Keep Writing Fanfics

Keep Writing Fanfics

I don't know who needs to hear this but, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR FANFICTION! Don't get me wrong there's ups and downs— but that can be said for anything.

The Author & The Reader

When we tell our tales, we impart our messages and beliefs through carefully crafted stories. As a writer, there is no better reward than knowing your story touched the heart of someone, and really made them think about its meaning, the characters, and your world.

All Stories Are Selfish!

Now tell me, is there any greater immersion than someone taking your world and your characters, and using words to creatively articulate their interpretation? Is it not transformative?

Sure, it might be selfish, but aren't all stories? We write to express ourselves. It's about what YOU think, what YOU feel, and what YOU want. The only aspect contrary to that fact is that, we want to impart those feelings and share them. A fanfiction is no different. If anything, it's less selfish— there's an innate connection to someone else's feelings, ideas, and writing. It's collaborative in a sense.

Fanfiction: Good & Bad

Fanfiction is nothing more than a fictional work derived from existing fictional works. For example, Dragon Ball Kakkumei (a Dragon Ball Super fan manga), Long Road (an Undertale fan story), and All the Young Dudes (an LGBTQIA+ Harry Potter fan story).

These projects are all fanfiction because they tell stories that fundamentally rely on characters, worlds, or, even entire stories, authored by another writer. Despite that, they remain transformative in addition something new— despite that they are rarely (if ever) considered canon.

Why Is It Bad?

Fanfiction itself isn't innately bad, but some fanfics can contain morally questionable or rather taboo content. The most common being particular relationship dynamics we would not permit in mainstream media.

Beyond that particular issues. I don't see many problems with fanfics, safe for that some fanfic authors may disregard or contradict aspects of the source material, or fail to credit it cite the source material. In some ways, this can lead some readers to falsely associate a fan with the world of another writer (in the case of smaller fandoms and works).

Why Is It Good?

First and foremost, fan fiction is a large communal aspect of almost all fictional fandoms, one that unites young and old members alike.

Plus, writing (good) fanfiction requires an author to develop certain skills. You must learn to understand each character, develop a working understanding of the setting and its mechanics, and create new/original characters that fit within the world.

Those aren't skills you naturally possess. You have to read, respect, and truly grasp an existing work. When you produce fanfiction, having attained those skills, it demonstrates your commitment and admiration of the source material, while creating something new and beautiful for others to enjoy.

Writing a fan fiction can serve as a quick and easy way to develop a portfolio for your writing capabilities while you learn how to apply your skills as a writer. People generally have lower standards for fan-fics, making them a more casual and light hearted way to get feedback on your writing.

Lastly, fanfictions are tied to a fandom you already know and love, so it's easier to get engaged and motivated— rather than spending a year infrequently trying to build a world while you bounce between 6 projects.

The AO3 Predicament

OP's asker likely feels proud about addressing AO3's less reputable content. AO3 appeals to absolute free speech and thus allows content that may be deemed morally condemnable, outright absurd, or just plain offensive. But what's important to remember is that AO3 IS JUST A PLATFORM.

Sharing your work on AO3 doesn't make you a bad person. People shared HORRIBLE things via mega links on Twitter— but we don't claim every Twitter user is a pedo. Likewise, we don't claim every Wattpad author wants their demographic to be queer teens reading gay smut.

Judge an author by the content of their works, not the platform you found it on.

just so you know, you have some followers who enjoy/write fanfiction. not saying their urls rn bc i don’t wanna air out dirty laundry in public but if you want them so you can block and report, just say the word and i’ll dm you a list

So... statistically speaking cats are tiiny criminals that provide illegal but effective therapy ?

The Kids Aren't Alright

* ~ I'm sorry for making this ~ *

Doomers & Fatalism

Regardless of your age, you need a reason to move forward. You need hope. Yet, it's hard to find hope for teens and young adults.

Not a year goes by without an update on the planet's decline (at our hand), wealth is only feeling more unstable and unequally distributed, a pandemic destroyed any hope of sociability for some, and social media does more harm than good when it "connects" people.

There's no true community, nothing to take pride in, there's hardly motivation for ambition or wealth. Hell, we grow up being told we'll be a generation of renters, because it's a statistical improbability than any of us will EVER afford a home without working 3 jobs into our grave.

I can't speak for America, but I know my government haven't made any real effort to prevent renter's from taking that news and slowly inflating rent costs each month.

I'm a part of the generation that is thought to deal with the broadest range of mental health concerns; however, I'm also part of the generation that's most likely to be told to "deal with it," or "grow up," by the people perpetuating our suffering, or the peers that fell victim to toxic hustle culture— enabling the shitty circumstances.

When you start adulthood with so many problems that directly impact your life, most of which come at no fault of your own, you'd hope for help in addressing those matters, but it never comes.

We're told we're lazy, we don't try hard enough, and we've got it easy (which is a demonstrable lie). How is it any surprise we became hopeless doomers? At some point you just get the idea that we were destined to fail.

Threats of War

Now we're told to be ready for World War 3 and I'm struggling to understand why. What values am I defending? Why should I die for a country that doesn't care about me?

Sure, Ukraine and Palestine are in shitty situations, but saying that doesn't require me to do anything. Though they demonstrate something: the government will risk our lives for money, and turn a blind eye to genocide if it suits them.

All that matters is that we're made to feel like our interests align. They don't represent us. They represent themselves.

Don't get me wrong, I don't support either conflict, and I sympathise with the aforementioned nations; however, I am not willing to die for them— I don't think you are. So is it even fair for us to bother complaining? It's not like diplomacy has done a thing so far.

