[fanonical]

a word on ‘death of the author’

death of the author is an idea from literary criticism that, simply, says that a critic does not have to consider the author’s intent or opinion on their text; if it is not in the text itself, it doesn’t matter

it is not a moral idea. it does not mean ignoring the author’s terrible opinions and enjoying the text as-is. it is a term for criticism and analysis.

[eyra]

hey !! i really love your stories :) i've got a question about setting aside time to write and you are a really wonderful writer so i thought to ask you -

i genuinely love writing & crafting stories but can't seem to find any time (life/assignments/social engagements are really distracting). so i was wondering if you had any strategies for really setting aside time, or for revitalizing yourself after a day at work/school & getting in the mood to write? hope you're having a lovely day - and absolutely no need to answer if this is weird!

Hiya, what a lovely message! Great question - I’ve mentioned before that I’m a terrible procrastinator with a very short attention span so I totally feel your pain. Here are a few things that seem to work for me:

Give yourself very clear parameters for what you hope to achieve on any given day. Don’t just say “I’m going to write today,” say “I’m going to write today, starting at 6pm and finishing at 8pm, and I am going to write 2000 words in that time” - or whatever your own goals are. If I just vaguely tell myself I’m going to work on something but don’t commit to a time or a clear goal, I’ll probably find I don’t get round to even starting...

Remember that a first draft doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be written. Just get the words down on paper (or screen) and don’t stop to edit or change the structure or even spellcheck. Just keep writing words whilst you’re in that frame of mind and then worry about everything else later.

Turn your phone off! If you’re trying to write on an evening but find other things too distracting, put your phone on do not disturb. Sounds simple but it’s beyond essential for me.

Make a playlist for whatever you’re writing, and listen to it to tune back in to the story. I try to start building a playlist as soon as I get a sense of what the general mood of the story is, and then if e.g. I want to start writing at 7pm, I’ll put the playlist on shuffle whilst I make dinner or whatever and I usually find that this helps me get into the right mindset to start.

Never finish a writing session on a full stop. If I’m logging off for the day, I always leave my last sentence unfinished - I know what the rest of the sentence is going to be, and coming back to the page the next day I find it so much easier to jump back in if I already know those first few words that I’m going to type. If I finish writing on a full stop, or a paragraph break, or - god forbid - at the end of a chapter, I find it really difficult to pick up the thread again when I come back to it.

Don’t beat yourself up about it. Unless you’re writing to an actual deadline and missing it would have real, tangible consequences, don’t stress yourself out about not meeting a word goal or not having time to write on any given day because of work or school or life. Perfect example - I have a pretty demanding job that doesn’t leave me with much free time outside of weekends, but last week I was working from home so I knew it was reasonable to want to get 5000 words a day down for my WIP. This week, I’m working 12 hour days away on location and by the time I get home, get dinner and get a shower, it’s way too late to be thinking about writing, so I had to accept that I wouldn’t even look at my WIP this week. Annoying, yes, but not the end of the world - so don’t stress about it. If you try to cram it in when you’re exhausted and don’t have the time for it, you won’t be at your best creatively and you run the risk of ending up resenting whatever it is you’re trying to get written.

I hope some of these are helpful! If anyone else has any useful tips then do share - I’m sure there are loads of other ideas that would work wonderfully.

Hope you’re having a lovely day too anon. Thanks again for getting in touch! x

[wylansvaneck]

the saddest death in harry potter is my respect for jk rowling

[fanonical]

I know JKR is a terf but do we really have to hate the entire Harry Potter ??

There is something called separating the art from the artist...

this is something i might advocate if she weren’t actively profiting from Harry Potter.

separate the art from the artist? i’m sorry, you can’t do that — it’s connected by her bank account. if you keep enjoying Harry Potter, if you keep looking at her transphobia and saying “well i hate shes transphobic but not enough to stop reading her books”, if you keep buying her products — that’s what she wants. she wants you to mindlessly support her.

her racism, transphobia, antisemitism and much more is so prevalent and even integral to the books

but more than that — of course, you CAN do whatever you want — but expect trans people to trust you less if you’re talking about how great Harry Potter is all the time. we will just not trust you, because you have decided to keep supporting the world’s most famous TERF.

