#like I'm so motivated to write fics about this

[olderthannetfic]

I accidentally killed my own desire to write, and I need some advice. To be really blunt about it, what's the point of writing? When I would spend lots of time laboring over making a good story with a plot and characters who were in-character and connecting all the dots narratively so payoffs were satisfying, my reward was dead silence and virtually no clicks. I posted some mindless smut to my side account one day and got more hits in a day than most of my other works combined got in a year. I know, I know. "Write for ~*~yourself~*~" is the common response. It's the "be yourself!" of writing. It's supposed to be a magical phrase that'll make everything okay. But... I don't like knowing that something I spend months working on won't be read by anyone while something I write in a car while bored got thousands of clicks. I don't like making something I'm proud of and then no one ever looks at it. That's not fun for me. It's not fulfilling.

For a solid decade, I've tried to ignore how the level of interactivity in fandom is falling. Fewer comments. Fewer kudos. No comments in the bookmarks. You put your tumblr and Discord in the AN and get a handful of asks and one person who adds you, talks to you twice and then ghosts you. Most of the comments are "well, actuallys", made even more annoying by them being wrong as opposed to actually correcting an error. I avoid fandom drama, wank, and infighting. I don't engage with things I know will make me unhappy. I try to be happy over in my own little corner. I comment on every single work I read. I want people to enjoy fandom. I used to.

Some dumb smut I wrote in 40 minutes gets five times the hits of the writing I'm most proud of, and it gets it in just under three months. I am not a great smut writer. I haven't stumbled onto an incredible talent I had that makes it so the issue is that I'm so amazing my smut brings all the boys to the yard. People just don't like what I write and put effort into. It's very likely that despite 20 years of writing fic, I suck at writing. And people enjoy my writing most when they don't have to put up with anything substantial and can just skip to the sex.

So for the last eight months, when I write, I just sort of give up. Close the Word doc without saving. No one will read this. No one cares about this. There is no fan eagerly awaiting every update like I await updates from my favorite authors. There's not even someone saying, "update soon!" Close the Word doc. Delete old WIPs. There's no point. I do not tell stories worth reading. I used to. In the FFN days people genuinely enjoyed my work. I'd never have had an opportunity to do the 'I won't update until I get 3 reviews' thing because getting that many on a chapter was usually something I'd do overnight. Post before bed. Wake up. Read the reviews before school. I peaked in high school, I guess.

And now I'm just sort of lost. I still have lots of ideas. Ideas for fics fall into my head all the time. That's never been a problem. What I don't have is any motivation to write them. What's the point of writing? If no one else is reading, I guess the point would be so I could go back and read my own story and have fun with it. Write for myself. But I can review the story and have fun with it in my head without writing it down. It's substantially faster and more importantly, isn't incredibly depressing.

So, at the risk of definitely being calld the second-coming of True Art Anon or a troll or validation-seeking or haha mentally ill haha... what's the point of writing?

--

Okay, so write porn in a car while you're bored.

Look, you can whine all you want about my response, but what you've written here is blatantly about depression.

Lots of people in fandom are still interacting. And no, it isn't just on fics that are objectively written to some pro fiction standard or whatever. Teenagers still breathlessly review poorly spelled cracky masterpieces about this year's big anime and so forth.

Yes, there may be reasons why you in particular are in a slump when it comes to fandom friendships or "plz update" comments. We can talk about that. But this ask is all gloom about fandom in general. That's not realism: that's you having a problem.

--

As for why a person should write: because the actual hours you spend doing the writing are fun.

If they aren't pleasurable in some way, find another hobby.

--

But if you want an answer to the age old "Why did my 5 minute fic get 1000000x more asspats", I've seen meta about this for literally decades.

The most likely reason is that the fic we write quickly and without much thought often feels fresher and more fun. The things we labor over endlessly can feel overworked. Even in cases where they don't, they're often heavier subject matter or more niche subject matter. On top of all that, we just care more, so even a high level of feedback doesn't really feel like enough for the effort and care we put in.

--

Do you really need me to tell you why you don't feel the same as in high school when things were fresh and new?

