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dduane · 7 months

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Judging books by their covers

Having spent the morning reading the notes on this post (and reading them, and reading them...), I realized I really needed to get to grips with a piece of work I'd been avoiding.

Some of you may remember me mentioning that the Young Wizards website's longtime ISP went out of business suddenly in July, necessitating the site's hasty relocation to a new home. In the process a lot of its internal URLs ceased to operate correctly, meaning that files weren't displaying. (As I was quickly reminded when looking for the original David Wiesner art for So You Want To Be A Wizard at 01:30 last night.)

Anyway, I just wound up spending the day rescanning book covers for the Young Wizards publication history page, and was reminded of some favorites while getting the work done. (And a note for the interested: if there's any particular cover from an English-language edition of the YW books that interests you, or you think the sight of one might jog your memory somehow, that page is where you'll find the images. Use the tabs under the header image to take you through the history of publishers and artists.)

Meanwhile, being reminded of what happened to the covers for So You Want To... alone is both funny and a bit sobering. Styles change, formats change, art directors change. Sometimes the covers get a lot better, and sometimes they, uh, don't. Look at the difference in styles alone among these, for example.

Most of the time the writer gets to take what they're given, and like it. Sometimes, though, they get to give advice.

Here, for example, is one time that happened.

This is for the UK hardcover of the first of the Feline Wizards books. The artist, Mick Posen, is a cat person... and he insisted on having pictures of the cats who inspired the NY worldgating team before he started painting. Just look at these three, especially Rhiow there in the foreground. Is this a hero, or what? :)

Here's one that caused a little controversy.

The question of the day: Is Nita wearing anything? And if so, what?

The art won Greg Swearingen a silver Spectrum Award for that Deep Wizardry painting. But he and my then-editor on the series, Michael Stearns, apparently got into it a little regarding a conflict between the text and the necessities of painting a YA cover. If I remember correctly, I think Greg was holding out for "She's not wearing anything in the text in this situation, she just turned human again after changing back from being a whale, she shouldn't be wearing anything here!" and Michael was saying "But the parents, what if we freak out the parents...!" ...Eventually it seems like some kind of compromise was achieved. Swirly light = magic, or something. (shrug) Not my problem. It's a lovely cover.

About this one I have, well, mixed feelings. At this end of time, the art looks clunky. Yet this is also my first bestseller. When the SF Book Club published this omnibus, Support Your Local Wizard quickly set records as their single most-requested item of all time for new members just signing up. Its print run ran to more than 250,000 copies, and it remained constantly in print until the Book Club itself ended.

I've always been fond of this one for Deep Wizardry, and also of the one the artist, Neal McPheeters, did for the Dell Yearling and Dell mass market paperback editions of So You Want To... . There's a solid quality to both of them, but the second one in particular, that appeals to me.

(For those in the notes on that other post who reacted immediately to Kit's antenna: This is one of the reasons why it features—along with one of Nita's wands from the rowan tree Liused—on all the covers of the revised/updated Young Wizards New Millennium Editions. I've seen a lot of memories jogged by its appearance.)

...Do I have a favorite favorite one of all these covers? As usual, it's hard to pick. But I have to admit that I smile, at the moment, when looking at this one—Greg Swearingen’s art again—since in a couple of weeks it'll be the fortieth anniversary of So You Want To Be A Wizard's publication.

We'll see what the publisher does for the fiftieth. :)

#Young Wizards #Young Wizards series #covers

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phoenixtakaramono · 7 days

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I believe Cheating Men must die is a great story

It adds wonderful twists in existing tropes and genres. The protag isn't perfect but she's great, she likes eliminating assholes, which is valid

It's also interesting how Su Luxia doesn't have an identity issue since she lives under so many identities but I guess she's hardened for the job

For everyone who hasn't read Cheating Men Must Die (comic "Wan Zha Chao Huang" (万渣朝凰) by Shi Dai Man Wang (时代漫王)), this is an open invitation for y'all to read it. Genre: quick transmigration, revenge story. Basically your ex-cannon fodder MC, Su Luxia, is a System agent who transmigrates (isekais/ world hops) into the bodies of women of each world who are wronged by the Male Lead, Female Lead, another canon fodder, author, etc and changes their fate. I forgot how many chapters of the manhua there are presently but I believe the freshest ones that are still being updated in Mandarin Chinese are over 700+ chapters of art. (The MTL offers English translation, but y'all can also peep at other sites for ENG fantranslations.)

There are a couple of different summaries but I love this summary the best:

Don't you think that all cheating sc*m need to die? Su Luxia, an intern pro working in a transmigration agency, doesn't believe in that. For her, all cheating bastards need to rot in hell before they die. Or else they won't suffer the taste of their own medicine! Using elaborate means, she beats up countless cheating bastards and b*tches. Su Luxia sneers... "People take everything they get for granted. The more they get, the more they don't strive for it. An unrequited love is an example. There is always a sc*m who takes advantage. Since they brought this upon themselves..." She studies her face in the mirror and smirks, "... let them have a taste of their own medicine." System: "You're making that scary face again!" Follow our female main lead, Su Lüxia, who is bound to the Female Lead Counterattack System and transmigrates to several small worlds beating up countless sc*m.

Art bait for y'all who are still hesitating (and some of my favorite arcs, and those that'd surprised me like the arc where she transmigrated into the Second Male Lead):

RE: I have to agree! Ty for the Ask, @bernkastel11! I had a response ready for ya the day I saw this in my inbox and literally typed a long essay with links, but lo and behold tumblr ate it. 😭 But finally I have the motivation for a take 2. Honestly the manhua is a guilty pleasure of mine. The art's great (we definitely see the artist improve over time with each arc...even with the obviously borrowed assets and sometimes janky perspective, hahaha) and I love how Su Luxia is a badass femme fatale (white lotus & green tea b*tch), as well as her friendship with her cute talking hamster System. I also love how the artist is giving variety; it's not all just kicking butt, chewing bubble gum, finding romance. She's become an empress, made a friendship with the exorcist Female Lead, become a mother, led revolutions, survived a death game, became a guy, made a Male Lead yandere and obsess over her to the point of trying to hunt her down in whichever world it is, has some...questionable sapphic overtones, transmigrated into a BL novel, revisited some worlds with reoccurring characters, etc. They satirize a lot of preexisting tropes, and I love it when artists and writers have fun with the meta. I also like how they're slowly expanding on the lore of her interest with previous System agent Zero (the whole reason why Su Luxia became a System agent).

"It's also interesting how Su Luxia doesn't have an identity issue since she lives under so many identities but I guess she's hardened for the job"

The thing about QTs in general is the artist or author usually don't put much emphasis on the consequences of transmigrating so many times into other people's bodies. It's just a staple of the genre (because they're usually portrayed as badass, cunning, and OP, what have you with a strong willpower to assume all these identities, overcome challenges, and not experience dysphoria). So far I think the only writer I can think of off the top of my head that addresses it is: The Exhausting Reality of Novel Transmigration (novel / manhwa). I highly rec it. So far it is one of the few works where they explore that concept of how mentally exhausting it is adopting another person's identity as well as the consequences of "the characters" finding out (it's not your usual "oh, you hopped into my dead daughter's body and assumed her identity? Well la de dah, guess you're my daughter now." No, we're talking about the mother suspecting, finding out, being horrified, and having a mental breakdown trying to exorcise "the evil spirit" who's taken possession of her daughter's body). It also touches on the danger of an ordinary woman transmigrating into the body of a Female Lead in an R18+ novel where the Male Lead is a yandere.

Since you'd mentioned CMMD, I can give you several other links:

Cheating Men Must Die animated audio version of the first few arcs (King of the Phoenix), comes with ENG subs

Mission in Parallel 2022 Chinese short drama (it's the late 1910s socialite arc where she transmigrates as the overweight nightclub owner & wife of the abusive husband who gets seduced by a singer who's also a transmigrator), comes with ENG subs

Cheating Men Must Die (2022)(it's the arc where she transmigrates into the world where she's the villainess and the CEO Male Lead is self-aware, and the author has signed with the evil System trying to kill off Su Luxia so that she herself can transmigrate into the body of her own FL), comes with ENG subs

#cheating men must die #manga rec #The Exhausting Reality of Novel Transmigration #reading recommendations #ask #ty for the ask <3 #bernkastel1 #it's so nice to find another CMMD enthusiast; usually I'm the one reccing CMMD to everyone else hahahaha #phoenix talks

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likegemstone · 1 year

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writing-sharing sites and my research on them

A few months ago I started looking into all of the potential sites I could use to share Her Broken Magic, to make sure the ones I chose properly fit the story's needs. I'll add everything I found here, and if anyone has more info, more sites, or corrections (I am far from a professional researcher) please add them to this post!

So, I started by making a list of what was important to me when sharing my story. For example, I do NOT want to put HBM behind a paywall, but I would also like to add ways to monetize the story otherwise, through donations, ads, paid subscriptions for exclusive or early released content, etc.

This is the full list I came up with:

Once I had that, I then converted that into a kind of fill-out form/checklist that I could hold up to each site and see how they met my needs.

Then, I made a list of all sites and ways I could think of to share my story. I have since heard of more sites, but I don't currently have research on them bc by the time I'd heard of them I had already chosen 3 sites I wanted to post to. But again, if anyone has suggestions/additions, please rb with them!

The sites:

I think tumblr is going to freak out if I try to post the research I did on each site as an image, so I'm going to start just copy/pasting instead.

Patreon

Allows free base content: Yes

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: Yes

Requires contract: No

Requires exclusivity: No

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: Yes

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): Decent comment system, moderated by the creator (afaik), but no space for fans/patrons to create and share their own work.

Allows visual art alongside written content: Yes!

Accepts mature content: According to Community Guidelines Yes, according to some anecdotal evidence they are not consistent or transparent with what is or isn’t allowed, nor clear when something will be taken down/banned.

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Yes, but it does require an account.

Built-in traffic or advertising: No. There’s like no discoverability from the site itself.

Decent customer support: No

The Vibe: probably best used supplementally for paid content/early releases, not as the main sharing platform.

webnovel

Allows free base content: Yes

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: No

Requires contract: No, but popular stories may get offered contracts.

Requires exclusivity: No, unless signing a certain contract.

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: Yes

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): Love that they allow comments on each paragraph plus longer reviews for the overall work. Seems largely self-moderated, so it will be on the author to get rid of spam or harmful comments. There does seem to be a very active forum to provide some community aspect.

Allows visual art alongside written content: No

Accepts mature content: Apparently stuff that’s too mature for wattpad gets posted here, so yes.

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Yes, no account required

Built-in traffic or advertising: Yes

Decent customer support: No, but there is the active forum for troubleshooting, advice, etc.

