#inspired by that amazing tiktok art going around

[frownyalfred]

Jason thinking he’s unrecognizable from his former self and dick always being able to see baby Jay in grown up Jay no matter what is SO DEAR to me you have no idea

[mitamicah]

Gig repport: Allas Sea Pool, Helsinki July 5 2024

Here follows my experiences with Käärijä at Allas Sea Pool, Helsinki on July 5 2024.

Having a bit longer to the venue than with Backas two days prior I went out around 7 and met up with @jaarijani and @pianist-chan at the queue. I was genuinely surprised to learn how many people had made personalized bracelets for me including @n3ongold3n that made ‘greatful’ and ‘the bojan’ (hopefully I remember right :'3) plus Anna (a finnish fan that doesn’t have tumblr) that had made a bracelet saying sunflower ‘auringonkukka’ inspired by the original version of Cha Cha Cha and because I “shine like a sunflower”. I sticked one of my Allas stickers on the bridge next to the venue and later learned that @omppupiiras had put cornpea Kä next to it, although sadly I’ve been told that cornpea Käärijä is gone now. It was also so cool seeing my own art being printed as stickers by @krishoney <333

@hika-chachachan joined our group going to breakfast and we got to play some Uno at the café. (We later learned that had we stayed at the venue we’d seen Häärijä do random stuff behind the gate).

Back in the queue I started regretting having left my sign at home (I had made a sign asking Jere to write ‘Are You’ for a tattoo to match the one I have from Bojan, but I’d left the sign in Denmark since I’d experienced it gave me nothing but trouble when brought it to Böle). Then I noticed some empty pizza boxes so I asked the kääryle next to them if I could borrow the lid and they were more than happy to give it to me when I told them the occasion. Not long after having made my spontaneous new sign was finished, me and @teal-skull went to get some food from the market in front of Allas, where I again got reindeer this time in form of a hotdog (I was too curious).

Jesse had been very active around the queue jumping back and forth over the fence and just before 5 I noticed him standing a bit behind doing his job. I tried to sneakily gift him one of my last stickers yet the moment I had decided to try a security person called for us to form the line so instead of being subtle I ended up skipping to Jesse, giving him a smile and a nod and skipping back in line without another word.

We (me, Skull and Cass) ended up getting second row just in the middle of the stage. Waiting for the concert to start Cass commented that she heard Trafik! Everywhere so we went to Joost’s tiktok where he is known to randomly share his music sometimes out of the blue and a snippet of the song had been released to IG music. That together with Joker Out randomly confirming that Šta Bih Ja (a song we’ve waited and craved since march) would be released next week – made us over the moon excited.

Jessica was right behind us so given I had a bit better of a spot I offered to film Huhhahhei for her with her GoPro. Not far after Käärijä was done performing that song he started “Are You”ing the crowd so I immediately threw my sign in the air an he noticed and jokingly said he’d write it on my ass later. The set today was also amazing, yet it was hard to compete with Backas for me. I must admit that getting Fantastista (a song I never believed I’d be lucky to hear live) was a treat tho.

After the gig I decided to make it my goal to bring my tattoo journey to a homerun looking for Jesse or Häärijä to get my autograph book to Jere (since he had technically been promising me the tattoo now). Yet both times I was able to spot Jesse I wasn’t fast enough – one of those times I had to choose between being rude to @icbimakb that went to talk and to offer stickers or let Jesse go and I chose the latter. At the merch table I was very alert and obviously nervous which Anna (the person that gave me the sunflower bracelet) noticed. They offered to talk with security since they had experience in the tv industry so they knew how to handle security – also they could speak Finnish much better than I can. I gave Anna my book, pen and sign right before the other security started to rush us out, so for a moment I feared I’d lost my book (that already held Bojan’s Are You and cute Backas messages inside) for good. Right before we were tossed out, Anna came back with a signed book, and the people next to me thought I was going to faint (I went into semi shock). Having to calm down me and Anna said goodbye to the others and placed ourselves in front of the fence outside Allas so we were accidentally present when Jere, Häärijä, Jesse and the bodyguard came out waving goodbye at the crowd (my voice was so destroyed all I could do was cheer at him with a sound that wasn’t unlike the chicken at the end of Kot Kot). Anna and I then went together to the central station just talking (amongst other things we agreed to meet up Tuesday since Anna had a Cha Cha Cha beer can she wanted to gift me).

Trinkets from Allas v

My quickly made sign + Jere's handwriting

Official Häärijä shirt

Auringokukka bracelet from Anna (not on tumblr)

Bojere card from Elmi (not on tumblr)

Dalton sticker (not sure who so please let me know if it was you :'D)

Sticker collection from @icbimakb <3

Barry, Koppi Tulles, Rock Rock and Paidaton Riehuja bracelets (not sure who so please let me know if it was you :'D)

Piña Colada and Glöggi bracelets from @hika-chachachan

Toiset Samanleiset sticker from lov.illust (not sure about your tumblr url if you have one)

Hojan, Häärijä and Bojere bracelets (not sure who so please let me know if it was you :'D)

Pokemon card (not sure who so please let me know if it was you :'D)

Kris, Bojan (both my art - printed with permission) and Joker Out sticker by @krishoney

Are You and Are We bracelets from @carpblu

Greatful and The Bojan bracelets from @n3ongold3n (again let me know if this is wrong :'D)

[erinwantstowrite]

Aaaah, Erin!! Your tiktok got me excited about drawing again, the first thing I drew in at least 8 months was a small drawing of Peter with his jacket because I thought it was insanely cool, and now your tumblr is getting me excited about writing again, so thanks for getting me back to my hobbies i guess lol

I struggle with writing long stories (i can't remember when I last wrote something longer than 3k,,,) but honestly you inspire me to keep trying! When I first found LoF, you were only 4 chapters in but already 120k words, all that in barely a month worth of update, which was both impressive and terrifying, but now i hope one day I'll also be so passionate about a fic i manage to write 120k words in a month!

Aaahhhh!!! That's amazing!!! It's weird to think that my own art can inspire people, cause it feels like just yesterday I was the one following my fav artists and trying to be more like them? This makes me really happy to see :))

Yyyyyeahhh I'm a little bit insane. When it comes to word count, I used to really struggle to get over 500 words, which is hard to imagine now. I think it was because I had a hard time envisioning it in my head, and I also didn't understand some fundamentals of writing. The more I practiced, the easier it was to get out more words.

That, and I figured out my average writing time. I set up a "40 minute" timer 3 times, and then I did some math to see how much I wrote in those periods. The 1st 40 minutes I'd write 700 words(ish), the 2nd period I wrote 900, and the 3rd one was 1000.