Go read up on combatting burnout or dealing with post-college anxiety or managing stress in a dead-end job in your 30s or finding meaning in your 40s or whatever is going on.

Everyone goes through fallow periods in fandom and in life.

Feeling reinvigorated has to do with internal factors and some general life circumstance stuff. It doesn't have that much to do with number of kudos. That's just the surface trigger for a mood that was already there.

[kissoulie]

𓈒ㅤׂㅤ𓇼 ࣪ 𓈒ㅤׂㅤ⭒

𓆡 ⭒ㅤ𓈒ㅤׂ 🫧

— NSFW, MDNI. dick sizes!

warnings: metric system 😭 grab a ruler LOL fem bodied reader as usual!

a/n: no one asked for this 🤍 but i wanted to write it! dedicated to my fellow piwontober mooties 🫶 first time doing bulleted format i am just too lazy to write a full fic rn

keeho

- we have already established that i'm a monster cock keeho truther

- 24.5cm, or about 9.5in. pretty girthy, veiny, and all around just a massive dick. it hangs even when he's fully hard 😭

- he knows how to use it!!!!

- he's done a lot of research about the cervix, and female anatomy in general so he knows how to fit it all in. trust me.

- he still prefers to go super slow though 🫶 he loves feeling you clench around him!

- and feeling every inch while he slowly drags it out of you is perfect

- he's a big fan of deepthroating, but let's be real it takes a ton of training to get him more than halfway down your throat

theo

- 15cm, or about 6in. very pretty, slightly curved, perfectly average. and yes he does get waxed

- ngl theo is def the type of guy who's heard "it hurts when it's too big" before!! 😭

- it did not bruise his ego fortunately 🙏 it just made him more motivated to get better in bed

- def gets pussy drunk, it's not intentional, he's just sensitive

- bonus but i think his cum tastes good

jiung

- 19cm, or 7.5in

- just Slightly above average, nothing particular to note about how it looks

- he's super proud of it though ok 😭

- one girl called him too big ONCE and now he's got a little bit of an ego

- it's ok tho he has the skills to back it up!!!!

- he's super into deepthroating 😭 luckily he isn't too big for that to be an issue

- he definitely makes it a mission to make every hookup of his squirt at least once so they'll never forget him

intak

- 14cm, or about 5in

- he goes at it like a dog, man 😭

- he fucks like a rabbit i swear!!!

- so it's a good thing he is perfectly average. a little on the veiny side, and slightly curved upwards

- hits your gspot perfect

- the kind of guy you fuck & marry!!!

shota

- he is my favorite don't get mad

- i write him with a big dick all the time ok 😭

- 11.5cm

- the .5 is important don't forget to measure it!!!

- he still feels so deep when he's inside you though he's girthy as fuck

- he's a munch so he doesn't think it really matters how good he is with his dick as long as he can please you

- but trust me he can please u with his dick too 😭

- soulie makes u cum more than 5x every time you guys fuck ^-^

- but maybe i'm just biased

jongseob

- 20cm, 8in.

- i will not be elaborating much

- he's thin, very pretty, veiny, and just Lord he has the perfect dick

- he will make u see heaven when you're together 🙏

[enden-agolor]

What your boyfriend told you really sounded like Recovery fic Lukas (Waiting for the LAST chapter of part 1 🤗)

That's probably because a lot of the ways I write Lukas' love and affection towards Jesse is from the experience I have with my boyfriend. Love is pretty sacred to me, and being in love with a guy for *checks watch* 13 years and him being your main source of inspiration when it comes to finding positive emotions, idk it really motivates me to project that onto how I write Lukas and Jesse. Learning what love is and how to properly embrace it and build your life alongside it is basically what that fic was about on Jesse's part, while on Lukas' it was him finally getting to be with the person he's loved for so long while waiting oh so patiently for the right time when Jesse is able to start acknowledging that he can actually have that life alongside what he has. Also finding the love in himself again through how Lukas treats him and takes care of him, reminding him that he's worth the time as well as the affection, which is something him at the beginning of the fic believed he could never have.

ALSO I KNOOOOOOW I NEED TO FINISH IT 🙉🙉🙉 I'M BEING REMINDED A LOT MORE NOW!!

