#you can't force an author to cater to you an author writes what THEY enjoy

[youdrewstarsxaroundmyscars]

"oh my god jegulus is taking over" "what about jily they're literally harry's parents" "why aren't the girls getting more representation"

y'all.

it's fanfiction. if you don't like something don't fucking read it. if you don't think there's enough of something. do it yourself.

chill.

[rosepetalkitty]

ngl hdg kinda amazes me in its ability to cater to my kinks pretty much perfectly while simultaneously triggering several of the worst parts of my trauma.

like how is it that it hits on everything i like on the surface, provides semi-decent worldbuilding to back it all up and enable the creation of stories, and even has consistent backstory and stuff, and yet the entire damn thing instills this looming sense of dread and fear that i can't shake enough to properly enjoy it...

below the break im gonna talk in like. moderate detail. about the parts that scare me. so uh yeah be aware that it'll get heavy that's just how it is.

ok, so the worst thing for me. wellness checks. the idea is cute and kinda hot on the surface. "make sure you're okay and if you're not you're getting domesticated" (which is supposed to be like. a happy thing. "now you get to just chill and be happy and get taken care of forever and in return you give me only your submission"). yeah, fuck it, im into that. hell that's not even an uncommon trope in the realm of cnc/mc writing.

except whenever i read an hdg wellness check story (in the sense of those long-ish tumblr posts that people write—i haven't even really considered reading the longer form content on ao3) there's something viscerally... off... about the tone. it stops feeling like kink and starts feeling like a nightmare when things happen to line up just so, and then it clicks, and reminds me that i knew people, real people, who had "wellness checks" happen in real life, except that instead of it being a kink thing that made them happy and was genuinely for their wellbeing, it was that their parents had hired people to kidnap them and drag them to a psych ward when they just needed a therapist. not all of those people that i knew have come home, as far as im aware. some have been gone for years.

and what about the whole idea of the non-consensual part being okay because "it's for your own good". in hdg-land it is. it's genuinely good for you and everyone seems to be happy with it, other than the occasional "bad guy who hates good things" trope (feralists, in hdg, afaik). but that's exactly what they told me when they cut contact between my boyfriend and i while he was in the hospital. "it's for your own good." guess what, it wasn't. his parents didn't like our relationship. they wanted me to forget him. they either didn't understand or didn't care that i couldn't. it was a year and a half before he came home and i had forgotten nothing.

our loss of communication was the tipping point in a series of events that, had i made one decision differently in the end, would have killed me. thankfully i fucked it up and am here today, no longer in that bad of a place may i add. im choosing not to share any of what happened to me directly right now because i don't want to turn this into a full on trauma dump, but suffice it to say there are recurring themes.

it's so interesting to me because in a lot of ways i have found comfort from those experiences in kink and writing. take flames of averon: mech pilots are neurochemically bonded to their handlers. how different is this from what the affini do to their florets? well, you have to sign up to be a pilot, and there's no authority in the world threatening you if you choose not to. even the coalition military wouldn't dare force you to become a pilot against your will, though they might never stop sending you promotional flyers if they find out you're able to tolerate the cyberware /lh

hell, im into cnc. im really into it. i chose to leave it as an opening between pilots and handlers in foa. the implication exists that if a handler tells their pilot to do something the poor thing will have a hell of a time saying no. that's intentional. it's hot to me, on either end. but the safety comes from other things.

yes, your handler has a lot of influence over you at a level that's hard to imagine, but you chose them and they chose you (most of the time), or at the very least neither of you had any complaints to raise with your supervisor when the paperwork came in for syncing your link chips (holly and astrid from seat of consciousness).

yes it's true, you can't be reassigned now that you're bonded, but that doesn't mean you have zero recourse if your handler is treating you badly. if you need to, you can always file paperwork with your commanding officer to request that something be done.

