lettersfromasupportingcharacter

[lettersfromasupportingcharacter]

Our world is fucked but that doesn't mean we can't have fun! Let's go get some cake.

anonymous person who was talking on the phone as they walked past me

[lettersfromasupportingcharacter]

Find Beauty In The Lesser Stuff

Dear Reader,

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Maybe it just feels that way to me. You might be reading my letters consecutively and then you’d have no idea of how much time passed between the posting of my letters. If you’ve been waiting on me, I apologize. I just couldn’t think of anything to say.

It seems rather silly since I can ramble on and on, but I need to have a topic before I can start putting down my thoughts. Do you have that problem? It’s very annoying and it just makes me want to scream sometimes. I want to talk to you, my wonderful Reader, but I don’t know what to say or how to start. Even now, I’m going off of the topic that finally allowed me to write another letter.

I wanted to talk to you about the world. Not politics, of course, because I don’t want a bunch of arguments, but I want to talk about the way we see the world. How do you see the world? Is it dreary? Do you hate it? Do you want to change something? I would answer yes to all of those if they were asked to me. I hate the world we live in and I know awful things are happening and I would love to change something. I don’t know how to change the world, but I’ve been working on changing my view of the world since two years ago. And I think my ideas could help you too.

The first thing to do is find something that’s amazingly normal. For me, I look to many different things, but you only need to pick one for now. Just pick something like clouds. They’re always there and we don’t always notice them, but they’re beautiful. They make different shapes and patterns and they accentuate the beauty of the sky. 

Clouds, like you, are additions that if taken away, would be sorely missed. Can you imagine never seeing clouds again? Never seeing splashes of white, grey, and dark grey on blue and the colors of the sunset? Clouds, to me, are one of the most important things in the sky. If it was just the same color forever, we’d grow tired of it. Clouds add detail and draw your attention to the sky. The world wouldn’t be the same without them.

You’re a cloud. You’re not always noticed like you should be, my darling Reader, but you’re still there. And in the sunset, some people notice you instead of the sun. They see how you reflect colors and change them. They see how important you are to the sky. 

You probably won’t ever know who sees you as a cloud should be seen, but those people are out there. And to them, you’re important. You’re not always there, but your additions to the sky make the world seem just a bit nicer. And the sky all the more gorgeous.

So, my wonderful Reader, my amazing cloud, look for the simplistic things that make the world worth it. Look for the people who hum and sing in the rain. Look for the smiles that are true, not the ones that are fake. And look for the charming things that usually go unnoticed. Then you’ll have a brighter view of the world and you’ll be happier with it.

I hope you are doing well, and please know that I’m here if you ever need me. I love you very much.

Sincerely, 

A Supporting Character

[lettersfromasupportingcharacter]

Send me something?

Dear Reader, I’m not in quarantine but my family has been very nervous about the virus so we’re all keeping our distance from people. I miss my friends so I’m going to talk to you. I’m going to treat today’s entry like a diary so if you want to read about my life, go ahead. If you don’t and you still have free time, go watch NCIS (the original, not Los Angeles or whatnot). That’s been taking up most of my freetime, watching stuff, I mean. There’s just not a lot to do during these times. The other day, I watched one of my favorite shows in French to see if I could still understand it. It was interesting to say the least. I recognized some words and I knew exactly what was being said but it still felt like gibberish. Are you studying any languages, my dearest Reader? I just typed that and suddenly that one Hamilton song is stuck in my head. The one that goes “My dearest with a comma after dearest. My dearest, Angelica.” Do you know that one? That was a good musical irregardless. I think it’s on YouTube if you know where to look. I was talking with my sibling the other day and they said that they wanted to do something. I, of course, asked what they wanted to do. They replied with “I don’t know, but I want to do something so that people will know my name. I don’t want to be inconsequential.” My sibling is a wonderful person who I sometimes get mad at for small things but that’s not my reason for telling you this. I wanted to share the same thing I said to my sibling. “Everyone is the main character of their own story, but we’re all supporting characters in other stories.” That hopefully makes some sense, right? By that, I mean that you only hear your own thoughts. You have a constant inner monologue but you don’t really know what other people are thinking. I, personally, think mind reading is a super cool power and if you, my marvelous Reader, have this power, I will help you on your superhero journey if you have need of me. I’m getting off topic though. You only hear yourself and it makes you believe sometimes that the world revolves around you. There are just some things that will happen to you that you never share with anyone else and you suddenly feel like you’re the most important person in the story. My darling Reader, you are the most important person in your story. Though you’re not the main character of another story. You really only get one story. If you choose to share your story and make it a movie or a book or something, that’s based off of it but is it really your story? Things will be added or changed and you won’t get everything exactly as it happened. Your story will be changed by actors or reader’s interpretation and it won’t be just your story anymore. It will be an embellished or simplified version of your story. If you couldn’t tell, I’ve thought about this a lot. If I shared my boring story or I wrote it down, would it really be true to everything? I’m an unreliable narrator as a person because I can’t notice everything and I won’t get the entire story. It’s annoying, but you can’t share your story in entirety with it being entirely truthful. But you still want people to be interested in your story. You want to feel recognized! You want to feel important and cool and liked and all of those things that you'll say are unimportant but secretly long for. My advice? Go for it. Start up a Youtube channel as a hobby and share your thoughts and talents with the world. If you don’t like that, start a blog. If that’s not your thing, go write or draw or do whatever and take a picture and send it to me. I swear your talents are important and beautiful and you’re amazing. I know this just like I know that I ramble in these letters. So, do something. Then take a picture of it and send it to me so I can gush over it. If I get one (1) email or message or whatever and I find that someone actually did this, I’m going to overjoyed. Because this blog makes me feel important. So do something and share it with me.

