we've been here before

The Conqueror's dagger

Aemond & Aegon II | Ewan Mitchell & Tom Glynn-Carney House of the Dragon | 2.04

Well, sometimes it’s longer than anything on God’s green earth needs to be, but my point is that there’s really no rules about fic length.  In traditional publishing there’s this awkward middle where nobody wants to print a novella that’s too long for a short story collection but doesn’t really fill out a book.  Ebooks have changed that somewhat but it’s still a convention that a book is about 75,000 words.

Fanfic is not bound by this standard.  If your story takes 25,000 words to tell, then you can do that, and there are readers for whom that’s a sweet spot.  If you just want to keep going and going for 350,000 words and beyond, nobody’s going to say “only famous authors with grand ideas get to do that”–text is low bandwidth and there are readers who will love the feeling that your story is a home where they’re invited to stay as long as they like.

That’s pride alright lmfao

“When I was growing up, my parents spoke to each other in Spanish, but they didn’t speak to us in Spanish because they were told not to. In school we weren’t allowed to speak it.”

and also???

“… But America is the only country that promotes monolingualism. Here it’s English, English, English. Every other country makes their children learn a second language very early on. So as my political and social activism grew, I was like, ‘I really need to learn Spanish.’ So I did.“ 

idk how many people i’ve known growing up in texas whose parents speak fluent spanish but they don’t speak a lick solely because their parents were afraid or told not to teach their children. it’s unspeakably common and doesn’t in any way shape or form diminish someone’s claim to or pride in their heritage. 

Write 10 pages in one go, holy shit, my hands won’t stop moving, Imma get this fic done in like 2 hours WUT

In most cases, I recommend:

Remembering why you wanted to write this story in the first place

Fantasizing about how people might happily regard it/its themes/its characters

Remembering where it’s supposed to go (if you have some sort of scene/event/relationship you planned for that has yet to come about)

Discussing the story with someone who listens eagerly and is supportive

Reminding yourself that it’s absolutely normal to lose interest from time to time; usually it means you’re in a tough spot creatively or with the story in general, and that’s alright.