I had two notifications from Archive Of Our Own, both from the same person, on two of my different stories.
This is what I responded with;
Don’t leave rude comments, kids. That’s not how you get more fic updates.
Yea: be RESPECTFUL; being rude will never do anything but hurt/infuriate us.
Either that or actually pay us: then you’d have a thumb over us fanfic writers!
Legit, tho: OP is right and it’s so sad to see fanfic writers harassed because people seem to not know the difference between encouraging us to write and being greedy/rude/bullies; we write for the fun of it and share it because we’re brave/hopeful/understanding that others will probably like what we’ve written.
Don’t spit on that by making a fanfic about YOU; it’s about the author.
Respect them.
((As an aside: huge thank you to my own reviewers/mutuals/friends whom always make me feel so good about what I write and share; you’re all fantasic and I love~ being putty in your hands~))
THANK YOU.
Honestly, I don’t know how people don’t understand this. Readers are getting a FREE product that takes HOURS to create and a LOT of bravery to share. They’re just entitled if they think it’s okay to complain about how fast they’re receiving it
You’re welcome!
And yes: it always pisses me off how little consideration people have for all the hard work we put into anything. People seem to think that we’re just sitting on our fat butts typing words into a text box and clicking post a few seconds later.
No one seems concerned with the hours DAYS we could be putting into this.
They don’t worry about or see how long we’re plotting our story lines, how we’re pushing ourselves into the brains of these characters we didn’t make but love so much and want so badly to do right by, how we’re always worried we’ll insult the original creator or the fanbase and how much courage it can take to press post. They never seem concerned with the struggles and labors we perform to get the right words for this situation or to formulate a sentence well enough to convey everything we want it to; they never seem worried with the number of drafts we use or all the plot bunnies we have to manage or the amount of EDITING we do.
AND ALL OF THIS FOR FREE.
They aren’t paying us or even seeing us as people that need to LIVE: they don’t see us as humans that need to EAT AND SLEEP; they don’t think we pay bills: they just see writing machines with ink cartridges they don’t need to fill.
((Again, as an aside: NOT EVERY READER IS LIKE THIS and I really do love and adore my own readers that like and reblog and leave little supportive comments like “so good” “yes” “♥” and “quality content!” because it’s so encouraging to see that; but there ARE rude people like whom OP and I are complaining about and I just wish they would grow up…))
Glad to find a like-minded writer, I told all of this to my dad yesterday and he thought I was overreacting.
I find that people have this odd tendency to believe two things: fanworks are pure/untainted by big corporations because they run on fandom love not money; fanworks are fun little things people do for fun and are therefore effortless fun.
Somehow this gets wrapped up in the idea that the purity of fanworks must be preserved by fanworkers not getting money/paid for anything; and that this should be no problem because fanworkers are doing this all for fun anyway.
People don’t seem to understand how hard it can be for us to maintain this hobby because they’re experiencing it as an escape from their own reality.
Any taint to that reality (realizing how hard we work to provide it, for example) tarnishes the whole experience for them and they avoid that tarnish immensely even at the expense of the person/people providing it; it’s one of the reasons, that there’s still the stereotype of comic book artists living out of their mom’s basement while providing comic books for our enjoyment: these particular people don’t want to see their escapes as hard work or jobs because that’d RUIN their escape and it’s one of the saddest realities we have to deal with.
((Legit: if people would pay me for anything I did on Tumblr, I wouldn’t be the only one happy: THEY would also be happy because I’d actually have time to ENTERTAIN THEM; I wouldn’t have to have a “REAL” job because entertaining them WOULD be my “REAL” job; but these people we’re complaining about @writingmyselfintoanearlygrave just don’t see it that way.))
THAT FIRST SITE IS EVERY WRITER’S DREAM DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I’VE TRIED WRITING SOMETHING AND THOUGHT GOD DAMN IS THERE A SPECIFIC WORD FOR WHAT I’M USING TWO SENTENCES TO DESCRIBE AND JUST GETTING A BUNCH OF SHIT GOOGLE RESULTS
We need to have a nomination for “Stupidest thing Tumblr.com has ever believed” and just move into an official Top 10 List.
For my nominations, I’m putting up:
If you eat a chocolate bar a very specific way, you will break physics and get infinite chocolate.
or
It is impossible that you spelled “Berenstain Bears” wrong and is, instead, more likely that the universe fractured into separate, overlapping realities in the last 20 years.
I can’t decide which is more beautiful. It’s why we need a vote.
this is a picture of the human brain at the moment of death. tragic and beautiful
Fuck. That is a damn good nomination.
if you close your eyes when the train hits your brain will assume you are dead. Some find this comforting.
We’re getting into the good ones now. This is some classic Tumblr.
art block is your brain telling you to do studies.
draw a still life. practice some poses. sketch some naked people. do a color study. try out a different technique on a basic shape.
art block doesnt stop you from drawing, it stops you from making your drawings look the way you want them to. and thats because you need to push your skills to the next level so you can preform at that standard
think of it as level grinding for your next work.
As a scientific illustrator- this is 100% true and going to review your basics will fix it every goddamn time. Not only does it keep your skills sharp, when you’re not emotionally invested in the final product of a piece, you relax and your brain makes more/better art juice for you. So, when you get back to that big/important piece? You’ll know what to do and how to do it.
Nothing in nature blooms all year round. Rest, and take care of yourself.
art block is your brain telling you to do studies.
draw a still life. practice some poses. sketch some naked people. do a color study. try out a different technique on a basic shape.
art block doesnt stop you from drawing, it stops you from making your drawings look the way you want them to. and thats because you need to push your skills to the next level so you can preform at that standard
think of it as level grinding for your next work.
As a scientific illustrator- this is 100% true and going to review your basics will fix it every goddamn time. Not only does it keep your skills sharp, when you’re not emotionally invested in the final product of a piece, you relax and your brain makes more/better art juice for you. So, when you get back to that big/important piece? You’ll know what to do and how to do it.
Nothing in nature blooms all year round. Rest, and take care of yourself.
TOASTYSTATS: Gender representation in movies vs. movie fanworks (part 7/7)
My mega analysis is now complete! Chapter 7 contains a TL;DR summary of what we do and don’t know now, as well as some final thoughts on fandom questions & discourse about bias. Excerpts are shown above.
(The chapter also contains elaboration and notes on a number of the above slides, so if you have questions, they might be answered there.)
Huge thanks to the many people who inspired this work and/or gave feedback or encouragement! ( @fffinnagain@dendritic-trees@saathi1013@annathecrow and any others I might be forgetting – thank you!! I also had some fantastic non-Tumblr betas who are thanked in the slides.)
I also want to thank all the people who’ve left really thoughtful and kind feedback or follow up questions on the chapters so far. The response has been lovely. And I hope some folks end up feeling inspired to gather their own data on follow up or related questions (and to share the results with the #fandom stats tag)!