense. This is why I generally write essays and not splurge on a post. Lol. But. I just. I just wish S4 really explored what the adults leaving did to those kids, man. Beyond what the season did.

S4 in this regard just felt like they knew what being a troubled kid implied, but they actually never wanted to depict kids doing more adult things, other than survival, even though Clementine 1) could've smoked and drank before because…the adults around her were…hmph, and 2) she is literally raising a child on her own. Like it beats around the bush but in a weird and obscure way that I don't have the energy to pick apart.

I just.

[honeyhotteoks]

just saw your response about writing a book and dreams and i wanted to ask like-- do you think you'd ever change careers to do that? im in the middle of trying to change careers right now and the market is straight doggy doodoo in the us, but also maybe egg on my face for applying right before the holidays. id like to think to those of us with wants and dreams there is a place. i think you're a bit older than i am, and i guess i want your opinion as someone a little more sage. idk sorry if this is too personal - i have noticed you like to keep your personal and kpoppie fandom life separate, so i wont press :3! happiness to all

such a great question!! so let me answer your question in a few parts bc honestly, the way careers and life work out in your twenties is so goddamn weird lol

so i went to school for literature and intended to go for the professor path, but realized pretty quick id be poor forever. so i bopped around job to job for a while feeling pretty unfulfilled, probably through my mid twenties. then i accidentally fell into a job at a small company where they let me switch over to the software dev team bc i surprisingly liked it / was good at it, and thats what ive been doing since. im 30 now, and to be honest, i make pretty good money doing that plus im able to fully work remotely and kind of have a flexible schedule.

so to answer your question….. no, i don’t think i would be willing to take the risk right now to try switching for writing but that’s largely because i finally like my job and im a little risk adverse as a person when it comes to my own finances.

i think realistically if i ever tried writing professionally it would be something i did in my off time like fic and then if i was able to make money doing that then maybe id switch paths. i have the flexibility for that given what i do, but thats just me.

for you, being a little younger in age and maybe your career though id give you this advice (as someone who changed careers) - you might need to start low on the totem poll to get into the career path you want, especially when switching, but do not let yourself work at lower pay for too long. no matter how great the company is etc., jobs that hire low experience and let you sink or swim are great for experience but they will never, ever pay you what you’re worth no matter how nice your bosses are. so if you get your foot in the door, crush it and get that resume built, and then get out in 1-2 years.

the other thing i’ll say is know your worth now. every job and degree gives you resume builders and skills you don’t even realize are marketable. focus on getting good at interviews so once you land one, you’ll get farther. people hire people they like, i guarantee im not the best developer but i am really personable and honest in an interview and it’s always got me a call back.

i would also say, career changing takes time. don’t be afraid to make money doing something you don’t love while you try for something else. it took me 2 years to transition from a job i didn’t love to doing something i enjoy for good money now, and it’s not my total dream job, but it affords me the time and money to enjoy my passions and that’s a good fit for me.

anyways i don’t know if this was helpful, but please don’t be shy to dm me here or on twt, i’d be happy to talk about my experiences or give you more advice on your situation.

i know it’s tough out there, but you got this! for the majority of my twenties i was really lost and struggling, but i promise if you stay the course and be honest with yourself the path in front of you gets clearer and easier to walk. 💗

[g-kat423]

Im sorry someone commented that on ur fic, some ppl rlly get mad if u depict alcina as anything but a "wholesome mother"

can't believe some ppl in this fandom get so angry when a canonically violent character is written as such like how did u even get here? going to a bar and being surprised that there is alcohol type behavior

That last sentence made me laugh out loud Fr so thank you hahaha

Yeah, I just don’t get it and it makes me wonder how exactly they know of her character. My guess is they only know of her through the fact that her character went viral and then they went straight to fanfiction. Nothing wrong if they did, but playing the game, watching a walkthrough, or at the very least reading the notes found in the castle would provide so much more context to her characterization.

That or it’s just the way fandom is now, morality has to be attached to everything and they feel guilt about liking a villain so they find ways to justify it. Because if you aren’t actively condemning something as you write it, you’re obviously glorifying it/s

“She doesn’t enjoy being cruel.”

“Mother Miranda is entirely at fault.”

“She actually hates Miranda, wants her dead, and wants to go back to being human.”

Like…those are certainly some thoughts. Personally, I believe Alcina enjoys the power that came with the cadou. I also think she erred on the cruel side as a mortal woman, the cadou and being given a castle just turned it up to 11.

There’s also a misunderstanding about the dynamic she has with her daughters. You have to think about how Alcina herself was raised. She’s from an era where children were meant to be seen and not heard. Her parents likely didn’t have much to do with her, leaving majority of her care to the staff. Alcina expects obedience from her daughters the same way it was expected of her. I don’t doubt she loves them, but she’s not going to act as a modern soccer mommy within a canon compliant universe. I just can’t see a canon Alcina being very affectionate in the way mothers are expected to be now, it’s not in her nature as she never had that affection from her own mother. It takes a lot for her to be vulnerable.

Idk, again people are free to feel how they want, but it is disappointing that writers who don’t shy away from her cruelty and are met with criticism or hate.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

alright time to write an essay detailing whatever yaoi has done to my girl nancy wheeler. so like, even when it comes to yaoi shippers nancy has had stonathan, harringrove, AND steddie over four seasons with steddie already having massive popularity + the other shippers, wheras thankfully eleven only has to deal with byler shippers when it comes to the victimization. but not to diminish eleven any more because she has def gone through it in fandom, im going to get into nancy's stuff: you will notice all three ships she supposedly gets in the way of (ignoring jargyle because the shippers are chill in my experience) involve steve harrington, AKA the most popular character if i had to guess and the white boy of the month. see, they were dating at one point in s1 and s2. the breakup was messy. like he kinda was complicit in her slutshaming at one point and didnt let her grieve her dead best friend properly and she ambiguously (as in nobody can fucking decide when the break up was) cheated on him so yeah. messy. mutually. if not more on steve's side given he was a bit of an asshole in s1-2 but gets better. yadda yadda fast forward to harringrove in particular, AKA steve x the guy who attacked a black child and abused his younger sibling (and im not attacking anyone thats just. what happened). basically 90% of them try to convince people nancy is abusive for the two arguments that occurred and is a slut and privileged (never mind steve being probably the most well off member of the main cast + hes a white guy in the 80s) blah blah blah. also ironic they call her abusive OFTEN when billy (one half of harringrove) kinda like threatens his sister max and breaks her things and otherwise abuses her Often. but yeah. they hate her for breaking his heart. they hate her for getting in the wya of their ship possibly. they hate her in general. add that to the general fandom misogyny and suddenly a large number of people are writing essays about how much they hate her and how she's a piece of shit, actually. fast forward to s4 and steddie and a new problem arises: steddie shippers keep flooding her character and ship tags with primarily steddie. so now your options regarding her are mlm ships and mlm shippers shitting on her. also keep in mind there is now more content for half of that ship, a guy who shows up for an hour and dies in the same season, than nancy, a mc. and if you like nancy ships like jancy or ronance, too bad those tags are flooded as well. as in someone did analytics in august for ronance i think and at one point the majority of main pairings in the ronance ao3 tags itself was steddie. either way both ships usually end up as side ships or bait into a steddie centric fic or tumblr post. or nancy ends up third wheeling and getting them together. as a nice bonus (not really) recently steddie shippers have decided that they too hate nancy and have entire posts and common plots (i have seen tumblr ficlets/hc's and people discussing this as a common trope for steddie fics on ao3) about how nancy was a horrible person who damaged steve's self esteem and ability to be in a relationship or something from a break up, as if the relationship wasnt mutually harmful and compounded by nancy's whole dead best and possibly only friend thing. and whoops for ships like ronance that isnt allowed either because steve's friend isn't allowed to interact with his ex despite the fact that said friend literally said he was an ass in the s1-2 timeline. all of this making it impossible to find any positive content without it being interrupted for a character who, if i remember correctly, has almost as much screentime as eleven (and eleven at least has popular fan content and other ships that dont somehow loop around to byler/mike). and whats worse is that while canon doesnt have yaoi victimization it does have heteronormative bullshit in which she is forced into a love triangle with the same guys TWO TIMES. she literally cant win so let her win a poll maybe also sorry this is super fucking long <3

Whoooo Nancy

[chaos-monkeyy]

kofi anon- considering im visiting (and uh, 'making use') of your fics like at least once a week i'd totes sub to your patreon, you've earned my cash

plus then we could vote in polls on what we'd like to see you write next, and you could share wips for feedback!

