#posting on the fandom sideblog instead of main bc i think its a bit more relevant here

[nocturnal-phantoms-fandoms]

Fic Writer Questions

Tagged by @squintclover - thank you so much!! Loved your response!!

🍓 How did you get into writing fanfiction?

By loving the story so much I wanted to be in it, lol. My first few attempts at writing ff were with self-insert OCs, but that was in my native language and mostly unpublished. Im trying to recycle some of those ideas, but Im not sure how will it go.

As for fics written in english and without OCs - like everyone else, by reading other fics.

🍇How many fandoms have you written in?

If we count the first few attempts - I took a look at my docs and counted 7 fandoms. Some parts of those were published somewhere on the web but I genuinely forgot about their existence.

If we count fics published recently on tumblr/ao3 - only HP.

🍈 How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Technically? A decade. But idk if that counts if it wasnt published and probably never will be and had self insert OCs.

I started writing my first fics in english after I got into that one fandom which was during the pandemic, so that would be around 3-4 years - but posting since… December 2023.

🍎 Do you read or write more fanfiction?

Definitely read.

🍌 What is one way you've improved as a writer?

Im not making the characters as OOC as before? I hope

🍑 Do you have any bad habits as a writer?

Trying to fit too many things into one project that do not fit bc they are too self indulgent or just bad writing bc require sacrificing either plot or characterization. Being too ambitious, having too much plot that needs too much effort to make it make sense, and will not pay off bc nobody will read it (bc idk if i will ever finish it. and if i do it will not be written in english).

🍍 What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Just one? There are so many weird things Ive been researching or googling.

Did they have 3-in-1 shampoos in 1979. Language of flowers. What the ancient roman beds looked like. Names and their meanings. Ancient roman’s attitude towards (homo)sexuality. Phosphorus and phosphorescence (this was literally to check if this one sentence in canon is factually correct). Did ancient romans have pets. Different gems’ looks, usage and meanings. Ancient Roman dog names. Different astronomical events / discoveries in years 1975-1980 and in year 1957. Layout of certain types of houses.

🍉What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

Any comment is a nice comment <3 tho I like to be let known the person felt something while reading bc its still so abstract and bizzare for me that it happens 😅

🍐What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

As you can see from the research question I have an ancient roman au wip. I was genuinely surprised there were only a few ancient roman aus in the marauders fandom.

This one published wip is about a surprise pregnancy that isnt immediately regarded as great news and celebrated (which i think isnt a common way of approaching the topic.) I also wanted to write sth about abortion and miscarriage but i dont know if I will get around to actually writing those.

And Im trying to recycle my old OC-focused long fic which also is deeply unpopular (i understand why but also i feel like im fighting in the trenches)

🥭What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Thats about something. Has a deeper meaning and everyone in the comments talk about how deeply they were moved by it. Or how clever the plot was. Or how the deeply and insightfully the characters are analysed. Or how beautiful the language is. Or. Like. Is written and finished and publishable.

🍏What is the easiest type?

All I know is funny dialogue, self indulgent fluff and this one type of hurt/comfort that is also super self indulgent. Also putting all the effort into fitting in as many references / easter eggs as you can that i know nobody will notice.

🍑Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

On my laptop, usually sitting at my desk, or on the balcony if the weather permits, whenever I feel like ignoring the things im supposed to be doing instead, I guess.

So far I’ve been using google docs but I’ll be probably moving on from them in the nearest future. For organizing ideas/wips and short fics I use Notion - its good for organizing but not that good as a writing program.

🍋What is something you've been too nervous/ intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

Smut, lol. Also more taboo topics like abortion and miscarriage mentioned above.

🍇What made you choose your username?

I translated my first ever username to English. ok, no, my first ever username was Leila Moonlight and i still think its pretty but now i also think its cringe. Tho I was - what? - 11? 12? So maybe I can be forgiven that it looks like a HP character. Nocturnal Phantom - the username actually use now - is still a bit cringe, I picked it bc I was a night owl (lol) and tried to lean into this nighttime-spooky aesthetic, but also its tumblr so im embracing it. I recently picked a nickname Nyx for my mutuals' convenience - and that is the greek goddess of the night. I commit to the bit.

