Look At What My Wonderful Girlfriend Gave Me For Christmas!!!!

Look at what my wonderful girlfriend gave me for Christmas!!!!

They're so cute!!!!!!!!! And soft!!!! Thank you, @peregrinationality!!!!!

Guess who just got diagnosed with adhd, 8 years after my anxiety and depression diagnosis!

I am simultaneously extremely relieved, upset, and also terrified that I tricked the poor doctor into believing I'm something I'm not in order to get help I don't deserve.

There seem to be two questions here: the actual question stated, and the assumed underlying question, and I have very different answers for both!

"Is listening to an Audiobook the same as reading?" Is the posed question, but it comes across with an intent of the actual question being, "Does listening to an Audiobook count as reading?"

To which I say: Yes!!! Listening to an audiobook 100% counts as reading!! You are taking in information presented directly to you from an outside source!! Language formatted by another person is entering your brain!!! You leave the interaction with your book, having absorbed the content written!!

However. That's not the question you actually asked.

I'm a voracious reader - of fanfiction, admittedly, but that doesn't discount the 187 stories I've read and saved since January this year alone, nor the 4,480 I've read and bookmarked since Jan 2021 - I could go on, but the point is, I read a lot of stories.

I'll normally spend a minimum of 2 hours a day reading, and I do entirely refer here to reading stories visually. This is my favorite way to read stories, and I enjoy the experience greatly.

I also spend at least 4 hours of my shift, every day that I can get away with it, listening to the fanfiction read aloud. Text-to-speech, typically, not traditional audiobooks; but again, that's not an important distinction at play here.

THESE ARE TWO VASTLY DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES TO ME.

90% of the time, I cannot listen to a story, unless I've already read a decent portion of it visually!!

If I'm given a story to read, and I read it visually - I will generally be able to tell you what happened, when in the story it happened - (oh, that section came right after X but before Y, while in the actual timeline it really happens during Z-), to give you inexact quotes, to have formed a mental index of people and places and plot beats-

If I listen to a story, I can't do those things. Not reliably, and not well. If I want to be and to do that, I'll need to listen to the story 2, maybe 3 or 4 times. My brain processes the information differently when it's given verbally, not visually.

However - I can do other things while listening, which I can't do when reading normally!! (...I have to be doing things while listening, actually. I can't just sit and listen and do nothing else, like I could with a story in my lap.) I can pause and visualize scenes, which I basically never do normally! My emotions are more me, rather than just being pulled along by the story! I can't accidentally start speed-reading and skimming when I get too excited and caught up!

Except, before I can do any of that, I have to pick a story that I already know something of, and something that will come across at a pace acceptable to whatever state of mind I'm in. When I read normally, I can choose to read faster, or slower, or if I need to reread a line. While listening, the words will come just as fast or slow as they always will, and sometimes it'll go slowly and my brain will get impatient and bored and distracted; sometimes it'll go too fast and I won't catch everything, will need to continuously stop and rewind, which will also lead to me getting distracted as I end up missing more and more things - unless I've read it before, preferably visually, and then I can fill in the blanks.

Yet, I'd never give up either method of reading!!!

I would just about die at work if I couldn't listen to my stories - the days I can't, whether due to not having an appropriate story ready or not being allowed, are absolutely awful.)

And I would just. Be in a much worse place, mentally, without the escape that reading can provide for me, every single day.

So. Yes. Reading stories visually and listening to stories audibly are two entirely different experiences.

(Also, if you define reading as actually visualizing the story, I have "read" very, very few of all the books I've ever actually read. Like, .01%? Maybe? ...Probably much less? And even then, it's only for specific scenes, often lasting only a few seconds- So, you could honestly say that by OP's definition, that I've probably read less than 30 books in my entire lifetime - and I have several overflowing bookcases in my room to disagree with that notion.)

Settle a debate with me and my partner

I define reading as taking in a story, that means visualizing the story and using imagination just like you would if you had a book in front of you

Also plz reblog to spread this around

Ahhh, thank you!! This was a really thoughtful and helpful reply, and I appreciate the encouragement!!

Those are some good questions!! I've thought about several of them, but others pointed out assumptions I was making! (I'll go ahead and say that following my experience, they *try* to avoid characters they dislike rather than read bashing works... so they'll provavly be blindsided all the more by them!)

About why they never finished TGCF.... I actually have something funny planned with that! You see, there's *very* little chance they'll get through everything without admitting some of the truth to Hua Cheng and Xie Lian. (they *know* they aren't the protagonist, and if they can arm the true protagonists with even a little of the knowledge they lack- they just have to survive telling them ^^;;;) And, when Hua Cheng finds out that there was a series about His Highness and that they didn't bother to finish it??? He's going to be so offended.

That's one of their driving difficulties!!! Discerning canon from headcanon from fanon - and then *I* get to decide which headcanon will and will not apply in this story :3333 (I may or may not have several oncomplete lists and charts trying to track this information)

1- That's what gave me the courage to ask this question!!! Because that was one of the things I had *also* assumed was canon, so it's good to find out now that it probably isn't!

2 & 3 - I actually avoided those, huh! Xie Lian is just too good at weaponizing his food to truly believe its easily palatable.

4- :( Hua Cheng has enough image issues already...

