#it's more of a thing about sharing and art and community and engagement I guess

[leconcombrerit]

This thing had been rotting in my files for a year (minus three weeks but that's basically a year). It was a redraw of one of my first ever pieces for this fandom, and I still find it quite okay if a little stiff in places, so I thought I might as well share it since I don't draw that much anymore.

And then I had second thoughts, which obviously led to me posting it anyway, as you can see, but I realized I've almost made it a point not to draw anything related to Sasi anymore. As in at all. I can't, and I don't want to, and even sharing old art feels a bit 'meh'. It's too directly linked to my long going art block.

What I mean by that is that if I took all the followers I have out there and asked them what they know me or initially followed me for, you might have a fair amount of Lis 2 and the occasional Desert Bluffs afficionados, but you'd get an overwhelming majority of Sanders Sides. Sanders Sides fashion posts even. I was by no means famous for it or anything, but at my small artist scale, it was the biggest success I had.

And it makes it much harder to go back to it at all now. One, because I don't give a damn about the show anymore. Two, because I haven't been properly obsessing over anything in a while (there was a series early this year but given the actual emotional distress I get thinking about it I'm ruling it out). I haven't had real engagement from my own brain, nor real engagement from a broad audience -which makes sense, I'm not posting for anything that will reach a broad audience. But it takes its toll regardless.

Even when I finally finished writing a long fic, I couldn't help but feel 'all this for what ? Ten people or so and two hundreds have dropped it ?'. Which is a bad way to think about stuff you write for your own enjoyment but, you know, the brain gets happy with external validation even if you pretend really hard you don't care.

And so it feels tempting to go back to the golden goose just the time to get the creative juice pumping back, and I try, and I always end up frustrated and angry and feeling even less like making art that before. I'm not having fun with Sasi. Like an old friend you have nothing to say to and yet you have so much to say otherwise, so you get a bit frustrated, you know ? Not sure I'm making much sense, but that's how it feels. I want to have something like that again, but it won't be with Sanders Sides, and I somehow just want if off my radar.

It was left hanging, then lost its spark, and then I stopped caring altogether and I most likely won't even watch the finale when it does come out. I'm over it. I wish I wasn't though, because it does feel like the artistic spark won't come back all on its own this time, and the buzzing community made it so much easier to bounce back and do shit when your brain got wired all wrong.

It sounds like I'm just bawling after love and likes and stuff, and I guess that's part of it, in a way ? Like I'm in no place to do things for myself, and seeing the one thing I used to use to get back in the flow giving me a bored sense of dread doesn't feel too great.

Yet this drawing is still good ! I find it good ! I don't remember everything, but I can tell from the looks of it that I spent a while on it ! It's nice ! I should celebrate that. So I'm sharing it. I think it will be the last piece of Sasi I ever share, though. I'm not watching the finale when it comes out. I don't care about it. I'll just keep doodling my OCs and characters from cool books every once in a while. I'll write little things.

I just really, really need to stop trying to go back to it when it's clearly not working and not even for good reasons. It was a fun ride though ! So yeah. Basically. A whole ass rant for a one year old piece of art. I'm in my bi-annual depresso mood, nothing too surprising there.

[haunting-heroes-creative-games]

✨ Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About The Haunting Heroes Discord But Didn’t Want To Ask ✨

Are you looking to join this DPxDC server but don't know what it's about? Are you new to Discord and want to figure a few dynamics about it first? Then this is the post for you!

We're Super excited to share with you some of the features you can expect when you join the Haunting Heroes DPxDC Discord server.

🔷 I’m new to Discord. What is Discord?

A noble question. Discord is a messaging/private server application where you can join servers to chat, text, and video call people. Lots of fandoms have servers dedicated to their beloved show/book/comics/blorbos

It’s a popular platform because a) it’s free and b) it’s very easy to organize.

Haunting Heroes, as such, is essentially a private chat room where you can talk about DPxDC with other fans. There are other DPxDC servers, but you can never have too many!

🔷 What do you do on Haunting Heroes?

We do a lot! If you’re here, you may have seen the results of the Writing Games we’ve played, like "Who Wrote That?" as well as "Guess That Fic" (a fun way to give fic recs AND test your DPxDC fic knowledge!).

We also share updates of fanart, non fanart, and fan fics, as well as recommendations to stories we’ve read and enjoyed.

And we have plenty of ways to discuss ideas: from canon resources to headcanons that intrigue you; from prompts to workshopping your story ideas; from asking for a beta-reader to sharing your progress. Sometimes this even happens live while doing a sprint with others.

🔷 What does ‘18+ SFW’ mean?

18+ is fairly straightforward: you have to be 18 years or older to join our server. So why SFW?

We decided to emphasize the Safe For Work aspect not because no NSFW content is allowed—we have a flourishing NSFW category as well as a Dark Category with channels for people to talk about it to your hearts’ content! We welcome more mature content, but not everyone wants to engage in it, or only want to engage on their own terms. Being able to curate what you do and don't see is important to us, hence the separate categories (and having to self-select a role to see the NSFW + Dark channels)

We add SFW when talking about HH because ‘18+’ on its own has certain connotations (just like ‘adult content’ or ‘adults only’).

Why, then, are we an 18+ server? We appreciate the under 18s in our fandom, and there are lots of fandom places that are open to all ages (for example, this blog!). But there are older fans who feel more comfortable in an adult oriented space. We noted that a place for adults only in the DPxDC fandom was missing, and wanted to fill that niche.

🔷 Why Should I Join?

✏️ If you’re a writer, you can find a beta reader or ping the Ideas Helper role if you want some help with your story. You can find and share resources for various things, such as writing, art, and how to use A03.

🐱 We also share lots of pictures of our pets!

💡 We have fun emojis and stickers unique to Haunting Heroes, many made by people who are part of the server.