plus, handlers go through a lot of training, which includes screening to filter out people who would actually harm their pilots. yeah, some handlers are a little sadistic, but when it comes down to it they are on your side. if that wasn't the case they would never have passed pre-basic.

put another way, as a pilot in flames of averon, the closest thing ive ever written to a floret, there are a multitude of points at which you could have said no and didn't, and although that's obviously still noncon in the grand scheme of things, it's "signing away your freedom" cnc compared to the hdg flavor of "you 'consented' via it being the best thing for you whether you like it or not."

even if your handler just told you to "stay" for the first time and you're currently panicking and trying to figure out why your legs won't move, you still have some tiny amount of agency—an escape hatch, so to speak—and you'll just never end up having to use it.

and to me, the loss of that minute level of agency which will never be invoked is the difference between "this is hot as hell and feels perfectly safe" and "this is the abuse that was once leveraged against those i cared about, and to some degree myself, and it's simply been repackaged with a kink sticker slapped on."

none of this is to say i hate hdg, it's fans, those who write about it, or even the parts of it which scare me. i do think the idea is hot. hdg is pretty cool. hell, it was one of my inspirations in writing a lot of the pilot/handler dynamics in flames of averon. but it does scare me. and no matter what i tell myself i can't shake that fear.

it's frustrating, because oftentimes fear can be part of what makes something hot, but the particular flavor of fear which hdg instills in me is one which makes bitter all that it reaches. maybe someday i'll grow out of it. the traumatic memories from which that fear stems were only created in the past couple of years, to be fair. but something tells me a piece of that fear will never be fully dislodged from my mind.

so, all this to say, while i am into hdg, it's a complicated relationship.

(and on a sillier in character note to lighten the mood—please feel free to respond to this with roleplay or whatever you like!)

to any Affini out there who might be reading this, know that im not scared of you. im not scared of what you represent. im only scared by the fact that you mimic that which has left the scars you see on my soul today. im not against being taken in as a floret, and none of this is to say that i hold any level of disdain for you.

i only ask that you be gentle with me. what has been broken once can be broken again. please, do not let it come to that.

[olderthannetfic]

Oky but I really wish people would actually go for artists and authors who already write the "diversity" or rather the dynamics and ethnicities they specifically want, instead of going after random artists and authors expecting them to cater to them. If someone wants to only do one thing, then that's their choice, and if you don't like that just go somewhere else.

Too many people want want want all the diversity, but when it comes to actually supporting artists and authors who create exactly that, they're just crickets and instead keep flocking towards the monoculture artists and authors. Artists and authors don't owe you anything, but you also don't owe them your attention, and that's fine. So why do you keep your attention on artists who create things you obviously don't seem to like?

It's even stranger when people decide to stick around, even when the artist or author is very clear about sticking to their own niche and the person doesn't like that. At some point you gotta just accept the line in the sand and move on.

If you wanna see more of something actually go find the artist who does that and support that artist instead. Hell, why not actually go for an artist who draws from their own experience? I see a lot of people expect people to write and create outside their niche, and having high expectations, instead of just reading people who already write that niche and have actual real life experience with what they're writing or drawing.

Like if you're the one picking up an almost completely mono-ethnic book, knowing what's in there, then that is the choice you made, instead of just going for an author who's work is ethnically diverse.

Sure you can voice your opinion that you'd think it'd be great if more people create more diverse media, but that's also where it stops. You can't demand or pester random people to create what you want.

It's also completely fine to just wanna read a monot-ethnic book as well. You don't have to feel guilty, and then direct that misguided guilt at the authors who write these stories. Some times that's what you read, and you enjoyed it. If you feel like you want to read more books with obvious diversity, you can do that, and you can also read the "not diverse" books as well. There's no right or wrong to consume things in private, as long as you don't make that anyone else's problem, or try and prevent or force people to do something.

--

[icedfairy]

And another book complete! Tied up in a bow and shipped. There's a bit of relief there. But I feel I also learned stuff. And I've got a plan on what I'm doing next.