I have been thinking vaguely about trying out something like that one day! With patreon, or even just a specific discord server. My biggest blocking points have been - one, I don't know how much I would have to worry about patreon content rules, given the majority of things I write about 😅

And two, I'm.. very aware of how flaky I am when it comes to consistently making and finishing specific fic, along with jumping about between different fandoms all the time 😂 I'd feel terrible if people came for certain things and then I just... Didn't end up in the mood to keep working on that particular fic or ship or fandom for ages 🙈 (I've never ventured into commissions before for a similar reason, I just never know when prompts will really grab me or not)

For now I'm happiest being able to talk excitedly with people on discord servers, DMs, tumblr posts, AO3 comments, all that fun stuff, without worrying about disappointing anyone or whether or not I'm writing Enough.. but it has made me very happy and warm and fuzzy feeling, knowing that you would be interested in something like that! And I'm still gonna keep mulling it over, too, for the future 💙

[maaaxx]

my wips are stressing me out so you guys have to hear about it

or not i dont care

Cots

literally fighting for my life out here with this new wip. I could have the first chapter (???) out in like a few days but like,,, i dont want to do that

but im also not getting any immediate dopamine from this so im having trouble working on it.

Im also scared of having a new audience because like aside from a set few people most of my mutuals know me from ihiap and yall are nice and new people scare me

I even gatekeep ihiap, like if you dont know me from ihiap your not allowed to know about ihiap

a lot more people read that fic than i thought and it stresses me out

off track

i do genuinely think cots is going to be better than ihiap because ive had like two years now to figure out how to interact with fandom and im friends with other writers not and have more of a grasp of my writing style than i did before.

so im really excited about this

but i have enough trouble updating ihiap idk about doing two fics at once

but if i wait until im done with ihiap thatll take like two more fucking years

and ill lose focus

and wont do this fic

again, getting off track.

theres still so much that im not sure about with this fic. Like Zuko I think is the main character

But Sokka is EXTREMELY relevant

so i think im going to split the povs

But theyre at opposite ends of the world at any given time and sokka isnt going to (physically) be doing much.

so im not sure how to approach that

also i have no clue what the fuck kataras doing

like miss girl has two options and what she chooses will DRASTICALLY change the story like SHE controls the plot not me.

Sokka and Zuko are just there for the ride

Azula is also going to be relevant

like the story is about them 4 no one else matters

except aang maybe but like hes actually the avatar in this so thats a given

my first story where aangs the avatar!!!

also outlines are hard

and prologues are hard.

Ill be back with more complaints later

Ihiap

I have a love/hate relationship with ihiap. The characters in it are amazing theyre my favorite people ever. Some might make a cameo in cots, i havent decided yet.

REasons i hate ihiap:

-I accidentally stole half my ocs i talk about this a lot and ive been reassured but im not going to get over it. I hate myself

-Its so badly written like half the time There are some parts that i absolutely love and some that make me want to delete the entire fic. Like ive actually considered it multiple times. I hate it so much, so much second hand embarrassment. Is it second hand embarrassment if I'm the one who wrote it???? -Zuko is so ooc he might as well be an oc

-I dont even know twf azula is doing Azula and Mailee is one of the plot holes that drives me nuts. Because like I wrote Ty Lee into a scene but miss girl is supposed to be in the circus by now. I forgot about that part. Also Theres a certain detail about Azula and MaiLee thats going to be very prevelant near the end of book 3 but i forgot to imply or write that in so thats going to come out of no where. -most major events were impulsive and had no value to the actual plot Examples: That stupid soldier dude, the islands thing. I hate these parts and im going to write them out eventually -PLOT HOLES Reasons why Ihiap is the best piece of literature ever written:

-Relationships and characters

So the thing is despite the fact that theres so many things im bad at doing in writing/havent had enough practice yet, there are things that I know that I am great at writing.

One of these things is delevoping relationships.

I'm really good at making people and relationships very complex and this isnt something that someone can change my mind over, like this is something that i love the way i do it.

This is one of the only redeeming qualities of ihiap.

-I love the plot.

I really want to redo this to do the plot justice because i do think it has potential.

Overall i think that ihiap has more good than bad but the mad really does bother me. If your ever rereading and there seems to be some stuff missing or changed its because im eventually going to go through and edit the shit out of it.

As of now the next chapter (chapter 14) has like 600 words. Chapter 15 has i think 445 and chapter 16 is completely done, chapter 17 had like half a sentence, then were done with twbb.

Chapter 16 is where stuff gets interesting.

Im perfectly aware that TWBB is boring but it was meant to be. I needed it to be for Zuko to not go insane and then also develop Tomnooks relationship (because believe it or not theyre not COMPLETELY self indulgement and they are important) and also Sokka and Katara and Zuko needed that sibling relationship. So i needed like a 17 chapter book in between the two main books for that stuff.

I'm so excited for the next book. Especially like the second half. Its also (most likely) going to be updated a lot more frequently than twbb. Twbb was a pain in the ass because there was very little actual plot and it was just day to day stuff. So i had nothing to go off us.

Like Book 1 was all about the crew and Zuko to kind of learn and build relationships and shit and Book 3 is going to be a lot easier because it has a lot of actual plot and a goal and shit.

Totp

" idk about doing two fics at once" miss girl you already are supposed to be doing two fics at once.

Im not even trying with this fic, if your invested, im sorry. I've thought about deleting it but i decided against it just in case i want to come back to it.

Its not looking good though.

This is what happens when i dont outline my fics

[extremetimedchallengeexchange]

Some questions from the “ask a mod a question” field!

ever since last time when certain individuals wrote 10k+ fics in the timeframe, i have been afflicted with rainworms DESPERATE to try something insane like that. It’s just not the same when I write 10k in a weekend on my own.

You have my complete respect and also a little bit of my fear. Glad to know the informal competition for Most Words Written will be vibrant.

I’m sure there’ll be more info when noms and sign-ups happen, but my major question right now is what happens if someone is unmatchable or a pinch hit is needed later on. (Disclaimer that I have not done your previous exchange so you may already have a policy in place that I just don’t know about.) Not something I need answered right now, but something I would want to see in the rules/faq

I am making a note to put that in the FAQ! If someone is unable to be matched for offers or requests, the plan is to give them the chance to add in more fandoms/characters and re-run the matching. If that still does not solve the problem, the person who offered is given the chance to be a pinch-hitter, and the assignement would immediately go to pinch hits. 

People will have the chance to self-assign as pinch-hitters when they join the discord, and as soon as someone knows that they are unable to deliver a gift, the pinch hit would go out in the discord. If we are unable to find a pinch hitter for the gift in the discord, we would start a public appeal on the blog and on fandom sites (e.g. the yuletide discord) looking for people able to cover the assignment. 

you are very very cool. can’t wait to see how this exchange offends god this time!

More! Offending! Heaven! 2k23!

