Literally Trash

Sometimes when an author sees that the fic has activity, it encourages them to continue it.

That's not why I reblog but sometimes it does happen.

There's been lots of talk on here about how there's so little interaction that it's demotivating to authors. Maybe if you read that fic and commented or reached out to the author in a pleasant way, they might come back to it. A little kindness goes a long way.

The reason I’ve done this is that I get comments still from people reading, re-reading, and discovering what’s already there - it’s a real boost to your own interest and confidence in returning to a story.

The idea that fic writers exist in some kind of vacuum and that they ought to be writing “just for themselves” is utter nonsense - if that were the case, these stories wouldn’t be posted at all. They’re up there because people are invested in the characters and are keen to engage with other people who feel the same - but life gets in the way, and enthusiasm and creativity can wane.

Unfinished fics are still worth reading. Many times, they're left in a good place, too, and just because the chapter count indicates it's not done doesn't mean there's not a satisfying conclusion in that last posted chapter.

And you never know--your comment, your reply, your reblog might be the one to inspire the author to posting another chapter. The question you ask about a character's choice or motivation or the theory you pose about what happens next might be what inspires the author to figure it out themselves!

No author wants to leave a fic unfinished. Those hang on us for the rest of our lives. (I have unfinished fics from the Fandom That Shall Not Be Named that still wear on me sometimes, and I have zero intention of going back there again.) There's usually a good reason why we haven't finished them... and most of the time, it's not necessarily lack of engagement, but lack of inspiration.

So comment. Ask questions. Pose theories. Pull out the lines that made you smile or laugh or cry or squeal. Who knows--you might jar that creativity loose, and get us writing again.

And they were like "What?"

And I was like, "Agility isn't the ultimate form of preparedness. Contingency is. Agility still requires you to flounder and figure out a solution in the moment, but if you have a contingency plan, all you have to do is implement it."

And they were like "But you can't make contingency plans for every situation!"

And I was like, "Yeah, you basically can if you just identify all of your basic dependencies and contingency plan around the loss of any dependency," and then I gave a few examples.

And they all stared at me like I'm an alien.

As he described to the interviewer a moment of panic and how he he overcame, the interviewer said, in one of those, summarise-last-answer-given-with-appropriate-levels-of-respect-in-order-to-proceed-to-next-question phrasing’s, “Wow, so you rose to the occasion -“

If you care about Animal Cruelty in Factory Farms, you need to get legislation passed. It must become a crime to mistreat animals in those ways, and when malfeasances occurs, the onus of responsibility for those crimes must fall upon wealthy shoulders. That, also, requires legislation. It requires regulations, and regulators.

The largest source of Microplastics is wear and tear on automobile tires. It doesn’t matter what brand of shampoo you buy. It doesn’t matter which company you support with your dollar. The issue of Public Transit is too large-scale to be handled at anything less than the municipal level.

It’s not enough to just not participate in society

If you want the world to Change, you must leverage the mechanisms of political power.

"The situation of human rights in the United States has attracted significant criticism from foreign governments, foreign press agencies, and non-governmental organizations, alleging widespread civil rights violations such as detention without trial, forced confessions, torture, restrictions of fundamental rights, and excessive use of the death penalty."

"The American constitution states that the "fundamental rights" of citizens include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, universal suffrage, and property rights. However, in practice, these provisions do not afford significant protection against criminal prosecution by the state. The U.S. has limited protections regarding LGBT rights."