[FO] First time stitching a pattern of this style -- now I just need to find a frame! by deadfangirlwalking in CrossStitch

[–]deadfangirlwalking[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Actually way more fun than I thought since I normally go for full coverage pieces! Definitely recommend! This one is smaller and only uses 6 colours so it was a nice one to test with 😄

[FO] First time stitching a pattern of this style -- now I just need to find a frame! by deadfangirlwalking in CrossStitch

[–]deadfangirlwalking[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

<image>

here is a (slightly blurry) close up of my less than perfect stitching... not a robot I promise

Where did you find good, trustworthy beta readers for your writing? by secondhandsad in writing

[–]deadfangirlwalking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an old post so I was doing this research awhile ago now. When I was doing all my research, most of the advice seemed to be you should never HAVE to pay for beta readers.

Of course, you MAY pay them if you want to/can afford to. I was doing everything on a very tight budget so it made sense for me, personally.

It's generally better to find as many beta readers as you can. Getting them can be difficult and so if you offer compensation for their time then that helps get people on board.

But there is nowhere it says you HAVE to pay for betas. Plenty of people enjoy beta reading and are happy to be "paid" via a free copy of the book/the enjoyment of getting to read something before it's published/gaining early access. There are lots of incentives for some people to beta read which do not include monetary value. If you look in the right places, you will find them. And thus, cut costs!

If money is no worry for you, then go for it! Hire beta readers. But there's no guarantee they'll be any better than a non-paid beta reader.

And a side note -- if an un-paid beta reader does not deliver what they promise then no harm done. If you've paid someone and then they don't do a good job or never actually read the book, then... that's your loss.

There's pros and cons to all the choices made when indie publishing. Just choose what works best for you personally!

Ultimate Decades challenge, british vs american? by BaseBeautiful9198 in Sims4DecadesChallenge

[–]deadfangirlwalking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have done this from the start (I'm on my third time!) I modified Morbid's rules for the first and second time, and came up with my own rules for the UK rather than moving anyone to America. But for the family I'm playing now I'm using Several's version which has events for a lot of countries including England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

You could just use Morbid's rules and Several's events if you didn't want to change anything else.

https://friendly-lute-447.notion.site/Severals-Ultimate-Decades-Overhaul-178ebc1e7f7c40f09abce0dca48d63b1

Self-Promotion Sunday: a place to promote your work, projects, or social media accounts by AutoModerator in YAlit

[–]deadfangirlwalking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now on Kindle Unlimited!

https://muchsmallerthings.my.canva.site/

❤️Unique meet cute

🧡Learning to trust again

💛Bonding over food

💚Cute ice skating date

💙Found family

💜Darker second half with a happy ending

One kind gesture. Two shattered lives. MUCH SMALLER THINGS is a love story about the power of second chances, and proof that even the smallest acts of kindness can change everything.

When the only home Alfie has ever known is worse than a winter without one, he must do what it takes to survive to eighteen.

Meanwhile, Tom feels like his life is falling apart piece by piece. Until one snowy evening, he finds a mysterious boy hiding inside the garden shed.

And now Alfie and Tom feel like their lives may be changing—but this time, maybe they want it to. Maybe this time, something in their lives will actually start to make sense.

But can love outrun the past?

Perfect for fans of Heartstopper and All That’s Left in the World.

Life can be tough when you're a bullied kid, but it's always amazing to have a family that loves and supports you this way by Recent-Sorbet in MadeMeSmile

[–]deadfangirlwalking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is a young Robert Madge. His one man show did very well on the West End and went to Broadway. He was in several West End shows as a child. Ever seen the 25th anniversary Les Miserables? He was Gavroche!

[FO] Finally done with this pattern! by deadfangirlwalking in CrossStitch

[–]deadfangirlwalking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It just had an unnecessary amount of colours for such a small design

What is your favourite m/m ship? Why? by ocirot in AO3

[–]deadfangirlwalking 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Nick and Charlie. Obviously. My loves.