⭐️ We have a starboard! If someone says something you find funny, react to their post with a star emoji; if a post gets 9 stars, it gets shared to the board! It’s like the highlights reel at the end of a Mario Kart Race, but user generated. It's a good way to quickly know what's been going on in the server.

🐰 Our Bunny Hutch (AKA prompts sharing category) is always hopping. Enter at your own risk! You may go there with the intention of dropping off one prompt for someone else to adopt, and leave having adopted 4 new WIPS of your own!

And most importantly, we are a fandom community looking to share with each other the things we love doing or seeing in the fandom. You are likely to find writers, artists, and commenters you know from AO3 or Tumblr, but you might also find new friends to hang out with or be inspired by new things while lurking.

🔷 What can I expect upon joining?

☑️ Once you join, you will have to read our guidelines to make sure you agree with them and know what you can expect in terms of how we handle the server.

☑️ There are also roles to be selected so you can customize your experience. Some roles will allow you to give information to other members (such as the pronouns you select), others will give you an aesthetic (such as color roles), others are pingable and alert you for specific activities (such as movie nights ,or a new writing game being set up, or when someone wants others to bounce ideas). Some will also grant you access to specific sections in our server, such as dark or nsfw channels, which won't be visible otherwise.

☑️ Don't forget to also select the 18+ role which grants you acces to the whole server. This one is made specifically to confirm you agree with the guidelines and are 18 or older, since that's our sole requirement to join the server.

☑️ Once you define your roles, you can check our server roadmap to guide you through the many channels we have in the server with descriptions for each of them and the bots we have available to help through the experience.

☑️ Don't worry if you get a few pings upon entering: we have a welcome mat where others will greet you once you're in.

🔷 How can I join?

To join, send us an ask confirming you're 18+ and someone in our team will send you the link. You can find the ask box as "Ask us anything here" at the top of our blog or clicking here. Please make sure you check your inbox for our reply. If you sent us an ask and haven't gotten a reply in 48hrs, please let us know either replying in this post or contacting one of our mods.

We hope you have fun and fulfill your hero-haunting needs💚👻

[isahorcrux]

In light of the recent announcement of the Harry Potter TV Show and the fact that this is primarily a Harry Potter fan fiction blog, the below needs to be said.

I am not excited about this show.

If you told my past self 5 years ago this, I’d be shocked.  Five years ago, if they announced a Harry Potter TV show I’d be doing everything in my power to be involved some way or another.  However, in the last five years JKR has shown her true colors and spent her free time and money attacking the trans community.  There are many reasons why I’m not excited about the show or looking forward to it in any regard, but to me the most important is that this show gives JKR more money and cultural capital to further her anti-trans agenda.  This is unacceptable.

I think a lot of us raised on Harry Potter really wanted to separate the art from the artist, dive further into fanfic and fandom and just ignore that the woman who created a world in which we’ve spent most of our lives escaping into.  However, we can’t do that.  It’s come to my attention over the past few days that a lot of people aren’t even aware of the active harm JKR is doing to the trans community.  Most people just say, ‘oh she said some weird stuff on twitter’ right?

Well, yeah.  But, did you also know she launched an active campaign against a reform bill that made it easier for trans people to legally change gender?  You know what happened?  The UK blocked that Bill and Scotland now has to launch a legal challenge to the government block.  She’s also funding a Sex Abuse Crisis Center that excludes trans women.  Yeah, that’s right.  She’s using her money from a book about love and acceptance to actively exclude a marginalized group from a crisis center.  She’s also publicly admitted via twitter that she funds anti-LGBTQ political activity in the UK.

So yeah, there’s a direct line of fans supporting official trademarked Harry Potter anything and that money directly harming transpeople.  Sorry for that rude awakening, but some of y’all are doing backflips to avoid seeing this.

Now, is there a way to prevent Warner Brothers (and Max, lol) from making this show?  Probably not?  After mergers and at a point when the tv and film industry isn’t booming, they need money.  You know what makes money?  Harry Potter.  Which is why they’re rebooting it.  Another question that’s been raised, will the looming writer’s strike affect this?  I would guess probably not?  Most UK writers (and International writers at large) are not in the WGA.  JKR has always wanted the most amount of British people involved in Harry Potter adaptations, so they’ll use the strike to find a UK writer and get them to work.

So what can we do?

Don’t watch the show.  Or, if you do.  Pirate it. In fact, cancel your Max subscription before the show launches.

They’re going to spend A LOT of money on this.  If the numbers aren’t there for them they will do what every other streamer does with an unsuccessful show and cancel it.  They announced 5 Fantastic Beast movies, and yet...where’s that last one?

Anyway, thanks for reading this whole thing if you’ve gotten this far.  Please share with friends who are excited about the show.  Please engage in meaningful discussions with other Potter fans.  Please support our trans friends and strangers.

Once again, this blog says FUCK JKR.

[deathdetermineslife]

how do you manage to get any followers or friends in the selfshipping community? is it just luck?

for months i’ve been trying to interact with others and follow people, engaging with stuff like ask games and hosting reblog games, but when i try to share any artwork or i reblog an ask game myself, its radio silence. like even in small discords i get ignored so bad

i don’t say this at all to be guilt tripping /gen, it’s genuine curiosity at how this stuff even works. like am i doing something wrong or is the community just like this?

here is my comprehensive and lame guide on How To Get Selfship Followers

step 1 - posting

so a lot of my posts are either kinda general or fun. folks I will not lie to you. these are all stupid shit that come to my mind on a day to day basis. for example, today, I thought, "man I'm such a loser I'm not in college like all my friends r" and then I was like "omg wait. i could make a post out of this" so I did that.

you also kinda gotta be conistent. so i try to post at least *something* everyday. even if its a reblog, tho, I don't reblog a lot of things other than ask games.

