#wrangling algorithms

[dollsahoy]

Post: learning to spot the tells of generative images wouldn't be so necessary if people would just source the images

Half the comments: [lists of tells]

And I know I have made posts about spotting the tells, but, really: Sources! Sources are important! Because for years, if not decades already, there has been a problem of people posting art without sources, thereby robbing the artists of recognition

If you genuinely value the work of human artists, then, please: credit them.

Note: this post is not about generative images/AI art, and if you use it to comment on that, then you have missed the point. Please credit artists.

[dollsahoy]

I don't have problems with the images this blog posts having been generated (the blog is open about it, stated in their description), but the dates they put on them always make me go No! Looks Wrong For That Year! but that comes from my own vague memories of being alive then and nothing more 😅

Horsefly outfit from Madame Gregeria's Insectaganza, 1986

[venonomnomicon]

if tumblr shuts down follow me on this other website that's nothing like it and is fundamentally impossible to even wrangle into being like it due to a format that prioritises algorithmic short form text content and also nobody will join it anyway

[kumkaniudaku]

Superhero

Summary: Surprise shawtyyyy! It's Terry's birthday!

Pairing: Terry Richmond x Black!OC (Patrice Ellis)

Word Count: 3.4K

Warnings: None

"A little to the left, Phee. A little more. Okay, back to the right. Perfect!" 

Napheese breathed a sigh of relief as she released her hold on a Terry-sized cutout of his favorite super arachnid something-or-another around Diedra's living room. Patrice couldn't remember if it was Peter, Miles, or one of the others – all she knew was Terry loved the blue and red masked crusader. Whatever Terry loved, she vowed to bring to him in abundance. 

As party guests doubled as set-up crew members and buzzed about the Richmond family home, Patrice played project manager, wrangling pockets of confusion until they came together to produce the vision she'd had in her mind since Valentine's Day. In the backyard, Ken managed the tedious task of stringing up a paper-mache Spider-Man while Terry's old teammates carried folding tables to and fro under Zorah and Zanah's watchful eyes. 

Marvin and Leon stood at the grill, unloading freshly cooked meats and roasted veggies into aluminum pans, dancing along to Corey and June's partnered DJ set as they tested their speakers.

Napheesa's husband, Aaron, and Victoria's fiancee, Jonathan, manned a makeshift bar area, trying to find the right liquor-to-mixer algorithm for cocktail recipes Patrice had found online. From her spot at the kitchen table, Patrice could see them grimace and toss yet another drink over their shoulders to start fresh. 

Indoors, Patrice and her trusted set of ladies turned Terry's childhood living room into a blue and red wonderland, complete with decor rivaling any party planner's best day on the job. Comic books with a cartoon version of his adult form sat next to masks, noisemakers, and shot glasses to mix the childlike with a little adult fun. Streamers hung from the ceiling. Confetti decorated themed table cloths. Games sat waiting for the perfect time to pop them open and unleash all of the arguing that came with friendly competition. 

Huffing, puffing, and aching, Patrice had done her job. She'd deal with the soreness creeping up her legs and resting at the base of her spine once clean-up was wrapped, and Terry was grinning from ear to ear. 

Diedra looked up from stuffing colored cellophane treat bags meant to appeal to the inner child of 30-somethings. She smiled at her daughter-in-law and the swell of her growing belly showing beneath her sweatshirt. "You've done a good job, Patrice. Take your rest, sister girl." 

Rest was a foreign concept to an expectant mother hellbent on scaling a four-year-old's birthday party to something fit for a grown man. He couldn't quite put his finger on what had Patrice protecting her phone screen when he was around and hadn't gathered any details outside of the Publix order she tasked him to deliver for the month's supposed Sister Circle meeting. She'd sent him over 30 minutes away for a fruit platter and wings she swore up and down the closest supermarket could fulfill. He was off the trail for now. Just long enough to usher his closest family and friends into his parent's living room to sit in excited silence, anticipating the opportunity to wish him well in his next year of life. 

"Your brother's at the store, wondering which beer Terry likes most," Rosalyn relayed with the phone unnecessarily close to her face as she marched into the room from the backyard. "And those boys are tearing up all that liquor out there. I don't know if y'all are gonna have any left."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Ros. They always tearing something up. Can't take 'em nowhere," Victoria mumbled as she finished tying ribbons on her stash of treat bags, earning a hum in agreeance from Napheesa.

Patrice nonchalantly waved them off as she used one hand to stuff a piece of chocolate into her mouth and the other to rub her stomach. "Tell Junior it's alright. He won't drink anyway. He says he's sober until further notice. Just make sure he brings enough ice." 

"Terry won't have a beer on his birthday? He's been doing that since he was 18. You really are a magician, Little Richmond." Dee's compliment came in a sweet voice that sharply contrasted her expert precision in plucking Patrice's third bite-sized Snickers from between her fingers before tossing it in a nearby wastebasket. She ignored the small whimper and continued. "You know you're the only one that can surprise him, right? We've been trying since he was a boy, and he always sniffs out the plan. With you, he follows directions blindly. I wouldn't have ever been able to get him 'cross town for this long." 

"Did you ever try threatening him? That's usually what I do," Patrice added. 

Napheesa chuckled. "Girl, he listens because you also got something his mama ain't got." 

"Ain't that the truth. The vagina does amazing things, ladies. There's power between those thighs. Come to the real Sister Circle meeting next week, and we'll talk all about it!" Diedra agreed. 

"I know that's right, Auntie," Victoria exclaimed.

Patrice sat with a satisfied grin on her face, wanting to take exception to her mother's not-so-subtle assertion but knowing that the truth was simply the truth. She chose a joke as her rebuttal: "Y'all don't know what we're doing when we're alone." 

"Baby, we know. We can see you. Ain't no shame." 

All in the room laughed at Rosalyn's joke, compelling Patrice to join in, even at her expense. She ran her hand across her belly, dreaming of what her baby might think of all this fanfare unfolding mere inches from their safe space. 

