here there be dragons

Being abused at home, bullied at school and lost in the world, the library and all the books I could escape to the most amazing worlds, kept me alive!

I would walk to the library, and spend all day, from 10 am to 9 pm reading there!! I got special awards for how many books I read, I wrote little blurbs on why i loved the books (probably why I love to BETA and do ARCs) 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Just hit the green arrows and the reblog!!!

As a 50 year old woman, the library offers me so much. Digital art pads to borrow, 3D printing, book clubs that are face to face (yeah, the introvert likes face to face because a moderator will stomp on anyone getting snarky)

New books in LARGE PRINT! I’m visually challenged and as much as I love my kindle, The feel of a real book in my hands will always be a beloved feeling!

Ko-Fi sketches open!! 

Day 8

selfie~

i did this as a gift for the fantastic @sleepyfoxfanworks! it’s from her fic Shut Up and Dance which i can’t recommend enough, go give it a read! 

There's a globe-spanning layer of mesopelagic fish that is so dense it distorts SONAR. For decades we had no idea what created the Deep Scattering Layer or why it moved. We still know almost nothing about it.

It contains 65% of all fish biomass.

Marine Ecology has Dark Fish.

And:

Disrupt the reader’s sense of justice. 

This generally means setting a character up to deserve one thing and then giving them the exact opposite. 

Kill a character off before they can achieve their goal. 

Let the bad guy get an extremely important win. 

Set up a coup against a tyrannical king. The coup fails miserably.

Don’t always give characters closure. 

(Excluding the end of the book, obviously)

A beloved friend dies in battle and there’s no time to mourn him.

A random tryst between two main characters is not (or cannot be) brought up again.

A character suddenly loses their job or can otherwise no longer keep up their old routine

Make it the main character’s fault sometimes. 

And not in an “imposter syndrome” way. Make your MC do something bad, and make the blame they shoulder for it heavy and tangible.

MC must choose the lesser of two evils.

MC kills someone they believe to be a bad guy, only to later discover the bad guy was a different person altogether.

Rejection is a powerful tool. 

People generally want to be understood, and if you can make a character think they are Known, and then rip that away from them with a rejection (romantic or platonic) people will empathize with it.

MC is finally accepting the Thing They Must Do/Become, and their love interest decides that that’s not a path they want to be on and breaks up with them

MC makes a decision they believe is right, everyone around them thinks they chose wrong.

MC finds kinship with someone Like Them, at long last, but that person later discovers that there is some inherent aspect of MC that they wholly reject. (Perhaps it was MC’s fault that their family member died, they have important religious differences, or WERE THE BAD GUY ALL ALONG!)

On the flipside, make your main character keep going. 

Push them beyond what they are capable of, and then push them farther. Make them want something so deeply that they are willing to do literally anything to get it. Give them passion and drive and grit and more of that than they have fear.

“But what if my MC is quiet and meek?” Even better. They want something so deeply that every single moment they push themselves toward it is a moment spent outside their comfort zone. What must that do to a person?

Obviously, don’t do all of these things, or the story can begin to feel tedious or overly dramatic, and make sure that every decision you make is informed by your plot first and foremost. 

Fellas, listen.

You don’t have to do anything sexual that you’re not interested in. Moreover, you don’t have to explain why. “No” is a complete sentence.

Not interested in getting pegged? You don’t have to. Monogamous and not into the idea of another partner? Okay. Not sure about period sex? Cool.

I saw a few people wondering how you can block an anon. Here I will explain how:

Step one: don’t type anything! The moment you start answering, the function to block disappears.

It looks like this before you start answering:

You see two times 3 dots. Click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner. Don’t answer first, just click on those dots immediately, please!

It shows the option in my own language but you get two options here: report and block. If you can do both, do both!

Because it’s anon the function will block their IP-address. This means they can’t contact you in any ways, not even incognito.

Consider doing this instead of answering them. Those nasty anons just want attention and answering them means giving them a podium. Without attention there is no fun for them and they will stop.

Out of all of those fandoms, the place I have felt accepted, loved, appreciated and heard the most is the KakaSaku fandom. It's truly an amazing place to be a part of and I'm thankful every day for the friends I've made and the unbelievable talent I get to witness. Writers, artists, etc....there's so much creativity and friendship and love that I truly do not think exists in any other fandoms. The support for each other is unreal and such a welcome feeling to know you have so many amazing people behind you.

But there is a shadow over our community that has plagued us for literal years. Yes, I'm talking about g.o.d....

I'm no stranger to this person. Every story I've written has been hit by this person, I've had to see the same pathetic comment on so many others, and luckily, I know not to put too much thought into it.

But this person hit me at a low point today. After dealing with mental health issues, some that only close friends know about, issues that made me disappear for months and not know if I'll ever crawl out of it, this comment hit me a little differently than it did in the past. I used to laugh and call this person out, make joke posts but not anymore.

I'm not tagging this post as KS. I know this person has probably blocked all mention of KS and I want as many people to see this as they can. I don't have a lot of followers, but I hope those I do will spread this.

Fanfiction is FOR FUN.

It is THERAPY.

It is A RELEASE of emotions when writers and artists are already struggling with issues. This message might not push me far, it may only hurt me for a few days, but I'm not the only person this piece of shit effects. I've seen authors give up completely after getting hit by them. I've seen authors disappear and leave the fandom for something HARMLESS AS WRITING TWO CHARACTERS TOGETHER.

I'm writing this as someone with an ongoing, often debilitating and excruciating mental illness. I know what depression feels like. I know what it's like to stop looking for signs to hold on and what it's like to start looking for signs to give up. This is a sign that, if I got it last year, would have made me give up.