another thing with posting is that i do try to make a lot of community based content. so idk if yall remember but in the beginning of my account, I did the "things you can do if you have xyz f/o". i did like,,, I think almost 100 of those ?????? it was a lot. then I started making templates and I made some ask games and ofc I post a lot of general like,,, imagine stuff. oh also polls. people seem to enjoy polls.

step 2 - be positive

this is the big thing. as most of yall (hopefully) know, I do not fw proshippers !! but I don't talk about discourse unless its directly brought up. not only this, I put a big focus on just,,, being nice idk. like id like to think I'm a pretty down to earth person.

if you make a template and people tag you in it, say something nice! reply to peoples art, send in asks, things like that. i try to do my part in being nice. i also just like hearing about peoples selfships.

when people post promos and have the little "rb to be moots", reblog! when you come across someone having a bad day, maybe they made a vent or something, reply with a simple "I hope you feel better <3" or "your f/o loves you <3". things like that, ya know?

step 3 - have fun

genuinely. i post as much as i do because I like it. i didn't go into this thinking "oh... yea... I'm gonna get selfship famous..." like no I just wanna ramble somewhere bc none of my close irls r selfshippers.

you wont get popular or get followers because you grind out posts. literally one of my biggest posts on this account I wrote while I was half asleep one night and wanted to test out queuing on my account.

and in that regard, it is partially luck. i don't control what posts people do and don't like. sometimes I write up imagines and no one sees them. sometimes I write up a post saying "lol go kiss your fake boyfriend ooo smoochie smoochie" and that does numbers

step 4 - interaction

im only in two servers. one server (which was the first public server I think I ever joined ???? i could be wrong tho,,, bad memory blehg) that I don't own and then my own 18+ server. i don't think being in servers does anything,,, considering I'm only in one that isn't mine. i think its more like ,,, sticking to one or two places ?? like just being consistently in an area you're comfortable in.

i guess you gotta just find the right people ??? and like I mentioned, be friendly, but ya know. also I guess tags too? idk if you look at any of my regular posts I have 8 million tags on them. idk if that actually does anything or not because its kinda hit or miss sometimes.

i was gonna say something else but i forgot. see look listen I dunno how I got here but this is what I do ,,,, effectively nothing. also with the being kind thing, maybe this is how I am bc I'm pagan but I think that if you expect kindness back you wont get anything. sometimes its just nice to be nice. eventually you gain a reputation for being a nice person. you kinda have to not want that tho? like I don't see myself as particularly like ,,, super kind ,,,??? i just do what feels right.

step 5 - uhhhh idk im just rambling now

i guess i also went into this kinda like. damn sometimes this community is a cesspool of absolute meanie pants. i don't wanna be a Meanie Pants and just post my thoughts and the things I think about. i guess how I see it too is, I kinda like ? idk I think all these things anyways why not post them? kinda feels like a waste not to.

also ive been told my posts are pretty recognizable bc of how I format them ? my dividers and such. also tagging all of my imagines and stuff with my 🥀📜 emojis. i guess that helps too? because that's how I recognize certain accounts. "like oh there's them I recognize their dividers and their tags".

also you kinda gotta like,,, not let hate get to you. like have fun with it? i know that's hard, but, that's what you gotta do. when I get printer ink (bc. a hoe does NOT like buying printer ink) im printing out that fucking 8 mile long hate message I got sent. but also that's just the kinda person I am. like people being a dick and stealing my posts and telling me to swallow a glock 9mm doesn't upset me, im more like,, confused more than anything because never in my life have I ever sent hate to anyone. also I have had this "I do not care because you're some loser on the internet and you being an ass wipe is no where near as bad as the shit people have done to me irl" attitude.

TLDR; i dont think youre doing anything wrong because I don't exactly know what I'm doing right. i just... do... and sometimes, "just doing" is enough. maybe its luck, maybe I've been blessed by the tumblr algorithm and I've somehow figured it out, or maybe the community is just genuinely that bad and they pick favorites. maybe its all of the above! who knows. i try not to worry about it. i think at the end of the day, as long as you're having fun posting about your f/os and selfshipping, that's what matters.

alright thats all see ya. if you have any more questions feel free to ask however I fear I cannot answer them </3

[miyamiwu]

Reblogging is a form of self-expression

I’ve seen a lot of posts about how people aren’t reblogging much art anymore, with the authors encouraging people to reblog coz it helps support artists. But the thing about most of these posts is that they don’t really talk about how the likes-reblog gap isn’t just widening for art posts. It applies to other types of posts as well—be it short or long text posts, some edit you made, photos, etc.

I don’t have that much followers, but some of my posts have reached over 1k notes. (And some rare popular ones have reached 5-6 digits). I write a lot of metas both here and on one of my side blogs. I also make gifs occasionally, and I have lots of original posts in general too.

But in all of my posts, there are always more likes than reblogs, and the gap is often wide.

When I look through some of the blogs in the notes, several of them are empty but with their Likes visible. And if they’re not empty, then all their posts are just their own. No reblogs at all...

Many of those Likes vs Reblogs posts talk about how reblogging helps the original poster but make little to no explanation on how reblogging serves the reblogger. And I guess that’s why the likes-reblogs gap continues to widen. People are framing reblogs as free advertising for the OP when we should be framing reblogs for what it primarily is—a form of self-expression.

When you reblog something, it’s like saying...

You’re so excited about the post that you want others to see it

You agree with the idea/opinion being expressed in the post (opinions, discourse, analysis, etc.)

You care about the things said in the post (like sharing pro-Palestine posts)

You identify with the community being represented in the post (like being part of a certain fandom)

You find the post funny and want to save it (like how you’d save memes to your phone)

You think the post is cute and want to squish it (cat photos, animal videos, kawaii stuff, etc.)

Or you just think the post is going to be a popular one so you’re “investing” early

etc.

You can even expand these ways of expression by adding your own commentary through tags or reblogs. You can’t do that with just liking.