The Vibe: the company/site seems to be negligent at best and predatory at worst, but gd I love the commenting, readability, and shareability of the writing. There are some great features. Would never sign a contract with them tho.

we all know it, we all fear it: WattPad

Allows free base content: Yes

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: No, but popular stories have the chance to become monetized/subscription-based

Requires contract: No

Requires exclusivity: No (not sure if this extends to the Paid Stories)

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: Yes

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes, there are ads for free version, but non-intrusive (so far)

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): Also allow comments on paragraphs as well as longer reviews, seems to be mostly self-moderated, community events but no forum (it got yoinked bc it was too toxic lmao)

Allows visual art alongside written content: I’ve seen gifs at the end of chapters so maybe?

Accepts mature content: Yes (to a degree)

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Yes, no account required on browser, but I think it might be required on the app

Built-in traffic or advertising: Yes, but the site is so bloated it’s difficult to stand out

Decent customer support: Not really

The Vibe: wattpad is so heavily geared toward teens and fanfic that I don’t think it’s right for my story, plus I’ve heard the community there can be pretty toxic. However, seems like it could be good when just starting out.

Tapas Novels

Allows free base content: Yes, though most are not free

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: Yes, for early release

Requires contract: No

Requires exclusivity: No

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: Yes

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): They don’t do paragraph comments, but do have chapter comments and their moderation system seems decent. Also, there is an official forum where readers and creators can interact, and actually I see a lot of WEBTOON users going to the Tapas forums to get their questions about WT answered lmao.

Allows visual art alongside written content: Yes, I think so!

Accepts mature content: Guideline quote on sexual content: “Any novel’s intended purpose should not be to solely provide erotic satisfaction (i.e. porn without plot).” On violence, it says the “glorification or promotion of self-harm” is restricted.

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Yes, and reading/sharing does not require an account

Built-in traffic or advertising: Yes

Decent customer support: Not really, from what I can tell, though there is an active forum which can help with troubleshooting.

The Vibe: I’m very impressed with this one so far. Seems well-maintained, professional, legit, and accessible.

Updated note on Tapas: Apparently there is a 15k character limit on Tapas chapters, which according to a friend I know who uses it, that usually equals around 2.5k words, so keep that in mind.

Royal Road

Allows free base content: Yes

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: No, BUT they have a donation link on stories that connects directly to the author’s Patreon or PayPal, and they don’t take a cut.

Requires contract: No

Requires exclusivity: No

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: Decent

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: They have the bane of my existence on mobile, which is those ads that change size so they make the screen jump randomly. However, they do have a Premium version where you can remove ads.

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): Yes. I have heard a ton of very positive experiences with the community here, and there is an active forum.

Allows visual art alongside written content: I don’t think so, but you can share any visual art on the forums Someone corrected me on twitter and apparently it does!

Accepts mature content: Yes if tagged appropriately, but check the guidelines for specifics, and no sexual artwork is allowed at all and will result in an immediate ban.

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Decent (must share the link), doesn’t require an account

Built-in traffic or advertising: Some

Decent customer support: Yes

The Vibe: seems like a really great community, a bit smaller but therefore more dedicated, maybe a little stricter with the rules when it comes to story content.

Update: this is anecdotal evidence, but I have heard from a friend who uses RR that there can be a little non-welcoming if your story has LGBTQ+ elements to it. Again, I want to reiterate that this is anecdotal, but still wanted to mention it.

Personal Blog

All of the answers to the checklist items depend on you, how you format your blog, how much effort/time you want to put in, etc.

The Vibe: god this seems like so much work, but the complete and total freedom is appealing.

Kindle Direct Publishing

Not made for serialized fiction. That’s what Kindle Vella is for apparently. Or Kindle Vella is just a branch of KDP? Not sure.

Kindle Vella

Allows free base content: No, only the first 3 episodes are free. Also, all of the reviews on stories I’ve seen so far have been very positive for the story but said they hate Vella and it’s too expensive lmao

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: No

Requires contract: No

Requires exclusivity: No, as long as it is not shared for free elsewhere.

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: I can’t find a way to change size/font/etc but that may be because I am not smart enough to do so

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): No, only reader interaction available (that I see) is reviews on the story. Oh, except episodes do have polls for the readers, which is kind of cool.

Allows visual art alongside written content: I don’t think so

Accepts mature content: Yes, but “Stories with mature content will not surface in general searches as they could include content of a sexual or explicit nature, which is not appropriate for all readers. These stories will surface in general searches for customers who choose to allow mature content.”

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Yes (but obviously reading paid content requires an account)

Built-in traffic or advertising: Yes

Decent customer support: It’s amazon

The Vibe: It’s not for me because I want to offer my story for free. Also it’s hilarious that all the reviews I read said how much they hate Vella lmao

Dreame/Stary/FicFun

I will admit I went into this one having heard how sketch these sites are already but figured I should give them a look anyway.

Allows free base content: Yes

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: No

Requires contract: No

Requires exclusivity: No

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: Can’t adjust text font/size/etc.

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): No. I don’t even see comments???

Allows visual art alongside written content: Don’t think so

Accepts mature content: Yes

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Must share by link, so account required unless it’s paid content

Built-in traffic or advertising: Yes kinda

Decent customer support: No

The Vibe: sketch vibes are off the chart. I would never sign a contract with these people, they seem predatory as heck.

MoonQuill

Allows free base content: Yes

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: Don’t think so, but it does offer publication if you apply and are accepted. Also, includes donation links on the story.

Requires contract: No

Requires exclusivity: No

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: No option to edit text font/size/etc.

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes, there are ads but they are not intrusive

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): Basic comment system and that seems to be it. Self-moderated I think.

Allows visual art alongside written content: Don’t think so.

Accepts mature content: Yes

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Share via link. No account required.

Built-in traffic or advertising: Yes, some

Decent customer support: Can’t find any posts about their customer support, but their Contact Us link just pulls up their support email, so I don’t have high hopes

The Vibe: seems a bit lacking on the tools, feels a little unpolished, and I don’t know if I trust their publishing program, but otherwise seems solid.

Medium

Allows free base content: Yes

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: Not directly

Requires contract: No

Requires exclusivity: No

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: Yes, but can’t adjust text size/font/etc

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): Just the basic comments/likes as far as I can tell. Self-moderated.

Allows visual art alongside written content: Yes

Accepts mature content: Yes, but read guidelines for specifics.

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Yes, BUT. The way Medium works, it looks like you only get a certain amount of free reads without creating an account.

Built-in traffic or advertising: Yes, somewhat

Decent customer support: Unsure

The Vibe: seems solid. Kinda like a personal blog that’s already made for you. People say it’s like Twitter but longer, and that sounds accurate from what I’ve seen. I don’t think I’d use it by itself to share my story, but could be a helpful supplementary site

Radish

Allows free base content: Yes? I’ve heard conflicting things. I think it can be free if you do the “wait to unlock” thing.

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: Yes for early release

Requires contract: Don’t think so, but you must apply and your story be accepted. I think all accepted writers are paid tho

Requires exclusivity: No

Ability to edit/update content: Can’t find anything on this from an initial search, but I assume that you can because it wouldn’t really make sense for them to not allow you to do that.

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: There is no browser/PC version of Radish. It’s all through their app. But the app readability is great, text and background can be adjusted, etc.

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): Just a basic comment system, mostly self-moderated.

Allows visual art alongside written content: Yes. I’ve seen webcomics on here have full novel text versions. Pretty cool that it allows both within the same story.

Accepts mature content: Yes

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): No PC version, and an account is required

Built-in traffic or advertising: Yes

Decent customer support: Unsure on preliminary search

The Vibe: seems very professional, looks really polished, gives the vibe that the content there is decent quality. Not sure if it is right for me because it seems the app is heavily geared toward romance, and my story has romance but is not a Romance story u kno?

Inkitt

Allows free base content: Yes

Offers monetization options for extras, early releases: Don’t think so

Requires contract: No(?)

Requires exclusivity: No

Ability to edit/update content: Yes

Accessible readability on both PC and mobile: Yes

Clean UI/no intrusive ads: Yes

Good interactive element (comments, moderation, bonus: community aspect): Yes, there is a community tab where readers and writers can interact, and the site holds writing contests with monetary prizes.

Allows visual art alongside written content: Unsure

Accepts mature content: Yes, though I can’t find specific guidelines that say where they draw the line, which is odd.

Decent shareability on both PC and mobile (and does reading/sharing require an account): Yes, no account required

Built-in traffic or advertising: Yes

Decent customer support: Unsure. Have heard some good experiences, but the technical support group in their community tab has a lot of questions that went ignored.

The Vibe: seems like a better, less toxic WattPad with more resources for writers and better payment options

(This is where I started to lose my marbles a bit, I apologize for the limited commentary)

Booksie

The website is ugly and my brain is melting from doing all this research and there was a typo on the main page so I’m immediately writing this one off unless someone tells me how Booksie saved their dog’s life or something

Tappytoon

Apparently they don’t accept unsolicited stories/are not accepting submissions right now

Writing.com

It’s going to make me create an account to read anything and they trademarked “Where the Writers Go” so I’m also skipping this until further notice

And that is all I got so far. I personally decided to go with webnovel, Royal Road, Inkitt, and possibly Tapas now that I'm reading back over this list. I had initially written Tapas off for the 15k character limit thing, but I think I might be able to work with that.

tagging @vsnotresponding who wanted to see this!

#writeblr #writing resources #writing reference

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simply-sithel · 2 years

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I’m not against it at all, but I’ve been mystified by the way in which you consume/like tumblr posts for months now. I’m dying to know more about how you browse tumblr.

😅 Given when this came in, I've a suspicion of who it may be... Appreciate the ask tho and have been mulling it over for a while.

The TLDR; I follow very few people directly but will visit particular blogs when I'm in the mood for something or curious about someone (often resulting in Like spamming)

For an overly verbose response, proceed beyond the cut--

I'm very bad at moderation-- my brief flirtations with drinking were sprints to full on drunk. I indulge to the point of disaster on things, a fact I've come to terms with. My moderation needs to be applied a level above immediate impulse control. Which is a long way of saying I keep my Dashboard sparse.

I check Tumblr far too often- muscle memory habit- but I don't actually want to be on Tumblr that much. It can be an infinite dopamine click hole and so I keep my "I accidentally tabbed back to the site" impact low. A Dashboard with the same content as the last time I looked is easier to detach from. The cost being I have few "mutuals" and directly follow mostly infrequently updating art blogs.

BUT! I really do like Tumblr and the different "vibes" I can wallow in visiting particular blogs. The image heavy nature of the site allows me to escape the confines of language and "paints" more abstract pictures of people and spaces.

Frequently when someone follows me (especially my alt account) I will peek at that blog. A shadowy mirror of pondering self by inspecting that which it attracts? Also broadening my own horizons, marveling at the many things that can catch someone's attention. Some of these folks have particular... themes or overarching feelings (to my eye) that are intriguing to me.

