#once again i think to myself i have too many organizational tags

[zorosdimples]

I definitely get your point but the toxicity in fandom spaces really does make it difficult to enjoy it now especially on here. I’ve seen so much discourse in the last 24 hours in the jjk fandom and I know you say you’re trying to curate a safe space or positive space without someone looking through the tags to find new content to reblog so others can reblog in your circles it’s almost impossible to keep that ideal going? Because how would new non-toxic people ever get their work seen if it isn’t found through main tags? And it sounds like you don’t bother looking for or reading new writers work either if you said there’s no point with tags

i will answer this even though you ended it on—what sounds to me like—a passive-aggressive note. maybe you didn’t intend for it to come across that way, but it did.

i would like to start by saying that i am not a timeworn, well-established blog; i’ve been here since july 2023, which is about 10 and a half months at this point, and never shared fanfic or actively participated in the animanga community until then. a lot of people that i’ve met have been on tumblr for years. so relatively speaking, i’m a “new writer” in fandom.

i’m not going to talk about discourse or the abuse of the tagging system because i think this is an issue on any and every social media platform. unless there are mods who go through and ensure that all posts are relevant to the tags they’re under, there will always be irrelevant content in certain tags; many people are more interested in their work being seen than in abiding by any sort of organizational standards.

that said, tumblr has a unique issue. sometimes, tagging simply doesn’t work on here. it has happened to myself and countless others on multiple occasions: you tag your post currently and it doesn’t show up in the tags. it can be related to images/banners/dividers or words you use in the tags (i.e. using the word “horny” or putting “tw choking”). but other times nothing is “wrong” but your post still won’t show up! and there’s nothing to do about it except to 1. delete the post and wait it out or 2. keep the post up and let it not show up in the tags.

of course it would be nice if the tags worked and if people would keep relevant posts under the correct tags, but that’s a not realistic option currently, so there are other ways to go about sharing work. also i would like to say that while the tags aren’t a complete loss, they aren’t a reliable way to find new work. i never said there was “no point with the tags.”

this was the crux of my post that you saw: the best way to find artists and writers and individuals is through community. you can search tags and see which specific blogs are popular for those tags, and work your way from there. but writers don’t blow up and get noticed because their works are in the tags; they gain traction once they find a place in the community.

i’ve said this in private before—never on my blog—but in my opinion, there are 3 components to a “viral” post:

it’s about something that’s currently popular

it looks pleasing to the eye (to draw people’s interest)

it’s shared by the right blogs

a new writer will never be popular if they only rely on the tags; they must do digging and groundwork to find blogs that they relate to and enjoy. it’s not an overnight process. it takes time and effort. and the same goes for readers! it starts small: by finding one or two blogs that you adore. and then seeing who those blogs interact with, and working your way outward. again: it takes time and energy. but it’s so worth it.

new writers (and artists) are constantly joining our community, and we usually find them when they follow us or follow blogs that we follow. so, to address your last point: no, i don’t often sift through the tags. but i do look at every single blog that follows me, and i do follow new writers. and i do see what the people i follow are reblogging, and find new writers that way, too.

also you can filter and block words and tags that you don’t want to see, like “discourse” and whatnot. the beautiful thing about tumblr is you can curate your space to best suit you!

[starvels]

Fic Writer Interview Meme

tagged in this a while ago by the lovely @oluka ! thank you, bluebonnet!

name: starvels/dinosaur/dinostar/di/star or any combination thereof

fandoms: currently i have open fic documents for: marvel (616, 3490, AA, MCU and a secret one ~), naruto (yes i know 😪), avatar: the last airbender and fullmetal alchemist. i’m also obsessed w the locked tomb books over at @camillaloudhect

two-shot:

it's taking everything, it's taken everything is a legitimate two-shot about sex pollen trope subversion. it’s sad as hell and i’m rly proud of its style/narrative construction

funnily, are we satellites? is actually listed as a two-shot bc the map chapter that showcases s/t’s roadtrip path

and actually fourth time's a charm is a two chapter fic as well. it’s was a lil pinch-hit for stevetony secret santa about sparring and love confessions that i sometimes forget i wrote lol

most popular (marvel) fics:

by the numbers

wear it like a message: (v funny bc i’ve never had a person off of ao3 talk to me about this fic at all 😂) it’s a s/t ensemble cast kinkmeme fic about domestic shenanigans and dogtags/rings

we were meant for love: it’s the first in the we were meant verse about cliche, happy-no-hurt AU s/t falling in love at first sight

by measures of people asking me about it:

are we satellites? that steve/tony 616-inspired roadtrip with nature metaphors, takes the cake for sure

followed by some combination of any of my (overtly) trans fics like name it ever after which is a 3490 exploration and the firefighter/pyrokinetic as we touched and burned

actual worst part of writing:

that bit where you are 75% done with a piece and you can see the end and you know basically what you have to do to complete it all, but it’s SO close to being done that you’ve maybe started looking at other projects already/started crossing it off in your mind as done already.

