silentauror's Blog, page 258
September 17, 2019
jilldarbc:
“The Name’s Sherlock Holmes and the address is...
:
“The Name’s Sherlock Holmes and the address is 221B Baker Street.”His beauty and haughtiness so precious and one of a kind
September 16, 2019
September 15, 2019
The Sun, the North Wind, and the Fanfic Writer
Once upon a time two fanfic readers decided to have a
contest to see who could best influence a fanfic writer they both knew to write
stories that would please them.
The first reader, the North Wind, said, “Well, I will simply
tell the author that her work is crap when she produces something I don’t like.
What I like is stories where the main characters are kangaroos. She never
writes them as kangaroos, and she SHOULD. If I yell at her loudly enough and
use nasty enough terminology, she will feel chastened by my reproaches and
write stories which are more to my liking.”
The second reader, the Sun, said, “I will simply enjoy
whatever the writer is producing. If I don’t like it, I know that I don’t have
to read it. Sometimes I like what this author writes and sometimes I don’t.
That’s all right. I know that she’s a busy person and writing stories for us as
a hobby, and she doesn’t get anything out of it except for our feedback. I will
be kind to her, and hope that she will write more stories of the sort that I
like.”
“You fool!” scoffed the North Wind. “Everyone knows that
hate is more persuasive! Besides, I feel that she owes me personally the stories that I want to read!”
“Well, you try that,” said the Sun. “But I will try it my
way and we will see who wins.”
They waited and waited. The writer found herself a little
busy with boring things that she was required to do, rather than the things
which she preferred: naps and eating chocolate cake and writing fanfiction.
Finally the Sun messaged the North Wind to her let know that the writer had
posted a new story. The Sun knew this because she had subscribed to the writer’s
page on ao3. The North Wind did not care to show any sort of support, based on
her mixed feelings about the writer’s stories, so she had not received the
email. The Sun kindly also sent a link, and they both read the story.
The North Wind did not care for the story. The writer had
utterly failed to pay attention to the latest trends of character
interpretation according to the North Wind’s tumblr dashboard, and had
interpreted the characters just as she saw them herself. Worst of all, she did
not write them as kangaroos. The North Wind found this to be completely
unacceptable, and said so. The North Wind had an account on ao3, but preferred
to remain anonymous. “You are terrible!” she commented, using a name other than
her own, and an email address that would connect no one to her true self. “You
don’t write the characters precisely as I see them and you are therefore
untalented and BAD! I hate you and think you should die! Write stories that
cater to my every whim or else don’t write at all, you utter hack! Don’t you
know that you should write these characters as kangaroos? It’s the only thing
that makes sense to any rational mind!”
The writer wrote back and said, “Thank you for having read
my story. According to my personal interpretation, this is how these characters
would behave. However, you don’t have to read my stories. There’s no need to be
so nasty.”
The North Wind copied this response and sent it to the Sun,
saying, “Can you believe this??? I will NEVER read her stories again!”
“You always say that,” the Sun said mildly. “And yet you
always read her stories. I wonder why.”
The Sun had quite liked the story, and decided to say so.
She even wondered if the writer might be feeling a little badly over the North
Wind’s angry comments, so she made sure to leave kudos, a bookmark – she had
particularly liked the scene with the first kiss and knew that she would want
to come back to it – and also left a comment. She commented about the things
which she had liked, and asked the author a question about something which she
personally had a slightly different opinion on. The writer responded and they
had a pleasant conversation about it. The Sun wasn’t entirely convinced to
change her own opinion, but understood the writer’s point of view and they ended
their conversation amicably.
There was another time when the writer had written something
which the Sun did not care for at all. There was a major character death and
the Sun cried for days. She could appreciate the form and quality of the
writing, but wasn’t sure she knew what to say, so in the end, she never left a
comment. She always felt a bit guilty, but when she mentioned it to the writer,
it turned out that the writer didn’t mind at all. “Not everyone will like
everything I write,” she said cheerfully. “But that’s just the way it goes. I
will just keep writing my own stories and hope for the best.”
The Sun thought that was very sensible. Over the years, she
and the writer came to know one another a little bit through the conversations
they had in comments on the writer’s stories. One day the Sun ventured to ask
how the writer felt about the pressure from people like the North Wind to write
the characters as kangaroos.
“The characters are not kangaroos in the canon,” the writer
said cautiously.
“No, they’re not, but people really like kangaroo fic,” the
Sun said, timidly, not wanting to pressure the writer. “People might like your
stories even more if you wrote the characters as kangaroos.”
“The characters are not kangaroos in the canon,” the writer
repeated, a little more firmly. “I will write them as they are in the canon.”
The Sun accepted this. She realised then that no one would “win”
the contest of influence: the writer was simply going to write the stories that
she wanted to write, according to her own interpretation. The Sun decided that
this was just fine. She continued to read the writer’s stories and they
continued to have a good relationship. She noticed that when the writer was
happy, she tended to produce more stories, and more quickly. The Sun tried to
make the writer happier by leaving kind comments on the stories that she
enjoyed. Sometimes the writer wrote stories that the Sun liked more than the
others, and sometimes she wrote stories that the Sun liked less than the
others. These stories did not lessen the Sun’s opinions of the writer. She was
still able to see that, while the writer had made some choices for the
characters that she herself didn’t care for, the stories were nonetheless
well-crafted and diligently written. And thus, she and the writer became
friends and remained so for years. They were both happy.
The North Wind continued to badger the writer for kangaroo
stories, particularly ones involving baby kangaroos.
She never got her wish.
The End.
*****
With apologies to the people behind Aesop’s Fables! *sheepish smile*
Bringing this back. :P
This face owns my heart ❤️
This face owns my heart ❤️
lunadax:
His last vow.
Done on strathmore tinted blue mixed...
His last vow.
Done on strathmore tinted blue mixed media paper with palomino blackwing pencil and white pastel pencil (and a bit of staedtler black 8B pencil)
My art tag
strangeps3lyricsmuffin:
fyeahfreebatch:
best freebatch...
bemineunderthestars:
just-shower-thoughts:
Whoever coined the term coined the term coined the term...
Whoever coined the term coined the term coined the term coined the term
Yes hi I hate English
I love it
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