Star

If someone adds your fic to their collection, they can hide it! They can mark the collection as unrevealed and your fic will be unreadable to anyone other than them! If you're writing works for a surprise event, like a Secret Santa, this is really nice.

But if you're just writing and someone adds your fic to a collection for their own personal use and marks it as unrevealed, that. . . really sucks.

I bookmarked this fic in 2017, almost 5 years ago. Knowing me, the fic itself was probably at least a couple years old at the time I bookmarked it.

This is a 5+ year old fic that is completely inaccessible now because it was added to a collection that, as far as I can tell, is literally just for the collection owner's own reference. There's almost 30 fics in the collection, all of them unrevealed.

If you're the creator of the work:

1) Select the "Edit" button from the work's page and scroll down to the "Associations" section.

2) Select the red (×) beside the collection name you want to remove next to "Post to Collections / Challenges".

3) Select "Post" to apply the change. The work will be immediately removed from the collection.

I'm not sure if you get an alert if your fic is marked as unrevealed though, so keep an eye on the collections that your works are part of.

Hello writerly friends!

So I started a new story. I know, I know, I haven't even finished the other one. But I had so many ideas and they just had to go somewhere, so they might as well go into a draft called Fantasy2. Yes, I'm great at naming drafts, why do you ask?

Today I come to you with advice from Rachael Herron's newsletter. It was just what I needed to hear and I want you to hear it too. I asked for her permission to quote it here and she allowed it, so here it is, from Rachael Herron herself:

[E]very time I start a new book, I feel like I have NO clue what I’m doing.

I’m about to start writing a new book, so I’m dusting off some of my favorite tips, because I’ll need them very soon.

1. Feelings don’t matter.

The beginning and the end usually feel glorious and terrifying to write. The middle 97% will alternate between feeling like falling out of a hot-air balloon basket and sitting in the middle seat of a thirty-seven-hour flight between twin toddlers. Doesn't matter. Only this does:

2. You just need words.

Bored of the work? Write. Love the work? Write a bit more. Want to punch every word in the beezer? Write a few lines before you call it a day.

3. Plot matters way less than you think it does.

Great plots can be added in revision (I'm serious), just like better, stronger characters can be. But you can’t do anything without a crappy first draft.

4. Revision solves everything.

Always.

5. Make a goal.

Make any goal, whether it’s how many new words you want to write this week, or how much time you want to spend in the chair, actually writing.

Then, at the end of the week, rejigger that goal, bringing it closer to what’s real. (Fantasy Rachael can always write WAY more than Real Life Rachael. Damn it.)

6. Remember that goals are meant to be moved. Not to be hit.

Who cares if we ever hit our goals, honestly? By the time we get to where we really long to be, our endpoints may not resemble our original goals in any way. Better to make room for the better thing. Move the goal and start again, weekly, if not daily.

7. Comfort is overrated.

Writing isn’t comfortable. There, I said it. And it doesn’t matter, because oh, boy, does it feel good to have it done for the day. Not perfectly done, never that. But you did your work, and that means you can now do whatever the hell you want because you followed your dream today, the way you’re meant to.

I love this advice. Rachael is so awesome. If you also want her encouragement and advice in your inbox, sign up for her newsletter here: https://rachaelherron.com/therightbook.  

So how is it going for you? Rejiggered your goal? Started something new? Got something awesome done? Took another turn in the draft? Tell us!

--

Alice Abernathy in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

then

You're telling me you think you have a right to give unsolicited criticism on fandom content that someone made for free? No. You don't. There is a huge difference between giving someone constructive criticism when they invite it, and rolling into their comments and replies to tell a creator you don't like their work.

The former is a cooperative collaboration. The latter? It's useless. It's not something the creator asked for, it's not what fandom content is about.

The unsolicited negative opinion of some Internet stranger, even if it's given with the aim to be helpful (which it rarely is, to be honest) often does more harm than good.

Fandom content is first and foremost made for the creator. They write the fic they want to read or post the gifsets they want to see.

They post because they want to share that joy within a community, and if they want constructive criticism they will ask for it and invite trusted individuals they know to offer it.

Sith!AU Silvass and Leif, nsfw-ish