All right, we’re doing this.

We’re doing it live guys, right here, right now, because my Tumblr experience has been a low-level trash fire for months and at this point I’m getting high-level exasperated. Because to be in any fandom, to be safe in any fandom, there is a golden fucking rule we all need to live by:

There is a line between fiction and reality.

There is a line between fiction and reality.

There is a line between fiction and reality.

That isn’t to say that fiction can’t affect your reality. It’s perfectly reasonable to read a work of fiction and feel inspired by it - or afraid of it. It’s reasonable to say “my god, that’s too close to home, I can never read again”. It is NOT reasonable to say that a work of fiction is responsible for your behavior in real life. You are a human being. You are the star in charge of your destiny. It’s you. If you read a murder mystery and learn how to stab people with casino chips, it’s your responsibility not to become Serial Poker.

There is a line between fiction and reality.

Likewise, reality can absolutely affect fiction. Humans write stories for all kinds of reasons. To teach. To inspire. To caution. To feel heard. There will be times where some authors write things that horrify you, and it may not be a good story for you to read. That does not mean it’s not good for someone. It does not mean an author is evil for producing it. Again, ideas versus actions: if I write a murder mystery, I killed a couple pens. I didn’t stab anybody and leave them on a craps table.

There. is a line.

And lastly, there’s nothing saying fiction can’t be criticized. You can talk about themes in a work that are fucked up or unrealistic; you can even talk about how it was a bad story for you personally to read. But you cannot jump from reading a fictional work to divining that an author does these things in real life. I got some dark places in me, yeah. We all got some dark places in our heads. But I am not a god, and my imagination does not truly turn the floor to lava. If my fic burns you, then please - leave me concrit, or even just protect yourself by unfollowing or clicking the back button. I am not obligated to write what is safe for you. You are not obligated to pay attention to me.

There is a line between fiction and reality, and it’s everyone’s job to respect it.