#write the thing

[curator-on-ao3]

I saw a post and I don’t want to call the person out, but the post expressed fear of writing fanfic in case of unintentionally mischaracterizing a character.

And I cannot stress this enough …

It doesn’t fucking matter.

I’ve read stories by people who tagged the fic “OOC” (out of character) and I thought the characterization was spot-on perfection.

I’ve read stories by people who bragged about their characterization choices/skills and I don’t know who that was in the story but I don’t recognize them as the character.

And, again, it doesn’t fucking matter.

Part of fanfic is author interpretation of character. To be clear: I’m not talking about authors who write OCs and give them canon character names. I’m talking about authors who write the character the way the author sees the character. I’m talking about authors who do their best to characterize, and the characterization may or may not be mainstream. I’m talking about authors who write to the best of their ability.

Because that’s what fucking matters.

Set fear aside.

Write the thing.

[victusinveritas]

[stopallsnowblind]

Every time I so much as start to think about deleting my older ao3 account, I get the nicest comment on one of my old terrible fanfics. It’s genuinely uncanny how this never fails to happen.

Moral of the story: if the world needs my shitty fanfiction, it certainly needs yours.

that or ao3 keeps an etsy witch on staff

[elph13]

This is your periodic reminder that every book you’ve ever read, every piece of art you’ve ever enjoyed, every song you’ve ever screamed is the middle of a story of its own telling. The beginning was smaller, the beginning might have been a string of words that made no sense or a doodle or a hum. It journeyed through creation to find you, it was made and moulded and edited and redrawn by a dear unsure but gloriously persistent soul.

Now it’s here with you and you are creating it, too, giving it lungs and breath and sending it out. And there is no end in sight, art is never finished. It is shared and the sharing put winds in its sails and sends it away.

Or inside you. Where seeds land and a hum begins. Or a doodle. Or a string of words.

So begin. Begin. Begin.

[foxglovefaun]

"Don't fuckin' not tell your story."

- Kevin Smith, 2015 interview with Producers Guild of America on Tusk

[saturnhas274moons]

If you don’t lose your mind writing bomb ass fanfiction then what’s the point

[learningtoliveanddream11]

Does anyone ever worry that all the stories have already been written and anything you can write now is just a version of something that's already come before... so you fear you'll spend all the time and effort and love to birth this story, only for the world to turn on you? And do you ever wonder that maybe you just don't have anything original or wonderful enough to say for any of it to matter anyway?

You do? Then listen to me... To hell with that voice in your head telling you that you can't. To hell with anyone who has doubted your abilities, your power, your voice. You are magnificent. Even at your worst, your meanest, your saddest... you have the power to change your life, your story. We can change our world, whether it be personal, professional, nationwide, or worldwide... So write the story. Write your fanfiction. Write your poetry. Write your essay. Write your letters, your journal entries, your sticky notes. We were born for this.

-LearningToLiveAndDream