[jyndor2]

death of the author is about examining a text without the constraints of what the author’s intentions were. it allows readers to think about what we get from the text without thinking “oh but obviously that’s not what the author intended so I’m wrong.” it’s a useful tool for literary analysis, and like most academic frameworks, it is completely distorted by people who just heard it used somewhere and have no real understanding of what it means.

we can use death of the author to explore all kinds of texts and we should because it allows us to engage those lofty critical thinking skills that people talk about. it is not an excuse to uncritically engage with things that make us happy.

and besides all of the reasons that we shouldn’t engage with harry potter (because it’s chock full of bigotry, because if you support jkr financially at all you are giving money to the anti-trans movement in the uk since jkr is so politically powerful and puts her money to use in politics, etc) death of the author also is just not applicable to harry potter because jkr will not let it be applicable.

jkr has not stopped changing bits of canon since she finished the books. dumbledore being gay is a famous example of how she added context to her story after she was finished, completely stomping on the very idea of death of the author. she’s notorious for flexing her word-of-godliness on social media. you cannot death of the author harry potter because the author won’t fucking die.

I think it’s similar to how people will try to justify watching woody allen movies even though like… you literally cannot divorce woody allen from his films. his identity is all over those films. it’s why people like them.

I would argue that even if jkr or woody allen didn’t directly profit from us supporting their works, their intentions do actually matter to some extent. death of the author is ONE framework, not the only framework for literary analysis. and while I think auteur theory is not a great framework for analysis (because I don’t really need to know what shakespeare meant for me to know what I feel about hamlet, and also of course film in particular is a collaborative effort) that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider what woody allen was trying to say in manhattan when he had an underage love interest chasing his character around, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider what jkr was playing off of when she made the wizarding bankers an antisemitic stereotype.

so no, you can’t separate hp from jkr.

also like the idea that these diehard fans of harry potter don’t already have the books and movies, so they need to go spend MORE money on harry potter to have them… hmm. sounds fake.

[kedreeva]

When I say “Fanfiction is free” part of what I’m saying is yes, you did not pay for the thing.

But I saw a comment from someone that made me realize the rest of the intention behind these words is being lost.

Fanfiction is provided for free, but it is not produced for free.

Authors pay their effort, including physical and emotional and mental. Authors pay their time, in planning the story (mental time) and writing the story (physical time). Sometimes it’s less than an hour for something quick and dirty, like askbox prompts. Sometimes it’s years of their lives in epic fic hundreds of thousands of words long. Authors pay additional time to alpha read their own stories, trying to make sure that they’re free of SPAG errors and make sense and sound good. Beta readers pay their time and effort alongside the authors for editing the stories. Authors pay for posting their stories with all of the anxieties that come from allowing their work - which to this point they have invested all of the above - into the public eye because while it has certainly cost them a good amount to produce the story, fandom history has proved that many other people out there enjoy fanfiction, and authors believe that at least someone else will enjoy their story, too.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is that it costs the writers a lot of something in order to produce it. A lot has already been paid into a piece of fanfiction by the time it is available for readers to read. The expense of fanfiction creation is, by and large, resting squarely atop the shoulders of writers.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is that readers don’t have to pay the cost of creating fanfiction.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is that readers don’t have to pay in anything - not time, not money, not effort, not anything - in order for fanfiction to be created. It’s a donation. It’s a gift. It’s available for you to take or leave, at the expense of someone else.

Writers have, for a very long time, requested donations of one thing as remuneration for everything they put into making fanfiction: comments. Authors have asked, in so many different iterations: “If you have consumed what I have labored and invested in to create and if you have found any enjoyment in it, please tell me, so that I can recharge enough to do this again.” Some of them may recharge on critical comments, but most of us don’t because we’ve already paid everything we want to pay to create the story.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” isn’t just that it doesn’t cost you any money. I am saying “Please respect the time and effort you didn’t have to pay into creating this thing you enjoyed, by respecting the individual creator’s requests.”

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is “be kind to authors, they have paid a lot for this gift they’re sharing with all of us, and they deserve to feel like it was worth it.”

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is “please don’t charge authors more time and emotional effort than what they’ve already provided you at no absolute cost.”

I’m not saying any of this to argue. It’s a fact that authors pay into providing fanfiction. They do it for fun. They do it out of love. They do it because they enjoy writing. No one is making them do it. No one is paying them to start or finish the story. That doesn’t mean it’s not WORK. And the only return they get on what they put into the story is the kindness of strangers that invest a little bit back by leaving a nice comment. That is why they stay, that is why they do it again, that is why we have fanfiction.

