#if i have to be the sole fanart provider for this fandom then by god i'll fuckin do it

[prince-raisins-art]

just guys bein dudes

[edelgarfield]

like i get the frustration of seeing interpretations of a character that don't "feel" right, especially when it becomes popular fanon, or reworking a character entirely to fit a trope you dislike. and I obviously think there are important conversations to have abt people's perception of romance/love and how fandom/society needs to make space for relationships that don't fit a typical romantic narrative.

BUT i hate the tone with which people discuss it in regards to fanfic, and the undercurrent of disdain with which people talk publicly about fic they don't like. like, you're looking at a bunch of creative work provided for free by (mostly) hobbyists who are writing for fun in their free time and saying "it's annoying that these people aren't writing with a professional level of nuance and characterization"

if someone said something similar about fanart they'd be rightfully torn apart.

people aren't born with the ability to understand/write characters with nuance and complexity. they don't just one day wake up with a deep understanding of good characterization and the ability to analyze a character's motivations, and THEN be able to convey them through text. it's a skill that people learn through hours and hours of practice. writers NEED to be given the space to write cliché, OOC fics in order to develop the skills to branch out from them & learn how to write characters without relying solely on tropes.

you're never going to get the fics with high-level characterization and prose if you mock people for trying.

you can say "but I just made a vague post on tumblr dot com, i didn't say it to the author's face" and like, good job for doing the bare minimum i guess. but every single author that sees a post like that immediately thinks "god, i hope this isn't about me" or "i hope no one thinks this about my fics" or "oh no, AM i doing this?" every time you see an author's note with someone apologizing for characters being OOC, or writing something self-indulgent, it's because of posts like this, where they're told it's okay to mock people's writing if it's for the "right" reasons.

some deep level of cognitive dissonance on this webbed site that people will reblog posts abt the importance of writing self-indulgent fanfic then turn around and reblog "he would not fucking act like/say that" memes.

like you do realize the latter is actively mocking the former right. you realize it's shaming people for writing their self-indulgent headcanons. you can't encourage people to write the fic they want to read, then turn around and mock them for not getting it "right"

[pebblysand]

[writing rant - on the monetisation of fanfiction]

a couple of months ago, when i updated my long fic, one of the people on the comments wrote to me the nicest possible review (one of the ones that you keep in your feel-good 'saved' emails - you know the ones), which, amongst other things also said: 'If I could pay you for this...believe me, I would.'

in the moment, i kind of smiled and laughed, and thanked the person for their kind words before moving on with my life. yet, since then, i have to admit that this sentence has kind of been living rent-free in my head. i think it is also because since diving back into fandom a few months ago, i've noticed something that kind of shocked me at first: more and more fanfiction writers seem to be monetising (or attempting to monetise) their craft.

now, back when i started writing fanfic, we wrote fanfic on ffnet and livejournal. it was accepted that thou shalt never (ever) charge money for your writing or else the author and their mean, angry lawyers will come after you for damages and you will die a slow and painful death. we wrote disclaimers at the start of all of our posts and thanked the gods every day when we did not get sued.

i have seen this change gradually over the years. first, in the mid 2010s, the disclaimers went. then, i noticed that people were getting 'tipped' for fanart, sometimes even charging commission. from what i understand (though, don't quote me on this, i'm not an ip lawyer and this post is not intended as legal advice), this is because the way the concept of fair use is framed under us law makes it easier to monetise fanart than it does fanfiction. maybe this is why visual artists came first on this trend. later still (and more recently) i've noticed fanfic writers, doing the same thing.

to be fully honest, the first thought i had when i saw this trend, considering the fear of god (and his lawyers) that was instilled in me in the past, was: how on earth is this even possible? (i'll come back to that in a bit). the second, though, was: fuck, i wish i had the guts to do that, lol.

because, yeah, i will admit, the idea of getting paid for writing what i love to write does appeal, to a certain extent. i won't lie. dear fanfiction writers who've tried to do that recently: i one hundred per cent get it.

