shark vs the universe
art blog(derogatory)
Interview Vampire Daily
🪼
$LAYYYTER
Jimmy Eat World
almost home
tannertan36
Monterey Bay Aquarium
@theartofmadeline
bliss lane
titsay
Not today Justin
The Stonewall Inn
roma★
noise dept.
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
YOU ARE THE REASON
occasionally subtle
RMH
seen from Paraguay
seen from T1
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@hopeofmorning910writes
Just wanted to clear this thing up
Friendly reminder that if I haven’t answered your ask the same day, it means either:
I want to treasure that ask forever
I dont feel up to social interaction
I didnt have time, and ended up forgetting about it
What it does NOT mean:
I dont like getting asks
You’re bothering me by sending asks
SAME APPLIES FOR UNANSWERED TAG GAMES!
Hey! I just finished reading simple things, honest souls. This is one of my favorite fan fics! I love what you do with the characters and the story is amazing! I plan to keep an eye on it to see if any new content for it gets made, but even if it doesn’t, I’m likely to reread it again! I just enjoy it a lot!
Thank you for reading! I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed it! <3
There is nothing more precious to me as a writer than the comments left on AO3. Whenever I get that email notification, I wonder what kind of comment was left. To have a little fun, I'm going to sort the typical comments into a few different categories and share my reactions to them as a writer.
If you feel I missed a comment type, please let me know. I'm curious to learn what other classifications you think exist (positive comment types only please - let's not make this negative). Also, if you wanted to tag yourself, I'd love you know what type of commenter you think you are.
The Polite Conversationalist - Your comment confirms that you read and enjoyed the fic or chapter. You offer praise for the author's efforts and encouragement for them to continue. - If this is you, please know that I'm imagining us holding a book club together. I brought us snacks.
The All Caps Reaction - You left the most unhinged comment. - You were screaming as you read it? I was screaming as I wrote it. Let's be friends.
The How Dare You - The angst is real. And painful. And I'm sorry but the story needed it. - This is a compliment of the highest order and I'm so glad you left it.
The Conspiracy Theorist - You are so invested that you are trying to figure out what comes next. - I'm so excited to read your ideas. They let me know the story tracks for you. And I'm either smiling because you guessed right and I'm excited for you to read what comes next, or I'm grinning because I know the plot twist is going to blow your mind.
The Catch-Up - You haven't commented in a while and are letting me know you are catching up. - I'm so glad you are back! I missed you. I know life gets busy and it means a lot to me that you took the time to read my story.
The Giggle - You laughed at my jokes and let me know. - Did we just become best friends? I'm already making you a bracelet.
The Callout - You found my favorite line in the chapter or fic. - I love you so much. You just made my day, my week, my month. Seriously, all the love for the reader. xoxo
The Repeat Customer - could also be any of the above, but every fic, every chapter, there they are with something kind to say and a wish to see you again next week/month/whenever. The pfp/username combo you could pick out of a sea of people in an instant.
The Happy Insomniac - "I just wanted to let you know that it's 4 am and I stayed up all night bingeing your work" say no more fam, me and my keyboard are yours for life now
The Book Report - You identified a major theme/motif/metaphor/all of the above that I was trying to draw out, and even found some clever use of language/character/symbolism that even I didn’t realise was in there - I am proposing marriage on the spot.
do fic commenters know how Important and Powerful they are. like when someone tells u they actually laughed out loud or cried or screamed or buried their face in their pillow or something and ur just like.....i've done it....i have elicited a Physical Manifestation of Emotion....tf....i feel so powerful....
or when they tell you they stayed up late or read it at work or school when they weren't supposed to and you don't wanna encourage that but also......yeeEEEHAW
or when u get regular commenters on a wip and ur like brO bro??? you're still here? after all this time? even after i didn’t update for months?? 🥺
or when someone says it's their favorite fic and u just gotta lie in the floor and Emote for a while
or when they say the characters feel in character and u just disintegrate into glitter and blow away in the wind bc your purpose as a fic writer has been fulfilled,,,
yeah
Let’s hear it for lurkers
So apparently round umpty-zillion of “people are killing fandom by not commenting” is going around, and I’ve seen a few posts trashing people for lurking/viewing/reading instead of actively participating.
