i know this has been brought up a million times before but reblogs are so so crucial to unknown artists on social media. if you’ve enjoyed something i’ve made the best possible way you can show it, short of commissioning me, is helping to ensure my work gets out there. i don’t want to seem needy about it or anything but if i’m going to keep making things i really need to feel like the things i make are being seen.
As an artist I can give you a snapshot into a world.
But a writer.
A writer can take you there.
They can weave together words and create a portal to anywhere. You can visit those places instead of looking out a window and wishing to be a part of it.
I envy writers.
I envy artists.
A writer can give you a story.
But an artist.
An artist can show you the exact emotions behind everything.
They can paint a picture worth a thousand words without ever writing one. They can show you every single emotion, every single thought in a second. They can show emotion like a writer never could.
Anyway so another thing I really like about fanfiction and one of the reasons I continue to defend it is that fandom can be an amazing and supportive community when you might not have any other outlets for feedback. I don’t know where I’d be as a writer if I hadn’t started sharing my work on FF.net.
Getting feedback on your work is so, so, so important to your growth as a creator of any kind, even when it’s only to teach yourself how to ignore it and trust your instincts. And I personally would not have had an audience if I hadn’t gotten into fic writing. All of the adults in my life stifled my creativity and I constantly felt like I had to censor myself. I couldn’t show anything to my English teacher without being sent to talk to the school shrink.
And LEMMIE TELL YOU how fucking disheartening it is for a young writer to be sent to the office and feel like you’re in trouble, only to get plopped down in front of the social worker’s desk and see your story picked apart there, complete with highlights and post-it’s. I was so close to letting everything I’d ever written just stagnate in my notebooks.
Not everyone has a healthy support system at home and a lot of times fandom is the thing that’s going to push you and encourage you and don’t let anyone make you feel silly for taking advantage of that.
I feel ya! We need more Lestat/Armand fanfic and fanart! #FANFIC REQUEST #FANART REQUEST. With and without lots of sex(ual tension) and all amounts of angst and fluff <333 and yes, @monstersinthecosmos is one of my fave fanfic writers, too.
BTW, I have one short Lestat/Armand fic on AO3… *scoots this link in…* since you’re thirsty for A/L…
A Brief Reprieve–After the events of Prince Lestat, Lestat reflects on certain aspects of his new spirit animal, snuggled up lovingly with Armand by a fire in winter. Slightly AU in that they are snuggled up together lovingly by a fire in winter!
[^Here’s a fanart of A/L for you, source unknown, even reverse-image searched. Tell me the source if you know it!]
Anon, hey, if you’re in creative writing class, then you’re learning, you’re starting out *u* You could be a writer of 10/10 A/L ff yourself someday. The laziness you feel might be more of a fear of failure; I recognize that’s what laziness is for me when I have a mountain of fanworks I intend to do and I’d just rather… y’know… rewatch an episode of the Walking Dead.
ANYWAY Lestat and Armand have referred to eachother in canon as being brothers of a sort, so I tag them #murder brothers, if you want more Lestat/Armand action in my blargh.
Writing can suck at any time: whether you’re just starting out or even when you’re a published author, but there can also be good stuff nestled in among the suck, and like I was often told about drawing, you have to get a ton of bad drawings out before you can get to the good ones. With writing, it’s plot bunnies you want, and good turns of phrase, good dialogue… Then you have to nurture your plot bunnies, and encourage them to multiply by spending time and effort feeding them or talking about them with others. It’s also like exercise, at least for me. It’s a habit/muscle that needs training and attention. It’s been enormously helpful for me to have @wicked-felina as a collaborator, bc we do push eachother to be productive ❤ Your class is probably doing that!
I personally feel like everyone can write, whether you write superficial or deep topics or anything in between, it’s all wanted in fandom. We just had a post going around about VC characters playing Dungeons & Dragons(an anon asked @monstersinthecosmos about that and others jumped in, so yes, that’s pretty superficial, but it’s still something the fandom wants to speculate about! Who knows, a fanfic about that could lead to the exploration of deeper issues.
Second, JUST WANNA PARROT THE ORIGINAL POST A LITTLE but I also want to say like. Dude! Just write some stuff. 😀 😀 This is a teeny little sleepy fandom and it is so thirsty for more content, just do it! You can do it! We all want you to write fic!!!!!!
I hadn’t written fanfiction in like, 10-11 years until just recently when I started exploring VC fandom cause I was like LOL WHERE! IS! ALL! THE! AR! MAND! SMUT!!!! and like, for me when it comes to writing (and this goes for my original writing, too) I think it’s really helpful to think of it in terms of writing what you want to read.
