Fairies are just Glorified Pigeons @glorifiedpigeon - Tumblr Blog

Send me an ask with an aesthetic you like and I'm gonna draw whoever I want in it based off the first page of google image results for that aesthetic.

#ask game #glorified pigeon draws #gimme an aesthetic and i'll try and draw it

overthinkingao3

We write for ourselves, but we post for others.

(this came out of a conversation in the comments on a previous post about an author threatening to stop updating a fic because of lack of engagement)

So there’s this idea that fic writers should write for themselves and not care too much about stats or engagement,

and i totally get the sentiment behind that. if writing becomes entirely about stats and external validation, something important does get lost - creative freedom and joy, conviction in your own writing

but i also think:

“i write for myself, but i post for others.”

because posting fic is not only self-expression. it’s social. ao3 is called an archive, but emotionally it often functions as a community space.

people post for connection, for participation, for others to bear witness to their pain and trauma and grief,

and i don’t think most people are asking to be admired so much as acknowledged. there’s something deeply human about wanting another person to encounter something that mattered to you and go:

“ok, yeah, I see what you were trying to say. I see you.”

especially because fanfic is often people processing very real feelings through fictional characters at a safe distance, one step removed,

and then uploading that deeply personal thing into a shared archive and hoping somebody else might connect with it.

And i think that’s why it hurts so much when you summon up the courage and post a fic into the void and you get nothing back,

and then it’s like,

does anyone see me? does anyone even care?

drsteggy

THIS.

It’s particularly frustrating when you find something nice someone wrote about your fic on a completely different place and that same user name just put a kudo and didn’t write that same nice thing in the comment box on the fic. You found that nice thing entirely by accident.

Or when a popular author you used to admire tells you oh yes, they know your work. In fact they discussed it on a private discord with other authors in your fandom that you used to admire. Yeah, they all thought it was great! Except none of them could be bothered to tell you that, you had no idea they knew you wrote, never mind read your stuff!

Oh and the person telling you this only left a guest kudo, they could not possibly leave one with their actual name on it. That person told you this while also talking about all the cool art, podfic and even a bookbind they got from readers, so they know how awesome that feels but they can’t even tell you they liked your fic. They can’t even just click a button with their own name attached to it.

Those are things that happened to me.

I really wish that person had kept their “oh I’m one of your guest kudos” to themselves, because that absolutely destroyed my desire to write for months.

Do I still write for myself? I do, and I absolutely do not see why I should bother sharing it, since clearly the very people going on about how important community is don’t actually want to foster it beyond their own work.

Superhero noticing that all the supervillains keep shouting her friend's codename when they attack her city, and she's just so confused because actually he protects the neighboring city, they meet up for drinks sometimes when they're free but she actually can't think of the last time he was here AS a superhero????

Superhero pausing when they're complaining about minor interruptions during patrol hours and realizing she gets pulled aside for civilians and asked for pictures wayyyy more often than he does, and people are always rude when she says "sorry, I have a criminal I have to go aprehend".

Superhero wondering where all her merch is when her and her friend go out together only to find that okay so she does HAVE merch but it's all color graded into pastels or fashion dolls even though her color scheme is bold and bright and she really didn't think her costume was so doll-able—is that doll wearing a SKIRT? They know she fights crime MIDAIR, right? In PANTS??

Superhero getting really upset actually because what do you MEAN her friend has an evil clone made by HER NEMESIS? Where's HER evil clone? It's HER NEMESIS!!!!

#superhero nonsense #writing prompt