My journal and my fic has always been a lurker-friendly zone. I think lurkers are great and people can fight me on this. Here’s why:
We all started out as lurkers. Or at least most of us did. Come on. I’m sure some people out there must’ve jumped into fandom with both feet and started writing and commenting right away, and good for you if you did! But I sure didn’t. I lurked for YEARS. And even now, though I’ve been in fandom since before Y2K, whenever I get into a new fandom or a new social media platform, I still lurk. I hang out around the fringes for awhile to get a feeling for the place before starting to participate. Back in the mailing list/bulletin board days, it was usually recommended that people do that on purpose, watch and listen and learn the local lingo and social rules before diving in. So you know what? You are not doing anything wrong and you are not doing anything that most of the people you see out there commenting and creating and reccing things haven’t done themselves.
We all have lurker days, weeks, months …. Nobody is 100% “on” all the time. Participating in fandom (commenting, reccing, creating content, and so forth) is WORK. It may be fun work, but it still takes effort! Even if you’re sometimes very active in fandom, then you’ll have life fall on your head or the brain weasels flare up, and you won’t have the time and energy to give. Don’t feel guilty about not being able to give fandom your extra spoons. No one in fandom has a right to demand a single spoon from you that you don’t want to give.
Some of today’s lurkers may be your friends tomorrow. How do I know this? Because I’ve made friends with some of them myself! I’ve had people delurk in my comments to say hi after YEARS of reading my fanfic without saying a word. Which I am totally okay with, by the way. And some of these people are good friends today.
So, in conclusion:
It is okay to feel too shy to come out of lurkerhood in fandom until you feel more comfortable there. It is fine, in fact, if you never do.
It is okay to be too busy and have too few spoons to comment or create stuff. You still have a perfect right to be in fandom and read and reblog whatever you want.
It is okay if you meant to comment on that fic or go back and press the kudos button but never got around to it.
It is okay if you have too many accounts already and don’t want to create a new one just to comment/participate on a social media platform.
It is okay if your personal situation (a stalker ex, controlling parents) makes it unsafe for you to create an account or comment on things.
It is okay if you can’t or don’t want to comment or do any of the other things that constitute non-lurkerhood, and you don’t owe anyone an explanation for why.
IT IS OKAY TO BE A LURKER.
This post is a good way to balance a lot of the “COMMENT ON FIC COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT” stuff that I post here. Content creators will always be happy to receive comments, and comments do in fact breed more content but… sometimes you can’t, and you aren’t obligated to. It’s fine to passively enjoy content for whatever reason.
A few things I (a fanfiction writer) want you to know
I write fanfiction because I love the characters and ships I write. I’m not a published author, nor am I trying to become one. I’m here because I got obsessed with a stupid tv show. That’s it.
Kudos and/or comments fuel me more than you can imagine.
Every day, I get a ‘You’ve got Kudos!’ email. Every day, I open it. I take note of which of my fics have been given kudos. I take note of the usernames I find there. If you’ve left kudos on one of my fics before, I’ll recognize you. I take a moment to appreciate your support. I feel validated and inspired after this.
When someone comments on one of my fics for the first time, I go ‘Oh hey there, new friend. Welcome to my world.’
If you’ve commented on one of my fics more than once, I know you. I’ve checked out your profile, your works, your bookmarks. When I see your username, I feel like I’m meeting a friend. I’m like ‘This is the person who likes the same rarepair I do.’ - ‘This is the lover of fluff/smut/angst fics.’ I remember.
I read every comment I ever get, many of them more than once. I try to answer them all. I’m not always fast with that, but I promise you, I appreciate the hell out of your feedback. Sometimes people ask me why I’m grinning so dumbly down at my phone, and many times it’s because I just got a new comment. You’re making my day with this.
Sometimes I get a comment on a WIP I haven’t updated in a while, and in most cases, it motivates me to get the next chapter out. You’re reminding me why I started writing this story. You’re making me want to finish it.
When I feel down and unable to write, I go back to the comments on stories that mean a lot to me personally. They give me new life. I treasure them. You have no idea how long they stick with me.
My ask box is always open. You want to express an opinion on my writing anonymously? You have a prompt, an idea, a wish? You probably don’t know how easy I am to persuade to write something. Honestly, try it.
No fic is too old to comment on it. Never.
If you’re too shy to leave a comment, you are valid. I’m happy to have you as a reader. I’m a crazy fangirl like you. I’m dying to talk to you. If you can’t, that’s perfectly fine though.
If you don’t know what to comment, believe me when I say that it doesn’t matter as long as it isn’t rude. You’re too tired to leave a proper comment? I read fics at 2am too my friend, I understand. You don’t know how to put your thoughts into words? You can literally leave me a HI and I’ll be happy about it.
