Not So Blank Page

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[infinitelyblankpage]

It's 2025. It's been a hot gosh darn minute. What are we all doing? What are we all writing?

[artisimpossible]

At some point, you gotta stop asking yourself "why does everyone prefer bad books over mine" and start asking yourself "what are these badly written books doing to connect with people that mine aren't?"

Every time I hear an author lament the fact that people only like "bad" books and no one appreciates their artistry anymore, all I hear is "I never take the time to evaluate what makes something interesting to people who aren't me, and I value the rules of craft and other arbitrary elements I've posited as the crux of good writing over the art of actually meeting people where they are and giving them something that holds value to their lives."

[artisimpossible]

I actually want to talk about this again because I think people see "real art" as "never compromising your work by creating for someone else", and if you want to make art that never considers anyone else, that is a totally real thing you can do.

But there is a community minded way to view your art and an individualist minded way to view your art. Writing to connect with your community, to speak on things that are relevant to the whole, to fill in gaps where community is lacking, vs. writing whatever you specifically enjoy and want to read.

And look, these are not mutually exclusive things. My stories are very community minded, but the way I execute them is to prioritize putting things in a way that *I* personally enjoy. It's a blend. But I see a lot of people getting angry that their "very personal, just for me, just everything I want" art is not being well-received by the masses, arguing that everyone just has terrible taste now and nobody cares about *real* art, and like... Have you ever considered that your audience isn't ignoring you because they don't appreciate the quality of your craft but simply because they were never your audience to begin with? If your only audience is you, how can you be mad that only you care to read it?

If you want to reach people, consider what you're doing that keeps you from *reaching people*. Sometimes you're looking in all the wrong places, and sometimes you're writing for an audience of one but expecting a crowd. People who write for larger audiences have mastered a *different skill than you*. If you want what they have, you have to master *that* skill. It's not that people just "like bad books". It's that some authors know how to write for their community, and some only know how to write for themselves, and it is perfectly okay to be either type, but shitting on your peers and your future potential audience because you refuse to evaluate *why* your work doesn't connect is not going to help you reach people.

The fact of the matter is that most readers read for *content* not *craft*. That doesn't mean they dislike your university-learned craft (some might, but most won't). It just means that if they have to choose between "high craft, pointless to them substance" or "weak craft, valuable to them substance", they're going to choose the second. If you don't care to provide substance that's valuable to them, that's totally fine, and you should continue crafting just for you, but it is not some phenomenon of people suddenly hating good craft. It's a phenomenon of authors learning how to "craft" but never how to "connect".

And frankly, this is why fanfic authors tend to do so well even with original fiction. Fanfic doesn't [inherently] teach you craft, but it teaches you to connect. These are completely different skills.

[tallysgreatestfan]

Do you have more specific tips on how to do this? Because I am quite sure that making my texts mainstream digestible is my single most biggest missing writing skill. I just have no idea how to even learn this or to start. I don't even really manage to do this with fanfiction.

Maybe because its because I am queer and autistic and mentally ill, so I don't even have some mainstream experiences to resort too. And it's hard to even see what exactly is mainstream, unlike most people who seem to just feel that like second nature.

I put a lot of raw emotion on my text, and I tried to make my characters as distinguishable as possible and my world vivid - but these are still all drawn from fundamentally not being mainstream, and while it might resonate with other weird people like me, as long as it does not reach mainstream, it will not have reach, and I despair about that.

[artisimpossible]

Okay, so 1. A story that is "able to connect" with audiences and one that is "mainstream digestible" are not inherently the same thing, and 2. stories don't need to be "mainstream" in order to have reach, they just have to *reach* the people who will further that reach through word of mouth. I say this as an author of queer/trans neurodiverse PoC books that are still connecting with readers years after release.

So, "how do you figure out what makes a story connect with people and how do you replicate that?"

Literally ask people. One of my best friends likes basically every popular IP ever, so I just ask them "Why do you like this? What about it stands out to you?" Part of it is just recognizing what stories are reaching the audiences you want and then listening to those audiences as they explain what they love about those stories.

Look at the people writing the stories *you* want to tell, but who are reaching a broader audience than you are. What are they doing differently? What sets their story apart from yours.

Get feedback on your own work. Where are people consistently falling off? What parts are they specifically vibing with, and how can you go about strengthening those parts or making it so that other parts of your stories are following in that vein?

What is the *heart* of your work. What makes it matter to you? Now look at people outside of yourself and ask yourself what *they* care about. Is there overlap? This isn't to say that you shouldn't write autistic or queer characters (you should!), but if the most important thing to you is exploring your experience as an autistic person then you're writing to a narrow audience, and that means you want to make sure you're *really* resonating with *that* audience so that they'll invest in that story. So what are *other* autistic people looking for in a story? What makes them feel invested in it? How can you make sure that your take on this experience is resonating with your community?

