Let's Get ((REAL)) fic writer asks

🌿🍉🎉

hi, dear. ✨

🌿how does creating make you feel?

with fics it usually goes like:

excited -> focused -> peaceful -> stressed -> sad -> excited again -> focused -> accomplished -> joyful

stuff like gif-making is usually heaps of fun, and the excitement when i find a good parallel and nail a transition is immeasurable 😅

🍉in what ways has writing helped you process trauma and/or navigate through your own life?

i haven't necessarily dug that deep into specific details of my trauma but several fics do have bits and pieces based on my life, both the good (🦔🐳) and the bad (🍯🥃). but you can just assume that if i talk about tony's parental issues, anxious attachment, avoidance techniques, coping mechanisms, proneness to addiction, obsessive loving, self-sabotaging tendencies, adhd traits etc. that i often use him to speak my own truth because, well, i did imprint on him for a reason. sorry this got heavy on main 👍🏻

🎉how often do you celebrate completing & posting a work? how often do you give yourself the credit/validation that you seek from others when you post? (if you don't, you should!)

often! i am so hard on myself as @whinysteve can confirm and it takes a lot to create, let alone to complete a fic, these days. so when i manage to finish something, i definitely do celebrate, usually by having some good dinner and/or a snack. i don't remember an exact moment right now, but knowing k, i feel like she's given me random gifts in the past to celebrate posting a fic, ahah. i also text fandom friends about it, and i have some very supportive people in my corner. ❤️ oh, and i of course make whiny read/beta my fic the second it's done, so i can then have a real life-conversation about it and allow my brain to close that tab. i think that's a rare privilege to have (your own live-in number one fan) and i am very grateful. it's lovely and, all in all, i probably spend 90% of my time sad and feeling like i can't write one sentence, and the rest being proud of myself (especially when i reread my own fic months later and realise it was great all along, or when i get nice comments). 🥹

I don’t write or anything so idk what this is but what’s a beta?

So I think it's technically defined as someone who reads your drafts/final draft for you for plot purposes in like, the "professional" world. They aren't looking to correct your sentence structure or your grammar (like an actual editor would do) but more so the actual grit to your story - "Hey I got really lost here, I think it needs more grounding in the setting." "JESUS FUCK THAT DESCRIPTION YOU POET" "Why do we care about the reader/character is going through in this scene? Okay. Show me." you get the picture.

I personally do a mixture when I beta, but I lean more heavily on the grammar cause I just can't help it. I know a lot of people have multiple beta readers which is a great idea! People just catch or point out different things 💛

It's also really helpful to have multiple people you send like little snippets to while you're writing aside from sending them the whole big thing at the end - they can help get you unstuck/fix a problem before it's so big it blows everything up (I'm still working on reaching out to mine when I need this 😅)

But anyways! I hope that helps! They're like an editor, your person(s) you trust with your baby before you share it with the world. It's an honor and privilege and a fun but big responsibility 💛💛

jadie (may i call u that ?) i was wondering how u deal with hate on ur page. does it ever get rlly hard to the point where u think about quitting or something? ive been going through some hate of my own and although im still a small acct and the love outweighs the hate, its still super hurtful and i just wanna know how someone with a following as big as urs would handle it ! thanks so much

you can call me whatever you like!! how I deal with it..

I think it's important to acknowledge that I have a 'bigger' account or a bigger following because if you tallied up the hate to the kindness I'm shown, there's always going to be more love. And I feel like I can stick up for myself more often because I know I've made friends here and have followers that will support me!! So I would definitely say those things are a privilege that I have to help me

That being said, I've definitely noticed a tenfold increase in hate as I gain followers and i think thats natural, it makes sense that the more people that are exposed to me and my writing, the more I will see people who dont like me or my writing. Sometimes I handle it by crying my eyes out, and sometimes I just feel really sick all day. Lots of the time, hate pretty much saps me completely and I find that I don't want to write anymore because you do start to internalise that and feel negatively about yourself. It's always worse when they kind of find the thing you're sensitive about and prod at it.

And hate feels to me like it is in two categories, actual stuff with value and then the troll/bait kind of stuff. Most of the mean anons I receive I block straight away so they can't send anything again. Sometimes I post it because I want my own say, like when I don't agree with the way someone's speaking to me.

Sometimes you get silly cruel ones, and sometimes you see hate and think like??? What does this have to do with me? Fanfic and writing in general can be so skewed toward personal preference because why wouldn't I write what I want to write? This is my hobby and its for fun, and so when you get those "this was awkward' "this was poorly written" "why did insert character do this" I can disregard that pretty easily cos its a comment based on their own perception and preference. You don't have to explain yourself to anyone if you don't want to!

I recently saw someone get a hate anon that said like "you need to use more full stops, I need to take a breath" and it made me laugh because there are literally millions and millions of books and billions of words of fanfic online and that person has seemingly never encountered a run on sentence before? I think you just have to keep in mind that your circle of experience in life is different to other people's , and there will be overlap but often the majority won't, like a Venn diagram. What I'm trying to say is I tend to not take that stuff too personally (though it's still hate, and still annoying!) because that person probably just hasn't realised the world doesn't revolve around them yet!

Hate sucks! We aren't goodreads authors, we aren't offering our work up for a five star rating and asking people to pick it apart, and it's always gonna be gutting when people don't like what we have to offer. But I just try to take it on the chin because rejection is a constant in life, and if you don't wrestle with it I'd imagine I'll turn into a bitter bitch. 😅

tldr: I let myself be upset by it! I give myself space to feel sad but ultimately I reason that you can't please everyone, and you shouldn't want to! Do what makes you happy and the right people will find you and love you for it !!