[ SECRET POST #5500 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5500 ⌋

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


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 15 secrets from Secret Submission Post #787.
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]

01. https://i.imgur.com/6ccR7YQ.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

What the fuck? I write and publish rare pair fics because I like connecting with other fans. I'm not keeping track of how many hours I spend on my stories, and I'm sure as hell not thinking other people don't deserve to read my works. I'm sorry the person who wanted you to credit their 'imagine' was rude to you, but grow up.

[(Anonymous)]

Huh? You want OP to grow up and ... what, post the fic they don't want to post because you said to?

They're well in their own rights to post or not post for whatever reason they want. Idk who is the child here

[(Anonymous)]

I kind of understand where OP is coming from, because there is some weird entitledness behind, "I inspired your 200k word epic with this one sentence, why didn't you credit me?"

[(Anonymous)]

Wait wait wait, you're spending 200 hours on a novel-length fic and not posting it?

I mean, you do you, you are the master of your fate and all that, but god damn that's a lot of time and effort to spend on something you keep in a drawer instead of posting.

[(Anonymous)]

Not OP - I've done that because I wanted to write a story. I go back and read it sometimes. A few friends have read it, I guess. I have no feelings on OP or imagines but just saying drawer fic is fine and enough for some people

[(Anonymous)]

Not OP either but I do this. I don't really care for engagement, I just have a story in mind and want it to exist (and reread it later because it will be perfectly catered to my tastes). Sometimes I do share but I don't always care to.

[(Anonymous)]

Not OP but the only fics I've ever posted anywhere were short little askbox things and a couple less than a page kinkmeme (a misnomer in my case because they were vanilla and gen) prompt fills. I have lots of drawer fic moldering away because I won't publish anything unfinished, and I suck at finishing stuff.

[(Anonymous)]

"Wait wait wait, you're spending 200 hours on a novel-length fic and not posting it?"

Not OP, but I've done this with most of my RPF fics.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm into a rare pair now, something that doesn't even really get imagines (wrong demographic maybe?). I'd be so bummed to know someone had written fic but wasn't posting it. It's yours and you choose what to do with it, but that was my first thought.

Also, maybe I'm out of touch, but: people do still prefer proper fic to imagines, right? Because if so, you can easily shift the balance to being a 'rando who wrote a fic based off of one of the cool kids' imagines', to being 'the amazing author who sometimes uses those randos imagines as inspiration'. Maybe petty, but as a reader, that's how I'd see it.

[(Anonymous)]

I... I don't understand what this secret is trying to say. It reads like "I have (what I consider to be cool stuff) and I'm not going to share with you unworthy peons whose ideas I stole!"

But that can't be right, can it?

[(Anonymous)]

To me it reads like "I read a prompt and don't want to credit the prompter because the prompter calls their prompt an 'imagine' in an effort to stake their flag in an idea that they won't write about themselves".

I kind of get it. From the admittedly teeny amount I've seen of 'imagines', they're just long prompts that are written instead of fic, usually with the goal of making sure that an idea is claimed as somehow uniquely *theirs*. Which comes across as entitled, like a little kid licking all the cupcakes at a party so nobody else can have one. So I don't blame OP for not sharing if they don't want to feed the mindset that the prompter/imaginer(?) did the hard work in having the idea, because they didn't.

But an idea isn't something you can really plagiarise in fanfic - a fic can be copied, sure, but if three people write a fic based on a single prompt, no matter how detailed the prompt was you'll still end up with three different fics. And often readers will gladly read all three!

Honestly, I'd probably just post it as anon and turn off comments.

[(Anonymous)]

It reads like "I have (what I consider to be cool stuff) and I'm not going to share with you unworthy peons whose ideas I stole!"

This is how it reads to me, too.

Well, okay, I wouldn't say it's stealing to use someone's fairly general imagine without crediting them. But OP seems exceedingly enraged over a situation in which they actively chose to overlook someone and the person they chose to actively overlook noticed and brought it up. IDK whether this imagine writer was in the right to make an issue of it. It seems like a minor enough thing that they probably should've just let it go. But OP's reaction, and OP's reasons for overlooking this person in the first place, are jaw-droppingly petty, hostile, and judgmental IMO.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, as someone who's written both full fics and imagines, for me they scratch very different itches and have very different appeal to me as a writer?

Like, writing fic is hard. I love writing it, I love posting it, but it takes a while and sometimes I'll look at something I've already spent hours and hours on and end up not finishing/posting it. Sometimes I just won't have time to read a full fic - I'm a busy person.