I'm not looking for my own self or sameness so there's usually a constant curiosity and ??? on my part when I paw through the blog of strangers. And, like bears in national parks, if I find some place filled with treats, I'm bound to return. And if I return more than... three times? and have found content that is cohesive and interesting, then I'm likely to return again. There's a small list of usernames I'm familiar with (and that I can look up via scrolling through my alt's follower list) that match this criteria. So when I'm in the mood to indulge, I'll flit on over for a good time. But I try to keep such indulgences in check. A couple times a month?

The intake of "interesting" content in large batches is also more fun, I find, than the slow trickle of Dashboard updates. Lets you hold/build a more coherent image of an individual in the mind's eye...

And speaking of the mind's eyeing of Tumblr users... was cleaning up craft room the other day and came across the three remaining Tumblr Saint Sketches I did back at the beginning of the pandemic, the sight of which warmed my heart.

There were others, but they've since been sent away to the individuals they were modeled off of. These are three examples though of what... I think of when I think of particular Tumblr accounts?

I'm forever regretting that I failed to sketch one final one of @/festering-queen despite several attempts. And since it's been over two years since then, I feel like I could almost add... 3-4 more folks? (in visual embodiment- I've run out of Tumblr components to pair with them)

It feels scandalous to share the specifics but since I'm on the subject, from Left to Right:

@/notbecauseofvictories - does not follow me but I've been following her and am charmed by her views on life. One of the few blogs whose monologues/text takes on things I enjoy reading. Some elements I attempted to capture-- food, justice, temptation/fascination with the Dark/Other (religion?), and Chicago

@/bzedan - follows my main and I've been following her for over 15 years, going back to ye' old LJ days. One of my favorite artists though I remain fascinated/horrified by her taste in many things (Garfield, Miami Vice, fashion choices, muppets). A multi disciplinary crafting fiend, I admire her diversity of work and drive.

@/stairway2mars - one of those accounts I intermittently stalk. Very visual with a strange blend of savageness and beauty and nature. Very little textual commentary peeks out in the comments but I enjoy the strong chords of coherent taste/themes I feel I find when scrolling there.

I just acquired some new toned paper... wonder if I can bend my attention to pinning down a couple others... my sketching skills have definitely atrophied throughout covid tho :(

#ask #tumblr

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promotionrhiannathompson · 3 months

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Self promotion seems like something that is self-explanatory, putting the best version of yourself out there, with consistency and honesty, introducing yourself to strangers in hopes of fellowship. This is something I am not confident in, I prefer to stay anonymous behind mywork, letting the viewer take hold of the art and letting my being fade into the shadows.

Once again though, this is not how you build a strong following for your work so I looked up a couple of sites in hopes to take some notes and tips, to build this confidence.

-----------------

Notes

'promoting yourself means presenting yourself to others as an accomplished, capable and skilled professional in your field of expertise.'

'Self-promotion is crucial for gaining employers' attention, expanding your professional networks and even securing professional recommendations.'

'self-promotion can help others notice your strengths and qualifications, boosting your marketability'

Share your accomplishments; Rather than waiting for praise, self-promote a recent endeavor that led to success. For example, sharing a project you're working on on your accounts will present your efforts to your colleagues and possible employers.

Promote your expertise outside of work; Consider using a social media account to share your recent projects or speak about your professional expertise.

Provide support to colleagues and peers; Talk with people who work in other departments. You may find that they need help with something that you're skilled at. They'll be grateful for the help and they could ask for your help in the future.

Compliment your coworkers' achievements; Share with others how a colleague's support on a project was helpful. It highlights your ability to share praise, and when the colleague you're complimenting finds out you said positive things about them, they're more likely to do the same for you in the future. Sharing credit also shows that you enjoy collaborating with others, which is a desirable skill for many employers.

Keep your portfolio up-to-date; Consider keeping a portfolio of your work on social media or a personal website for other professionals to review. Be sure to update your portfolio regularly so your social and professional networks can see your most recent accomplishments. Additionally, showcasing your portfolio across multiple social media platforms can help you reach more professionals and add to your network, resulting in future advancements, recommendations or other opportunities.

Identify which skills are most useful in your role; Identifying which of your skills is most useful in your role can help ensure that you focus on developing this skill.

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lulullia · 1 year

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I'M ON GAME JOLT!

Plus this links to a pretty nice overview of my projects! I still need to setup the projects page on my tumblr blog so this will have to do for now!

Anyone remember Miiverse? Well, I loved Miiverse's cozyness and supportiveness. Every one of my at-the-time-horrible drawings received love, and any other post really. It was easy to suddenly have a nice discussion, to make online friends that are still lasting to this day.

When it shut down, I couldn't find any other place similar to it and missed its ambiance a lot as I tried to post on art sites such as DeviantArt, where I felt like I was posting in the void.

So, I was very surprised when I came across Game Jolt on an obscure article, "where-does-this-even-come-from" kind of surprised (I mean it has been around since 2002! even before I was born!), and then even more when I started exploring it. I felt instantly at home, like it was Miiverse all over again, and, well, it's even better than that.

Let's not make this any longer than it needs to be though; I'm making Game Jolt my main platform alongside this Tumblr blog. I'll try to keep both platforms updated with the same content, though of course some posts are gonna be on one and not the other, but that'll only be for non-creative content (like me sharing some gaming screenshots for example).

So yeah, if you wanna keep up with my creative stuff you can follow on either place, whichever is more preferable to you! It's just that I'll probably be a lot more active on GJ in terms of engaging with other people's work.

In other news, I'm getting tired of my current profile pic, one that I've been using since I my first online account on the web, it's a strange feeling. Those eyes annoy me for some reason…

#gamejolt #follow me there if you want #reminiscing

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tittyblade · 3 years

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tumblr etiquette 101

a list that is nowhere near exhaustive, from yours truly.

First off, welcome! Whether you’re a twitter veteran looking for anything but whatever twitter is, or a new user just done signing up, glad to see you in our ranks beloveds! Welcome home. Refer to this quick tour to make sure your fandom experience (or tumblr experience in general) is a positive one!

Disclaimer: I know it’s long, but please try to read or skim through til the end if you’re new here! This is by no means meant to be a rule book (for the most part lol), only a guide to help you get settled easier!

1) Your blog

This is where people will see and interact with you, so put some effort into it!

Try to choose a name (url) that’s simple. You can see it as your brand, it’s how people will perceive you and remember you. If you’d like to interact with other users here (and not use the site just for the content) it’s better to have something short and sweet, preferably without spaces. (Of course, these are only suggestions.) Rest assured, you can change it literally any time you want.

Have a theme. Utilize the tool that lets you edit your blog’s color or the font of your bio! You can make it match your profile picture, or your blog if it has a theme of its own. Make it feel homey :]

Fill in your bio. People will be checking out your profile probably more often than you think. Don’t leave it empty! Put in any information you’re comfortable with sharing and isn’t too personal (like your age if you’re a minor, or other TMI that can be found on other people’s carrds). It’s always better to add a name/nickname people can use to refer to you by, but feel free to use your blog description to shitpost still.

You can have an intro post. More often than not, you’ll see a blog have a pinned post, a post permanently appearing at the top of a blog until you pin another post or unpin it. You can make one of those, if you’d like to introduce yourself in more length, link any other socials or a carrd, and show others visiting your blog how you tag things so it’ll be easy for them to navigate. Not an obligation.

Keep your anonymity and your safety. It should go without saying, but there’s no harm in repeating it just in case. Your comfort, privacy and safety has the utmost importance. Don’t share any information you don’t want to. Don’t share your age if you’re a minor, or any other incredibly personal info. I’d encourage you to go by a nickname that’s not your real name, (blog name, your brand, remember?) since there’s safety in anonymity, and that’s lowkey one of the big deals of tumblr, but that’s up to you still.

Choose what you want to be visible. Your liked posts and who you follow are all things you can set to keep to yourself and hide from the publics eye, how handy! You should go through all the setting while you’re at it, set it to your comfort.

Side blogs are a thing. You can have multiple blogs that you can use for different things (see: different fandoms, art blog, etc) to keep them organized or away from your followers. Just remember that the replies and off-anon asks you send will be from your main blog, as well as where you follow other blogs from.

2) Interacting with others

You’ve set up your account, now comes the fun part!

Follow to your heart’s desire. If you care about others seeing who you follow, fear not! In tumblr, usually only two types of blogs keep their following visible to others: newbies, and big blogs using it to point people on other good blogs’ direction. Just turn it off, and go ham following people.

Customize your dashboard. Gonna mention just two things here: this is another reason why it’s really important that you follow blogs without sparing, your dash will collect dust otherwise; and you should turn off “best stuff first” in your dashboard settings, to have a better community here and all.

Follow tags. You can set it in your settings that posts with your followed tags appear on your dashboard.

You can check the og post for edits and context. When you see a reblogged post you don’t understand the context of (or don’t recognize the character in case of fanarts), click on the profile so it will take you to the original post. From there you can check the original poster’s tags to get the context, or see if there have been any edits made to the post, since when you edit a post it doesn’t update any past reblogs.

Send people asks... This is how you make mutuals, people! Do it off-anon if you’d like them to know your blog, or anon if you’d rather not! (You can still end your messages with a signature to show you’re the same person, -[name] is one example.) Send them nice messages, ask their opinion on something, discuss things, or just straight up shitpost lol. Go wild. The sky’s your limit and it’s definitely more than 280 characters.

...and let them ask you! You can set your preference in the settings, do it on desktop tumblr to access more settings tho! What you can customize on mobile is limited (like letting people ask you things anonymously, that’s only on desktop settings). In my personal opinion, it’s always better to tag their username (or a nickname you give them, if they’re a friend) on that post, since you wouldn’t want your interactions with your friends to get buried in your blog forever.

Comment on posts. If you have something to say but don’t want the post to appear on your blog you can add a comment. The owner of the post will get a notif for it, but for anyone else you need to tag them.

For the love of god, reblog. People will only see your liked posts if you have it visible to public and they specifically go on your blog to look at them. You like something? You reblog. It’s already hard for posts to circulate properly, if you don’t reblog them literally no one will see them. If not for anything do it for the artists. Just hold and drag on mobile to fast rb.

3) Your Posts

Finally here! Don’t be a lurker, post and engage!

Make use of “read more”. If your post is long, add it. That’s what you clicked on earlier to expand this post. On desktop leave an empty line and you’ll see three dots appear, and on mobile type :readmore: on that empty line.

Draft a post to come back to it later. Pretty self explanatory.

Queue your post. Whether it’s your own post or you’re reblogging, make use of the queue feature to a) not spam reblog and fill up the dashboard of people following you and b) keep your blog active while you’re gone. Mess around in the settings, it’s fairly easy to set up.

