I dont understand the insistence that fanfic writers have about being considered "real writers"[...]
[...]i think the crux of the issue is this:
you cannot take criticism.
which is the bare minimum you should be able to do as a writer. because think about it, what else do you gain from being considered a "real writer?" what can you realistically GAIN from it?
you can't submit your fanfics to competitions, can't be nominated for an award, don't get your work studied in classrooms, you can't even sell it etc etc. the one thing you legally should be ABLE to do is take criticism, and yet so many fanfic writers refuse.
like even if you're like fuck the competitions, fuck the awards, fuck getting paid for your art, even if you considered all of those things as the pinnacle of classism (which we can argue about until the sun goes down i suppose), if you are not willing to take criticism about your fanfic/writing then, how are you any different from a toddler holding a crayon?
you will elevate your fanfic to that of historical, cultural and often religious pieces, not understanding that by trying to equate your bakudeku/stucky/omegaverse ships to that of, idfk, religious texts (yes ive seen too many of yall doing this shit) or any Greek tragedy, you're actually just diminishing the sociopolitical impact that those other works have had. you're not bring your fanfic up to that level, you're bringing those works down to yours. which, i shouldn't have to say is incredibly insulting to those authors.
we can agree that fanfic as a whole has had SOME impact on the art world, hell the way it's fucking shaped booktok and so much of publishing should be studied under a microscope. so many published books are just repackaged fanfic at this point.
but here's the thing. i'm an author who has written fanfic before. i have friends who have written fanfic but also write their own original material. i know of other authors who write fanfic, as well. the difference between us and so much of you ao3 fanfic weirdos is that not only are we brave enough to try something new, but that when we do, we are able to take criticism about our original works, which is so much harder than when you're writing fanfic. fanfic is playing in someone else's sandbox. wherever you fall flat, you can blame on the source material.
you can't do that if you ARE the source material. you have to take that criticism, process it, figure out what to do with it (if there is anything to do with it) and then take the next step. this is a skill you have to build time and time again as you write your own story.
do you know how hard it is to get people invested in your original stories? do you know how much work it takes to craft an original story, and put it out, and then deal with the demoralizing results when you realize either people didn't read/care for it at all?
i could not read a chuck tingle story to save my life but at the very fucking least, that man is earnest in his craft. he is putting himself out there, sometimes with satirical works, sometimes not. that takes guts. to be a writer, you need to have guts. you need to be brave.
the wildest fucking thing is so many of you write smut and it's not even good smut. i had a friend who asked me to read her fanfic and wouldn't even take the slight criticism that "maybe these characters should use actual lube". this was such a prevalent problem in so many of your smutfics during the early 2010s, that there was an ENTIRE BLOG dedicated to point out "this is not lube".
and the argument that fanfic is better than original books because it is "inherently queer, enjoyed primarily by women so critiquing it is misogynistic and homophobic" falls flat on its face for so many reasons, the first being that 71.3% of the publishing industry are cis women and 72.5% are white. the majority of these original books that you hate so much are being pushed by white women. now what?
not to mention its insulting to ME and other queer authors of color who are genuinely trying to break through the mold of publishing but yall won't read our books because we don't write about white twinks having mid sex.
this is almost a literary version of gamergate. gamers wanted games to be considered art but didn't want their games to be critiqued in any serious way.
if all you want to do is have fun with the same 5 or 6 tropes and squeecore storyline then fine. by all means, have at it, i don't care.
but you want to be considered a real writer? can you take the criticism if someone tells you your fanfic is bad?