Fandom is such a weird place. Like I watched a tv show and thought “wow, these two nerds have a lot of chemistry and I’d like to dedicate a large chunk of my life to thinking about them” so I went in search of other people who also thought these two nerds had a lot of chemistry and then it turned out that a shit ton of people were talking about these two nerds having a lot of chemistry and now it’s 4 years later and we write each other porn on holidays.
My suggestion: write something you want your mom to read and send it to her. Or if you have a bit of writing that you like already that’s mom-friendly, send her that to read.
I think it’s great that your mom wants to read your writing. That’s just her being supportive. I don’t have a lot of that and I think you’re really lucky that she’s wanting to encourage you, so I’d put in a little effort to tease out more of that support.
My family knows I write fic and so I’ve sent them snippets or pieces I’ve written specifically for them to read. I mean, c’mon, I don’t want my grandmother reading my slash fics. I’d rather die, guys. Really.
That said, she’s been one of the most encouraging members of my family when it comes to my writing. I write her little grandmother-friendly stories and send them to her and she always has lovely things to say.
It’s worth the effort.
–Mod M
I am a mom that writes fic. My adult daughter writes fic on AO3 as well.
We DO NOT read each other.
She plays in her sometimes smutty little sandbox and I wave my pompoms at her.
I play in my sometimes smutty little sandbox and she waves her pompoms at me.
We agree that we don’t need to know each other in this way, but we DO drink wine and snicker about what annoying little, short-sighted shits Solas and Lucifer are sometimes.
Life is good.
My mom knows I write fanfic. Sometimes I read bits to her after we watched relevant episodes of Lucifer together. I told her she should read my Devil reveal fic.
“But skip chapter 4. It’s very explicit.”
Folks, she read chapter 4. I was mortified, but she was actually pretty chill about it? Like she mentioned how it felt very unique to her and I told her (through my hands) how I wanted to prioritize consent at every stage of the scene. And she was like. “…Oh yeah. That’s why. It was interesting. I think you did a good thing.”
So in the end, not as weird as I thought it would be? I still cringe sometimes thinking that she’s seen the words I put down but it’s true. She’s an adult. I’m an adult. I’m not sure how I feel about her reading some of my other scenes though.
Now imagine if instead of saying “I don’t understand why you make these stories, but you do you” and fucking off to look at stories they do like, that character instead says “your stories are ugly and unwanted, no decent person should tolerate you making them” and rallies the others to ban the creation of these kind of stories, shame the creator out of town, and declare anyone who would want such a story to be nasty and gross.
I am really baffled by the people attacking AO3 for hosting stories that involve rape, incest, pedophilia, and other dark things. Have…have they never been to a bookstore or library? People write stories about all manner of dark, horrible things. This is not remotely new. And at least on AO3 and other fandom platforms, the dark things are generally tagged. In bookstores and libraries, not so much.
V.C. Andrews was freaking popular when I was in jr. high and high school. Her books were in the school libraries. They needed to be stamped with trigger warning: EVERYTHING, but mainly things from the fun list of rape, incest, pedophilia, and child abuse. Her books are still sufficiently popular that there are new ones coming out despite the fact that she’s been dead for years!
Her books are in the library I work at. Her books are in most bookstores. Her books are probably still in the libraries of the jr high and high school I went to. Does that mean anywhere that has her books supports rape, incest, pedophilia, and child abuse?
That’s not how it works. Yes, there are occasionally things that a store or library will decide they don’t want to carry, no matter what. The first bookstore I worked at wouldn’t even special order The Turner Diaries. A lot of bookstores won’t even special order The Anarchist Cookbook. I’m sure there are other books out there that people are reluctant to touch, even with a ten foot pole. But, barring those few exceptions, most bookstores and libraries are not in the business of policing the content of the books they deal in.
Not because booksellers and librarians are all monsters who should be reported to the FBI, but because there’s a long history of censorship going very bad places very fast. Also, free speech is considered an American value. Hell, let me just link to the ALA page on censorship.
I don’t pretend to know why stuff like V.C. Andrews’ books, or the fics on AO3 that some people want to report to the FBI, are popular. I don’t get it. It doesn’t appeal to me. Yet I recognize that different dark things are in kinds of fiction that I do like – violence, murder, torture, war, other things that most of us really fervantly hope never to experience in our lives. I don’t know whether fiction is an outlet for whatever darkness lurks in everyone’s hearts, whether it’s a way of dealing with our fear of bad things happening, whether human culture just finds bad things fascinating, or what. Maybe humanity is just super fucked up and Pluto really is a warning buoy telling other civilizations not to go near the planet with the creepy mammal infestation on it.
But I don’t think going after fic platforms because some of the fic hosted there is disturbing is a solution to anything. (And if the people doing so are not also on an equivalent campaign against bookstores and libraries, I suspect that what’s going on is not what they claim is going on.)
Question of Smoke 