No pressure tagging: @polaroidcats, @hiddenmoonbeam, @soloorganaas

[networkbangtan]

hi! i found this net recently, it's amazing that you guys have run this net for so long to bring bts fans tgt! not planning on applying but i read the member requirements&i have a question. you'll only rb oc by members, yet the members do not need to be creators. wouldn't it make more sense to either only accept content creators, or simply rb creations with the tag regardless of membership? if only member content is reblogged, it seems that your aim's to give creators a platform but bts content

creators may not get in bc many spots are filled by simple fans. if the aim’s to let them meet frnds you’re not focused on promoting content by members, why not rb other creators’ work? moreover, do 80% bts posts really reflect their devotion to bts? isn’t it better to check if they create bts content than check if they rb bts ones? you’re probably the biggest bts net here&many creators would love to join for the exposure+community, but most may fail bc they dont only rb bts content, or bc

spots’re filled quickly. would 60 or even 50% be acceptable? i was in over ten tmblr networks, most are literature-focused ones who trag tags that all can use. i’m curious abt the point in such a high standard for members bc it’s a shame if multifandom bts creators cannot get the exposure they deserve, so can you guys can explain a bit/reconsider the requirements? thank you!

Hello. We have quite a lot to say in response to this ask - it’s clear that you have little understanding of how labor intensive running a network this large is, so we’ll try to explain. 

Re: accepting only content creators: NetworkBangtan was not created with the intention of promoting original content only. We are a network - that means our focus is connecting fans through various means. Reblogging our members’ original content is just one of our focuses; we have also run multiple events in the past, as well as group chats for all members and spotlight posts for members. Accepting only content creators and not “simple fans” as you said is elitist and exclusionary for no reason; we are not a blog solely dedicated to content creation. There are other blogs like that out there, but that’s not our purpose, nor has it ever been. We don’t see the purpose in excluding fans from joining the network and participating in its other aspects just because they don’t produce content. 

Our job is not to cater to every BTS content creator on Tumblr. None of our rules are in place to purposely exclude people from joining the network; all of our application requirements are there simply to make the network more manageable for our team. Here’s why: 

Re: the 80% BTS requirement: We started the network with a 50% BTS content requirement. This was before HYYH-era, so well before the fandom grew so large on Tumblr. As the fandom grew, the network’s popularity boomed. We ran a round of apps where we received over 200 applications in a few days. In order to make the network more manageable rather than closing apps forever, we decided to raise the content requirement just to generate less interest. Over the years, we’ve raised it slowly and are now finally at 80%. Despite the high content requirement, we still receive scores of apps in a very short amount of time. 

We allow members to apply with sideblogs; many content creators and non-creators have gotten around the 80% requirement by making a BTS-specific sideblog and leaving their main blogs multifandom. In terms of spots being filled quickly, Round 9 was open for several days. 

Re: the NB tag being open only to members: Opening our tag to the entire ARMY fandom on Tumblr would be absolutely impossible to manage. We currently have over 800 members. Our queue remains consistently full; we have three assistants who queue daily and three admins who pitch in with queueing whenever needed. Around comeback season, queueing literally takes hours a day. We’re not sure you realize exactly how massive this fandom is on Tumblr; with 800 people, our queue is nearly unmanageable. ARMYs on Tumblr amount to the thousands. Keeping up is impossible.

Even if we were to double our team and queue twice a day instead of once a day, Tumblr itself is not built to handle that kind of content. Tumblr has a queue limit of 300 posts with only 50 posts posted a day. We’re already always at that limit or close to it; around comeback time, we have too many posts and far surpass the limit, so we can’t queue them all. As a result, posts are backlogged for weeks at a time to deal with the influx. We tried a third party app that increased the queue limit but unfortunately found it was a shady service, so we had to delete it. We’re stuck within the confines of Tumblr’s limits. 

If we were to open our tag to all of Tumblr, we would not feasibly be able to reblog everyone’s content anymore. We would have to pick and choose - like you said, there are other networks that track the tag for everybody rather than just members, but many networks that we have seen do this do not reblog every single post. They pick and choose to make it manageable. And they also receive anons like you questioning them - for being biased in the posts they select, for not reblogging their own posts enough, etc. Additionally, most other networks aren’t as large as ours. 

We’ve been running this network since 2015 - that’s 4 years. For four years, we have reblogged members’ content every single day. We have opened 9 rounds of applications. We have expanded our team, organized activities, run group chats, and more. No one has ever bothered to thank us; we do this for free, despite our own busy schedules. We receive absolutely nothing in return. 

We are now one of the largest networks around; we would have been well within our rights to close applications permanently years ago given how many members we have. Most networks do that. Most people don’t stick around to grow as big as we do simply because it’s hard. We put in a great deal of work on this network every single day. 

You’ve essentially come to us and asked us to do ten times the amount of work, while letting us know that you don’t even want to be a member of the network. Next time you think about sending an ask like this, consider the absurd amounts of hard work that go into running blogs like this for little to no return. This fandom is lucky that so many people put in their hard work and dedication to run networks, update blogs, create content, and more when they’re doing it for free on top of their own busy lives. 

Please do not ask that people put in more work to accommodate you when they’re already doing more than enough.