Tag: meta

i get stressed out about reviewing fic like i try to review but i probably only do it 10% of the time bc i want the reviews to sound good

As someone who typically rewrites comments/asks/etc multiple times, I understand! It seems like a lot of people in fandom avoid leaving feedback for this reason – they don’t know what to say, or they’re self-conscious about how to say it, and it seems intimidating.

The thing is – and I really mean this – reviews don’t have to be eloquent! They don’t need to be lengthy or detailed at all. I promise you, even a very simple comment means the world to a fic writer. Think about it this way: they’re WAY more stressed out about wanting what they wrote to sound good. You have the upper hand in the situation! You are just reassuring them that this thing they’ve put time and energy into doesn’t suck, because that’s a writer’s default assumption if you don’t say anything at all. 

You cannot go wrong with:

  • Fantastic story, I really enjoyed.
  • Great work!
  • This was wonderful, thanks for sharing it.

If you want to give them the old razzle dazzle, you can also mention one thing you particularly enjoyed, such as:

  • I love the vivid descriptions, I could picture everything so clearly.
  • You really captured [character]’s voice.
  • The slow build of tension was incredible.

That’s all it takes! A simple, sincere 1-2 sentences will be greatly appreciated by any writer. I know it seems like that sentiment is conveyed by likes/kudos, but honestly, it’s a million times more rewarding to get an actual comment on a fic. I can’t even really explain why, except it’s the difference between “someone liked this enough to hit a button” and “someone liked this enough to send a message to you, one person to another, because they wanted you to know your effort was appreciated.” It feels much more meaningful and encouraging, especially since so few people bother to do it these days. I have 28 fics on AO3 and get kudos pretty regularly, but getting the rare comment absolutely makes my day. When you genuinely like a fic, please, just say so!

What is your opinion on Sam’s ending?

I liked it! To be honest, it was way better than I’d dared hope for. Sam had a real journey of grappling with his desire to be a leader, realizing how little those distinctions matter, and devoting himself to being a total team player. Since his first season, we’ve seen him be incredibly good at reading other people and identifying the things they’re self-conscious or worried about – he actually mirrors Santana in that respect, except he uses it to reassure people and encourage them to be more confident. (See: Quinn, Mercedes, Marley, Blaine, Brittany, Rachel, etc.) He’s also been one of the most immediately accepting characters when it comes to sexual and gender identity and personal choices. He never engaged in bullying and challenged those who did.

So I think he’s got the perfect disposition for teaching, especially a subject that involves a lot of raw emotion and vulnerability. He’s destined to be the Will Schuester we all deserved, and I think that’s pretty awesome. I’ve found it compelling that Sam wasn’t fixated on fame and never cared about being a star, because that’s so rare among the Glee characters. It doesn’t feel like a let-down for him to find a path out of the limelight, because that’s just his speed. I’ve always thought the modeling thing was borderline unhealthy for him, since it seemed to stem from his body image issues and the self-esteem black hole that is underage sex work. He teetered on the edge of believing his self-worth was directly related to being aesthetically pleasing – which is obviously untrue, and pretty tragic for a character who’s sensitive and caring and has so much to offer.

I also think it was a good choice to leave him unattached in the end. He has the weird distinction of being romantically linked to all of the first gen glee girls, and spent most of his time on the show bouncing from relationship to relationship. I know a lot of fans wanted a Samcedes reunion, but after her many firm rejections over the years, that would have fallen pretty flat for me. He really didn’t have a well-developed OTP pairing the way most of the central characters did, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – like Mercedes and fame, or Rachel and Broadway (which obviously Jesse personified), Sam’s real narrative partner was always the idea of family. So it makes me happy that he’s spending the future as an important part of a supportive, close-knit community. That’s basically a best case scenario.

Do you ever think you’ll stop drawing fanart? No offense it just seems like the kind of thing you’re supposed to grow out of. I’m just curious what your plans/goals are since it isn’t exactly an art form that people take seriously.

kasuchi:

@allrightfine

talesfromthemek:

linzeestyle:

:

Ah, fanart. Also known as the art that girls make.

