#dcsays

[dictacontrion]

On Reccing

Today marks seven straight years of daily fic recs. That’s an entire Hogwarts education. That’s 2,559 daily recs, from 878 fics, plus non-quote recs. 

On this occasion, some thoughts on reccing.

Reccing is a form of squee. Reccing is the act of running onto the internet and going “OMG have you seen this fic?????” Reccing is jumping up and down with excitement, but with words. Reccing is sharing something you love with other people, so they can love it too. Reccing is a joyful thing to do.

Reccing can be easy. It can feel, sometimes, like it’s impossible to find the words for something you love, something that’s moved you. If you’ve left a comment it’s already there, just a matter of editing or copying and pasting. If you say something simple - “this was great!” or “really enjoyed this!” - then you’ve written a rec. If you don’t have the words, you can select a quote or reblog the author’s post or include it in a rec list of fics you’ve enjoyed and use the author’s summary. And remember: we all speak keyboard smash. We all know the feeling that creates keyboard smash. That alone is rec enough.

Reccing people you don’t know is fun. I’ve seen this debate so many times in the last seven years – do people have an obligation to rec authors they don’t know, is it wrong to only rec your friends? Let me render that irrelevant: reccing people you don’t know is fun. Exciting and enjoyable. It is something that makes fandom communities stronger. It is something that makes someone else’s day. It is a way to meet new people, to build wider networks, to encourage new writers to come forward, to support writers and readers alike. Of course I love my friends’ work too – after all, I met a lot of them through reccing! – but reccing strangers doesn’t cancel that out. It builds on that. It expands our circles. It expands the joy of this.

Reccing fic and authors no one’s ever heard of is really fun. I will admit, there may have been times when I’ve recced a little-known story I’ve found on an ancient rec list or in the depths of the AO3 tags and then gone back the next day or two or three and checked its kudos count. Seeing it go up and up – and knowing, as an author who was once a total unknown, how that feels, what it’s like to have readers see and enjoy work that you thought was languishing unnoticed – is thrilling. It makes my heart so full. Especially (though not only) when then there’s another story sometime after, and there are more readers for that one, and I can think maybe, in this small way, I’ve encouraged a writer to stay and keep trying and keep writing wonderful stories.

Reading beyond your usual makes fandom more interesting. The best-known writers in this fandom have written so much excellent work that anyone could stay busy reading just that for years, and you can always revisit your faves. Going deeper is incredibly rewarding, though. You experience new perspectives, read about new headcanons, experience the characters differently, find new angles on classic tropes. Reading more voices and new voices keeps the fandom experience fresh and exciting. And you very well might discover your new faves; quite a few of mine hadn’t even started writing when I first started reading.

Reccing with a voice is good. It’s not about the fics that are “good.” It’s about the fics you think are good, the fics you love, the fics that you keep thinking about, the fics that made you scream into your pillow and stay up all night reading. Your voice, your perspective is what makes for good recs and good rec lists.

Reccing is fandom history. When I first started reading Harry Potter fic, I tore through @pir8fancier’s rec list. I read every single thing on it. I discovered fic and authors I never would have found otherwise. Then I went through @capiturecs’ archive and did the same. And the same again, with other reccers. This is how we learn about our fannish roots. This is how we learn how fandom used to be and how it changed. (Remember when Draco was always barefoot? Remember when Draco only wore blue sweaters? Remember when Blaise was Italian and a girl?) This is how we keep stories alive.

Reccing has made my fandom experience so, so much richer than it would have been otherwise. It’s given me a community to squee with, the chance to encourage writers, the motivation to keep trying new things. So if I have a best last rec in this series to give, it’s this: I recommend reccing. 20/10, would do again.

[dictacontrion]

how have your feelings about drarry changed over the time you've been in fandom?

Massively. And not at all. 

Massively: There have been times - particularly after the 2016 US election/during the international resurgency of white supremacy - when I’ve really wrestled with myself over whether I can stomach it. I don’t want to/am not making claims about whether or not a ship is right or wrong and don’t have any interest in thinking in those terms. But for me, in the last few years, I’ve found it difficult to read fic that involves Draco Malfoy being easily redeemed, or his misdeeds being shunted to the side or glossed over. It’s too close to IRL scenarios that fill me with a lot of fear and dread and anger. 