Actually, you don’t even need to have a clear reason for reblogging something. Posts can simply be like stickers or stamps, which you collect to put on your scrapbook (your blog). Years later, you can then go through your archive and look back on how you were before at certain times in your life.

[To those who don’t know: Yes, we have an archive. It’s at username.tumblr.com/archive. You can filter posts by post type and by month/year of posting. Only posts/reblogs show up in the archive. Likes are not included.]

Moreover, reblogging is how you gain friends. Mutuals, after all, are two people who follow each other, and well, for someone to follow you, you must have something on your blog that they’d want to see more of. If you only like posts, then what’s there to see?

Original posts are nice, of course, but when I see a blog where all posts are just their own, I’m immediately given the impression that it’s being run by a brand. And it may be that the blog really is trying to maintain its Brand image—such is the case for side blogs dedicated to a certain topic (like poll tournaments or art-only blogs). But even then, people will expect you to have a Main blog or another side blog where you do reblog stuff.

It’s kind of how we know you’re human. And it’s also how we know that you’re open to actually engaging with others on this site.

A blog that’s empty or contains nothing but their own posts sends out the message that you’re not interested in or just don’t care about what other people are saying.

[brotoman]

ok, i am currently watching the new hbomberguy video and i got to the part with james somerton, and this is actually painful. i cannot believe how fucking creatively bankrupt someone can be. like, does he even watch or engage with the media he makes video essays for? i can't be sure. if he just regurgitates everything, then wtf does this guy even believe? this is so insane to me. i can't imagine making all these videos copying other people's work verbatim, it's all so empty and soulless.

the thing i love about video essays is seeing what others are passionate about talking about. i guess to me, sharing that enthusiasm (especially if it features good analysis) is so satisfying! it says something about you as a person: what you like, what you notice, and what you feel from art. art that has had a strong personal effect on me is part of how i understand my identity. so i guess there's something nearly uncanny valley about a fucking human content machine spitting out videos featuring nothing but other people's thoughts, opinions and observations. it's all so cynical.

and it's made even more upsetting that this guy is, ultimately, a marginalized person standing on the backs of other marginalized people. profit in the name of "queer analysis." it fucking spits in the face of what the queer community should be - we should be looking out for each other. uplifting one another. you'd have to be a real fucking scumbag to treat others this way.

EDIT: i got further in and uh,,, my question "what is this guy even passionate about," was answered! it's hating women. he's a misogynist. wow. fuck this guy with a brick.

EDIT: WHY WOULD HE MAKE AN ATTACK ON TITAN VIDEO IF HE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO SPELL "SHONEN." THAT'S NOT EVEN REMOTELY IN HIS WHEELHOUSE FFS IM INSANE \

edit: to follow up on anime not being his wheelhouse, apparently he was gonna make a neon genesis evangelion video (despite as recently as 2 weeks ago saying he'd never seen it and didn't understand the watch order) and a revolutionary girl utena video. thank you, harris, for saving us from this fate. good fucking GRIEF

[alexanderwales]

How do you advertise your website for people to see it? Because I'm having trouble getting my stories out.

Oh boy am I the wrong guy to ask. Anything I say here is going to be "do as I say, not as I do".

The best way to get your stories out there is for someone to find them and love them and spread them to everyone else they know. If your stories are good, then this will keep happening, and you will accumulate a legion of followers who naturally want to share their experience with your stories, whether that's writing fanfic, making fan art, writing reviews, or having discussions.

The second best way is to have an algorithm pick them up. This also somewhat requires people to like the stories, but it's more passive, and you don't need someone literally going to a place they hang out and saying "hey, read this story". Not all websites have algorithms, but some of them do, and I used to post my stories on reddit, which is probably where a good initial chunk of my readers came from. Some websites where you post stories have algorithms of their own, but I mostly mean websites that are for other things. Being an active member of communities can help, but you have to actually want to be there, because people hate shilling by outsiders, at least in most place (it's a form of advertisement, which people also hate).

The third best way is advertisement. As stated, people hate it, but it can be effective, I guess. I don't know, I don't really do it. Find active discords for places where people read stories like yours, promote there while trying to obey the rules about self-promotion, this will probably be met with silence and someone will say "is it any good?" and maybe one of them will take the hit and read it to report back (and then hopefully it's good). This has mostly been my experience with people coming to my discord, I don't think I have ever done this myself.

The fourth best way is engagement. Answer every comment on your story you see. Talk to every reader. I hate this, it gives me cringe feelings, so I don't do it, but I'm fairly sure it does actually give some results, mostly by giving people positive social feelings about you and your stories (?). I have almost never enjoyed hearing someone talk about their characters, so I don't talk about my characters, but I think there are people on TikTok or wherever who have gotten traction by being very social and intentionally namedropping their book.

So ... I don't know. Writing on the internet is hard. It sometimes feels like people only want to talk about the same six media franchises, or the new hotness. The approach that works best is to write as much as you can, as consistently as you can, with as high of a quality as you can, and then hope that if you put out a hundred tendrils, eventually you'll get a tug on one of them. The reading communities are kind of a mess, and there's way too much self promotion, a lot of it for stuff that isn't good.

I fear this isn't helpful, and I do not actually do these things, so take all this with a big grain of salt.

[daisyofwaterdeep]

i saw another take being like "mannn the fandom is dying, how sad :(" which is a sentiment that already irks me for many reasons but this particular person was in my notes not too long ago bc they had liked (not reblogged) some of my writing. today i was feeling a little extra petty so i decided to go to their blog. you know what i saw?

in the past week or so, this person has reblogged (with no tags) only 3 or 4 things (that had 7k+ notes already) for the fandom in between general memes unrelated to anything and vague aesthetic posts. now im not saying that running a blog like that is bad, but to then bemoan the fact that 'the fandom is dying' when you aren't out here reblogging art that isn't from a bnf, when you aren't complimenting or encouraging artists in the tags, when you're reading fics and HCs but not engaging with them other than a like....yeah, you're the problem.

fandom is about community. It's about talking and sharing and spreading love-- that's what keeps it alive. and guess what? doing those things is how you make fandom friends, and how you find more fandom content!

this fandom is far from dead (it's only been a year people--we're still a fucking baby!) but to the people who don't want to support creators, or who don't talk about the fandom or share their thoughts or ideas or who don't share other's works...yeah. it probably does seem pretty dead to you.

