#even a booktok book one might say…

[hailwestexas]

cringe but free: openly relate to catcher in the rye and my year of rest and relaxation

[cy-cyborg]

Forgetting your character is disabled isn't a "good representation" flex: Writing Disability Quick Tips

[ID: An image with “Writing Disability quick tips: Forgetting your character is disabled isn't a good representation flex” written in chalk the colour of the disability pride flag, from left to right, red, yellow, white, blue and green. Beside the text is a poorly drawn man in red chalk looking down confused at his leg, one is drawn normally, the other is drawn to resemble a basic prosthetic. He has question marks above his head. /End ID]

For a while, I was involved in the booktok and Tik Tok writing communities, specifically parts of the community focused on more diverse books and authors. During this time, I noticed a reoccurring pattern when people were highlighting stories featuring disabled characters, or even promoting their own books, and that was how often people would say "I kind of forget they have [insert disability here] because they're such a badass."

The intention behind this statement is (usually) good, with people trying to show that their disabled characters are self-sufficient and don't fall into the tired old sad/helpless disabled person trope, however, you can - and very much should - do that without erasing your character's disability. If you find yourself forgetting your character is disabled, or your beta and pre-release readers are commenting about forgetting it, then there's a good chance that's exactly what you've done - and as a disabled person myself, if I see that statement being used in your marketing in particular, it's a giant red flag and a sure fire way to make sure I give the book in question a skip.

Remember, disabilities (especially major ones) are a part of your character's identity, and they're important regardless of the character's personal relationship with it. Even if your character doesn't specifically identify with the label of disabled or doesn't really care that much, it's should still be impacting their daily life, even in small ways. If you're finding yourself forgetting about a major part of your character's identity, it might be a good idea to check and make sure their disability is having an impact on the character.

I see this comment most often with amputee characters, and to me, it's a pretty consistently good indication that the author has treated their character's prosthetic as a cure rather than the mobility aid it is. It's far from unique to amputees, mind you (I talked about this a lot when I was discussing the character of Toph from Avatar), but it's when I tend to see it the most. Remember that mobility aids and other forms of assistive technology and assistive magic (if it's a fantasy story) are just that: they're aids, they assist, they shouldn't be cures.

Of course, this wasn't unique to Booktok, I've seen it on nearly every other social media site with a writing and book-focused community at some point, but Tik Tok was just where I spent the most time and it seems to be where I see the most people specifically gloating about it.

[ofbreathandflame-archive]

With the rise of booktok/booktwt, there's been this weird movement against literary criticism. It's a bizarre phenomenon, but this uptick in condemnation of criticism is so stifling. I understand that with the rise of these platforms, many people are being reintroduced into the habit of reading, which is why at the base level, I understand why many 'popular' books on booktok tend to be cozier.

The argument always falls into the 'this book means too much to me' or 'let people enjoy things,' which is rhetoric I understand -- at least fundamentally. But reading and writing have always been conduits for criticism, healthy natural criticism. We grow as writers and readers because of criticism. It's just so frustrating to see arguments like "how could you not like this character they've been the x trauma," or "why read this book if you're not going to come out liking it," and it's like...why not. That has always been the point of reading. Having a character go through copious amounts of trauma does not always translate to a character that's well-crafted. Good worldbuilding doesn't always translate to having a good story, or having beautiful prose doesn't always translate into a good plot.

There is just so much that goes into writing a story other than being able to formulate tropable (is that a word lol) characters. Good ideas don't always translate into good stories. And engaging critically with the text you read is how we figure that out, how we make sure authors are giving us a good craft. Writing is a form of entertainment too, and just like we'd do a poorly crafted show, we should always be questioning the things we read, even if we enjoy those things.

It's just werd to see people argue that we shouldn't read literature unless we know for certain we are going to like it. Or seeing people not be able to stand honest criticism of the world they've fallen in love with. I love ASOIAF -- but boy oh boy are there a lot of problems in the story: racial undertones, questionable writing decisions, weird ness overall. I also think engaging critically helps us understand how an author's biases can inform what they write. Like, HP Lovecraft wrote eerie stories, he was also a raging racist. But we can argue that his fear of PoC, his antisemitism, and all of his weird fears informed a lot of what he was writing. His writing is so eerie because a lot of that fear comes from very real, nasty places. It's not to say we have to censor his works, but he influences a lot of horror today and those fears, that racial undertone, it is still very prevalent in horror movies today. That fear of the 'unknown,'

Gone with the Wind is an incredibly racist book. It's also a well-written book. I think a lot of people also like confine criticism to just a syntax/prose/technical level -- when in reality criticism should also be applied on an ideological level. Books that are well-written, well-plotted, etc., are also -- and should also -- be up for criticism. A book can be very well-written and also propagate harmful ideologies. I often read books that I know that (on an ideological level), I might not agree with. We can learn a lot from the books we read, even the ones we hate.

I just feel like we're getting to the point where people are just telling people to 'shut up and read' and making spaces for conversation a uniform experience. I don't want to be in a space where everyone agrees with the same point. Either people won't accept criticism of their favorite book, or they think criticism shouldn't be applied to books they think are well written. Reading invokes natural criticism -- so does writing. That's literally what writing is; asking questions, interrogating the world around you. It's why we have literary devices, techniques, and elements. It's never just taking the words being printed at face value.

You can identify with a character's trauma and still understand that their badly written. You can read a story, hate everything about it, and still like a character. As I stated a while back, I'm reading Fourth Wing; the book is terrible, but I like the main character. The worldbuilding is also terrible, but the author writes her PoC characters with respect. It's not hard to acknowledge one thing about the text, and still find enough to enjoy the book. And authors grow when we're honest about what worked and what didn't work. Shadow and Bone was very formulaic and derivative at points, but Six of Crows is much more inventive and inclusive. Veronica Roth's Carve the Mark had some weird racial problems, but Chosen Ones was a much better book in terms of representation. Percy Jackson is the same way. These writers grow, not just by virtue of time, but because they were critiqued and listened to that critique. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien always publically criticized each other's work. Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes had a legendary friendship and back and forth with one another's works which provides so much insight into the conversations black authors and creatives were having.