Fanfiction is awesome to flex your writing muscles a bit and get some practice in, and it’s helpful because it invites attention and feedback. It’s also easy to apply flash fiction or drabbles to fanfic because we don’t need exposition and backstory. Like, yeah! WE GET IT, WE KNOW! Quit dicking around and just jump into the story, we already want it! This is so valuable when it comes to just getting WRITING done and you really don’t even need a plot. You can elaborate on the teeniest mental images, headcanons, goofy or angsty situations, and that’s all it has to be! No one expects it to win a Pulitzer, it’s okay if it isn’t perfect!
In fact!!!!!!!!!! It shouldn’t be perfect! And you are not going to get better if you do not start somewhere!
I still get really nervous when I post fics and I doubt my abilities BASICALLY CONSTANTLY ALL THE TIME LOL but good and bad feedback are imperative to honing your craft and learning your strengths and finding things to fix. PLUS LIKE, it can really help to motivate you if you get some people on your side who like what you’re doing! Like I am consistently sappy and overwhelmed by the response to my fics and it’s what keeps me writing. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Anyway idk man, here’s an ungraceful dismount to my post lmfao but, listen!
Write! Do it! Share it with us we are thirsty.
AND OH, P.S. RE: SMUT. Just uh. You know. Don’t make it smutty until you’re ready LOL! Lots of incredible stories aren’t smutty, and there are lots of people out there who don’t want to read smut anyway! It took me forever to get comfortable writing smut and I still don’t even know if I’m doing it right LMAO. So take your time and don’t feel like your story needs smut, because it probably doesn’t!
Guys, I know everyone loves reblogging that Spencer gif of him getting punched in the face, but we shouldn’t be spreading the idea that it’s okay to punch Nazis.
I know whoever punched him had good intentions, but he could have seriously, seriously hurt his own hand. Punching someone in the face is probably the quickest way to break your fingers, so if you’re inclined to remind greasy, cowardly white supremacists that they’re not safe in your city, might I suggest forearm smashes, palms, and elbow strikes instead? They tend to hit just as hard/harder and don’t carry as much of a risk of injury. Maybe take some yoga classes so you can limber up and put your foot in their hate spewing teeth?
It’s easy to get caught up in the moment, but let’s be smart going forward folks.
The elbow and knee are the hardest parts of the body. Now, knee will give you more power, but an elbow has more versatility. Given the choice of a suckerpunch or an elbow strike, go with an elbow strike.
Remember kids: it’s not “fight smarter, not harder” it’s “fight smarter AND harder!”
Something’s been nagging me about most fandom meta for a
while, and I’ve only recently put my finger on it:
The vast majority of what
crosses my dash is coming from a position of bad faith.
By bad faith, I mean meta presuming that most people are 1)
doing fandom wrong and 2) need to be instructed on how to do it right. Meta
writers are addressing common fanons, stereotypes, trends, and other aspects of
fandom that they dislike, and which they think need to be stopped or
reexamined. And you know what? I’ll admit that there’s sometimes a kernel of
truth in what people are presenting; however, I think the means are very
flawed. Wagging fingers at people doesn’t work very well, because you’re
guilting them for how they choose to spend their free time, in a hobby that
they love.
Here’s what happens when I see a piece of meta chiding
fandom:
People who already agree with the stance agreeing with the
meta
People who disagree, posting rebuttals
People reblogging with guilty tags about how they feel bad
for enjoying [bad thing]
Is this really productive? Is it encouraging less [bad
thing], more [good thing]? Not really.
Now that I’ve put myself in the position of doing the exact fingerwagging
I’ve criticized, what do I think is the solution to this problem? Because yes,
there are some things in fandom which are pretty bad, and which I wish reduced.
Produce the work you want to see in fandom. If you don’t
produce content, then comment, kudos, reblog, rec, or otherwise send good wishes
to things that meet your standards for [good thing], instead of yelling at
people for [bad thing]. Be supportive, rather than negative. Ignore shit that
you hate, because it doesn’t deserve your attention anyway. What’s a greater
condemnation of a work than silence? Being nastily critical will often put fans
on the defensive and create more support
of things that are legitimately problematic/bad/just plain silly. No one wants
to produce fanwork to an empty room. And all that attention that you’re now
giving to [good thing], rather than [bad thing]? Is going to produce more and
more [good thing].
Plus, you can always make friends through privately griping
about [bad thing], so you can still get your hate on, you diamond.
A fanmix for the fighting, fuck ups, and fire-starting
i. Every You, Every Me – Placebo, ii. How You Remind Me – Nickelback, iii. Which To Bury, Us or the Hatchet? – Relient K, iv. The Enemy – Mumford & Sons, v. With or Without You – U2, vi. It Ain’t Me, Babe – Editors, vii. Love Will Tear Us Apart – Nerina Pallot, viii. You Could Be Happy – Snow Patrol, ix. Liar – Mumford & Sons, x. Hallelujah – Rufus Wainwright, xi. One – U2, xii. Love’s Not a Competition (But I’m Winning) – Kaiser Chiefs
I-want-my-IWTV 