#the things I do for fic

[running-with-the-feels]

yknow, one part about writing smut that people don't tend to realize needs to be thought about is clothing and characterization (hear me out)

cuz like, if you're writing a character getting naked, you need to know what they wear in order to know how to describe it being taken off, right? which normally isn't an issue bc there's canon info on what they usually where

but sometimes, you find yourself asking "What the fuck kind of pants would Hanzo Hasashi wear when he's not expecting a fight?"

like.....he doesn't wear his armor all the time, surely?

does he just....wear normal clothes?

I can't see him wearing jeans, ever, and I feel like traditional Japanese clothing makes the most sense for him bc we know the Shirai Ryu places a lot of value in tradition, but also there's an argument for leather pants bc we know his armor is leather and given how many life threatening situations he finds himself in on a day to day basis, he might appreciate the extra protection. It's not a great argument, but I can make it.

all this to say, I am now falling down a rabbit hole of traditional Japanese clothing to figure out how to write one paragraph

[pearlescentpearl]

that fun Tolkien fandom feel where you actually look into the differences between the Doriathrin Sindarin and Mithrimin Sindarin dialects for the sake of a fic, only to find they both have Ilkorin influences

I can't not think this dialect split is to the Sindar what the S/Th debacle is to the Noldor now

[can-of-pringles]

This is how you can tell that I don't care as much about the first gotg movie compared to the rest because I didn't realize/forgot that guy's name was Korath

[hashtagcaneven]

If all goes according to plan, I'm looking at:

2 longsword classes

2 quarterstaff classes

2 rapier and dagger classes

1 smallsword class

1 close quarters unarmed class

1 knife disarm class

1 sword and shield class

Then I will die because I am insane.

[dragonologist-phd]

me: i hate writing fight scenes what if i just didn’t

also me: and yet what if the fight scene conveys valuable characterization

[sunriseverse]

i want to talk about my ppx fic So Badly but i’m half paranoid that if i say anything to anyone else about it i’ll never write it so i’ll just skulk in the corner and slowly hammer away at it.

[frankierotwinkdeath]

Y’all want Taylor Swift to be gay so bad but you won’t even write femslash about her

[lazylittledragon]

if i had a nickel for every au spawned from twitter that i SWORE i was going to be normal about

[lgbtlunaverse]

Nothing will dispell the "the curtains were just blue" myth faster than writing something yourself, because the amount of pretentious symbolism i am putting in my silly little fanfics is ridiculous. I mean SO much with these words, literally every single one of them. This fic has twenty five typos and zero correct uses of punctuation but if there's curtains you bet your ass I put thought into what colour they were.

[lucithornz]

Races I have watched just so I can write backstory for RH: Britain 2018, Germany 2018, Hungary 2018, Austria 2019, Brazil 2019, Austria 2022, Vegas 23(okay that was for fun but also research)

The amount of research happening so that the omegaverse lestappen fic is accurate is really concerning.

[iamanartichoke]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but as a creator -

I am fine with "the audience" -

downloading my fics

printing my fics

copy/pasting or screenshotting my fics

sharing your saved copy of my fics with anyone else who might want them in the unlikely but never impossible case that my fics are no longer available on ao3

making a book of my fic(s) and running your fingers across the pages while lovingly whispering my precioussss

doing these things with anything I create for fandom, such as meta, headcanons, au nonsense like 'texts from the brodinsons,' etc

I am not fine with "the audience"

doing any of the above with the purpose/intent of plagiarizing my work or passing it off as their own in any capacity

feeding my work into ai for any reason whatsoever

Save the fandom things. Preserve the fandom things. Respect the fandom things.

Enjoy the fandom things.

[magnusbae]

To illustrate this post by @mayahawkse I would like to visualize to you the difference:

A post in 2023:

A post in 2014:

A zoom out of the same post:

This is what a community looks like.

See how in 2023 almost all of the reblogs come from the OP, from their few hours/days in the tag search. Meanwhile in 2014 the % of reblogs from OP is insignificant, because most of the reblogs come from the reblogs within the fandom, within the micro-communities formed there. You didn't need to rely on tags, or search, or being featured. Because the community took care of you, made sure to pass the work between themselves and onto their blog and exposed their followers to it. It kept works alive for years.

It's not JUST the reblog/like ratio that causing this issue, it's the type of interaction people have. They're content with scrolling and liking the search engine, instead of actually having a reblogging relationship with other blogs in their community.

Anyways, if you want to see more content you like, the only true way to make it happen is to reblog it. Likes do not forward content in no way but making OP feel nice. Reblogs on the other hand make content eternal. They make it relevant, they make it exist outside of a fickle tumblr search that hardly works on the best of days.

If you want more of something, reblog it.

[chipper-smol]

[stoopidstapler]

SO IVE BEEN GOIN INSANE SINCE THIS TRAILER DROPPED. JUST. SIMON. SIMON. SIMON.

[plumadesatada]

just remembered a fic on AO3 (or more likely LJ because it had that distinct late 00's experimental vibe) that appeared double-spaced oddly, in that some paragraphs would be spaced normally and others would have double or even triple spaces in between. it was about one half of the otp getting over the other's death (or coma, can't remember which), so all the comments were about how poignant the use of visual spacing was as a means to convey all the emotional holes in the character's life.

and then the author replied like... *giggle* guys it's NOT double spaced. try selecting the whole text

and we were all like "no WAY"

but we selected the text, and yes!!!

the "holes" in the story? they were actually lines and actions from the dead/coma character's ghost, rendered invisible to the eye by the simple trick of coloring the text the exact same as the background, revealed by nothing more than a click and a drag of the mouse

a story about the profound loneliness of losing your the partner of your life and having to make do without them, without anything to fill the holes they'd left behind, suddenly became a story about the profound helplessness of seeing someone you love suffer from your absence while you are right there, unable to do anything about it, unable to communicate that you love them enough to suffer unseen and unheard with them, just to keep them company they'll never know about

it was then that I truly realized how *superior* the digital medium is to plain printed paper, how the medium and the format can add to a story.

I think about that fic about once a year. I wish I could find it again

EDIT: FOUND IT!!!! UPDATE HERE

[drabsyo]

me? shipping another rare pair wlw in a fandom i'm 16 yrs late to? just another tuesday