This month did fly by O___O

i think the quietness comes from the small crowd. Reddit is a internet cornerstone, despite its many problems, and unfortunately it’s where the people are. It’s difficult to convince the average Reddit/X/Tumblr/whatever user to jump to some new platform–for lots of reasons–but mostly because the community isn’t there. There’s a surge of activity in the beginning, then it dies down considerably, and people go back to what they’re familiar with.

idk how to solve that, though ^^; maybe advertising to introverts? the quietness/small size of the community here could be appealing to people who mostly lurk in the larger fandom Reddit communities.

Mitchell, Manos, and Pod People are probably a three-way tie for me. Some of my underrated favorites are Girls Town, The Incredible Melting Man, The Giant Spider Invasion, Teen-Age Crime Wave, and Kitten With a Whip.

Presto is amazing!!! So much of their 90s-00s discography is so slept on.

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Tool - 10,000 Days

Rush - Test for Echo

Metallica - Metallica

Rush - Clockwork Angels

Michael Jackson - HIStory

BIGBANG - MADE

[bodyendtag] - Information Superhighway

Kumi Koda - BEST 2000-2020

A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms

I saw BigBang on the MADE tour T__T So good! Probably biased since it was my first real concert ever. Taeyang and G-Dragon’s solo shows were also very good; pretty much all the kpop shows I’ve been to have been amazing (BigBang, Taeyang, CL, G-Dragon, Blackpink(x2), BTS(x2)). I would love to see Dreamcatcher, EXO, or Shinee!

Big Bang, 2NE1, Girls’ Generation, EXO, BTS, Blackpink, XG, Shinee, f(x), Wonder Girls…

Looking for BoA’s “Every Heart” song for Inuyasha, I discovered her Korean stuff too, then found out about DBSK, Lee Hyori, BigBang, and I never looked back. lol Yes I am old…

I write a ton of romance stories for someone who doesn’t really like romance published fiction. haha. Does that count?

I probably wouldn’t write first person POV (just because I know it puts people off) but I wouldn’t mind reading it in fic. Also I occasionally write PWP but don’t really seek out PWP fic.

As for enjoying reading but not writing… I’ve gotten ideas for fics that fit into the category of “I’d read it if someone else wrote it”, but those are usually “this story would be boring for me to write”.

I can’t really think of anything I’m super opposed to on either end but would enjoy in some way. If I dislike a trope, I’m not going to read it or write it.

Chapter cliffhangers are fun! I want to be engaged and wonder what will happen next. If the story itself ends on a cliffhanger… I guess that kinda depends. Is it setting up for a sequel? Is the author leaning into ambiguity? Both can work if the author can pull it off. I don’t think I would drop a fic for cliffhangers; I usually drop fics when I stop caring about the story/characters, or reading the story feels more like a chore than something fun that I look forward to.

Get out while you still can! Go make friends and have a real life! Don’t repeat my mistakes! XD

Jokes aside, I would advise to keep on keepin’ on. :) And stop doomscrolling fanfic_rants trying to figure out what you shouldn’t write based on people’s pet peeves and annoyances. Yes, people are needlessly critical but tbh you’re gonna be writing rarepairs and rare fandoms so readers will have to engage with your stuff anyway or make their own :P

I stopped crossposting my stuff to ffnet around 2017. A lot of effort for not much return. AO3 is just so much nicer to look at, navigate, and add tags/summaries (boo @ ffnet’s summary character limit). And AO3 allows all the whack stuff I write (explicit, original works, RPF) so it’s pretty much a one-stop shop. I might peek at ffnet if I’m desperate for fic, especially for old shows who had their heyday before AO3, but if I’m that desperate I’m usually writing my own fic at that point.

I love Rose Madder. Such an underrated King novel.

Just off the top of my head:

-The Woman in the Room -Gray Matter -I Am the Doorway -Gramma -Umney’s Last Case

honorable mentions: The Ten O’Clock People, The Jaunt, The Gingerbread Girl, A Very Tight Place, Dolan’s Cadillac, The End of the Whole Mess

though Night Shift really is a superb collection of stories overall.