[amalgamateofficial]

Hello! I'm so sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if you had any tips on how to write kaito and kokichis charecters? I've decided to write a fanfic of them and I decided why not learn from the best, haha. If you see this and answer it, thank you so much! :]

OMG I'm so sorry I didn't see this sooner! You asked this question like two weeks ago and somehow the notification got buried on mobile and it wasn't until looking at Tumblr on desktop that I spotted it. I check my Tumblr notifications every day so I'm mortified that I didn't see your question sooner T-T

But congrats on the new fic!! Writing Kaito and Kokichi can be pretty daunting, so I commend anyone who takes on the challenge :) I used to think Kokichi's the most intimidating character to write, but when I started Amalgamate, I realized writing Kaito felt equally terrifying, just in a different way.

The thing is, Kaito and Kokichi are both, well... liars (and I say that with love), so how you write the two of them can be affected a lot by whose POV you're using. The fic you're working on, it's Blood, Sweat, and Tears, right? Which is from Kaito's POV? I find that when writing from Kaito's perspective, it's fun to sprinkle in moments of self-awareness, and to do so in a way that's similar to the lens Kokichi might view him through. Kaito sees himself as a hero who always does the right thing, but Kokichi sees him as someone more self-serving and cowardly. However, when it comes to Kaito and Kokichi, the truth tends to lie somewhere in the middle between them. Kaito having moments of self-awareness -- that he might sometimes have self-serving ulterior motives, and that he might not always do the right thing -- helps Kaito grow. However, I think it's good for Kaito to also push back against Kokichi's views because they can be far too extreme in the other direction. Kaito might recognize that some of his personal traits have more negative qualities than he wants to admit, but at the end of the day, he is a good person. There's nothing wrong with Kaito noting his own hypocrisy while still standing up for himself as a whole.

And I think that works in the other direction too. If Kaito doesn't like being made to feel like a bad person, the same can apply to Kokichi. Kaito sees Kokichi as a troublemaker and even a villain depending on the situation, but the truth still lies somewhere in the middle. Letting Kokichi's humanity show through on occasion can help Kaito realize his own hypocrisy. Sure, Kokichi can be selfish, and maybe his actions sometimes seem cowardly, but so long as Kaito remembers Kokichi's a human being like himself, he can apply his own personal growth to the lens through which he views Kokichi. Maybe Kokichi's got some negative qualities, but it doesn't necessarily make him a wholly bad person, and just like Kaito, Kokichi has the right to stand up for himself.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that no matter how cliché it sounds, Kaito and Kokichi really are two sides of the same coin, and when one of them learns about their own self, they invariably learn about the other person too.

I have no idea if any of that was useful because I just realized I'm rambling lmao. But I hope there was something of value in there;;; But in the meantime, good luck with your fic!! Writing Kaito and Kokichi is so much fun, so I hope you have a great time with it ^^

[sopuu]

I know usually you get questions about your art, but what about your writing?

I'm trying to write my own story kind of, but I don't know if I'm getting my writing across in the way I want it to, so how do you do it?

Also I love champion au auguuhiuuahhhauuug uhahhhh

hooo boy well first i'm so glad you like my writing!! i still feel relatively new to it so it’s incredibly motivating to hear its coming across well 🥹 ...and by extension i mayyy not be the best person to ask for advice lmao but uhh lets see

usually when there's a certain mood i want to convey, i reread fics or rewatch parts of a show i like that also has that same tone and pay extra attention to the dialogue, the pacing etc. that way i have a good frame of reference of how to get the words and the emotion i want (bc yknow. i'm feeling it when gathering references), and then i'll write and rewrite my way to that emotion. kinda like working backwards ig because knowing what tone you want vs feeling it yourself are different things and two ends of the process

oh that reminds me of this tip! it lives in my head rent-free and it talks about writing around pain specifically but i think it applies to anything in writing. is the character happy? sad? confused? then try writing how they're like that without using that word at all- in their actions, behaviour, using the environment…it's always show don't tell babyy (especially important in writing for a comic that for workload's sake cannot be too long, every single word/action has to count towards something)

also, whenever i'm rereading what i've written i try to pretend i know absolutely nothing or come back to it after a long break, and if the next line of dialogue is too predictable then it gets revised. same with presenting an obstacle in the narrative, i have to feel the stakes myself like i'm one of the characters instead of being an omnipresent force watching the story unfold in front of me if that makes sense. imo if the author isn't immersed themselves then neither would the audience be.

