So you want to interact with a fanfiction author

Great! I’m glad you want to reach out and start a conversation with the many creative, giving people who take time out of their busy lives to pen the stories that have captured your imagination. This post is going to cover leaving reviews, giving constructive criticism, and a few do’s and don’t’s.

If you like a fic, leave a review! You can do this a couple different ways.

Reblogging with tags. Every single creative person I know, be they writer or artist or musician, religiously stalks the tags when people reblog their work. Tags are an amazing way to communicate with a creative, especially if you’re shy about sending them a message directly or are afraid your comment will go unnoticed in their inbox.

Don’t know what to say in the tags? Think about the moment you decided you were going to reblog this piece instead of just hitting the “Like” button. Was it a particularly well done piece of dialogue? A description that made you feel like you were a part of the story instead of just reading it? A scenario you’d never considered before but changed the way you thought about [character a, situation b, or fandom c]? There’s a reason you’re taking time to reblog instead of like, so let them know why! Not every reblog needs to be a tag flail.

Alternatively, you can send the author a message. Fanmail if you’re shy and don’t want your adoration made public. Sometimes, if I don’t have time to tag a fic the way I want for whatever reason, I’ll like the piece and then shoot the author a fanmail or an ask telling them what I liked. This is also acceptable. Who doesn’t like getting mail? Crazy people who don’t use social media, that’s who.

Ok, but wait. What if you DON’T like what the author has done with their fic? What then? Yes, there are options.

Option #1: You ignore the fic. You neither like nor reblog the story. You and the author both move on with your lives. You may choose this option at any time. It is not necessary to let the author or anyone else know you have chosen this option.

Option #2: Ask the author why they chose to go that route. Politely. We’ll go over what that means later.

Option #3: Give constructive criticism. Now. Be careful with this one. Creatives are sensitive people. Make sure the author is open to it before you go barrelling into their ask box. If you message me, even on anon, saying, “Hey, I just read your latest fic and I have some concrit I wanted to run by you. Is that ok?” that is perfectly fine. If my answer is yes, go for it. If not, see Option #1.

What is concrit? Glad you asked.

This is concrit: “I totally get the vibe you were going for with that scene, but I was a little confused about the angles of the body parts. I don’t think you meant for them to be doing xyz there. It just took me out of the moment a little.”

This is NOT concrit: “You’re actually not very good at writing smut. You should probably just let [other person] write it and stick to what you’re good at. Which is not smut.”

What’s the difference? In the first one, you acknowledge what you think the author was going for. You explain what has you confused. You explain how you interpreted it. And then you leave a way for the author to contact you to respond to the concrit. You could be right. Maybe the author’s beta was having an off day and missed that awkward elbow maneuver. Maybe they don’t have a beta.  Or maybe it’s you that’s missed something. The second example is rude. This criticism is not designed to help the author. It is designed to tear them down and discourage them.

Some people adore concrit. Some people only want it before they publish a piece. Some don’t want it at all. None of these are wrong.

SIDE NOTE FOR AUTHORS: If you ask for concrit, do not be upset, offended, or throw a tantrum when someone sends you a respectful message. You did not want concrit. You wanted to ask for concrit and revel when no one sent you anything. Those are not the same things. Concrit, when given correctly, is designed to make you, the author, a better writer.

Ok, let’s go back to Option #2 now. Where you liked the piece overall, but the characters are acting a little wonky. Something’s not quite right, you think. You don’t really have any concrit, but you want to say something. Here’s what you can do, especially if the author is posting a work in progress.

Acceptable: “Hey! I just read the latest chapter of [amazing story you’ve been following since day one]. I’m enjoying the story so far, but this last one has me a little confused. Why did [character a] do [this]? I feel they would have done [that]. Am I missing something?”

Not acceptable: “Your latest chapter was a big disappointment. I feel like you just don’t know the characters anymore. There’s no way in hell [characters a and b] would be [doing xyz]. I’m sorry, I’m unfollowing you.”

In the first example, you let the author know you like their work. You are making an attempt to understand their vision. You give them a specific example of what’s bothering you. You acknowledge that there may be things coming that you aren’t aware of yet. In the second, you’re an asshat who is wasting bandwidth. The tone has shifted from commenting on the story to commenting on the author.

And here are a few general DO’s and DON’T’S:

DO tell an author you are excited to read the next chapter.

DON’T send an author a message saying only “update soon” less than five minutes after the new chapter was posted.

DO speculate on what’s going to happen next.

DON’T tell the author how to write their story.

DO ask your author how the writing process is going.

DON’T ask your author why they haven’t updated yet.

DO send your author love.

DON’T send your author anon hate.

THERE ARE NO PROFESSIONAL FANFICTION AUTHORS. (We’re not gonna talk about she-who-must-not-be-named of the fifty shade variety). Every single fic author has a job, family, friends, school, religion, other hobbies, or sleep equally vying for their attention. Respect their time, respect their work, respect them as human beings, and we’ll all get along fine.

