follow your memes

Yeah, you don’t have to be good at things. It’s not a requirement. Maybe that seems obvious but it had never occurred to me before. You’re allowed to just enjoy what you’re doing. For me, that feels like a life changing revelation. I don’t have to be good at something to like it. I don’t have to put 100% effort into everything I do. It’s kind of amazing.

One of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever received is that if you can’t envision yourself dropping the mic and strutting off stage at the end of your conclusion then it’s probably not strong enough.

^Haiku^bot^0.4. Sometimes I do stupid things (but I have improved with syllables!). Beep-boop!

^Haiku^bot^0.4. Sometimes I do stupid things (but I have improved with syllables!). Beep-boop!

🌼 

crypid doodles

In all fairness, it’s a VERY good picture.

* Toddler Harry with his little leather jacket just like Sirius’s * Sirius, in dog form, carrying toddler Harry all around the house on his back * Because Sirius and Remus don’t want to act like they’re replacing Harry’s parents, he grows up using “my Moony” and “my Pads” the way most people say “my mum and dad”. * When Harry was little, he was scared of thunderstorms. He’d run and hide under Remus’s oversized sweater, wrapping his arms around Remus and shaking. * Sirius always made pancakes in crazy shapes- a snitch, a broomstick, a dragon, a castle- and sometimes in different colors with food dye. * Little Harry not understanding why his Moony had to lock himself in the basement for the night once a month * At night, Remus would read Harry bedtime stories, both the Tales of Beedle the Bard and the Grimm Brothers stories, because that’s what Lily would have wanted. * Harry jumping up and down with excitement when Sirius and Remus decide he’s old enough for a real broomstick * When they went out shopping, Harry would hold both his guardians’ hands and jump in the air and swing between them for a second every couple steps * When Remus and Sirius were busy, Andromeda would babysit. Harry loved playing with his older “cousin”, Tonks. * After a very eventful trip to the park during which they discovered Harry was a parselmouth, they bought him a pet snake, which he named Sherman. At first, Remus wasn’t very happy about it (he didn’t much like snakes), but then he noticed that Harry’s room stayed cleaner than it normally did. When asked, Harry revealed that Sherman had started refusing to play with him until he did his tidying. After that, Remus was rather fond of the creature. * Ignoring protests from Sirius, Remus bought Harry a few academic books (Elementary Transfiguration, Defense for Dummies, A Simplified History of Magic, etc.) a full year before he got his Hogwarts letter. * Harry always writing his name as Harry L. B. Potter (for Lupin-Black), because he wanted to acknowledge them as his parents without giving up his connection to Lily and James * Sirius tearing up when he and Remus put Harry on the Hogwarts Express for the first time * The Weasley twins showing Harry the map, thinking he’ll be astounded, but he just goes, “Oh, my dads made that!” * Harry was warned about Snape by both Remus and Sirius (albeit in very different ways) ahead of time, so he studied his Potions book diligently over the summer and answered all Snape’s questions correctly with an infuriating smirk on his face. * The Mirror of Erised still shows Harry’s parents, but Remus and Sirius are there too, because he can’t imagine life without them. * The first time Harry jinxes Malfoy at school (for making extremely offensive comments about half-humans), he gets a Howler the next morning that yells only “NICE ONE, SON” in Sirius’s voice. * Sirius thinks it’s hilarious that people think Harry is the heir of Slytherin in 2nd year. “Sherman wants to know why he doesn’t have his own secret chamber too!” * When Remus teaches in 3rd year, Harry is thrilled. He proudly announces, “That’s my Moony,” when Remus takes his seat at the staff table. In the evenings, he hangs out in the DADA classroom to do his homework, often accompanied by Ron and Hermione. * Harry showing up to class late and Remus, trying to look stern but still smiling a little, says, “I’m sorry, Harry, but I’m going to have to give you a detention,” to which Harry grins and responds, “Yes, /sir/,” because he spends most evenings with his Moony anyway, and Remus never docks points or schedules the detentions to interfere with Quidditch. Occasionally, someone tries to complain to McGonagall about Harry being shown favoritism, but she just shrugs and says, “He’s serving detention, isn’t he?” * Harry casts his Patronus by thinking about the first time Remus took the Wolfsbane Potion and could stay home on the full moon. * After the mud-throwing incident in Hogsmeade, Harry runs up to the DADA classroom to tell Remus all about it, and they both laugh, and Remus says, “That’s my boy, haunting the Shrieking Shack just like his Moony.” * Harry constantly sending Remus messages like, “How can I accomplish this thing without technically breaking any school rules” and Remus almost always has an answer. * Sirius dying of laughter as a very aggravated Harry recounts, via the two-way mirrors, his attempts to secure a date for the Yule Ball * Sirius and Remus arriving in a panic less than five minutes after Barty Crouch Jr was unmasked, with Sirius actually looking close to tears. They resolutely refuse to leave, no matter what Madam Pomfrey says, though they consent to be silent. Harry falls asleep holding both their hands. * Harry trying to sneak into Order meetings under the Invisibility Cloak, so Remus and Sirius get in the habit of Summoning his glasses before they start to check if he’s in the room. Harry, with his father’s cleverness, retaliates by teaching himself how to make things Unsummonable. * When Harry tells them that he has to go on a mission for Dumbledore, Sirius snorts and says, “You don’t really think we’re letting you go off on your own, do you? We’re coming.” * The last time Harry sees Remus and Sirius before going to sacrifice himself, they’re fighting back-to-back against a pair of Death Eaters. Harry whispers, “I love you. Don’t die,” before turning away.

TL;DR: Passively devouring content is killing fandom.

Again, this is not to say we, as readers, should all go home and not bother to kudo or comment or engage with fic writers. That definitely is a recipe for discouraging what you want to see in future. But this is not the first post I’ve seen that suggests a 20% kudo ratio is the equivalent of yelling into the void, and I’m worried that we as writers are discouraging ourselves because our expectations are out of whack.

And IMO, if numbers matter to you (kudos, comments, etc) be honest about the fact that you CAN improve those things by marketing yourself better. The ‘I just produced my art and put it out there and got insanely popular because it was just so brilliant’ is less than a one a million chance. Lots of amazing content is overlooked every day because there is a lot of good content and a metric fuckton of mediocre to bad content. You can only SORT of judge the quality of your work based on the audience it generates, but if what you WANT is an audience there is way, way, WAY more you can be doing than simply producing whatever you immediately feel like. Marketing yourself is a skill and if you want the benefits of it you have to practice it.

If you’re having trouble reading it, you can download it for free on my gumroad!

Me: “Pfft, you believe in the moon?”