typewriter83

[typewriter83]

so how do you in particular feel about mabel x grunkle stan as a ship?

I had to look this up, I had no idea what it was. I don’t know who these characters are, but I’m assuming they’re related - you wouldn’t have asked if it didn’t fall somewhere near the Ellie/Joel category - so I’m guessing underage/incest, yes? It honestly doesn’t matter how I feel about it - it’s how you protect it, and its writer(s).

Listen, my job isn’t to read every single piece of fiction that gets tossed my way. My job isn’t even to like every story that comes my way in my own fandom or on the ship I ship! I have squicks, I have icks, and I have things that I just do not like. I just don’t read them.

Our collective job as readers and writers of fiction are to stand up and say you can’t take it away from other people. You are entitled to not read it, you are entitled to tell your child they may not read it - but you cannot tell me or anyone else that they cannot read it. That is what it means to be profic; that is what it means to be anti censorship.

Questions?

🫶🏻

[typewriter83]

You don’t think they’re gonna come for your side of fandom until they do. You think you’re exempt or what you do “isn’t that dark” until someone else claims it is.

Being anti censorship means that even if you don’t read it, even if you think it’s deplorable, or even if you think people who read it are deplorable - you still stand up and fight for them. You still allow them to have a platform for the fictional works they produce.

Being profic doesn’t mean “problematic” it means you’re for fiction, you stand up for it, you fight for it. Don’t like, don’t read - create your safe space, but you have to fight for everyone’s safe space.

🫶🏻

hey yall here are some handy things to read on fandom censorship, in case you’d actually like to learn about the history of fandom:

Fanlore page on censorship

Fanlore timeline on fandom purges

The FFnet NC-17 purges (2002 and 2012)

The Three Laws of Fandom discussion, 2016

ao3 and censorship discussion, 2016

Strikethrough (censorship on LJ), 2007

Media imperialism, fan resistance and state censorship: BBC Sherlock Slash fandom in China (academic paper)

Porn bans, purges, and rebirths: the biopolitics of platform death in queer fandoms (academic paper)

The online free speech debate is raging in fan fiction, too (the verge, 2018)

Puritanism took over online fandom — and then came for the rest of the internet (Vox, 2023)

and just a bit more:

The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism, Freedom House 2018

[typewriter83]

We 👏🏻 Don’t 👏🏻 Do 👏🏻 Censorship

“you can write non-con and dark fics as long as you’re not romanticizing it”

“you can write non-con and dark fics as long as it’s your way of coping with your trauma”

“you can write non-con and dark fics as long as —”

actually, anybody — including you — can write non-con and dark fics, and any other fucked up things, however they want, for whatever reasons.

wanna romanticize the fuck out of your non-con / dead dove do not eat fic? go ahead. don’t let anybody stop you from creating the art you want to create.

wanna write non-con fic even if you were never a victim? go ahead. you don’t have to meet any specific criteria in order to create the art you want to create.

just tag your works properly so that you don’t accidentally expose those who might not want to be exposed to such topics to the topics, and you’re all good.

art does not have to be for everybody.

art has never been strictly about rainbow and sunshine. art can also be about the horror and the macabre.

art can be outright disgusting and messed up, and being disgusting and messed up can be just what makes the art a masterpiece.

write whatever you want to write and say fuck you to censorship.

[typewriter83]

Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask

😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

✍ Do you have a beta reader?

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

🛠What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far?

🍷 Do you drink and write?

🍆 Do you write the spicy stuffs? If so, what's your most popular nsfw fic?

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

💖 What made you start writing?

💌 How do you feel about comments and feedback?

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

💲 Would you ever open commissions?

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

🏆 What's your most popular fic?

🎃 Do you write fics for certain holidays? Which is your favorite holiday inspired fic?

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories?

📈 How many fics do you have?

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

💞 Who's your comfort character?

🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

😬 Which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

📚 Would you ever want to turn writing into a career?

⌛ How long does it take you to write a fic, or a chapter?

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

💥 How do you feel about criticism?

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

[typewriter83]

Oh, he did all those things, but he still did nothing wrong. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

girls will look at a man and say “he’s just misunderstood” as he murders people

[typewriter83]

The problem with being a writer is that you believe you have all these amazing ideas - but then you have to be the one to sit down and write them!