Writing has always been about asking questions; prodding here and there, critiquing. It has always been a conversation, a dialogue. I urge people to love what they read, and read what they love, but always ask questions, always understand different perspectives, and always keep your mind open. Please stop stifling and controlling the conversations about your favorite literature, and please understand that everyone will not come out with the same reading experience as you. It doesn't make their experience any less valid than yours.

[sudaca-swag]

American and european writers are stuck on these styles and tropes but... what are these? I'm not a fantasy reader but i'd like to know.

in my opinion it's usually a solid book structure that most writers don't dare to break or play around with, like you have a main character, a defined and explicit problem being made known (ex: bad guy wants to own this weapon), a very straightforward mission to preventing that problem and then the end that tends to sum up the story neatly (good or bad, generally not a nuanced ending enough since it's mostly one or the other). Which is fine sometimes, I enjoy lots of fantasy books that are like this, but it also turns boring sometimes when you're a non English speaker used to different types of books, take for example heaven officials blessing since it's the one I'm currently reading, the plot is hard to define sure you could say something about it but there's so many moments and different plots going around throughout reading it that there isn't a single climax moment, there are multiple peaks in the story, the ending is quite mixed and not completely closed since some things are left up to interpretation or the readers imagination, also the concept of time is much more flexible and past memories are interwoven in the story constantly not set in a flashback which also prevents "info dumps" to me. You could say that it's bc tgcf is a very long story, but for example the starless sea does this magnificently in just 500 pages or so.

Latin American literature too has a very distinctive pace, it's slower, it's focused on being pretty and poetic rather than in arriving to a plot climax, because the entire book is the journey that the reader is enjoying, the reader isn't just consuming a solid plot. It trusts that readers are also reading slow enough as to understand subtext so it doesn't explicitly say a lot of things, or it works a lot with foreshadowing what will happen in later books even though the reader might not immediately understand what it means, something that I've found in today's usamerican and European fantasy which is also the most published worldwide is how rushed it is, there is no reader-writer alliance in which the writer acknowledges the reader is smart enough to understand and the reader is patient enough to wait out, and it won't change probably because of how much money booktok is making editorial houses, and we all know what sort of stories booktok pushes the most.

[eerna]

As much as I enjoy criticizing sjm and booktok it's not like what is popular now is not similar with what was popular for ages.Bad boys and pretty privilege with some magical element where always in trending it's just that now it's became a problem since good pieces are harder to find bc now everyone is copying the same books without adding anything new to the table

Yeah, bad, easily digestible stuff being popular is just the way of things, it has always been that way and it will always be that way. What I didn't notice before, though, was the way these fans "invade" other spaces online and demand their favorite books be treated as works of art (I might be wrong on this, I am no fandom historian, for all I know booktube used to be this way too before booktok took over and I am inventing hot water). Examples. "Reader" doesn't mean someone who reads, it means someone who reads the specific type of romance popular on booktok. They could use a more accurate identifier, "romance reader" or even "booktok reader", but the generalization implies a much more prestige status. Diversity and social justice are discussed specifically only in context of that same genre, and the same goes for worldbuilding, writing and thematic quality, and all of those are NOT the point of reading a romance book so these readers end up unequipped to handle proper conversation about such topics outside of the genre. Like you said, it is just the same type of book on rotation, without any tolerance for new ideas or widening one's horizons. It reduces something as diverse, rewarding and world-opening as "being a reader" to nothing but being a servant to the capitalist machine of overconsumption and never looking up from the simplest, most base pleasures that serve as happy shots. And then someone who also calls themself a reader and matches their demographics says "I don't like SJM" and they are shocked because they can't understand how that's possible. My my my

[olderthannetfic]

I always see people who have never been antis, talking about/questioning how some antis even ARE antis when you look at their taste in media - ie the ever famous joke of "Hannigram is #problematique" "but it's a show where he eats people" or whatever.

I thought I'd weigh in as someone who could, hypothetically, be called an ex-anti (which, thankfully, nothing ever really came out of it - it was just very 2014 keyboardwarrior-esque behavior of me being a chronically online young adult who would share posts in a group chat making fun of certain shippers, or reblog posts about how 50shades is The Most Problematic Media Ever to exist -- basically I was an anti with anti-lines of thoughts, but i never, like, a ran a Shipping Discourse Blog or whatever)

For me, personally, it was a few different things. I can now see how it's incredibly hypocritical that teenaged me shipped Light/L, while still thinking that Dramione was Bad And Abusive. It ultimately boiled down to a) being pretentious, and b) just not understanding media or what proshippers REALLY believed, with a side of c) not realizing that nuance exists. like i was pretty late to join tumblr, I think I immigrated here during PEAK "yourfaveisproblematic" era which definitely did have an impact on my opinions and my tastes.

to elaborate, a.) being pretentious. i mean this one just kinda goes without saying. "I engage in media in a way more intellectual way than you do, don't you know that? You're a filthy and disgusting person who writes Snape/Hermione because you're an actually disgusting pedophile IRL who would probably date your own student that you're abusing if you could. Meanwhile, I'm a very smart, good, and pure person. When I read Uncle Vernon/Harry, I'm doing it in a G-d honoring whump way that clearly condemns abuse, incest, and rape. Unlike YOU who only writes harmful stuff as a way to get people off :/"

(as an aside, i think this line of thinking will ALWAYS be present in fandom and popculture in some way, sadly. ie the recent trend of people hating on booktok bc the books are 'trashy' and how these porn addicts should read real classic literature instead.)

