#if confessions

[if-confessions]

Just because something is a hobby doesn't preclude it from being something people treat seriously, in fact a hobby is more likely to be treated seriously by the people who enjoy it than something that isn't since it's something they pursue in their free time. Serious does not equal not having fun.

Nothing's wrong with treating a hobby seriously, neither is going at it with a silly manner, or any other manner*. There should be no expectation when going into a hobby aside from... finding if it is for you and if you do, how much free time you want to invest in it. *as long as it is not harming others...

If you have fun, and your hobby is bringing you joy/positive things in your life, that's what should matters. Whether you go at it seriously or silly... 🤷

I don't particularly like the implication that it's a fact that people who enjoy something are more likely to treat it seriously just because they invest a lot of their free time on it... I don't know... feels kind of shame-y for people who spend all their free time on a hobby but stay silly, you know? But I could just be overanalizing things again...

[if-confessions]

I'm tired of gender/sexuality being seen as the only important parts of a character or like the cornerstone of someone's personality. It is in my humble opinion the least interesting part about someone and doesn't actually tell you anything about a person other than what they see themselves as (gender) or what they like to do or not do in the bedroom (sexuality). And while they do play some part in shaping a character's life it's really not all that fundamental in the overall picture.

Assuming that their gender/sexual identity is not explored/an important part of the character's journey/story (and even then), I frankly agree.

[if-confessions]

Ama be honest here. I dislike the IF community in general a lot. Maybe more specifically the whole COG community maybe.

My big problem is how toxic and entitled a lot of readers have become. Like one this is criticism that I think it's great, and the other is demanding an author to suit your specific personal tastes.

I'm a writer myself, and big reason I'm never working on an IF is the community.

Imagine your work your ass on doing a good narrative (Bacon's case for example) and people care is about romance and why you cannot have lesbian romance with X character.

As an author, I would get so pissed. I don't think a little bit of self inserting is necessary bad. But the community is self inserting into unhealthy ways, to the point that they need a big slap across the face and the urgent professional help.

I said it.

[Just adding that CoG is not the whole IF community, there are more groups out there, incl. language specific ones, where people are super chill and self-insert/customisation is not the norm]