a work in progress

Riverdale has taken over my life so I need to yell into the internet.

[lockoutkey]

i only know riverdale through the mutuals but this is what i’ve gotten

[doctorcurdlejr]

reggie mantle has just been saw trapped

[doctorcurdlejr]

get back to me when your show uses the power of the phoenix to raise the dead

[northern-serpent]

I'm getting married!!!!!

[ao3commentoftheday]

Somewhere in my notes in the last few days I saw someone add some tags that I’ve been thinking about ever since. I wish I could find them again (or that I’d just saved their post at the time) because I think they made a lot of sense.

They were talking about how fanfic is becoming more and more mainstream while still remaining largely transgressive. It’s such an interesting dichotomy to think about!

On the one hand, you have sites like AO3 and realities like widespread high speed internet access being more and more accessible to larger and larger groups of people. This makes it incredibly easy for anyone at all to find and read fanfic.

On the other hand, you have the roots of fanfic. It was born out of marginalized groups such as women, people of colour, and members of the queer community deciding to take the stories that had been aimed at a largely male, white, heterosexual audience and inverting them into something they could enjoy and relate to. To this day, fanfic is a place where people write the kinds of stories that don’t get made into movies and TV shows. The kinds of stories that don’t get published or end up on the New York Times bestseller list.

Fanfic used to be written and shared in secret. People used to hide it. People still do hide the fact that they read or write it. But it’s becoming something that more and more people are becoming more and more aware of.

So now there’s a spotlight starting to shine on fanfic. People who aren’t looking for transgressive works are finding them where they always were. People who think the status quo is fine are getting upset when they enter a place where the status quo is constantly being upended.

The tags on that post that I can’t find made the point that popular media is curated and sanitized and stripped of most of its controversy in order to appeal to the widest possible audience. But that also makes that audience expect all media to be curated and sanitized in the same way. When they encounter the messy, controversial, ugly, radical, difficult things that people write in fanfic, they’re unprepared.

Fanfic isn’t big media. Fanfic authors aren’t being edited and filtered and polished - and nor are their works. The clash between the expectations of people new to fanfic and accustomed to popular media and the realities of what fanfic is and what it’s being written for - that’s part of this struggle that fandom is going through right now. It’s been going on since the beginning of course, but it’s getting louder every year.

I’m still thinking my way through this, but it really does make a lot of sense to me. If those were your tags, please let me know so I can credit you with the ideas at the core of this post.

And if you have any ideas for how we as fans can better introduce the newbies to the culture and expectations in fandom, I’d love to hear it. The better we can guide people into our space, the better they’ll fit in when they join it.

[sparkylurkdragon]

While I’m not entirely sure how, here are a few what ideas. If you’re coming into fanfic new, here is what you need to know. Perhaps other folks can think of more diplomatic ways to frame these thoughts.

Fandom has historically been dominated by the weird. Weird people, weird stories. That isn’t a bad thing. A lot of folks in fandom wear weird as a badge of honour, something we reclaimed from bullies and other abusers who slung the word and related ones at us. We are not normal and do not seek to be normal. If that idea bothers you, you are still welcome, but know that you are a guest. A lot of folks in fandom have been burned by aggressive normalcy, and start baring teeth when it intrudes into our spaces.

The author is dead. All this means is that the original canon author or authors can tell you their interpretation of the story, but they cannot control your own interpretations or imagination: their interpretation is no more or less important than anyone else’s. Something being noncompliant with canon does not make it badly-written.

Alternate universes exist. If someone wants to write characters from a serious crime drama in a sitcom, they are allowed to do that. If someone wants to explore what would happen if that horrific mass murderer was redeemed or never evil, they are allowed to do that. If someone just really likes dragons and wants to write about everyone being a dragon, they are allowed to do that.

If you write fanfic, you are also an author, so you are also dead. Once you release your ideas into the wild, other people can and will do weird things with them. The sooner you accept that, the better.

You will find porn of it if you go looking. If you don’t, some folks will take that as a challenge and go make some. As long as good-faith efforts are made to keep out people who shouldn’t or don’t want to see it, there is nothing wrong with this.

A canon being made for kids and teens does not mean that all sections of the fandom are for kids and teens. Adults can be into works for the younger set, and as long as there are clear boundaries between work that’s appropriate for kids and work that isn’t, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and absolutely nothing wrong with adult or dark works based on those stories.

