#;mod talk

[imagineclaireandjamie]

I would love to see some of your original posts - what was the first ever post/story? What did the first week/month look like?

Imagine Claire & Jamie was born on June 26, 2015. So we’ve been around for a while!

The first story we ever posted is this ficlet, responding to the prompt “Imagine Claire helping Jamie with his stiff hand.”

For the first few months, Imagine actually posted two ficlets a day. Stories were quite short back then, and there were only 2 Mods (Eli and Katy) to keep up with it all. Also, since Eli and Katy were into roleplay, quite a few early posts gave tips and advice on how to do that.

Mod Gotham @gotham-ruaidh joined in September 2015, together with Emeritus Mod Wheel @asthewheelwills. Following that, Mod Eloise @dingbatland joined in October 2015 and Mod Liv @westerhos joined in December 2015. Mod Lenny @lenny9987 and Mod WTT @writtenthroughtime both came on board in March 2016, Mod MBD @mybeautifuldecay and Mod Bonnie @bonnie-wee-swordsman joined in July 2016, and last (but certainly not least) Mod Katy @missclairebelle joined in March 2018.

We’ve been around for a while, anon - but we’re still full of energy and ideas!

[imagineclaireandjamie]

I Love You, I Love You, I Love You, but I feel like you're avoiding writing fics lately. Once there is a new request, you refer us to a similar one??? Or do I imagine it?

Hi there Anon.

It isn’t a matter of avoiding writing. It’s a matter of finding time. In the last few years, all of us mods have gotten busier in our offline lives—and that’s largely been down to positive changes in all our lives. 

Imagine is a blog that is constantly evolving. In the early days, the fics were (on the whole) much shorter, so it was easier to stuff the queue. We’ve tackled an increasing number of multi-installment fics, which means we’re never at a loss for prompts (and have had to close the inbox on a number of occasions to keep from being overwhelmed and getting lost in the drafts). 

Fanfiction in the fandom has also grown tremendously since Imagine’s first days. Part of why we’re referring to other writers’ works more or to similar works in our own archives is because of that. We don’t want to rewrite what we feel has already been written or feel like we’re stepping on other writers’ toes by tackling something so similar to their own premise. And as one of the older fanfic blogs with a significant following, we like the opportunity of exposing our readers to writers they might otherwise miss. 

So yes, you are imagining that we’re avoiding responding to prompts and writing fics, but no you’re not imagining that Imagine, as a blog, is running a little differently than it was even a year ago. We love our readers and are trying to deliver the best fanfic experience we can give them (while taking care of ourselves and trying to be aware of the larger fanfic community as well). 

We thank you for your patience and for the love and support of all our readers. 

~ The Mods

[imagineclaireandjamie]

How do you decide who writes what? What if more than one person wants to write a fic answering a prompt?

Hi anon,

Generally, when we receive an ask in our inbox, each of us is able to “claim” it. Sometimes this is obvious - like when a request comes in for a specific ongoing story. Sometimes this is less obvious - individual Mods will “claim” a prompt (but discuss among ourselves first to double check that nobody else wants to “claim” the prompt), or we’ll discuss it among ourselves to see if anyone has any interest in the prompt.

In rare cases, we’ll delete a prompt outright (i.e., if it’s abusive towards one of us (which sadly happens sometimes), or if it’s just patently ridiculous, or if it’s not something that directly involves Claire and/or Jamie).

If more than one person has interest (which is fairly rare), those Mods will discuss it among themselves. Sometimes we’ll find a similar unanswered prompt waaaay down in our drafts folder - and sometimes both Mods will end up writing their own version of the prompt.

In summary, we have a pretty good system that we’ve built up over the years, and only very rarely do we disagree about something. At the end of the day, we’re all here to have fun, and to share our joy of Outlander with you - and that underpins everything that we do.

Thanks for the question, anon!

Love,

The Mods

[imagineclaireandjamie]

We’ve Reopened Our Inbox!

Thank you for your patience while we’ve taken care of some housecleaning. 

We look forward to more of your prompts. 

~ The Mods

[imagineclaireandjamie]

I love all you Outlander fanfic authors with a passion, but for the love of God please “under the cut” !!! Please please please !!! So. Much. Scrolling.From.Reblogs.

Hello Anon.

As we have stated several times before, we leave the decision to use those cuts up to the mod writing the piece. Those cuts don’t always work for readers on mobile devices so we’ve had folks reach out to us in the past asking us not to use them so they’re still able to access the fics we post. There is no way to please everyone so we do what we feel is right for the fic. 

~ The Mods

[imagineclaireandjamie]

Hiya. Could you please use the 'keep reading' cut on your stories? Thank you!

Hello Anon,

At Imagine, we leave that decision up to the individual writers’ discretion. While we always take suggestions like this into consideration, there is simply no one solution that works for everyone. We’ve received messages in the past specifically asking not to use “Keep Reading” breaks because they don’t always work on the mobile app. 

If you use XKit, there are options in that extension that allow you to shorten posts to make scrolling through easier, block reblogs of content you’ve already seen, and other options for improving your Tumblr experience. 

We hope this information helps,

~ The Mods

[imagineclaireandjamie]

Just FYI. Not sure if just a tumblr glitch but it seems like the formatting in your posts has been funky lately. Missing a lot of spaces, words stuck together! All great stuff though!

Hey there anon,

We’ve noticed that, too. We are not aware of a workaround, but the good news is that the glitch appears to be limited to the mobile app. I guess it’s time to bug @staff!

With[space]love,

The Mods