as for b.), not understanding media - i cannot emphasize enough that i was GENUINELY stupid and disconnected enough to think that proshippers REALLY WERE pro-All Of The Degenerate Dead Doves That They Wrote.

why did i feel this way? why did i understand that Lolita clearly isnt pro-pedophilia, but for some reason i thought that someone shipping weecest was? well, first of all, i think that fanfiction is (generally) seen as Less Serious than classic literature, and fandom is a fun place, so i guess i somehow thought that every fanfic/fanartist who wrote Problematic Things, especially Problematic Things that they portrayed as Sexy, really DID enjoy the thought of that Actually Happening To Real People.

and i think THIS is the bulk of why antis ARE antis. i'm not calling them all stupid - i do think BEING an anti is stupid, but at the same time, there are people who are truly smart and good-intended people who just have some really off color opinions about, like, homestuck ships or whatever. Lawlight is okay because notebooks that kill people don't exist so it's IMPOSSIBLE for the Harmful Aspects of Light/L to be romanticized! but schoolyard prejudiced bullies DO exist and are a REAL problem so Drarry is BAD (*truly completely unaware of the fact that there's 'realistic' aspects of the Light/L dynamic and 'unrealistic' aspects of Drarry - such as, for example, Hogwarts arguably being even MORE of a fantasy setting than DN is.*) I know that media literacy is the hot buzzword of the year to throw around in 2024, but, like, i really did not have media literacy.

as for c.), not realizing nuance exists - ok "nuance" might not be the best word here, but i dont know how else to describe it. like, each time ive typed the word "problematic" out in this ask, i've done so in a very tongue in cheek/ironic/retroactive way, but, like, those posts about how Everything Is Problematic, Including Your Fave ARE true. and i didn't like the fact that my favorite media or favorite person might've Made A Mistake! i need to Talk About Its Issues Because I'm So Betrayed That My Dear Sweet Comfort Media Would Do This To Me. I Need To Prove I Clearly Condemn It.

like, i legit morally could not justify reblogging a twilight post without adding in the tags '#this is my guilty pleasure it sucks that the books were so racist though' or whatever. Most people were lucky enough to avoid that line of thinking, but there was an actual group of people who felt a genuine need to virtue signal all the time, partly bc, hey, they WERE passionate about talking abt #issues in media, but also bc of a subconscious fear of If You Reblog A Singular Piece Of Hetalia Fanart, You're Literally A Nazi And Will Get A Callout Post Written About You.

and during all of this i was at the tail end of my high school experience (yes i know im younger than most of your audience, ha). i was going through A Lot emotionally, going through a lot of life changes, and lived in a very . . . interesting household/place where i couldn't do ACTUAL good in the world that i was passionate about. so to make up for the fact that i was genuinely in no place to do legit activism, clearly i had to save the gay community by arguing about johnlock queerbaiting or whatever.

^ and honestly i do think that is the position of most antis. theyre isolated and cant seem to do Enough in the Real Scary World so they have to resort to talking about how bad of a person someone is for "shipping abuse", bc theyre not in a situation where they could, for example, ACTUALLY fight the good fight to end abuse or raise awareness for it.

There was way more to it and way more that I could say, if I wanted to, but this post is long enough as it is and probably doesn't make much sense.

I feel bad for antis, honestly, or at least the ones who are antis in the way I used to be.

--

Oh yes, passionate young fools who think they can at least fix the internet if not their lives make up most of the cannon fodder. Some of the ringleaders are just mini dictators and wannabe cult leaders, but most anti-leaning types are just traumatized or clueless, even a lot of the ones who do serious damage and don't just mock shit in private with their friends.

[rapz-rites]

Ma Belle Chérie

Damian Wayne x influencer!book lover!Reader

If someone was to look up a bookworm a picture of you would appear. 3 times you chose your books over Damian. 1 time Damian was your only priority (yes Damian is a priority, but not without a good book in hand)

A/N: Requested by @vivi-iiis-blog

The title is French and it translates to “my beautiful darling”. At first, it was supposed to be “ma belle fille” but if you put it in a translator it might give you my daughter in law…

Word Count: 1.9K

Warning(s): Reader not putting Damian first, kissing, flirting in public

You were a popular influencer. All your followers knew you loved books. They would often say “If Y/N was a Disney princess, she’d be Belle”

1st time

You were extremely into the book you were currently reading. It was a popular romance book you saw on BookTok, so you obviously had to get it and read it.

You were reading your book in Damian’s bed as you waited for Damian to get home from patrol. You hadn’t even noticed Damian coming in and changing out of his uniform. Usually, he would change in the locker room in the BatCave, but whenever you would spend the night he’d change in his bathroom.

Damian entered his room calling your name several times, but no response. He noticed you immersed in your book on his bed, so he decided to continue his nightly routine and then return to you.

You didn’t realize Damian was even back from patrol until you felt an arm around your waist. You looked down from your book to Damian trying to cuddle into you.

“Why don’t you put your book down and cuddle with me Beloved,” Damian said softly as he brought himself closer to you.

“Let me finish this page first,” you replied to his offer. Damian hummed in response knowing it was going to take more than one page.

After several pleas and several ‘one more page’s, Damian gave up. When you were done you would cuddle with him, awake or not.

“Ok, I’m done. I’m ready to-” you stopped at the site of your boyfriend sleeping peacefully. You smiled at him softly. Putting your book on the nightstand, you cuddle back into Damian as you drift to sleep.

2nd time

You and Jason connect over your interests in books. Often when you would come over and Damian wasn’t there you and Jason would have discussions based on books you’ve both read.

Sometimes you two would pick a book and after about 2 weeks you two would meet up again and talk about it. Sometimes you two would read a book and watch the show/movie based on it.

