Hello! Here For Me? I Humbly Request That You Observe The Following Guidelines.
Greetings, all. I am a humble fanfiction author who does the collection Crouching Jonkler Hidden Zonkler on AO3, which is centered around the ship between Jabber Wonger and Zanka Nijiku from the shounen manga & anime Gachiakuta. Kind commenters have named me Crouch.
I made this Tumblr because it became apparent to me that the Janka community is full of kind and funny people I want to talk to. Below are some guidelines for how best to interact with me, as well as my Post Directory, explaining the personal tags I use to organize this blog.
Guidelines
This is an adult space.
Unfortunately, because of the nature of my work and because I am an adult myself, I don't want to interact with minors on this blog. If you send me a message, please be above the age of majority wherever you are from in the world.
There's no need to be shy.
Are you awkward? Great, me too! I do not have experience with being "online" as it were, and this is all very new to me. Perhaps naively, I'm just hoping to have fun and make friends.
Also, I have no idea how to use social media. If I do something incomprehensible, it's probably because I also don't understand what's going on.
I do accept constructive criticism.
Is something I wrote bothering you? Did I forget an important detail, make something super confusing, neglect to tag something upsetting, or other things of that nature? Feel free to let me know.
Do you want to talk to me, but feel unsure what to say?
What is one moment you've liked in the show so far? If you were a Giver, what would your Vital Instrument be? And, if I may be so bold as to ask, what is your favorite moment from my body of work? Send your answers to any of these questions into my ask box!
Do you have a writing prompt or a scenario idea for me? It is highly unlikely I will ever write it, but I encourage you to propose them regardless. Who knows, you might get me. Or you might get someone else!
If you are an author yourself and wish to request feedback on your own work, please do. Unless you specifically request constructive criticism, I will only tell you what I liked about it. Positive feedback is also very important to one's writing development!
Through it all, please allow some grace for me.
I'm currently recovering from a godawful case of burnout. I do appear to be getting better, which is why I'm able to write at all, but the fact remains that I have a very limited amount of energy that can be quite unpredictable. I have big aspirations and a great quantity of ideas, but whether or not they will come to fruition... that is somewhat up to the wind. I am very protective of my mental health, and if I feel that I'm starting to become unduly stressed by my Internet activities, I will pull back and preserve myself. Unfortunately, this means chapters may go unwritten and your messages may go unanswered. Sorry! I appreciate you regardless.
Post Directory
#crouch thought: My musings and opinions, as well as my headcanons.
#crouch complaint: I love to complain.
#crouch writes: Things I post while writing, as well as any short pieces of writing I may do. Some overlap with #crouch complaint.
#crouch answer: Responses to asks I receive.
#crouch question: Polls I put out, or posts in which I request your opinions.
#crouch update: New works I post.
Well, hopefully that's everything. I am going to go reblog dozens of Janka fan art images now.
OKAY prev lemme go off this got kinda long so it goes under the cut
(if its difficult to read the screenshots i also pasted it all in the ALT text)
SPOILER WARNING: panels from doll fest arc.
i was looking very closely at the battle with the scorpion trash beasts in penta. zanka tends to make very sure, stable movements, and he does a lot of blocking- then he goes for the one-hit-kill. he's careful, focused, and efficient. he likes to watch and wait for his moment, figuring out how his opponents operate. i also realized that he relies heavily on his hearing.
we can see the same tactics in these 2 fights as well (zanka vs raiders and zanka vs gil). when he fights the raiders and mud dolls he mostly stays put, lets attacks come to him and blocks them. once he figured out the givers' strategy, he incapacitates each of them with a single strike. when he fights gil, he blocks her attacks while constantly analyzing her. (her? they? i dont know) his eyes are trained on her and he aims to find out the extent of her abilities. he can't DO this with jabber, who has interchangeable toxins, a huge range of different abilities, and doesn't really give him a chance to think
the killer whale mask is so fucking cool cuz it reflects his opportunist fighting patterns. also it just looks sick as hell
check this out too
(just from the wikipedia page for orcas)
zanka is able to understand subtleties in sounds and vibrations to get a better sense of his surroundings, to the point of just doing straight up echolocation.
i hit the image limit GO MY KILLER WHALE ZANKA AGENDA
oh i almost forgot to add This Post by @crouchingjonklerhiddenzonkler about zanka's battle strategies re; zanka vs jabber. GOOD POST I THINK ABOUT IT A LOT, READ THAT.