She sighed and looked around, tears pricking her eyes. "Everything looks so good y'all. Thank you for helping me. Even if you did take all my snacks. I owe y'all first dibs on newborn photos." 

"As if I won't be in that house helping you the second you get home," Vick scoffed. She reached over to grab Patrice's hand for a quick squeeze. "We got you girl. Anything for you and that man of yours." 

"One day, you're gonna have to get over the breakup, Victoria," Napheesa laughed. 

Vick rolled her eyes. "Patrice forgives. The Lord is still working on me. Sometimes, I have flashbacks and just wanna…" Her voice trailed as she made a strangling motion and shook her hands. When she stopped, she looked over at Diedra, laughing at her animated movements. "No offense, Mrs. DeeDee." 

"Sometimes little traces of his daddy jump out, child. Blame it on that fiery, light-eyed Richmond blood. Lord knows I love it and hate it all the same damn time."

Wisdom and frustrations shared between generations of women connected through one man filled the room, pushing Patrice into a fit of giggles as she listened along and tried to quell the unfamiliar fluttering in her abdomen. Buzzing in the front pocket of her working overalls paused her participation in the conversation. It brought her attention to Terry's teenage face filling the screen. 

She lifted her hand to get the group's attention. "Sshh sshh, y'all. This is Terry. Let me put him on speaker." Talking ceased, and breathing stilled as they rushed to sit perfectly quiet and eavesdrop. Patrice put on her sweetest voice to answer. "Hey, Birthday Man. Everything okay?" 

On the interstate, Terry slowly switched lanes, growing frustrated by the unfathomable traffic on Saturday afternoon. He grimaced at the nickname. "Baby, I'm in my 30s. Birthday Man makes it sound like I never moved out of my mama's basement." 

"Excuse me for wanting to celebrate you. Guess I'll cancel the reservation too, then," Patrice sassed, earning stifled laughter around her. 

"I'm sorry, Piggy. Call me whatever you want. Don't cancel our time together. I'm excited." The genuine smile in his voice brought heat to Patrice's cheeks and a quiet swooning to the group. 

She smiled, though he couldn't see her. "I'm excited, too," she gushed. "You on the way back to me for a little while?" 

"Yeah, I should be there in fifteen minutes. You stayin' off your feet over there? I won't hear about you on no ladders, will I?" Terry knew the answer. He always knew the answer to whether his busy body of a wife had finally committed to following her doctor's orders.

"Duh, TJ. I know how to sit down," Patrice answered. 

Terry chuckled. "You know how to lie, too. At least sit down until I get back. Corey says he's running late anyway."

"Alright. I love you. We love you." Patrice's voice carried an innocent lilt mushy enough to make Zorah quietly roll her eyes in the background. She padded into the room. 

"I love y'all, too. See you in a bit, baby."

Air kisses shared from a distance, growing shorter by the second, capped off a nauseatingly sweet conversation so covered in newlywed confections that it was nearly responsible for new cavities in everyone's mouths. 

Patrice gave Terry's photo a final smile before looking up at the face carrying varying mixes of disbelief and shock. She rolled her eyes. "God forbid a girl is nice to her husband. Stop looking at me, and let's get this show on the road. My baby will be here soon!" 

Prison warden sensibilities helped corral a group of adults into Marvin and Dierdra's living room with enough time to spare for Patrice to toddle down the front porch steps like a damsel in distress and look for her "missing" cell phone charger. 

T.I.'s 'U Don't Know Me' rattled car windows lining the street as he barrelled down the quiet residential street. Terry's arm hung comfortably out of the window, allowing the rays of a blazing sun sitting high in the sky to ping off of his wedding ring once he raised his hand to wave at his first love. Patrice put on an unassuming smile and closed her back passenger side door to wait for him to follow his usual routine. 

The truck's engine shut off with an easy twist of Terry's wrist once he found a spot in front of the house, taking Urban Legend's bass-heavy third track with it. Bags rustled, and soft grunts of effort left newly moisturized lips. A heavy door slammed as a mountain of a man stepped out of his chariot and took long strides toward a woman dancing from foot to foot to welcome him in. 

"What you doin' out here," Terry asked as he approached. He gently placed the lightest bag in Patrice's outstretched hand before leaning down to peck her puckered lips. "Who let you come out here by yourself?" 

She shrugged, unwilling to place blame on anyone in particular. "The meeting hadn't started yet, and I thought I had left my charger in the car, so I came to grab it. But I guess it's in my bag? I don't know. This momnesia stuff is real." 

"Mhmm. How's your back?" A large hand came up to place light pressure in the spot she'd recently complained about, hoping to ease the pain. 

"It's better." For his sake, a lie slid off Patrice's tongue with minimal effort. "Dee's grabbing me a heating pad, and I get the good chair. Wish she'd let me have another chocolate instead, but whatever. Perks of getting disgusting in that hotel room, I guess." 

"I really hope you don't say that in front of these old ladies. Is that who all these cars belong to? You think they gon' eat all this food?" Terry questioned, taking stock of the unfamiliar vehicles. 

Patrice sighed in exasperation. "Oh hell, Terry, are you helping me or interrogating me? Come on and get this stuff in the house so I can talk about you behind your back in peace." 

Terry's chuckle and the audible pop of palm on her denim-covered backside rang out behind Patrice as he followed her into the house. Blissful ignorance carried him in the house. He blissfully smelt her perfume wafting in the wind, blissfully watched her spreading hips switch in front of him, blissfully listened to the sweet alto of her voice call out his presence as they rounded the corner—blissfully unaware.

"Surprise!" 

Bliss abruptly took a back seat to the reflex to shield Patrice from danger. The hair on Terry's arms stood attention, looking for the threat, and wild eyes surveyed the room. His father's smile disarmed him first. Then his mother, Corey, with his phone up to capture the moment, his sisters giving him identical middle fingers, and the hulking Spider-Man cutout masquerading like a member of his extended family, calmed him further. Confusion came for him next – a fleeting emotion but one that rocked him with so much force that he considered walking out of the house altogether. If not for Patrice grasping his arm to keep him in place, Terry would've hightailed it back to his truck and disappeared into the wind. 

