#unoriginal gifset is unoriginal lol

[sircolinmorgan]

Merlin Week: Day 1 + Favourite Character.

“It has been a privilege to know you, Emrys.”

[edwardbonnets]

hello :3 I figure I can ask you since you're a big fan of ofmd there are a lot of repeated posts and I was planning on posting an analysis but I just saw some reblogged posts of basically the same thing that I would be referring to in said analysis. do you think it's silly to post the analysis, for fear that it's unoriginal thought? or should I do it anyway. I worked so damn hard on it...and it kind of upsets me that I see so much of the same thing :/ maybe I'm being silly..sorry to bother you.

omg you're not bothering me at all!! this is a good question anon and i get the same feeling all the time!

since ofmd is a big and very new fandom it's almost inevitable that you're gonna come up with an idea that's similar to someone else's! there's been plenty of times where i've had an idea for a gifset only to realize that something similar has already been made

but i think the thing about fandom spaces is that being able to share your thoughts is essential to the whole experience of it all!! even if something with the same idea has been posted, your analysis will have your own perspective, your own words, that will differ from the other posts!! and since you've worked hard on it, you shouldn't be discouraged from posting it!!

like let's say i make a gifset from a scene that someone has also made a gifset of, our posts wont be the same because of differences in coloring, how we've edited the gifs, the captions we use on the post, and those things make both our gifsets it's own unique thing!! so the same thing applies to your analysis if that makes sense lol

lmao this is kind of a long-winded answer, but to make things short: yes, you totally should post it, especially since you've put a lot of work into it and are proud of it!! <333

[hoedameron]

typically i don’t talk about the gifs that i make for myself but i am in a chatty mood so we’re have a socratic seminar right now.

also, before i get started, you can use these headers if you’d like! literally everything you see on this blog are freebies tbh. just a forewarning that the cas one is not the standard 640 px width because i was experimenting with something so just...be mindful of that <3 no need to credit unless you feel inclined to! just know i spent...quite awhile on them xx

i get most of my ideas for spn gif headers by seeings gifs on the tl that make me go “you know what? this would make for a great header” and run with that. i do pray that the op put the season and episode in the tags and if they don’t...SHH don’t laugh but if i’m desperate enough, i actually go through the tags to see if any hardcore stan knows the exact szn/ep. other times, i write some scenes down in my journal that i think would be great but again, those written down are definitely from scenes i saw in gifsets. call me unoriginal idc i’m just making things that make me happy and i know would be hella sexy.

let’s talk about how fucking LONG it takes to down/load an episode of supernatural like....i deadass spent five hours downloading plucky pennywhistle’s magical menagerie and around three hours to download the man who would be king....is it just best to t/orrent the whole ass season or WHAT like i’m deadass about to do that for any spn gifs i wanna make because that ajsdajksldjksla RIDICULOUSLY FUNNY. i’m not even that mad like it humbles me and it shows how dedicated i am to the craft. if anybody has tips for t/orrenting old spn episodes, please hmu because i would like to make more content in the future but this is a big hurdle on why i hesitate to create content for this show (among other things BUT this is one of the biggest reasons). you could have the fastest wifi speed the world has to offer pero if that bitch has no seeds...

for the castiel header: i had three different colorings for him. i really wanted to bring out his eyes because that is what drew me to make the header in the first place. y’all know that as a gifmaker, i really like making my gifs warmer and using pale/aesthetic coloring is so out of my wheelhouse and not my forte...but i do try to branch out of my comfort zone. back to the eyes, i went through a lot of psds, tinkering with their settings, and came out with three of them: the warm one that i did end up using and two pale-ish ones. the other third one isn’t here because i ultimately determined that it’s basically this one here but a lot lighter. the coloring made cas almost a ghost so i’m like...we still need to keep SOME of his skin tone even if it’s a lack thereof...okay, the reason why that this one doesn’t have the typical 640 px dimension is because i wanted to keep...how do i say this...i wanted to keep some of his facial structure? because the scene is really focused on cas’ face so it’s the entire frame. because tumblr is the way it is, it cuts at a weird spot where he looks like that bitch from doctor who all stretched out. so in an attempt to prevent that, i made it in this dimension where it’s basically me free handing the crop but ultimately it didn’t do anything lol. so i basically went back and made an entirely new gif with one of the colorings i saved and ta-da!

