(Posting half an hour early in honor of last night!)

♥ AI fanfic writers appreciation post! ♥

Anything goes tonight. Spread the love, talk about your latest WIP, share the most LOLerrific or horrifying review you've ever gotten, discuss the complexities of Kris Allen as a character. If you'd like to vent or discuss sensitive issues (like last night's wankery, for example), that's okay, too, because I believe we should all be 100% honest about our feelings.

I'll start the appreciation:
You are all brilliant. You are talented and smart and sane, don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Writing RPF does not make you a loser or gross or wrong, since Idol is a fandom just like any other. You are NOT misrepresenting this goddamn fandom, you are contributing to it; you make art and share it with other people, and that's a beautiful thing.

...Your turn! Also, check out
idolmeta
where we'll be holding all future fic discussion posts every Tuesday night at 8pm EST. You'll also get to create your own posts there for any meta questions and concerns you might have. It will be modded by myself and preromantics for now, but we're still discussing other options. :) All questions about the new comm can be asked in this post.

The mods have approved meta posts, so I'll get this party started!

I'd like your opinions on using present tense or past tense in fic. Which do you prefer, and why?

While skimming fanficrants, it hit me that using present tense isn't all that commonplace in novels or anywhere outside of fan fiction. I had a friend read a story of mine, and she said she gets distracted when fics are written in present tense. But all my favorite fic authors use it, I use it, it's kind of become second nature to me. When I start writing a new story, it's always in present tense. I tried to shift to past tense for a couple of stories, but when I started writing again a year later, I automatically wrote in present tense. And I can't quite figure out what it is I prefer about it. I think it's more...urgent? Intimate? IDK, someone help me out here.