But, as his fight or flight response dissipated and realization knocked the wind from his lungs, tears pricked the corner of his eyes. 

Spider-Man. The birthday party he never received. The superhero he spent hours dreaming of becoming in his boyhood. The character that kept him excited for something in his darkest times. His favorite interest to share with his father and the one he hoped to pass on to his child one day soon. A sea of red and blue engulfed him, sparking up more gratitude than his body knew how to filter into productive words or sounds. 

"Say hello to your people, baby. They came to see you!" 

Patrice's voice pulled Terry back into reality and broke him down, all in the same breath. He slowly set the fruit tray on the floor before pulling her into a hug packed with a heady amalgamation of wish fulfillment and unspeakable gratitude. A chorus of 'awws' rolled across the room in a murmur from people not used to a vulnerable Terry willing to cry in front of a crowd. 

Patrice ran her nails across his shoulder blades as she rocked them side to side. "Happy Birthday, Pookie Bear! We're all so proud of you and the man you are." 

"Thank you," Terry whispered against Patrice's neck. "I love you so much." 

"I know. I love you 3000." A short laugh sent warm hair fanning across Patrice's skin before Terry pulled back to look at her face with amused confusion. She smiled. "See, I pay attention sometimes!"

Whispered declarations of love and short kisses kept at bay with the strength of Christ himself produced more big feelings and bigger tears until the soft clearing of a throat nearby reminded Terry that not only was he at a birthday party, he was at his birthday party.

"Shit," he whispered to himself before quickly swiping moisture from his cheeks. Terry scanned the room for faces once more, taking in the full scope of all his wife had achieved. "My baby sisters are here. They never come home," he laughed through more tears. "Ken is here! Mike, Tim…what is goin' on here? Oh my God!" 

Corey hollered back behind his phone. "We here to party, man! We had to cut the guest list. Everybody and they mama was trynna get in here for you, boy!" 

"And the catfish. Mostly you, but definitely the catfish," Zanah added to scattered laughter. 

Terry's smile stretched from ear to ear as he reached out to snag two plastic Spider-Man masks from a nearby table. With careful precision, he slid one onto Patrice's face, adjusted it, and then did the same for himself. Childish whimsy compelled him to try shooting imaginary webs from his wrists. 

Patrice gave him a quizzical look. "Does that mean we're good to go, Spidey?" 

They were more than good. Like fresh champagne uncorked and sprayed to celebrate a championship win, Terry's imaginary webslinging cracked the seal on the afternoon. Adults ran around, stuffing their faces and dancing like children dropped off at a classmate's birthday party. Terry got the first crack at his pinata and hit it so hard dead center that Peter Parker nearly disintegrated into a heap of cheap paper and cardboard. Relay races stretched muscles, many of which hadn't been used in ions. Pictionary on the back deck quickly turned into a game of watching Ken flex how many things he could turn into awful stick figures. They presented the man of the evening with sentimental and gag gifts in equal measure and showered him in praise. 

"Okay, babe," Patrice exclaimed as she presented Terry with a slender box wrapped in red paper. "While you open that, I have to give a speech because you always have one for me. Terrence is nothing short of amazing. I've never met anyone so dedicated to serving his family and his community. You're a mentor, a dutiful son, an amazing big brother, and the only husband I want. I'm so happy to get a front-row seat to your next evolution as Daddy. I love you, Pookie Bear. Hopefully, this shows how much I look at you as a superhero. Our Friendly Neighborhood Terry, if you will!" 

A little online digging and a sketchy, at best, Etsy shop brought Terry's wildest dreams to life. He held a detailed figurine of his face and body contorted into a signature hero's pose. Thanks came in deep kisses, and a grown man showcased his new toy to all his friends as if he was transported directly back to age six.

By sunset, more libations and a deck of cards procured from thin air, turning innocent fun into a heated competition between teammates seeing each other for the first time in years and couples looking to put a hurting on each other's pockets. 

Terry existed in a permanent state of laughter. His shoulders shook with each chuckle, his abs flexed and relaxed underneath his shirt from every joke and story taking him on a trip down memory lane, and his cheeks burned from smiling with the full force of his facial muscles. 

As much as Patrice wanted to remain with the group and listen to a spirited retelling of Terry's infamous in-game trash talk and a nasty reaction to his taunting, she needed to listen to her little one's demand for an empty bladder. 

Terry watched her disappear into the house and half-listened to Tim's story, which was littered with exaggerations, for a few minutes before pushing back from the table and excusing himself. He slipped into the quiet, empty house and flipped on the kitchen lights in search of his mother's good cake knives. Methodical cuts produced a small sliver of contraband for someone special. 

Loud whooshing from the hallway powder room and the sink shutting on and off produced goosebumps pebbling across Terry's skin. Anticipation coursed through his veins. His smile grew as she came around the corner, rubbing her fluttering stomach. 

"Oh, hey," she greeted, exhaustion evident in her tired smile. Once they were within arms' length of each other, she reached out to caress his cheek with her thumb. He leaned into her touch, kissing her palm. "Having fun, baby?" 

He nodded. "Mhmm. I got something for you?" 

"Baby, this is your day. You don't need to get me anything," Patrice whined. 

"Shhhh," Terry answered, shaking his head. "Just let it happen. Close your eyes."

She did so reluctantly, expecting a silly kiss or something inappropriate until the soft embrace of fluffy buttercream and soft vanilla cake pushed past her lips into her mouth. Patrice hummed and chewed, savoring every morsel before opening her eyes. "God, I love you." 

"Not nearly as much as I love you," he answered while feeding her another, bigger bite she readily accepted. "I owe you the moon next month, okay? Name it, and you got it."

"A BMW. All white. Peanut butter insides." 

Terry scoffed and wiped the corner of Patrice's mouth free of debris. "Easy. I'm literally Spider-Man. Give me a challenge, Treecey." 

