#not doing too many tags because this is niche even for this already niche topic

[gabbynyssa]

Oxventure fans keep showing interest in my ramblings about possible headcanons and like... I really wish I had any intent to write a fanfic...

'Cuz... Listen. My concepts for Corazón de Tortuga learning to love his new body and treat the sea better actually slot in really well into my idea for pirate queen "CorazMom Milquetoast" but I'm not a fiction writer... I've only ever had the ambition to make amateurish freeform poetry.

I am not 100% committed to that pun but I'm also not thinking of a better thing to call her at 4:20am.

Like... Imagine finally thinking everything in your life has slotted together. You're better as a person, you finally love yourself, you treat your second home and your friends/found family better(still sassy but all bark no bite). And then there's this person that you thought was gone and whose absence set the course of your life in motion here and she's not only completely unable to recognize you, but she's cooler than you in your own career field???

And then on the other hand... imagine you're, like... Lost in space for decades, slowly working your way up from basically just adrift with your "space comes down at night" oxygen supply hoping that somehow there's something to latch onto all the way up to full-blown queen of the star ocean. You're feared by foes and beloved by a fleet full of pirates. But you're still so listless underneath because you never quite found your way back to that odd disk you fell off of where you just know your awful ex can't have done a good job taking care of poor Percy.

Then there's this cat-man freelance pirate that happens to end up on your ship(let's say he was shot out of a canon onto her ship after Fury of the Black Rose). And he says something about you reminding him of one of his old Captains. A Captain around the age your son would be. A Captain who has a pet named Percy Jr.

When you're done shaking this very polite cat by the shoulders desperately asking where this Captain was he says the name of that disk you fell off of all those years ago, and he knows how to get you there. But then you get there and the guy Captaining his ship is a turtle???

And like... When all the fun drama settles you find out that not only did your ex fail spectacularly at being anything resembling a father, not only did your son find a family in the absence of the one you could've tried to build around him, and not only has that son accomplished so much with that family that they saved the world, but you also kinda missed his entire life and death?

And to anyone asking "but how did she not find a way back to Geth before Rust? There's even the adventurer exchange program that the other cat got to Geth thru, and remember that time intersimensional Amazon kidnapped Corazón and Dob and they were able to be shipped back?" Just remember: "Space," [the Hitchhiker's Guide] says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space." And in D&D "space" pirates actually travel thru something far more complex and big than space as we know it, despite the fact that most source materials only have them visit like ten key settings still.

[binalakai-archive]

hey im kai! you can also call me roach, if you already know a kai in your life because i know how many noncis mfs are named that

im a genderfluid filipino dyke (born 2002, figure it out) with she/he/it pronouns, i occasionally post my art on @binalakarchive , where all my OCs (at least as much as i show publicly) and fandom art/cleaned up discussions go there. i also do commissions sometimes, best to contact me through that blog!! my current OC blog currently resides at @huemanonearth, it's a project i've had for a while and i hope to one day make a personal-use pitch bible with it! i treat this blog like a neverending journal. i've grown up with it, and on god am i going to use it as such.

in a perfect world where i wouldn't need to establish boundaries, i would not even bother with a post like this, but the more people i follow/that follow me come across it's somewhat necessary soooo

DNI or like. BYF if you're not gonna listen to me anyway: (warning: it's long and text heavy. tldr; don't be weird to me, communicate with me like you would with a real life person because that's what i am, and we'll get along fine)

-basic dni huge bigot (racist, TERF/transphobic, homophobic, etc etc) stuff but if i catch that onto your blog anyway when you follow me i'll block you.

-if you believe in crab-bucket-mentality/are against mental health care in general, you best keep distance, honestly. its taken a long time for me to not open my wounds and delusions constantly towards the internet if it meant being valid in my mental illnesses. i'd rather not enter that era again.

-i dont get the whole "proship and antis" culture that happens, but for both sakes of people, if you identify with any of those things you might not like my blog too much. i love being critical and analytical of "problematic things", but i'll still discuss them openly n freely. dni if you'll be offended if i diss on ships/approaches to subjects that make me uncomfortable n find comfort in being critical abt it, and dni if you'll be offended if i diss on the idea that media with triggering topics should not have an outlet period.

-if you'll be offended if i block you out of the blue, doesn't apply to close friends/mutuals i just mean with randos who post takes i dont like or cause too much stress in tags i browse.

-if you're gonna get in huge trouble over seeing dirty jokes and crass humor in public you best not follow me. i try best to tag my stuff, but last thing i wanna do is have a stern talk about it.....which is why i also am wary about people under 18 following and will be a lot more liberal on blocking younger minors for their sake or people i assume won't vibe with me period

-if your parents have access to your social media and there's a chance i'll be DM'd by any of them. i dont wanna talk to any of your parents. if you have an issue with me, i'm more than happy to talk about things directly. (ESPECIALLY FOR BUSINESS RELATED REASONS LIKE COMMISSIONS. IT'S HAPPENED A LOT ALREADY DUE TO OTHER PARTY'S FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES I CANNOT FUCKING CONTROL. STOP IT. ITS ANNOYING AND A PAIN TO HANDLE.)

-if you get too involved with online drama/disputes. i'm not going to reblog a callout for you. if you get even slightly bothered by that statement, do not get close to me period for the sake of boosting callouts.

-if you have specific niche triggers that need to be tagged. i try to do catch alls or basic ones, but i genuinely CANNOT keep track of all my mutual's blacklists. my mind will slip and id rather not put someone in danger/i wanna keep that risk very very low

okay thankies <3 sorry these are so specific, i just wanna be insane on the internet in the safest way possible

[undercrowns]

@loveisworry tagged me eons ago to list nine books that I like/would recommend. I'm finally reading again so here we go, vaguely sorted fiction -> non-fiction:

The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner: I think it's best to go into The Thief knowing as little as possible so I won't say much about the plot, instead I'll say that MWT is truly a master at using structure and form to convey character and narrative ideas! THE heist novel of all time. Also these books make you insane so there's that

Piranesi, Susanna Clarke: Honestly one of the books of the decade. Extremely different from Jonathan Strange if you've only read that one; it drops you in the deep end from the first word which I always admire (try not to know too much about this one going in either. In fact I'd mistaken it for a completely different book at first and kept wondering when the House was going to turn into the magical school I thought the book was about). Features many topics that interest me: the self as an idea and the mutability thereof, buildings that are maybe alive and maybe love you, loving and caring about people even when things suck so bad

Watchmaker of Filigree Street/Lost Future of Pepperharrow: Natasha Pulley I love you. Do you want to learn a lot about clocks while also losing it as everything goes in the wrong direction. You should. I'd recommend all of Pulley's books (still trying to get my hands on an ARC of the new one!), but Pepperharrow is my favorite of the bunch; I felt every available human emotion reading it and potentially a few others. They're all also SO funny to me while also making me cry multiple times. (originally read these after they appeared on many @lotstradamus rec lists, truly thank you)

Lives of the Monster Dogs, Kirsten Bakis: I don't know that I've ever read anything quite like this book and I have a tough time explaining it. I wrote in my rec to a friend that it's about being nostalgic for something that was painful for everyone involved, but at the same time held so much genuine wonder. Also about trying to understand your place in a world that has no place for you. I don't know what else to say; I loved it.

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel: I love a SCHEMER I love INTRIGUE I love to feel a creeping sense of inevitable dread spread out over three books! Hilary Mantel was simply a genius

The Multitude, Hannah Faith Notess: I debated what (if any) poetry to put on this list and in the end I went with The Multitude simply because I think many people haven't heard of it and Yoshi: A Pastoral is one of my favorite ever poems. beloved i will wait for you / always in the roadless shade

H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald: I came to this a few years after it was popular so maybe everyone has read it already, but I think it's a lovely meditation of grief and nature and how sometimes you just have to pick a (very specific and maybe odd) thing and do it to get through life

Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century, Sam Willis: I love an extremely niche book and I LOVE boats, particularly tall ships. This book was basically made specifically for me, in that it's clearly a labor of love by someone very knowledgeable on a topic that I'm already interested in. If anyone has recs in this vein (about ships or not) please send them my way!!

On the Death and Life of Languages, Claude Hagège (Tr. Jody Gladding): Another of the niche topic books, this time about how and why languages die out and the ramifications of their loss. I haven't read the original French so I can't comment on the faithfulness, but the translation is wonderfully done imo. Some turns of phrase I'm still thinking about

Honorary Mentions: The Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett (only read if you're willing to be in over your head but if you are!!!! they are a masterpiece) The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir (very polarizing books, I'm obsessed), the Temeraire series, Naomi Novik (dragons fighting in the Napoleonic wars largely featuring the Navy, tailored exactly to my interests)

tagging if you want @valentinetexass @veryspecificfantasies @unrealcities !

