hindsightseeing (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hindsightseeing) wrote2026-01-14 08:25 am
hindsightseeing) wrote2026-01-14 08:25 am
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Lucky #7, Snowflake Style.
Skipped the Top Ten because I couldn't think of anything to list!
Was going to skip this one too, because talking positively about myself is terrifying and horrible, but dammit, if there was ever a good reason to step out of one's comfort zone...
Challenge #7
LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.
Sticking to fannishness for this one, for probably obvious reasons...
1) I like that I am generally pretty self-sufficient and self-sustaining. I talked a bit in a previous Snowflake post about being in tiny fandoms and the experience of spending time with a Thing solely for the love of it and without any thought for engagement or feedback or the like -- indeed, often with the knowledge that you won't see any of those things. I think that sort of environment is one everyone could benefit from experiencing at some point in their fannish lives, for a lot of reasons... but I also think it takes a particular kind of person to be able to thrive there.
Social anxiety can be a boon, fannishly speaking, when it comes to finding ways to sustain your own interest and engagement with a Thing, without being dependent on other people's reactions to you and your work -- something that is entirely out of your control anyway. It means, to an extent, that you need to enjoy your own company, or at least to be able to feel like it's enough, and I think, honestly, that's a pretty good way of surviving in a world where the worth and value of all things are measured -- more and more -- by numbers rather than actual emotional connections.
2) On a similar note, I am very proud of my ability to write in isolation. I am, firstly, the sort of person who thrives best when working on longer fic, and secondly, the sort of person who strongly believes in not posting a work until it's complete -- at the very least in draft form, ideally in its entirety. I know a lot of people post longfic chapter-by-chapter as they go, and feed off reader reactions to keep them going, but that has always struck me as a very... difficult way of sustaining momentum. If a chapter gets a poor reception, or none at all, that risks a hit to your motivation to keep going, and I just can't imagine working that way.
Writing a story in its entirety, even over the course of several months, without any response or engagement at all can, I imagine, seem very, very lonely to people who do thrive on feedback to keep them motivated. So I guess what I'm saying is, I feel very lucky and proud of my ability to let the story itself be all the company I need while I'm working on it... even if I do want to knock myself unconscious for the editing stage. I know that's not something everyone is comfortable with, but for me personally, it really helps with the writing process to know that the entire story will be edited, changed, and complete before it will ever be seen.
3) On a more petty note... I like that my general response to the inevitable "someone is wrong on the Internet!!!" moments -- fannishly speaking -- is not to confront or contradict the Wrong Opinion (TM)* in question, but to turn around and write fic that emphasises my own take on the thing -- whether that be characterisation, a point of canon, a ship dynamic, whatever. I think there is definitely a lot of productive conversation that can come out of saying "hey, I think you're wrong about this and here's why", especially when it's framed in meta, but it can just as easily turn into flamewars, belittling, etc.
As a general rule for myself, I tend to take other people's quote-unquote "wrongness" as inspiration -- rather than confronting them with how 'wrong' their view is, or how 'right' mine is, I'm much more inclined to go out and write a fic that emphasises and/or celebrates my own view without touching on theirs at all. Possibly this is just because I prefer writing stories to meta -- my attempts at meta often end up clunky and poorly articulated -- but even so, I do feel that creating stories out of conflicting opinions, rather than forming arguments is, at least for me, a much healthier way of dealing with that feeling.
Plus, ultimately, more fic is always good... and as many different fics that explore completely different takes on things, IMHO, makes for a much happier environment than "[insert universally accepted headcanon] is the only acceptable take".
*note: the word 'wrong', throughout this point, is used hyperbolically -- there is obviously no real 'wrong' when it comes to fannish interpretation!
Was going to skip this one too, because talking positively about myself is terrifying and horrible, but dammit, if there was ever a good reason to step out of one's comfort zone...
Challenge #7
LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.
Sticking to fannishness for this one, for probably obvious reasons...
1) I like that I am generally pretty self-sufficient and self-sustaining. I talked a bit in a previous Snowflake post about being in tiny fandoms and the experience of spending time with a Thing solely for the love of it and without any thought for engagement or feedback or the like -- indeed, often with the knowledge that you won't see any of those things. I think that sort of environment is one everyone could benefit from experiencing at some point in their fannish lives, for a lot of reasons... but I also think it takes a particular kind of person to be able to thrive there.
Social anxiety can be a boon, fannishly speaking, when it comes to finding ways to sustain your own interest and engagement with a Thing, without being dependent on other people's reactions to you and your work -- something that is entirely out of your control anyway. It means, to an extent, that you need to enjoy your own company, or at least to be able to feel like it's enough, and I think, honestly, that's a pretty good way of surviving in a world where the worth and value of all things are measured -- more and more -- by numbers rather than actual emotional connections.
2) On a similar note, I am very proud of my ability to write in isolation. I am, firstly, the sort of person who thrives best when working on longer fic, and secondly, the sort of person who strongly believes in not posting a work until it's complete -- at the very least in draft form, ideally in its entirety. I know a lot of people post longfic chapter-by-chapter as they go, and feed off reader reactions to keep them going, but that has always struck me as a very... difficult way of sustaining momentum. If a chapter gets a poor reception, or none at all, that risks a hit to your motivation to keep going, and I just can't imagine working that way.
Writing a story in its entirety, even over the course of several months, without any response or engagement at all can, I imagine, seem very, very lonely to people who do thrive on feedback to keep them motivated. So I guess what I'm saying is, I feel very lucky and proud of my ability to let the story itself be all the company I need while I'm working on it... even if I do want to knock myself unconscious for the editing stage. I know that's not something everyone is comfortable with, but for me personally, it really helps with the writing process to know that the entire story will be edited, changed, and complete before it will ever be seen.
3) On a more petty note... I like that my general response to the inevitable "someone is wrong on the Internet!!!" moments -- fannishly speaking -- is not to confront or contradict the Wrong Opinion (TM)* in question, but to turn around and write fic that emphasises my own take on the thing -- whether that be characterisation, a point of canon, a ship dynamic, whatever. I think there is definitely a lot of productive conversation that can come out of saying "hey, I think you're wrong about this and here's why", especially when it's framed in meta, but it can just as easily turn into flamewars, belittling, etc.
As a general rule for myself, I tend to take other people's quote-unquote "wrongness" as inspiration -- rather than confronting them with how 'wrong' their view is, or how 'right' mine is, I'm much more inclined to go out and write a fic that emphasises and/or celebrates my own view without touching on theirs at all. Possibly this is just because I prefer writing stories to meta -- my attempts at meta often end up clunky and poorly articulated -- but even so, I do feel that creating stories out of conflicting opinions, rather than forming arguments is, at least for me, a much healthier way of dealing with that feeling.
Plus, ultimately, more fic is always good... and as many different fics that explore completely different takes on things, IMHO, makes for a much happier environment than "[insert universally accepted headcanon] is the only acceptable take".
*note: the word 'wrong', throughout this point, is used hyperbolically -- there is obviously no real 'wrong' when it comes to fannish interpretation!
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