ejmcmoon-fanworks

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

This got long so it’s become its own post.

I explained this to my seven-year-old cousin once when she expressed distaste over anyone possibly enjoying horror movies, and she understood perfectly, so adults have no excuse: 

People read dark fiction for the same reason they ride roller coasters. 

It’s a simulation of danger without anyone actually being under threat. It gets the brain worked up, releases a bunch of adrenaline into your system, you experience a whole rush of emotions and excitement and fear; but a safe kind of fear, where you know the danger isn’t real and there are dozens of measures in place to protect you. And then it’s over and you can get off the ride.

That doesn’t mean everyone is obligated to ride roller coasters. I, for example, am scared of heights, and most coasters are scary for me in a way that isn’t fun. The fear isn’t that I’ll die, the fear is of experiencing more of the ride and thus it’s not a safe fear, because it’s real and I have no control over it. As such, I don’t ride large roller coasters. But the fact that large coasters are not mentally or emotionally safe for me to ride doesn’t mean they should be illegal, or that there’s “something wrong” with anyone who enjoys them.

Similarly, sometimes accidents happen. Sometimes people have conditions they don’t know about until a coaster aggravates them in the worst possible way because they didn’t know to avoid it…and that’s no one’s fault. People have died or been injured in coaster accidents, and those accidents are pretty much always the result of human error, carelessness, laziness, or poor communication. It’s the responsibility of the amusement park to make sure that basic safety features are built-in and maintained–or at the very least (mangling the metaphor somewhat because this would obviously be illegal in real life) to make it clear that those features don’t exist! I feel like most people would avoid a ride clearly labelled “HAS NEVER HAD A SAFETY INSPECTION! NO RESTRAINT BARS! RIDE STAFF HAVE NOT BEEN TRAINED AND THERE ARE NO EMERGENCY SERVICES ON-SITE! OPEN FLAMES!” but if you click on a fic clearly labelled “author chose not to use warnings” you know the risks and they’ve met their obligation to warn you of them. And sometimes the people providing this content don’t perform that basic due diligence, and people get hurt as a result–but that’s on those specific bad actors, and doesn’t mean we ban all roller coasters. It also doesn’t mean every single ride operator on earth should be tarred with that brush, especially when they’ve openly spoken out against such practices! Furthermore, if you KNOW you have a heart condition and willingly get on a ride that says it is not safe for people with heart conditions, you cannot then blame the amusement park!

What makes roller coasters safe for me? Well, for one, the fact that I’m an adult now so my family has finally stopped trying to force me onto them. Pressure was a constant part of interacting with coasters for me for YEARS, and THAT fucked me up. There was “mild” teasing, frustration when I refused, anger if I changed my mind, and a lot of guilt-tripping about how it was my fault that they couldn’t go on the rides they wanted to because of me. That shit was not okay, and anyone trying to force someone to engage with content they don’t want to is obviously in the wrong.

The OTHER thing that helps me is content warnings the heroes who upload on-ride video of coasters I’m interested in trying. Knowing exactly what to expect–being able to see for myself all the drops so I can judge if they’ll be too much for me, and know in advance where they are so I can brace myself–can turn a ride that otherwise would have been a miserable and stressful experience that I chose not to subject myself to into a really good time. These are especially valuable, because what’s safe for ME is not automatically safe for everyone else. The only thing that makes a ride too much for me–my only hard limit–is extremely tall drops. I love inversions, fast twists and turns, I don’t mind rough coasters, it’s just drop height. But I’ve known people with medical conditions that made rough jolts dangerous, and plenty of people like tall drops but find tight turns and high speed overwhelming. Do I wish more coasters were designed to have the elements I enjoy without the ones I don’t? Yes, and not being able to find many frustrates me. But that doesn’t mean I expect everyone to have the same limits, or that I think people who design tall coasters with big drops and lots of airtime are malicious.

By this logic, actually, darkfic is much safer than roller coasters–once you’ve committed to a coaster you have to ride it out even if you change your mind. But the moment a dark fic or horror movie takes a turn you don’t like or becomes suddenly too real, you can turn it off and walk away.

And if you think enjoying roller coasters means someone will conclude that it’s okay to fling people off cliffs without their consent, then, well, in that case you’re just ungodly fucking stupid. Sorry you had to find out this way.

Have fun on those hypercoasters, you crazy bastards. Keep uploading ride videos for me.

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

Hot take: Actual literary analysis requires at least as much skill as writing itself, with less obvious measures of whether or not you’re shit at it, and nobody is allowed to do any more god damn litcrit until they learn what the terms “show, don’t tell” and “pacing” mean.

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

No: “You have to be X to write about X.”

Halfway there: “Anyone can write about anything.”

Yes: “Anyone can write about anything, but your content does not exist in vacuum. If a POC tells you your portrayal of a character is racist, or a queer person tells you you’re playing into harmful stereotypes, listen to them. Fandom is an escape only for privileged people. Being inclusive means listening to marginalized voices instead of dismissing us as fun police.”

