A Writer Friend Told Me Something That Broke My Heart A Little Bit Today; They're Going To Quit Publishing

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.

More Posts from Kigut and Others

10 months ago
Yet More Doodles Of Those Damn Hedgehogs
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Yet More Doodles Of Those Damn Hedgehogs

yet more doodles of those damn hedgehogs


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10 months ago

YES!!! T4T SONADOW !!! YES!!!!

Who Up Headcannoning Shadow As Transfem? 🩷🩵🤍🩵🩷

who up headcannoning shadow as transfem? 🩷🩵🤍🩵🩷

9 months ago
Oh I Guess I Forgot To Post This ?? Umm Im Scared To Draw Humans Right Now So I Tried Drawing Mizu As

oh i guess i forgot to post this ?? umm im scared to draw humans right now so i tried drawing mizu as a shiba inu/husky mix instead.

i think i might have held off on posting this since i wanted to do two other drawings to add to this post, didn't, and then just forgot all together like the worthless animal that i am

BUT YEAH THOUGH. mizu... but puppy.


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8 months ago
Bust Commission For @kigut :3

Bust commission for @kigut :3


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10 months ago
A Small Bunch Of Sonadow Doodles From Last Year 🖤🩵
A Small Bunch Of Sonadow Doodles From Last Year 🖤🩵
A Small Bunch Of Sonadow Doodles From Last Year 🖤🩵

a small bunch of sonadow doodles from last year 🖤🩵


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7 months ago

“Why are you so upset about adult content bans? You don’t even post that stuff. can’t you just look at porn somewhere else?”

Well, you see, I have this small problem where my very existence is considered adult content by a small but very powerful group of people and I actually rather enjoy being able to exist in public without restriction so uhhhh put that in your bong and smoke it kiddo.

4 months ago

ermm infodump about knux's fists under the cut

I'm probably missing something here, but I always found it kind of strange how some artists will depict Knuckles without gloves as having these spurs on his hands. I guess that is quite a literal and straight forward way of representing the shapes of his gloves, and I don't think there's anything wrong or incorrect about this depiction (especially if it actually showed up in cannon somewhere and I just didn't see it), but personally I don't see it that way.

I always kind of figured that those two little points were meant to be something that he was concealing underneath his gloves rather than something that is a part of his body.

My logic being... The gloves he wears are boxing gloves. Boxing gloves are meant to soften the impact of a punch so that you don't kill your opponent or otherwise seriously mess them up while participating in the sport. Knuckles was introduced as an antagonist who later on became a good guy, right. So I kind of figured that the reason he had shapes under his boxing gloves (which are supposed to be for fairness's sake) are because he's 'cheating'. Putting something heavy or even dangerous underneath or around your boxing gloves can negate the softening effect and cause even worse damage to your opponent.

His tribe is called the Knuckles tribe. He's named Knuckles because he's the last one. I figured his tribe was called the Knuckles tribe because they specialized so well in hand-to-hand combat that the weapons they developed and were known to use were brass knuckles. I figured that's what he was hiding under there, and that's why I draw him without the boxing gloves, fully exposing weapon that has been hidden underneath his gloves this whole time.

(I like to draw them hanging on his side when not in use so his hands are free to grab stuff.)

Ermm Infodump About Knux's Fists Under The Cut
Ermm Infodump About Knux's Fists Under The Cut

So I guess in summary, I kind of figured it was meant to convey the message that Knuckles can and does fight dirty. We continue to see that he will resort to underhanded techniques here and there, even if they've become less frequent with time. (Most recent example I can think of is when he threw a rock at the last robot standing in the Frontiers Prologue)

To me, conveying them as random spurs (something echidnas don't really have) feels a bit too literal and loses some flavour. Also I like decorating the iron knuckles to have aztec serpents carved into them or something, as if maybe they belonged to his father or he uncovered them from the ruins on Angel Island or something. It adds some culture and history to his character that I really like.

Ermm Infodump About Knux's Fists Under The Cut

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10 months ago

its been six years

i havent used tumblr since they changed the tos in 2018. the mass exodus to twitter, it was

but now i've come crawling back because i'm too autistic for twitter and have too many words to say. so here i am.

hi again tumblr, you horrible bastard. how've you been? rhetorical question, don't answer that. you look different. new haircut? also rhetorical.

so anyways i'll be posting/rambling about a lot of my little AUs and stuff. come watch the freak show.

i'll be uploading little by little and i'll probably work on some kind of vanity theme for my blog at some point.

10 months ago
Meet My Sonadow Fankid - Periwinkle!
Meet My Sonadow Fankid - Periwinkle!
Meet My Sonadow Fankid - Periwinkle!
Meet My Sonadow Fankid - Periwinkle!

meet my sonadow fankid - periwinkle!

she's got super regenerative healing abilities (think deadpool), likes skateboarding and videogames, and she's kind of a grump in spite of her sweet appearance. very much a tomboy.

she was born with leucism and has a pied (piebald) patterning on her fur that has about a 50/50 distribution. she's immunocompromised and gets sick often but her super healing prevents it from getting serious. all the same, she's constantly tired from how hard her body is always working.


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kigut - defacto CEO of knuxamy
defacto CEO of knuxamy

they/them | 26 | qweer furryi draw what i want. art is in #kigart

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