Seem to recall this story from r/nosleep a long time ago. That's one of the things I still haven't replaced from my reddit days, I liked reading through the top stories every once in a while. There really were some gems. I just got an AO3 account so maybe I can find something like that again, but I'm not too familiar with the site.
Seems like the story predates /r/nosleep by a fair bit. Relatedly, I wish lemmy were more open to creative writing. The greentext communities respond positively, but it’s a gamble anywhere else. Over the years, It’s become apparent to me that lemmy is full of philistines.
Reddit, too. The fandoms I was engaged in there seem totally uninterested in (or even hostile to) fanfiction or even lore speculation now. No, just repeating and worshipping the same shallow memes.
At risk of sounding old... it wasn't always like that.
At risk of doing the same, kids these days have shorter attention spans and more expendable entertainment within their grasp. I can’t say I’ve ever interacted with fanfiction communities, but, from what I’ve seen elsewhere, creativity is perceived as “yapping.” Which is heartbreaking to me.
That's my observation, too. shakes "get off my lawn" fist.
But Ao3 has good apps now. That's kinda recent, so maybe there will be some fresh blood from smartphone-primaries, especially as Reddit fandom subs bleed users (like me).
I hope so too. Writing should be timeless. Without a space for it in the modern internet, where apparently all creativity is meant to be placed, according to my niece, fewer writers will flourish. We live in an age of change, and I’m constantly bouncing back and forth between happy and terrified of what that means
Another personal anecdote: I am writing a fandom fic now (and finished another). I get some foot traffic, even likes/bookmarks, but barely any feedback or comments. I really have no idea what readers think, aside from like one commenter on the old fic.
Based on what I've read in other communities, that's a common phenomenon. There's just less engagement proportional to the (also lesser) reader count these days, and it kinda feels like writing into a black hole.
I shifted my mindset to get around any issues. I don’t write for anyone else. I write for an audience of one, me. I find myself interesting, however vain that might sound, and therefore I write. I don’t know how much that helps you, if you’re looking for constructive criticism, but it’s the only way I’ve managed to continue enjoying the act. Well, that and passing it along to the kids in the form of verbal collaborative storytelling.
!2sentence2horror@lemmy.blahaj.zone, a few !twosentencehorror communities, a poetry community I’ve lost track of, and a smattering of niche writing communities like this one. The tumblr communities as well, if you count surreptitious fiction, which I do. None that are dedicated to writing are very active
I mean zero offense, but I feel like Lemmy is too fragmented, and most communities need more population, not another more-specific shard of a similar thing.