#i could submit a suggestion to one of those big blogs?

[fandesinae]

i just came across a fan playlist with a description like "this one is actually accurate he wouldn't listen to XYZ bands" and i was so confused?? are y'all making playlists for characters with the intention of it reflecting the character's music taste? for me it's like. songs i associate with them. their vibes. a song you could see playing in an AMV of them. rotating them in my mind to this music. never have i considered what the character would listen to, my selections are usually lyrically based anyways

[takemehomefromnarnia]

10 years of Rainbow Direction!

Exactly 10 years ago a girl named Danny printed out this rainbow poster and took it to the first concert of One Direction's Where We Are tour:

Anniversaries are always a bit arbitrary, and Rainbow Direction's was always a hard one to pin down.

This blog is just a day or two short of celebrating 11 years and without it Rainbow Direction would have never existed, because the people who were at the start of it would never have met, but its purpose and setup were entirely different and RD was still far from being developed.

The suggestions that eventually took form in "Project Rainbow Direction" were first submitted to the blog in late 2013. The first brainstorm between Kat, Li and Ellis about it, and further strategy talks with Ed and Molly took place in the early months of 2014. The project was announced in February. Haven and Red submitted their winning poster designs in March. Amy developed a logo and opened a merch store for us in early April.

While we've often referred to that midnight brainstorm on a cold January day as the origin of rainbow direction, that was only its conception. We don't even have a record of which date it was. We could also have chosen any of the more pin-downable dates: announcing the project, announcing the poster contest winners, opening the store. But really, all that Rainbow Direction was at those moments, was an idea, a plan, the hope that we had that it was within our, the fandom's power, to change something for the better for the LGBTQIA+ fans in it.

For months all of us, and especially Li, had worked tirelessly to encourage people to sign up and commit to bringing a rainbow poster to a show.

And then the big moment was there. First day of tour. The moment of truth. Would the people we'd encouraged actually have the courage to take a rainbow to a show, and stick it up in the air? Would it matter to people? Would it actually change something?

10 years on, we know that it did. So much more than we could ever have imagined.

But that was was anything but self-evident at the time. We had no idea. We nervously monitored the wwa tag and the blogs of those who had signed up, and then, after a few days, finally this report appeared. Danny from Bogota shared the first Rainbow Direction fan report.

I think if you'd ask any of us who were here at the time, they'd remember fondly how knowing that someone had actually done it, something happened in the real world, and if one person had done it, more would, how that sparked a fire in our hearts. A ball of warm feelings, not quite the same feeling as before. Before, there had been buzz and excitement and drive, but this, this felt different. Hope. A sense of the personal strength, and collective power, that could come from this if we could make it grow. It took a lot of hard work from a lot of people who committed themselves tirelessly to the campaign, but grow it did.

Thanks to Danny. Thanks to all of you who at some point or other, crafted something rainbow at home, took a rainbow to a show, put a rainbow on your blog, showed that you believed in your own power to change something, and showed the LGBTQI+ people in the fandom that they mattered, and that you cared.

It has been quite the roller coaster ride. As the coordinating group, we've had many ups and downs, and by now, for most of us, our attention has been drawn away from the fandom by our real lives and new pursuits. But regularly, when one of us checks in and sees the rainbows at one of the boys' shows, we share, revel, and sit amazed at how this thing, that once took so much effort on our part to get one, two, three people per show signed up, has grown into a regular staple, with people spontaneously taking it upon themselves to organize for entire venues to light up in a coordinated rainbow pattern, to design new posters and rainbow outfits, or to hand out hundreds of mini rainbow flags in the audience. This community has taken it up as its collective responsibility - let's get those rainbows out. How beautiful is that?! You are all so so amazing.

Thank you, you beautiful people, for becoming a part of this, for making it your own, for making it better, for carrying it forward, into the future.

So long!

[dwampyverseawards]

NOMINATIONS FOR THE AWARDS

Hello all!! As previously noted, this is going to be an awards poll/ceremony for the dwampyverse fandom!

All types of creators and interesting people will be spotlighted here, and I've decided that everyone submitted and ok with being included will get an award of some kind!

There will be three categories of awards: General(Favorite Writer or Funniest Fic), Fandom Specific(Most Milo Murphy's Law Art or Most Phineas and Ferb Trivia), and Specific Ones That Don't Fit Anywhere Else For Specific People Because This Isn't Just For Big Names In The Fandom(Will be simplified to just One-Off)(Most Interesting Self-Made Merch or Silliest Impression)

In addition, those categories will be split into two sections: People(talented or underrated people in the fandom) and Works(fanworks on their own, separate from the creator, and hopefully a lot of classics or big projects)

These are all examples, with the only currently set awards basically being the big ones: Favorite Writer, Favorite Artist, and Most Influential Work. There will be a number of smaller ones, along w the more specific ones for individuals! Please feel free to suggest any awards you would like to see/get, as the low number is simply because we don't know how many people will sign up/be submitted.

Keep in mind that while you can nominate anyone, there are inevitably people in this fandom that have my main blocked, and unless they specifically ask to be entered, they will not be nominated out of respect for their boundaries. In addition, as stated multiple times, if anyone who has themselves/their works submitted does not want to be in these polls, they can drop out at any time!

Submissions end in 30 days, on Feburary 25th, or 2/25/24! If we get a massive amount of submissions, this might end early.

I will stay unbiased on my own blog and this one, even if I myself am submitted, dw.

Tags for reach, pls tell me if u dont wanna be tagged n ill remove it @danvillecheese @adhdoofenshmirtz @ferbracket

[bwwhitney]

What I learned from my first gallery exhibition

There is a lot of hard work involved.

You can't make real money selling your photos if you have to pay other people to print and mount your work. (Or at least I can't.)

*See below

I knew going in that there was going to be a lot of work involved. I have known artists over the years who tried to make a living from their art, and only a couple of those people could actually do it. No matter how hard they worked at their art job: making art, marketing the art, going to art fairs, gallery exhibitions etc, most needed "real" jobs to make ends meet.

From the beginning, I looked at this whole endeavor as a learning experience and therefore I did not expect to make a profit. Since this was my first exhibition and I was unknown, it was suggested that I keep prices "low" in order to have a better chance to sell some prints. Accordingly, the pricing ran from $25 for an 8x10" up to $150 for 20x30". At those prices I knew the only way I was going to have a chance of breaking even was to sell out, or to sell multiple copies. Well, I did sell multiple copies of a number of prints, including 5 of the big ones, but I didn't sell out. So far I've sold a total of 24 prints and it cost me about $950 to do so.

Was it worth it?

Yes, absolutely.

The gallery is attached to a not-for-profit art center that does wonderful things for the community, so the commissions they earned from the sales of my prints will be put to good use. I'm very happy to have made a contribution to their cause.