So now I do a writing warm up to get my brain going (like doing art warmups or stretches before you run), then I write for LoF/whatever I'm working on that day doing a "write for 40, break for 10-20 (depends on the day), write for 40"

I set up a word count goal like "I'd like to get to 10,000 words today." I look and see that the day before, I had written to 6,000. That means I'd have to write 4,000 words. If my average time is 1,000 per 40 minutes and I take plenty of breaks, I could probably do it within a couple hours. But at the end of the day, I listen more to my brain and sometimes it's a 2,000 word day or even a 400 word. Sometimes, nothing at all. I find that listening to the time is more important than listening to my word count goal itself.

Keep in mind that this is just my average time. Always plan around for what works for you. At the end of the day, it's more important that you're having fun while you write!

[showrunnerihardlyknowher]

girl yeeeesssss spill the fucking tea 😫 don't go hiding that drama in the tags

Okay, so originally I wasn’t going to say anything because I did not have the energy or desire to rehash all of this to a community that I hardly interact with besides post-dumping every ~4 months. But then, ironically, two people DM’d me about this this week and now I’m feeling spiteful again, so let me regale you with the cringe tales of the Tumblr g/t community and why it gives me a headache to think about. And you know what? This bitch is being a pinned post, too, because I’m not going to let it be swept under the rug anymore. I’m rocking the boat, I’m naming names, I’ll be a little goblin starting dumpster fires.

Now, I will say there are definitely further issues in the community that I can’t personally speak on – rampant racism, transphobia, etc. That’s not to say these things aren’t happening or aren’t important to bring attention to, but I am not someone who witnessed it firsthand or experienced it. In my handful of years being active in this community, they are topics that have been brought up a fair few times, which is enough of a sign that it’s an ongoing issue. However, I also have not looked at any g/t related tags in almost a year, so whether or not these discussions are still happening or have been relatively resolved, I don’t know. It’s not my place to talk about them in depth when I would have no idea what I’m talking about or what to reference, in which case I implore others who have unfortunately dealt with this to please speak out about it. There’s other drama I am able to talk about because I went through it myself or by proxy, and so that’s only what I’m going to be relaying in this post. 

I feel like the most infamous implosion was the GTMS/Chamomile-g-tea debacle from half a year or so back, but at the same time based on the messages and DM’s I’ve received, it seems like…a lot of people have forgotten about that, or at least weren’t around/invested enough to know what happened. The quick recap is that @unicornofgt created a written series about giant mech suits that were actually powered by giant humans in a post-apocalyptic setting, inspired by a post made by our shared friend bolshoycorvid about Pacific Rim. It grew into a fairly well known series in the community, and while I had only read the first chapter, I still at least recognized it from my mutuals and some of the tags. 

And then Cham found it and became utterly obsessed with it, pumping out fanart left and right and opening the floodgates for its popularity. And that’s so cool! That’s great that such a talented artist with a large following genuinely enjoys someone else’s work that much, and is introducing it further to the fanbase for people to read! It’s amazing to get that kind of feedback to know people want to make art of your handcrafted characters because they adore them that much, it’s one of the best compliments a writer can get!

Except Cham really started getting into it. Like, helping-create-two-Discord-servers-without-permission, kind of into it. Like, posting-fanart-on-multiple-platforms-without-source-credit, kind of into it. Like, repeatedly-responding-to-messages-about-the-characters-without-consulting, kind of into it. And when I tell you her art for the main characters were everywhere, I mean they were everywhere, not just in the Tumblr g/t community. Tiktok, Twitter, Instagram, they were posted, and they were never credited back to unicornofgt. I had friends send me her animatics of it, gushing about how amazing it was, totally unaware that it was a storyboard to the first chapter of GTMS (which I recognized and told them, at least).

And was unicornofgt mentioned in any of these posts, was their fic linked, was it even noted that these weren’t her original creations she was spamming to every platform? Nope. Not a word. They actually had to repeatedly ask Cham to credit them as she continued to drop the ball, and even so it was too little too late, finally coming in the few weeks before unicornofgt put a stop to it altogether. Some platforms would only allow an additional note to be added via comment, which was often missed or drowned out by the sea of other messages. Other places like Tumblr could allow a full body edit, however that did nothing for the hundreds of reblogs that were already circulating without a link back to unicornofgt, and are still out there, even if unicornofgt had Cham delete her GTMS posts. 

And naturally, if you’re not in the already niche Tumblr community, and even if you’re new to said community, you would have no idea! You would see her post these characters, answer questions about details for these characters, maybe even be invited by Cham to one or both of the two Discord servers for these characters (of which unicornofgt was a member of, but more often than not still not addressed for their story as Cham would take over and talk about GTMS when they were not online to agree/disagree) – Of course you’d naturally assume these are her characters and her story, and even if you knew different, you might become one of the many people swept up in the fandom environment created by Cham, which treated her as the forefront of it.

And please, don’t think I’m taking this out of context. Understand that unicornofgt DM’d me about all of this before they eventually abandoned their Tumblr a while ago due to this situation and the rampant bigotry in the community , and you can read their farewell post here. They told me about the growing anxiety and morphing disdain they felt when it came to their series, because it felt like that creative freedom had been robbed, pressured to morph their original vision to appease Cham, even  at the expense of their own passion for GTMS. They felt unheard, ignored, and pushed aside while Cham got to reap the benefits of their own hard work to bring it into existence in the first place. No matter how much they spoke about it in private with Cham or openly on the two Discord servers (they had never wanted in the first place), it didn’t matter. 

They told me about the instances in which they had multiple talks with Cham about this crossing boundaries, but ultimately not feeling  they could enforce them because as a meager content creator, they should feel grateful that someone so popular was giving their work as much attention as it was getting. Friends and followers agreed with that sentiment because more and more people were becoming unaware who the true creator was, and it seemed on the surface unicornofgt consented. They told me about how Cham had to be repeatedly told to stop and redirect any questions relating to GTMS to unicornofgt, instead of taking it upon herself to answer them, as a majority of the time whatever she said was at best a bad rehashing of unicornofgt’s own explainations that watered down unicornofgt’s characters to “silly stupid little incompenant man” and “big badass woman who loves him sooo much”, and completely ignored bolshoycorvid’s characters altogether. Sure, to Cham’s benefit, she would back down…for a little while, and then start those habits all over again and ignore what was previously requested, especially during the mini internet breaks unicornofgt would have to take since the pressure  gave them further fatigue, contributing to their pre-existing chronic health problems.

 Let’s not forget the free for all fandom that was created as well. Anyone with questions/comments/concerns all went straight to Cham and rarely to unicornofgt. Art requests, ideas or what-ifs, AUs – all to Cham. Her friends and mutuals straight up telling bolshoycorvid that they’ve never read their GTMS fics despite them being a fair chunk of the overarching universe, simply because they were hardly acknowledged in Cham’s art and frequent posting. The influx of underaged users coming in to join the fun and the Discord servers, which unicornofgt had already said they were uncomfortable with and had wanted the main server to at least be 18+ (a request that was, once again, ignored by Cham, who irresposibily never checked the ages of new users to the point any and all of her mod privileges were revoked and all invites were turned off). So many problems came from having those kids in an 18+ space, essentially taken over by Cham, that unicornofgt decided to pull the plug on the entire server and cut finally Cham off a week later.

