do you ever think that maybe when you pull out your cell phone ghosts from other eras get real interested and just stare at you as you text people, or watch you use your laptop
or sighs wistfully as you shower like ‘frick I wish we’d had THOSE dang’
gets jealous as you make your coffee, awkwardly tries to figure out your video games when you’ve left the house
turns on your sink and just watches the taps run and drives your water bill through the freakin roof
I’ve seen a lot of posts recently reminding readers to leave feedback on fics, which is great!! Writers deserve all the love they can get. Likes, reblogs, comments, messages, these are the lifeblood of writers. They are proof that people are reading, that they’re enjoying, and that they want more.
But maybe readers don’t know what to say. Maybe you’re new to Tumblr, new to reading fan fiction, shy, or just not sure how to say what you want to say.
Let me start by saying, no matter how popular the blog or how cool you think they are, everyone loves a compliment. If you’re worried about sounding silly or bothering people, let me assure you- a message will make your writer do a happy dance (depending on the writer, they may actually get up and dance. I have.)
Here’s the basic ways of communicating with writers on Tumblr:
Likes and kudos- these are great, they’re the high-fives in this world. They’re the “hey, nice” nod. Reblogs- even better, because they mean exposure. More people see the story and that makes us really happy. A reblog with a comment is amazing, especially one that entices others to read. These make a writer’s day. Comments and messages- these are the thing that keeps us going. Most of us have anon turned on- and if we don’t, just let us know you want a private reply. (And, if your writer has anon off, it probably means they’ve been getting hate and deserve extra love.) Recommendations- recs are like coming in to work to find someone baked your favorite cake and left it on your desk. Recommendations make your writer feel so loved and valued!
So, that’s all good, but what do you actually SAY to writers? It doesn’t have to be much or take a lot of time.
A simple “This is great/funny/hot!” is wonderful. "Best fic I’ve read this week!“ "Funny as hell and cute too.” "You have to read this, it’s awesome!“ "I can’t wait for more of this.” "I hope you keep going!“ These are great in reblogs and in messages.
Even better is specific feedback. We love specific feedback, because it tells us what readers liked and what they didn’t. Want to influence our next fic? Tell us what you liked about this one and I bet you it will keep showing up! Specific feedback is just telling the writer what you liked. It doesn’t have to be long or complicated, either. (But if you write a lot, we will love you so much.)
Was there a character you liked? Talk about them: "I love how you wrote X” “Y was so funny!” "OMG I wanted to STRANGLE Q!“ "You can really feel X’s frustration.” "Y has so much depth, they’re a really well-rounded character.“ "R says so much with so few words, it’s amazing.”
What about a part or line you enjoyed? "That bit in the park- LOVE IT.“ "I have never read a better description of a cup of tea.” "The way you wrote about his fear, that was heartbreaking.“
Was there a part that made you feel something? Happy, sad, angry? "That last sentence killed me, he’s so broken.” "I wanted to jump around when they finally kissed!“ "This chapter was so tense, my heart was pounding by the end.”
Did the characters or plot or setting remind you of your life? "I live in Brussels, that’s just how that street looks.“ "When Y talked about R, I knew exactly how he felt.” "You captured that lost, aimless feeling perfectly; I’ve so been there.“
Are there unanswered questions? Mention how much you want the answers. "I can’t wait to find out what’s in the basket!” "That was a cliffhanger ending, wow.“ "How is she going to explain THAT?” (some writers are touchy about predicting, though, so stay away from “I bet he’ll throw that letter out.” or “X is clearly coming back.”)
A few closing notes: be enthusiastic if that’s your style, go crazy with exclamation marks, smileys, caps! Tell a writer if you’re rereading their work- very little makes us happier than knowing our writing has the staying power for a second, third, sixth, tenth read. Did a reread give you a new insight or feeling about the fic? Tell us! We will be so excited to hear. And remember, recommendations are wonderful- putting up a random post tagging your favorite writers or fics you’re enjoying will show the writers that they’re writing is more than a flash in the opan and they’ll get some new readers too!
We can’t do this writing thing without you guys. So thank you so much! Without readers, we’re just talking to ourselves. We love and appreciate you for reading- but we need to know you’re doing it. We need feedback like we need air. Don’t let your favorite writers suffocate! 🙂
As an apartment dweller, this is a game changer. My current apartment doesn’t have a laundry facility and the closest Laundromat about a 30 min bus ride which is just not practical. The mini-washer is a life saver
The panda mini washer hooks up to the sink, is incredibly lightweight (about 28 pounds, so light even I can lift it) and easy to use.
It has a surprisingly large capacity. The basket from the first picture represents about one and a half loads. The jeans took up a whole load while the rest filled the bin only half way.
Here’s the inside. The left is the washer the right is the spin dryer. Yes, it even drys.
Basically you shove your cloths into the washer, fill it up with water and let it go. I use my shower head to fill it up so it goes faster, the sink hook up took about five minutes to fill the whole tub, with the shower head is is down to a minute an a half. I do it in three wash cycles, a five minute rinse with baking soda, a five minute wash with soap and a three minute rinse with water. You have to drain and refill between each cycle so it’s a little more labor intensive than a traditional washer.
That’s the spin dryer. It’s about half the capacity of the washer so one wash takes about two loads to dry. The spinner is much more effective than I was expecting. A three minute spin gets my cloths about 90% dry. I hang them up to air dry for that last 10%.
The machine cost me about 150$. When you factor in two dollars for the bus, five for the machines (per week), the mini-washer pays for its self after only about six months worth of laundry.
I’m not great at expressing emotion, but I’m hoping you can tell how excited I am. Let me just say that the panda mini-washer is great and I highly recommend it to anyone currently using a Laundromat.