Though I'm not sure it was worth $950, the thrill of walking into the gallery and seeing 42 of my photos hanging on the walls was definitely worth something. *And now I know, that filling the gallery with 42 photos was exactly why I was never going to break even, let alone make a profit. Even Michelangelo would never have been able to fill the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with frescoes if he had to finance it all by himself, he was using the Pope's money. I on the other hand was entirely on my own. Next time I will be smarter about that.

The people who came in, many of them friends and family but some complete strangers, were all wonderful to talk to and overall I had a great experience. For those of you thinking to yourselves: What do you mean you had a great experience, the title of your blog is Photos Without People? Just because I don't like to take pictures of people doesn't mean I don't like people. (Well, actually it does, but you can't help liking people who are saying nice things about your photos ;-)

Would I do it again?

Probably.

I'm in the process of setting up shop on SquareSpace, and I plan to seek out more galleries to try. I'm also going to submit two of the in-camera double exposures that people seemed to like to a exhibition coming up in May.

I could not have done this without the help of my family and of course my friends here. Overall Tumblr is fucked up, but our little corner is is just fine.

Thank you / merći @sharonbphotos @yesyoubelonghere @lindenardenshighlights @mariophotographies @photographybyamyjennings @trishamaeva @jbearphotos for your kind comments on my previous post and for your support. Thanks also to @allthingsfern and the folks over at @photosworthseeing

Cheers

[vonpharma]

“handwaving genuine, good-hearted concrit, to refusing to even engage in the conversation at all, to constant changes that make the event less fun for a huge chunk of us”

Do you mind if I ask more about this? I’ve also participated in sicktember (casually) and I haven’t really noticed anything that fit this, so I just wanted to ask more about your experiences if you were comfortable elaborating. I’m mostly curious what changes were made that made the event less fun (other than delay in prompts released I heard about that)

yeah sure! right off the bat i wanna say that this is not something i was like. PISSED OFF or intending to start any drama about, just some stuff that made the event less enjoyable for me.

i also wanna say that you haven't noticed it because sicktember is very very careful to not publish anything that makes them look bad. they do not engage with any of their replies or asks unless they can spin it in a very sanitized, pr-friendly manner. try creeping through the tags and replies on some of their posts, and while a lot of shit is deleted or lost, you can still see traces of it, some of which i will link to here.

the prompts becoming more delayed. i wasn't here in 2021 (when they dropped in early march), but in 2022 they dropped in mid may. that was awesome because it gave us all lots of time to prep--my favourite thing about sicktember is how accessible of a prompt event it is! the prompts don't all drop like a week before the event starts, you have all summer to write so if you have a full time job or responsibilities you can still participate. this year they made it very clear the prompts were ready to go in may but didn't drop them until mid-june.

when people started sending asks about this, they responded thusly. they maintain this weird kinda... pr-friendly, stepford smiley vibe whenever anyone tries to open a dialogue with them? and it just comes across as so dismissive of anyone trying to make genuine points.

here they say that "many things go into planning prompts" but don't elaborate on that at all. for context, the night before this ask, they had made it clear that the prompts were all ready to go. the hand-waving comes in the form of all the "suggestions" they offer here--"well, you don't have to do every prompt!" (but i want to. it's fun. it feels good. and that's what i've done in the past) "you can write after september!" (i did that last year. it was kind of miserable. i like posting with everyone, it feels like a big celebration!) "we give you like 100 days!" (that's cool. but you could give us more at no detriment to yourself. a lot of us didn't make the deadline last year.)

check the notes on this post and you'll see several disappointed contributors/fans who are trying to open a dialogue with the event runners, all of whom were ignored. several people have reached out to me saying that their asks about this were ignored.

2. last year, they said they would only be accepting fills on the sicktember blog through submissions, and only posting 10 random ones a day. in the past, sicktember has reblogged every single fill directly from the writers.

here's why this is shitty:

when you submit something to a blog, the blog owner then becomes the one who effectively "owns" its engagement. that means any notes, reblogs, comments, follows, etc. all go to sicktember. they do not go to the person who MADE THE STORY. if you, the author, want to see what people are saying about your work, you have to pull up the sicktember window and obsessively check it. if you want to respond to any comments, you give sicktember more notes.

this is just more work, especially if you still want those notes. you would then have to make TWO posts, one on your personal blog and one on sicktember's. and people are probably disinclined to reblog a story twice. it is not exposure or engagement to do this, it actively robs authors of engagement.

sicktember might not even post your fill. they pick ten random ones a day. this is because...

they literally admitted that they lose followers when they reblog every fill. they said aloud that it is all about engagement for them. maintaining followers means more to them than highlighting the contributions of all the people who are making their event what it is. they are quite literally trying to maximize followers and stealing engagement from their contributors. it's kind of fucking insidious.

the only valid point here is the thing about reducing mod workload. still, they could've just... opened apps for another mod? inquired for some extra help? lord knows i would've jumped at the opportunity to curate! i'm sure others would've too.

contrast this to whumptober, who religiously reblog every single fill despite being a much longer running event than sicktember.

this is why i started @sicktemberfeed. with permission, but the mods were even weird about THAT... i asked if it would be ok to make, and they said "well, it's not like we could stop you." weird fucking answer. it's fine to say no.

3. i didn't speak out about point 2, but did speak out a little bit on this blog about point 1. @yes-i-am-happyaspie's husband (@spaceninjas42) dug through my blog, somehow found my untagged critique (it was not vitriolic or cruel, just a plea for an open discussion) and started getting on my case for talking about it on my personal blog. there was a second, much more vitriolic reply that he left but i was a dingus and blocked him as soon as i saw it, which means it's now marked deleted and i have no way of getting it back or proving it. that's kind of a "just trust me bro" situation.

4. the prompts this year were not very good. that is a purely subjective opinion i have, but a lot of us agree that they really stray from the concept of sickfic. we have a lot of heavier whump events floating around and the appeal of sicktember is that it is for fluffier, more low stakes stuff. seeing "cardiac arrest" and "anaphylaxis" and "medieval treatment" on there had me and a lot of others scratching our heads. their response to this is always "just sub it out!" but when we start running out of alt prompts because so many of the main ones are not what the audience is vibing with... there is room for critique there. there is room for a discussion.

i can't stress enough that the problem isn't necessarily these changes--they are not dealbreakers! the problem was sicktember's attitude. every single time anyone in the community tried to say 'hey, i think this idea could use work/tweaking' the response was basically just, again, the happy-go-lucky stepford smiler pr voice "we'd like to remind you that blah blah blah! happy writing, authors!" and absolute refusal to talk to their community at all. as i've said many times, this is not a dichotomy--where one side is "we fold to any criticism! our fans control us!" and the other side is "you're not entitled to anything! we run this event for free despite our busy lives!" like you can very much find a happy medium there but they just. do not.

none of that is a deal breaker, genuinely. i was still planning on participating up until the very end, and i obviously am now.

what was a deal breaker was them posting harry potter shit.