From my understanding, this fandom behavior was even worse on Twitter to the point the GTMS characters were selected to be used in a roleplay tournament. The host reached out to Cham for her opinion of character authenticity during the rounds, while others were asking if they could use her art/comics for voice acting. Meanwhile Cham sent all of these to unicornogft because she thought it was funny, but  didn’t reiterate to any of these people that these were NOT her characters and if they wanted permission from the creator, they needed to reach out to unicornofgt. Even when unicornofgt tried to pass on this message, it was ignored by Cham’s little fandom, who continued to view her as the creative authority. 

But even worse than Twitter was the Tiktok, where many of Cham’s GTMS videos went semi-viral, still leaving her sitting pretty at 18k followers while neither unicornofgt or bolshoycorvid saw any of it. Hundreds of comments gushed about the art, meanwhile both the true creators were lost in it. Eventually Cham didn’t even ask permission before posting, not bothering to check if it was true to the characters, but why stop to think when those videos are getting views up to 250k, with all the comments telling you they adore you and your work? It is your work, right? 

What’s so insane to me is that you would think for such a talented artist, she would know the value of being properly credited for your work, especially fanwork across multiple platforms. But no, it had to be explained to her the importance of crediting the real creators of these characters in her posts, and the highly contrasting way people consume art, quick and easy to appreciate, vs writing, which takes more time to consume and appreciate. This isn’t some multi-billion dollar international franchise that’s universally recognized at a glance like DC/Marvel. This was a fun little series created between friends and shared with a small community as something new to enjoy for a little while. It’s not a licensed IP, it’s someone’s personal pet project that they enjoy. It’s completely unreasonable to assume a rando on Twitter is going to look at a badass pose of a giant woman and know that it at least came from an obscure series from an obscure fandom by a single person who was just trying to have fun on the internet. Hell, even 4chan users on the hentai board ask for sources all the time, to know who created these characters they’re jacking off to so that they can go check out their other work!! 

Instead, you try to get the source for a GTMS fanart, you likely get Cham, and from Cham you get…no one. Because she failed over and over to  make reference that it belonged to anyone else, via tags or in the text body, until long after it was too late with an edit. And there’s no sense in trying to beat around the bush, that’s borderline art theft. You took a character word for word, design for design, setting for setting, and sold it off as your own. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t your intention, that you were ignorant of the consequences – it’s what happened and it needs to be owned up to. This isn’t a petty squabble between two teens on fanfic.net about a demonsona OC for Sonic Underground, this is an adult making a conscious decision to post content of something that doesn’t belong to her and not give an ounce of credit. Not only that, it just furthers the divide between artists and writers in a creative space, with the latter hardly ever getting their dues for putting in their effort for a written piece that an artist can doodle in 15 min.

 It was like creating a spectacle out of smoke, a flimsy foundation that was bearing its full weight down on the mental and emotional health of the person who actually created it. In a matter of months unicornofgt had gone from a simple writer of funny size difference things to being forced to watch their vision be watered down for the sake of uwu soft giantess wholesomeness, none of it being done by their hand.

And I think the worst part about all of this, after this whole mess finally came to light thanks to unicornofgt finally finding the courage to put their foot down and cut Cham off completely (both as a friend and for having permission to make anything GTMS related in the future), is that it was unicornofgt who had to leave this platform. It was bolshoycorvid who had to leave, in part for other reasons, but because they were also snuffed during this fiasco as well as both a co-creator and someone who had their own canon OCs/fics in the GTMS world. It was other friends and mutuals who left because they couldn’t stand the toxicity of this fandom anymore, the hypocrisy, the sheer lack of critical thinking and the inability to hold people accountable for their actions. GTMS was essentially abandoned after the dumpster fire was put out and that was it. The series that everyone seemed to fawn over and adore was forgotten at the drop of a hat. 

Why? Because it wasn’t the written fics or unicornofgt that everyone was attached to; it was Cham’s art and her version of an OOC story she was pushing they loved. And once she stopped posting it, that was it. Dead in the water. Absolutely tainted. Can you blame unicornofgt for not wanting to touch their own creation that they had made from the ground up and put so much thought and energy into, all because it had been essentially stolen and ruined by someone with a much larger following? A following that hit over 20K during Cham’s GTMS reign across multiple platforms , might I add, while unicornofgt was lucky to see a fraction of that for the same concept. 

I also want to note again that these are retellings told directly to me from the persons involved, including unicornofgt prior to their leaving, former fans, and Discord members, that I am airing with their permission. I’m also not someone who has a lot of social media or who followed GTMS at all, this is almost entirely coming from the creator (the REAL creator) in the time before they left, their experience dealing with the fallout, and the sentiment that even still they don’t hate Cham, but just wish there was even a single legitimate consequence on Cham’s part (and that non stop self bashing at the rescue of yes-men does not count). And it hurts to see a fellow g/t content creator be so scarred from this, to lose all interest in the things they cared about most and only wanted to share with their friends, due to one person’s inability to stop and think about their actions. And sure, maybe this is old drama, maybe it’s small and petty to still bring up, but it doesn’t seem like anyone else is going to pull back the rug that this was swept under, so it might as well be the local menace to the community to make a long ass post about it. Chamomile-g-tea killed an entire series and drove the creator, the co-creator, several fans and several more friends who also made g/t content off of an entire website because she couldn’t be bothered to not feel entitled to other people’s toys.

I lost a lot of good friends as a result of this, and the g/t community lost a lot of good content creators as well, to the point this really was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me to say fuck it. To sit here and watch my mutuals abandon their Tumblr’s and all their works in favor of avoiding Cham and her followers who keep pretending  she did nothing wrong, acting like her excitement justified her “promotion” of the story, never holding her accountable and accepting at face value her claims  that she had no idea the distress she was creating, letting her act as if she’s the victim of this whole ordeal – nah, chief. It didn’t matter if it was on purpose or not, it still happened, and she was allowed to get away with it scot-free, so I will continually throw this in everyone’s face so that the g/t community never forgets its track record . 

Because I really don’t understand how this entire community can go through the same run around of “is fearplay/petplay morally wrong to create in a place full of minors” (which is another debate I am NOT getting into right now) and cause several blogs to abandon ship over the backlash they received…but a well known artist forces a popular series to be discontinued and runs off the original creator and their friends after she stole their concept, and everyone is just like “damn, that sucks, she just got too excited /:” and pretends it’s nothing? There have been plenty of former blogs that were called out for less and were forced to be accountable for whatever fuckery they were doing. Besides, I thought we were supposed to be thinking about the poor children here, the sweet minors, which was what her wholesome SFW blog catered to. Last I heard from one of her followers she started posting softcore GTS (I wouldn’t know, I have literally 0 desire to scout her blog), which sure, go ham bestie with your titties and light crushing, we all know I’m an 18+ blog. 

