one thing i didn’t anticipate about doing law is that i have to actually do the reading. didn’t realise how much i relied on litcharts to get though my undergrad until i couldn’t anymore
so i'm writing a drarry fic because i've read almost all of them and i wanted one that's Mine but if i dont post about it i'll never actually finish it so. drarry. im doing it. bug me about it. here's a lil spoiler from the first chapter (which i have not finished writing but it looks like it’s gonna be about 10k words rn)
update on this like two years later: i completely reworked the entire premise. felt WAY too happy for what it was based on and what the plot was going to be so im Fixing it but im also writing my dissertation rn so dont expect anything to happen quickly.
anyways here’s a little snippet of the new vibe (very rough and not in her final form)
update on this again!! finished my dissertation and she was my pride and joy and then i graduated and now im doing another degree so this is never going to go anywhere xoxox
so i'm writing a drarry fic because i've read almost all of them and i wanted one that's Mine but if i dont post about it i'll never actually finish it so. drarry. im doing it. bug me about it. here's a lil spoiler from the first chapter (which i have not finished writing but it looks like it’s gonna be about 10k words rn)
update on this like two years later: i completely reworked the entire premise. felt WAY too happy for what it was based on and what the plot was going to be so im Fixing it but im also writing my dissertation rn so dont expect anything to happen quickly.
anyways here’s a little snippet of the new vibe (very rough and not in her final form)
so i'm writing a drarry fic because i've read almost all of them and i wanted one that's Mine but if i dont post about it i'll never actually finish it so. drarry. im doing it. bug me about it. here's a lil spoiler from the first chapter (which i have not finished writing but it looks like it’s gonna be about 10k words rn)
the devil on your shoulder (me) is telling you to tell us what sirius is thinking :)))
hm. okay. because i literally can’t hold myself back
SPOILERS for dstg chapter 28 re: dorcas
okay, so. sirius can smell dorcas. she’s obviously everywhere in the house, as is mary and even traces of remus. but like, when he walked into the bedroom, specifically, he could smell her, and it was stronger. not super strong, but stronger. it’s also a different scent, so he’s uncertain on it. but he knows he can smell dorcas.
see, here’s the issue: you might not remember, but. there is like, no record of a vampire being turned the way dorcas was. james talks about it in chapter 24 of dstg: vampires just don’t get turned that way. dorcas was a freak accident due to multiple circumstances working together: the basilisk venom increasing sirius’s venom potency, sirius being a pureblood, even down to the timing - there was so little venom it definitely didn’t linger, and i feel if she had been killed even half an hour later it would’ve run through her system already. it’d also the result of a freak accident - NOBODY has EVER survived basilisk venom. they don’t know how it works. in sirius’s (and all of their) mind(s) there is no way that dorcas could be alive/a vampire. it’s statistically impossible.
so, sirius is faced with.. a tricky situation, because he walks into the room, and remus is on his knees saying that the stash of weapons is gone, and like. well. if he says, now, oh, i can smell dorcas and it’s weird and a bit stronger and might be recent, … that’s gonna make remus SPIRAL!!!!! SO bad!!! when there’s like, such a minor — in sirius’s eye, impossible — chance that she’s alive! when there’s so many options that are statistically SO much more likely to explain it (eg: dorcas is the last person who stayed in the room, so her scent lingered). remus will LOSE it.
so like. it’s understandable why he doesn’t say anything. at the end of the day, dorcas being alive is so statistically unlikely that it’s fair enough that none of them really even consider the possibility. really, he dismisses it almost as quickly as he thinks it/smells her. if he was to tell remus — especially because he is the person remus trusts most, the person he would follow to the end of the earth — it would literally just set him back a whole month of mourning. it’s frustrating that they’re so close, but. mmm
and yes, i suppose this is me confirming that dorcas has been in the house. you’d find out soon, anyway, and it’s not really a secret when you already know she’s alive & i’m actively trying to hint towards it and it’s not subtle LMFKSKDN
Please indulge me while I rant into the void of your inbox.
There’s this one canon M/F ship in my fandom that’s been unquestioned and absolutely untouchable for like 15 years. Recently people started shipping M with another dude, and while it started out as a crackship it’s gotten to the point of popularity that it’s become almost impossible to find new M/F fanworks anymore. And while I’m always here for queer rep, there’s already a behemoth M/M ship in the fandom with two other guys, and the aforementioned M/F is so wildly good while he never actually interacts with this other dude in canon and if he did, it’d probably be awkward and toxic as fuck. Idk, it just smacks of unaware Gen-Z misogyny in the same way that teens are trying to subtly reinvent the Hayes Code.
I am a sucker for fics where everyone thinks Sirius is this massive player who sleeps around all the time, but in reality he’s Demisexual and a virgin, because he’s only ever wanted Remus, but he’s insecure about it because this reputation got away from him
can’t believe i’ve seen enough posts on my timeline today to have to make my biannual reminder that
commercially printing fanfiction (through sites like lulu) is illegal
and that
doing so puts the fanfiction authors/readers at risk
because one of the main reasons fanfiction is legal in the first place is that it’s not produced for a profit and therefore not competing with the original source material in the market.
reblogging this to highlight the below bit again because apparently biannual reminders aren’t enough!
“…one of the main reasons fanfiction is legal in the first place is that it’s not produced for a profit…”
If you need further proof of this, there’s plenty of research to be found with a quick google search on the matter, but suffice it to say that the monetization of fanfiction puts all fanfiction authors at risk.