[shipcestuous]

(submission)

The biological brosis thing is a very small thing over the course of a long manga, but I’m submitting it here for that reason even if there’s things that could go on both blogs here. Sorry if that’s not okay?

Anyway: in Namaiki Zakari, the MC Yuki is treated like a big sister by the basketball team she manages (many of them actually call her that). For a while, she treats her LI/future boyfriend Naruse like a pesky little brother, to the point where she even tells the whole club that. He tries to go along with the ruse for a little bit, before he caves and points out he doesn’t see her like an older sister at all. (If you take those chapters in isolation, it feels like a fauxcest story, lol)

but I’m actually here to talk about her family. Yuki makes such a good team “big sis” because she’s an older sister to five(!) siblings. There’s triplet brothers, a year younger than her, and then twin little sisters (maybe another year younger than that). She’s lived her entire life up until the story starts completely ignoring her own needs and feelings, because as the oldest sibling, she’s had to prioritize her younger siblings’ needs all the time. It’s sweet but sad.

You could already make the case that it’s a little suggestive who she ends up with: a boy who’s the same age as her younger brothers, and who she initially viewed as another bratty little brother type of guy. Plus, her LI Naruse also has an older sister of his own, and falls for the ultimate older sister type. It’s quite amusing.

But then, we see a flashback where one of Yuki’s brothers–Koushiro (who does notedly have a “sister complex”)–did the cute manga trope where, as a little kid, he declared his intention to marry Yuki when they grew up. Of course, he didn’t know what a wedding ring was (he was that small), so he heard “round thing” and brought her a bunch of pill bugs. Which is gross, but still endearing. (He did change his mind about marrying her a short time later, though.)

There’s an arc later in the manga–when Yuki and her boyfriend are already pretty serious–when Koushiro runs away from home over an incredibly dumb fight with one of his triplets and decides to stay with Yuki. He’s annoyed to find out her boyfriend already planned to stay over, and the two don’t get along very well right away. That’s partially because they’re pretty similar! Again, that’s suggestive.

And when Yuki tells her boyfriend the story about the pill bugs, his first question is “did you sleep together?” He clarifies he meant it in the innocent way, and she says it wasn’t weird that they did (in the innocent way) because they were siblings. Then Naruse is like, “I know I always tell you stuff like ‘don’t treat me like I’m a little brother,’ but now I’m jealous.” He wants Yuki to dote on him like she’d dote on her siblings! And she’s like, “Jealous? He’s my brother,” and Naruse points out that, even if that’s the case, Kou has still gotten to see sides of Yuki that Naruse hasn’t, due to them being siblings.

It’s just a really interesting dynamic: the MC dates a guy who’s the same age and a similar personality to her sibling, and that guy both has an older sister himself and also kinda wants to be treated like a romantic version of a younger sibling (whether he usually denies it or not).

And then, immediately after that conversation, Yuki's other two brothers–Shintarou and Kenjirou–come over to the house to find Koushiro, and another brotherly fight breaks out. Yuki apologizes to her boyfriend for all the sudden drama, and he suggests they just used it as an excuse to get some attention from their sister since it’s been a while, now that she’s moved to her own apartment for college.

(A small note, but Kou and Shin were the ones fighting before. Kenjirou just came along to mediate and was really enthusiastic to do it. He’s the most wholesome–read: happy-go-lucky–of the three, and it was really cute. I kinda ship the triplets with each other tbh. And the twin sisters, too.)

Anyway, the brothers ask Yuki if, now that she has a boyfriend, she’s suddenly eager to kick her brothers out. Ostensibly “out of her apartment that they came to without any notice,” but also maybe in a “have we been replaced?” sense. And they tease her for wanting to be alone with her boyfriend. As I mentioned, Yuki used to do everything her family wanted without ever being selfish, so they’re shocked when she basically snaps, “Is it so wrong if I did?” (And then it’s just super awkward, as it would be anytime you suddenly hear about a sibling and their partner Doing Stuff. But it’s very funny.)

The brothers talk about how much their sister has changed the past few years: she’s become more expressive and willing to stand up for what she wants. And they kind of resolve (in their own goofy way) to try and act less like brats. And then they eat dinner with Yuki and Naruse, and they really start buddying up with him. Before they leave, Koushiro even drops the suggestion that he’d be okay with it if Naruse proposed to Yuki one day. Because we need that brotherly permission, obvi.

But anyway, I need to reiterate that–even if Yuki’s boyfriend has had a character arc, grown up a little, and also pushed Yuki to think of her own wants more often–he’s still reminiscent of her little brothers in some ways, and especially with the way he acted early on in the manga. So the situation is still really funny to me.

omg, something just hit me. Yuki’s boyfriend—I referred to him by last name since that’s how he’s called in the manga but his first name is Shou. Which sounds so much like her brother’s nickname of Kou. The parallels are wild and don’t you think that has to be intentional?

–

Thanks for sharing with us about this manga! 

Koushiro and Yuki sound very cute, and the canon relationship does sound pretty suggestive of bro/sis vibes.

[music-oc-tournament]

ABOUT FUTURE TOURNAMENTS...

Hiii everyone! I wanted to make a quick update post just talking abt some relevant stuff. Firstly: I'm gonna take a bit of a break! This whole month I've been dealing with some really rough health problems + been busy with overnight petsitting for Multiple different people, so I've exhausted a lot of my energy, and running two big OC tournaments back to back was a tiny bit tiring as well.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN THIS BLOG IS OVER! I still plan on doing future oc tournaments! (+ the pink oc nepotism poll, which I'll hopefully be able to set up...Soon-ish.) I just want to take some time before I set up the next one since the whole process is pretty involved and requires me to do a lot of set up, not to mention keeping an eye on things like propaganda and such.

In the meantime, if you have any ideas for specific themes you want to see in the future, please send me your suggestions! I'd love to hear from y'all to see what kind of tournaments you'd like to see/participate in! Feel free to leave replies to this post or leave messages in my inbox! Truly, go ham!!!

Last of all, while this isn't totally relevant to this blog, I did advertise that I was planning a big among us themed mass attack for artfight, including a submission form that I set up and about 8 people entered into. To those 8 people: I'm afraid I won't be able to finish the attack this year. I sketched out a good chunk of it but all of my health issues, petsitting jobs, this tournament, and trying to focus on attacking my close friends on AF first meant that I burned out all of my energy and I don't have enough time or energy left to finish it. I'm sorry to anyone who was excited to see that :[ I want to try and do some small headshots for the people who submitted characters to that, but I won't promise anything since I don't want to risk letting people down again, as I'm currently struggling to do any art at this time.

TLDR: I'm taking a short break, if you have any themes you want to see/participate in for future tournaments let me know, and apologies to the people on artfight who I promised a mass attack for and could not get to.

