Today's bad idea

[browngirl]

Please tell me not to write a post on Tumblr entitled "If you want that story so badly write it your own goddamn self".

I just get so tired sometimes of the exhortations not to write X trope or theme (because it's overdone/often badly done/has fallen into a general rut/whatever) but instead write Y trope or theme which is underused/underexplored. I usually want to see more of Y myself! Sometiems X is something I'm not fond of ! But I know that different people have different reasons for writing what they write and some people really want to write X, that the treatment for badly written X is to write X better rather than giving up on the writing of X at all and having X scoured from the face of the earth, that no amount of exhortations to write Y will work as well as raising interest in Y and that in the end if one wants to see more stories about Y because one is interested in Y, instead of making people feel bad for their writing so that they will just plain write less and/or stop, use one's interest in Y to fuel one's writing about Y! Hell, that writing may inspire others to write about Y! Which is what one wants in the first place!

I kind of want to toss that up on Tumblr.

I don't actually want to get flamed to hell and back like I would be if I did.

To say nothing of all the reasons people write what they do. Someone writing X may also have a Y idea but just not have written it yet. They may have a lived experience concerning X they really want to put into fic. We all have limitations of time and skill and energy on what we'd ideally like to make. And so on.)

Argh.

*takes a deep breath*

I know that people write these essays intending them for the general blob of fandom they're looking into (hell, that's what I'm doing here, writing about not one particular essay on any given X or Y, but the whole trend), but they can't be responded to by a blob-of-fandom. They can only be responded to by individuals, with our individual lives, from our individual viewpoints.

One of my favorite fannish experiences ever was where_no_woman in Star Trek Reboot fandom. Instead of just exhorting people to write more about women, and/or scolding people for not doing so, the community's creators made a space for writing about women, put out prompts and ideas and thoughts, invited people to do stuff, gave people stuff to build on. The results were marvelous.

But, anyway. Rather than put that up on Tumblr, and get myself flamed to hell and back, I should use my ragged bits of free time to write as much of X, Y, Z, and theta as I can manage.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Hey!

Don't write that post on Tumblr, will you? :o)

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

*wild applause*

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Curtseys. :o)

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

*hug*

You have my sympathies. Inasmuch as I am capable of writing the stories I want to read, I am doing it; there is a large set of stories I'd love to read but am not actually able to write, though. Fortunately many of them are being written by talented people who aren't me.

[summercomfort]

Yeah, leading by example is what people *should* do, but sometimes there are other frustrating factors. :/ Especially given fandom's odd relationships between creators and consumers. But hey, it's tumblr, so there's always the self-righteous teenager contingent, and I usually tell myself that they'll get it in 5-10 years.

I was/can-still-be like that sometimes, but meeting the right people and reading adult creators that I respect say things like "artists are not your bitch" and "instead of demanding others do all the work, help them make the change", or just "get over yourself" ... that helped a lot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[redbird]

Personally, I am a lot more sympathetic to general "I wish people would write more Y" than to equally general "don't write about X, it's boring, write about Y."

With nonfiction blogging (not just on fannish topics), a really annoying version of this is a random drive-by "can't we just drop this topic?" from someone who hasn't been discussing it, and in a context where nobody is remotely pushing them to read about it, let alone answer.

I noticed one on a mostly-science blog yesterday, with several active threads on different topics: if $person doesn't want to read what the blogger has to say about X, there are posts on Y, Z, theta, and aardvark right there, as well as the entire rest of the internet. That particular blogger's responses range from ignoring the complaints, to pointing out that the complainer isn't being forced to read and that the blogger is doing this as a hobby and is not a paid resource.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

yeah, all of that.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

What you wrote here is actually very nice. Redbird's first sentence would do fine for a tumblr post. If you wanted. I know tumblr's become a place of knives and less effectual pokey things, and I have nothing but sympathy for people who avoid it (like I do) and also for people who try to add some civility, clarity and kindness to it.

[gingicat]

Let's do a rewrite on it. I'm not capable of writing Cartinelli, after all, as much as I want it. But I don't yell at people for not writing it, and I think that's more your point.

I'm more angry at Jeremy Renner, honestly. Maybe his ableism is why MCU Hawkeye isn't deaf. :p

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Just as we all have our own reasons for writing, we all have our reasons for writing essays. Sure, sometimes those reasons are "because I am an entitled jerk" :-), but sometimes other stuff is going on. Maybe if you expand your "people write what they write for a reason" to the essays themselves, that'll make you feel better?

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I am thinking that this isn't just a fandom/fanfic issue. So far as I can tell, human beings in the US at this epoch have been socialized to assume the throne of judgeship to render negative evaluations of what others are doing. Which are typically delivered on behalf of the universe, rather than as individual preferences.

I think you're wise.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[azephirin.livejournal.com]

I have a Very Special Haterade for a particular juggernaut dudeslash shipper who periodically castigates fandom for not writing women enough.

[seanchaidh.livejournal.com]

Tumblr is this blessing and a curse both.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

I think you need to make a gif on tumblr with the message,

"That's a great idea! Let me know where I can read your writing that includes that!"

Or similar. And then post that gif all the time as a reply.