Totally happened. Or maybe not.

rb this and tell me what ur accent is. this has no purpose except the fact i just realized i could have like... mutuals with cockney accents or newfoundland accents or something and thats just wild

highlights of the responses:

I’m noticing an increase in new fic writers on AO3 who…uh…mayy not know how to format their fics correctly..so here is a quick and VERY important tip

Using a random fic of mine as example..

The left example: ✅✅✅

The right example: ❌❌❌

Idk how many times I’ve read a good fic summary and been so excited to read before clicking on it and being met with an ugly wall of text. When I see a huge text brick with zero full line breaks my eyes blur and I just siiiigh bc either I click out immediately or I grin and bear it…it’s insufferable!

If a new character speaks, you need a line break. If you notice a paragraph is becoming too large, go ahead and make a line break and/or maybe reconfigure the paragraph to flow better. I’m not a pro writer or even a huge fic writer but…please…ty…

This is a good thing to keep in mind! It is often and unfortunate that a really good fic doesn’t get love because its formatting makes it too difficult to read!

i’ve seen people say that books look like that though, which might be true, but reading a block of text on a piece of paper is different and a different kind of eye strain that reading the same text on a screen. Especially since AO3 formats based on the screen you read on.

legibility is incredibly important in work, both written and in art or comics. Did you ever notice that comics with extremely text rich speech bubbles are harder to read too?

Be Kind to a reader

USE SPELL CHECK

Books don't have line breaks because the beginning of paragraphs are Indented. That indentation signify's the the brain that it's a new paragraph.

Web pages don't, usually, support paragraph indentation, and so line breaks have become the digital norm/version.

Format your fic's, lovelies!

Saw a sibling poll and needed to expand it because I fit, like. Mid youngest, youngest in theory only child in practice, and adopted. And I think they all have their own unique parts in the sibling ecosystem.

Ok, question. Why not use the For You page at that point?

Because it sucks

boi no. go back while you still can. a good chunk of my answers are in the quads

thought about the Katara v Pakku fight too hard and made myself cry

the thing is that Katara's right.

there are a lot of episodes of ATLA where the main characters aren't totally right, because they need to learn a lesson about something. they're kids, it's a kids' show, there are morals to get across. that's not a bad thing; for the most part ATLA tells those stories really well without condescending its characters or its audience, which is why the cast gets to grow and change so organically and we're all still frothing about how good the writing is twenty years later.

but when Katara attacks that old man right there in public where everyone can see, she's right. this isn't a lesson about her needing to learn patience or humility or deference to her elders or respect for a belief system that's different than her own. in that moment Pakku is both the face of the Norther Water Tribe's cultural misogyny and an asshole who has disrespected Katara personally, and instead of having to find a way to play nice she gets to attack him with everything she's got.

she doesn't win. she can't win, it would be ridiculous. but the show knows this; Katara herself opens the scene by saying she doesn't expect to win while Sokka and Aang try frantically to talk her down. it's not about winning, it can't be. Pakku is, very literally, old enough to be her grandfather; he's had decades to master his form in a walled city untouched by war. Katara is 14 years old and the only bender from a village that's been diminished to nearly nothing. there's never been anyone to teach her; the artform died out before she was born. she has nothing. every scrap of knowledge she has is something she's had to struggle and steal for. how much of her waterbending has she learned on the fly, improvising as she fights desperately to keep herself and her friends and innocent bystanders alive? she's the Avatar's waterbending master, sure, but she's learning alongside him.

and she still gets to hold her own, for a few furious minutes. this old man doesn't even initially respond to her challenge, won't even dignify her by looking in her direction, treats her with scorn when he does finally address her. she is always, always at a disadvantage against him but she gets to make a scene, she gets to tear down entire structures, and she gets to be right. the fight ends with Katara immobilized in ice, completely outmatched, still seething and snarling at Pakku that she's not finished with him. she never backs down for a second, never doubts even for a moment that she has every right to beat this man's ass for the way he's disrespected her.

and the narrative backs her up on that, 100%. Katara is, frequently, unreasonably self-righteous to the detriment of herself and her friends, but this isn't one of those times. there's no moral for Katara to learn here; Pakku is the one who needs to get his shit in order.

a smug old man is a dismissive, sexist twat to a teenage girl who has suffered more than he will ever understand and when she sttacks him no holds barred she is framed as so completely, totally in the right that it's still cathartic two decades later as a woman in my late twenties. teenage girl moment of all time.

she gets to make a scene. she gets to tear down entire structures. she gets to be right.

one of the most infuriating things about becoming an adult is when you realize that it actually is 10x easier to solve problems by making a phone call vs literally any other communication method

and yet i refuse to do it

me, driving all the way to whatever the thing is, so i can talk to them in person instead of having to call them, as if that's easier/better

I've developed an incredible phone voice, truly a thing to behold.

hey, tag this with a food people get really upset about you not liking

Good morning, you have to be the thing that saves you

I just saw a fanfic author on tiktok advertising their fic like booktok does and peace and love but friend. your real life actual face??? associated with your fic???

listen, as far as y'all are concerned, I am a sentient seal with access to a keyboard, and we're leaving it at that

i'm conducting an experiment. everyone who's from an english speaking country state your country, regional area and what you call the following images. i need to see something

All this about not getting to see John Lennon on twitter but I think the real tragedy is that Freddie Mercury never had an instagram

yall with your ugly celeb man crushes

This is a powerful child.

They should hang out

Larval Goths

We can’t forget about her!!

Gift cards are tracked too, in case anyone thought they were clever like that.