looking back at the last fifteen years, i would say that for me, writing fanfiction has been (in terms of time commitment and energy consumed) the equivalent of having an on-and-off part time job. a job that i have held for one or two years at a time, then quit for a while, before coming back to it when i needed (wanted) it again. i obviously can't realistically give you a number re:the actual total of hours i have spent at this since i started out, but i can give you an idea. recently, i started clocking my hours out of interest and calculated that a chapter of my current long fic takes roughly between one hundred to two hundred hours to produce (and they're around 10,000 words). at that rate, i'm probably working 20 hours a week-ish? sometimes more, sometimes less? something as small as a three-sentence fic (like this for instance), takes roughly two/three hours. i'll be honest, i have cancelled plans to write fic. when i'm working on a long project, i do tend to organise my life to give myself the time to write, so i opt for socialising after work during the week rather than on weekends, as i've found this is when i write best. i won't lie: it is - for me (i know some people write quicker, bless them) - a huge time suck.

so, yeah, i understand, in the capitalist society we live in, wanting to make that time count. our world has unfortunately, repeatedly taught us that time is money and getting more does seem like a nice bonus (as long as you have an audience for your art that's willing to pay, obviously). after all, year after year, i've seen a lot of my friends try and monetise their passions as side hustles, with varying success. at first, glance, i look at the time i spend on writing fanfiction and think: man, i wish i could get a bit back from that too. i couldn't even draw a stick figure to save my life but i assume that the time commitment and energy put into that kind of work is roughly similar for visual fanartists as well. i thus very much understand the sentiment, both with fanart and fanfiction.

additionally, though i appreciate this is a bit tangential, the fact that fanfiction is free, i would argue, hinders its potential to be as representative as it could be. it's a bit sad because on the one hand, the fact that it is free makes it completely accessible to the masses but on the other, it makes fanfiction quite exclusive to rich, privileged people who can afford to spend the time and energy putting content out for free. if i spend this much time writing fanfiction, just because i like it and it makes me happy, it's because my full time job pays me enough to cover my bills. if it didn't, i probably would have to forgo writing and get a proper side gig. if you look at my periods of inactivity on ao3, those also kind of coincide with the times in my life when i had to have more things going on to put food on the table.

so, now, assuming that monetisation is a thing that, as a fic writer, one might want to look at, the next question is: how do you go about monetising it? obviously, the law hasn't changed since the days where we were all terrified of getting sued (although enforcement has been quite lax over the years) so it's more about finding workarounds around the law as it is, rather than actively seeking payment for fanart.

from what i've seen: two main solutions seem to exist.

first, there's the tipping/buy-me-coffee technique. as i understand it, this involves either setting up a page on one of the dedicated websites or just putting up your paypal account link on your tumblr posts. with these links, people can then send you however much money they want (however much money they can afford/think you deserve?) on a one-off basis. they're not actually paying for fanfic because there is no actual exchange of services, it's basically like them giving money to charity, except that charity is a fanfic writer/ fan artist whose work they enjoy.

there are two main issues i see with this: one, legally, i'm not sure how much ground this actually holds. assuming you're quite prolific/successful, if every time you're producing new content, you receive dozens of tips, although you're not actively charging for your fanart, making the argument that your content isn't what these people are actively paying for seems hard. imo, the fact that this method sort of holds is that realistically, you're going to make very little out of this. even if you're really good, you might make what? a couple hundred dollars. now, sure, that's a lot of money for a lot of people but in the grand scheme of things, no one sues anyone for such a low amount. as long as you're not making 'proper' money from it, it is highly unlikely that anyone would come after you.

this being said, the second issue, from my perspective, is that this is not in any way, shape or form, a reliable income. it also does not represent, at all, the cost of the time and investment actually put into said fanfiction (or fanart, i assume). for example: if you're going to tip someone who's worked on something for, say, fifty hours, ten dollars, that's very good of you, but that isn't going to be 'worth' their time. it is only worth their time if tipping is done at as scale, which imo is quite unlikely considering you're putting your content out for free anyway. there are kind souls who will tip you, but not that many, meaning that ultimately, you're not working for free anymore, but you're still working at a huge loss.

additionally, because this income is not even reliable on a monthly/weekly basis, it isn't something that anyone can actually rely on, even if only to fund their coffee habit. it's nice to have, don't get me wrong, but from my perspective, is the legal risk outlined above worth the trouble for the $20/30 tips i'd get every once in a while - not really. such low amounts also don't help diminish the class issue that i talked about earlier. again, if you're going to spend fifty hours on something, you might as well work a minimum wage job - even that will pay you more and will be dependable.

