its like I hate when you say I think what happened to christine chandler was fucked up and people are like um well did you know she did ___ cause thats the problem i dont want to know 😭😭😭
Do you really believe kiwifarmers are just "online bullies?" They dug into her personal life and found out about her mental illnesses. They knew her specific delusions and played into them to manipulate her. They knew what to say to make their empty threats sound like life-and-death stakes to her. And they used that to emotionally blackmail her into SAYING that she raped her mother. The only proof we have of her committing this is the "confession" that was manipulated out of her by serial stalkers.
For fucking decades (long before she allegedly did any of this shit btw) these ghouls have been stalking and harassing her. Do you think that any of it made her a better person? Do you think that kiwifarms harassment campaigns have ever had any positive effects on anyone? If you (correctly) answered both of those questions with no, then there's no reason to perpetuate their campaign by talking about the horrible things she allegedly committed.
The only reason you even know her name is because a bunch of nazis hated her Pokémon drawing. And regardless of if she actually did the shit she's been accused of, you are doing exactly what those nazis want by running with this story.
And in the incredibly unlikely event that credible proof emerges that she did this crime, remember that you believed it was true before we had evidence. You just went off of vibes. And im sure your vibes aren't motivated by any prejudices or anything.
she also literally didn't. she got swatted and arrested under accusations submitted by these stalkers. the charges were dropped without trial because they didn't happen. but the existence of the accusations ofc is tantamount to their truth in the eyes and ears of hideous ghouls like this commenter who don't give a fuck about empiricism
a feel like the new generation of fanfic readers NEED to understand that clicking on a fic (interaction) does nothing. ao3 has no algorithm. your private discord discussions of fic do not reach the authors. if you do not actively engage with writers they will stop posting. this isn’t social media this is community.
Not-so-fun fact: I (almost) quit writing fanfic for this exact reason.
Strictly speaking, I'm still on the fence about that. I'll finish my current fic; but I can't say for sure how long I'll keep going.
More thoughts under the cut.
I don't think I'm a bad writer. I also don't think I'm an impressively great writer. I'm decent, is what I think. There's room for improvement, and I'm still improving. That's part of any craft.
This account is new and not connected to my previous works, so I won't go into detail.
But: I come from ~1.5 years of writing on the last AO3 account... and my fanfic writing history started about 20 years ago. I have experience in this thing, is what I'm trying to say. And things have certainly changed.
Only a few years ago, you could have a weird idea, write a crackship in a small fandom - and you'd probably (not guaranteed!) get comments. Regular commenters. People who speculated about the fic in the comments, who commented on specific scenes. They were often just a line or two.
That was perfectly fine.
You - as a writer - saw that people read your fic and engage with the story you make up. That was nice and beautiful, and the best thing was how great of a way it was to get in touch with people who saw the same thing in a character, in a ship, or in a headcanon. You made new friends.
This is practically dead. Unless you write something with decent popularity, that hits the right tropes - you, more than likely, won't get any comment at all. Not even a bot comment, not even bots care.
You're yelling into a void, and it doesn't matter how well (or poorly) you write. How good (or bad) the idea is. Whether it's the 100k words longfic everybody always asks for, or the 1k words oneshot.
You'll get hits, probably. The occasional kudos. Maybe a (private) bookmark here and there, maybe subscriptions. But the comments stay at a 0.
You know there are people reading the story, but nobody reaches out.
I cannot properly describe how soulcrushing and heartbreaking that is.
I, personally, couldn't bear it anymore. I stopped. I don't feel all that bad about it on behalf of readers... after all, I spent hours, days, weeks, months on planning, plotting, outlining, writing, and editing a story. They've read it. Maybe enjoyed it. But none of them took the time to say anything, even when I was the only one writing this particular thing.
They cared enough to read and enjoy the story (if kudos and maybe bookmarks are any indication), but not enough to reach out to a fellow fan of the same thing. And I couldn't reach out because nobody else wrote for this; so I didn't have the luxury of being able to read another's work and leave a comment.
It felt deeply unfair over time.