Whether we're roped into a war or not, it doesn't feel like we'd have a choice.

Hobbies and Corporations

Normally I'd propose finding an outlet for everything. I'm not sure that's ideal anymore. Commonplace hobbies like gaming, sports, martial arts, reading, and art, they require 3 things: time, motivation, and effort.

Thanks to hustle culture, holding 3 jobs, running a drop shipping business, and abandoning any meaningful social life is considered just enough and reasonable. That doesn't leave time for personal hobbies, entertainment, or time to actually live. A life like that is no life at all. You're an animal operating on the exclusive goal of survival. You're alive, but you're not living.

Among those of us too physically or mentally scarred to work like our peers, we compassionately took to pen and paper, or software and devices, writing stories, drawing and animating worlds, or making music.

I fear that pocket of joy is getting smaller. AI image generation has already impacted artists, AI voice recreations are already being used in place of some voice actors, and we've all seen the AI voice covers for songs— claiming "you don't need to learn to sing." It didn't take long for me to see "generative AI" being proposed as a source for track samples and stems in music production.

Considering such things, it's hard to motivate yourself to put your work out there. You struggle to justify spending time creating anything, and you're probably not ready to put the effort into producing enough algorithm optimised works per day. After all, no one will see it. No one cares.

That's how it feels.

Social Media

Maybe we still have digital spaces? Really. Are cespools like Twitter spaces you can enjoy? Even Tumblr is quite detached, with small accounts struggling to get so much as a couple likes— nevermind a reblog, and god forbid you get a comment or DM.

That's minor though, it's the relationships that bother me. The ability to lock someone out of your life, within 5 seconds, for the slightest of perceived infractions. You're sensitive and a snowflake if you need boundaries, and you're "rude" and "mean" when you're pushed too far for not establishing them.

You can join a fandom or community and run into those issues, but do you really need more trouble? Ive hung around with furries since I was 13 or 14. It wasn't a furry that SA'd me, and I've never been groomed. But as a child online, I was labelled as a dog fucking groomer (at 15), because I was in a furry community discord server. I don't like to think about how that made the young adult owner of the server feel.

Social media is good for "satirical trolls," who take pleasure in hurting as many people as they can, and then claiming it's OK because they're joking, and you should've known. Is it really worth the effort for anyone else? You know, us "normal people," not bogged down by million strong fanbases, actively managing parasocial relationships and morally questionable stalking.

Closing Statements

I'm not entirely sure why I wrote this post. I guess I'm just another girl crying on the internet when I should save it for the therapy I can't actually afford.

I want to be hopeful, to feel like there's something attainable to desire, or even just things to look forward to. It's been a long time since I woke up and felt there was a good reason to be awake or even alive.

Thanks,

- The Girl That Doesn't Exist

Identity VS Expression

Gender identity refers to the social category you fall under. Gender expression refers to how you present and portray yourself.

Transgender people have a gender that does not align with their sex. The disparity is what makes them transgender. Non-binary people are those that do not indentify as being specifiically a man or woman. Thus, agender is a non-binary identity where someone does not identity as any particular gender— you just are.

To explain gender expression, I'll use the internet best boys. Femboys. If we break it down, we get femme/feminine, and boys. As such, femboys are guys that express themselves through femininity traits or qualities. But, despite those particular things, they still consider themselves a guy.

I am not talking about the "femboys aesthetic." That's a fashion trend or style that is accessible to anyone, regardless of their gender identity.

If you consider yourself a woman, and you simply don't want to be viewed in a sexual context. You're more likely a cis girl that just doesn't like the idea of being sexualised. That's quite normal.

But, if you have an actual aversion to sex, or maybe you just don't feel much sexual/romantic attraction, it could be worth looking into the spectrum of asexual Identities.

Does Gender Even Matter

Yes... And no. Gender is a a social construct. There isn't a physical thing called "gender" that you can find. We have sex, which refers to our physical biology. But gender refers to social categories we attribute certain qualities to. So they don't matter outside of human social exchanges. Social constructs have value within human social contexts, because they represent mutually recognised ideas or concepts we deem useful. If you remove humans from the equation, gender has no place, value, or meaning.

What's agender like? Or non binary? Like, I'm fairly indifferent about my gender. I would prefer not to have a uterus, honestly. I'm not a fan of anyone seeing me in a sexual way, but I like to look traditionally aesthetically attractive. I like my boobs, and I like my hourglass figure. But at the same time, sometimes I'd like to look like a dorito. I figure I identify as female since I pretty much like my body the way it looks. 🤷‍♀️

What does it mean to identify as a gender, anyway?

I should probably just goole it.

It’s so strange seeing a trans person talk about insecurity. You literally couldn’t accept your physical body, so much that you had to change it. 💀

TLDR: You don't actually understand the difference between gender dysphoria and simply being trans

Actual Response

Really? I don't see the uncertainty. In fact I had so much certainty, I couldn't accept inaction. That's the beautiful thing about introspection and self awareness.

Did you even know that some trans people aren't particularly bothered by their body? Being transgender means your sex does not match you gender. Having gender dysphoria means it significantly bothers you.

But please, talk to me about insecurity when you're brave enough to question me without the anonymity toggle.

And please, let me help you out. Bring my BPD into question. The disorder is known for instability and insecurity.

Oh wait, that just means I'm experienced enough to speak on the matter. It's almost like, I've learnt to identify insecure behaviours and correct them.

Not that I expect a clown like yourself to understand. Feel free to keep dick riding your friend. They were pathetic enough to block me when I pointed out their lack of any real argument— I don't expect much better from you.