But then she continues to interact and mass reblog from minors and bring them into her inner circle, sooo…which is it? Are we worried about corrupting the kids or not? Do minors have the ability to use critical thinking about what concepts are right or wrong, or not? Are people accountable for what they post or is it the responsibility of the viewers who need to heed the tags? Y’all don’t get to have it both ways. Not to mention, I will reiterate again, she never verified anyone’s ages and let them in freely to what was intended to be an 18+ space on the GTMS servers, which created PROBLEMS to the point the servers had to be shut down.

Everyone else can sit around thinking she got off scot-free and never needing to address the fact she destroyed an entire series beyond a meaningless sorry, but I’m not going to forget, even if I’m still the only one left from that era and friend group to be able to tell this side of the story. That hurt my friends just as much as it hurt the community to lose such incredible writers and their beloved content, and that’s inexcusable to me. Writers in general are already treated awful, especially in the g/t community, to the point people have the audacity to complain there’s no new content to enjoy after all the good writers got fed up with the lack of recognition. Art and writing are two different mediums and they both require an insane amount of talent to pull off beautifully – just because you can enjoy a pretty picture in 15 seconds versus a plot-rich fic in twenty-five minutes does not make one superior to the other. But if those fics are continually pushed aside, then why would any creator waste their hours and days and weeks and months making a story for no one to see? 

Writing out concepts and ideas are a labor of love that are graciously shared to YOU to also enjoy. Trust me, I have no problem keeping an idea to myself or to be tossed back and forth to my friends for fun, it’s far less effort to still ‘see’ whatever story I would have jotted down for 20K words. If the community is going to continue treating writers like shit, as demonstrated through this hot mess, then of course no one is going to stick around to deal with it. A talented writer lost the world they built, the characters they developed, the story they were trying to tell, to one single artist, yet they were the one who had to pack it up and call it quits after getting hit with hate, while the other gets to roll in the second hand clout from un-credited posts across various platforms to further their own artistic career.

And frankly, I don’t really care about what kind of reception this post has; if it’s only seen by 5 people or if it’s seen by Cham herself, if people agree or disagree vehemently with it. This blog is also more or less dead aside from the few times a year I drop a new fic or art, so feel free to scream into its void as much as you want lmao

[dcafanzine]

Hi everyone! We’re super excited to start introducing our contributors! Let’s let them introduce themselves!

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Greetings and Salutations! I am Beetle, also known as @/eldritch beetle, one of the Spot Artists for the Backstage Pass bonus zine! First time contributing to a fanzine, so it's a a huge honor to be working alongside so many amazing artists and writers I seen from this fandom! :D

Originally learned about the DCA through a couple random TikTok compilations recommended on YouTube back in early 2022 (honestly surprised to find out later on that they were from FNAF) and we've been running on a 2+ year long hype-fixation ever since. These silly dudes have had such a tremendously positive influence in my life, my artwork, and have gotten me through a lot of stuff. They literally mean the world to me. So I'm very excited for this project to come to life and hope y'all enjoy the beautiful and stunning masterpieces curated especially for both zines by everyone!! ♡

X/Twitter

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Hello hello! I'm Bubbie or @bubbiethesaur, one of the writers for the main and bonus zines. This is my first time contributing to a fanzine, and I'm over-the-moon excited to be working with so many talented people! While I've been a fan of FNAF ever since Markiplier's first ever playthrough, my DCA hyperfixation didn't start until I stumbled on Tumblr art of two silly skrunkly daycare attendants and I took a chance on a recommended fanfic—and then I was hooked. These jesters (and the fans around them) inspired me so much that they dragged me out of a 10+ year writing funk and reminded me why I love telling stories. I'm so excited for this fanzine to come out—ya'll are truly in for a real treat!

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Hi hi! I’m Kira (@ki-kosmo on Tumblr), and I’m the cover artist for the Backstage Pass bonus zine! I’ve been drawing these boys for years, and while I don’t doodle them as much, they still hold a very dear place in my heart. I’ve met so many cool people from the DCA community and I will be forever grateful for the fun times we’ve shared as a fan base.

I’d you’d like to check out my other silly drawings, I have a linktree with my other socials and sites. Go check it out!

[ghostieamvs]

I think my amv's are such a wonderful amalgamation of the things i've seen and loved and been inspired by, every song is something I heard from someone else's art, animatics, animations, other amv's, and just songs i've heard from those around me. I'm so thankful to everyone who's ever taken the time to make something amazing. I hope no one ever thinks i'm just stealing ideas, don't get me wrong, I adore everything I draw inspiration from. The call? Learned it from a QSMP animatic! Yaelokre? Tiktok edits! Arcade? A Helluva Boss animation! Unbroken? A fucking cool Sims 4 machinima! Saints? A Gacha Life MV! Humans? An animation meme! I could go on but I made my point. If anyone ever wants to know what inspired my amv's, i'll happily tell! Each one is very special to me!

[pixiewritesstuff]

Hii!

This is probably going to be a long ask I'm sorry 😭

I got into Undertale and the AUs when I was like nine I think and I'm like thirteen now and sans aus have been such a huge comfort to me!

I discovered your tiktok account around a year ago and you inspired me so much immediately! Your characters were so cool - Smudge was the first one I saw.

Sadly I stopped watching your account for a long time because I deleted my tiktok account but I remembered you a couple of weeks ago and was like GAHH I HAVE TO FOLLOW PIXIE!

I have been at a low - girl I'm like Ink, I have such a fear of being forgotten- I want to make an impact in this fandom and I thought I couldn't but then I was like 'wait...' and you've given me inspiration to make a blog called askbittersweet!

Maybe I won't get asks, but you gave me the inspiration and confidence to and you're just so important to me!

this was supposed to sound so much cooler but my words failed.....

also your art style is so pleasing lol! I had a lucid dream where I had your artstyle it was kinda weird but it was cool n stuff (jeez lousus i'm bad at talking)

I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY AND NIGHT AND WEEK AND YEAR YOU'RE SO COOL <333333

Awww thank you!! I got into the Undertale AUs when I was about 11/12 and now I'm turning 19 in a few hours, so I definitely relate to that sense of comfort!

And thank you for your support. :3 I've been working every day to give everyone content they can like. I love this community and honestly it's my honour to be giving everyone content that they enjoyed. Secret be told, I didn't think anyone would like my work considering my writing isn't all fluff and sunshine, but I was completely blown out of the water with support and love from such amazing individuals. I've met and made friends with so many amazing individuals, each fan interaction I have makes my absolute week because there is nothing I love more than cooking up content.

I wish you luck on your own content journey! As long as you have a passion for what you do? There is only one way for you to go and that's up. Since I'm feeling nice today, I'll give you a few tips ٩( ᐛ )و

★ Use what's trending to your advantage -

Tik tok, Tumblr, Twitter/X all follow an algorithm of sorts, if you see bunch of videos following the same pattern... Take the leap! Make sure to add your own spin on it, not only will that help you stand out but copying others makes a story so bland, bleh!