[cate-deriana]

Answer the Questions and Tag 5 Fanfic Authors

@pfirsichspritzer Thank you so much for the tag, it was so a lot of fun and I had to really think about my answers.

1 . How did you get into writing fanfiction?

In my case it's a funny question actually, because the first thing I've ever written was a fanfiction. But that was long before I even knew what fanfiction was or that it existed, simply because I was about eight or nine and wrote something about Digimon Adventure on my dad's computer. So I did it long before I knew that was actually a thing.

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

About five or six I think, but sometimes it was really only one story. Oh, and I also did some crossovers (fandoms not included in the above count).

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Ok, let me do the math... as I started with eight/nine it's now about 24 years... is this real? Omg, I'm old, haha. Though there were always years in between were life got in the way and I didn't write anything.

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

I'd like to say it's write, but it's definitely read. Also, I think you can only really become better and know what a certain fandom likes and wants to read, if you read a lot.

5. What is one way you’ve improved as a writer?

Honestly I can't really pinpoint that exactly. I think it's really a matter of progress over a long period of time. Reading helps, of course, immensely. But also (as cliché as that might sound) life experience. Actually I always liked to incorporate personal side stories into my fanfictions. And I think I am not taking the same things as overly serious as now, I'm a lot calmer now.

6. What’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Can't really spontaneously name a topic, but as I am over-invested in always getting characters as close to the original as possible so the story feels "real" I once re-watched countless of episodes of a certain anime to make a chart in excel on how character x adresses character y, z and so on... It was a lot of work.

7. What’s your favorite type of comment to receive on your work?

I like every simple little 'I liked your story' or just an emoji or the longer ones equally. But I once got a review for a story were I tried to make sense of an anime's ending and I really poured my heart into that one and the reviewer commented with 'you relieved my heart'. It still makes me so happy.

8. What’s the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

The most niche think I've ever done was more the way I wrote a story. I decided on about 30 random sentences before starting and while writing threw a dice to determine which sentence I had to use right at that point in the story. It was so much fun, I recommend to try that out, it's a great challenge.

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Real and believable romance and intimacy.

10. What is the easiest type?

Stories that are funny just in order to be funny and nothing more.

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

On the computer. Has always been that way, I am not fast enough for my brain to do it on paper, though I write down ideas in my notebook. I'm (nearly) always carrying something to write on. My best writing times had been evenings mostly, but I can write anytime I am in the mood or really force myself to do it - setting a timer for an hour has really helped me a lot recently.

12. What is something you’ve been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

A really cool fighting scene, preferably with swords.

13. What made you choose your username?

It's the name of a character I originally designed for myself, to represent myself (like an avatar you could say). Deriana comes from browsing an atlas. It's a great way to come up with names. I just use whatever city, river or whatever sounds nice to me and alter the word a little.

I've no idea who has been tagged already, but I'll try. If you've already done this please just ignore me :D @worldofkaeos @ariadnekurosaki @eudociacovert @womaninwinter @photorose11

[lavandula-ipsum]

from the meme: 8, 10 and 11!

8. Is there a story idea that you would love if it could appear fully realized but that you do not think you'll ever write yourself?

I'm usually not big on fix-it fics, but TRoS... is a thing I guess. I'm sure there's already a fic out there that hits where it should, that's part of why I wouldn't undertake the mission myself. I'm not that confident in being able to take all those characters and worldbuilding to a satistying conclusion. So yeah, fixing the sequels (me being pro-sequels and all lol)

10. If you could banish a single trope to live at the bottom of the ocean, which trope would that be?

Listen, there's many unsavory topics that aren't to everyone's taste and I wouldn't get near with a ten foot pole. BUT those are usually tagged so they can be easily avoided.

On the other hand, there's this opinion that's a bit risky and it's 100% subjective. I've read many lovely fics that feature this but the trope just. Sours my whole day. And it's proposals. Maybe it's because I have complicated feelings about marriage, but most traditions that have to do with it make my skin crawl because of how deep patriarchy is sewn into them. Being given away at the altar? Absolutely fucking not. He goes to her father for even a SLIVER of approval or permission? I'm out. Knee on the ground and ring??? hmph I viscerally can't. Something about it feels artificial and staged in such a specific way and can't bring myself to believe it when I see it in a fantasy setting.

(call me a hypocrite. I've written marriage too)

11. If you had to pick a single trope to read for the next seven-and-half-years, which trope would that be?

Anything having to do with mutual pining. When the relationship is still platonic but so, so intimate. Top points if it has to do with angst. "I didn't know where else to go," so tasty. "There's no one else I can go to with this," fucking delicious. They're each other's home and haven't even kissed yet.

In the fandom niche I inhabit specifically (Luke Skywalker worship) I can't get enough of reading about him revealing to a romantic interest the truth about Vader. The angst. The intimacy.

I'm also a sucker for the lightning scars reveal and I love that it's become fancanon. I've done it twice and I love reading about it in other people's fics.

[asimali301]

Here’s the Short Guide to Acquire More TikTok Likes Within A Short Time

It goes without saying that TikTok is very popular and growing fast, and it is even letting content creators connect with millions in an unprecedented manner. But uploading videos is just the beginning, as one will also have to put in a fair bit of effort in getting those likes and building a substantial presence on TikTok as well.

It is also important to realize that engagement is the name of the game, and grasping the tactics that augment it can be the game changer for you. In this piece, we shall discuss how to get more tiktok likes and why buying TikTok views would also be a beneficial strategy. Get creative and produce content that is hard to ignore   Because TikTok is visual, people's content quality will influence hundreds of likes on that specific piece of content. Use appropriate lighting and high-quality cameras, and edit your videos professionally so that they can come out quite appealing.

Clips that are creative, informative, or emotionally charged will encourage users to like and share your clips. Don’t forget to jump on the latest trends, but with a personalized approach to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Tweak posting hours for improved engagement rates   It’s all about timing on TikTok. Posting your videos when there are more users can significantly increase the engagement. Make use of TikTok analytics to find out times when the largest part of your audience is online. Through effective planning of posts at these hours, you have higher chances of receiving more likes and interaction.

Utilize Some Trending Hashtags In Order To Gain More Visibility

One of the most fundamental things that if you wish your content to come up on TikTok is to add hashtags. Search the niche to find some of the most trending tags that you can add to your new post. Do not stuff captions with too many tags; try to limit yourself to the most appropriate ones only. Used correctly, hashtags can easily expand your content reach and multiply your chances of likes and shares.

Purchase Boosters to Buy TikTok Views Marketing Strategies

One of the straightforward methods of enhancing interaction on TikTok is through the purchase of TikTok views. The more views a video receives, the more likely it is to appear on the app’s ‘For You’ page. This implies that there are higher chances that your content will be seen, appreciated, and shared throughout a much larger audience. The buy tiktok views will ease the initial stage of the advertising campaign and assure that your impressions will soon begin to engage viewers at random.

Work with Popular Figures and Other Creators

More recently, influencer marketing has become one of the largest trends and has successfully carried over to TikTok. One method of contacting their followers is through working with influencers and/or creators that are already within the same genre as the creators are. This allows for increasing the chances of appearing on the relevant profiles and stimulating the audience to act. Working with prominent persons on the other hand enhances the reliability of the profile and broadens the range of content being showcased.

Motivate Users With Engaging Clusters of Actions   Your followers are more effective in making a move when they have been guided towards doing so. Ask them to perform an action at the end of the video: “Like if you support this,” “For more, double-tap,” and “Follow if you would like to see the second part.” At the same time, have challenges and pose questions for them to motivate them to participate, which in turn increases engagement and likes.

Final Thoughts   Maximizing the number of likes and the interaction of users on videos on TikTok, although it may be a little strenuous and combine efforts from posting quality content and proper timing of broaching topics, among others. When the view or impression count goes up, it means chances of coming across and gaining natural activity also go higher. If you initiate all these well, it will become easy to give the TikTok audience an engaging experience. Not only will these boost the number of likes, but it also creates an interactive audience for the content. 

[zwoelffarben]

honey, sweetheart, person I already blocked before even responding to: I agree with you to a surprising degree with you about this. The wikipedia article is supposed to give concise information about the subject. And yes, Rowling wikipedia page should be semi-protected right now because yes, people probably did vandalize it one too many times with profanity and swear words; and wikipedia isn't the place for that.

