#i already posted abt this before bc this is a big pet peeve of mine when it comes to fan perception of this ship

[daz4i]

my possibly lukrwarm take today is that making skk exclusively pure and fluffy and insisting they're not toxic at all is just as ooc and flattening as taking their toxicity to the extreme or reducing their personalities to basic tropes. why are you taking away their flavor. you are hurting them. they need to physically fight each other as enrichment. the way you're raising them is honestly so unhealthy and distressing for them

[arofili]

how’d u get into writing? like, writing fic and being part of the silm community, being Known, that stuff? i’m really new to being a silm cc and i’d love to know ur advice! also: how’d u build up the confidence to start posting meta/hcs? bc i have a Lot of hcs and meta ideas but also i’m really anxious abt posting them bc yknow anxiety is like that

these are some great questions, anon! I’m gonna go through them one by one :)

how’d u get into writing?

not to be like, super cliche, but I’ve...kind of always been a writer? as long as I can remember I’ve been telling stories, and when I was too young to read or write I would dictate them to my mom, who would type them up for me and help me choose clipart illustrations to accompany them. when I got old enough I would always be writing; I attempted my first novel at age 9, and while that never really went anywhere I did finish the darn thing and it had some pretty sophisticated plot twists for a 9-year-old!

like, writing fic

around the same time I got into fandom! I was deep into Warrior cats (like. really deep) and I believe I started writing my first fics when I was like? 10 or 11? my memory is kind of fuzzy on the order of things, but I know I got an account on the Warriors forums when I was 9, and that I was already posting my fic there when I made my FFN account. I believe I was 12 when that happened, but who knows. I haven’t the faintest idea of what happened with those forums, but uhhh pretty much all of my Warriors fic is still up on FFN lmao. you could probably find that if you want to but um...maybe don’t?

my first Big Fic was a self-insert of...my entire 5th/6th grade class into the then-current timeline of the Warriors books...well. I honestly think that might still be my most popular fic of all time l m a o though I try not to think about it because Hashtag Cringe. though as much as I look back on that time with a “yikes,” I am very grateful for the Warriors fandom in a way? that place was so accepting and encouraging of OCs, of AUs, of completely disregarding canon, of worldbuilding that is completely alien from canon - it was a fantastic sandbox to begin with, there were so many ways to write stories and practically all of them were accepted and had fellow fans invested in them!

and being part of the silm community, 

soooo I wrote Warriors fic until my freshman year of high school (wow sdjfhkdsjfh), which was when BOTFA came out, and I was absolutely wrecked by the ending and immediately started writing my own fixit fic. I was also super hooked on Kiliel! so that was my intro to the Tolkien fandom; and simultaneously, I joined tumblr, and, well, the rest is history tbh.

I honestly do not remember when I first read the Silm, but I kind of got into the more obscure parts of the Tolkien fandom through fandom osmosis, and I do have a vague memory of doodling the Finwean family tree in geometry class so it might have been later on in freshman year? that was also the same time I was having my Queer Awakening, and Russingon definitely contributed to me unlearning my internalized queerphobia, so probably around then.

anyway - queer awakening, tumblr, Tolkien, transitioning from FFN to AO3 - all of that was happening around the same time. I know I dipped my toes in the Silm fandom then, but I was still primarily a Hobbit fic writer focusing on Kiliel. toward the end of high school I kind of shifted to LOTR and (qp) Gigolas...but somehow the Silm fandom is the most active of the Big Three within the Tolkien fandom, and I was getting dragged further and further in.

it wasn’t until @backtomiddleearthmonth 2019, my freshman year of college, that I really dove into writing Silm fic! I picked some Silm-specific bingo cards and never looked back :D that was really not all that long ago but I am obsessed in a way I don’t really remember being even with TH/LOTR, I obviously cannot see the future but I anticipate hanging out here for a long time. the Silm fandom is great overall and there’s just so much material to work with!! <3

being Known, that stuff?