Some people will really hate your favourite characters. Some people will think your favourite pairing is gross, or boring, or that the characters would be better off with someone else. Some people will think that show or game or book that got you through the roughest moments of your life is absolute trash. And that’s okay. Not everyone has to like your favourite things.

Someone writing dark stories about terrible things happening to your favourite characters, even dark stories that may mirror some trauma you’ve been through, are not writing about you. They’re not. It is none of your business why they’re writing it. Their only duty to you is to make sure you can avoid their work if you want to. Again, the sooner you accept this, the better off you’ll be.

It’s okay if you want to write something dark and depraved. Lots of people do, and if it’s weird, well, fandom has historically been dominated by the weird.

It’s okay if you want to write nothing but fluff.

It’s okay, no matter what you want to write.

Just be courteous and tag your work. Even if all you want to tag it with is “this may contain dark topics.”

Welcome.

[jemariel]

This feels related to a post I saw a while back about how so much of fandom is rooted in neuro divergence. The hyper fixation, the “squeeing”, the encyclopedic knowledge. And how, as fandom gets more and more mainstream, those hallmarks of being a Fan get tagged as *cringey*

Idk. Makes you think.

[olderthannetfic]

I love almost every point here, but if there’s one thing I would tell new fans, it’s this:

Most fanfic is straight.

These are the best hard numbers I have (with multi/other including all fics labeled as more than one of m/m, f/m, and f/f along with ones labeled as multi/other):

AO3 is the gay porn bookstore, so AO3 is the site that cares about:

Being free from corporate overlords

Not monetizing your data in creepy ways

Minute and detailed kink labeling

Protecting the freaky content

If you hate Bad Kinks, that’s fine. Just know that you will never get the kind of labeling AO3 has from the people who pander to the mainstream. If you want to get rid of The Bad Stuff, the kind of websites you’ll end up with are a sea of nigh unsearchable het, like Wattpad. And the same kinks will be there. They just won’t be labeled clearly.

People imagine that fandom is mostly queer because their own bubble is, because queer stuff sticks in their mind more as anomalous, making it seem more frequent than it really is, and because the only places that label clearly are the queer ones.

If you want to tear down the places with queer+freaky content, you will end up tearing down the only places that protect queer content at all.

[aanau]

the mitchells vs the machines really said “family relationships are still relationships and they require effort to maintain from all involved” rather than “stick by family no matter what” and said “technology has opened doors for communication, creativity, and knowledge, but corporations abuse the power technology gives them” rather than “technology bad and evil” and it’s very transparent with these distinctions between morals and that’s extremely refreshing

[lolawashere-deactivated20240904]

[dechart]

@jared-wormsboy i am crying uncontrollably

[t-i-g-g-s]

I reference this in conversation sometimes assuming everyone knows about the Owl Attack Sex Playlist and i look fucking unhinged

[whisperhug]

[theavengers]

The Big Three. Androids, aliens and wizards. Everytime we fight, we fight one of the “Three”.

[faggotri]

honestly the best thing i’ve done in the past year was replacing “i wanna die” with “i wanna commit a crime.” same humor and sentiment without the suicidal ideation

[faggotri]

thank you SO much for this tag

[northern-serpent]

oh no i redownloaded the tumblr app and i’m getting sucked in again

[nisaexploresadhd]

adhd is: well ive done 75% of this ive lost interest now

[falices]

#soulmates #actual soulmates

[northern-serpent]

5 Thoughts on Riverdale’s Time Skip

Hi friends! After FINALLY catching up with Season 4, and the start of Season 5, I have MANY feelings that I need to get out. I’m sure that I’ll have many metas coming your way, but for now I’m going to focus on the the time skip!

1. The Seven Years

Full disclosure: normally I loathe timeskips. I find them to be a lazy way of introducing intrigue into a series that has already had most of their plotlines resolved. For example, Desperate Housewives did a 5 year timeskip, and the bulk of the intrigue can be boiled down to filling in the gaps of what happened in between. It’s an easy way to sprinkle vague noodle incidents and flashbacks... and to kickstart new relationship dynamics. (e.g., what happened that they’re no longer friends? Why are these two divorced now? Who’s the FATHER??”

