#communities I want more representation of

[rainbowwrare]

So I've seen a lot of discourse around some of the arcane ships and I felt like throwing my opinion into the ring too

I will preface this by saying I think shipping is fine, I am a casual shipper of both Jayce/Viktor (Though I think a queerplatonic relationship could work lovely for them) and Vander/Silco (yeah this ones a lil silly I guess but i just think it's funny so)

So firstly, Viktor and Jayce. I have seen lots of people (mostly on reddit but some here too) saying that we shouldn't ship them because guys should be allowed to be close and affectionate without being called gay. That is a valid viewpoint until it comes to the point where one is invalidating LGBTQ relationships. There is definitely a sore lack of healthy, close affectionate m/m friendships in the mainstream media. However, there is also a MASSIVE lack of good M/M, and same sex couple representation in general and there has been for many years. When people try to say "why is everything gay nowadays" it comes across as rude and condescending because it's really not true. The LGBTQ community has fought so hard just to reach the level of acceptance that we are at today, and even that is the bare minimum and below in some places. I think we should be allowed to have both of those things, they should be able to coexist, but people aren't making it better by just attacking anyone else who shares a slightly different opinion.

By all means criticise JayVik for it's faults (Mel?? My girl?? Jayce fumbled you so hard and the writers did too) (Also Skye, they deadass brought her back this season just to get rid of her again) but don't make it about that.

I think let people ship whatever they want to ship, and as long as it's not harming real people and if it's something that could potentially trigger people then keep it to yourself/make sure it stays within circles of people that it won't trigger.

Same applies to Vander/Silco, though I knowww this one is a bit more controversial. Way I see it, the "brothers" that they refer each other to applies more in a "comerades" sense, as I believe it was translated as such in the other language dubs? Anyway yeah, I just think they'd be funny together and they have a lot of angst writing potential so...

Yeah. Just let people ship who they wanna ship, shippers, don't force anyone to believe in it if the writers deliberately left it ambiguous (JayVik ending scene). At the end of the day they are all just fictional characters and That Is Okay. It's all chill.

[feldsparred-mo-reblogs]

"I didn’t play in English!"

As a non-native speaker, whose language jumped through quite a few hoops to avoid gendering:

If your language genders hearthians because it had to, grammatically, if you parttake in online discussions in English, please try your best

This isn't about the ego of fictional characters, it is about the fact that people will disregard people using they/them in real life and treat using the correct pronouns like a hassle or too much to ask.

Considering hearthians have no social gender, the "automatic" gendering I see (Prophy is girl, Feldspar is boy) is honestly just sad, and if you fall into this category that is something you need to examine by itself tbh

The nonbinary community has very little representation like this. Please let us have this.

"It's my fanfic/fanon and I get to do whatever I want"

Yeah, you can! I value freedom of expression and would never directly attack someone's work. I have seen very interesting takes, like characters using neopronouns or discussing gender due to the fact that the Nomai appear to have binary gender. Of course, if you want to, you can add social gender to your take on hearthian culture.

But I would just like to ask, why? What does that add?

That is more or less a genuine question, by the way; why would you look at a community that is fully functional without social gender and feel the need to add it?

If something about the way that hearthian society works feels "wrong" to you, I urge you to think before just making them into what you have been taught counts as a "proper" community.

Call me a massive hater but yes. I actually think gendering hearthians is a big deal

[voidwithtoomanygooglyeyes]

Communities I want to see represented (more) in media

Agender community

Xenogenders

Neopronouns

Therians (or just the altherhuman/non-human community in general)

AroAllo people (aromantic allosexual)

A-spec identities that aren't just aromantic and asexual (e.g. demiromantic, greysexual, aroflux, demisexual)

Polyamorous people

Queerplatonic relationships

Religions other than Christianity

Gender-non-conforming trans people

Intersex people (thank you @prudr-ragr077 I was going to add this originally but forgot)

[attackofthe50footidiot]

Happy pride month! Remember, the borrower in your wall uses they/them. There is a human girl kissing her giant girlfriend and they’re both giggling because neither of them know how to kiss. Somewhere a giant is taking his testosterone and being brave about the needle. A fisherman is sneaking off to see his kraken boyfriend. Multi size polycule.

[angel---eater]

i truly have no tolerance for this fandom shittin on random fans personal trans headcanons. someone saw themselves and their experience in this character, isnt that beautiful? why dont you mind your business and focus on your own fan stuff? wouldnt that make you happier? someones headcanon doesnt negate yours. what the fuck is wrong with yall. its playing make believe x2. its just a headcanon. real life trans folks are in active danger right now and some of yall are wasting all your energy abusing others over which pronoun set figments of someone elses imagination 'should' be using

[redysetdare]

every time i see a post that is like "ughh why cant we have aspec characters who aren't aroace for once" I have to do a double take like "is the aroace rep in the room with us right now?" because genuinely....where is all this aroace rep y'all are complaining about? Why cant i find it yet it's apparently the only aspec rep we get?? You admit that TV never says the word aromantic so where is the aroace rep. So far I've pretty much only seen canonically asexual characters and not much else buddy.

