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tirsynni · 11 months

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So the issue about the right to post criticism on people’s fics have come up again. Okay.

First off, the most obvious thing: unless the person asks for constructive criticism, be very wary about giving it. Again, please, keep in mind: this is fanfiction. This is a story typed out by a fan in their free time and posted online for others to enjoy. This isn’t a work that someone polished with the plan to publish for money. This is a fanwork posted by a fan for other fans to enjoy. Most writers I know don’t want constructive criticism. They want to engage with other fans with a medium they enjoy. “I really enjoyed this and I hope you do, too. Here’s an idea inspired by watching that scene.”

Of course, some writers do want constructive criticism. They ask right in their notes for it, which leads to my second point...

What are your credentials? When it comes to offering constructive criticism, are you confident in your skills to offer it? People tend to be, yeah... and then tell me what they would have written. “This is something I would personally enjoy and I wish you had written this instead.” “This does not match my headcanon of the character and you should have done this instead.” “You should have written the other character as the top.” None of this is constructive criticism. None of this is helping a writer improve. When these thoughts occur, instead of leaving them as a comment, consider writing the fic yourself! Seriously! Go for it! That’s the joy of fanfiction! You want to see something? You can write it yourself!

But really, what are your credentials? Do you know how to edit? Proofread? Did you take classes? Do you have a degree? In what? What’s your personal experience? Can I see your resume? Can you offer constructive criticism in a way which will improve that specific writer’s specific style? Can you help the writer tell the story they want to tell and not you? Because that is incredibly challenging. It’s easy as hell to tell someone what you would like to see in their story. It’s also the reason many writing circles and writing groups fail: too often it dissolves into “This is what I like, so you should change this” or “Well, such and such heard from such and such that this is really important for fiction.” That’s not how actual constructive criticism works. That’s not how you help a writer grow.

“Well, if someone is writing and posting stuff online, then I have the right to criticize them.” Do you enjoy having so many free works at your fingertips? Would you like to see it happen in the future? Because while you’re free to criticize, that writer is free to stop writing. Writers don’t have to post. Writers can delete existing fics. Writers can and do give up because they are so excited to post their project online, only for multiple people to offer them “constructive criticism,” making them feel like shit, while many other people enjoy the fic but don’t bother telling the writer.

“I have the right to tell the author what I like.” You also have the right to write your own fic. Which is probably going to be more productive?

“I have the right to tell the author their fic grosses me out.” Great. You also have the right to tell that to random people you meet in the street. Go for it. I personally value the concept of “don’t like, don’t read.” You did choose to deliberately read that fic, after all. That’s all on you. The author didn’t put a gun to your head and force you to read that work.

“I have the right to tell the author their errors.” Did they ask? Why are you so focused on the errors and not what you liked about the fic? I promise, if you tell authors what you enjoy about their fics, that will help them grow their skills far more than criticism. Getting positive feedback encourages fic writing, and practice helps the writer with those errors far more than random people on the internet.

At the end of the day, is your constructive criticism helping? And honestly, is that “constructive criticism” for the author or for you to feel proud about your awesomeness or for you to lift yourself up by belittling someone else? Before you gave the constructive criticism, did you ask the person? Did you value their opinion enough to verify that they wanted it in the first place? Fuck, did you even take the time to ask the person if they wanted a beta reader? Because if someone is happily posting their fic and they didn’t ask for help via a beta reader prior to posting, it might be because they’re more focused on the fanwork itself than grammar and the such, and that’s okay. If you can’t play around with fanfiction, with what can you play around? It’s fanfiction. No life or death seriousness to it!

Generally when someone leaves me constructive criticism, it isn’t constructive. It is that person telling me what they would have written in my shoes. You doing that isn’t going to make me write it. Hell, if people keep it up, writers might not write anything at all.

It’s very popular now to call writers greedy when they want positive comments or engagement with their fanworks. It’s also popular to defend the right to criticize the author when giving a comment. I would really prefer for these people to just write their own fic. Write what they want to see in the world. Maybe it’ll balance out all of the writers not writing because they’re getting hesitant about posting their works or feel too discouraged to even write in the first place.

