✨This Or That ✨

okay so I made some wolfstar valentines cards, feel free to use them to show ur moots how much you love them! 💜

part 2: moony & padfoot edition

thank you to @lynxindisguise @hiddenmoonbeam & @hihimissamericanbi for the help with some of these! 🫶🏼

i actually kinda like it when a character getting better includes them becoming weirder and less polite and more confusing and strange. no more "domestication" i wanna see the weird guy be weird!!!

man i have GOT to do this thing. *doesnt do it*

In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now. Each moment, taken alone, is bearable. Each moment is not without it’s beauty.

Julia Cameron (via twloha)

I'm always coming across people saying one of two things about wolfstar 1) It makes no sense and 2) it would be toxic as hell if it ever happened...

All of which makes me wonder what on earth set of books they were reading because from Remus's voice shaking with some suppressed emotion when he sees Sirius for the first time in twelve years, to his voice sounding like every word was causing him pain after Sirius's death we see them be nothing but gentle, respectful and affectionate with each other.

Anyway - I'm currently re-reading Bite and Prejudice which is my wolfstar Jane Austen AU and I just came across this paragraph which, although it is written in flouncy regency language (and was paraphrased from another which was originally about Lizzie and Darcy), sums up exactly why Remus and Sirius work so perfectly together in canon:

He thought too how their dispositions and tempers - though markedly different from the other - would suit each other perfectly and bring out only  the best. How Remus’s tendency to self deprecation, his dry wit and steady temper would deflate the worst of Black’s pride, stick a pin in his self importance and keep his readily admitted propensity to take offence and never give up a grudge in check. Likewise, Black’s ardent nature, his loyalty and tenderness, his capacity for love and his great passion for life would pull Remus out of his own melancholy, make a mockery of his self pity, and make him laugh when he was inclined to be maudlin. Together, Remus thought, they made one very good sort of man. Apart they must always be prey to their own weakness and follies. 

Which just goes to show, whatever universe you put them in, wolfstar will always make sense.

fanfiction's low barrier to entry and its interest based alignment by nature allows people to find and access communities of like-minded people.

And I think that's kind of cool.

“fanfiction,” as a concept, only exists because of intellectual property. at the end of the day, it’s just fiction. some of it is great, some of it sucks ass. sometimes, it can reveal something damning about the author—prejudices, biases, whether or not they think cats should be left indoors, how they feel about offshore tax evasion, whatever. that’s the nature of fiction. this is not news to anyone who’s ever opened a book

what’s truly unique about fanfiction is that it’s anonymous and free with a barrier to entry that ants wouldn’t notice climbing. also, it’s amateur by necessity; barring a few notable exceptions, nobody expects their gaudy slash fiction to win them an award or make them a million dollars. this crock pot of internet fuckery lends itself to two things—a monumental diversity of skill level and buck wild nasty behavior

fanfiction is neither god’s gift to all man kind nor an incurable blight. it’s just a thing. that exists. it’s neither defenseless nor indefensible. it can be harmful, helpful, or benign. more importantly, it’s not going anywhere, so i wish we’d stop arguing about whether or not it’s “legitimate” and talk about what’s actually happening with it instead

the black sisters

🖤🖤🖤

if you would consider platonic web weave,

black sisters pretty please!

ofc ofc this is also once again me complaining about spotify changing the colors for the lyrics because this would've looked so much better with the lighter colors :/

Pro tip!! You CAN request that your fics not be re-added to Goodreads! This is a blessing 🩷🩷🙏

Sharing my writing with other people is always going to feel vulnerable, no matter how many times I do it or how others respond. I doubt I'm the only one that gets nervous when posting online, so thought I'd share this:

Things that help when sharing my fics

1. Make sure I have a project or something to work on straight after posting

gives me something to think about other than how my fic is doing

stops me sitting there constantly refreshing ao3

ideally something not related to ff (so no WIPs)

2. Try to not look at tumblr/my ao3 until at least the next morning

gives me (hopefully) something to look forward to in the morning

keeps me from constantly checking if I know I'm going to check it all at once

my ao3 comment emails are disabled for this reason

having any other fics that I want to read open in their own tab also helps so I don't have to click on my user

3. Post about an hour before I'm planning to sleep

posting close to bedtime makes #2 easier, but

I also need to factor in time to calm down after the initial nerves

4. Read some other recently posted fics

partly I do this regardless of whether or not I've posted recently

but also it's nice reading other people's work knowing they're probably out there at that exact moment experiencing something similar

I've found some of my absolute fav ff writers this way

careful that if you do this you're not comparing

5. Be extra kind to myself

chances are my anxiety is going to be running high

this means I tend to be extra critical of myself for about a day after posting something

it helps to remind myself that there's a reason my inner critic is in hyperdrive

but that also means no reading, writing, or editing my own work

6. If nothing else, remember I had fun

remind myself that once the anxiety has passed I'll have a new chapter/fic from my favourite ff writer (me) to look forward to

and if even one other person reads it and enjoys it, I've made a new friend :)

Of course this is a checklist for the ideal scenario. There are other factors and days when my anxiety is already running high for other reasons. This isn't a set of commandments or a rulebook, it's a guide to help myself.

If it's not helping in the moment, I do something different.