written by @robinwritesallthethings

It’s hard to see the things we love come to an end. This is true of fans, but it’s also true of creators. For creators, endings are honestly kind of terrifying. And once you’ve created something popular, people have expectations, and there’s a lot of pressure to get the ending just right.

The problem is that how a story should end and how we want a story to end aren’t necessarily the same thing. Creators might have multiple endings in mind, and fan desires also pull more endings into play, since fans tend to hang their endings on the fates of their favorites. Really, there’s no way that everyone is going to be happy, so as a creator, how do you decide what’s best for the story you’ve put so much time and effort into? This is especially nerve-wracking when fan reactions to an ending they don’t like can be so extreme these days.

The important question is how do you know what ending is right for your story? As a creator, you really only need to ask yourself three basic questions to decide. First, what genre is your story? This reminds you of what endings are traditionally expected in that genre, and therefore, helps you decide if yours will deviate from that tradition or not. Second, does your ending tie up all loose ends that are left in your story? If your story is ending, you don’t want to leave your fans with any questions. Third, does your ending make sense based on what came before it? Everything should come to a natural conclusion that isn’t contradictory, and you certainly shouldn’t introduce any new elements that magically fix everything against all odds. The deus ex machina is all washed up, and no one’s a fan anymore.

Let’s use an example to break down how you can eliminate potential endings from play. I’m going to use Twilight, since it is a fairly simple story with only a few possible endings. The ending of Twilight relies on Bella choosing her own fate. She can choose to be with Edward or Jacob, who are the only logical choices by the end of the narrative. She can also choose to be a vampire or not, a decision which largely depends on which man she chooses. And, after she has become a vampire, the Volturi’s offensive presents two options. One is that the Volturi win and either split up the Cullens or kill them all. The other is that the Cullens win and live happily ever after.

So how do you know which ending is the most appropriate? First of all, consider the genre. Twilight is a romance first. Romance always has a happy ending. If it doesn’t, readers are unsatisfied, so we can automatically take the ending where all of the good guys die off of the table. Of course, that still leaves us with the questions of who Bella should choose and whether or not she should become a vampire. So what other loose ends need to be tied up in order for the story to work? Bella needs to pick someone to be with, obviously, but the person she doesn’t choose also needs to find an appropriate resolution. Edward is in love with Bella, and will be forever. If she does not choose him, he will never love someone else, and will therefore be left drifting. And if Bella chooses Jacob, he could potentially imprint on someone else and leave her behind, despite how much he loves her. In addition, Jacob will never imprint if Bella and Edward aren’t together, because then Renesmee will never be born, giving him no resolution either. The obvious choice is for Bella to choose Edward, and to choose to be a vampire so that she can be with Edward forever.

The only thing left to ascertain is whether or not this ending makes sense with the rest of the story, and it obviously does. Twilight is about Bella and Edward meeting and falling in love. Though Jacob becomes inextricably intertwined with the story eventually, his role is always secondary to Edward’s. It makes complete sense that Jacob still becomes a necessary part of Bella’s life so that they both get to preserve their friendship and he gets closure. And, since we have seen the Cullens stand up to obstacle after obstacle, it’s not hard to believe that they could conquer one more. All in all, whether you enjoy the story of Twilight or not, you have to admit that it’s all tied up in a neat little bow. And it was chosen with fans breathing down Stephenie Meyer’s neck threatening that they would never read anything she wrote again if Bella ended up with Edward, so good for her for sticking to her guns and choosing the ending that was best for her work.

The trick is to not set yourself up for failure before your ending, though. Twilight was so obviously romantic and happy that everyone would have been horribly thrown for a loop if it hadn’t ended well. Avengers: Endgame was recently guilty of this. While the Snap in Infinity War was an awful fandom moment, everyone was hanging onto the hope that all of the deaths could be reversed. After all, this is a universe with time travel, magic, and alternate realities, not to mention Loki, who had supposedly died on previous occasions only to come back just fine later. The Snap may have been reversed, but the results weren’t what fans expected. Not all of the character deaths were undone, and to add insult to injury, Tony died and Cap decided to stay in the past, which many fans were not pleased about. Marvel failed to manage the expectations of what could happen, and while fans will most likely get over it eventually, it was a hard pill to swallow.