“Elena and Katherine are blonde in the books though,” Jason started. He was pacing back and forth, running his hand through his hair.

“I know that Jason. I read the book too. But let’s be honest Katherine is better as a brunette than a blonde. It fits her personality in the show way more.”

Neither of you realized that Damian was leaning against the doorway until you turned around in frustration at Jason’s stubbornness. You smiled at him, but Jason spoke before you could greet him.

“You’re right,” he stated. You turned to look at him

“Of course she’s right,” Damian said, drawing attention to himself. “Now if you’re both done I’d like to spend time with my girlfriend.”

You smiled sweetly at him. You loved it when he called you his girl or girlfriend to other people. You didn’t know why but it always brought butterflies to your stomach.

“I think it’s Nina Dobrev,” Jason continued, completely ignoring Damian’s request.

“After this, I promise,” you whispered as you kissed Damian on his cheek. Even though he didn’t show it, he couldn’t believe it. You were choosing to talk to Jason over spending time with him.

“It has to be,” Jason whispered to himself, still pacing back and forth.

“I would have liked to see angel Elena though.”

“ME TOO!”

3rd time

You didn’t go live all that often but when you did, your fans went crazy. So crazy, sometimes after the time was up, you started a new live immediately after. This time was no different. People were checking in 100 at a time. After 5 minutes there were about 11.7k watching.

“Oh my gosh. I haven’t been on live in a fat minute. But guys you have to understand I started reading this series and I haven’t been able to put it down,” you say walking around your kitchen. You walked away to get your supplies for baking. Once you returned you saw tons of comments coming through.

“Where’s Marshmallow?” You whispered as you read the comments.

“YOU KNOW WHAT” you started to yell, waving the spatula in your hand around. You had this serious demeanor to you. “That dog is SO FAKE. I took her with me when I went to see Damian yesterday, and when it was time to go she didn’t want to leave and acted like she didn’t know me. LIKE I'M YOUR MOM”

“I am your mother, you listen to me,” Stephanie started to sing in the background. You laughed at her and your viewers found it funny too.

“Curly fries or waffle fries?” Steph asked, reading a comment someone sent. “Waffles of course. They’re just so much better”

You continued talking to your fans and replying to their comments. Eventually, you ended up playing ‘this or that’ with them. Stephanie read the comments so you could answer as you continued to bake. Some were a simple choice and others had you stumped.

“OMG here’s a good one,” Steph started. “Read the twisted series again for the first time or marry Damian”

You let out a gasp as you froze in place. You place the bowl of icing down on the counter and put your hands to your face.

“Oh my gosh. You guys can’t ask me things like that. ” Now you were pacing back and forth. “I’m about to say something you guys can NEVER repeat. Not even to your pastor in confessionals.”

Once you said that people were going crazy in the comments.

Y/nsbooks: oh this is gonna be good

GingerJT: I can’t wait to hear what he’s gonna say

Emswrld: I think we all should already know her answer 😭😭

“I love Damian, I really do but I’m gonna have to pick the Twisted Series. YOU GUYS BETTER NOT TELL HIM.”

Well, you didn’t have to worry about someone telling Damian. Especially if he was watching your live the entire time off of Jason’s secret Instagram, GingerJT.

Damian 1st

You wanted everything to be perfect for Damian’s birthday. Every year, since living in Gotham, he’s had a birthday gala. This year you wanted to plan a nice intimate surprise party for him the night before.

The week of the surprise party you were extremely busy making sure everything was perfect. You invited everyone in advance(minus Bart or else he would spoil it, so you told him the day of), booked the venue, ordered decorations, and got him a gift you thought he would love.

That same week Damian thought something was wrong and you were sick. He didn’t see you with a single book once. He even took a peek into your bag and saw not one book, you usually have at least 2.

“Are you feeling ok Beloved?” Damian asked, touching your face. He was checking if you had a fever.

“I’m fine,” you chuckle, removing his hands from your face. You kiss his cheek before you get ready to leave. “I have to go to my appointment. I’ll text you later.”

Damian had a feeling something was up but couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

It was currently the day before Damian’s birthday. You had asked him to hang out, and of course, he couldn’t say no. He would never say no to spending time with you. You even managed to convince him to spend the night so you guys could head to the gala together. Little did he know he was falling into a trap. A trap called a surprise party.

You took Damian out for most of the day, doing the majority of his favorite things. You need to give everyone enough time to set the place up. If you and Damian ran into someone, that would mess things up.

The town you took Damian to was about an hour away. There was this animal reserve you thought Damian would love. You learned after your 3rd date that he hated zoos. Though he loved animals, he absolutely hated zoos. He thought them to be prisons for the animals.

Afterward, you two went out and did other things that Damian enjoyed. Now, you both were sitting in the car in a comfortable silence. Damian was following the GPS to his final “surprise”. You secretly messaged everyone to check to make sure everything was in place. Everything was and they were just waiting for you guys to arrive. It took less than an hour to arrive.

Once Damian stopped the car you hopped out to take the lead. Leading Damian into the building, it was dark. Neither of you could see.

“Beloved it’s dark. You should turn on the lights.”

“Right,” you said as you reached for the light switch. Once you flicked the lights everyone jumped out and yelled SURPRISE. You looked over to see your boyfriend smiling as people crowded around him wishing him happy birthday.

You watched happily as Damian interacted with everyone. His siblings and other hero’s his age were here. Even his friends from GA. Damian would never admit it because “they’re just the most tolerable people in his life”.

The party ended around 12 and you and Damian arrived at your place around 12:30. After getting ready for bed, you and Damian got comfortable and cuddled in your room.

“OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I ALMOST FORGOT,” you yelled hopping out of Damian’s embrace. He was confused as you hurried out of the room and returned not even a minute later. Now there was a box in your hand, wrapped in a dark green paper with a black bow on top. You got back into bed and handed the box to him.