I’ll be here, at my computer. So keep saying The Sentence and send me something so I can gush over you.

[lettersfromasupportingcharacter]

Third Letter - A Quick Word On Fanfiction

Dear Reader,

Have you ever written/read/looked at/glanced at fanfiction on any site of any kind? Are you planning to do any of the previous? If so, this is for you. There are some weird things I’ve been reading where people get mad at other people for stealing stories. If I had a story on a fanfic website (ao3, Wattpad, fanfiction.net, quotev, etc.), I would not want someone to copy paste my story somewhere without telling me. That is one thing, though, and stealing a story’s IDEA is another.

In my opinion, it’s not even stealing. If you like an idea and you write about it, go for it. But it has to come somewhat from you. Copying and pasting? That’d be stealing. Copying and pasting and editing? That’s not. If you like a story but you just dislike a part of it, go ahead and rewrite that and then ask the original author if you can post it. Most authors will not care. They will love that you love their story and you were interested enough that you got involved. 

Another thing with ideas, those are just new tropes, okay? Don’t get mad at people for ‘stealing’ ideas. They’re incorporating them into their own works, you shouldn’t be mad at this. If a person loves your idea and wants to continue with it in a different way, you should be honored. It’s okay to feel upset if you’re not the best. That’s human nature. But people who use other people’s ideas are imitating. Picture it like a little sibling walking around trying to copy the movements of their older sibling just because they think their older sibling is cool.

I don’t want to force you to conform to my ideals but please, don’t get mad at people for changing parts of a story. That’s literally what fanfiction is. They’re just making fanfics off of fanfics. So please don’t get angry or jealous, it’s beautiful that so many people love an idea. It’s not stealing unless it is word for word copying and pasting.

Even better? Reference the work you got it from. If I say I was inspired by John Mulaney and used a few of his quotes in my fanfic, that sounds cool, right? People get inspired by different things. They are not trying to steal your work or your ideas. And I encourage people to change up some of their favorite fanfics so it works perfectly for them, most authors WILL be happy to see that they inspired you.

That’s all for today because I have to sleep, but I hope all of you are doing well. Remember I love you, my darling Reader, and make sure you get enough sleep to stay healthy.

Thanks for reading,

A Supporting Character

[lettersfromasupportingcharacter]

My Second Letter To You

Dear Reader,

Who are you? What do you identify as? Do you like boys? Do you like girls? Do you like both? If you don’t, are you aromantic or asexual? Do you prefer hotdogs or hamburgers? Do you eat meat at all? Do you like pizza? If so, what’s your opinion on pineapple on pizza? Do you have a pet? Do you like the rain?

I do not know any of this. You may or may not have answered those questions in your head but that doesn’t really matter to me. Because while you’re reading my posts, you are anonymous. You don’t have any specific pronouns because I’m either calling you “reader” or “you.” You don’t have any specific physical features because I don’t know you.