Finally, look at yourself. What makes you go *feral* for a story. Not, what stories do you like, but what stories absolutely go *above and beyond* in making you adore them. Now, what are they doing that you aren't? Likewise, which of those stories are reaching broader audiences and which aren't. What are the more popular ones doing that the less popular ones aren't?

This isn't cut and dry because sometimes what one story is doing is literally "having a larger marketing budget" or "starring a big name actor" or "releasing on exactly the right day to go viral", but it's about understanding the trends of how and why things resonate with modern audiences. Again, if what you ultimately find is that you don't care or you just want to write what you love, then by all means, do that, but even if it goes slowly, if you *really* connect with people, your stories will slowly find a bigger and bigger audience because people share what they love. Hope this helps!

[carinelian]

ITS NOT ENOUGH I REBLOG THIS

I AM PRINTING THIS AND PASTING IT ON MY WALL

[annabelle--cane]

heya comrades, before you share and comment on that booktoker screenshot going around about skipping long paragraphs in novels I would like to remind you that having trouble reading long blocks of text is a very common symptom of dyslexia, and even if the people in the screenshots aren't dyslexic you should still keep people with reading disabilities in mind before you say anything moralizing about "illiteracy"

[concerningwolves]

Yeah this

That post is particularly irksome to me as well because of the multiple popular posts I see on here reminding people to add paragraph breaks – partly because this makes long texts easier to read for everyone, and partly because it makes long texts more accessible to anyone with a multitude of disabilities. A fundamental part of my approach with any of my editorial services is "is this text as accessible as it can be [to every sector of its intended audience]?", and paragraph breaks (and signpost words/phrases) are integral to that. I thought this was something most people in Tumblr writer & reader circles agreed on!

Unfortunately, shitting on booktokers is funny right now. And, yes, TikTok as a whole is a fundamentally flawed platform running on an algorithm that encourages people to do things for the hype and exposure, rather than the love of what they do. But no socmed is immune to this effect, and, crucially: everyone on that platform is a person too. While it's true that there is a certain sector of people on there who are privileged and leveraging that privilege in terrible ways as influencers, you're still going to get that same mix of people with diagnosed and undiagnosed disabilities that you get in any community. Being on the "trendy" platform in a community that can be pretty irritating doesn't preclude that. Or do you think that people with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, or other neurodivergencies/intellectual disabilities can't be part of booktok? Can't be irritating? Can't have flawed views? Are you assuming everyone there is abled and just being "snobby" or "anti-intellectual"?

Ultimately though, whether or not they're dyslexic etc. is irrelevant. When you start moralizing over a person's reading ability (or lack thereof), and mocking people's struggles, you're being ableist. It doesn't matter if you're deliberately targeting a person you know is disabled, or mocking someone who coincidentally or superficially displays those same traits. We've been over this already with the whole "it doesn't matter if they're autistic or 'just weird', don't be an arsehole anyway" thing: Even if you think you're punching "up", you'll still end up hitting the people around you who also share those difficulties.

(And I don't think I'm 100% immune to the 'laugh at silly booktokers' thing; I've done it before and haven't always caught myself. It is easy to do! Moral superiority is attractive! But it also isn't inevitable, and you can put the work in to curb the impulse).

[infinitelyblankpage]

Chuck a paragraph in, please! I gotta breathe, I gotta rest. This is a marathon, my guy. Pace yourself.

[ogdoadfates]

Prompt list: Fluff #2

Like always feel free to use these for whatever~

I am also realizing I have a thing for people doing nice/sweet things while in the rain or while it is raining.

“I hope that in every life, you are there with me.”

“You’re beautiful, you know that right?”

Person A going all out for person B’s birthday.

“What are you doing up?” “My personal heater went away.” 

Person A kissing person B in the rain.

Person A buying person B their favorite snack just because they saw it while shopping.

Person A stealing person B’s sweater/clothes.

Having a tender moment in the early morning.

“I love you doesn’t begin to express what I feel for you.”

Person A helping person B patch up their favorite shirt/sweater/jacket.

Person A noticing person B is getting overwhelmed and helping them out.

Person A helping person B have fun at a party.

Person A and person B accidentally giving each other flowers at the same time.

Person A’s brain short circuiting at how good person B looks.

“I wouldn’t trade you for all the stars in the sky.”

“How are you so comfy?”

Person A falling asleep on person B

Person A noticing person B is cold and giving them their coat.

Person A joining person B in the rain.

Person A telling person B a story to help them fall asleep.

Person A singing person B a song.

Doing each others hair.

[authorkimberlygrey]

Take frequent breaks (drink water too!) and do your goddamn wrist stretches

Image (source)

[crankynerdgirl]

I wish all writers doing NaNo a very pleasant WriMo.