I am a little worried about misinterpreting prompts/rules without examples, I don’t work well without clear examples, but Im not too worried about it. I think when the event starts, it’ll be less complicated than it seems. 

I will say an Ao3 exchange does seem like it’s very complicated until you start, and then suddenly it’s way more clear, in my experience. We will however try to make sure to have example posts at various parts of the process, and if you have any questions the mods are available to both answer questions and pass on questions to your giftee.

How do you count it when someone offers both the romantic and platonic version of a relationship between the same characters? Does it count as two or one?

The matching algorithm counts that as two relationships, but for the sake of meeting your minimum five offers, we’d ask people to count it as one. 

This event sounds like it will ruin 48 hours of my life and I have never wanted to do anything more.

Look sometimes you just gotta do something that is objectively bonkers, just for enrichment, you know?

Both exchanges would be awesome, but I’m not super branched out in the MCYT community and am worried about getting a prompt for something I’m unused to. 

The way Ao3 exchanges work is that you make a list of characters or relationships that you think you can write or draw, and everybody else makes a list of characters or relationships they want to see, and then the algorithm looks for matches between them. Once you get your assignment, you see everything your giftee requested, but you are only expected to actually give the thing that you offered. 

Someone might have listed Dream SMP and Hermitcraft and Lifesteal and Empires and 10 relationships on each and you only matched on Empires SMP and Katherine Elizabeth/Shelby Shubble— well in that case the only prompt that you have to pay attention to is the is the Katherine Elizabeth/Shelby Shubble one. You can read the rest with interest to get a sense of the vibes if you want, or you can straight up ignore it. 

You’re encouraged to only offer relationships you feel comfortable writing or drawing, and then once you get your assignment, you know that there is going to be at least one prompt that fits your criteria, and you can ignore the rest. (Last time I did a mult-fandom exchange I hadn’t even heard of half the things on my gift recipient’s letter, and they’d requested a bunch of things for my fandom that I hadn’t offered. So I just paid attention to the one thing I knew I could do.)

New year, new me, hey, do you want to fill out this interest check about doing the extreme timed exchange again? Weigh in on if we should do a 48 hour exchange again, and if we should do it mcyt or multi fandom, or BOTH.

Keep reading

[biocrafthero]

Ok I saw the long tags about Omori characterization in one post you reblogged and tbh you’re so right like. So many times I’ve really been annoyed w how characters are written in this fandom and especially with characters like Basil it’s CRAZY to me how badly he is written at times

OKAY IM GLAD IM NOT ALONE BC FANDOM IS INSANE LIKE THAT

Honestly it’s a problem in every fandom I’ve been in, where the majority of people writing fics don’t get it when it comes to the main characters. Luckily Omori isn’t that bad compared to other fandoms, but it’s still common.

When I see people that do complain about certain fics, it’s usually people talking about YBM/Pursuit but imo that argument doesn’t hold water since a) it’s very explicitly an AU where the characters are gonna act a little different and b) people writing things like Basil being obsessive over Sunny is something that’s been around since the fandom’s inception (post-game release, I know the fandom has technically existed for like 8 years or smth). YBM/Pursuit just did it differently which is why it’s well-known, some good examples of a similar phenomenons being the AU comic “Eye for an Eye” by @/ginumo or the fic “Sharing is Caring” by ooCatoo on AO3 (not as well-known but very good).

Aside from that, I think a lot of it is people either just misinterpreting the characters due to lack of understanding or pushing them OOC for the sake of OOC angst (once again, I don’t believe YBM/Pursuit falls under this category, I think it does it beautifully). It’s not really something that can be fixed, so I don’t really lecture people on it too hard because I just don’t have the energy for that and I don’t like debating people. It’s why I’m picky with what I read/engage with; I have been known to drop fics if I don’t like things like characterization, even midway through very long stories. If the character feels too unnecessarily pushed out of their canon personality, I tend to quickly fall off, but if the shift is built up to and/or developed properly then I adore it.

In general, I tend to write for myself, which means stupidly meticulous detail (that sometimes happens on accident, admittedly) and analysis to get exactly what I want, which can hit for some readers and miss for others. I’m very much someone who likes to ask why the curtains are blue, if that makes sense.

When it comes to my friend’s writing, a lot of the people I talk to also pay attention to these kinds of details and will discuss with me why the curtains are blue, so when I read their writing I’m satisfied with things like story and characterization. I don’t always agree with them, but the way they handle and write their own thoughts/interpretations makes it work for me.

For example, I believe Sunny is a very quiet person who chooses not to talk a lot, but my friend believes him to be a rambler that will go on for a while if prompted. Usually I have issues with those kinds of interpretations, but at a core level it’s due to how it’s written; since my friend actually writes Sunny in a way that has it work for the character, I think it adds instead of subtracts from the interpretation and story, even if I personally have different headcanons and ideas.

I have read things from people I’m not friends with that have interpretations different from my own, and in the fics where it’s done well really work for me. However, I have read ones where it just doesn’t, because there isn’t the proper ease-in or build up for the changes.

Another example I can think of is the fic I mentioned previously called “Sharing is Caring.” In it, Sunny is a manipulative little shit, and obviously in canon he isn’t like that at all, therefore my interpretation of the character differs from how he is in the fic. However, due to the time we’re given to understand Sunny in this fic, the character changes aren’t that jarring and don’t take me out of the story.

This is kind of why I have issues with people interpreting Basil as extremely obsessive, or when people say the friends would never forgive Sunny and Basil, or when people interpret Mari as a perfect, (metaphorical) angel, or when people interpret Omori character as a demon or a jerk towards Sunny. A lot of people miss things like subtext or just whole character interactions, and t bothers me.

Idk, it’s just my thoughts. I tend to overanalyze a story so what I engage with leans into those detail-oriented things. It’s also why I have trouble discussing characters or even other fics with people. This isn’t to say people are interpreting things wrong, of course, I just think it’s an issue of people missing or overlooking things.

When I write, I don’t expect the majority of readers to see the subtext I intentionally and unintentionally leave in (I have been told before of small details in my writing I had never even thought of when putting them to paper). I write for myself, therefore I write very meticulous and complex stories that involve active thought about the themes and characters. I want my readers to ask why the curtains are blue, because I ask those same kind of questions. It may be because I’m an overthinker, sure, but it’s also what I tend to enjoy. I guess that’s why I love Omori so much, haha.

This was a lot longer than I intended, but I have a LOT of thoughts on the subject of writing and reading between the lines. So that’s my thoughts, and it applies to writing in general, not just fanfiction.

[pettyprocrastination]

You don’t have to show this but do you think Omera would have gotten more love if she was white? I don’t ship it but her introduction was badass. I’m surprised that Din gets shipped with white bread so much. One he didn’t even speak to. The amount of fics for that compared to him and Omera is insane. I’m hoping they give him a Latina or black women love interest just to see people’s head explode.

I have ZERO issue with posting this publicly cause i wanna say: yes. 

I apologize this isn't very well written and very scattered about but here are my thoughts. 

PLEASE know I'm not trying to shame any specific writers or readers, I'm just sharing my opinions about the topic. 

(in this I'm also gonna be bringing up Ellaria sand because this isn't something only seen with Din, its seen with just about all his characters)

I think it comes to three things that are very prominent in the pedro fandom specifically: white readers not enjoying content written by/presenting woc because they feel like it doesn't directly project themselves, having an odd animosity/jealousy towards romantic leads of pedro characters and flat-out throwing away the actual characterization of his characters just to thirst for him. 

Now I will say we do have to acknowledge that I know people don't enjoy that he’s shipped with cobb vanth, because they only had a day of interaction but that’s also a mlm ship in the starwars universe so some people would like to see the representation where they can so lets keep that in mind. 