★ Be brave, be confident -

I know putting yourself out there can be scary, it's literally throwing yourself on a stage and slowly building an audience hoping you'll attract your kind of people. But you'll never get anywhere if you stand around timidly and be too scared of that attention. Sell yourself, be brave, what makes you different from everyone else? What makes you special? What makes your amazing work so amazing? What can you do to bring something different to this multi verse?

(For me? I can bring adorable characters with a horror aspect, but what makes me different? There's no one quite like our lovely princess Smudge, is there?)

★ Don't be afraid of interacting with people but withstand your boundaries.

Unless those people are total dickwads and have no life, making interactions with people is a great place to start. You'll build a solid support system, people who aren't just interested in your stories but genuinely want to see you thrive! Little side note- don't let people stand on you either. I've had many a time where people thought they could push my boundaries and got kicked to the curb. Don't be a door mat, how will anyone respect your characters if they don't respect their creator?

★ Last but certainly not least - believe in yourself!

Okay, this one is a little corny and I know what you're probably thinking. 'But Pixie, I have low self confidence and esteem. Being confident doesn't come naturally.' And I'm super sorry to hear that. You're a wonderful person with flaws, but those flaws don't undermind your best traits one bit. If you don't believe in it, believe in us to believe in you. Would there be hundreds of people lying to your face? Really? No. There would be some merit behind their words, right? I faked it till I made it. Now? I have the ability to trust my own talent. I find love in my work and in my characters. I can only hope you do too, you can do amazing things if you set your mind to it. That's something I live by.

AND YOU'RE JUST AS COOL! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOUR IDEAS AND WORK!! THANK YOU FOR THE KIND WORDS, YOU CAN DO IT!!!

[faereina]

I intended this to just be a sketch, but i liked it so much that I ended up making a mini ref sheet of Aerine, the first dnd character I ever made. I’ve only been playing for around 2 years but out of over a dozen campaigns that ended early or fell through, she’s been the longest standing one ! So while her design and story is a bit “basic” compared to other characters I’ve made since then, she has a special place in my heart 🩷

here’s her spotify playlist and pinterest board too hehe

more random infodumping about her below !

Her campaign (Tales from Estaria) is from a homebrew world by my amazing dm! It’s very Victorian-era / steampunk inspired with lots of eldritch horror elements. The dress in her reference sheet (designed by @angeliets ) is intended to be her wedding dress! I had tried to draw her wedding dress myself before (which you can see in this tiktok i made about her ) but after seeing his design when joining his ko-fi membership, I knew I had to change it immediately. The veil is a bit different than his original design, as she would be using a veil gifted by her mother! Here are some more outfit ideas I’ve drawn (please ignore my inconsistent art style lol)

As for the quote I put on her ref sheet, it comes from something I said during a session. For context, our party visited a very religious country where magic coming from any source other than their god is illegal. We brought with us a child our party has been protecting, Peter, who who had celestial runes carved into his arms after his family was slaughtered by a cult worshipping a being known as the Lady of the Woods, one of the four eldritch beings who are trying to end the world.

While stopping in one of the towns for a rest, Peter’s scars were noticed by a civilian who thought we had kidnapped/harmed him. We tried explaining, but they were unresponsive and Peter, who has aasimar blood and is a draconic soul sorcerer without full control of his abilities yet because he’s a literal child, freaked out trying to pull away and used some magic. With that, the civilians then started calling HIM a monster and attacked him which is all it took for the entire party to go off on them.

Of course, as a party consisting of two tieflings, a hexblood, a warforged and Aerine, and with 3/5 being casters, it wasn’t a good look and the people started calling us devils. We did manage to do (mostly) non-lethal damage, and the warforged ended up crashing a carriage into the building for us to get away. Aerine said that line before slamming the carriage door shut which was honestly a badass moment for her as she’s normally very polite and gentle in her speech. She was extremely upset at the audacity of these people to use their religious beliefs to excuse hurting an innocent child, especially when moments before they were SO concerned.

She is very protective of the innocent, especially children. Which is also why her dislikes include the part about not liking when her party members giving children weapons. Several of the members have given Peter weapons or taught him how to use them. They do have good intentions, as they want him to be able to protect himself in case of the worst of they aren’t there to do so. However, she strongly believes that it isn’t a responsibility or burden that should ever be placed on a child, and that they instead should work to improve themselves and their abilities so that there is never a possibility of such a situation occurring.

NOW AS FOR THE MONSTER PART LMAO

So everyone knows the reputation bards have, and well, she’s probably the least bard of all bards in that manner (hooray strict and sheltered upbringings in a society literally inspired by the Victorian era!). I thought it would be a funny idea to roll the dice any time we encountered an NPC to see how attractive she found them, and it backs a long running joke. However, she would always roll super low for everyone ! It wasn’t until mid-battle one day when the warlock (who has a weird Venom-type situation going on) was in their monstrous form that I was like, hm, wouldn’t this count as an npc since it’s technically a different being? that I randomly decided to roll and got like an 18 or something really high like that 😂 since then, I’ve rolled for many more npcs and even monster type creatures (such as this death lich we came across) and she’s only - ONLY- rolled higher than a 14 for monsters.

Well, she did also roll very high (actually, it may have even been a Nat20) when I rolled for the tiefling ranger after he came back from 5 months(5 minutes in the material plane) of being stuck in the Feywild with a hot nymph with a beard from not being allowed to shave. It may or may not have sparked a small crush on him since then. Funnily enough, last session we encountered his human version in an alternate timeline from our own, and she did indeed roll lower in her attraction for his human version than his original version. So apparently the farther from human, the more attracted she is. A true monster lover!

Anyways this ended up , much more of a lore dump than I expected! I love talking about her and her adventures with the party, so I’ll probably be sharing more once in a while. Maybe even sharing art of the party members? Who knows !

[genstylekidz]

(INTRO POST); 😓

SOCIALS:

TIKTOK: SunnyandComicKids

INSTA: genstylekidz

ROBLOX: Blue_BunnyOME (Belen)

SKULLGIRLS: genstylekidz (had to restart my acc)

You can call me Gen, Jazzy or just my user that’s fine, I go by she/her cause I’m a female and stuff. I like fighting games and shooting games as well.

I make art but I might not post it on Tumbler so you may have to check my socials.

I like dogs and we can be Moots if you would like, I also follow you if you make art I am interesting in.

I do commissions for RHD or any items I am interested in, depending on the art (socials in bio).

I play SkullGirls and if you want to know, my favorite SkullGirls character is Annie of the Stars, just cause I like and know how to use her well, and her design is amazing lol. I also like Peacock (cause of her design), Marie (cause I know how to use her), and Umbrella (both).

_______

Anyway here are my green flags and Red flags:

GREEN FLAGS:

You post art

You like animals (like cats or dogs but any is cool)

You play SkullGirls (don’t mind if you don’t)

You aren’t toxic and support

You can get comfortable around me and be mean (just no deep sensitive stuff) as a joke if I am also comfortable around you because I get it.

