Archive of Our Own ^beta

Would you like to help your fellow fans use the AO3? Would you like to wrangle AO3 tags? Can you read and translate from Chinese to English? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

We're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

• Support Staff - closing 13 March 2019 at 23:59 UTC
• Tag Wrangling Volunteer - closing 13 March 2019 at 23:59 UTC
• Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese) - closing 13 March 2019 at 23:59 UTC

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

Support Staff

If you've spent time figuring out how to make the Archive dance (or are willing to press the button to see what happens), are patient in the face of strange questions, can self-motivate, and are interested in helping your fellow fans, we would love to hear from you!

The Support team is responsible for handling the feedback and requests for assistance we receive from users of the Archive. We answer users’ questions, help to resolve problems they’re experiencing, and pass on information to and from coders, testers, tag wranglers and other teams involved with the Archive.

Applications are due 13 March 2019

Tag Wrangling Volunteer

The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to keep the millions of tags on AO3 in some kind of order! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. (This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive, whether that’s Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán with ABO Dynamics, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark with angst, g-rated Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam fluff, or Jeon Jungkook & Kim Taehyung | V Are Childhood Friends.)

If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy tag wrangling!

Please note: You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. Additionally, we’re currently looking for wranglers for specific fandoms only, which will change each recruitment round. Please see the application for which fandoms are in need.

Applications are due 13 March 2019 or when 70 applications have been reached, whichever comes first.

Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese)

The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to keep the millions of tags on AO3 in some kind of order! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. (This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive, whether that’s Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán with ABO Dynamics, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark with angst, g-rated Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam fluff, or Jeon Jungkook & Kim Taehyung | V Are Childhood Friends.)

If you're a fluent Chinese speaker (Traditional and Simplified both welcome) who likes organizing, working in teams, or excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy tag wrangling!

Please note: You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. We’re currently looking for applicants who are fluent in both Chinese and English. The work will involve both regular Tag Wrangling work and translating tags from Chinese into English.

Applications are due 13 March 2019 or when 30 applications have been reached, whichever comes first.

Apply at the volunteering page!

When you create or enjoy a fanwork, whether you know it or not, you are usually relying on the laws of fair use and fair dealing. These laws--known as fair use in some countries (including the U.S.) and fair dealing in others (including Canada and the U.K.)--are what allow fans to make and post fanworks based on pre-existing copyrighted work without being copyright infringers. Every year, organizations across the Internet celebrate this set of laws and all of the wonderful creativity they promote.

Fair use and fair dealing laws provide that certain uses of copyrighted material are not infringing, even if they are done without the permission of the copyright holder. Fair use laws favor uses that transform the meaning or purpose of an underlying work, that are distributed noncommercially, that use limited amounts of the underlying work, and that do not compete with the underlying work in the market. Fair dealing laws also favor transformative uses such as parody, commentary, criticism, and noncommercial user-generated content. The OTW stands for the proposition that transformative, noncommercial fanworks are fair use. OTW’s Legal advocacy project works to make sure that stays true, and to make sure that governments around the world recognize the value of fair use and fair dealing in making and interpreting their laws.

In the past, we’ve answered your questions about fair use and fair dealing, exploded some fair use misconceptions, and talked about how fair use and fair dealing laws apply to fanworks. We encourage you to check out those things, and the many wonderful posts and events that other organizations are putting on this week. We invite you to reach out to OTW Legal with your questions about fair use and copyright. And finally, we hope you celebrate fair use/fair dealing week this year by engaging in some fair use of your own!

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Lona, who volunteers as a translator.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I am a translator, beta, uploader and team coordinator for the Dutch translation team. This way I help make the OTW just a little bit more accessible to the people out there who don't speak English.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

It sounds like a horrible cliché, but there is no such thing as a typical week. I can however let you know a bit more about the way our team works! It starts with receiving the English news source texts that need translating or checking for errors, depending on whether you’re the translator or beta reader for that specific text.