[aaronsrpgs]

A Worksheet Manifesto (Rough Draft)

The Worksheet Manifesto is an attempt to explain why I'm moving my game design toward something I can print for free at the public library and give away. It's not a scold or a call to action; I buy full-color zines and hardcover books, and I support people charging for their work. This is a personal manifesto���an exercise in self-exploration.

The first reason I pursue this is ACCESS. I want people to be able to find and play my games. (Accessibility is maybe a better word for this, but I don't want it confused with the process through which something is made easier to use for people with disabilities.)

Some of the main barriers I've seen are financial (someone can't afford my games), technological (lack of computers and/or printers makes it more complicated to read my games), and international (shipping to someone outside the U.S. is prohibitively expensive).

Combining these three elements, I realized I wanted my games to be cheap or free. The common "community copies" solution on itch.io is much touted, and for good reason, but as I tried explaining the process to friends who weren't familiar with the site (or who flat-out aren't tech savvy), many responses were confused or frustrated. So I've set most of my games to pay-what-you-want with a suggested price.

Going from computer tech to printer tech, my most recent games were laid out in black and white, without ink-sucking textures (although some still have large spots of black in the art--something I continue to consider). Many American libraries offer limited free printing, and I always hope people will "utilize" the printers at their jobs or schools. I want people to be able to easily print out my games and share them at the table or pass them to friends.

And more selfishly, I hate dealing with fulfillment and shipping. It's stressful for me, it requires money up front to print things, and I'm bad at it, which means shipments go out slow, or not at all if someone lives outside of the U.S. Creating a file that's easy to print hopefully encourages people to create their own copies.

These cheap print copies also hopefully contribute to a feeling of DISPOSABILITY. I grew up with comic books, magazines, newspapers, and mass market paperbacks, and I think these cheap, short slabs of culture helped them feel like someone could engage with them without having to be fancy or educated or in the know. (A lot of us gatekeep ourselves!)

Prices for RPGs, like so many nerd collectibles, have steadily risen at least since the start of the pandemic. Crowdfunders often capitalize on FOMO, encouraging people to go all in on deluxe hardcovers with fabric bookmarks or whatever. And if my experience working at a used game store is anything to go by, lots of those fancy editions go right onto the bookshelf, unread. Don't want to break the spine or get fingerprints on it!

And I guess I'm just against consumerism? If someone wants a nice thing, I hope they get it, but a culture of games as luxury items and status symbols is not something I'm interested in.

So if someone has a game of mine and they don't want it anymore, I hope they pass it on, put it in a little free library, or recycle it.

And those dirty little printouts of my games? I want people to touch them and write them. I want TACTILITY. This is partially a usability issue: 300-page hardcovers are hard to find information in, and they're heavy if you have to lug them to a friend's house.

So I try to design games where everything a player (including the GM) needs is on, at most, three sheets of paper. I want them to be able to spread a couple pages out and take in the shape of the game they're about to play. I want them to circle things and make notes in the margins. Moving a pencil around does wild things to your brain, the same way that picking at a guitar or molding clay does. It focuses attention in interesting ways.

And in the end, you hopefully have a personalized article of play. And if you spill beer on it, no one's worried about replacing that $50 hardcover.

Speaking of beer, I want my games to be available to and contribute to COMMUNITY. As the pandemic started, I retreated into lots of online spaces, and those were absolutely vital to my survival. But I lost touch with lots of my friends and acquaintances in my city. I want to reconnect with them.

One of my favorite cartoonists, Mark Connery, is known for drawing little zines and just...leaving them all over. Coffee shops, art galleries, bathrooms. And when I think of him, I think of an artist responding directly to the places around him. Is it sad that some of this work is probably "lost" to all readers other than the person that happens across the zine? A little bit. But I think that comes from a bad part of my brain, the part that wants to own things.

I certainly don't want the entirety of my own work collected and widely distributed. Some of those things were specific responses to specific times that I've moved past. Some were bad! But I want to keep responding to my specific times and my specific place. I want to give things to friends (even if they just pass them on or recycle them). I want to give a game to someone at a zine fest and have them recognize my name from a zine they read in a coffee shop bathroom. And maybe they'll give me a zine in return.

My last hangup is MODULARITY. First, similar to tactility, I want to be able to give a player only the rules that matter to them. Character creation and basic rules? Here's a page. And once you're familiar with that and we've entered a downtime phase, here's a page with those options. You want to start a farm? Here's a page. I want it to feel like printing coloring pages for kids or ripping out my favorite magazine articles. These are the parts that matter. And if they stop mattering, you can get rid of them.

But I also want modularity on a system level. I want to add a subsystem to game as I think of it. I want to throw in an adventure pamphlet when it comes to me. I can keep them all in a little box, like a care package from my past self, and when it's time to run a game, I can dig around like a verminous animal and build my nest out of the best bits.

In CONCLUSION, I want to reiterate that this is a personal practice, and I'm not criticizing people who work differently. I used to work differently, and in the future, I'll probably work differently again.

This is simply the way I've identified what's important to me, set that up against the things that cause me to stumble, taken advantage of the privileges I have, and tried my best to bring that all together in a way that keeps me excited about my own work.