Wikipedia is the place where you should be able to go and get reliable information about a topic quickly and easily, which is why the page ABOUT ROWLING shouldn't spend three quarters of its introduction sucking harry potter's girldick and instead focus on information about rowling, who more than being the author of harry potter, is a fucking self-identified terf and should be called as such in a nice neutral academic tone of voice so that everyone knows.

And yeah, terf's a bit of a niche term, but guess what: it an acronym, and it can be spelled out: "trans exclusionary radical feminist," and link to the relevant wikipedia articles, like they do when other jargon appears in an article about quantum mechanics. Gender ain't especially mysterious.

The introduction exists to provide an overview of the article's contents so it shoud address in even the briefest of detail the most central aspect of rowling's public life since at least 2016 instead of vagueposting, "She had opinions that some people called transphobic but others agreed with her. Whose to say which is right." That's as useful a description as piss on plato's fire in the alagorical cave.

And, a not on your tags, it's not misinformation to want wikipedia to maintain the neutral tone they report to expect.

If you give this woman money, it will go to transphobic causes. If you give this woman a platform, she will use it to boost transphobic causes. This isn't a "well nobody's perfect" or "well x other creator also did something bad once" situation, this is an inordinate amount of influence for a creator to have, and supporting her by word or wallet actively hurts trans people.

[the-anxious-skeleton]

Hi! I don’t know if this should be a question or if I just wanted someone to listen, but I appreciate you having asks open.

So I have really bad anxiety, both general and social anxiety. It’s usually manageable in real life because I have really good friends that are emotionally supportive. But this situation feels kinda stupid to bother my friends about and I was embarrassed. They also don’t use Tumblr, so it would’ve been harder to explain.

I started a Tumblr blog a couple of days ago. It was just a small thing to write about characters for games and shows I was into. I made a pinned intro including groups I didn’t want to interact with the blog. I think the exact wording included “racists, homophobes, transphobes, furries - basically anyone with anything gross / hateful / offensive to say”. I didn’t see a problem with this at the time, however, not too long ago I got an anon ask that read “Seriously? Lumping furries with transphobes and homophobes? What’s wrong with you lmao”

In hindsight, I can totally see their point. I was undermining the severity of other hateful groups because, obviously, furries aren’t anything comparable to those things and have nothing to do with them. Even if I didn’t intend that in anyway, it could still undermine those sensitive topics and offend another group of people that have nothing to do with those things.

However, due to my anxiety, I guess I got triggered and panicked. I deleted my blog not too long after I read the message. I already have a lot going on with tests and stuff and I didn’t think it through. I should’ve apologized and held myself accountable. I would say it was be removing myself from a situation I wasn’t mentally prepared for, but I feel like I just ran away from a situation even though I knew I was in the wrong. I feel guilty.

I feel that my anxiety makes it so I cannot handle an online space. I am a creative, both an artist and writer, so I crave validation for my work from a large amount of people. But if I do so much as make a small mistake or do something unintentionally, I panic and isolate myself again. And then I feel worse because I feel like I’m running away from my problems. It’s like a bad cycle.

I’m sorry if this ask is too long or rambling, but I felt like talking to someone from the same platform would make it a bit easier for them to understand. I’m probably making this a way bigger issue than it is or maybe not. I get so in my head sometimes it’s hard to tell, and I hope that makes sense. Thank you once again and I hope you have a very nice day :)

Hey. I'm so glad you reached out!

I encountered a situation very similar to this on my main blog. I basically posted something very triggering to some people and didn't tag it properly. I added broad mental health related tags instead of more specific tags that would have appealed to a niche group that would have understood what I was talking about without being triggered. Someone submitted an anonymous ask, very kindly brought the inappropriate tagging to my attention. I was wildly embarrassed and wanted to curl up and die. I deleted the post and apologized in response to the ask. This really hurt my feelings and made me feel really stupid. In retrospect, I really appreciate that person pointing out the issue in a respectful manner. It helped me become more aware of how the Tumblr community works and helped me understand that I needed to be conscious of other people's situations. The best thing you can do at this point is to rebuild a blog for your work, and if you aren't sure about something you're posting, ask a friend, or of course, send me a message and I can help. I hope this was helpful and made sense. I am very proud of you for recognizing your mistake and growing from that. Everyone makes mistakes, but not many take the initiative to grow from them. Again, let me know if there is anything else I can help you with! Everything will be alright, you got this!

[blindbeta]

How do you think infrastructure would be different in a culture where everyone is blind?

Hi anon! I like this question. I think it would obviously depend on the culture and time period, but I have a few ideas. I’ll just try to write ideas for a general Western culture, because I am aware of more of that, but obviously the culture itself would influence what changes occurred or did not occur.

Education.

Look to blind schools! I’m thinking about training for Braille as very small children, which mostly includes strengthening finger sensitivity. Braille would also be taught the way reading regular print is, either in schools or at home. Regular print would probably also be available and large print would be normalized, especially to minimize eye strain. Computer literacy would include screen-readers and Braille displays. Websites would be designed for accessibility for everyone and this would include large for those who like to read some print.

In classes, people would use a slate and stylus, Braille notetakers, etc, depending on time and what was easier to carry. Braillers would also be more high tech in general, even if it might be considered old school, or the high tech stuff would have come sooner for each device.

Braille, O&M, and life skills classes would be normal for everyone. O&M would probably be done mostly by people with some sight, although this might change if everyone is blind anyway.

Lifestyle.

Things like telescopes (monoculars, minifiers) would be normal for low vision people, maybe even something cool like ‘oh I got the latest telescope model for my birthday!” It would be something shared with friends for fun. Something like SunuBand would be like, I don’t know, a car of something. People would show status through how cool their cane was, if they had a Sonar cane, like WeWalk, etc.

In schools, and in life, I think people with some sight, like me, would not face any pressure to use it. In real life, people with residual sight are expected to use what sight they can, even if it is inconvenient or painful.

More emphasis would be places on other sense, such as touch, smell, and soatial awareness.

Safety.

The world would probably be safer, structurally. There would be high contrast stairs everywhere, if there are stairs at all. There would be more in place that makes it safer to walk around outside, such as, idk, less of a risk of hurt yourself by stepping off a curb? I’m not even sure if roads would be designed the way they are now. Would people drive if they have some vision? Would everyone have cars that don’t need vision? Anyway, more safety with blind people in mind.

Transportation.

Transportation would be better. Maybe public transportation would be more accessible, easier to navigate, and more readily available in rural areas. Maybe trains would be more popular in every country, because they run on a schedule and you can carry more people for longer periods of time. Trains can also allow people to travel long distances, which can be harder for blind people (who almost always can’t drive, as far as I know) who can’t drive cars and may not have money for flights, or want to avoid them for environmental reasons.

Accessibility.

Braille would be everywhere. Buttons would be tactile, especially on kitchen appliances. I imagine a lot of the tools blind people use in the kitchen, such as bump dots for microwave buttons, would already be standard. Talking or otherwise accessible things would be cheaper, more common, and considered staples for everyone. Because they would be made for the wider population of blind people, accessibility would not be a niche or extra thing. It would not be associated with kindness, but a standard fare.

Clothing would be different. Designs would be tactile and/or high contrast, where they are often flat. I think colors would still be important, for everyone, but the tags would probably have labels. Some brand designed for blind people have actual Braille fabric on the clothes, which is cool. While color scanners do exist and would probably be used, I think other methods would be utilized if clothing is designed with blind people in mind from the start. Wearing glasses would be cool, you guys.

In terms of entertainment, I think most of it would audio-based or interactive. The radio and live theatre would be more popular than they are now. If visual mediums still existed, they would all come with audio descriptions and they would be better than they sometimes are now. TV would be written with audio descriptions in mind, if they didn’t talk about more of what they were doing.

Art would be tactile, period. Maybe we would have something by now that allows you to feel digital art. There are already amazing forms of tactil art out there, so think more of that from all cultures. Rather than adapted or described with the blind in mind, art would be naturally tactile even if the artist could see what they were creating well enough.

Online.

Obviously image descriptions would be everywhere, although I feel people would naturally include less screen-shots and less pictures. Again, accessibility would be a more mainstream thing than it is now. I’m thinking there would be more self-care posts, such as about dealing with eye strain headaches. Although I think some of the issues we have would be lessened when the entirety of humanity was on the blind spectrum. I’m also thinking about fun quizzes like, Describe Your Dream Home and I’ll Guess What Type Blindness You Have. Debates about disability in general would happen in regular spaces. YouTube would have contained audio descriptions from the start, and perhaps highly visual content would be less common or naturally described in the video, such as person describing what they are holding before talking about it.