Anyone that is older or younger than me is cool as long as your not creepy or anything gross/cringey.

You like Sammyfendi art or inspired art (you don’t have to)

You listen to MoKenStef, or any particular 90s Rap and 90s rap creators such as Ice Cube. (Idc abt your music taste though)

Personal Favorites:

(Anything good in general or my opinion)

__________

RED FLAGS:

Your toxic, gross, disgusting, or cringe.

Your art is disrespectful and disgusting/concerning (this is based on my opinion)

You’re purposely mean to anyone

(Anything bad in general or my opinion)

IM A MINOR!!! Pls don’t do anything weird.

[cxttlefishcxller]

OC Questions Tag!

Thank you once again to @residentdormouse for reminding me that my blog can and probably should be for more than just me throwing things I like into a mismatched pile like Labyrinth's Trash Lady >.>

Anyways, since I'm attempting to crack my way through several at least two fics, I'll do two OCs just for funzies. XD

(Rules: answer the questions and tag some people, all that fun stuff)

Piper Danielle Crain (The Stand)

5 words to physically describe your OC (do you have a drawing? even better!)

Cautious. Giving. Optimistic. Loyal. Witty.

Piper more or less contains multitudes, and those multitudes are Very Anxious All The Time. But she's got a quick mind and will lay her heart and her efforts down for anyone that asks her to, if she calls them a friend. I haven't really had a faceclaim for my characters in a long time, and no one really fits her as well as I'd like, but I have this adorable art my friend @jaiesondurantkross drew, and I also have moodboards I made!

Who inspired your OC? (can be your mum to a very famous fungi)

Honestly a lot of things! Pipes started out as a Supernatural OC that I borrowed for this one-off Stand fic I started as a silly springboard-project off of a friend's fic, and she just.......got a life of her own. And a plot. And a few AUs. I might have a problem. |D;;; But I put a lot of myself into her -- she holds a lot of my insecurities and a lot of my shortfalls, but she has much more determination and gumption and sheer "fuck you" energy.

She's also got some vibes that align with one of my favorite characters in anything ever, Shadow Moon from Neil Gaiman's "American Gods". They both have their lives torn away from their grasp before being thrown wAY over their heads into a battle much bigger and much broader than they realize. And in response they just. Keep going. Sure they'll buck and dig their heels and bitch about their lot, but they keep moving all the same because doing anything else just isn't an option in their minds. I like that about them.

Give me a song to define your OC (I will listen to it to enter in your WIP mood!)

I'll forever hear Inkpot Gods by The Amazing Devil as Piper's song. It's the thing that inspired the entire second act of her story and gave me the biggest revelation about her character. But David Bowie's Life On Mars resonates deeply with her, and is one of her favorite songs. (She also has a playlist right over here, jussayin)

If I met your OC on the street how would they greet me?

A brief smile and small wave, probably. She's not the greatest with starting conversations, but if you rope her in, she gets comfortable pretty easy. Just show her some candidness and get a bit silly and she'll open up in no time at all. (Not unlike that "oop you showed me affection, now you'll never get rid of me" thing going around tiktok forever ago)

Can your OC be your best friend? Why?

I'd think so! She's got a lot of me in her, and her biggest passions are built around some of my own interests. Though we might grate on each other real hard if our neurodivergencies decides to collide. jfkdl;safd

1 adjective and 1 noun to describe your OC

Determined. Blanket.

Percy Stone / Aurella Reyne (Game of Thrones)

5 words to physically describe your OC (do you have a drawing? even better!)

Resourseful. Shrewd. Loyal. Proud. Frank.

Percy's nothing if not a survivor. She's a little too roughly-hewn to be much of a politician and she's really bad at simpering or fawning, but she's got a quick mind and a lot of determination to do what she needs to do to stay ahead. Despite this, her heart is her Achilles Heel, and she will put much of her own self-preservation aside for the very, very few people she sees as her friends (mostly Tyrion and Podrick, though Margaery hedges that line later on down the road.)

She also doesn't have a faceclaim (celebrities are all like. Movie-star Gorgeous! All of my girls are a little on the plainer side of pretty) but she's got moodboards as well!

Who inspired your OC? (can be your mum to a very famous fungi)

Honestly I got a lot of her vibes from quite a few period pieces I love -- Reign, Merlin, Tudor-adjacent media, things like that) she's not inspired by any one person in particular, but I just wanted someone who was more or less coded to be in the background as a supporting character, making her way to some position of power through a series of ever-increasing plans and mishaps. Genuinely starting from the bottom and having to learn how to be bigger and bigger, filling roles she never dreamed of in order to survive.

Give me a song to define your OC (I will listen to it to enter in your WIP mood!)

The Rains of Castamere doesn't count probably despite her whole "I'll slip into the archives of a dead House and no one's alive to tell anyone that I was never in the family tree" plan, but this cover in particular always hits me with the heaviest Percy feels jfdk;lsafd If we're going for character-study vibes, though, I've got a soft spot in my heart for Eden Espinosa's Waiting In The Wings. She's got a lot of hope and dreams in her heart, even if it's buried under a heap of cynicism and hard life lessons.

If I met your OC on the street how would they greet me?

Realtalk......she'd probably just do the smile-nod and keep on going. She's definitely the type to not get into conversations with strangers if she could help it, but kindness begets kindness......even if she's a tougher nut to crack.

Can your OC be your best friend? Why?

I'd think she and I could be friends! Not as close as Piper, but if she got comfortable enough to relax, we'd be able to drink tea and talk shit about Westeros' major politicians in no time at all. XD

1 adjective and 1 noun to describe your OC

Driven. Dagger.

No-pressure tagging @jaiesondurantkross and @alabaster-the-crow, if y'all wanna <3

[sailoryooons]

I’m a bit confused and new to this AI thing involving bts what is it, and why people uncomfortable with it or upset? I’m just a bit confused I don’t mean to be rude!

Hi! I am perhaps not the best person to answer this because I'm not an artist, but I will try to provide context the best I can. This is not a rude question at all - I will try to summarize the conversations the best I am able.

I'm going to put my answer under the cut because it's very long. Please know that this is just my understanding and that I am very hesitant to open myself up to this discussion because in general, I try to stay away from offering opinions because I don't know that what I have to say matters in the broader picture.

I also want to start by saying - I did answer two asks where a wonderful reader of mine provided me AI art to re-create Yoongi in my vision and I was so so touched by the inspiration behind it and how my words can make someone want to create, but after discussing it with some artist friends and overall my feelings about AI in general, I've removed them because I realize I cannot simultaneously appreciate something while explaining it's ethical issues.

There is a ton of new AI technology easily accessible online for voice modification, imager moderation and generation, and writing generation. These are the three I will focus on for my attempt at breaking it down.

