Scared, Potter?

Ok but like. What the fuck is there to do on the internet anymore?

Idk when I was younger, you could just go and go and find exciting new websites full of whatever cool things you wanted to explore. An overabundance of ways to occupy your time online.

Now, it’s just… Social media. That’s it. Social media and news sites. And I’m tired of social media and I’m tired of the news.

Am I just like completely inept at finding new things or has the internet just fallen apart that much with the problems of SEO and web 3.0 turning everything into a same-site prison?

Long collection of resources under the cut.

Keep reading

ALSO you should consider browsing Virtual Pet List and seeing if there are any pet sites you might be interested in playing. There is a whole genre of browser games right under your nose

Another one that I just found recently is this, which is a whole collection of blogs, organized by topic!

Look guys the real internet IS STILL THERE I’m going to cry

Getting off of twitter and onto neocities has really healed me and I am so glad to see it is healing other people too ;u; let’s retreat into the self-made digital woods and away from corporate bs pls, I am so tired

I gotta start blogging properly again, honestly.

Writers suffer from tinker bell brain they need constant applause or they start believing everything they’ve written is horseshit

*gasp*

It me.

I do get praise, and I'm so, so grateful for it... But there's an insatiable maggot in my brain that spreads B I G imposter syndrome 😵

writers whenever they’re starting a new fic: I have these ✨ vibes ✨ now I’ll have to build an entire plot and write an entire fic about those vibes

The vibes are the captain steering this ship, I'm afraid. The brain has jumped overboard.

the problem with being creative is that you start to feel very guilty when you haven’t created anything in a while

do you get upset when a field isn't ready for harvest at all times? your seeds are doing mysterious things in the dirt. but you have to leave them hidden in the dirt or they won't grow

i know it’s been said before, but it bears repeating: a big, big part of maintaining your confidence & self esteem as a creator is fully embracing the concept of “you don’t have to be good like them.  you can be good like you.”

for example, i’m not someone who’s particularly good at coming up with complex, elaborate plots or incredibly unique ideas.  it’s just not how i choose to write.  and it would be easy for me to look at someone with an elaborate, super unique plot & decide that because i don’t write like that, i’m not a good writer.  after all, unique plots are good, and my writing lacks those, so my writing must not be good, right?  well, no, actually.  i just have different strengths, like taking a simple premise & digging super deep into its emotional depths.  that’s what i do well & it isn’t any better or worse than people who do elaborate world building or come up with really creative and unexpected plots.

your writing is never going to be all things to all people.  it just isn’t.  inevitably, you’ll have to make creative choices that favor certain aspects of writing over others.  there is truly no getting around that & it’s honestly a good thing, because it means you’ve developed your own style.  but you’ll always encounter other creators who posses strengths that you don’t.  it doesn’t mean one is better than the other or that your writing isn’t good enough. 

comparing yourself like that would be like taking a piece of pizza & a cupcake & going “oh no, that cupcake is so sweet & my pizza isn’t sweet at all.” or “gosh, the garlic crust on that pizza is delicious and my cupcake doesn’t have ANY garlic.”  obviously your pizza isn’t sweet.  obviously your cupcake doesn’t have garlic.  a food can’t have every single delicious flavor at once.  the cupcake is good like a cupcake.  the pizza is good like a pizza.  so you don’t have to be good like them.  you can be good like you.

This also means that sometimes you will get writing advice on how to improve your cupcakes and sometimes you will get writing advice on how to add garlic to your cupcakes because the reader doesn’t get that you’re not making a pizza

The best advice comes from people who generally like what you’re going for

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

‘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!

No one reblogs on tumblr anymore.

No one leaves comments on Ao3 anymore.

Seriously people the lack of fandom interaction these days makes me genuinely depressed, it never used to be like this, makes me wonder what's the point of coming online to do anything anymore.

Reblog a post so other people can see it.

Leave a comment so the author doesn't feel like giving up.

Fandom cannot live on Likes or Kudos alone.

You don’t have to interact with every piece of fanwork that you come across, but you do have to interact with fanwork. That’s how it works. Fanwork is not ‘free dlc’ for your favorite media, and it isn’t meant to be passively consumed. Art is communication and fandom is a conversation. Join in! Join in!

It wasn't so long ago that I saw enthusiastic readers organize writing fests, or art prompt events and make extensive rec lists of fics, or resources or meta posts, actively shaping the environment of their fandom. Readers who found an active place in a community and got so much satisfaction from that.