The source text can be very easy and straightforward, but sometimes you’ll be presented with trickier phrases and terms. If it’s a term or phrase that we suspect will get used more often, we’ll discuss it with the team. The interesting thing here is that the Dutch team is a mix of Dutch and Belgian peeps, so opinions on what translations to use sometimes vary wildly. Especially if it’s between two terms that are both technically correct, but one is more ‘Dutch-Dutch’ and the other is more ‘Belgian-Dutch’. Please don’t ask me about ‘Contacteer’.

As a coordinator we (I and my other teammate, who is also a coordinator) try to make the team run as smoothly as possible. To give one example, this means that we plan meetings to discuss new terms and we add the new terms to our language’s “cheatsheet”, which is like our knowledge base or dictionary.

After new terms have been discussed and decided on, and the texts have been translated and checked, we upload the translated documents to the site for the world to see!

What made you decide to volunteer?

That’s a very uninspiring story, I’m afraid. I was a secretary between jobs in 2015 and bored out of my mind. My husband was out of the country during the week and I desperately needed something to do. Something fun. So of course I turned to fic reading and had recently stumbled on the AO3 where a ‘We’re looking for translators’ post caught my eye. I figured ‘Why the heck not, my English and Dutch skills are both decent and I need something to do anyway’ and applied. That’s when I discovered that I really love translating! So much, in fact, that I made it my career by now.

And of course, after becoming a translator it was only a short and slippery slope to also become a volunteer for the Policy & Abuse Committee. The OTW became my home in a very short time.

What’s the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?

The people. As much fun as translating is, it really can’t hold a candle to the awesome and great people that make up the OTW. I have never before met so many open minded and fantastic peeps as here. Quite a few of them are no longer just ‘fellow volunteers’ but actual friends. We watch movies and series together, we write fic for each other and together, we discover new fandoms through and with each other.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I love to read and write. I started out with fanfiction in a paper journal in highschool, writing about DragonBall Z. Then I migrated to Fanfiction.net for my Pirates Of The Caribbean stories before I found my place at the AO3 where I write about DragonAge, Teen Wolf and Mystic Messenger.

I’m also a gamer, so you can probably find me behind my computer with my face plastered to the screen as I’m levelling one of my many World of Warcraft characters. Or discovering that the cake is a lie in Portal. Or going after Darkspawn in DragonAge.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Our new downloads are here! E-book files of works are now generated by Calibre, include images, and are about 12% less buggy than before. We also fixed a handful of unrelated issues that had been bothering us. A special thank you to our first-time contributor Angela!

Credits

• Coders: Angela, bingeling, cosette, DreamSea, Elz, james_, Naomi, redsummernight, Sarken, Tal, ticking instant
• Code reviewers: james_, redsummernight, Sarken, ticking instant
• Testers: Adi M., Alex, Aline, bingeling, cosette, galvelociraptor, GoldenFalls, hhertzof, Izzy, james_, JenS, Jocelin, Lady Oscar, MagnusIsMyRock, nimadge, Paula, Priscilla, Rebecca Sentance, redsummernight, Sarken, ticking instant

Details

Downloads

• [AO3-3880] - We have moved to the Calibre command line interface for generating e-book files and fixed several download-related bugs in the process (the following is only a partial list). You can find a few more details in our previous announcement.
• [AO3-5614] - In addition to EPUB and MOBI, we now offer the AZW3 format as well.
• [AO3-5622] - All three formats now include any images embedded in the work.
• [AO3-3434], [AO3-2316], [AO3-3049] - Previously, the downloadable versions of a work wouldn't properly update in some cases, partly due to caching. We now make sure a new e-book file is generated if the work had been edited, so all downloads are as fresh as can be.
• [AO3-4706] - If you happened to have the link to a downloadable file of an unrevealed work, you could previously download that file. Now you'll be told to wait for reveals like everyone else, essentially.
• [AO3-2642] - Works with certain characters in the title (such as "This & That") would lead to awkward file names with partially escaped HTML entities (This amp That.pdf). We now strip these characters completely (This That.pdf), which is neater.
• [AO3-3900] - If the work title started with a hyphen, MOBI downloads just wouldn't work at all. Took care of that too.
• [AO3-5272] - MOBI files would also error if a work had more than 400,000 words. Now the sky is the limit! (Unless your sky contains like 3 million words, then even the new code might tap out.)
• [AO3-3037] - EPUBs were previously missing chapter endnotes; we now make sure all notes are present and accounted for.
• [AO3-3020] - Attempting to download a work when the download file had not been generated yet used to result in a server error. We are now checking for the existence of the download and showing an error message if the file is not ready yet.

