Stories in the Dark

Just call me M. Stories written under the cover of darkness. Current Fandoms: SHINee, EXO, Yuri!!! On Ice, Hockey  Caution: Fandoms can change and vary at any moment and without warning.

[laylainalaska]

Let’s hear it for lurkers

So apparently round umpty-zillion of “people are killing fandom by not commenting” is going around, and I’ve seen a few posts trashing people for lurking/viewing/reading instead of actively participating.

My journal and my fic has always been a lurker-friendly zone. I think lurkers are great and people can fight me on this. Here’s why:

We all started out as lurkers. Or at least most of us did. Come on. I’m sure some people out there must’ve jumped into fandom with both feet and started writing and commenting right away, and good for you if you did! But I sure didn’t. I lurked for YEARS. And even now, though I’ve been in fandom since before Y2K, whenever I get into a new fandom or a new social media platform, I still lurk. I hang out around the fringes for awhile to get a feeling for the place before starting to participate. Back in the mailing list/bulletin board days, it was usually recommended that people do that on purpose, watch and listen and learn the local lingo and social rules before diving in. So you know what? You are not doing anything wrong and you are not doing anything that most of the people you see out there commenting and creating and reccing things haven’t done themselves.

We all have lurker days, weeks, months …. Nobody is 100% “on” all the time. Participating in fandom (commenting, reccing, creating content, and so forth) is WORK. It may be fun work, but it still takes effort! Even if you’re sometimes very active in fandom, then you’ll have life fall on your head or the brain weasels flare up, and you won’t have the time and energy to give. Don’t feel guilty about not being able to give fandom your extra spoons. No one in fandom has a right to demand a single spoon from you that you don’t want to give.

Some of today’s lurkers may be your friends tomorrow. How do I know this? Because I’ve made friends with some of them myself! I’ve had people delurk in my comments to say hi after YEARS of reading my fanfic without saying a word. Which I am totally okay with, by the way. And some of these people are good friends today.

So, in conclusion:

It is okay to feel too shy to come out of lurkerhood in fandom until you feel more comfortable there. It is fine, in fact, if you never do.

It is okay to be too busy and have too few spoons to comment or create stuff. You still have a perfect right to be in fandom and read and reblog whatever you want.

It is okay if you meant to comment on that fic or go back and press the kudos button but never got around to it.

It is okay if you have too many accounts already and don’t want to create a new one just to comment/participate on a social media platform. 

It is okay if your personal situation (a stalker ex, controlling parents) makes it unsafe for you to create an account or comment on things.

It is okay if you can’t or don’t want to comment or do any of the other things that constitute non-lurkerhood, and you don’t owe anyone an explanation for why.

IT IS OKAY TO BE A LURKER.

[justabunchofpostsilike]

getting rid of all your ao3 tabs by marking them for later as if this accomplishes something and doesn’t just shift the procrastination problem out of view and make it easier to open more ao3 tabs that will then also be marked for later to make room for more tabs

[ikarus-the-phoenix]

Reblog if you didn’t write My Immortal

We’re going to find the author by process of elimination.

[reiding-and-writing]

Reblog if you're a fanfic writer and you wanna know what your followers' favorite story of yours is ❤

[mithrel]

Ooh me, me!

[longlivefeedback]

hi! i like fanfiction,net, because i can comment anonymously, but i prefer fics on ao3 usually. but, i'm too nervous to give away my email address all willy-nilly to be able to comment on ao3. are there any alternatives i can use to support ao3 authors more in-depth?

Hi Anon,

You can comment anonymously on AO3 as stated in their FAQ:

By default, you can comment anonymously on any work in the Archive; however, the work creator can also disable this function if they choose. To learn how to disable anonymous commenting, refer to Can I disable anonymous comments on my works?

Anonymous comments require you to provide a name and a valid email address. The name will be displayed, but the email address will not. You will receive any comment replies at the email address you provided.

If you try to comment on a work without an account or by logging out of your account, you’ll see this note at the top of the comment box:

The way I understand it, the AO3 system will store the email you input in order to notify you if/when you receive replies to your comment. To my knowledge, other users will not be able to view your email address.

However, to get around email addresses altogether and answer your question about alternative ways to support AO3 authors, here’re some suggestions!

