I will be on dreamwidth if tumblr ever goes down, btw.
My Ao3 profile is out of date and I need to update it, but it's probably the closest thing to a central hub I have. I'm kinda bad at this.

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I will be on dreamwidth if tumblr ever goes down, btw.
My Ao3 profile is out of date and I need to update it, but it's probably the closest thing to a central hub I have. I'm kinda bad at this.

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"should we tell authors on ao3 when we have discord conversations about their fics" i don't speak for everyone here but if y'all ever find a group chat discussing my fics you can should must and WILL send me screenshots of the whole damn thing. inflate my ego. gimme
this whole thing with people discussing a fic in secret, on closed discord servers, instead of leaving a nice comment, is such a loss for fandom. we're losing fic writers with every fic with hundreds of hits and barely a comment.
writers publish to be read. fanfic is meant to be a conversation.
Sharing these, mostly tags. Because all of it is so true.
Writers write for themselves, because they have a story and it needs to come out. But they share it because they want to be part of a fandom community, a group of people who will gush over this show and these characters with them. They are contributing to the community with their writing. If they don't get anything back, or only get very little back when they're investing hours of time and chunks of themselves served to you on a silver platter, they will eventually stop. As they should. Because any relationship with such a disproportionate exchange of energy is toxic. Seriously, why should they stay and keep contributing when they don't get anything back?
Fanfiction is community, it is an exchange, a converaation, engagement, not a content mill.
Star Trek, for instance, has endured for almost 60 years because people loved ToS so much, they made and shared fanzines full of their art and stories with others. They made and attended conventions. For years. Until finally TNG came out, 20 years later. And people kept engaging with it, so we kept getting more content. Because that's how it works!
If you want more stories to read about your favorite blorbos, then for the love of all that's holy, speak to the authors.
Don't whine that your fandom is dying when you're killing it with silence!
"should we tell authors on ao3 when we have discord conversations about their fics" i don't speak for everyone here but if y'all ever find a group chat discussing my fics you can should must and WILL send me screenshots of the whole damn thing. inflate my ego. gimme
this whole thing with people discussing a fic in secret, on closed discord servers, instead of leaving a nice comment, is such a loss for fandom. we're losing fic writers with every fic with hundreds of hits and barely a comment.
writers publish to be read. fanfic is meant to be a conversation.
I say this very gently and with much love, and I say it not only as a writer myself but as someone who has been privy to many 'but how can they not know that work is amazing! I love it! I gushed about it to every friend I have and recced in x, y, z servers and [...]'
The writer or artist doesn't know this.
They have no way of knowing that you found their work beautiful and lifechanging or even just a bright spot on a bad day or that you think about it every day or that you told all your friends about it, and those things are great, but we have no way of knowing them! You may not be doing it intentionally, but you're excluding the writer or artist from the community feeling of fandom that you are carrying on (that is so great! fandom is a community! continue to talk and play!) even with their work.
Please, please just drop a line even that is "oh gosh I absolutely love this work, I screamed to every one of my friends about it when I first read/saw it!" even if you don't have the spoons to share more of the specifics that made you flail at your friends or what you said in private. (Though if you do, we will love you forever for it.)
Yeah, if I don't get a comment on a fic I assume it wasn't well-liked.
If it's multi-chaptered I hope the next one gets more.
But if I lack interaction for long enough I just abandon it.
From wikipedia:
"He [Peter Cullen] has also stated that he had no idea of Prime's popularity until the character's controversial death in the 1986 animated film, because the studio had never given him fan letters from children addressed to Optimus. The public backlash over Optimus's death surprised producers greatly."
This? Is is where we are. We have no idea if our stories are landing with joy among the readers when the love is held back from us.
"should we tell authors on ao3 when we have discord conversations about their fics" i don't speak for everyone here but if y'all ever find a group chat discussing my fics you can should must and WILL send me screenshots of the whole damn thing. inflate my ego. gimme
this whole thing with people discussing a fic in secret, on closed discord servers, instead of leaving a nice comment, is such a loss for fandom. we're losing fic writers with every fic with hundreds of hits and barely a comment.
writers publish to be read. fanfic is meant to be a conversation.
I say this very gently and with much love, and I say it not only as a writer myself but as someone who has been privy to many 'but how can they not know that work is amazing! I love it! I gushed about it to every friend I have and recced in x, y, z servers and [...]'
The writer or artist doesn't know this.
