Inah, danseur du soleil et de la lune @inah-ffxiv - Tumblr Blog

~Friendship ~

I'nah and Adrayel have been through a lot of journeys. Always up for a new adventure. Beyond the characters, there are the players. Thank you I'nah (@inah-ffxiv) for being an ideal companion. Always motivated to explore the game in all its facets. May our adventures be long, and the farm endlesse.

inah-ffxiv

So awesome *_*

Ready for the next one !

#when you're done with the vampire

veeaziel

every day i am percieved™️

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

There is a reason for this though!

The original tweet summarizes it pretty well. Fanfic tends to be popular among certain types of neurodivergent people (aka people most likely to read excessively as a child, and have burnout as an adult) for the same reasons that we tend to hyperfixate–neurochemical signaling (I hope I’m using that phrase correctly). What I mean is, for people who are really dependent on changes in dopamine/serotonin/neurotransmitter levels, who have low levels or wonky neural reward systems (perhaps the most common types of neurodivergence)…people like us rely on dependable external sources of those neurochemicals. In order to function, we spend a lot of our free time trying to level out our brain chemistry using things that can reliably bring us a steady stream of joyful moments (rewards) without costing too much of the mental effort that is already in short supply.

significantly: the investment of reading has to be balanced with a steady “return on investment”–and this return has to start fairly quickly. because again, we don’t have a lot of attention/energy to invest on tiring things. we have perpetual “low batteries” in that regard.

that doesn’t mean these stories are “simple,” or that they lack complexity or value–only that the reward has to come in short regular intervals, and it has to have a low “upfront cost.” these stories are only “easy” to read in the sense that the effort we put into them is rewarded in a timely manner. which is why fanfic stories are so perfectly formulated for neurodivergent readers–they are often beautifully written, but skip a lot of the upfront costs (of introducing new characters, of world-building, of getting the audience emotionally connected to the story elements).

the nature of fanfiction is that the reader has a pre-existing relationship with this world and these characters. that–combined with the shorter average length of fics–means that fan fics very quickly start rewarding the reader in a way that traditional fiction struggles to. that’s not a bad thing! and maybe it’s something more traditionally published writers should be paying attention to.

Fanfic, as a genre, has been uniquely helpful and accessible to many neurodivergent readers who would otherwise struggle to immerse themselves in stories. I’m glad so many of you have found a way to love and enjoy reading again! The important thing is that you are spending time inside stories you love–the way those stories are published or presented to the world is just one detail. The fact that you find joy in the process of reading (or listening!) to stories–that is what matters.

deathflare

cool motive, still murder

deathflare

cool motive, still murder

delta-chan

Endlessly amused by how Hermes was convinced that no one else felt anywhere the way he felt when underneath Elpis there were Terrible Adventures in Wife Jail happening and everyone was having a Really Bad Time

Take an elpis bloom in there and it's either disintegrating or turning into a disco ball like something you buy at a fair. I don't even want to think of what would happen to Meteion

destiny-islanders

kupoh no

bramblepatch

What is your Hogwarts house?

Actually I've already processed all five stages of grief in regards to a beloved author from my childhood very publicly making the jump from "milquetoast liberal with unexamined biases" to "actively dangerous bigot who will double down into perpetuity" and will no longer be basing any part of my identity on her intellectual property! Thanks for asking!

cherrypikkins

one of my favourite things to do in roulette is to reveal the unhinged lore of dusk vigil

cherrypikkins

@thumbsart

oh. oh ya. he was a whole ass dude in 1.0 you could talk to and everything back when coerthas was lush and green and not a snow-blasted waste. i believe he had some speaking roles in the various job quests back then. nice guy! a friendly npc by all standards which is a shame given his eventual fate.