Misc. Fixes

• [AO3-5532] - A deleted work inside an anonymous or unrevealed collections would sometimes lead to an error 500 when a mod tried to reveal or de-anon the collection. Now this shouldn't happen anymore.
• [AO3-5089] - Annoyingly enough, having a bookmark in an unrevealed collection would also cause an error when trying to reveal that collection. No more! \o/
• [AO3-3583] - Editing your bookmark search would drop the type selection (work, series, or external work); now it'll hold on to whichever you picked in the first place.
• [AO3-5375] - The language menu was missing from the bookmark filters, so we've added it. Now you can filter bookmarked works by language. However, please note that series and external works don't have a language set and therefore will not be included when filtering by language.
• [AO3-5574] - When deleting a pseud and being presented with the option to either delete the associated bookmarks or transfer them to a different pseud, selecting the "Cancel" option would not actually cancel the process. Instead, it would delete the pseud and the bookmarks. Ouch! Now the "Cancel" button will actually take you back to your pseuds page without deleting anything.
• [AO3-5198] - We used to display the number of times a particular work or site skin was used; however, that number would always be 0 for work skins. Since the feature didn't get much use anyway, we just got rid of the pesky count and moved on.
• [AO3-5602] - There was a typo in the ToS FAQ. We fixed it.
• [AO3-5400] - After an admin had been deleted, any page detailing an action taken by that admin would throw an error 500. Now it'll display the information (e.g. about a hidden work) with a friendly "Admin deleted" note.

Infrastructure

• [AO3-5607] - We had previously been using Ubuntu Trusty for tests on our CI service, but now we've switched to Xenial, which is closer to our production environment and reduces the amount of set up that has to be done when we run our tests.
• [AO3-5582] - We updated the version of Elasticsearch that was used for running automated tests on our CI services. Now it matches the version we actually use on the site (6.5.2).

Edit 24 February 2019, at 22:18 UTC: Please note that in order to avoid handing out old versions of downloads, we have cleared the download cache. Our download servers will be under some strain over the next several days as new downloads are generated and cached, so you may get an error when downloading a work. If you do, please try again later.

Edit 10 March 2019, at 09:22 UTC: We've added some whitespace to the header information on work downloads and have again cleared the cache to avoid serving old versions. As a result, there may be some slowness for the next few days.

International Fanworks Day 2019 has come to an end. We are absolutely thrilled with the response and celebrations we have witnessed on this fifth anniversary of IFD! Here’s a look at how it all went down:

Fanlore sent out their second annual week-long editing challenge. If you missed it, don't worry--the folks over at Fanlore can always use more hands from those fans who wish to add to the collective pool of knowledge in the fandom wiki.

The OTW’s call for submissions to the topic "What Fanworks Mean to Me" produced some very heartening responses. Check out the What Fanworks Mean to Me post to see more, and keep the ball rolling by mentioning #WhatFanworksMeanToMe on social media.

IFDrabble was a success! There are over 100 submissions under the International Fanworks Day 2019 tag on AO3. If you’re looking for some quick and hilarious fanworks, then go check out how different fans have interpreted the prompt "characters and/or celebrities discover new fandoms."

A huge thank you to everyone who has commented and posted recommendations as a part of Feedback Fest. As of the time of this writing, there are over 300 comments recommending and discussing people's favourite fanworks. If you haven’t done so yet, go visit the comments on the Feedback Fest post for recommendations to your favourite fandoms--and maybe some new ones, too!

The games and fan chat was more popular than ever! We had OTW volunteers moderating for this 29-hour party where fans joined to participate in the games. Below are excerpts from the Lyrics Round Robin and Poetry Round Robin games. Fans brought some incredible enthusiasm and creativity to the table, and shoutout to the guest MiraculousReader for being a powerhouse of ad lib song lyrics and poetry!

