~ ao3 - <3 - tumblr ~

I'm always checking for notifcations on this site but the most surprising thing I've been welcomed to so far is all the badges I've accumulated. Like..I mean, they might seem intimidating to newer users who aspire to achieve what the badges represent, on one hand.

On a healthier note, knowing what they mean, I feel so...honored but more enamored and accomplished. I'm making this in to a big deal unintentionally but I'm getting to my point: So after checking what the badges mean and realizing that I have them, it's almost unbelievable. It doesn't just mean I've given out 100+ comments on other stories, it means I've taken the opportunity, more than 100, to make someone's day and help better themselves in their writing, or that I've just left nice words. It's not that I've recieved a high amount of upvotes but that the work I've posted on here and worked on for months or weeks a time has recieved so much support and I'm grateful. But the one that astounds me the most is the badge for having posted 25+.

Most days, even on really great ones, writers can struggle to cough out even just a paragraph for their story. I'll spend days wondering which story, out of the many wips I keep saved, will be the one I post next and if it'll turn out as well as I want it to, as well as my previous works I've written have. The words will eventually come to me and at the end, I'll hopefully have a decent story. And then when I come to working on the next, it'll be a repeat routine of wondering how I'll make this story as good or better as the next one. Which words should I use and how should this part go and etc.

I'm done babbling. Long story short: I'm so, incredibly grateful and feel so honored to have been given so much support and kind words over the years I've spent on this site--more years than I first expected. I don't think fanfiction is just a way for fans to unleash "filth" as some pople call it; writing fanfiction for over a decade now—not just on here but other sites like ff.net and ao3 that I predomintely use—has allowed me to better myself. I've learned and progressed so much as a writer and I know there's heaps more for me to learn, and then much more after that. This is just the start. Even though I don't write on here anymore, I haven't stopped writing and I won't. I actually have a story or two on here that I have yet to finish and I keep thinking about coming back to them, it's just there's lots of time and yet so much misplaced or spent on my other wips or stories. And some of those wips are in fact kpop stories I could easily post on here and I might do that. It's sad to think that some familiar names from when I was more active on here won't be sticking around or have left already. Time is inevitable but deserting your personal goals and desires doesn't have to be.

I'm always saying I'm here to give advice from one amateur writer to another and it still stands. Not so much the factual stuff like proper use of grammar and etc, but how your writing makes you feel, what you want to show or convey in your story, how I've overcome—or survived—the highs and lows. Again, just as an amateur, here to give suggestions based on my own experience.

Somehow that doesn't make enough sense, I think? Ah, it's fine.

tldr v.2: Many thanks to the support I've recieved over the years and the people who've made this site friendly and enjoyable for me. I look at the badges on my profile with honor and encouragement to keep working hard on writing and to just keep doing it. And I hope I, or anyone else, can instill the same sort of hope in you. <3

PS. I hope you see my profile and still think of iu and visa versa, she has been and still is the face on me on here and I still admire her so much! Also, because I've stuck around this long, does this make me an Unnie? I'm joking! See ya~<3