For those not interested in going through 200k+ words to get to that I'll toss them up here too.

"The big thing I noticed is that a lot of what people love is world and character building. Probably why litrpg does so well, because it's a hefty dose of crack for both. But there's a great deal of desire for non standard building. The response the monsterpedias got was far above and beyond what I expected for filler (even with cute slime Fili as a cheat). The problem that I (and a lot of authors have) is that at some point your world is built. You either start going so deep into the weeds that the flaws show, or you run out of ideas. Especially if you're centered in a fixed city.

(Big secondary problem : World building and plot advancing don't always play together and you need to maintain the balance between 'what people came here for' and 'having a story worth caring about.)

Another thing I noticed is I am easily hit by character bloat. I can't write characters out easily. That's partly a me problem and partly a story design problem. If people stick around why wouldn't they get to know each other and rely on them for help?

Next personal issue : I'm terrible at responding to readers as webfictions usually do. Now I know I'm never gonna be the type of writer who has a discord to jabber about stuff 24/7, but I do think I can cater my extras more to things that interested commentators.

Lastly I find I have issues with deadlines. Not hitting them specifically. A deadline is a great way to force me to write 9 times out of 10. But in terms of quality I think there's an impact. And especially in terms of setup / payoff. I need to find a deadline balance to properly push stories out while not getting locked up purely in delivery mode.

So what do all these words mean?

For my Helena books? Nothing, I'm gonna keep at it making solid medium length fiction. Hoping to have another one edited and out sometime next year.

For more webnovel style fiction? I'm going to play to strengths. Traveling adventurers, unique viewpoint character, episodic regional plots, and a deliberate focus on interesting locale details. I've already got a new story started, and with this one done I hope to increase the speed of writing. My goal is ~100k ready before starting to post giving me a solid starter for people to enjoy, while leaving gaps in the extra sets to flesh out setting details readers are interested in. And also get some art commissioned and in hand.

Teaser Title : Diary of a Traveling Mimic"

[ramonag-if]

Hi! I want to preface my message by saying this is not a critique, just a question.

I have a question about MC and their family. I remember you said at one point that we won't be forced to participate/interact with our blood family if we wanted. But in the recent update it's clear that MC can't have neutral/bad relationship with the ishari family. The choices to refuse to go say goodbye to them, to be there just out of politeness, being uncomfortable with them are absent. There's no "I don't know any of you and i don't want to/don't have emotional capacity to do so" way of playing.

And that's totally fine if thats how you want the story to function! Again, this is not a critique message. Sometimes some things just need to happen or to be a certain way for the sake of the narrative. Authors can't just satisfy everyone , they don't need to cater to everybody.

My question is about our mother. Will we be able to be neutral/cold towards her? Or the positive relationship must happen for the plot?

Please forgive me if my words upset you. I really enjoy your story and just want to know what direction are you wanna take with this?

Hi Anon 😊 So I started out the game wanting to add negative options for relationships etc but the reality is that the game is heavily character focussed and the plot wouldn't work as well without a good MC family relationship - so yes, for plot reasons and because I really have a hard time writing negative responses with certain characters - there won't be overt negative responses for the MC's family.

As for Salyra - it's like Ahlf. Parents are a lot different to extended family so there will be a wide range of feelings from anger to sadness to anything in between. Personally, I'm looking forward to the anger regarding Salyra's absence and the revelations that come with it 😅

You really didn't cause any offence! I'm just very bad with negative responses when offering choices 😬

[sitp-recs]

hi liv! you're awesome and ily but this is kinda a confession more than anything else. idk why this happens to me, but sometimes some fanfics that everyone else loved, really don't hit the spot for me. like i appreciate them but i just find myself getting bored and distracted yet when i see other people loving it, i feel so freaking guilty. it feels like i should like it and im missing out but i can't force myself to read them too. it's the most frustrating thing ever and i don't know what to do

