âcoming from a place of respectâ there is nothing respectful about a comment like this. this is exactly why I say witch hunt, speculations and accusations harm the writing community as much as ai does, if not more.
I am not saying âyouâre an asshole if you think a fic is aiâ. I have come across fics that I believe were ai-generated. but instead of asking (accusing) the authors, I make my own decisions whether Iâll continue reading for the benefit of the doubt or quietly exit the fics and look for something else to read.
because with every accusation like this, thereâs always a chance of a genuine, innocent writer getting wrongly accused.
last but not least, fanfic writers do NOT owe you anything. they write for themselves and their own enjoyment. their ao3 accounts are their houses and they were kind enough to let you in their houses. for free. (you get to read things for free.) you donât go into other peopleâs houses and tell them âactually I think the way you decorate your room is sus. did you actually do it yourself or did you ask a robot to do it for you?â. THEY đđť DONâT đđť OWE đđť YOU đđť ANYTHING. and I say this as someone who is not a fan of ai fics. if you donât like what youâre seeing, quietly leave.
*the following is not about the fic in this specific post. in general, I still strongly believe people who let ai write for them should tag their works as ai accordingly. but if we want more people to be honest about it, weâll have to stop shaming and harassing people who actually tag their ai-generated fics accordingly. harassment is never justified. not to mention, it will only make âai writersâ refrain from tagging their ai-generated works as such. and then thereâs no way for anyone to know for absolute certainty if itâs ai. therefore the raise of witch hunt.
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"Should parents read their daughter's texts or monitor her online activity for bad language and inappropriate content?"
Earlier today, I served as the âyoung womanâs voiceâ in a panel of local experts at a Girl Scouts speaking event. One question for the panel was something to the effect of, âShould parents read their daughterâs texts or monitor her online activity for bad language and inappropriate content?â
I was surprised when the first panelist answered the question as if it were about cyberbullying. The adult audience nodded sagely as she spoke about the importance of protecting children online.
I reached for the microphone next. I said, âAs far as reading your childâs texts or logging into their social media profiles, I would say 99.9% of the time, do not do that.â
Looks of total shock answered me. I actually saw heads jerk back in surprise. Even some of my fellow panelists blinked.
Everyone stared as I explained that going behind a childâs back in such a way severs the bond of trust with the parent. When I said, âThis is the most effective way to ensure that your child never tells you anything,â it was like Iâd delivered a revelation.
Itâs easy to talk about the disconnect between the old and the young, but I donât think Iâd ever been so slapped in the face by the reality of it. It was clear that for most of the parents I spoke to, the idea of such actions as a violation had never occurred to them at all.
It alarms me how quickly adults forget that children are people.
Apparently people are rediscovering this post somehow and I think thatâs pretty cool! Having experienced similar violations of trust in my youth, this is an important issue to me, so I want to add my personal story:
Around age 13, I tried to express to my mother that I thought I might have clinical depression, and she snapped at me ânot to joke about things like that.â I stopped telling my mother when I felt depressed.
Around age 15, I caught my mother reading my diary. She confessed that any time she saw me write in my diary, she would sneak into my room and read it, because I only wrote when I was upset. I stopped keeping a diary.
Around age 18, I had an emotional breakdown while on vacation because I didnât want to go to college. I ended up seeing a therapist for - surprise surprise - depression.
Around age 21, I spoke on this panel with my mother in the audience, and afterwards I mentioned the diary incident to her with respect to this particular Q&A. Her eyes welled up, and she said, âYou know I read those because I was worried you were depressed and going to hurt yourself, right?â
TL;DR: When you invade your childâs privacy, you communicate three things:
You do not respect their rights as an individual.
You do not trust them to navigate problems or seek help on their own.
You probably havenât been listening to them.
Information about almost every issue that you think you have to snoop for can probably be obtained by communicating with and listening to your child.