for the sam header: going in, i knew it was going to be a dark lit scene. i knew i had specific spn colorings that have been useful for shows outside of supernatural so i was like...i mean, tried and true, eh? i went through about six colorings until i finally settled on like...four. the first two of the six, though colorful, really made sam’s skin a bit...washed out. the next two were...basic. one of those basic coloring was the dark spn coloring and though it looked okay, there wasn’t any flavor to it. if i can be colorful in a gif, i will definitely climb up that tree. i love and admire vibrant gifs so if i can do that, oh man, it’s such a fun feeling because it’s like WOW i actually did that! then there were two colorings that were really, REALLY good because one of them was vibrant but it also had a subtlety to the gif. the other one was vibrant and brought out the blue in the background. it was a hard decision but i did save both of them and was like well, this is a problem for future me. i was actually surprised that the glitter on sam’s jacket and shirt didn’t up the mb because it definitely had me worried there. i also thought about making this gif header as another scene but realized it was a little too short for my liking (it was when he was surrounded by clowns but they magically disappear into thin air, leaving glitter in their wake). really love how this gif turned out :)

and yeah, that’s all i got to say about them. everything went smoothly with the sharpening, no problems on that front...i thought about opening up my inbox for suggestions of what scenes i should gif pero i’m afraid that 1) nobody will respond, 2) i will get some strange requests, or 3) i will get a lot of them. i would love to create more but i am like..creatively stuck. i don’t typically make those fancy edits with templates, i am more of a practical gifmaker aka i just stick to the original material. who knows...maybe i’ll be pushed and motivated...thanks for taking the time to read this !!

[angel-deux-writes]

Hi Angel! I've been a big fan of yours since HCM, and so I wanted to express my concern for your wellbeing. There was that big break when you took a month or so to finish HCM before posting it in quick succession, in order to not have to deal with the comments. Now, from what you've been writing in the notes to Dorne Rights, it looks like you are experiencing something similar. The selfish fan in me wants you to keep writing and keep posting, but the basic human in me is more worried that (1/2)

you are unhappy. Nothing is worth making yourself unhappy over, particularly not something that’s meant to give you pleasure. A favourite author of mine back in the days of my Spike/Angel obsession had a disclaimer on her stories telling readers to please not leave feedback of any kind, not even constructive criticism, on her fics because she finds them unhelpful. Her comment section was full of chats about various topics in that fandom, rather than her own fiction. Might help. (2/2)

Hello! I really appreciate this message, because you’re right: fanfic writing isn’t good for me.

(lol putting this beneath the cut because it’s way too long)

It’s actually my experience in this fandom that has made me realize that writing in general probably isn’t good for me, but unfortunately I feel a drive to it and can’t seem to stop myself from thinking I’ll one day get published, so that’s a bit of a downer. The truth is that I’m naturally disposed toward thinking that I’m shit, my words are shit, and every thought I’ve ever had is unoriginal and poorly written. It’s always been like that, from the time I wrote my first attempt at fiction at 7 years old to now at 31. It takes a lot for me to share my writing with people. I started writing fic at 14, basically as soon as I discovered that I wasn’t the only person composing stories about Han and Leia in their free time. I’m sure that my fics were horrendous. I give myself a hard time now, but 14 year old me probably deserved it even more. But there were sweet people on the internet who encouraged me (and lied to me) and told me that my stories were good, and that made a huge difference. 

(that and my freshman year english teacher, who was very very cute and earnest and young and made me feel like I could actually be a writer.)

I’ve never been a part of a fandom before. Discourse and meta and long discussions about canon events have never interested me. I’ve said that before, and it remains true! I consume what canon there is, and sometimes I like it, and sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I’m so dissatisfied with it that I need to write something, and so I do. I don’t think I’ve ever written fic for something that I found entirely satisfactory. The extension of my being part of an actual fandom in the past was probably reblogging a few gifsets and recommending it to friends. I’ve just never had that sort of communal experience. This, the J/B fandom, was my first time really getting into it. It’s the first time I’ve ever made friends online that weren’t just frequent commenters on long multichapter fics! It has been exciting and I’m grateful for it! It’s just also probably not good for me. 

It’s just, like, every time I post something, I’m fighting a very loud and very desperate voice in my head that’s saying “you’re shit and you shouldn’t bother”. It’s why I’m so good at writing first drafts of novels but so, so bad at getting past the second. It’s why I usually post fics only until I’ve worked out my frustrations: one or two fics per fandom and then ghosting away forever. It’s very hard to defy that voice and post something anyway, and this fandom experience has taught me that no matter HOW many stories I post, I’m ALWAYS going to have to fight that voice. And it’s gotten actively stronger. “You’re not what this fandom wants” “You’re not good at this” “Everyone’s just being nice” “You’ve overstayed your welcome”. Paying attention, often by accident, to the discourse and the metas only makes it worse, because my brain automatically turns to “well YOU don’t write them like that. That means you’re wrong”. I can tell myself as many times as I want that I myself like many different interpretations of J/B! My brain goes “yeah, but you’re just an idiot who doesn’t know any better. There’s a right way, and you’re not doing it”. 

THIS IS ALL SO DRAMATIC! But it’s just the truth! Every time I post something, it’s against my nature. NO ONE outside of fandom reads my writing! I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve allowed my close friends and family to read things. So while it may seem like, idk, like I should just be able to get over it, negative comments, or even SLIGHTLY critical comments, really hit me hard. For all the positive feedback I get (and I really AM super grateful for it, and it means the world to me), those few critical voices seem louder because they’re agreeing with what I have already known about myself. And so it feels almost like a victory, but a shitty one. “Ha! I was right this whole time! I AM a shit writer, and I’ve for some reason tricked those other people into thinking I’m good!” 

