disneyfanatic-kitty

Pencil drawing of Wei Wuxian from “The Untamed”

I have drawn so little for the past year or so but thanks for the quarantine, I got the time and mood to finish reading a book, binge watched the whole adaptation series then spent 9 days in drawing a portrait for the first time in a long time. This shot in which he dropped a tear playing the flute was so pretty I had to draw it :P

Happy New Year! My leftover merch is now on my Tictail shop, including my House notebooks! I only have a few of each left, and I’m taking domestic orders at the same time, so you’ll have to be quick.

I’ve also put some of my older prints/merch on sale, as they’re down to the last few - Tictail’s platform is ending its services in April so I don’t think I’ll be selling merch anymore after that. If you wanted any of my old HPCC prints, now is probably the chance :)

As for shipping, it’s still a flat rate of $3.50 for prints, but $6 for the notebooks (+$1 for each additional notebook) because of the weight. I’m offering free shipping for orders over $30 though!

Summary: Harry needs a date to the Yule Ball, and Ron is free. The solution is obvious.

1.8k words, Harry & Ron friendship, mostly gen

Thanks @disneyfanatic-kitty for beta’ing.

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.”

you get paid for it / monetise your writing

you write original fiction not ‘just’ fanfiction

you are published somewhere

somebody else tells you that you fit their definition of ‘being a writer’

everybody knows about your writing including parents, work colleagues, friends, your three dogs, two cats and a tortoise called George

you have very fancy pens and an ink pot

you have a vintage typewriter 

you once went to a murder mystery party where you took on the character of Lady of the Manor, a celebrated diarist with a penchant for poison and beautiful women

You write stuff. Not because you have to, because school projects made you, because you thought you’d give it a shot then hated it, but because you want to.

They make you feel things, those stories you want to tell. They make you feel so much it’s like they’re burning inside you, clamouring for attention, demanding you give them a voice. Stories can be assholes like that.

You watch the world go by and make up new characters based on people on buses and trains, craft new universes on scraps of paper just because you saw this cool gargoyle on a building. You wonder what it would be like if Harry Potter went to university too, and you write about that. You scribble thoughts in diaries, jot down poems in tatty notebooks, spends hours dreaming about characters - yours and other peoples - and you tell stories about them. You study canon and you fill in the gaps, write new endings, choose your own pairings, bring your favourites back from the dead or write your grief as they die all over again. You merge universes, twist tropes, make the devastating fluffy and the fluff dark.

You publish online, you don’t publish online, you don’t publish at all. You write yourself into worlds, you write yourself out of them. You give yourself a world where you can be whoever you want to be or you find catharsis in exploring one where you can’t. You kill your darlings and you bring them back to life. You dream of monsters and demons and envisage worlds where they exist, or you give them human faces and explore where the real evil lies. You write novels in manuscript nobody but you can read and shove them under your bed and dig them out again a decade later when they’re dusty and all the ink has faded. You get a new fountain pen and the first thing you do is write a sonnet about a member of One Direction. You write love letters to your characters, write love letters as your characters, you don’t write love letters at all. You create new worlds, put your own spin on existing ones and you write. 

That’s it. You might not get to call yourself a professional writer, but you’re a writer and somewhere out there is a reader, waiting to pick up your story. 

i thought i’d make an faq filled with every excuse in the book about reposting, for those who still don’t understand why it’s bad…or for people who don’t know what to say in retaliation to these! so here we go. 

first of all, an artist doesn’t even NEED to explain themselves. in the same way with someone who says “dude, make sure that soda is diet” or “please don’t tickle me”. they don’t want you to do it. you don’t need to test them by ignoring them. the reason doesn’t matter: it’s the person’s wish with THEIR things. if you had any respect for others, you’d just take it at that. 

