#or maybe this reflects a trend in publishing idk

[midshipmank]

one day i will find them….the mythical 5-star lesbian fantasy and 5-star gay scifi……

[risingshards]

I'm reflecting on my writing a bit, once more thinking about the creative cycles I get on because I'm maybe hitting a familiar roadblock again. Thinking and writing about my personal creative cycles could be useful, but I'm prefacing that I usually just do all these over again so this could also be egotistical navel gazing that doesn't accomplish much of anything.

Maybe important to note I don't feel I have as much of a cycle for the web novels, this is mainly for me attempting to do the equivalent of building an insanely hard Lego kit without instructions that is me writing a manuscript with the intent of shopping it around for a traditional publisher. So once again (this is like my fifth post about this I'm sorry LOL) my cycle for trying to write a tradpub manuscript post college:

I get hit with a sudden desire to do tradpub project (“something to bring to my workshop group,” “A way to flex different creative muscles,” “just want to write something for traditional publishers,” “the beat sheet,” “something to tinker and experiment with,” “trying to climb that big tradpub mountain,” etc.)

I get really excited about it!

I write 1 (one) chapter and bring to workshop, then ride the buzz of them liking it!

I maybe get some more work done on worldbuilding or some more scenes and it feels good and fun. Maybe an outline gets done.

I try to write more chapters. Keyword try. Suddenly it’s not fun. Suddenly writing it is like pulling teeth. Suddenly I'm just trying to write for a publisher and it gets too cynical and I think about all the trends and tropes and corporate stuff and I don't like that feeling.

I then have an epiphany about writing Rising Shards and my other web novels (well just one other at the moment with Reborn but I have other WIP web novels that are going fine) and how I should focus on my main projects first and foremost and how nice it is I have projects I really truly enjoy that express my soul with a medium/format I really love.

Interest continues to wane for new WIP while still I note something like “it’d be fun to have a side project, just something to tinker with, and I’d love to tackle that tradpub mountain someday…”

I write in my diary/post on here about it and then remember that I have this cycle and do this constantly (seriously I've done this like 5 times lol) .

Parts of WIP make it into another project, tradpub ideas abandoned.

Repeat at step 1 after a while.

Going through this so many times you think I'd just get the hint and not try this again. IDK if I'm just like incapable of writing that Mythical Tradpub Project™ but some days it feels like it. When my web novels flow so well and are such fun projects to work on and make me so happy, that I shouldn't worry so much about that tradpub mountain. Generally, that's the way I go. And it's worked out for me so far. I don't make much money on my writing yet, but I have readers. There is a big thing from the Tapas True Love contest coming that I am not entirely sure how much I can say about it yet, but it's something that's bigger than any of my tradpub manuscript attempts, which probably says something big about my weird wrestling game wlw isekai doing better than my "surely publishers will like this" manuscripts.

Maybe I won’t ever be able to take on that tradpub challenge, to build that mythical bajillion piece Lego set, but I am feeling good about the path I'm on writing wise. A writer friend was talking to one of our college profs, who's a published author that works on scripts and such so they're in the know was saying how full our genre is and how big print publishing just kinda sucks right now. That whole mood was a big part of me deciding to self publish Rising Shards as a web novel (including time of me working at a publisher that helped motivate me to get RS out the way I wanted it), and I haven't regretted that one bit.

Again, why do I keep trying when the fruitful path for me has been rejecting that and forging my own way without trying to appease some lit agent or whoever? Maybe it's a chip on my shoulder. Maybe it's just the like "I've been thinking about going about it this way since high school, I should at least try." A lot of my writer friends are trying and it makes me want to try too. It's that pie in the sky big lottery ticket win of writers (but probably a lot more attainable than a big lottery ticket win.)

What does that mean for my Wolves of Hope and Stardust project? IDK. I love that name. I like the premise, I thought it'd be the one to break through my "ugh feeling at chapter two" vibe. I’ve put a lot of thought into it so surely it’ll end up somewhere. I have notebooks specifically for it, one for worldbuilding and one to try and hand write it. Maybe this is just a blip and I'll pick up work on it again. For now, this summer is gonna be Rising Shards, Reborn in a Fighting Game with My Rival, and Collab Project as my big ones. I might tinker a bit with Wolves, but maybe this time I really need to go SLOOOOWLY and build it up to try and find a way around me hating it by the second chapter. Having an experimental project is fun, and I have a rough idea for a thing I wanna do at some point (I'll put that in a separate post) but I usually fall on this loop and end up going "Wait I love Rising Shards and Reborn and collab project the most." So next time you see me talking about some new tradpub project to finally climb that mountain, maybe link this one so I can give myself some reasonable expectations.

