@aph-japan / aph-japan.tumblr.com
back in the 00s a single dancing anime chibi gif would feed us for months on end
This Star Trek novel opens promisingly
:)
(Image description: white centered text over a background of a beach shore with golden sand and blue-green water; the text says “Genderfluidity is wonderful. Genderfluid people are a part of the beautiful diversity of humanity and deserve to be celebrated.”)
i’m going to say something that might make me seem ungrateful, but i think it’s true of many fic writers:
we want you to leave comments ON ao3.
we’re not angry or disappointed or anything like that when you leave qrts or lots of tags on our fic posts, not at all. we don’t NOT want you to message us to tell us how a fic touched you. but in addition to that, please consider just copying those words and posting them on ao3 as a comment.
why?
the reason is simple: leaving commentary in other places is ephemeral. story posts get pushed down. chats get pushed down in the list of chats, or worse, pushed up in lists of messages as the conversation continues. but comments on ao3 are easily accessible. and this is important because writers read and reread these comments regularly.
writing, especially writing longfics, is exhausting and drains your confidence over time. having a collection of people who enjoyed your past work at your fingertips is an excellent way to build yourself up when you’re feeling down. fic writers need this a lot.
i know over the past few years there’s this trend to be very descriptive with what is an “acceptable” comment. that’s all nonsense, as long as you’re not being an asshole, just say what’s on your heart.
but post it on ao3. please.
Also something I see a lot: people gushing to their friends in discord about a fic but not commenting on it to the author themselves. It's reassuring to find out secondhand that people gushed about your creation, but it's so much better when someone tells you directly! Reaching out directly on AO3 also helps to curb any lingering doubt of like... Is this something they'd only admit to in private but don't want their name connected to mine on AO3? Since there's a lot of weirdness around who someone associates with in fandom these days
I will say also that some of my FAVORITE comments I have EVER gotten were copy-and-paste Discord conversations, like that is PURE! JOY!!! If you ever find yourself gushing about a fic in a server and everyone else in the conversation is cool with it, PLEASE copy and past that into an AO3 comment, you will make an author's YEAR.
oh i've never had anyone copy-paste a discord chat but that sounds really lovely!! what a great thing to read!
I will always stand by this - as a writer and as a reader!
I love it when people take fic writing seriously. I love when it's not 'Here's this dumb thing I wrote' and instead it's 'Here's this thing I put blood, sweat and tears into. Here's this thing I slaved away at, trying new writing techniques and editing over and over. Here's this dialogue that kept me awake at night. Here's this beautiful turn of phrase I thought up. Here's this thing that I wrote with vulnerability and heart, and I am proud to share it with you.'
“It’s important to understand that the theme of life is teshuvah. Most commonly translated as “repentance,” teshuvah has nothing to do with the beating one’s breast and undergoing penance (as in sackcloth and ashes); it means literally “to return” and describes specifically the intricate process of returning to G-d, returning to a life of growth and dynamic becoming. This intricate process begins with fixing one’s mistakes and resolving not to repeat them, but it’s more than that. Kabbalah teaches that teshuvah is the theme of the cosmos. G-d intentionally set in motion the breaking of the vessels. He intentionally created a world full of chaos so that there would be an opportunity for challenge, which would create the possibility of error. Having made mistakes, we can then experience remorse and struggle to find the courage to change for the better. We can then humble ourselves to ask forgiveness and commit ourselves to continued growth. Therefore, teshuvah isn’t relevant exclusively to individuals and their mistakes. Whatever one does affects the entire cosmos, because everything that happens works toward the making order out of the chaos and contributes to the process of constant becoming. Teshuvah is actually the theme of life. We are always in the midst of teshuvah. Life is an endless journey—an adventure in becoming. It’s all about improving, building, and accomplishing—that’s what we love doing.”
— Rabbi David Aaron
fanworks aren’t “content.” they’re pieces of joy and wonder.
content is a placeholder word used by social media sites to talk about the pieces of flotsam and jetsam that keep people using the site so they can be advertised to.
I want to get back to talking about stories and paintings and videos. talk about the art that people are creating, fueled by their passions and interests.
when I write a post, I’m not “creating content.” I’m not filling a box for other people to to “engage” with. I’m sharing a thought for other people to consider. they can agree or disagree with it. they can share it or ignore it as they see fit.