Imagines, on the other hand, are basically what I tend to do anyways when plotting out a vague concept for a fic. I've written a TON of imagines where I was like "if I have the time and inspiration I'll do a full fic of this, but for now here's what I've got." Imagines are great because I can read one quickly while in line at the grocery store or on my break at work or whatever.

They're different forms and serve different purposes imo. Besides, imo oneshots and drabbles aren't some kind of lesser form of fanfic just because they have less words - there's a huge amount of skill involved in conveying a scene or mood in a very limited space. I know it's not a skillset I have - my shortest fic is like 35k, and I don't think I'll ever be able to write anything shorter, so I respect the hell out of anyone who can create these amazing fics in such a small amount of space.

[(Anonymous)]

I never understand saying short fic is some kind of skill. I have only written short things (my longest is <7k, except for some drawer fics) because I never get ideas that can sustain themselves for very long. It's a failing, not something I do on purpose. People always seem to like longer fics.

[(Anonymous)]

Cool story, bro. You keep doing you.

[(Anonymous)]

Eh. I write imagines because I have ideas and I really want to put them out in the world but I really can’t write the epic doorstoppers I’d kill to read. If I ever found out someone wrote fic based on my imagine and never posted it anywhere, I would probably lose my mind over how much I wish I could read it. Credit schmedit.

[philstar22]

I write a lot of headcanons, or at least I used to when I was active in my fandom. A couple times people were inspired to write fics based on some of them, and it thrilled me beyond belief. It is really strange to me that someone wouldn't just be thrilled that they inspired fanfic and would instead obsess about credit.

Then again, you also seem a little rude. I mean, they did inspire you. Their demanding credit is rude, but in fact they did inspire you so it isn't totally out of bounds to ask you to mention that at least. This seems like a massive overreaction on your part.

When did we start calling prompts "imagines"?

[(Anonymous)]

I've been out of Fandom for like a decade.

Huh.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe stop reading imagines, then? I mean, if you're this pissed off that someone on the internet might see a story you have written as a reward for writing what amounts to a prompt. I'm not sure why that's a bad thing - they might write more imagines that inspire you and that's bad, I guess? I'm not sure why wanting credit for a story idea is a bad thing either. I always try to credit a prompt that has, well, prompted a fic I've written, because the fic wouldn't exist without it. If you think some people, including the imagines originators, believe that imagines are on par with fully fleshed-out fics, I can understand resenting that, but I don't really understand not posting something I think others might enjoy too because people are wrong on the internet.

[(Anonymous)]

Just be vague, like you were inspired by other fics and discussion, Tumblr and Fandom osmosis without naming names.

[(Anonymous)]

"They should have been thanking me on their knees for giving them that story"? You owe them nothing, but they also owe you nothing.

[(Anonymous)]

If this secret is genuine, and not the work of a skillful troll, then it's shockingly mean-spirited. I ship a pairing that has tons of antis, and even the antis don't radiate seething bitterness the way this secret does. Jesus.

[fizzyrose]

Petty ranting aside. I can understand if they're vague sorts of stuff. And I do understand rolling your eyes at people who want you to credit them for using a one sentence bullet point to write a story. I'll sometimes look up prompts to spark inspiration or gather some ideas and a lot of them aren't all that special. Which it kind of a good thing otherwise they wouldn't be applicable to a wide variety of stories or pairings, which is sort of the point. They're kind of like the icons that are literally just cropped screen caps but you're supposed to credit the person anyway.

On the other hand if it's stuff like a detailed AU they made up themselves. Or a set of headcanons that are very specific and detailed, etc. Yeah, you should definitely give credit where credit is due.

I wouldn't keep your stuff locked in a drawer out of spite for people who think (either deserved or not) they should be credited for giving you ideas OP.

ETA: I recently came across a fic in my fandom that's literally yanking the story line of another fic 1 for 1. And they didn't even credit inspiration for it. A commenter brought it up to them and they played it off as having forgotten the name of the fic...which was impactful enough for them to copy its plot. It wasn't plagiarism, but it was very tasteless IMO. "That's a cool concept for a story, I want to do a similar one my way" is one thing and this is another. Not entirely related to OPs rant but people not crediting others for ideas/inspiration when it took them effort to share them with the fandom is a big time oof.

[(Anonymous)]

This is why we need kinkmemes back. Post an idea, if somebody writes something based on it, cool.