[ SECRET POST #4043 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4043 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 37 secrets from Secret Submission Post #579.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Well, there's also Sirius' one-sided crush on James. That doesn't go very well either, though.

Re: Is there anything "good on the internet, these days?"

[(Anonymous)]

We don't. :)

Re: Op

[(Anonymous)]

I think these types of things have more to do with ego than anything else. One person is perceived as more popular in fandom and therefore the other(s) take a serious ego hit and jealousy rears its ugly head.

[cbrachyrhynchos]

There were YA novels with LGBT characters in the late 80s. Middle-grade is another thing though.

[(Anonymous)]

I think non-contemporary college AUs can be really cool for sure, but... the whole thing is an AU. Putting characters in college is no less of an AU than putting them in a different decade.

Agreed. Do I generally prefer non-contemporary College AUs? Sure. But that's just a matter of personal preference/nostalgia. Does it require more of a suspension of disbelief to read a modern-day College AU? No, because an AU is an AU.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, you're right. Silly OP for having feelings that are wrong.

Re: Is there anything "good on the internet, these days?"

[(Anonymous)]

So, there's no one out there that you think is completely annoying and ruining something you used to love?

Suicide TW

[(Anonymous)]

I took an overdose. I'm really disappointed in myself. It doesn't seem to have done me any harm since I stopped before I went way, way overboard like the last time. It was very soft alcohol, a single prescription painkiller, and a blister pack of Ibufrofen. I tried to cut but couldn't get the razor out of the safety casing so just cut fingers and scratches.

As far as anyone who loves me is aware I do have anxiety and depression but they've been under control for a while now. Except recently I've been declining badly while simultaneously getting better at hiding my symptoms so no one has any idea. I just feel like a worthless failure. I'm 31. I have no long term job prospects. I'm aging out of the only work I can get. I'm probably not even going to be able to move out of my parent's house until I'm in my 40s. Everything is just an empty, pointless grind.

I'm fucking up constantly because my head's all over the place too. Accidentally broke one of my partner's favourite possessions, can't concentrate on anything anyone says to me. I'm just so so sick of this.

Re: Is there anything "good on the internet, these days?"

[(Anonymous)]

No, but I still try to talk about them using things that are grounded in facts and reasonable and not just empty invective.

DA

[(Anonymous)]

I think there's a big difference between 1) exploring what characters might have been like when they were younger, how they got to be the way they are today, and whether there could be any surprises in their past

I wouldn't call that a College AU, though. If all you're doing is exploring what legitimately could have happened in the character's pasts, in accordance with canon, that's a backstory fic. It's only an AU if you change the circumstances somehow - such as having the characters meet in College rather than years later like they do in canon.

Once a fic is an AU, I agree with AYRT, it really doesn't make much difference whether there's one AU axis (the characters meet in college), two AU axes (the characters meet in college in 2018), or even more.

Re: Would you want to be a BNF?

[fishnchips]

Absolutely not. Just the thought of people starting to get all entitled and bugging you about content all the time because hey, you're a BNF, you OWE us more content! is enough to kill my creativity.

[(Anonymous)]

This too.

BUT HURRY ADN SALLEEE SED IT COULDNT B DUN CUZ OF HAWT SEXX0R!11111

Re: Would you want to be a BNF?

[greghousesgf]

something I wrote showed up on WTF fanfiction. I don't think it was anywhere near as bad as what usually shows up there but I wasn't offended, I just thought it was funny.

Re: Vent Thread

[(Anonymous)]

I wish I'd never come out to my parents. It was more than a year ago, and every day of my life since then, I remember how it went and get a horrible wave of embarrassment. And it's not like it's because I have anything to worry about. They were supportive, like I knew they would be, because they fully support LGBTQ rights and have openly gay friends. Our relationship hasn't changed at all. I'm just embarrassed because I can't convince myself that coming out was necessary. I've never dated a woman, and I've had no interest in dating at all for years. It should be a non-issue. But for some reason I just felt like they needed to know and now I feel embarrassed for feeling that way. I even told them it probably wasn't important because of the "don't want to date" thing, and they reassured me that it was important to them as long as it was important to me to tell them. And yet with all this, I still can't stop feeling humiliated. I wonder if they think about it as much as I do and secretly wonder why the hell I thought it was important. I just feel so stupid and I don't know how to feel better.