Sounds like such a chore

🫶🏻

[typewriter83]

Pros of re-reading your own fic

a good time;

Has exactly the tropes you like and the characterization you want to read;

Gratification: yes you did finish a thing and yes you did do good;

just a very fun time all around.

Cons of re-reading your own fic:

Is that another TYpO

[typewriter83]

If I ever were to lose you…

[typewriter83]

Has anyone taken a look at the count number this week? I have 🤭 as of March 23, the count stands at 476. Writers and readers are coming back or coming out of the woodwork.

I hope they feel welcome in this little corner of the fandom

🫶🏻🫶🏻

I’m tagging this for the Joellie followers here - and we’re gonna work together to keep track of this because I’ve seen this conversation before and now I’m paying attention.

This morning is Monday, January 20. There are 460 stories uploaded in the Ellie/Joel tag on ao3. The highest I’ve ever seen it was 464, but lately the count has been in the low 450s.

The number won’t climb if a chapter is added, only a new story will trigger that. However, there are a number of stories in the tag that should be Ellie&Joel tagged and occasionally get removed when writers realize what the / tag actually indicates.

So, help me keep track of this - because I can’t figure out what’s going on. The ship/fandom is small enough as it is and we don’t want writers taking their stories down. Let’s see what we can see/do.

🫶🏻

[typewriter83]

[typewriter83]

Can you tell us what happened to Dina? Please ❤️

❤️ spoilers for but since i survived under the cut

Short answer - no, I can’t 🥺

When I wrote My World is a Better Place - feels like so long ago - I left the scene between Ellie and Joel on the porch in the rocking chairs up to the reader to interpret. I have always known how I interpreted the scene, and in a way, my interpretation is written in the scene. Is Joel really old, tired, and leaving Ellie to tend to their high-spirited daughter, or is Ellie being visited by the spirit of her husband that has passed on? That’s up to you to decide.

Much like that scene, I can’t interpret the scene in the woods for you, dear reader. Tommy is a broken, distraught, angry, lost man. He rambles, shouts at and blames both Joel and Ellie for the death of Maria and the destruction of Jackson. Is his anger deservedly placed? Joel doesn’t seem to think so, Joel believes that they’ve all made poor choices, especially he and Tommy have, and he’s had to learn to live with his choices.

That being said, Ellie has had to learn to live with her choices as well. She chose to leave Dina and the family she was offered, she chose to leave Jackson and set off on her own. And I think that by the end of the story, even before Joel offers her himself as her home, she’s made peace with her choices and is trying to make peace with what Tommy told them, or rather refused to tell them.

So. Where does that leave your question? What do you believe? I know what I believe and how I would have written it had I decided to flesh it out, but I do believe, dear reader, that some things are better left up to the reader.

🫶🏻

[typewriter83]

If you read the tags/warnings on a story then proceed to read and gasp “wtf did I just read??” - you got what you deserved. We tried to warn you, it was all spelled out for you, and you still tried to read it, and then blamed the writer for doing something wrong.

Protect yourself, create your own safe space - but don’t blame writers for doing what they like.

🫶🏻

#clicking on that filtered content post

[typewriter83]

I have gotten a couple asks that pertain to events in since i survived and I will be answering asks starting on Friday.

The asks have spoilers but all discussions of spoilers will be placed under cuts. Thanks so much for those who have already read and left kind feedback. My heart is in y'all's hands

🫶🏻

[typewriter83]

if we want to ask you to talk about whats next is this where you take questions

Yes, you are more than welcome to come here to chat - my DMs are open, as is my ask box. Right now, I welcome anon asks, people seem to feel safest under the cover of anon and - right now - that's okay. I still recommend getting a side account because if I have to turn off anon, a lot of conversation could stop.

What should we talk about? Well, wherever this rambling post goes, let's get it under a cut because I tend to ramble a lot.

Back in January, I received some pretty hateful comments and anon asks that were directly aimed at my role as a mother, questioning my morals because of the material I write. A few arguments ensued before I shut the entire thing down. I deleted comments on ao3, I stepped away from social media and took some time for myself to reflect on what was insinuated.

Writing is a passion, it's something that chooses you, something that can very rarely be controlled. After that incident, my passion has shifted, it's diverted from the path I thought I was on for this year. And that's okay, or rather I've made peace with it for now. I'm not going to try and sugar coat it or say it didn't affect me - because it did. It affected me a lot. It didn't change my views on censorship, the proship movement, or my views against bullying and harassment; what it did was shift my passion. It shifted what I want to write.