[headspace-hotel]

so apparently that person WAS just being stupid but I think there is a steelman of the "fanfiction reflects corporate monopolization trends" argument. something along the lines of... humans have always played with stories (including "other people's" stories, copyright isn't that old), but aspects of the *way* that's sometimes done now reflect the broader state of the commercialization of the arts? something about... idk, representation being treated as a fungible commodity? the *level* of distinguishment between Published Fiction and Fanficion, instead of being more of a gradient, and weird assumptions that causes? assumptions that maybe make the writing of *both* Published Fiction *and* Fanfiction worse than they could be?

Well I mean I think fanfiction starting to dominate to the extent that it has, does speak to something very....unsatisfying about a lot of books and movies nowadays.

You can see this with the MCU, fanfiction or at least fandom is almost NECESSARY to enjoy a lot of it because there is so little space devoted to each character, and even less care taken to execute their development and their own personal story well. Fandom isn't really an expansion or elaboration, it's like a supplement that is necessary to really get anything out of it in the way human brains (I believe) want to engage with stories.

There's also something to be said about how people are horny and fanfiction provides stories with plenty of sex that aren't just bare-bones porn where a hot person is engaging in a sex act that turns you on. Even a fanfic that is Porn Without Plot still often has elements of character and emotion and nods at larger conflicts and dynamics in play, but there's also a lot of Porn With Plot (and/or feelings or whatever), which is not really a robust category elsewhere.

Like, there's this often very entrenched assumption that "porn" and "art" are so different that a desire to read about a character having a personal journey and dealing with emotional conflicts and having that lovingly and skillfully rendered, and a desire to read about that character getting railed because HHHHHNNNNGH, are entirely different desires that do not overlap at all ever. Erotica novels have gotten past it a little, but there's not a lot of appreciation for how a sex scene can actually deepen the character development and emotions of a story that's overall not intended as titillating. And still be hot.

[stormears]

FF7 Fanfiction Excavation - Trends of the Times PART 2

A long drag through the FF7 archive on FF.net, English fics only, sorted by publishing date, because I’m curious. This post: started at May 2005 and went to the end of the year, or page 1149 of the archive to page 1095. 

(Part 1, Jul ‘99 to Dec ‘05 Here...will split into 2 bigger posts probs) /// Part 2 YOU ARE HERE // Part 3: Jul - Dec 2005 HERE 

Keep in mind that I’ve only played Remake. I know a ton of OG spoilers, but some stories or ideas will just fly over my head. Ex., I don’t know who Shera is; I’m not sure if Sephiroth being a “general” in the war is fanon/popular fic idea or canon; I searched most reviewed/favorited stories on both FFN and AO3 recently and it was news to me that time travel is a VERY popular plot in this fandom. For that reason I didn’t think to start counting the time travel fics till mid 2005. 

*** = denotes a fic that’s not necessarily good but definitely interesting. Maybe a legitimately good story from my personal sampling of it, maybe a unique plot or character interaction, maybe something that made me go “oh my god” and want to share it.  

FACTS AND FINDS, FROM MAY 2005 ONWARD: 

- GENERAL: It seems Tifa is the most popular girl for shipfics involving a female character. Tifa/Reno! Tifa/Cloud! A dash of Tifa/Sephiroth! And Aerith is shipped with Sephiroth almost as often as she is with Cloud.

- First genderbend fic I noticed: June 12, 2005, about Vincent turning female and adjusting to life as a woman 

- July 2, 2005: “ YAOI did you read? YAOI! Please do not read if you don't like guy on guy action. R&R please!” (Middle school reading experience ACTIVATED)  

- “Yaoi” appears to have become more common usage in 2005 

- Red XIII fics: I realize now that I’ve seen next to no fics about him. The ones I can remember are very short and reflective fics rather than an actual story, plot or desire driving the character to do something. It’s always his thoughts and feelings on the events of the game after it’s all behind him, or on another character, or a death, etc. One fic which hinted at sexual content tho. 

