The Unfinished Library

Always striving to be better. Random personal stuff, reblogs, interests go here. Queer, bisexual, ace, genderqueer, non-binary, they/them. New! Redbubble shop: TheBookewyrme.redbubble.com

[gendercensus]

The 2026 Gender Census is now open!

[ survey.gendercensus.com ]

The 13th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th August 2026.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

PS: You can see some regularly-updated statistics about incoming data here, with lots of demography and graphs to peruse!

[shebaren]

Riding Wolves / To the North

First artwork for the amazing Arianna on the @moshangevents Discord Server in this year's Big Bang 🎉

Please go and read her fic at Ao3:

Winter Caskets by XueYangsLawyer

"“Bro!” Shang Qinghua wails as soon as he and Shen Qingqiu are alone. “Mobei Jun could still kill me! Why is my ungrateful son making me do this?”

“Why is he making you marry your dream man?”

“Yes,” Shang Qinghua wails some more, “why is he doing that?”

Shang Qinghua is married off to solve a mystery. Featuring a touch of Snow Queen, a dash of Bluebeard, and a lot of wolves."

[shebaren]

And my second art piece 💜

[shebaren]

Riding Wolves / To the North

First artwork for the amazing Arianna on the @moshangevents Discord Server in this year's Big Bang 🎉

Please go and read her fic at Ao3:

Winter Caskets by XueYangsLawyer

"“Bro!” Shang Qinghua wails as soon as he and Shen Qingqiu are alone. “Mobei Jun could still kill me! Why is my ungrateful son making me do this?”

“Why is he making you marry your dream man?”

“Yes,” Shang Qinghua wails some more, “why is he doing that?”

Shang Qinghua is married off to solve a mystery. Featuring a touch of Snow Queen, a dash of Bluebeard, and a lot of wolves."

[thepromiscuousfinger]

[samshepard]

shoutout to everyone dealing with. thhe fucking difficulty

[rosemochi]

the fact that all of my mutuals immediately reblogged this from me really says something about all of us, doesn't it

[octaviaabadassblakee]

I need fat female characters in tv whose weight is inconsequential. It means nothing to the story.

She's fat and gets the guy and no one bats an eye.

She's fat and the hottest chick in the sorority and that's normal.

She's fat and an actress and she gets good roles.

She's fat and she's funny and she has character depth and growth.

She's fat and the main character and no one mentions her weight once.

I'm fat and my weight doesn't play a part in my day to day conversations, or plans, or friendships. Why can't I have that on tv?

[buckybarnesfic]

why do you reblog fics that are obviously abandoned? i don’t want to see a fic, start reading only to realize the author has not posted in more than a year…….

Sometimes when an author sees that the fic has activity, it encourages them to continue it.

That's not why I reblog but sometimes it does happen.

There's been lots of talk on here about how there's so little interaction that it's demotivating to authors. Maybe if you read that fic and commented or reached out to the author in a pleasant way, they might come back to it. A little kindness goes a long way.

I had a comment on a fic I wrote 15 years asking to finish and when I figure out how I plan on doing so. Thank you for asking. Good fics can still be unfinished fics.

[pollydoodles]

I’ve started updating fics this year that readers would rightly have assumed abandoned. One I hadn’t written on since 2017. This year I completed a sequel to a fic I posted in 2016.

The reason I’ve done this is that I get comments still from people reading, re-reading, and discovering what’s already there - it’s a real boost to your own interest and confidence in returning to a story.

The idea that fic writers exist in some kind of vacuum and that they ought to be writing “just for themselves” is utter nonsense - if that were the case, these stories wouldn’t be posted at all. They’re up there because people are invested in the characters and are keen to engage with other people who feel the same - but life gets in the way, and enthusiasm and creativity can wane.

Genuinely what can bring it back is knowing that someone out there enjoys it, and is keen to read more.

[azriona]

This, so much this.

Unfinished fics are still worth reading. Many times, they're left in a good place, too, and just because the chapter count indicates it's not done doesn't mean there's not a satisfying conclusion in that last posted chapter.

And you never know--your comment, your reply, your reblog might be the one to inspire the author to posting another chapter. The question you ask about a character's choice or motivation or the theory you pose about what happens next might be what inspires the author to figure it out themselves!

No author wants to leave a fic unfinished. Those hang on us for the rest of our lives. (I have unfinished fics from the Fandom That Shall Not Be Named that still wear on me sometimes, and I have zero intention of going back there again.) There's usually a good reason why we haven't finished them... and most of the time, it's not necessarily lack of engagement, but lack of inspiration.

So comment. Ask questions. Pose theories. Pull out the lines that made you smile or laugh or cry or squeal. Who knows--you might jar that creativity loose, and get us writing again.

Be the engagement you want to see in the world.

[ineffectualdemon]

I haven't updated a number of fics in the year. None of them are abandoned. I'm just really fucking busy

The fic is just being tapped away at slowly.

Some of us are busy and we will get to it

A fic I bookmarked updated spontaneously after a year and I was just delighted! That's why I bookmark fics

[thebookewyrme]

I never assume a fic is abandoned unless the author has stated it is so on the fic itself (or I know the author died), no matter how long it’s been. I’ve seen fics that haven’t updated in a decade update again. Every unfinished fic is a little bit of hope that some day I’ll get a notification for a new chapter. Some of my favorite fics are technically unfinished.

Personally, I got a comment on a fic that inspired me to start writing the next chapter after over a year of silence. Didn’t finish that chapter but I still think about that commenter a lot.

[aazizam]

no one will come to save you but some will offer you their hand to hold when life gets tough and those are the ppl that matter

[ahmnorhein-zkn]

Repost, now do your honors.

[jkl-fff]

Trans people just existing is no more sexual than when cis people just exist.

[bisexualbaker]

[Image: The Trans Pride flag with text reading, "I am not 'Sensitive Content'".]

[radicarian]

it is past time we jettisoned the useless false dichotomy of introversion vs. extroversion and just accepted that everybody has a minimum amount of social interaction, failing which, they get really weird. and everybody has a maximum amount of social interaction, exceeding which, they get really weird. these levels are different for everyone, for a variety of reasons, and have no moral dimension. and that is all.

[mjalti]

why would you come to this club and just shoot Myers & Briggs like this

[caffeinewitchcraft]

IMO, it’s healthier to conceptualize it this way. So instead of being like “why am I being so weird? I’m an introvert, I like being alone!” you say, “Ah, I must be supergluing googly eyes to my bathroom faucet because I haven’t met my minimum threshold of social interaction and I’m trying to fill that void with these tiny pieces of plastic. Maybe I should invite someone over for dinner. They sure will be surprised by all these eyes watching them while they poop.”

[aphel1on]

top tier character when "what is wrong with them" requires an answer that begins with "How much time do you have"

[natalieironside]

I love the concept of Tooks. "Everybody in the Shire is very very businesslike and respectable and has no use for adventures except for this one entire family of mad lads who also run the municipal government"

[natalieironside]

The decision by the kings of Arnor to name the Tooks rightful thanes of the Shire was actually a 3000-IQ play by the Witch-King of Angmar to keep the Tooks far the fuck away from him

[natalieironside]

Ya gotta get 'em from where they'll least expected it

[cottoncandylesbo]

[brainstreams]

[disterbia]

[rraintz]

hold me

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Destroying my home's "resale value"* by painting it in colours that only I can love.

* Painting your home fun colours will not destroy its resale value even if you do care about that. Your home's value is primarily derived from its location and the structure/materials of the building itself. Paint your home however you want and if you do choose to sell it to somebody with better taste then repainting can be their problem.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

This kitchen is going to be So Orange,