and just trust yourself! have fun! if you find yourself overthinking then it’s probably time for a break! there’s plenty of time to get it right :)

[roguishwretches]

I just discovered Early Access Wyll and his character has way more flavor than what we got?? I mean, don't get me wrong I love release Wyll but he's definitely pushed to the side. Making him such an obviously flawed character and beefing with the goblins in Act I would've been so interesting but aaaaaahhhh........

He would've been a second Astarion to me if the core elements of EA Wyll were kept but nooo people complained too much about it :/

[subtle-as-an-earthquake]

he said :(

[hailsatanacab]

Are you still doing the wip ask game? If so, can i ask about number 5?

I love this one and I'm so embarrassed that it's still a wip oh no!!!! This should have been completed a long time ago to celebrate hitting 1,000 followers but uh... it sorta snowballed into way more than I thought it would and this cute little oneshot is now way more than that. Whoops.

It started as a @stealingyourbones prompt that I added on to, which you can read here! Then I posted a wee little wip wednesday sneak peek, and this snippet (is it still a snippet if it's over 1k words?) carries on from there :)

👻🦇👻

Danny doesn’t join him for what is, unexpectedly, a pretty great meal.

“Holy shit, you guys,” he murmurs, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "You’re missing out.”

“Come on, Jay, it can’t be as good as the Big Bat Deluxe.” Dick whines in his ear. “You love those.”

“No, I love the Red Hot Hood Bites. That’s all I get at Bat Burger, and don’t let me hear you telling the others that I get anything else.”

“Please, Jason, don’t think we don’t have everyone’s BB order on file, who do you think you’re talking to?”

“Fuck off, Timbits. Go eat at Red Robin.”

“Hey, fuck you!”

Jason elects to tune out the ensuing list of threats in favour of finishing his burger. He’s heard them all before and he’s like 80% sure that Tim won’t actually hide his body in a Red Robin—if only because it wouldn’t take the World’s Greatest Detective to figure out who did it and he'd be so deep in the fucking shit that he may as well join Jason.

Aside from the food (seriously, that sauce! He’s going to need to rustle up a copycat or something, he can’t leave here without a recipe), the Nasty Burger is a pretty sad affair.

It’s a little run down, the vinyl covers on the seats peeling and suspiciously sticky, and incredibly quiet. The only other people around are the two teens behind the counter, bored and on their phones, and two kids, probably around Danny’s age, sitting in the corner quietly arguing amongst themselves. There’s an ungodly amount of food in front of them, but only the guy seems to be eating.

Jason sighs and looks at the rapidly cooling Supremely Nasty Meal meant for Danny. Taking a few of the fries won’t hurt, will it?

He peels the paper bag away from the greasy mess and digs in. Huh, they really skimped on his lot, there’s only like half a carton in here.

“So, you gonna bring us back something or are we going to have to starve?”

“Haven’t decided yet.”

“What a shame,” Timbo starts, with a theatrical air, “for I am still trying to decide whether or not to tell you everything I’ve learnt about the Fentons. Perhaps we could come to some sort of arrangement?”

“You finally made yourself useful and got through those firewalls?”

“Yeah, once I managed to get my hands on a native laptop. It’s weird, but whatever was keeping out my tech lets anything bought directly from Amity in. Having such localised security—to the point where even my stuff can’t penetrate?— is beyond strange. I don’t like it.”

Jason leans back, and reaches for Danny’s milkshake, finding it surprisingly light when he lifts it up. Seriously, what is with the half portions here? He turns round and glares at the spotty teen behind the counter, who doesn’t look up from his phone. Whatever. It's not like Danny’s going to drink it anyway.