Work/Career.

Productivity would be measure differently. Accessibility would just be a thing. Like, at a meeting, “What tools do you like to use the most?” Working from home would be an option. Work would be open to and even designed for blind people. Blind people wouldn’t have the low employments rates they do now, or else no one would work. A lot of tools we use to make things accessible wouldn’t be necessary if things were designed for blind people in the first place. Subminimum wage would not be a thing.

There would probably be jobs and career opportunities that don’t exist now.

Blind people wouldn’t be more likely or even expected to live in poverty.

Money.

Money would be tactile, labeled, large print, and high contrast. If we still used cash at all.

Inovation.

I think we would have a lot of cool stuff. Countries might even compete to be the first to create things for the blind population which, again, would be everyone in this scenario.

Food/menus.

Restaurants would be easy for blind people to navigate. Menus would be offered in Braille and large print. Maybe plates would be made sectioned so people could know where their food was. I’m thinking about blind accessibility videos and restaurants run by totally blind people. Hmm. Glasses would not be as common at all, because they can be hard for people to see. I have broken too many glasses myself.

If people were to buy food, such as local produce, bags would probably come with homemade Braille or large print signs. Canned food and boxes for cooking would have Braille on them initially. Giving food to others, such as bringing food or snacks for the home when you visit, would come with either an explanation about what it was or a label.

I could go on. I don’t want this too be too long. Basically, what I want to get across is that a lot more than accessibility would changes if everyone is blind. I didn’t want to get into too many heavy topics because this is more of a fun question. However. feel free to add whatever you like. I believe history itself would be altered in many, many ways that have influence on life today, so I could have gone on about that. I could write books on the lifestyle and safety and work sections. And all cultures have their own ways of viewing, supporting, and limiting blind people, so this could change a little or a lot depending on what your culture or the culture you are writing about is like.

-BlindBeta

[interact-if]

Welcome to Mod Appreciation Month!

This event is a lowkey one, designed for us to take some time to catch up on asks, rec lists, and other blog pages that happen mostly in the background such as the masterlists, database, and post tagging.

This blog is a lot of work! And we're happy to help out with promoting authors and exposing readers to new and interesting stories based on their interests!

That being said, we need a break!

This is why we are closing the inbox for July.

Please refrain from sending asks for rec lists through submissions. We’re leaving that line open specifically for new authors to submit their projects.

We are going to utilize this time to try and clear out our inbox--we have over 100 messages, most of them asking for rec lists, which take a few weeks at a time to properly curate, tag, and put in the queue.

We will also be working behind the scenes on other projects we hope to show off soon!

We're thrilled y'all are eager to read more, and we'll be back in August for sure. For now, if you need to get in contact with us, feel free to reply to posts, DM one of the mods, or get in contact with us over on our discord.

[Discord] [FAQ] [Ko-fi] [Reddit]

Below the cut are our rules, guidelines, and FAQ for recommending or suggesting games as well as general practice and etiquette.

We'll be back in August! <3

Now, to get into some of the details. (This applies regardless of the event to every ask sent, even if the inbox is currently closed.)

RULES WHEN SENDING ASKS

If you can and it is relevant, please tag your asks with content warnings in the beginning. Such as (cw violence) or (cw death), this is an extra precaution to keep both our mods and our readers safe and well-advised. This will also make tagging easier!

Please keep your asks as brief as you can! Any asks that are more than two asks long may get eaten by the Tumblr machine and/or may not be answered due to length.

If your ask hasn't been answered, it may be because it already has been! Be sure to search the tags and FAQ before sending in an ask.

Please don't spam! We won't respond to inappropriate asks or asks that have already been answered.

Recommendation lists

If you are submitting an ask for a rec list please be aware that these lists take a lot of time and effort to make! In average, it might take us up to two weeks to fully finish and queue a rec list, sometimes even longer. We’re happy to put them together but we ask for patience and understanding.

With that in mind, here are some guidelines:

Please look through the #interact-if asks and #if: rec list tags before sending and ask.

Constantly looking out and keeping track of IF projects takes a good chunk of our time among our other responsibilities as mods. For this reason, we came up with a tagging system that makes it easy for our audience to look through the blog. Unfortunately, it gets overlooked most of the time.

And for this reason, we get repetitive asks, which we ignore and delete.

The tagging system is there for your and our convenience. If you’re not sure whether you’re asking for a rec list of the same theme/genre that has already been posted, please consider looking through the aforementioned tags before sending an ask.

As much as we love entertaining the rec list asks, it does tend to be bothersome having to constantly reblog and link new asks to the posted rec lists, as well as reminding people to use the tagging system.

Please make your ask neither too broad nor specific.

This isn’t to sound finicky we promise! If an ask is looking for fantasy IFs without specifics we cannot properly curate a list of what you’re looking for. Is it modern fantasy? Medieval? Non-Eurocentric? Do you want fae fantasy? Supernatural? Fantasy is one of the most popular genres and asks like this example we cannot properly answer.

This is why we ask for rec list requests to be not too broad.

As for narrow–too narrow an ask will likely return a very short or non-existent list! At the end of the day there are only so many IFs and very specific niches may not be filled. We will try our best to answer, but likely your list will result in games adjacent to your request that we think best kind of sort of fit your request. We’re doing our best with the IFs that are out there.

Please be patient!

We often spend several days working on a single list. If your ask hasn’t been answered yet it may still be in the works or in our queue! If it’s been a long while and it still has not been answered, it may have been ignored for a variety of reasons including: Too broad an ask, too similar to previous rec lists, contains NSFW or offensive materials, etc. Please refrain from sending multiple check up asks

On the topic of NSFW asks/content…

We have received some inquiries regarding NSFW (like smutty scenes) recommendations in IF recently, and believe it best to clarify the stance Interact IF has on the matter.

We will be refraining from answering questions about explicit sexual content in IF. We as a team do not feel we have the expertise to help with this, nor have we been on the lookout for explicitly sexual IFs.

As well, it is not entirely suitable for the blog, as Interact IF is for all ages and there may be minors following it.

We would like this blog to remain as SFW as we can manage, with games properly tagged for their age groups and limiting asks and rec lists to non-sexually-explicit content.

With that in mind, feel free to get in contact with us anytime and we’ll do our best to find what you’re looking for!

Game Recommendations

Before sending in a game, please keep these aspects in mind:

DO

The game must be interactive fiction–the reader plays a character (either customizable or pre-determined) and makes choices that influence the game in some way.

The game can be text-based or a visual novel.

The game does NOT violate copyright (i.e. A published for-profit IF that is using the Star Wars universe. If it is not-for-profit (it’s free to play) then this is fine)

DON’T

If you play a character and can physically move them (walk, run, jump, attack), we consider this a video game and isn’t currently a niche we are supporting.

Recommend a game produced by a company–we are here to support individual authors or games written collaboratively by a group of authors/artists/etc.

Don’t recommend games that glorify violence, sexual violence, racism, sexism, and so on. Or which has (an) author(s) who also have a history of having engaged In aspects like these.

If your rec is good to go, here’s what you have to do! If you are able please provide a link to the post to reblog - this makes it a lot easier on us!If the game is 18+What language/program the game is in (Twine, Choicescript, Ren'py, etc.)If the game has a currently playable demo. If you would like your game reblogged/recc'ed, let us know with the same info/more if you like!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can you recommend games that are finished or complete?

We have a tag for that! Check out #status: complete, though you can also check out COG, Hosted Games, and search for complete games on Itch.io.

I can’t find a game and can’t remember the title, help!

If you’re struggling to find a beloved game and can’t remember the title–go to our Reddit and see if it’s there at the Lost & Found! If not, you can ask our community on the Reddit to help find it, or join our discord and ask there!

I noticed you failed to include x game on a list, so I will inform the author about it.

Please, don’t. The mods here are nothing but human, so we do our best to include as many games as we can remember, and frequently ask other people for help. However, this doesn’t mean we will include every single game in existence. We will forget, things will slip, so the least we ask of you is to leave a reply or send an ask and we will add it in. We promise we always keep a close eye on those.

The extra step of informing the author about this is unnecessary. The only thing you’re causing is either making the author feel left out or having them reach out to us to be added, which is essentially the same thing we ask of you to do. There’s no need to get a third party involved within something that can be easily tackled, so please respect us instead of putting our blog in a bad light.