Thank y'all for reading and for being amazing artists and writers! I'll see you again soon!

[chloeinletters]

Hello! I'm wondering if you'd be willing to answer a couple of my questions regarding writing. I've been feeling so stuck recently since I've had to drop out of school for financial reasons :( P.S. I admire you and your writing so much <3

Do you consider your main genre of writing to be creative non-fiction? We have similar writing styles, but I've been unable to classify what I've been putting on the page.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to start freelancing with no article writing or blog experience? What kind of projects should I be looking for and how should I create a portfolio with nothing to show?

Thank you!

I'm sorry you had to drop out. That environment is irreplaceable but I hope you know it's not impossible to grow as a writer without it! It's just different! and I mean that in a good way. Most of my growth happened outside of school. I know it doesn't make it all better, but I wanted you to know that I had an unconventional journey as well. I dropped out for a year for mental health reasons and it took me six years to complete my degree. So you're not alone! Anyway to answer you questions.

I consider it creative nonfiction yes. Everything I write unless specified or obvious speculation is stuff that has happened to me. My mind doesn't really work to create fiction truthfully! Every creative writing class we had to do it in I was like banging my head against a wall.

My advice would be to write a few articles or pieces for your own personal blog so you have a bit of a portfolio. when I was taking courses my teachers were saying list everything when you begin. Like it doesn't matter if its your own personal blog or whatever just list it. If they check the owner of the blog they check but then you at least have something on a resume that says hey I have XYZ experience. Do not hold back on your experience. I also had someone write out my resume with me after I graduated and we started by listing like every possible accolade I could think of. Do that for yourself too you'd be surprised what you've already accomplished even if it seems to you insignificant.

Go to Chill subs and make an account. This is like the best possible resource I wish I had it when I first began. Its a database of like genuine publications that arent just going to have your stuff sitting in their submission database for 3 years. it's user-submitted and suggested and runs on donations. But it's phenomenal if you want to begin following and finding literary mags, zines, or websites taking submissions. You can sort it by prestige of the publication if it's intimidating to submit somewhere "big" they have like up-and-coming to Paris review level. There are a lot of filters its just great. That is the one thing I would truly take away from this. USE CHILL SUBS!

What to look for is an interesting question. Look for the projects that excite you. Often literary pubs will give a theme. Notice which ones get the gears turning for you. If you were to write something right now what theme would entice you? Love? Friendship? growing up? What stories do you like to read the most and what do they all have in common? Lean into those things and write as much as you want about what you uncover. tell the same story three times three new and different ways. There are people who have made careers out of writing about friendship. You do not need to venture anywhere you don't desire to go. Personally, I love writing about love and mundanity. The everyday is so boring to some people but to me its beautiful and I write about it anyway. it took a few years for me to realize this and to feel good about doing what I wished, but it's worth it. Any anxiety that I have about writing the same thing over and over is remedied by the fact that stories set in the more we tell them. They get better and more poignant.

Best of luck to you. You can do this. You already have everything you need to do it.

[gramoturtle]

Completed my Monday ritual for submitting to wip blog about feedback. Woo. Topics include:

Tumblr Live toggle + broken Tumblr Live filtering in the Followers tab. I'm assuming the "not filtering" is intentional, but, it's a bug because those are not my Followers, so I'm doing my duty. I still don't want Tumblr Live, but at least it's less of a shock.

Status update on reblog chains. Shortly after they broke, staff said they were aware of it and were looking into solutions. I haven't been super actively looking for an update, but this is a pretty big for discovery and haven't seen it addressed in WIP for a while, so figured it was worth asking for an update (and hope they haven't scrapped it). If there is a push *somewhere* about increasing engagement, this feels like it was one of the main ways! I wanna follow the trail again. I found so many cool posts and blogs this way.

The login wall on the Archive. I dunno how long this has been around, but I noticed it recently-ish because I went through and tagged my art posts on my art blog with "#my art" so I could filter it out from reblogs in the archive. I had plans to share that archive filter with everyone, some of which don't have Tumblr, because I love how that Archive summaries my work. But if they plan to keep it locked then...honestly? Might have to start posting art somewhere else that has an archive like that. Tumblr's tagging system was really good though, but maybe there are alternatives that I'll like. I also said that if there are plans to lock down the whole site then Tumblr isn't going to be my focus point anymore. Something like that.

Didn't send an ask about the dashboard layout because as much as I dislike the feel of it, I understand the end result of communicating more information. I gave feedback before about how crammed it was and suggestions to have a "cozy" and "compact" versions. Maybe another week I'll submit it again.

[bellyquestions]

Obligatory Pinned

Contrary to the blog URL, this isn’t JUST about belly, it’s about any of the 3 B’s being big. Booba, Belly, or Butt. Mostly belly tho. How this blog works: Whenever a hypothetical pops into my head or somebody submits one I like, I will post a hypothetical. Thats it! You are free to reblog with or even draw your answer/reaction! Suggestion for responding: Your real genuine reaction is always much more interesting than a half response, just saying “I’d die” or “I’d smush you under my belly” or something isn’t very interesting. I wanna hear how different people would react to their dreams (or nightmares) coming true IRL! A few notes: 1. Everything is sized with the AVERAGE body in mind. You can either leave it at that scale or change it to match how big you are IRL. A beach ball belly would scale up or down if you are bigger or smaller than the average 2. Everything is made under the assumption that whatever it is wouldn’t kill you unless otherwise stated by the hypothetical. Unless explicitly stated or implied you wouldn’t pop unless you were actively trying. 3. Things are left to the imagination! If something clarifies the size you grow to but not what you fill with then you get to choose! If you really want, edit the hypothetical when answering! 4. The assumption is that everyone is an androgynous agender beanpole. Thicc thighs, a preggo belly, or a nice pair of booba aren’t gender locked. These are good questions to ask about any hypothetical posted here: 1. How would I react? 2. How would my family/friends react? 3. How would I hide it from said family/friends? 4. How am I feeling if this were to happen? Happy? Sad? Thrilled? 5. WOULD I hide it? Why or why not? 6. If I could change the situation, why and how? (ex: permanent belly becoming on demand belly) 7. How could I use this? 8. How does this affect my day to day life? How much impact would it have on me? 9. What if this happened to somebody I knew instead? How would they react? How would I? 10. Maybe this was intentional? Why did I do it? How did I do it? 11. Maybe this was accidental? What happened to cause it? 12. Maybe this was caused by something/someone other than me intentionally? What caused it? Was it malevolent or benevolent? How did it do it? 13. If it happened overnight or instantly, how would my reaction would differ from if it happened over time or vice versa? 14. How do I think this would feel? Painful? Nice? Strange? Maybe relief because it solved some body dysphoria? Or maybe grief because it’s causing dysphoria. 15. If this could actually happen to me IRL, would I want it to? 16. What other things might happen to me because of this? What is my reaction to that? 17. What are some alternative situations and how would I react to those? (Ex: would I react differently to being suddenly full of water rather than suddenly full of air) 18. What might be some lasting consequences I face for this? Additional: Reblogging spreads awareness of this blog, more people answering means more responses to read. Owner of this blog is Ace/Aro, I won’t give you flak for making a more... Charged response... But at the very least add a content warning man.