second, there's patreon (and patreon-like sites). here, the income is monthly, people pledge on a subscription basis, which does solve the last point above. it might not be much, but at least it's regular.

the main issue i see with patreon is that it is contingent on the author providing more services on top of what they already provide. in most cases, the author will keep putting their usual content out for free + provide their patreons (depending on tiers) with more content, specifically for them. this, to me, makes this scheme even less appealing than the previous one because a) if i can't provide fanfic to potential patreons (again, you can't sell fanfic), i'm not sure what on earth i could give them (original content? that's not really the same market) and b) that's even more work on my plate. honestly, considering the amount of time i already spend writing fanfic, i have neither the energy nor the willpower to provide extra content for an amount that, regardless, will probably pay me less than a part-time job would. again, you'd have to scale this (i.e. have enough patreons) to make it all worth your while, and even in very big fandoms, even for someone waaaaay more successful than me, i doubt it would be likely.

lastly, as a side note, both of these "methods" are solely accepted if they occur on tumblr/writer's own website, rather than on the writer's ao3 page/fic. there was a post going around explaining why that is (nutshell: it endangers ao3's status as a non-profit archive) but as with all things, i seem to have lost it. [if you do have the link to that post/know what i'm talking about, hit me up and i'll rectify this]. this, regardless, supposes driving traffic from wherever you post your fics towards tumblr/your own website which, again, decreases your chances of scaling this.

so, in the end, where does that leave us?

i think, at this point, we've kind of reached a crossroad. ultimately, i see two ways to look at this:

option one: if you believe that fanfiction writers should be paid for their art, you also probably agree that the methods outlined above, while they do offer some sort of solution, are less than ideal. the ideal solution (for this option) would obviously be to allow fanfiction authors to be properly paid for the publication of their work through 'normal' publishing/self-publishing deals, without the need for a licence from the author (bar - perhaps - the payment of royalties). that would create a proper 'market' for fanfiction, treating it as any other form of writing/art form. it would mean a complete overhaul of the laws currently in place, but why not? ultimately, in a democracy, laws are meant to be changeable.

this being said, though, while my personal knee jerk reaction would be to shout 'hurray!' at this solution, i do not actually think i want this. or, maybe, only part of me does. the part of me who has been writing fanfiction for free for fifteen years is like 'hey, yay, maybe i could get paid!'. but then, there is another part of me that would like, maybe, one day, to write more original fiction (i already do a bit, but not much). that part of me is feels frankly a bit icky about giving up her ip rights.

would i be comfortable with people writing fanfiction of my original work? hell yes. that would be the dream. imagine having your own ao3 fandom, omg. however, would i be comfortable with people profiting from writing fanfiction of my work? honestly, i'm not sure. to me, the answer to that is: it depends (how much time investment was put in? how original the concept is? etc.) which, in fact, kind of brings us back to the current concept of licensing. and yes, maybe the current frame imposed by copyright law has also shaped the way i view the concept of property, and maybe i should be more of a communist, free-for-all kind of person, but unfortunately, i'm not that revolutionary.

also, and slightly tangentially, i find it interesting how profiting from fanficition/fanart is seen as more acceptable i certain fandoms rather than in others. taking the hp fandom for instance, even prior to jkr expressing her views on transgender rights, i often read things like: 'ah, she's so rich anyway, she doesn't need the money.' now, that argument has not only gained traction but is also reinforced by: 'ah, she's the devil and i don't want to fund her. it'd rather give my money to fanfic authors/buy things on etsy.'

while i completely understand the sentiment and do not, in any way, shape or form, support jkr's views, i do find that argument quite problematic. if you set the precedent that because someone is too rich, or because they've expressed views you disagree with, you don't believe that they should be entitled to their own intellectual property rights, i do wonder: where does this stop? this being justified for jkr could lead to all sorts of small artists seeing other people stealing/profiting from their original work without authorisation. 'i don't pay you 'cause i disagree with you,' would then act as a justification, with i find highly unfair. the fact of the matter is: jkr created hp. knowing that, the choice of buying hp products, regardless of her opinions is completely and entirely yours, but buying the same stuff unlicensed, from people who are infringing on her copyrights seems, to me, very problematic as this could potentially be scaled to all artists. either we overhaul the entire copyright system or we don't, but making special cases is dangerous, in my humble opinion.