Schedule your post. Same as queueing, the only difference is you get to choose the exact time your post will go up. Handy if you want to schedule a post for certain dates like april fools, or 5 years in the future for some reason.

Format your texts. You can do all kinds of fancy stuff here (that’s a link, try pressing on it). Twitter doesn’t have this, make use of it. Changes depending on whether you’re on mobile or desktop. (Desktop has less features.)

Check your stats. If you’re trying to understand the algorithm better or want to look at some pretty graphs you can get your data on that on desktop tumblr.

@ people in comments. You’ll get all the notifs when people comment on your posts but they won’t see your reply unless you tag them in your message.

4) Tags, and tagging a post

This is where my earlier statement “this isn’t a rule book” stops being applicable. It’s not a war crime to go against these, I won’t come chasing you (don’t take my word for this) but you’ll work up a bad rep. Just saying lol.

Do NOT crosstag posts. It’s really tempting to add unrelated tags to increase your posts’ interaction, I know, but that’s not what tumblr is about. Don’t be a dick and make other communities’ experience worse for them.

Always tag your posts with “crit/critical/discourse/etc” if it calls for it. There’s no exceptions to it. This is the reason you see people migrating to tumblr. Let people enjoy things.

Don’t main tag a critical/negative post. If your crit post is about “Thing”, you add the “Thing critical” tag, but not the “Thing” tag. People block crit tags if they don’t want to see it, don’t shove it in their faces by main tagging it.

If you don’t want to see something, just block it. Another reason why people are able to survive on tumblr. You don’t start discourse, you don’t make call-outs, you block. You can find something for every community you can think of if you go looking for it. The worst of the worst probably won’t ever appear on your dash, but if you’re worried or feel the need for it, you know where the block button is.

Feel free to shitpost or ramble. More often than not you’ll see people rb a post with a comment, and their elaboration will be in the tags. The tags are only visible on your profile and the notifications of the owner of the og blog. Just a thing people do.

Reblog artists’ posts with nice comments in the tags! Commenting on a drawing is usually done through the tags (Not an obligation, again, just a thing people do. Feel free to add your comment on the rb itself if you’d want other people to see it tho!) and leave nice messages for the artists! It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

If you have more than a single follower, always use the common tw warning tags. You don’t need to tw everything, but tw’ing some common things is the bare minimum human decency. Keep it safe for others.

Tag a post “long post” if it’s really long. Pretty self explanatory. Don’t make people scroll through all that please lol.

You can use them to organize your blog. This is more of a pro tip, if you’d like to not miss a post in your blog, cause they will start pilin’ up soon enough.

#Liveblogging is pretty fun. If you’d like to talk to people during streams, don’t forget to add the relevant tags still! Again, you won’t show up on people’s dash otherwise.

Whew! That got out of hand. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much. Check out blogs like @heritageposts and @hellsite-hall-of-fame to honor our past o7. @mcytblr-hall-of-fame too maybe :eyes:. Anyways, don’t forget the most important rule of them all:

Enjoy your stay! You’re meant to have fun on here while also making friends (if that’s your thing). Just be kind and respectful of others, you’ll get the hang of the rest! <3

#mcyttwt #mcytblr #dream team #dream smp #mcyt #dsmp #tumblr #how to tumblr #gonna tag ppl now so more users will see it lol #dreamwasteken #georgenotfound #karl jacobs #technoblade #sbi #twitter #twitter discourse #sbitwt #sleepytwt #sleepy bois inc #HOLY shit this took so long omg my back literally hurts rn #the fuckin lengths i go to make sure tumblr doesnt get tainted w twt LMAO #anyways if youre seeing this you should follow me look at how sexy i am i spent the last 2+ hours typing this goddamn list out #also: ignore how i literally sound like its 2014 at some parts here lol i tried my best #also ignore how wack the paragraph breaks are tumblrs formatting hates me and its 4 am im too tired for this #third also: some bits here are supposed to be ironic keep that in mind pls #rolan.txt #long post #save #yes im tagging my own post as save what about it

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strosmkai-rum · 3 years

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writing resources masterlist.

i have to admit. my first reason for doing this was to spite my brain because it wouldn’t write. so, instead, i made this.

so here. 160+ links. gathered from a million questionable google searches, and some more crawling through mobile chrome tabs for 11 hours. anyways, enjoy!

where to write!

some popular platforms:

google docs is my choice for writing. it’s free, auto saves, you can access your stuff on mobile, pc, tablet, etc., and great for multi person collabs + link sharing. but, you need internet to use it, and for big documents (upwards of 55k words) it takes a while to load on pc, and editing on mobile is damn near impossible.

scrivener is great too, and has the binder, which is great for organizing stuff. however, the mac version is way, way ahead of the pc in terms of updated versions. i mean, the pc version is still useable. and, it’s pretty expensive at $45 usd.

microsoft word is really popular, and used pretty much everywhere. there’s templates and you can save documents in different formats, and compatible with other microsoft office programs too. it’s also a bit complicated at the start, but tbh most software is gonna be like that. sort of in the same boat as scrivener, as in, it costs money. usually a subscription, but if you decide to buy it flat out, it’s even more pricy, but def worth it imo.

other writing platforms:

zenwriter 3 for windows and mac - $17.50 usd

focuswriter - free

libreoffice - free

credit to @scribeofred for help with this. she has an amazing writing blog that’s super helpful, so definitely check it out! and she’s a professional editor, so it’s coming from someone who knows what they’re doing.

writing by hand is great too. some people can focus better that way, or, if you have a drawing tablet, you can write get the feeling of writing, and have it digitally too.

of course, you could just type into your notes app, or ao3, or a tumblr draft post, but let’s not-

focusing!

spotify, youtube premium, and tidal are all great for listening to music. all of them, except for the free version of spotify, have a subscription.

but maybe music isn’t your thing! here’s some more stuff:

rainforme is a rain/thunder player with adjustable volume

coffitivity for café ambience

ambient mixer has a ton of different ambience, and even lets you create your own.

noisli has playlists for different situations and has a built in timer and editor.

asoftmurmur lets you make your own mixes with their own, generally nature-focused sounds.

tabletopaudio with a focus on fantasy/noir ambience

mynoise has a lot of variety in sounds, including a...black hole

forest is an app/extension that grows a forest, for however long you manage to stay off of blacklisted sites, and dies when you revisit them. good for studying or a distraction-free writing experience (if you’ve got the restraint for it), but if you need resources on hand to write, this might not be good for you.

moodboards!

wanna make a moodboard? lit! here’s some ways to get your images.

unsplash (my journalism teacher, out of all the people recommended it to us. regardless, it’s a great way to source copyright free and not-stolen images.)

canva is much the same with no copyright issues, and actually lets you design the board on the site.

adobe spark is also good and free.

now. pinterest. don’t get me wrong, it’s great for finding images. but it’s full of stolen images and all. so, maybe don’t source your stuff from there.

character development!

behind the name name generator for different ethnicities, includes other character info like physical stats, language, age, blood type, cause of death, etc.

16personalities personality test

character flaws

how to create a character profile + worksheet below

big-ass character sheet (that’s the name) for making a wildly detailed overview of your character.

the most epic character chart ever (again, the name), a 12 page chart for your character.

character archetypes

character questionnaire

a super in-depth questionnaire for all stages of your character’s life

character development

creating a look for your character!

so maybe you’re not great at drawing. that’s okay!

first off, there’s a ton of amazing, talented artists here, that you can commission to get a picture of your character done. i’d definitely point you towards them first, because you help support them, and you also get some gorgeous art too!

but if you don’t have the funds for that right now, here’s some generators, to have one regardless.

picrew’s really popular, so here’s some generators i found, with social media linked for credit:

sky: children of light character maker (i didn’t see any social media, just a link to the game’s terms of service) aka the one i use in my tumblr prof pic

among us character creator (@NetherHeartz on twitter)

icon maker (@lullindo on twitter/instagram)

another icon maker (tumblr)

character maker (tumblr, twitter, instagram)

girl maker (tumblr)

fantasy girl maker (twitter)

aesthetic girl maker (@rileydixondesign on instagram)

boy maker (@hellomadjackass on twitter/instagram)

another boy maker (tumblr, @GigiliJiggly on twitter, @gigili_jiggly on instagram)

western boys (@mosssygator on twitter)

and toyhou.se is great for storing your character.

prompt generators!

a list of different generators depending on what you need

pretty much the same as above

pretty much the same as above again

same again-

127 prompts if you’re writing about yourself

science fiction plot generator

random generators

map making!

cartographer’s guild is a website dedicated to map making, so a TON of resources on geography and landscape and whatnot.

inkarnate is for making your own fantasy maps, they have a free and a pro version but the free one is def enough to get going!

worldanvil is awesome for worldbuilding in general.

nat geo has an awesome interactive world map, with options to see a ton more info like population density, animal populations, language diversity, and just a lot of stuff in general for irl maps.

mapchart is great for irl custom maps.

this one is also good, a bit laggy and auto-generates a map, but def useable. here’s a how-to for it.

geoguesser lets you pick somewhere on the world map, and it’ll show you that location on google maps.

and of course, there’s the classic ‘spill uncooked rice/macaroni on paper, trace the outline, and go from there’ technique.

medication/wounds!

drug index to find specific medication and side effects

medicine name generator to make your own!

how drugs are named!

writing realistic injuries

writing realistic injuries 2

wound term definitions

wound documentation

interactive 3d human body with viewable layers

broken bones

bruise colors

entrance + exit wounds

gunshot injuries

stab wounds

blood clotting and bleeding disorders

blood clotting and bleeding disorders 2 electric boogaloo

general info on bleeding to death

deathreference aka the encyclopedia of death and dying, alphabetized

how to write gore and examples

crime writing!

poisons

the human body after death

body changes after death

corpse decomposition

killing someone (not as easy as it seems)

three essays on political corruption

criminal law

usa state laws

an fairly simple overview of uk law

legal system in the uk

more guides to uk law

used + abused drugs

a-z list of illicit substances

paper on drug use, trade, and prices

64-page long paper on economic and social consequences of drug abuse + trafficking

70 page crime scene checklist

illustrated guide on kitchen knives

history of combat knives

firearms

OTHER POSTS YOU MAY FIND USEFUL:

An Extended Post on Pricing Yourself for Commissions

Dealing with Imposter Syndrome/Feeling ‘Not Good Enough’

Growing Your Audience

Advice for Starting Digital Art

#Anonymous #long post #commissions #how to #infograph #how to do commissions #arting #art tutorial

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buzzdixonwriter · 3 years

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Tears In The Rain

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe…All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”

-- Blade Runner (David Peebles & Rutger Hauer)

The radar screen manufacturers -- RCA, GE, and others -- started jonesin’ for cash when the end of WWII dried up all that sweat & easy military materiel money.