But at the same time I kind of see the mentality of “oh, its not for me? nvm” from fans when the possible romantic character is a person of color because they cant directly relate/project onto them. Which you see a lot with poc writers who make fics that have readers/oc’s that are specifically described as not being white and getting little to no notes. while others making fics that are so specifically for white people with descriptors as such but not acknowledging it when people say “hey you cant really preach inclusivity when this is very clearly written by white women for white women” which you see in moodboards, face claims, and descriptors such as “you blushed bright red” “your pale skin” “your blonde locks” . 

another BIG thing that has a part is this weird ass, juvenile wattpad-esque animosity female fans often have towards female characters who have the possibility of being a romantic lead for characters pedro plays. I know it sounds ridiculous to say, but so many fans do have this weird, almost jealous mentality to female characters who are romantic leads/have romantic tension with his character.

Like we see other female leads in the Mandalorian get lots more love than Omera, because they are mostly depicted as having a platonic relationship with Din. For exmaple, Fennec, cara, and peli, I've seen much more content for them than omera because its almost never in a romantic sense. 

Hell, before gina carano’s shit went public people were always posting about thirsting for cara dune+ how she and din were best buds and loved the relationship between them. 

And lets be real, the amount of fanfiction that the reader is essentially peli (a starky mechanic who befriends mando and becomes a kind figure to the child, who almost always becomes a live-in mechanic on the razor crest) is astronomical. You could literally switch the perspective and slap peli in and it’d make more sense but nobody wants to do that because they want to be with din, not imagine him with another female character cause they get weirdly threatened. 

(no shade to people who write that fanfiction im just SAYING)

Its not just mando either, it happens with a lot of his characters who have distinct relationships already, especially with Oberyn Martell and his lover Ellaria.  He says multiple times she is the love of his live, mother of three (i think) of his children and always accompanies him on his travels, when asked if he gets tired of her during their journeys he says “never. We share too much.”

a good majority of oberyn fanfiction either doesn't involve her at all, or writes her off as a bitch to pose animosity between her and the victim-reader or simply write her off as “she and oberyn don't love each other anymore wah-wah” even though she’s is quite literally his soulmate. 

He’s also often written to become suddenly monogamous upon meeting the reader, which just seems out of character given he is an openly polyamorous, bisexual man that talks about the joys of living life and loving freely quite often. 

Even with Marcus Moreno, when the trailer came out for We Can Be Heroes, I would see people make posts about how they hope he’s a widower instead of a married man cause they want him single.

Now I know a lot of this fandom is straight women so I don't expect them to suddenly enjoy wlw-reader relationships or polyships (even tho they do but only when its two dudes and one girl who is usually the reader but that’s a different issue) It comes down to the simple issues of throwing away the basis of the character just to thirst for pedro. (for oberyn at least)

I know some blogs on here that have gotten anons explaining the reason they dislike Ellaria that are the exact same traits Oberyn has: arrogance, sexual confidence ect. Its hot when he has it but if a female (often of color) has it, shes a bitch for some reason. 

Not even gonna get into Dave York, who was a moderately enjoyable character in the film but his character in fanfiction a good 80% of the time is “i like to cheat on my bitch of a wife with you” so lets leave it at that. 

Now. let me say there aint no shame in writing smut. I do it. I read it. And i enjoy it! But at somepoint you look at it and go “this isn’t even the character anymore” and find it a bit tiring. As well as the lack of attention writers of color get in the fandom where the main muse literally a latino man but whatever. 

This was a very long winded way of saying yes anon, I do think omera wouldve gotten more attention if she was white. But even then people still wouldn’t like her because she would pose a threat to their reader-insets. what are you gonna do I guess lmao

[iclaimedtobethebetterbard]

8, 13, 16, 17

ty for the ask!! :D

8. Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi chaptered stories?

oh DEFINITELY multi chaptered stories, oneshots are SO difficult for me sdkhfglf everything i write wants to turn into a novel. which i guess makes sense bc i learned to write by writing novels (i was a weird kid lol, and i was homeschooled by two writers, so). but yeah longfic comes much much much much much more easily to me than oneshots do.

13. When did you start writing fanfic?

ooooh. i first published fanfic in 2020, and it was close to being the first fanfic i wrote. i did not have a lot of access to the internet as a kid, so i didn’t really have the opportunity to get deeply involved in fandom or publish fic or anything before i was 18, and from 18-19 i didn’t have a specific fandom that interested me enough to write fic for, and then after i found sanders sides it took a little while to get interested enough to write fic. so that was almost my first fanfic. however, i did write a very cringey awful thing that i thankfully never finished or published when i was maybe 16ish, where i was like “what if star wars was exactly the same but han solo was a cis woman instead.” it. was not good. to say the least sdhfdklhgs i am thankful i did not have an opportunity to publish it dear god.

16. What fanfic tropes do you avoid writing for?

personally not a huge fan of soulmates; if i have a reason to, or think of something interesting to do with the trope, i’ll do it—like, i’ve got one fic (that i still need to finish shdhfkd i swear i have the entire story plotted out i just have to write it) that is a soulmate au, which is because it was for a secret santa and my giftee requested that. but without a specific reason to, i wouldn’t write soulmates. i read it semi-often bc there are a ton of soulmate fics out there in this fandom, but less likely to write it. similarly, would definitely not write hanahaki, and only read it if i know i like the author’s work in general.

i also just don’t love high school aus in most cases. i’ve outgrown them, i think—it mainly just feels weird to me, bc i’m kind of like “those are kids???” but usually the purpose of a high school au is to include ships, and this is probably at least partly my aro & ace self not understanding allo experiences bc i understand it’s realistic for many teens to be figuring out attraction at those ages but,,, idk. it just feels weird and i probably wouldn’t write it. there are a couple of specific cases i might make an exception for (i think moxiety or intruality as high schoolers just figuring out how crushes and relationships work would be very wholesome, although i’m not currently interested in actually writing that), but in most cases i don’t even read high school aus. i much prefer college aus lol.

not really a fan of “there was only one bed” either. i’ll read it on occasion but probably wouldn’t write it, at least not without a specific reason to. (im kind of going through the list of “would not like to write” in my head and going “oh wow like 70% of these are bc im not allo” lol.)

17. What fanfic tropes do you gravitate to writing for?

ohohohohoho yessss excellent question.

definitely college aus are a favorite for me. they’re just so fun—depending on how you set them up, you can have the sides as very young adults who still have a ton of immaturity to work through, which sets up all kinds of fun story conflict very easily, or you can have them a little more matured and starting to figure out adulthood, depending on what the story needs. it’s really fun to figure out majors for each side in a given au too. and just. i like college aus a lot. there’s so much you can do with them.

any sort of found family will definitely do the trick for me. also i love love love love love to write sibling relationships where they just love each other so much, whether their relationship is good or really really messy. also any side being a good parent. domestic fluff in general is just very chef’s kiss for me.

i also often write something along the lines of “they both like each other but both stubbornly refuse to confess” lol. it’s very entertaining to me

[ask me about writing fanfic!]

[dindjarindiaries]

DIN DJARIN WEEKLY FIC REC #1

This week’s fic rec (January 24th to January 30th) is here! Below the cut, you can find a wide selection of Din Djarin fics to read, whether they’re multi-part, one-shots, drabbles, prompts, or headcanons. I challenge you to provide these writers with feedback if you choose to read their fic!

You can start submitting next week’s fic rec here.

MULTI-PART FICS

Space Cowboy by @punkrock-writer​​

summary: A Girl is teleported from her hotel room, and dropped onto the floor of the Razor Crest. Chaos ensues as she tries to convince The Mandalorian not to freeze her in carbonite, and do her best to find her place in the endless Void of space.

pairing: Din Djarin x F!oc

warnings/rating: Mature. Canon typical violence. Lots of swearing.

genres: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: Hi this is my first fic, you can find it on AO3 also. I’d really appreciate some feedback or any ideas because I have a hard time figuring out if I’m doing the right thing😂 Thank you for doing this.