Hi anon! First of all I’m sorry you’ve been feeling like this, it breaks my heart to see anyone being guilt tripped into liking something popular just because everyone else does. I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m wary about reccing (what people consider) classics exactly because of that. Of course they’re brilliant and popular for a reason - especially the ones that introduced innovative concepts or headcanons we all love and share today. I love many of those fics but others are definitely a pass for me, and the idea of being required to read and enjoy them to be considered a valid shipper (??) drives me up the wall. I’m happy you felt that my blog was safe and welcoming enough to share this with me without fearing judgment, anon 💜

What you’re feeling right now sucks big time and I assume pretty much everyone has gone/is going through the same dilemma being in a huge, long-standing fandom like Drarry. The amount of available works is insane, there’s no time to check everything that’s going on at once, and I’ve seen a few “gatekeepers” around - whether or not intentionally - putting a lot of extra pressure onto newcomers, casual fans and even old shippers like myself, to read this and that.

It’s completely normal that not every story will would spark something in you. Fic reading is an extremely personal experience and everyone has their preferences, hard nos, squicks and whatnot. It’s virtually impossible to have one single fic catering to every single shipper’s needs, and I doubt that any author has that intention anyway. The heartkick factor is so subjective sometimes you read two similar fics exploring the very same trope, and one works for you while the other doesn’t 🤷🏻‍♀️ imo trying to rationalize and justify reading preferences only leads to frustration, I prefer to accept that my heart wants what it wants, and there’s that!

I’ve mentioned before that Lettered is my fave Drarry author, yes? I wonder how many people will be surprised to learn that some of her fics didn’t work for me at all, I either never finished or never revisited them. Similarly, GallaPlacidia is largerly adored and read - I do love some of her fics but others are just not my jam, mostly because I have no interest in a few tropes. No I haven’t checked every fic Saras_Girl has ever published, and I’ve never read Turn, her most popular one but not a personal fave, more than twice. And it’s okay. It’s all good. Even if they knew I existed, I doubt that Lettered, Galla and Saras_Girl would care as much about it as some readers do lmao truth is, this is a space I come exclusively for fun, and we don’t owe anyone anything. Readers are free to choose and read and enjoy whatever they want, the same way authors are free to write whatever they want.

(Which is why I will never understand anti comments - no one is forcing you to read shit so is there any reason why you cannot close the tab, block the tags and move on? Must you really leave unsolicited criticism after literally wasting your time reading something you didn’t enjoy?! Makes absolutely no sense to me)

If I were to stress over how much I haven’t read or enjoyed I probably wouldn’t have created a recs blog in the first place. I admit sometimes I do feel pressured about not being as up to date and knowledgeable about the fandom as I’d like to - then I remember I’m here to have fun in my very limited free time, and my only rule should be to please me, myself and I. If I’m not having fun or feeling invested in the read, you can bet I’m gonna peace out and focus on something that hits that special spot. There’s nothing more valuable than learning how to curate your experience, and knowing you’re not a lesser fan because of that is an important step, too.

This got too long and I’m not sure if it helped, but I hope you feel better soon! Be gentle to yourself and prioritize your preferences, go after what makes your heart tingle and focus on having a good time. Sending lots of love 💜

[ravenwritesstuff]

Hi Raven! I hope u are doing well❤️ I am following you since the beginning of the kristanna fandom and you are one of my favorite author. You have such a powerful way with words, you are amazing! I read that you disliked kristanna in frozen 2 and, if you are willing to share, I would like to know why. I hated it too btw, but I can't seem to find a cause... It's just so annoying 😐 regardless you're going to answer or not, know that you are loved and appreciated❤️

First things first: you are a wonderful and lovely person.

Second I could write roughly three thousand words about this but I will try to keep it short.

I will break down my grievances into three very specific points.

1.) The characterization of Anna

2.) The characterization of Kristoff

3.) The characterization of Anna and Kristoff together

I am drawing from Frozen and Frozen II for source material on this and ignoring the shorts, books, comics, etc..

