Fanfiction Discourse - Tumblr Posts

Authors of so-called "bad" characters do not owe you continuous justification, apologies, explanation or written-in denouncing of the character's actions and views. They simply do not.

They likewise do not have to very specifically limit their writing or tailor their writing in order to satisfy your demands of denouncing, "fixing" or understanding of the character's actions and views as "bad."

They don't have to include the specific plot of the character changing or facing consequences or grovelling for forgiveness. They don't have to include paragraphs of author notes saying they don't, in reality, condone the character's actions or views.

They. Just. Don't.

Stop demanding it. Someone can write about horrific serial killer on a murder spree and they don't have to specifically always write the killer getting their comeuppance. They can just actually write about a serial killer killing people. And no, it doesn't mean they enjoy, support or fantasise about said things.

If you can watch movies and read books and understand that it doesn't mean you support aspects of it, then why demand that people who are, in reality, doing no different to what the writers and directors of the movie you just watched have done, apologise or denounce or limit themselves to certain permittable criteria? You yourself don't go watch a murder mystery and announce to the whole movie theatre that you buying this ticket and watching this movie doesn't equate to supporting murder.

Why should authors?

(The answer: they don't. And they never will.)

Imagine this:

You live in a town. There is a park that allows both people and dogs. You live in this town and decide dogs should not be allowed at the park. You complain and push and get dogs banned from the park.

The town builds another park for the dogs. Now there is a dog park and a people park. You see the dog park and think it looks better than the people park. You, a person who neither owns a dog nor likes dogs, begins to use the dog park.

That's okay. The dog owners don't mind sharing their park. Its a nice park. Its definitely better than the people park.

You like the dog park better, but you don't like the dogs, so you tell the dog owners they're not allowed to go there anymore. They're not welcome. Its a dog park, but you personally don't like dogs, so they're not allowed to bring their dogs here anymore. You start harassing the dog owners and trying to bully them out of the park.

"Just go to a different park!" you yell at them. "Go build your own park if you want to bring your dogs in!" you cry.

You are an anti. The dogs are works of fiction. The park is AO3. Your perspective is as ridiculous as the above anecdote sounds. AO3's entire existence was founded on you encouraging sites like Wattpad to purge and ban fanfiction that didn't fit certain, bias-flexible criteria. AO3's core purpose is to host and preserve fanfiction.

If AO3 did not want that kind of fanfiction, it would not allow it. Simple. AO3 itself dictates that fanfiction has a place there. You cannot storm in and demand its not allowed to host it because you've finally realized sites like Wattpad fucking suck, and not just because of their content regulations.

You're a guest in AO3's park. Act like it. Don't like the rules? Their code is open-source. Build your own park.

I've been in a lot of fandoms, but I'll be honest there's never been a more spiteful, hateful, judgemental fandom than 9-1-1 for content creators.

And I'm not talking about the rightful attention brought to works that were, quite blatantly, plain ignorance or outright racism.

There's a literal poll going around at the moment trashing certain tropes and the comments/tags are horrific. Let people live. Let people write. Fanfiction should be freeing and fun and it doesn't have to be a direct reflection of canon. The haughty policing of 9-1-1 fanfiction has gotten to the point where the only fanfiction being produced is the same flat, bland, regurgitated styles, concepts and characterisations over and over again.

The limitations authors are being bullied to subscribe to or be publicly blasted and harassed online over are the death of fandom creativity. Its the first and only fandom I've been in there the actual fans themselves have been the reason I've left the fandom.

(Like literally one poll option is that a character is depicted as gay, not bisexual. I think that about sums up the mentality of the fandom.)

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.