Source: This

Source: This

I pawed through some of my old writing - like 20 years ago old - and let me tell you, it’s not great. But it’s evidence. It’s hard copy evidence that I am better now than I was. That I’ve learned something. Lots of things, really. It’s evidence that at least 20 years ago, I put my fingers to a keyboard and said “I’m gonna create something.” And then I did.

And maybe it wasn’t award winning fiction, and maybe I never finished most of it, and maybe I never even showed anyone most of it, but it doesn’t make a difference. I put in the practice. I created stuff just to see if I could. I found documents that were just me describing things to practice descriptions. I found several that were only a few paragraphs long, a passing thought. A wisp of daydream. A frustration.

A friend of mine showed me her old fanfic account today, and thought that I was laughing at her when I was gleefully pawing through it. And maybe a little I was; but not because she had written things, only because she handed me the link and then made the pikachu face when I actually looked at it. She started going through the motions of telling me that it was terrible, that she had no idea what she’d been thinking, that some of it was weird, and I had to stop her.

Because here’s the thing: I don’t care!! If you are young, or you were young, and you are creating things you’ll look back on in 10, 20, 30 years, I hope that you are kind to yourself. So many people get hung up on the fear of starting something new, of starting and not being instantly perfect, that they never stand a chance at all of being even good. You cannot get better at something you never do, something you never practice. You can think about stuff all you want, but you get better by just doing it.

And yes, you’re going to do it poorly at first, and looking back, you’re almost certainly going to be tempted to say “what was I thinking” too, but… what you were thinking was that you loved something enough to try to bring it to life, to put it somewhere it would survive you. If it was fanfiction, you loved it enough to try to make more of it, or to fix it, or to connect to other people through it; you loved it enough to explore it. If it’s original, you took something that was inside of you and put it outside of you, and that’s so incredibly difficult that to attempt it at all is worthy of appreciation.

What I’m saying is that there are a lot of people afraid to even start writing, and if you are writing now, or if you started when you were young, or if you are starting now when you are not, that’s bravery. You are brave, and you were brave, and if you’re looking back and saying “I was worse at this” then face the other direction for a hot second and think “I’ve become better” and maybe take a moment to appreciate the younger you for putting in that effort for you. Younger you had to go through a lot of work to get you where you are now, and you should be so proud of them. I certainly am. You’ve done and are doing amazing.

All that’s left is to keep going.

Fan fic authors are not professional writers.

Expecting them to be perfect and never make mistakes is setting yourself up to be an asshole.

Do you know how long it takes to write and publish a 60k novel for most published authors? Years. Plural.

That includes time spent writing multiple drafts and doing research and multiple rounds of edits. Access to a professional editor, and the ability to hire sensitivity readers. The list goes on and on and on.

Fan fic authors owe you nothing. They are churning out multiple novel length fics (or the equivalent in one shots) a year while still holding down school/jobs.

And you’re gonna jump down their throats because they wrote a pairing differently than you prefer??

Shut the fuck up.

Tags exists for a reason. Read them and move on if the fic is not for you.

I mean really. We all just lived through fucking 2020. Let people enjoy their FAKE gay porn in peace.

Jfc.

Prison Snippet I’ll Never Finish

Hey y’all! I haven’t posted in a while, so here’s a little something I had started writing literally the day Techno got locked in prison with Dream but will never find a meaningful end for lol. Enjoy!

TW: panic and hysteria

“Dream, please.” Techno let out a soft sigh. “Stop breathing so quickly. You’re going to make yourself hysteric.” 

Dream, to his credit, had already made himself hysteric, letting out short labored breaths as he slid down the wall in a graceless heap. His eyes were glazed with panic, and at Techno’s words, he tightened his arms a little tighter around himself, as though hoping the action could ground him. 

Techno pinched the bridge of his nose, staring at the man on the ground in front of him. “Dream, how long is this going to last?” 

There was no answer from his new roommate, who instead opted to shake his head back and forth and begin muttering to himself, eyes now flickering around the small room shiftily. 

“Right.” Techno nodded, more to himself than to Dream, and propped himself against the lectern in the corner, watching him with no small amount of concern. “‘Cause, bruh. It’s not all that bad. Sam’s been gone for...” He checked his internal clock. “Four and a half minutes.” 

That got him his first response. 

“How do you know that?” Dream whispered, head whipping up so fast it probably gave the other man a head rush. 

Techno blinked in surprise, giving him a little shrug. “Dunno, it’s kind of a piglin thing. We don’t have a sun in the nether, but you kind of get a basic awareness of the passage of time.” 

Dream was at his side in an instant, emerald eyes wide and desperate. “What day is it? What month is it? How long have I been in here?”

“Hey, man,” Techno batted the other off of him with a small frown. “Touchy. I don’t really know, to be honest. I was asleep for a while. Then I woke up. Then…” He cocked his head to the side before recalling, “I fell back asleep again. The only reason I’m here is because Quackity said you wanted to call in a favor.” 

“You’re such an idiot.” Dream buried his head in his hands, mimicking despair. “It was a trap, he made me write that letter.”

Techno let out a small snort at that. “Someone made you do something? Quackity made you do something? Yeah right, the man is like the size of a footstool, I don’t believe that for a second. Besides,” the piglin hybrid continued, “Why would he lie to me on my birthday? That would just be cruel.” 

“I- Techno, Quackity is cruel. Quackity is the very definition of cruel.” Dream gave him a look of mixed desperation and dumbfoundment. 

Techno clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth thoughtfully, beginning his pacing. “If you say so, Dream.” 

There was a moment where the lava seemed to drip ever sluggishly slower and the seconds dragged on well past their welcome. 

“Do you have a plan to get us out of here?” Dream asked, tone shifting to desperation alone. He sounded fragile and breakable and nothing like Techno remembered him sounding. Then again, the piglin couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen the green-eyed man in anything other than full netherite, but here he sat.

Techno scrunched up his nose, shrugging a little as he continued his pacing. “Planning is less my style. It’ll come to me.” He glanced back at Dream, who looked like he’d just swallowed a whole lemon. “I gave Phil a note before I left, just in case,” he added on. 

“So someone knows where you are?” Dream asked him anxiously. 

“Mmh, not really.” Techno scratched the back of his head. “I wrote that Phil was supposed to remember to feed the dogs. He’ll get the gist of it after a while.” 

Fanfiction Club: The Rules

This idea came to me when I woke up first thing this morning.

writing fanfic more like:

have I used that word recently *ctrl + f* shit

“are you still working on that fic?” last edited: 24th January 2005 “haha of course”

that feeling when someone comments

planning a fic down to the words you’ll use without anywhere to write it down and getting home and remembering none of it

it’s just a fic no one will care about inaccuracies *spends four hours researching a 2000-word one-shot*

grammar

*sees word in advert* yes that’s a good word I’ll remember that word *never uses word*

my last four fanfics are centred around this character and while it means their characterisation is perfect, people are yelling at me

“oh you write? can you name a character after me” “ummm”

is that a real word *red line appears* well why isn’t it