We shouldn't have to endure this when all we want is a break from reality, a break from frustrations and depression or anxiety and other mental health issues.

Let’s talk.

This is an open letter to all people reading fan fiction. Whether you stroll AO3 for your favorite tags, have been on ff.net since the Before Times or read on tumblr or any of the other wonderful alternatives.

What gives?

Wonderful and passionate authors are writing thousands upon thousands of words dedicated to your favorite (and usually not canon) couples, characters and series. Writers are spending hours and hours working on chapters, battling writer blocks, revising, sending works off to beta readers, second round of revision and then post their chapters. And after? After all that work?

Most twiddle their thumbs waiting for reviews that won’t come.

They post more chapters hoping that it just needs to pick up a bit. A few reviews drop in here and there. The story definitely gets read judging by the amount of views and likes… And finally the author loses interest.

And stops updating.

What gives?

Why have we stopped reviewing? Why have we stopped saying even a simple “thank you!” after reading a chapter? @birkastan2018 writes frigging essays (❤) but do you have any idea how happy an author becomes just seeing a new review pop up? Just a thank you, or some words of encouragement or even a keyboard smash. Instead, most writers face crickets.

Review every chapter. Just send two words if you’re intimidated: “thank you!”

If not, write down your thoughts. A sentence you thought was beautiful. An idea of how you think the story might progress. Fangirling/boying as your fave pulls off his/her shirt. Anything.

Doing nothing is killing fandom. Saying nothing ensures authors will stop updating an a fandom slowly dies off. Stimulate your writers. Be enthusiastic and witness how a fandom will thrive even when the series it’s based on is long over.

Doing nothing is killing fandom.

Please support your content creators.

Please support your content creators.

And I hear you:

★ I’m afraid to leave a review because who am I to review? You’re not the Washington Post. You don’t have to analyze a text and give a coherent review. Fandom, as a whole, isn’t like that. A review is just another word for ‘comment’. Comment to let your authors/artists know you enjoy what they’ve created and you’re longing to see more. A simple ‘thank you’ or ‘this was beautiful’ or a quote of your favorite paragraph would be enough. If that’s too scary, leave a heart or emoji.

★ Authors shouldn’t expect comments/kudos! Views/subscriptions should be enough. You’re consuming work that takes hours upon hours. If I speak for myself here, a chapter can take me anywhere from 8 hours of work to 2 weeks, depending on what story I’m writing. That’s free labor content creators happily toss in to keep a fandom going. Did you know that most published novels are about 100k words? How often have you read a fic that is about that size? Those authors don’t make money off of this. It’s for the love of fandom. So if an author tells you they appreciate comments, please comment on the chapters. I know it’s easy to read something and just click away when you’re done, but remember there’s someone putting those hours in and it’s easy to get demotivated when you feel like you’re screaming into a void. ★ Authors should write for themselves. I’m speaking for myself here; although 99% of the people I know are like me in this regard, I’m sure there are people out there who truly write for themselves when writing fanfics. For me, it’s quite simple: If I write for myself, I’m working on original works. Those works might never be published or even see the light of day, but those are stories I want to see (written) and I’ll do it (for) myself. If I write for fandom, I’m doing it for the fandom. I’m putting in hours to ensure the fandom (ItaSaku in my case), will get new fics, hopefully stimulate others to write too, for the enjoyment of my readers and to interact with the fandom as a whole. Most of my time in fandom is spent either creating/sharing fics, or commenting on other fics to do my part and keep content creators motivated. Most stories and headcanons I write live in my head. I don’t have to write them. I do it for the fandom.

★ But this story gets more reviews than other stories, why does it need mine? Please don’t think in these kinds of paradigms. No author I know goes around to compare the amounts of comments they get with another. But if we see hundreds of people subscribed to a story and we get 10 comments a chapter even though we ask for feedback or comments, it stings and it demotivates.

★  Fandom is dying so it’s only naturel that you’re getting less comments. It really isn’t. I’ve been around since 2005. I can easily compare the situation back then to what it is now. It’s the same amount of likes, the same amount of followers, the same amount of views, but comments have been cut to 1/10th of what it used to be.

Now there are multiple reasons for this:

Binge-culture: We’ve gotten used to consuming something (ie Netflix series) and just move to the next once we’re done.

Social media: We’re used to giving a ‘like’ or a ‘heart’ when we see something we like, and scroll past.

New people in the fandom: Newer people in fandom might not know that it is a courtesy to comment on the stuff you consume.

People don’t know what to say: If you don’t know how to articulate your thoughts after reading a chapter, no biggie. Just say ‘thank you!’ or ‘I loved it’ or even the ‘Can’t wait for more!’ will bring a smile to any writer’s face.

★ Readers aren’t obliged to leave comments.

Sure. And in the same vein, authors aren’t obliged to keep going if they feel underappreciated.

★ In short: please support your content creators. ★

If you have any questions on how to better support your content creators, or anything else regarding this, my inbox is open. Ask me anything. I’m here for you and I’m saddened to see authors quitting.

You can read through the comments left on the chapter because you’ll probably find some 🔥🔥🔥 analysis/insight and you can respond to that comment e.g. “I agree with all of this!” or “This made me see things in a new way!” 

Yeeees, it feels VERY online-class-discussion-board-ish (i.e. “I agree with what ___ said”) but feedback like this is still valuable to authors because that’s basically another person saying YEAH this chapter made me feel some type of way and THIS person over here managed to express many of the feelings that I experienced while reading the story!

I’ve seen this happen a few times in the comments section, and it’s honestly so fucking sweet to see readers interacting with each other. Because remember, y’all: fandom is a community, and communities only thrive when we continue interacting with each other.