(via prograpslady)

A woodpecker hitched a ride on the side of this man’s car during a rainy day in Chicago.

Cute but I woulda lost it 😂

Lmfaooooo the way the bird closed its eyes when he said “you’re beautiful” had me weak.

I would have felt so blessed if was chilling on my arm

*in a thick Chicago accent* “Welcome to Chicago”

The bumblebee was officially added to the endangered species list.

 Please:

Please save my fat clumsy fuzzy friends I love them and they’re very good pollinators.

we will literally all die if the bees do. AGGRESSIVELY CARE FOR ALL BEES.

If you haven’t read the books

- Peeves the poltergeist

-Lockhart sent dwarves dressed as cupids all around the school giving valentines on the dreaded holiday. One of them tackled Harry when he ran away from it and shouted out his poem in the middle of a crowded corridor

-Hermione created S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare) when she was only thirteen years old. This followed her into her ministry work where she improved conditions for all kinds of magical minorities.

-During the Battle of Hogwarts, as the dementors swarmed the school, Harry tried to conjure a patronus and failed. He couldn’t manage a happy thought after witnessing so many innocent people, so many loved ones, die for him. But one by one, his friends conjured their own patronuses for him. Luna’s silver hare, Ernie’s boar, Seamus’ fox, beating back at the sea of cloaked monsters. And when Harry saw his friends, people he loved, still fighting, it gave him the strength to conjure one of his own. And with the greatest effort it had ever cost him, Harry’s silver stag chased the dementors away.

NEW GENERATION DISNEY APPRECIATION POST

FOR TEACHING US NOT EVERYTHING IS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

But can grow to be something just as magical

THAT HARD WORK PAYS OFF

But it’s okay to sometimes ask for help

AND FOR SHOWING US THAT ALTHOUGH ITS (sometimes)  NICE TO HAVE A PRINCE….

Sometimes you have to be the hero of your own story.

Another attempt at realistic drawing. I’ll keep trying ._.

I forgot how much I love this show (via twostringsandme)

Important things about Phineas & Ferb:

New meme:

type in “I’m” in the tags and use the first tag that appears

when you run out of drama to make in your life you gotta start ant drama

if someone does the “fine, you’re right, i’m clearly a terrible person, i’m satan, i’m the worst person alive, i should just die” thing in response to criticism of their harmful behavior, they are trying to manipulate ppl and flip the situation around so that they look like a victim

stop tolerating this in 2k17 tbh. like really and truly, if you or your friend thinks this is okay pls call the hotline on the bottom of the screen and learn how to take responsibility for your bad behavior 

The bad thing is I do this on a regular basis. Not because I want to manipulate people, but because that’s actually how I feel. I’m bad at receiving concrit. I can’t say that everyone who reacts this way feels the same as I do, but…not every case is like that.

have you considered that, regardless of your intentions, reacting in such an exaggerated way would make it very difficult for anyone to criticize you or tell you that you’re harming people with your behavior? i’m not interested in searching out people’s motives, i don’t really care why someone does or says manipulative things. being unable or unwilling to simply apologize and not make it about themselves is a solid indicator that a person is not interested in being held accountable for their bad behavior, and people, especially the injured parties in question, shouldn’t have to tolerate it.

take responsibility for your bad behavior 2k17 tbh

Okay, life lesson time. 

When I was in my late teens and early 20s, I kept getting involved with people who would say, “Oh, I’m a bad person” any time I brought up ANYTHING that was the least bit of a disagreement. 

Like, “Please don’t leave my X on the floor” would get, “Oh, I’m a horrible person!”

HERE’S WHY THIS IS A HUGELY PROBLEMATIC BEHAVIOR, and if you think I”m calling you out and you think you’re about to shut down, take a breath, remember that this is about learning, and keep reading.

What is important is what happened after. My boyfriend might say, “Oh, I’m just an awful boyfriend” and instead of him acknowledging the BEHAVIOR and working on fixing it, he’d get me trying to buck him up for the next half hour, telling him he was a good person. The behavior that started it all would not change.

Well, things led to things and I went back home to live for a while, and found that the same exact thing was happening… with my mother.

And then I learned about pattern arguments. Pattern arguments are the ones where you keep having the same nonproductive argument over and over again. They don’t all follow this pattern, but this is a really common one.

The trick?