- Oct 4, 2005: Okay it’s likely there’ve been time travel fics that I skimmed over or didn’t realize were actually timetravel. Today is the first one I noticed was explicitly time travel. Cloud goes back in time to when Sephiroth is an 11-year-old boy and kidnaps him. Only 2 chapters. 

- ***Oct 20, 2005: Possibly the best Rude-centric fic in existence (a 30k oneshot) was posted: “Epitaph” by grayout. Rude and Reno’s relationship from Reno’s initiation process into the Turks, and their partnership afterward. Exemplary writing quality with fantastic buildup of relationship and trust, if not “love”, or if not for long. Told in the 2nd POV where “you” refers to Rude. Truly amazing.***

- GENERAL: Time-travel fics kinda kicked off this year. I noticed a few in 2004 but 15-ish in 2005. There’s probably more time travel fics I didn’t notice because I’ve been looking at things so broadly for...400 ish pages now. Sorry. 

- GENERAL: both stereotypical “Mary Sue” fics (OC girl with tragic past gets involved with canon characters) and CloudxSephiroth fics had a slight uptick in 2005. I first noticed around midyear and counted around 15-20 of each by the year’s end. Stereotypes are forming. 

- Author Tidbit: Just noticed a certain fic author keeps showing up, I see their Hatsune Miku icon every handful of pages. A lot of oneshots and 2-3 chapter fics. They’ve written 159 total fics. And yet their profile only shows 35 of those. Idk why but anyway, I just thought, that’s a lot of fics! 

- Dec 26, 2005: a series of small oneshots/ficlets about Barret’s life. Seeing as it does not place Marlene front-and-center or make it specifically about his parent relationship to her, it may be the first Barret-centric fic I’ve seen yet, so that’s notable. Called “Haven.” 

- Dec 26, 2005: the word “YESH” 

- ***Dec 26, 2005: a fic about the three Advent Children escaping research labs when they are actual children, with adventure, despair, hope and a lot of brotherly fluff. Interesting to me because the plot and vibe reminds me of a movie, like Homeward Bound or Plague Dogs. Even though those are books now that I think about it pffft. Called “Ame ni Matte” by tamagopants.  

- Dec 28, 2005, largest review count I’ve seen so far: A modern AU called “My Disjointed Life,” humor/romance genre, about Cloud as a first-year university student dealing with “attractive girls, crazy professors and psychotic roommates.” 155k words and 1253 reviews! 

- ***Dec 30, 2005: Fic with neat character interaction of “ex-enemies.” After Advent Children, Rufus asks for Tifa’s help in rebuilding the world his father’s company helped ruin. Called “This Evolution” by anoneight8.

- There sure is a lot going on in December 2005. 

- GENERAL: From fall 2005 onward, there is a heck of a lot of Advent Children representation, as you might expect. The movie released in Japanese theaters on Sept 14, 2005. But the movie did get leaked online and torrented a lot on Sept 11, 2005, which is I assume how a lot of these English-speaking ficwriters experienced the movie, seeing as it wasn’t released in the US till sometime in 2006. (This release date info found HERE on the FF fandom wikia)

I think I’m going to stop here, at December 31, 2005, and maybe do 1 post per year now. We’ll see. I still have 1095 pages to go through, and even when I get annoyed and tired of it, I want to at least read through HALF of those pages. 

Stay tuned. 

[thisdiscontentedwinter]

submission: aboabo

Probably the podcaster was talking about the heat scenes? i used to read lots of abo fics and the omegas were like begging the alpha even though they were not in the right mind, because “after all, it’s his biology. he’s an omega”., and the alphas were like “yea u slut begging for my cock, like this knot u slut” etc etc. Kinda undermines real life rape & “romanticizes” it imo. Like rape is something pleasurable, your fault, and guys losing control is something natural. I kind of side with the podcaster on this one, because abo romanticizes the things that she mentioned. and it leads to unhealthy fantasy imo, and i bet there’s a lot of underage kids, like even 14 reading fics like those. this is as icky for me as 13rw for you maybe.