"Ooooh, I see you. Shut my mouth," she exclaimed, her laughter inviting Terry to join in. "Let's see, superhero. How about…"

Mention of fantastical things like trips to the moon and a purse made from rare stars fell from Patrice's lips in jest as Terry carefully balanced feeding and active listening. What she considered a silly little game was anything but for a man wholly invested in her happiness. If he had to fight crime by night to bring Patrice the desires of her heart, he'd do it with a smile under his mask. 

Superhero. He'd waited a long time to finally earn the moniker and party to boot. And he'd wait for 100 more, fight a never-ending list of villains, and jump across the multiverse just to love like this again.

------

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[thebibliosphere]

I saw your post about ingram, and out of curiosity, is there some advantage to going through the whole self-publishing thing with retailers when you're just starting out? like I mean the way that fandom zines work is that they don't even bother going through ingram or amazon or whatever. they just set up a social media site (usually twitter) to gain followers, open preorders (usually 1-2 months in length) to generate the costs of printing upfront, and then sell anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred copies of their books (usually artbooks, but anthologies exist too). I've seen some zines generate over a thousand orders. they're kind of like pop-up shops, except for books. maybe the sales numbers aren't so impressive to a real author, but the profit generated is typically waaaay more than the $75+ apparently needed for Ingram Spark, so I still feel like new authors could benefit from this method too, especially if they just need some start-up cash to eventually move to ingram if they want to for subsequent runs of their book. I think authors would also have to set aside some of the pre-order money to buy an ISBN number to have printed on their book, and I'm not really sure what other differences there are, but I just wanted to ask about it in case there's some huge disadvantage I'm missing!

So, popup zines work well for some people, and I know some authors who kickstart their work successfully. But for a lot, it's just not feasible as a long-term stratedy. Or even as a means to get off the ground.

Fanzines succeed primarily because an existing fanbase is willing and ready to throw money at something they love. They’ve got a favorite writer or artist they want to support. Supporting all the others is just a happy by-product. They also take a HUGE amount of short-term but intense planning that just doesn’t always jive with how some of us work.

I, for one, would never offer to organize a fanzine. I’ll take part in them as a creator, but I’d rather throw myself off a cliff than subject myself to wrangling that many people and dealing with the legal logistics.

When it comes to authors doing anthologies, it'svery much the same. The success of the funding often hinges on having other big-name authors involved whose existing fans will prop up the project. Or having a huge marketing budget.

Most self-pub authors have zero marketing budget. I’m one of them, and I’m under no illusions that my work would not be as popular and self-sustaining as it is if I didn’t have a large Tumblr blog.

When I thank Tumblr in my forewards, I am utterly sincere. Tumblr brought fandom levels of enthusiasm to an unknown work and broke the Amazon algorithm so hard, that Amazon thought I was bot sniping my way to multiple #1 spots and froze my sales rankings.

That’s not the norm. And while I could probably kickstart my own work as an indie creator, that’s because I’ve put literal decades into building up a readership. I’ve been doing this since I was 16 and realized people thought I was funny. I didn’t know what to do with it or if I’d ever actually write anything, but it meant the groundwork was already there (thank you, past-me). I basically fell upward into my success by virtue of never being able to shut the fuck up and wanting to make people laugh. Clown instincts too strong.

New or first-time authors trying to sell their work without that will find it infinitely harder.

All of that aside, even if an unknown author somehow gets lucky and manages to fund their work, there’s still the question of shipping and distribution logistics. Are you shipping everything yourself? Better hope you’re able-bodied and have the time for it. (for reference, it took me months to ship out 300 patreon hardbacks because of my disabilites. It damaged my back and hands. I couldn’t type for several weeks after I was done.)

Are you going to sell primarily at conventions? Better hope you’re able-bodied, have the time and don’t have cripling anxiety about being in large groups...

Also, will selling a dozen to a few thousand copies in one burst be sustainable in the long run as a career? Not for me. Doing things via Ingram and Amazon means I earn a steady trickle of sales for the rest of my life provided the platforms remain and so long as I keep working and can generate interest in the series, not just when I have funds to pay for physical copies to sell. The one-time (in theory) cost of $75 to distribute through Ingram gets paid off pretty quick that way. And it doesn't require the same logistics as doing the popup/crowdfund.

Ultimately, it comes down to what you are capable of but also the type of work you’re doing. If you’ve got an extended network of fellow creatives who will back you or you’ve got a large following elsewhere, doing it like a popup might work for you.

If you’re an exhausted burnout who can’t fathom the short but intense amount of organization that sort of thing requires, not to mention doing it over and over and over... Ehhhhh. No thank you.

[dollsahoy]

I don't want to burst any bubbles, but even if the generative image weirdness weren't jumping out at me so much (I'm looking at this on a monitor set to enlarge Tumblr at 150%, so these things are probably more obvious than if looked at on a phone or laptop), there are still so many aspects of these images that are pure modern trends that people just didn't do in the 1970s, as well as the quality being better than you'd see in a 1970s magazine (my background in photography and graphic design give me a point of view on this that I do understand most people don't have.) So I looked it up, and the August 1979 issue of BH&G does not have an article on Rick James

I tried to find the source of these images, but they've already been passed around without attribution so much

Rick James' House

Better Homes & Gardens (August 1979)

[jacqulinetan]

On writing fanfiction

Exactly one person hinted that this might be helpful and I thought, well, okay, why not? tonight I have the time. I've been collecting thoughts for awhile and posting fic for more than a decade (writing longer than that!) so why not create a little manifesto of sorts.

A [not at all comprehensive] guide to writing and sharing fic - for beginners - from someone who is serious about writing fanfic as a hobby but casual about everything else:

On logistics:

Where should one write? I use google docs. Recently there's been some discussion about not using gdocs because of AI concerns, and I think if you are sharing nsfw files with other users there is a nebulous risk of losing access to the file... so I've heard. Tbh I cannot speak to the actual risk of either of these things. But I like gdocs because it's free and I can access the same doc from my phone as my desktop which is good for on-the-go thoughts. Other programs that people like are scrivener (costs money - but everybody who uses it says its worth it) and libre office (I tried this and didn't like it, but only because I'm used to gdocs). There are other programs out there, but these are the ones I feel I hear about the most. For me personally, I also have a notebook. If I'm inspired and want to get some scene or dialogue out quickly, writing analog is fastest for me and I find my thoughts flow well like that too.