[shinesurge]

i was talking with an art friend about how i sometimes feel REALLY weird about getting "omg me frfr" on my art but DON'T feel weird about people relating to phineas so much they cosplay as her or even took her name, and I've always had a really hard time explaining the difference but i think i cracked it. the Good Kind of reader connection feels like somebody coming up to me, relating to my work, then clasping hands with me about it; the Bad Kind feels like they're taking the work from my hands, pinning it to their own shirt and wandering away with it

like it gets complicated and nuanced no matter what, but it's easy to see in the case of straight up personal work. ANOTHER art friend struggling with this did an autobio strip that ended up triggering it for them, and I related a lot to their comic about their real life experience! In my mind the process was "wow cool, it is cool that this person feels this way and i understand it myself, they communicated an idea and i recieved it." But once it broke containment they were struggling because the response completely removed them from the equation; people were tagging their OWN oc's or saying things that indicated they had no respect for the fact that this lived experience belonged to someone else, like the art had spontaneously sprung from Social Media just for them. it seems like the internet as a whole really encourages cutting off the second half of the Art Response; you go "this is ME" without acknowledging that another human feels the same way, enough to make the thing in the first place. It feels like once you share art you aren't the artist anymore, people don't go "this art came from another human who feels the same as me" they go "this art came from Instagram and now it's mine to use how i like."

i have a lot of thoughts to sort through about this, i feel like i could explain it better but i just wanted to get it written down for now. I also don't think this is like, a thing to be fixed by Engaging More or anything? And I don't think anyone is doing this intentionally, it's very much a product of social media turning Art into Content; the human element being removed from art is just the logical outcome of removing the human element from things in general. You don't have to go out of your way to comment or contact anyone about their work, but i guess! next time you see some art that makes you feel Seen, take a second to consider that another person made it, what might have compelled them to make it? maybe even go check out their other work, if one thing spoke to you they might be saying other stuff you'll like too

[softcitrus2345]

Hii!! This is the first time I have ever reached out to someone in this community because I am very scared of being 'found out' and I find it hard to accept myself for what I like 😓 But your account feels very safe, and ur art is so gorgeous bsjsbdj!!!. I read ur tips from a while ago about how to start an account and I would rlly like to share my art out there and connect with likeminded people, and present all my ocs to the world that I have hidden in a folder on my procreate HELP. If this isn't too personal of a question, do u have an tips on self acceptance when it comes to this niche?

Oh man, I totally feel you there, I'll do my best to help ya out!

I completely understand the struggle with self-acceptance with this niche, so many spaces both in the internet and real life have stigmatized this kind of niche and made it out to be something disgusting and perverted, and something to be ashamed about..

I struggled for years with myself, feeling guilty for being into these sorts of things, and for "tainting" my characters with these thoughts, and the occasional drawing I would make in a notebook and promptly rip out and hide somewhere out of shame-

It took me a long time to finally understand why I felt the way I did, and what specific things about this niche appealed to me.

The thing that has helped me the most with the self-acceptance aspect is having a sense of community. Whether it be with just one person, or with a small group, having other people with similar interests that you can talk to and feel comfortable with helps a ton.

Around the same time last year was when I started to get more comfortable with this niche. I joined the server of an artist who's chonky art I really liked, and I got to meet new people and explore that part of myself more. But the best thing for me was finding out that one of my closest friends was also into the same things I was. It was just such a huge sense of relief when I found out, and once I started talking with her about it and sharing ideas back and forth, it became a lot easier to talk about, and it helped me get a lot more comfortable engaging with these interests of mine. A few months later, I found another one of my friends also liked this stuff, and then a few more months later, I found even MORE of my already close friends were into this

I guess the universe was just on my side, I'm so fortunate to have such kind and understanding friends that I can share this stuff with, and explore my interests with

Without them, this account wouldn't exist, and I wouldn't be making this kind of art that I share here, so I will always be grateful for that.

The best advice I can offer you is to find that sense of safety and community, whether it just be one person or several

Joining servers of artists who's work you enjoy is always a good way to meet new people, as well as interacting with artists you admire or other people in the community!

It's never easy to start, and don't get me wrong, I still do struggle with this stuff on and off, but I promise you it does get easier. Try to be kind to yourself

Think of it this way. It's SUPER normalized in society to be into like. Buff guys, or big boobies or butts or whatever, right?? Well being attracted to fat can also be seen that way if you really think about it-

Not saying that fat people should always be objectified in that way but I'm just trying to put that into perspective-

Hopefully that makes sense lol

Also, I am so glad to hear that you can find comfort and a sense of safety in this blog, because that's exactly my intention to have a safe space for people to explore their interests without fear of outside judgement

It means the world to me that you like my art so much and that you felt comfortable asking a tough question like that. I hope my advice can bring you some hope and clarity involving your situation 💖

I sincerely wish you the best, anon, I hope you can find the confidence to share your art with the world someday! I'd love to hear your ideas and see what kind of stuff you put out there!

[redstringraven]

for the tmnt 40th anniversary: 23 and 32!

\TwT/ !!! thank you much!

TMNT's 40th anniversary ask game!

23.) what is one of your favorite TMNT fics?

ough, i'm admittedly very, very bad at reading fanfic for a few reasons: 1) since i'm also a creator, i often have to decide if i want to use what free time i have creating or engaging with art made by others, and i often opt for the former; 2) i'm an extremely slow reader partially due to how i learned to read, because of this i'm usually pickier about where i put my reading time (if i schedule myself any); 3) i refuse to read fic if i'm not on my desktop with my firefox extension that lets me use the floaty comment box, because it brings me joy to leave lengthy, thorough comments. i love leaving the types of comments i'd like to receive, and my brain gets very cranky when i can't. all this to say, i haven't read a lot of tmnt fanfic since circling back to one of my childhood fandoms. ene i'm trying to be better about it because i very much believe in supporting community, i just... haven't quite gotten around to a rhythm that works for me yet, i guess. not for a lack of wanting, tho. however! i love In The Shelter of Each Other, by @hamstermastersamster; as well as Anger and Management, by @halogalopaghost; and I'll Be Ok!, by @joyfuladorable. just to name some! i also remember a fic from my childhood where raph was babysitting... someone's kid (might've been april's?) and he taught them that if something was an "ouch" that meant it could hurt you and you shouldn't touch it. so, the oven was an "ouch". i don't remember the title because i was, like, fourteen, but i remember that specific detail and loved it very much. shout out to that author. i've also got a few fics i'm reading/trying to keep up with that are still in progress, but i've barely scratched the surface on them because... again. i am slow. lD;; but i am also trying. bless those who're patient with me. i'm so, so sorry.

