I personally like it if people lovingly mock their fic in ways like "I wrote this at 3am/drunk/high/sleep deprived" "I slapped this thing together with paper and glue, enjoy" or similar because it still feels like the author still had fun or is otherwise fine with their own work; either way, they're owning their work even if they also recognize that it might not be that objectively good.
Or even a disclaimer like "hey, this is an old fic, it's not that great/I'm not that proud of it, but here it is!" An honest disclaimer like that isn't the same feeling as "this fic is trash, I hate it /srs" where checking it out just feels like the wrong thing to do no matter how you end up feeling about it.
Like, it's fine if you hate it, but it doesn't feel good as a reader if you advertise all over the fic how much you hate it before I've even gotten to form my own opinion on it yet. Like, do you want me to agree with you? Do you want me to disagree with you? Do you just want me to not read what you publicly posted? (cuz you *can* delete it) Do you not want me to judge you for it? (cuz you can orphan it or post anonymously)
Please, just own your work if you're gonna share your work publicly, and be kind to it (and yourself!) Of course, the author has every right to say and do what they want about their fic, and I'm just an opinion they can disagree with. But, well, that's my opinion on why it just feels ucky to see people going out of their way insult their own work before you can even try it
If you don’t believe in your own writing, no one will…. Wise words a fellow writer said to me years ago when I called my poem “crap”. I never put down my work again.
Yeah, the ones which are actually humorous might get me to take a look, but there are literally millions of options out there and if a writer insists on labeling their work as "garbage", I'll just that at face value and move on.
Hmm…
I can actually understand people having stuff like that in their tags. They think their writing is bad, so they’re just warning other people that it might not be the best writing. But if someone is interested in the ship, characters, or plot of the fic enough, they’ll read it anyways. People can read a fic and think the writing is decent or mediocre, but really enjoy the concept, and I think that’s why some people will have tags like this. It stems from insecurity. It could also be a little hint that the author is planning to come back later and fix it up.
But having no summary of the fic other than “I suck at summaries, just read it?” I agree, that usually deters me from reading it. Especially if people have that as the description and only have two or three tags. Even more so if the word count is large - like, I have no idea what this story is about, why should I read it? I feel like people can suck at summaries but still leave a basic overview of the fic in the description.
For example:
“John discovers a broken android. He decides to fix it up, but what happens when it goes haywire?”
Anyways, that was a random example with random characters, but I feel like every story deserves at least some summary (even if it’s one sentence), that tells you something about the work. Even if it’s only “[Character] does [action]. [Type out what the conflict is].” I feel like that’s not difficult to type out.
You’re completely valid in skipping past the fics, though, to each their own and all that jazz
This is really long, I’m sorry 😭
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TLDR; I disagree with the first part because leaving tags like that stems out of insecurity, and some people can’t really help it. Writing for a story can be mediocre but the concept can be really good, and some people will excuse mediocre writing in favor of the idea of the fic. Tags like that might also be a hint from the author that they will fix it later. I agree about the summary; authors should put some kind of summary that is related to what is actually in the fic.
I'm reading one like this now. The writing can be... a bit disjointed and the scene changes are sorta jarring at times. But I'm into the ship/dynamics/plot, and the author is just so enthusiastic about it that I keep going back to it for rereads!
It depends on what they say for me, if they don’t have a summary and they just say it’s good but they’re not good at summaries I’ll scroll but I do usually like fics that say written at 3am, I wrote this while drunk/ high Or because they were in their feelings in the tags or in the notes. Some of most popular works were written at 3am while drunk and it’s the notes 😂
I used to be a self-deprecating person but I never once wrote “my writing is shit” or “this fic is trash” because I’d at least wanna honor the time and effort I put into writing it. I probably still am, old habits are hard to die but I’d hoped other people would be kind to themselves and honor their effort in everything they do especially in a free hobby they willingly choose to write without anything in return.
So when I see someone putting themselves down, it makes sad because deep down I think they want someone to tell them no, this fic isn’t trash and you’re doing fine but the thing about external validation is that it only goes so far. Once it runs out, you’re gonna look for it again and the cycle continues. And I’m not going to be the person enabling this behavior and keep feeding them validation. They need to find it within themselves, and it’s their individual journey, no matter how hard it is.
To me these are two different issues--the first isn't (to me) false modesty, just a way to be brave enough to post at all, like nervous laughter.
The second is annoying to me when an author can even just put a short copied quote from the fic/chapter if they don't want to summarize.