The only suggestions we ignore and might erase are the ones we realize don’t fit the theme of the ask, or ones that don’t fit the guidelines specified in the question right below this.

What we do not promote.

Trans-exclusive radical feminism

Gratuitous sexual violence (This includes pedophilia, domestic abuse, r*pe, etc.)

Racism, including cultural appropriation, stereotyping, whitewashing, brown face, etc.

Any and all versions of sexism

Religious phobic rhetoric (Islamophobia, belittling indigenous religions, etc.)

And so on.

We also do not promote authors who have aligned themselves with these rhetorics, whether or not they are exhibited in the author's playable content.

[a-reader-and-a-writer]

Tumblr Writer Q&A

Written by @make-me-imagine tagged by @lacontroller1991. Thanks!

1) How many complete fics/one shots do you have(that you have not published (Yet)? Nothing completely finished but two or three that are close.

2) How many WIPS do you have right now? Not including requests, I have 32 fics, chapters, or AUs actively being worked on at the moment. My mind can't stay focused on one thing for too long so I jump around to where ever the inspiration takes me.

3) Do you take writing requests or write original ideas, or both? Both

4) If you do take requests, how many do you currently have? I have 24 requests currently in my inbox but I am always open to accepting more!

5) How many fandoms do you write for? DC, Marvel, Star Wars, The Killing, and Altered Carbon. I have a few other fandoms I am considering dipping my toe into, but I need to catch up on some of the stuff I am already working on.

6) Are there any fandoms you wrote for in the past that you no longer write for? I am still new enough to this that I haven't tired of any fandom yet.

7) Do you write for ships, reader inserts or other? I write reader inserts but I do have a few ideas for OCs I am toying with.

8) Niche fandoms/characters you write for? Takeshi Kovacs (Altered Carbon) and Stephen Holder (The Killing) are the niches characters I write for.

9) Do you read fics as well as write them? All the time! I haven't had as much of an opportunity the last week or so, but I have a list of them I plan on catching up on!

10) What is your favorite genre to write for? Whump and angst.

11) What is your favorite trope (to read/write)? I will pretty much read anything. But I do love friends to lovers, sex pollen, one character saving another, etc. In writing, I love hurt/comfort.

12) What do you do to get motivated to write? Most of my ideas come to me in the shower, when I'm driving, or when I go for a walk. So if I am stuck on something, I will do one of those three. Also, my friends and followers who support me are some of the biggest motivations there are.

13) Is there a trope/genre you like to read, but not write? I don't write smut but I do read it.

14) Any characters/fandoms you want to write for that are never requested? I have toyed around with the idea of writing for David Collins from the movie The Guest. And I eventually want to write for The Boys.

15) How long have you been writing fan fiction? Since October 2021. So I am still a newcomer to the fanfic writer's community.

16) Did you read fan fiction before you started writing? Some, but only for about a month or two before I started writing.

17) Do you only post on Tumblr, or any other sites as well? I also have an AO3 account but I just post all the same exact things as on Tumblr.

18) What do you personally consider the work counts of "Drabble", "One shots" and "fics"? I understand these aren't accurate, but I consider a "drabble" under 1k. And a "one-shot" and a "fic" are pretty interchangeable to me. In me head, a fic is anything over 1k while a one-shot is anything over 1k that tells the entire story in one post (no part two or follow ups).

19) Which do you prefer to write more? HC, drabbles, oneshots/fics, multi chapter stories, other? I have found a new appreciation for drabbles lately (even though they are longer than they should be 😬). Most of my stories start as one-shots, but after I post them, I either get requests to continue it or I get another idea and they turn into multi-chapter fics. Only one or two of my multi-chapter fics were started with multiple parts in mind.

20) Are there any stories you have discontinued? If so, why? I never consider anything discontinued. It just might need another shot of inspiration, but I am always open to returning to something.

21) What is one of your main "pet-peeves" as a writer on Tumblr? People who are rude or demanding towards writers. If you don't like what someone writes because of the plot, direction they took the story, or the topics they touched on, then just don't read it. Just because you might not like that specific fic doesn't mean no one else will. And the people who post fics here are doing so in their free time and aren't getting any compensation for it. So if they take a long time to update a fic or post new material, please be patient and give them a little understanding. They don't have to update at all if they don't want to so just be happy when they do.

22) Do you write a particular time of day? I write whenever I have free time, but I get my best writing done after 1 a.m. When I don't have work the next day, I often stay up until 5 a.m. to write!

23) Do you listen to music, ambiance/noise, etc to write or do you need silence? I can't write while listening to lyrics most of the time, but I do love listening to movie scores or epic instrumental music to help set the mood.

24) Do you outline your fics at all before writing? I normally have a paragraph or two summary of what I want to happen, but nothing super detailed. I go where the story takes me!

25) Do you post your writing as soon as you finish it, or do you schedule it to come out at a specific time/day? Sometimes I will schedule it for the afternoon/evening, but often I get impatient and post it early. 😅

No pressure tags: @lovelyavengers, @princessxkenobi, @kesskirata, @rayslittlekitten

[plague-of-insomnia]

I totally get your point. Like... the whole feed your creators, we're starving, thing started to get momentum, then it was pushed back by people doing a mix of bringing up valid concerns, like, some people have social anxiety and struggle with commenting because of that, but then it got into... creators are ungrateful for voicing that they need interaction and :/

It takes a lot of emotional real estate to say, no, I should be getting feedback on my things that I spent hours doing too and everyone who is pushing back and claiming that real estate is doing such a good job. It's incredibly disheartening to spent hours, weeks, months, years, working on a project and then people can't even be bothered to hit a kudos button.

Like, I'm not super popular, and I write niche things and shorter things, which both get less hits, and even less feedback. But when my most popular fic, which sits at 2k hits, only has 89 kudos, not even comments, just hitting a button kudos, it's aggravating and makes me feel unappreciated.

My most kudos'd fic has ~725 hits and 172 kudos. My most popular fic is ranked fifth for kudos, fourth for that fandom. (The other three have 955 hits, 116 kudos and 642 hits, 103 kudos and 769 hits, 99 kudos. A fraction of 2k hits.)

And the fic, although it leaves a lot to be desired, isn't even bad, so it's not clicking out because it's hot garbage lol. It's about average quality, because it's five years old and I grew a lot as a writer. I just do not get it lol, and looking at and comparing stats like that really drags out how lacking engagement is.

Thankfully, on tumblr, most of y'all leave comments on the post or in tags, which I love and appreciate and save each one

{In reference to this post}

@gabedemon, I apologize for taking awhile to respond to this as I was trying to collect my thoughts because I know this is a hot-button issue and I really don’t want to make anyone think I’m trying to attack them personally or anything.

I honestly was so relieved to get this ask because tbf that post pissed me off.

I’m understanding but I’ve already done just about everything that I can to be accommodating, and I still don’t get many comments.

I know this isn’t just my problem, because I know that more popular writers who write more “mainstream” stuff have also had issues with lack of feedback/interaction.

I have 15 works on AO3 right now (not counting 2 bc they’re not really only mine), and only FOUR have more than 100 kudos. Only one has over 200.

I’m aware that what I write isn’t for everyone. I tend to be interested in more niche/fandom-divergent topics and I love writing rarepairs. I’m also painfully aware that I have been unable to post much writing at all, and none on AO3 in several months.

But I’ll admit that it’s not only the lack of comments, but poor interaction on tumblr that has made me increasingly frustrated.  It’s such a struggle for me to write anything right now, and I’m always so happy and proud when I am able to share something here even if it’s just a little taste, only to get almost no reblogs for my writing.

For example, for my most recent snippets and such that I’ve posted lately, these are my stats:

6 likes / 4 reblogs (50% of which are me)

6 likes/ 4 reblogs (75% are me)

18 likes/ 7 reblogs (29% are me)

31 likes / 8 reblogs (25% are me)

16 likes/ 13 reblogs (46% are me)

19 likes/ 12 reblogs (17% are me) - this one is from last year

I’m super grateful for the people who have continued to support me and be excited about my work despite my limitations over the past year, but at the same time, I’ve become really frustrated by how few people in the fandom bother to reblog my writing.

I have tried my hardest since joining the fandom 3 years ago to be as supportive as I can of other creators, and I know I’m not churning out the main OTP content, but I still feel really disappointed when I can’t even get a RB of a snippet or ficlet.

I don’t write for comments and I don’t support others because I want something out of it.

But after awhile, not getting that support back, even with something as simple as a RB, starts to wear.

I know the kuro fandom has been pretty dead (especially on tumblr) lately, and I’m really appreciative of those who DO regularly interact with my posts, send asks, reblog, etc.