32.) what was the first thing you've made for TMNT?

i might have stuff from my high school years lying around here somewhere, but you'll have to pay me to post it. i wish i could say i was kidding, but college shot my relationship with my art in the foot. <xD i have a folder of stuff before 2018 that's referred to as "the otherworld" for a reason. we do not venture into that fog... silent hill... but! i'll share some of the first sketches i did in my circle-back. please tolerate the shit phone-photo quality; my phone is obsolete to the point several of my apps will literally no longer open due to incompatibility with the OS. i'll also share the first round of sketches i actually published, so you can see the private sketchbook testings verses me being like "i need to make myself put something out there, here it is".

here's the link to the above published post! really is wild how after i started drawing them more regularly, my own style quickly dug its little fangs in and never looked back. xD;;

[dovelydraws]

Man, I keep telling myself that I need to upload my backlog of art onto my blog but I just have like... no motivation to do so lol?

I guess the drop in engagement on this site really has demotivated me quite a bit. Not in a "I need validation to keep wanting to create" way, I'm still drawing nearly every day, just without posting it anywhere. It's just like, when I don't receive very many comments or asks and really feel like there's a community here that wants to engage with me, I feel like there's not really a point to it?

I've sorta mostly kept my sketches and doodles to myself over the last year or so and have only been uploading the bigger pieces I put a lot of effort into, but nowadays I struggle to even find a reason to upload things I spend hours or even days on. It feels like basically all the "community engagement" I get comes from my little friend groups in personal discord servers, and when I try to share things I'm really excited and proud of with the general public here, I just get the impression that no one actually cares. So, why bother showing anyone but my friends?

I know people like my art, because I do still get a pretty decent amount of likes on my posts and I do appreciate that, but, without people telling me what they think or asking me questions, it still feels like crickets. You think my work is nice to look at for 5 seconds, but do you actually like it? Are you curious about it? Do you enjoy my characters and the stories I try to tell with them? You think my work is pretty, but do you care about the process or the person who made it? Or am I just a thing on your screen meant to be consumed?

Idk, I guess the internet has just become a very lonely place over the last 10 or so years. I know this lack-of-engagement issue will only get worse the more I stop sharing my work, so if I really want to try to stop it, I have to keep going and be consistent to find the audience I'm looking for. It's just been difficult getting myself past that mental barrier. I'm sure other creators reading this probably understand where I'm coming from, haha.

[best--dress]

WIP Wednesday - mushy edition

When I sat down to write out the things I wanted to *manifest* at the beginning of 2023, top of my list was an artistic community. I was halfway through my masters program and I had hoped that I'd find like-minded artists there, but my cohort was full of people who valued aesthetics over ideas, plus one guy who believed that to be able to call yourself an artist, you had to be able to draw technically well. (Totally valid positions to hold, but I was literally making websites and calling it art and having no one to talk to about it.)

Anyway, flash forward to June when I was in a deep deep depression and about to graduate having barely started my job hunt. I turned to the Simon Snow books for comfort, and then turned to tumblr for more. I'd never written fanfiction before and had barely read any. At first I was just reblogging memes, but then I started to find myself reading canon-compliant fic, and then AUs, and increasingly seeking out the crackiest fic I could find, because it's all so damn good in this fandom. I was also in awe of how kind and close-knit the community is - I've been on the internet for over 20 years, and I don't think I've ever seen anything else like it.

I signed up for @carryon-reverse-bang bc I wanted to get more involved & get to know people more. I gotta say I was intimidated when I realized I was paired with Ashton! Getting to bounce my ideas off her and Pati (beta extraordinaire) was honestly the creative collaboration I've been craving for so long. It's been so wild to make up this silly story about these characters who live in my head 24/7 and hear back from one of them, "oh, he would totally do that!"

Flash back, I guess, to this fall. I did get a job, I've been working as an art teacher since September. This is my first teaching job and it's been a lot, but as the months go by, I do feel like it's the "more meaningful" career I was seeking. Because in my best moments, when the kids are totally engaged in making something, I feel with total conviction:

Making things with other humans is the most sacred thing in the world.

Thanks for the tags today @alexalexinii, @cutestkilla & @nightimedreamersworld. I'm mostly at the final edits stage of The Tower Room, and I'm reluctant to share much from the last chapter, but here's something that should be fun out of context:

He smirks at me like he's figured out all my secrets.

Hiiiii to @artsyunderstudy, @aristocratic-otter, @aroace-genderfluid-sheep, @ileadacharmedlife, @youarenevertooold, @rimeswithpurple, @thewholelemon, @facewithoutheart, @leithillustration, @katatsumuli, @theimpossibledemon, @scribble-tier, @iamamythologicalcreature, @martsonmars, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @louisandtheaquarian

[silverjirachi]

I cannot express to you enough how much like. Even though I know I am a pretty recognized and respected writer in the little corners of my communities, every single day I ask myself “Wow, are people still really reading this?” and get the same giddy excitement when someone engages with my posts or reaches out to me with comments or art as I did the first time it ever happened. And I think a lot of your favorite online artists are like this. Especially here on tumblr, we are not influencers. We are people who make art who want to share it with you. We are geeky and annoying fans of the thing just like you, and we feel just as shy and awkward reaching out to our own faves. There are still artists on here I actively have not commented on posts of or spoken to because I’m shy and worried they will think I’m annoying and won’t have time for me.

