#regarding writers

[novaursa]

I need to get this off my chest because it’s becoming a pattern that’s killing my motivation and draining the joy out of posting anything here:

STOP treating every story I write like a damn prompt generator.

Yes, I’m glad you liked the fic. Yes, I’m happy it resonated with you. No, that doesn’t give you a license to immediately slide into my inbox or in comments with “omg I need more!! can you do a part 2??” like that’s just the natural next step. It’s not.

Here’s the thing: when I post something, unless I explicitly say “this is a series” or “more coming soon,” that’s it. That was the story. You read it. You enjoyed it. Cool. Now let it live on its own without immediately grabbing me by the collar and demanding I expand the universe like I’m some unpaid studio exec on your personal streaming service.

And don’t hit me with “I meant it as a compliment!!” No. A compliment is “I loved this,” “this hit hard,” “thank you for writing it.” A compliment is not “give me more now.” You don’t get to repackage entitlement and pressure as praise. I’m not stupid. I know what it is.

You know what happens when I give in and write a follow-up? People come right back with more asks. “What about from his POV?” “Can you do an AU where this happens instead?” “Can you make it longer?” It. Never. Stops. One extra scene turns into a pile-up of expectations I never agreed to meet. So guess what? I’m not doing that anymore.

And before someone gets cute: no, I’m not mad at one person. I’m burned out from the pattern. The accumulation. The way every post gets cannibalized by follow-up requests like the original was never enough. Maybe take a second to sit with the story instead of immediately picking it apart for expansion like it’s a DLC pack.

I write what I want. I post what I want. You get what you get. If that’s not enough for you, write your own continuation and tag it as inspired by mine. But do not come into my space acting like I owe you more just because you enjoyed it.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. No, there’s no sequel to it either.

[novaursa]

Hello. How are you? I'm a writer asking for your advice. I took it a while ago. Frankly, you warned me about how greedy and selfish people can be. (When requests are closed. About making exceptions.) At first, I thought you wouldn't be as bad as you said. But every sentence you said was true. People send me requests without even reading my profile or material (when my requests are closed). When it happened more than once, I realized. You were right. And even if it's a little bit in my life, I now say no. (Maybe not a huge change, for some.) But it's a big difference for me. Because it's impossible for someone who's grown up as a spineless and a doormat to change in one day.) Thank you. I'm grateful. 💞

I'm really glad you came to this on your own terms. It’s not easy, especially when you’ve been conditioned to please, to accommodate, to bend over backwards just to avoid conflict or disappointment.

Saying no feels like setting off a bomb when you’re not used to it. But the truth is, boundaries aren't cruelty. They're survival.

And no, people don't read. They don't respect the work unless it serves them.

You're damn right to gatekeep your time and energy. Even if it's just one step, it's yours. And it’s not small. It’s everything. I'm proud of you for taking it. Keep going. You're not a doormat.

You're the door. You decide who gets through.

[bakugosbratx]

Can I just ask the difference between a reblog and a like for more...seasoned (since I'm a smaller blog) writers? Genuinely. I totally understand the sharing part because people can see it, but then people find a lot of works through searching tags. I 100% get that comments feel great, I guess it's just baffling to me for someone to have 2k likes or honestly even over 100 or 50 and be like "y'all treat us like shit" because like...clearly people like it ya know? If I reblogged everything my dash would be so crowded but also I just don't tend to rb a lot of nsfw (I typically go back in my likes to reread and enjoy). But then if you like/rb too much people think you are spamming. Do private reblogs help? Like is it an algorithm thing? I guess I just see tumblr as any other place for content peeps. Like you see a YouTube video and most people like it, less comment, and even less share it. I see a lot of notes and am like 🤯 but then seeing post like that confuse me. To top it all off too a lot of writers barely reblog either or just reblog the same 2 people. I would be willing to make a sideblog to rb more if it's an algo thing but then no one would probably see it because it wouldn't have a following. I hope this makes sense! I genuinely want to know.

Hey anon!

So, for me personally, I don’t think I get treated like shit when I have a lot of notes. I appreciate people taking the time to read my work, but on the same token, it did take me — and others who are in the same boat — hours upon hours to deliver content (for free, mind you) just to get nothing in return. The like is appreciated, don’t get me wrong, anything is, but it’s taxing. That is like spending hours on a paper for school just to not get a grade (shitty comparison but it’s the best I could come up with). You feel unappreciated and it does make you not want to write anymore. Then people bitch at us when we leave for feeling unappreciated — saying we need to be grateful for the shit we get.

Reblogs help our content reach other blogs wether your blog is small or not. You may have followers who don’t follow us. Also helps with algorithm (I believe, but don’t quote me on that. I could be totally wrong). I agree with you. Us bigger blogs need to be better about reblogs + feedback. We are part of the problem. We cannot expect you all to do that for us, but not give the same in return, but it goes along with the tags point I make later on.

Also, that is fine if you do that. It’s your tumblr, you are free to do whatever you want with it. No one can tell you otherwise or has the right to, but there is multiple people like you who do this. Then, we get into this snowball effect of shit ton of likes, no comments, and very few reblogs. Our content goes nowhere because no one can see your likes (unless you have them active and people take the time to do so). As for the tags, they get flooded with content all of the time. So we can’t really depend on tags for our content to get seen, ya know? Reblogs and/or comments help the most and gain people’s attention.

I hope this helps see where us content creators are coming from! You did make valid points that we need to consider, but I hope you consider our side as well! 🤍