The Day That You Understand That Fanfiction Has No Literary/value Difference To Published Literature

The day that you understand that fanfiction has no literary/value difference to published literature and writing is the day you will understand exactly why readers and authors need a symbiotic relationship in fanfiction media just as much as the published author and their reader.

Right now, you have unlimited access to free literature.

I don't think a lot of you fully grasp the actual, true meaning of that. You are accessing literally as much content as you want, that you have had to do absolutely nothing for, for free. And often on a single website that you are also accessing for free, and don't need a hundred and one different kinds of log-ins or passwords or paid subscriptions to access.

If I want to read a specific type of story, I don't have to spend gas money to go to the bookstore that might not have the story I want, or funnel money into a blood corporation like Amazon to access it. I don't even have to pay someone for the time and effort and skill it took for them to write it.

I can go to my search bar. I can type in 'AO3' and I can access 141 variants of the same story for free and all in less time than it takes for my morning coffee to brew.

I am accessing content that cost these authors literal hours of their lives. Their time, their skills, their research, all for free, and I have to do absolutely nothing in return for it.

We take this kind of freedom and resource for granted, and even more so the people who actually enable us to have it in the first place.

Writers who talk about wanting engagement aren't being greedy, needy or selfish. They're not writing just for the 'clout' or whatever kind of half-cocked accusation you want to make. They're asking because engagement is what fuels more content. More community fulfilment. More productivity.

A lot of writers write for themselves, but they also write because its something they want to share with other people. Its a contribution to a shared interest. Its longevity to the enjoyment you experience within that space. Its a continuity of a limited source.

So many people sneer at fanfiction authors who offer commissions and it genuinely makes me want to rattle them all like a marble in a bean can.

Because you pay for books. Because someone took the time to write it. You don't sneer at the rows and rows of books in stores. You don't demean the authors who spent literal hours, sometimes even decades of their lives writing them.

People who write fanfiction are still authors.

Fanfiction is still literature.

Fanfiction's existence depends entirely on the authors.

Appreciate what you have. Understand the value in what you are being given.

Basic gratitude and respect is by far the absolutely minimum you should be giving in exchange for quite literally all the free literature you could ever want, on demand.

If there's any advice I could give people on a smaller food budget, its where possible, invest in sauces and seasonings or make your own.

(There are tons of low-cost, high-output recipes for making your own sauces, dried powders, growing your own herbs in small pots indoors, ect.)

I've been in situations before where I've been eating cheap packets of instant ramen for dinner five days out of seven, and it was so, so much more tolerable when I was able to change the flavor instead of eating the same basic, pretty bland chicken one over and over.

I could made herby, garlicky ramen one night, sweet chili another, ect.

I'm pretty lucky in that where I live things like jars of sauces and pots of seasonings are very cheap, and I know its not like that for everyone, but if you are in a situation where you can spare a little for some pots or jars, it really can make a difference to being able to tolerate food repetition.

Every single time I see a take that amounts to "if you write about X happening, or like fiction where X happens, you like X" I'm reminded of this one time I was at a casual friends house as a young kid. We were in her room, pretending to "be orphans" escaping from an evil orphanage and having to take care of each other and fend for ourselves. It was all very Little Orphan Annie/All Dogs Go to Heaven and based on the 80s pop media.

And this girl's mom comes in, hears what we're playing and gets all MAD and UPSET. She says that if we play act something, it's because we want it to happen. So her daughter must WANT HER TO DIE.

First off lady, we were 6 year year olds, so take it down several notches. We barely had a concept of mortality for fucks sake. She made us feel so guilty and ashamed, because she was taking our game personally.

Now I have a 5 year old. And sometimes she looks at me and says "pretend you're dead, and I have to -" Whatever it is. Some adult task she's assigned herself.

And it's just so transparently obvious that she's practicing the idea of having to do things on her own. Which is exactly what 5 year olds are supposed to do. I actually find it very flattering that the only way she can envision me not being available to help her is to be literally deceased. Otherwise, obviously, she wouldn't have to do scary hard things alone.

It's a natural coping mechanism. She's self-soothing about what would happen if I wasn't there by play-acting independence in a perfectly safe environment. She's also practicing skills she needs, and making up excuses for practicing them on her own, without taking on the responsibility of being able to do them by herself all the time yet.

Humans mentally rehearse bad this in their brains all the time. We can do that by ruminating- going over worries over and over again, which tends to lead to anxiety and helplessness and depression. Or we can do it with a sense of play- by recognizing that the fiction is fiction and we can dip our toe into these experiences and expose ourselves to bad things without actually being injured.

My daughter does not want me dead. And I don't want bad things to happen in real life. But fiction and pretend help me face the horrors of the world and think about them without collapsing or messing myself up mentally.

E.g; if someone was creating a website geared toward uncensored art, would you be willing to support it within your own capacity? (Raising awareness of the project, donating funds, helping gather resources, ect.)

Every time you send me anon hate I'm gonna pick some real nasty fanfiction and get off to it.