[gurorori]

as much as the argument of 'aros can still date/aces can still have sex' is important to keep in mind because of technicalities and the people who those stamensts do apply to, something i always felt is it slowly starts sounding a lot like 'hey we're not like totally weird and unlike the rest, like some of us still do The Thing okay? we totally still can do The Thing! not so different after all!' and that always made me feel a bit icky. like as if you're trying to justify the identities even existing in the first place, as if you're bargaining

asexuality and aromanticism are both meaningful identities and deserving of recognition and respect, regardless of if they can still replicate or engage in expected societal frameworks of behaviour

[mlm-rep]

Frank "Frankie" Hines from Fellow Travelers is mlm!

[nag-mamahal]

As a romantic asexual I headcanon just about every single character (and ship) I like as asexual/on the ace spectrum. I just feel there's not enough representation of non-sexual beings engaged in romantic love in popular media. I'd really love it if more stories explored good and fulfilling partnerships that thrive even without sexual intimacy. I'm not against characters being sexy or having sex I think it's just really neat when figures can exist and fall in love without a big part of the relationship revolving around fucking. I love when people, ace or not, can explore their sexuality on their own terms and set boundaries that are accepted and respected by their partners. I love when they realize they're more than their body and what their body is able to provide in terms of sexual fulfillment. I love emotional intimacy independent of the pressure of sex.

[aph-estonia]

i've been a furry for 8+ years and i STILL don't have a fursona. representation for fursona-less furries matters!

[brittlebutch]

realizing that it sounds kind of mean for me to be referring to this fic as the “cringe loser” fic if you don’t have the extensive lexicon i’ve created in my head for the lengthy opinion essay i haven’t written about how most people don’t actually want “good” autist-rep, they want “cool” rep even at the expense of ‘accuracy’. just believe me i say “cringe loser” with the highest degree of absolute affection

[pennyserenade]

seeing the name pedro pascal in the running for awards is something that is so so so so so so so so so so special to the little girl in me who could not comprehend where in this world i belonged with this identity i've been given. i joke all the time about how, as a child, my only representation was in spy kids, but that's not entirely too far from the truth of it. its not only that pedro pascal is latino, but it is the fact that he is unapologetically latino, not changing his name or hiding any part of his identity to get where he is now. you don't know what representation like this means for people who've never had it. it is wonderful and i'm so happy to be in his corner for all of this

[lightblueminecraftorchid]

Was on a panel of autistic college students last night and the last person who asked us a question asked about our special interests and I’m ✨💕💖 about it

[not-poignant]

Hi, Pia! I am thinking of going the same route as you - free chapters on AO3, then Patreon - for my historical m/m romance projects. Could you share a little about your journey, and how did you manage to gain visibility within the originals section of AO3 (I know it's not easy)?

Hi hi!

We've talked a little over at Subscriptions for Authors I think! *waves* :D

Okay firstly, i don't know if any of this is going to be very helpful, because to tl;dr it - I didn't set out to be a professional author when I started this, and I wasn't even trying to be a professional when I started my Patreon (though I did approach it seriously, like I wanted to treat my readers well). I didn't believe I could be one, my impostor syndrome was so epic I literally started an entirely new AO3 account and kept it secret from my main account because I believed all the people being nice to me about my writing were somehow just lying to me because they felt sorry for me.

That's...

That's a whole lot of impostor syndrome insanity. But I've always been pretty honest about having mental illness so....

Re: my journey...

I started out in fanfiction. I started writing Rise of the Guardians fanfiction (a two part serial called From the Darkness We Rise & Into Shadows We Fall) and it went viral (I did not expect this) and I put in several original characters to flesh out the world, because I added a Seelie/Unseelie Court element that wasn't in the original movie or the books.

Two of those original characters had roles as semi-significant ensemble characters. One was a terrible villain who is defeated by the other, who is the Seelie King (also defeated by the main characters of the fic but *coughs* anyway).

I started getting people asking me what was going to happen to those two characters, especially once people found out they had a relationship history together prior to the events in the fanfic. I mostly put those people off - I fully intended to keep just writing fanfiction - until finally I decided to write some fic of those two characters. It was like...revenge hatefucking, lmao. I wrote three chapters of that, and then more, and then finally realised I couldn't give them the tragic ending I'd planned to, and that I'd have to actually figure out how the hell to save them from their own machinated doom.

And that became the first book in my original Fae Tales series - Game Theory.

It was my amazing readers who asked me to make this Tumblr, my amazing readers who asked me to write that original story, and they were the ones who asked me to make a Patreon (and then a Ko-Fi), and so in a way, they were the ones who let me know when I was ready to try making this work in a (slightly) more official capacity. They were the ones who believed in me enough to keep me doing this, and they still are. *waves to you all*

They were the ones who gave me visibility, I don't know that I did anything specific to make that happen, except writing the stories, turning up, and listening to them.