[linkablewritingadvice]

Where can I post or share my writing?

First, figure out why you want to post your writing.

Do you just want to put it somewhere, anywhere, on the internet where people could see it? 

Understand that it is rare for readers to look for books or short stories on random people’s blogs, reddit, or social media. It is unlikely that simply sharing your writing online will lead to much attention to it. You’ll need to do other work to drive traffic to your work and encourage people to read, comment, pay, or whatever else you want them to do.

But if you just need a place to host your work for whatever reason, there are tons of options for creating a blog or personal website where you can post your work - here’s an overview of some of the top platforms. 

Some people like to make a personal subreddit to post their work. I don’t recommend this because reddit is not meant to be a static content hosting site, but if that’s what you want to do, go nuts.

Some people suggest using Archive of Our Own to post original works. This is a violation of their TOS. While a lot of people do post non-fandom writing to that website, I absolutely don’t recommend using that website in ways that its creators have explicitly said that it is not for. 

Do you want to monetize your writing and post it somewhere where people can pay for it?

Understand that it is very difficult to monetize (make money on) writing just by posting it online. But there are websites that let you do that, if you can consistently share quality content that readers want, and do the marketing work to attract paying readers.

Some platforms you can use to try this include Substack, Patreon, or Wattpad.

Always be careful to read the terms or contract of any website you upload your writing to. Some platforms that make big promises about helping you profit off your writing can get you stuck in predatory or scammy situations.

See more about making money on fiction writing here.

Do you want constructive feedback from other writers to help you improve your work?

Simply posting your work anywhere you can find, including various writing forums, will not guarantee you quality - or any - constructive feedback. You’ll need to find a community explicitly for this sort of thing, and you’ll need to make sure you are following that community’s rules.

Always polish your work as best you can and make sure it’s the absolute best you can make it before posting for feedback - that ensures that you get more useful feedback and are not wasting people’s time. 

Remember that spending the time to read someone else’s writing and give them helpful feedback, for free, is not something anyone else is obligated to do, and if they do it, it’s a huge favor! Be respectful of communities you’re posting in and follow all their rules. Give critiques in addition to asking for them. 

Places to share writing for constructive feedback:

Scribophile

Destructive Readers

Writing.com

Critique Circle

However, just posting your work to a general critique forum may not get you quality, in depth, helpful feedback from someone who understands your genre. You’ll be better off cultivating one or two close collaborators and friends who are interested in and excited about your work and can help you out with it. If you do happen to find someone on one of those critique sites who seems to get what you’re doing and what you’re trying to do, consider reaching out to them personally to see if they want to be friends and critique partners.

Here’s my post about how to find “beta readers” or critique partners. 

Do you want help attracting readers with a focus on prestige, attention, and portfolio building?

Instead of posting your work on any website or platform that just lets anyone upload their writing, you can submit your work for publication to an online magazine. This means anyone who reads or subscribes to that magazine can find your work, and you get a “publication credit.”

(This really only applies to short work like short stories, poems, or essays - for information about publishing a novel, see here.)

You’ll want to find a magazine or publication that takes writing in the same style, length, and topic that you’re trying to publish. Their website will have instructions for how to submit to them for consideration.

Advice on submitting to lit mags and other magazines:

How To Submit To Literary Journals

Submitting To Literary Magazines

How To Submit To A Magazine

Platforms to search for a place to submit:

Duotrope

Poets & Writers

Submission Grinder

Driftwood

[lilac-set]

I submitted a poll to a poll blog asking if people are rad inclus, curious how prevalent it is but i was planning on having my little ramble in the tags, but then the mod messaged me asking for a definition and getting to talk about it a little bit made me want to talk about it more, so here i am :3 this’ll be a discoursy one about (in favor of) radqueerness, and im also not willing to debate it, tw for discussion of transphobic talking points, feel free not to read if you dont want to but dni about the topic if you disagree

We’re rad inclus, thats common knowledge, but what bugs me is the definition talking about “good faith identities” and “bad faith identities”, i dont believe bad faith identities exist, im not really sure what it means. Someone suggested a bad faith identity could be like the transphobic attack helicopter meme, but thats not an identity, thats a joke. I dont support jokes at the expense of earnest identities, but in real life its not so easy to necessarily say “oh that isnt a genuine identity, thats just a joke, theyre doing it to mock us”, you cant know other people’s intentions for sure without asking them, and then what bugs me is that even if they do ask and they say no, this is genuine, they’ll still write it off as a joke and insist its harmful

I dont believe an identity can be harmful, theres no potential for someone’s self-concept to hurt someone else. The only argument that it can is “but it offends/disgusts/invalidates me!” Cool, those are your own feelings, not that person’s problem. Everyone has a right to live in whatever way feels the most fulfilling to them personally, even if no one else understands it, one person’s right to autonomy doesnt end until someone else’s starts. Someone identifying and living any particular way doesnt stop you from identifying and living any way you want to, if you dont want to be part of their life then politely excuse yourself, you have to no right to make them change for your comfort. “You cant transition into oppression” same thing. You cant harass someone into changing their identity. No matter how unfavorable the circumstances are for someone because of their identity, no matter how unfavorable you make them, you can only make someone miserable, you cant change them. Or even if you could, if someone’s identity is more malleable, you have no right to tell someone how to live, they arent materially harming you, “but it hurts my feelings!” Youre hurting their feelings, shut up, live your life and leave them alone. I primarily have transx in mind as im writing this, but it applies to everything

As for paras, cuz thats the other big point of contention i think, someone’s thoughts cant hurt you. What they do privately with other consenting adults or alone themselves as a consenting adult literally doesnt affect you in any way. I dont support harmful contact, we all know there are certain groups of people who cant meaningfully consent, but i dont think thats what the debate is on, this is about thoughtcrime. Transx is about thoughtcrime too. Thoughtcrime isnt real. No exceptions

I thought i was done but im not, i wanna talk about belief as well. We’re anti-science, we dont believe “science” does, will, can, or should have empirical evidence about all aspects of the experience of life, or that it should be the final arbiter (or any sort of factor at all) in determining if someone is valid. People are not attacking your beliefs by not conforming to them. You can believe whatever you want, and i can believe whatever i want, we dont have to threaten each other’s autonomy of belief by trying to convert each other. Can we discuss it and work together to find a right answer as long as both parties consent? Yeah, sure. But you dont need to try to change someone’s beliefs if they dont want to. You think their belief is a conspiracy theory? Cool, that doesnt affect you in any way, leave them alone about it. You think theyre going to hell? Doesnt affect you, leave them alone. Its a delusion? Guess what, leave them alone about it. Its ok if you value truth or science or religion above all else in your own life, but people have a right not to prioritize those things for themselves in theirs, and you dont have a right to try to make them conform