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pastawayallday · 3 months

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I couldn’t resist, I had to draw something from Firefight by @remedyturtles . I’m obsessed, I legit cry at every chapter.

#rottmnt #save rottmnt #save rise of the tmnt #donatello #my art #leonardo #firefight #fic fanart #ao3 fanfic #tw blood #sorry about the blood but this scene was so beautiful I had to #brotherly love #i hope i did it justice #save me firefight save me #this fandom has so many talented artists and writers

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petricorah · 2 months

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scenes i loved from Real Enough to Get Me Through by @marriedzukka <333 [ids in alt]

#zukka #zukka fanart #sokka #sokka fanart #zuko #zuko fanart #atla #atla fanart #avatar the last airbender #zukka fic rec #myart #yall. yall. dani. this FIC #first off it made me cry twice. not like 'oh im crying' internet speak no. like. eyes are too blurry to read let me stop this for a sec #it is SO GOOD #your prose? amazing #your insights on grief? life changing #THEM??? THEM their relationship and trust #'zuko looked at him and his world shifted on its axis'#ive been thinking about that line for WEEKS STRAIGHT #i can't tell you how many passages i screenshot just because of how beautiful or cute they were #the moment of seeing the painting of sokka's mom? how did you manage to make it so telling character wise--so sweet so PAINful AND so #cute with their relationship?!!?!#'oh so you think i'm beautiful too'#GOD #i had so many scenes i wanted to draw it was crazy #also #'Our loved ones leave impressions on us that can still impact our decisions and feelings even after they're gone'#fuck. had me crying AGAIN #seriously this fic is so wonderful and not just through a zukka lens. truly life changing you're an AMAZING writer #the fandom is so lucky to have you and i can't Believe it took me so long to get around to reading this masterpiece

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museaway · 1 month

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✍️ more fic writer asks!

reblog & your followers can send asks with the questions they’d like you to answer!

the last sentence you wrote

a character whose POV you’re currently exploring

how you feel about your current WIP

a story idea you haven’t written yet

first sentence of the fifth paragraph of an unpublished WIP

the word that appears the most in your current draft (wordcounter.net can tell you)

your preferred writing fonts

if you had to write a sequel to a fic, you’d write one for…

start to finish, how long did it take you to write the last fic you posted?

what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it?

a WIP you’d like to finish someday

a trope you’re really into right now

a fandom you’re thinking about writing for

where do you get your inspiration?

favorite weather for writing

favorite place to write

talk about your writing and editing process

if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic

in what year did you publish your first fic?

when did you publish your most recent fic?

do you ever worry about public reaction to what you’re writing? how do you get past that?

pick three keywords that describe your writing

how do you recharge when you’re not feeling creative?

besides writing, what are your other hobbies?

are you able to write with other people around?

your favorite part of the writing process

your least favorite part of the writing process

how easy is it for you to come up with titles?

share a fic you’re especially proud of

#please reblog to your own followers!!#you don't need to send me any (I just like making them)#I meant to do this yesterday but was too sleepy #fic writer asks #ask game #I have 100% asked these on discord or twitter at some point #but there are only so many Thoughts in my poor head

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swords-and-starlight · 5 months

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i feel the need to remind everyone that Damen’s literally one of the smartest and most well-educated characters in the series. He’s extremely well-read and knowledgeable about military tactics and strategy, which if you didn’t know also includes a huge depth of history knowledge, and his talent comes from both education and years of experience. He’s smart enough to know geography and terrain information of an area he hasn’t needed to have information on in seven years, and even then, the lands they are talking about were in mainland Vere, not Delpha, so his studies were his own initiative. he has favorite poems! HE ENJOYED DEBATING OBSCURE PHILOSOPHY WITH HESTON!!! like y’all Damen is just as intelligent as Laurent, it’s just that Laurent’s intelligence is about manipulation and chess and Damen’s just a nerd.

