Fic Writing Updates:

Fic Writing Updates:

I have WIPs and no time or intrinsic motivation to nudge any of them over from Drabble Style Paragraphs into Complete Scenes and Thoughts. However, the fuel for my brain that is my reading 100+ books last year has kept my private writerly experiments quite fun. Maybe sometime later this year, I will have something I feel the need to share again.

I think more people need to understand that fics are not books. Aside from the occasional professional writing it on the side of their published work, fanfiction is written by amateurs in their spare time. Do some of these amateurs write at a professional level? Yes, of course. But you shouldn't have the expectations going in that you would have for a book you paid money for. There's a bare minimum expectation of quality there, because it was written and edited by professionals (supposedly, in some cases). Is it extremely obnoxious to find a bunch of poor grammar and typos in something professionally produced that you paid actual cash money for? Yes. Is it appropriate to vent about the poor quality in a review on whichever platform you use to rate books? Sure. It's pretty unprofessional to put out a crap book that was half-assedly proofread and then charge, in this day and age, quite a bit of money for it

But a fic author doesn't owe you professionalism. You're reading a free story on the internet. Even fics with betas usually do not have actual professional editors working on them. There isn't even a veneer of quality gatekeeping the way there is in traditional publishing. The stupidest person you know could write some gay porn and throw it up online. Literal children are writing fics. People learning a second language are using fic to practice their skills.

If you find something unreadable because of the grammar and spelling, just click out of it. It's not that deep. It's not a personal affront. It's not something you need to bitch or snark about in the comments. It's usually pretty apparent very early on if something isn't technically well-written. I cannot even count the number of times I've read a paragraph or two of a fic and quit because I know the punctuation or writing style isn't something I can overlook. You don't owe the author your time and they don't owe you the correct 'their.' If you're so angry that a free story you found on the internet isn't well-written that you have to leave a scathing comment about it, go the fuck outside and breathe some fresh air.

when the story is just not working, but you keep writing anyway

The 'write for yourself uwu' culture shift has done real damage to fic writers imo. I recently had a post on the importance of strategic commenting break containment and I'm surprised by how many strangers who rb it in agreement feel the need to reassure in the tags that they do write for themselves, but...

There is a kernel of truth in the heart of this sentiment--if you only chase stats, you are unlikely to find joy in your writing. At the same time, I think we've veered too far in the other direction.

It is only natural to want engagement and the write for yourself crowd often overlooks how communal an effort fic writing usually is. So many story ideas are born from casual discussions about h/c's and favourite scenes and what ifs and the comment box is a cornerstone of this process. Not only can the discussions in the comment box be a hub for idea generation on their own, but even when the said idea generation takes place in DMs or Discord chats, commenting is often the first/easiest way into befriending authors; it's where community building starts.

Further, the write for yourself crowd similarly overlooks that the things a writer can write for themselves are often vast and many at any given time, and relative engagement levels across fandoms/ships can play a large part in which of those ideas a writer chooses to pursue--or whether they choose to publish their finished work at all.

In sum, I don't think we need to be this apologetic as writers for wanting feedback and engagement for what we post -- writing is hard work and it's only human that we want something external out of it in turn, however rewarding the process might intrinsically be.

Been hearing this is a problem again. Don't be a dick in bookmarks, folks. And yes while I made this image, I'm giving free reign. Take it. Spread it far and wide. Because I'm hearing that some readers don't know that their bookmarks are visible.

A brief moment of rationality from the bird place.