fannishwitch

[fannishwitch]

I get that doing fic for free comes from a place of privilege that I have a job that makes me enough money to live on. I TOTALLY get that. What I want people to consider is that that's how jobs SHOULD be and there's a problem with the world generally that we all can't get that. And it's a bigger problem with the world that capitalism wants to reach its greasy tentacles into every moment of our lives (I was going to say every waking moment but I bet they'd find a way to sell ad space in our dreams if they could). Anyway I say it constantly but PLEASE WRITE FANFICTION BECAUSE IT'S FUN AND YOU ENJOY IT AND YOU LIKE IT.

I have been a published author. In fact I'm always supposed to be publishing more lol and I'm SO BAD at it because once I *have* to do it it becomes more like work and I don't want it to be work! I want to have fun! It's okay to have fun!!!!!! I remember when I published my very first novel and I was trying to make friends with the other novelists (allll of my best friends come from fandom, I thought of course these people would want to make friends!!) and I suggested we write Advent drabbles in December like I have been doing for fics forever, and their response was, "Why? Do you have data on how that spurs sales?" I was like, .....no, we would do it because it's fun?????? And then I was like, maybe publishing isn't for me lol

ANYWAY fandom has already become so much more commercialized than it used to be. I blame social media influencer culture with the way it's made everyone thinks everything you do with your time needs to be a side hustle that makes you money. In the old days nobody took a commission for fic. If someone wanted a particular fic, you wrote it and you gifted it to them. Wow, that makes me sound impossibly old but I promise you, kids, that's what we did. A lot. Really often. We'd be like "give me some prompts!" And then we'd fill the ones that inspired us. That was a very usual thing to do.

So I know we old people sound pathetic when we beg you to do something in your life just for fun and don't bother doing fandom if you don't enjoy it (and for God's sake stop loudly watching videos and having FaceTime conversations on your phones in public). It's okay. In twenty years I will accept your DMs on Tumblr being like, "egt, you were right, the things we do for fun to bring us joy are the most important things we will ever do in our lives." You, too, will get old like me.

[fannishwitch]

flataquack

[fannishwitch]

[fannishwitch]

In my restless dreams... I see that town...

[fannishwitch]

[fannishwitch]

birds of a feather by aaron jasinski

[fannishwitch]

the best reader advice I ever got was to write your comment on someone's fic like it's the only comment that author is gonna get

[fannishwitch]

[fannishwitch]

an ill omen

[fannishwitch]

So since we’re on the topic of the current state of fandom culture can I put forward some thoughts.

Everyone I speak to filters fics by either kudos or hits, and I get that it makes it easier and helps you find the fandom favs but I feel like yall are defo missing out on filtering by most recent.

Some of the GEMS that are currently in the works??? Getting to read a fic whilst it is being updated??? Being the first comment??

Everyone these days has an expectation of being able to read a 100k+ word fic instantly and ignore the fact that it actually NEEDS TO BE WRITTEN???

On tumblr people seem to be more active in engaging with fics but the amount of people on other socials that have (after asking for the name of my fic) straight up told me “oh sorry I don’t read wips”

[fannishwitch]

okay PSA TO EVERYONE LISTENING:

when I got into fanfic, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. I just knew it was fun and I was passionate about it. I didn’t have any friends in fandom, I barely knew how to use ao3 (I watched a useless YouTube video and taught myself everything I needed to know) and basically had to learn how everything worked by myself, but I was ELATED when I posted my first fic and people were reading it. It was mind blowing to me becuase back then, I had never posted anything of my own for people to see. I didn’t have a tumblr, I didn’t post anything on Pinterest, hell Pinterest was the closest thing I had on my phone to any sort of “social media”. So as you can infer, I was very happy when my fic was read by like ten people. It was just such an unnecessarily encouraging space full of nice commenters and people—I could go on a long rant about how GOOD a space ao3 is and how the people there are legitimately some of the best people ever as long as you’re curating your experience well but I digress—and I was Loving It.

a big game changer was when one of my fics kind of blew up. Idk, I guess people were yearning for some time travel (maybe it helped that it was my first fic over 80k) but point is that I got regular commenters commenting on every chapter I posted, and it was So Fucking Awesome to realize that the fic I had spent a year writing, expecting 50 people to read it at most, meant something to these people—meant enough for these people to come back got each of those twelve chapters and leave a nice note at the plot I had spent months dreaming up out of nothing but my own inspiration and enjoyment. It’s fucking crazy, you know? The realization that something you were doing just for your own happiness can make others happy. That a hobby you started just becuase you liked a character could spread until people stayed up till 2 am reading your words and offering their kudos and thanks and opinions and excitement in return.

so.

