anexperimentallife:

This is a confession, and hopefully a wake-up for others who feel the way I used to about fanfic, as well as an apology to fanfic writers everywhere.

See, I used to have an elitist attitude towards fanfic (and especially slash fic). I refused to even read any, but nonetheless talked about it as though it was trash. Yes, I was one of those annoying, snobby pricks who thought that nothing good could possibly come out of fans writing in their favorite sandboxes.

Some of it probably came from what I call New Author Insecurity, and an attempt to aggrandize myself by belittling others to make myself feel like I was better than they were. After all, had I not earned literally dozens of dollars selling my little stories? (Hell, if I saved up a year’s worth of royalties, I could MAYBE even afford a latte at Starbuck’s. Perhaps, if the year had been especially kind, a flavored one. Maybe even a Venti!)

But then a critically-acclaimed author friend (my writing friends are mostly much more talented, skilled, prolific, and in almost every way more impressive than I am) linked me to this Avengers fanfic, and both she and another critically-acclaimed, award-winning author friend pointed out to me that not only do they read and love fanfic, but they also still write it (but refused to tell me what names they post under), that I was being a narrow-minded, elitist prick, and that my attitude insulted not only them, but also scores of other talented and skilled writers. That some fanfic is just as good as anything on the bookstore shelf, and furthermore, that even if it’s NOT well-written, it is legitimate art, and that no one should be looked down upon for making any kind of art to the best of their abilities.

And hey, at least original fanfic is creating something new. How would I feel if people looked down their noses at me every time I played a cover of someone else’s song? And really, wasn’t every in-character post I made as part of an RP group technically fanfic? When I did a parody of a show I loved for the comic I used to write, wasn’t that kind of skirting the fanfic line, too?

I also realized, later, that every single tie-in novel one of my friends writes is technically, fanfic commissioned by the franchise owners. The award-winning Kij Johnson’s Star Trek:TNG book, Dragon’s Honor? Technically, commissioned fanfic. My best-selling amigo Aaron’s tie in novels for Eureka (under a house name) and various other franchises? Also technically fanfic. My buddy Jon’s little sister Apple’s Barbie books? Fanfic.

The only difference between those books and an AO3 posting is that the franchise owner PAID for them. That’s it. That’s the only difference.

So yeah. Fanfic is art, or at least it can be. And anyone who tells you otherwise is a prick. And it shouldn’t have taken other professionals I respect to point that out to me, but it did. And I’m sorry.

And now I’m off to re-read this exquisite Mass Effect fanfic and cry over Jack and Shepard. Again.

nonbinarystats:

Good morning! 🙂

There are currently seven Twitter polls running on the Nonbinary Stats Twitter account, and that seems like as good a first post as any.

By way of introduction, this is the official Tumblr for the annual genderqueer and nonbinary survey run by @cassolotl. If you want to be notified when the annual survey runs, as well as take part in mini-surveys and pilot questions in between times, this blog and the Twitter account might be of interest.

So, the Twitter polls! There’s something for everyone here. Everyone should in theory be able to take part in at least two polls, and genderfluid and demigender folks who feel they qualify to answer more than that are very welcome to do so. They all require a Twitter account to take part. They’re all open until Friday 25th March 2016.

Anyone and everyone

• Would you rather be misgendered, be asked your pronouns, or be called “they” by default?

Nonbinary people (in this case we mean people whose gender is neither always entirely male nor always entirely female)

• How do you feel when someone asks what your pronouns are?

Binary trans people (in this case we mean people whose gender is different to the one they were assigned at birth and whose gender is always entirely male OR always entirely female)

• Do you identify as binary?
• How do you feel when someone asks what your pronouns are?

Cisgender people (in this case we mean people whose gender is always entirely the same as the one they were assigned at birth)

• Do you identify as binary?
• Do you identify as cisgender?
• How do you feel when someone asks you what your pronouns are?

Thank you very much. 🙂 If you were up for retweeting or reblogging any of these it could help get more useful data, but if you just want to lurk that’s fine too.

The tweets will reveal their statistics after they close, on Friday (6 days time).

r-rebxllious:

teaforyourginaa:

lordbape:

sending “I hope you get that job” vibes to the people out here tryna get jobs

reblogging for yall bc the shit worked for me lol

Karma will pop me if I don’t