You can also be so concerned with surprising your fans that you make the huge mistake of changing the ending to your story to its detriment. This happened recently in the last season of Game of Thrones. Popular rumor hints that a fan guessed how the final season would play out, so the writers changed it so everyone would be surprised. The fan reaction was so bad that there was even a petition to redo the entire season. The writers forgot to ask themselves those three basic questions. They forgot that a high fantasy genre is one of the most predictable there is, especially when there are only a few outcomes left to work with. They introduced far more loose ends than they wrapped up, and the chain of events didn’t match what had come before in previous seasons. Perhaps they could have gotten to a point where their new ending made sense, but they needed a lot more time and character development to pull it off. They shot themselves in the foot, basically, and now their reputations are suffering for it. Hopefully it’s a lesson they learned from, but we’ll have to see.

Everything has to end, as much as we don’t want it to. As a creator, the most important thing to remember is to give your story the best ending that you can. As fans, we have to learn to accept the good endings to the stories we love. For the bad ones, never fear. There’s still fanfiction. And remember that the best part of one story ending is that it leaves room for another to begin. You’ll be lost in another new world in no time.

Written by: @robinwritesallthethings

So most of you probably don’t know this, but I used to be a teacher. Like, a legit college-level English teacher. I taught composition and literature to mostly freshmen students, and honestly, it was a blast. I quit to become a writer because that is my first passion, but truthfully, I still love to teach. Luckily, since I work for The Citrus Scale, I still have plenty of opportunities to do just that.

One of the biggest obstacles teachers face in any classroom is how to connect with students. Especially when you’re teaching something like literature, the first question students have is why do they need this? And actually, I like this question. I think it’s very astute to wonder about the value of what you’re being taught and why, and I was always happy to answer.

This is where fandom can really benefit you. If students are interested in what they’re working with, or at the very least feel like they can understand it, they are far more likely to listen to what you’re saying. In my literature classroom, we studied romance, and we read… wait for it… Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. Yes, I broke a few brains with that last one, just for the record. Apparently several of my students had never heard of the Internet, you know what I mean? And yes, someone’s grandmother literally called the college to complain about me teaching Fifty Shades. To her credit, when she found out my plan for it, she agreed with me and withdrew her complaints, which was a better result than I could have imagined.

A lot of people at the administrative level were skeptical of my choices. Even though most of them had never read Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey, they just couldn’t see the value in requiring students to read them. They saw them as…

Read the full article here ⇠

written by @robinwritesallthethings

So, in case you haven’t noticed, fanfiction can have a lot of sex. Like A LOT. You’re probably not shocked. As writers, we all know that writing sex is hard enough. But what happens when you introduce characters with superpowers? The short answer is that sexytime gets a lot more complicated. If you’re interested in something longer (pun most definitely, 100% intended), read on.

The starting differences are usually pretty basic. Superhero characters tend to have a lot more stamina than their human counterparts. They can go literally all night long. Enhanced strength also means that characters of any shape and size can be picked up, and that positions that might be off the table for an average couple are back on again. But there are other concerns to take into account if you’re really looking to go deep (yup, I did it again!) into the world of superhero sex.

One is biological compatibility. Especially in the Marvel universe, a lot of superheroes look human, but they are alien, or their DNA has been altered in a significant way. This could raise some serious concerns for a human looking to hop in the sack with one. It might not even be safe to have sex with an alien. And even if biological compatibility isn’t an issue, other powers can still pose a concern. If Thor doesn’t control his strength, can he just pound you right through the bed and straight into death? If Bucky gets lost in the moment, could that pleasurable light choking become something much worse? These are details you might want to consider if you’re going to write some sweet superhero boning.