They have no way of knowing that you found their work beautiful and lifechanging or even just a bright spot on a bad day or that you think about it every day or that you told all your friends about it, and those things are great, but we have no way of knowing them! You may not be doing it intentionally, but you're excluding the writer or artist from the community feeling of fandom that you are carrying on (that is so great! fandom is a community! continue to talk and play!) even with their work.
Please, please just drop a line even that is "oh gosh I absolutely love this work, I screamed to every one of my friends about it when I first read/saw it!" even if you don't have the spoons to share more of the specifics that made you flail at your friends or what you said in private. (Though if you do, we will love you forever for it.)
"I told everyone I loved it" BUT DID YOU TELL THE AUTHOR. WHO IS A PERSON. WITH FEELINGS. Would you go to a show and not clap? Then why would you read a fic and not comment?
We are not celebrities. We are peers.
It is not "parasocial" to comment on a fic. You are speaking to a regular degular person that has the potential to become your FRIEND. So talk to them!
"should we tell authors on ao3 when we have discord conversations about their fics" i don't speak for everyone here but if y'all ever find a group chat discussing my fics you can should must and WILL send me screenshots of the whole damn thing. inflate my ego. gimme
this whole thing with people discussing a fic in secret, on closed discord servers, instead of leaving a nice comment, is such a loss for fandom. we're losing fic writers with every fic with hundreds of hits and barely a comment.
writers publish to be read. fanfic is meant to be a conversation.
This has always been something that's been...discouraging, and more than a little depressing tbh. About how people would rather have discussions in private than tell the author that their work actually made them feel something.
Sometimes it feels like sending your heart into the void and never hearing anything back, but then you find months, years later that people were actually having fun with that part of your heart you've abandoned and forgotten about. All without you.
It's an empty feeling, really.

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"should we tell authors on ao3 when we have discord conversations about their fics" i don't speak for everyone here but if y'all ever find a group chat discussing my fics you can should must and WILL send me screenshots of the whole damn thing. inflate my ego. gimme
True story: I was actively crushed when I found out that there was a Discord server where people discussed one of my more popular fics instead of leaving comments. They were having a book club about my weekly uploads and finding out about that threw me off my upload schedule.
It's not just about inflating one's ego. I work pretty hard on trying to be as kind and approachable as possible in fandom spaces. I've even been excessively kind to people leaving negative comments on my work, to the point where others felt like they had to take up for me since I wasn't fighting back.
This is, tbh, something that takes active work and practice. It takes conscious effort. That effort's made worse by my OCD forcing me to recheck every message sixteen times so I don't accidentally send a bunch of personal insults and my home address along with the intended message.
Finding out that people are talking on private Discords about my work makes me feel like I've totally failed to be the kind, approachable person I have worked towards. I feel like a failure. Like I really must be so mean, or smug, or self-centered, that people are afraid to leave comments on my work. And even thinking THAT can send me into an OCD spiral, where wanting to see what was said is proof that I'm a selfish monsters who's just writing fic for the ego-trip.
You know, the kind of sentiments that people who "consume fanfic" (i.e., swallow it whole without offering anything in return) love to share when you criticize them for not leaving comments.
This is part of why recent fandom behavior of hiding your positive comments in bookmarks (especially private ones), or Discord chats, or private convos away from the author causes damage to the fandom at large. It's not just that authors are hurt by no feedback; it's that some of us have anxiety disorders which are triggered by your shitty behavior. You are causing material harm. And you should stop.
Entitled white women I swear to God
People have been doing book clubs since forever. They do not put George RR Martin on the phone so he can join the chat.
Oh, thank you, kindly court jester jingling into my life under the brave banner of anonymity, for illustrating the exact problem of current fandom.
(This ask is about this post about private fanfiction "book clubs," for those of you who are not following my jester's ire.)
The bedrock of the problem entrenched fandom is having with the newer "TikTok fandom" element is that we have a fundamental disagreement about what fandom is, and what is the social relationship between the people who write fanfiction, make fanart, etc, and the people who read that fanfiction and enjoy that fanart.
(I am not going to use the term "content creator." Because that term is not applicable to fandom, fanfiction authors, or fan artist. Kill the capitalist in your brain. Content is hummingbird nectar made with artificial sweeteners. It resembles the real thing at a distance, but it is devoid of nutrients. It will fill you up so you're not hungry while starving you. Generative AI can produce content because it's empty; it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't even want to engage with you. The sole purpose of content is to get you to sit still long enough for the people who own the platform to squeeze whatever it is they want from you out of you and then abandon your malnourished husk until the next time they can get something from you.)