And - despite knowing I'm not a bad writer - the doubts crept up anyway. Am I just too bad of a writer? Do people say nothing because all they could say would be bad?
Side note: I'm grateful for compliments, but I'm also perfectly fine if someone doesn't tell me they like my fic, instead commenting on a specific thing of the fic.
All I wanted was someone (one single person) who'd read my fic(s), enjoyed them, and reached out for that reason. Someone to talk to about the thing I'm so into that I slap hundreds of words onto an empty document for it.
I started this account - with "Control is Comfort" (Makima x fem Reader) as an experimental fic. The idea for the core concept came to me at random more or less, and once I had the basic idea fleshed out, I realized it makes for a good enough experiment to find the answer to the big question:
Does my writing simply suck?
The answer came... pretty quickly. I didn't have to wait for engagement at all. Not that any new friendship has been born (yet), but there are people reading the fic, enjoying it, and taking the few minutes of their day to leave a comment.
I cannot express how grateful I am for that.
No matter how many "thanks" I type, it feels awkward, and it's never going to do my gratitude justice. Because I'm not taking it for granted; I can't take it for granted.
I'll respond to every single comment because I want readers who comment to know I appreciate their comment. .... and because, most of the time, I couldn't help it anyway. Hey, I'm a fan. Obviously I'll yap about stuff I like when given the opportunity?
But the thing is: This is for the current fic. It's the situation for "Control is Comfort".
One day, that fic will be complete. With every new chapter, that day is one step closer. And then... what? Will my next idea be one that hits an engaging audience again?
My personal trend shows: Probably not. I'll likely return to the radio silence, and that outlook scares me. I don't have it in me to continue writing if I hit that same particular wall once more.
Could I write popular fandoms, ships, whatever? Sure; I could focus on that. I don't need to be 150% into something to write it. It's entirely possible.
But... what's the point?
What good is engagement - fans reaching out - when I, as the writer, harbor near to no passion for the thing I write? That isn't the engagement I'd seek. I'd feel bad, in fact. That's not an option.
And years ago, it wasn't necessary. Years ago, you didn't need to do "market research" before starting a fic, just to ensure it will get engagement. Most of the time, it did.
Especially in smaller fandoms, when fellow nerds were stoked to find someone who's into the same thing they previously thought nobody else liked.
I don't really see the situation changing for the better any soon. Maybe not at all. And with that being the case, I think I'll always be one step away from calling it a day on writing fanfic entirely.
I won't beg for comments, and I won't hold chapters hostage. I won't threaten to quit to guilt readers into engaging. I think all of those things suck.
I'll voice my grievance here and there because I think it's important to be open about how hard this can hit.
And one day, when I am back in that particular tough spot - I will simply stop. Disappear. No warning, nothing. My fics will be left up, but I will not log into this Tumblr or its associated AO3 ever again.
The doubts are real about whether or not most of us are any good. To be in the 99% of writers who are ignored while everyone sorts by kudos and reads the same things over and over is more than discouraging. It makes it feel like it's not worth it to try.
Radio silence when you tear your soul apart to try and reach for community only to be met with a shrug is painful. Give your writers, not just the BNFs and whoever happens to be in their cliques, a little more generosity with your interaction (kudos and comments) and maybe the longfics can come back like people say they want. Community needs to go both ways.
Idk. Just sucks to be trying to thoughtfully contribute to fandom both as a writer and reader (with detailed comments) only to feel like you're being passed over because you're not an established brand.
thing about censorship is that once you allow one thing to be censored, it’s a domino effect from there.
you can’t only vouch for the censorship of things you personally hate. because if those things can be censored, everything else can and will be censored too eventually, until all that’s left of art is just rainbow and sunshine and heterosexual stuff of conservative values.
it’s either nothing is censored or everything—that is not rainbow and sunshine and heterosexual and of conservative values—is censored.
