rereading your own fics/wips is a very slippery slope into finding out you actually have to finish your fics if you want them finished

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@ianwritesfics
rereading your own fics/wips is a very slippery slope into finding out you actually have to finish your fics if you want them finished
the thing is when people say a specific fanfic trope comes from supernatural they usually mean "it was invented by the supernatural fandom in a fanfic". on the other hand, when people say a specific fanfic trope comes from star trek, they mean "it was the plot of at least one star trek episode"
Star Trek Tropes & Genres vs Supernatural Tropes & Genres on Fanlore
takes you by the hand. please please please if you're stuck on your WIP or you can't figure out how to progress the scene PLEASE skip ahead. skip a few lines ahead. skip until the next Thing you can think of happens. skip to it skip to it skip to it. you may uncover what you were missing in the midst of your next scenes and you may discover that just transitioning straight to Next Part works flawlessly. skip it. don't sink. skip.
if you're stuck writing something, it's a good practice to ask "okay, why am I stuck? what am I stuck on?" because sometimes the answer is "i don't know what happens next", to which you choose a direction and commit to the bit, and sometimes the answer is "i don't want to write the beginning", to which the answer is even simpler: don't write the beginning
no lie this is how I’ve written the best and longest fics. Went from painful jagged 1k chapters to blinking and finding myself 5k deep on something *I THE WRITER* enjoy reading later. Get stuck? Skip ahead. Write the next bit. Fill it in on the next read. Or don’t! Who the fuck cares!!!!
I don't know who needs to hear this, but as a creator -
I am fine with "the audience" -
downloading my fics
printing my fics
copy/pasting or screenshotting my fics
sharing your saved copy of my fics with anyone else who might want them in the unlikely but never impossible case that my fics are no longer available on ao3
making a book of my fic(s) and running your fingers across the pages while lovingly whispering my precioussss
doing these things with anything I create for fandom, such as meta, headcanons, au nonsense like 'texts from the brodinsons,' etc
I am not fine with "the audience"
doing any of the above with the purpose/intent of plagiarizing my work or passing it off as their own in any capacity
feeding my work into ai for any reason whatsoever
Save the fandom things. Preserve the fandom things. Respect the fandom things.
Enjoy the fandom things.
Reblogs in a chain now get their own notes
The reblog chain is one of the things that makes Tumblr unlike anywhere else. All the notes on reblogs are attributed to the original post, no matter which branch people actually liked or reblogged. We want to keep encouraging conversations, and give contributors the recognition they deserve.
Soon, you'll be able to like, reblog, or reply to any part of a reblog chain, and that note will go to that reblog's author. Each reblog will have its own counts, instead of one aggregated number from every version of the post. And yes, you’ll be able to like multiple posts in one chain.
If a reblog doesn't add anything, the love flows up to the last person in the chain who did. Your post doesn't lose notes just because people spread it quietly.
Past notes will stay on the original post — we're only changing what happens from here on out. Retroactively re-attributing all of them would be... a lot.
This is just the beginning. More changes are coming as we keep building this out – stay tuned!
It’s very clear that you all have strong feelings about Tumblr and about this change. We hear you. The passion people have for how Tumblr works is one of the things that makes this place special.
As this rolls out over the next few days and you explore it, we’ll keep reading your replies and reblogs, so please keep sharing your questions, concerns, and ideas.
Your creativity has always been the heart of Tumblr, whether you’re the original poster or adding something brilliant in the reblogs, and nothing about this change is meant to limit that.
If you’d like to talk directly beyond the comments, leave a reply and we’ll follow up with as many of you as we can. We want to work with you to make Tumblr better.
hey folks do we like this. reblog without commentary for reach
do we want this?
yes
no
i just saw a post on reddit titled "the writer is cooking but the food doesn't agree with me" and it was about OP clicking off a fic because they don't like the direction it's going in. slightly different context but can we all be more like this reddit OP. i think "the writer is cooking but the food doesn't agree with me" should be the new "don't like don't read." dead doves may give you diarrhea but don't make that everyone else's problem.
this is a great way to frame it lol like just bc i'm lactose intolerant doesn't mean i should leave a bad review on the ice cream parlor
Are you frustrated you can't leave second kudos on AO3? or third kudos? or whatever-who's-counting kudos?
Well, have I got the html for you!
Plop any of these in a comment (by copy&pasting the code) to make an author's day and show your appreciation!
