you don't need wings to fly

Always have back up of your stuff.

Distraction-free software that helps you write do exist.

Pasting your text from google docs onto AO3 will make it look funny.

There’s a script☆ that solves that problem.

Feedback (or the lack thereof) is never what you expect.

Learn to write for yourself in the first place.

Not everything you write will be the best fic ever™.

You can’t control how people react to your stuff.

No self-deprecation. Seriously.

A good summary attracts people. (No “I suck at summaries” there!)

Punctuation and structure are so important.

Don’t be afraid of using a character’s name. That’s why they have one.

Get a beta reader if you can.

It’s YOUR story and only you can tell it.

DO write that 9861th coffee shop AU for your fandom.

Anything is an AU.

Researching is good but don’t let it keep you from writing.

Tag your stuff accordingly.

Advice you see around aren’t supreme rules set in stone.

You’ll learn more about your style as you go.

Don’t compare your writing to others’. Especially “famous” fic writers.

Perfection doesn’t exist. Stop striving for it and just write.

A rough draft is better than NO story.

It’s okay to move on from an unfinished work to a new one.

It’s okay to not write 200K words in an hour.

Any length of writing is okay. Just focus on telling YOUR story.

Slumps and writer block are common.

You can always improve your writing if you want to.

Read lots and notice what you like in other people’s writing.

If you’re not having fun take a step back.

Set up a sideblog for writing on tumblr.

Tag your stuff accordingly. (both on AO3 and tumblr)

Follow spaces for fanfic discussions like @ao3commentoftheday

There’s no consensus about ANYTHING regarding fanfiction.

You can’t please everyone but you can please yourself.

Some people out there are rude and can’t be reasoned with.

Fanfiction is NOT your job. Don’t feel guilty for “not updating in months”.

Publish your stuff because you want to share it.

Everybody write crappy fics. Write yours.

Game soundtracks (instrumental) are great to play while writing. 

There’s always somebody out there waiting for your fic.

Many times you won’t hear but they exist.

Have fun. Indulge yourself. Treat yo self.

Writing is the best thing but also the worst.

Jot down those ideas. You won’t “remember later”. Seriously you won’t.

Inspiration often hits you when you CAN’T write.

It also often leaves when you can write.

Everybody hates and loves writing. That’s the life of a writer for ya.

Even your fave fic writer can feel ehh about the fic of theirs you LOVE.

Starting from the middle or the end IS a thing.

Here’s the writers who can’t output enough to keep up with the most popular writers.

Here’s to the writers writing even though they get no feedback.

Here’s to the writers who somehow manage to scrape together a little inspiration and a lot of hard work to write that story they know nearly no one will read.

Here’s to the creators who keep going even when it’ feels like screaming into an empty void.

one of the big ones “think of the children” people were upset about was a little book called annie on my mind. the girls were in love, no doubt, but there was no sexual content. they held hands and might have kissed (it’s been a long time since i read it), but absolutely nothing more than that.

and that was the greatest fear of adults. that kids might recognize themselves in girls who called themselves best friends but were also in love.

antis don’t remember how an attempt to “think of the children” led to just another generation who didn’t know anything about gay people other than the super flamboyant dudes you saw on queer eye for the straight guy and will & grace. that’s where we were my entire childhood. tom hanks was allowed to be smart and capable in philadelphia, but he also had aids, the “gay cancer.”

please don’t misunderstand me - i’m not equating queer content with underage or non-con content. but censorship bleeds, just like all forms of authoritarianism does. today we’re censoring content we find abhorrent, like underage stories including romance or sex. and then they ban content about disability and/or mental illness, because children should be protected from uncomfortable content. and then they ban content that discusses racism or other types of oppression. and then they ban content about queer characters of any stripe because, well, queer people are all perverts. fahrenheit 451, which teaches that censorship is wrong, is still banned in many places. they continue to ban books like judy blume’s forever… which depicts teenagers discovering their sexuality. 

(more under the cut, it got long)

None, because that number in the kudos/comments/hits does not measure your effort or passion you have for your own writing.