“content creator” is a generic term created by corporations to describe a vast and multi-faceted group of people by the thing they do to benefit the corporation.
“consumer” is a generic term created by corporations to describe a vast and multi-faceted group of people by the thing they do to benefit the corporation.
“engagement” is a metric that corporations use to determine whether a “content creator” is “consumed” enough to be worth running ads next to.
I want fandom to be full of writers and artists and fans, and I want the focus to be on joy and creation and celebrating each other. fandom isn’t a business. it’s a community.
Excellent question in the notes about what we should call people instead. Personally, I just call people “fan” - it’s what we all are, no matter how we express it.
Some fans write. Other fans draw or paint. Still others create playlists or moodboards or cosplays or gifs or RP threads. A rare few even organize cons or create and maintain websites or servers. And many enjoy the things that others do without creating things themselves.
Instead of having separate terms that divide us up into categories, I like thinking of us as a collective. A community, like I said above. Because the thing is, your role changes throughout your time in fandom (as a general concept) and in different fandoms (connected to different canons)
I’ve been a writer, an artist, a podficcer, and volunteer. I’ve also been a lurker, a reader, a commenter and reblogger. Throughout all of those different things that I did, I was a fan. Just like I’m a person first and a professional second.
I’m valuable because I exist, not because of what I can contribute. I belong because I want to be part of a community, not because of what I do within that community.
This is a really good thread.
I don’t think people realize what rare and beautiful gifts really good full AMVs are.
Like… that’s hard. Really, really hard.
Something I’ve learned is that the longer you’ve been editing, the more time it takes to make an edit, which is probably the reason AMVs can take literal months to make, and most vidders usually cut the songs down and/or make short edits.
To keep up consistently good timing, clip choice, pacing, transitions, effects, and possibly even masking or typography over give or take three and a half minutes of song is a huge challenge.
It’s generally considered to take three hours to edit one minute of a movie. Apply that here, and we have it taking about nine hours for a fairly short AMV… and given that we don’t get paid to make these, and have to wrestle with hitting every single beat of the song, it can take much longer.
And we also have to keep our motivation up, find time to edit, not grow to detest the song, and struggle with technical difficulties. All of that is really grating.
I’ve been editing for a couple months over a year now, and, while I started out making almost exclusively full AMVs, I can’t do that anymore. I’ve improved a lot, and by this point, using the whole song is intimidating and requires a level of dedication that I could not possibly achieve every time I edit.
It’s been literally a year since the last time I’ve edited a full-length song that I didn’t trim.
So if you find an awesome full AMV, appreciate it! Tell the vidder that you love it!
I’m honestly just so in awe of AMVs and the people who edit them. Vidders are really badass.
Cherish them and their work.
Flashback Friday: Originally posted July 1st, 2020
"You can't be autistic. You don't act like [insert other autistic person here]."
The fact that some people still can't understand that autistic people are individuals with thoughts and minds of our own shocks me.
Normalize not just using more than one set of pronouns but using certain pronouns on certain days. Not “he/him and she/her and they/them” etc. but “today she/her”, “today he/him”, “today they/them but that might not be true all of the time”.
not everyone connects with the idea of love, and that’s okay! yes, it’s important to understand that love can exist in ways that aren’t romantic or sexual, that you can love your friends, love your pets, love your family, love yourself, but it’s also important to recognize that some people don’t like to label their positive feelings as love. not everyone wants love to be a part of their life at all, and there’s nothing wrong with that. you can be happy and fulfilled without love. you can be a kind, caring person without identifying with the concept of love.
No one else gets to tell you how you should cope with your trauma. No one else gets to tell you how you should feel about your trauma. No one gets to tell you what your healing journey should look like.
And yes, this applies if they’ve been through trauma as well. Everyone’s trauma and healing presents differently and just because something was true for them doesn’t mean it has to be true for you, too.
Your feelings and experiences are yours, and they don’t have to fit into a neat little box.
Every day we're learning more about autism, and every day more and more autistic people are being public about their autistic experiences. This is helping people recognize autism in themselves at much higher numbers than before.
More people getting diagnosed is a good thing, not a bad thing.