option two: we choose to preserve copyright law as it is, for the reasons outlined above. this means that most people will not get paid for the content they put out and that the few that do will operate on a very tight, legal rope, and work for tips that are a 'nice bonus' but not a proper pay. this sort of perpetuates the idea that fanfiction is 'less than' other art forms, because in our capitalist society, things that don't generate money (things often made by women, may i add) are not seen as being as valuable as things that do.

for me, personally, while getting paid to write fanfiction sounds lovely (and makes my bank account purr) in theory, i think i side to preserve the current system. as an artist, i think that intellectual property protects us and our concepts from being ripped off by others, including by big companies who might find it handy to steal a design, a quote, anything, without proper remuneration. this is even more important for smaller artists who wouldn't necessarily have the means to defend their craft otherwise.

this being said, i do appreciate that it depends on why you're writing fanfiction. i think that topic probably deserves a whole different post in its own right but ultimately, most people write fanfic because it's fun. we know it's for fun, and not for profit. and if that's the case, then we're okay to receive compliments, reblogs and sometimes, for some people a little bit of an awkward tip for our work. for me, fanfic has been a space to make friends, to get feedback, to learn and to experiment without the pressure of money being involved. that's why i don't particularly mind doing it for free, and wouldn't even bother setting up a patreon or tip-me jar. i love being able to do it just for the enjoyment of myself and my five followers (lol), without worrying about scaling it, or making it profitable. not every part of our lives, not every passion has to be profitable. as we say in ireland, you do it 'for the craic' and nothing else.

this, though, as i already said, also depends on your means and level of privilege. to me, writing for free is fantastic and a bloody relief - it means being able to do exactly what i want. original fiction writing is full of rules, and editors, and publishers. in fanfic, i can write whatever i feel like, and i'm willing to forgo a salary in exchange of that freedom. again, i have a full time job that covers my bills. this does mean, though, that i don't have as much time to dedicate to writing as i would like to.

and also, the thing is: i'm a small author. i happily write in my own little niche. bar that one comment, it is highly unlikely that anyone would actually want to pay me (or even tip me) for my content. but when you look at very successful people, like the author of all the young dudes, i could see how they'd want to get paid for their art, and why they'd feel differently.

bottom line for me is: the flaws of the current systems of remuneration combined with my strong belief in copyright law as a means to protect small, original creators, means that i don't really think it would be right for me to get paid for fanfic, even if i was the kind of person who had the market for it. whilst it would be nice, this very long rant has, hopefully, explained why.

[blazardragon]

What are your least favourite and most favourite Assassination classroom pairings?

You know, usually when I see a post or meme about fandom, Imust nod my head in embarrassment and agreement. I get absolutely ecstatic whenmy favorite characters appear on screen for even a single millisecond, and Ifeel like sobbing tears of joy whenever something good happens to them.However, one of the only things where I feel like I’m not on the same page asthe rest of Tumblr is pairings. I’m just not much of a shipper. Mentor/student,parent/child, and sibling relationships have always been the strongest forcesin my life, not romance, so those are the relationships that tend to capture myheart. Hence all the Asano family antics in my art. I’ve actually contemplatedmany times making artwork for this ship or that ship, but I get artist blockwhenever I try to actually make something.

A side effect of my lack of shipping is that arguments aboutOTPs and NOTPs confuse me. I know that chemistry doesn’t occur between everypair of individuals, but it doesn’t bother me to see a character paired withdifferent characters. I’m always happy to see my favorites interact with othercharacters since those interactions bring out different aspects of theirpersonality, so seeing a wide range of ships for a single character is excitingfor me, not anger-inducing. That being said, I do have a few preferencesregarding pairings, which you can read under the cut if you’re curious about myopinions, but they’re mostly based on character representation. It’s a littlelong though. I divided it into three categories instead of two: my mostfavorites, my least favorites, and my non-negotiable nopes  

My most favorites (andothers I like)

Anything featuring my favorite characters being happy to behonest. They can suffer a bit too, pain is part of what makes them who they areafter all, but as long as I see my favorite characters getting attention andlove (from both the character they’re interacting with and the writer/artistbehind the scenes), I’m as happy as a clam. The only exception is if the shipinvolves what I listed under my nopes.