Looks like the two kids in the corner have made up, if their stifled laughter is anything to go by. Most of their own food is gone now, too, so perhaps the real reason it’s called the Nasty Burger is because they stiff you on the food.

“This place is weird.” says Dick, in a rare case of being right.

“You don’t know the half of it…” Tim sighs but doesn’t offer up anything else.

Jason’s been trying his best to ignore it.

The weirdness, that is.

There’s an electrical charge in the air so strong it almost feels like he’s swimming through static. Each breath makes his steps bounce like he’s walking on the moon. If he turns too quickly, if he stands up too fast, his head spins like he's breathing too much oxygen.

No matter what Tim thinks he knows, it’s not the full weirdness of Amity Park, Jason's sure about that. Being here itches under his skin, and he resolves not to delve any deeper into it. Not with the way the green swims on the edges of his vision. 

The sooner they figure out what’s happening here, the better.

“What’s your price?” 

“Two Supremes and a six pack of Nasty Nuggies. Cake shake with two shots of espresso.”

Jason rolls his eyes as Dick splutters in concern.

“Shake and espresso? Tim, you have a problem.”

“It’s just a frappuccino. There’s no difference.”

“Then get a frappuccino.”

“I want a shake.”

“Then there's a difference! And the difference is that Alfred will kill us for enabling you!”

“As riveting as watching Timberly’s mental and physical wellbeing disappear before our very eyes is, what’s your info?”

“The same for me, please!” Dick butts in, yet again. “Except with a coke instead, because I’m normal.”

Both Tim and Jason snort. 

“Yeah, not gonna touch that. Tim, info, come on.”

“Alright, alright. Hey, so, what’s your favourite thing about being adopted?”

“Tim, I swear to God, if you don’t get to the point right now, I’ll—”

“You’re right! It’s that none of us are actually related to you.”

“And yet somehow, I’m still stuck with you all. Point, Tim, get to it.”

He grabs the burger meant for Danny and begins to unwrap it. If he has to listen to Tim being all smug about whatever he’s found out, he’s doing it with a burger in hand.

“Did you know that Willis Todd’s Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather was a Nightingale?”

“What’s a Nightingale? Aside from the obvious.”

“A Nightingale is about two generations away from becoming a Fenton.”

“Oh, what the fuck? You cannot be serious!”

“Serious as a cake shake with two espressos in it.”

“No, my… Someone ate my other fucking burger!”

Danny’s burger has a huge, bite-sized chunk taken out of it. Literal teeth marks in the bun. A slice of tomato slops limply onto the table, painting his shirt with splatters of weak tomato juice, the red half moon taunting him. Sauce dribbles out mournfully.

The two kids in the corner are staring openly now, faces red with how hard they’re laughing.

Jason sinks into his chair with a groan.

This fucking town. 

Is this how they treat outsiders? Take bites of their burgers while they laugh on—but then why only do it to his spare and not both meals? The teenagers behind the counter aren't even paying any attention, so why bother pulling a prank like this if you're not going to—

Danny.

Jason whips his head around as if he can catch the invisible little shit, but just like on the street, there's no sign of him.

Has he been here the whole time, invisibly eating the food Jason offered him? Except the packaging was still perfectly wrapped, the sticker still attached, how in the hell had he managed to eat the burger without damaging it? Did he get to it in the kitchen? Or does he—

“Wait, hold up. What the fuck did you just say?”

[unityrain24]

ok so one thing i'd like to see in a fic (and plan on putting in mine) is like...

so you know how tom hiddleston has played loki for like a decade. obviously he has aged, he's gotten some wrinkles, hairline receded just a little bit, etc etc, which isn't a bad thing, aging is normal. Especially in that span of time.

But loki himself is a being that would live thousands of years. Even though he does age, the amount of physical aging that tom hiddleston underwent in like a decade would probably happen over the course of several centuries for loki. But even so, you see loki age physically throughout the films, because tom does (and obviously editing tom and chris to look the same age over that many years would probably be offensive and also be a lot of extra work)

So one thing i'd love to see in a fic is like... recognizing that loki is physically aging way faster than he should. Is it all the stress he's been under from thor's coronation + torture + being on the run from thanos? Is it the effects of malnutrition? Did Thanos/The Black Order take advantage of how time is funky in space, and so even though Loki was missing for only a year, perhaps he was tortured/kept aboard The Sanctuary for several years?