Where should one post? Archive of our own dot org. There are other fic sites (wattpad) but none of them have the legendary tagging system that ao3 has - more on this later. On ao3 you will need to create an account (if you need an invitation, I'm not sure if you do, but if you do I will personally give one to you, just dm me). But you can post fic under your user handle or anonymously. When you browse the site, you will see that everything is separated by fandom, then by pairing (though non pairing/romance or 'gen fic' is fine too), then by characters involved, then other tags. I imagine it's overwhelming if you are not there a lot, but when you post, the form guides you for what to fill out (e.g. you will fill out the fields before you drop in your fic). You can always edit later if you want to change things around, but ao3 does not have an algorithm, so people will find your fic based on 1) the time it was originally posted or more likely 2) the tags that give an idea of what the story is about. I could write for ten thousand years about the merits of ao3, but like most things, you have to just get in there and try it out.

Other people who are smarter than me and know more than me can write and have written huge, in depth explanations for how to use features, and work skins, and the beautiful bells and whistles of ao3, but here is the down and dirty kind of explaining for sorting and filtering. I'm not going for nuance, I'm going for broad stroke understanding, and the nuance can come later. On ao3 fic 'metrics' we have hits (clicks), kudos (basically a 'like'), and bookmarks -- as a reader you can sort by any of these, which basically means you can move more popular fics to the top based on your preferences. And as a writer, it means you are hungry for people to kudos or bookmark your fic so that it potentially gets more eyes on it. Well, that's kinda putting the cart before the horse so to speak, if you're just getting started, but it is nice for your work to get feedback.

Tagging beyond pairing and character is important because it's how people will differentiate your fic from the others. This is things like 'canon compliant' or 'post canon' or 'coffee shop au' or 'enemies to lovers' or 'anal sex' or 'Bottom Shiro' or literally anything. Literally anything. These can be big tags ("wrangled tags") that everybody uses commonly enough that they are their own kind of category ('dom/sub') or random silly things you want to advertise with (e.g. 'blatant disregard for hoverbike safety'). You can add as many tags as you like. There are no rules to writing fanfic but tagging content warnings appropriately is important to readers, and you will find YOUR people most expediently if you tag honestly and robustly. Again, I could write 150k just about the intricacies of using ao3 as a reader AND writer, but 1) there are other folks who have done it better already/know more than me and 2) you really just gotta get in there and play around to understand it.

I am always happy to talk about fic and so if any questions about logistics arise, I will happily try to help. ao3 also has help pages and support. One random but important note is that the crux of ao3 is that it is an ARCHIVE only (so there is minimal moderation of content, to an extent ) and not for profit, so you must never ever mention money exchanged for fic there. if a work is a commission or something of that nature, that is fine, just mention it on socials or elsewhere, do not put put that in the summary or author's notes, etc as it will cause your work to be removed for legal reasons.

On writing:

The best advice for writing is the easiest to give and the most useless to receive: you really do just have to write. Write, write, write. That is the only way you will find what works for you, the only way you will get better, the only way you will tell your story. Since my goal is not to be patronizing, I will not say that. I will try to give some random and interesting tips that really get to the heart of what I feel you need to know (in my world of healthcare we call this type of information 'clinical pearls' LOL)

Getting started -

It's likely that there is a specific scene you want to write and that's why you're considering starting a piece in the first place. That's grand. All you need is that little bit of inspo!! when you're crafting a story around that point, try to drop the reader in at a time that is interesting/exciting/unexpected. if you're just starting out and all you have is the inspo scene, write that. then you can decide if that gives a full enough picture on it's own (fics don't have to be hugely long, esp in the beginning of your writing journey) or what else you want to add to be satisfied.

For me, I usually have an idea in a google doc and some bits of dialogue or random stuff that goes along with the idea as I got random inspiration. then when I want to start on a new work, I try to conjure up one scene that will get me rolling -- from there I can just keep writing what comes next. As a less experienced fanfic writer I wrote more outlines and was more methodical. when I'm writing now I don't really know how things end (except for in a very vague sense) until I'm actually writing the ending. this makes writing a lot of fun for me. when I write fic, I am my own audience and I am writing for my own entertainment.

Establish a setting -

I feel like a lot of less experienced writers fail to place these characters in a setting. If I open a fic and it's just mostly dialogue (chat fic, I'm looking at you, darling) I'm thinking ?? okay ?? are they floating in space??? what is happening?? I don't like chat fic. Give people an anchor at the very least and try to remember that the reader doesn't have your Mind's Eye and they will likely not know what you are imagining unless you explicitly state it. this might seem obvious, but writers who are good at setting are remarkably good at writing, I think. also, I do not like to open with dialogue but that's personal preference.

Magical paperclip moment -

Along the same lines as grounding the characters in setting, I like to add in what I call in my mind 'magical paperclip moments.' This is something I made up (I'm insane, btw) after being really impressed with a writer's work (I think in the hetalia fandom, I wish I knew the exact fic because it quite literally changed my life). anyways, the characters are having a conversation in the fic, and the author randomly added in a line about one of the guys playing with a paperclip while they talked. It did not move the plot forward, it was not important to the guy's character, it was just a random idiosyncrasy that made the story feel real. magical stuff. I love that.