George RR Martin is not a member of fandom, and the relationship he has with his readers is fundamentally different, because his relationship as an author is explicitly a professional one. When George RR Martin sells a bookānot to his readers, but to a publisher who acts as intermediaryāhe is given a lengthy contract outlining the terms of the sale. How much he will be paid, what can be done with his work by who, etc. George RR Martin is not your peer.
Fanfiction authors are your peers. They're your next door neighbors. They write fanfiction to connect to other fans in celebration of a canon everyone involved loves. Nobody makes a single red cent from writing or sharing their fanfiction. George RR Martin has sold 90 million copies of his books, and he gets money for every one. Because TikTok has trained you that people who are putting their creations out there are monetizing the experience of you reading or watching their art, the "TikTok fandom" element has you sorting your peer posting fanfiction on AO3 into the same category as George RR Martin. But your relationship with George RR Martin is a professional one, and the expectation from fanfiction authors and artists is a social relationship.
When you have a private book club reading and discussing fanfiction without ever telling the author or, God forbid, leaving a comment about how much you enjoyed the storyāwhich is the expectation entrenched fandom authors and artists who view fandom as a social relationshipāyou think you're reading a mass produced novel from someone who has already been paid for it several times over, but this isn't even Walmart vs. local mom and pop. What are you actually doing is going to your neighborhood block party, picking up the cake someone made and brought to share, and taking it back to your house to eat with friends.
We are your peers. We are your neighbors. We are doing this for free because we want to talk to you about our common interest. No, it's not "payment." We offer our work for free, and you have the option of treating us like vending machines or ChatGPT or Walmart. This is a social relationship; you have this option just as you have the option of leaving your shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot instead of walking it to the cart return. You have that option just as you have the option to stick your chewed gum on a park bench or park your car across three handicap spaces or take a shit on the floor of a public bathroom. How you treat your peers and neighbors, how you treat the people in your community, is up to you.
You can keep stealing cakes from block parties. But don't be surprised when people get fed up with it and stop having block parties. Then you'll be stuck buying cake from Walmart or consuming artificially sweetened hummingbird nectar from ChatGPT while vultures raid your corpse for data.
Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk, court jester. Now get the fuck off my lawn.
I debated posting about this because I know it will be controversial and because I myself have complex feelings about it, but to quote an intrepid intergalactic explorer: we can talk about this.
A discord fic club recently advertised they would be reading one of my fics. I was actually really excited about this! Hopefully new people get to enjoy a thing I worked hard to make for them, and I was really looking forward to hearing what they thought about it.
Except the advertised date came and went with silence on the actual fic, so I assumed that it got canceled or something.
But, no, it didnāt - I heard later that the group had in fact read my fic and apparently loved it. Quietly. To themselves.
And, like, look ā Iām trying to write this with a minimum amount of snark, because on one hand Iām a fic reader too and I firmly believe that people have a right to enjoy fic however they wish. As I writer, I also donāt think Iām entitled to comments, but like 90% of writing fic for me is to be part of a community, and being a part of a community means commenting on fics so that there are more fic and the community continues.
On the other hand, as a writer, I have to be honest ā hearing that people specifically scheduled time to read a fic I wrote and then loved it while not sharing any of their thoughts with me? That doesnāt make me feel good. I feel like it should, but it doesnāt. It makes me feel like my fic is just content to be consumed without regard to the effort that went into making it.
The fic in question? I worked on it on and off for literal years. It had to be betaed. It had to be formatted to be posted to AO3 properly, I had to work on the meta bits to properly tag and warn people.
All of that is work, and the only thing I ask for (and any fic author, really) is engagement and encouragement from the people reading the fic.
This isnāt snark or bitterness to say that if the trend is going to be people talking amongst themselves about my fic in a group chat with total silence to me as the author, then I donāt see the point in going through all the effort to post fic publicly. Iāll just send it to my own group chat. If thatās the community now, then thatās where Iāll go. Iāll hate it, honestly, but like. If thatās the deal, thatās the deal.
Anyway, Iām clearly in my feelings about this. I really am truly glad people liked my work. But this really bummed me out.
It makes me insane that this is still a thing. When this came to the attention of fandom Ʃn large five-ish years ago, I really did not expect the problem to get worse instead of better. People in fandom have been actively trying to encourage fandom participation from newer fans, and it is just straight up not working.