That being said, I'm setting Learning to Walk aside for the moment. For how long? I don't know, but it's no longer speaking to me, it's no longer a passion, and I can't see the forest for the trees. The story is sitting at a quiet, peaceful place (with a bonus chapter that will remain up). There's always a chance for a return - trust me, I considered taking the story down, that kind of damage was done to my psyche - but I can't say right now when I'll be returning.

So, what does the future hold? but since i survived took a lot out of me; it's over 36,000 words long and it was emotionally draining, but in the best possible way. Finishing it, posting it, sharing it with everyone has been so rewarding, but it also feels like losing a friend. I have to pull myself out of that universe and take myself somewhere new. It's gonna take a few days before I can get my feet back under me - or maybe my keyboard back under my fingers!

Chapter 5 of am i the one is nearly complete. I think it's very sweet, and these two are about to go on an emotional roller coaster. Much like Donuts & Coffee, this is a fluffy, modern AU, but with a spicy and dramatic twist. Spoiler alert: if you don't like the pregnancy trope, well, that's what you're in for with this story. I don't yet know how many chapters it's going to be, but expect the spice to return in the coming chapters.

There are two other projects I see myself working on in the near future. The first is another Jackson-based, canon divergent, long one-shot. This one involves Joel and Ellie living in Jackson and Ellie being a complete menace during her teenage years leading to a confrontation between our duo - again - about five years into their life in the communist community.

The other project I'm hoping to pivot over to - back to? - is my November 2023 disaster, the Boston AU. This story starts in 2033 where we meet Smuggler Joel on the streets of Boston, doing his best to evade FEDRA officers until one evening he runs into a baby FEDRA officer who will quickly become the bane of his existence. In this AU, Ellie is during the early months of the outbreak and grows up as an orphan in Boston. Remember, Joel and Ellie meet in every universe.

So, that's where we are, that's what I'm hoping to work on during the coming months. It's harder for me to write in the summer, but I do make time. With the exception of am i the one, I'm going to be focusing on long one-shots so I can finish them before I post them.

🫶🏻

[typewriter83]

We know he lurks on social media, we know he sees us 🫣 sir! Release the tapes 🤭

Please, respectfully 🫶🏻

Open your playlist!!!!

[typewriter83]

Friends, I’m exhausted but elated. After some six weeks of illness, plotting, writing, editing, polishing and procrastinating - I finally have something to share. I poured my heart and soul into this, so please be kind, please be gentle - my heart is on my sleeve here.

“since i survived (i realized)” is now live on ao3. I have so much I want to tell you, and share about this 36k word story, but not tonight. I plowed through the final paragraphs of polishing so I could share this tonight.

My heart is in your hands.

🫶🏻

[typewriter83]

3, 4, 7, 16 - I’m greedy 😈

3 What are your top three most commonly used tags on AO3? Age gap (or older man/younger woman), fluff or domestic fluff, angst. I also use “fluff and smut” a lot and before I had a Beta reader I used “no beta we die like tired writers” which was one of my favorites. But my favorite unhinged one is “slow burn but they already had sex” (looking at you am i the one)

4 What are some words or phrases you feel like you overuse? Well, there’s a certain friend of mine who will tell you that I suffer from chronic ellipsis use - they’ll remain nameless as I try to break that habit. 😉 I think because I write on the same ship, there are some phrases that I use a lot, but those are character quirks, not overuse? Or am I making excuses? I’ve used “how do you walk around with that thing” or a variation of it in just about everything I’ve written! But I find that hilarious, I hope readers do too!

7 Coffee or tea while you write? If I’d had some lemon slices on hand, this Diet Coke would have been perfection 😋

16 What do you struggle with most when writing? 🫣🤭🌶️ spicy, sexy time - 100% every time. For the longest time I couldn’t do it, I had to force myself to sit down and try. That’s why Donuts & Coffee is a closed-door story. If I wrote D&C today, instead of almost two years ago (‼️), it would probably be spicy as opposed to fade-to-black. It’s still difficult for me, I still want to toss my laptop some days, but I’m working on it. I hope it’s getting better!

🫶🏻