(also people are gonna be coming for me for this one but i think Damen likes books and libraries a lot more than Laurent ever did)

#i would bet my college tuition that Damen loves analyzing and debating about books #‘damen wouldn’t understand hamlet’ stfu he would eat that shit up #side note tho damen would love hamlet it’s a lot like his and laurent’s story #there’s definitely more that i’m not thinking of right now #but even on my first read of the series there were so many scenes where Damen is extremely competent and clearly educated and trained #i don’t understand all the fic writers that make damen some himbo golden retriever and laurent this sarcastic girlboss #damen #capri #captive prince #damen of akielos #damianos of akielos

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frownyalfred · 1 year

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Things you might not realize are affecting your ao3 readership:

Putting unrelated fics into one compilation instead of series or collections

Not tagging your fics/“haha I’m so bad at tagging!”

Tagging all of the ships in a fandom instead of the relevant ones to the story

“This is my first fic ever”/ “I’m really not a good writer” / “sorry if this is crap”

Summaries that say “sorry don’t think I will update much” or “might be abandoned idk”

Tagging “r@pe” or “unaliving” etc instead of the actual tag so people can filter/exclude

NOT tagging major, relevant tags or kinks without using the “creator chose not to use archive warnings” option

Telling people how bad your writing is and how you hate it so much and how they shouldn’t even be reading your fic (self deprecation)

Weird punctuation: not starting new quotes or descriptions on a new line, and/or putting extremely long blocks of text on the page without a break

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memorizingthedigitsofpi · 28 days

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if you see me posting about how awesome short fics are, odds are pretty good that I just scrolled past a post about how only 100K+ fics are "real fics" or "full fics" etc.

I see that, and it makes me feel so sad for all of the authors out there who read those posts and wish they could write long fic because they think it's the only way that people will be interested in their stories.

It also makes me sad for the readers who don't have the time or the attention span for stories that long and worry that they're missing out on something great as a result.

Anyway, I just saw that one about how someone got acclimatized to reading stories of 250K and I just-

#sigh #if i see too many of those posts in a day #I just get so tired #anyway gpoy #I'm a short fic writer #and a short fic reader #and happy to be both

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softiedingo · 6 months

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#loki #mobius #loki season 2 #loki series #loki spoilers #lokius #owen wilson #tom hiddleston #thank god for the fic writers #they'll save so many lifes from now on #mine will be one of them

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inklore · 8 months

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i love people who write for underrated characters and fandoms. i love people who barely get 100 notes and keep posting. keep writing. keep doing what they love and not letting lack of interaction completely hinder their enjoyment on here. you’re strong. you’re valid. you’re literally the backbone of the writing community on here!!!!

#the amount of reader inserts i go and look up for random unpopular fandoms and finding fics???? that are amazing???#but have barely any notes??? insane. horrible.#they’re always the best fics too #like some of yall are snobs on here and it shows #i love every single writer whether you get 2k notes or 90 #you’re literally all equally talented and loved and cherished by me #please keep writing for underrated fandoms ok #you’re making so many people happy #here laur goes again..

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realbeefman · 9 months

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if house md happened in 2023. first of all house and wilson would be explicitly gay and together which would suck because queerbaiting is awesome. but also there would be a period before they got together in which they would routinely send their nudes to each other to screen before sending them out to women. and it’d be a whole Thing. s1 wilson would go ON and ON about how ever since the infarction house hasn’t been sending nearly as many nudes back to wilson and “it feels, i don’t know, weird!” and then house would just straight up try to pull his dick out in the hallway because if wilson “wants to see it so bad, then [he’s] more than happy to oblige.” and then at the end of the episode house would send him a nude and wilson would reply with a “Looks good 💯 I like the smile. Who’s the lucky lady?” and house would just smirk because there, of course, isn’t a woman. house just doesn’t want wilson to stop sending him nudes.