“I told you you didn’t have to get me anything Beloved”

“I know but I wanted to,” you responded, ushering him to open the gift. You watched excitedly as he gently opened the gift. After opening the box, Damian picked up the book that was in it. It looked like any other classical literature, minus the two swords embedded on the front cover. Damian turned the box over to look at the spine. And there it was, his name, in Arabic.

Damian turned to look at you. All you did was nod at the book signaling him to open it. After silently reading a few pages, he stopped and hugged you, tackling you on the bed and peppering your face with kisses.

“So you like it?”

“You wrote me a book. Of course I love it!” He said and he continued kissing your face. You laughed. You held Damian’s face in your hands before giving him a kiss on the lips.

~

Damian held your hand as you stepped out of the black vehicle. A gorgeous dress clung to your body. Emerald matching the accents in Damian’s suit.

“Is it too late to go back? We can watch whatever movie you pick” you whispered as you and Damian walked down the red carpet. You both stopped for a picture. Instinctively, you both smile and Damian puts a hand on your waist.

“You say that every time. You need to come up with something more convincing” Damian smirks at you. You open your mouth to respond, but before you can, a photographer interrupts, “Damian, are you enjoying your birthday this year?”

“How can I not? Have the most amazing girlfriend.”

“Not as amazing as what’s underneath this dress,” you whisper into Damian's ear. He visibly goes red and you just smile at the photographers unfazed at what you just said.

“We’re leaving after an hour” Damian whispers back into your ear after processing what you just said. And with that he takes your hand, walking you inside the building. Smiling ear to ear, you bid the photographers goodbye.

WOOO! What was something alright. In so sorry for not posting in months but school comes first 😭 But I hope you guys enjoy this as I’m now going to try to write more often and in working on requests now.

[elumish]

Because people seem to keep interpreting what I'm saying as trying to set rules for or censor authors, and I wanted to lay out my philosophy on ethical writing and media criticism in plain language. There are three broad pillars to how I approach it, which are below:

1) Authors are responsible for the content of their own work. There is a tendency to frame the adjudication of the ethics/morals/"goodness" of work as being essentially extrensic and reactionary--an author puts out a work and then people criticize it, and avoiding that criticism is the main reason why an author might try to avoid "bad things" in their stories. As a writer, I start from the other direction: I am always first and foremost responsible for what I write down in my story, and I have a responsibility to minimize the harm that work may do because I am a human being who lives in this world, not because someone might yell at me for it.

2) Any published work is open for critique. To me, there is a fundamental difference between writing something and publishing it, and once an author intentionally makes their work public, it can legitimately be criticized. This doesn't mean harassment, it doesn't mean flames, it doesn't mean being mean or petty or cruel. It doesn't even necessarily mean directing the critique at the author. But calling out racism or misogyny or ableism or simply critically discussing the content and message of a work is no less legitimate for a fanfiction than it is for an original published work, just as calling it out for a self-published work is no less legitimate than it is for one that went through a publisher. Things like readership/reach, cultural context, and other individuals involved can and should all be taken into account, but they don't make a work ineligible to be viewed critically.

3) Communities should have standards. I take the Nazi at the bar approach to community standards: when we welcome racists/misogynists/transphobes/etc. into our communities, then they become racist/misogynist/transphobic/etc. communities. And community standards are hard and nebulous and won't look the same thing everywhere, but there are ways that we can do them even on largely unmoderated places like AO3 and Tumblr. This is things like blocking people who express racist views, or not reccing misogynist stories, or standing up for Black fans or Fans of Color or disabled fans etc. Communities can say, we won't welcome Nazis in our communities. We won't welcome racists in our communities. We will ice them out, block them, not engage positively with their work.

Note that I didn't say start moderating AO3 or burning all the books that don't match our ethics. I'm talking about communities (fandoms, romance novel BookTok, whatever) taking responsibility for themselves and moving away from the idea that we can't have any say in who is in our community because it's the equivalent of censorship.

Every time people defend the presence racism in fandom, they make fandom less safe and welcoming to Fans of Color. Every time they defend antisemitism in the romance community, they make it less safe and welcoming to Jewish fans. That is what community standards are about.

[notedchampagne]

right cuz like. on one hand, writing and reading deeply toxic and intense romance has been a Repressed Middle Class White Woman Classic since at least the 30s, for a variety of interesting sociocultural reasons. indisputable queens of things that are hot in fiction and would never work irl. ON THE OTHER HAND, i dont think. i dont think thats the same as whats going on in booktok romances or whatever. like *knocks on glass* hey girls are we good in there. we havent mistaken compliance with systematic female subordination for love again have we hhaha

(context) yeah i know historically theres shelves of books out there about the Forbidden and Deep Temptations that might as well have originated with eve (JOKE) and im not even saying these books shouldnt exist - they are an impressive marker of societal trends and concepts of love and dynamics, but if thats the case i have concerns about seeing "babys first forbidden relationship book about a 17 yo and a 30 yo man" and "im just a girl doing girl math wasnt meant to do calculus" next to each other

[nikethestatue]

One of the most common questions that we--Elriels--ask for the past going on 4 years, is HOW. How can (you) not see Elriel? How can (you) not see the buildup throughout the books? How do (you) not see the development of their relationship? HOW? Because, in the words of the author, it's pretty obvious.

We've heard things like 'SJM changed her mind!' 'SJM is a fated mates author!' (we'll come back to that later) 'SJM set up a new ship in the bonus chapter!' "Gwyn and Azriel are so similar and have the same powers! They are equals!' "Gwyn and Azriel have banter!!!' 'It's only lust between Azriel and Elain!'

And that brings me to Nesta and Cassian.