Part of me is really excited to see that the original post got 200 notes because holy crap 200 notes, and part of me is really saddened that something so negative has resonated with so many people.
so the first four hoards were so popular that theyve become kind of on ongoing series ! some of the ones here feature the commissioners ocs and personal items, but ALL of them involve things very dear to me: weird lizards on piles of junk
This interview with Ncuti Gatwa crossed my dash again, and I was reminded of how much I like it. Because it makes the rare Third Argument for representation in fiction, the argument I think is the best, and I'm always happy to see it. I quote:
At times, Gatwaâs casting in those projects has been dismissed as an exercise in âbox-tickingâ. Gatwa scoffs. âFirst of all, you donât know anything about me. Secondly, tick fcking boxes! People need to be fcking seen. What are you going to do, tell the same stories? Have the same people fronting things for all of eternity? Representation and inclusivity and branching out⌠it enriches us all. How embarrassing. You people with your tiny mindsets â open a book, look out the window and then f*ck off.â (source)
What do I mean by the Third Argument? Well, I'm not sure I've ever made a post about this directly, but as far as I can see it, there are three main arguments for greater diversity in popular media. The first two are the most common, and they go like this:
It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see people like them on screen. That is, the beneficiaries are marginalized people.
It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see and learn about people who are not like them through art. That is, the beneficiaries are non-marginalized people, who then (hopefully) pass on the benefit by treating marginalized people better.
These two arguments are the source of a lot of debate here on ye olde tumblr. Despite both being arguments for representation, they pull in different directions. What counts as 'good' representation for the purposes of Argument 1 often would not be good for the purposes of Argument 2, and vice versa. Authentic versus sympathetic. Ugly or over-sanitized. You see this debate play out constantly. It's really hard for a piece of - say - queer media to do both at once.
But these debates tend to leave out Argument 3, the one that Gatwa is making above. And that argument cuts through a lot of this debate.
3. It is good for media to be diverse because art needs variety. The beneficiary of representation is art itself, absent any social effects that may or may not be present.
For this argument, diverse stories are intrinsically good. It is good to make art that's not just the same thing you've seen a hundred times before. Putting the kinds of people who don't often make it into mainstream media into your art is an extremely efficient way to make that happen. It's not the only method, but it's a really good method.
For representation to be 'good representation' according to Argument 3, all it needs to be is interesting. A story you haven't heard before, at least not in that medium. That which counts as 'bad representation' by the lights of this argument are stock characters, like the Eternally Patient Mother, the Gay Best Friend, the Wise Black Advisor. Perhaps there was a time in which these characters were new, but that time has long passed. There's no art in pulling a bog-standard character trope off the shelf. Show us a new kind of guy. The world is infinitely diverse. You're not going to run out. Telling the same stories with the same voices for all eternity, as Gatwa says, is boring. Even if there was nothing else wrong with it, this would be. Art isn't supposed to be boring.
And that's why Argument 3 is my favourite. I do want the world to be a better place, of course, and I think art is a part of that. But the main job of art is to be good as art. And diversity in all aspects of the production of art makes art better.
Happy 4th anniversary to The Brownstone!!! With the start of summer and our anniversary coming round again it is time for another fic exchange! This yearâs event is Trope Trade, where participants will submit two fanfic tropes for another writer to merge into a fic.Â
For ease of event communication, all participants must be members of The Brownstone discord, so join the server here for more info and the sign-up link in our announcement channel!
You can sign up for the event now through June 19th. Prompts and more information will be sent via email on June 22nd. Fics will be due August 2nd.
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iâve warmed up significantly towards the concept of small talk ever since i learned that its sole purpose is to make friendly noises.
as long as you smile and nod, people are satisfied. itâs just to show that you are nice and there with good intentions. weâre small in a big world and have to rely on other people to be decent to us. so we do our little human dance to each other to say, âiâm not here to hurt you. hereâs something we have in common, like the weather or sports or itchy sweaters, so we both know weâre on the same team. we both agree on a basic fact, like that it is rainy or that being itchy is uncomfortable, and this proves we can get along. iâm being light-hearted and non-threatening right now.â
small talk isnât to get to know a person. itâs just a greeting to affirm youâre buddies in the universe.