For the fooked up patriarchy values she mentioned, maybe it’s just me, but the omegas are the one who is always penetrated, even tho they also have dicks, and alphas have assholes. and idk about you, but even in longfics where the omega is fighting for his rights, in the end, when it comes to sex, it’s very patriarchy, for me it sends “no matter how hard you try to change yourself, you can’t deny your biology, an omega” or in our world, a woman.

About Lolita, doesn’t it get a lot of flack for being pedophilic ish?

I mean, let’s say can I write a novel about a child killing his pedophile partner, but in the sex scenes, i describe it “Jake feels Uncle Bobby’s huge dick filling his tiny tight asshole, and he feels full of the hot hardness. …. …. A second after Uncle Bob moans, he feels a surge of warmth filling his belly, causing his tiny pink nipples to harden and a small amount of transparent liquid comes out from his tiny cute dick.”

I think that’s the problem with Lolita, right? While Nabokov didn’t describe his affairs that graphicly, people get so many (unnecessary) erotic undertones from his book. And that’s the problem with abofics imo, the ‘rape’ scene / dubious consent scenes, which are supposed to portray the omega’s misery, are often written to turn on the readers. Aren’t rape scenes supposed to be uncomfortable, because rape is uncomfortable? Like what if the rape scene in 13rw was shot erotically? boob shot of the girl, slow motion when the girl arches her back, slow motion when her mouth is open, *romantic music*, shot of her messy hair, etc.

DW: 

Firstly, I want to address this: 

this is as icky for me as 13rw for you maybe.

In that case, do what I do. Avoid it. 

For the fooked up patriarchy values she mentioned, maybe it’s just me, but the omegas are the one who is always penetrated, even tho they also have dicks, and alphas have assholes. 

And I think this is clearly a reflection of the patriarchy, as you say. I don’t think that’s inherently bad though. Because n many of the a/b/o fics I read, yes the omega is a stand-in for women and is often treated accordingly, but a lot of the time hat’s not the full picture. It’s how the omega reacts to the world they’re in that’s the key for me. Are they h happy fulfilling that gender role that their society has imposed on them, or do they buck the trend? Because in a lot of my favourite a/b/o fics, the omega definitely bucks the trend. 

About Lolita, doesn’t it get a lot of flack for being pedophilic ish?

Yes, it does. Mostly by people who haven’t actually read it, or those that have entirely missed the point. Because if you can read Lolita and in any way think that Humbert Humbert is telling the truth and that he was seduced by a twelve-year-old girl, then the problem might be yours, and not the book’s. Lolita is a book where the narrator spends the entire time trying to convince you he’s not a monster. But he is definitely a monster. 

Like rape is something pleasurable, your fault, and guys losing control is something natural. 

Without even getting into cope shipping, and how sometimes scenarios like this are written to give the writer control of a situation that they didn’t have in real life, the only thing I can tell you is that rape fantasies are incredibly common, and incredibly normal. But we are thankfully long past the time when fantasies were thought to be subconscious wishes. Rape fantasies don’t mean that the writer wants to be raped, and they certainly don’t mean that the writer thinks real life rape is erotic or romantic or in any way pleasurable. 

And that’s the problem with abofics imo, the ‘rape’ scene / dubious consent scenes, which are supposed to portray the omega’s misery, are often written to turn on the readers. Aren’t rape scenes supposed to be uncomfortable, because rape is uncomfortable?

The scene you wrote made me feel uncomfortable, so I don’t know? I could go and attempt to write the most realistic rape scene ever, but I can’t control if some people--knowing it’s not real--are aroused by it. Just like I can write a scene of graphic violence, and some people are going to go “Hell, yeah! Awesome!” It’s a fic. It’s not real, even if I attempt to make it feel emotionally real. I can’t control how readers respond to fics, not even the fics I’ve written.  As soon as I hit “publish” that fic is left to the interpretation of each individual reader. 

and it leads to unhealthy fantasy imo, and i bet there’s a lot of underage kids, like even 14 reading fics like those.

A fantasy isn’t unhealthy in and of itself. A fantasy is a fantasy. 

And, if the fic like that is properly tagged, then children shouldn’t be reading it. Will some children read it anyway? Maybe, yes. But should writers stop posting fics with content not intended for children, just because children might find it anyway? 

No. 

The only responsibly writers have to other people’s children is to tag their fics correctly.