Decide on vibes-

This is a big one for me!!! at the beginning of my working google doc I usually have some random notes, a running list of tags, etc, but I also have a category for ~vibes~ In other words, I am thinking hard about what kind of overall feeling I want the piece to have, and I am thinking about what kind of feeling I want to invoke in the reader. should this story be dreamy? Gritty? Fast paced? Emotional? And then it really helps direct the scenes because I'm trying to stay within that framework of vibes for the reader. So I try not to write just the story alone, but also the tone of the work. Also having a theme in mind, or a motif that runs throughout, can really make a work powerful

The POV has a voice-

This depends on the style of the writer, but for my work, it's HUGE. If I'm writing from the POV of one character and it is identical to the POV of another character, I am not doing a good job. through the way things are described, the tone, whether the writing is more formal vs casual, all of this can help establish the voice of the fic. the fics that I've written that are the most stand out, or the most entertaining, or the most popular - all of them have a very distinct character voice to them that matches the story and the tone of the fic, and helps characterize the pov. it's not for everyone, but to me this is the single most important thing to elevate a story into something special

Writer's block-

Getting stuck is inevitable. When you're stuck, you have two options: grind it out or let it simmer. Grinding through the block is not for the faint of heart - by this I mean literally chain yourself to the laptop and poke out word after painful word until the words start to flow. This could take hours and hours and barely result in a paragraph.... that you might scrap later. But, sometimes it can be enough to break through the block. If you let it simmer, that's more gentle - take a shower, go to the grocery store, go on a walk, etc. If that's not enough, read, watch tv, consume some other kind of media that fills your cup. Let your brain work out the block in your background processes. return to the fic when you really want to and then you will be ready.

Two things I always think of when I don't know what comes next in a story: What would I as a reader be so insanely stoked to see happen next??? and What would be unexpected or exciting here?

On community:

You can't really talk about the transformative work of writing fanfiction without mentioning the fandom as community. I have a lot of precious thoughts about this, but I will keep things brief here. Fic is shared in a dialogue with other fans - it is not sold, it is not beholden to canon, it is not for the satisfaction of the original work. People are writing purely because they want to and that is an amazing and powerful thing !!!!!

Comments -

Well we all want comments because we love to hear about how people love our take on our precious blorbos. But you have to leave comments on other folks work too. truly, as a writer, you have to. I think this is a good way to start finding your people: read fic that excites you -> leave a comment there -> see who else left comments -> read their fics -> look at their bookmarks -> read more fics -> leave more comments -> you will start to 'know' the people who like the same thing as you. you will start to have readers! you will find writers that inspire you! you will get better at writing! you will be in fandom!

One important thing to note for new to fanfic folks is that construct criticism of any kind is not welcome on fanfiction. it's not needed because the author is SHARING fic with you - I am by no means the first person to say this, but think of it like going to their house and eating their home cooked meal... if it's not to your taste, peace out. just leave. no need to let them know. this is doubly true if you don't like the content of a fic. simply leave...it's not for you, so find something that is. or make your own thing. As a writer, if someone is not following this basic fandom decorum, and they hurt your feelings with a nasty comment, you need to remember that they are the one in the wrong - they are being rude and you are justified to feel irritated or hurt. if you've tagged your own work appropriately, then you haven't done anything wrong by writing your fic.

Social media-

Two things about writing and social media (fandom circles of socials). 1. be insane about one particular thing, that will be your brand and bring you people and be fun. you don't have to do this, you could just be insane about a lot of things, but I think having one niche interest that really gets you going is good. that's my opinion! 2. never publicly discredit your work. don't say "LOL I suck at summaries" in the summary of the fic. don't put yourself down even if you have doubts about your writing....you can improve without doing that!!!

Sharing your fics in a post on twitter or bluesky is a good way to get more people to click on them, esp if you are a new writer. sometimes you will see people make pretty little title cards - they are making these on canva dot com and it is easy and free to use. I love doing this and it took me awhile to figure out how my favorite writers were making such pretty title cards for their fics. so now you know!

On concluding:

I can't imagine the resiliency of the readers who made it to this point!!!!!!!!! WOW !! Obviously I will post this with the caveat that I am just one little girlie and there are a lot of fic writing folks out there, some of them much more well spoken and more knowledgeable and better writers than me, and maybe if they posted a similar essay, it would have completely different content. that is okay and I am not sad about it. in other words, I do not pretend to be an authority on any of this, I am just a person who loves writing fanfiction and this is what I would tell a complete beginner <3 thank you for reading <3

[missmagooglie]

Of all the Dimension 20 bits, the one that will consistently catch me out of fucking nowhere and crack me the fuck up is how Siobhan Thompson decided to spell the name of her karate boy character Jaysohn. Fucking. JAYSOHN.

(I was finally able to reconcile Jaysohn's name spelling with the fact that Tula does not seem like the type to "creatively" alter the spelling of her child's name by remembering that none of the stoats can read until mid-series, so Jaysohn probably sounded his name out himself and everyone was just like "however you want to spell it is fine")

(Except Lila, who probably intentionally taught Jaysohn a bunch of words with unusual spellings just to confuse him)

I have in fact googled the name, and given that all the results were either D20/Burrow's End content or about some athlete who spells his name with a Y but not a godforsaken H and got caught up in Google's "I'm gonna assume that was a spelling error" portion of the algorithm, it does in fact seem that Siobhan Thompson is the only person sick and twisted enough to mangle the perfectly fine name "Jason" in this particular way....

That said, it is canon that following the events of Burrow's End our dear family of stoats made their way into the Human World, and while it is clear I'm sure to most viewers that Jaysohn Stoat is exactly the kind of <strike>person</strike> individual who SHOULD NOT be consuming excessive amounts of either sugar or caffeine it should be equally obvious that the moment he discovered Starbucks he became instantly addicted to the most insane, decadent, $12 a cup nonsense order he could find on (or off) the menu.

I contend that Jaysohn Stoat, even without the buckwild insanity of a radioactive talking forest rodent attempting to integrate themself into human society, gives off enormous "My common name isn't spelled normally" energy and consequently, despite never offering spelling to the barista, has never once received a Starbucks cup reading "Jason".

What he HAS received is a never-ending parade of the most cursed spellings of those two syllables it is possible to wrangle out of English phonetics.

