This blogger remembers when we didn’t have AO3.
This blogger remembers when we had to put disclaimers at the head of our fics and pray that someone didn’t take it into their heads to sue us for what we created.
This blogger remembers brilliant artists and writers getting decades of work obliterated on LJ because someone who wanted to tell people what they were allowed to create went running to someone who wanted a profit, and told them the artists and writers had been naughty.
This blogger remembers just how hard the creators of AO3 worked to build the thing we all seem to take for granted now.
This blogger watched friends dive into the creation process so heartily and determinedly that they all but disappeared from the writing/gaming/artistic side of their fandom for YEARS while they worked to make the archive happen.
This blogger remembers the sense of giddy wonder that there would possibly be LAWYERS involved, willing to defend our right to create these works, and not leave us hanging at the mercy of corporate legal teams.
This blogger is aware that she reads between twenty to fifty books’ worth of material every year on AO3, and is never REQUIRED to pay a penny for the privilege of getting access.
This blogger is aware that she will not ever see advertisements on AO3, and that her personal data and reading preferences won’t be sold to advertisers in order to raise the money that AO3 needs to pay for the services they provide.
This blogger is aware that AO3 is, and has always been, a labor of love; by fans, for fans, and not for profiting off fans – and this is what makes it unique in the whole of the media universe.
This blogger has NEVER taken AO3 for granted, and has ALWAYS been damned glad to have access to it. Even in years when this blogger didn’t have the means to support it financially.
Table of contents:
Part 1: An Introduction Part 2: Hello, My Name is First Person Part 3: I’m First Person and I Have Problems Part 4: Second Person Wishes You Hello Part 5: You Discover Tricks to Handle Second Person Part 6: Third Person Omniscient Says Hello Part 7: The Pros and Cons of Third Person Omniscient Part 8: Third Person Limited Joins In Part 9: Third Person Limited Admits Some Flaws Part 10: A Visual Guide to Psychic Distance
Serendipity (names, places, mapbuilding, etc.) Quick Story Idea Full Story Idea Writing Challenges General Character Quick Character really just all of Seventh Sanctum RPGesque generators Writing Prompts Inspiration Finder Story Arc Fantasy Story Situaton Adventure Chaotic Shiny is just really good in general Random Plot
“Aw shit, I am a woman, friendless, hopeless!”
Henry VIII, Act 3, Scene 1
“Aw shit, poor Yorick!”
-Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 1
“Aw shit, that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!“
-Romeo & Juliet, Act 1 Scene 1
“O, no! Aw shit, I rather hate myself
For hateful deeds committed by myself.”
-Richard III, Act 5 Scene 3
“Aw shit, poor country, almost afraid to know itself! It cannot be called our mother, but our grave.”
Macbeth, Act 4 Scene 3
13))
16 days to 2015 and I still think I’m in 2012
Power comes with responsibility. The more power a character has, the more they are defined and confined by it. The fewer choices they will have. The easier it is for their actions to have massive, widespread unintended consequences continuously rippling outward. When they make a mistake, they will hurt more people than just themselves. More you have, the more cautious you have to be. The more you have to give up, the more you have to sacrifice, because circumstances outside of your control have decided you will not be like other men/women. That’s just a fact of life. You can say “But I don’t want it”. Well, tough. Suck it up. Deal with it or deal with the consequences.
Michi of howtofightwrite, “Would it be cliche or a poor choice…”
As usual, the mods of howtofightwrite nail the importance of power in character development to the effing wall, paint a gd dartboard on it, and proceed to stick only bullseyes. Hats off to them.
(via writeworld)
Whispers
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