Two main roots of the issue lie within:

Using technology to replace human art and jobs

Ethical conversations about rights to likeness and ideas being used

For the first issue:

While AI art generators give non-artistic people the ability to create images and materials they otherwise would be unable to create, it essentially takes away the agency of actual artists who paint, draw, design, craft etc. to make a living and who are already wildly undervalued (at least in Western culture).

Now, we have a free and very easily accessible way to replace those people who have spent years learning their craft, and AI often steals art and images that already exist to inform itself and make new images. The key thing about AI is that it has to be fed something to learn first, so everything that it puts out has been learned from somewhere, which makes it predatory for artists whose work gets used to feed knowledge to AI.

For the second issue:

A large part of AI brings up conversations about using images and voices of people without their consent. There are so many AI audios on TikTok of BTS members singing songs they never performed, and while it seems cool at first, you have to consider that what can happen when someone decides to use that with ill-intent. It's very alarming that voices can now be replicated to say things people never actually said, and it's nearly a SPOT on sound.

It's the same with images. AI can now be used to create hyperrealistic images that are not real, which is incredibly dangerous when someone wants to start producing images and passing them off as real, which we already struggle with in terms of people using graphic design/edits to push false narratives in media. AI has just exacerbated this issue.

Again, I don't know that I am the best person to discuss this, but this is essentially what the conversation revolves around. What it comes down to is that we already have amazing people to create art, music and writing, and to start using technology to replace those people is incredibly terrifying and will have long-term effects on humanities and the way that the world views, uses and understands art and history.

I don't want to make this a platform to debate the nature of AI, so moving forward I will not be sharing any more content that is given to me, even though I think the people who thought of my stories and words and felt inspired are wonderful and kind and it brings me joy that they felt empowered by me to create.

[pirateofthegramland]

So like two nights ago idk I was inspired by the Bratz dolls and the horror movie 'Jeepers Creepers' & I used the apps PicsArt and Prequel to create this amazing work of art.

Please check out the links below and make sure you guys go like, comment, share & save it would mean the world.

[demonicintegrity]

Since Welcome Home just had a speedrun record for viral bullshit, lemme key y'all in on what today's creatives think about.

For context, I'm in art school. Everyone around me including myself all have some sort of personal project(s) we wanna publish one day/are working on currently. And those specific projects are meant to make money so it means reaching a wider set of people.

I have several professors touch on what our online portfolio and presence needs, and it's led into class discussions on balancing putting ourselves/our work out there and keeping privacy. On top of learning how to deal with predatory editors and safe pitching practices, my peers are strongly voicing their distaste for any sort of proximity with any fandom they could accomplish because of rampant parasocial behaviors.

I got a roommate who wants to write a graphic novel and part of it is a sorta commentary on tiktok stardom in particular. They explained some of it to us and we all agreed the only way it would ever work is if it never went viral and prayed tiktok never got its hands on it.

Back in my wannabe youtuber days I took a good study at youtubers and realize the best fanbases were on the smaller side and that were encouraged into a specific way of engaging. (Like coming together specifically to do analysis or specifically to discuss smth, etc.) By nature of what people were attracted to what content.

I got book ideas I simply will not go through with if I'm in a peak/going viral because I know people will not handle them well. They will be shelved for another time. I also need to clean out and update my half-abandoned youtube before I start buckling down on my artistic endeavors because I know how the internet is. Never mind the fact that I'm willingly kneecapping myself by refusing to interact with instagram and pulling away from using twitter professionally. I value my tumblr circle so fucking much because it's so not insane and more on the wavelength with my bullshit. And I'm holding onto this more than any How To Market With Social Media advice.

Said roommate who's super passionate about their graphic novel idea exploring fame and what not (which I really can't wait to see happen one day) took inspiration from whatever the fuck tiktok did with Penelope Scott that one time. They explained she had the perfect amount of space away from her presence and an amazing social media balance that couldn't have been better and yet still got drag through the mud. My understanding is that watching that happened made my roommate go "what if" and want to explore some more concepts regarding fame and parasocial relationships.

I'm lucky. I have had minor "popularity" in certain circles on Tumblr (apparently) and yet have never got too dragged into discourse. Especially considering I've been here since I was twelve. The worst I've gotten is from the sociopolitical side of things, some of y'all probably remember how terfs were up my ass that one time.

My point being: Artists who are aware and in the industry and these spheres right now are hyperaware of what their presence can do. Hyperaware that their social media doesn't get to be the luxury of just a fun thing but an extension of their work life. That combined with how even traditionally published authors are more expected to be their own marketing these days, we are much more aware and even prepared than the averaged hobbyist.

And that's partly why all art is such a miserable hobby right now.

Never mind gaming algorithms and playing the luck game to even get seen, never mind the cultural idea that art is just something to be consumed and tossed out like it's a disposable napkin, but the average person is not prepared to handle what happens when lots of people start interacting with you specifically for your work. The masses simply cannot get their act together, especially in a post-covid world.

And the solutions aren't simple. Largely because the only way this is going to get better is if the people consuming learn how to behave. And you and I both can assume how likely that's going to be. Truly, I think meaningful change starts with media literacy. Just learning how to critically think about a piece. But I don't even think that's being taught in public schools, let alone to the focus it needs to have.

If we want the masses to stop harassing people unfortunately we gotta hope they have the reading comprehension to understand what's being put out there. That way they don't come out of left field with a wild accusation.

I remember being in 8th grade reading The Taming of The Shrew and the teacher have exactly zero acknowledgement on the blatant abuse that was taking place. The most we got from the class or her was "dang they didn't like women back then. Wild how she changed after being with this guy for only a short bit. anyways." and move on.

(I remember ranting to my mom borderline horrified how no one else was acknowledging the blatant abuse and horror. And how I just knew some boy my age was gonna sit in that class and read it and not see what was wrong cuz it wasn't explained. No one wanted to put effort understanding Ye Olde Speech. My mom was sorta proud of me in that moment. Said she would've never thought about those sorta things and thought I'd make a good teacher.)

I watched a Ted Ed last quarter in my philosophy class about an after school program teaching porn literacy and sex ed. The person speaking was pleasantly surprised at what was coming from the students once they were interested and encouraged. She (and our class) were horrified realizing porn was the only sex ed most teens were getting.

But my point here being: Teens were not engaging critically, not knowing how to properly get something out of media without being explicitly taught and walked through how to do that. Even though they were actively trying to learn something and intake information, they don't know how. I know my English classes were mostly just "we read this now write a paper about this from the text. Cite your sources and explain yourselves." But even I didn't know what explain yourselves meant and I did great in English.

And now attention spans seem to be on the fritz and the mob mentality is more rabid than ever.

I love making art so much. But trying to put anything out there is gonna suck because now I have to pull out ten different formulas of how do I get a big enough audience to sustain me but also curate and attract people who wont approach this/me in bad faith. All while knowing my social media will immediately become an extension of my work life instead of the stuff I do for funsies.

