#i'm kinda trying to get over my strictness of how i manage this blog

[pekoeboo]

feeling Emotional tonight and i ended up crying ugly tears thinking about Khalan again. it's always the songs from my character playlist that get me good, man 😭

[lethesomething]

Yakuza and coping mechanisms

Yakuza has been my on and off hyperfocus for years now but also in particular the past month, so let's talk about it. And particularly, how many friggin coping mechanisms are in this game.

Disclaimer: I do literary analysis, not psycho analysis, don't come for me.

For all its silliness about fighting roomba's and disco minigames, the world that the Yakuza games is set in, is fucking brutal. They are, at their very core, crime drama's. People get murdered a lot, lives are ruined in various ways, a good third of protags spend large amounts of time in jail, usually for a crime they didn't commit. Most politicians and police are corrupt, racism is blatant and if you don't have a place in the very strict hierarchy of society, it's hard to get back on your feet (hence all the crime). I tend to read a lot of indictments of Japanese society in these games, partly because they are so clearly based on old school yakuza crime drama's.

This means that the characters go through some shit. And what's fascinating, is how they deal with this.

Spoiler warning for, uhh, almost all yakuza games except Song Of Life (since i never played that)

Pretending it's not real

Kasuga Ichiban

The direct reason I'm even making this blog post because he's the most blatant about it. Kasuga is Peak Himbo in that he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he manages to take being beaten down Repeatedly and overcomes that with a sense of genuine good nature and optimism that is… honestly kind of hard to believe. The way he deals with any of this, is that he's a nerd who pretends to be in a video game. It's the whole premise of Yakuza Like a Dragon.

And to be fair, Kasuga suffers from an amount of mistreatment that makes me Very Angry in his stead. He has every right to be upset! He is literally homeless in the beginning of the game. If he requires the escapism of going around pretending to be in a jrpg to survive, more power to him. Especially since it works. Dude goes around helping people and making friends. Which is a good thing, because there's no way he'd make it out of Yokohama alive if he didn't have some back-up.

Side note: something similar happens to at the very least Majima, i think, in the admittedly non-canonical events of Yakuza Dead Souls. (yes i played it solely for Majima, no i do not recommend it, the game is garbage and you get more Majima in Zero anyway). In Dead Souls, Kamurocho is overrun by zombies. As a lover of all things Horror, Majima decides he may as well have a good time mowing them down like he's in an FPS while he trudges through the wreckage of society.

Self sacrifice

Mostly Kazuma Kiryu and  Saejima Taiga

If you hate yourself, at least try to be of use to someone. Let's be honest, a lot of the plot of Yakuza games is driven by self sacrifice or at least following some code of honor to its ludicrous ends.

Kiryu is the main example here. The game kinda glosses over this a lot, but he is, at least in Zero, a criminal. He goes around extorting money from businesses. He consistently solves problems through violence. It's kinda the point of the games. But he's also borderline a saint and 80% of the shit he gets into is because of his need to throw himself to the wolves for any person he cares about. He voluntarily does hard time for Nishikiyama, for one. He picks up a stray kid that he will now protect with his life. And it just goes on from there. See, Kiryu may be the famous Dragon of Dojima and the Fifth Chairman of the Tojo Clan and all that, but he would very much prefer not to be? Dude wants to live a quiet life and raise some kids, it's just that he's the protag of a game series about how hard it is to say goodbye to the yakuza life. So the plot keeps finding ways to bring him back, usually as a reluctant warrior to save the Tojo clan or Haruka  or whatever. If he was a little less honorable, he could still be chilling as a taxi driver with an unreasonably hot girlfriend, I'm just saying.

Saejima is very similar, but somehow even worse? Much as I love the guy, he's an idiot. He suffers from the same loyalty and selflessness as Kiryu, but he doesn't even get a cute daughter out of it. He spends Twenty Five years in prison for a crime he (we later find out) didn't commit. He escapes months before his parole to solve the convoluted plot of Y4. Then Goes Back to Jail to atone for (again) a crime he only thought he'd committed, only to escape (again) when he thinks Majima, his sworn brother, got murdered in Y5. As far as i can tell he goes back to jail one last time to finish his actual sentence, and to like, protect the name of the Tojo clan or some shit. My dude. My friend. Come on.