Commercial consumer television existed before WWII in England, the UK, and Germany but it was a super-expensive technology confined to a few very wealthy homes in a few select markets or in Germany’s case, public venues such as beer halls.

Radar screens and TV tubes were basically different applications of the same thing, so the radar tube manufacturers shifted their production to TV sets pitched to post-war consumers as the must-have status symbol.

Problem: Said TV sets needed something to show and while there was live national network and local programing, most early stations filled their air time with old movies / cartoons / serials / comedy shorts.

That was the cultural gestalt I and other boomers grew up in during the 1950s, an era when much of the on air media dated back to the 1930s.

I’ve always been more culturally observant and curious than others in my generational cohort, and while they blandly / blindly watched Bugs Bunny and Popeye and Betty Boop and Our Gang, I was asking my parents and grandmother and aunt about the odd details I saw in old media (it didn’t hurt that we had a beautiful art deco edition of Collier’s Encyclopedia that my grandparents acquired in the 1920s in the house as well).

As a result I knew far more about the Depression and Prohibition and war rationing and other major cultural events and touchstones prior to our generation than did most other boomers.

When our history and social studies textbooks finally introduced these topics in junior high and high school, I was already intimately familiar with them.

As a result, I fell in love with the Marx Brothers and continue to love them to this day.

And while I watched and re-watched The Three Stooges, once I discovered Laurel and Hardy I left Larry, Moe, Curly, Shemp, Joe, and Curly Joe behind.

But the thing is, to fully understand and appreciate and know and love the Marx Brothers, you have to understand the pop culture of their era.

The same applies -- to a lesser degree -- to Laurel and Hardy.

The key difference is that The Three Stooges are pure physical mayhem: There is nothing to understand.

They are imbeciles who inflict pain on themselves and one another, and while far, far inferior to Groucho / Harpo / Chico or Stan & Ollie, they will outlast them.

Anybody from any era or any culture can access The Three Stooges, but if you don’t understand a “gat” (short for gatling gun) is 1930s slang for an automatic pistol, then Groucho’s line upon seeing a automatic in a drawer with a pair of derringers -- “This gat’s had gittens” -- is absolute gibberish.

Likewise Laurel and hardy require some understanding of how American cultural values functioned in the 1920s and 30s; if you don’t get that, a lot of their humor is lost.

Our Gang / Little Rascals ages better because kids are kids and much of what they do is universal.

But even there much of their references have to do with the Depression or WWII rationing and scrap drives and if you don’t grasp that then those jokes zoom past you.

The situation isn’t confined to pre-WWII media, either.

The Marx Brothers and Laurel & Hardy might possibly be recognized by the current generation as something their parents and grandparents watched, but the Ritz Brothers are forgotten by all except those who specialize in comedy / pop culture history. Wheeler & Woolsey are even more obscure, and Olsen & Johnson obscurer still, and if you’ve ever heard of Lum & Abner my hat’s off to you.

And holy shamolley, those are just the comedians we’re talking about. There’s a whole universe of pop culture lost as fans of old B-Westerns die off, not to mention minor pop stars of music and small movies in the 1930s / 40s / 50s.

Silent movies have virtually disappeared from pop culture today; they are things of the past, historical artefacts.

Thanks to the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg and Comic Book + and Digital Comics Museum and other sites, literally tens of thousands of hours of old radio shows and countless pulp magazines and comic books and other media are available, but who accesses them today except the truly die-hard genre fans or the pop culture historians?

Why morn their passing?

As Theodore Sturgeon famously observed, isn’t 90% of everything crap?

Yes, it is.

But that doesn’t make it any less of the cultural gestalt, the zeitgeist of the era than the few timeless gems that shine through.

. . .

As pop culture historian Jaime Weinman points out, the boomer generation -- the late 1940s to early 1960s -- offered a particularly fallow time for pop culture.

We enjoyed access to previous generations of pop culture, brought to us in curated form. Even if those curators were costumed local cartoon show and horror movie hosts, we got at least some understanding of what led up to our own generation.

Weinman observes that because of technical broadcast reasons, only a few avenues fell open to new programming -- and that new programming could be rerun again and again to fill in gaps in local stations’ air time.

It created a generation with remarkably deep pop culture roots, even if relative few members of that generation were aware of them.

We were, to some degree or another, aware of a vast library of older pop culture media and icons and idioms.

Ironically, this began changing in the late 1960s, slowly at first, but coming full flower in the mid-1970s as music cassette recordings allowed us to create our own playlists off radio shows and record players, and cable TV stopped being something for the hinterlands and started penetrating urban markets, thus literally uniting the country with first dozens then hundreds and a virtually infinite number of channels and streaming options.

But the real nail in the golden age of pop culture’s coffin was the introduction of home TV recordings and time shifting, meaning we no longer needed to wait for curated programing but could watch what we wanted when we wanted.

Despite a wider range of options, older material became less and less popular, and the lack of curation is a big part of that.

With nobody to supply some sort of context -- even goofy horror host context -- older examples of pop culture became less accessible.

The newer generations look less to the past, more to the future.

. . .

As I’ve written before, endings fascinate me.

Right now I’m seeing a generational shift with the boomer generation’s pop culture rapidly fading to be replaced by Generation Z and the generations to follow them.

I look at the boomer era and wonder how much will survive.

Very little, I’m afraid.

And that includes losing some of the best our era had to offer.

For example, how many people today know of The Firesign Theatre?

In the mid-1960s through the early 1970s, they performed absolutely brilliant satirical comedy on radio and recordings. Their album Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers received a Hugo nomination for best sci-fi drama presentation of 1970.

I still laugh when I hear their recordings -- but I laugh because I lived in that era.

Their humor relies heavily on topical subjects and the counter culture of the late 1960s-70s. They were very much a Southern California phenomenon…and thanks to radio and TV and movies of that era, that culture permeated the entire country.

But that era is gone, and now when I listen to them I laugh, but to use a specific example I laugh because I know who Ralph Williams was and what he meant to Southern California pop culture in that time.

You don’t get that, you don’t get the joke, and the brilliance of The Firesign Theatre’s humor is lost.

Like tears in the rain.

. . .

Cheech y Chong will survive, because like The Three Stooges, their appeal lies in their basic stupidity.

True, many of their routines make contemporary pop culture references, but material like “Dave’s Not Here” is timeless.

You don’t even have to get the drug references to find it hilarious.

Conversely, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers will fade.

As characters, they are of a particular time and place: Hippie dippie San Francisco.

They can’t survive transplantation, as was demonstrated in their last few stories.

Now there’s an animated series that brings them from the swinging 60s to to Trump 20s and it just doesn’t work.

The creators Don’t Get The Joke.

I don’t blame them for failing to get the joke, but updating the Freak Bros. would be like updating the Marx Brothers.

It can be done, but only badly.

. . .

Music will always have musicians and buffs who will track every obscure item they can find, but a lot of the best and most innovative work will be forgotten by mainstream culture.

This is because in many case, the best musicians are way ahead of the rest of their field, and their innovations are only made palatable by others who take them up and reinterpret them in a way to make them accessible to contemporary audiences.

Frank Zappa, as much as I personally love him as a cultural icon, will fade fast after the last boomer dies.

Basically, he didn’t make singable music.

There are a lot of brilliant innovations in his work, but his lyrics are so idiosyncratic as to be impossible to cover.

That, and a lot of his lyrics and subject matter would not be comfortably acceptable today.

Yeah, when he did it he was trying to make a satirical point, but when modern audiences hear it, they don’t hear the sharp commentary on the culture of his time, they hear songs that seem to glorify sexual violence and racial bigotry.

Most of the people who decry so-called “cancel culture” today are hypocrites trying to justify their own offenses, but there will be creators and components of pop culture who simply aren’t going to make the cut.

I can show you on paper why radio’s Amos And Andy was a brilliantly written show.

You’re not going to get modern audiences to accept white actors doing blackface…or black voice.

Zappa is acceptable today because there are still enough people who get the joke.

When we’re gone, so are most of his songs (his instrumentals hopefully will live on).

. . .

Quentin Tarantino’s star is already starting to set.

His copious dropping of the n-bomb seemed daring and edgy in the early to mid-90s now seems boorish and tiresome.

People don’t want to listen to that, and how can you make them watch what they don’t want to watch?

The Hateful Eight might endure since it gives a sorta context for its racial animosity, ditto Django Unchained, but even they will be problematic due to Tarantino’s Red Apple universe -- a world similar enough to ours to be mistaken for it at first glance but ultimately completely different.

Inglorious Basterds will ultimately fail the history smell test by audiences who will perceive it as wildly inaccurate.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood probably has the least problematic elements in it, but it too is so firmly set in a specific time and place that only those who lived it can truly appreciate it.

When we’re gone, who can follow the pop culture breadcrumbs that lead us through the movie?

Tarantino is a brilliant writer / director, and film students in the know will study his movies to see how he pulled them off…

…but they’re going to move far past him.

(He may enjoy a revival 50 years from now, the way certain film makers get rediscovered a half century after their deaths. If so, it will be by people able to see past the pop culture references to the real story beneath.)

. . .

Roger Corman and other exploitation film makers aren’t going to as welcomed once the boomer generation departs.

Boomers see them as transgressive artists, tweaking the nose of so-called respectable society.

New generations will see they as creeps who exploited violence and sexism.

(And we shouldn’t mourn its loss; most of it is soft-core pornography. But there were a few shining moments that shine only if you know the context, and that is fading fast.)

. . .

Superheroes probably won’t die out just as Westerns never completely died out, but like Westerns their audience is rooted in a very particular time and place.

I mentioned B-Westerns earlier; once upon a time there were literally dozens of B-Western stars, each with their own face base and merchandising and movies…

…and now there are no more B-Westerns.

We remember Roy Rogers because he’s culturally referenced elsewhere (and Gene Autry because he left a great big museum in his name).

B-Westerns’ success was based on fulfilling audience expectations, essentially giving the same thing they’d seen before, only slightly different.

Superheroes have degenerated into that.

In their current form, they’re deconstructions based on what a previous generation’s pop culture produced.

The superhero market has been supersaturated in the past and collapsed before.

This time when it collapses it will take along countless near-identical characters and storylines.

What emerges from it will be as different from the current iteration of superheroes as The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly was from My Pal Trigger.

. . .

Likewise, if James Bond is to survive, there will be a drastic retooling of the property.

It is possible; Sherlock Holmes has been retooled often.

The original Connery Bonds, the ones we consider to be “iconic” will eventually be viewed as an embarrassment.

The world and its attitudes are changing, and while there will always be room for heroes, audiences will be a bit more discerning about which heroes they want.

The attitudes of the original Bonds will not fly with future generations.

. . .