FUCK TON OF OPINIONS UNDER THE CUT

The Characterization of Anna

Anna is determined, has a tremendous capacity for love while also being able to be self contained, and a can-do attitude. She looks for the best in everyone and can be a bit rash but is capable, resourceful, and knows when to ask for help.

From Frozen we know that Anna has tremendous trauma and it is not unexpected that she becomes desperately clingy to her long lost sister. How they handled this quickly went from being a loving and devoted sister to a co-dependent barnacle of a girl that has little to no sense of her own self and her own autonomy. She is constantly catering to Elsa and her many meltdowns (Elsa and her trauma is a whole different conversation) instead of enjoying the moment or being able to truly spend time with Kristoff in a meaningful way.

The Characterization of Kristoff

Kristoff is introduced as a gruff, capable, ice harvester that doesn’t take orders from anyone. He is confident, experienced, able to navigate harsh terrain, and make split second decisions in life-or-death scenarios. He is physically coordinated, well loved by his adopted family that are love experts and by implication have taught him how to handle emotional issues (e.g. he knew it was inappropriate for Anna to get engaged to a man after only a few hours).

THEN FROZEN II KRISTOFF HAPPENS

And he is a bumbling idiot who cannot hold a ring, move his feet etc, who has somehow also become completely codependent, but not on Elsa. No. He is codependent on Anna so it becomes this vicious cycle of where Kristoff is always chasing after Anna and Anna is always chasing after Elsa and Elsa just does whatever the fuck she wants.

The Characterization of Anna and Kristoff together

Just murder me.

From the get go they miss the mark.

Anna, the girl with tremendous abandonment issues and deep desire to love and be loved, would never duck under the arms of her beloved for his reindeer (some things never change).

The botched proposal scene after charades.

How Anna never just stops to listen to Kristoff the way she constantly stops to listen to Elsa and forces unneeded drama into the relationship.

That Anna would just LEAVE Kristoff without insisting that they take five minutes to find him and let him know what is happening.

Kristoff’s song (hilarious, but so troubling and the fact that it starts with Reindeer Are Better Than People Reprise[which is fantastic] just adds insult to injury here)

The proposal with Elsa standing... right... there?

It all just exemplifies this strange amalgamations of the worst of their characteristics.

Honestly Kristoff picking her up and asking her what she needs is the best moment of the movie for their relationship.

I hate the “My love is not fragile” line in the context of the Frozen II relationship because Anna’s treatment of Kristoff is borderline abusive. Your love may not be fragile, but the object of your love should not treat you like crap. 

I HAVE 2,000 MORE WORDS ON THIS but this is just off the top of my head why Kristanna in Frozen II is problematic and why I do not like it.

These are just my opinions.

If you don’t like it - feel free to leave.

[elly-bird]

How come you famously can't stand critical role?

Before I get into it, let’s attach a warning

WE ARE ENTERING THE OPINION ZONE

That’s right, I don’t contain mystical knowledge that is going to spoil Crit Role for you.  Similarly, I doubt there’s anything you could say to fix what is, essentially, just a distaste for me.  I also deeply respect the various performers and crews that go into producing CR, Matt Mercer especially (I love that man dearly).

"Famously” refers to the fact a lot of people talk to me about CR, and I’m always forced to stop the conversation with “well I don’t actually watch that show...” which leads into the question of why, which leads into me simply saying “you don’t want me to get into it.”

So the clarification at hand is I’m treating this question as; “why don’t you actively watch anything D&D related?”  Critical Role will simply be our stand-in for a franchise title.  It’s not any better or worse than the competition for the flaws that bother me.

So let’s start from the beginning.

This will not be a conversation.  It’s not worth messaging me “you should look at it like-” because I can’t.  This isn’t blind hate or fanaticism, it’s the way my brain’s been trained through the hobby.