As a side note, acts of selflessness are kind of a big deal in the Yakuza games and one of the main ways to tell if someone is a good criminal or a villain. Kasuga and his crew are pretty big on the whole 'acts of selfless kindness' thing. It also seems to be one of the traits of Daigo Dojima, whose whole being screams 'I don't want to be here but who else is gonna fucking do it'. But in the case of Kiryu and Saejima it's very much verging on reckless self-endangerment.

Fabricated identities

Majima Goro, baby!

The Yakuza games really love this one, but I'll start with the big guy, everyone's favourite character: Majima. This dude has seen some shit. We see him throughout several flashbacks and the span of the games, but most tellingly we see him in Zero, at his rock bottom hero stage. And he's intriguingly unlike the other times he shows up. This is a Majima that's recovering from torture and backstabbing, and forced to do some dude's bidding for scraps. He's a chained dog (pun very much intended) and he's about to lose it.

What's fun about Majima is that he has So Many of the traits in this list. He has a lot of the reckless endangerment and self sacrifice that his buddies Kiryu and Saejima have. He gave himself up a few times for Haruka, he keeps trundling back to save Tojo and Dojima, but there's also a whole other layer of … Flamboyance to him.

And while Majima probably started out as comic relief, the games make clear that it's not all he is, and we get several glimpses of 'old Majima' throughout the series. He'll be in the middle of a self inflicted fight and drop some wisdom, for instance. He acts erratically, he is blunt, violent, exuberant in his dressing up. When given a task his first thought seems to be 'how can i make this Extra', but that doesn't mean the guy is unstable. You don't become a successful businessman with a building company, or a patriarch of your own family, without being smart and strategic. A lot of classic Majima behaviour, i feel, is a case of a mask he constructed to hide the severe depression, that became more of a second nature to him. Majima is one of the clearest examples of 'do what you need to do'. He's a survivor, through and through. Somewhere in there is a decent human being, but Majima will kill people to survive in a harsh world. It just seems like he constructed an extra layer to shield himself from all that.

Joon-gi Han (Like a Dragon): This is more a case of stolen (inherited??) identity, but again, if you don't want to be you, just be someone else. In this case someone he admires. Again: super tragic backstory, questionable life choices. As an aside, Joon-gi is fun because he is both a deadly assassin with someone else's name and face, but also  a Knight stereotype who would do everything for his queen and I think that's neat.

Zhao Tianyou (Like a Dragon): Somewhat more subtle, but Zhao is also a dude that was at one point confronted with a Situation, namely 'oh shit my dad died and now I'm in charge of a violent gang'. And to deal with that he decided to construct a persona that gives exactly zero fucks. He is very joking and very avoidant but we do learn that a fair amount of his laid back attitude is just veneer. Dude in fact gives several fucks. You don't decide to give up the throne and become a homeless sidekick to Himbo Supreme because you don't care. You do it to stop him from getting ultra-murdered by the parade of heavily armored gangsters he keeps storming into.

Akiyama Shun (Yakuza 4-5): I debated putting him here, because part of me believes Akiyama is just kind of a dick. A dick I love as a character, but still, ya know. At least some of the dickish persona is a front, though. Akiyama is another one that just saw his life's work destroyed at some point, and decided that emotional detachment was the way to go. Akiyama is different because he was never actually a proper criminal. He was homeless for a bit, and then came into some money (through Extremely Convoluted Plot Means) and now he's a moneylender. And like Zhao, he mostly pretends to be completely devoid of feelings, while having a fair amount of feelings. Enough to get into like… fist fights. With actual gangsters. Who have guns.

Vice

Sex, drugs and everything in between

The preferred way for noir drama's to show someone is Going Through It, is by giving them a classic addiction and Yakuza isn't any different. It's why several characters are shown mournfully smoking, in particular Kiryu and Majima. Yes I know it's because it looks cool and harks back to old crime movie atmosphere. That doesn't make it a healthy coping mechanism.

