I think an important part of becoming a better writer is learning how to both criticize things you like and engage with criticism of things you like. This is for a few reasons.

First, it's a key tool to being able to identify what you actually like about the media you enjoy, which can help you replicate or reflect those things in whatever way works for your story without also replicating things that aren't working.

For example, to be able to identify and understand that I find the romance stronger than the other major plot arcs in a book I enjoy--and thus tease out what in the romance I find successful--I have to be able to criticize the plot of it, even though I enjoyed the book overall. It doesn't mean I enjoy the book less, it just means that I am able to separate out what didn't work as well (and why) from what did, so I can more effectively analyze and understand what did work (and why).

Second, it helps you remember that even good or enjoyable things are imperfect, and something need not be perfect to be good or enjoyable. Defeat the perfectionist that lives in your brain.

Last, to improve your own writing, you both need to be able to criticize it and productively receive criticism of it without hating it in the process, which means you need to have internalized that idea that criticism of a thing does not equal dislike of it. You also just have to be willing to criticize things without feeling bad about it, and to take criticism without feeling bad about it 

Criticism of a work isn't personal, and the more successfully you are able to separate out enjoyment/like for a work and criticism of it, the better you can become as a writer.

thinking about “you haven’t met all the people who will love you” and like!!! you also haven’t found all the things that will make you happy!!!! there will always be new authors and musicians and artists whose work you will one day discover and love!!!! there will always be new hobbies and skills for you to learn and feel fulfilled by!!! there will always be new things around the corner that will bring sudden and unexpected happiness!!!!!!!!!!!

becoming homophobic because when two characters in a scene have the same pronouns you have to say their names one william times

Not sure why it's a new trend among fic readers to assume if the fic has not been posted within the week it's inappropriate to comment on it, like the fic has to be hot out of the oven to give feedback for.

I got a comment on a fic that is less than a year old and it was mostly an apology for being a comment on an "old fic" and how late they were in commenting.

Just comment on the fic. Doesn't matter how old it is.

I think there's something that needs to be said about encouraging readers to leave feedback.

For me it's not about "tell me my writing is amazing and stroke my ego"

It's more about "please engage with me so that I can experience your joy secondhand and foster a connection with you"

I understand that not everyone wants this in their reading experience, some people are shy and a million other reasons why maybe someone wouldn't want to engage and that's perfectly fine!

But what I'm trying to steer away from is being a passive content creator with passive consumers. What I want to steer toward is fostering a community that is essential to fandom. I want to see your reactions because it makes me feel like I'm a part of something.

On encouraging reblogs —

I understand that not everyone is comfortable reblogging, especially explicit content. This is ok!

But just consider that the only reason you were able to enjoy a fic or fanart is because someone else shared it, and by not sharing it yourself you are potentially robbing someone else of the opportunity to enjoy it as much as you did.

As OPs our reach only goes so far and this website relies on reblogs in order for anything to truly get seen by a wider audience.

So that's really it! That's why I encourage these two things at the end of every story I post. Not because I'm trying to be demanding and "make people feel bad" if they don't do it.

I know most other social media sites encourage mindless content consumption and that's just the way of the world nowadays, but I am from a time when community was at the heart of fandom and I just don't want to lose that.

Wei Weaving is a Chinese artist

in 2015 we didn’t have AI psychosis so people had to make do by believing a dress was white and gold