blamebrampton | Dear FM

Stop that right now!

If your strikethrough was in fact a genius cunning plan for lovely

pushdragon fic, IT'S ALREADY WORKED! And that is the only good thing I can say about it.

If it's because someone in your RL is giving you crap over the time you commit to fandom, you just need to get a few addresses out there and my botanical poisons genius and PI's sweet, innocent face can finally work together for evil, er, good! yes, GOOD I tell you!

If it's because you need a break, just Turn Off the computer and step away for a few days, then come back without giving any of us heart failure.

It it's because you think that you have hurt anyone, then sit down, Aunty Brammers is going to pass you a cup of tea and have a quiet word. There is not a malicious bone in your hyperactive little Mousey body. Sometimes you don't get a story. DO you ever blame the author? No, you blame your response to it (which is EXACTLY the appropriate thing to do, some stories we are just not born to get). Sometimes a story scares you. Every time you have written "This story scares me!". Do you know how strong a writer feels to know that their words can do that?

Sometimes you overthink the relationship that you have with authors. This is what I thought when I read your first take on a story of mine: "Ooh, a sweet little cracky review! That's so ... not crack. This writer writes like it's crack, and it's actually deep and connecting and FUCK ME SHE CAN SEE THAT BENEATH BOUNDLESS SKIES IS ACTUALLY ALL ABOUT MY DYING CAT AND SHE HAS NEVER EVEN MET ME! HOW??"

Do you know how many other writers have had this exact conversation with me about your work? Because I can't tell you since I haven't asked them whether or not I can spill their beans, but it's all of them who matter. Everyone has actually read through and said "Fuck me, what looked like the red-cordialled ramblings of a muppet turns out to have poetry at its soul, and that poetry seeks to understand my work." They have said this even when you have said: "I DON'T REALLY UNDERSTAND!!"

So I am passing you a cream cake now, to go with the tea, and I am saying: you need to look beyond the red-cordial-fuelled ramblings of other muppets and see if you can find the poetry beneath them, because that's where the truth of it will lie. And some of those truths will say "Writing scares the bejesus out of me" and others will say "I wrote my soul into this, which scares me" and others will say "The world scares me at times, but this world I can create". And if you look at all of those truths, you'll see the core truth of writers: that all of us are scared of many things, and hurt by them, too, just as you are today. But what makes everything bearable and worthwhile is taking that fear and hurt and using them to do battle with the word and the world.

So could you please go back to doing that now? And no, you may not have another cream cake until you undelete.

Rom, PI, could you please pass this on?

Everyone else, please obtain a cup of tea and a cream cake and just know that you are loved.

ETA: And it occurs to me, that even if you're not loved in some quarters, that's FINE! Not everyone has to like you, you do not have to like everyone! I piss some people off royally, they either ignore me or just stick around for the occasional benefit. Such is the way of life ...