@ifshehadwings / ifshehadwings.tumblr.com
I know a ton of people have said this before but for the love everything PLEASE stop treating AO3 like instagram. It is NOT cringe to comment on an old story. It’s an archive old stories are still meant to be found and read. Please think about interacting with the fic you read: at least kudos if you read it, a comment would be ideal. The authors will be over the moon. I guarantee you not a single author is going to ask why someone is commenting on an older fic.
the “bad guys” in hallmark movies end up always being the most respectful men ever.
because they will find out their girlfriend of 3 years (that they were about to propose to) went off to a random farm in minnesota, hours away from were the two of them built a life together, and she decided to just… stay there without even consulting him.
and then he decides to take a trip to make sure she’s okay, because this is generally alarming behavior, and then sees that she literally fell in love with her ex within one (1) week- and he wasn’t there, but you can TELL that they’ve made out a couple times.
and then she just strings him along for a few days, until fucking christmas eve, when she just breaks up with him and is like “i know we used to have the same values, but i’ve never loved you. mark makes me happier than you ever did. and you ONLY care about work, whereas i like christmas and fun, like a Good Person.”
and then, after finding out his entire relationship was a lie and he had his life turned upside down in a week and he got dumped on christmas, this guy’s just like “ok yeah that makes sense. i only wish you the best of happiness with mark. i hope you guys build a great life together in christmastreefarmville. thank you for everything.”
An AU where two Hallmark Christmas Bad Guys are both getting flights back to New York after being dumped by their respective Smalltown Blonde Girlfriends, and they bond over their shared experiences and fall in love in the departures lounge
Business power couple AU.
whoever created 5+1 things fanfics can have my firstborn child
I don't want people to Consume My Content I want people to enjoy reading something I wrote for fun if they are so inclined. I don't want to Consume Content in fandom I want to enjoy stories and make friends
if you are reblogging this post talking about how This Is Why People MUST Comment On Fic you have missed the point of the post. that is NOT my point. people can do whatever they want with art, stories, and fun hobbies and nobody is owed comments or Number Go Up. I am objecting to the use of the word "content" which I think helps to commodify fanworks/fan culture and Demanding certain types of interaction with your work also, imho, does this to some degree
“my child is fine” your child has long ebony black hair with purple streaks and red tips that reaches her mid-back and icy blue eyes like limped tears
“my child is fine” your child understood this reference
I recently started working in hospitality, and I’ll tell you guys right now, the trope of “there was only one bed” is not as rare as you’d think in real life. A few times a week, at least, I have guys come in who are working together on projects in town or passing through who have to literally book the last room I have available for the night and lo and behold — there is only one bed, and guess what, they give each other a side-eyed look and begrudgingly take it. So write it up, it happens all the time!!!
Never let your There Was Only One Bed dreams die. I was secretly in love with my best friend for over a year when she graduated and moved to Oklahoma (like 1000 miles away) for grad school. Between that travel restrictions, we were so scared we’d never see eachother again.
At the end of summer, when Covid numbers were at a lower point, I took the risk to visit her in her new apartment and I quickly realized that, unlike when I’d spent the night at her house before, the couch wasn’t made up like a bed. She explained that since her new couch was so fancy and pink, I couldn’t possibly sleep on it, and so I needed to sleep in the bed with her. You know, out of necessity. I woke up with her snuggled around me in the middle of the night.
We’re dating now, and I genuinely think I’m going to marry her. Just the other day, though, I mentioned that if she hadn’t been weird about her fancy couch, I probably never would have like confessed my feelings. AND THEN she stood up, took the cushions off the fancy couch, UNFOLDED IT INTO A HIDE-A-BED, and said “I KNOW.”
THIS GIRL. ORCHESTRATED. BED SCARCITY. JUST SO SHE COULD MAKE THE “ONLY ONE BED” EXCUSE. Y’all when I said I just about lost my goddamn mind, I just about lost my goddamn mind. I love this sneaky bitch so much and the moral of this story is BE THE ONE BED YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.