My Internet presence is very Janka-focused, so I don't think I've mentioned this, but I actually think AmoRudo is my second favorite ship in Gachiakuta!
The way I appreciate it is very different, for a few reasons: I tend to feel a lot more protective of female characters (especially kids), Amo & Rudo are unmistakably just kids to me (whereas I consider Jabber and Zanka to be young adults right at the cusp of peak young adult idiocy), and I actually think they're probably going to get together in the text (which means I'm less interested in making up my own stories about them). This shakes out to mean: I'm extremely picky about portrayals of Amo, I do not want to see any kind of sexual content about AmoRudo whatsoever (unless it's to discuss Amo's history in a way that contributes to her character development), and I'll probably never write anything for this ship.
That being said, I think they're wonderful. Thematically speaking, they're meant to be. One of Rudo's biggest character struggles, discussed over and over again in the text, is that he has trouble relating to other people. We saw this with his introduction to Zanka, we see this with his later conflict with Follo (manga), it's the whole point of his scene with Remlin... Gachiakuta is, in part, about relationships and connecting with others, and its main character accordingly must learn how.
Meanwhile, Amo has literally the same problem. Her greatest obsession in life is to be loved. However, similarly to Rudo (who seems to have led a socially-deprived life as an outcast), she has so little life experience that she is unable to form relationships organically, and must instead resort to her piece of the Watchman series. But in accepting Tomme's care and Rudo's outstretched hand, she demonstrates hope for herself that she can learn, and a vital willingness to try. Later on in the manga, she has a great moment about continuing to grow and develop as a person.
So it appears to me that Amo's growth and Rudo's growth are happening in parallel. Both of them need to recover from a socially-deprived past and learn how to connect with others. Plus, they are both bearers of the Watchman series, which means they both have that innate emptiness inside of them. They alone are uniquely equipped to understand and empathize with each other's struggles. And they both seem very interested in each other as well! For these reasons, I think they would make an excellent couple. And I think it is probably rather likely that the text will develop in that direction, as well.
Hello, my anonlings (and assorted others). It is I, the Big Anon, otherwise known as Crouch, here to request your advice on this important matter.
Simply put, I have always sucked shit at tagging. My steadfast beta tells me I "certainly have a way with it," which is Steadfast Beta for, "I don't even know how to help you, man." Thus, I have simply been doing my meager best.
Part of my skill issue is probably because when I personally go to read, I search very simply by ship tags or character tags, and when I decide which works I'm interested in reading, I actually mostly go by the summary; I often hardly glance at the tags. Nevertheless, I know that for many people, the tags are very important in their search process. I wish to ensure my tags are of sufficient quality to help people decide whether or not they're interested in my work.
To that end, I would like to ask everyone some questions:
What do you do when you search? Are there important types of tags you filter by?
Assuming you got here by finding and reading one of my works on AO3: what about that work made you decide you wanted to read it? Did the tags assist you at all?
What is your general opinion of my tagging so far? Is there anything you would like me to do less or more of?
Is it better to under-tag or over-tag?
And to my fellow writers, some of whom I am @-ing on this post, I ask:
How on earth do you decide what to tag?
Responses, opinions, and advice greatly appreciated. Thank you all very much.
I may not be the best person to ask I also worry that Iām very very bad at tagging BUT GENERALLY:
When it comes to searching/filtering, it depends one the sheer volume of fic a particular fandom has. I tend to go very broad in smaller fandoms but get very specific in very very large fandoms/ships with a lot of fic to sift through.
I want to say that the description has a bigger impact on me clicking on a fic that the tags generally do.
When it comes to tags, they rarely put me off of a fic but often a strange combination of tags will intrigue me. Like idk how you got fluff and vivisection in here but Iām curious to find out.
Or I use them to find a specific flavor of pornography. Whichever.
When tagging my own stuff, I try to go for: main ships, major characters, any important tropes that readers might be seeking out, any involved sex acts of applicable, ????, panic and read what other people in the ship tag are tagging their stuff with to get ideas.
I see. Thank you for your insight! I will confess, I am often looking for particular flavors of pornography as well... I will make sure not to skimp on those tags.
Is Gachiakuta considered a particularly large or small fandom/is Janka a particularly large or small ship community? I have never really been a part of a specific fandom before, so I don't really know.