I am passionate about the relationships within fandom and how fanfiction feeds the fans, which leads to fans feeding the fanfiction in a beautiful cycle of support and thankfulness. Sure, there are always going to be those assholes that tear apart rather than truly critique, or the people that think your opinions render you trash, or who think your favorite character is shit or your writing is useless. There are always going to be those people and there’s nothing we can fucking do abkut it becuase it’s human nature to contain division and antagonists and differences in opinion. But those people—they make the rest of it all the more beautiful for their presence. It makes you realize just how kind a community this is. Guys, I would never have found my love for writing—any kind of writing—without fanfiction and the encouragement of every well-articulated comment citing their favorite sentences in my fics and each comment that just says “OMG AHHHHHHH”. Each one is special and each one I treasure becuase it lets me know that people are happy because of me. And not just in a “man I’m a people pleaser” way but in a “this community is beautiful” way.

I still remember quite fondly times when their were trolls in my comments or people being rude about choices I made in my fics, and other commenters came to my defense—telling them to shut up, that they were wrong or that they could just not read if they weren’t enjoying it. It made me so happy to see that people were kind enough to defend me from the people that came into my comments just to make a racket or hurt my feelings.

the point of this overly long rant, besides the fact that I just wanted to talk about how much I love fandom, is that the glue of this community is the support we give each other and the encouragement which we offer to young writers and people who feel insecure in their skill, wether that skill had been hardened by years of work or a single day of writing. The fuel of fandom is the good vibes we, the fans, are willing to put out there, and it always will be.

so. In ALL of my blogs, my ao3 comments, my dms, wherever the fuck you feel safest doing it—you allow always allowed to run fic ideas, opinions, Headcanons, thoughts, ANYTHING by me. Becuase it makes me fucking elated to know that my encouragement helps turn the fandom wheel, and it makes my day brighter to know that someone might be writing a fic or discovering a new favorite character or spending time doing something they enjoy because I offered my kudos and thanks to them. t’all are always, always allowed to ramble and rant and word-vomit wherever the fuck yku want in my blog, no apologies necessary. In fact, apologize and I’ll berate you for it. I am in fandom TO hear these rambles, and I treasure each one because they mean that someone trusts me to give them an honest, kind and encouraging opinion on something they spent their time doing—whether that be art, writing, Headcanons, anything.

[fannishwitch]

Enter Bowser Jr.!

[Drawn April 2023]

[fannishwitch]

Despite how epic it is, Princess Mononoke is not a story about saving the world. It’s about living in a world you can’t save.

[fannishwitch]

[fannishwitch]

listen, I'm pro 'freedom of artistic expression for fanfic writers', but....

I repeat, go ahead and write any and every fanfic you want to write, in whatever way you want to write it. Writing fanfics is supposed to be a hobby, something for fun and joyous giggles.

As a fanfic writer you have the right and the power to decide what fandoms to write for, how to tell your story, what writing style you want to use for your story, when to share your story, where to post your story, when to update your chaptered story, etc.

Writing fanfics is about you creating an au wherein your faves do the stuff you didn't see in the source material. That's why it's up to you as the writer to decide what you want to write and how.

The readers can't tell you what to write, when or how. They can give constructive critiscm and that's okay but they can't hate on your work or control how you do it.

So please don't allow the hate comments to get to you and control how you write your fanfics. Don't let them doubt how God your writing is.

However, here is the point of this post: if you genuinly feel that your writing could be better, it's okay to improve it.

Just as it's okay to be comfortable in your fanfic-writing, it's also okay to expand your comfort zone.

Just because it's fanfiction doesn't mean it can't be great or top notch. Doesn't mean you have to limit yourself.

Fanfiction is free and for fun, so do it any way that suits you best and makes you happiest. It's okay to write with bad spellings and it's also okay to learn how to spell.

ANYTHING GOES as long as it's for you as the writer and you're happy and in control

[fannishwitch]

[fannishwitch]

wheelchairs should be free fuck you