so I don’t really have a whole lot of context on how “well known” I am in the fandom?? definitely within the past year and a half or so I’ve noticed that I like, get asks like this, and get a significant amount of notes on my posts, and I’ve made a lot of fandom friends especially since I joined some Silm servers on Discord (hmu if you want invites; I’m on the SWG server and 2 general Silm servers and the Russingon server) this past year. and I have 3,000 followers as of this month - and while ever since I hit 1k I don’t particularly pay attention to my follower count I can definitely say that I have more engagement now than I used to! but it took me a long time to build this “audience,” I suppose; I’ve been around the Tolkien fandom since late 2014, so nearly 6 years of this, lol.

really the best way to build a following, in my experience, is to just post a lot of stuff. when I started making edits I got a lot more engagement, because for a long time I would post one every day! (I made them in batches and queued them; I didn’t actually make one every day lol...and now I’m too busy to do that, so I just make edits for events and whenever I feel like it) And I have [checks ao3] 145 works in the Silm fandom as of today - I’m fairly prolific! I’ve come to generally expect 3-10 comments on most of my oneshots, which is a lot more than I used to have back in the day. consistency and quantity are more likely to attract people to your work - and quality, of course.

also: how’d u build up the confidence to start posting meta/hcs?

I’ve been writing since I was very young, and I’ve been writing fic for like...11 years? I think? in that time I’ve produced a lot of garbage, but imo most of that was in my Warrior cats phase, so I came into the Tolkien fandom with confidence in myself and my writing. I’m also working on original fiction on the side (I hope to eventually become a published fantasy author, but right now school takes up most of my time that I don’t devote to fandom, which gives me more immediate gratification and also is just Very Fun) and I know I’m a good writer.

basically, I’ve been doing this for like...half my life, and I’m still fairly young, so I’ve had time to build up my skill and confidence and I know I’m only going to get better with time. you will get better with practice. like I said, I’ve written a lot of terrible stuff, and it’s only through sucking for a long time that I’ve gotten to the point I am now. and I am far from perfect; I know I still have lots of room to grow!

for meta and headcanons specifically, I started with writing fic, and then when I didn’t think I could stretch something into an entire fic I would just make a hc post. I have a vivid memory of writing my first meta in a notebook during driver’s ed because it was so goddamn boring and I had Thoughts about Tauriel and Thranduil!

in my experience, meta comes from having Opinions and wanting to share them and most importantly to back them up - you need to have sources! you need to have reasons! you need to have justification! otherwise it’s not meta, it’s a headcanon or an AU. which is fine!! I love hc/AU!!! but they are not the same as meta, and I’m a stickler for being accurate when it comes to meta. if you have sources and shit to back you up, that will help you build the confidence to share your meta.

sharing disinformation and passing it off as meta instead of just coming out and saying this is a headcanon/baseless theory/AU or whatever is such a fandom pet peeve of mine; it’s not bad for something to not be Accurate! you just have to have that disclaimer - and even when you’re writing meta, you’re offering an interpretation of the text, and you need to acknowledge that other interpretations also exist and are valid.

um. I hope this answers your questions? and sorry for basically word-vomiting my entire life story, lol. this post got long; the main reason I’ve written so much fic is because I really just cannot shut up for the life of me. sooo if you can tear of that filter of being shy and just. say shit. you can go so far~!

OH and one more thing - I can’t believe I almost forgot this - but part of being a writer is participating in the community. this is code for LEAVE A DAMN COMMENT IF YOU LIKE A FIC. that’s how I made most of my fandom friends before Discord! I follow @ao3feed-silmarillion and stalk that blog for new Silm fics; I read the ones that interest me and comment on them.

I know this is not really the most common way for folks to find fic but it’s so rewarding to interact with new fic, new writers, new commentors, new stories - you can find gems that don’t rise to the top of the kudos/bookmark lists; you become friends with your fellow writers; you can watch people grow and change; you support smaller content creators. yeah, you might not be getting Just The Best Stuff, but it’s so so so worth it!!

and if you make friends in the comment section of other people’s fic - I guarantee you some of them will go to your AO3 profile and check out your fic, too! and they’ll leave comments! this is a fic community, and that’s what I cherish about fandom most of all, tbh.

anyway - again - sorry for rambling so much, but I hoped this helped! feel free to send in another ask, or to come talk to me off anon if you’d like! and definitely send me your stuff if/when you decide to share it; I would love to support you!!! <3

[aldiwali]

