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Hello. I'm a Fan.

@sunflower-swan / sunflower-swan.tumblr.com

Reader, Writer, Artist, Podficcer, Enthusiast 🏳️‍🌈
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reblogged

So when are we going to hear Crowley speak French?

(Preferably to Aziraphale)

just envisioning aziraphale trying to be sexy and seductive by speaking French (terribly) and crowley just pushes him against a wall and starts speaking flawless French

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Aziraphale was such a little bastard (/affectionate) for giving Jim hot cocoa to drink when he knew his old boss's opinion on sullying the temple of his body with "gross matter."

He did the same thing with Muriel, offered them tea knowing what they probably thought of it and then amiably watched them to see what they would do with it.

He's gone rogue, people. He's corrupting Heaven one politely offered hot beverage at a time.

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Writing tips for long fics that helped me that no one asked for.

1.) Don't actually delete content from your WIP unless it is minor editing - instead cut it and put it in a secondary document. If you're omitting paragraphs of content, dialog, a whole scene you might find a better place for it later and having it readily available can really save time. Sometimes your idea was fantastic, but it just wasn't in the right spot.

2.) Stuck with wording the action? Just write the dialog then revisit it later.

3.) Stuck on the whole scene? Skip it and write the next one.

4.) Write on literally any other color than a white background. It just works. (I use black)

5.) If you have a beta, while they are beta-ing have them read your fic out loud. Yes, I know a lot of betas/writers do not have the luxury of face-timing or have the opportunity to do this due to time constraints etc but reading your fic out loud can catch some very awkward phrasing that otherwise might be missed. If you don't have a beta, you read it out loud to yourself. Throw some passion into your dialog, you might find a better way to word it if it sounds stuffy or weird.

6.) The moment you have an idea, write it down. If you don't have paper or a pen, EMAIL it to yourself or put it in a draft etc etc. I have sent myself dozens of ideas while laying down before sleep that I 10/10 forgot the next morning but had emailed them to myself and got to implement them.

7.) Remember - hits/likes/kudos/comments are not reflective of the quality of your fic or your ability to write. Most people just don't comment - even if they say they do, they don't, even if they preach all day about commenting, they don't, even if they are a very popular blog that passionately reminds people to comment - they don't comment (I know this personally). Even if your fic brought tears to their eyes and it haunted them for weeks and they printed it out and sent it to their friends they just don't comment. You just have to accept it. That being said - comment on the fic you're reading now, just do it, if you're 'shy' and that's why you don't comment the more you comment the better you'll get at it. Just do it.

8.) Remove unrealistic daily word count goals from your routine. I've seen people stress 1500 - 2000 words a day and if they don't reach that they feel like a failure and they get discouraged. This is ridiculous. Write when you can, but remove absurd goals. My average is 500 words a day in combination with a 40 hour a week job and I have written over 200k words from 2022-2023.

9.) There are dozens of ways to do an outline from precise analytical deconstruction that goes scene by scene to the minimalist bullet point list - it doesn't matter which one you use just have some sort of direction. A partial outline is better than no outline.

10.) Write for yourself, not for others. Write the fic you know no one is going to read. Write the fic that sounds ridiculous. You will be so happy you put it out in the world and there will be people who will be glad it exists.

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reblogged

Totals Time!

It's been a year of records and record-breaking. Of reaching new fandom spaces and building new community ties. It's been wild. And absolutely fantastic.

When we closed the auction signup window we had 981 offers —nearly 150 more than we'd ever had before. When we re-opened it for 4 more hours, hoping to find another 19 folks (because we wondered what an auction with 1000 offers would look like) you all came through in spades, boosting the auction everywhere and bringing back 100 new offers in 15 new fandoms, bringing us to 1081 offers this year - a 33% increase over our previous record.

And you all weren't done breaking records. Shattering them.

This is the first year that any of our supported nonprofit orgs has received a 5-digit sum. And? TWO of them did.

So. Are you ready to see what our community has done? Are you ready for the numbers?

This year

thanks to all of you

FTH raised…

$67,931.28

The breakdown of donations to orgs looks like this -

This brings our eight-year total to

$307,439.14

Huge thanks to our 797 creators offering 1081 auctions in more than 400 different fandoms and subfandoms, and to everyone who bid! And to our 17 fan crafters who brought in $4,127 of that total —60% more than our previous crafting record!

So, what's next?