i am motivated by wanting the other person to know i am friendly, so i have gotten pretty decent at small talk when i used to hate it.
idea dump / hollanov/hr fics that i'm not writing but would love to read:
*includes canon compliance, divergence, and au's, some nsfw, a mention of eating disorders and depression, and also maybe some slight spoilers for tlg* *there might be typos sorry*
putting under the cut because this got hella long oops
non famous ilya au where he owns a dog shelter and the voyageurs/metros come in for a charity thing. ilya is in a bad mood because he wants the dogs to go to good, loving homes and not just get adopted because shane hollander touched them and mostly stays in the back while they're there. he brings anya to work with him every day (sheâs registered as ilyaâs ESP) and she roams the shelter freely and runs into shane, who he immediately hits it off with when shane is taking a break from the crowds. shane asks if anya is available for adoption and they say definitely not, that's ilya's dog, so then he finds ilya and asks if he can 'rent out' anya for walks or hangouts and ilya wants to say no but anya is so attached to him and he canât bring himself to tell shane sheâs an emotional support dog so he says yes.
shane and hayden iconic audhd duoÂ
shane is the medic for boston that always gets called up when rozanov gets into fightsÂ
a deep dive into the movies that shane watches on the planesÂ
david starts calling or texting ilya regularly because thatâs what he does with shane. sending random things about his day or asking how heâs doing. at first ilya is concerned that something is wrong or david needs something, and then heâs a little bitter because he thinks âoh heâs just checking on me so often probably to make sure that iâm 'staying in line' and not doing anything to embarrass them or hurt shane etc. but then when he finally brings it up to shane shane is like no thatâs literally just what heâs like thatâs exactly how he treats me. and actually iâm a little surprised he warmed up to you so quickly heâs not usually good with new people. and then ilya is emotional that david is treating him like he would a son and it becomes something special for them
shane and ilya have their first big fight after being married or getting serious (canon or non canon). in the aftermath, ilya expects shaneâs parents to side with shane and for himself to have no one while he spirals. one of shaneâs parents shows up to see how heâs doing + assures him that things will be okay
meddling yuna approaches ilya outside the prospects instead of shane and asks him to befriend shane, both for optics and for shaneâs protection because heâs fearless and untouchable on the ice but off of it heâs going to need someone tough to lean on and be friends with, and yuna has done her homework and decided that ilya rozanov is the best choice. could be fluff where ilya ends up really grateful for it, or could be angst when shane eventually finds out what happened
more college/uni auâs where shane canât stand fuckboy frat ilya but also possesses a visceral need to get on his knees for him to escape the intense physical and mental pressure of literally everything else in his life
hanahaki or soulmate au with a twist where itâs all items that are important to them â shane is coughing up cigarette ash, ilya can't get the aftertaste of ginger ale out of his mouth, etc.
maybe a non-hockey au? - when alexei/andrei proves that he cannot be trusted to be a caregiver, ilya moves his father to boston as his dementia worsens and hires shane to be his live-in caretaker but is explicitly clear that his father has been known to get violent sometimes, shane assures ilya that he can handle it if it comes to that. (hockey background? idk) as time goes on ilya starts getting used to having someone else in the house/coming home to someone, he and shane start eating dinner together late and talking, could lead to more. could be dramatic (ie maybe alexei walks in on them in a compromising position which would threaten shane's job and their father's care etc.) or could focus more on the sweeter aspects and hurt/comfort of their relationship as they get to know each other
tlg survivor style team bonding -- centaur's plane goes down and they end up in the wilderness somewhere and ilya, as captain, has to keep everyone together and alive until help comesÂ
someone in the MLH/NHL runs a gossip girl style blog about the players
post coming out, ilya and shane are scheduled to do one of those interviews where kids get to ask them questions. neither of them are emotionally prepared for it; maybe written epistolary style like a transcript or something
more of the 'cup wish' trope -- i can't find a good definition to link to but it's similar to the 'wish babies' trope; to my knowledge it's a wish you get to make after you win the cup (possibly maybe for a second time in a row, etc) and nothing's off limits. I've only seen a couple like this but the opportunity for magical realism or shit like two ilya's or two shane's etc. would fit soooooo well here. THERE ARE NO RULES
two sportscasters / sports podcasters from montreal and boston fall in love in a parallel timeline to hollanov, enemies to lovers, maybe again epistolary style told through transcripts or socials etc.