Lyrics Round Robin:

To the tune of “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers

Coming out of my page
and I’ve been attacked by fans
gotta write it down
because fans read it all
fic started out with a kiss
how did i get to this?
it was only a ship, only a ship
now I'm falling asleep
at the keyboard again
while the fans rage on
and im taking a nap
now my characters are all dead
and my beta is sick
all ideas in my head
but i cant write it down
Now, the ship has gone angst
now, let it sink

To the tune of “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes

It’s keeping me awake
I can’t eat sleep or drink
I gotta read about it
Every single author's got a story to tell
Fandoms from the popular
to the obscure
But I can’t stop thinking about it
no matter how hard I try

It’s the only thing keeping me alive, fanfic sites are my home

I'm gonna switch it off,
or maybe just another line or two
Far from wattpad evermore
Or maybe five fics more
And I’m reading, and I'm reading, and I’m reading
Now my eyes are sore
All the words are gonna fill me up
Kudos and comments evermore

To the tune of “Summer of ‘69” by Bryan Adams

I saw my first real fanvid
It was for a small fandom
Left a comment on it, 'god i love this video!'
I watched until I flooded with tears
It was the summer of 2018

Me and some friends from tumblr
had a fandom and we blogged real hard
One left for Instagram, One left for deviantart
my ship sank, my head-cannon got blasted

Oh when i remember our OTPs
Those ships seemed to last forever
They seemed so strong together
And if i was the writer
The ship would've become canon

To the tune of “My Immortal,” by Evanescence

This ink won't seem to flow
this block is just too real
there's so much backspace cannot erase

when I cried, the keyboard collected all my tears
characters scream and fight through all their fears
and I wrote this fic through all of these years
author still has all of me

Poetry Round Robin:

Haiku
Winged fire creature,
That is burning down Laketown,
Cumberbatch, so hot.

Limerick
When a writer and symbiote meet,
The readers are in for a treat,
He'll whip out his tongue,
Keep an eye on your young,
For he might think them so sweet.

Haiku
A boy with no quirk
still wants to be a hero
but already is

Sonnet
When Thanos snapped his finger you were gone.
I did not know what to do without you,
I never got to hear your final song.
I have been in love with you all along.
Tell me how did I end up with this life?
Tell me how to say goodbye to you now,
I had the best time with you in the past.
The sun is now setting and I'm alone,
I'd do anything I could to fix this.
My heart is broken without you here now,
I can't function without you by my side.
Only memories keep our hearts alive,
in this empty world I scream for the lost,
Yet I still hope to see you come morning.

Limerick
A paladin whose name was Keith
had kept his sword in a sheath
His lion was red
he fought till he bled
then knocked out all of his teeth

Ghazal
A three-patch problem arrives at his door,
Uninviting, painted black, an old wooden door.
Difficulties posing as opportunities knock on the door,
Hiding his genius the quaint little door.
Sherlock smiles, the game's afoot,
Prowling mysteries afoot.
the culprit is found at home,
red stained hands at home,
Mrs. Hudson beckons home
two chairs and hot tea at home

As our previous post announced, the Organization for Transformative Works is sponsoring a variety of activities celebrating International Fanworks Day (IFD) today. Please check that post for details!

We’re also hosting a 29-hour party in the OTW’s Public Discussion chatroom from 23:00 UTC 14 February to 04:00 UTC 16 February. Please note that this chatroom will be moderated in English. Check out the game descriptions below and join in the fun! The game content is fan-themed in celebration of #IFD2019. All times below are in UTC. Click the link to see the time in your timezone.

The chat is now closed. Thanks to everyone for participating!