Second kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/tHMjbb6/second-kudos.png" alt="second kudos">
Third kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/52bggQH/third-kudos.png" alt="third kudos">
nth kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/6y7qGtC/nth-kudos.png" alt="nth kudos">
yet another kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/wKtcj0s/yet-another-kudos.png" alt="yet another kudos">
It will look something like this (and will be transparent with white outline on dark backgrounds):
Feel free to spread and use these as much as you like! (and if you have ideas for other variations, let me know ✌️)
So happy to see people enjoying these and spreading the love 💖
UPDATE with some suggestions from the replies! And bonus: cookie kudos.
HTML codes under the cut.
let me tell you, I got a ‘kisses your forehead’ kudos and it absolutely made my day
Proposal for new fandom etiquette:
If you read a fic because it was linked/recced somewhere, you leave a comment saying "came from XXX" and that comment doesn't need to include anything else.
Because when all of a sudden there's a lot of activity on one particular fic I WANNA KNOW WHY!!!!!
This is cool, because not only am I sure all authors would like to know that, but also it gives a ready-to-use comment prompt to all those who don't know what to write in a comment.
hey uh new type of ao3 spam comment just dropped. (I know it's spam because the fic they left this comment on . doesn't have chapters. lmfao). Report this kinda comment as spam and don't take it personally it is literally recycled bullshit
sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four
now for all your bodily perception needs
Good Types of Tropes For H/C
No Pain Killers Available
Gotta Stay Quiet To Avoid Discovery
Feverish Delirium And Mumbling
Cowboy Medicine: Whiskey Internally & Externally Applied
Huddling For Warmth
Desperate Hand-Holding
“Breathe, Just Breathe”
Protectively Cradling A Broken Arm
The Word ‘Winced’
Whimpering
“Easy, Easy There”
Being Carried; Bridal, Fireman’s, Two-Person, Doesn’t Matter- Being Carried
Coughing, or, God-Forbid, Sneezing, With Broken Ribs
Fainting
Waking Up Not Knowing Where They Are
Animal Attack
DIY Bullet-Removal
Field-Medicine in General
Blankets/Shirt Collar Shifting Just Enough To Have Bandages Peeking Out
Gentle Shushing
Needing Help To Drink From A Glass
Brushing Hair From Brow
Collapsing Off Of Horse
Dramatic Irony Injury Reveal (Audience Knows About It But Other Characters Do Not)
Frantically Feeling For Breath Or Pulse
(feel free to add on!)
- “…you stayed?” “Of course I did.”
-The comforting one watching the hurt one sleep and feeling incredibly ~fond~
-The hurt one waking up to see the comforting one asleep near them and feeling incredibly ~fond~
I feel called out. …Also you forgot a few important ones:
otherwise stoic character flinching, either because they’re so out of it or the pain is Just That Bad
the injured person having to walk their comforter through giving them stitches
the hurt one suddenly losing their balance/too weak to stand and the comforting one is right there to catch them
character gently cupping someone’s cheek while they’re asleep/unconscious and the hurt one turns their face into their hand
trauma therapy has been swell
We don’t talk enough about how fanfiction writers love to give character large amounts of non-specific paperwork they hate doing
say more pls
Yeah sure why not.
So most stories take place when Events are Happening, and this means that no matter what kind of job the characters have, they’re probably not too focused on them. Fanfics, on the other hand, often show the down time. Which means that the writer has to figure out what the hell these characters do in their jobs. Unless the characters have a job the author understands or knows well, the author is often at a loss for what to have the character doing.
So they sit them at a desk and give them paperwork. What is the paperwork for? Rarely specified. It is Paper Work for the characters Important Adult Job they have and they need to read or sign it or something. And there’s always a line about how Character Hates Paperwork. Doesn’t matter if Character is a Mafia Boss or a General or a Diplomat, here they are in an office trying to get out of Doing Paperwork.
There’s also a sense of, like, humor and mundanity that comes with it. Like the examples above, it always particularly stands out to me when a dangerous individual is griping about some paper they need to sign or something. The less you can picture Character doing paperwork, all the better to force it upon them. If Character is saddled with Paperwork, they’re usually now concerned about the physical damages their motley crew causes, because damage = More Paperwork.
Anyway I just think it’s fun or funny, Sephiroth doing paper work and Sawada Tsunayoshi doing paper work and this just in, Tony Stark is doing paperwork. Sorry, Phoenix Wright can’t play right now. Yeah, it’s paperwork.