SCOTT HUNTER AND SHANE HOLLANDER HAVE THE SAME INITIALS. I DON'T THINK WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THIS ENOUGH. maybe ilya sees S.H. on a roster of room numbers at the all stars and goes to the room and scott hunter opens the door. maybe there's a bag with the tag S.H. and one of them picks up the wrong one and they have to swap back pretending like they haven't seen something super incriminating or embarrassing. there's so much possibility
librarian shane + ilya who can never manage to stick to the quiet rule
ilya has asked to sleep on shaneâs floor multiple times randomly throughout their arrangement without sex, and shaneâs learned not to question it when he shows up in the middle of the night fresh off a flight or a long drive with no explanation but not seeming drunk, just quiet, then gone by morning. they don't talk about it. eventually (either post-relationship when they're reminiscing, or written in real time) shane finds out that those are the times ilya doesn't trust himself to be alone and shane is perfect for it because he's so structured, reminds ilya to eat and drink and shower, is firm but never mean and doesn't ask questions or call him lazy, asks him not to drink or smoke because he wants ilya to stick around and that's nice.
MORE MOMMY KINK (who said that)
rose gets approached to do a sponsorship for rose toys (would be even funnier if this happened while she was still with shane) might be cool told through a social media format or something
plots with a glory hole. you canNOT tell me shane hollander wouldn't love the FUCK out of a glory hole. anonymity? check. sucking dick? check. being on his knees? CHECK! he'd loveeee to see how many he could take and how long he could go for. technically I guess this would require more than just shane/ilya but it could be written as like past tense shane telling ilya about it and ilya getting off on it idk. lots of potential for the slut shane hollander tag
ilya is sick and everyone is shocked shane is staying there and taking care of ilya and ilyaâs like ?? ok but then he finds out maybe from yuna and david that shane HATES illness and refuses to be around it, usually avoids sick people at all costs, and here ilya has been asking for cuddles and letting shane push his hair back, rub his shoulders, give him medicine, kiss him feed him etc â when confronted about it (maybe also by his parents) shane is a little embarrassed but just shrugs and says itâs different this time, sickfic, fluff
shane as clark kentÂ
the MLH/NHL does a slutty men's hockey calendar (for charity sdjhfgksjghf)
svetlana x rose -- when shane and ilya are officially out and playing for the centaurs, rose and svetlana have reserved seats in their section whenever they're in town. right next to each other. rose is oblivious, but sveta has an idea she knows exactly what ilyaâs up toÂ
shane is learning russian. ilya gives him homework sometimes. like cute nicknames, or watching a movie with no subtitles. or forbidding him from speaking anything other than ilyaâs language when heâs fucking shane so good he forgets how to speak altogether
as part of a hazing ritual, shaneâs team convinces him that the winnerâs room is a real thing. after their first loss to boston, he gets sent by them to rozanov's room to take one for the team. shane goes. (my personal hc is that shane would freak the fuck out and ilya would have to calm him down (and ilya would be hella mad that his team did this bc someone else would have majorly taken advantage) and he tells Shane if he wants to do anything NOT because he has to then he can come and find ilya another time. and shane is like. hey. what. is that an option. and then he indeed goes to find him next time and canon situationship ensues) but it could go a lot of different ways
'cheat days' / shane eating disorder exploration; ilya gets hungry after sex and one of the first times they sleep together room service comes before shane's finished showering and he's like. this is a LOT of food, rozanov. and ilya (already digging in with his hands, eating on the bed, still mostly naked) is like ok and? you want some? and somehow it starts this pattern of eating together after hooking up which is sort of a love language all its own. (my hc for shane tends to ping pong between orthorexia or just plain old ocd 'right' and 'wrong' foods, but I think it'd be fun to dig into the way rozanov's shamelessness both about sex and hunger could affect the way that shane deals with food over the years. do these 'cheat days' make him even more restrictive outside of their meetings? do they actually end up breaking him out of an unhealthy cycle? how close does this pattern tie his appetite for food with his need for sex/ilya? etc)
pediatric nurse ilya, uncle shane brings in one of haydenâs kids
I've said it once and i'll say it again THE BALCONY DOOR IS OPEN IN THE VEGAS SCENE and no one closes it on-screen before they get freaky. are we thinking about the implications of this. are we
I have a personal hc that shane has a massive object insertion kink. like yeah the dildo is nice and it serves its purpose but the inherent shame and humiliation of using something NOT meant for sex to get himself off? and then ilya finding out about it? encouraging it? touching random things in shane's apartment and asking if he's used it to make himself feel good? giving him ideas and shane acting like it's fucking disgusting knowing that he's going to do it anyway because ilya told him to? yeah. anyway.