Hello, my anonlings (and assorted others). It is I, the Big Anon, otherwise known as Crouch, here to request your advice on this important matter.
Simply put, I have always sucked shit at tagging. My steadfast beta tells me I "certainly have a way with it," which is Steadfast Beta for, "I don't even know how to help you, man." Thus, I have simply been doing my meager best.
Part of my skill issue is probably because when I personally go to read, I search very simply by ship tags or character tags, and when I decide which works I'm interested in reading, I actually mostly go by the summary; I often hardly glance at the tags. Nevertheless, I know that for many people, the tags are very important in their search process. I wish to ensure my tags are of sufficient quality to help people decide whether or not they're interested in my work.
To that end, I would like to ask everyone some questions:
What do you do when you search? Are there important types of tags you filter by?
Assuming you got here by finding and reading one of my works on AO3: what about that work made you decide you wanted to read it? Did the tags assist you at all?
What is your general opinion of my tagging so far? Is there anything you would like me to do less or more of?
Is it better to under-tag or over-tag?
And to my fellow writers, some of whom I am @-ing on this post, I ask:
How on earth do you decide what to tag?
Responses, opinions, and advice greatly appreciated. Thank you all very much.
Honestly, I'm not a very picky reader, so when I search, I honestly just search through the general tag. I don'y really filter for "important" tags, more so just ones for taste.
I found you through "Buttons," which I decided to read because of the summary. I will say, though, the tags DID intrigue me further, so they did assist me in understanding what I was about to read.
I think your tagging scheme so far is fine! You never skimp on the "bigger picture" tags, which I think is the most important thing.
I have a bit of a mixed opinion on this. As a reader, I actually like under-tagged works as I'm not very sensitive and like to be surprised with the content of the fic. I carry that sentiment into my own tagging scheme and only tag enough for baseline info. BUT. Over-tagging actually has the benefit of increasing reach and clarity, so, in theory, over-tagging is better.
Like I said earlier, I'm not one to tag every minute thing, so I tend to skip on more detail-oriented tags if they're not major themes or triggers (what exactly is happening, where, etc). I find it helpful to break it into categories: characters that feature prominently (I personally don't tag every character that appears, just the ones that have a significant role); big picture character traits; situation markers (time-period/era/AU, ETC); smut tags (if applicable); triggers (sensitive topics, dark themes, explicit violence, ETC); and author interjections (things that I think are necessary to know written in my own words, usually humorous).
Now, my opinion: All in all, I think as long as major themes/traits/explicit features and potential triggers are tagged, lighter tagging is not a bad thing. I think it builds intrigue and allows the work to speak for itself.
This does help, thank you very much! I'm glad my summaries are working; I make them after the style of fics I'm most likely to be interested in--I really like it when the author includes an excerpt (which gives me a little sample of their writing style) as well as a general statement describing the events (which lets me know if I'm interested in the contents of the work). I, too, prefer under-tagged works; I'm not terribly sensitive either, and I do like surprises.
People have been saying that they often tag silly things/small details in a joking manner. I think I sometimes do this as well. Perhaps I will continue to do this very vaguely, so as to provide some humorous intrigue.
Hello, my anonlings (and assorted others). It is I, the Big Anon, otherwise known as Crouch, here to request your advice on this important matter.
Simply put, I have always sucked shit at tagging. My steadfast beta tells me I "certainly have a way with it," which is Steadfast Beta for, "I don't even know how to help you, man." Thus, I have simply been doing my meager best.
Part of my skill issue is probably because when I personally go to read, I search very simply by ship tags or character tags, and when I decide which works I'm interested in reading, I actually mostly go by the summary; I often hardly glance at the tags. Nevertheless, I know that for many people, the tags are very important in their search process. I wish to ensure my tags are of sufficient quality to help people decide whether or not they're interested in my work.
To that end, I would like to ask everyone some questions:
What do you do when you search? Are there important types of tags you filter by?
Assuming you got here by finding and reading one of my works on AO3: what about that work made you decide you wanted to read it? Did the tags assist you at all?
What is your general opinion of my tagging so far? Is there anything you would like me to do less or more of?
Is it better to under-tag or over-tag?
And to my fellow writers, some of whom I am @-ing on this post, I ask:
How on earth do you decide what to tag?
Responses, opinions, and advice greatly appreciated. Thank you all very much.
