#write what you want to read !!

[blitheringmcgonagall]

I keep seeing posts giving out about people shipping various M/M pairings and bemoaning the fact that people aren’t writing F/F pairings.

Which is fine, but if you’re that invested in the idea, I can’t figure out why more of these same people don’t actually go and write more F/F fics to redress this??

It’s beginning to get on my nerves.

Write what you want to read?

And don’t tell other people what to write, they can make their own decisions about what characters interest them?? If they don’t feel inclined to write F/F fics - guess what, they don’t have to? If they do want to, great! But I doubt they need someone complaining about it to motivate them to do it.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

You know... I took a creative writing course through a community college a few years ago, and something the instructor said has really stuck with me.

Most of the small class were women like me, so of course the topic of fanfiction came up-- most of us were fic authors. Upon learning this, the instructor straightened up and told us "never write for free".

Never write for free.

At the time, I kind of took it to heart, because I was really trying to get into publishing my own stuff, which is scary and difficult. But now that it's been a couple years, I'm kind of gobsmacked that THAT was his sage advice.

Never write for free.

In one fell swoop, he managed to cut us all down and invalidate all the work we've already put into our craft. He said it with the surety of someone who had found the answer 42, like he had the end all be all destination to all our writer's journeys, nevermind how diverse our paths all were.

Never write for free.

Could you imagine? Never writing for free means writing to be published. It means writing what you think people will want to hear. It means monetizing what may just be a hobby for some people-- of whom we had several in the class. They just wanted to learn how to tell better stories, not become the next literary great.

Our entire history as a species has been told as stories. It's cave art and bones of family units-- it's pieces of artifacts we try to ascribe stories to. Children on the shoulders of parents to leave their handprint on a cave wall, footsteps of mother and child in volcanic ash, and the warped remains of disabled hominids who lived a long life with the help of their family.

Stories are inscribed in the very fabric of our social DNA. It's part of who we are. It's how we dream, argue, adore, and condemn the world around us.

And this man. This tiny white man teaching a night class of ten people, tells us the answer is to never write for free.

I have a better idea: write what you want to read.

If it's an original story you think others might want to read, sure! Look into publishing options.

But write it anyway.

You have a scene with your favorite characters from your favorite show just bursting to get out of you, write it. Post it somewhere, payment be damned.

Even if no one else in the world sees it, YOU at least will be able to go back and read it, and gain some measure of happiness from it.

And I tell you what-- I forget half the shit that I write. Which means every now and then I find an old piece of mine that I read like it's brand new, and it makes me so happy. Because it's something I liked enough to put down on the page-- something I still want to read.

I'm lucky that I got a lot of positive feedback in my formative years as a writer, which boosted my confidence enough to keep sharing. But even if I hadn't, even if no one else had a single nice thing to say about it, it still satisfied one person-- me.

And that's enough reason for it to exist.

Fuck monetization. Your creativity is not tied to a dollar sign. It is antithetical to humanity's very existence to claim that it is. Write and share to your heart's content. It doesn't matter the quality or the content. If you write it, it is filling a void that needs to be filled by you alone, and that is enough reason to do it.

Write what you want to read.

[takikojou]

Shall I pick up writing fan fiction again?

I do have a few ideas left and my old fics still get kudos now and then.

But I never pop up on any rec list so I wonder if I'm any good. But there are stories in my bookmarks that are amazing and never appear on any rec list either, so I'm ... Don't know.

Maybe I should just create a list with my bookmarked stuff.

[virtie333]

So, what do I do when I'm borderline anxious (nothing bad imminent but really want things resolved like NOW!) and restless?

Read my own fanfic, of course!

[surreal666]

my 5 favorite fics that i’ve written (for fic writer appreciation day) - Stolen from @chelle-68

This one’s a little tough, because many of my fics live in other places as they were written prior to AO3 existing. I haven’t had the time to migrate everything over, so a few will be linked from LiveJournal.

All Things Being Equal - Schitt’s Creek. This was an important one for me, as it needed a lot of careful research and proper handling to make it happen. It gave me a new perspective on physical disability that I never knew I was missing.

From Dirty Paws - Teen Wolf. My first Reverse Big Bang contribution and by far the most popular story I’ve ever published. Over 8 years old, still gets kudos nearly every day. Mind blowing.

The Sandpaper Method - Tin Man, Circus AU. I just loved writing this. Circus life is a lifelong fascination of mine and it was really fun to explore that.