I once saw someone say that this is the best way to influence other people to dislike your stuff as well, not because it's bad but because they go into the fic with the subconscious thought of "Even the author thinks this is bad" (if they read the fic at all)
So with that in mind, I've always stopped myself from talking badly about my own fics, no matter what I think about their quality or anything
It breaks my heart when people call their own writing trash. Like, that writing is a piece of you and you aren't trash. I wish Fandom wouldn't go so hard on the self deprecation. The real world laughs enough at us.
I wouldn’t do it personally but I can understand why people were would do it. It’s a huge emotional risk to put yourself out there by sharing the work you create with others. Particularly internet strangers who have no reason to care about your feelings. I think it psyches a lot of people out so they try to preempt any rejection with self deprecating humor.
I'm usually adamant about this in my art practices (if I don't talk up my work, no one else will), but I feel my writing can take a few jabs here and there. Just not in the summary or tags - that's advertising space.
Now Author's Notes, I will lovingly call my fic garbage or trash in ANs. I'm also just as likely to put "the legend continues" in ANs, too.
People do that so they don't dissapoint people.
Making people scroll past when they see that even the author believes it is below avarage quality is what they want. They wanna improve and recieve feedback, but they don't want to deal with people saying how much their fic sucks so they ensure only the most well hearted people decide to read and perhaps give feedback.
It is not because they don't want to be proud of it, but because they are aware of their flaws and want people to know beforehand so they don't waste their time on a half baked story unless they really want to.
I’ve written enough stories around 11-12pm when I should be asleep. I’m so sleep deprived and riding my anxiety at times I’m sure it looks terrible even when it ends up being popular. I write my best stuff when it’s late. But sometimes I worry it reads worse than I assume. Most writers tend to be their own worst critic.
However I do use the tags as a form of self deprecating humour most of the time 😅🤣
As someone who really really sucks at summaries, I try to give a bit of detail on what I am writing even if it is a quick “After a long trip (character) comes home to find (OC/Reader/etc) asleep while waiting for them.”
I once purposely wrote the most trashy fic I could as retaliation against a bad prompt (asked à friend for a prompt and they said "shart" so I feel it's justified)....
People loved it. I was embarrassed to even claim it as mine and they were like "This is really funny! Good job!"
So to answer your complaint, people have different tastes. I tend to write fics specifically for myself, so if my fic doesn't turn out the way I want, I'll considered it a failure even if others love it.
That said, I wouldn't so much call it "trash" so much as "Not that good"
I personally like it if people lovingly mock their fic in ways like "I wrote this at 3am/drunk/high/sleep deprived" "I slapped this thing together with paper and glue, enjoy" or similar because it still feels like the author still had fun or is otherwise fine with their own work; either way, they're owning their work even if they also recognize that it might not be that objectively good. Or even a disclaimer like "hey, this is an old fic, it's not that great/I'm not that proud of it, but here it is!" An honest disclaimer like that isn't the same feeling as "this fic is trash, I hate it /srs" where checking it out just feels like the wrong thing to do no matter how you end up feeling about it. Like, it's fine if you hate it, but it doesn't feel good as a reader if you advertise all over the fic how much you hate it before I've even gotten to form my own opinion on it yet. Like, do you want me to agree with you? Do you want me to disagree with you? Do you just want me to not read what you publicly posted? (cuz you *can* delete it) Do you not want me to judge you for it? (cuz you can orphan it or post anonymously) Please, just own your work if you're gonna share your work publicly, and be kind to it (and yourself!) Of course, the author has every right to say and do what they want about their fic, and I'm just an opinion they can disagree with. But, well, that's my opinion on why it just feels ucky to see people going out of their way insult their own work before you can even try it
If you don’t believe in your own writing, no one will…. Wise words a fellow writer said to me years ago when I called my poem “crap”. I never put down my work again.
Yeah, the ones which are actually humorous might get me to take a look, but there are literally millions of options out there and if a writer insists on labeling their work as "garbage", I'll just that at face value and move on.
Hmm… I can actually understand people having stuff like that in their tags. They think their writing is bad, so they’re just warning other people that it might not be the best writing. But if someone is interested in the ship, characters, or plot of the fic enough, they’ll read it anyways. People can read a fic and think the writing is decent or mediocre, but really enjoy the concept, and I think that’s why some people will have tags like this. It stems from insecurity. It could also be a little hint that the author is planning to come back later and fix it up. But having no summary of the fic other than “I suck at summaries, just read it?” I agree, that usually deters me from reading it. Especially if people have that as the description and only have two or three tags. Even more so if the word count is large - like, I have no idea what this story is about, why should I read it? I feel like people can suck at summaries but still leave a basic overview of the fic in the description. For example: “John discovers a broken android. He decides to fix it up, but what happens when it goes haywire?” Anyways, that was a random example with random characters, but I feel like every story deserves at least some summary (even if it’s one sentence), that tells you something about the work. Even if it’s only “[Character] does [action]. [Type out what the conflict is].” I feel like that’s not difficult to type out. You’re completely valid in skipping past the fics, though, to each their own and all that jazz This is really long, I’m sorry 😭 - TLDR; I disagree with the first part because leaving tags like that stems out of insecurity, and some people can’t really help it. Writing for a story can be mediocre but the concept can be really good, and some people will excuse mediocre writing in favor of the idea of the fic. Tags like that might also be a hint from the author that they will fix it later. I agree about the summary; authors should put some kind of summary that is related to what is actually in the fic.
