[ SECRET POST #4058 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4058 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 31 secrets from Secret Submission Post #581.
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

[fscom]

07. https://i.imgur.com/OLQDGWM.jpg?1

[(Anonymous)]

They can only "ruin your life" if they connect your fannish identity to your RL identity.

(Screen-shotting your fics to prove how awful you are? Really? I can't understand how that even works, but it is such a nasty thing to say!)

[(Anonymous)]

have you SEEN what some people on tumblderp do to go after people and 'prove' their wrongs in callout posts.

I know its cool to be like "pfff nobody would ACTUALLY do this, but when you've seen people reach certain levels of petty and obsessed its understandable to be nervous.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm assuming the screen shots are so that even if you delete or orphan the fic, they have proof that the story existed and was connected to your account name. That way, if there's something in the story they object to, you can't escape their wrath, either by pretending the fic didn't exist/wasn't yours, or by deleting it in an attempt to appease critics, because it will live on in their screenshots forever.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd be paranoid too. Might be for the best to ditch your current identity and switch to a sock and casually drop fake info about yourself to muddy your irl identity.

[(Anonymous)]

WTF? People have a vendetta against you? Screenshotting your stuff to prove how "awful" you are sounds freaking bananas.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a fandom friend who has gone through a great number of renamings and pen names due to this kind of paranoia. I can sympathize, but I'm not really sure what to do about it.

[(Anonymous)]

This is what I do - I don't have any orphaned fic, but I never want a bunch of entitled assholes demanding I write more stories in my old fandoms.

[(Anonymous)]

What'd you do

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that's what I want to know

[were_lemur]

I'm guessing they shipped something with an age difference of over six months, or that involves Kylo Ren somehow.

I can't really imagine it ruining your life.

[(Anonymous)]

Embarrassing, maybe, but I'd suggest owning it, if you ever become a famous writer.

Re: I can't really imagine it ruining your life.

[(Anonymous)]

It depends on the material, though. I mean, would you really want, IDK, some embarrassing cliche-ridden slash fanfic forever associated with you?

[(Anonymous)]

Whatever fandom you're in, you need to get the fuck out, because damn.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry if this is weird. I'm a little buzzed.

But this it what I think. It'll only ruin you if you let it, OP. But I suspect that this is the type of thing where no amount of advice is going to help. I hope you'll come to realize it yourself, because every creative, including you, deserves to express themselves, and the hell with being haunted by the past. It's called the past for a reason. If it's not useful to you, if all it does is hurt and not help, then it's irrelevant. No matter what you wrote. No matter how problematic, or whatever, that it might have been, you deserve to be able to move past it. You got this. Please shine for us, if that is what you want. You're worth it 100%.

I'm tired of people poopoo-ing fandom. It's dumb. All "original" works are derivative of older works, or events, or feelings inspired by works, events, or feelings. Nothing is truly original, and nothing is truly free of "problematic" content. I used to be sickly anxious over this, so scared to hurt other people, so scared other people would go out of their way to hurt me. That something I wrote would fuck my whole life and career. I wish I knew how I kicked this line of thinking, but it was this, as far as I know: There really came a point where I just didn't/couldn't give a fuck anymore. It wasn't worth it. Let people find whatever they find about my decades of fandom activity (which started at age 13.) I won't bat an eyelash now. Come at me, assholes.

[(Anonymous)]

If you become a famous writer no one will give a shit what some fanfic writers say they have, amd to your family? Lie. Just deny and say they are like Taylor swift fans posting rats in Karlie Kloss instagram.

Yeah your milk enema flic is a bit odd to most people but only the jackals of oh no they didn’t and a few nasty tumblrs will care. Fandom thinks it’s influence is waaaaaay higher than it is.

[tabaqui]

Have to agree with the first anon - unless your real actual self is somehow connected to your fandom stuff - like you talked about your life or your job or your family or something - random people online saying 'see this screenshot of this weird kink by crazy!spiderwoman!fan!? That's Mary Jane, the romance writer! Oh yes it is!!!'

Most people will ignore it, disbelieve it, or just not care. I know paranoia is hard to shake when you're living with it, but really - the percentage of people who'll know, care, and pay attention will be minuscule.

[(Anonymous)]

Heya, maybe I can offer a little bit of comfort.

I make my living off of ghostwriting, and I've got, hmm, let's say twenty professionally published short stories out there under a personal pen name. I also have a body of ridiculous fanfic that floating out there somewhere. Some of it I still like, some of it is dumb as hell, things like that.

Someone actually tried I think to blackmail me, saying they were going to send my fic to my clients, things like that. Of course because they contacted a defunct email, I didn't get it til maybe seven months after the fact.

Nothing happened, and given the fact that I'm reliable and fast, I'm pretty sure none of my clients would care either. Never ever had any fallout under my own stuff.

Hope that makes you feel better, and geez, whatever fandom you run with sounds tough. If you're really worried, there are ways to scrub your presence from the web and start over. You can always pick a professional name that's a variant on your own, and move on.

[were_lemur]

If anything, I think fanfic skills would be really useful in ghostwriting.

[(Anonymous)]

Still pretty awful that someone threatened to blackmail you. If it hadn't been for the email mishap, I imagine it could have caused some stress.

[(Anonymous)]

This is why there are some fics I'll just keep in my drawer. I'm also paranoid like that. Like someone will discover, tarnish my reputation, etc. etc. Countless people have said unless you connect one identity with the other, but couldn't people dox you if they were so inclined? Even if all you have is an AO3 account? I feel like someone could find you if they really tried.

SA

[(Anonymous)]

Oh goodness! I just re read what I wrote, and I realize I sound like an alarmist of some sort! I didn't mean to sound that way!

I feel like you should be free to post what you want, but only you can really choose what you decide to air. And you have orphaned fics, right? Let them rick. sock accounts. And your proper published irl work will also probably be better than your fic. And if they "out" you, laugh and say, well my work has gotten better, hasn't it? You'll maybe even gain new fans.


All this to say that people online are crazy, but you shouldn't let that stop you from living.I might post some drawer fic. Who knows.

[(Anonymous)]

If you become a famous writer and some whackadoodle internet stalker pulls out screenshots of the crappy fanfic you wrote a decade ago, chances are very, very high they'd just be laughed out of the room. Unless you're writing something really, really out there - like RPF incestuous pedophilia fic levels of out there - no one, and I mean no one, will give a single wet fart about it.

[(Anonymous)]

I know it's scary. It's scary as shit. But remember: doxxing the blackmailer is where it's at in situations like this. They are vulnerable, too. The fact they would stoop so low makes their lives much more vulnerable to attack. All you did was create. They did (or are trying to do) something rotten. Take a screen shot of their post where they outright said they are doing the same for libel purposes.

[litalex]

Be brave and own it. There are fanfic writers who got professionally published, and not just E L James. Hell, there are fanfic writers who got professionally published and are still posting fanfic.