A Specter Haunting Urithiru

For the fourth year in a row now, it's time for Small Fandom Summer! Join me for Small Fandom Summer! It's real easy to play:

Make a fanwork for something that has fewer than 1000 English-language works on AO3

Post it to AO3

And then you've done it! You've made a thing and you've diversified the fandom ecosystem! You're basically a hero.

Q: The fandom I want to create for has more than 1000 English-language works on AO3, but the specific pairing I want to write for has fewer than that. Does that count? A: Yes! Q: What if it has more than 1000 English-language works on AO3, but, like, just barely? A: Okay! Q: What if it actually has a lot more than 1000 English-language works on AO3, but it still feels small? A: Sure! Q: What if I don't want to post it to AO3? What if I don't even have an AO3 account? Can I post it somewhere else? A: Wherever! Q: What if-- A: Just do a thing, friend. Make a thing. Share the thing. This is not meant to be restrictive; this is meant to be inspirational. Create the fanworks you want to see in the world. Make a stranger happy by appealing to their niche interests. Bring joy.

And if you want to give yourself some silly little Steam-like achievement badges to commemorate your accomplishments, well, you're in luck! I've made a bunch of them right here! You can grab the ones that apply to your work and paste them wherever you like and feel good about what you've done. Here's a few of my favorites:

So you see? This is meant to be silly and fun.

There's nowhere to sign up. There's nothing to commit to. There's zero pressure. You just do it if you do it, and don't if you don't. But if you do want to play (yay!), tag your stuff with #small fandom summer so we can all swoop in and appreciate everyone else's efforts.

Green icon of a magnifying class over a beetle. Who's That Boy? (wrote for a character that previously had no AO3 tag)

Orange icon of a tape measure. Size Matters (wrote the longest fic to date in the fandom)

Grey icon of two women holding hands. Lesbifriends (wrote the first F/F fic in the fandom)

Yellow icon of a smiling face surrounded by hearts. My Special Person (wrote something because you knew that one person who'd appreciate it)

Blue icon of an elephant and a mouse. Lorge and Smol (wrote a crossover between a fandom with more than 1000 works and a small fandom)

Grey icon of handcuffs. Testing the Waters (this had better not awake anything in you)

Yellow icon of two fish approaching a hook. Hooked! (wrote something for the first time and are already planning on writing something else for it)

Comic tiiiiime!!! The amazing @2shards donated an incredible generous amount for an art in the @fandomtrumpshate auction this year. So I offered to draw a small scene of their choice and that was Moash catching a whip with his bare hand in Oathbringer chapter 48. Very heroic! Very cool. I redrew that stupid punch so many times. But I am so happy that it all worked out, since I managed to hand 2shards a printed (and by happenstance bound) and signed copy of this at MCM in London! I hope (and am sure) we will see many more cool fanworks popping up over the year from the FTH auction, so keep your eyes peeled and perhaps consider joining next year ;) The beautiful alt-texts are written by @2shards with small additions and changes by me. :)

those alethi style uniforms really get in the way

I'm not great at using GIMP but spite fueled me. Thanks to @that-androgynous-lightweaver for informing me that this WoB said that he pictured Skai aka Dominion to use she/her pronouns. (Though he did say that was subject to change).

Tumblr fell silent. Finally, the Mistborn authors raised their hands. “We only make up 20% of Cosmere fic. It’s depressing how everything is so Stormlight-focused.” Then the gen-only authors raised their hands. “65% of all Cosmere fic is shipfic,” they added sadly. Then several others raised their hands, including the kadolin authors. “We only have 500 fics, just 13% of Cosmere fic. It’s so few compared to Supernatural, or Heated Rivalry.”

“Kadolin authors, I didn't know you felt this way,” Cosmereplay noted.

“Oh. Yeah, but we do. We feel it too, Cosmereplay.” They glanced down at their hands, calloused from writing 100k fics for each other. “There’s so much pressure. We don’t know if we can keep this up.”