#im like if a fanfiction writer was lazy and unmotivated #i dont enjoy writing fic but sometimes demons compell me #i have so many ideas for fics i just never feel like i can capture a characters voice correctly #house md #hilson #greg house #james wilson #hate crimes md

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tarteggs · 9 months

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vash and wolfwood argue about ghosts, and absolutely nothing else.

a comic i made for the fic lots of people, lots of sides have been taken by procrastinatingbookworm on ao3! i really enjoyed reading it and liked the imagery a lot, so i thought it would be fun to draw something based on it!! ^^

#vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #vashwood #trigun stampede #trigun #my art #this took. so long. my god #gradient maps r my bff……#but it was so fun planning it and drawing it :D #i definitelyyyy wanna make more comics in the future RAHHH #i also wanna draw a lot more fic art bc there’s sooo many good stories out there that would be fun to draw AHHH #trigun writers go CRAZYYYY <33 #i feel so normal about trigun. so so normal

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inknopewetrust · 1 year

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#🫡 in solidarity for all my hoes with so many promises #writer #fic writer #fic woes #x reader #stranger things #bridgerton #shadow and bone #sherlock #eddie munson x reader #aleksander morozova x reader #steve harrington x reader

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linnpuzzle · 4 months

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More Sylvix because my brain is filled with them. I have read so many fics today and I am so grateful there are lots of fanfic writers in this corner of fandom

#sylvix #my art #felix fraldarius #sylvain jose gautier #fe3h #fe3h fanart #got so many ideas from those fics #gosh i want to give all the writers flowers

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buffygirlfail · 2 months

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mourning the loss of the potential anyataraspike bestieism we could've gotten

#buffygirlfail.btvs #please please please tell me someone gets it #ik so many spuffy fics do this already but trust everytime i will eat it up #spike + anya bonding over their demon pasts... tara + anya being bee eff effs... spike + tara joking... i'm a bad writer but PLS trust this #isn't me just fanon-izing all of the characters lollll #I just think that the way most of them serve as foils to their partners (buffy + xander + willow)#makes it make sense that the 3 would get along yk #I don't know how to tag this uhhhh #anya jenkins #spike btvs #tara maclay #spuffy #tillow #xanya

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wren-kitchens · 6 months

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mildly frustrated at how many 'we need to talk about lizzie more' posts ive seen and the distinct lack of actual posts of art or writing about lizzie that ive seen cross my dash

like guys i thought we wanted to talk about lizzie and not the fandom's problems when is that happening

#not to be bitter but i got 3 likes and 0 reblogs on my lizzie fic that i posted last night #whereas i usually get like 26 ish notes for my other stuff in the same amount of time #and like. ive seen SO many posts of 'dont forget lizzies story'#i definitely havent!! i am definitely writing lizzie-centric things!!!#its just that no one cares to actually /read/ it #it does feel a little less like caring about lizzie's story and more about protesting against the misandry by using lizzie's story #as an example #idk maybe im thinking too much about this but yk. support artists and writers pls #dont just compain about how no one is writing when i am!!! we are writing!!! we are drawing!!!#are you reading? are you reblogging?#wren wrambles #im not gonna maintag this cause its more of a rant than anything but #yeah

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turnipoddity · 6 months

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ok i watched saw for the first time last night after seeing your devolution journey (affectionate) into madness. it was so good i cant shut up to my friends about it. do you have any lawrence/adam fic recs? im desperate also i LOVE your art kisses hugs ily

OH THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!! always delighted that i can bring people to watch saw 😭❤️ here’s some of my favorites, although I’m sure I’m gonna regret it later bc i forget to include some other great fics, but here it is!!!

Strip The Paint, by fiddlestick

Give Me Shelter, Show Me Heart, by leetheshark

I Go Along With Nature, by punk_rock_yippie

Can You Feel My Heart?, by Vixenfur

1000 Words, by frigidphoebe

Dressed to Impress, by bleakmidwinter

I’m Your Secretary, by WolFGRRRL

I Shiver You With Anticipation, by whatifwekissedinthesawbathroom

#IM SOO SURE IM MISSING OTHER GREAT FICS BUT THIS IS ALL I GOT IN THE MOMENT #so so many talented writers out there!!! AMAZING stuff truly #you guys are my lifeline #saw #chainshipping #asks #make sure to check the warnings!! 🧎‍♀️

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