[fallstaticexit]

So I still consider myself pretty new to simblr, only officially joining around November 2023 from Tiktok and so I am still collecting sims accounts like Pokemon everyday I swear lol So far, I have these lovely folks to thank for all their hard work, creativity and dedication that inspires me to keep going, keep creating and sharing my own story. I am in awe and just absolute love with their stories, their visuals, their characters, their sims, their cc, their passion and I go on hours long rants to my wife about it how amazing it all is lol. Just keep being brilliant, stunning, flawless, inspirational, kind, cool, fun and most important YOU! And thank you again for all your wonderful art that you share!!

@cinamun @mellowtrait @thebramblewood @gunthermunch @stinkrascal @adelarsims @thestartome @happy-lemon @itsmariejanel @armoricaroyalty @stellarfalls @nexility-sims @beebeesiims @citylighten @rebouks @jayveesim @ophernelia @elderwisp @cowplant-snacks @nefarrilou @sojutrait  @oshinsimblr @aashwarr

(I get nervous doing these because i never want anyone to ever feel left out or unappreciated. U are all stars in my skies <3)

📩 Simblr question of the day: any other simblrs that you love?

answer in whatever way is most comfortable for you and feel free to share this SQOTD around, make sure to use the hashtag SQOTD and tag me in separate posts ~ 💛

This question was contributed by : @/missmoodring ~thank you for the SQOTD contribution~ (This is question 7 out of 10 that they have contributed :))

[jays-nook]

way back when tiktok wasnt banned here, i remember seeing multiple videos making fun of their ocs for being too much of a "mary sue" or just generally very silly. and ill admit, while i never really made fun of other peoples ocs, their presence was something i generally avoided while looking for fics-

it was only recently that my perspective changed and it was mostly cause i started creating my own and fell in love with the process.

i realized that it was all quite endearing actually when you think about it.

that we create these characters to feel closer to the source material (whatever it may be) we've become attached to. these ocs forge connections with the characters we love and we watch as their relationships unfold. we throw them into the world we loved and get to experience it from an insiders view.

we create possibilities to delve into hidden details that the creator left unaddressed and unexplored. we search for the "what ifs" and place our characters as agents of change to see what wpuld happen. we play with different possibilities and things we wish would have happened in the course of the events and use these ocs to make decisions that may often seem ooc for the existing characters.

and most of all, i realized how with every oc i create, im placing different parts of myself within them. whether its their personality, the way they talk, their interactions with others, their values and beliefs...etc. each oc represents some part of me or my experiences, and while theyre often exaggerated for the sake of drama and the fun of it, they quickly become something personal that i hold dear.

i dont have the same attachment to these ocs that others do, i go weeks without thinking of them, wips left unfinished, loose threads in their stories..but their presence, no matter how distant it sometimes is, is somewhat of a comfort - another means of escape when reality is too much.

and in the same way, i found others who practically ignited that interest in ocs within me and have become a source of inspiration. i found myself enthralled with all the different characters im being introduced to, their stories, their personalities, and even all the art that i was seeing by these amazing creators. i was overwhelmed by the sheer passion of my friends and threw myself in with them to share this experience (even though im sure theyre just a *little* tired of my forgetful self for having to repeat the same details more than once JFKFKD)

in each new fandom i join, ocs are a constant, and the creativity of all the creators is something im glad to experience again and again.

so yes, this was quite the ramble, but its just one long way of saying how i love being part of this special thing we all share as fans. i love adding art and videos to my "saved/bookmark" folders and going back to them to marvel at the love the creators have for these ocs. i love learning a little more about the creator through their characters, especially when the creator themself explores that aspect.

if you stuck around for this ramble have a vitrual cookie for your troubles 🍪

[snotsloth]

"Writers steal things. It's just a thing."

Definitely recommend this TikTok on fantasy and science fiction writers "stealing" concepts from one another, and specifically Dune. Go watch it, it's quite good and has some great insights.

At times in my life, I really struggled with world building or coming up with story mechanics because I was worried my ideas weren't "original" enough. I was also coming up in the "TV Tropes" and "Cinema Sins" era where being derivative was like the worst thing you could be as a creator. Oh you use well known tropes? People can predict how your book is going to end? You're a bad writer.

Since then it's been proven time and again that predictability is not actually as much of a story killer as we were led to believe. If you think about famously bad TV show finales like Game of Thrones or Lost, a lot of them have one thing in common. The writers' main goal was to surprise the audience. They went with what was least expected, not what was narratively satisfying.

But surprising does not always mean satisfying and in story telling, it often leads to other emotions like disappointment, confusion, frustration, or outright anger. People actually like it sometimes when they can see a particular ending coming or identify a particular trope that they like and can follow to its inevitable conclusion.

This is because people like patterns. We're hardwired to seek them out, even where they don't actually exist. It's how we interpret the chaos of the world around us. Archetypes, tropes, and foreshadowing help ground your audience in the narrative. They serve as signposts to help them find their way and understand the story you are telling them.

I took a very basic music theory class as an elective at university and I remember the professor explaining music as a constant tension between repetition and variety. A composition often consists of variations on a theme. You'll have the same note sequence but played in different key signatures, or the tempo changes, or you may modulate up and down. But ultimately, keeping the audience's interest relies on keeping a balance between repetition and deviation.

The same is true when writing a story. It's actually a good thing to take inspiration from other writers and artists that you admire. You are standing on the shoulders of giants. Centuries of narrative experimentation and tradition have come before you and abandoning all that would be a waste.

Plus, as you explore and take ideas in from other writers you will also start realizing what you don't want to "steal." No work is perfect, and as you experience more of what you like you will also discover what doesn't work. Sometimes it's obvious stuff like racist tropes that are harmful to your audience, misogyny and lack of development for female characters, or even just plot beats that you find boring. (Citation: I love The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay but I always struggle to get through the part where Joseph is stuck in Antarctica.)

Very often, your early writing will feel like you just made a collage of all the stuff you liked most in your favorite stories. It will feel derivative because you are still processing the structures, tropes, and aesthetics that you like. As you continue to write, and continue to read and explore other modes of art, those edges will start to soften and blend into one another. Like the ingredients of a stew, all your inspiration will get mixed up and brewed together into something that is uniquely your voice.

That's what is really wild about honing your craft. You have to make shitty derivative projects before you can make something truly original and great. Creating a good story usually doesn't happen by just learning what has been done before and doing not that. A good, unique, personal story comes from embracing all the influences on your work that you've stirred around in your brain, stewed for 10+ years and poured back out as something brand new.

Michael Chabon, author of aforementioned favorite book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay once wrote, "All novels are sequels, influence is bliss." So, if you're tackling NaNoWriMo this month or just trying to get something on the page and keep getting stuck on the anxiety of "am I just stealing ideas from better writers?" Don't worry about it. You absolutely are, but so was every other writer you've ever admired. Anyone who says otherwise is a filthy liar.

Embrace your influences. Be mindful and deliberate with them in your work. Through them, you'll find a voice that is genuinely and uniquely you. And above all, keep writing!