February 14th
23:30 – Linkee — donshin (AO3 Docs Staff), host

February 15th
01:00 – Trivial Pursuit — Kirsten Korona (OTW Communications), host
02:45 – That’s Life — Kirsten Korona (OTW Communications), host
04:00 – Lyrics Round Robin – Pokestine (AO3 Tag Wrangling), host
05:15 – 20 Questions – Pokestine (AO3 Tag Wrangling), host
07:00 – Poetry Round Robin — C. Ryan Smith (OTW Development & Membership), host
08:15 – Trivial Pursuit — C. Ryan Smith (OTW Development & Membership), host
10:00 – That’s Life — Adi (OTW Translation), host
11:30 – Linkee — Adi (OTW Translation), host
13:00 – 20 Questions — Anhaita (OTW Translation), host
14:45 – 5 Things — Anhaita (OTW Translation), host
16:00 – Trivial Pursuit — Chrome (AO3 Tag Wrangling), host
17:15 – That’s Life — Chrome (AO3 Tag Wrangling), host
19:00 – 20 Questions — Silarona (OTW Translation), host
20:15 – 5 Things — Silarona (OTW Translation), host
22:00 – Lyrics Round Robin — Claudia Rebaza (OTW Communications), host
23:15 – Poetry Round Robin — Claudia Rebaza (OTW Communications), host

February 16th
01:00 — Linkee — Paula (OTW Support & AO3 Tag Wrangling), host
03:00 — Countdown — Janita Burgess (OTW Communications), host

To keep things manageable, the chat room has a 50-person limit at any one time, so if you’re unable to get in for one event, do try another.

Details About the Games

5 Things

How to Play: During this game the host will name a topic and players in the room will call out examples from their favorite fandoms. This will repeat for at least 5 rounds. Be prepared to explain why your answer counts (maybe you’ll recruit someone new to your fandom!)

20 Questions

How to Play: Host thinks of a person, place or thing. The first person in the room roster (on the upper right side) gets to ask a question that the host will answer with a YES or NO.

As soon as the host replies, the next person on the list can ask their question. Players can call out a guess at any time but the host will only answer if it’s correct so that the next person gets their turn. The game will continue until someone has guessed the person, place or thing.

Countdown

How to Play: The host has a list of 7 clues. After they type each clue into the chat room, people can guess what the answer is. If no one guesses, the host offers the next clue. The game will continue until someone has guessed the person, place or thing BUT the sooner someone guesses the answer, the more points they will get! After 3 rounds the person with the most points wins.

Linkee

How to Play: The host will read a clue and each player should guess (to themselves — shhh!) what the answer is that fits into the [BLANK]. The host will then read 2 more clues. After each one players can call out a guess about what they think links the clues together.

The first person to guess correctly gets a point. When we have completed all the clue sets the person with the most points wins.

Lyrics Round Robin

How to Play: During this game we’ll collectively write FANDOM lyrics to replace those of a familiar song. The host will choose the song and type out an alternate first line. Then those in the room will write the next lines until the song is finished.

Poetry Round Robin

How to Play: During this game we’ll write a FANDOM poem. The host will choose a style (limerick, haiku, sonnet, or ghazal) and post the first line. Then those in the room will write the next lines until the poem is finished.

That’s Life

How to Play: The host will offer two questions. Participants should each name a character that they know well and will then share how that character would answer the questions. For each round, participants will name a different character each time and answer questions for that character. We’ll have 5 minutes for you to come up with answers to each set of questions.

Trivial Pursuit

How to Play: Like most trivia games, the host will ask a question and the first person to answer correctly wins that round. Because we’re online and you’re free to do searches we’re going to add another factor, which is time — you must answer within 3 minutes. But you can call out your answer as soon as you think you know. If you have the correct answer the host will type your name and award you a point. At the end of the game, whoever has gotten the most points will be named the winner!

The chat is now closed. Thanks to everyone for participating!

We also want to hear from you about other celebrations taking place today. Leave us a comment here to tell us about what your fandom communities are hosting!

Welcome to the International Fanworks Day Feedback Fest!

Here’s how it works:

Leave a comment here recommending at least three fanworks, and say something about why you love these works and think others should check them out. You can also link to a recommendation post you’ve made elsewhere or tag it with #FeedbackFest for people to find. Remember that fan communities, newsletters, archives, and other resources are fanworks too, so there are a lot of possibilities!

For everyone checking out the rec'ed fanworks, don’t forget to leave comments, likes, kudos, or other feedback to those fan creators to help spread the love. Let the fannish celebration begin!