Nesta and Cassian had a whole VERY long book. We've all read it. It's a book of lust and love between the two of them. Of LOTS of banter. Of sex. Of becoming 'equals' and Nesta taking on military-style training, becoming an Oristian to Cassian's Carynthian. We find out that Nesta's been madly in love with Cassian since the moment she saw him. We get 'golden threads' binding them on Solstice and them being revealed as fated mates.

You might say--yes, we know all this! why are you wasting our time with the synopsis?

I'll explain.

Lately, especially post HOFAS, I've been seeing more and more 'theories' about how Nessian is a 'fake bond' and that Nesta and Cassian aren't actually mates. No. Apparently, the Cauldron, enraged at Nesta stealing some of its power, threw out a fake mate bond at her and Cassian as a curse and in retaliation. She's been shackled to Cassain. Whereas her one true love is Eris. Her real mate. And in the next Nesta book, Cassian is going to get killed and Nesta will move on to Eris and live happily ever after.

Which brings me to another couple--Bryce and Hunt. Who are chosen mates and who've gone through unimaginable trials and hardships, only for people to ship Bryce with Azriel (unironically). In this case, we had the same story--the Quinlar bond was fake. Hunt was going to die. Bryce would find happiness with Azriel.

The same people who foam at the mouth with 'ELUCIEN are fated mates and SJM is a fated mates author' are writing metas about how Nessian have a fake bond. The same people who scream about Gwynriel's 'BANTER!' and how they are equals, now say that the Nesta and Cassian have nothing in common, and apparently, she has more in common with...Eris?

And my point is simple--no matter what SJM says or writes, there will always be absolutely deranged detractors of everything that is canon, of everything that she had said, of everything that's been published.

So, it's not us. It's actually them. We are not the crazy ones who happen to read the text and come up with logical conclusions. We are not the ones who don't have 'reading comprehension'. We are not the ones 'who've never read a romance'. We are not the ones who 'never had a relationship'. No. We simply read what SJM put down on paper and we have a rational approach to canon.

But it also means that even if she made an announcement TODAY, saying out loud, online, in writing--the next book will be Elain's and she will be paired with Azriel--there will still be thousands of people out there denying it. They will be coming up with scenarios of how that will absolutely, definitively, 100% never happen.

In this fandom, fanon rules. Not the author's own words. Not the books. Not any logical conclusion. Not anything rational.

The more I see of this nonsense, the more I understand why SJM pulled away and why no matter what she says, she will be disregarded and people will flock to BookTok and listen to insane 'theories', disseminate them and then argue until someone gets a heart attack about how the theory is 'correct'.

Basically, cheer up Elriels. You ain't crazy. Don't let anyone gaslight you into believing that you are wrong. You are every, very right.

[physalian]

Send Me Your Indie Lit To Review (Book Swap Campaign)

Inspired by a post from a mutual in the same boat as I am unable to get any sales. For me, at least, the idea of hocking my book like the insufferable BookTok influencers is the antithesis of who I am and who I want to resort to being just to get the word out… but then, I also kept completely forgetting about this mutual’s book for like, a whole month, and then spontaneously paid a whole $0.99 for the kindle ebook and read it in one sitting and you can check out that review here (I am an extremely fast reader).

So!

Send me your books and even if I don’t like them, I’ll come up with something good to say because there is an audience for them that I might not fit. There's not a lot of content that I won't at least give a chance, rating regardless, so don't be shy! I don’t have a million followers but maybe if we all help each other out, we can succeed in spite of the Daily Grind rhetoric they want to convince us is the only way.

Fee? $0.00

But. If I read and review yours, you read and review mine. That’s the deal. I’ll pay for your book, you pay for mine, and together we can all boost each other’s Amazon rankings. We. Can. Do. This!

—

And if you’re curious, my debut queer adult fantasy novel “Eternal Night of the Northern Sky” is out now!

*I do reserve the right to DNF. As do you. I’m not promoting any book that I would not recommend personally to a friend. This blog has integrity, where the shameless Bookstagram and Booktok influencers do not.

[likes-words-and-shrimp]

Seeing that one post going around that's just basically 'say if you ever read fanfictions that are better than published books' and it's like, yeah of course there are some that are better, because some people are genuinely good writers, but also there are good books too, and then seeing people say things like, 'I have never read a good book I only prefer fanfictions' and it's just?? Seek out some books? There are so many different kinds, for so many different things. It just sounds like you're reading for an easy serotonin boost than really engaging with the work.

People who write books and people who write fanfics have one thing in common: they write. They are doing the act of writing, and each person is going to have different styles and come at it with different experiences. Also, if your favorite fanfic writer comes out with an original work that's not just filing the serial numbers off, will you read it? Or are you only there because they're writing your favorite characters from another piece of media (which might even be from a book?). Speaking as a fanfic writer who is happy when people compliment my writing, please read some books I'm begging. Not everything is from booktok.

[ceilidho]

Sorry to dump this here, but no one in my immediate and/or accessible circle reads as much as I do and this conversation came up at the right time.

I don't read a lot of romance and I started reading some popular ones last year to ease my way into it. I feel like such a snob to say this, but the plot and writing are never fully fleshed out nor are the characters. None of the romantic actions I see people swoon over are ever explained well enough for me to understand the hype. A scene in which there should be an emotional inner monologue is shorted to a paragraph and if the character is toxic (I understand a lot of people enjoy toxic/dark men, but romance books never write them well enough) and destroys the other character's life/says a relationship-ending lie/any other cliche, there is never enough explanation, justification, groveling, or any thought process behind the reconciliation.

It's always just one half-written and half-baked trope after the other.