BUT for some people, they don’t want to respect others at face value, and want their reason. (which, i might add, is rude.) so let’s get into that: 

but i’m giving you exposure! isn’t that good?

no. 

you’re not giving artists exposure. for people like myself, freelance artists, you’re hurting us. about a year ago, i sent my portfolio off to an indie game. in it, i had a piece of work that had been reposted (that i didn’t even know about). i was told much later that they “looked into it” and saw that my work was posted by someone else, which means now they have no idea who the artist was, and THEREFORE can’t be sure my work was legit. i lost a potential job to a repost. 

doesn’t matter if you say “i didn’t draw this”. sometimes, they don’t even look. they just look to see if it’s on any site other than your own. and that’s terrifying for artists. so don’t endanger our livelihood for instagram likes. 

besides, you’re not even giving exposure if you didn’t credit, cropped out the signature, or somehow made the resolution so low to where you can’t even see the signature. which brings me to…

but i credited you!

some people still don’t want it reposted even with credit. the last answer should show you one of the many reasons why. 

you’re dictating what i can/cannot put on my page! this is MY page!

and it’s MY art you posted. you can’t take something i did and do whatever you want with it. imagine if you took someones drawing, photocopied it, and spread it all around the town without their permission. they’d have every right to be angry, right?

but you posted it online, which means anyone can do anything with it. so if you don’t want it reposted, don’t post it online!

i have to post my art onto my websites to build a fanbase, something crucial to an artist. it shouldn’t be on ME to not post it in the first place, it should be on YOU to not repost it. you’re just echoing victim-blaming arguments. 

you’re basically saying “if you don’t want to be bullied, don’t exist.” which is a terrible thing to teach people, rather than “be nice and respectful towards others.” yes, i know our world isn’t perfect. but that’s no excuse to contribute to vile things. 

well i would be honored if someone reposted my art. and my friend doesn’t mind reposts, so why should you?

good for you! good for them! but did you know there’s more people in the world other than just you and your friend? we have wishes and feelings too, so you don’t get to project your own emotions onto what WE should be feeling as well. i love peaches. some people don’t like them. that doesn’t mean that now they have to eat peaches because i don’t mind them. 

what an artist creates automatically belongs to society, though. 

go steal the mona lisa and tell me how that works out. 

everyone can VIEW it, yes. artists want others to view their work! we just don’t want you to do stuff with it we asked you not to do. 

WELL THEN SPEAKING OF THAT, since i can’t put your work on redbubble and sell it for myself, why do you have an umbrella of the starry night?? huh?? you STOLE van gogh’s work! (yes people have legit said this to me) 

putting my work on items and selling it is totally illegal. van gogh’s work is owned by companies now, who have authorization to print it on things. and i’m just ONE freelance artist who is, you know, still alive and not giving permission to do that. you can’t compare a dead artist from the 1800s to a digital artist in 2017. apples to oranges, my dude.

well i SAID “credit to the artist” so i DID give you credit!

because saying “the artist” really tells people who i am and lets them visit my websites! thank you so much! 

but all sarcasm aside, that doesn’t do anything other than show you were too lazy to find the artist. same thing with “source: the internet” and “who drew this xD” or misspelling my url on purpose or putting the credit under a cut. OR cropping the image to cut off my signature! you didn’t give me credit. 

it wasn’t on the website i wanted it on! you should have more social media.

i’ll have the social media i want to have. not up to me to make more accounts on more things just so you won’t disrespect me. 

but i don’t remember where i got it. besides, i reposted SOOO much work and saved it all a long time ago. how can i find it now?

reverse google image search is so great.

also, if you didn’t know the artist, that’s a HUGE reason not to repost it in the first place!! you didn’t even know if it was okay since you never got to see their position on that!!

take down your video with stolen fan art. take down your entire fan art twitter account. i don’t care “how hard it was to save those images” or “how many views you have now”. you got all that attention from someone else’s hard work. searching for art will never be as hard as making it. if it were that easy, you’d be drawing all the art yourself. 

but i asked the artist and they didn’t say anything! i assumed it was okay. 

yeah, i feel you. it’s the same thing as when you ask your mom if you can borrow some money, she doesn’t answer, so you just steal it from her purse. no answer means the answer you want to hear, right?

wrong. don’t take “unresponsive” as a yes. that’s disgusting. 

well i honestly don’t care. artists are just selfish. i’ll repost their art if i want to, just to show them how much i hate their stance on reposting. and (insert another really edgy statement here from someone who only says things to get a rise out of people since their life is empty) 

one day you’re gonna come across an artist who has no chill and wants to sue, and can actually do it, since some people put their work under HEAVY copyright. and i’m gonna kick back in my chair with a nice capri sun and watch it all happen, since you have that kind of attitude towards people. 

yes, this whole thing seems a bit. well. “salty”, as some would put it. and i have every right to be irritated over this. all these questions are asking “WHY should i respect their wishes? give me a reason” or “but here is my excuse rather than just taking it down”. time after time, artists are villainized just for telling people not to repost. 

