Why you should tag authors in your fic rec posts
Hello again. It's me. Honestly, I've felt this way for years, but I've never wanted to say anything until now, but honestly, I think it's time someone does. Every author is different, I recognize that, but with the uprise in reposters and plagiarism in the writing community on Tumblr, I feel like this post is important to make.
Keep in mind this is vastly a post regarding my own opinions of this matter, but if you are an author, or even a reader that agrees with any of the points here, feel free to share this to spread awareness.
So, without further ado, here are a variety of reasons you should tag and properly credit authors on your fic rec posts.
Believe it or not, fic recs are actually a very great source of feedback. When we're tagged when someone recs our fic, we get told, 'hey, this person likes our writing enough to tell other people about it, and share it with others who might like it as well!'. Without that tag, we have NO IDEA that you liked it enough to share it with others. Instead, our fic just gets reduced to the name or title we've labelled it as, and not the writer - the person, the human - who spent hours, days, weeks, months, or sometimes even years writing said piece that is linked to a recommended post. Supporting authors is so important, especially if you want them to continue writing!
That being said, and I don't know how many others will agree with me on this point, but I've always personally felt that people that don't tag authors on fic rec posts are almost trying to take credit for those particular stories. By not putting the author, it gives the allusion that the person making the post could have been the author of said story. Like, you can spare enough time and energy to link the post, but not hit a little @ key which takes about a third of the amount of time to do as it does to link the post? Given the amount of reposters and plagiarizers that are also on the rise lately on Tumblr, it just never sat right with me. The author put in the time and effort to create that story you're recommending. The least you could do is credit them with a proper tag.
Additionally, I just feel like it's common curtesy. Without a proper tag, to me, you're saying that the finished product is more important than the person behind said product who worked hard to create such a work for you to enjoy. If you can spend the time to make your fic rec post 'look nice', you can spend the two extra seconds it takes to tag the author. It shows you respect the person behind the writing as much as the writing itself. At least, to me.
Not tagging the author is essentially the same to me as if you never made the post in the first place. We have no idea about it unless we're lucky enough for it to pop up on our dash and we recognize our own piece of writing. I can't speak for others, but it literally makes my day when I see someone has tagged me in a fic rec post! Like, you cared enough to share my stories! You cared enough to tell people about me. It's one of the biggest compliments you can possibly give someone.
I know there are probably a plethora of other reasons as to why you should credit authors on fic rec lists and the like, but I've said the main points I want to here. If any other authors want to add any more reasons as to why you should tag them on fic rec posts, then by all means! Please, be my guest!
This post isn't meant to be a debate. I just felt it needed to be said, again, due to the rise in reposting and plagiarism that's been going around Tumblr recently, and also since it's just something I've always believed in.
Stories are meant to be shared. It's just nice knowing that our stories are being shared.
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Your Favourite Author's Favourite Fic
in no way is this me sneakily trying to get fic recs out of people, but here's my new tag game!
Rules! When tagged, reblog with the fic you've written that you love the most
Not the fic with the most kudos, or the most comments, or the most hits, but the fic that you're the most proud of. I'm talking about the story that kept you up at night, the one that you still think about, the one that you wish more people would read
So, it's time to show off! I strongly encourage - in fact, I demand - that you give yourself some compliments, a well-deserved pat on the back, and tell us all the reasons why it's your favourite!
Then tag five people and make them go through it, too 🥰🩷
I'll tag @wolfjackle, @tourettesdog, @gilbirda, @die-erlkonigin6083, and @thewritingowl to get us started, please and thank you!!
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Thinking once more about the F/F AO3 stats issue. Really struggling with the urge to write "issue" there too, LOL.
I know that call-to-action doesn't always go well, and that I exist as a drop in the bucket compared to millions of Tumblrites & AO3 users. But the curse of seeing yet another post which discusses how horri-bad these stats are, when the differences within the individual fandoms is often so manageable. It drives me insane.
There's a couple versions of these "wow, M/M fics are more popular and that's bad because of X issue" posts that have screenshots of laughable disparities. Stuff like 500 more M/Ms than F/Fs. That is a genuinely amusing number, because with the help from a fraction of the thousands who share any post like that, this very scary gap would cease to exist.
So, anyway. I'm considering some sort of fandom roundup wherein I have folks vote on a fandom with F/F to M/M "disparity" which I will then run a "break the ratio" event on. Encouraging people to write fics until the ratio evens. IDK, is that something that people would be interested in? I could be crazy but this rubber room squeaks and I think the rats are talking about me.
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Follow up to this post brought to you by @forgetme-eternally-blissfully, in fanfic snippet format because I gave up on drawing the comic (the fanfic was supposed to be a comic draft but I added too many details)
Kim Dokja lays on the ground among the rubble of a ruined building. He twitches a little before his eyes open. The world is blurry. In the distance, he can see a dark blur fluttering around his surroundings. As his vision comes into focus, he can recognize Yoo Joonghyuk searching through the debris.