Again, apologies for dumping it here, but I think there are such damning consequences for women (the main demographic of romance readers) who read things like this and don't give constructive criticism or thought when facing these problems.

no but you're 100% right. i mean, this is one annoying bitch's opinion (mine LMAO) but trad publishing is in the absolute pits right now. that's not to say that there aren't still some good books coming out because of course, every now and then you're going to get a gem. but i think the environment has become outwardly hostile to good writing.

i mean, i know this has been discussed a ton, but the "fast fashionization" of books has become a huge problem. every time there's a new microtrend or whatever, every author rushes to push out a book to meet the demand (see: the hockey romance trend). this, obviously, means that the editing time is severely compressed and you get books published by like harper collins and penguin with typos, grammar issues, and more.

i got some flack for this when i posted about it on twitter ahah but i honestly do not understand why the sequel to "fourth wing" came out so soon (not even getting into the messy qualities of the first book). sequels used to take a year or more to come out to allow for the book to go through several rounds of editing and fine tuning! what happened??!!

i think authors now feel compelled to get their books out as soon as possible out of fear that booktok/readers will simply move on after the initial hype and they'll lose their reader base. there's like an anxiety about being left behind in the current publishing world.

this is kind of in line with what i was talking about the other day with Bo actually - writing romance and smut is actually way harder than people think. you can't just use the same 5 recycled porn dialogue lines and call it a day. you have to care a little about the story you're trying to tell, not just churning it out to make a buck or to make people pay attention to you. i'm not saying belabour every single action and decision made by your main character or go crazy on description (i still think the sweet spot for a published book is between 250-300 pages, and maybe more if you're writing a genre specific book that involves a lot of worldbuilding), but as a writer you need to want to be writing that book in the first place.

no one who's legitimately excited about what they're writing is going to resort to cliches and overused tropes - they might lean on tropes they like, but there's inevitably going to be something original and exciting there.

also my lil controversial opinion about the state of trad publishing lately is that i think it's 100% influenced by this weird pervasive strain of purity culture that's on booktok where people feel like any enjoyment they get from reading a particular thing has a direct reflection on them as a person and their values. rather than it just being a book.

(by the way i actually completely agree with you that even dark romances are as bad as everything else we've been talking about - that's another conversation lol. i also kind of agree with the idea of more romance books coming with content warnings on the front page - this hasn't really caught on yet except with some dark romance authors but i think it's a really good idea)

i don't think there's anything wrong about people getting excited about books on tiktok and instagram and youtube btw. i think it's a fun way to share recommendations, commentary, and interests. what i think is the big problem is that the publishing industry has almost become beholden to trends and online perception because they've seen how much profit they can generate by catering to it, and i think that's why books now just feel bland and soulless. they're tapping into a FOMO on both the authors' and writers' side, of either being left behind and not being able to make a living, or missing out on what everyone else is reading and talking about.

[starrylayle]

Marauders Fandom > "There is no canon !!" and other rhetorics

Guess who's back in their marauders phase after 2-3 years of being dormant lmao?? ((spoiler its me lol)). Anyways, a lot has changed since 2021 in this fandom so I just wanted to talk about the direction i think it's going.

I remember in 2020-21 the fandom started to boom in popularity on tiktok --> esp with the rise wolfstar + atyd. I remember people were so suprised with remus' characterization as 'rougher around the edges' instead of the 'soft boi' thing, and how that influenced the new wolfstar dynamic. [Just want to add that the atyd characterisation is much more complex than this and its one of my fave fics --> I'm more talking about the fandom at large's reaction to this)

And since fandom is incapable of having two nuanced and characters who are not stark opposites,, their roles were basically reversed and now Remus is the toxic dom alpha male and sirius is the cute girlyboy twink --- which um,,, the oc-ification is so real its embarrassing but whatever (omg don't even get me started on jegulus 💀)). I just assumed these would stay as headcanons. But now we have people saying, that 'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' or 'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' which i have sO many issues with so let me just try and compile my thoughts into dot points for the sake of coherency.

'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' ---> First of all, Remus, Sirius and Severus are fully fleshed out characters in the og series -- why do you think people would care enough to create an entire fandom based on their backstories if they were 2d flat characters in canon?? Like bffr. I saw a post on here (forgot who it was by, let me know if u know!) that said, 'I didn't cry over sirius' death in OotP just for ppl to say that we know nothing abt him in canon'. Like, its just mind-boggling to me lol.

'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' --> Ok y'all. For a fandom to work, there have to be some guidelines, some kind of source material, some point of reference so people can build upon it and make content. I think we can all agree on that. One reason why HP is such a popular place for fandom is the world-building and potential plots/storylines. I see some people argue that jk rowling was a shit writer anyways so might as well contradict everything she says. Now, I don't disagree with that point in particular, Jo is a pretty mediocre writer and a terrible person. HOWEVERrr, I'd argue that it is a lot more fascinating when people expand or work on the concepts in HP. JK Rowling has a lot of great ideas but executes them terribly -- I love when fic writes do this, which prolly explain why I love atyd as it is still very much canon compliant but executes themes on class, disability and queerness that jkr could barely do in subtext. This doesn''t mean I only think canon compliant fics are valid. That's not the case! I think as long as the charcterization is consistent to the character and the particular circumstances/world they're in, its fine! In fact, I love seeing how the same character would function if in a different place! I also love seeing explorations of the magic and magic systems in aus or fix it fics (or even canon compliant ones) that still fit in with the canonnical system that we know.

I guess what I'm trying to say I wish the marauders fandom explored the world and charcterizations more deeply instead of creating shallow oc-fied version of the characters that fit into whatever's trending -- like just write your own book or smth lol -- booktok will eat it up i promise.

