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phantomtomato) wrote2022-12-20 09:57 am
phantomtomato) wrote2022-12-20 09:57 am
Entry tags:
It’s -1F and so terribly dry
- I have nearly cleared all of my existing event obligations. My treats are in for Yuletide, I’ve gotten my other exchange fic done, and I only have to finish up the gift I’m in the middle of writing for
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fandomtrees. The result is that I am sitting on my hands with excitement. Woe to deadlines, and all that. I am eyeing all of the The Charioteer fic posted to YT and hoping to enjoy reading other people’s gifts! - The Candy Hearts Exchange (candyheartsex) is running this year to handle the gap left by Chocolate Box. I’m so glad—I’d meant to do it this time, now that I’ve got the hang of multifandom exchanges, and the initial announcement of cancellation was so sad! Nominations period is the best. What crossovers should I go for? What should I put in for Harry Potter and The Locked Tomb? I’ve stacked my old book obsessions in there already, but we have ten fandom slots and I want, goodness, I want.
Reading the nominations is always fantastic. The Original Works category intimidates me too much to submit to, so instead I watch the list of pairings grow and marvel at how creative everyone else is. - Happy Hanukkah, chag sameach, etc. We’re getting together with friends tonight to celebrate after a bunch of minor setbacks for the past two days involving flaky friends and very terrible sufganiyot. I am reminding myself that the holiday is eight days long and I will make my own latkes later this week and everything will be fine. Again this year I forgot to buy stick-um to keep the candles from leaning in our menorah. Damn my need to have pretty things (elephant-shaped menorah) over practical ones (traditional menorah with deep candle holders).
- Also on holidays—now that we live far away from our families, I don’t have an excuse to go all out with making cookies. I want to make one type, I think, but what? Chocolate mint is more for me than for my partner, but they last so well. Butter cookies are delicious but ugh the rolling. (I’ve wondered if I could just log, chill, and slice, though.) What are your favorites?
- A meta post I’d seen before rolled by my tumblr dash again this week: link. This always gets my goat; cut for negativity.
I’m not built for this sort of hopefulness. I appreciate that it’s meant to cheer people up and I am being cranky by going “but no,” and yet. Perhaps it’s because I’ve seen this sentiment so often expressed as a balm to writers discouraged by a lack of external feedback—this post is fairly mild on that front, all told, but it is the premise. Not having readers and fellow fans to share in one’s excitement about a thing sucks! Someone silently remembering a fic for years after reading it looks functionally the same as someone disliking a fic and backing out, or having accidentally clicked a fic, or what-have-you. It’s not unreasonable to say that silent readership isn’t motivating enough to keep doing something.
I always look at these sorts of posts and wonder why I don’t really see the alternative take that’s more like: yeah, external feedback is really important to a lot of us, and if you’re not happy with what you’re getting, here are some strategies to consider adopting. Try a new set of characters, peek around at tropes or kinks with canonized AO3 tags, look for fandom events, pick up new fandoms. You’re never guaranteed anything and I don’t meant to suggest “bootstrap yourself to popularity” as an option, but like. There are a lot of ways to feel more connected to fandom as a community and social space if that’s the goal of feedback.
I like to feel like I’m doing something, I suppose, and not sitting around willing myself to think/feel differently. This genre of post always seems to do well and I am grouchy because it’s the opposite of helpful for my temperament.
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