“But theyre spreading misinformation” You do not have the authority to enforce that whatever you believe is correct information and whatever anyone else believes thats contrary to that is misinformation. No one has that authority, no one should have that authority, people need to and have a right to curate their beliefs for themselves, not be expected to trust the government or anyone else and blindly accept whatever propaganda they might hear from a source they were told to trust

[girlbowser]

yo fyi the tumblr overlay stuff is overwriting the search box and search button. Anyway today's dual is Dragon of Storm (BardThief of BreathHope) and I'd love to hear any examples you can think of that specific classpect in media

on point 1: so i fixed that, and then out of curiosity i went and checked my feedback form - turns out there were eight unread responses, ope. and turns out there was a massive bug and subtraction just. didnt work right.

so i fixed those, and then i added a fixed navbar, and that caused all SORTS of issues but it looked better so blargh but anyway. The Website Has Been Updated (which is also, the tumblr! i dont know how tumblr works but if you go to the full page the changes are there too). Now the site has like, a better navbar??? this took way too long to be worth it lmfao

Also most of the replies to the form was about Homesturdle. One day I will get back to the Homesturdle^2 update that I had planned, but that day is, "i don't want to learn typescript" days away lol

anyway

ON DUALS (alicorn theory primer)

Dual Classpects are a couple of things. They're a system to give funky names to sprite-fused Homestuck characters, they're a way to make cool sounding titles, but it's also mostly today's XKCD.

In the case of today (April 23, 2022), we're gonna be playing around with Dragon of Storm.

DRAGON OF STORM

(yeah i know the website is a lil janky rn. if anyone has suggestions for a logo n stuff hmu)

Anyway. Dragon of Storm. The search page says that a Dragon of Storm is made out of ThiefBard of BreathHope, so to get a Dragon of Storm you could do a few things.

Number one is that you grab a Bard of Breath and a Thief of Hope, and sprite-fuse them together. This is the original way Dual Classpecting worked, and I think it's fairly understandable. Bam, two people, now one person. New classpect.

The other way to do it is through Alicorn Theory, which is not for this post in terms of an in-depth explanation, but I'll do a brief rundown here. Basically, what if alicornhood is achieved through doing character growth Really Really Good, like, triumphing over your classpect + a bonus one.

For the purpose of this post, we'll be looking at making an alicorn out of a Thief of Hope -- Peter Quill, from GOTG2.

Peter's whole thing is that he's been actively taken from places, but that gives him new opportunities, new hopes. There's more to this classpecting, but I'll save it for a larger post on the Hope aspect (most of what I'd say in it can be viewed here). For now, let's take it as granted and move on.

(Special thanks to @nihilistic-janitor for being the driver of like 70% of this blog's meta and for being just generally fucking awesome. This would not exist without them.)

To become fully realized as a Dragon of Storm, he needs to overcome the challenges of both his inverse classpect (Page of Rage) AND the bonus secondary one (the inverse of Bard of Breath, Maid of Blood). This actually fits GOTG vol2 kinda perfectly.

Peter's big new struggle in this film kinda IS that of a Maid of Blood. He just found out about a new, like, literal biological part of him, but it's also a new familial relationship that drives the film's conflict. He has to overcome this, become a Bard of Breath (one who passively destroys thru and is passively destroyed by freedom/youth/innocence/travel), leave Ego behind, and be with his team.

He also achieves Page of Rage in this film - like, the giant pacman is. i mean. like. come on.

right???? gamers????????

anyway

By the end of the film, once he's finally at his like, Character Growth Achieved moment, that's a Dragon of Storm, I tell ye. I declare it.

but, yeah! that's basically it for that ask. this post deleted itself halfway thru typing it and i had to redo it, so, like, lol

if anyone else has asks they wanna submit, always feel free! and thank you to all the new followers :D im pleased as hell to see people like the work i put in, and i wanna make it better!

[medicinanocturna]

Hi, I very much enjoyed your post on Pluto in synastry, and I have a question for you. I have an 8° Virgo Moon in the 7th house, which natally squares my Pluto by 4°. As you know, this means that my Moon also more or less squares the Pluto of anyone in my generation. What does this say about me and my relations to others? My Moon is ruled by (and trine) Mercury in 8° Scorpio in the 8th house and isn’t too afflicted, I’d say.

On a side note, there is a person in my life whose Moon exactly conjuncts mine and therefore also has a natal Moon square Pluto. So this is a double whammy not only natally but in synastry as well. I feel like he sees my soul and vice versa and I have truly never experienced someone so purely, like I can be my rawest self without judgment, so your writing truly resonated (I’ll probably deep dive into your blog after submitting this)

Hi, thank you for appreciating the article on the synastric Pluto! First, answering your question, it is worth mentioning that our relations with our peers are always karmic and it is not unusual that these relationships are difficult to work on. You probably have noticed that many of your peers are inclined to provoke similar experiences in you but with different intensity depending on the other aspects. Usually we can feel when someone is approximately of our biological age even though people can look very different. The big planets (the collective karma planets) are one reason for that. However (!) and this is VERY important... as I always highlight in my posts everything depends on the inner level of your personality. If you read my article about the Ascendant, you will know what I am talking about. The natal chart is a MAP, but it is NOT the territory itself. Even the twin sisters will have different levels of manifestation of many planets in their charts (especially the trans-Saturnian / generational planets)... Because they (likewise you and your peers) have different karmic debts, different incarnation missions, different soul gifts. As I mentioned in my article about the Pluto transits, its square aspect around the age of 38- 42 will clearly reveal the level of one's inner work in the sphere of Pluto, but it will be very different for all people that have this square at the same time. Pluto's main purpose it to keep us in line with our higher mission through transformations and cutting off what's not authentic to it. And as you can imagine, this level of work (and self- awareness!) is very different for everybody.

I too have my Moon sq my Pluto (not very close degree though) and besides the fact that it makes my Moon a bit Scorpionish (likewise yours), I also receive this aspect from all my peers. But not with all of those with whom I had some meaningful connections (either friendships or love affairs) I could feel the Plutonian work happening. And this, of course, depends on the whole chart and the role Pluto is playing there. With those who did have a sound position of Pluto in their chart, I could definitly feel all the "gifts" of passion, jealousy and power struggle. But I was young back then and I am not "aligned" with peer souls any longer (which also often happens when you are done with some of your karmic debts). People I share meaningful encounters with are either elder or younger (sometimes much younger) than I am right now. And Plutonian aspects from people whose Pluto is in the different sign feel stronger. Also, remember that Pluto is slow and deep. It is subtle, even though heavy. It takes time sometimes to register its actual effect.