Touch by @magicrowiswritingstuff​​

summary: It seems so unfair that he is able to touch you and send shivers down your spine when you’re not.

pairing: Din Djarin x female!reader

warnings/rating: A bit of violence and injury/blood

genre: fluff

submitter comments: Just wanna say that I really love this idea and am excited to browse through all the recommended stories on Sunday! <3

Ciryc Ca’tra (Cold Night Sky) by @javi-djarins​​ (Ao3: brianmay_be)

summary: When you crash-land on a frozen planet on your way to Trask to find the Frog Lady’s husband and more Mandalorians, you and Din work together to keep the Crest afloat and keep your little family safe.

pairing: Din Djarin x wife!reader

warnings/rating: G

genres: fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: She may be adding an epilogue that contains some smut, but right now all of the chapters are rated G!

Blossom by @dinthisisthe-wayson​​

summary: Alone.  You felt like you had no purpose in such a powerful galaxy, being the bystander is what you felt was the only thing you were good at.  But when a warrior with a child extend a helping hand.  You take it.  Not knowing that you will no longer be alone for the rest of your time in the universe. Not knowing that your place in the galaxy will be much bigger than you expected.  And just like any flower, you will blossom. In more ways than one.

pairing: Din Djarin x Reader

warnings/rating: Teen and Up, violence and language

genres: angst, fluff

submitter comments: N/A

Narudar by @zapsalis-d​​​

summary: You, an experienced bounty hunter working for the Bounty Hunter’s Guild, have found it difficult to sustain yourself lately, requiring more and more credits after each hunt to be able to buy your basic needs. Yet with so many members of the Guild, high rewards were tough to find. Until you’re given a bounty with the prize being something extremely valuable – beskar. During your hunt, you bump into an old enemy you were just so tired of fighting. On your attempt to finally get rid of him once and for all, he found out a secret you wished he hadn’t and now you don’t have any other choice than to team up with him, whether you like it or not. The both of you thought it would be simple. Deliver the quarry, split the reward between the two, and hopefully never see each other again. Oh, how you were wrong.

pairing: Din djarin x female reader

warnings/rating: Rated t for now (but im not sure if that writer will change that in the future or not)

genres: angst, fluff

submitter comments: N/A

Connection by @beskarhearts​​

summary: Din Djarin and you were very similar. You both were closed off from everybody and had on masks of your own. But, when the universe brings you and Din together, you form a connection you didn’t know you two could have.

pairing: Din Djarin x f!reader

warnings/rating: Cursing, family members passing away (think that’s about it so far)

genres: angst, fluff

submitter comments: N/A

Homeward Bound by TheStarvingWriter (Ao3)

summary: After Luke Skywalker takes Grogu, Din Djarin is adrift. He attempts to find solace in his old ways of bounty hunting, but he feels like an imposter—a shell of his former self, roaming around in a suit of beskar that no longer feels like his own. When a visit to Coruscant leads him to a Seer who tells him that Grogu is in danger, however, everything changes. Now, it’s a race to find his kid and return him home, before he truly loses him forever.

pairing: Din Djarin and Grogu (father/son)

warnings/rating: Teen and Up Audiences 

genres: angst, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: The writing of this is phenomenal. The way they write Din is fantastic and the angst is insane. There will be eventual reunion and each chapter leaves you wanting more. 158288483/10 recommended!!!

the light of stars by @tiffdawg

summary: In pursuit of the Child’s people, the mysterious Jedi, Din Djarin and his foundling find hope in a woman who shares the kid’s strange powers. Newly partnered with the Mandalorian, you are trained in the ways of the Force, but you’re no Jedi. You’re just trying to find your place in the galaxy.

pairing: din djarin x reader

warnings/rating: hurt/comfort, sexism, mild injury, mild language, angst, kissing

genres: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: N/A

ONE-SHOTS

Only for You by @firstofficerwiggles​​

summary: You like to sing and it ends up bringing you closer to the Mandalorian. Events take place sometime between Seasons 1 and 2. It’s pretty much fluff with a teeny bit of story. Still has plot though :)

pairing: Mandalorian x female reader

warnings/rating: Rated: G, Warnings: None

genre: fluff

submitter comments: I hope you like it!

Getting Through This by Whumptastic (Ao3)

summary: Din has a hard time dealing with Grogu’s leaving, and like a true friend Cara offers support.

pairing: Din and Cara but only as best friends

warnings/rating: none really, lots of crying/sad vibes tho

genre: hurt/comfort

submitter comments: N/A

Fifty Four by @themand0lorian​

summary: Reader gets a drunken holo from Din, based on Pedro Pascal's 24 hour play monologue (linked in fic)

pairing: Din Djarin x gn!Reader (no Y/N)

warnings/rating: E

genres: angst, fluff

submitter comments: N/A

Reassurance by @galaxysgal​ (Ao3: imjusttheoutgoingsidekick)

summary: You worry about Din and his recklessness during and after the events of Morak and the two of you have a small chat about it.

pairing: din djarin x gn!reader

warnings/rating: PG, major spoilers for The Mandalorian Chapter 15, canon typical violence, near death experience (for Din), some swear words (both sw swears and regular english ones lol)

genres: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: since it's up on tumblr and ao3 i wasnt sure which link/acc name to give so I just gave both :)

ni kar’tayli gar darasuum by @pumpkin-stars

summary: Din was friends with another foundling as a child, they never saw each other’s faces, both shrouded in beskar from everyone. But feelings form from actions and words, not sight. AKA Din gets married to someone equally touchstarved.

pairing: Din/Reader (no pronouns)

warnings/rating: safe for everyone - warnings for (happy) crying, and it's my first attempt at a star wars fic so the finer details might be a bit dodgy

genre: fluff

submitter comments: i love your fics! i'm still new to the fandom but you seem so sweet and this is a really good idea/thing that you're doing! xx

The Vexatious Nine by Balsamique (Ao3)

summary: While searching for more of his kind on the desolate planet of Karth, a blizzard traps the Mandalorian, the child and seven lodgers in an isolated stopover. When one of the lodgers is mysteriously murdered, it’s up to the Mandalorian to catch the killer before they can claim their next victim. But as the storm thickens, so does the mystery — and this isn’t a problem he can shoot his way out of.

pairing: N/A

warnings/rating: General Audiences

genres: Action/Adventure, Murder Mystery

submitter comments: Author's name on Ao3 is Balsamique. On Tumblr it's first-order-media-department.

what happened to you? by @lesbisoka​

summary: After the events of Episode 8 (S1), Din returns to Sorgan to recover. Omera finds him in a less than ideal state.

pairing: din djarin x omera

warnings/rating: General Audiences, no archive warnings apply

genre: hurt/comfort

submitter comments: N/A

Sprained by @kesskirata​

summary: Rebel spy reader is injured and can’t make her meet up with The Mandalorian

pairing: The Mandalorian x reader 

warnings/rating: none

genres: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: N/A

Over the Moon by gobuyastarwars (Ao3)

summary: Din and Grogu travel with Boba Fett and Fennec Shand for a time. The Mandalorian, Boba, Fennec, and Grogu stop to refuel and find an unpromising tourist attraction nearby– an amusement park. Din doesn't want to go into the amusement park, but Boba and Grogu do.

pairing: Din and Grogu

warnings/rating: Gen, no warnings

genre: fluff

submitter comments: N/A

You can start submitting next week’s fic rec here.

[yeoldontknow]

დ content tag game დ

tagged by the loveliest angel @augustbutwinter to do this fun tag. thank you so much my love! 