Fanfic imitates life, and life imitates fanfic. It’s full circle really.
hi my name is destiel nevada putin elec’tion covid way and i have long ebony black hair
this is it. this is peak meme. do you have any idea the specific culmination of absurd and unlikely events that needed to happen in order for this one single awful sentence to live comfortably, no, effortlessly within the general populace of human comprehension?
it's beautiful. it's hideous. it's everything.
you can explain why it’s important for aspiring authors to read published books and not just fanfiction without condescending to fanfiction authors/readers and implying it’s inherently of lesser quality
like a lot of fanfiction is genuinely good and well-written! there’s some amazing work there! there is absolutely fanfiction out there that’s the same quality as well-written published works. being like ‘well, it’s cute, but it’s not real writing’ is just dismissive and frankly completely untrue.
but, at the same time, there are a lot of reasons it’s important to also read published works, and those reasons aren’t just ‘it’s better’. for one, a lot of writing original fiction involves introducing one’s own characters and setting to an audience who knows nothing about the characters or worldbuilding, which is generally not something you’re going to learn how to do by only reading stories where you already know the world and characters. that doesn’t mean the work isn’t good; it just means it doesn’t teach all of the skills you’ll need to know when writing
im a lifelong fanfic writer, but one thing fanfic won’t teach you is how to end a story. or how to structure one, really. fanfic is itself a continuation of a story, it’s a transformative work, and… it’s kind of rare for long, chaptered fic to actually be complete. it’s awesome when it is! but you do kind of get used to reading fanfic as a big nebulous cloud of what-ifs, and furthermores, and so ons, and etc.
published fiction pretty much always has to have a start, middle, and ending. you can’t really learn formal anatomy from fanfiction. you can learn a lot of creative stuff that published fiction rarely has the freedom to engage in–aus and remixes, for instance–but fanfic really isn’t where you’re going to be able to study structure and discipline.
OP makes a good point. It is important to read in multiple genres to develop your own voice and style. And fanfiction is a genre.
That being said, imma have to take issue with the previous commenter. Like, way to claim you’re not being judgmental while actually being SUPER judgmental?
I could not possibly disagree more with the claim that fanfic will not teach you how to end a story. Are there many, many unfinished WIPs out there abandoned in the wilds of the internet? Yes. And of course you don’t generally find this in published work for obvious reasons. (The reasons being that nobody is getting paid to write fic, and oftentimes real life, or even just losing interest/getting into a new fandom can lead authors to abandon stories. I mean, I’m sure there’s plenty of unfinished original fic in people’s drawers and hard drives too, but for the most part it’s not offered for public consumption in its incomplete form.)
But uh… let me introduce you to the “Complete Works Only” filter on AO3. Literally no one is forcing you to read unfinished stories. The fact that you conceptualize fanfic in this way says more about your reading habits than it does about fic writers’ ability to end a story. There are countless finished fics in every conceivable fandom, many of them extremely good, and often with word counts that dwarf most novels.
On more than one occasion, I have been so overcome by the sublime beauty of the structure of a fic that I have had to L I T E R A L L Y lay down on the floor and cry at my roommate about it.
And you know what, even when the execution isn’t perfect, fanfic can teach you a hell of a lot about ending a story. Many fics end too soon, leaving you feeling a bit bereft and unsatisfied. Some stories (usually posted as WIPs without much of a plan) continue for thousands of words past where they should have ended. When you see the various ways that an author can uh… fail to stick the landing, that is very instructive in helping you find where the end of your story actually is.
And I really can’t agree with the claim that fanfic is, on the whole, light in structure simply by dint of being based on existing media. I mean, really there’s no such thing as original work, we’re all to some degree remixing a few millennia of storytelling tradition, but that’s a kinda of esoteric argument that goes beyond the scope of this particular rant. There are a few types of fanfic (usually quite short) that don’t really rely on their own structure separate from the structure of the original work, namely, missing scenes, codas, and vignettes.
But on the whole, structure is just as important to fanfic as it is to any other genre. I care very deeply about story structure. I have spent blood, sweat, and tears over structure in some of my stories. And I deeply appreciate when an author has an excellent grasp of structure. It’s true, a lot of fanfic authors’ grasp of structure is at times shaky, but I don’t believe it’s a greater percentage than it is for published authors. I have read plenty of profic with garbage structure.
Sometimes, for canon verse fic (whether compliant or divergent) an author needs to work with structure in a way that would never come up in original fic. These stories have to find a way to artfully gloss over parts of the plot that would simply be a retelling of canon. This doesn’t mean that the structure is lacking, just that it’s different.
But then of course you have the vast expanse of AU fics. Stories that have little to no overlap with the canon plot, or which aren’t even set in the world of canon at all, can’t really claim to be leaning on the original story for their structure. There are so many authors out here writing fics of 100K words or more (sometimes several multiples of that) and I just think it is breathtakingly insulting to suggest that none of them know how to structure a story.
Uhhhhh anyway! I’m extremely sorry if there are fic readers out there who have not had the pleasure of reading any of the many well structured fanfics out there, but that’s no reason to claim an entire massive genre of fiction can’t teach you anything about story structure.
