Y’all.

Okay. I just had one of the saddest encounters in my life today and this is with a wonderful lady who doesn’t see herself good enough to be called an Author or a Writer (note the capital) because she doesn’t deserve the “title” or “glory” that came with it JUST BECAUSE SHE’S JUST WRITING FANFICTION.

Lord, give me strength.

Now look here, all you fanfiction creators– believe it or not, you’re actually great enough for the majority of mankind and you’re even greater than most people existing in this worldwide web. Look, this isn’t even about what kind of stories you write or how you write it. The fact that you’re brave enough to 1) share your thoughts with the world; 2) be patient enough to actually [carefully] write down your ideas and turn them into something tangible and god forbid mind blowingly creative; and 3) keep up with  whatever it is that’s going through your life AND updating your WIPs– that’s disgustingly generous of you for all of us [especially those  who can’t even write to begin with].

Admittedly, there are those who are considered ‘legends’ amongst these creators but pay no mind to that– they all started somewhere and they DEFINITELY did NOT publish their first work and gained the ‘status’ of what they have now.

So keep writing. No matter how silly your idea might seem to be at the time, do it. Start scribbling, or typing, or even just recording your random thoughts and go back to it later to create a plot chart for your undertaking. OWN your will to create stories because quite honestly, you fanfic creators are damn better than most books being published these days, save for those who have cemented their status in the publishing world. You create worlds and universes and mythologies no one else can come up with because your thoughts are yours alone: you cultivate that and shape it into something you contribute to the world. Doesn’t have to be damn poetic all the time, it can be a mush of thoughts– a drabble– or a one-shot of random AUs, fix-its, canon-compliant and canon-divergent, PWPs (yes, this too), BB, RBB, and everything else in between.  This type of creation has been acknowledged even by the very subjects you’re writing about. They know about it. That’s why they even do a fucking meta as an episode.

Keep writing because you have no idea how much your works affect people in ways you can’t imagine. Whatever lesson, idea, thought process is reflected in your stories could at one point save a life. Some works definitely saved mine when I was at my darkest. But that’s a story for another time.

The fact that you even lifted your finger to create a story is a blessing on its own. YOU ARE A LEGIT AUTHOR AND WRITER AND NO ONE CAN TELL YOU OTHERWISE. And lastly,

Thank you for writing.

In case anyone here is interested in enemies-to-lovers in the spy universe, I’ve started cross-posting an older Alias fic of mine originally published on ff.net on AO3. Overall story is 40 chapters averaging 1,500-2K words/chapter. Summary: Two years following Sydney & Vaughn’s trip to Santa Barbara, an old friend shows up unexpectedly; or, What happens when Syd & Vaughn get their happily ever after… only to find out, it isn’t.