1. what fandoms have you written for (but do not currently)?  - harry potter, muse, merlin, supernatural, doctor who, sherlock

2. what fandoms are you currently writing for? - kpop only

3. how long have you been writing? on this blog?  - my first actual fanfic would have been when i was about 8? it was for sailor moon but it was literally only in a journal i had. i presume that counts. so that would put us at 24 years lmao - on this blog specifically, since april 2017

4. on which platforms do you post your stories?  - here and AO3

5. what is your favourite genre to write? - aaaaangst lmao and horror/suspense. i love really dark things, and have always had a fascination in writing things that disturb me? i think its from an analytical or psychological perspective, exploring the limits of humanity and processing for myself why these things make me uncomfortable/where i feel them on my body/what is fear vs disgust idk. also very much enjoy fantasy/supernatural. 

6. are you a pantser or a planner? - almost always i have a plan, however there are some fics that come out of nowhere and i just have to write them. examples of this are enough and love; always

7. one shot or multi-chapter? - i usually try very hard to keep things as a one shot, and reserve series for things that actually have substance enough to extend past 3 chapters. lately, all my ideas have been very plot heavy or come from worlds i am very interested in exploring and/or have aspects of emotion i want to work through. if i cant keep it to a one shot (like...under 30k) i will make it a series and ill be angry at myself lmao

8. what is the perfect chapter length in your opinion?  - anywhere from 5-9k is a solid, average chapter length for me. some chapters, in hero for example, need to be more than this because theyre the heavy plot chapters. i have been trying not to focus on lengths anymore, just want to write until the story is told

9. what is your longest published story? is it complete?  - the longest story ive ever written is 154k in a different fandom and yes its complete. at the moment, hero is breaching 98k and i imagine it will be my longest when its completed

10. which story did you enjoy working on the most?  - when it comes to series, hero and time runner will, and always will be, the most special things ive ever done. i feel at home and myself when im writing them. im in love with writing them. the ideas are so strong, and the characters are so loud and clearly defined it just is the best time making art ive ever had. - for one shots, light sakura was truly catharsis. i needed to write that. its the most personal, vulnerable thing ive ever written and will probably never produce something like that again unless theres another major event in my life. also absolutely adored writing molotov cocktail and empty vessels. those are both the easiest 30k ive ever produced

11. favourite request you’ve have written and why (if any?)  - brooklyn is burning was technically a request and im extremely partial to it

12. are there reoccurring themes in your stories?  - oh yeah. usually my female characters are working through bad relationships or finding their voices, seeking identity and power in worlds that dont necessarily provide that. i write what i feel and what ive lived, the worlds around the characters are just exaggerations of reality and my imagination. theres always a little piece of me in my stories, and usually that piece comes down to them learning to trust which is something i struggle with

13. current number of wips?  - please i cannot share this number, not when im ashamed of the amount lmao

14. three things you have noticed about your own writing? 1. smut is insanely hard for me 2. fluff is almost impossible, and could be considered my weakness. happiness is an external feeling, an outward experience. im a very bodied writer and finding joy or finding small bits of romance is difficult (largely because i live alone) so i will over explain aspects of the idol character or highlight small actions in the effort of holding onto them 3. i am still learning to trust the process

15. a quote you like from a published story.

‘Don’t confuse loyalty with strength,’ you say, as he releases you. You remain still, forehead pressing against the bars to get as close to him as possible. ‘I have no allegiance to you. My silence is not owed to you.’

‘Really?’ he says with disdain. ‘It was given so freely the last two days.’

‘Your ignorance proves you have never truly known a woman,’ you taunt. ‘We are always at war, even if we are silent.’

- from: hero - chapter 3

16. a quote from an unpublished story.

Would it have been easier for you both to survive if you could be a needy, fragile little thing - not ready to die, not ready to leave him on his own?

The night before, Chanyeol held you close, kissed you until your throat felt raw, and made you realize he didn’t want it, didn’t need it. He loved the war in you, handled you like a blade between his fingers, skin unmarred by your sharp edges. He didn’t want it, but you wanted it, at least a little. You wanted him to know there were still traces inside you of the girl you lost.

from: time runner - chapter 7

17. space for you to say something to your readers.

hello beautiful loves. every moment you even click on one of my works an angel gets its wings <3

tagging: @yehet-me-up @kyungseokie @jenmyeons @j-pping @jamaisjoons @yoonia @kithtaehyung @inkedtae @kookdiaries @kookingtae @xiaokoo @sunshinekims @biaswreckingfics @ditzymax @sugaurora @bangtanhome @yeojaa @sahmfanficbts @xjoonchildx @writtenwhalien @jinpanman @cutechim and anyone else who would like to do this <3 as always please only do so if comfy! 

[gullethead]

what is your opinion on tamsyn muir discourse (and also what is the discourse)

THANK you. okay warning for discussion of fictional sexual assault, real life CSA (not something she did), plus 2012-era homestuck fandom typical stuff

please rb this btw, unless you dont want to, in which case dont. also if you have any corrections or additional information to consider please add by all means

disclaimer: im not in the habit of writing essays defending whichever internet personalities i like. ill admit theres potential bias, given that i read the books before i learned about this, but im really being as objective as possible and i just think people are taking a misguided or half-formed stance on this. if you still dislike her or w/e after this thats, like, perfectly in your rights. im not defending an adult woman on the internet, im explaining the facts as ive seen them and understand them. additional disclaimer that i havent experienced sexual assault at all myself

okay so tamsyn muir is currently well-known as the author of the locked tomb trilogy (aka gideon the ninth and harrow the ninth), but for a certain section of tumblr shes also well known as urbanAnchorite, and used to be a big name fan on here up until around 2014 - pretty close to everything here is going to be from roughly 2011 through 2014, except for an interview im gonna get into, so 7-10 years ago. i was only vaguely aware of her until after i got into the locked tomb and saw people talking about this. with that in mind:

so the MAJORITY of the discourse revolves around a single fic she wrote on AO3. her account has 19 works in homestuck, and some of them are Kinda Weird to Pretty Bad in retrospect, but being completely honest this is the only one that isnt completely stock standard for homestuck fandom in that time period. like if we started casting stones about ten year old fandom stuff we'd be here all day

here is the fic (warning for CSA)

in most of the posts about it ive seen, theyve described it as a "rapefic," but actually reading it, it's a lot more nuanced than that description implies. its a dark story where a grown man abuses a girl, from the man's perspective, and the story ends with him being killed by her friend. the description of the assault is treated very seriously by the story and barely even touches on any actual sex, before immediately cutting to him being killed. its lolita if humbert got shot to death; the title itself comes FROM lolita

(sidenote - it was inspired by a prompt on kinkmeme, but that doesn't really mean anything vis a vis being intended for sexual enjoyment, and according to the note actually went against the spirit of the request)

ive seen fics, lots and lots of fics, that would qualify as the term "rapefic." it tends to be pretty fucking obvious when someone is using sexual assault as a fetish, and this is Not That

tamsyn herself actually responded to this in an excellent interview early last year. she gets into some Fandom Mom type language, but essentially says what i said above. in it, she also says this:

It’s not the first time I’ve been accused of being a paedophile. I grew up gay in the nineties. Homosexuality and paedophilia were enmeshed in society’s minds. When I came out, I got told that I shouldn’t be around children. I was used to that because it was common discourse, and it hurt like all hell, but it didn’t shock me. When I got called a paedophile by Twitter I got clotheslined. My support network had to get in pronto. I was very ready to have a hot date with a length of rope, a date I have arranged and cancelled multiple times over my life. I have had lots and lots of therapy over the years for various conditions, some of them lifelong and some not, but when that Twitter call-out happened it was hard to want to live. I thought I knew so intimately what I was doing with my fiction; my therapist was always so supportive of me writing about it. I have not been open about being a CSA survivor because, again, I grew up in the ‘90s. ‘Lesbian’ and ‘CSA survivor’ is just carte blanche so a whole queue of people can tell you, I HOPE ONE DAY, WITH LOVE AND SUPPORT, YOU CAN BE STRAIGHT. It was like, right this way to the invalidation booth. I didn’t even tell most of my girlfriends! I told one! It’s not a topic of discussion between me and my family; I am relying on them not reading my interviews so it can remain where it belongs: thoroughly undiscussed!

