azureinsectoidfox

[azureinsectoidfox]

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.

[azureinsectoidfox]

did i do this right

[azureinsectoidfox]

reblog to blow up aphobes and arophobes

Banner credits to @/januscorner

[azureinsectoidfox]

[azureinsectoidfox]

Male character: I'm not attracted to women.

Fandom: Oh, he's gay.

Female character: I'm not attracted to men.

Fandom: Oh, she's a lesbian.

Any character: I'm not attracted to anybody.

Fandom: Well, we don't know that they're ace/aro/aroace. It's open for interpretation. They're not canonically ace/aro/aroace unless they specifically say they are.

Hmmmm. I wonder why we're so frustrated in fandom spaces. I wonder if there's a reason.

[azureinsectoidfox]

why isn’t there a single god damn movie that doesn’t have a romantic subplot. why is everything centred around romance. a story can be still be interesting if the boy and the girl don’t kiss at the end ??

i’ll be enjoying a movie and then BAM the male and female leads just admitted feelings for each other. it’s not even a trope at this point because it’s literally EVERY film. what the hell is going on?

is that not like. a major flaw in the film writing industry if every film does like same thing like i am actually so confused about this

[azureinsectoidfox]

One day I am gonna grow wings.

[azureinsectoidfox]

[azureinsectoidfox]

[azureinsectoidfox]

Forsaken doodle dump. Up here is coloured stuff (Chance centred)

And down here is some Azure headcanons no one asked for, I feel like it’s Yapper x Listener but Azure is the yapper.

[azureinsectoidfox]

Chance mains flipping their coin, stacking weakness but a good distance away

the nefarious 1x1x1x1’s entanglement heading in their direction:

[azureinsectoidfox]

whatever, go my gubbies

[azureinsectoidfox]

you know what month it is!! here’s a collection of pride 1x4 blobs

[azureinsectoidfox]

shedletsky is LOUD and PROUD of his kid !!1!1!

[azureinsectoidfox]

my take on a 1x4 cookie design !! since 1x4 canonically likes limes, i thought it’d be nice to make that their main flavour

(was debating between “burnt lime” or “bitter lime” for the name,, but burnt won out thanks to the colour of their dough)

[forsaken x crk idea by: @mimellow]

[azureinsectoidfox]

HAPPY THIRD EVER INTERNATIONAL AROMANTIC VISIBILITY DAY

(5th of June)

[azureinsectoidfox]