Another obvious one, considering the setting of the games in several red lights districts, is erotica. Both Adachi, the ex-cop from Like a Dragon and Shinada, the ex-baseball player from Y5 and also my least fave protag ever, are both in various stages of obsession about porn, sex work and the likes.

Tanimura, the cop from Y4 has a pretty severe gambling problem in the actual canon, though gambling games and casino's are a general mainstay of the Yakuza series. It's just that when Kiryu interrupts his busy day of solving the convoluted intrigue du jour to gamble in an illegal underground casino, it's not a character flaw.

Also: almost everyone drinks ludicrous amounts of heavy alcohol in these games. Both in canon and as part of the gameplay. 100% ing the games usually involves drinking tons of whiskey, but the whole Ichiban crew, sans I think Eri, is shown drowning their troubles at various times.

Violence: I mean, that's kind of the game, but an unhealthy amount of characters consider fist fights to be a good way to resolve conflict, bond with people and generally reinvigorate themselves. Particularly Majima is shown to get a real kick out of doing damage and being beaten up. There's just a lot of reckless behaviour, which is what makes the games good.

Karaoke: fake it till you make it, man.

Extra note:

You'll notice there's no women on this list, and that's because honestly the game is kinda sexist. So while there's already Very Few women in the game, the ones that are present don't exactly have super complex characters.

Mukoda Saeko, the hostess from Like a Dragon, drinks like a fish but that's about her main flaw.

Other notable female characters are Kiryu's kid Haruka, Kiryu's love interest Sawamura Yumi (Kiwami) and Kamataki Eri, the business lady from Like a Dragon. They're all stereotypical Good Girls who have no flaws apart from indecisiveness and an unhealthy tendency for selflessness.

Saejima Yasuko is ever so slightly more complex: her main trait is self sacrifice. The story promptly fridges her for it.

[echoeternally]

Hey, this might sound kinda dumb, but I've been wanting to start writing some fanfiction of my own but I'm not really sure how to start or even good places to post it. Would you have any advice or words of wisdom?

Hey, to start, this isn’t dumb at all!

Writing fanfics is a lot more nerve-racking for your first time, especially if you don’t know what to expect or how your work holds up. So, let me help you as best as I can!

The short version is what I can post here:

Starting:

Make sure that you like writing and want to hone your writing skills.

Choose a fandom franchise that interests you! It’s gotta be fun if you want to work on it and research it.

Find a separate writing program to work in without Wi-Fi so you can write whenever you’re able.

It may make you nervous, but it’s fun too, and allows you to let your imagination flow!

Where to Post:

The better starter website is likely fanfiction.net (FFN), which has a wider selection of users. This is where you can develop and grow, as well as a good spot for garnering feedback!

Your alternative fanfic website would be archiveofourown.org (AO3), which has a more in-depth system to navigate, and is more exclusive to work with. However, you can refine your craft well here too!

Advertising is good on blogs, like Tumblr or Twitter, so you can post links to your work there. Alternatively, you can also use Tumblr to post on as well, though I’m not sure it’s the best for beginners…or even the best place for your writing to really stand out, honestly.

Advice:

Write for fun! That and helping you grow as a writer is what really counts.

Post small amounts of work to start before you find out what you like to write, and then go from there.

Your audience can help you with developing skills as a writer, and feedback is fantastic, but don’t let it control your every action.

Let your creativity flow, and experiment with everything that you can do.

Take deep breaths, create and stick to a semi-regular schedule, but don’t let the stories consume you. After all, you likely have a life outside of posting fanfics, so, keep up with that too! 

If you’d like a little more to everything than what I’ve posted, I’ve got a lot of words that I placed below, so…you can read there too!

Fair warning: this is lengthy, and I give a lot of words in this post, which is why I’ll post everything under a Read More tab. If it gets to be too much, just pick a section to stop at and continue later.

Getting Started

To start, of course, make sure that you want to try writing! It sounds like obvious advice and an easy part to gloss over, but it is important to keep in mind. I

t’s enjoyable to work on something when you hear back from folks, but the most joy you’ll get out of writing is creating your own content and honing your skills over time.

Fanfics are fun if you’re having fun, so you have to make sure that it’s a hobby you love. 