[dollsahoy]

in the realm of "People don't know what they don't know," I'm thinking again of that promotional TV show poster from a few years ago with a distorted clock face in the background, and so many people were just so sure that that part of the image was generated, and a lot of their conviction came from the fact that it had 4 written as IIII instead of IV

because they were so unfamiliar with clocks that they simply didn't know that it is incredibly common for four to be written as IIII on a clock face

(the image turned out to be stock art, which made people angry/confused that Marvel Studios would use that instead of creating it themselves, which is another vector of misunderstanding of how things work)

[dollsahoy]

@therobotmonster Have you seen these? Someone going for classic Halloween stuff the way you've done vintage action figure stuff in generated images

By creepmart 🧡

[kunareads]

⊹˚₊✩ series back to nav

satoru gojo:

if i believe you ⎯ 27.5k+ ∘ ongoing ∘ tag: #⎯ if i believe you

your husband is nothing like you expected. he's flippant, reckless, powerful beyond comprehension. and he doesn't touch you. he waits, watches. asks what you want. but you don't have an answer because you weren't taught to want. desire was never meant to be yours. yet somehow, in the waiting, it stirs. (clahatoru x reader)

mamma mia! ⎯ coming soon

what’s more chaotic than a wedding? try three ex-lovers showing up unannounced because your son is hoping one of them is his father. one minute, you’re struggling to keep your hostel afloat. the next, you’re wrangling old flames like stray cats and wondering how your life turned into a rom-com gone spectacularly wrong. (satoru, sukuna, kento x reader)

bed chem ⎯ 12.5k ∘ completed

maybe it's all in your heads, but you and satoru swear you'd have really good bed chem (actor!satoru x popstar!reader)

suguru geto:

brat ⎯ 9.2k+ ∘ ongoing ∘ tag: #⎯brat

you're the sound of the summer—glittering, speaker-melting, and impossible to replicate. suguru is the reason it hits in the first place. chaos and control and the algorithm's (and each other's) favorite obsession. (producer!suguru x popstar! reader)

sukuna ryomen:

mamma mia! ⎯ coming soon

what’s more chaotic than a wedding? try three ex-lovers showing up unannounced because your son is hoping one of them is his father. one minute, you’re struggling to keep your hostel afloat. the next, you’re wrangling old flames like stray cats and wondering how your life turned into a rom-com gone spectacularly wrong. (satoru, sukuna, kento x reader)

kento nanami:

mamma mia! ⎯ coming soon

what’s more chaotic than a wedding? try three ex-lovers showing up unannounced because your son is hoping one of them is his father. one minute, you’re struggling to keep your hostel afloat. the next, you’re wrangling old flames like stray cats and wondering how your life turned into a rom-com gone spectacularly wrong. (satoru, sukuna, kento x reader)

[lrlamauthor]

Hey there, I really liked Dragonfall and I've seen you tell people on here that the best way to help support the book is to leave a review! I'm really new to giving book reviews and was wondering if there were specific places to review that would help the most. I have recommended it to my friends, but I don't really have any social media reach. Dragonfall made a setting that made it feel like somewhere I could actually belong and I love the slow gradual pace of it and all the little details I give. But yes, best places to give a book review for Dragonfall?

Hello, thanks for asking. Helpful places: - Retailer websites like Amazon, B&N, Waterstones, Bookshop.org, Audible, places like that. - Review websites like Goodreads, Fable, or Storygraph, romance.io Obviously, posting all those places would be a lot, so the top 3 most helpful are probably Amazon, Goodreads, and Storygraph.

In its initial release, I kept pitching it as 'sexy dragons' and certain retailers also sometimes positioned it as a fast-paced, spicy romantasy. But I don't think it aligns enough with romantasy subgenre expectations, in retrospect. I've since tried flagging that it's more epic fantasy with romance, experimental narrative positions, etc, but it's still hard to know how to best help it find its readers. It's a fundamentally weird thing, to release a piece of art, which is such a vulnerable act, and have it graded on a 5 star scale. To feel like the average rating is somehow its final grade, even though that's not how art works, especially in our current culture war, and negative reviews can still convince readers to pick up a book, too. But I've always written to connect, and I struggled with feeling misunderstood for most of 2023 and a good chunk of 2024. I know an author's personal social media doesn't really move the needle, per se, but it is also getting harder to get the word out about my books directly. And as soon as you put in the work to establish a platform and wrangle with the whims of algorithms, it gets banned (TikTok) or becomes unsafe (Twitter, Meta, and even here on Tumblr). I don't look at reviews directly anymore, but sometimes a friend goes in and sends me some anonymised nice quotes. It's a gift when I get a reader message. It bolsters me because I know there are those out there who get what I'm trying to do without me having to compromise my voice or the way I like to tell stories. People can be so very loud with their hatred, it sometimes risks drowning out the love.

I'm feeling a lot better here in 2025, which is why I'm sharing this. There's so much to be grateful for and to look forward to, both for the Dragon Scales series and re-releasing my debut series later in the year. And I am really happy (and relieved) that so far, those who liked Dragonfall seem to love Emberclaw, too.

TLDR: Word of mouth, online or offline, is magic. Readers have the power to keep series alive.

I'll leave you with the dedication I put at the start of Emberclaw (out March 4th or 6th): "To the readers who told me Dragonfall and The Lumet did feel like home. It meant and means the world to me." -Lx

[unclegrumbles]

ULTIMATE DANNY PHANTOM

JAZZ FENTON

While the parental Fentons turned their intellectual pursuits towards discovering and harnessing new sources of energy - and later to combating the nightmarish creatures they inadvertently summoned from a hitherto unknown parallel dimension - Jazz felt a calling to study the human condition. She bristles against her parents' well-intentioned but insistent efforts to push her into the hard sciences and has taken it upon herself to protect her less-intelligent younger brother from the same badgering. This protectiveness in turn causes Danny to bristle against Jazz's attempts to spend time with him. Their relationship would be strained until Jazz stumbled upon her brother's secret double life as Amity Park's resident superhero. Armed with this knowledge, Jazz ran interference for her brother to keep their parents from capturing and dissecting him.

Powers and Abilities

Psychological Aptitude: Jazz is a student of the mind. She stacks her school schedule with additional college prep psychology classes and devours every book on the subject she can find. She loves to apply what she's learned, both in helping her friends work through their personal issues and in helping Danny wrangle some of his ghost adversaries. Thought not experienced in psychological manipulation, Jazz finds some success using basic reverse psychology against Danny's weaker-willed enemies.