Sad, immature girls no one takes seriously. Girls who are taught that it’s shameful to be excited or passionate about anything, that it’s pathetic to gush about what attracts them, that it’s wrong to be a geek, that they should feel embarrassed about having a crush, that they’re not allowed to gaze or stare or wish or desire. Girls who need to grow out of it.

That’s the art you mean, right?

Because in my experience, when grown men make it, nobody calls it fanart. They just call it art. And everyone takes it very seriously.

It’s interesting though — the culture of shame surrounding adult women and fandom. Even within fandom it’s heavily internalized: unsurprisingly, mind, given that fandom is largely comprised by young girls and, unfortunately, our culture runs on ensuring young girls internalize *all* messages no matter how toxic. But here’s another way of thinking about it.

Sports is a fandom. It requires zealous attention to “seasons,” knowledge of details considered obscure to those not involved in that fandom, unbelievable amounts of merchandise, and even “fanfic” in the form of fantasy teams. But this is a masculine-coded fandom. And as such, it’s encouraged – built into our economy! Have you *seen* Dish network’s “ultimate fan” advertisements, which literally base selling of a product around the normalization of all consuming (male) obsession? Or the very existence of sports bars, built around the link between fans and community enjoyment and analysis. Sport fandom is so ingrained in our culture that major events are treated like holidays (my gym closes for the Super Bowl) — and can you imagine being laughed at for admitting you didn’t know the difference between Supernatural and The X Files the way you might if you admit you don’t know the rules of football vs baseball, or basketball?

“Fandom” is not childish but we live in a culture that commodified women’s time in such away that their hobbies have to be “frivolous,” because “mature” women’s interests are supposed to be marriage, family, and overall care taking: things that allow others to continue their own special interests, while leaving women without a space of their own.

So think about what you’re actually saying when you call someone “too old” for fandom. Because you’re suggesting they are “too old” for a consuming hobby, and I challenge you to answer — what do you think they should be doing instead?

#I love the fact I’m ‘weird’ for writing fic but some guy painting a team logo on his beer belly is normal

#this though#i have a lot of thoughts and words about this#there’s also a weird undercurrent of like#’when you actually get a life#you won’t have time for/want to participate in fandom anymore’#which is gross and insulting#like#it doesn’t matter what your life looks like#if this is something you enjoy#you get to keep enjoying it#i’ve got the kids#the husband#the job#i ticked all the bullshit unreasonable boxes#and here i am#still reading fanfiction about hot people banging#not because i’m unhappy with the kids the husband the job#but because fanfic ALSO makes me happy#none of this is a zero sum game

To extend the sports metaphor: some years, things get busy and you don’t get to obsessively watch every single game for your team. And other years, you’re in four fantasy leagues. (By the way, I’d argue that fantasy leagues aren’t fan fiction but rather RPs or even full-on D&D campaigns. Fanfiction would be the endless speculation about sports by “pundits” having conversations — it’s the hybridization of tabloid and meta.) 

I never stopped reading fan fiction, even when I was so busy and the words were dry. Fandom never leaves you; you grow with it. Maybe you stop watching teen primetime soap operas and switch to movie or sitcom fandoms. Maybe you go into bandom/sports rpf instead. it never leaves you. 

The fandom life is forever. 

Hey so I started watching the show recently and I really related to Tina. I loved how Jenna made a shy, goth character so positive. When I got to Season 4 it broke my heart to watch Tina and see how the writers treated her, I can barely watch the latest seasons now. So I was just wondering your opinion on the development of Tina? Thank you, if you answer this question, I’d love to her another Tina fans opinion :)

jushkowitznews:

This turned out to be really, really long but here you go:

Read More

how is Kurt a 21 yr old freshmen in college.