Leave a kudos. Quick and as easy as clicking a button, it’s AO3′s version of a like ❤️ or thumbs up 👍

Interact with an author on other platforms. Authors are often on twitter/tumblr/pillowfort/etc. Sometimes these are linked at the beginning/end of the fic in the author notes. If not, check out their AO3 profile pages. There may be more information about the author there.

Share the work. Reblog/retweet an author’s work on tumblr/twitter. If you can find the author on those platforms, chances are that they’ve posted about their works and would love a reblog/retweet to help spread the word about your new favourite fic!

Make a Rec List. This has the advantage of promoting several works at once. Write a quick summary. Say what you loved about this fic and why people should check it out. Spread the word and share the love!

Review the work on other platform. Another way to show support and love is to basically comment or review the fic you’ve just read on your personal blog. Letting your followers know about the cool fic you’ve just read can help drive more readers to an author’s work. Don’t forget to link the work and/or tag the author!

Make something for the fic. Probably one of the best ways to show the author you love their work. Heck, what’s better than producing something that inspires others?? It doesn’t have to be art -- playlists, mood boards, meta analyses... High chance that the author will be floored and love them all.

Talk about the fic! Don’t discount the power of word of mouth. Tell your friends and mutuals about the fics. Post about the fics you’re reading so that your followers can check them out and scream with you about them. Some things are best shared and fics are one of them.

Hope this gives you some ideas, Anon! Remember to check out the notes to see if anyone has any more ideas that you may like to do!

[cookiedoughmeagain]

I'm fairly sure you don't even have to enter a real email address if you don't want to - just something that looks like one. It would just mean you won't get notified about any replies.

[coaldustcanary]

Not to pick on this reply, but speaking as a Support volunteer, please do not do this. Create a fandom email if you must, but if you enter "randomword"@gmail.com as some folks do as a "fake" email address it is extremely likely that you have entered someone's actual email address. And when that actual person receives notification of replies to that comment, they are often very upset.

Please just create burner email addresses. You don't even have to check them, but do not use random strings of characters, and definitely don't do "shipname"@"actual email provider". That is almost certainly a real person's email!

[ao3org]

Reblogging for the helpful tips on how to show your appreciation to fanwork creators and also the gentle pleading from our Support team not to use made-up email addresses for your comments. It creates all sorts of problems!

[piano-fire420]

Okay so it turns out making other people suffer through the medium of fanfiction is really fun, and I'm gonna do it more often now.

[thetaoofbetty]

very sexy indeed

[themissingmarvel]

Hard same.

[jonswno]

a hard pill to swallow: if an audience can pick up on where the story is going, it’s a good story.

[bumblebeebats]

A kinda related note i hope you don’t mind me adding on: one of the most life-changing bits of story advice i ever received was actually in a class on “Revenge and Vengeance in the Ancient World,” if you can believe it. The professor was talking about how everyone in ancient Greece knew all the Greek myths back to front and told them over and over again - and someone asked why they would keep retelling the same stories if they already knew they ended.

She explained that basically it wasn’t the ending that was the most suspenseful or exciting part, but how you got there. This is why The Iliad spoils its own ending in the opening lines. This is why we have so many different retellings of Shakespeare, of Arthurian legends, of fairy tales. 

There are no truly original stories or truly unpredictable endings. So, IMO, it’s better to focus on how you as a writer/filmmaker/artist/whatever can bring something new to the body of the story rather than trying to shock and mislead your audience. 

[somehockeyfics]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Fic gift for @storiesinthedark for @hockeynetwork ‘s summer fic exchange! 

Sorry this is getting posted late, internet problems. But I hope you like it! :D 

Pairing: Nicky/Ovi

[storiesinthedark]

A fic! For me! Thank you!!

[storiesinthedark]

please tell me you've seen the photo from that same worlds of nate watching mitch get a beer poured on his head, heart eyes, fond smile, and all

Oh. Oh yes. I have indeed! It is a glorious photo. 

[storiesinthedark]

nate/mitch is such an underrated pairing, oml, he wanted to bring him to colorado! thank you for giving me more of it

You are so welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun writing it. I love those two and writing them together was a good time.

Whole story is literally based around this quote Nate apparently gave about Mitch. I just couldn’t NOT write something based on this. 

