allofthefeelings:

dazzledfirestar:

hexiva:

aerialsquid:

wisepeachwizard:

If you’re about to write a post that says, I need a fic where- stop.

Please. Just stop.

What I want you to do IS WRITE THAT FIC. I don’t care whether or not you think you’re a good writer or not, and if you’re going to say, I don’t have the time! do you think Lin-Manuel Miranda had time to write Hamilton, or J.K Rowling to write Harry Potter? No. They made time.

I WANT YOU TO WRITE THAT FIC AND I WANT TO READ IT BECAUSE IF YOUR IDEA IS COOL ENOUGH THAT YOU’RE ASKING FOR FICS LIKE IT, IT NEEDS TO BE READ. BUT YOU SHOULD DO IT, BECAUSE ONLY YOU CAN FULLY CAPTURE YOUR IDEA. DO IT. BE AMAZING.

OK fine. I have the time. Now where am I going to get the physical strength to keep a consistent typing not just at my day job but also as my recreation and to get that fixed you really want me to write pumped out. I get something up on AO3 about every 4 to 6 months, because that’s all that my body is physically capable of doing.

sometimes I just want to talk about my ideas without having to put months of effort into getting them out the door. Deal.

And, jeez, reading about a cool idea on Tumblr might not be as good as reading the whole fic, but it’s sure better than nothing. It brightens my day.

Also as someone who should just have “written it yourself” tattooed on my forehead due to small ships and unpopular characters, reading something someone else has written and reading your own work are two completely different experiences.

Sure, I’ll write it. But now I know what’s going to happen and I’ll pick at it because it’s MINE. I want to just enjoy a story sometimes, be surprised where it goes and not nitpick.

That’s not asking too much, I think.

Sometimes I don’t want to come up with a whole story. Sometimes everything I want to say is in the “I need a fic where.” Sometimes “I need a fic where” isn’t literally a request for a fic to exist, but rather a way to express a headcanon or an AU that maybe doesn’t need to be fully developed- especially for those of us who want to contribute but can’t, often for reasons that don’t need to be divulged to the entire community to be valid.

In the age of tumblr, “Imagine a story where X happens” can be as much a creative fannish act as writing the story itself. When it leads to interaction from multiple people jumping on to elaborate on the idea, it can become even bigger than the story itself could have been. It is, I think, a huge mistake in evaluating the wonderful possibilities of fannish creation, to think that the idea has to be a formal story to be worthwhile.

sometimes when I say “I need a fic where” I mean that I’ve got thirteen projects on my to do list and this fic that I want is not going to get written – literally probably not ever – unless I turf it out to somebody else talented. And yes, sometimes when I say this, I also mean “it would be nice to feel like someone else is also writing for this pairing/also liked this idea/thinks like I do enough to pick this up and do something with it.”