Now the main load falls to those who are creators. Make the thing, promote the thing, get it out to people, then read the stuff of your friends, look around for more and find new artists and writers while working on your next wip, have an offline life and feel bad about not being able to keep up with the series of your friends because, damn, you know they have been kinda down about feeling irrelevant and ignored.

Fandom as a concept and form of community holds so many possibilities and chances because it's full of people creating for creations sake, out of love for something and not for cold profits.

Do you actually understand how special that is?

Creating in a community like that doesn't have to come in the form of fics or art but can also be the creation of events and fandom structures, of inspiration and motivation and... everything you fucking want.

I want to add because this isn't an element that I ever see on these posts: you may have to train/retrain your brain to enjoy and value these types of interactions, and it might feel a little bit like work to do so. Our brains are becoming so trained on quick hits and content that 'expires.' We're also increasingly on an internet that elevates just flat out being mean, which makes interacting scary even though fandom spaces (while not without drama) are generally inviting, esp for those surface level interactions like comments/reblogs. Commenting and interacting with things is supposed to be fun and joyful and community-building, but it might not FEEL like it at first if you aren't used to it or have gotten out of the habit. It might feel tiring or even a little scary. All that to say, you might have to make it a point to comment more and to build those muscles and prove to your brain that it's actually not so bad and is, in fact, kinda nice. You might have to build up to it. "I'll comment on 1/10 fics I read, even if it's just 10 whole characters of a comment." And then you can up the number of comments and experiment with the types of commenting you like to do, until it feels more normal and natural. Until you know you are the type to yell incoherently or the type to comment a string of emoji or the type to leave whole analysis essays using floaty review box. (Maybe you're all depending on the day.) There will still be times you don't feel like it and that's okay. There's times I don't feel like it and I'm an author. There isn't a quota or a requirement. Just joy to be spread and to be had.

People worrying if their fic is too self indulgent like....... that is the point of fanfiction. You are supposed to indulge . Every fic is self indulgent

So I'm going to attempt to bake focaccia tomorrow - never done that before, but found a recipe that looks SO good - although I can't seem to find the right flour. The recipe asks for a 12% protein flour, and I can only find 11% over here (I'm sure I can get the good stuff if I go to a special store, but I don't have the time atm). I do see recipes that use regular all purpose flour, but that bread looks dense and I want those airy bubbles! Anyway, I will give it a try and hope for the best! (if you have focaccia tips for me, please let me know haha)

Focaccia update: she is wet, y'all. I know it's supposed to be a wet dough, but like. Babes. Anyway, I did my stretches and folds (it's a no-knead recipe), and now she's resting in the pan for the last time before we can dimple and add toppings and she can go in the oven. Wish me luck!

A little pale maybe, probably not crispy enough on the bottom, but she looks pretty? Will update to tell you if she's edible after she had a little rest...

It's okay!

Trista Mateer, from The Dogs I Have Kissed

All i wish for 2024 is every creator to start that project they’ve been thinking about, write those fics they have been planning, make messy art, and to have as little burnout as possible.

those posts criticizing common writing patterns in fanfiction are so fucking harmful and they ruined me

so like yknow what??? People tell you to avoid “smirk” and “chuckle” as descriptors because no one does those things (???) but then when I need to use those words I have a ten minute crisis about how I’m a shitty writer. So heres my unwarranted writing advice: If you want your characters to smirk and chuckle fucking let them and don’t let anyone tell you that no one smirks or chuckles because I do both on a daily basis whenever I tell a shitty pun, bye 

Edgy fanfiction critics can eat my entire ass.

Like y’all have never had a chuckle? For shame

” nobody does that”, Well sure, maybe nobody does that when YOU’RE in the room, buddy…

I smirk and I chuckle and I toe off my shoes and I card my fingers through my own hair (don’t have anyone else to do it to, but if I had, I would) and when I’m angry I growl (or wish I could, at least) and I pop the P when I say Yep. And even if I DIDN’T do all those things, the characters I write do, because fuck the language police, it’s my fic.

What a beautiful message to see on my dash.

I GOT A FUCKING RAISE THE POTATO WORKED WTF

This potato works. Every. Fucking. Time.

Then bring me luck

the day after I posted this last time I was notified that I was selected for a really cool mentorship gig and got an unrelated glowing review at work

I have a job interview tomorrow. I can't risk it.

I can't let this pass without reblogging it. I'm so sorry.

a comic about different types of storytellers