But before I wrote H/D or shipped H/D, it was my notp. The thing that convinced me to give it a shot were a few stories by a few exceptionally good writers who really took Draco’s misdeeds and supremacist beliefs seriously. So:

Not at all: The fic I most love and treasure and value and can read forever and am very, very interested in is fic that takes Draco’s misdeeds seriously. That asks really (to my mind) interesting, sometimes profound, questions about what it means to hold and act on truly bigoted beliefs. Is that something that you could come back from? Can you change in ways that involve moving away from that? What would it take? How do we understand desire across ideological lines? How do we understand connection in the wake of a war? Those are stories and ideas that I find truly, truly fascinating, that I still want to read and think about. 

This is all complicated by my familiarity with this ship. I’ve written before about the peculiar way that fanon works - the way it builds on itself, and often creates mythologies and shorthands, such that fics that answer those questions do a lot of work for fics that don’t engage them at all. Which makes fic a different sort of reading/writing/thinking than anything else. So, have I enjoyed fic that glosses those questions? Yes, in part because I’m reading those characters - that Draco, especially - as a character who’s gone through the process of apology/work/etc. as I’ve read it in other fics. I’m still not sure how to square that with my continuing discomfort with fic that ignores Draco’s past altogether. Largely, I find that I don’t have to try to hard - that when I come across fic by writers who never think those things through, it shows, and those are fics I don’t get into and that I often find fairly uncomfortable to read, whereas authors who are thoughtful and intentional about the depth and significance reflect that in PWPs and curtain fic and etc. But that doesn’t remove the questions, or the doubts I have, or my unease. Which is there, and which comes up when I go looking for fic, and is a massive part of why I haven’t written much or read nearly as much since the 2016 U.S. election.

So I guess, idk. My views about the ship haven’t changed very much, but the world has, and fandom has, and my comfort with the ship, in a changed world and changed fandom context, is different than it once was. I’m not entirely sure what to do with that, especially since there’s some seed of spark and interest there, there are still stories I want to read and write, and it still is, in some sense, a place of comfort and creativity and community. But the ways in which it’s a place of avoidance and denial and privilege are more apparent to me than they’ve ever been, too, and my patience with complicity in that is limited. (I also get that for some people the need for a place of comfort and avoidance is greater than it’s ever been. But otoh, while for some people that’s a safe harbor from marginalization and pain, for others it’s a harbor from having to unbury their heads from the sand, and there’s no knowing who is using it to recover from the harms of the real world, and who’s using it to avoid acknowledging the harms of the real world.)  So…idk. I truly, truly don’t (if I did, I wouldn’t still be wrestling with this 2+ years later). But I guess, yes: my feelings about the ship haven’t changed much, but the world sure as hell has. 

[dictacontrion]

On the eve of the tumblr apocalypse...

If things go bananas (and/or I get deleted), you can find me on dreamwidth (dicta-contrion), pillowfort (dictacontrion)), AO3 (dicta_contrion) and - after the log-off protest, in which I’m participating, here on tumblr. 

I’m not planning to leave tumblr at this point, for reasons both practical and philosophical. Practically: it’s been 5+ years and a whole lot of posts, and there isn’t another platform that has everything I want/need/value (scheduled/queued posting, more than 280 characters, reblogging, asks, private messaging, tagging as whisperspace). Philosophically: I think it sucks a giant sweaty dick (and perhaps a female-presenting nipple) that tumblr is cracking down on nudity. It’s puritanical and destructive to queer people and cancer survivors and fannish communities. I also think it’s a response to SESTA/FOSTA and the Apple store, rather than a proactive interest in censorship or creating those harms. I don’t feel great about continuing to use tumblr (and certainly haven’t been/don’t anticipate using it as intensively as I did in a few years ago), but I feel okay enough about it to keep doing it while seeing how things shake out. 

All my recs and quotes, and a lot of my text posts, are backed up, and I’m working on a full export. We’ll see how long it takes! But, if I get deleted, I’ll work on getting that stuff back up in some form on some platform, especially the recs. 

And if this is our last night together....

Folks, it’s been a pleasure. I’ve been delighted to get to know so many of you, to share highlights and lowlights, fic ideas and frustrations, chats that last long into the night, days in and nights out in coffee shops and museums and restaurants and bars and hotels and living rooms across two continents. Even as I’ve felt more and more distance from H/D fandom in its current form over the last year and a half, I’ve never stopped valuing those of you who have made life - fannish and beyond - so much more brilliant and creative and fun. 

