#rantvory

Yeah, and the thing is that BTS knows this. They don’t make every single song with the thought: “We’re certain that every ARMY is bound to love this.” Yes, they’re creating music to share it with us. But they’re also making it for themselves, and if they love what they’ve produced, that’s what matters most.

I don’t really know why you’re calling it drama, since I haven’t seen this broadly debated at all. It’s pretty general: the more widely a trope is written, the higher the likeliness of one story of that trope being similar to another.

Using the soulmate trope as an example, it has a very straight-forward formula. I have read numerous soulmate fics that have been constructed on this formula and have been identical in many aspects, despite that the authors definitely wouldn’t have copied each other. It’s simply because there’s only so many ways you can write a trope and most writers tend to go for the first that pops into their head: soulmate meets soulmate > conflict occurs between the soulmates due to them previously being enemies or one of them having a sensitive past or one of them already having a soulmate > conflict resolves and soulmates end up together because love always pulls through and they were designed by the universe to be united.

With soulmate fics especially, the likelihood strengthens, as there are many categories that narrow it down. The matching tattoo. The connection of senses. The monochrome vision until you see your soulmate for the first time. The changing hair colours. Unless you come up with a “bond” that is very unique or throw in a very original twist, matching one of those categories with the general formula is bound to cause similarities to appear.

And I’m not saying that fics like that are bad at all. I’m a slut for soulmate fics. My old soulmate series, Sillage, was constructed on that exact formula. They’re just more susceptible to similarities with other soulmate fics of that nature, which is what occurred with Sillage and is part of the reason I lost inspiration for it. When readers start to notice this, they call you out on it for plagiarising, even if you’ve never read or heard of that other fic before.

Also, I’m not saying that you cannot write an original soulmate fic, because you definitely can if you put a lot of thought into it. For me, not writing one is personal preference in order to avoid the possible backlash.

Another example that I’m going to leave you with is A Ticket to the Sun. I thought it was a highly original idea when I came up with it, despite that the ballot element of it was vaguely inspired by The Hunger Games. At the beginning of this uni semester, one of my readings was The Lottery by Shirley Jackson; a short story published in 1948 in which a village has an annual ballot, and whoever draws the paper with a dot marked on it is sentenced to death by stoning. Even though I’d never heard of The Lottery when I started writing A Ticket to the Sun, the plots are very reminiscent of each other, and I was both horrified and amazed whilst reading it because of the shocking similarities. 

concept of publishing your stories onto a social media website. when every single constructive criticism is only answered with „This is a hobby. I am doing this for me.“ It is hard as a reader to get on your level and kind of find a connection. Especially the use of tags somehow shows that people want to gain an audience, it’s most likely not to categories the stories. as i’ve mentioned, i’m not trying to attack you. maybe i’m too dumb to get it. 2/2

All of my previous messages have been responded to rather sporadically and while I was busy, so they are somewhat all over the place. Now that I am sitting down and able to properly focus, I will try to clear up my perspective on this as eloquently as possible. Please read this in a calm tone, because I am not angry.

“Do you know this fic? [Insert description of fic]” which I have already addressed here and in my FAQ. I have received another 3 overnight, sigh. 

I tend to get about 8-10 of those questions about different fics every day, and it has really started to clog up my inbox. I am not a big reader nowadays, anyway, so I usually do not know 6/8 of the fics that are being searched for. Hence why I have given my answer to those sorts of questions in my FAQ. 

Yet it seems that some people just cannot comprehend the purpose of a FAQ. Instead, they prefer to completely avoid my only request of checking it for their question before sending me said question. And this gets... exceptionally frustrating.

I’m genuinely disappointed. Sure these people were problematic and bullies and I’m not trying to downplay their mistakes but I sincerely hope you see mistakes in the way you guys carried this out too. Your asking many people not to send hate- but that’s exactly what’s going to happen considering the lengths at which you went to outst them. Sure you can go tell your followers not to hate on them but you set them up to be victims of bullying too. Are you pleased?

Considering this is the only message I have received on the matter, I am going to answer you because I believe I need to make a few points of my own and clear up some of what you have said. Prepare for this to be a lengthy response.

1. They named themselves the Penetration Station. That was what they personally labelled their friend gang, and what they tagged their posts involving the friends involved in the incident as. There is no reason in the absolute slightest that we would call them such a name outside of the fact that this is what they called themselves, and this is what their readers knew them collectively as.

2. Do you really believe that we did this without any thought? The personal/private route was the first one we deliberated, and making that post was our last resort. Do you really think that we wanted to do this, that we thought we would be heroes by exposing those screenshots? We thoroughly considered all options, and unfortunately, the post went from our last resort to our only resort. What we have also discovered since putting up the post is that sure, if we had handled the matter privately, it would have been away from the public eye and the issue with Ave might have been solved. But there would have been a fair amount of other worse bullying incidents that they were doing, which we had no clue about until yesterday, that would have continued on without our knowledge. 