I’ve been writing and roleplaying all my life.  For as long as I can remember I’ve been a mixed-modules DM, a guild manager, a public event organizer, and an RP planner and guide for everyone that’s ever asked it of me.  This had its ups and downs; at one point I embraced the lows so hard that I found myself in a string of projects I utterly despised working on just because it felt vaguely familiar to older, more interesting work.  Even so, I got very good at identifying and managing personalities.

You’re sort of forced to put people in little boxes.  Boxes like “the drama queen,” or “the OOC talker,” or “the shy one.”  Boxes help you micromanage the various archtypes of players you’ll deal with in big campaigns.  It’s not hard for someone to simply not have fun at an event due to their various hang-ups, and it was frequently my job to make the event cater to all the types of people I could identify as we progressed.

You do this because, as an admin or an organizer, your fun isn’t a priority; you’re a referee.  The event itself is just a puzzle of IC and OOC problems for you to solve.  You enable everyone else the ability to enjoy themselves, whilst you pull your hair out in the corner in admin chat, discussing how to whack the moles as they pop up. 

It turns out Group B’s DM is late and didn’t leave his documents for backup with anyone in the crew.  Or wait, this is a PVP event, but Group A is completely imbalanced in that regard and won’t be able to compete.  Or wait again, you’re literally the only piece of management that showed up, and three people want to have chats with you about the future of the campaign or issues they’ve been having.  Etc, etc, etc.

(This is obviously not the dynamic for small, tight-knit D&D sessions - I’m talking MMO events and campaigns involving multiple groups and DMs.)

Working this hard for other people’s storylines, or the enactment of group projects, really coloured my attitude towards RP as a whole.  I started to realize how easy it was to see players through their characters.  I’ve talked before about how I can’t follow a lot of authors because their personalities outside of their writing have become so transparent through their works to me.  RPers are, unsurprisingly, not any more tactful.

Which leads into the fact that; I can’t stand popular D&D.  I just can’t.

When you have a show that is essentially just a large group of actors trying their best to put on a good performance, (the very nature of commercializing roleplay) it can feel a lot like being thrown back to those management days, trying to find the right words to keep Steve from godmodding too much, or to tell Anna to please stop tugging the spotlight into her own face so god damn often.

D&D/improv shows feel a lot like staring at a popularity contest, the very attitude I used to work tirelessly to prevent from happening.  Everyone is their own main character and their livelihood can actually depend on making themselves the most entertaining of the lot, which can often mean aggressively blanketing their character over everything.

D&D groups usually aren’t as vulnerable to these flaws as bigger, more public forums, but that’s exactly what happens when you turn it into a show and start making money off it.  The public forum that used to be contributing RPers is now sitting, waiting patiently for the moment to throw money at the screen in the name of their favourite.

So while I do deeply love and respect Critical Role and the work put into it, actually watching the show leaves a person like me incredibly drained.  My brain goes into overdrive trying to work out what decisions are made organically and what ones are made for the sake of branding, same as it does every other piece of performance media.

So that’s why I don’t watch Critical Role.  Or The Adventure Zone.  Or Friends at the Table.  Or- you get it, now.  See?  You get it.  I don’t like commercializing performances because in my experience, even the best RPers and writers I’ve ever met would either crumble or completely rewrite themselves under that pressure, and that’s not something I enjoy witnessing people going through.

I’m naturally drawn to analysis and pulling apart the rationales behind decision-making in all creative worlds.  Hell, I once got told off because I was informed the way I looked at someone’s favourite show was “like an autopsy.”

I’m not above these things.  I’m not better than them.  I don’t think they’re bad, or poorly written, or poorly performed.  I also don’t think getting paid to do your job is a bad thing - holy shit, duh.

I’ve been condensing this rant down to one single sentence whenever I’ve been asked in the past, and I’ll likely return to it now;

“It’s just not for me.”

Crit Role is a fantastic show.  I’m never watching it.