For all of the Neil Gaimans in the world who support their fans writing it, there are still plenty of creators who aren’t afraid of suing fanfiction authors for their writings or making their lives difficult because of their disdain for it.
The value in fanfiction has never been in financial gain—it’s in the progressive nature of it! the representation! the nuance of emotions! the study of human nature! the way it brings together communities of people who might have never interacted otherwise!
There are plenty of reasons fanfiction is inherently valuable to people that have nothing to do with money, so please don’t bring financial compensation for writing fics/professional book binding (*ATYD, I’m looking at you*) into the equation when they only serve to put the entire community at risk.
ok so thanks to this lovely anonymous message i've been motivated to organize my thoughts on the increasingly common phenomenon of fanfic writers treating their own fics like Content for consumption, the way an influencer on social media might (all of this is in the context of the marauders fandom specifically -- no idea how or whether it might apply elsewhere)
what i mean by that is, essentially, instances of fanfic writers playing into the idea that fanfiction is a product created for the consumption of readers (and thereby the idea that fandom is a community that can be clearly divided between "producers"/writers and "consumers"/readers).
some examples i've seen: people "advertising" their fics on platforms like tiktok, sometimes even before they've started writing said fic ("hey guys i'm going to start writing a fic with x y z who's interested??"), or making posts asking outright "if i wrote a fic with x y z would people read it??" i've also seen people share concerns that if they write a certain thing they want to write (i.e, heavy smut, heavy angst, etc) then it will make their fic less "accessible" to a broader audience ("i want everyone to be able to enjoy my fics!")
another recent example that comes to mind is the "jegulus strike." while i'm sure it was largely well-intentioned, a strike is a form of protest tied inextricably to a consumer economy, and positioning writers as laborers who are standing in opposition to readers demanding that labor reinforces the framework of a consumer economy in which fanfiction is a product for consumption.
something i want to make clear here--i'm not saying that any of these behaviors are like....Moral Failings deserving of Ridicule. i think we are all very much conditioned by late-stage capitalism + algorithmic social media to view everything, even our hobbies, within the framework of a consumer economy. this is just me observing some of the ways i see that mindset creeping into fandom spaces.
like. i think there's this unspoken assumption that art is only worthwhile if it has an audience; that creative pursuits only matter if you can profit from them. if people are applying this mindset to fanfiction, then it makes sense to see this impulse to advertise fics the way authors advertise their books on tiktok, or twitter, or whatever. it makes sense for writers to become preoccupied with audience perception, perhaps changing their stories to make them more palatable for a certain audience or even going into the writing process with the audience already in mind--an overhanging and ever-present anxiety, asking yourself "how will this be received?"
the problem is that fanfiction doesn't fit into this model. it has always been meant for a niche audience, never the mainstream, and it has always existed outside the profit economy. trying to turn fanfiction into broadly consumable content is antithetical to the medium itself, and, in all likelihood, will fail. the vast majority of fanfiction is never going to be read by hundreds of thousands of people. if you go into writing it with an audience as your end goal, you will likely be disappointed.
what makes fanfiction so wonderful and unique is that it is meant to be written, first and foremost, for the writer. fanfiction as a medium grew out of personal joy in creation, out of individuals who thought "I want to see this story for myself" and then wrote it. because fanfiction is specific, catered to individual tastes and niche audiences, it lends itself to a unique sort of community in which your work attracts other people with that same niche taste, making it easier to strike up a conversation or start a friendship by saying, "hey, i love this story you wrote for yourself! it just so happens to be the exact sort of thing i wanted to read."
so i guess at the end of the day, my question for other fic writers is: if nobody was ever going to read this, would you still want to write it?
and if the answer is no...i think that's something that calls for reflection! where is your motivation rooted? is it rooted in a desire to create, in the joy of creation? or is it rooted in a desire to be seen, to be validated? wanting to be seen and validated is entirely natural, and it is by no means a bad thing. oftentimes, both these impulses--creation and validation--will be part of the decision to write + post a fic. but if validation is your primary motivation, and if you have internalized the idea that validation means getting as many people as possible to look at the thing you're making and click a heart button, then you will probably end up disappointed. you will probably end up feeling like your writing isn't good enough, no matter how many people end up reading it--because no audience will ever be big enough to validate you if you aren't able to take pride in your creation independent of any metrics of consumption.
i'm not saying that you should never share your fics on social media. like i mentioned above, community is one of the best parts of fanfiction--but are you posting in search of community? or are you posting in search of an audience? i know the line can get blurry sometimes, but i do think those two things look different, and i do think it is productive to look inwards and ask what you are truly seeking when you throw your writing into the void of social media posts. and i think as writers it's important not to fall into the trap of acting like our fics are a product intended for audience consumption, because to do so contributes to the deterioration of a fandom culture that is separate from the profit economy. plus, i just think all of us would be happier if we started trying to actively unlearn the idea that art is only worthwhile if it manages to amass a huge audience.
so i'm writing a drarry fic because i've read almost all of them and i wanted one that's Mine but if i dont post about it i'll never actually finish it so. drarry. im doing it. bug me about it. here's a lil spoiler from the first chapter (which i have not finished writing but it looks like it’s gonna be about 10k words rn)
dededos
baratheonpilled
jacobvanloon
jbbartram-illu
kaledo-art
discoholicmusic