Examples of ships involving my faves that I have had the privilegeto enjoy include:  

Gakuho x Karasuma:Since Karasuma is even more serious and reserved than Gakuho, I get to watchGakuho put some effort into this ship. Also, Gakuho teases Koro and Gakushuu inthe canon sometimes, yet even though I’m sure he would have done the same withKarasuma, who’s probably the easiest character to joke around with, it neverhappened. This ship fixes that.

Gakuho x Korosensei:I’ve always loved the way Gakuho calmly accepts Koro’s spazztastic antics inthe canon, so seeing that expanded upon is fantastic. The mutual respect theyhold for each other is also a big plus. Bonus points because Korosensei is alsoone of my favorite characters of all time.

Gakushuu x Karma:Where I get to see Gakushuu’s fiery side. I’m pretty competitive myself, so I likerivals in general. They can both challenge and support each other to do betteras equals.

Gakushuu x Kevin: Ilove how Kevin attempted to defend Gakushuu in the canon, so seeing this big,warm-hearted American boy bring Gakushuu’s feelings out a bit more makes mesmile.

Gakushuu x Nakamura:I like seeing Gakushuu interact with her because they’re both successfulacademically, yet their core values couldn’t be more different. Nakamura wantedto be normal, but Gakushuu wants to be as exceptional as possible, and thatclash of ideals is fascinating. I’m sure they could both learn a lot from eachother and grow to appreciate each side.  

But you could probably write a story about the Asanosand a cactus and I’d probably like it. I’m really not picky. None of these haveto be romantic for me to enjoy them either.

 There are a lot of ships I like that don’t need to involve myfavorite family as well. All you need to do is draw/write a healthyrelationship about any set of characters in AssClass and I’ll probably like it.Examples include:

Takaoka x GoD (2ndgen):  Two characters that I didn’t reallycare about in the canon. I didn’t feel like I had anything in common with them,nor did either of them ever inspire me to become a better person. That’s about theworst start a pair of characters could have in my heart, and yet there’s somuch fanart of them having fun together that the pair now feels canon to me. They’relike the friendly, happy newlyweds living next door, and I feel like I mustsupport them.

Mimura x Sugaya: There’susually at least one reason to like each student in Class E. In the case ofthese two, I always have a soft spot for artistically inclined characters. Watchingthem draw out each other’s creativity and inspire each other to keep reachinghigher is something that resonates with me. Maybe it’s because my sister is anartist.  

Terasaka x Takebayashi:Going to maid cafes together seems like a great way to bond. These guys share aunique common interest in spite of their physical differences, which I findquite compelling.

Yuuji x Nagisa:Yuuji really grew as a person after meeting with Nagisa, and I’m sure there’sroom for even more growth. They both seem like rather gentle people too, so readingabout them hang out and relax, whether as friends or as more, is prettyenjoyable.

There’s a lot more, but these are the ones I get to enjoythe most since they end up on my dash a lot ^^;

My least favorites (whichare still negotiable)

Gakushuu x Lea:  It feels weird to say this because I’m theone who posted the English translation of Korotan C, but it felt like Lea wasintroduced as a character solely to give Gakushuu a female love interest. I don’twant to be too harsh on her since she barely had a chance at character developmentto begin with, but I never got a chance to love this girl. I generally don’tlike forced relationships for the sake of having relationships, and it’s a forcedrelationship involving my orange son, so this is probably the closest I’ll everget to having a NOTP. However, if someone were to appear in the fandom and startwriting fics or drawing fanart depicting the growth of their relationship in acompelling manner, I could probably grow to like even this ship.

The only other pairing that comes to mind as one that I feelless than neutral about has more to do with one of the characters more than theship itself. In spite of the mutual respect established by Karma and Nagisa inthe canon, why is Nagisa treated so disrespectfully so very frequently inKarmagisa works? I’m sure that Nagisa would be able to protect and provide forKarma as much as Karma could for Nagisa. I don’t dislike Karmagisa as a concept,but I do dislike it when Nagisa devolves into a crying sex toy, and thathappens enough for me to hold a certain level of fear in my heart when I seefanfiction tagged Karmagisa. Have mercy on Nagisa.