[daxiandreams]

I very neay tagged you in this, not because wrimo but because artist

[no-longer-another-bondi-blonde]

[infinitelyblankpage]

I never thought a turtle could get the zoomies

[byjove]

Today I found out my dead grandpa was a massive shoplifter and every ice cream sandwich, Little Debbie roll and candy he gave me was more than likely stolen. He always had little gifts for me. Gifts he had stolen. Apparently Walmart was his favorite spot to steal from. I thought I couldn’t love and respect my grandfather any more than I already did but I do now. Poppy, you were a real one.

[byjove]

That’s totally in line with his character, guy got drafted into the Vietnam War, sent to Germany and then sent home for flipping a Jeep with a superior officer in it. He worked at a paper mill and stole the paper cups, plates and napkins they made in such high volume we were using them after his death. He drunk nothing but Ancient Age mixed with Mountain Dew. He died of lung cancer after smoking 2 packs a day from the age of 14. Him being a shoplifter is not shocking news but the fact he was doing it all the time in plain sight and I never noticed it so much funnier.

[byjove]

The man, the myth, the tinted glasses mustached legend with my dad, uncle and grandmother.

[infinitelyblankpage]

Grandpa: I'm gonna steal the camera

Grandma, through a forced smile: please don't

[anexperimentallife]

[a-flickering-soul]

writers envy but evil

[a-flickering-soul]

do you ever see a banger concept executed a way you dont like and cup its face in your hands and tell it ‘i can fix you’

[i-homeostasis]

dude seeing these Mega high quality images of the surface of mars that we now have has me fucked up. Like. Mars is a place. mars is a real actual place where one could hypothetically stand. It is a physical place in the universe. ITS JUST OUT THERE LOOKING LIKE UH IDK A REGULAR OLD DESERT WITH LOTS OF ROCKS BUT ITS A WHOLE OTHER PLANET? 

[i-homeostasis]

LIKE THIS JUST LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BE A PERSON’S BACKYARD. LIKE YEA A LITTLE DUSTY MAYBE THERE WAS A SANDSTORM BUT THAT’S COOL I’M JUST GONNA WALK DOWN TO THE STORE P S Y C H YOU’RE ON MARS BICH!

[schro-dingus-deactivated2023030]

i hate to be rude and intrude on this post but we have decent pictures of the surface Venus too! 

[jumpingjacktrash]

#venus has a low render distance

[thecraftychemist]

See also below Saturn’s moon, Titan. Mars has a blue horizon at sunset so it looks even more Earth-like in this image:

Source

Also: Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

[ultraviolet-divergence]

So it’s not quite snowing on Churyumov–Gerasimenko, unfortunately; the white specks are artifacts of cosmic rays impinging on the CCDs in the camera, as well as a rotating starfield in the background (since the comet is spinning). A few specks could be dust. But, holy shit, that’s the surface of a comet. That’s a spot you could in theory cling to for dear life sit down on. The Cliffs of Comet 76p are a place. 

If that isn’t the neatest shit I don’t know what is.

[dorkery]

[greelin]

mountain berry blast (blue) powerade IS an elixir actually

[misqnon]

sorry to rb but i literally had this stuff for the first time yesterday at applebees and it was so beautiful it was like a mystical potion . I have never seen something so blue

[greelin]

Potion of Taste Soo Good (Blue)

[rogue-ai-cat]

My dad drinks blue Powerade in his glass StarTrek mug and his coworkers joke about it being Romulan ale

[infinitelyblankpage]

Mine was from some random Greek tavern in Australia and it was adult juice but eerily similar??

[starpeace]

sunshiney characters who adore the mean grumpy character, platonically or romantically, but not DESPITE them being mean as if that isn’t who the other “really” is deep down. they love it. they think the other is the funniest cleverest most delightful person alive

[starpeace]

if the sunshiney character doesn’t have to cover their mouth up trying not to laugh at every sharp comment, completely altering how everyone else thinks abt the sunshiney character, then what’s the point

[kaiusvnoir-deactivated20240204]

Last Line Tag

tagged by @indecentpause

[So I may have briefly broken my unspoken promise to myself to not stray from Lost Cause and established a few new ideas / words for Mourn the Day yesterday. Oops.]

His brother’s name is etched into the stone, pristine but for a smear of dirty fingerprints across the rough surface. Halifax pays them little mind, thoughts too preoccupied with the emptiness of the grave. Grave robbery is not unheard of, the desperate derelicts of the Rotway are not beyond any excuse to fund their addictions, but this hollow in the earth bears no similarities to a simple dig.

Damp soil sinks in the distinct shape of handprints, fingers clawing their way up and out of the ground.