Tangible - Tin Man. My first long fic in this fandom and one of my go-to reads if I’m feeling nostalgic. It was really fun to explore ways that their world could look immediately post-series, and get a chance at a possible resolution for Cain’s story with Zero.

Perceptible - Tin Man. This is an entire ‘verse with multiple stories. There is a short story that takes place immediately prior to this longer one, followed by several more after. This also includes the “Perfect Fit” ‘verse, which in my head is a continuation of the same world. Easiest way to get them all in order is to use the Perceptible ‘Verse section of my LJ master list. Honestly, all of the stories in this ‘verse hold a special place for me. Taking two characters from a miniseries who had virtually no on-screen time together and turning them into the main couple in at least ten stories? Insane. But I still love what I wrote about them to this day.

Tagging anyone who wants to play!

[fadinggalaxysalad]

I’ve seen more than one author disparaging their own work for “dead fandoms” like they didn’t pour a bit of themselves into something that makes them happy. Yet people are out here still making movies and writing fics for Tolkien’s works and they were published starting in 1937 (at least that’s the publishing date for The Hobbit). So remember that if you ever debate about writing something in a fandom who’s popularity surge happened 15 years ago. It’s not dead, it’s just in vampire in it’s coffin and it needs some fresh blood to perk back up. Your contribution could spur someone else on who’s just as desperate to read things but still too shy to share. 

[ronanlynchbf]

tshirt that says NO LIVE ORGANISM CAN CONTINUE FOR LONG TO EXIST SANELY UNDER CONDITIONS OF ABSOLUTE REALITY

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[andsewingishalfthebattle]

Novice sewing pattern: Cut out shapes. Line up the little triangles on the edges. Stitch edges together. We've also included step-by-step assembly instructions with illustrations.

Novice knitting pattern: yOU MUSt uNDerstANd thE SECret cOdE CO67 (73, 87, 93) BO44 (63, 76, 90) 28 (32, 34) slip first pw repeat 7x K to end *kl (pl) 42 * until 13" (13, 13, 15) join new at 30 pl for 17 rows ssk 27 k2tog mattress lengthwise BO and sacrifice a goat to the knitting gods. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT "INSTRUCTIONS," I JUST GAVE THEM TO YOU

[magic-owl]

I don’t believe in gatekeeping at all but if you flat out admit to me that you’ve consumed little to ZERO of the canon media and have gotten all of your information based off of reading fluffy fic with woobified characters, I will not be taking ANY of your fandom opinions or meta seriously

[deep-space-lines]

okay but like. I just had the weirdest thought about that ‘don’t look I’m naked’ comic. Which is that that’s essentially the same thing Adam and Eve did after they ate the fruit of knowledge of good&evil. So I feel like the theological implications of that could kneecap Gabe if he doesn’t think V1 is a being with free will.

yeah ok. i dunno man. is this anything

((side note. this isn’t necessarily meant to be in-character or story-accurate or take place at any particular point in time, just a way to explore some Thoughts. i was also imagining more that V1’s words aren't actually spoken, more like Gabriel’s more articulate interpretation of whatever garbled mechanical noise V1 is using to communicate. I think an angel could do that.))

and then they fucked nasty the end

[bottombaron]

oh ok so its the usual no-homo bullshit you always hear, good to know.

[lollytea]

I don't dislike the name change theory at all because I understand the thought process behind it, with the need to distance yourself from every trace of your abuser and all that. So like I get it. But I very strongly believe in Hunter reclaiming his name. Mostly cuz of scenes like this

It's important to him!! It's the name he uses to distinguish his true self from the persona he's built. It's the name he uses when he wants to be seen as someone other than the Golden Guard. It's the name others use when they want to express that they do see him. The name might have fucked up origins and he's clearly aware of it but being Hunter is the one thing about himself he's certain of right now.

[lucabyte]

I don't know how everyone isn't also always constantly thinking about how burial rites seem to be potentially one of the few things Siffrin instinctively remembers about their culture. But rest assured. I am in fact always thinking about it.

Textless version where they're just hanging out. It's fine!

[somerandomdudelmao]

@tapakah0

This little bunny means the world to me

[lucradiss]

“Oh the age gap was too big I aged one of them up/down so they’re the same age”

YOU HAVE SHOWN YOUR WEAKNESS! YOU ROLL ON YOUR SPINELESS BACK AND EXPOSE YOUR COWARD BELLY IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY! I DONT HAVE A SHIP WITH AN AGE GAP OF LESS THAN A DECADE! GIVE THESE MIDDLE AGED MEN A TWINK AND SOME VIAGRA AND THEYRE READY TO GO!