I really have been putting off saying most of this for a long time because I didn’t want it to think like I was trying to be a whiny, entitled brat or anything... maybe this response doesn’t even make sense or came off awful despite my best attempts.

And I’m sorry if any of this comes off as manipulative or guilt tripping or anything as that isn’t my intent (and part of why I’ve stayed silent about this more or less for months), but seeing that post just reminded me all over again.

[pilvimarja]

Fic Writer Questions!

I was tagged by @alienfuckeronmain, thank you! <3

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

48 fics on my main account and 8 fics on my super secret sock puppet account.

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

Oh dear, I think I'm gonna have to check my statistics for these questions for the first time ever! Okay, let's see... total word count is 554495

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

8 fandoms which are Cobra Kai/The Karate Kid, Thor (both MCU and Norse mythology), IT (movies), Yuri on Ice, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Final Fantasy XV, Detroit Become Human and Hiddlesworth RPF.

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I don't ever wanna know my kudos amounts so I'm gonna skip this one, sorry. I'd rather not know if my writing is I'm well-liked or not lol I can't take the pressure.

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try my best, because I really appreciate every single comment I get! The email from AO3 about a new comment is the best thing you can get in your inbox! But sometimes I forget to reply and the comment might get buried under other comments and then I feel foolish about replying like six months later, so I just let them sit in my inbox forever.

6) What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Almost every single fic I write has a happy ending except the ones on my sock account where every fic was dark, toxic and angsty lol. But it's a sock account, so I can't really share them publicly.

7) What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Probably some of my Jotun AU fics in the Thor fandom where Thor and Loki get married :D

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?

Crossovers aren't really my thing. Though I do love the different crossovers we've had in the Cobra Kai fandom about Shootfighter, The Equalizer and NINY! More please!

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I have written about some ~controversial~ topics and the main reason I made a sock account for my darker fics was to protect myself from the pitchfork mobs, but I've never received hate! I guess I've been really lucky :)

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do, most of my fics are smutty. It's really hard to describe what kind of smut I write, I don't really have an objective view, but I guess one thing I like to explore over and over again are happy, slightly awkward first times. I think that in a way, it allows me to work through my own negative experiences with s3x. I'm also not shy about writing about some niche kinks.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, quite a few times, mostly by Russian, Chinese and Japanese authors :)

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope, I fly solo haha.

14) What's your all time favorite ship?

Oh man, I've been shipping and reading fics since 2002 or 2003 and I've had so many ships that it's really hard to pic favorites. I guess it would have to be Thor/Loki, because it's my longest lasting ship and I still occasionally read fics about them even though I haven't been active in the fandom in several years.

15) What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I have a soulmark WIP that's almost 10k long, written about the ship I posted about on my sock account and I feel really shitty about not finishing it! The first draft was already done, all I had to do was edit it. But I've been away from the fandom and the ship for so long that it'd be really hard for me to jump back into it and the specific mindset it required.

16) What are your writing strengths?

This is so hard to answer about my own writing. I think I've been told that my worldbuilding is immersive by multiple people, so I'll go with that :)

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm an ESL speaker so grammar for sure. We have completely different comma rules in my native language, so I probably have a weird mix of too many/too few commas. The asexual in me also often forgets that people actually like kissing :D

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I've written some lines of dialogue in foreign languages like Russian, Italian and Swedish, but I always try to keep it short and only include it when it adds something to the scene and makes sense for the character to use it. I speak Swedish and I have an Italian friend who checks my grammar, but the Russian was probably all wrong lol.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Final Fantasy 8! And I'm so glad the sites where I posted my first fics don't exist anymore!

20) What's your favorite fic you've written?

I'm my own target audience so I mostly write about things that I want to read and every writing experience is fun for me (even when I struggle with writer's block lol). I really enjoy writing fics where I get to do a lot of worldbuilding or where I'm allowed to step into a completely different setting, so I think I'd have to pick my Jotunheim AU In Your Heart Believe What In My Heart I Know or the Age of Sail Hiddlesworth AU series.

I tag whoever wants to do this! :D

[ghoste-catte]

15, 17 and 19 for the meta ask

Thanks for the ask!!!

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Gosh, this is a tricky one. So, to start, I don't find tagging very difficult at all. I have some very basic principles that I think of when I tag:

1. Is the story about this thing? Does this tag encompass a genre, trope, or main theme?

2. Would someone searching for a story by this tag be satisfied with my fic showing in the results?

3. Is this a common trigger that is a major component of this work?

4. Does this tag give readers a sense of what's inside, even if it's not a 'canonical' tag (in the Ao3 sense of a searchable, indexable tag)?

1-3 are really just variations on a theme, and obviously anyone can tag any way they like, but that's how I think of tags. And I do give myself laterality to add one or two humorous tags if it fits the tone of the fic.

An example I've given before is: Hunting is a trigger for some people. If I've written a fic where a side character happens to go hunting and mentions it, or has hunting trophies on their wall, that doesn't warrant a tag, but I'll stick it in the warnings in the header note. If the fic is about hunting - the main characters are hunters, or they spend 5k words stalking a deer around the woods, then that warrants a tag.

Titles and summaries, on the other hand, are variable in their difficulty. Some titles walk right into my head before I've even written the fic, or the fic is inspired by some particular song or line of verse or whatever that makes a title simple to figure out. A lot of the rest of the time, though, I get to the end of writing the story and go "fuck, what the hell do I call this?" For fluff and humor fics, I often resort to googling "X jokes", where X is the main topic of the fic, and looking at the image search results since those tend to be pithy and easy to visually scan. So, like, for example, 'Chop it Like it's Hot' was a thanks-to-Google title (I googled "lumberjack puns"). I'm also not shy about crowdsourcing titles in the GaaLee Discord (shout out to Whazzername specifically for coming up with the titles for, like, a BUNCH of my fics).

Summaries are kind of similar: sometimes I know exactly which line or paragraph I want to pull or exactly how to sum the story up, and sometimes I have to agonizingly workshop it. It's much easier to write a summary for something plotty than it is for something more emotionally driven.

17. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?

The weirdest bit of feedback that I've often received about my persona is people finding me intimidating to start up a conversation with? Which feels crazy to me because in my mind I'm just a simple idiot wizard who spends way too much brainspace and man hours on writing a truly ridiculous amount of fic for a single niche pairing. Like, all I did was hop on this train and refuse to disembark. So I don't really know where that comes from or how to, like ... fix it. I don't necessarily want to be intimidating, and I feel sort of bad that people find me unapproachable. Like yes I'm abrasive and a shitty conversationalist but also I'm not scary!

As far as my fics ... no, I think people generally get out of my fics what I put into them. There's been one or two times where readers glommed on to a detail that I intended to be a bit throwaway and not especially salient, particularly in multi-chapter works where the irrelevance isn't clear until later, but those moments are fairly rare.

I think what people would find surprising about my writing is just how often I latch on to a stupid sort of flight of fancy conversational whim in Discord and spin it out into like 10k+ of fanfic. Prompts and other people's ideas are actually one of my favorite ways to drum up fic concepts! I'm not that of a creative person on my own, so it helps me to have someone else's skeleton to flesh out.

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

Ugh, yes! The bane of my existence is these little phrases I can't seem to stop repeating. I often re-read my own work and sometimes I'll come across a line and I'm like =_= "how is this already in here, I just used this in something I'm writing right this moment!" The one that's been stuck in my craw recently (and thank you so much to a reader who brought it to my attention!) is how much I talk about how small Gaara's hands are? I don't know why that's a fixation point--I think partially it's because I just can't stand to have a noun without an adjective attached--but it's something I'm trying to be more thoughtful about excising moving forward.

Trope-wise, I love an AU, especially sci-fi and fantasy AUs. They're some of my least popular fics, but they're usually the ones I have the most fun researching and writing for, and many of them number among what I consider to be my best works. I would go batshit if other people wrote GaaLee fic in those genres tbh.

