Sinedra - Writing Through Time, Space,and All Things Magical

The first rule of writing is hoard notebooks

hoo boy, here comes some serious talk about fandom mentality.

I feel like there’s a huge failing on readers’ parts to communicate to fic authors how much they appreciate their works or how much it affects them, unless the fic is “fandom famous” for some reason. sometimes it gets translated into demands (which are awful literally do not demand updates from an author ever).

more often than not, it gets translated into silence, and coming from a writer, the silence is probably the worst. you never know if they like it, you never know what the reader actually thinks about it. or even if they read it at all. and it’s… heartwrenching, and nervewracking and you start constantly questioning yourself and wondering if you’re actually good enough or if you belong. and you start comparing yourself. to the people who are popular, to the people with huge followings, to the people who get questions and art and compliments up the wazoo. and you start wondering if you should have bothered writing at all. in some cases you start begging. and in some cases, you do worse.

and it’s terrible. a writer shouldn’t have to beg. a writer shouldn’t have to only get attention when they’re frustrated or upset. a writer shouldn’t have to doubt themselves every time they pick up a pen or open their laptop. a writer should never feel so unimportant that they consider deleting their work–and do. and then be subjected to questions of why they deleted it.

(which, by the way, is kind of a rude thing to do. it’s their content, and they can do with it whatever makes them comfortable. and more than that–why wait until it’s gone to just suddenly unleash your appreciation for it?)

if, at this point, you are thinking, “well, writers shouldn’t write for attention anyway! writers should be writing for themselves!” then you are missing a Very Huge Point about the intricacies of and emotions behind creating art. of course art comes from the self, but art is meant to be shared. with people. like you. art is created for people to talk back to, to engage with, to live alongside–and yes, that in turn bolsters the creator’s own securities and motivation. it’s also a sad testament to the fact that we as a people have come to condemn the notion that anyone, especially content creators, should want attention at all.

and that’s toxic, and an awful mentality to have. (it’s also atrocious marketing. but, that’s another discussion for another time.)

what I’m trying to say here is this: a lot of this could be prevented by one simple thing. if you read a fic you like, *speak up about it.* make some kind of sign. about whether you like somebody’s work, or whether it excites you. reblog it to share with other people, gush in the tags, leave a comment/review if it’s on ao3 or ffn. (authors read tags as much as artists do, trust me.) kudos and likes are fine too, but like with any other kind of art, they’re very invisible. be vocal, y'all. spread the love.

and above all, *tell the author directly.* send them an ask, write a comment, tag them in an appreciation post. I can’t stress that enough. you’d be making someone’s day, relieving some securities, visible or not, instead of being complacent in this system, this mass way of thinking, that only popular writers deserve attention, that it has to be earned through working yourself raw instead of asked for. it causes these cliques and hierarchies and ultimately people start or keep maintaining this idea that people who are at the top deserve to be at the top, and people who get ignored deserve to be ignored. (which I have, in fact, heard people say, and that’s… I don’t even have a word for that.)

I just. something has to give, you guys. we have to stop doing this. we have to stop letting this happen. we have to be kind to our writers before they disappear.

and yes, you can reblog this post. in fact, I’d highly encourage it.

My Home Library: The Meme

As requested, I have put together a meme based on my Home Library posts. You can do all of them, but feel free to skip a number if you don’t own any books relevant to the day’s prompt (just replace it with an idea of your own). Take a picture, write down the stories attached to the book(s) in question, go nuts!

1. “The System” (example). 2. Favourite female writer. 3. Favourite male writer. 4. Bought on location (where the writer lived, the book takes place, the movie adaptation was shot). 5. The largest and the smallest book you own. 6. Complete works of one author. 7. Favourite poetry collection 8. Favourite biography. 9. Favourite cookbook. 10. Favourite graphic novel. 11. A book you didn’t understand at all. 12. “One of these things is not like the others” (inconsistent editions within a series, like so). 13. Best bargain. 14. Most recent purchase. 15. Favourite lay-out design. 16. Book you bought because of the title. 17. Book you bought because of the cover design. 18. Multiple translations of the same work. 19. Multiple copies of the same work. 20. The funniest book you own. 21. The most expensive book you own. 22. A recurring interest/theme. 23. A book you read so many times that it fell apart. 24. A book you think everyone should read. 25. A book that made you cry. 26. A book you would prescribe for an aspiring author. 27. A cover design you hate. 28. A book that was a waste of your time. 29. Favourite book from your childhood. 30. The book with the most pages in your collection.

Based off a story my friend and I wrote. Sun and moon, being witches, dismantling the system. Just girly things.

Sadira (yellow) belong to @sinedra

Kathrine (blue) belongs to me

Writing Tip #8

Write every day. That’s right, every day. You may have heard this before, maybe you haven’t. It’s a lot easier to eliminate writer’s block and to get pages dished out in a day. If this seems daunting and you don’t believe you have the time, make time. In between work, or studying, or even before class (which is what I do), just start off with what you can get and then go from there.

Don’t worry about the quality of your writing, just write what you can. That’s what editing is for later. Keep at it until you are writing at least three paragraphs or more everyday. It should be easier to start when the time comes to just sit and start typing (or writing in a notebooks) for a whole hour or more.

The poor novelist constructs his characters, he controls them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them function; he eavesdrops on them even before he knows them. It is only according to what he hears them say that he begins to understand who they are.

André Gide

Dear Writers

Your value as a person is not at all dependent upon the quantity or quality of writing you produce

Your identity as a writer is not at all dependent upon the quantity or quality of writing you produce

Your stories are still important even if they can only live in your head

You are still important even if you can’t tell your stories right now (or ever)

Having a story that fails or flops or stops or falls apart doesn’t mean that story is worthless, a waste of time, and you are not worthless or a waste of time because you couldn’t see the story through

Don’t tell yourself getting published is your capital-G Goal, and that you’re worthless until you’ve been published. The goal is to practice that art that makes you so happy. If you’re writing specifically to get published, you’re no longer writing for you.

You are still important whether you last wrote ten minutes ago, yesterday, a month ago, or three years ago.

People, your parents, society, capitalism will tell you all of these things aren’t true. Fuck them.

And please be kind to yourselves and to your writing.

Love,

A writer who has learned all these things the hard way so maybe you guys won’t have to

For any of you who are writing ‘across the pond’-here is a little guide I put together of some common differences between British and American English!