Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
with great pain comes the great inability to form a coherent sentence
[ID: a 4-page comic in illuminated manuscript style of a person standing outside. /1: They look to the distance and say: “What is that dolorous cloud: that dreadful fright I see now on the dark horizon?” /2: They turn, upset, and say: “Alas! It is the brain fog approaching!” A purple cloud enters the panel. /3: They hold up their hands against the approaching cloud, saying: “A curse upon that fog that steals my eloquence. I…hate…it” /4: The cloud surrounds them and they say: “cloud”…“bad” /ID]
image description: a tweet from Ceinwen Langley from Oct. 2020. “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but writing is hard because you care about it and you want it to be good, not because you’re bad at it.”
what do you MEAN I have to finish writing the fic before I can receive praise and feedback?? why can’t I just pry my brain out, shake it at my laptop until the fully-formed fic comes loose, then gently blow off the brain and pop it back in like a fuckign gameboy cartridge
If u want to write a story about a character that’s just you but hotter with a dark twisted backstory and magical powers and a pet falcon or something, I think u should just go ahead and do that. Who’s gonna stop you? The government?? Fuck the police.
What if someone barges in, points at said character and scream, “Mary Sue!”
Tell them to come back with a warrant
i am literally writing a fic with a character who is just me but cooler and with longer hair and invincible with a dark and twisted backstory too, and you know? this is the most i’ve ever written of any story ever, because i’m enjoying writing about how my character is the coolest and best person around
just fucking write it babe, the world is your oyster shell so why not create the oyster and pearl too?
for the love of god, write all the self-indulgent scenes you want. be utterly shameless about including every last fantasy. i know everyone likes to share quotes and quips about how miserably hard writing is, but please please try thinking of it as a joyful act where you get to be a messy human who makes art rather than some pain filled quest for icy perfection.
So, okay, fun fact. When I was a freshman in high school… let me preface by saying my dad sent me to a private school and, like a bad organ transplant, it didn’t take. I was miserable, the student body hated me, I hated them, it was awful.
Okay, so, freshman year, I’m deep in my “everything sucks and I’m stuck with these assholes” mentality. My English teacher was a notorious hard-ass, let’s call him Mr. Hargrove. He was the guy every student prayed they didn’t get. And, on top of ALL OF THE SHIT I WAS ALREADY DEALING WITH, I had him for English.
One of the laborious assignments he gave us was to keep a daily journal. Daily! Not monthly or weekly. Fucking daily. Handwritten. And we had to turn it in every quarter and he fucking graded us. He graded us on a fucking journal.
All of my classmates wrote shit like what they did that day or whatever. But, I did not. No, sir. I decided to give the ol’ middle finger to the assignment and do my own shit.
So, for my daily journal entries, over the course of an entire year, I wrote a serialized story about a horde of man-eating slugs that invaded a small mining town. It was graphic, it was ridiculous, it was an epic feat of rebellion.
And Mr. Hargrove loved it.
It wasn’t just the journal. Every assignment he gave us, I tried to shit all over it. Every reading assignment, everyone gushed about how good it was, but I always had a negative take. Every writing assignment, people wrote boring prose, but I wrote cheesy limericks or pulp horror stories.
Then, one day, he read one of my essays to the class as an example of good writing. When a fellow student asked who wrote it, he said, “Some pipsqueak.”
And that’s when I had a revelation. He wanted to fight. And since all the other students were trying to kiss his ass, I was his only challenger.
Mr. Hargrove and I went head-to-head on every assignment, every conversation, every fucking thing. And he ate it up. And so did I.
One day, he read us a column from the Washington Post and asked the class what was wrong with it. Everyone chimed in with their dumbass takes, but I was the one who landed on Mr. Hargrove’s complaint: The reporter had BRAZENLY added the suffix “ize” to a verb.
That night I wrote a jokey letter to the reporter calling him out on the offense in which I added “ize” to every single verb. I gave it to Mr. Hargrove, who by then had become a friendly adversary, for a chuckle and he SENT IT TO THE REPORTER.
And, people… The reporter wrote back. And he said I was an exceptional student. Mr. Hargrove and I had a giggle about that because we both knew I was just being an asshole, but he and the reporter acknowledged I had a point.
And that was it. That was the moment. Not THAT EXACT moment, but that year with Mr. Hargrove taught me I had a knack for writing. And that knack was based in saying “fuck you” to authority. (The irony that someone in a position of authority helped me realize that is not lost on me.)
So, I can say without qualification that Mr. Hargrove is the reason I am now a professional writer. Yes, I do it for a living. And most of my stuff takes authorities of one kind or another to task.
Mr. Hargrove showed me my dissent was valid, my rebellion was righteous, and that killer slugs could bring a city to its knees. Someone just needs to write it.
Hey writers, friendly reminder! Every line and every story you write is NOT required to be earth-shattering, spellbinding, or groundbreaking! Sometimes, we seek out stories because they are familiar, because we know how it will end and we LIKE it that way!
So instead of convincing yourself that your story isn’t good enough, or original enough, or worthy enough, try convincing yourself that your story is a JOY to tell and see where it takes you! :)
I’ve seen a lot of fic writers afraid to write a character or ship, because they worry the fandom won’t approve of their version. They worry they won’t ‘get it right.’ I’ve seen them quite literally ask “can I write…?” whatever it is they want to write.
So, in case no one has answered you yet, allow me. The answer is yes. Yes you can. In fact,
You can give yourself permission.
There is no boss of fan fiction. No one has been elected moral or intellectual authority of your fandom. We are all just a bunch of fucking weirdo nerds here, and don’t let anyone tell you any different.
Fan fiction should mean creative freedom to give something a go. It truly does not matter if your headcanon about a character doesn’t match up with someone else’s. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the books or the comics or the blah blah blah. It doesn’t matter if you do intensive research or just have fun plugging names into your favorite tropes.
It only matters that you create something, because creating something is good for the soul, even if it just momentarily distracts you from what can be an utter shitfest of an existence.
I can’t promise that you won’t get criticism for it on the internet. But avoiding all criticism is not a possible or even a worthy life goal. So go ahead.
writing fanfiction is just. i’m being so creative and original. i’m plagiarizing everyone by accident. i’m a genius. i’m cringe. i’m too angsty. i’m too cheesy. this is not in character. it doesn’t matter that it’s not in character because these are my characters now. i love my hobby. this is the worst possible use of my time. i’m seeking validation. i’m projecting my own personal problems onto this story and i’m barely hiding it. i know so many words and i’m using all of them wrong. im on tumblr posting about it instead of writing it.