3. We are in no way happy that this is the route we had to take. Do you see any of us on our blogs celebrating and boasting the fact that they have removed themselves from the community? No. We are not saying that they deserved what they got. We are not trying to pit anyone against them. I keep seeing it be brought up that us strongly advocating to not send them hate is not going to stop the hate, but would you rather we never said anything about sending hate at all and let anyone have at them? Us saying that was to make people stop in their tracks and consider their actions before they go forth and do something that stoops down to their level. We knew that negativity would be a consequence of spreading the awareness about these bullies in our community, so all we could do in this case was do our best to firmly put out that we do not condone, nor support the sending of hate mail.

4. Large followings or not, that was not our focus in the slightest. We never thought: “We have bigger followings, so the support will be on our side,” in this case. We did not band together based on the fact that each of us have decent sized followings either, and rather because we are all good friends with Ave who she trusts. All we were doing was taking the measures we had to in order to protect Ave, and also numerous other members of the writing community who were having worse occur to them without our knowledge.

5. Although you have not addressed it here, I would also like to say that yes, the post could have gone without that final line about the tea. But if any of you are going to allow that one line to completely offset the entire attitude the post, then so be it. That is your decision to make.

6. They never apologised to Ave, which is the one thing that we wanted to come out of this situation because then, we would have been able to slowly forgive their actions and let bygones be bygones. Yes, they made apology posts, but their expressions of regret were directed at their friends and the network. They never directly apologised to her. The only one of their group who has been the bigger person and come forward to apologise to Ave is Jaz, which is commendable of her and we appreciate that more than we can express.

Am I pleased? No, I am not pleased in any way about this having to occur. None of us are. I am beyond against call outs, so personally, for me to be involved in this is a big display of the matter that we had no other options. I have said to myself many times: “This could’ve been avoided if we never did the post.” But what I have come to believe more strongly is: “This could’ve been avoided if those girls never bullied Ave and Candee, and did worse to other members of this community.” 

on the other hand, on tumblr ppl can interact w writers directly via “asks” which is better but imagine taking time out of your life to send this super long feedback only to get a “omg thank you!!” And somewhere along the lines which sounds as generic as the next feedback that goes “hey i like what you wrote” it’s disheartening in itself to know that the feedback you pour your heart into is equivalent to a mindless, barely feedback-like, well, feedback [2]

what im saying is, both readers and writers will have to play a part in this. readers take the time out of their life to give feedback and writers should at least show a little bit more enthusiasm through their replies. these replies reflect how much you appreciate feedback and if it doesnt show, then chances are readers are gonna go “they’ve prolly heard this a thousand times alr and will reply w the same old reply bc theyre bored of hearing the same thing” and theyll end up not giving [3]

so writers shouldnt be whining like a baby if they didnt get feedback. its prolly bc they read and dont respond to it (most likely on ffn, ao3 etc) which makes the readers believe their feedback is unheard. and even if they did, their reply prolly doesnt sound like theyre happy about the feedback which can deflect potential feedbackers. now i get feedback every once in awhile, not many, but i do get them [4]

and i make sure to reply to them in a similar length to their feedback because readers are just as human and own lives and they take the time to send us feedback so its only fair for writers to take the time out of our life to reply to them in a similar fashion and not just go “thank you omg etc” but actually lengthen our reply (referring to those who give long feedback) [5]

i think i forgot to turn on anon on that last ask. sorry im kinda out of it atm bc im losing sleep these past few days but i hope i got my point across and that you read it in a calm manner. i only mention that im a writer so that others would understand im not coming onto fellow writers like i havent been in their shoes. I have and still am as i only get 1 or 2 feedback w every fic i post. [6]

i guess thats it. tldr dear writers, pls remember we write for ourselves first. kf we get feedback, thats nice and if not, thats cool too. we dont need to be demanding every single person for feedback. and readers, giving feedback is a nice thing to do but dont do it if you dont want to or if the writer comes off ingenuine with their reply or if you read the whole fic but dont rly enjoy it. its a two way thing. i hope others get it despite my limited vocab and word building 🙌 [7/7]

oh i just reread the feedback/review reblog. its true that feedback motivates writers, and its very disheartening when only the first chapter gets hyped but the rest doesnt. still, i stand with what i say, and thats for writers to be more vocal about how they aprpeciate the readers’ feedback and also for the readers to give feedback but because they really love what they read and want to tell the writer that. you dont have to give it if you feel something off. either move on or point it out 💪

(Sorry to mobile users; I’ve put it under a read more, but this got super long.)

Exactly, thank you. As I’ve said before, I don’t like half the songs on their entire discography, but I still love the other half. Likewise, my readers aren’t going to like every single story I post, and it’s impractical to think that they will.

Even though this is not what that anon was doing/saying, it feels relevant to point this out. Everyone is so quick to jump on fans who have an opinion about BTS and/or their music that isn’t rooted in positivity and praise. BTS are not perfect human beings. BTS are not perfect artists. They’re pretty darn close, but they’re not. As long as the fans’ opinions aren’t blatantly spiteful, it’s completely natural to have an “unpopular” opinion about someone/something.