I can see this shit happening! I will all of a sudden have a week where I get a whole bunch of kudos on one specific story (like 20-50 people all at once, which normally only happens for recently posted stories), and it's like, "Oh, okay, I am the assignment for a book club this week," and that is all I hear about it. It's maddening.
I am a real human person. I am right here.
memes are fun and relatable and all that, but don't let them discourage you. all of that stuff that doesn't make it into the final product is part of how the final product gets made
repeating this to myself forever and ever

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Oh help
WIP Wednesday - Juno's Diary (shabbat at the Blofis apartment)
July 6th, SundayĀ Rex is still in the hospital. He'll be discharged sometime this week, and we'll have an appointment with a visiting nurse after that to determine what level of care he needs. In the meantime, I've been going back and forth between the hospital and the Blofis apartment with Ruby.Ā We helped Sally make "cholent" on Friday morning. She says she adapted her mother's recipe for Irish beef stew by foregoing the pint of stout, adding barley to thicken the stock and tweaking the seasoning blend. It made the entire apartment smell wonderful. I think Ruby felt better having small, important jobs to do through the cooking process; I felt better just watching her dredge the meat in flour and sear it off while Sally chopped carrots and potatoes and the broth simmered with fragrant spices I haven't even heard of.Ā I went to school with a few girls from Irish families. None of them ever cooked like this, although some of their mothers came close. Most people who eat Sally's cooking feel the same way, from what I've been told. She also baked the challah set at the head of the table. It was the best meal I've had in a long time.Ā It was difficult being there while they put it together. I wanted to offer to help, but it's been so long since I cooked I probably would have ruined it anyway. I sat in the same spot in the breakfast nook I did before and just awkwardly watched. It was strange, feeling comforted by the familiarity at the same time that I was jarred by the foreignness.Ā Estelle coming home from a lunch date helped; she beelined straight for me and eagerly told me how jealous her sewist girlfriend is of her getting to meet me. I told her she should let me treat them on the next one, and she turned so red it almost made me blush, too.Ā It's been a long time since this energy was directed towards me.Ā I didn't know what I was doing at dinner. Ruby noticed I was nervous and paired me up with Quincy when the twins/the other 2 parents got back from their outing: "Do you want to show Nonna how we do shabbat?" He nodded, the smile huge on his tiny face, and eagerly threw his little arms around my neck when Ruby gave him to me.Ā I learned when to cover my eyes, when to drink the grape juice, when to tear off a piece of bread; he promised to teach me the songs before next week, but I was happy just to listen to him. He's like Ruby was and can already carry a tune, even so young he can't pronounce all the words yet. I think I heard Bonnie as well, although she wasn't in my arms, so I'm not sure.Ā It's not surprising when both Ruby and Annabeth are musically gifted, but I can't help being amazed every time. Nobody in my family ever sang like thatā not that my parents would have praised us for it anyway.Ā
This is the next chapter of this fic, which I partly owe inspiration credit to @jewsinfandoms for!
(If you don't know the context, Ruby is Jason.)
editing is so fun. I'm learning what the story I wrote is about
sometimes after you learn what your story is about, you resolve to write a thematically appropriate sequel. this, unfortunately, means you have another section to edit, and now your story means two things. maybe more. imagine.
This post understands editing like nobody else. Everybody else delete your blogs. I want to be alone with OP so we can talk.
#dirty minds worldwide
8 Nights of Smut 2025
For December, we are once again teaming up with @hanukkahbingo to bring you some naughty prompts for the Festival of Lights!
@hanukkahbingo is a panfandom event so these prompts are open to anyone. This Tumblr will be reblogging all of the Tolkien-related content and @hanukkahbingo will reblog for any fandom!
Even if you aren't jewish feel free to participate!!
As always, any fic, moodboard, fanart, edit, etc is allowed to be submitted!
To submit: 1) Tag us @tolkienpinupcalendar and @hanukkahbingo 2) use the tag #tpc8nightsofsmut 3) use the smutmissions form here
Thank you so much @aimmyarrowshigh for working with us to bring you these prompts!
We look forward to seeing what you create!
