are there people who like… don’t live in constant fear that all of their friends all secretly hate them and are constantly annoyed by everything they do??? how???
We’ve got a new article out – by Caroline Crampton, examining fanfictional works in progress!
What’s your favorite? What’s the one that hasn’t been updated since 2009 but you just CAN NOT GIVE IT UP?
A cool article about WIPs that is totally worth a read!
My favourite WIP, off-hand (that hasn’t been updated since 2013), is the fatal plunge series by maleficently. An absolutely incredible Swan Queen fic that mostly uses season 1 canon (the part I actually watched), that’s… really hard to describe. In the first fic, post initial curse breaking, Emma and Regina cast a second curse–to give everyone their happy ending. Naturally, things are angsty as heck and wonderful. It’s only the third (and final) installment that’s unfinished. Wherever maleficently is though, I hope she’s doing well and knows her work meant a lot to a lot of people! (Or at least to me!)
As a sidenote, this series also had an amazing playlist by the author at one point, and introduced me to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no 2 in C Minor, which… the best way to explain my feelings about this piece of music is that it’s my OTP of concertos and I love all versions of it the same way I love different fics of my OTPs. And the first movement at least is SO well-suited to these two characters.
There’s a kind of beauty in tacky lesbian fashion because yeah some of it may be ugly but? The confidence behind it. Infuriates straight men. Like you’re not sexually available to me AND you look weird in an off-putting way that doesn’t appeal to me? They can’t stand it and I find that hilarious and support my tacky lesbians
Whether ace or not, that shit can be really confusing and hurtful and difficult.
Like… I’m here for the ace/arc people who have a sex drive and get so confused because their body wants something but their brain doesn’t.
I’m here for the ace/arc people who don’t like to see genitals/porn/any sexual content but are bombarded with it all the time every day because our society is so obsessed with it.
I’m here for all the ace/arc folks that are fine with seeing sexual content or masturbating, and having nobody understand why they don’t want sex, as though having sex with somebody else and masturbation are the same thing.
I’m here for the ace/arc people who are so repulsed by genitals they can’t even look at their own body.
I’m here for the ace/arc folks who have always been that way, and I’m here for those people who are pretty new to this.
I’m here for the ace/arc people who are fine with the way they are, and the people who are neutral about it, and the people who hate it.
I’m here for the ace/arc people who are in relationships with people who want sex and all the confusing and hurt that can bring.
I’m here for the ace/arc people who want relationships but feel like they’re unlovable because they can’t give a partner what they want/need.
I’m here for the ace/arc people who want to have sex for the feeling or for the intimacy or for whatever reason, but just can’t bring themselves to do it and spend so much time stuck in that limbo.
I’m here for the ace/arc people who think they want something, then feel dirty and broken and upset and regretful afterwards.
I’m here for all of you, from those who aren’t really comfortable with having sex, to those who have anxiety/panic attacks over it and all in between.
It can be confusing and scary and hurtful as shit. It’s hard to navigate even your own body and your own comfort zones, let alone when you’re engaging with somebody else. I’m here for you all because somebody needs to be. …Because I need somebody to be.
So this post seems to be picking u pa lot of notes again, and I would like to reiterate that I’m still here for all arc (sex-Averse sex-Repulsed, or sex-Conflicted) people. It’s messy and complex and painful and can make you feel like shit in so many different ways.
Yesterday we put up a tiny poll and took it down after .02 seconds because we realized ONE POLL WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH. So: Take this super tiny, unscientific poll either by responding to this post OR by voting on Twitter, then watch this space for TINY POLL PART 2 coming in a day or two! We’ll post all the results here and on Twitter when they come in…
This has generated SO MANY discussions, it’s delightful.
My initial thought was defining “in” for me was a distinction of *in* versus ~in. I still feel like I’m ~in Harry Potter fandom. But I am *in* Black Sails fandom rn—that is the thing I spend lots of time thinking about. Like…lots of time. Help.
Other people are finding that the tricky part is defining “fandom” on a personal level. One person said they wrote tons of fic for YOI but didn’t think they were in the fandom—but never read or wrote fic for something else but totally felt like they were in *that* fandom.
Some people have tried to gauge by time spent or merchandise purchased or pure “participation,” which like, go with God, folks, this is about self-definition, but for the record, Flourish & I are not placing any sort of gatekeeping parameters around “fandom” or “in fandom”! Just sayin. 🙂
Oh, and for the record, I can be ~in many fandoms at once—essentially the ones I was in in the past, specifically Harry Potter, since that was like 10+ years of my life. But I can only manage being *in* one fandom at a time! I am fandom-monogamous. It makes trying to reread old favorite fic from past fandoms hard—I really need to be *feeling it* actively to connect on an emotional level.
Keep telling us your thoughts (and voting in the poll)!
I appreciate the extra notes @elizabethminkel ! I am usually only *in* one fandom at a time (or none, which was the case for a few years) but am ~in TONS all the time.
In a different sense than how it works for you though I think–I’m obsessively in one fandom right now, in terms of being the most into it, thinking about it, creating content for it, but I still read a wide variety of fic. The impulse to READ ABOUT MY CURRENT OTP/FAV CHARACTER FOR THE FEELS is different than the impulse to read fic bc I want good writing (sometimes even regardless of whether I’ve ever been in a fandom) and just the experience of reading something of a certain length, or something that will make me smile–and I do have both impulses at around the same time.
what was the first show y’all broke up with…you know like the first show you had that was your everything for a good amount of time and then it fucked up so bad that like you felt your heart breaking with sadness, disappointment and hurt and then you vowed never to see it again? i’ll start mine was shame/ess
Once Upon A Time. That was pretty early on, actually. Before that I just suffered through shows’ bullshit and kept going, but I couldn’t with this one. There’s still great fic out there though and I am all over that!
Question of Smoke 