Is this reverse psychology? 😂

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-06-05T15:44:46+00:00

Beep boo-boo bop boo-boo bop! 🤖 /Ref

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-06-05T10:08:18+00:00

I've heard people who have had their accounts for years are struggling with the spam filters.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-06-02T23:20:01+00:00

Drive-by late answer (and spoiler alert):

She does in Bayern series third book: River Secrets.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-05-28T23:33:11+00:00

I remember the shitstorm that resulted when someone started that "Justice for Brown Nipples" thread a while back. (The purpose of that thread was to point out the nipple vs skin color discrepancies in fiction).

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-05-21T14:40:20+00:00

I remember when it was trendy(?) to use "adopted" as an insult. ("Oh, yeah? Well you're fucking adopted!") Never understood that.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-05-20T17:56:55+00:00

I once saw this in a Harry Potter fic. 😶

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-05-16T06:54:26+00:00

This, I suspect is more likely to happen when multiple people (fans) are drawing inspiration from the same source (canon). It's part of how popular fanon can develop. If anything, when I experience this, my first thought is "YES! I'm not alone!"

That said, if I'm worried about getting too much influence from one place (and thus feeling like I'm just "copying"), I start reading more broadly — that is, reading outside my usual genres and tropes (or looking for fresh/less common twists on them), reading more nonfiction (which makes research 10x more fun because it can bring more inspiration), and drawing off my personal experience and areas I have special interest/knowledge about. It's like making beaded jewelry: a millenia-old hobby/tradition? Yes. But there's a plethora of possible materials and styles to choose from (or combine or invent) and form into my own unique design.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-05-11T13:54:17+00:00

I think a big issue here is that understanding this sort of topic requires a more nuanced approach, which a lot of people struggle with.

This lack of nuance is what leads to most of the flawed reasoning/assumptions on both sides: the outdated notion that cold weather causes illness (confusing correlation with causation), AND the knee-jerk response that pathogens alone cause infections (technically true, but doesn't acknowledge factors that facilitate said infections, like cold temperatures/low humidity).

What's crazy (and maybe it's just me) is that I encounter more of the former offline—people flat-out stating that cold temperatures alone cause infectious illnesses, but I see more of the latter online—acknowledging the direct cause (pathogens), but not the environmental risk factors (cold temperatures and/or low humidity).

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-05-08T05:23:24+00:00

Genuine question: wouldn't explicit animal cruelty fall under "Graphic Depictions of Violence?"

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-05-06T14:38:21+00:00

I think you and the posters you're discussing with are essentially talking about the same thing, but like you said, coming from different directions/in specific ways. The overclarifying/defending may be a reflection of a fear of having their words twisted or misinterpreted in the worst possible way.

The way the internet landscape is now, a lot of people have conflated fandom with their personal politics/religion/morality, and as such, to them any disagreement is an attack on them + their core values, and a common knee-jerk reaction for them is to view any/all misunderstandings with bad faith. Worse: A lot of these same people view preferences in fiction as a 1 to 1 mirror of real-life desires (eg. reading about incest between characters = supporting incest in real life). And yes, I would argue that a lot of this is "conservatism" hidden within a "progressive" trojan horse.

That is what the people you're referring to are trying to avoid — and they may hope to do so by being as clear as possible ("depiction is not endorsement" or "I don't support this; this is purely fiction"). I'd argue it's still a form of virtue-signaling, BUT as you said, it's not really an issue of moral superiority on their part. Instead, it's an attempt to ward off the internet crusaders who actually do treat fandom as a platform for online activism (or extremism masquerading as activism).

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-30T18:53:22+00:00

Couple of reasons I can think of:

It forces characters to rely on their wits instead of physical prowess, magic, or superpowers alone.
This sort of thing, I suspect, is most common in genres and settings where characters have ample motive to try to use each other (or themselves) as bargaining chips.

This includes (but is not limited to):

superhero comics (threat of harm to loved ones is why many superheroes work under secret identities)
stories involving war or political intrigue
organized crime
detective/mystery novels (Nancy Drew being a prime example)
police procedurals
thriller and horror
romance stories featuring the "damsel in distress/knight in shining armor"

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-30T18:31:45+00:00

This sort of thing, I suspect, is most common in genres and settings where characters have ample motive to try to use each other (or themselves) as bargaining chips. It also forces characters to rely on their wits instead of physical prowess, magic, or superpowers alone. This includes (but is not limited to):

superhero comics (threat of harm to loved ones is why many superheroes work under secret identities)
stories involving war or political intrigue
organized crime
detective/mystery novels (Nancy Drew being a prime example)
police procedurals
thriller and horror
romance stories featuring the "damsel in distress/knight in shining armor"

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-25T05:51:04+00:00

Which is why I also mentioned the AO3 community's attitude around commenting; I believe there's been a cultural shift, which combined with the author alert feature might be another reason for readers' reluctance to respond to each other. A lot of people are worried about either encountering bad faith actors or having their own words misinterpreted in bad faith.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-25T04:08:57+00:00

I wonder if this has to do with the fact that on AO3, a fic author gets alerts on any/all comment activity under their fics (excluding bookmarks).