It's a very weird way of doing it and I don't know that anyone else has ever done it quite that way like this. I feel like a massive outlier in that sense. I don't relate to anyone who is starting out in professional subscription with no readers because I could never do that, my lack of confidence wouldn't let me. But there's aspects I think any author can replicate: I reply to all my commenters (except the trolls), because they're great and I want to support connection, community, and conversation. I embrace fandom and love all transformative works, and also, like 99% of my writing is free on AO3. (You don't have to make everything free, but it certainly doesn't hurt on AO3).

I mostly finish my serials and folks can trust my happy/hopeful endings and they can trust my hurt/comfort. And I'm pretty communicative! As you can tell by how much I'm rambling right now x.x I intentionally provide a safe space for queer people and neurodivergent people as much as possible, and write a lot of representation for us. I set out to make a space I would personally feel comfortable in. That might not work for everyone, but it works for those who stay.

From there though, I'd say a lot of visibility came from word of mouth, writing chapter by chapter over time (serials naturally pick up readers simply because they're often at or near the top of a tag or fandom category on AO3 - there is NO algorithm there), sometimes sorting by kudos, and me just posting about random stuff on Tumblr with good tags.

I still write fanfiction on another account (my impostor syndrome account) that has also had some people trying my original fiction. There's quite a few people who came directly from fanfiction to the original fiction because the themes were the same!

I didn't have the confidence to intentionally try and be a professional writer. When I started writing that fanfic I was writing it because I was depressed, sad, and I'd quit an unsatisfying job as a professional artist (I loved the art and my clients, I could never make the income part work). I didn't want to be a professional writer. I was writing as hooky, as escape from my real life, and as 'oh god I just need some hurt/comfort and I can't find what I want so I'll write it.'

To this day, I still write fanfiction as an escape, it's partly why it's now on a separate account to my original stuff (but even plenty of my original fic is indulgent and self-escapist in nature, which is maybe why other people find it escapist and cathartic as well).

In writing, financially, it makes more sense to publish books, or do serials-into-books, and develop a backlist of novels alongside the serials. I don't do that. I should, I plan on starting soon. I can point out a lot of the things that I either did wrong, or that I can see a way of doing better, because I didn't set out to be a professional writer, and I still put 'keeping it fun' and 'the readers' ahead of 'making money.' I'm not very mercenary and I make financially not great decisions in favour of 'but I enjoy it more this way.'

(That's partly because I am really very ill, and I can't afford to make myself sick through my work, and not enjoying it is the fastest way to do that).

What I do know is how to help create a community, though. And how to encourage and try and care for that community of people. How to respond to what they want and sometimes don't want, alongside what I want and don't want. How to have boundaries in that space. Well, I'm still figuring it out but I think I'm more comfortable with it than I used to be!

I also don't want to make it sound like I didn't know about writing before this. Long before doing serials for 10 years, I did creative writing and scriptwriting (among other things) at university. I wrote very technically correct short stories with sad little tragic endings that won awards and sometimes decent cash prizes. I hated it, and it put me off writing for years afterwards. I felt trapped in trying to write the 'correct' way. I am entirely unsurprised that to this day I reject standard formulas for novel lengths, and that in order to write, I kind of have to break a lot of the rules I was taught.

But I was taught how to write 'correctly' by Australian standards back in the early 00s (very spare, evocative prose). These days I follow a lot of scriptwriting / television drama beats in serials and have always really enjoyed doing it that way. :D

I'm meant to be talking about some of this in the Subscriptions for Authors podcast tomorrow and it's going to be a mess, as you can tell, lmao.

(There's something to be said about the lightning-in-a-bottle moment where I just wrote a fanfic I thought everyone would hate in a popular fandom and people were just ready for that story and it took off. I had no idea how to deal with it and it was very overwhelming and I had a bit of a breakdown a year and a half later over it. It's no coincidence that a year into the Patreon I paused it for 1.5 years and walked away because I couldn't handle it. But then I did some growing up and came back and figured it out.

But yeah I didn't do any of this the right way, or in a super intentional way. The only part I know I did well was supporting a community, and communicating with the people who turned up. And I did that for very selfish reasons - I wanted to be in a community, and I enjoyed meeting people who had things in common with me. I sometimes feel a little like a gremlin who just stumbled into a community and was like 'oh, um, I'm here, I guess.'

It's really everyone else who made it magical, but it did help that I think I am (in retrospect) pretty good at writing a hooky, addictive serial for the right kinds of readers. I cannot understate this enough -> learning how to write serials and exploring episodic television drama can be very helpful).

[sakebytheriver]

....

[martyrbat]

just saw the most dumb take alive. goodnight.