It’s also been an honor to rec hundreds and hundreds of H/D fics to y’all over the years. To the authors whose fics have made life more meaningful and better, and to my fellow bloggers who have shared in the squee and the interest in reading and sharing those wonderful words: thank you. 

[dictacontrion]

do you know of any surveys of the drarry shipping community? do you feel like the shipping community has changed since you've been in/around it?

I don’t, anon, I’m sorry to say! There are some broader surveys - centrumlumina’s AO3 census, toastystat’s statistical roundups, fansplaining’s fandom surveys on specific topics - but I’m not aware of an H/D specific survey.

I suspect that it would run into some of the same challenges those broader ones have faced: that it is very, very difficult to get anything like a representative sample of fandom when it’s spread across so many different fandoms and communities, and that your call for respondents is itself going to be silod by that, such that a survey that gets circulated through tumblr is not necessarily going to capture people whose fandom experienced is centered on twitter or wattpad or ao3 or ff.net or LJ or DW. And even a survey of the H/D community on tumblr specifically would be very informed by who reblogged it, etc. (though I do wonder if, over time, as fandom becomes less common and fandom participation becomes more common, if it will at some point be possible to get a statistically significant random sample through random sampling of the general population, but that’s expensive and almost certainly would not be able to get pairing-specific results.) 

As to your second question: yes, I definitely, definitely do feel like the shipping community has changed, but I want to qualify that heavily in the same way - the shipping community that I see in the circles I run in has changed a lot. Someone whose fandom engagement has consistently consisted of reading H/D fic on ff.net since 2001 might disagree completely! And I’d be interested to hear what other people who have been around 5+ years have to say. Basically: I hesitate to make statements about whether the shipping community has changed when I know I’m in only one corner of it, but will say that the shipping community as I see it has changed. 

[dictacontrion]

how do you find the fics that you quote? I’ve been lead to some really great older/lesser known/lower kudos’d fic because of your tumblr and I’m just curious how you originally found them, or if you have a list you’ve been working from! Love your fics and your daily quotes! 💕

I’m so glad you’re finding great fic anon!!! Thank you for the kind words!!

There are a few different ways I find fic:

Bookmarks. I’ve got hundreds going back years, but they’re not always the first place I check and I think the question is really more about where they came from, so, onwards!

Rec archives. There are some AMAZING rec archives out there!!! Incredible!! Particularly for finding fic that isn’t as well known now, or that is excellent but didn’t catch the zeitgeist in a “classic”-making kind of way when it posted. And there really is so much good fic hiding out there! For starters, try @capiturecs’ Rec Archive, @gracerene09‘s Rec Masterlist, @mxlfoydraco‘s fic recs masterlist, @dragontamerdrarry’s rec masterlist,  @themalfoymanner‘s Drarry fic rec masterlist, @cremebunny‘s themed rec lists, @sectumbloodysempra‘s library, Painless_J’s thematic masterlists (i am so so sad to say that I’ve just realized J’s website is gone and taken over by malware-looking stuff, so please click that link to their LJ instead of googling!), sulky-rhino’s rec portal, thejupiterboy’s navigation page, reikokatsura’s Goodie Bag, @pir8fancier‘s rec list (I read and loved every one of these when I was first getting into HP fandom and it was pretty much my gateway), birdsofshore’s Rectober (compiling many people’s rectober recs), and @daily-snitch‘s Hot Recs (fic and art that have been recced by at least three people). MASSIVE amounts of excellent fic!

New recs. There are, at least in my corner of fandom, fewer people reccing systematically now than there were in the H/D tumblr rec heyday of ~2015, but when someone whose writing or taste I admire recs a fic, I will generally give it a look! And if you like a fic, omg PLEASE rec it! Reccing is best when many different voices/tastes weigh in!

Journal comms. Some, like daily_deviant, have clear themes. Some, like crack-broom, compile loads of different people’s recs. Some, like hd_hurtfest, hp_silencio (both shorter-running themed fests) and @hpdarkarts​ (LJ archive here) end up giving you loads of fic on a central theme. If you find a great comm, loads of great fic will follow!

