• brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      lemmy is full of philistines.

      Reddit, too. The fandoms I was engaged in there seem totally uninterested in (or even hostile to) fanfiction or even lore speculation now. No, just repeating and worshipping the same shallow memes.

      At risk of sounding old… it wasn’t always like that.

      • [email protected]
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        1 day ago

        At risk of doing the same, kids these days have shorter attention spans and more expendable entertainment within their grasp. I can’t say I’ve ever interacted with fanfiction communities, but, from what I’ve seen elsewhere, creativity is perceived as “yapping.” Which is heartbreaking to me.

        • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          That’s my observation, too. shakes “get off my lawn” fist.

          But Ao3 has good apps now. That’s kinda recent, so maybe there will be some fresh blood from smartphone-primaries, especially as Reddit fandom subs bleed users (like me).

          • [email protected]
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            1 day ago

            I hope so too. Writing should be timeless. Without a space for it in the modern internet, where apparently all creativity is meant to be placed, according to my niece, fewer writers will flourish. We live in an age of change, and I’m constantly bouncing back and forth between happy and terrified of what that means

            • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Another personal anecdote: I am writing a fandom fic now (and finished another). I get some foot traffic, even likes/bookmarks, but barely any feedback or comments. I really have no idea what readers think, aside from like one commenter on the old fic.

              Based on what I’ve read in other communities, that’s a common phenomenon. There’s just less engagement proportional to the (also lesser) reader count these days, and it kinda feels like writing into a black hole.

              • [email protected]
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                1 day ago

                I shifted my mindset to get around any issues. I don’t write for anyone else. I write for an audience of one, me. I find myself interesting, however vain that might sound, and therefore I write. I don’t know how much that helps you, if you’re looking for constructive criticism, but it’s the only way I’ve managed to continue enjoying the act. Well, that and passing it along to the kids in the form of verbal collaborative storytelling.

    • toynbee@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I’m pretty sure I read this story in a book of urban legends when I was a kid in the nineties and it wasn’t new then.