Fitness: A healthy mind needs a healthy body. Jazz has regularly exercises, be it in the gym in her parents' basement, jogging through her neighborhood, or taking judo classes. She can literally run laps around her little brother, despite his superpowers. Armed with ghost fighting tech, Jazz can hold her own against some of Danny's spectral adversaries.

Reading and Language Comprehension: Jazz is uniquely gifted at learning languages and translating them. When Danny's ghost fighting adventures veered into fantasy territory, Jazz was responsible for deciphering scrolls and tomes written in ancient languages. With Tucker's assistance, Jazz pioneered a real time translation algorithm that Danny could use in the field.

Inner Child: Outwardly, Jazz carries herself as mature for her age. Inwardly, she loves nothing more than cuddling up with her stuffed animals - especially Bearbert Einstein - and watching cartoons.

---

Jazz takes it upon herself to be the shoulder to cry on for others, often at the expense of her own mental health.

[dollsahoy]

Really appreciate how the algorithm's difficulty getting everything identical (even with all of your edits) leads to things being slightly of-model from panel to panel, which is very common with that era of comic book art

The Secret Origin of Mrs. Nautilus / "If The Goo's Alight, It's Not Alright!"

Originally printed in TyrannoMax #25, October 1977.

Updated from this, details under the fold.

I already have mostly-unmodded versions of the images on the first version, but even those involved minor color fixes and cleanup of major flaws.

For a full comic page, though, I wanted passable consistency. The original colors had to be removed and converted into "inks", those inks then modified to keep clothing, hair length, and other features relatively consistent, areas outside the frame have to be drawn in, the image recolored, and then given aging and halftoning.

Each pic used a different prompt around the basic format of:

Secretary with a bob-haircut, redhead, green blouse and pearls,(action),(emotion descriptors), comic panel by Jack Kirby and Alex Toth, 1968, in the style of 60s Marvel

a secretary with lavender skin, tentacles for hair, (action),(emotion descriptors) comic panel by jack kirby and alex toth, 1968, in the style of 60s marvel

[fierceawakening]

So YouTube is continuing to rec me videos of people who grew up in Hasidic New York communities, found them cultish, and left (I think what happened is one ex Mormon YouTuber I like was contacted by an ex Hasidic woman, interviewed her, and then several others who felt the same way about being raised in it contacted her too so they’re all getting algorithmed at me, not that there’s some particular thing that happened in those communities that’s making news or w/e.)

And maybe I’m just hearing a lot of people who all agree orthodox religion has a lot of misogyny in it but I continue to be flabbergasted at the idea that girls have to obey strict rules beginning at AGE THREE

What.

Part of me seriously thinks some ancient rabbi was trolling.

“I’m totally going to tell them they have to try to wrangle THREE YEAR OLDS and watch the chaos ensue. Bring me my Ancient Popcorn, Moshe.”

[tangibletechnomancy]

The AI Boom and the Mechanical Turk

A hidden, overworked man operating a painting, chess-playing robot, generated with the model Dreamlike Diffusion on Simple Stable, ~4 hours Created under the Code of Ethics of Are We Art Yet?

In 1770, an inventor named Wolfgang von Kempelen created a machine that astounded the world, a device that prompted all new understanding of what human engineering could produce: the Automaton Chess Player, also known as the Mechanical Turk. Not only could it play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, playing against and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte, it could also complete a knight's tour, a puzzle where one must use a knight to visit each square on the board exactly once. It was a marvel of mechanical engineering, able to not only choose its moves, but move the pieces itself with its mechanical hands.

It was also a giant hoax.

What it was: genuinely a marvel of mechanical engineering, an impressively designed puppet that was able to manipulate pieces on a chessboard.

What it wasn't: an automaton of any kind, let alone one that could understand chess well enough to play at a human grandmaster's level. Instead, the puppet was manipulated by a human chess grandmaster hidden inside the stage setup.

So, here and now, in 2023, we have writers and actors on a drawn-out and much needed strike, in part because production companies are trying to "replace their labor with AI".

How is this relevant to the Mechanical Turk, you ask?

Because just like back then, what's being proposed is, at best, a massive exaggeration of how the proposed labor shift could feasibly work. Just as we had the technology then to create an elaborate puppet to move chess pieces, but not to make it choose its moves for itself or move autonomously, we have the technology now to help people flesh out their ideas faster than ever before, using different skill sets - but we DON'T have the ability to make the basic idea generation, the coherent outlining, nor the editing nearly as autonomous as the companies promising this future claim.

What AI models can do: Various things from expanding upon ideas given to them using various mathematical parameters and descriptions, keywords, and/or guide images of various kinds, to operating semi-autonomously as fictional characters, when properly directed and maintained (e.g., Neuro-sama).

What they can't do: Conceive an entire coherent movie or TV show and write a passable script - let alone scripts for an entire show - from start to finish without human involvement, generate images with a true complete lack of human involvement, act fully autonomously as characters, or...do MOST of the things such companies are trying to attribute to "AI (+unimportant nameless human we GUESS)", for that matter.

The distinction may sound small, but it is a critical one: the point behind this modern Mechanical Turk scam, after all, is that it allegedly eliminates human involvement, and thus the need to pay human employees, right...?

But it doesn't. It only enables companies to shift the labor to a hidden, even more underpaid sector, and even argue that they DESERVE to be paid so little once found out because "okay okay so it's not TOTALLY autonomous but the robot IS the one REALLY doing all the important work we swear!!"

It's all smoke and mirrors. A lie. A Mechanical Turk. Wrangling these algorithms into creating something truly professionally presentable - not just as a cash-grab gimmick that will be forgotten as soon as the novelty wears off - DOES require creativity and skill. It IS a time-consuming labor. It, like so many other uses of digital tools in creative spaces (e.g., VFX), needs to be recognized as such, for the protection of all parties involved, whether their role in the creative process is manual or tool-assisted.

So please, DO pay attention to the men behind the curtain.