that’s a hard space for me to be in and i run into it on anything over like 7-8k. i think the reason why is because the pacing of the writing changes so drastically - i will write 1k/hr easy when i’m in the zone, but when you get to 75%, you’ve got to start editing, nit-picking at things, being careful, filling in spaces, etc. that’s hard and i usually require handholding to get through that part lol.

how you choose your titles:

almost always a song lyric. i’m obsessed with finding new music and i’m constantly listening to different niche subgenres. when i find a song that fits the vibe of a fic i’m writing i will either listen to it ON REPEAT for the entire writing. wild! or i will make a playlist from it to write to. i like to pay homage to that inspiration.

occasionally, i will also do a word association tree and just nit pick through combinations like for syntax of bones

do you outline:

i generally do not and i would not recommend this style of life for other folks. it’s pure chaos lmfao.

i doubt that i will ever outline short (<6k fic) but i’ve been trying to be better about writing small outlines for mid-long length fics. i went through a phase when i was writing long fic a lot where i was doing a ton of moodboards and drawing of plot lines and literally breaking things down day by day for the text - which was fun! but i think there’s a balance b/w that and not outlining at all that i need to find somehow haha.

ideas you probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice:

listed a bunch here and here! but also

more poly fic - janstevetony, carolrhodeytony, caroljessrhodey, janesamthor, etc! this is more about having background comic knowledge to do justice to each character. so much to read...

young avengers fic! this is actually really likely bc i truly do love otgay more than i love any other ensemble in marvel, and i did recently catch up on death’s head/strikeforce/empyre but i feel like i would need to do more specifically Fic Research to adequately get a handle on how to characterize everyone. and i haven’t done that yet lol.

war-time 616 steve’s relationship to gender/sexuality

mcu natasha/pepper start a relationship before im2, emotional fall out from the events of im2, tony both thumbs-up in the background

callouts @ me:

di, belief in yourself is the best writing tool you have! believe in your words. give them attention, give them water, give them space in your life. let writing be a habit for yourself and cultivate it how you would any other plant cutting. turn into challenges, bc they’re what keep you lively and growing. let your work be an average, rather than striving to make everything you produce your best thing ever. be kind and gracious with yourself.

prioritize EDITING before posting, oh my god, di.  щ(゜ロ゜щ)

best writing traits:

prose/description is the most commonly complimented aspect of my writing! and i agree :’) i really do love to play with the inherent poetry of human existence. i also think i am good at setting up emotional tension (i want people to FEEL as much as i do all the time) and crafting a subversive narrative (starting with a climax and exploring resolution/genre blending/turning tropes upside down/talking about gender/queer experiences through a non-cishetero lens, etc.)

tangential opinion: “Friends and support are a thousand times more important for your well-being as a writer than anything else.” - oluka

gonna echo this, actually! i’m a part of a lot of og writing groups and its really taught me how essential feeling safe talking about your work and sharing it is. that’s how you develop inspirations. s’why i’ve been attempting to slide back into discord lately, as i get into marvel again haha.

also, tbh, don’t be afraid to like things! enjoy what you enjoy and do so wholeheartedly and unabashedly. don’t be ashamed of feeling things - about your writing or as inspiration for your writing!

tagging: i do NOT know who has done this already sorry! but i’d love to hear from @viudanegraaa @hungerpunch @alexenglish @ironlawyer @msermesth @welcomingdisaster @veryvincible (if you already did it, link me pls!)

[coindraws]

bruh

Sorry for being so negative these last few weeks (if anyone reads my tags it shows…) but idk, this is my blog, so I do what I want. Anyway, this is just a very long vent post and I’ll put it under a cut anyway if anybody wants to read it.

Okay, so I moved to France almost exactly four weeks ago and ever since then it’s been nothing but problems. I chose this bachelor degree very well knowing that I’d move to another country and that’s also what I wanted! Which is great, I always wanted to spend some time of my university experience in a foreign country and especially in France if there was a possibility to do so.

Since I’m the very first German to join this programme, I’m kind of the guinea pig for everything but I knew that beforehand as well. I think I’m more of a guinea pig for the German side, though since for my university in Germany it’s their first time offering a programme like this. To quickly explain, you start in your home country and then move to the foreign country for a while until you return and then receive your diploma of two universities. Sounds neat and all if things actually worked but they don’t really as it turns out…

Anyway, I thought everything would’ve been cleared up - or at least most of the things - before my arrival but that wasn’t the case. I got zero information on how this whole system works here and it’s very different than in Germany + there’s the obvious language barrier that I have. That’s not surprising, most things get solved within the first two weeks or so but the person who’s supposed to be my contact person is known for not answering very fast and sorting things out and that’s basically what my first four weeks have been so far; trying to navigate everything in a foreign country, a foreign language and solving organizational things which for some reason are left to myself.