Following authors. Find a great author, read their work voraciously! There are dozens of authors who I subscribe to on Ao3, and more still who aren’t still in fandom and/or on Ao3 but have deep and amazing back catalogs. I’ll often check their past works if I’m looking for something to read, check their tumblrs and journals to see if they’ve recced fic, and subscribe to them on Ao3 so notifications of their new work come right to my inbox!

Following fests. This can be a fantastic way to discover (or be discovered as) a new author, particularly in anon fests, and while fests vary a whole lot they can be real ~Events that generate collections of fic and art that people have put loads of time and love into.  @vaysh11 has an invaluable list of all the H/D fests running in 2018 here! And remember to check out fests’ archives, especially for fests that go back a ways (like @dracotops-harry, @hdsbeltane, harrydracompreg, hd_remix, smoochfest, glompfest, hd-cliche, hd-tropes, @hd-fan-fair, hp-creatures, hd-owlpost, and @hd-erised) for TONS of great fic, and check potterfests for a sense of what’s going on in the fandom beyond H/D!

Searching Ao3. Their search is so A++! For me, as someone who tends towards shorter fic most days, and who loves the hell out of the info you can get from tags + summaries, this is high on my list of go-tos. Maybe too obvious to mention, but maybe not!

Checking what’s new in the H/D tag on Ao3. Click here to see all the completed, English-language Harry/Draco fics on Ao3, with the most recent at the top. I’ve found some awesome fic this way! This is an especially great way to discover authors who aren’t on tumblr  and/or who are new to the fandom or pairing, or new to fic-writing altogether, and that is the most win-win imo; discovering and encouraging new writers lets them know that people are rooting for them to keep going, and we find hidden gems in the process!

So! That’s a pretty comprehensive list, I think. Sometimes I’ll lean towards one strategy or another based on what I’m looking for and how much time/energy I have for fandom stuff, and you may find that different approaches work for you, too. That’s great! All of them work, and taking different approaches helps spread the love around! Now! Go out, find it, and enjoy!! And remember, you pass on the awesomeness when you comment and rec!

[dictacontrion]

Hi! I love your blog and I love fandom but lately I’ve been feeling frustrated at the amount of negativity and hatred that’s been aimed at JKR. I agree that its a shame there isn’t more representation in the books and HP universe but it feels hypocritical to me for people to expect others to be tolerant of their ships and kinks and reimagining of the HP world and yet to not extend the same tolerance to the person who came up with the world in the first place. Do you have any thoughts on this?

I do, anon, more than I have time to write up, and ones that might inspire more intense reactions that I’d like to, but I think that part of it that feels most relevant and worth saying has to do with why we react to things the way that we do. 

I understand - verrrrrry much understand and share - the frustration people feel with the way the ongoing development of JKR’s canon has unfolded. I also think I understand why people aim that frustration at JKR: for these purpose, she’s the stand-in for a lot of forces that are much larger than she is, and it feels familiar and safe to yell at her. People can’t yell at systematic racism or sexism, can’t send angry (and imo often counterproductive and mean) tweets to the people in their real lives who use and abuse power in discriminatory ways. And then there’s JKR, and it feels so harmless and easy to be angry at her, and to express that anger in ways that you never could if speaking to the people who do much more and much more concrete things to create fear and harm in your life. You can’t yell at capitalism, and prejudice, at bigotry, at your teachers or professors or police or supervisors or coworkers. But you can take that energy and direct it towards JKR without personal consequence. Which, imo, is a waste of time. If people want to change things - as we should - I would suggest directing that anger and energy elsewhere. Tweet at your political representatives, learn and write long posts about historical oppressions and their ongoing effects, go to a protest, write a letter or make a phone call, and use your blacklist extensively (goodness knows I do) to preserve your energy for things that might actually make the world a bit better. And if you’re concerned about racism and sexism and homophobia in HP-oriented fannish spaces in particular, goodness knows JKR is neither the beginning nor the end of that; if that’s what you want to change, start much, much closer to home. 

[dictacontrion]

is my story even worth it to keep going no one's going to read it idk why im wasting my time. the idea isn't even that good its mediocre at best. i know i have to practice writing to be a good writer but can i just skip to the part where my blog has a jillion followers and i can write 135k fanfics with beautiful poetic writing without breaking a sweat like comOne bro

Ohhh goodness, anon, do I feel you there <3 This is another one where there’s a tumblr-correct answer - of course you should! writing is great! - and a reality that, in my experience, can be more complicated. So I would say: 

- It depends on why you’re writing. Is it the urge to create? Because this story is nipping at your heels and asking to be told? Because you find writing cathartic and enjoyable? Because you find writing irritating and stressful but love having written? Because you want to get better at writing? Because you like the act of telling a story, figuring out how to fit those pieces together? If so: yes. You should definitely keep writing your story. If not? If you are not intrinsically motivated to do it, if you aren’t getting anything out of it? See below. 