So the same would go to you and your significant other who is intimately touching your Moon and both of you receive the Pluto's kiss ;) But I would suggest that you feel the Moon conjunction much much stronger. It is a good one! And since both of you have a similar character of this planet (same sign same aspect from Pluto) when together you don't feel it as much, because you both have it in yourself! OR as you said you feel each other very well because it feels like your own skin. (Unless you both are extremely different in terms of your inner level, i.e. different ages of your souls). It is like the fish doesn't know that she is in the water... but she would know what the other fishes feel.

I hope that answers some of your thoughts. And thank you for your note!

[looneysguidetolife]

apartment stuff from howtogrowthefuckup

not all of it, but stuff i find particularly useful/want to remember. RIP this blog. the gimmick wears off after a while but it was genuinely useful information.

BUDGETING

suggested monthly budget for groceries for a two-person household is $553. estimated weekly budget is around $100. 

find a pad of paper and a pen and keep it with you for the next 24 hours. Write down every single fucking thing you use or even touch in your house. Tomorrow I want you to look at that list and figure out the cost of everything.

keep track of how much you spend on gas monthly.

add in your estimated utilities. You can fucking google that on your own, because it’s going to be different for wherever you want to live. Absolutely do this if you plan on moving to a different town or state.

divide your total monthly income by three. Hey, look at that, it’s my good friend Math again. Funny how he keeps showing up. Make sure the number of your expenses is less than the other 2/3rds, if it is, you can continue.

FINDING APARTMENTS

apartments.com

Focus on your top 10. Then your top 5. Then your top 3. Don’t go any farther than that (and don’t get rid of the research for the other 7 just yet). Create crazy complicated rating systems. Make an excel sheet or start putting stuff on your wall and connecting them with strings. Go full-on serial killer. Dedicate yourself.

You should also make note of how big the room is so you know if you can even fit what little you own. The same goes for the hallways or stairs or whatever exists outside the apartment on the way from your car. Could you get your mattress through all that shit?

PACKING

Figure out what you want to donate and what you want to put in the trash before you start packing.

Do not go grocery shopping right before moving... Just wait til you’re in the new place to make that trip.

Change your address. Like a week before you move. While you’re doing this, make a list of everywhere you’ve entered your address and need to change. Keep that list. Your future self will thank you someday.

Start in one room and pack all that before moving to a different part of the house. This is a good way to keep all your stuff together and it’s also a good way to find out that you own five decks of cards or one too many furbys.

Put everything into piles: keep, donate, and ditch.

Label the boxes with what room they belong to so you know exactly where it needs to go. Some people like to also mark this with a color coded sticker. 

Also label what’s in the boxes. For example: Kitchen - silverware; cooking utensils; hot pads; magnet collection. You don���t need to label every item individually, but have some idea of what’s in there. Label it on more than one side. Don’t label it on the top, because you’ll just end up stacking boxes on top of each other.

Distribute the weight of your stuff. Mix heavy books with stuffed animals.

Alternately, pack by weight. Heavy stuff goes in small boxes, light stuff goes in big boxes. Basically what I’m saying is don’t pack a massive box with too much weight that it’s too heavy to carry or will break the box.

Use all of your suitcases and bags for packing!

For toiletries - take off the top, place plastic wrap over the opening, replace the top. This way you don’t end up with lotion all over your towels or something.

Know what you’ll need immediately and make sure those boxes are the last thing on the truck, first thing unloaded at the new place. Maybe keep those things in a clear container so you can see exactly what’s in there. Hint: three of the things you’ll need immediately are your toolbox, cleaning supplies, and toilet paper.

note to self: get toolbox and first aid kit.

Take pictures of the new apartment. Before anything goes in it. This way if there are any scratches on the wall or stains on the carpet, the new landlord can’t say it happened during the move.

ASKING QUESTIONS

Apartments.com and My First Apartment both have lists of questions to ask.

questions directly from the blog:

Is the apartment available and is it still listed at the same price or are they trying to swindle you/are they completely incompetent at updating their listings?

Will it be ready when you need it? It’s gonna totally suck if you find the right place and find out it’s not available when you’re ready to move

Are there appliances? Are they included? Do they even work? 

How old is the apartment? This is important to ask because it will tell you how much trouble you’re going to have. Like, if it’s Civil War era, you might have issues with foundation cracks or old wiring or ghosts of soldiers waking you up in the middle of the night.

Have there been any issues with insects, rodents, mold, or mildew? You have to ask this. No good self-respecting property manager would tell you this of their own free will.

What kind of security is there? Did you have to go through a gate when you came in? Do you need a key to get into your building before you get into your door? Or does your door face out cheap motel style? Are there electronic pass codes? Is there any kind of security force on site?

If you ever find someone willing to hang out with you, is there a special place they need to park? Do you need to let the office know if they plan on staying the night?

Where do you park? Is parking included? Is in indoor or outdoor?

Do you need a city sticker to park on the street? [Note: I asked this when I moved to Missouri and everyone thought I was batshit crazy. This is normal in places like Chicago, not so normal elsewhere. See if you can determine that before you ask a crazy question.]

Can you paint the walls? Can you put holes in the walls? Can you do whatever it is you do to walls, so long as they look the same when you move out?

What exactly is the maintenance policy, beyond walls? What is covered, what’s not? And who do you contact when there’s an issue? Is there a maintenance person on staff, or do they call out to someone in the area? Do they have a 24-hour emergency maintenance line

Is there heat and air conditioning? What kind? If it’s a window unit, will it be included in the apartment? Are the costs of heating and cooling included

Do you have control over the temperature or is it a building thing?Are any utilities included?

Who are the cable and internet providers in the area? What are their rates? Does the apartment complex have an exclusive contract with one of the companies?

What kind of people live here? Do they have children? Are they all ancient? Do they have, as I suspect my last neighbors did, a bowling alley in their apartment?

Just how much are you going to hear from your neighbors? On a scale of Ernest Hemingway to Les Mis, how thick are the walls?

When is rent due and how do they want it? Are checks required? Can you pay with a credit card? Do they want it all in cash? Also, how is rent submitted? Can you pay electronically or do you drop it in a mailbox?

Do you need renter’s insurance? About how much does it cost? Are there any weird things that need to be included that might not be everywhere? Like, are earthquakes an issue?

What is the process for applying to the apartment, should you choose to rent it? Are there credit checks?

What’s the pet policy? Is there pet rent?

Are there quiet hours or other weird rules about volume or people or places or things?

Are there public areas like pools or parks or gyms? What are the rules regarding those?

If you have a roommate, will both of your names be on the lease, or will one person be designated as the responsible party (you better pray it isn’t you)?

What about trash? Is there pick up or dumpsters? Recycling?

Is there a storage unit included? Where is it? What kind of security does it have?