If you’re too shy to comment in English because you’re not a native speaker, you’re valid. You’re good enough to read fics in this language, you can be proud of that. I know how to use a translator. You may comment in whatever language you want to. I’m not a native speaker either, I’ve long stopped trying to sound like one. I take no shame in that.
If you have ever taken time out of your day to read one of my stories, I appreciate you so much. If you have ever hit the kudos button on one of my stories, I appreciate you so much. If you have ever written me a comment, shared your genuine feelings about my writing with me, you are responsible for a big, stupid smile on my face and a significant bit of motivation.
Thank you!
I ♡ readers
here’s to the readers who stay up past midnight reading just one more chapter
here’s to the readers who like one fic - so they go through our archive and read everything else
here’s to the readers who are still learning the language of the fic they’re reading, but they’re making it through anyhow
here’s to the readers who are too shy to tell us how much they love our story, so they just tell all of their friends about it instead
here’s to the readers who kudos - and then comment “kudos” when they can’t do it again
here’s to the readers who make rec lists or run fic reccing blogs
here’s to the readers who give out prompts and ask for metas and suggest ideas of things they’d love to see
here’s to the readers who hide their phones so that no one sees what they’re reading, but omg this fic is just so good!
here’s to the readers who keysmash, reaction gif, tag, comment, quote us back to us, and otherwise let us know that they loved our work
here’s to the readers
without you, we don’t exist
And the readers who check up on us, how we’re doing and if we take good care of ourself.
To the readers who tell us not to worry about the long waiting lists or the updates which take longer than we like too.
To the readers who send us random messages to have random small talks with us.
To the readers who not just work out one specific request but an entire series.
To the readers who overload your inbox with requests of a second part because they loved the first part.
To the readers who are confident enough to share their struggles with us for a request to help them through their struggles.
To the readers who give their honest opinion on our works even if they think there’s something that could be done better, so that we can improve in our work.
To the readers that help us through a writers block.
Here’s to the readers who know exactly how to make our day, just by reading our work.
This is for you, because we love each and every last one of you ♥️
Just so y’all know: I can’t speak for every other fic author but I can say that I remember when people leave me kind comments. I recognize your urls and/or usernames on AO3. I remember you and sometimes in writing my fics I think to myself, “Oh, I hope this person sees this because they liked x in this other fic I did.”
Not only that—I go back and reread comments when I’m feeling low. I look at tags and reblogs and asks and wish I could hold them in my hand like a note from a friend on an old, torn piece of notebook paper.
Your comments have so much more impact than you know. So thanks to those who use the comment section to spread love and encouragement. We appreciate you.
We talk a lot about people who leave comment on fics, but I hope the people who only reblog know they are also appreciated.
Not everyone can (or wants to) leave comments for a multitude of reasons -- too shy, too nervous, too busy, too tired, or you simply don't want to -- but please know we as writers cherish you! We admire you so fucking much. We recognize your usernames in our notifications. We get these little bursts of happiness in our brains and think, "Ahhh yes, my beloved is pleased."
To the silent reblogs, I'm handing you a bouquet of flowers as a symbol of our adoration 🥀
my dream as a fanfic writer is to write a story which people want to talk to me about and send asks about afterwards and discuss things the characters did and the symbolism and meanings behind certain lines and I'll be all "hehe thanks" but irl I'll be in literal tears because I wrote something that means something to someone
Please give me feedback! :)
I got an AO3 comment once which summarised said, 'I've been reading this fic for years and I keep coming back to it over and over because it's so amazing and I feel guilty that all this time I never commented, so this is me letting you know how much it's meant to me for so long.' And that was incredible, because five minutes before I didn't know that person existed and then they tell me that I've made such an impact on them.
It is never too late to leave a comment - the author will always be thrilled.
fascinating that when you tell people "you have to learn the rules to break them" when talking about drawing/painting etc everyone nods and agrees but the second you say "you have to read books if you want to write better" there's a horde of contrarians begging to be the wrongest people ever all of a sudden
if one more person in the notes of this post says "omg op has clearly never talked to a beginner artist!!" as if im not a literal professional artist and was making a broad point........ this time im really gonna do it
and reading only fanfiction does not count as reading books to get better at writing. Fanfiction, where everyone reading it already knows who the characters are and what their relationships are and what the setting is and all that crap, is not the same thing as reading an original self-contained story.
If you only read fanfiction, you will not be able to write original stories well.
Reading books does not have to be expensive. It can be completely free. Project Gutenberg exists. So does the Internet Archive's lending library.
Fanfiction works in ways that original fiction doesn't. You can't write original fiction like it's fanfiction if you want your story to actually be well written and interesting.