A sharp pain coming from his side causes Kim Dokja to let out a groan as he struggles to push himself up to a sitting position. The sound catches Yoo Joonghyuk's attention and immediately he starts making a beeline in Kim Dokja's direction.
As Yoo Joonghyuk approaches, Kim Dokja takes note of Yoo Joonghyuk's tattered coat, his bloodstained body, the wounds on his face, hands, legs. None too serious though some deep enough to inevitably leave scars later.
Yoo Joonghyuk is getting closer, kneeling down, reaching his hand out towards Kim Dokja's face, making a move to pull Kim Dokja in when Kim Dokja decides to open his mouth.
"You're not losing your balance and having trouble standing are you? I'm not going to carry you on my back this time."
"Shut up," is all Yoo Joonghyuk says as he wraps his arms around Kim Dokja's shoulders. His grip is tight, one hand on the back of Kim Dokja's head, the other circled around his upper back.
There is a gash in Kim Dokja's side that throbs with pain. Blood loss has his head spinning and his vision blurring again. From where his face is pressed into Yoo Joonghyuk's shoulder, Kim Dokja can smell blood, sweat, smoke. Buildings continue to crumple in the background and the sound of something falling pitters in his ears. His hands tense and untense, relax and remain by his sides.
Kim Dokja lets out a breath and leans into Yoo Joonghyuk, just slightly. Just enough so that Yoo Joonghyuk can tighten his hold by a hair.
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Author's notes (what would normally be my image caption):
I said in the referenced post that Kim Dokja has no trouble reciprocating affection once someone else initiates, but I think Yoo Joonghyuk is the exception. Always exceptional, that one. At least during the Scenarios.
Kim Dokja can read his movements, see what Yoo Joonghyuk is aiming to do, can read his mind, dammit. But he can't comprehend his actions. Yoo Joonghyuk acting in a way that Kim Dokja doesn't know about is something that happens more and more often as time goes on, and serves as a reminder of the wall that exists between a protagonist and a reader, but also the wall that exists between two normal people. Because at this moment, Kim Dokja is still struggling to see Yoo Joonghyuk as his own person instead of a protagonist or a 1863x-regressor-to-be. He's blinded by what he knows and has seen in his own past, which he assumes will be Yoo Joonghyuk's future. When he looks at him, does he see those ghosts of the future flickering superimposed over the shape of the man before him? This is the sort of wall that exists between them.
So when Yoo Joonghyuk acts outside of Kim Dokja's expectations, Kim Dokja tries to push them back on course with banter. "Yoo Joonghyuk is getting closer, kneeling down, reaching his hand out towards Kim Dokja's face, making a move to pull Kim Dokja in-" Kim Dokja sees all of this, takes note of all of this, knows what's to come of it. Doesn't understand it one bit. He's not oblivious. It's more like, "Why? Why me? Why would someone feel this way about and want to do these things with me?" He KNOWS the effect he has on people. He intentionally calculates how much he interacts with Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung to ensure their loyalty towards him in the early scenarios (not so much so after like Scenario 5-ish so we're talking early-early scenarios. After that point he more supports them in the direction they want to go (when that direction is the direction he already wanted them to go anyways. something something picking teammates because he knew they were already loyal and righteous by nature, nurturing them so that they would be able to carry out their justice no matter the adversary. He chose them because he knew they were loyal and strong, but they weren't loyal or strong at the time. But they would be in the future. But they wouldn't have been without him. But in another time where he didn't exist they were strong anyways see this is how he is able to have ultimate faith in his party members and know the kind of support he has given them while still being unable to recognize his own value in the grand scheme of things. Because they would have been fine without him, he's SEEN it. This is another wall between him and other people, another future ghost)). So he knows how much influence he has in other peoples' lives. But he values himself so little that he is blind to the emotional, sentimental weight he has to these people. No matter how much he knows he's done for them, he won't see himself as worthy of genuine praise or recognition, affection, love.
So this lack of self recognition extends to his perception of all of his companions, but especially so to Yoo Joonghyuk. Yoo Joonghyuk is probably the person whom Kim Dokja is the most strict about characterization with. Kim Dokja knows him the best, it's true, but he also doesn't know a damn thing about him as a person instead of a character and that makes him feel a certain way. Vulnerable, I think. Lonely. That childish feeling of betrayal when the characters walk off the page without him. There are sides to people and characters that you will never know simply because they weren't observed. And there are sides of people that you have no right to know. It is by becoming a person instead of a reader that you must abide by those rules and give up omniscience. Part of being a person and recognizing another's personhood is to willingly not know everything about them.
Anyways. He's not there yet. Not by Hug Attempt #2. This was supposed to have 3 parts with the last one set after the epilogue but we'll see if I ever get to it.
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