[neverheardnothing]

thanks for the tag @willroland :)

why did you choose your url?

well i grew up on the internet in the early 2010s so i was obsessed with starkid which lead to musical theater in general which lead to dear evan hansen which lead to will roland which lead to be more chill which lead to joe iconis and that hasn’t lead anywhere else because i’m so far up this man’s ass he could tell me to jump and i’d give him 5 million dollars for a bloodsong of love revival. anyway. funny enough it was because i was so up will roland’s ass that i gave joe iconis’ music outside of bmc a chance (back when he tweeted out a thread of joe iconis songs the night before the tonys). and he was right. he has taste even if all i see from him nowadays is globe twitter. anyway. never heard nothing (along with the bar song, try again, and last on land) is the quintessential joe iconis song in my humble opinion. but also my opinion is backed up by joe so. i’ll just let him say it.

here’s a link to the song. listen to it if you have any interest in joe iconis and his work.

any side blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them

yeah this is actually a sideblog. my main is @cockbiteproductions which is personal + rooster teeth. every day i want to throw rocks at mcyt fans but i myself am a rooster teeth fan and so my house is very glass and breakable. and then there’s marvel @sebastianskywalker (can you guess who was excited by the idea of sebastain stan playing young luke? lol). star trek @jimtiberivskirk. star wars @fulcrumahsoka. anime @kvchiki. and that’s the important ones. i use this one and my main the most though. which is already almost not at all these days.

how long have you been on tumblr?

hahahahahaha. 2012. fuck.

do you have a queue tag?

yeah it’s “swiss fucking queue” which is from when michael jones says “swiss fucking cheese goddammit” in his impossible game rage quit. everyone on my main gets it but i hope anyone who sees it on my sideblogs gets confused because it’s the same queue tag across all my blogs.

why did you start your blog in the first place?

i was about to say “well my first blog was fandom” and then i realized that applies to literally all of them. so yeah. fandom. i generally make a sideblog when i want to make new fandom friends because none of my current friends are into the thing i am into. it works well.

why did you choose your icon/pfp?

will roland. because will roland. when my bio said “joe iconis and will roland” it wasn’t lying. but anyway i like projecting on characters wrol plays.

why did you choose your header?

it’s off this set lol. same photoshoot as the one from my icon.

what’s your post with the most notes?

lol it’s this shit gifset i made of nik dodani as jared in the deh movie trailer. he actually reposted a video of him scrolling through it on his insta story. which is unfortunate because it looks like shit. i usually have flux on while using any device and i turned it off while making this but i guess my brain is just fucked about it now because it’s 1. way not bright enough 2. way too yellow. ugly as shit.

how many followers do you have?

on this blog? uh i think getting close to 400 idk tho. idc. i just come here to scream about musical theater i rarely care about clout.

how many people do you follow?

idk around 750. a girls gotta sustain like 5 different blogs. that + never using tumblr anymore means i never see what anyone posts ever unless i go to their blog directly lol.

have you made a shitpost?

this blog is 1/3 shitpost 1/3 rando reblogs 1/3 ranting about joe iconis shit no one else cares about

how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ post?

im spiteful so it’s an immediate no reblog from me. but i also dont really blog about social justice or anything much anymore. so unless a post has drastically altered how i think about a topic for the better i dont reblog it.

do you like tag games?

yeah! they’re fun. i’ll take any opportunity to talk about myself. + i generally learn something about the person who tagged me.

do you like ask games?

yeah! i get too anxious about reblogging them though lol i dont want people to think i want attention even though im an evil little attention whore.

which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

famous? on this sideblog? no one lol. not necessarily famous but @nothingunrealistic is probably one of the people that has the most longevity in the deh fandom on here so they have a decent amount of followers from that i assume. @unproduciblesmackdown and @kkamikazed also draw good fucking art so they get clout like that lol. i think @annabelle--cane is also like. decently large? idk. no one in this tiny niche subsection of musical theater tumblr is really tumblr famous though. that’d be a nightmare lol. wait there might be one person i think that’s a sideblog but i can’t remember who lol.

do you have a crush on a mutual?

thank fucking god no. could you imagine?

well i already mentioned @nothingunrealistic​ @unproduciblesmackdown @kkamikazed and @annabelle--cane earlier so i guess them. only if yall wanna tho. also @talkfine​ @rovermcfly​ if yall wanna do this. and anyone who wants to talk about themself go for it.

[lexpertztechblog]

How to use blogs to bridge to your website and increase traffic

The Importance Of A Bridge Site

If you are like most Internet entrepreneurs, you start to collect different websites or web presences that are useful for generating traffic back to your site. Some of these places, like Digg, Facebook, or article archives can be a great resource in advertising your sales website on the Internet to specific demographics. However, many third-party sites have specific rules about the types of pages that people can use in their comments, their articles, and/or biographical information. Ezinearticles, for instance, won't allow you to link back to a sales page, and yet, this is at the heart of Internet marketing. You wouldn't be out there, if you weren't trying to get someone to buy something from you. So, what do you do? That's where you start to realize that there are ways to get around the rules that others put in place to limit your Internet marketing activities, and bridge sites are an important strategy to exploit. Even when a third-party doesn't ban you for linking to a sales page, there are also other times when it's just jarring to go from a link, say like in Facebook, to a sales page. In some ways, social networkers will judge such a move as “too commercial” and you can lose credibility in your authenticity that way. So, again, you want to implement a bridge site to smooth the way.

Why Blogs Are Ideal Bridge Sites

Web logs, a.k.a. “blogs,” are an excellent way to bridge from a site like a user-interactive social networking site to a commercial sales page. That's because they tend to be a mix of both. You have your daily blogs that you post, that are typically informal, casual in tone, and friendly, and you have links that are put on a blog that are expected to link to more commercial endeavors. The casual style is much in keeping with the style of social networking, and so it is less jarring to people who can be harvested from these sites and do not realize that they have begun to be marketed. This gives you an edge because there is less buyer's resistance on this format. Also, as long as you own the blog, you can link to anything that you want to link to, so that makes it ideal as a bridge site. And, the major search engines love to crawl blogs frequently because of the way content is updated more regularly, so you get a wider audience. In addition, you can put links in your blog posts that send people to different sales pages. You can set up a blog anonymously or with a pseudonym, and thus, no one has to know that the links you promote are from your own website. Once someone visits your blog, they should have an easy to remember URL that is all yours. Blogs can be addictive because the information should be updated once daily, if not more. As long as the information is informative and entertaining, you can get people to subscribe to your blog. This converts them from an anonymous viewer to someone who is now basically entering your sales funnel. You can then begin to offer them some deals or introduce them to the product lineups on other websites you own, that can convert them from subscriber to customer.

WordPress Is The Gold Standard

So, now you see the value in having a blog as an intermediary from third- party sites with massive traffic streams, to get potential customers into your sales pipeline. But, where do you start? WordPress is the gold standard of easy to implement blogs, and there are even some hosts that will put a site for you, which you end up customizing. However, there is a bit of confusion with WordPress that is important to clarify. The WordPress.org is a shareware software package that anyone can use for free. Some commercial people took that software and built WordPress.com, the .com extension signifying it is a commercial endeavor. That's a community of bloggers with WordPress blogs with limited features and heavy-handed guidelines. Some of the guidelines on WordPress.com don't allow you advertise the way you would want to do on a Internet marketing blog. In particular, you can't make any money off Google ads from your blog using WordPress.com. So, you want to make sure that you are using WordPress.org hosted on a site where the rights to add Google ads to the blog is not banned. That way you can make money through advertising too and you get all the features that are important to develop your Internet marketing blog.

Some Plug-Ins You Want To Use

WordPress features can be added through the installation of third-party software called “plug-ins.” There are many different plug-ins that are beneficial to the Internet marketer as there are numerous developers who are interested in pushing this market forward. The following list is far from comprehensive, but it gives you a good idea of some plug-ins you definitely want to get and install: - Akismet This plug-in is a spam filter and can save you loads of time moderating comments. It follows a database that is regularly updated of known spammers, so you don't have to read every single comment that comes to your blog. It will automatically filter the spam out and put it in a spam folder where you can look at it at your leisure. - Adsense Deluxe This plug-in lets you even add Adsense code directly into your blog posts, not just the sidebar. - DoFollow If you have a “do follow” blog you are more likely to attract visitors and blog commentators. That's because no follow blogs do not give credit for a backlink, which is why many people post in the first place. - Email Users If you are going to use your subscription list as an email contact list for your Internet marketing activities, you will need to add this plug-in. It lets you send email to your registered users. - Gregarious This helps you to connect to other site by giving the option for social bookmarking posts to places like Digg, Reddit, Facebook, and more. - WordPress e-commerce You can add a shopping cart to your blog with this particular plug- in. - All In One SEO Pack A “must have” plug-in for Internet marketers as it optimizes your pages to get great search engine page results. It's a great way to attract a lot of attention from search engines with minimal time investment. - Subscribe To Comments This plug-in helps people to track a comment stream on a particular post and keeps them coming back to your blog.