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is “please don’t be the one charging authors so much more that they leave.”

What I am saying when I say “fanfiction is free” is “please keep it that way.”

[w0tchervie]

I made another video oops

[w0tchervie]

the only reason I was confident enough to post this was that I told myself I would regret not doing it in five years 0.o

please be kind I am scared

[copperbadge]

If you’re feeling angry about today’s news of JK Rowling’s ongoing fuckery, I have an idea other than forcibly removing Harry Potter from her possession and declaring it property of fandom (which is not actually a bad idea, just not super executable).  

There are 48 fanfics in the Harry Potter tag with the additional tag Trans Character without any comments on them.  

Or check out every Harry Potter fic tagged Trans Character and find some new favorites to comment on. 

I’m sure those authors could really use the boost right now. 

[copperbadge]

Rowling is back on her bullshit so here’s a reblog of the Trans Character links. Last time we dropped the count of fics with no comments to zero, but there are 22 new fics since then for your delectation and delight! Remember to show your authors love! 

[copperbadge]

Rowling has set up official camp on her bullshit with a clear eye to building a cabin there, so here’s a reblog of the Trans Character links, including 29 new fanfics with no comments that could use some love! And courtesy of @thebibliosphere, here is a list of books by trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming authors!

[lilydarlingx-deactivated2026030]

Attention

(( Based on this textpost

Dorcas is the ever talented @w0tchermarauders ))

[lilydarlingx-deactivated2026030]

A Nasty Fall

((OOC: Based on this text post.

Dorcas played by @w0tchermarauders ))

[w0tchervie]

Before his first date with Andromeda, Ted needed a little pep talk.

[ooc: Mal Blum wrote this song and you all need to go listen to them RIGHT NOW thx bye]

[w0tchervie]

Small Rebellion

[bellatrix by @lilydarlingx​. you FRIGHTEN ME. in a talented magnificent way.]

Andromeda Black enters the Slytherin Common Room one morning with bright violet hair…

One year later, during Christmas holidays...

[w0tchervie]

[ooc: uh huh it’s “just a crush” ted Tonks SHUT UP - based off of this thing!

ps i filmed this literally five months ago good god]

[w0tchervie]

@littlegingrnut​ in the tags:

wOuLd YoU nOw...

[w0tchervie]

Well, You Aged :)

[ooc: sirius played by @transaurus​!! based off of this textpost]

Incoming call from Sirius Black...

Later, seeing the “Well You Aged :)” cake:

[naruta-deactivated20201013]

listen... i know this might be a hard concept to grasp but... maybe YOU are the racist these posts are talking about...

[naruta-deactivated20201013]

like... read the posts. are all your ships white gay dudes? are the people in your art all white? have you written fanfiction about a person of color? do you draw dark skinned people? have you ever drawn someone south asian? do you use aave to show you’re angry? is your black OC a sassy stereotype? do you post about wanting to live in a castle with your (white) vampire husband and his servants and not see a problem with it? or do you support cottegecore? do you only listen to white artists? are all your favorite actors white? can you even name a single middle eastern celebrity? do you refer to all modesty coverings as “hijabs?” do you pour hours of research into your favorite media and characters and yet don’t do the same for real life people and cultures, and instead inaccurately represent them? do you write about poc hoping you can get by on what knowledge you’ve managed to pick up here and there? do you read the links in the posts you reblog? do you use ambiguous race people for your poc edits instead of finding someone of that ethnicity? do you whitewash? does your favorite media contain racist caricatures? are you even critical of your favorite media? have you donated or do you just reblog for appearance? have you donated more to fanfiction sites than to gofundme’s? do you still support companies and brands after they’re outed as racist? is your activism performative? these are all questions you should ask yourself and i’m just reiterating points made in countless posts.

[arabella-prongs]

the cocktail of exasperation and commitment that comes with defending James Potter to people who have only seen the movie just...hits different!!!!! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

[arabella-prongs]

@w0tchermarauders

[w0tchervie]

@lilydarlingx​ just had to deal with me breaking out in heinous laughter for three minutes with NO EXPLANATION bc I saw this cat and immediately died thank you so much