Finally, one prospect that will make it into the future, though not necessarily on its own strengths, no matter how significant they are.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 has skewered pop culture via bad movies since 1988.

Supported by a legion of fans, there are several books and websites that annotate all the references found in the various MST3K series.

Scholars 500 years in the future will thank these fans and researchers for their efforts.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 and its various annotated spinoffs will be the Rosetta stone of 20th century pop culture.

It will provide a context to make the jokes understandable, but more importantly than that, it will open a window into what people were thinking and feeling in the last decade of the 20th century.

It and the films it spoofed will be studied with near Talmudic intensity (you think I jest; I do not). They’ll provide insight that will help future generations and cultures understand this one.

#Once Upon A Time In Hollywood #Wheeler and Woolsey #Lum And Abner #The Ritz Brothers #The Firesign Theatre #The Marx Brothers #Laurel And Hardy #Frank Zappa #Olsen And Johnson #Our Gang #Little Rascals #The Three Stooges #Groucho Marx #Harpo Marx #Chico Marx #Stan Laurel #Oliver Hardy

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obscure-bullshit-emporium · 4 years

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resources that i use for my userboxes and other things that are free (with links lol) and applicable examples:

Userbox Maker: Since we’re talking about userboxes, this one is indeed a no-brainer. The interface is easy and simple: You type the message, you change the colors, and then voila. The site doesn’t have images to add to the userbox ID square, thats up to you to put something there later.

What does it offer me?/Pros:

well, it offers you a way to make really easy userboxes with a color scheme (some are premade, others you can choose the colors) and resizeable text.

Cons:

The whole ‘Use this code in the English Wikipedia’ to get the box is LOST on me completely. im savvy but im not that savvy! What i normally do is enlarge and cut it, make the background transparent, then make the edit from there for what I need. Is that illegal? Who knows.

The colors of the premade color schemes are very dull and kinda washed out/ muted. You can change the color scheme of you box manually in the hex boxes, but even then they’re not as bright as you would hope. But hey, its free, what can you do? Here’s the color hex site that I use: X and here’s a pixel art maker bc I know the kids love that: P

LunaPic: Allows you to make transparents, flags, and other little photo edits like crop and filters. Con is that you have to have the thing you want to edit saved on your computer already, thus if you wanna do a quick edit of something in your clipboard you have to save it first aka, a hassle if you’re trying to meme

What does it offer me?/Pros:

See all those tabs right there? each one has a bunch of effects and things that go with them, so you’re bound to find something useful on the site no matter what you’re looking for, complete with sliders for easy adjustments. There’s color tinting, watermarking, transparency, pixelations, and the list goes on. You can also draw but its no PTS if you catch my drift.

There’s a editing history at the bottom of the page for you to see what you’ve done to your image. The site automatically carries your image over to the next tool you click on (if the tool is applicable to it, such as Draw from Color Tint). This is also a con if you accidentally edit your picture to something else entirely, but the history allows you to jump back an edit.

No flash needed for a lot of them!

Cons:

The site it massive in your browser, and because of the automatic drop down when you hover, you end up getting this overlap over the category and may end up clicking what you didn’t mean to. Easy fix is zooming out to about 80% to combat the overlaps. Because of this, if you’re going to use your phone, do it in landscape mode. wont be the best experience but it gets shit done.

site has ads but not pervasive ones. if you really dont like them, use an adblock.

For flag editing, the colors are a little rough, and require pretty damn good memory of what the right colors you want are called if you want a richer or more specific look. there is a color wheel though, which i believe is new.

Bloggif: another photo editing site, but its hella retro kinda. I believe the site is originally french so hey. lets you make old internet type gifs and icons, complete with glitter effects,fx effects, and even little smileys to add to your stuff.

What does it offer me/Pros:

Truth be told: not very much! There are only 20 editing tools on the site to use at your leisure, a significant downgrade from LunaPic’s 200+, but what it lacks in editing it makes up for the lovely retro feel it has. There is gif support, including deconstructing gifs if that’s your flavor, and the infamous glitter tools kids love these days!

some of the tools actually have lots of options with them, for example, the ‘Animated smiley’ tool, which offers 16 smiley shapes, numerous little add ons, and the ability to upload your own image to edit into this ‘smiley’. There are options at the bottom for the blink speed (Rapide, Moyen, Lent, Aucun which in layman translation is Fast, Slow, Slower, Stopped).

can support small images and larger images, but i wouldn’t recommend trying to over power the site. Here’s an example of the smiley tool in effect:

It’s fast! And really easy. You can do it from your phone as well!There are photo collages, animated text with effects on the letters and a few other things.

Flash not needed for all of them!

Cons:

‘Swiss army knife of photo editing’ is a bit of a stretch since there are so few tools.

For smilies, there is no free placement of the little effects. They pick a spot and stay there. To layer, you have to reupload the smiley and drop another effect.

Just not a lot to offer, tbh...but retro! and cute!

Blingee: ye olde blingee.com, lets you make blingees for that really early 2000s feel. TRES IMPORTANTE: to make blingees you need to set up an account (its free). You also need to use firefox (if DDG works im not sure i havent used it with that browser) and update your flash to actually make them after setting up an account. IDKY but it does not work with chrome whether you fixed your flash or not. the site gives you options to share your blingees as well, and you can also see shit from like ...2006 sksk

What does it offer me?

The ability to make blingees. What more can you want? If you’ve been online and a little tech savvy for a lot of your childhood, you may even have a blingee account still. the site is still active hasn’t updated its look for a WHILE, but it’s a pleasing site to look at.

Variety is of the essence here, as there are more than just blingees to create. There are internet postcards and stamps as well, with lots of little effects to add like sparkles and glitter and backgrounds of your problematic kins.

it’s cute ahaha <3

Cons:

G-D FORBID YOU LOSE YOUR PASSWORD!! I believe there is a bug right now that won’t let you sign up, even though the FAQ claims that you don’t need an account to make blingees (you very much do!!). I have emailed about the process of logging in after you reset your password and if there is a wait period until you can log in again, and I’m still waiting for a response. I also told them about the signing up part. I’ll update later...

You need flash. Flash is leaving soon :(

Pretty damn confusing to use actually. So much so you wonder if it’s worth the trouble...

Honestly its a very archaic site, would recommend using Bloggif frfr

Glitterfly: it’s glitter. its a lot of glitter. Theres 50 cent glitter images on this site. It’s legit.

What does it offer me?/Pros:

Glitter. And lots of things to put glitter on. And i mean A LOT!

Allows you to upload a picture to throw glitter on.

The jonas brothers are here. and camp rock.

Make glitter words, change their color, and roll that sucker in some sparkles!

askjhdjasf theres a tab to make??? a fucking PIMP CXARD/???JKHFSK (its just an american express black card stock image with a fake number on it)

Cons:

my G-d is it ugly. So much purple....

use an adblock

Not a lot of glitter effect options or color options for the words

No way to get rid of the watermark at the bottom, but what’s a little credit?

FOR NOW that’s about it! For some artwork, I use either my own drawings or images that I just...have on my phone or free cliparts that fit the topic. Uh...that’s all, goodbye!

#not a userbox #not obscure #refrence #tools #if anyone has any others they'd like to share i am here for it #long post

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365days365movies · 3 years

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Time for some adjustments.

Because lemme tell ya...it’s May, and I’m already tired.

Time to face the facts. 365 movies within a year is...difficult, especially when you have a full-time job, adult responsibilities, yaddayaddayadda. So, we’re gonna downshift gears a bit. I’m definitely gonna watch 365 films...but we’ll see if I get it done in a year. Sorry if anybody’s disappointed by this post, but I’d rather deliver quality posts to people, rather than burn myself out with work and movies. Plus, hey, I love movies; let’s not turn this into an actual chore.

Everything else? Staying the same. Here’s what that means.

Genre-by-month: I’ll still be watching movies of specific genres every month. Since there’s still a liiiiiiiittle bit of May left, look out for a few more science fiction reviews before this month ends. Especially one movie that I REALLY need to get to, and that I’ve hinted at all month. Look at my main blog page to understand a little bit more.

Recaps and Reviews: As you might have noticed, I’m missing a few Reviews. Again, that’s mostly just because of the overload I’ve been experiencing as of late. Well, no more of that. I’ll be making the time to get recaps and reviews done, and I’ll be keeping up with the main style of my posts up to know. Because, honestly...I kinda really enjoy doing this, especially when I’m not on a self-imposed deadline.

Schedule: We’ll get there. I’ll be sure to update thoroughly between reviews, and you’ll still see regular posts from me. Not sure how regular it’ll be yet, but I’m aiming for at least (at least) one per week. That’s actually practical! And eventually, when my schedule lets up, it’ll be more than that.

Other Posts: I’ll still be reposting a bunch of GIFsets from across this site, and they’ll often give an idea of what I’m watching currently. Some of those GIFsets will even be my own, probably! And who knows: I may write some short blurbs on those sets as well, depending!

Suggestion Box: This one’s new! If there are any films in a specific genre that you think I should watch or prioritize, tell me ASAP! I’ll add it to my mounting list, but I’ll definitely throw it in there if it isn’t already! If there are any films you think I need to see, PLEASE let me know!

Coming Soon: Another new addition! I’ll be updating my page every month with a list of films of the appropriate genre, with some proritized over others in terms of the ones I’m planning on watching, or that are on my Must-Watch List. I may diversify these posts over time, but that’s the current plan. At the end of this post, I’ll tell you what my plans are for May, and you’ll need to look for for June as well!

And so, for this post...

Well, almost. I know that this isn’t the best news for some of you, but I’m definitely still around. Maybe not a daily occurence, but I’m not sure how many of you check for me daily anyway. And if you do...well, geez. I’m truly touched. But I ask, stick around! There’s more to come. For May, for example...

And beyond that, well...next month is gonna be weird.

June: Experimental and Art House

#user365 #365 days 365 movies #365 movies 365 days #science fiction may #art house june #cinema #fil #film review #film essay #usergilli

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awoken-artist · 3 years

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No Twitch Stream until internet is 100% fixed

So ive announced it on my twitter and instagram, will announce on my DA as well, but no stream until my internet is completely fixed up.

its been buggy and choppy and we all dont have any ideas whats causing it or why its happening. we dont know if its an issue with comcast, the router may need replacement or fix, the moter may need replacement or fixing.

so right now we dont even know. however once i know when the internet is fixed and such, which hoping so soon, I will let you guys know when i'll be starting to stream once again.

I think in the meantime while i wait i'll work on some arts, commissions, ats and such.

the internet right now is very...picky with me uploading anything and Im unsure if certain sites it will be very finicky to upload on such as examples being twitter and deviantart. i know discord is the one that it REFUSES to have me upload any images and such. except links? sometimes?

im just hoping it gets fixed soon..i want to stream more and have a better schedule and such with you guys. :/ but i cant control something like this sadly. which is why i do my upmost best to update you guys on anything and be honest 100% why i cant stream and such.

hopefully i'll stream soon, for now - Arts time.