And what would Loki think of this? For the context of my fic, Loki basically got resurrected a bit after Infinity War, so he would really be around to see how much his physical appearance has aged. And loki is obviously someone who cares about how he looks, i imagine he would be very self-conscious (maybe even like paranoid) of how he now looks and be sort of desperate to 'fix' it. And it would really add to the whole multi-faceted crisis he's going through.

anyways. yeah.

[fourleafclovxr]

i think for me right now, the appeal of dovesso lies in its understated nature: the acknowledgement that there's something there, the security of the knowledge of it. i think they're a pair who will always be equals, something that doesn't need to be stated to be known. (because isn't that the point of it all? to be equal? to know implicitly that the other is your equal?)

i'm not as much into the grand declarations of love as i was before. i think to a certain extent, my vision of lesso's characterisation stops me from enjoying them so much. (no hate but i keep thinking: would lesso say that?? would she really?? this applies to my old fic as well. would she really say that, come on.)

dovesso, to me, is the small gestures and the small kindnesses that no one talks about. the phrase in chinese i'm thinking of is 潜移默化: the slow and subtle influence someone exerts on you, the change they bring without you noticing. i think there's something romantic in that. to change the other by loving them. to not demand anything else of that love.

[ellalalala]

One of these days your lack of respect and appreciation for fic writers and artists alike will drive everyone off this app and you'll be left with nothing but ai content. I'm sick of this

[kaatiba]

i guess i should just accept that i am primarily a fanfiction writer. i've completed one (1) long-form original work in my whole life and it's increasingly feeling like a fluke. i've written two "collections" of prompt fills, which are very like fanfiction as you take someone else's idea and run off with it, but they're not short stories really, as they're not complete narratives, just expansions. fanfiction I can write quickly and easily and well and I almost always finish them. but I can't do the same with og work no matter how hard I try. And maybe that'll change in the future but I just feel like a failure and a fraud and a flop

[that-disabled-princess]

Where is the love for short fics and one-shots and drabbles. The love for fics under 10k, under 5k, even under 1k. The love for authors who cannot get past 2k, no matter how hard they try. The love for authors who don't end up on rec lists because they can't get past 1k.

[crimeronan]

"Hunter doesn't even know half of it," the Inner Empress says, hugging her arms tighter around herself. She's rocking, a little, as though to keep herself calm. "He doesn't even know."

Raine keeps their voice very quiet, very gentle. "That Belos hurt you?"

"No, no, that doesn't matter, I don't care about any of that. He doesn't know about the others."

Raine's brows draw together. "The others?"

"The other guards. The Golden Guards before him. He doesn't know."

Darius stiffens so fast that the mindscape itself reacts. He's not making it easy to convince the inner self that they aren't here to hurt her. Raine suspects that he doesn't actually realize how intimidating he's being.

"What do you mean by that," he says flatly.

The trees shake. Dust dislodges. Luz shrinks away.

Raine touches her arm, still so gently.

"Whispers," Darius says, edging toward a snarl, "ask her what the fuck she means by that."

This inner self doesn't seem any better at expressing herself than her outward facade. Raine swallows. "It's okay, Luz," they say. "Hey, can you show us?"

[hueseok]

.

[johnslittlespoon]

https://www.tumblr.com/johnslittlespoon/754024039779123200/brainrot-from-bike-riders?source=share

8928 words?!?! Holy shit Sam, the day that you post this au I am putting my phone on do not disturb, closing the blinds, getting under my blanket and spending the whole day just reading this fic🙏🏼😩 I can finally die in peace!

SHGDK this made me giggleee I RLY HOPE IT LIVES UP TO UR EXPECTATIONS!! <33 ik i shouldn't but i've been bouncing back and forth between drafting/ch1 of this au and ch6 of dog coded but i might have hacked my own brain... i can trick myself by getting progress done in whichever one my brain isn't actively avoiding... and in doing so accidentally make progress in both bit by bit 🤝 (🤞)