Grabbing Traffic From Third Party Sites

Once you've set up the blog and understand how you will take people from there to your website pages, either via links in your blog posts or sidebar, you still need to get people to visit your blog from other third-party sites. And, which third-party sites should you try to get a web presence on? Let's go over a few of the different places you can begin to cultivate a web presence for the purpose of grabbing traffic, and how to use each one with your blog to lead people from that area to your own. Other Blogs Once you've set up a blog, the natural place to start looking for traffic is other more high profile blogs in your market niche. If you don't know who these people are, you need to visit Technorati.com and put in a few keywords that are in your market niche to determine who the big players are. You should make it a point to build a list of blogs that you can add to your blog roll and see if by doing so, they add you to their blog roll. The blog roll is a list of blogs that other bloggers recommend and by getting added to a blog roll on a popular blog, you'll automatically get more traffic from the target niche that you've selected. Another way to get more traffic from blogs is to comment on the top profile blogs and leave a link to a blog post that addresses some aspect of the post. This way you play off on an already popular topic and you contribute to the conversation too. It's not considered spam to put your URL in a comment if it points to something that contributes to the conversation, not just a sales page. Again, you are using the bridge of your website to grab eyeballs and then once they get to your blog, you can market them there. Finally, you can also go to blog communities like WordPress.com and look on their featured stories and categories. Find one or two blog postings that you can reply to and contribute to the conversation. Once these blog posts are put on their featured page, you will get a lot of traffic if you post something interesting with a link back to your own blog. Since you're dealing with people who already to subscribe to blogs, it's a natural for increasing your blog subscribers too. Digg.com Digg is a social news site where people submit stories and other people vote on them. The more popular the news story becomes, the more it is highly ranked by Digg. It can even land on the front page of Digg, which will provide a megaboost of traffic for anyone who happens to land there. You can submit your story to Digg and get your friends and associates to vote for it. It can be a story you put on your blog on a popular subject. It doesn't matter than you're not an expert, as long as you can talk about the subject intelligently and make the story entertaining. If you know what subjects are generating controversy on the web, those are always a good subject to try to get into Digg, just be careful not to draw negative attention to your blog instead of positive attention. Social Bookmarking Sites Delicious.com is social bookmarking site that allows you to add different pages of your blog to a site where others can view it. Just be sure to use a permalink to a particular story, and not the entire blog URL. That way, you can tag each story with different tags and people will be able to zoom to them when they search the social bookmarking sites. There are many different social bookmarking sites, like Reddit too. They tend to have a large number of people and can be searched very easily. Social Networking Sites Facebook and MySpace are two examples of social networking sites. These sites tend to have strict rules about what you can post online on your profiles. Facebook, in particular, does not want people using their profiles to spam or soliciting other people on their business offerings and this activity can get you banned. However, there are ways to mine the rich vein of users that come to social networking sites to mingle online. First, you will have to set up a profile with your own name, not your business name. You can put up a Facebook page for your business, as a newer feature for those people who are trying to use Facebook to market. However, the Facebook profile should be all about you, not your business. There is an area in your profile where you can list your URLs of interest, and that's where you can add some of your business sites. The key to Facebook is to join in the casual atmosphere and network your way to more contacts. You can do this through groups, pages, friends, and networks. You should try to meet people who are in your market niche, but not to solicit them directly on Facebook. Instead, you can email and network through different commenting areas to get people interested in your blog. There are different applications that can help you insert your blog into your profile too. There is a Blog Network application, now formally called NetworkedBlogs, that allows you to post your blog, claim it, and get people to become a fan of it. You can network with other bloggers on Facebook too, by visiting their blogs and becoming a fan of them too, since it lists them too. It allows you to see blogs in your category fairly easily and to promote your blog to readers through the network. Send them a friend request to anyone that becomes a reader, to any other bloggers in your market niche, and now you have access to some of the audience that is in your market niche. When you comment on the wall of people you have friended, all of their friend's will see your comment and it can lead them to your blog. Just be careful not to spam their wall and make any comments relevant and not a solicitation. The blog network will take them directly outside Facebook to your blog and provide a steady stream of new people looking at your blog who are involved in your market niche. It's actually pretty simple when you know what applications to use. Another great feature on Facebook is the ability to create a page for your business, a brand or product, or if you are a performer, you can create one as an artist, band, or public figure. The difference between a Facebook page and your profile page is that you are allowed to actively promote your business on the page, but not the profile. And, your profile is limited to 5,000 friends, whereas the Facebook page is not. Some people even create a page for themselves when they hit the 5,000 friend limit, so they can continue to network on Facebook and add fans, if not friends. Another feature is groups, where you can add a group on any topic and get people to sign up. Like the Facebook page, people will become a fan and then you have a captive audience there. You may not have their email address, but it's the perfect place (both on the page and in the group) to promote your blog and get many people to go from Facebook back to your bridge, so that you can start to collect their email addresses. The funny thing about Facebook is that they are super paranoid about having marketers harvest emails. So, they don't add the email contact information in as text, it's an image. You can write the email down for each friend that you have, if it is showing in their information tab, but even sometimes it's not there either. So, it takes a bit of work to collect an email list from Facebook and if they catch you spamming or soliciting people with it, you risk losing your account. The smart way to do this is to simply entice them off Facebook back to your web log, where you have an offer that gives them something for free for providing their email. And, since Facebook has a culture of non-commercialism, the blog is a perfect intermediary step from Facebook to your sales page eventually. If you were to link in to the sales page directly, you might end up being banned by Facebook or at least dropped by a few friends. No one really wants to be marketed harshly on Facebook, and it takes some finesse to get people to trust you enough to buy from you. So, don't spoil it by being overenthusiastic with your business on Facebook. Master the art of the soft sell, and use an intermediary space to set the stage for your marketing offer. Article Directories People all across the web are in search of quality content. Sometimes they go to article directories where anyone is allowed to post free content, as long as it meets the criteria of the article directory. EzineArticles is one such directory that you can sign up for and start creating content for other people to grab and post on their websites. While it may seem counterproductive to create free articles that people can add to their own sites, as long as they reference back to you or the original article, it is just because of this feature that it makes it a great way to get traffic from many different places, not just the article archive. If your article becomes very popular, you may have several different places on the web linking to it, excerpting it, and all pointing back to you or the original article. This is in addition to the tons of traffic article directories naturally get from their own readers and the high placement in search engine result pages. Now, every article directory gives you, the author, a resource box where you can link to your own enterprises. You probably won't be able to actively promote your links within the article, as there are strict rules forbidding linking from an article in an article directory to a sales page. However, you can post a link in your resource box pointing to your enterprises there and you are typically allowed at least two links. As your articles grow in popularity, they can generate third-party traffic to your sites for an extended period of time. At first, you will get an instant boost because the article will automatically go on the front page for a period of time. After that, it will depend on how well you optimized it for Google keywords and popularly searched topics, as to how often it is read or accessed. So, you do have to do a little extra work to get your articles to be highly searchable for a period of time. But, after that, once they're up, you can forget about them and let the article directories, the search engines, and the topic do the work for you. What's nice about submitting to article directories is that you can post multiple articles on different topics, related but not exact. So, if you have many different websites, you can post on different topics without creating a new account. Readers who like one story, will see other stories you have written and might be tempted to go further to look you up. Always give them a reason in your resource box to click on the link you provide to your blog where they can find even more material that is relevant to that article. Social Search Engines A great way to grab traffic is to go to a social search engine like StumbleUpon. This search engine doesn't use keywords to assign relevancy. All the pages are submitted by users of the search engine who categorize them and they can even give them a “thumbs up.” Even if you don't get that many thumbs up, just submitting different posts from your blog can help to drive traffic there because the pages are randomly “stumbled” when people search for different topics. So, you stand a pretty good chance of showing up on anyone's pc if they use StumbleUpon as their search engine. As with many other types of services that are social in nature, the less commercial you appear, the better it is for you. And, you want to keep submitting content to the search engine repeatedly to get more hits. That means your blog is ideal for submitting permalinks that go to different stories on your blog to attract attention there. Once people visit your blog, they can be lead to other areas of your web empire via links in the blog post, links in the sidebars, or promotional offers to subscribers of the blog. In order to use StumbleUpon, all you have to do is install the toolbar into your web browser. From there, it's a simple matter to use the thumbs up button to quickly add your submissions to the search engine. Just make sure you add the permalink and not the entire blog URL, or you will have multiple copies of the front page instead of multiple stories showing up. And, of course, the story on the front page of your blog changes when new content comes up, so the categories and tags change too. Read the full article