like i said, the artist not wanting you to repost it SHOULD be reason enough! we’re so tired of having to fight people just to have respect for our art. we have to deal with tracing constantly, so can you please take reposting off our plates? i know bad things will always happen, but that’s no reason to make it worse by contributing. 

artists are generously putting our art out there for free. if you want to keep seeing our art for free (btw we don’t HAVE to, all the big artists could just up and leave and go to patreon), maybe show us some respect? because we get pretty dejected when we see strangers getting attention from something we did, and it makes us want to remove everything we show you guys. you say “don’t post it then!” but would be mad if all fan art disappeared. 

Everyone struggles with this feeling. 

Cont- and like depending on the movie the International market/box office (China?) is more important than the US box office– so like ex. Crazy Rich Asians made $174,532,921 in the US, and $238,532,921 US+restofWorld with a Budget of $30M, and it’s considered a hit/success even though. $238+M is not as big as with movies like Black Panther. so like can you explain- Cont- 2/3

Cont 3- Reason why I was asking is cause I was looking at how the Fantastic Beasts Series is doing- and people are saying it’s not doing so good and that worries me.

I’m really worried about the announcement that FB3 got a delayed start of production/filming and people talking that it’s due to FB2 not doing as well box office-wise and I’m terrified it’s gonna get cancelled and we’re not going to get the remaining 3-2 movies. I really loved the Fantastic Beasts movies and want them to do well. :(

It’s funny, but I get a lot of asks just like this one. My attitude is to just wait and see. There’s nothing we can do about it, so think of Newt: “Worrying means you suffer twice.” 😉

You seem to know a lot about the financials already. There’s not much more I can tell you other than that Crimes of Grindelwald was not a financial failure as a film, not remotely. It just didn’t do well in comparison to the other HP films. 

I think you get that when a movie that costs $30M ends up making $238M the profit is more significant than a $100M movie that makes $238M. 

CRA–budget, $30M, gross $238M, profit of $208M

BP had a budget of $200M and made $1.34B (holy shit), which is exceptional, so maybe not he best comparison.

CoG–budget $200M, it made $649M as of January. 

BlacKkKlansman cost $15 and made $48M

Solo cost $250M and made $392M. 

So profit is relative to budget and expectations. It’s always expected that indie films will make a lot less, so their budgets are a lot less to maximise profit. When one does as well as Crazy Rich Asians, it’s unusual. Solo, with it’s huge budget, made much less profit comparatively speaking, so it was a disappointment. Crimes of Grindelwald did okay, but not as well as hoped. (Prisoner of Azkaban made a million or so less than Chamber of Secrets, but then Goblet of Fire’s gross was back at CS levels.)

Box Office Mojo – for anyone interested in this stuff.

Movie studios split box office gross with the movie theaters and in some case with distributors too. They value domestic box office more than international box office because they get a higher split ratio in their domestic gross than international gross. The split ratio in China is among the worst that they only make back about 25% of their gross from China. Indies generally have very little marketing campaign and of course their production budget is always very low that when a movie like CRA makes about 240M from a 30M gross, studio will likely make 50-100M net profit, which is awesome for them when they spent so little into making it. 

For CoG, its production budget was 200M and has made almost 650M. The overall budget would be about 400M. About 75% of its box office gross was international so it got back a smaller split there. It’s certainly not a flop but is definitely a disappointment for WB. When studios spent 200M to make a movie, they’re likely expecting >100M net profit instead of 30M.

Deadline does a most valuable movie blockbuster tournament every year and here’s FB entry for reference. In summary, FB’s budget was 180M, made 812M in box office and studio net profit was about 164M. With a higher budget and lower box office gross, CoG’s net profit will be much lower than that.

https://deadline.com/2017/03/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-box-office-profit-2016-1202052797/

Here’s the studio net profit data of some of 2017′s movies for frame of reference if anyone is interested. 

https://deadline.com/2018/03/most-profitable-movies-2017-star-wars-the-last-jedi-rian-johnson-disney-fox-merger-1202356161/

(2018′s data isn’t released yet but infinity war is said to have made > 600M net profit)

https://deadline.com/2018/05/avengers-infinity-war-box-office-profit-russo-brothers-success-1202382804/

~19 years later~ The scar had not pained Harry. All was well.