Contact deadlines:

Creators, be sure you contact your bidders by April 1, and bidders, on your end please respond to their communication by April 15!

Bidders need to provide their creator with a workable prompt by June 30 (unless you've worked out a different timeline together) to ensure they have plenty of time to finish their fanwork.

Once the fanwork is posted, let us know via our form (can you believe FOURTEEN creators have already finished??) and if you’re posting it on AO3 be sure to add it to the Fandom Trumps Hate 2024 collection. If you’re writing a fic for FTH and need help from our Regiment of Fan Laborers, email us! As always, the deadline for completed fanworks is December 31.

We hope that for at least some people, your involvement in FTH will lead to continued action throughout the year. Sign up for our organizations’ email lists, check out their volunteer opportunities, and help boost their signals on social media!

And if you’d like to run your own fanworks auction for a good cause, we can help get you started!

We have a packet of organizational materials we’ve been sharing with other auction organizers since 2017; we’re planning to spend the month of April overhauling and updating these materials to incorporate many of the improvements we’ve implemented since then. If you’re thinking about organizing an auction or fanworks exchange in your fandom to raise money for a good cause, we would love to share those materials with you. Contact us at fandomtrumpshate at gmail.com and we can send you our auction playbook, as well as answer any questions you have about our process.

Your mods (@porcupine-girl, @captainbunnicula, @tiltedsyllogism, @anyawen, @renjunbabygirl, @trickybonmot, and @a-still-small-vox) are going to be going into post-auction hibernation mode (or, for most of us, post-auction deal-with-all-this-other-stuff mode) for a little while. So if you email us, don’t panic if we don’t get back to you immediately! We will start actively monitoring the inbox again by April 15 at the latest.

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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

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deanofbeans

OMG

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dduane

This one’s an always-reblog, because who knows who needs it and hasn’t seen it yet?

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To be clear to those unfamiliar: these are the companies that libraries use to lend ebooks.

They are literally cutting off library access to minors.

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ayellowbirds

If you are affected by this or other bans and restrictions in the United States, be aware that the Brooklyn Public Library is offering free digital library cards to anyone age 13-21 nationwide as part of their Books UnBanned initiative:

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reblogged

Another commission! I hereby present you @here-is-thegreatmoon (mdms_lefevre on instagram) 's soft children, Neera and Tabilo!

Some deets:

You have no idea of how much I enjoyed designing Neera's lehenga💚 and focusing on Tibi's beads decorations on his horns ❤ thank you for the trust you placed in me, Jiejie!

This is a commission, and the commissioner gave me permission to post this on social media ad use it for my portfolio: DO NOT TRACE, DO NOT REPOST. Reblogs are appreciated though!

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power-chords
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maniacalshen

had to nab these tags from @ravenvsfox

And people really do try to interact with fandom like consumers! They want « content ». They act like they can get a refund on reading a fic they don’t like. They add fanfics to goddamned goodreads without a second thought without realizing that’s as ridiculous as adding your friend’s dining room as a restaurant on yelp just so you can post a review about it

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cyanwrites

'Fandom' is a contraction of 'fanatic' and 'kingdom'.

Fanatic, from Latin fanaticus "mad, enthusiastic, inspired by a god."

Fandom is literally the place people go to be enthusiastically crazy about their blorbos! There are no normal people here!

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cacodaemonia

#just opening livejournal would have killed you instantly

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reblogged

Two hours left!

A few reminders as we head into what is often the most heated bidding-war time:

  1. Google is still being a weirdo in a variety of ways, so check those bid sheets on desktop or mobile browser + app both to be sure they’re loading all bids.
  2. Not all forms will close right at 8pm - any bids that register with timestamps later than 8:00:05 EST will be considered invalid.
  3. Once auction close, sit tight! If you’re a high bidder you’ll get email from us within a day or so, confirming that you are the winner and giving you the link to our new donation proof form. This is a different process than in previous years! Do not send us proof until you get this email.
  4. Don’t forget to check out the golden needle tag to find those hidden treasures without bids - in particular, there are some really interesting offers of specialist expertise that are still looking for someone who needs that particular bit of knowledge
  5. If you find yourself outbid on everything (or have some extra donation budget to spread around), be sure to take a look at the Fan Crafts Bazaar, which is not closing today. Individual crafters can close their stalls at any time (for example, if they run out of stock), but most will be open for at least another week.

ONE HOUR LEFT!! Get those last bids in!

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