with this context it becomes... a lot more nuanced of a topic. an author who experienced CSA in addition to growing up in a cultural climate where gay people were pedophiles by default, especially growing up catholic in a rural community, wrote a work about childhood sexual assault (which also happened to be fanfiction) as a way of working through it for herself, which is... something a lot of artists do with their art? and in return she got a massive blowback on twitter accusing her of pedophilia and demanding she talk about a massively traumatic moment in her life

this is the major sticking point of the discourse, im not gonna get into anything else on this post, but this is my view of it. if you disagree or have anything to add then feel free to add on. again, i know what it looks like, but im not trying to uncritically defend a stranger just cause i like her book. this is the conclusion i came to after doing a lot of digging for myself

[wickedpact]

Do you think fandom tends to feminize Nicky? It's a problem in a lot of fandoms with gay couples when (mostly) straight women are writing/drawing the pairing, they (willfully or not) give one of the men female characterization.

which.. .i think both interpretations happen fairly often, neither is necessarily majority ‘fanon’, (so to answer your question, yeah)on~. youll see people say feral!nicky is fanon nicky, and youll see people say, uh --the term i always see used for this is ‘soft!nicky’ but i hate the misusage of the word soft-- but like... passive, delicate, feminized nicky, is fanon nicky.

which.. .i think both interpertations happen fairly often, neither is necessarily majority ‘fanon’, (so to answer your question, yeah)

however i also think discussing feminization is something of an interesting topic. of course its a bit shitty to apply heteronormative roles onto a non-het relationships. there is no ‘man’ in a f/f relationship, there is no ‘woman’ in a m/m relationship. assuming these roles must exist in a m/m relationship is rather homophobic & ignorant & even fetishistic in certain situations

(and of course thats not touching on situations where a man can be gay and feminine, or a woman can be gay and masculine-- and sometimes for individuals they feel those two things are connected and sometimes they arent. but we’re talking about how gay people are perceived [usually by straight people], not necessarily how they identify. and even if, say, a woman identifies as butch or identifies/presents as masculine, that doesnt make her ‘the man’ in a relationship. same goes for men.)

(and THATS not even touching on like... .what is 'femininity?' whenever i use the term i mean stereotypical femininity, the type of femininity women are often pressured into. delicate, gentle, emotional, passive, modest, etc)

but anyways that leads to the question: is nicky feminine in the movie? which.. no, in my opinion, not in the way he is sometimes portrayed within fic. but -this is only somewhat related- but i think theres something to be said for how tog kind of denies gender roles/tropes within action movies. the Role™ nicky has within the group --the nurturer, the comforter, the moral backbone-- is one usually taken on by The Sole Woman On The Team™ in other action movies. on the flip side, andy has a role --the world weary leader-- thats always taken on by a man. i talked about that (in the tags! it took forever for me to find this post) here.

i think thats great! its a great subversion of the usual boring tropes action movie fall into. but does nicky being emotionally aware make him feminine? no, in my opinion. does him being the little spoon -of all things- make him feminine? again, no. does him liking cooking make him feminine? no.

HOWEVER, i think its very easy for people to see those behaviors and --consciously or subconsciously-- fall into the thought pattern of ‘oh, hes the ~girl~ in the relationship!’ and we could discuss how that assumption does and doesnt fit into people’s portrayal of their sex life if we wanted, But I Dont Want To And You Couldnt Pay Me

so like.. nicky is a mom-friend type but that doesnt define his entire personality. he is, within the movie, neither demure nor shy nor innocent, which are traits i see him written as sometimes, for seemingly no given reason. ([im 27 vine voice] hes 900)

i feel like some people need to conceive him as one of the two. hes either a hyper violent Manly Man or hes a delicate little flower. and like.. hes neither, hes just nicky.

[not-poignant]

not a flower ask (sorry), and extra apologies if this has been already asked before, but what got you writing in the first place?

im absolutely fascinated by your works. FFS has been one of my favorite things in the world since i discovered it. i feel like im learning so much about myself and other people just by reading it. i honestly aspire to write like you and aquire interest, too.

I've always been interested in writing, but I went through phases with it.

Like I started writing pretty serious (I thought) fantasy and science fiction when I was 8 or 9 years old. And I remember printing it out on an archaic computer when I was around 11 years old (and then my mother threw it all out, so I don't have most of it). But I remember even then I was writing a lot, doing worldbuilding, doing research, etc.

And then I stopped writing for a while, and picked it up again towards the end of highschool mostly as a way to just give my overactive (extremely overactive) brain something to do. I didn't want to be a writer at that point, I wanted to be an artist (I was doing a lot of that too), or a psychologist, or an ornithologist, actually just about anything other than a writer, lmao.

At university, I started picking up creative writing electives because I thought they'd be easy passes, and because I was doing (among other things) a major in scriptwriting, credits for creative writing counted as credits for scriptwriting in our university system. I actually ended up picking up so many creative writing units that I have an unacknowledged Major in Creative Writing as well, and was invited to do Honours in the Creative Writing faculty despite never officially being in that faculty lmao. So I started writing again. During this time, I mostly wrote Very Serious (sigh) poetry, and Very Serious (sigh) short stories. This was the period of time where I won the most awards, but it was also the period of time that I enjoyed writing least.

I think during this time - I only vaguely remember this - I also wrote some very bad OC/Snape fanfiction that no one will ever ever find because it's under another username lmao. I did enjoy that, but there's nothing like an old outdated university writing faculty to delegitimise fanfiction for you.

After that I stopped writing completely, because the joy in it was gone. Honestly, I didn't know if I'd ever write again?

And then...

I spent about 6-7 years working as a professional artist actually. I was too sick to work a standard full-time job (and sadly too sick to stay on at university and do all the postgrad stuff I wanted to do), and that was kind of 'all that was left' and just... I remember starting to pick up writing on the side very tentatively. I wrote some side stories for small fandoms. Ironically, every story I wrote for fandom back then was always short, usually 1-3k max. People now probably wouldn't believe it, given how long everything I write now is. But yeah most of the stuff I used to write was very short. I wrote for fandoms like NCIS, Profiler and Bones.

(I'm sorry anon I'm sure you didn't sign on for my life story in writing)

And then I wrote a story called Every Day Awake which was queer as fuck, and was kind of a breakthrough narrative for me. It was original, and I still want to clean it up and publish it actually. And after that I wrote a Misfits fic and a Mysterious Skin fic and abandoned writing again for a while because of mental and physical illness stuff.

Eventually I had to quit the art. In that limbo, depressed and lost, I started writing From the Darkness We Rise on a complete limb. It was meant to be 'something to make me feel something enjoyable again but I'll probably delete it after a few chapters.' But readers asked me to make a Tumblr to talk about updates and answer asks, so I did that. And then readers talked to me about Gwyn and Augus, so I thought about it. And then readers asked me to start a Patreon for Gwyn and Augus, (because I have always financially struggled), so I did that. And all the while I thought 'this is wild, but surely this can't last.'

And here I am, like 8 years later, and I find I quite like it. :)

(Imho, there are many many better writers out there that you could aspire to write like, read as widely and across as many genres as you can, there are marvels out there in the written world, absolute marvels).