A very non-exhaustive list of actual paperwork they could be completing/reviewing/approving, in no particular order:
Timesheets
Expense reports
Requisition requests
Budget justifications
Payroll
Performance evaluations
Incident reports
After action reviews / post-mortem analyses
Incident Action Plans
Contracts
Contract proposals / grant applications
Reports / briefings
Your Royalty or Nobles in your feudal society should be doing this constantly unless you want to show how they're losing the kingdom and about to be usurped or overthrown.
petitions, speech-writing, complaints, requests, assignations, disputes, judiciary forms, declarations that need signing off on, matters requiring the Royal seal, matters requiring a royal endorsement, pardons, judgments, invitations, rebuttals, census data, crop yields projected or actual, livestock records, water rights, Sumptuary laws, taxes taxes taxes...
solid point there!
even when the royalty look like they're just fucking off to have fun, they're doing Socially Mandated Fuck-Off and Have Fun Time
Tournaments? Gotta show you're manly and virile through sport, or the nobles will supplant you. Feasts? Gotta show you're wealthy through conspicuous consumption, or the nobles will supplant you. Patronizing the arts? Gotta show you're cultured and erudite, or the nobles will laugh at you behind your back and probably supplant you.
Lawyer here. Here’s some more mundane/modern ones for you:
Invoices.
Intake sheets (information about new clients. The one for my firm is 13 pages and requires an hour long meeting. Then you have to do something with the info gathered)
Data entry for invoices and intake sheets.
Billing. (More involved than timesheets because you’re justifying to clients why you’re getting paid so much).
Form letters.
Taxes. Including 1099s for any contracted work.
Bank statements/accounting spreadsheets. Gotta track how expenses are trending.
Insurance documents.
General messages. Lots of office still use a paper system for missed calls and “important” stuff because it just works better than emails and chats for some people.
Memos. Big enough office to have at least one attorney on payroll? You’re getting memos about every legal question and concern and contract. It’s how we’re trained to communicate in formal settings.
And if you want to get into modern military, the forms are numbered, and people will refer to them by either their actual name, or the number. (Have you filled out the 4187 for this? Yes, I filled out the personnel action form.)
The military has so many forms.
If you want to add a rage level, there’s the Regular Paperwork and then the special hell of Fuckup Paperwork.
Cause there’s the invoice, and the follow up invoice and the we are about to have a problem follow-up invoice.
There’s the incident report and then the I swear I yelled at that worker about this don’t be mad at me if they do it again second warning documentation
The requisition form and the it has been six months now get me the fucking thing or you’re gonna hear from Cindy escalations form.
Paperwork has layers and protocols and backups.
May I add: GRANTS.
If your character is any sort of lawful do-gooder or works for anything charitable or non-profit, they'll always need to deal with grants.
Grants are when a government, organization or rich person say "I have a large amount of money and I want it to be spent on this cause I care about". And everyone who is attached to the cause has to write an essay about why they deserve it including
their cause's audience and budgetary information
Describing the specific project they're going to use the money for
The project's budget and timeline
The justification of the budget and timeline
The amount of staff hours the project will take
Any amount their institution can match
And THEN if they get the money, they've got to keep track of every item on that list and write a report AGAIN when the project is done explaining how according-to-plan everything went.
If they're a Batman sort and they're giving away money, then someone has to read through two hundred copies of the above.
Grant writing and management is a full time job that's NOTHING but paperwork and emails, but is also necessary for most nonprofit and charitable organizations.
Y'know, as far as I understand it, the whole point of the cops framing Luigi Mangione was a show-of-force type thing. To demonstrate that they had control, and that someone cannot shoot a ceo without having the full force of the law fall upon them.
Except... we all know they framed Luigi. They weren't subtle enough, and its obvious. So I don't see how their message is supposed to work.
Because considering that Luigi is innocent, the real shooter is still out there. That person has suffered no consequences at all, unless you count loss-of-bragging-rights-to-a-nintendo-character to be a consequence.
So. Y'know. Apparently, you absolutely can just gun down a ceo in the middle of the street, and as long as you are at least mildly difficult to find the cops will literally cover your tracks for you.
The real shooter didn't need to spend a single second arranging a fall guy in order to get out of this, the cops took care of that for him! Its the perfect crime!
I mean, we make fun of video games like GTA or Cyberpunk2077, where you just need to break like of sight with the cops for thirty seconds or so in order for them to entirely forget you exist, but apparently that strategy also works in real life!
hear me out cake but instead of ppl i want to fuck it’s songs that kind of fit The Character if you squint and tilt your head just right and have a beautiful mind
me: I write for myself, not validation
also me after posting a fic *refreshes ao3 every five minutes*
(two things can be true)
PSA for fanfic writers