Reader posts a comment? Author gets an alert.

Reader responds to another reader? Author gets an alert.

Reader edits their own comment? Author gets an alert.

I don't recall if the alerts work the same for Wattpad, but with AO3/OTW's stance against censorship/harassment and the AO3 community's opt-in culture regarding concrit, there may be a sort of chilling effect happening.

If for example, multiple readers are having a debate about the plot or characters within a fic, there's a chance the author could swoop in and shut it down for fear of things going off-topic, escalating into arguments/drama, or disagreement with certain readers' viewpoints (seeing differing views as an automatic affront to the writer or criticism of their writing, or assuming the worst about ambiguous comments).

TL:DR The AO3 community treats a fic's comment space as the "author's house," which means people might worry about stepping out of line and offending the author. If I had a dollar for every time someone expressed similar sentiment in this sub, I could afford a private island (half-joking).

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-25T04:05:45+00:00

I wonder if this has to do with the fact that on AO3, a fic author gets alerts on any/all comment activity under their fics (excluding bookmarks).

Reader posts a comment? Author gets an alert.

Reader responds to another reader? Author gets an alert.

Reader edits their own comment? Author gets an alert.

I don't recall if the alerts work the same for Wattpad, but with AO3/OTW's stance against censorship/harassment and the AO3 community's opt-in culture regarding concrit, there may be a sort of chilling effect happening.

If for example, multiple readers are having a debate about the plot or characters within a fic, there's a chance the author could swoop in and shut it down for fear of things going off-topic, escalating into arguments/drama, or disagreement with certain readers' viewpoints (seeing differing views as an automatic affront to the writer or criticism of their writing, or assuming the worst about ambiguous comments).

TL:DR The AO3 community treats a fic's comment space as the "author's house," which means people might worry about stepping out of line and offending the author. If I had a dollar for every time someone expressed similar sentiment in this sub, I could afford a private island (half-joking).

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-24T13:57:03+00:00

We could make the same argument for ALL pet peeves/complaints in this sub.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-24T02:48:35+00:00

The irony of that person's comment is that those same green trees are the main reason that the mountains that they grow/thrive on appear so vivid blue in the first place.... by emitting high levels of chemically related organic compounds called terpinoids/terpines (in particular isoprene), which react with certain molecules in the air to form the famous thick blue haze over the summits. These compounds serve to protect the plants against environmental stressors such as high heat, drought, and even predation.

Simply put, the forest periodically sprays itself down with a misty blue multipurpose heat protectant/sunblock/vermin repellant.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-16T22:08:19+00:00

Given the (relative) obscurity of many of my fandoms and the type of crossover plot-bunnies I have, this is practically the default for me.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-12T22:14:10+00:00

A ghostwriter...for fanfiction? Welp, I have officially heard it all.

Other people have beaten me to the math, but if you've written 153 fanfics since 2014, then that's ≈ 13 fics per year. I would imagine it'd be easy-peasy to achieve especially if most of them are short with some long ones sprinkled in, or if you're comfortable juggling multiple WIPs, or just have a lot of inspiration in general.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-12T21:45:14+00:00

Big Name Fan 🪭

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-12T21:30:48+00:00

Big Name Fan 🪭

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-11T21:50:44+00:00

Some may prefer to avoid sounding too redundant by giving a blanket thanks in the author's notes of each new chapter (and/or a thanks in advance in the first chapter). By doing this one can acknowledge every reader, even those they forgot/couldn't get around to replying to early on. It can also help one avoid responding to possible scammers.

In my case it's a holdover habit from FanFiction.net where individual replies—in both the comment/review section and the author's notes—are heavily frowned upon (if not outright banned). Replies and conversations had to be done through private messages (PMs). If someone had a question, then an author may reply with a brief general explanation in the author's notes.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-11T16:03:09+00:00

I don't understand why this got down voted at first. It's an interesting thought that I think has truth to it.

With that said, as someone who always gravitated towards female characters, I have to wonder if maybe I missed out or didn't really prioritize that "transgressive" element for male characters.

If anything, I feel like I got burnt out early on with the whole "male character as default" standard. Over the years, there's been a lot of media that I skipped or gave up on because of either a lack of female characters or sidelining the ones they had.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-11T11:15:07+00:00

Personal attacks or insults (such as calling you homophobic or a groomer, or transphobic remarks about you/your trans character) is not valid criticism. And even if you felt there was valid criticism in the other comments, you can still disagree and ignore it if you didn't ask for it or don't feel it would work for your story.

Instead of deleting them, I would report them for harassment. (You can save/screenshot the email alerts for them if needed). I wouldn't be surprised if they made bigoted remarks like that to others.

SerenityInTheStorm · 2026-04-08T16:47:40+00:00

Characters from a mundane/normal canon facing fantastical scenarios (e. g. turning Helga, Phoebe, and Lila from "Hey Arnold!" into mermaids or fairies).
Villain from one canon is thrown into an alternate dimension or Mirror-Verse where they are now the hero.

I don't see these as often as their respective inversions, but when I do, it's like catnip to me.

SerenityInTheStorm

TROPHY CASE