BREAK THE PATTERN

First you have to know what the pattern is. In this case: 1. Grievance 2. Self deprecation 3. Ego stroking So, with my mother, we started in on one of these, and she said, “I guess I’m just a terrible mother.” And instead of reassuring her, instead of derailing the issue and letting it go… I said, “When you say that, it makes me wonder how terrible a daughter I could be that you would think you were a bad mother. We have this conversation this way over and over, and the problem that I have always gets pushed aside in favor of trying to make you feel better. When you’re willing to have a real conversation about this, I’m happy to talk to you, but I’m bored with this argument, so I’ll see you later if you want to really talk.” And I left the room. Now, my mom is a reasonably self-aware person, and does a lot of hard emotional work, and so she got it, very quickly. 10 minutes later she came out and found me, and we had a real conversation about whatever the hell the issue really was, and we have literally NEVER had that particular pattern argument again in 23 years.  Boyfriend came to visit. I was upset about something, he started in on the “I’m just a shitty boyfriend” thing… and my response? “Yep. You are.” His jaw dropped. He blinked. And I said, “Look, that’s what you do. You say shit like that and it means you don’t have to change your behavior, and I’m tired of the pattern we have where I tell you something isn’t working for me, you tell me you’re terrible, and I spend half an hour making you feel better. I’m tired of it and I”m not doing it anymore. If you’re willing to have an actual conversation about this, and not just the same old argument, I’m game. But this thing we do where you talk yourself down and I butter you up? Is boring. And I’m over it.” We also did not have that argument again. (The relationship finally ended for real a while after, but it ended in a grown-up way, and not with a ridiculous meaningless fight.) When you knock yourself down, the gut instinct for the people around you is to pick you up. But that means you’re not pulling your weight in the relationship. You’re making them do the work and you’re not actually hearing them. So that brings us to another point:

How to deal with criticism

Okay, so if you’re not going to knock yourself down when someone says something negative about you, what DO you do? We don’t actually train people to take criticism well. But it is an art and a skill and NECESSARY to finding emotional stability in the face of a critical world.

I see it as a flow chart, but since the flow chart I made for it ended up in a book that I don’t own the copyright to (not a big deal) I’ll write out the decision tree here instead: 1. Someone offers criticism (constructive or not!)

2. Listen and think about it without immediately trying to defend yourself. You can say, “Okay, I need a moment to take that in and think about it because I want to understand it.” Or something else appropriate to the situation. It is okay to ask for time to think in most circumstances. Most people will appreciate that you are thinking about their words instead of immediately getting defensive or counterattacking. Think about whether what they are saying is valid, might be valid or is not valid. 

3A. If it is valid, then you have a choice. You can try to fix the behavior or you can acknowledge that it is a valid criticism but decide you aren’t likely to fix it. Start by acknowledging the validity of the criticism, and then say what you’re going to do to fix it, or say that it’s valid but it isn’t something you’re willing (or possibly able) to change, or say that it’s a valid criticism and you’ll need to think about possible solutions. They may have a suggestion. Taking it or not is also a choice. 

3B. If you’re not sure it’s valid, but it might be, tell them, “I really need to give this some more thought.” or “Can you tell me more about this? I’m not sure I understand the issue well.”  Or “If you can point me at some reading material or search terms, I’d like to study this before I decide what I’m going to do.” 

3C. If you know it is not a valid criticism, STOP a moment, and look at WHY they are making it. This is where Active Listening can be very helpful. “I hear you saying that X is a problem. I don’t see it that way right now but I’d like to understand better why you do.” Or if you think they don’t have enough information, “I hear you saying X, but my understanding of the issue is Y. Here’s what I know about it if you’re ready to listen.” If they’re just looking for a fight, tell them you’re not interested in fighting, and disentangle yourself. 

4. If the criticism is something you are going to listen to and take action on, tell them what kind of action you’re going to take. If it’s something you’re hearing and thinking about, tell them that. If it’s not something you’re going to do anything about or it’s just wrong, thank them for their input and move on.

Literally never is it going to be helpful to say, “Oh, I’m just a terrible person.” That’s very much like a nonapology-apology in terms of how unhelpful it is to any conversation. It’s kind of worse because it actually expects emotional labor from someone who is already having to bring up something unpleasant with you. Think about what they say Decide whether you’re going to do something about it Do the thing, or tell them you’re not going to do the thing.  Don’t demand emotional labor from other people when you were the one who messed up. 

Apologize if appropriate.  This is all predicated on the notion that you’re talking to someone who actually wants to communicate and isn’t just an asshole on the attack.  Because seriously, the whole “I’m a terrible person” thing?  Boring as fuck. Knock that shit off. Maybe you are. Maybe you aren’t. But take responsibility and have a little self-respect and don’t make others pick your emotional dirty towels off the metaphorical bathroom floor. 

(May not be relevant but) Don’t even get me started on this whole “I suck at everything, why is everyone else so good at everything” thing

While cleaning your attic, you find a box of glass balls with names on them. You accidentally drop one, and as soon as it shatters, a person appears.

“Dude,” your brother said as he opened the door to the attic. “Stop breaking stuff.”

I love these clever subversions of fantasy writing prompts to give them an mundane punchline.

They give me life.

i’m cool i swear

i'm sane i swear