Next up, select some fandoms/franchises that you’re interested in and know a good amount about and/or would be invested in learning more from. This early on, you don’t need to be too committed to what you want to work on, as you’re going to be experimenting first.

However, make sure that you’re looking for stuff that captures your attention and would be what you like learning or talking about. If you’ve ever daydreamed stories that you’d like to tell using certain series of entertainment, go with those.

Before you begin working on anything, make sure that you’ve got some kind of writing program that you can save your work on. Rely on that program to generate your story ideas, because you’ll want to be able to write a whole lot there before you use fanfic websites.

While a good number of the fanfiction apps have tools for you to actually write in, these aren’t entirely reliable based on one easily forgotten reason: they usually need an Internet connection to work on. And sometimes, you might be having Wi-Fi troubles, so, make sure that you can rely on a program that you can write in at any time.

My personal choice is Microsoft Word, but that’s not available on all computers. Check out what programs your computer has, and see which you like writing in. Then, work from there!

Once you’ve decided on which franchise(s) you want to write for, think about small, quick stories that you want to tell for each one. To start, don’t plan on something becoming huge right away, even if you’ve got the ideas to support it.

Play around with stuff that you want to tell. Two of my ongoing stories started because, for one, I wanted to explore a hypothetical scenario of a villain’s attraction to the hero that opposes them, and for the other, I wanted to indulge in medieval concepts while writing mushy fluff stuff.

Both started as very small ideas that have grown wonderfully over time. So, give yourself some concepts that you’d like to come out with.

It can be a lovely date night for your two favorite characters, perhaps a neat little world for an OC of yours to star in, turning a dark and horror world bright or a cheery and light world dark, or something else.

Deciding on your stories isn’t something you need to be too strict with at the stat, but posting publicly can be daunting. That’s ok!

Remember, you’re a new writer, so don’t be too hard on yourself. The content you’re posting early on is stuff that you’re testing out to see what you like and what others find entertainment from.

It doesn’t need to be flawless or gain a huge amount of traction right away. Just enough to pique interests of yourself and other fans.

At this stage, remember to be flexible with everything. Some stories grow stronger than others, and some will get more attention than others. It’s time to play for now, so be open and experiment.

It’s ok to be nervous posting too, so just remember to take some deep breaths, and remind yourself that it’s for fun! Then, figure where you want to post.

Choosing Websites

At this point, I’ll give brief descriptions of websites that you can use to post.

The two major juggernaut fanfic websites that you’ll likely want to look into are fanfiction.net (FFN) and archiveofourown.org (AO3), as these two are the most tailored fanfic websites out there.

There’s another website called Wattpad, which…I know next to nothing about. It’s another writing website to post on, but it’s a little less user friendly than the two listed above, so…unless you know it better, I wouldn’t recommend it.

You can absolutely choose other websites to work on, as these are just fanfic only websites. For example, you can try posting here on Tumblr! Or other blogging websites. You can also post on some art websites such as deviantArt, though I wouldn’t recommend those unless you’re also an artist.

Personally, I suggest focusing predominantly on FFN and AO3, as those are the major two to go for. Blogging websites make a good place to go too, but those can be trickier to work with, since they’re not tailored specifically for posting stories.

So! Let’s take a little more in-depth look into each fanfic website.

Fanfiction.net (FFN)

If you’re looking to garner attention early on, and to get posting right away, you’ll be looking into fanfiction.net (FFN), which is probably the more beginner friendly of the two.

First and foremost: you can create an account and get started on the same day. Its major competition website, AO3, doesn’t offer that.

FFN offers a wide variety of places to post, franchises to check out, and different media to tool around with. If you’ve ever been on there, you’ll notice that they’ve got a Browse section for tabs of entertainment and media that you can look into.

Based on the fandom you want to write for, check out that section. Some might involve dabbling into other places.

For example, maybe you love the Pokemon anime. But, Pokemon itself started as a video game franchise, so you’ll need to look for that in the Game section.

Likewise, maybe you loved the Harry Potter movies, which there might be a specific area for. But, keep in mind that it did originally start as a book franchise, so don’t forget to check the Book tab.

