this is a white human man

When reading fanfic keep in mind that for professional literature: 

Fics over 40k are literally a novel written and shared for free.  If you have written a 40k+ fic, you have literally written a novel.

Yep. In addition, chapters in published novels are generally around 3,000 words in length.

Fanfic writers go hard.

btw its always morally correct to reblog your own art or writing onto the dash. you are always right to do this. and if people get annoyed then too bad. this is not a satire post or sarcastic this is genuine. reblog your works. and every time someone complains that you reblog your own stuff too much do it again. be proud of what you create.

If you ever feel like you don't contribute to fandom because you "only" comment—

A regular serial commenter just joined a fandom Discord server I'm on and people are coming out of the woodwork to thank her for her service to the fandom, expressing how much joy her comments on their works bring them.

Remember—they're never only comments.

If you're a reader who gets nervous about leaving comments, please take a moment to read the notes on this post. The tags alone have been giving me life for the past week, and it's honestly lovely.

#fandom isn't about producing fan content anyway#it's about community and engagement#comments on fanworks and interactions with fellow fans IS contributing to fandom#never forget that

Shout-out to @raiphend for the addition of these very correct tags.

A comment I got on a fic I wrote in 2016: "I wish this could have been canon, you give these characters such emotional depth." It was really flattering.

In the soundcloud dubstep scene, there's this one guy who comments on nearly every song. It usually just something basic, but still nice to hear. Eventually, artists started talking about how they keep seeing this one guy encouraging them, and the scene collectively realized just how much he comments and supports tons of artists. Big artists started shouting him out on twitter and saying how much they appreciate him, he even got his own logo given to him for his soundcloud page.

This stuff does not go unnoticed.

Seven years after, I see you again 😚

Guys this completely changed my writing, heed it. I often do an entire draft just looking at sentence variation and oftentimes the results are absolutely transformative in the difference.

This is very very good advice, and absolutely worth following. Read this. Read it again. Follow it. Your writing will get much, much better.

I agree, this is certainly one of the writing advices that opened my eyes and changed the way I was writing. It made it so much better, and I still remember that this post stuck in my mind. It did it.

small reminders you writers might need

PORN BOTS GO AWAYYYYY i run a fic account i clearly have enough demons to fight

after i posted this one of them unfollowed me 😭 god bless

What to do if You Don’t Like an Author’s Fanfic or Take on a Trope:

Bonus tip If you’re considering sending the author unsolicited messages about how much you disliked their fic, consider one of the following options instead:

You know what is the worst? Being a reader trying to catch up on fics WHILE bring a writer who is behind on writing their own fics.

Being a writer and wanting to read more of your own fic that you haven’t written yet

The second one is the worst.

THIS ALSO GOES FOR WRITING

It’s okay not to be okay, Ben. I’ll always be here for you 🖤

let’s talk, shall we?

it’s no secret that tumblr writers have been leaving or deactivating their blogs, especially in the last year or two. and i think the reason why is even less of a secret.

the fact that writers have to practically beg for feedback and interaction on a site where they post their works for FREE is ridiculous. the fact that most of the people who are reading and consuming these works don’t even spare 10 seconds to add a nice tag to their reblog (if they even bother to do that) is borderline enraging. this is tumblr, not instagram or twitter. likes on tumblr do nothing for the writer. i don’t care if you think that it helps them appear in the tags, or if you think that seeing yet another “___ liked your post” is encouraging to them, because it doesn’t and its not.

and speaking of likes, why is the ratio of likes to reblogs so fucking huge? and before you think i’m being dramatic, lets take a look at some of the notes from my own works.

at the time of me writing this, my one-shot, dream lover, has 821 notes. that’s pretty good right? but let’s see how many are empty likes and how many are reblogs.

769 likes.

52 reblogs.

out of those 52 reblogs, 35 of them are empty. no tag, no comment.

one of my reactions currently has 2,038 notes. you may be thinking that’s a lot, which it is and i’m incredibly thankful for how many notes i’ve gotten on it. but how many are likes and how many are reblogs?

1,924 likes.

113 reblogs.

out of those 113 reblogs, 81 of them are empty.

one of my headcanons currently has 1,110 notes.

1,069 likes.

41 reblogs.

28 of those 41 reblog are empty.

why is it so hard to reblog things and give feedback?

“oh but it won’t fit my blog theme!” if you’re so fucking concerned about what your precious tumblr blog looks like, then send an ask. they’re just as appreciated.

“i don’t know what to say tho!” we’re not asking you to be shakespeare. if you’re really that no thoughts head empty just put a keyboard smash, if nothing else.

“but i’m shy and embarrassed!” the anonymous option is there for a reason, and most writers have it turned on. being shy when you have the option of keeping your identity a secret is no excuse.

and yes, i’m aware that some writers don’t have the anon option on, which brings me to my final point.

stop. demanding.

if a writer has requests open, be a decent human being and use your manners. going into their inbox and saying “____’s reaction of this.” is no way to request something. saying please, thank you, or even “hey, could you do a reaction of _____?” is a thousand times better than just telling them what you want them to write.

writers spend hours of their time and energy to write things for you to read, and leaving an empty like is meaningless to them.

if your liked a writer’s works, reblog them and maybe add some nice fucking tags while you’re at or send an ask to them about it. because sooner or later, after so many likes and barely any interaction, more and more writers are going to leave.

stop making them desperate for any spare crumb of interaction and start leaving feedback if you love these writers so much.

Also if they have a Before You Follow READ IT before following, before sending an ask, before reading their work. If they have it, it’s there for a reason. I know I’m tired of ppl blatantly ignoring my blog rules and my boundaries

bottom line is treat people with respect and you’ll be met with favorable results. fic writers are an integral part of fandom. we’re LITERALLY one of the organs keeping fandoms alive.

remember entering a dead fandom, searching for fics, and finding barely any?

it’s bc the writers who initially wrote for that fandom realized that their works weren’t being met with anything and gave up.

don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

This ☝️

I can’t wait for the fic that I’m going to write after this fic I’m not writing because I still have to finish another fic (which I can’t seem to focus on).