- We are rarely the best judges of our own ideas. You might think it’s mediocre and find that your readers disagree completely. You might feel like it’s lackluster now and then find that it takes flight during writing. You might look at the stories you love and realize that a lot of them sound like mediocre ideas if you look at them skeptically, if you summarize them in terms that downplay their potential. Don’t kill the idea, or assume it’s not a good one, without giving it a chance to grow. It may be an amazing idea, on its way to becoming an amazing story. 

- If you are motivated by having an audience, think about ways to find an audience for the process. Find people who will swap fic with you, look for alphas and betas. Find that audience, those people who you trust (far more than you will ever be able to trust random commenters) to tell you where your story’s strengths are, and write for them and to them. Tell them the story first. It can do wonders for your inspiration and desire to keep going. 

- No one writes 135k fanfics with beautiful poetic writing without breaking a sweat. No one. I have had the privilege and good fortune to write with/beta for/talk things through with many of the writers whose work I admire most, and who I swooned at from afar when I was still lurking. And anon? It’s a sweaty fucking process. Sweaty and exhausting and painful and frustrating. If it looks clean and polished and easy on the other end, that’s because all that sweat paid off, and because there was a ton of sweaty editing to follow on the sweaty writing. It is always, always work. It can be joyful, enjoyable work. But it’s always a fucking fuckton of work. 

- If you are at a point where you are frustrated, and you are not enjoying it, and you are not getting what you want out of it, it is okay to stop. It is okay to take a break. It is okay to leave that idea aside and write a quick ficlet just to finish something and get it posted. It is okay to have multiple WIPs going at once because you need a break or need some variety. It is okay to decide that there are things you would rather be doing with your time; it is okay to decide that you would rather read than write, that you would rather go out for a walk than do fannish stuff, that you want to go to the movies or try a new hobby or otherwise step away from fandom for a while. Part of creativity is taking time to rest. And a big, important part of a happy life is giving yourself permission to pursue the things that bring you joy, whether that’s writing or whether that’s something else. 

I hope that helps, anon! And for what it’s worth, I hope that you find that creative spark and keep going with it - that writing is something that brings you joy, and that you find ways to embrace that. And if it isn’t? I hope you find joy in the new things you try! <3 

[dictacontrion]

A bit random but I was wondering: a lot of HP fics write Harry as someone who turns out to really bad at Auror-ing (sometimes simply incompatible with the details of the job, but other times legitimately incompetent compared to his colleagues). Do you have any personal head canons, or thoughts about how Harry would do as an Auror? Do you think he would like it after everything he went through or be any good at it? Thinking back on your fics I think you've had a mix? Sorry if I'm misremembering!

I don’t think there’s any way in hell that Harry would be an incompetent Auror. He has as much as or more skill at seventeen, as both a fighter and a teacher, than many of the adults around him, he’s cool in a crisis, he’s passionate about justice, he’s got great instincts. There’s just no way he’s inept at this.

Traumatized though? Maybe. I could see it. I could see him not wanting to fight anymore.

Otoh, it’s one of the few things he’s ever had in his life that’s led to him feeling loved and included, I could also see him clinging to it fiercely.

You’re right that there’s a mix of depictions in my fic (though I don’t think he’s ever inept?) and that’s because I think that how Harry felt and performed as an Auror would depend on a lot of other things about his relationships and the evolution of post-war society. In a scenario where Ron joined him and Kingsley ran a tight (and just and moral) ship, I could see him being a career auror. If Ron went to work at WWW and Harry was fighting without the support of his friends, and/or if the Aurors were engaged in morally dubious stuff and/or if a bunch of ex-Death Eaters pulled a Lucius and got back into power, I think he’d be inclined to step away.

This is, I think, an important thing to keep in mind about writing fic: characters are not static. Understanding characters does not mean developing one definite headcanon and shoehorning it into every situation, but openly and thoughtfully considering how your characters would respond to the world in which you put them.