“but it makes me uncomfortable” the block button is there. you can also filter out specific words/tags of what you don’t want to see. that’s how you curate your own internet experience and protect your own peace of mind. you do it by rightfully choosing not to consume (or even see) what makes you uncomfortable, what upsets you. but you don’t do it by demanding that others censor themselves just to cater to your personal comfort.
I just realized my OC doesn't have such a backstory because you follow her from, essentially, birth. So readers experience her traumas and tragedies in real time right alongside her.
writer culture is reading the most incredibly, breathtakingly, inspiringly written fic ever and you get to the author's notes and it's something like "oh, this is my first fic, i apologise for any mistakes ;-;" or "yeah this is a casual work i bullshitted in under an hour at 2:53 a.m. directly into the ao3 text editor with zero proofreading. sorry it sucks"
things some people, especially people who are new to ao3 or fandom/fanfic space as a whole, seem to not understand:
archive of our own is an archive. not a social media.
archive of our own was built with the stance that there would be no censorship, because other platforms already had censorship where some things that were taboo were reported/removed. ao3 was built with the purpose that all of these works, that were not allowed on other platforms, would be allowed on ao3.
the archive will house anything that’s considered fanworks. so no, you cannot report this fic because it portrays in explicit details taboo topics about xyz, you cannot report that fic because it romanticizes and glorifies xyz. ao3 will not remove any of those fics, because whether or not you like it, those fics do not go against ao3’s terms of service.
“but these things are not allowed on other platforms” that’s precisely why ao3 was created, to house and give a platform to these things that were censored/banned/removed from other platforms.
if you have a problem with this, you can use other platforms to post and read fanfics
but you should also know that ao3 by far has the best tagging system, meaning you won’t get anything like what ao3 provides on other platforms, meaning it may be a pain in the ass for you to find a fic with the prompts and pairing you’re looking for, meaning you may still get jump scared by things that are triggering to you half way through your reading of what you thought was an innocent fic. because other platforms don’t have tagging systems, where you can find and avoid any character/pairing/tag as you please, like ao3.
i think because of the whole "writers write for themselves" notion that's becoming increasingly popularized, people forget that we still thrive off interaction and kindness. i write for myself but kudos and comments and bookmarks and really any sort of interaction with my fics genuinely motivates me to keep writing and keep sharing my works.
I wish I was around when fandom community was more a thing. I feel like fandom has completely centralized around BNFs and disappeared into discords and everyone just sorts by kudos and keeps reading the same things over and over, never really giving newer authors a chance.
☽ Memory becomes absolute garbage. Like “why am I in the kitchen?” garbage. “What was I saying?” garbage. Their brain is running on buffering screens and regret.
☽ Fine motor skills? Ha. They’re dropping everything. Pens. Phones. Entire moral compass. They’re basically a malfunctioning claw machine.
☽ Hallucinations creep in. That jacket on the chair? Suddenly a person. That noise? Definitely doom. Everything becomes mildly haunted.
☽ Time gets weird. Five minutes feel like a year. A full hour disappears and they swear they blinked wrong.
☽ Irritation skyrockets. They get mad at chairs. At air. At gravity. At the audacity of other humans continuing to exist.
☽ Their voice sounds weird. Slow, scratchy, like they swallowed sand.
☽ They walk like a drunk baby giraffe. Walls suddenly jump closer. Floors rise unexpectedly. Coordination said: “I’m out.”
☽ Zoning out becomes a hobby. They stare at random objects like they’re trying to understand quantum mechanics.
☽ Vision blurs in and out. Like someone smeared Vaseline over their eyeballs out of spite.
☽ Their body just hurts. Not a dramatic pain, just the “why does my skeleton feel like it’s buzzing?” pain.
☽ Food cravings go feral. They’d fight someone for a stale cookie.
☽ Terrible choices. They will absolutely say “I’m fine” while making decisions that end in disaster.
☽ Random emotional implosions. Crying because their sock feels wrong? Yes.
☽ Cold hands. Cold feet. Cold heart. (Okay maybe not the last one, but it feels like it.)
jacobvanloon
kianamaiart
pixelskylines
germansingergirl
izzy806
baratheonpilled
dededos