WELP. let’s do this.

his NYADA application lists his birthday as may 27th, 1993. at the beginning of season one, kurt’s sophomore year of high school, he says he got his car for his “sweet sixteen.” so he turned seventeen at the end of that school year, eighteen at the end of his junior year, and nineteen at the end of his senior year. that’s not terribly unusual; people with summer birthdays end up slightly younger or slightly older than everyone in their grade.

he was accepted to NYADA at christmas, and turned twenty the following may (around the time blaine and sam graduated). he presumably took classes over the summer to catch up, which is common in that situation, and was a sophomore with rachel that fall. that’s why he said “you’re a freshman!” when questioning how blaine got into all of his classes.

the time jumps make all of this confusing, but the last six episodes of this season span about eight months of time. rachel’s funny girl run starts in april 2014, which happens two episodes after NYADA’s “midwinter critques.” but at this point, canon is caught up with real time, kurt just finished his sophomore year of college, and has now turned twenty-one.

shesanoddoneisntshe:

zeezoutenijs:

an ambitious young girl who has worked her ass off to fulfill her dream, and was rewarded

if there’s literally a single objection you have to this just fuck off and stop pretending to care about women forever

This – and don’t give me any of that “Rachel doesn’t want to do the work” nonsense, because we have seen her work toward this from the first episode and it’s been said over and over how she’s been preparing for it since practically birth. 

We’ve seen her practicing her singing when she’s alone.

We’ve seen her practicing her dancing outside of glee club.

We have seen how she’s arranged her morning and evening rituals around her goals and preparing herself for them.

We’ve heard stories about and seen flashbacks to her time in classes and competitions when she was a little girl.

We’ve heard her talk about this show specifically as her dream for years. 

And I have no end of impatience for those who refuse to see this for what it is. Rachel isn’t perfect, but she has endless amounts of drive and determination, and she has always, always worked hard in pursuit of her dreams.

brianwilly:

I think the line that actually stuck with me most from this episode was when Burt demanded if Kurt thought the other kid wasn’t brave or strong just because he ran.

There’s no such thing as a correct response to being assaulted.  There’s no right or wrong way to be the victim of violence.  There is absolutely no onus on anyone for any kind of action they make in that kind of situation.  And if your first instinct is to take care of yourself first and foremost then you sure as hell do that and make no apologies for it.

I’ve always hated the idea that some people had — god, ages ago at this point — that Blaine ran from his problems because he went to Dalton.  I’ve never liked the idea that Kurt switching schools to escape his stalker was somehow less ideal in peoples’ eyes than him just sticking it out at McKinley and…I dunno, fighting back or something.  That doesn’t make them passive; it doesn’t make them anything, frankly.  There’s no right answer here.  Saying “they should’ve done this instead” or “they should’ve done that” is a form of victim-blaming, for something that is not their responsibility to shoulder.

Likewise, Kurt might feel powerful and proud of himself for doing what he did tonight but there is utterly no obligation on anyone’s part to have to be “powerful” and “proud” like that.  It’s important for Kurt to do what he needs to do to be able to hold his head up in the morning, but it’s equally important to understand that not being some sort of unbreakable hero would not make him any less of what he is.

so sam was basically solid gold in this episode.

  • talking about round onion man booty
  • not sleazing on his hot female roommate in the slightest
  • abruptly bailing at the first sign of casual drug use
  • being totally indignant about that “sorry there’s no room for your chair, artie” town car shit
  • sticking to his resolution to not hurt himself in pursuit of his goal
  • even when he was really struggling with it

he’s just such a ray of sunshine, i love it

dear glee writers,

if you want to sell me on samcedes, maybe stop rehashing the same tired dynamics of him handing his heart over to someone who isn’t really sure she wants to be with him, or thinks he isn’t cool enough, or might still be in love with her ex-girlfriend, or… what the fuck ever.

please write them an actual RELATIONSHIP this time so i can see that they are compatible and make each other happy. please show me that one girl on planet earth is capable of reciprocating real, unqualified feelings for this character. because thus far the only people to EVER SHOW INTEREST in him without first being wooed in a lengthy courtship more befitting a jane austen novel are two gay guys who are now marrying each other.

just give him a functional relationship?? please??