International Fanworks Day is coming up on February 15. To mark the occasion, the OTW called for submissions on "What Fanworks Mean to Me." We are thrilled with the responses we have received, and we would like to thank everyone who submitted! Below are some of the responses we received.

For those of you who missed our challenge, we’d like to start a conversation on how fanworks are part of your life. For example:

• What devices do you usually use to access fanworks? And when do you enjoy them?
• How do you save fanworks to find again? Do you recommend them to others?
• What are your favourite tropes to browse? What are your favourite fandoms to browse?
• Do you prefer one type of fanwork (art, fic, vid etc)? What makes this your favourite?

Leave your comments here or drop in at our social media to tell us more!

What Fanworks Mean to Me

Mary-Catherine Berger, via e-mail

Fanworks to me, really mean a lot. Fanworks, and the community that has evolved around them, has opened me up to a whole new world of acceptance and love. I've learned a lot in just this past year about writing. I've been challenged in so many ways by myself, as well as by my fellow fanwork creators. The amazing creations that my fellow fans have created have opened my eyes to the amazing depths of exploration and creation that I hadn't been exposed to before. Fanworks mean acceptance, love, devotion, talent, dedication, and a million other things that have brought positivity and joy to my life.

rya_204, via AO3

1. Per me, a volte, i fanwork sono quelle opere che superano di gran lunga l’opera originale e ti viene da chiederti dove si nascondano queste persone così talentuose perché, come dice il giovane Holden, vorresti che gli autori fossero tuoi amici e vorresti poterli chiamare ogni volta che vuoi.

2. Fanwork vuol dire passione, dedizione, curiosità, scoperta. Rappresenta anche rassicurazione, conforto, sostegno, abitudine (perché nulla dà più sollievo del ritrovare qualcosa che già si conosce e si ama profondamente). Vuol dire commuoversi, vuol dire dolcezza e vuol dire anche porno. Significa imparare, meravigliarsi, insegnare, comunicare, sentirsi parte e contribuire a qualcosa di più grande. Significa rimanere stupiti di fronte alle infinite declinazioni che una stessa cosa può assumere. Ma sopra ogni altra cosa per me vuol dire libertà. Libertà di non seguire nessuna regola, preconcetto o pregiudizio. Libertà di riscrivere e reinventare completamente anche norme così radicate che abbiamo dimenticato che possano esistere alternative. Persino, addirittura, la libertà di ignorare totalmente anche le leggi stesse che dovrebbero regolare una storia (soprattutto per quanto riguarda una fanfiction), libertà di prendere uno spunto e spingerlo oltre fino a creare qualcosa di paradossale, perché non esistono limiti all’immaginazione. Libertà che nessuno, dall’alto di una sua cattedra o di un suo ruolo di prestigio, si permetta di dire cosa è o cosa non è bello, cosa possa meritare di essere studiato e considerato arte.

3. Infine, per me i fanwork sono semplicemente inseguire un’idea, uno spunto, un barlume scaturito dal lavoro di qualcun altro e concretizzarlo in qualcosa di tangibile, perché un’opera (se è meritevole) non esaurisce in se stessa cosa ha da dire e se l’arte fosse solo in grado di creare con il suo pubblico un dialogo muto e unilaterale, senza stimolare una risposta dall’altra parte, allora vorrebbe dire che è già morta.

greatvaluegay, via Twitter

I think the main reason it’s my dream to work on character and concept design is bc of how special it is to me to find characters I id with, I wanna be a part of making that experience for someone else to like….give back what I’ve received if that makes sense. I know id with characters in fanworks more than I do with their actual canon characterization, but I think that’s even more reason why I wanna create the characters like the ones I’ve grown to love and see myself in.

goldfinchex, via Twitter

in terms of writing it's both practice and expression, as well as translating thoughts to paper to ground myself in my present but at the same time make something that's entirely personal and imaginary a shared commodity.

Shyla Ramos, via Twitter

#WhatFanworksMeanToMe it allows me to get my ideas out and gets people to read and enjoy what I write.