Read this and immediately bought it on Amazon for $180. I spend $15 a week to have my laundry done so this pays for itself in 3 months for me. THANK YOU JESUS.
OMG
@ all my nyc pendejas
Oh by the way, they have table top dishwashers that are pretty much the same thing:
This is one of the biggest technological breakthroughs for the everyday homeowner in the current decade: the realization that refrigerators aren’t the only things that can be miniaturized for better affordability and minimal space requirements.
Can you IMAGINE how this is going to change the lives of college students and apartment-dwellers? Or anyone with a lower income who can’t afford a place with “luxury” appliances like dishwashers and laundry machines?
Why yes, you are correct im-the-asshole-that. I really really hate boomers constantly shitting on my generation.
At my job, I once had to take a training course called “Dealing with Difficult People.” And during that course, for no apparent reason, the instructor started off on a rant about millenials which quickly devolved into the entire room of boomers bitching about my generation. At one point, one lady called us “animals.”
When I raised my hand to point out that this was disrespectful, I was told “it’s okay, you’re not like them.” At which point I snapped and asked HOW. My experiences are their experiences. You know what we saw when we grew up? We saw a housing market collapse. We saw the beginning of a war on terror so vaguely defined as to have no visible end. We saw an entire generation stick their fingers in their ears and shout “GLOBAL WARMING ISN’T REAL AND IF IT IS IT’S A PROBLEM FOR THE NEXT GENERATION.”
We’ve been told that “you better go to college if you want a good job” only to graduate to find that there are no jobs available because the work force ISN’T RETIRING. We’ve seen the cost of higher education increase OVER 1,000% in the last four decades. A college credit that cost an day’s minimum wage in the 70’s costs us 60 days of work. Those of us who graduate with student loans are told that if we couldn’t afford it we shouldn’t have gone. Those who don’t go are told that we can’t expect a job without a college degree.
We’ve grown up in a world where the acceptance rate at Harvard is higher than the acceptance rate at a new Walmart. We’ve been told that you were grateful for you job flipping burgers, but you were paid the equivalent of $14-$15 an hour to do so. We’ve had employers cut our work week to 39 hours to get out of paying for our healthcare.
I’ve worked in fast food and you want to know a secret? I have never had a problem with teenagers. If they get rowdy or messy they mean no harm. In fact, most of them will stop if you tell them. All they want is a fucking milkshake and a corner to themselves The customers that cause the most problems? They’re middle aged. I had a customer berate me, cuss at me, and call me stupid and ask if I failed math when I told him he hadn’t given me enough money to pay his check. When he finally accepted he was in the wrong, he told me I shouldn’t have made such a big deal out of it because it was “bad customer service” even though any shortage comes out of my paycheck. That sense of entitlement is something I rarely see in millenials.
We’re told in legitimate publications, in TIME MAGAZINE, just how little you think of our generation, how little you RESPECT us and yet you ask for our unquestioning devotion. Well guess what, IT DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT. You’ve ruined our economy, our housing market, our job market, our environment, and our climate. You continually mock us, demonize us, and leave us to clean up your messes.
RESPECT IS EARNED, and you have done nothing to earn it. And it’s ironic that I have to have this discussion here because at this moment you are the difficult people I am having to deal with.
I was then told I was overly confrontational and would apparently benefit from being sweeter when being called an animal (I may have continued loudly talking over the “instructor” when she tried to cut me off). But the other sole millenial and I shared a loving glance across the room and absolutely lambasted this instructor in the evals and she’s never been invited back to teach that course, so it’s all okay.
A lot of people ask me what my biggest fear is, or what scares me most. And I know they expect an answer like heights, or closed spaces, or people dressed like animals, but how do I tell them that when I was 17 I took a class called Relationships For Life and I learned that most people fall out of love for the same reasons they fell in it. That their lover’s once endearing stubbornness has now become refusal to compromise and their one track mind is now immaturity and their bad habits that you once adored is now money down the drain. Their spontaneity becomes reckless and irresponsible and their feet up on your dash is no longer sexy, just another distraction in your busy life.
Nothing saddens and scares me like the thought that I can become ugly to someone who once thought all the stars were in my eyes.
this fucks me up every single time
I never expected this to be my most popular poem out of the hundreds I’ve written. I was extremely bitter and sad when I wrote this and I left out the most beautiful part of that class.
After my teacher introduced us to this theory, she asked us, “is love a feeling? Or is it a choice?” We were all a bunch of teenagers. Naturally we said it was a feeling. She said that if we clung to that belief, we’d never have a lasting relationship of any sort.
She made us interview a dozen adults who were or had been married and we asked them about their marriages and why it lasted or why it failed. At the end, I asked every single person if love was an emotion or a choice.
Everybody said that it was a choice. It was a conscious commitment. It was something you choose to make work every day with a person who has chosen the same thing. They all said that at one point in their marriage, the “feeling of love” had vanished or faded and they weren’t happy. They said feelings are always changing and you cannot build something that will last on such a shaky foundation.
The married ones said that when things were bad, they chose to open the communication, chose to identify what broke and how to fix it, and chose to recreate something worth falling in love with.
The divorced ones said they chose to walk away.
Ever since that class, since that project, I never looked at relationships the same way. I understood why arranged marriages were successful. I discovered the difference in feelings and commitments. I’ve never gone for the person who makes my heart flutter or my head spin. I’ve chosen the people who were committed to choosing me, dedicated to finding something to adore even on the ugliest days.
I no longer fear the day someone who swore I was their universe can no longer see the stars in my eyes as long as they still choose to look until they find them again.