Explore, experiment, get to learn the website for what you can gain from it to start. There’s a lot to go over with it, so make sure that you’re checking out things for yourself, and see what you can get started with.

That’s not even all of the menu options, as each of those sections open up for more things to look into.

Remember, it’s a lot to learn, and you don’t need everything right way! Just check for the basics that help you get started. Make your username, write a small intro profile, and maybe choose an avatar image that you like.

(For Avatar pictures and Images in general, please remember to use only public images of official content or art you created yourself. Unless you have permission from a fan artist, don’t use their work, as that’s a sure-fired way to annoy them from the start.) 

Your main tab of operations will be the Publish tab. That’s this little fella below here:

At the onset, you will have to check the Rules & Guidelines. Because that’s what the website makes you check first.

Your first story, if the Rules are the same as when I got started, MUST be a General Audiences fic.

This is just to post something, so don’t feel like you need that to actually be there. If you don’t want to even bother with that, just bypass it by posting a quick mishmash of words for a K story. Like, it doesn’t even have to make sense, and you can delete it right after you’ve uploaded it.

However, it can be a good idea to post something that anyone can see, so, maybe you do want to make that your honest effort.

Either way! Make sure that you’re able to post your first story, regardless of how you want it rated.

To post, though, you’ll first need to click on that “Doc Manager” tab. Do that so you can submit your content. It looks like this:

Once you’ve submitted a document, you’ll be able to use that for actually publishing on the website itself.

At that point, you can click on the New Story tab, which should lead to this:

There’s a good number of steps following that, which I’ll leave you to experiment with. Take it slow though, because you’re in no rush, and you’ve already chosen what you want to work with, so just look it all over and choose the categories and sections that line up with your fandom accordingly.

You’ll get to a point where you’re posting your fanfic, and then you’ll have it slapped on as part of the fanfic archive! And that, after a lengthy process, will be how you begin on FFN!

Archiveofourown.org (AO3)

Now, the other major fanfic website is archiveofourown.org (AO3), which a lot of seasoned writers tend to prefer. It could also serve as a beginner website, but there’s a catch: you must join the waiting list to be approved before you can begin using the website.

So, yeah, AO3 takes time to get in before use. Time as in actual days! So, if you do want to start there for sure, make sure you send out for the invitation early enough that you won’t need to wait very long on it.

Once you’ve joined, you can tool around with slapping together a profile, view how the different personal settings sections work, and just general exploration of how to use things. Keep in mind, AO3 features a bit more complexity than FFN does.

That’s my personal page, since I’m not waiting to create an empty profile. There are a bunch of spots for you to tool around with, but you can simply focus on the top section, which includes Profile information and Preferences for your website experience.

To browse the actual website, stick with the front page or look for the top left corner tabs that look like this:

Check out the fandom sections! There’s a few extra spots that even fanfiction.net doesn’t provide, like Music & Bands. So, you can explore a little more around this website.

What writers llloooovvve about AO3 is the tagging system, which you can also browse near that fandom section.

See that 3rd spot, “Tags,” right? That’s like the stuff here on Tumblr, where you can click different types of fandoms, key words / phrases, or different genres, topics, etc. to find a story that uses the tag.

Some folks like to police tags, but they are mostly used liberally on AO3. That means if you just click a tag that says, “Coffee Shop AU,” well…be prepared to net a LOT of results. (Didn’t actually check that, so your actual finds may vary.)

Thing is, unless you’re a strong writer from the get-go, you’ll likely be relying on that tagging system to actually get your works out there. It’s something that you’ll do better learning on your own than from me, honestly.

Anyway, to actually begin posting on AO3, you’ll be looking for the top right corner for fanfic generations, or the tab labeled, “New Work,” as seen here:

Click that and it’ll lead you to a massive section of things for your story posting, which ends up looking like these next few images:

This is where you choose your rating, warnings that apply, fandom, ship gender pairings if you’re writing romance, and tag the characters and other words you want to use.

This is where the title goes, along with your summary. Notes can be used for Author introductions and closers, which you use when you want to say stuff like, “Hey, here’s my story!” and “Thank you for reading!” to show some attention directly from you to the readers.