Echoing what ifshehadwings said, and I’d like to add that frequently fanfic is the ending of the story. I’m sure anyone who consumes media has at least one show, book series, comic, movie, etc that simply didn’t get its ending. Whether due to simply not getting a next season green-lit or because the writers lost their way, “professional” doesn’t always equal “complete” either.
(A moment of silence for Agent Carter, taken from us too soon.)
Fanfic writers are known to patch those bleeding wounds over. That’s a skill all of its own. It forces the writer to juggle a dozen or more details without the power to change any of them and to, somehow, come up with a way to make it come together into a satisfying conclusion.
I’ve often felt like writing, and reading, fanfic is more akin to a sequel or an adaptation than anything else. It requires both a firm, thorough grasp of what the original work was, and an even stronger grasp of what it could have been.
In my not-so-humble opinion, a lot of professionals would do well to learn how to write a fic or two.
That being said, fanfiction has its own trends, style and culture. A romance, written as a fanfic, is a very different beast than anything Harlequin might publish, even if the plot is technically identical. Part of that is because the lack of monetary incentive gives us more room to maneuver and experiment and, yes, fail. Another part of that is because writers are sponges and pick up stylistic ticks from what they read. An author who wants to be published one day would do well to read a lot in the genre of their choosing in order to stay up to date on those trends. You don’t want to be the person bringing vampires to the table when everyone’s moving on to dragons, after all.
Ahhhh yes, excellent additional points! It is SO TRUE that fanfic is where we turn when canon didn’t give us a real ending (or they fucked it up real bad). How can you claim that fic writers don’t know how to end stories when we frequently pick up the ball dropped by the so called professionals and give stories the endings they deserve.
Also that last paragraph, YES. I couldn’t think of a way to articulate this idea, but yeah THIS.
reblog and put in the tags what fandom you joined tumblr for
you can explain why it’s important for aspiring authors to read published books and not just fanfiction without condescending to fanfiction authors/readers and implying it’s inherently of lesser quality
like a lot of fanfiction is genuinely good and well-written! there’s some amazing work there! there is absolutely fanfiction out there that’s the same quality as well-written published works. being like ‘well, it’s cute, but it’s not real writing’ is just dismissive and frankly completely untrue.
but, at the same time, there are a lot of reasons it’s important to also read published works, and those reasons aren’t just ‘it’s better’. for one, a lot of writing original fiction involves introducing one’s own characters and setting to an audience who knows nothing about the characters or worldbuilding, which is generally not something you’re going to learn how to do by only reading stories where you already know the world and characters. that doesn’t mean the work isn’t good; it just means it doesn’t teach all of the skills you’ll need to know when writing
im a lifelong fanfic writer, but one thing fanfic won’t teach you is how to end a story. or how to structure one, really. fanfic is itself a continuation of a story, it’s a transformative work, and… it’s kind of rare for long, chaptered fic to actually be complete. it’s awesome when it is! but you do kind of get used to reading fanfic as a big nebulous cloud of what-ifs, and furthermores, and so ons, and etc.
published fiction pretty much always has to have a start, middle, and ending. you can’t really learn formal anatomy from fanfiction. you can learn a lot of creative stuff that published fiction rarely has the freedom to engage in–aus and remixes, for instance–but fanfic really isn’t where you’re going to be able to study structure and discipline.
OP makes a good point. It is important to read in multiple genres to develop your own voice and style. And fanfiction is a genre.
That being said, imma have to take issue with the previous commenter. Like, way to claim you’re not being judgmental while actually being SUPER judgmental?
I could not possibly disagree more with the claim that fanfic will not teach you how to end a story. Are there many, many unfinished WIPs out there abandoned in the wilds of the internet? Yes. And of course you don’t generally find this in published work for obvious reasons. (The reasons being that nobody is getting paid to write fic, and oftentimes real life, or even just losing interest/getting into a new fandom can lead authors to abandon stories. I mean, I’m sure there’s plenty of unfinished original fic in people’s drawers and hard drives too, but for the most part it’s not offered for public consumption in its incomplete form.)
But uh... let me introduce you to the “Complete Works Only” filter on AO3. Literally no one is forcing you to read unfinished stories. The fact that you conceptualize fanfic in this way says more about your reading habits than it does about fic writers’ ability to end a story. There are countless finished fics in every conceivable fandom, many of them extremely good, and often with word counts that dwarf most novels.
On more than one occasion, I have been so overcome by the sublime beauty of the structure of a fic that I have had to L I T E R A L L Y lay down on the floor and cry at my roommate about it.