Basically, I get told that people are going to do it for me and talk to others to get things going but then they just don’t and I’m faced with not knowing what to do since I won’t receive any answers to my mails. (Also when somebody tells you that you’re able to visit them on a certain day of the week for 15 minutes it’s kind of saying a lot on how much time they have for you… Nevermind that I don’t even have time on that day but in their defense I forgot to mention that, since that conversation only lasted 5 minutes)

Getting registered at the uni here was enough of a hassle but it finally worked. Then when I thought I had my courses there’s still another problem left and since the system in France isn’t as flexible as in Germany that just creates more problems the more time goes on. So in summary, week one to three of September were spent trying to figure out my schedule + my registration and while I thought I’d finally be done with that, there’s still one thing missing and it’s currently my fourth week here.

I was prepared to face problems like the language barrier, a different university system, being on my own because I’m the only German here but I wasn’t prepared to deal with organizational stuff on my own because nobody’s really helping me. My biggest help so far have been my fellow students and my tutor but even those don’t really know how to properly help me most of the time and I’ve never heard back from my contact person about my schedule here. I understand that professors are busy and all but lending a helping hand when a new student arrives would be nice. Again, they mentioned that if I don’t hear back from them it’s usually a good sign and if I didn’t hear back until a certain day, it’d be fine but it was hard telling that to the people who handled my registration.

The problem that's left now is about an essay I have to write and I was told I should do it in the course from year three which isn’t possible anymore as I found out today. The prof can’t let me do this in his course because I’d be too much, which is understandable since he already had to reject others weeks ago and it’d be really rude to the other students if he accepted an essay from somebody who’s three weeks late. The prof who’s my contact person here told me two weeks ago that I should send him my schedule and he’d talk to his colleagues and sort things out because I couldn’t register in the first week of September before courses started since there were problems with my registration.

If I had had the information beforehand on how to do my schedule and had received my password earlier, this problem wouldn’t exist. But since nobody prepared me for that and told me, I’m now sitting here still trying to somehow solve this weeks after the semester here started and it sucks to be the one trying to do that when it isn’t really my task. Right when I thought that everything was solved, I’m faced with yet another problem and the stress just keeps going and hasn’t stopped ever since I moved here. And while I’d understand that there were so many problems with a new programme, I’m less understanding if there was a previous programme just like this one but with another different city in Germany. Same contact person here but it seems like they’re doing it for the very first time and that shouldn’t be the case at all. I’ve also learnt (and experienced for that matter) that other profs aren’t very fond of him and know what it’s like to try and sort things out but I’m not involved in that beef and yet I still kind of am without wanting to.

As I mentioned before, it only gets harder as time goes on and to be frank, I’m sick of it. I don’t know when I’ll reach the end of rope but I’m always telling myself if I absolutely can’t take it anymore I’ll return to Germany or just take a break for a year before I try again. I’m not sure if this is even a possibility but it’s driving me nuts and I don’t even think about enjoying my time here. It’s been nothing but a struggle and if I had to summarize September so far, it’s basically been a hardcore “try not to cry once a week challenge” which I’m failing miserably at this point. It’s so frustrating for me to sort all of this out while I can’t even use my native language and I’m not that familiar with the system here to begin with.

It got to the point that I can’t even have a normal conversation with a prof about organizational stuff without my voice cracking and me just wanting to start crying on the spot because I’m so frustrated and stressed. If anybody asks me on how things are, I really have to hold back as well. Sometimes I sit in the lectures and my thoughts drift off to all these unsolved problems and I have a hard time keeping my composure. Thankfully everybody here has to wear a mask at all times, so that at least can hide it somewhere but I wouldn’t be surprised if I just left a lecture because I was feeling like shit.

I’ve told my parents about my problems and today my Dad asked me if he should still order the book that I asked him to because even he was unsure if I’d continue this or not. And while I told him yes, that’s also just a testimony on how bad things are right now. It’s also cool that my contact person told me that everybody who organizes this programme is concerned about a person’s well-being and their mental health but I’m far from feeling well. I was prepared for a lot of things, as well as feeling somewhat lonely which I surprisingly don’t but I wasn’t prepared for all this organizational bullshit and not really having anybody here that can help me with it.

tl;dr I’m so tired and exhausted of everything and even if I still want to at least try and get this bachelor degree, I don’t know for how long I’ll continue trying if things aren’t solved soon.