For a long time (much longer than I’ve ever written for any other fandom, obviously), I was able to shove it to the side. The J/B fandom HAS been super good to me, and they HAVE been wonderful about giving me feedback and making me feel welcome and included. But those negative voices are just SO LOUD to me, even though I know logically that they shouldn’t be. 

It would be easy to point to a specific problem and say that my issues will be fixed if only I can address that. I do it CONSTANTLY. Maybe if I stopped tagging other relationships. Maybe if I stopped tagging other characters. Maybe if I tagged my works super specifically. Maybe if I made author’s notes about how I’m a shit writer and people shouldn’t expect things from me. Maybe if I just wrote “THIS STORY IS WRITTEN ALREADY AND IM JUST EDITING AS I GO! PLEASE DONT SUGGEST THINGS!” I just feel like, increasingly, I want fewer and fewer eyes on my fics. It’s the opposite of the problem I thought I would have. But my confidence took a huge hit with HCM, and then I was finally feeling good enough to post Dorne Rights. It was probably a mistake! 

idk, maybe it’s just all the shit that’s going on in the world + in my personal life. Maybe it’s just time. Maybe I’m just running out of inspiration. But the positive voices aren’t loud enough to drown out my own negative self-voice this time, and so I’ve been trying to figure out how to handle it. Part of me wants to delete Dorne Rights with the intention of reworking it and maybe posting it again down the line with fewer tags and a lot more reminders that people can write their own stories if they don’t like mine. Part of me wants to just do a HCM and post it all at once so that I can leave the finished product up (even if I now think the entire thing is garbage). Part of me wants to stop writing fic entirely, at least until the next time I watch something with an ending so bad it fucks me up. I think my solution will probably be a massive step back from fandom for a little while. I’ve been feeling a drive to work on my original stuff, and I should probably lean into that. I would like to still write and post J/B, once I find the inspiration, but I’m tired of feeling like this is a job. I think I got so deeply sunk into this attitude of “I NEED to write and post constantly because these people want me to, and they actually like what I write!!” that I stopped writing things because I wanted to write them and started writing them because I wanted to write things for other people, to make other people happy, and so that they could tell me that I’m not a shit writer at all.

I should make it clear that I do intend to write my JB fic swap thing FOR SURE. I will drag that story out of myself no matter what. But in general it’s probably just healthier for me to not spend so much time On Here especially, and on fic in general.

[macperalta]

Creator Tag Meme

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc!) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2018. Tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original!) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

thank you @meepmorpperaltiago for tagging me ily girl😍 also i have only started making gifs for six months and there are so many works to choose from wow

my b99 alignment chart series (especially the amy one!) it was so fun finding suitable scenes for every situation and it was a big hit, i’m so proud!!

you’re in love lyrics gifset - i’m so proud of my jake and amy playlist and i love how the gifset worked out, it’s not my popular post but i love staring at it lol (and i should def continue making things for that series lol)

andy’s birthday gifset (also mel’s one!!) - i spent quite some time going through what andy had been doing for the year and it was a really worthwhile spent of time! (esp rewatching all the tli concert vids)

jake peralta undercover looks gifset - it was one of the first few creative gifsets that i have made early on, and i absolutely love how it turned out!!

b99 epic trailer gifset - it’s totally unoriginal and super basic, but i love that trailer with all my heart and looking at it makes me happy (also i’m super happy with the coloring!)

also i have to mention i created an art blog 🌹 it only has one work on now (which i’m also proud of) but i’m planning on putting out more works in 2019, so if you want go check it out💖

i know a lot of fic writers have been tagged in this, so i’m gonna tag some amazing fellow gif makers!🌷 @amystiago​ @jokes-peralta @beatcopjake @amesantiagos @mrjacobsantiagos @asamberg @jonahsimms @juliadorable @jameshalpert @fantasticandfemale can’t wait to see your fav works! <3

[dialux]

hey! so, I love you and everything you write, and because I am sadly and deeply unoriginal - just, generally irl, but also while writing fic - I kind of used your head canon of Jon going to Essos and bringing back an army to save Sansa and take KL, and I'm really, really hoping you don't mind. I should've asked before I published two whole chapters but I didn't because I'm bad at being a decent person, but. uh. I'm asking now? (the fic is on ao3 and is called 'the demons around you') kthnxbyyyee

I’m deeply flattered that you were inspired by any part of my fic, but this isn’t something I have any sort of monopoly on, lol. The premise (of Jon saving Sansa in KL) isn’t something I first thought of- there were a couple au’s before that; I think two gifsets? not sure- and I’m really glad that you liked my headcanon/fic as a jumping point but….. you do you, honestly. You don’t need to give me credit for the premise. You certainly don’t need my permission to write the fic or publish it.