Also, kinda related kinda not but um,,, why are we romanticising fascists -- like babe no evan rosier is not your babygirl he canonnoically tortured multiple ppl and became a death eater soo... not saying that I wouldn't want an exploration of his character or even a relationship with barty -- (who's not some cool dairk-haired edgelord but a actually a cowardly fascist murderer with blond hair -- yes the blond hair is important) -- I'd just want them to be portrayed as the not morally good people they are. Like,, if u want to oc-ify a character like pick someone whos not a death eater or has little info on them like dirk cresswell or frank longbottom,,, or ya know,, one of the MANY female characters in the fandom ((This fandom also has a problem with women and sapphic ships in general but that's a whole other issue lol).

I know this 'babygirlification' of death eaters doesn't mean to do this, but it also ends up watering down the themes of oppression, bigotry, etc and leaves us with not nearly as complex characters. Also one of the issues I had with the og HP world is that JK will introduce concepts like wizard racism and slavery and then just like,, not really do anything about it or just have half-arsed redemption arcs whilst not ever actually exploring the root of the issue. And now i feel like the fandom is following in those footsteps unfortunately.

Anyways, i've been rambling for too long so I'll just leave it here. Sorry if this came off as mean spirited in anyway,, I just have a lot of thoughts™ and my family is sick of hearing them lol. These opinions are not set in stone however so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject! At the end of the day this is fandom and we're supposed to have fun -- so yeah !! thanks for reading if you made it this far!

[smute]

honestly the problem with booktok (and bookstagram) is not YA lit. it's not about people enjoying books that some might consider "low-brow" or whatever.

imo booktok is the culmination of several problems:

firstly, there's the homogeneity of algorithmic recommendations and the enormous influence those recommendations have on the publishing market. booktok recs tend to be of a very similar style and subject matter. they're easily digestible, easily bingeable titles that arent overly complex. booktok favors stories written by white women, often featuring characters with traumatic backstories and focusing on themes like overcoming adversity and the pursuit of romantic love. they are also usually very anglo-/americentric. none of this is necessarily bad, and none of it is by design, but it's not a coincidence either. it's the result of the constraints of short-form content on the one hand, and on the other, of an algorithm that amplifies, in broad strokes, the preferences of the core demographic of any given group of users.

secondly, it's about the commodification, not of reading, but of being Someone Who Reads Books (TM), which i think is just a particularly obvious symptom of online peer pressure and social-media-driven self-presentation. booktok doesn't encourage you to read, for example, sally rooney. it encourages the cultivation of one's own identity as someone who reads sally rooney. the problem here is not that sally rooney is a shit writer whose work has nothing of note to say. quite the opposite. sally rooney's work is relevant and interesting. in fact, it's being studied by scholars, and even if it wasn't, people can and should be allowed to enjoy some light reading, and yes, even Problematic (TM) fictional characters.

the real problem is the fact that the very nature of how booktok works actively discourages the critical discussion of the stories that it circulates. the problem is not millions of teenagers reading colleen hoover's slop (i love me some slop) – it's millions of teenagers encouraging each other to read and internalize – UNCRITICALLY – hoover's particularly romanticized depiction of abuse. tiktok's algorithm does not foster diversity of opinion. it doesn't foster diversity PERIOD. it doesn't foster slow, in-depth discussion. its only function is *make line go up* – line go up = clicks, views, engagement, money.

due to tiktok's popularity, booktok also has an enormous influence on marketing-related and (apparently, to some extent) editorial decision-making in the publishing industry. this is not just the fault of booktok, goodreads is part of the same problem. i mean, booktok has managed to turn colleen hoover's 'it ends with us' into a bestseller FIVE YEARS after it was originally published. it has also led to publishers dropping authors or DELAYING THE RELEASE of new titles after booktokers flooded the goodreads pages of unpublished books with one star reviews.

as i said, the underlying issue here is not unique to booktok. it's the same homogenization that plagues the movie industry, the tv industry, streaming services, etc. the publishing industry is just particularly vulnerable to such manipulations of public opinion. in the end, tiktok is not a social media app. it's an entertainment app and its content is focused on brevity. the biggest booktokers aren't simply avid readers. they don't post actual reviews of books they enjoyed. they're influencers who receive boxes of books from publishing houses to show off in haul videos like "have you guys heard of squarespace?" and that's it. the level of engagement with the texts themselves is like reading a blurb on the dustjacket, and unfortunately that is reflected in the selection of titles that become popular. if it can't be sold to you in 3 sentences, the algorithm will bury it.

[kasmusser]

Can you rant about booktok?

Sure thing. There's multiple angles to attack booktok from, so this might read scatter brained.

First: Booktok & Porn

To begin this part of my opinion, let's just say it. No one who cannot say the word cock should be writing porn. They especially shouldn't be writing hard bdsm with dub/noncon elements when they can't call it porn or smut & instead just call it spice or spicy. It physically pains me to see the stupid ass emoji substitutions for basic words like pussy or cock. There is also just general fucking up of BDSM topics & the assumption that all women are sensually submissive, which are both complicated topics that should probably have an essay written about instead of a Tumblr post.

Part 2: Bad for Authors

Social media has in general been ruining the part of being a hermit author where you get to be a hermit but with booktok it is especially bad. Authors are expected to be their own marketing team & do their own promotion the entire time. With it being popularized through ticktok its not even one of the places where you can pretend to be semi-anonymous by just not posting your face like Twitter. Bad.

Bad for Readers

Booktok is hyperconsumerist. Even in what I'm well aware is already a collectionist community. I know booktok is not the cause of the issues I'm complaining about, but it just shows it in a fairly stark way. Haul culture should be shot in a ditch. It’s also where I encounter most of the "I can't read anything without sex" type. The "adult means sex" type are ever present and about as old as book communities, and they do have their presence.

Thunderdome

As with all internet well all just know too much about each other. Now I'm not an "author and audience should be completely separate type," but I am well aware we are far far too close together right now. Authors make smug clap backs at 3 star good read reviews. Writing is done with the intention of balancing the least media litterat audience there has even been.

Conclusion: shit sucks