Fax casts a cautious glance around the graveyard, silent and still but for his breath on the cold spring air. No one here but him.

tagging the usual suspects @reininginthefirewriting, @drabbleitout, @ashen-crest, @zmwrites, and @infinitelyblankpage

[infinitelyblankpage]

My baby boy!

[werewolfetone]

So if you’re a Harry Potter stan and you just have to be obsessed with a kids series written by an English woman about a young wizard boy learning magic under an eccentric headmaster with an interesting potions guy, a silly male best friend, a clever female best friend, a blonde haired guy who is evil but eventually gets redemption, an evil wizard/necromancer who has a young boy he very clearly pressures into it as his sidekick, an evil piece of jewelry, and a dragon… might I recommend to you the Septimus Heap series, instead of Harry Potter? It’s very similar to Harry Potter but 1) not nearly as much blatant bigotry 2) I literally don’t even know the author’s name so she’s not in a position to do harm even if she is very bigoted 3) high fantasy! it’s kind of medieval, the dragon has a major role, there’s a ghost army 4) cool magic system that makes fucking sense 5) focuses on the big happy wizard family as well as the orphan boy and 6) actually good. so. just in case anyone is looking for an incredibly similar thing to get into and you weren’t aware of these books: here. have this.

[infinitelyblankpage]

Author is Angie Sage. I love these books too 😍 ❤

[dykecostanza-deactivated2024112]

HOLY FUCK THE AMAZON WORKERS WON THEIR UNION VOTE

[dykecostanza-deactivated2024112]

im running so late to this but holy fucking shit this is historic

[dykecostanza-deactivated2024112]

last thing - while unions are obviously a collaborative effort and this incredible victory is the result of the hard work and sacrifices of many different people i think it’s absolutely essential to highlight the role of ALU’s founder chris smalls rn

chris was fired by amazon in 2020 for organizing a walk-out in the wake of their absolutely criminal handling of covid protocols in staten island. in a meeting with bezos and other amazon execs amazon’s lawyer was caught bragging that he wasnt “smart” or “articulate” enough to organize against them…now he’s helped facilitate the first successful union vote in amazon’s history - eat shit!

[dduane]

Talk about the ultimate satisfaction. :)

…And lest anyone be confused: I’m a proud union girl. For the first half of the twentieth century, writers for film (and when it came along, TV) were routinely, systemically cheated and abused by producers out to get the most labor out of them for the least possible money and benefits.

Then the Writers’ Guild started to get its wheels underneath it in service to its members. With the membership’s help the Guild(s) started teaching the industry that our kind was no longer to be casually stolen from… in case we lost our tempers and, you know, just stopped working all at once. Which turns out to be a strikingly effective technique when used judiciously… so that WGAw and WGAe are now two of the most powerful forces in Hollywood.

Seeing a group of workers who were shut out of power over their own employment now starting to change that game makes me smile day after day. More power to them. MUCH more.

[infinitelyblankpage]

Say it with me: Unions 👏Are👏 Not👏 Bad👏 Things

[starsandskiees]

This is the only tiktok you’ll ever need, I’ve made about 13 of these and I’m not stopping anytime soon

[lunarcatninja]

I’m reblogging again because I did it myself and added pictures for those who have trouble learning from the video.

First take a standard rectangular piece of paper (I used one from a small notebook which I ripped out then cut the holes off)

Then fold in half touching the shorter side to the opposite shorter side.

Fold again making the new shorter side touch the other new shorter side

I did this one more time, but this time I unfolded it right after to get back to where it was only folded twice. It should have left a crease in the paper.

Using this crease, fold the corners up alongside it to look like this

This are also going to be unfolded, but this time you’re going to push in alongside the triangular folds you just made and undid.

Doing this once will result in this

Hold tight because tumblr won’t let me add more pictures. I’ll reblog will the rest of the instructions

[lunarcatninja]

Continuing on,

Do the other side of you haven’t already to get this

You’ll open these newly created flap to change which parts are touching

Leaving you with this

Then you start pulling the top “tabs” down

Do both sides to get the final folded form

Decorate as desired.

Hope this helps!

[honey-soaked-wings-deactivated2]

Ratio for the rectangle size is 2:3

So 6 cm by 9cm

[cottonkhaleesi]

I uh, lost an evening:

Thanatos knows that I hecking love cute origami, and moths, so really, what was I supposed to do, scroll past and not take the opportunity to make butterfly and moth page markers???

[siancore]

Please support Dreamtime Aroha. They’re an Indigenous owned business that supports community all over Australia. They’re a wife and wife partnership who create these cute jarjum baby dolls. They actually sent me two this year as giveaways at the Queer Indigenous Panel I organised. They are awesome. Show them some love this International Day of the World’s Indigenous People✊🏾

[hotasiangirlsinyourarea-archive]

Dreamtime Aroha

Dreamtime Aroha

This is their website as well!