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critically jacking off to this problematic fic in a scholarly manner

part of the “constructive criticism of fanfic” convo is this assumption that everyone wants to improve at their writing and should want to improve and i feel protective of the fact that actually you don’t have to. leaving aside the imo undecided question of if “concrit” from a random crosssection of strangers is likely to achieve this, you do not have to continually maximize in all areas of existence. people who feel really strongly they should have the right to critique fanfic to help writers “get better” are projecting an assumption about the inherent purpose of fanfiction (or any fiction writing) that is actually just that. like you probably will improve, if you do it enough, whether you get “criticism” or not, but you can maintain the same skill level forever and that’s fine. who cares! you don’t have to get better at singing to earn the right to have people not heckle you while having fun at karaoke with friends. you can paint 273646474 ugly paintings if you find painting soothing or relaxing. these are both examples of human creative expression that serve social and emotional needs just as posting fanfic does and which are not tied like this to a logic of improvement. there is no function that one can presume here. trying to improve on a craft level is a part of MY practice but that does not have to be universal and i do not believe it is.