It could be the popularity of the ship, the trope within a fandom, how large the fandom is or even how many fandom friends a particular writer has made. Maybe that fandom glorifies smut and you don’t feel comfortable writing it, or maybe you prefer an lgbt pairing in a fandom that isn’t open to it. There are so many reasons but in the end, none of them matter because they aren’t going to change how it makes you feel.

It’s really easy to get caught up in numbers or even engage in some “friendly” competition with a writer you admire but the best thing to do is to understand early on that these numbers do not necessarily reflect your ability as a writer. Just let yourself write what you want, what makes you happy. The rest will hopefully come with time.

But even if it doesn’t, think about this. When you look back you won’t remember how many kudos a particular story got as much as you will the experience of writing it. The parts that made you groan in frustration, or giggle or even cry. That’s what you’ll really get out of it!

So if I see “4/?” I am definitely nopeing the hell out of there, no way I’m wasting emotional energy on it. The few times I’ve ignored this rule for myself, I’ve regretted it. (I am mainly a reader, not a writer, but the one multi-chapter fic I wrote, I made sure to specify that I had finished it before posting and was going to post one chapter a week until [projected date.])

I actually really like the idea of a “notify when finished” button, it would save users a lot of time, energy and inbox space if they are like me and refuse to read unfinished stuff.

Most people who discontinue their fics do it because they lost all motivation for it, think no one cares, or something really big happened in their life that made them have to stop.

When it is incomplete it leaves it up to you to imagine all the ways it could’ve ended, which isn’t all that bad honestly. Also if you have short memory or read lots and lots of fics you’ll probably forget about it anyways.

If you introduce a named character with a relationship to a protagonist, their character arc must be resolved in a way that feels reasonable and satisfying

Yes, definitely the porn's fault and not the fact that society is so sex negative that discussing the topic in a neutral, let ALONE positive light, with anyone under 18 is somehow dangerous. Because fuck adequate sex education, amirite, there's not a single kid or teenager that feels sexual desire or is curious about their own bodies. We can ignore that, they don't need to know anything until they're 18/age of majority.

OH WAIT, they're getting BAD IDEAS from Porn? A Thing that is meant for Adults with a complete understanding of sex, consent, and bodily autonomy? Clearly the ONLY possible recourse here is to BAN AND STIGMATIZE sex and porn even MORE.

Why do all TV cops, even the good ones, hate Internal Affairs? Isn’t the job of Internal Affairs to root out the “bad cops”? Isn’t their job to make sure police follow the rules? Why is that presented as inherently evil or antagonistic? 

Why do all TV cops, even the good ones, hate defense attorneys? Isn’t the defense attorney’s job to protect the rights of all citizens? Isn’t it their job to make sure police follow the law? Isn’t it their job to make sure everyone is treated fairly under the system? Why is that presented as inherently evil or antagonistic? 

Why do all TV cops, even the good ones, get upset when citizens invoke their constitutional rights? Don’t those rights exist to ensure all citizens are treated fairly? Don’t they exist to ensure innocent people are not wrongfully incriminated? Why are citizens who invoke their rights presented as dishonest, untrustworthy, or antagonistic? 

To be clear, I’ve watched Brooklyn 99 and enjoyed it. I was watching Elementary the other day. But even when I watch shows I like, I make a mental note every time a cop lies, breaks the law, subverts someone’s basic rights, or just generally acts like an asshole to the people the are meant to serve and protect. 

How often are they called out on their behavior? How often are they punished for it? How often is it reinforced as correct by the narrative?

The time is now.  

Let’s stop the hate and show kindness to each other.  Now is the time to come together as a community. I think most of us want something like this, so why not try to do something about it. It’s possible to set aside differences and show others we care.  

Send a message to that user you’ve been too shy to message.  Leave a kind review.  Let that person you’ve been silently supporting know how much they mean to you.  Send them an ask.  Make a nice comment on their post. Like their posts.  Reblog their posts. There are things we can do.  Easy things.

These two images hit different to me.

The top is my homestate. Michigan. Armed protestors against the stay at home order shouting in the faces of police because they want their haircuts.

The bottom is yesterday. Minnesota. More exact, Minneapolis. Miles from where I live. Protestors sitting while police show up in riot gear as they rightfully protest and demand justice for the murder of George Floyd.