Privacy is if you don’t want your work to be found by many folks, which…well, that’s entirely up to you. And that big field that says “Work Text” is where you actually begin posting your story.

This is a lot to have prepared for right away, but if you’re good at taking a bit at once or practice it enough, it becomes easy fairly quick.

Unlike FFN, if I’m not mistaken, you don’t need to post a general / all audiences story as your first post. Also unlike FFN, you’re not limited on what you want to post. AO3 lets you post content that is inclusive of gore or porn, so uh, go all out as you like, if those are more of your speed.

Just remember, unless you’ve taken some computer programming classes, you’ll want to change the work section below to “Rich Text” over HTML, which simplifies where you post, or rather, where you can insert your text.

There is also an import option for posting fanfics, so that the website kind of does the work for you, so you can keep that in mind as well.

Once you’re finished getting everything together, you’re able to post your story onto AO3 and wait for some views to flow in.

A big and key difference to FFN and AO3 is that the user-base for the latter is much smaller, a more selective pool. Thus, if your fandom or franchise that you write for isn’t super huge, and your writing doesn’t exactly deliver upon arrival, well…it’s tougher to stand out and get comments or reviews.

However, since users tend to recognize this, they might try to be thoughtful with their comments on helping you out with the story or voicing their opinions.

As FFN does have the higher user-base, however, it’s easier to pick up a following on that website, though sometimes, it’s curt and unwarranted additions to your story. So, keep these things in mind, and choose whichever website best suits your needs.

Ultimately, to stand out on fanfic platforms, I recommend having an account on both websites and actively posting to both. This increases how far your stories will reach out, and gets your more attention from readers all around, even if they prefer to use one website over the other.

Hmm. I’ve talked a bit about feedback, so…let’s briefly touch on that too!

Feedback (Comments/Reviews/Attention)

Feedback gives satisfaction to writing and posting online, which is what throws off a lot of early writers that may expect more yet receive less. Again, though, you’re new!

Take it slow, don’t look to make an overnight hit. Sometimes, feedback can take weeks to come in, and that’s fine.

Listen and learn from what people say. Some are just going to be overly critical or negative to start, so don’t take those to heart. Those are impatient people that don’t give newcomers a chance, and they’re not who you listen to in the beginning because you’re learning still.

But there are those who have helpful advice to give at times, even in small doses. Even small comments and reviews that translate to, “I liked your work, keep it up!”

These let you know that, for this reader, you did a good job! They don’t need to say a lot to show appreciation, so take even just a bit.

After you’ve written some stories and posted them out, check everything over. First, did you enjoy what you came out with?

Perhaps it was a cute one-shot (single chapter story) about a character that you wanted more development for. Maybe you crafted a mini story that spanned 5 chapters. Whatever it was, make sure it was fun for you! That helps you decide on continuing to work with that fandom again.

Next, and what’s also key, is how the readers and audience participated with the story, so you’ll want to check that out too. Don’t look for something that has tons and tons of attention, but make sure that it’s a work that’s been noticed.

And mind your audience, to see if you’re getting helpful readers and reviewers. They can help you, should you choose to write for that fandom franchise again.

Closing Comments

This was everything that I could come up with for a guide, and I haven’t explained everything thoroughly. There is a LOT to take in with writing fanfics, and though I may seem a bit put together with it, I also still have a lot that I’m learning about using the websites and writing stories.

Honestly, I think your absolute best bet is to explore the websites and your interests, and find what you want to look into! Doing that, you’ll be able to really find what you enjoy, and then you’ll learn how to help make content for readers to enjoy with you!

Anyway, if you’ve managed to read over everything, congratulations on surviving Echo’s Obnoxious Tutorial to Fanfics! And thank you very much for reading the whole thing through.

So, I hope this helps give some guidance on your fanfic exploration! Should you choose to continue, I wish you lots of luck! And don’t be afraid to ask seasoned writers for help on both website utility and just general advice.

Some may be slow to reply, like yours truly, but they’re hopefully willing to help out when they are available!

Again, best of luck, don’t overwhelm yourself, and have fun writing!