“I still have nightmares,” the Kaladin/reader authors said softly, “about the way Reddit treats slash reader and slash OC fic, and how they treat female fans generally. We’re so ostracized. Anyone else?”

“Nobody cares about female characters, either,” the femslash authors added. “Femslash makes up less than 10% of Cosmere fics despite having so many female characters. It’s hard to get people to care.”

“Я пишу по-русски,” the Russian authors said. “Меня это раздражает, потому что английский доминирует в фандоме.”

A few glanced at the Moashfuckers.

“What?” the Moashfuckers demanded. “You expect this to be a feeling-sharing party because the storming fandom-old gave you a sour eye? Storm off. It’s a miracle I haven’t ragequit this fandom entirely, having to deal with all the #FuckMoash from everyone.”

The Elantris lovers patted them on the shoulder.

And if you try some things and you’re still discouraged and you’re not having a good time in the fandom, it’s totally okay to take a break and focus on some stuff in your 3D world. Read a different book, do a different hobby for a while. This is supposed to be fun, so it’s sad, but not bad, if you discover that this fandom isn’t working for you right now.

So how to keep it fun? The way we grow and thrive as a community is by supporting each other. The only way we keep each other buoyed is to lift each other up! Here’s some ideas:

If you’ve run out of Mistborn fic, why not try a crossover with one of your favourite characters in it?

If you’re yearning for a specific ship, why not browse and open your heart to a different rarepair with some similar qualities?

If you’re an artist struggling to get your favourite ship seen, why not reach out to a fic writer and offer an exchange?

If you see fans complaining about racism in the fandom, why not take some time to follow @writing-with-color and expand your understanding?

If you see your favourite pairing in a language you don’t read, why not read it through google translate?

If you have a favourite fic, why not go back and comment on it (again) to encourage the authors of the things you like?

If you don't know what might interest you, why not check the bookmarks of authors you like, and see what their favourite fics are?

If there’s only a couple other people active right now who share your OTP, why not invite them into a 5 person discord and giggle with each other?

You have 13 (13!!!) days until the beginning of June, at which point the collection (https://archiveofourown.org/collections/StormlightQueerathon2026) will open! It will stay open for the entire duration of June.

I considered making prompts or similar for this year, but I don't think I will. Anyone is free to write what they wish (as long as it's sufficiently queer), any length, any style. Just as long as it has some amount of effort put into it.

The Scadrian ones are actually fairly sane and are like "yay teamwork" and just want to protect the planet. That really isn't that bad.

Meanwhile the Rosharan branch is addicted to Stormlight and can't stop attempting murder (and failing because Shallan exists). These guys suck, honestly.

kaladin and shallan have two ends of the 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' story within a corrupt system while dalinar realizes from his position as an embodiment of the system that corruption exists. there are good moments here and good themes, hope and perseverance and don't kill yourself etc. (neoliberal slop)

then we get moash and the parshmen are people reveal. the ambiguity of the moash storyline is what makes it compelling. if there wasn't a case to be made from both sides then it doesn't work. the audience needs to be with kaladin all the way through even as he helps and then ultimately betrays moash. parshmen slaves being full sentient beings is a slight subversion of a sort of house elf trope, but not unexpected. we have had rlain the whole time as a tease that things are not what they seem.

oathbringer is where it all comes together to get to the point where reality and fantasy are almost merging. humans conquered the continent and subjugated and exterminated the natives and their culture. your way of life, even if you can't abandon it was built on genocide and slave labor. can you still participate in that and consider yourself a good person?

and then RoW shows that Brandon isn't ready to write these books. he regresses back into fantasy, dropping the ball on the moral rolling stone that has been building momentum since minute one. all nuance is written out and it becomes a straightforward fight between good and evil.

the way odium and the fused were written means that any doylist critique can be given a watsonian answer.

q: should the land of the continent that was violently conquered be given back to its original inhabitants?

a: no because they worship an evil god.

q: when, if ever, is revolutionary violence justified?

a: never, he told his best friend to kill himself.