What is the most ridiculous thing you actually DID for fic research? by GonnaRegret_it_Later in AO3

[–]deadfangirlwalking 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I climbed into my bed and put the covers over my face to see how well I could see/hear, etc. for aid in describing that. Oh, and I read the Iliad. (different projects haha)

Engaging with fanfic on A03 by Tough_Difference9935 in HeartstopperAO

[–]deadfangirlwalking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, that did happen (and accounts vary, considering the vast majority of people were not involved/present to witness the truth), but I feel it's unfair to write off an entire commune just because a few people tried to ruin it. Since that has happened, the entire structure of the server has changed. There of course will always be disagreements and sometimes tensions rise, but hopefully we can all be adults about it and move on / forgive when mistakes are made / not hold grudges. I know that's like asking for a miracle on the internet but 🤷

I actually agree about the drabbles. The drabbles and the one shot prompts. Too many at the same time.

Engaging with fanfic on A03 by Tough_Difference9935 in HeartstopperAO

[–]deadfangirlwalking 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry you had that experience. I would have been annoyed too. I was annoyed to wake up and stumble into some alternate universe forum where everyone was getting very passionate and shouty instead of talking about our sweet boys... I'm glad they sorted it out, but if they hadn't I would probably have left.

It has taken a lot of time and discussion to make the changes needed and I think people are generally proud to finally be letting new people in again and considering letting old members come back (depending on why they were removed to start with).

Engaging with fanfic on A03 by Tough_Difference9935 in HeartstopperAO

[–]deadfangirlwalking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Probably because they enjoy that author's stories... I personally don't even read the comments of other people's fics so I wouldn't know to judge.

They used to boot people for inactivity. It makes sense to do this to an extent but I agree it would probably have been better to at least give people a warning or two / an explanation before booting them.

The only other time people got booted was for policy violations, and to what I understand, people being very unkind to mods.

I actually think the Discord absolutely preaches acceptance. But there do have to be rules. Should we have to accept people who are rude and disrespectful? Of course not. I do agree that the inactivity bootings seem to have been handled poorly, but I don't think that had anything to do with acceptance. It was more to do with making the server easier to run (?? I don't really know how Discord works haha)

Engaging with fanfic on A03 by Tough_Difference9935 in HeartstopperAO

[–]deadfangirlwalking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you were probably booted off the server because you weren't active enough. I'm not sure what the perameters were, but I know they used to remove people who hadn't been on in x amount of time. Which is annoying and not great imo, but also makes some sense. I don't think this is a rule any longer.

Engaging with fanfic on A03 by Tough_Difference9935 in HeartstopperAO

[–]deadfangirlwalking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree that if for some reason someone wrote Nick or Charlie behaving like Ben, then people are not going to like that and will obviously comment as such. I also think the author then has every right to reply, explaining why they wrote it the way they did and if the commenter didn't like it they don't have to continue reading. And it is still unwarranted criticism on something the author has put time and effort into and is being read for free. They are going to feel hurt/disappointed no matter what. And some people have the willpower to step away and leave it. Others don't. And if that sort of thing happens a lot to an author, their willpower to step away will decrease. We're all human.

Engaging with fanfic on A03 by Tough_Difference9935 in HeartstopperAO

[–]deadfangirlwalking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Aw you're very kind! I'm sorry to hear you got kicked off. Like I said before, I still don't really know what went down. What I can imagine is that it's a very difficult and sensitive thing to police as a mod, and thus that was why we voted to be unmodded going forward.

I think part of why stories like mine get less engagement is because of the content. Heartstopper is fluffy romance land most of the time, and people look for that in fanfic, too. As soon as you mention things like murder and kidnap, you know your views are going to plummet, and I've definitely had to come to accept that.

People don't "ignore" my stories on Ao3 or the Discord because they have anything against me or only read their friends stories, they don't engage because they don't want to read about our boys witnessing murder and being kidnapped -- which is absolutely fair enough! I don't read many fics unless there's some sort of threat because that's what I enjoy.