8. your favourite graphic and or gif created by yourself

aaa probably this one?? it’s one of the first ones i did but .. the base panel was so good & it just. i think it turned out nice!! also this one was really cute.. i haven’t done gifs past then because i don’t wanna deal with downloading eps & shit like that (i don’t have the patience.. adhd mood) & i feel guilty using others’ gifs as bases even when they say it’s ok but! i think it’s. she’s babey

10. what graphics / gif trends do you dislike most?

i don’t… i don’t really dislike any? um i’m not really “in the graphic community” in that i’ve never like. studied it & i’ve only recently made them & made friends like u who make them too (& ofc bc of that i pay more attention to fully appreciate everyone’s works but!!! aa)

um if there’s a trend... whitewashing SDKFFJ like it’s not so much a Trend as a byproduct of heavy psds? yeah. also i really like soft colors & lining so when it’s just. Harsh (this is mostly from my experience in the rpc) it’s ... yeah.

oh and flashing things?? especially on people’s themes / whatever where there’s not a warning?? i rly don’t have patience for that ;; and those edits where it’s like. it’s clear it’s not meant to be readable / consumed well & it just looks like a blur & u can’t tell what’s going on????

OH AND THE LIP THING. MY PET PEEVE. this hasn’t appeared in the op fandom (yet.. thank goodness) but in the bnha fandom adding a giant lip to characters they hc as black or even to be of color ..... like.. it looks ugly?? first of all bc it’s not done how it would Actually look & kinda just arbitrarily placed like “oh they have big lips look im inclusive :)” & it’s clear they’re just using stereotypes & not putting thought into it? (ex: giving east asians big lips too even though east asians tend to have thin lips????) and it’s just. Not Handled well. and the noses too they’re so often made to be. caricatures really. like when doing indian characters they’ll make it like a giant triangle or something and it’s .... it’s like they tried so hard to be inclusive that they looped around and just made it racist.

11. what graphics / gif trends do you like most?

coloring things sdkfdkfjdskfj it’s so pretty.... i esp love seeing people’s colors for characters that haven’t been given official colors yet, esp when i like them better than the original!! um & just.. everything saint does w their graphics are. SO good i’ve talked abt this before for like an hour in my gc but.. Holy shit

21. how much time do you spend on a single graphic / gif?

i don’t usually do gifs??? like i’ve done it one (1) time. um but with graphics.... it really depends. how complicated is it? is there background? how many charas? do i already have headcanons for what the chara looks like or am i figuring it out as i go along? mmm i’ve been trying to spend more time on my graphics recently so i can try to be more proud of them but? for a single character no background panel... 20 min? it really depends tho because most of mine i make during lectures in class,, meaning that i’m not 100% engaged with it or anything,, it’s more like i’m doodling but instead i’m. editing graphics.

32. the least notes a graphic / gif of yours has ever gotten that you feel deserves way more. (link it!)

agjdskfjdsf i don’t really like my graphics very much? i think i’ve said this before. like to find things for this ask (part of why it took so long) i went through my shit and found like.. 5 i liked. and so it’s not so much “i think i deserve more notes” as i “wish it would have been better before i posted it but also like. i’m done with it at this point..” the ones i do like tend to get noticed, even if it’s like a week after it’s posted? so i think the least is like .. 71 notes? & 72 notes. those 2 respectively fsdkfj. now if it was about my art… there’s a recent alyanette i posted on @/atvie but it’s not rly noticed but that’s ok!! fskdfj

there are some graphics that are low-effort but i wish had more notes just because i want to interact with the fandom but the fandom’s like. Really Small like with lookism & act-age & oresama teacher (like my most recent posts basically) so i don’t really expect much sdfjdkj

38. are you working on anything right now? if yes, show us a work in progress!

i’m not really? like i’ll start one & then i’ll be like. Fuck it. & just never look at it again because it gets buried in all of my other pages but. here’s one from last night?? that im probably never gonna finish also click maybe bc tumblr quality is .. Not Great... this one was wild cause i had my colors in mind & then once i was done with the clothing i just. switched them to the canon colors (mostly) by looking up the anime cap & while it may be more fitting to them i Don’t Like the Colors. also i gave robin a pantsuit. yes i know she was on the fire side of the island but she’s goth smh... u gotta have dedication

ask meme  /  @toooticki​