I don’t know you, but I love you. I get lonely sometimes. I think everyone gets lonely at some point. But I get lonely sometimes, and you, my wonderful Reader, you’re the one who helps me get through it. I have talked about and I probably will continue to talk about how I’m a supporting character. I don’t know if I’ll always be a supporting character, but I like being a supporting character most of the time. Everyone has thoughts and they can always hear themselves. It almost makes you feel like the main character, right? You can only hear yourself and you have no idea what’s actually going through everyone else’s heads 24/7. You’re the main character in your own story, but I want to talk to you about being a supporting character in someone else’s.

You’ve probably been told that you should be nice to people because “what if your roles were reversed” or “you may never know what happens later,” but I want to talk to you about the second one.

You have an impact on others. I talked about this earlier so you can just go read that, but I’m reiterating. You have an impact on others. I challenge you now to say this to yourself five times a day. It doesn’t matter if you shout it or whisper it but I want you to say a sentence to yourself. You can write it too if you want to do that instead. But I want you to say (or write) the sentence “I have an impact on the world because I have an impact on other people.”

Do it now.

Did you do it just now? If you did, and I really hope you did, it probably felt silly. It’s just a simple sentence, right? But you need to memorize that sentence and say it or write it each day until you have it stuck in your head, and then I want you to keep saying or writing it. I want you to do this because the sentence I want you to either say or write? It’s true. It’s more true than the fact that I have never owned a tiger before (though I think that would be a super cool thing to do even if it was dangerous and a lot of work). Anyways, The Sentence is true and factual and correct and right and all those other synonyms for true. 

The Sentence, and I do want you to call it The Sentence (with the capital letters) because it is important, is a thing that helps me. And there’s a chance that you, my amazing Reader, just thought “well, I don’t need help,” but there’s a bigger chance that you didn’t so I’ll keep going. The Sentence helps me. It helps me when I’m alone at home and a bit sad because it’s night and I don’t want to call one of my friends at 11pm just so we can talk, and The Sentence also helps me when I’m at a party or talking with people who I don’t really want to talk to but I have to be polite. 

As humans, we need to feel important. I haven’t done a ton of research on this but other people have so you should trust me on this. As a human, my marvelous Reader, you need to feel like you’re important. And it might be that you keep reading my posts so you can tell yourself that at least one person loves me unconditionally and thinks I’m important. That might also not happen because you may have an astonishing amount of self confidence (I do not have this but I applaud you if you do). Either way, you need to feel important (even with a lot of self confidence). You need to feel important not because you’re weak or unimportant, but because it’s a natural need. You need to feel like there’s something tying you to this world or you will not do well. This is a fact. So, do me a favor and say/write The Sentence five times a day. Do this and make sure you can assure yourself that YES you ARE important to this world.

Switching back to the original topic, I’m going to talk more about being a supporting character. I’ve talked about how you’re the main character in your own story and that you are important, but you might be asking how you could go beyond that. So here’s how to make a slightly bigger difference. The key word in supporting character is supporting. You have to support. I do not mean do everything for a person and I would never tell you that one person is more important than another (I believe that all lives matter and everyone deserves to live), but there’s a person out there who might have a big impact on the world someday. This person is weird because I don’t know who they are and you don’t either, but you’ll have to treat everyone like they might be this person because you never know if they will be. If you’re nice to this person or if you give them some good life advice, you could change their life. 

I don’t mean that you could completely change them (although it may be possible), but you can change something for them. We humans usually feel sympathetic and all that stuff. So if you’re nice to someone, who may or may not be the person who might change the world, you could make them feel a bit better and maybe they’ll be a little brighter and they’ll help the other people they come into contact with. They’ll talk about it in schools like it’s some kind of boomerang. The teachers and counselors will tell kids and teens that kindness will come back to you. But I want to tell you that it might not. You may not receive the kindness in return from an alternate source. Though someone else might. If you hold the door for someone or do something nice for them, they might be a bit kinder to someone else who might really need it. One caring action can change a person’s outlook on the whole day. And if you’re nice, maybe your actions will somehow impact someone else in a good way. So this is just one of the ways you can impact things and I’ll probably talk about it more later (and remember that this isn’t the only way to impact the world), but I have to go now so I’ll wrap it up. Be a supporting character and you won’t get a lot of recognition but maybe you’ll help someone and that is something that should be celebrated.