And you know what, even when the execution isn’t perfect, fanfic can teach you a hell of a lot about ending a story. Many fics end too soon, leaving you feeling a bit bereft and unsatisfied. Some stories (usually posted as WIPs without much of a plan) continue for thousands of words past where they should have ended. When you see the various ways that an author can uh... fail to stick the landing, that is very instructive in helping you find where the end of your story actually is.
And I really can’t agree with the claim that fanfic is, on the whole, light in structure simply by dint of being based on existing media. I mean, really there’s no such thing as original work, we’re all to some degree remixing a few millennia of storytelling tradition, but that’s a kinda of esoteric argument that goes beyond the scope of this particular rant. There are a few types of fanfic (usually quite short) that don’t really rely on their own structure separate from the structure of the original work, namely, missing scenes, codas, and vignettes.
But on the whole, structure is just as important to fanfic as it is to any other genre. I care very deeply about story structure. I have spent blood, sweat, and tears over structure in some of my stories. And I deeply appreciate when an author has an excellent grasp of structure. It’s true, a lot of fanfic authors’ grasp of structure is at times shaky, but I don’t believe it’s a greater percentage than it is for published authors. I have read plenty of profic with garbage structure.
Sometimes, for canon verse fic (whether compliant or divergent) an author needs to work with structure in a way that would never come up in original fic. These stories have to find a way to artfully gloss over parts of the plot that would simply be a retelling of canon. This doesn’t mean that the structure is lacking, just that it’s different.
But then of course you have the vast expanse of AU fics. Stories that have little to no overlap with the canon plot, or which aren’t even set in the world of canon at all, can’t really claim to be leaning on the original story for their structure. There are so many authors out here writing fics of 100K words or more (sometimes several multiples of that) and I just think it is breathtakingly insulting to suggest that none of them know how to structure a story.
Uhhhhh anyway! I’m extremely sorry if there are fic readers out there who have not had the pleasure of reading any of the many well structured fanfics out there, but that’s no reason to claim an entire massive genre of fiction can’t teach you anything about story structure.
“why do u ship that” honey these assholes ship themselves i am only a vessel
A. imagine your otp
B. dear gods this country has massive issues
I’ve been looking for this post for ages
listen, I’ve read enough fanfic to know that they’re not getting divorced, but it’ll take about 35k of pining to figure that out.
So apparently round umpty-zillion of “people are killing fandom by not commenting” is going around, and I’ve seen a few posts trashing people for lurking/viewing/reading instead of actively participating.
My journal and my fic has always been a lurker-friendly zone. I think lurkers are great and people can fight me on this. Here’s why:
We all started out as lurkers. Or at least most of us did. Come on. I’m sure some people out there must’ve jumped into fandom with both feet and started writing and commenting right away, and good for you if you did! But I sure didn’t. I lurked for YEARS. And even now, though I’ve been in fandom since before Y2K, whenever I get into a new fandom or a new social media platform, I still lurk. I hang out around the fringes for awhile to get a feeling for the place before starting to participate. Back in the mailing list/bulletin board days, it was usually recommended that people do that on purpose, watch and listen and learn the local lingo and social rules before diving in. So you know what? You are not doing anything wrong and you are not doing anything that most of the people you see out there commenting and creating and reccing things haven’t done themselves.
We all have lurker days, weeks, months …. Nobody is 100% “on” all the time. Participating in fandom (commenting, reccing, creating content, and so forth) is WORK. It may be fun work, but it still takes effort! Even if you’re sometimes very active in fandom, then you’ll have life fall on your head or the brain weasels flare up, and you won’t have the time and energy to give. Don’t feel guilty about not being able to give fandom your extra spoons. No one in fandom has a right to demand a single spoon from you that you don’t want to give.
Some of today’s lurkers may be your friends tomorrow. How do I know this? Because I’ve made friends with some of them myself! I’ve had people delurk in my comments to say hi after YEARS of reading my fanfic without saying a word. Which I am totally okay with, by the way. And some of these people are good friends today.
So, in conclusion:
This post is a good way to balance a lot of the “COMMENT ON FIC COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT” stuff that I post here. Content creators will always be happy to receive comments, and comments do in fact breed more content but… sometimes you can’t, and you aren’t obligated to. It’s fine to passively enjoy content for whatever reason.
maybe it’s just because I’m an Oldfan™ but this book I spotted at the library is absolutely sending me
CHOOSE YOUR AU
I’m
listen I didn’t come here to ship it lightly ok I came here for it to consume my soul
OMG there was only one bed AND THEY GOT ENOUGH SLEEP