Iāll be honest, the science of tagging is something thatās always kind of eluded me. But Iāve come up with a sort of formula of my own, which mostly consists of the following:
the Selling Point tags. This usually includes ships, characters, and the major trope cornerstones of the ficā___ is bad at feelings, ____ AU, And There Was Only One Bed, Enemies to Lovers, etc etc. These are what I think of as the safe, broad appeal tags.
The Messy tags. This is the darker or less family-friendly aspects of the story, if it has anyāgore, death, toxicity, etc. This is the stuff I try to put a trigger warning for at the beginning of my works if I have the energy for it.
The Silly tags. Technically both 1 and 2 can also fall under this category, if youāre like me and canāt be assed to dig up the actual āofficialā tags for a trope or character. This is just me joking about things that happen in the fic in the tags, which can serve as a good hack for when I want to articulate whatās going on in the fic but donāt want to dig through a billion tags for the right one. It also allows me to make little jokes/explanations about my thoughts while writing the ficāwhat inspired me, how I felt writing it, etc.
Overall, just go with the flow. I doubt anyone really 100% knows how to tag, but just focus on hitting the key points (āHey! Hereās a story with this, this, and this! But it also has this, this, and this, so maybe be careful cos it might not be for youā) and have a good time. Granted, though, I donāt have a beta so this might not be very helpful š
I see! Thank you. I think part of my issue is just that I have trouble figuring out what tropes are in my work... I will continue to bother my steadfast beta about it.
Hello, my anonlings (and assorted others). It is I, the Big Anon, otherwise known as Crouch, here to request your advice on this important matter.
Simply put, I have always sucked shit at tagging. My steadfast beta tells me I "certainly have a way with it," which is Steadfast Beta for, "I don't even know how to help you, man." Thus, I have simply been doing my meager best.
Part of my skill issue is probably because when I personally go to read, I search very simply by ship tags or character tags, and when I decide which works I'm interested in reading, I actually mostly go by the summary; I often hardly glance at the tags. Nevertheless, I know that for many people, the tags are very important in their search process. I wish to ensure my tags are of sufficient quality to help people decide whether or not they're interested in my work.
To that end, I would like to ask everyone some questions:
What do you do when you search? Are there important types of tags you filter by?
Assuming you got here by finding and reading one of my works on AO3: what about that work made you decide you wanted to read it? Did the tags assist you at all?
What is your general opinion of my tagging so far? Is there anything you would like me to do less or more of?
Is it better to under-tag or over-tag?
And to my fellow writers, some of whom I am @-ing on this post, I ask:
How on earth do you decide what to tag?
Responses, opinions, and advice greatly appreciated. Thank you all very much.
I tag setting, major themes, characters that have direct speaking roles, things that I know people have strong opinions on, and things that I feel are integral to what's going on and why I wrote the fic in the first place. I err on the side of under-tagging for very specific or minor things, while mentioning them in the commentary tags I add at the end. The non standard/commentary tags are also how I communicate the vibe if I think the summary doesn't cover it thoroughly enough.
Erring on the side of under tagging is my preference because people have such varying opinions on everything that they might filter out my fic based on some aspect of a tag that I'm blind to and not actually writing. Hence the specific commentary tags to help people decide
And also because it's reasonable to expect people to simply leave if they find something they don't like after I've done my due diligence with tagging as appropriately as possible
I see. I appreciate this, especially the part about tagging characters that have speaking roles. I always wonder when to tag a character who is not the focus of the work.
Hello, my anonlings (and assorted others). It is I, the Big Anon, otherwise known as Crouch, here to request your advice on this important matter.
Simply put, I have always sucked shit at tagging. My steadfast beta tells me I "certainly have a way with it," which is Steadfast Beta for, "I don't even know how to help you, man." Thus, I have simply been doing my meager best.
Part of my skill issue is probably because when I personally go to read, I search very simply by ship tags or character tags, and when I decide which works I'm interested in reading, I actually mostly go by the summary; I often hardly glance at the tags. Nevertheless, I know that for many people, the tags are very important in their search process. I wish to ensure my tags are of sufficient quality to help people decide whether or not they're interested in my work.
To that end, I would like to ask everyone some questions:
What do you do when you search? Are there important types of tags you filter by?
Assuming you got here by finding and reading one of my works on AO3: what about that work made you decide you wanted to read it? Did the tags assist you at all?
What is your general opinion of my tagging so far? Is there anything you would like me to do less or more of?