I do have my commissions open if you guys are interested. you guys can DM me for info! :3

hope everyones having a lovely day/afternoon/or night!

#blog #update #stream

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mca-attack21 · 4 years

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Mystery Bullet Part 2

Boom! What’s up guys? I hoped that you enjoyed part one of Mystery Bullet. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it here: Part 1 . Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

The ambulance arrived and quickly took you away. John and Sherlock followed closely behind. When they arrived they sat in the waiting room in silence. Eventually, Sherlock spoke up. “First things first, we need to determine if this was connected to the case,” he spoke.

“Sherlock, our friend is on the other side of that wall fighting for her life and you want to talk about the case?” John asked incredulously.

“We can’t help her in there, but we can catch whoever did this,” he explained

“Okay, go on,” John agreed.

“To start it either was or was not related. Y/n may or may not have been the intended target seeing as she was shot at our residence. The lights were off when I arrived, but she was in the living area so that was most likely done by her shooter. Mrs. Hudson was downstairs the entire time and didn’t hear a gunshot, so there must have been a silencer used. Judging by the amount of blood, she had been in that condition for under 20 minutes when I arrived. Based on her positioning she faced her attacker, however, she did not let him into the apartment he let himself in.” Sherlock deduced.

“Okay, Sherlock I-” John started but the doctor came and interrupted him.

“Are you here for Miss Y/l/n?”

“Yes, how is she?” John asked.

“She is stable now, but still in critical condition. Her heart stopped while she was on the table and we won’t know the full extent of her injuries until she wakes up. It was a miracle that you weren’t five minutes later,” he informed.

“Can I see the bullet?” Sherlock asked.

“We didn’t recover a bullet. Nothing showed up in the preliminary x-rays and there was no exit wound,” he explained.

“Can we see her?” John questioned.

“She is being brought up to her own room now, I’ll have one of the nurses take you in as soon as she’s settled. Try not to excite her as her body can’t handle it right now,” he explained.

“Thank you, doctor,” John replied as he and Sherlock took their seats.

“Okay, so now we know that this is connected to our case,” Sherlock informed.

“That’s great Sherlock,” John dismissed more concerned about his friend.

“That means when we solve our case, we will know who is responsible for shooting Y/n. I’m going back to the flat.”

“What? Don’t you want to be here when she wakes up?” John asked.

“She’ll understand, see you in a bit,”

Before John could protest Sherlock was already up and on his way out. It was about ten minutes later when John was allowed into your room to see you and another twenty before you would wake up.

“Y/n? I’m right here.”

“What? Where?”

“Just relax, you are in the hospital. You were shot.”

“Sherlock?”

“He’s fine, just being Sherlock. Do you remember what happened before you were shot?”

“I was cold.” you struggled.

“That’s normal, you lost a lot of blood.”

“No, not from blood loss, it was cold at the entry site” you explain.

“Okay, did you see who shot you?” he asked.

“No, it was dark,” you said weakly fiddling with your IV.

“What are you doing?”

“I have to get out of here. I have to help with the case,” you replied starting to lose focus.

“The only thing you need to do right now is rest and recuperate,” John explained.

“No, I have to go to the gallery. I figured it out,” you said before passing out from the drugs.

“Y/n? What did you figure out?” he questioned, but it was no use.

John went back into the lobby and phoned Sherlock who answered after the first ring.

“Is everything okay?” he asked,

“I just spoke to Y/n. She doesn’t remember much but said that the entry wound of the shot was cold. She also said that she figured it out. But passed out before she could explain. Maybe she wrote something down or left it on her laptop?” John recalled.

“I’ll check, are you going to join me or stay there?” Sherlock asked.

“I don’t want to leave her alone Sherlock.”

“She won’t be alone, Molly is on her way.”

“You called Molly?”

“Well, Y/n doesn’t to my knowledge have any family so Molly seemed like a reasonable substitute for you. She should be there at any moment.”

John went back into your room and waited with you until Molly arrived and assured him she’d look after you. He then went back to the flat where Sherlock was waiting. He informed John that Detective Lastrande and the crew had stopped by to analyze the scene. John glanced down to where your blood was on the floor. He was so thankful that they had come back when they did and that you were okay. The two of them proceeded to go through everything they knew and what they could muster up from your computer.

Meanwhile, you had woken up again this time to find Molly in your room.

“Hey Y/n, how are you feeling?” she asked standing up and moving closer to you.

“Like I got shot yesterday,” you joked, “Where are Sherlock and John?”

“They are out solving the case,” she answered.

“Molly I need your phone, I need to talk to Sherlock.” you said trying to stay focused.

“We aren’t really supposed to use phones in here,” she hesitated.

“Molly, it’s very important that I speak to Sherlock, please” you tried.

She gave in and handed you her cellphone. You dialed Sherlock who quickly answered.

“Molly? Is everything okay? How’s Y/n?” Sherlock questioned.

“I’m fine but listen to me. It’s about the art gallery. They’re doing an auction. I think they are trying to pass off counterfeits. Inside job. I called-” you started but were caught by a wave of pain which caused you to drop the phone.

“Y/n? Are you alright?” Sherlock asked

“Y/n? What’s wrong?” Molly asked.

“I feel-” you started.

“You feel what?” Molly questioned.

“I feel wonderful,” you replied before everything faded to black again.

“Molly, what’s happening?” Sherlock demanded as he was forced to listen to the sporadic beeping turn into a flatline.

“Nurse! We need a nurse in here!” Molly yelled.

Sherlock hung up the phone. He needed to think. He needed everything to stop so that he could think. There was going to be an auction of the art gallery. The break-in was to switch out counterfeits for the originals. That made sense. But you said it was an inside job. Did you know that or were you just assuming? How would you know? If you were specifically being targeted based on what you had found, how would the culprit have known? Why was there no bullet? There was too much going on in his head. He couldn’t focus.

He was brought out of his thoughts by John who had returned with Tea. “Sherlock? Are you okay?”

“I talked to Y/n. She thinks that the robbery was actually someone switching the paintings out with counterfeits before the art auction tomorrow. She said it was an inside job before she flatlined.” he recalled.

John nearly dropped his tea, “What do you mean before she flatlined?”

“She was explaining about the case but was cut short and then she flatlined, but it’s okay Molly called a nurse.” He explained.

“Get up” John ordered retrieving his coat.

“Why?”

“We are going to the hospital.”

“But I need to be here to solve the case.”

“The bloody case can wait Sherlock, Y/n could be dying. Do you understand that?”

Sherlock didn’t argue and they made their way back to the hospital. On the way in, Sherlock nearly slipped on some ice. And that is when it clicked, he turned around and got back in the taxi.

“Where do you think you’re going now?” John asked.

“Ice bullets,” Sherlock replied.

John dismissed this and went in to sit with Molly as they waited. Meanwhile, Sherlock was performing experiments to figure out ice bullets. He ran into a number of problems using traditional gun powder and guns. For example, the gun powder melted the bullet before it was fired. The ice wasn’t as dense as lead which meant it had to move at least 3x as fast to penetrate the skin. So if he defined an ice bullet as frozen water and a gun as the traditional idea of a gun, it was impossible. But if it were a normal gun, someone would have heard a gunshot. He then thought about what could shoot the ice bullet at the speed needed to cause the injuries both you and the security guard sustained. So he rigged up something using pressurized air. It worked, but the ice shattered upon contact. The concept was right, but the medium wasn’t.

Meanwhile, the doctor had come out to update Molly and John.

“She is stable again and back in her room. She suffered from a negative reaction to the antigens in the blood we gave her during surgery,” he explained

“Did you give her the wrong blood?” Molly asked confused as to how this could happen.

“No, we cross-matched it correctly during surgery”

“Well is she going to be okay?” John asked

“We’re running some more tests now.”

“Can we see her?” John asked again.

“Yes, but one at a time.”

“You go on in Molly, I’m going to call Sherlock,” John said

“Okay,” she agreed.

#sherlock #sherlock holmes #sherlock bbc #sherlock benedict cumberbatch #sherlock imagine #sherlock imagines #sherlock x reader #sherlock x you #sherlock holmes x reader #sherlock holmes imagine #sherlock holmes imagines #sherlock holmes x you #sherlock series #sherlock holmes series #john watson #john watson imagine

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pebblysand · 3 years

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[writing rant - on the monetisation of fanfiction]

a couple of months ago, when i updated my long fic, one of the people on the comments wrote to me the nicest possible review (one of the ones that you keep in your feel-good 'saved' emails - you know the ones), which, amongst other things also said: 'If I could pay you for this...believe me, I would.'

in the moment, i kind of smiled and laughed, and thanked the person for their kind words before moving on with my life. yet, since then, i have to admit that this sentence has kind of been living rent-free in my head. i think it is also because since diving back into fandom a few months ago, i've noticed something that kind of shocked me at first: more and more fanfiction writers seem to be monetising (or attempting to monetise) their craft.

now, back when i started writing fanfic, we wrote fanfic on ffnet and livejournal. it was accepted that thou shalt never (ever) charge money for your writing or else the author and their mean, angry lawyers will come after you for damages and you will die a slow and painful death. we wrote disclaimers at the start of all of our posts and thanked the gods every day when we did not get sued.

i have seen this change gradually over the years. first, in the mid 2010s, the disclaimers went. then, i noticed that people were getting 'tipped' for fanart, sometimes even charging commission. from what i understand (though, don't quote me on this, i'm not an ip lawyer and this post is not intended as legal advice), this is because the way the concept of fair use is framed under us law makes it easier to monetise fanart than it does fanfiction. maybe this is why visual artists came first on this trend. later still (and more recently) i've noticed fanfic writers, doing the same thing.

to be fully honest, the first thought i had when i saw this trend, considering the fear of god (and his lawyers) that was instilled in me in the past, was: how on earth is this even possible? (i'll come back to that in a bit). the second, though, was: fuck, i wish i had the guts to do that, lol.

because, yeah, i will admit, the idea of getting paid for writing what i love to write does appeal, to a certain extent. i won't lie. dear fanfiction writers who've tried to do that recently: i one hundred per cent get it.

looking back at the last fifteen years, i would say that for me, writing fanfiction has been (in terms of time commitment and energy consumed) the equivalent of having an on-and-off part time job. a job that i have held for one or two years at a time, then quit for a while, before coming back to it when i needed (wanted) it again. i obviously can't realistically give you a number re:the actual total of hours i have spent at this since i started out, but i can give you an idea. recently, i started clocking my hours out of interest and calculated that a chapter of my current long fic takes roughly between one hundred to two hundred hours to produce (and they're around 10,000 words). at that rate, i'm probably working 20 hours a week-ish? sometimes more, sometimes less? something as small as a three-sentence fic (like this for instance), takes roughly two/three hours. i'll be honest, i have cancelled plans to write fic. when i'm working on a long project, i do tend to organise my life to give myself the time to write, so i opt for socialising after work during the week rather than on weekends, as i've found this is when i write best. i won't lie: it is - for me (i know some people write quicker, bless them) - a huge time suck.