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

white women are always like “more strong kickass female leads!” and when i say i want to see a black female love interest who is allowed to be girly and fall in love they give me weird looks and say that i’m supporting gender stereotypes and heteronormativity but what a lot of white women don’t get is that black women we’ve had hundreds of years of having our femininity ripped from us, of being deemed unworthy of male (especially non-black male) attention. black women in media are never allowed to be the “cute” ones or the love interest, we’ve always been the “strong kickass street smart woman” trope that white women want so badly. so basically if a black girl says she wants to see another black girl fulfill the role of “love interest” there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that and it isn’t a hindrance to feminism

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

No: “You have to be X to write about X.”

Halfway there: “Anyone can write about anything.”

Yes: “Anyone can write about anything, but your content does not exist in vacuum. If a POC tells you your portrayal of a character is racist, or a queer person tells you you’re playing into harmful stereotypes, listen to them. Fandom is an escape only for privileged people. Being inclusive means listening to marginalized voices instead of dismissing us as fun police.”

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

i think something that i love so much about AO3 is the mistakes. the typos and the name slips and the unedited rawness of the storytelling that sometimes filters itself into the work. i am completely in love with the sincerity that i feel from these authors publishing their content for free for us to read and enjoy. every time i see a typing mistake my brain lights up with emotional recognition and i love the author even more. like they were so in the zone that their brain dropped some things in its haste to tell their story and i suddenly cannot love them more. my heart melts because it feels like i'm getting the real raw unedited version of the world that they've created and i want to throw glitter on each and every one of them.

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

fuck it. be creative even if you never really *make* anything. write out plot synopses of stories and then move on. design OCs you’ll never use. make mood boards and concept art and don’t do anything with them. life’s too short to forget everything that inspired you and creation doesn’t have to be “complete” to be worth the time you put into it.

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

This is for the slow writers out there. Those who take weeks to write one chapter. Those who take years to finish one manuscript. Those who regularly write only 100-300 words in several hours. Those who take months to put out a new chapter. Those who haven’t touched their stories in years but it’s still a WIP because they can’t stop thinking about/taking notes for scenes/etc.

I see you. You’re valid. Keep up the good work!

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

*walks up to couple* so which one of you is the charismatic antagonist with a superiority complex who ends up helping the hero they’re in love with despite the impending backlash from the villain they work for and which one’s the tired, practical hero who would die for their found family and only realizes they have feelings for the antagonist when it’s almost too late 

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

friendly reminder to write stories for you. you explain your idea to a friend and they’re not over the moon about it?? you’d really like to write it just because it’ll be fun and someone tells you not to?? you wanna use a concept you know is important to you right now and could really help you cope and they tell you that this “trope” has been overdone??? FUCK IT. write that stuff. do what’s best for you. do what you want to. your personal insecurities are more than tropes. what you need to read will never be overdone. if someone doesn’t like your idea, it doesn’t matter, you like it. you might be the creator but that doesn’t mean you can’t be the audience and it certainly doesn’t mean you can be kept from creating if that’s gonna help you heal

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

Christianized gentiles as a whole really have no idea how isolating fandom is right now. Winter events are inevitably called secret Santa and use Christmas color schemes. Elves is considered a neutral winter prompt. People rarely make the barest of effort to mention Chanukkah in their posts.

Jewish fannish ppl are telling you how frustrating it is for everything to be Christmas and begging for scraps of Jewish content and it never changes.

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

there’s nothing wrong with learning about characters by writing them

there’s nothing wrong with writing characters out of character

there’s nothing wrong with changing your mind about a headcanon

there’s nothing wrong with headcanoning something that’s unpopular

there’s nothing wrong with changing characterization from one fic to another fic

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

It’s good for the soul okay

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

In the spirit of writing advice…

1. Write whatever the hell you want

2. “Except—” NOPE! No exceptions! Write literally whatever! 

3. If you’re posting a story somewhere online, be careful to tag it and age-restrict it responsibly

4. If your goal is to portray something that you don’t have experience with in a non-offensive way, then sensitivity readers are a GREAT resource

5. Your writing isn’t shit. Brains are mean.

6. Like…even if your writing WAS shit, that’s still somebody else’s problem

7. For traditional narratives: You can usually mess up the plot and hold onto your audience?? From what I’ve seen, people tend to get annoyed at plot holes, but PISSED at messy character writing. If you have to save one element, I say let it be the characters.

8. Themes are yummy and can unify an otherwise patchwork story

9. If you don’t like/believe in the story you’re telling, your audience will be able to tell

10. I luff u

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

Hey do you know any conflicts I can add in the story other than 'person vs person' conflict?

6 Types of Conflict in Storytelling

When it comes to conflict in storytelling, there are six different types of conflict that can be used in a variety different ways: 

1) Character vs Character

Or, as you put it, “person vs person.” This type of conflict is created by the opposing needs of two different characters in the story. For example, a brave knight wants to unseat an evil usurper from the throne of the kingdom and restore the rightful ruler. Conflict: the usurper wants to be on the throne, the knight wants them off the throne.