Re: Wedding craziness

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I'm probably biased because I don't really like weddings but the ones I've enjoyed had nothing to do with the amount of money spent. It was about the people getting married and celebrating with family and friends. I can get that at a potluck gathering or a backyard bbq... and the food will be better, too.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT

I think everyone gets that, we are all puzzled about why they were comparing fanfiction to content writing in the first place.

Especially since they are doing the latter thing now. They should know it's completely different and not realistic in the least to compare the audiences and declare that one sucks and it was the fault of that audience that the OP didn't get the recognition they crave.

If you write mature humor to young people and they don't respond, then write mature humor to mature audiences and they love it, declaring "aha, it was the young people that sucked all along!" is pretty awkward because it was that comedian expecting unrealistic returns from the wrong audience.

[(Anonymous)]

I think a college AU is different to a college backstory though. I went to college in the mid-90s and seeing a character my age having a flashback to using their smartphone at college would be super weird, but most college AUs just dump everyone together in a nebulous "present". Which is one of the reasons why I don't like them much.

[(Anonymous)]

I also don't think shipping something = not appreciating their friendship. At least, in my experience, both tend to go hand in hand!

Agreed. My favorite types of ships do tend to be friends to lovers, but I read and write just as much, if not more, fic about their friendships as I do about them as a couple. I figure I get the best of both worlds with those kinds of ships in canon, too-if they get together as a couple in canon, then yay, if not, well, hey, I've got their awesome friendship to enjoy, so I'm good either way :D.

Re: Wedding craziness

[greghousesgf]

well said.

[(Anonymous)]

Are people actually blaming OP for their feelings, or pointing out that putting blame on fandom is misplaced and that conflating fanfiction vs. non-fiction tehcnical content writing isn't really a good comparison?

[(Anonymous)]

Same, but I'm an X-Men fan, so I know that it fucks them up and that's part of the attraction.

Re: Related to #2

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT: “The thing about fantasy — there are certain things you just don’t do in fantasy. You don’t have sex near unicorns. It’s an ironclad rule. It’s tacky.” After years of fantasy, she was ready for a little sex.

In fairness, the article seems to have made the connection, not JK Rowling.

[nightscale]

There's a happy medium I think, I don't think people shipping m/m ships because they like the idea of them or think it's fun is an issue at all, that's what fandom is for so go for it.

Shippers gonna ship and all that and as a shipper of pretty much everything I can tell you that m/f shippers are exactly the same in regards to 'these two are awesome fiends, they'd make a fun ship'. Same for femslash shippers too.

Plus considering how much media has m+m friendships being The Most Important it's not really surprising that shippers get drawn to that and build something off of it, you're literally being spoonfed shipper fuel so ofc people are gonna eat it up.

But the people that cry 'queerbaiting' because a pair of same-sex friends are close or friendly towards each other(hell they don't even have to be friendly, just interact or stand next to each other and it'll be called 'baiting') do annoy me because you know what? Two guys being friends isn't bait, it's normal human interaction and it's fine if you ship it but it is on your own head to know that it's not likely to actually happen.

(And don't get me started on the people who cry 'queerbait' because their pet ship isn't canon when the canon in question has actual LGBT characters and pairs in it, that shit is fucking infuriating and transparent as hell).

There is also something to be said for how mainstream media writes m+m, f+f and m+f friendships and how they are treated differently as far as potential romantic entanglements go, and frankly mainstream media has far more of an issue letting m+f pairs be friends at all.

The whole thing is a lot more complicated than 'this is always bad' tbh.

[(Anonymous)]

You have to admit, regardless of his politics, Churchill is SO DAMN QUOTABLE. And he went to a lot of work to be that way.

Random reply, I know, but I saw a lot of Civ 6 quotes, and some of the best were his.

[(Anonymous)]

saying "fandom sucks!" was harsh, no doubt, but can you maybe understand the disappointment of getting little feedback and realize why OP would feel vindicated in their new endeavor?

I know from experience the disappointment of getting little feedback, and I can absolutely understand why succeeding in another endeavor involving writing would feel great.

But saying fandom sucks because they didn't appreciate OP's fafic efforts is not just harsh. It's petty, rude, and a failure of logic. And I think THAT'S why people are responding to this secret the way they/we are. Because if this secret has a "spirit," it's not, "I had self-doubt about my abilities as a writer for ages, but now my writing is getting some recognition and it feels amazing!" This secret's "spirit" is "Fandom sucks for making me doubt myself and for not appreciating my writing; I wasn't sure fandom sucked before, but now that lots of people appreciate my writing, it's clear that fandom does indeed suck."