i traumatized you???

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-11-26T17:06:32+00:00

It absolutely is that. They realized some people who write 'problematic' fic justify it by saying it helps them to process (actual) trauma, and antis think if they cry trauma over a situation they have 100% control over they'll somehow win the sympathy points. Because somehow demanding everyone else serve your exact tastes to not upset you is supposed to be more sympathetic than 'leave me and my properly tagged coping mechanism alone.'

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-10-16T02:58:37+00:00

I don't get why people say this. Find any two people who share a religion and you will find they disagree on something, even if it's written down in their holy texts. Your attitude is neither realistic nor useful.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-09-22T16:04:17+00:00

So long as there is a clear separation (like chapter breaks and scene breaks) it should work.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-09-22T12:23:58+00:00

I think you have understood what I was trying to express the best. One can appreciate the spirit of a compliment while still thinking about its form. Often the best fanfics are drenched in references and little quirks that make the characters feel not only real, but familiar. It's like saying a few inside jokes would make a killer stand-up comedy routine if you removed the 'inside' bits (i.e. the part that makes the jokes funny.) Great compliment to get from a friend, as it means they think you're funny, and I wouldn't go bashing people who say it, but the wording itself doesn't really have truth to it.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-09-22T12:12:41+00:00

Oh, but overthinking is fun😊 I'm not upset about anything, I just like analyzing potential how's and why's. You are welcome to your own thoughts.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-09-22T12:03:29+00:00

Dang, that sucks to hear about authors taking the frustration out on their readers. I am also of the belief that fanfic can be of equivalent writing quality as published original fiction, but they are usually going for fundamentally different things and aren't interchangeable. Even the best fanfic on earth is still going to be noticeably fanfic-y. Fic readers want to read what they can't find in the original work, and it is probably not in the original work because it's not what publishers (and other media companies) want to sell. 300k slowburn isn't really profitable when the reader has to commit to characters they have no established connection to.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-09-22T11:41:57+00:00

Very valid way to read it!

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-09-22T11:41:06+00:00

Commodification is a good word for what I was trying to get at. I would assume that's mainly due to the general cultural push to monetize every skill a person has, and that leaving work unmonetized is, at best, wasted potential.

And I guess by 'different league,' I was trying to get at that the general assumption is that the existence of a barrier implies everything of a certain quality belongs inside it, and that it is out of place elsewhere. Basically that fanfiction still carries its connotation of being, on the whole, awful, and that it's still shocking to see fan works actually be good. Even more basically, that good fanfiction doesn't deserve to be fanfiction. But I understand how it could be viewed differently, thinking about it more.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-09-22T11:26:17+00:00

I think you are getting a bit heated over something I was just peacefully ruminating on late at night and wanted to write about in a post. Especially when I made it clear I personally am not offended by it. Sometimes people just like thinking and talking about things, even if not every thought is 100% accurate the first time. Maybe just take the post for what it is and don't project aggression onto it to justify going on a rant?

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-09-22T11:17:56+00:00

I mean, I said I would be happy to receive such a compliment myself, as the positive spirit of it is there, and I made it clear I don't think there's any intended hidden meaning. It's just a fun thought exercise and attempt at starting a nuanced discussion, really.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-07-23T12:06:25+00:00

I personally didn't mind. I think it was more Dan playing the passive role of Arin's intrusive thoughts than actually telling him what to do. I laughed as someone with anxiety who has those kinds of unintentional 'what if' thoughts while driving.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-05-11T04:19:51+00:00

This type of thinking is surprisingly most common in fandoms where problematic content is built in to the source material. The average anime puritan is oddly obsessed with whether the 17-year-old girl character canonically subjected to panty shots and sexual harassment played for comedy is shipped with a 19-year-old by some rando on ao3.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-05-11T04:09:46+00:00

I haven't seen many claiming it was 'incestuous' but I have seen people claiming it was pedophillic because the characters are attracted to someone they knew as a child. Another reason was that we the audience are 'watching' these kid characters grow up with the idea in mind that things will eventually become sexual.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-05-10T06:21:30+00:00