2) Character vs Nature

This type of conflict is created when the character’s goals are in opposition with nature in the form of weather, climate, the wilderness, disease, anything that arose naturally. Additionally, the character’s beliefs, feelings, and emotions create further conflict as the natural foe/s forces the character out of their comfortable human element. For example: a shipwrecked man tries to survive on a harsh and unforgiving island, dealing with wild animals, poisonous plants and animals, shark infested waters, and dangerous storms. Meanwhile, the character deals with loneliness and processing regrets in terms of the life they led before they were shipwrecked.

3) Character vs Society

This type of conflict places the character in opposition with their society, government, or cultural/societal traditions or norms. The opposition may arise out of a need for survival, wanting to change their world for the better, or simply out of wanting happiness for themselves. For example: a girl is born into a society where a machine chooses her mate, but they’re both in love with someone else and band together to fight the government that enforces this tradition.

4) Character vs Supernatural

This type of conflict sets the character against a supernatural force or entity, such as ghosts, vampires, monsters, witches, evil wizards, aliens, etc. For example: a girl must fight an invasion of hungry evil vampires in her small town.

5) Character vs Technology

This type of conflict places the character in opposition with some sort of technology, typically because the technology is malfunctioning in some way or has become sentient and is fighting against humanity. Example: a woman--who is a highly regarded engineer--is aboard a luxury spaceliner when it flies into an unexpected asteroid field and begins to crash, and she must figure out how to save the failing ship.

6) Character vs Self

This type of conflict is entirely internal, and it pits the character against themselves due to some type of moral dilemma, conflicting desires, conflicting want vs need, or mental health struggle. For example: a man must battle his addiction to gambling after losing his marriage, children, and job and find a way to win his life back.

Typically, a story will revolve around one of these conflicts, and all of the problems the character faces will be an aspect of that conflict. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be a little crossover into other conflicts. For example, you can have a “character vs society” story where one of the obstacles the character faces is a pack of wild beast set after them by their evil government. In The Hunger Games, for example, although “character vs society” was the main conflict, Katniss had to deal with her own internal conflict, natural obstacles placed in the arena by the gamemakers, and the other characters she was competing against. However, all of those obstacles/conflicts (internal conflict, natural obstacles, other characters) were a direct result of the evil government ruling her world, so still part of the same main conflict.

I hope that helps!

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Have a question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

I saw a video talking about why schools shouldn't grade or assign homework the other day (interesting video! I support a lot of what the speaker was saying!) But at one point word searches were described as obvious busywork - what's the point in teaching kids to read diagonal words, after all?

Diagnosing dyslexia. Diagnosing dyslexia. Diagnosing dyslexia.

After going through IB classes in high school, after finishing my BA while working full time, after failing algebra with the same teacher two years in a row, there is no kind of homework that has ever made me cry so hard as word searches did in the 3rd grade.

If you've got a kid who has been working on a word search for an hour and is crying and telling you "the words aren't there," if you've got a kid who never knows what the pictures are in connect-the-dots because they can't connect the dots in the correct order, if you've got a kid who can't read analog clock faces after months of being taught how to read time, if you've got a kid who retranscribes all their music class handouts as letters because they can't wrap their head around reading music, I'm begging you to get your kid tested for dyslexia/dyscalculia.

And I'm begging you to get them tested before they learn how to mask so hard that it's difficult to get an official diagnosis because if they need disability accommodations in college they're going to need a diagnosis but they're going to be so good at masking their disorder that it's going to be difficult to prove that they need accommodations. And 'well if you can get by well enough that as an adult you can pass a test designed to diagnose children you must not need help' is bullshit because those tests don't make you do algebra or learn a new character set.

[ejmcmoon-fanworks]

I understand that a lot of people enjoy writing shipfics where they transplant characters into a college setting. Since some writers may not be in college, or may have graduated a long time ago, I thought I’d offer a helpful list of realistic college meet not-so-cute scenarios. Forget baristas. This is where it’s at. 

- I’m really passionate about this cause and I will give you this flier if I have to shove it down your throat

- vicious battle over the only left handed desk in the room

- my roommate’s boyfriend is staying over so can I please sleep on your floor

- it’s pouring and my final paper is in my backpack so I guess we’re stuck under this tiny awning together. do you think they’d deliver pizza here

- hey I have to photograph someone for class will you be my model

- hey I have to take someone’s blood pressure for class will you be my victim

- variations of the above

- I know I keep coming to the cookie shop and for some reason it’s always your shift but don’t you dare judge me I need these for my sanity

- all our friends are drunk

- it’s 3 am and I’m still in the library studying for finals and I’m losing my grip on reality and I think I just saw a ghost

- we’re the only two people in this club. what is this club even for

- humans vs zombies (see you can still have your zombie AU, best of both worlds)

- we’re the only people who ever talk in discussions it’s awful

- GROUP PROJECT