[rainbowsky]

Final round-up of fan fic asks

I've gotten a few more interesting responses to the fan fic discussion so I'm going to round them all up here. This will be my final post on the topic until/unless there's a dramatic new development, or a particularly notable response I want to highlight. Thanks to everyone who brought their thoughts and experiences to the topic. I hope everyone at least feels heard.

The biggest piece of advice that I would like to offer is for everyone to focus on what they love rather than what they hate. If we all did that, the world would be a better place. Alongside that, I'd like to remind everyone to please support authors whose work you like. It's so important. Give them a kudos, give them a nice comment, recommend their work to others. You never know what kind of grief and harassment they are dealing with to bring you these great stories, and our support means a lot.

This is in reference to previous posts here and here.

Anonymous asked:

With regard to fandom and fan fic issue, my years of experience being part of very large fandoms has led me to believe that big accounts are v important in facilitating and enforcing the general consensus of the whole fandom. Unless there will be big accs who'll remind everyone of being respectful & just not being a dick over other's preferences, nothing will change.

This is also the reason why I think certain solo fandoms have adapted weird and twisted narratives as their general fandom story because no big acc has tried to police them & and say hey pls be rational. Whether we like it or not, in a place where how far voices, ideas, tweets, posts get heard is based on the number of followers you have, big accs will have the power and influence in creating/curating/shifting the narratives.

So, if you want to know why your/our fandom thinks like this in general, look at what big accs are tweeting/posting, look at what ideas & values they follow, look at their preferences or how strongly they react to certain situations. it's taxing and toxic for big accs given the nature of social media these days, but it's also the reality of system, the more followers/audience you have, the more influence you will have.

So to anyone reading this I hope we all practice more restraint and reflection before we post anything. Remember that words, no matter what medium you write it in, will always carry weight.

So true. It is easy - even for myself who spends a fair chunk of time answering people's asks - to forget that people can sometimes be impressionable and what we say can influence people whether that's our intent or not. I get used to thinking of myself as a regular guy just doing my own thing when sometimes my thoughts and words go well beyond where I initially posted them.

I think it's important for us to be careful what we say, and it's equally important to be careful what we take from what other people say. Especially when it comes to big claims. Always get a second, third, fourth opinion and don't be afraid to ask for clarification if something doesn't sit right or sounds confusing.

It's also important to reflect on how our words and actions might affect other people's experience of fandom, and err on the side of 'live and let live' wherever possible. It's great to have our own preferences and to champion them, but we should try to do so in a way that leaves space for other people and perspectives.

The more unique perspectives and the more friendly, open dialog there is, the healthier the community will be as a whole.

There's nothing wrong with encouraging and guiding growth in the particular areas we are interested in, as long as it doesn't step on, oppress or attack those who are peacefully enjoying something different.

Anonymous 2 asked: bjyx fans attacking gdgdbaby for including zsww/lsfy dynamics in an event named bjyx then turning right around and attacking the zsww/lsfy event organizer for excluding bjyx? god, can you hear my facepalm and sigh of resignation and incredulity from over there? im genuinely not surprised that they're trying to drive an entire part of the fandom out by disgusting them (and me) with these immature tactics. i believe what im about to say next will sound quite bait-y and i respect your decision 1/?

should you choose not to post this. but i do know that it is not only me, in fact there are many out there, that is of this opinion. we just dont talk about it on twitter to avoid the potential mess it will bring lol. okay, here goes nothing. (do note that im talking about the majority here, not every single person is like this) so bjyx fans tend to be cishet females whereas zsww/lsfy fans are more diverse in terms of age and gender, and most of them are part of the queer community too 2/?

i would like to clarify that most of these zsww/lsfy fans are not dynamic exclusive (in the sense that they are friendly and interact with all ggdd fans) they just prefer to "identify" themselves as zsww/lsfy fans (on twitter specifically) just to form a distinction from bjyx fans who mostly are dynamic exclusive (as in; they do not consume non-bjyx content, and straightup refuse to interact with non-bjyx fans, often blocking them). as a result, id say that the zsww/lsfy communiy is way more 3/?

mature and respectful (after all, they're mostly queer people talking about a queer ship) whereas many problems in this fandom, such as the homophobia, adamantly insisting on "drawing lines" between dynamics, stem from the bjyx exclusive fans, comprised of cishet females who "may not know better". so, it is of no surprise to me that they're resorting to these immature tactics of calling gg unsavory names, and organizing retaliatory events with controversial topics in an attempt to "purify". 4/4

I trust that you have arrived at that theory through your own experience and observation. I haven't personally spent much time immersed in this stuff so I can't claim to have any real insight or expertise. If you say that's your experience of it, then at the very least that's how you've seen things up to this point.

I just want to say that I think we should always be careful about making assumptions about people's age, gender/gender identity, etc.

There are plenty of good reasons to avoid doing that; because those assumptions could be very wrong, because those assumptions are often laced with ageism, sexism, etc., because those assumptions - even when correct - might not be an accurate basis for the conclusions we draw.

But the primary reason I recommend avoiding those type of assumptions is because anything that enables us to clump a group of people together in our minds like that will tend to make them easier to demonize and dehumanize. They are no longer individuals who are each responsible for their own unique perspectives, they are now 'the X group' who is known for 'A B C series of easily attackable ideas or behaviors'.

If we attribute undesirable traits and behaviors to a group of people we feel opposed to in some way, that makes us feel more righteous and justified in behaving unfairly toward them, dismissing their humanity and warring with them. It's just risky behavior to engage in, even when it's well-intentioned.

There might actually be some truth to what you're saying. It could very well be that most of these people are young, inexperienced, heteronormative, etc. but if that's the case then we should try to use those traits to better understand and empathize rather than to better dismiss and discredit.

Just my two cents on that.

It can be really frustrating dealing with what feels like other people attacking us, trying to oppress us, etc. - especially when there are more of them than there are of us. In my experience the best solutions to that sort of problem are generally the ones that focus on what we are doing and want to do rather than what they are doing that we don't want them to do.

As I am always preaching, we can't control what other people say, do or think. The only thing we have any control over is what we say, do and think (and how we respond to what they say, do and think).

I have found in my experience that the moment I step out of a conflict mindset and instead step into a problem-solving mindset, everything starts to come together. I feel better, my outlook is more positive, I can begin to see solutions and allies rather than problems and enemies, and most of all, I become more focused on what I am doing than what others are doing.

So I would recommend everyone who is invested in resolving these conflicts focus on that. "How can we best showcase and encourage the types of stories we enjoy?" instead of "How can we stop these other people from doing things we dislike?"

Anonymous 3 asked:

Hello again! It’s anon #3 from the fanfic post. I really do appreciate reading your thoughts on various issues like this, so thank you for always taking time to write in depth. As for supporting without going to war, the simplest way has always been to just show appreciation for the creators, hype them up. Kudos are the easiest way on ao3 but comments in addition are great. This goes for all content—art, fics, vids..etc. Creators love to see and read how people react to their content. Sharing is also great, fic recs are very helpful, just be cautious with art and reposting though. Hope this helps a bit!

Thanks so much, Anon. I think this is excellent advice. And it's true that appreciation is great, but helping to expand the audience is also great. Recommending stories, pointing people to the pages/websites of artists we like (as opposed to reposting), sharing our own ideas and approaches, encouraging people to try new things... all of this helps build healthier communities.

And here's another one: WRITE! DRAW! CREATE!

I urge anyone with creative interests or talents to bring their voices to the community because we all can benefit from hearing from you.

Thanks again everyone for sharing your thoughts on this issue. I hope that over time we can all work in positive ways to improve the situation.

I think this subject has been well-covered now so I'm going to retire it for the time being. If anyone still feels they want to discuss it further please feel free to message me privately. Thanks.