horse girl hollander. I have no specifics for this it could go literally any way
pilot shane and flight attendant ilya
--
ok that's all for now <3 PLEASE LET ME KNOW A) if there are any existing fics already with any of these premises, and B) if you want to write one or something similar so I can bite my fist and sit on the edge of my seat until it's finished
"Will you marry me?"
"I don't think now's the best time!?"
"Now may be the only time!"
Is there a fictional wedding better than Elizabeth and Will's? I don't believe so... And you know my thing for pirates so, here's my piece for the 2026 edition of @rwrbzines, "Love on purpose: a Red, White & Royal Wedding zine". Check out all the other artworks, everyone worked so hard đŠľ
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i promise not every fandom-related opinion you have has to be a 'hot take'. something is not inherently more important or edgier or more brave just because it's framed that way.
this new wave of fandom seems to be obsessed with operating only within the confines of canon material while simultaneously shitting on it. and it makes for this weird counterculture of fanon - not even actual canon - that dictates you must follow it in order for your fic/art/fanwork to be 'good' and 'right' and if it doesn't tick all the popular (usually contradictory) boxes then 'that's fine that's your opinion just know me and everyone else think you're wrong and stupid! <3' it's such a 'you can't sit with us' type of vibe and is quite literally the opposite of what fandom is supposed to be.
fandom doesn't have rules but it does have an etiquette. that's what keeps it alive and keeps providing the content that enables us to have fanon hc's, beautiful art, amazing fics, fan communities and friendships, etc., and that's also why so many people are distancing themselves or straight up leaving right now. you put good in, you get good out.
Not once you graduate, or by the time youâre the youngest elected congressman in modern history, or in your five or ten or twenty year plans for everything thatâs going to happen after that, but right now. What do you want the most out of this year, Alex?
For what might be the first time in his whole entire life, the answer is surprisingly simple, right there at the forefront of his mind in an instant without him even having to search for it.
Or: the epilogue - because the best part of the happy ending is getting to live in it.Â
I could never, ever have enough of you: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64206118/chapters/216207231
a little soviet space race propaganda inspired design for @opal-apparitionâs gorgeous fic apogee
special mention to Alexei Leonov and the random Canadian & Russian astronauts whose spacesuits i looked at for this i <3 insignias and workwear and yaoi
Itâs like you literally plucked this out of my head and polished it into the most perfect thing ever! I love these so much, especially their uniforms and Ilyaâs EVA suit!!!
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Allows you to choose the origin of where you want the name to be from, whether you want a more feminine vs masculine vs androgenous name (as voted by users), random surname generator, and clicking on the name gives you important info like if there are any famous people with the same name, where itâs from, how common it is, and how people tend to see it, etc.
You can also search their name database by letter or meaning or origin, so if you know you want a character who has a name/surname that starts with an A from Ireland, thereâs a whole list for you to choose from.
Census sites
Especially useful if youâre looking for a name from a specific place and/or time period. Just search â(country) census (year)â and youâll find a database of real people who lived in that place at that time. No one can ever call your names unrealistic again.