so, yeah, i understand, in the capitalist society we live in, wanting to make that time count. our world has unfortunately, repeatedly taught us that time is money and getting more does seem like a nice bonus (as long as you have an audience for your art that's willing to pay, obviously). after all, year after year, i've seen a lot of my friends try and monetise their passions as side hustles, with varying success. at first, glance, i look at the time i spend on writing fanfiction and think: man, i wish i could get a bit back from that too. i couldn't even draw a stick figure to save my life but i assume that the time commitment and energy put into that kind of work is roughly similar for visual fanartists as well. i thus very much understand the sentiment, both with fanart and fanfiction.

additionally, though i appreciate this is a bit tangential, the fact that fanfiction is free, i would argue, hinders its potential to be as representative as it could be. it's a bit sad because on the one hand, the fact that it is free makes it completely accessible to the masses but on the other, it makes fanfiction quite exclusive to rich, privileged people who can afford to spend the time and energy putting content out for free. if i spend this much time writing fanfiction, just because i like it and it makes me happy, it's because my full time job pays me enough to cover my bills. if it didn't, i probably would have to forgo writing and get a proper side gig. if you look at my periods of inactivity on ao3, those also kind of coincide with the times in my life when i had to have more things going on to put food on the table.

so, now, assuming that monetisation is a thing that, as a fic writer, one might want to look at, the next question is: how do you go about monetising it? obviously, the law hasn't changed since the days where we were all terrified of getting sued (although enforcement has been quite lax over the years) so it's more about finding workarounds around the law as it is, rather than actively seeking payment for fanart.

from what i've seen: two main solutions seem to exist.

first, there's the tipping/buy-me-coffee technique. as i understand it, this involves either setting up a page on one of the dedicated websites or just putting up your paypal account link on your tumblr posts. with these links, people can then send you however much money they want (however much money they can afford/think you deserve?) on a one-off basis. they're not actually paying for fanfic because there is no actual exchange of services, it's basically like them giving money to charity, except that charity is a fanfic writer/ fan artist whose work they enjoy.

there are two main issues i see with this: one, legally, i'm not sure how much ground this actually holds. assuming you're quite prolific/successful, if every time you're producing new content, you receive dozens of tips, although you're not actively charging for your fanart, making the argument that your content isn't what these people are actively paying for seems hard. imo, the fact that this method sort of holds is that realistically, you're going to make very little out of this. even if you're really good, you might make what? a couple hundred dollars. now, sure, that's a lot of money for a lot of people but in the grand scheme of things, no one sues anyone for such a low amount. as long as you're not making 'proper' money from it, it is highly unlikely that anyone would come after you.

this being said, the second issue, from my perspective, is that this is not in any way, shape or form, a reliable income. it also does not represent, at all, the cost of the time and investment actually put into said fanfiction (or fanart, i assume). for example: if you're going to tip someone who's worked on something for, say, fifty hours, ten dollars, that's very good of you, but that isn't going to be 'worth' their time. it is only worth their time if tipping is done at as scale, which imo is quite unlikely considering you're putting your content out for free anyway. there are kind souls who will tip you, but not that many, meaning that ultimately, you're not working for free anymore, but you're still working at a huge loss.

additionally, because this income is not even reliable on a monthly/weekly basis, it isn't something that anyone can actually rely on, even if only to fund their coffee habit. it's nice to have, don't get me wrong, but from my perspective, is the legal risk outlined above worth the trouble for the $20/30 tips i'd get every once in a while - not really. such low amounts also don't help diminish the class issue that i talked about earlier. again, if you're going to spend fifty hours on something, you might as well work a minimum wage job - even that will pay you more and will be dependable.

second, there's patreon (and patreon-like sites). here, the income is monthly, people pledge on a subscription basis, which does solve the last point above. it might not be much, but at least it's regular.

the main issue i see with patreon is that it is contingent on the author providing more services on top of what they already provide. in most cases, the author will keep putting their usual content out for free + provide their patreons (depending on tiers) with more content, specifically for them. this, to me, makes this scheme even less appealing than the previous one because a) if i can't provide fanfic to potential patreons (again, you can't sell fanfic), i'm not sure what on earth i could give them (original content? that's not really the same market) and b) that's even more work on my plate. honestly, considering the amount of time i already spend writing fanfic, i have neither the energy nor the willpower to provide extra content for an amount that, regardless, will probably pay me less than a part-time job would. again, you'd have to scale this (i.e. have enough patreons) to make it all worth your while, and even in very big fandoms, even for someone waaaaay more successful than me, i doubt it would be likely.

lastly, as a side note, both of these "methods" are solely accepted if they occur on tumblr/writer's own website, rather than on the writer's ao3 page/fic. there was a post going around explaining why that is (nutshell: it endangers ao3's status as a non-profit archive) but as with all things, i seem to have lost it. [if you do have the link to that post/know what i'm talking about, hit me up and i'll rectify this]. this, regardless, supposes driving traffic from wherever you post your fics towards tumblr/your own website which, again, decreases your chances of scaling this.

so, in the end, where does that leave us?

i think, at this point, we've kind of reached a crossroad. ultimately, i see two ways to look at this:

option one: if you believe that fanfiction writers should be paid for their art, you also probably agree that the methods outlined above, while they do offer some sort of solution, are less than ideal. the ideal solution (for this option) would obviously be to allow fanfiction authors to be properly paid for the publication of their work through 'normal' publishing/self-publishing deals, without the need for a licence from the author (bar - perhaps - the payment of royalties). that would create a proper 'market' for fanfiction, treating it as any other form of writing/art form. it would mean a complete overhaul of the laws currently in place, but why not? ultimately, in a democracy, laws are meant to be changeable.

this being said, though, while my personal knee jerk reaction would be to shout 'hurray!' at this solution, i do not actually think i want this. or, maybe, only part of me does. the part of me who has been writing fanfiction for free for fifteen years is like 'hey, yay, maybe i could get paid!'. but then, there is another part of me that would like, maybe, one day, to write more original fiction (i already do a bit, but not much). that part of me is feels frankly a bit icky about giving up her ip rights.

would i be comfortable with people writing fanfiction of my original work? hell yes. that would be the dream. imagine having your own ao3 fandom, omg. however, would i be comfortable with people profiting from writing fanfiction of my work? honestly, i'm not sure. to me, the answer to that is: it depends (how much time investment was put in? how original the concept is? etc.) which, in fact, kind of brings us back to the current concept of licensing. and yes, maybe the current frame imposed by copyright law has also shaped the way i view the concept of property, and maybe i should be more of a communist, free-for-all kind of person, but unfortunately, i'm not that revolutionary.

also, and slightly tangentially, i find it interesting how profiting from fanficition/fanart is seen as more acceptable i certain fandoms rather than in others. taking the hp fandom for instance, even prior to jkr expressing her views on transgender rights, i often read things like: 'ah, she's so rich anyway, she doesn't need the money.' now, that argument has not only gained traction but is also reinforced by: 'ah, she's the devil and i don't want to fund her. it'd rather give my money to fanfic authors/buy things on etsy.'

while i completely understand the sentiment and do not, in any way, shape or form, support jkr's views, i do find that argument quite problematic. if you set the precedent that because someone is too rich, or because they've expressed views you disagree with, you don't believe that they should be entitled to their own intellectual property rights, i do wonder: where does this stop? this being justified for jkr could lead to all sorts of small artists seeing other people stealing/profiting from their original work without authorisation. 'i don't pay you 'cause i disagree with you,' would then act as a justification, with i find highly unfair. the fact of the matter is: jkr created hp. knowing that, the choice of buying hp products, regardless of her opinions is completely and entirely yours, but buying the same stuff unlicensed, from people who are infringing on her copyrights seems, to me, very problematic as this could potentially be scaled to all artists. either we overhaul the entire copyright system or we don't, but making special cases is dangerous, in my humble opinion.

option two: we choose to preserve copyright law as it is, for the reasons outlined above. this means that most people will not get paid for the content they put out and that the few that do will operate on a very tight, legal rope, and work for tips that are a 'nice bonus' but not a proper pay. this sort of perpetuates the idea that fanfiction is 'less than' other art forms, because in our capitalist society, things that don't generate money (things often made by women, may i add) are not seen as being as valuable as things that do.

for me, personally, while getting paid to write fanfiction sounds lovely (and makes my bank account purr) in theory, i think i side to preserve the current system. as an artist, i think that intellectual property protects us and our concepts from being ripped off by others, including by big companies who might find it handy to steal a design, a quote, anything, without proper remuneration. this is even more important for smaller artists who wouldn't necessarily have the means to defend their craft otherwise.

this being said, i do appreciate that it depends on why you're writing fanfiction. i think that topic probably deserves a whole different post in its own right but ultimately, most people write fanfic because it's fun. we know it's for fun, and not for profit. and if that's the case, then we're okay to receive compliments, reblogs and sometimes, for some people a little bit of an awkward tip for our work. for me, fanfic has been a space to make friends, to get feedback, to learn and to experiment without the pressure of money being involved. that's why i don't particularly mind doing it for free, and wouldn't even bother setting up a patreon or tip-me jar. i love being able to do it just for the enjoyment of myself and my five followers (lol), without worrying about scaling it, or making it profitable. not every part of our lives, not every passion has to be profitable. as we say in ireland, you do it 'for the craic' and nothing else.

this, though, as i already said, also depends on your means and level of privilege. to me, writing for free is fantastic and a bloody relief - it means being able to do exactly what i want. original fiction writing is full of rules, and editors, and publishers. in fanfic, i can write whatever i feel like, and i'm willing to forgo a salary in exchange of that freedom. again, i have a full time job that covers my bills. this does mean, though, that i don't have as much time to dedicate to writing as i would like to.

and also, the thing is: i'm a small author. i happily write in my own little niche. bar that one comment, it is highly unlikely that anyone would actually want to pay me (or even tip me) for my content. but when you look at very successful people, like the author of all the young dudes, i could see how they'd want to get paid for their art, and why they'd feel differently.

bottom line for me is: the flaws of the current systems of remuneration combined with my strong belief in copyright law as a means to protect small, original creators, means that i don't really think it would be right for me to get paid for fanfic, even if i was the kind of person who had the market for it. whilst it would be nice, this very long rant has, hopefully, explained why.

#fanfiction #writing #archive of our own #monetisation of fanfiction #fanfiction theory #this post is waaaay too long and the author regrets everything #pebblysand rants

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