What happens with deliveries? Do they all go through the front office or are they left on your doorstep? Are you able to pick stuff up at any time? Do you need certain ID for it?

Is there a dishwasher? Is it louder than the bowling alley next door?

If you’re in an area that gets snow, do they plow or shovel? Will they totally bury your car if you don’t move it when the plow comes by?Is there public transportation anywhere?

not questions, but things to pay attention to:

Where are the outlets? Take note of prongs.

Are there permanent light sources or do you need to go to Ikea?

How big are the rooms? What shape are they? Are you going to be able to fit all your shit in here? [Note: you should already have a floor plan online, but ask for a paper copy if they have one.]

Do the people in the office seem at all competent? Are they going to make your life a living hell?

Can you get your stuff up/down the stairs or through the doors when you move in?

Are the appliances/apartment gas or electric?

Bathtub or shower?

Can you open the oven and fridge and still walk through the room? Will opening any doors block off other areas or hit something else?

Can you get a cell signal in the apartment? Seriously.

EDIT: waybackmachine links:

1 • 2 • 3 • 4

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with bugs

bugs has 40 stories at Gossamer. They mostly focus on Mulder and Scully, but there are also some goodies featuring Reyes and Doggett. I’ve recced some of my favorites of her fics here before, including The Link. She also co-ran WhyIncision, a fun, smart X-Files mailing list that dissected fics like a book club. Big thanks to bugs for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Not really. While I was still in high school, I started watching the then 20 year old OG Star Trek and became a Trekkie of a sort. Starlog magazine, James Blish novels and the other novelizations, and while I was working as a library page, I found fanfiction one day among the periodicals.  Who knows how fanfiction ended up as part of a library's materials, but there it was, this tattered mimeographed collection. The fic that had the most impact on me was one where Nurse Chapel wrestled a giant alien snake to save Spock's life.

So when I got into XF, one of the first things I did was look for fanfic, knowing somewhere out there, Scully was wrestling a big snake for Mulder.

That experience showed me the power of fandom, that even without the internet, how the second generation of Trekkies joined the original group to advocate for the franchise to be revived. I remember sitting in the theater for that first awful Star Trek movie, choked up with what we'd done.

Tragic backstory way to say, no I'm not surprised that a well-produced show like XF would beget future generations of fans, and that they'd be chewing their way through the fanfic archives still being maintained.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

I'm so grateful to the fandom. Literally formed the life I have today through the confidence it gave me. Many of my friends to this day are 'pocket friends' from the various fandoms I've been in, and the longest friendships were formed in XF. I learned how to write, both technically and finding my voice. I learned how to think analytically, more than any college courses.

The two most important things I took away were, write for yourself first and always, and shit ain't that damn important. In the end, it's a TV show.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

YIKES.  I came in at the Fight the Future summer hiatus, so the waning days of ATXC, then we moved to mailing lists, right?  Yahoo Groups was in there somewhere. Finally message boards. Live Journal rose up at the end of the run which began to fragment the fandom even before the show ended, along with the migration off our individual websites to Archive of Our Own, fanfiction.net and such. We went from group discussion platforms to 'come look at my blog for my thoughts'. It was different and I didn't particularly like it, but in the end, when I came back to fandom for a new show....I had to get a Live Journal. That's the most interesting part of fandom, that a platform doesn't mold a fandom; we use the platform and when it's no longer useful to us, we abandon it en mass.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

I've touched on that a bit, but to elaborate, I'm glad I started in the XF fandom. It had such high standards and I hope that I maintain those standards for myself to this day. These days, I don't usually have a beta reader, but that took a couple hundred posted fics to get to that point.

Having seen the same exact flamewars and divides and squabbles over and over, seen how the taste of 'fame' can drive someone to be rather unpleasant, has given me a much more 'whatever' attitude. It's sort of comforting when joining a new fandom to know what's going to happen next in its natural progression.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

There's a meme "I have a type," and XF definitely had that type, but it just took me a while to get there. I was away at college then working on the road when the show started, and wasn't home on Friday nights most of the year. My mother has always been a big sci-fi fan, so she actually was watching before me. I don't like scary things, and would leave the room if it was on when I'd visit her. I was home for Christmas when Christmas Carol/Emily aired and I remember standing tentatively just inside the room so I could flee if necessary, and watched Scully go through the wringer, and ranting, "What the hell is this? Why are they putting that poor woman through this!?" I also saw how the show was doing the big ship tease, and I was like, uh, I don't have time for this. Even by my 20's, I'd been done wrong by so many shows that I'd become bitter. But the first film trailers suggested they were actually going from UST to RST, so I figured I could give 2 hours of my time for that.  And yeah...but I was hooked, and WENT TO BLOCKBUSTER AND RENTED THE VHS TAPES TO CATCH UP....this interview is making me feel very old.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I've always been a shipper and have no shame in that, as I think forming and maintaining a relationship is the most conflict-ridden enterprise humans can attempt, and thus is the most challenging thing to write about. Like many fanfic writers, I'd 'told stories in my head' ever since I can remember about the characters from books, shows and movies. It was just a matter of then writing it down for the first time.

After I was sucked into the show and it was still the summer hiatus, I got on my first computer, dialed up that screeching modem, and went on Netscape to search for that fanfic I knew had to be out there from my Trek experience a decade ago. Like many people, after inhaling much of the delicious fics out there, I decided I can do that. I'm someone who's very methodical on my approach to something new, so I studied what worked/what didn't, the expected formatting, got a sense of the culture I was entering, acquired a critical beta reader, so when I actually submitted the first chapter to AXTC, I was calm and confident.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

I watch from the sidelines, with a vague little smile on my lips.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

Yes, I have. Battlestar Galactica had a lot of Philes, but it was still a big step away from the very organized fandom in X-Files. Plus, with so many characters, there could be lots of little groups focused on their favorites. Same in the Downton Abbey fandom. Just a different dynamic.

On the other end of the spectrum, one of my most popular fics is in the Silence of the Lambs fandom which I've never been involved with any other fans or their fandom, if it exists. It just sits out there on fanfiction.net and chugs along with the reads. My current fandom is The Doctor Blake Mysteries which is tiny but mighty--the saying is, we're six people and a shoelace. It's shown me that it's not the size, not the 'fame' possible, but the passion that makes a fandom.

Sadly, at least at this time, I don't think there will ever be an experience like The X-Files heyday. It was such a golden moment of the rise of internet and home computer use by the general public, a large generation of educated women having the time to participate in fandom, and there wasn't the amount of 'noise' that is distracting us all now. I'm so glad that you're doing this exercise to record our thoughts. We've already lost so many of the OG folks. My first beta, Janet Caires-Lesgold; Trixie, way too young; Shari, also too young; Brandon D Ray, leaving his family too soon; and many more.

(Posted by Lilydale on March 9, 2021)