Once I lamented on Twitter about never getting to finish a really good Sherlock fic, and the author recognized it and apologized, and I felt terrible.
(And I SOMEHOW RESISTED begging her to finish.)
See, here’s how I feel: One of the best things about fanfiction is that I get the chance to read stories that are never going to be ‘published’ in traditional ways. I get to read the writing of people who are doing this as a hobby rather than a profession or even a part-time gig. And as a result, I get to be showered with so many beautiful stories that I would never, ever have found through any other medium. I get to read the work of writers who would have been lost to me if the only way I had of reading was through purchasing publications. There’s just so much more out there than publication systems have ever harnessed.
And, to me, unfinished stories are kind of the ultimate expression of that story that I wasn’t supposed to be able to read, but lucked out and got a chance to read anyway. Unfinished stories almost never get published. Before the age of the internet and fanfiction, most would never have been read except by their authors and maybe a close friend or two. But, thanks to the internet and the ability of authors to write as they go, for fun, with no obligations attached, I have gotten to read these unfinished, beautiful things. And sure, if I love a story I naturally wish that it would be finished. But if the choice is between never reading that story at all, or getting to read it as far as it goes, I’ll take the latter every time.
I have been changed by unfinished stories. I’ve been amused and moved and fascinated and transported by them. Some of my all-time favorite fics are unfinished. But I’m still so happy that they live in a corner of my head.
So if you have written an unfinished fic, thank you. I’m so glad you shared it.
My dad and my sister should not be allowed to shop unsupervised. They came back with six kinds of icecream, three spatulas, and a bunch of pamphlets on vintage cars. Y’all were supposed to get dinner.
This is literally the most heart warming story I have read on Twitter so far.
I think this is exactly what friends should do, and I feel everyone deserves people like this.
A barn rasing:
a collective action of a community, in which a barn for one of the members is built or rebuilt collectively by members of the community.
because you cannot, you CANNOT, build a barn on your own, and without it, you will not be able to survive.
What a fuckin’ gem of a sentence. “What we did today was a barn rasin”
“Amy Poehler was new to SNL and we were all crowded into the seventeenth-floor writers’ room, waiting for the Wednesday night read-through to start. […] Amy was in the middle of some such nonsense with Seth Meyers across the table, and she did something vulgar as a joke. I can’t remember what it was exactly, except it was dirty and oud and “unladylike”, Jimmy Fallon […] turned to her and in a faux-squeamish voice said, “Stop that! It’s not cute! I don’t like it.” Amy dropped what she was doing, went black in the eyes for a second, and wheeled around on him. “I don’t fucking care if you like it.” Jimmy was visibly startled. Amy went right back to enjoying her ridiculous bit. With that exchange, a cosmic shift took place. Amy made it clear that she wasn’t there to be cute. She wasn’t there to play wives and girlfriends in the boys’ scenes. She was there to do what she wanted to do and she did not fucking care if you like it.”