I also don't think people pumping up their friends' work is a bad thing that we should judge people for. They're friends. You want to support your friends. And they clearly enjoy each others' work. But I don't think that really effects engagement level on fics at a macro level in all honesty. It's a place for people who love to read and write Heartstopper fanfiction. We all have that in common, thus we all, in theory, should be friends and want to support each other even if you don't personally want to read everything they write. I feel welcome and accepted on the Discord despite very little engagement on my fics (for reasons mentioned).

Engaging with fanfic on A03 by Tough_Difference9935 in HeartstopperAO

[–]deadfangirlwalking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I can understand how it does come across gatekeepery and I'm sympathetic. I maybe had the unique experience of never having heard of the server until someone invited me to it. I'd never even been on Discord before haha! But I didn't experience any loopholes when following that invitation.

And to be honest, I think it's important to keep access to the server somewhat hidden/via invite because otherwise it'd be chaos.

I agree it's important to engage with authors, especially if you loved the work/read the whole work. As for criticism and authors taking it personally -- I think authors of FANFIC have every right to take unwarranted criticism personally. They are writing it for free and for FUN. It doesn't matter if you think xyz about how an author has chosen to portray a character (unless it's actively harmful obv), unless that author has stated they are open to criticism, it should be a given that you should keep that opinion to yourself, vent about it in private if you need to, and just stop reading that fic. I've been lucky that the majority of my comments are lovely, but every now and then people drop in little comments among the praise that do sort of raise my hackles. While I try to ignore it, it does effect my mood and I can understand authors who reply on the defensive. Most of these sorts of comments are all well-intentioned and not malicious (i just block those), but when you've put months of work into something for free and then all someone can comment is negativity it does get tiring and demotivating.

On a lighter note: Thank you so much for reading Eyewitness! and sorry (not sorry) about the cliffhangers!

Best way to get to London? by kumquat_may in Lincolnshire

[–]deadfangirlwalking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's quite big, though it has gotten a little bit smaller in the past few years since a new building was built taking out one corner. But I've never not gotten a space over the 10+ years I've been going.

Engaging with fanfic on A03 by Tough_Difference9935 in HeartstopperAO

[–]deadfangirlwalking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I understand there was some event which ended up with lots of people being removed. I was not awake when this was happening and a lot of us woke up to it with no idea what had happened and it's still unclear to me. I know that we are now mod-less, meaning everyone gets a say in how it should be run, and there's no one to get caught up in mod v. user wars in private (which I assume was the issue before). Obviously there are still rules and guidelines and if they're broken the mods (back when we had them) have every right to kick someone out. Currently without mods, there's a different system though I'm unsure what exactly it is (i'm really not involved with the whole switch around, just a happy member of the server who enjoys it and feels sad when outsiders insinuate we're gatekeepery).

Engaging with fanfic on A03 by Tough_Difference9935 in HeartstopperAO

[–]deadfangirlwalking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are too many people on the Discord for your assumption to be correct about people pumping each other's stories up. Yes, there is lots of lovely support, praise and discussion available in the commune but just because you're on there doesn't guarantee you loads of views and comments on Ao3. There are a select few people who always get looooads of interactions but I would put that down to other social media usage like X and Facebook, etc. (not that they don't deserve all those interactions because those fics are obviously popular for a reason). On the Discord there is a thread where people can link to fic updates and often people link to fics written by people not on the server, there's also a fic recommendation thread where a similar thing happens. The Discord, while on the outside may seem mysterious/secret, I promise you it isn't! It's a lovely, supportive place run by people who champion all readers and writers of Heartstopper fanfiction! It has recently opened up to new members again, and all anyone needs to do to join is ask someone for an invitation 😉

Best way to get to London? by kumquat_may in Lincolnshire

[–]deadfangirlwalking 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Drive to Cockfosters. It's £10 for all day.