This seems a bit longer than the other posts I’ve seen on tumblr but I don’t care because I’m trying to reach you and this is the best way I can. So I will continue to ramble and update and post and whatnot as much as I can. This may not be everyday but I do have a lot of thoughts on this so I promise I’ll be back.

I love you very much and I love the person that you are for reading this, even if you completely ignore it later. You, my Reader, are so many good things and I’ll keep trying to tell you this by calling you marvelous or fantastic or amazing, but I hope you remember that you’re important.

Thank you for reading,

A Supporting Character

[lettersfromasupportingcharacter]

My First Letter - My View As Of Today

Dear Reader,

I won’t tell you who I am until later and I probably won’t ever tell you everything, but I see people on YouTube, people you might like or follow or whatnot, and I get jealous. They’re so cool! And they have such cool editing stuff! Or such cool talents! And they have so many followers! People must love them. I want to be like them.

Reader, I will tell you right now that this is an okay view. This type of view is completely valid and if it isn’t your view, that’s okay too. You can be jealous of other people. You can be envious. You can look up to them. You can want to be like them. You can have a crush on them. You can have a friend-crush on them. You can dislike them. But I will tell you this as someone who is out there trying to get a message across, you might never be like them. You may never be famous. You might never have two million followers. And this is okay. I say this to you, my beautiful Reader, because you need to hear it. You may not hit the jackpot. You may not end up living in a mansion. You might not end up with the seemingly perfect life. But you can still do something. 

Just because you don’t impact very many people doesn’t mean you don’t impact anyone. That one person you bought food from? Whether you smiled or frowned or told a joke, that could impact them. People talk about the butterfly effect but while I love butterflies, I think people are more important. So I have this idea in my head that someone much smarter than me has probably already thought of. I have this idea that everyone has an effect on something. 

My Reader, there is a good chance you rolled your eyes at that. It’s a cliché, right? But I’m talking about it actually being true. I believe that everyone matters. And I mean everyone. During hard times, most people will have a moment where they ask themselves if it’s all really worth it. And I want to tell you something, My Reader, my one person who might have asked this or might ask this one day. I’m not speaking to the masses right now. I’m talking to you, that one person who is reading this right now. I want to tell you that you’re important. And you’re valuable. And you’re so so so so so so so amazing. 

You can think you’re unimportant but you’re really, really not. If nothing else, I think you’re important. Because whether you leave a heart thingy on this post or not, I’ll have the knowledge that you might be my Reader. Because I know one person will read this post by the time I’m seventy. And it might be anyone. And I’m going to love that person unconditionally because they read through my posts and my words and my thoughts. So, Reader, I love you. And I hope you’re okay. You’re important. You affect things. And to me, you’re beautiful. I’ll love you without knowing your name and I’ll love you inside and out because you’re here reading my words. And you just affected me. If I see you one day, or even if I don’t, I’ll know you’re out there somewhere.

So what I’m trying to say is, you can be a side character. You don’t have to be big or famous or ‘pretty’ or ‘cool’ to be important. You can be a supporting character and you can impact the life of someone who may one day do something you’ll love. I tell myself this sometimes when I get down. I may not be famous but I mean something and I’ll impact someone someday, and maybe I already have. So I want you, my fantastic Reader, to tell yourself this too. You’re important, and you’re amazing, and you may impact someone someday, and maybe you already have. You are valuable and I hope you stay with me on this planet as long as you can.

I’m a bit sloppy with trying to get my point across, but hopefully you understood me. 

Thank you for reading,

A Supporting Character

[lettersfromasupportingcharacter]

Starting Letter

Dear Reader,

I’m going to write all my posts in letter format because I’m trying to reach out to you and I know it will take a while for this to reach you. Does that make sense? It does to me so I’ll keep going.

This is basically just a post telling you who I am? I’m a tad new to tumblr so I’m not very good at this yet. I’ve decided I wanted to do this and the first order of business is telling you my message. This is my “with great power comes great responsibility”(Spiderman). My message is this: "Supporting characters are beautiful and necessary. They’re also very important and completely and totally valid”(me).

So, if you follow me or subscribe or whatever tumblr does, I’ll tell you my opinionated stories and I’ll tell you my outlook on the world. If you agree or even if you don’t, know I’m always open to talking about my views and I know that my views aren’t the only views.

Thanks for reading,

A Supporting Character