Non-Negotiable Nopes(or NNNopes)

I love Gakuho. It’s been ten years since I’ve loved a characteras much as I love Gakuho, but boy oh boy, looking through his fanfiction islike stepping through a minefield. He somehow manages to cover all of my nopes.For example:

Teacher x Student:  I really like mentor/student relationships,but not THOSE kinds of relationships. Mentors are there to unselfishly supporttheir students, but adding sex/romance to their relationship adds an element ofselfishness that really shouldn’t be there. And yet, Gakuho keeps gettingshipped with Isogai.  This same line ofreasoning also applies to Parent x Child relationships.

Relationships withNon-Con:  I’m pretty much okay with anysituation if the characters are okay with it. Similarly, I hate reading thingswhere one of the characters doesn’t like it. Simple.  I’ve read some fics where Gakuho startsphysically torturing someone (usually Gakushuu, goddammit), and I nope out ofthere as fast as I can, but I still feel like I lost a few minutes of mylifespan.  

I’m not going to personally track down a person’s blog and sendanonymous hate messages to anyone for writing these. Exploring differentemotions, even the darkest, is probably a necessity for some people to understandand tackle their own darkness. It probably takes some practice to write aboutdark themes in a responsible way too, I’m sure (I’ve never written a fic so I’mactually not sure). But will I ever read any of these? NOOOOPE  

 Thanks for the ask :D  I hope it doesn’t feel like I dodgedthe question since I didn’t list any ‘most favorite’ pairings, but these are myhonest feelings on the subject. I like a lot of characters in AssClass, so aslong I feel like those characters don’t get horribly misrepresented, and aslong as they look happy together, then I’m happy too. And if it involves acharacter I love, I love it!  

[kriscynical]

This is something that's bugged me for the longest time in this fandom but I've kept my mouth shut about it. I've admittedly been bad about sometimes making the heels on the boots too short, and I didn't realize the rocker portion of the blade was a Thing until recently (and I haven't drawn any skates since making that discovery in order to correct that error), but holy god some of the skates I've seen in otherwise gorgeous fanart over the last two years have driven me up a very bad wall.

I'm a stickler for detail (so you'd best believe I will be explicitly including the rocker from now on since I know it's a Thing now), and I know a lot of these cases come from artists simply not even trying to find reference photos of skates. The art is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and solid in every technical sense, then the skates look like black bowling shoes that end below the ankle with butter knives strapped to the soles and a part of me just dies. (Or the artist depicts male skaters in white boots which is just technically incorrect, period.)

Artists need to pay attention to the boots as well as the blades. Skating boots go up over the ankle. They're not like a tennis, dress, or bowling shoe. Elite level skating boots are really hard, too, to provide the support needed to keep the skater's ankles from breaking while doing triples and quads. Because of this, there's little to no movement in the shape of the boot. This means skaters cannot point their toes to the extent that a lot of fanart depicts. There is not enough flexibility in the structure of the boot to allow that kind of movement.

Just Google image search some skates, fellow artists. Please. Please. Reference is not a Bad Thing! It's a Good Thing. It's a Best Thing. It's a step of basic process work that's taught in all art schools even though the predominant mindset online seems to demonize the use of it for some inexplicable reason. It's not cheating! It's a way to make your work look even better than it already does. It's your best friend. Utilize it! 💜

Drawing ice skates

I have seen some woeful depictions of skates recently, and it really makes me sad. These are beautifully designed objects, please do them justice!

The problem seems to come from the blade so let’s talk about it. Here is a basic singles figure skate. The toe pick in the front lets you push in jumps. The middle of the blade is the rocker and is curved to let you turn and spin on the arc. The end is longer than the boot for t-stops and fancy business (ice dance uses shorter blades but they’re still longer than the boot.)

 Here’s what I’ve seen in a lot of fanart:

Remember there is a toe pick and the blade is curved and long!

And there you have it. Maybe I will post about skating mechanics later because I’ve seen an awful lot of fanart where Viktor and Yuuri are not skating on an edge…Yakov cries every time it happens.