I think it's important to point out why fanfiction is different - so much context and interest hooks depend on you already being interested in the source. You are familiar with these characters and therefore don't need to have the basics built into the story. With original work, you need all that underlying character development to be in the story you're writing to make us want to read it. You could 'cheat' and give us a modern Sherlock Holmes - but we still need your version explored in narrative to actually care about it. Dr. House is more than just Sherlock Holmes in a hospital, he has his own issues and foils and quirks. The Holmes from the TV show Sherlock and Elementary are vastly different takes on the same character. You need to read original fiction in order to learn how to do that in your own original fiction. Fanfic is great, but it intentional has gaps that make it a different form.
Fanfiction also is generally structurally different.
If you want to write a novel, you are kept to a pretty strict word range--generally 70-120k words, though that varies a bit up or down depending on the genre. Some genres have fairly strict structural and plot expectations, as well.
A romance novel is a specific thing. A mystery novel is a specific thing. Being able to write a shippy fanfic, even one of the correct length to count as a romance novel, does not necessarily mean that you know how to write a romance novel--because there are different expectations between them.
Fanfiction is often in conversation with other fanfiction, and published fiction is often to varying degrees in conversation with other published fiction--but despite what a lot of people seem to think, published fiction is often not actually in conversation with fanfiction, even if fanfiction is in conversation with published fiction.
One thing that you tend to see with people writing original fiction for publication who don't really read much published fiction in that genre is that they will sometimes approach it with the attitude that they are writing something that nobody has ever thought of before. It is a new, different, groundbreaking approach, with new, different, groundbreaking ideas that nobody else has done and nothing can compare to--
And that simply is not usually the case. Finding comps can be hard, it's one of the worst parts about querying, etc., etc., but in many genres, you are not inventing something totally new. You are not the first person to think, what if this romance novel doesn't need to have a happy ending (spoiler alert: it's not a romance novel). You are not the first person to write queer polyamorous urban fantasy. You are not the first person to write a book with queer characters or disabled characters or non-white characters or non-Christian characters. Your groundbreaking new idea for a sci fi thing that you repurposed from a fanfic, that just feels dated and derivative, because it is, and anyone who knows the genre would know that.
That arrogance and that dismissal of existing publishing history and norms shows in people's writing.
Anyway, read books. They're actually pretty great.
My favorite kind of villains are the ones that you can understand. Not agree with, not like, but understand. You’re frightened by their actions in a really visceral way because you realize that, in the wrong circumstances, you might become a monster too.
The scariest type of monsters are the ones that seem human and familiar.
The queen of character design tropes is character design as environmental storytelling. A mix of half-healed and fresh sunburns. A swordsman with acid scars. Acne that isn't covered up or hidden. A sloppy haircut. A bruise on the forehead. Clothing that was safety pinned and clothing which was mended and clothing where the mending is vibrant and obvious embroidery. Mud on their shirt or boots or hair. Cat claw marks. Goggle tan lines. A number written on their arm. All those myriad ways to say "there's a story here."
So I was rereading ßome old famfiction on ff.net and Ao3, among which is your WR week from 2019. And I have to say reading your stuff and other fics I read over the years really gives me nostalgia and somehow gets me motivated to finish my works, which were left hanging out of personal reasons or because my tastes changed and I found what I like now is different from back than. So long story short I just wanted to express my gratitude for all the great stories you posted over the years. And yes I am a hard cor WR fan ^^
Thank YOU for reading my works over the years! And good luck with your own works! May the motivation last long and burn bright. 💕 It really makes me happy to know my works might have been able to spark something in others, whether that be joy or motivation. 🥰
Hello there!
I just read your work, "Sanctuary," and I'm????
Hegsjehgiidhgkkf
Your worldbuilding is always so amazing and you always draw your readers in with the depth and I just want to say I really enjoy all your works!! Thank you for posting them!
Thank YOU for reading them! 💕😊
And thank you for taking the time to drop by my tumblr to leave such a kind message. It makes me really happy to hear that you enjoy my works. 🥰
We talk a lot about people who leave comment on fics, but I hope the people who only reblog know they are also appreciated.
Not everyone can (or wants to) leave comments for a multitude of reasons -- too shy, too nervous, too busy, too tired, or you simply don't want to -- but please know we as writers cherish you! We admire you so fucking much. We recognize your usernames in our notifications. We get these little bursts of happiness in our brains and think, "Ahhh yes, my beloved is pleased."
To the silent reblogs, I'm handing you a bouquet of flowers as a symbol of our adoration 🥀