For coming up with place names:
Fantasy name generator
This site can basically come up with any name for any person, place, or thing you might ever need. There are also specific generators for different fandoms if youâre looking to make an OC in an established world.
For finding that one word on the tip of your tongue:
One Look Thesaurus
This is my go-to. Not only can you find synonyms like a regular thesaurus, but you can also describe words like âunhappy smileâ or âquiet laughâ to find the more specific word youâre looking for.
For coming up with ideas:
Word cloud
When I need to inspire a new idea, I write down all the things Iâm interested in (hauntings, academia, lesbians, etc.) and put them into a word cloud to shuffle them next to each other. Sometimes seeing a concept in a new context can spark new ideas!
WWF Discord
This is my discord channel (shameless plug) for when you need to brainstorm off other people but donât have anyone irl to talk to. Weâre also happy to read and give feedback on writing, answer writing questions, or just chat!
For visualizing places and characters:
Pinterest
Pinterest can at times be a bit too sterile for my tastes, but if you use the right words, you can find more realistic photos of places. For example, adding âaestheticâ after basically any word will bring up a more broad collection of photos to help you flesh out places.
This is also a great way to find photos of people and fashion to help visualize characters. Iâm bad at describing clothes, so I usually collect photos of outfits to help me know what my characters are wearing. Searching up âcharacter inspirationâ will collect more interesting photos and drawings of people who might not exactly be of our world.
(However, to make Pinterest not show you AI results, you have to go into your settings and check the âreduce AIâ box. Luckily, it does mostly work.)
Death to Stock
Like pinterest but completely AI free (hooray!) Only drawback is that you have to pay a monthly subscription (about $20 CAD).
Cosmos
Very similar to pinterest but slightly more "artsy". I'm not super familiar with this one but I believe all the photos are human and you can save them and create collections with a free account.
Dupe Photos
Royalty-free stock image site with very Pinterest-core photos!
Minecraft
If you havenât built your entire fictional city in Minecraft instead of writing, why not? Itâs fun.
The Sims
This one is dual purpose because you can not only create your characters in Create a Sim, but you can design their houses. If you really want to go for it, you can bulldoze all the lots in your town and build your world from scratch.
For checking grammar:
Grammar Girl
Easy to follow definitions and examples, and if you learn better by listening, every article comes with a podcast to follow along with instead.
Grammar Monster
This one is my favourite for checking grammar rules because thereâs tons of examples in graphics that helps for any situation.
Reedsy
Among other things, reedsy can connect you to professional editors within your budget.
For writing advice:
One Stop for Writers
This one was recommended from my discord channel and has all sorts of tutorials and resources for the writing craft.
My Blog Directory
Another shameless plug, but if you need writing advice on something specific, you can search through my directory to see if itâs there. If it isnât, you can always send me an ask about it!
For an alternative to Google Docs:
Ellipsus
Think google docs but without AI. Yay!
(will update this list with any more suggestions or resources I discover đ)
Still, Henry shakes his head and teases, âWhatever will you do without all those figure skaters and their short skirts around?â
âFuck off, asshole!â Alex huffs with a laugh, shoving him hard in the shoulder, only to hook his arm around Henryâs neck and drag him closer. âOnly thing I need for my Olympic experience is four gold medals. Besides, I got you to bug the shit out of. What more do I need?â
(Henry isn't expecting much out of his third Olympicsâstill climbing up the world ranks after an injury, he's not in the medal conversation, no matter how much his best friend and chief competitor, Alex Claremont-Diaz, might insist otherwise. After all, Alex is far and away the gold medal favourite, ranked first in the world and damn near uncatchable on a piste lately. Between that and the fact that they're hundreds of kilometres away from most of the other Olympic venues, he expects the games to be relatively quiet. Low key. Downright unremarkable.
He couldn't be more wrong.)
E, 15.4k, Olympic Alpine Skiing Rivals AU. Read it on AO3
if music be the food of love, play on @curledupfox - Tumblr Blog | Tumlook