Mods, @the-girl-with-the-algebra-book, @frosticenow and @bellejolras

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i might elaborate later but fanfic replies literally develop writerās metacognition and make them better writers
so, MetacognitionĀ is theĀ practice of thinking about thinking or identifying oneās cognitive processĀ . in essence, metacognition is understanding how you prepare for academic challenges, exams, or tasks, and then being able to reflect on whether you did well, you prepared adequately, and what was most effective. in a writing setting, this type of self-awareness helps you transfer skills in writing, say, fanfiction into writing academically, competitively and professionally.Ā
hereās an articleĀ from brown university on the subject iāll discuss further. there are 3 parts of practicing metacognition identified in this article: planning, monitoring, and evaluation. how might this look like for a fanfic writer?Ā
planning: asking oneselfĀ āwhat is my goal?āĀ āwhat strategies should i use to meet that goal?āĀ āhow much time/length do i need to meet my goal?ā. so maybe my goal is to write a meet cute where two characters kiss. iāll need to use a perspective, an upbeat tone, and forward characterization to do this. itāll probably take 5000 words and two days to write.Ā
monitoring: asking oneself: is my story making sense? am i reaching my goal, or do i need to summarize more succinctly to keep it to 5k? maybe you started with a lot of exposition and now youāre 6k in and the characters havenāt met yet. what went wrong/changed? is it ok that it changed or did you not realize it got away from you? what now?Ā
evaluation: asking oneself: did i reach my goal? was it effective? what would i change next time?Ā
this is where comments come in
it is incredibly difficult to evaluate yourself. comments likeĀ āi love this!ā actually do begin to touch on the evaluation step of metacognition. it means, in general, the writer isĀ on the right track. comments likeĀ āi loved the dialogue between x and yā orĀ āthe emotions of this section really hit meā begin to answer the questions of was it effective, did i reach my goalĀ and conversely answer what would i change next timeĀ (by adding more of whatever was specified as working well). HYPER SPECIFIC comments, like analyzing the story between the lines or pasting in a line that you really liked and explaining why, is like jet fuel for the metacognition process and iām not exaggerating. specifically pointing out what was effective and why is incredibly usefulĀ
i can straight up credit my writing style to all of my friends and readers who have given incredibly detailed comments. when i found a community who gave feedback like that, my writing improved a thousand times faster than before. so! i guess what iām saying is give feedback! it goes so much further than you realize!
This is exactly the post I was thinking about when I wrote that recent post about how fanfic authors develop as authors by adapting to what they perceive as successful with their audience -- based on positive feedback.
Feedback absolutely does not need to be "critical" to help an author improve, and anyone who insists that fanfic authors need negative feedback or they'll never grow is. Well. To start with, incorrect.
I have some thoughts about comments and feedback and I will put them behind this cut tag.
First of all: positive feedback absolutely is important and helpful to writers, or at least to me as a writer. It's actually more important, and gives me more useful information, than negative feedback. Constructive criticism is also useful, but constructive criticism, if you're doing it properly, incorporates positive feedback.
By this point in my life as a writer (if we're talking about fiction, I cannot call it a career, I am an amateur there) I can pretty much do my own critical feedback. Yeah, this is too long, it fucks up the pacing, I must grit my teeth and make it shorter. Doing this scene this way isn't working, I need to find another way. Too many clauses in that sentence, slow it down so the reader can follow the action. That kind of thing.
What I am really bad about is predicting how other people will respond to my writing. I know what *I* like about it, and usually there is some overlap between that and what other people like; but there's also usually a lot of divergence. No matter how accomplished you may be technically, the one thing you cannot do is read your own work from the perspective of someone who didn't write it. And this is why it's really valuable to get feedback from people who aren't you, during the process and afterward.
Pointing to things you liked about a story is helpful to the author even if you don't explain why you liked them. It lets us know what's working, and that is as important to know as what isn't. Cause you don't want to take out the things that are working because of some rule you're trying to follow regarding the things that aren't.
And also, the positive reinforcement helps with motivation, especially at the WIP stage. It's always been really helpful to me to know that people are reading and enjoying the story while I'm working on it; I am willing to disappoint myself by not finishing something but not to disappoint other people!
Anyway, this is just to say: positive feedback is helpful not just emotionally but technically, and I deeply appreciate the fact that AO3 the site and AO3 culture is pretty well optimized for it. Think of it as casting bardic inspiration or something. Leave a positive comment today! Give writers courage in the doing of their work! God knows nobody else will.
Taking this bit from behind the read more to highlight it and underline it and in all caps: "Leave a positive comment today! Give writers courage in the doing of their work! God knows nobody else will."
Leave a positive comment today! Give writers courage in the doing of their work! God knows nobody else will.
I control the narrative, I whisper to myself like a lunatic while the characters in the story I'm writing are not following my orders.