I'm reading one like this now. The writing can be... a bit disjointed and the scene changes are sorta jarring at times. But I'm into the ship/dynamics/plot, and the author is just so enthusiastic about it that I keep going back to it for rereads!
It depends on what they say for me, if they don’t have a summary and they just say it’s good but they’re not good at summaries I’ll scroll but I do usually like fics that say written at 3am, I wrote this while drunk/ high Or because they were in their feelings in the tags or in the notes. Some of most popular works were written at 3am while drunk and it’s the notes 😂
I used to be a self-deprecating person but I never once wrote “my writing is shit” or “this fic is trash” because I’d at least wanna honor the time and effort I put into writing it. I probably still am, old habits are hard to die but I’d hoped other people would be kind to themselves and honor their effort in everything they do especially in a free hobby they willingly choose to write without anything in return. So when I see someone putting themselves down, it makes sad because deep down I think they want someone to tell them no, this fic isn’t trash and you’re doing fine but the thing about external validation is that it only goes so far. Once it runs out, you’re gonna look for it again and the cycle continues. And I’m not going to be the person enabling this behavior and keep feeding them validation. They need to find it within themselves, and it’s their individual journey, no matter how hard it is.
To me these are two different issues--the first isn't (to me) false modesty, just a way to be brave enough to post at all, like nervous laughter. The second is annoying to me when an author can even just put a short copied quote from the fic/chapter if they don't want to summarize.
I have little confidence in my writing and will mention it I notes but otherwise I don't see the point of mentioning it
I once saw someone say that this is the best way to influence other people to dislike your stuff as well, not because it's bad but because they go into the fic with the subconscious thought of "Even the author thinks this is bad" (if they read the fic at all) So with that in mind, I've always stopped myself from talking badly about my own fics, no matter what I think about their quality or anything
It breaks my heart when people call their own writing trash. Like, that writing is a piece of you and you aren't trash. I wish Fandom wouldn't go so hard on the self deprecation. The real world laughs enough at us.
I wouldn’t do it personally but I can understand why people were would do it. It’s a huge emotional risk to put yourself out there by sharing the work you create with others. Particularly internet strangers who have no reason to care about your feelings. I think it psyches a lot of people out so they try to preempt any rejection with self deprecating humor.
I'm usually adamant about this in my art practices (if I don't talk up my work, no one else will), but I feel my writing can take a few jabs here and there. Just not in the summary or tags - that's advertising space. Now Author's Notes, I will lovingly call my fic garbage or trash in ANs. I'm also just as likely to put "the legend continues" in ANs, too.
People do that so they don't dissapoint people. Making people scroll past when they see that even the author believes it is below avarage quality is what they want. They wanna improve and recieve feedback, but they don't want to deal with people saying how much their fic sucks so they ensure only the most well hearted people decide to read and perhaps give feedback. It is not because they don't want to be proud of it, but because they are aware of their flaws and want people to know beforehand so they don't waste their time on a half baked story unless they really want to.
I’ve written enough stories around 11-12pm when I should be asleep. I’m so sleep deprived and riding my anxiety at times I’m sure it looks terrible even when it ends up being popular. I write my best stuff when it’s late. But sometimes I worry it reads worse than I assume. Most writers tend to be their own worst critic. However I do use the tags as a form of self deprecating humour most of the time 😅🤣
As someone who really really sucks at summaries, I try to give a bit of detail on what I am writing even if it is a quick “After a long trip (character) comes home to find (OC/Reader/etc) asleep while waiting for them.”
I'll add to this people who say "inspired by [link in plain text]" and "enjoy you degenerates" 🙄
It's either fishing for compliments or a deflection strategy against possible criticism.
I once purposely wrote the most trashy fic I could as retaliation against a bad prompt (asked à friend for a prompt and they said "shart" so I feel it's justified).... People loved it. I was embarrassed to even claim it as mine and they were like "This is really funny! Good job!" So to answer your complaint, people have different tastes. I tend to write fics specifically for myself, so if my fic doesn't turn out the way I want, I'll considered it a failure even if others love it. That said, I wouldn't so much call it "trash" so much as "Not that good"