Just had an argument with an Aspiring Author about how The Door Is Just Red. Reassess your goals, sir

After months of staying silent on literary discourse here on Tumblr, I finally have something to contribute.

Fanfiction is not the problem. Fanfic is a free, communal and valid form of writing which, although not always high quality, has yielded some genuinely great stories. The real problem, the reason for ‘booktok books’ and the flaws in modern literature, is fanfic being hijacked by corporations. The minute people try to make money off of it, the minute fanfic and fanfic-style stories lose their meaning. Fanfiction is written on the notes app at 3am for you and 5 friends who share your taste. It is self-indulgent, chaotic, often told through a queer and/or neurodivergent lens, and free from any pressure to be commercially palatable. The minute a few stereotypical fanfiction tropes and ideas are stolen by commercial publishers and twisted into patriarchal, heteronormative versions of themselves with no character depth beyond the romance (a problem that for obvious reasons doesn’t apply to fanfic), that is where the real problem begins.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk

Don't forget Palestine 🇵🇸!!!

the book trend that needs to be left in the dust for the new year is greek mythology retellings. i am so sick and tired of "retellings" of greek (or roman, but mainly greek) mythology from authors that clearly have a very surface level pop cultural understanding of the myth(s) they're adapting and the culture(s) they're depicting. especially the many that market themselves as "feminist retellings" where the "feminism" is basically just "men bad sometimes", and especially when they're "feminist retellings" that take some of the few mythological women who get happy endings and take it away from them for the sake of saying "men bad sometimes". it's all so shallow and they exploded this year and i'm sick of it.

i got blocked by someone over this but critiquing media that has sex in it/critiquing the sex itself is not automatically puritan. Sex negativity is not pointing out that most popular pieces of media that have sex in it are overwhelmingly white, straight, cis, and able bodied. Sex negativity is not pointing out that it is a problem that swathes of people (usually younger women) cannot read fictional books without there being some sort of ~spicy~ scene in it. What IS puritan is someone saying all sex is bad INHERENTLY/there shouldn't be sex depicted anywhere in media at ALL.

remember when dan and phil had their own section at bookstores?

This wildest crossover ever would be between TLC and ATLA. Imagine Cinder as the avatar. She would definitely kick some ass

the goddamn show came out

Not straight ladies on booktok proudly sharing information about what kind of smut they’re into that you could not torture out of the average AO3 user. Like pop off girlboss but my AO3 history is between me and Satan alone.

I’m not even judging, I’m just in awe of people being THIS horny on main with their real face on display. 😳

I support girls but NAH THIS IS REACHING “if you look carefully LIKE REALLY CAREFULLY 🤓☝️”

I don’t know if I’ve ever agreed with anything more, in my life, ever

on the one hand tiktok is a particularly bad social media platform due to all the privacy and algorithm problems that I'm sure you're already aware of, on the other hand a weird amount of online leftists have taken to blaming Those Annoying TikTok Teens for every ill in modern society in a way that is both phenomenally narrow in worldview and often comes across just as a way to condescend to children with a coat of progressive paint on it.

As I said before perhaps shaming women for their sexuality/interest in sexual content is not in fact a cool thing to do.

Hey, I know this doesn’t make up for people posting your works/reviews on Goodreads, but I was curious if you can take it down or request it be removed since you didn’t consent to it being on there?

I wasn't going to respond but I did take your advice and Goodreads, unlike AO3, moves FAST

No one tell them the fics that were up WERE complete because this delighted me. All I said was it was fanfic and I wanted it taken down.

I deleted yesterdays post because some people on this site take any opportunity to take shots at me BUT.

Please. DO NOT PUT MY FICS ON GOODREADS. I get you want to count them toward your reading goals or you think these are flattering, but I write fic for free in my spare time. Unlike a published book, it is NOT a consumable product. It's more like a potluck- we're all in it together, it's a gift, a little treat to survive the horrors. I know the reviews were good, but you can also just...leave them on AO3.

I mean what I said yesterday, unironically and unjokingly- if you put my fics on Goodreads and then review them there, I personally hate you. Don't do it. Fics are not books, they were never meant to be consumed like books. One day I'll publish something and y'all are WELCOME to review it on Goodreads and I'll never look because it'll belong to the public and not me anymore.