So what are your options if you’re venturing into the world of superhero smut? You have a few. First, you can choose to just ignore any potential pitfalls and just write regular sex. This works especially well for AUs where characters might not have powers, or for one-shots that are just supposed to be some sexy fun. In these cases, it’s usually not necessary to go into too much detail, so you can skip dealing with anything harder (how many puns is that now?).

You could also use the superpowers to enhance whatever sex is happening in your story. I read a great fic once where Loki’s frost giant abilities were used to great advantage for some shivery fun. And you could also use Wanda’s magic to do pretty much anything you wanted. The good thing here is that a lot of superhero powers aren’t strictly defined, especially in this context, so you can take what is already established and build off of it. 

Finally, you can lean in and choose to deal with all of the obstacles these powers present to you. You can use these powers to create barriers in a romance, for instance, like Stephenie Meyer does in Twilight. While her vampires aren’t strictly superheroes, they have many of the same capabilities, which makes many of Edward and Bella’s physical relationship milestones potentially deadly. This last choice is certainly more convoluted than the others, but it’s perfect for an angst-filled story with a lot of potential for tragedy.

No matter how you choose to handle super sex in your narrative, remember to be creative and make it your own. You’re probably going to have to fill in some big blanks (just one more smutty pun for the road!), so go wild and have fun with it!

After several months away from the magazine, those of us still left felt we were in a place, emotionally and mentally, where we could discuss its closure.

To start, we’re going to be very frank. We left in large part to the bullying we received from fandom members and previous employees of the magazine. We’ve all experienced strong-arming BNFs (Big Name Fans) in fandom at one time or another, but as we were an organization, it seemed that the targeted harassments by several felt much more extreme and long-lasting. And it began before the magazine ever published an issue. 

It was founded by someone who is a screenwriter and a novelist, and has a decade and a half of experience in those industries. While she did not, at that time, have direct experience with running a digital fandom magazine, her mentorships for writing in general run upwards of $200/hour for screenwriting and $0.08 a word for developmental editing only on a full-length young adult, new adult, and adult manuscript. However, several felt that did not qualify her to hand out free writing mentorships to fandom members simply for their volunteering for the position. It also didn’t seem to matter that it was always stated that this was an unpaid internship, which is very common in this industry. Several insisted on her being a liar and a cheat, though she never requested money from anyone in exchange for her expertise and time. Despite never having met this person before, our founder was told she was even lying about her identity and was constantly mocked and ridiculed on Tumblr via anon asks that still continue to this day. 

Nevertheless, the editor-in-chief, at the time, persisted. 

Throughout her tenure, she came in contact with other BNFs that felt as if her way of doing things was harsh and severe. To be clear, she required one to two articles a month, of which you were often allowed to pick your own topic so long as it was approved beforehand to go with that month’s theme, and to attend one (1) one-hour meeting a month so everyone could be on the same page for the upcoming issues. She did also require a style guide be followed to maintain consistency, but all of this information was told to the potential intern upfront. However, each and every employee that left did so in a manner that was immature and unprofessional. However, she never wavered in her thinking that fandom could and should be a much more open, honest, and accepting place for all who wish to be there. 

As time continued, and after our first editor-in-chief stepped down and another took her place, the bullying never ceased. This time, however, it come from outside the magazine in the form of the authors, artists, and cosplayers who were tapped for interviews. Regularly, interviews that took an hour or more to craft were never completed with no reason given and often ghosting of our magazine done by those individuals. While we understand things come up, people get busy, and life gets in the way, this was often not what occurred in the instances to which we are referring. Also, if we got behind due to our dwindling staff, those being interviewed would become belligerent in our DMs demanding updated information on new release dates. 

With only two of us left, and neither of us being those who actually founded or were around when it started, we cannot see a way in which we can continue. We sincerely apologize to those who had outstanding interviews who won’t be posted, but you do have the capability to post the interviews yourself on your own blogs as you’ve always had access to the Google Doc, if that’s something you decide to do. However, for the sake of our sanity, this magazine is being digitally archived and this Tumblr will be deleted in the weeks to come. 

Thank you to all who offered actual support of our endeavors. We wish you all the best.