Is it better to under-tag or over-tag?
And to my fellow writers, some of whom I am @-ing on this post, I ask:
How on earth do you decide what to tag?
Responses, opinions, and advice greatly appreciated. Thank you all very much.
@crouchingjonklerhiddenzonkler Happy to help Iāve been on Ao3 for a while now so I think I have something of a handle on it but honestly Iāve read your fics and all your tags seem fine so I wouldnāt be too worried. Still if your looking for extra advice I made this from my own tags to give you an example of what I do in case thatās helpful to you in anyway:
Copy of the writing under the cut incase you canāt read the images for some reason or another:
Story notes: types of tropes (enemies to lovers, canon divergence) these are the tags people tend to search or filter when first looking for a specific thing for example I donāt like modern AUs all that much so Iād filter them out to get to the stuff Iām into.
Character specific tags: These are tags that give an idea of the characterās headspace dynamic I tend to ad-lib them depending on the headspace of the character so here itās pretty humorous but if I was doing an angsty fic Iād probably have Zanka Nijiku is not okay and Zanka Nijiku needs a hug just so people have an idea of what tone they are going in for.
Ad-lib tags: these are tags I use as some people just look at the tags and not the summary so I usually use them again as tone indicators and also a way to show my writing style again this is a light hearted fic so Iām being light hearted but I could also have āthey are going through itā here for the same kinda tone stuff. Itās not necessary I just think it helps get your writing across but you can do skip this one if you want.
Triggers: I try to be as upfront and as unspoilery as I can here. Trigger tags are like basically better to be blunt so people know itās coming and can prepare for it, filter it out or again get a sense of tone so like just be honest and donāt censor anything like āsuixideā that just stops people being able to use the filtration system.
Smut tags: pretty much anything related to the smut, people have a top bottom preference at times so I tend to put that in and kink dynamics also anything that feels like a particular kink i.e biting so people who are into that can go yeah Iām into that (or filter it out if itās not their thing thatās okay too)
crouch-sama, anonling reporting for duty!!! tagging on ao3 to me is mostly intuitive and thereās really no āwrongā way to tag! your tags have been perfectly fine to me! but here is some key stuff according to this anonling:
1. tag the important stuff first! meaning fic genre and also possible triggers! classics are āAngstā āSmutā āFluffā and for the triggers, āDubious consentā or āGoreā or āMajor Character Deathā or āAnimal Deathā ā¦
2. over tagging is usually perceived worse than under tagging i think! think of it as sort of like a summary and way to help people find your fic (filter specifically for it)ā¦ so any āuniqueā part of your fic, you should tag! like First Person POV or any Alternate Universes! character tags are always fun like idk Jabber Wonger Has Pink Eyes BUT you def donāt need to put 1000 of them. youāll see if you just type in a character name that commonly used tags will come up for themā¦ you can always use those! (usually people care to know the Top/Bottom in fics)
Thank you very much for the information, my dear anonling! And thank goodness I've been doing alright with the tags.
I'll be happy if over-tagging is worse than under-tagging. I always feel a little nervous about "spoiling" the work before someone can read it... Of course, I also don't want to neglect a trigger tag and cause someone distress, so I'll be diligent with those.
Hello, my anonlings (and assorted others). It is I, the Big Anon, otherwise known as Crouch, here to request your advice on this important matter.
Simply put, I have always sucked shit at tagging. My steadfast beta tells me I "certainly have a way with it," which is Steadfast Beta for, "I don't even know how to help you, man." Thus, I have simply been doing my meager best.
Part of my skill issue is probably because when I personally go to read, I search very simply by ship tags or character tags, and when I decide which works I'm interested in reading, I actually mostly go by the summary; I often hardly glance at the tags. Nevertheless, I know that for many people, the tags are very important in their search process. I wish to ensure my tags are of sufficient quality to help people decide whether or not they're interested in my work.
To that end, I would like to ask everyone some questions:
What do you do when you search? Are there important types of tags you filter by?
Assuming you got here by finding and reading one of my works on AO3: what about that work made you decide you wanted to read it? Did the tags assist you at all?
What is your general opinion of my tagging so far? Is there anything you would like me to do less or more of?
Is it better to under-tag or over-tag?
And to my fellow writers, some of whom I am @-ing on this post, I ask:
How on earth do you decide what to tag?
Responses, opinions, and advice greatly appreciated. Thank you all very much.