I don’t know why, but for some reason talent gets equated with no time. It gets equated with a lack of friendliness or willingness to talk to others. It gets equated with better things to do and a need to be left alone away from the masses so they can produce More Masterpieces™ without disruption from their fans. I have no idea why this phenomenon occurs, but I see it again and again on the internet and also in real life. Maybe it has something to do with the culture we have fostered around celebrities and fame? I’m unsure. But I definitely feel it when I shyly reach out to artists I admire and have been on the other end of it myself.

I guess what I’m trying to say is like. Not only are artists just people, they are also very likely shy people, just like how you might feel talking to them. And every time writers and artists beg you to leave comments or reblog art it’s because we’re shy too. We’re nervous people aren’t listening. And even if the artist has conquered that hurdle and is pretty sure of themselves every time they post, I think you still probably make their day when you reblog or comment.

I don’t know. It’s weird. I haven’t exactly parsed it all out in my mind but it’s something I think about every time I post and write.

[women-of-malevolent]

META - What "canon" is in Malevolent, for the purposes of this blog

TL;DR:

In order of most 'I accept this as meaningful to the story of Malevolent' to most 'do not bring me this crap'

Canon:

The podcast itself

The official podcast transcripts from the website (I edit out the emotion tags because I often find them redundant or disagree with their assessment /no offense; I super appreciate transcriptionist work! Thank you so much for providing the accessibility resource to fans who need and want it /genuine <3 )

I guess I'll hear you out if you think it's really important:

Call of Cthulhu lore

Original Lovecraft lore

Supplemental Q&A's on main podcast feed

Supplemental Q&A's on other social media

Just don't:

Patreon-locked content

Pay-locked content

Invictus stream / Patreon chats / Discord / speculation about author/writing choices

Malevolent is a weird story. I've seen it marketing itself as an ARG, or an alternate reality game. From Wikipedia -

"An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real time and evolves according to players' responses. It is shaped by characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers, as opposed to being controlled by an AI as in a computer or console video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and collaborate as a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally utilize multimedia, such as telephones and mail, but rely on the Internet as the central binding medium."

So, what are the multiple media that make up Malevolent?

First of all, I want to explain for anyone who might not know all these details: Malevolent is a weekly podcast. Every week, ~15-20 minutes of story is delivered as a Chapter to the Malevolent Patreon Patrons. Each week, those Patrons vote on one big choice that the characters will make in the following week's episode. These Patrons are called The Voices. Every 4 weeks, those 4 story Chapters are collected into one episode called a Part and shared with the public. The Patreon also shares exclusive author interviews, commentary, silly songs/other miscellaneous bonus content, plus access to the Malevolent Patreon Discord channel, in which the author and his wife are moderators and off-and-on participants in fan discussions about the show (including commentary about character backstories, motivations, what ships are/are not canon, etc). Higher-paying tiers get access to more channels.

Most of Malevolent's listeners have access to the Parts as hour-long episodes, plus whatever supplemental material is shared on the podcast feed. A small contingent of highly financially supportive fans have access to everything.

With that legwork out of the way...

Below is a list what I understand to be all the possible layers of "canon" in Malevolent, followed by an explanation of how deeply this blog will consider it as a source. This list is in order from most canon (1) to least/not at all canon (9). More sources are added as they come up.

These numbers also (probably, maybe) roughly align with listener drop-off rates. Imagine funnel-like drop-offs in number of people who care enough to engage this ancillary of material. Also keep in mind the listeners who are tuning in for the first time, 20 years from now. How much will they get from this source?

The podcast itself - this will be the blog's prime canon source. This is the primary story source from which the vast, vast majority of all readers and listeners - now and decades in the future - have access to.

The podcast transcripts - this is its own category because the transcripts often editorialize (not a bad thing - just necessary product of translating one art medium into another). I've come away from episodes with a strong impression of one line delivery (ex: delighted), then find that in the transcript, it's described totally different (ex: disgusted). I will use the transcripts as my primary source for this blog. I usually delete the tone indicators. I also add MR. to Mr. Scratch's dialogue tags after he asks Arthur to call him that.

Call of Cthulu roleplay game - I'm not familiar with this and I don't think most listeners of the show will be, either. The relevance of this source will be considered on a touch-and-go basis.

H.P. Lovecraft extended universe - I have not read much Lovecraft and I don't want to start. The relevance of this source will be considered on a touch-and-go basis.

Supplemental interviews, episode commentary, Q&As available on main podcast feed - The author very regularly provides thoughts on the story and writing of Malevolent. I will consider this source as little as possible. If you have some information from here you think is important for me to hear, I will consider it; but please understand that 1) the VAST majority of listeners will not hear this, even if it's not cost-gated; and 2) not everyone who hears it believes/respects authorial self-reporting. No offense but no way

Twitter/X, Reddit, YouTube, or other social media commentary - similar to 5, with less weight because even fewer listeners will ever find this or seek it out. Also, social media is highly susceptible to internet decay.

Invictus CoC games - not considered. I might look into these later (WAY less thoroughly than the main WoM blog), but also I might not. These are Call of Cthulu games that were DM-ed by the author of Malevolent. There are some overlapping characters like Anna Stanczyk and Frank Uphill. Even if you're into these pls you have to admit that most of the Malevolent listening audience will not watch them.

Supplemental, Patreon-exclusive content - NO. If it can't be accessed without paying or signing up for a website, naw.

Semi-private discussions from heavily gated discord groups - NO. Let's not

Speculation about the author - NO. This includes speculation on whether or not ____ is intentional, or why writing choices were/weren't made.