Riverdale avoids many of these pitfalls given the characters’ ages and that they all went their separate ways after high school. They drifted apart, but there was never a huge blowout that decimated the friend group. Life just happened... and that’s exactly what happens. They don’t have any ill will towards one another... it’s just different. Some people stay close, other don’t... and sometimes people develop new relationships with people you barely talked to previously. And that’s exactly what happens IRL. 

Having the time skip be seven years seemed random to me, but now that I watched the show, I can see why they chose that amount of time. Seven years not only allows them to skip over the college years (which makes sense because the main characters were away from the eponymous Riverdale), but it also allows the characters to have a taste of their career goals without pigeonholding them. In my experience, many of my peers pivoted their goals within the first few years after graduating because they realized that their chosen industry wasn’t what they had been expecting. Or they realized that they had different goals... tbh several of my friends moved back to their towns after graduating because they decided they didn’t want that big city life anymore. 

2. The actors are age appropriate!!! YAY! 

Now the steamy scenes are not as uncomfortable since they’re not portraying underage characters!

3. Toni is finally shining

It’s great to see Vanessa Morgan getting more meaningful screen time! Social work is such a great choice for Toni’s character - and way to finally let her be Serpent Queen!

4. Jughead’s financial issues... it tracks

Idk what the rest of the discourse is on Jughead’s financial issues, but to me they make total sense. He grew up in poverty, surrounded by adults with poor spending habits. His family never had a steady income flow, but when his parents had money, they have been shown to spend it right away - Gladys bought the Cooper house in cash ffs. 

Jughead’s chosen profession is not one that allows for financial stability. As a writer, Jughead will have periods where he is making a lot, but he will also have periods when he is not... it’s important to plan for the latter. Sure, he’ll get royalties, but it won’t support him if he’s not smart about budgeting, and we’ve already seen that he spent all of his book earnings already. 

5. The Blossom Curse

Yes, it would have been nice to have Cheryl leave Riverdale behind, yes it would have been nice if Choni still sailed... but I’m actually okay with where the writers are taking this. I don’t think that Choni is sunk - just docked for now. 

I’m very interested to see where this storyline goes. It caught me completely off guard in the best way... besides, I always love watching Madelaine Petsch ham it up!

[northern-serpent]

Hi Followers!

I’m alive! I’ve actually been doing pretty well, all things considered. 2020 was a garbage year for the world, but it was pretty good to me on a personal growth kind of way. 

But because I’ve been working from home and doing school online, more screentime is the the last thing I want when I have time to myself. 

I’ve been slowly rewatching Riverdale, hoping that I might be able to get back to writing. I have notes scribbled in notebooks, and maybe one day they’ll make it on the screen. 

I miss this site.

Stay safe everyone!

[geekgirles]

When you find a fanfic writer you like:

[northern-serpent]

WIP Title Game

WIP TITLE GAME

rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and i’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!

tagged by @actuallylorelaigilmore

tagging @samantha-167 @thestagthatlovedthewolf

Sooo I haven’t actually written anything in almost a year. Most of my WIPs were less than 500 words, and many were re-worked into larger works (e.g., Elope, Seasons). 

In order of Most Recently Modified:

Hal/Penelope Masked Vigilante AU - my first foray outside of Falice. I started this 2 years ago, but then Penelope killed Hal, thus sinking this ship forever. 

Inked - Chapter 4

All Star - one day I’ll finish this. I have 14 chapters planned...I really shouldn’t have posted it without it being complete. 

Twist 4 - Gonna find out what FP’s been up to. 

Meddle

Amnesia AU

The Countdown - this one features Falice on New Years Eve, but it was reworked into Seasons.

Untitled Document - this one features a fight between Polly and Alice... I actually edited it and put in All Star. 

Crappy Song Lyrics - Also went into All Star

Pregnancy Canon Divergence - yeah, I’ll get around to this one. 

Parentdale Crack Ship Brainstorming - omg, @actuallylorelaigilmore remember this? REMEMBER WHEN WE SHIPPED GLADYS AND CLIFFORD??? 

Water - oh yeahhh... I forgot that I started brainstorming a Parendale/Avatar the Last Airbender fic. Alice was a water bender, FP was a an earthbender, Hiram was a firebender, and Hermione and Fred were airbenders. If anybody wants to take this idea and run with it, please please let me know so I can read it!

Funeral, Smut Rough - this was reworked into Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, which I co-wrote with @actuallylorelaigilmore.

Well this was fun. I really miss writing... maybe I’ll be able to sit down and play with these stories again soon!