"We’ve grown pretty close since the tournament started. I didn’t know what to expect. He kind of looks like a little nerdy kid, but he’s not at all. He’s got a lot of swag and confidence. He’s unbeleivable. He’s going to be one of the best passers in the game for a long time. I didn’t know how good he was until playing with him here. He’s going to be a great, great playmaker for a long time. It’s a treat. I wish I could take him to Denver with me. I think carry-on would work."

Like this was just waiting for me. 

[storiesinthedark]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Fandom: Hockey RPF 

Summary: What the fuck happened last night?

The last time Nate had been in his bed was three years ago. They had just won silver together at the IIHF Championships in Germany and it hadn't ended quite as Mitch had planned.

He reaches over to the nightstand where he always keeps his phone, intending on checking the time, when he notices the body lying next to him. Mitch freezes. No really. WHAT the FUCK happened last night?

Pairing: Nathan MacKinnon/Mitch Marner

Rating: Explicit

Genre: Smut/PWP

Word Count: 3,398

Warnings: Drunk Consensual Sex, One Night Stands, Porn With the Barest Hint of Plot, 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships, 2019-2020 NHL Season, Flashback, Anal Sex

Notes: Written to @barrettshayton for the @hockeynetwork summer fic exchange. I hope you enjoy what I’ve manage to concoct from one quote to media one time three years ago!

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

To all of you fic authors out there. Happy Fic Authors Appreciation Day. Thank you for everything!

[storiesinthedark]

Yes! Today is Thirsty Thursday! Feel free to send me some prompts and pairs and I’ll see what I can spin up!

[petals42]

i don’t know if it’s just my dash today, but i’m seeing a lot of people who are thinking about writing or who WANT to write but are nervous about how good it will turn out and/or its reception by the fandom and i know i’m not as active on here as i used to be, but i just wanted to tell everyone this simple fact:

I have never regretted any stories I have ever written down.

I mean obviously you don’t regret the fics that do well, that people like, but please believe me when I say that I can go back and get the same sense of joy, of satisfaction, of damn fandom should have appreciated this more for fics that only ever got 150 notes. I certainly do not regret writing them.

I wrote a novel a few years ago that took months of my life, only for me to re-read it at the end and think “you know, this isn’t actually that good.” but never for a second do I regret having written it. (And really, I should go back and give it another try at some point, I was probably being too hard on myself).

I do not regret the MULTITUDES of fics that are sitting in my google drive, abandoned because I decided they weren’t quite good enough to post or because I lost steam halfway through. I still do not regret them. I like re-reading them periodically.

I do not regret the fics I wrote when I was like 14 or 15 (for context, im 30 now). Looking back, I can no longer say they are my best work, but I can see the seeds of the writer I would become. And, though the form and style are simplistic (compared to what I can do now), the story is still exactly what I wanted it to be. 

I recently cleaned out my childhood bedroom and found notebooks and notebooks filled with fantasy stories I wrote when I was in middle school. And, you know what, I sat and skimmed through them and in reading some of them, memories of what was going to happen came back and god, they were terrible, so bad, so many spelling errors, the most flat, stereotypical characters, but I do not regret them. I am slightly embarrassed by them, I would not let others read them, but I sat there reading with a smile on my face because I wrote them down and they are my stories. 

All this to say, honestly, you will not regret writing your stories.

But you know what I do regret? I regret all the stories I never wrote down. I regret that feeling when I know I had an idea and I daydreamed it for months and I just never bothered to write it down. I regret a half-finished WIP where I know I knew the ending but just didn’t get to it. I regret, now, looking back at this past year and know that I fell off writing a little bit. I regret not writing more. Because I love writing. And more importantly, I freaking love reading what I wrote. 

I love when all the characters act exactly as you want them to act and the story goes where you want it to go and I love when you’ve actually forgotten a line or a scene and you go back and you’re like “DAMN THATS GOOD” and even if it’s not good, if it’s the story you wrote when you were 7 about three dogs named Freddie, Teddie, and Eddie who fought a villain whose name was LITERALLY Mr. Mean, you will still love it. 

So, please, PLEASE: Write your story.

I promise you will not regret it.

[writing-and-nutmeg]

I was shocked when I realized this 😳

[concerningwolves]

Gotta learn to love (or at least enjoy) every aspect of a craft before you can grow and improve!!