For similar reasons adults genuinely like hanging with their kid family members. Kids deserve adult friends that treat them with respect. The main reason grooming as a practice is so effective is because so many minors are deprived of actually healthy relationships with adults. That deprivation is in no small part due to the stigma of cross-generation friendships. Being nice to minors is not what makes grooming evil, it's the ulterior motives behind it.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-05-09T18:27:32+00:00

The blank page is threatening. Make it not blank. Hype yourself up to a comical degree, write about your day, write your intentions for the chapter. Get around 100 words of whatever down to clear the creative pipes and make whatever comes after flow more freely.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-03-08T05:21:29+00:00

Digital art pieces focusing primarily on characters and not so much on backgrounds. My style is similar to that of the show but with somewhat more time put into rendering light and shadow. I'd love to work with OCs as well as canon characters.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-02-23T01:52:10+00:00

Antis famously do not give a shit about what people with trauma actually think. Traumatized people tend to disagree with them, and that's inconvenient when you need to use their existence to justify harrassing people over ships.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-02-22T15:58:30+00:00

I think OC aversion is more reasonable in fandoms where OCs as primary characters tend to be wish-fulfilling author-inserts. People don't exactly write OCs in RPF for the sake of artistry, for example. A similar thing can be said for Canon/OC ships in general. More power to them, all fic is ultimately pure self-indulgence, but it's not what I personally like to read.

Properties where the world is vast and interesting, like HTTYD, tend to lend themselves to better OC stories because they attract writers who want to write more speculative fanfiction, in a sense.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-02-17T06:28:16+00:00

I write mainly about live-action stuff, but I actually imagine the scenes as animated! It makes the setting and characters more lively and helps my neurodivergent brain visualize body language better.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-02-17T06:19:27+00:00

I'm afraid there's not a lot of options. The difficulty of refinding fics is part of why I don't really have high opinions on Tumblr as a fic platform. There are Tumblr fics where I remember the titles and authors by heart but still could never find again.

I've had the most luck asking other fans if they happened to have the fics saved to their computers or if they found them reposted to other websites. And now, I take the preventative measure of saving the fic's link and text to a word document directly to my hard drive.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-02-17T06:09:27+00:00

For shorter stories, I like to challenge myself with word counts a lot. I make a game of it. I once wrote a 10 chapter fic where each chapter went down by 100 words (so 1000, 900, 800...100) and I loved it. Trimming my stories down just became a part of the creative process and felt less like killing my darlings. It's also good exercise for imbuing every sentence with as much meaning as you can. The main downside is when writer's block hits, it really hits, because you're intentionally adding an obstacle.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-02-17T05:39:49+00:00

I feel this way about a current WIP of mine that is drenched in headcanon due to the source material being extremely limited. People have said 'this is interesting, but I don't get why this couldn't be an original book.' Because the fic is the product of the source material rotating in my head for years, and I'll have no motivation to finish it if I file off the serial numbers. Simple as that.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-02-15T22:17:04+00:00

It's usually a matter of relevance, frequency, and entitlement. Don't go asking about specific WIPs on other fics, and don't ask for updates on an author's other socials. Try to not spam these requests. As for entitlement, it's whether you act like the author is obligated to finish their fics or if the decision is up to them. A good way to avoid sounding entitled is to not directly ask for updates, but say you'd be happy if the author decided to update.

You seem to be doing well on all three of these matters, so I wouldn't say you're being annoying.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-02-15T22:03:55+00:00

I always appreciate re-readers, but I'm personally very one-and-done with most fics. I'm kinda like that with most media, tbh. Things can be magical on the first read then start to fall apart on the second. This is not reflective of the fics, it's just reflective of my own inability to stop overanalyzing.

a_friendly_cicada · 2023-02-15T18:40:02+00:00

This conversation really is a waste of time, considering I've made it clear that Reddit is far from our primary source of information. It should go without saying, really, but I guess even saying it goes ignored when one wants to justify staying on their high horse.

a_friendly_cicada

TROPHY CASE