5- I actually know *so little* about Mu Qing, and given that this modern character/original goods mix will be dealing with him.... it's going to be very interesting ^^;;; He's kind of a black box mystery to me, and I forsee him as being one of the things to shake up the original plot outline after I do finish reading and properly internalize his character!!

Thank you again for your response and your advice!! I really appreciate your kindness in your answering!!

(Also, if anyone wants to hear about this AU, find out who the character, or ask anything or give advice, I'd love to talk about it!!)

Hello! I hope you're having a lovely day!!

Well- here's a dumb thing that I've been thinking about for absolute ages, if you don't mind dumb asks? I'd be interested in what you think of a TGCF story where a cannon character (NOT HuaLian) reincarnates with slowly returning memories of their last life - wherein they eventually discover that they'd actually read a book about their current life! Except, they never actually finished the series - they've devoured decent chunks of fandom content, but they don't know what's Canon and what's fanon for the parts they never read. (Anything book 3 and beyond)

Here's the conundrum- I haven't finished reading TGCF yet because I want to model their knowledge based off mine, and sketch out what I *think* might happen in this stories plot... and then go back and read TGCF and look for ways this wouldn't work and would change, and build the *actual* plot of the story from there.

How dumb does this idea sound? Would you have any advice to give, or any ideas on big differences fanon has with canon? (Without actually mentioing what the truth actually is? ^^;;)

Feel free to ignore everything aside from the "I hope you're having a lovely day," part, if you want ^^;;

hello!! today has been good :) I hope yours has been good as well.

I don't think this is a dumb ask! It's an interesting premise! I think you are going to get stuck at some point where your story planning hits the point in canon that you've read to, but it's definitely a clever way to basically like, method-act the character's experience? Taking advantage of your own lack of knowledge is clever, yeah, I don't think this is dumb at all!

If you want my advice, I'll just spitball a bunch of questions I think you should ask yourself- what kind of person are you writing? Why didn't they finish TGCF? What sorts of fandom content were they looking at? Were they a fan of a particular character? How did that influence the sorts of TGCF fans they followed, and what biases did it give them? The fan media they were engaged with, was it biased towards or against any particular characters? Because any of those things could create a lot of misconceptions.

I was spitballing fanon vs canon with some friends, and I realized we should also probably acknowledge headcanons, and the sort of bridge it is between canon and fanon. They overlap a bit, but to me, headcanons are ideas that acknowledge canon vs. personal opinion, while fanon ignores or seeks to replace canon. That might also be a good area to explore- what's something they forgot was a headcanon? Did they perhaps hear two conflicting headcanons, and they don't know which one is the truth?

It's a little hard to say "Fanon is (X)" without in the process saying "Canon is (Y)". But here's some fanon I know of:

E-ming reopening wounds. I just learned this one, actually. There are a few fic that use this idea without any mention of it not being canon, RIP.

Xie Lian thinking his food is good.

Buff Xie Lian (I'm sorry I know it's popular don't yell at me)

Hua Cheng calling himself "lowly", "useless", or "unworthy"- this is also very common in fanfic.

Mu Qing's father was executed for (X). (you could easily make some headcanons there. It's just stating anything as fact that becomes fanon.)

4 way Bingo! 😔😔😔

There would be more, but I try to be judicious about using the back button and immediately forgetting what I've read-

But, God, even just the summaries for stories tell quite the tale. Sometimes I wonder if it's, like, a bad joke? But I've learned better than to check, because. No. They aren't joking.

(There's this one fic that kept popping up, and I'd given it a try because I kind of enjoyed that author years ago - turns out, when they cross over with a fandom I know and love, sh-- gets real. I had to vent to my partner about it, to prevent myself from opening the story up and seeing the sacrilege again and working myself up even more)

Binghe, baby, I love you - and more importantly, I know that Shizun loves you!!! ❤❤❤

Braham propaganda

Luo Binghe propaganda

Absolutely!!! I'd love to hear any thoughts that go along with the story that you want to share as well! This looks like it'll be a lot of fun to read!!

Poor little Hua Cheng - will he be going by Xiao Hua, like in Dearly Departed? How old is old enough for the "lang" nickname? - who must be torn between panic and delight and disbelief!

Is this really his god, who just appeared in front of him and "saved" him once more???!!! He's in his most useless, powerless, weakest form; what can he do to be of use to his god???? How can he convince his god to let them stay together????

His Highness might look after an abandoned child- but he might also try to give him away to folk who can ""care for him properly"" instead - and if he does manage to stuck around, that would mean he'd be forced to stay in this little, despised form!

His highness would surely notice something, however, and what could Hua Cheng tell him while still being allowed to remain close?

Ahhhh, this is such a good, fun concept! I'm surprised in retrospect that I haven't seen it before, I don't think! (But then, I haven't read as many TGCF fics as I'd like to)

Wait, 450 years... this is before Guoshi Fangxin! But by how long?

Thank you for replying and sharing parts of your story!!

Hello!! I found you at a good time, it seems! I want to finish reading your current stuff before leaving an ask/prompt/number, but I'm afraid ADHD brain will forget, so!! Can I hear about your WIP number 4, or 9? Whichever you'd prefer!! I really like your writing, and your characterizations of Hua Cheng and Xie Lian feel true to the characters without becoming overblown or exaggerated!

You do have great timing!! I'm super flattered you like my writing and characterizations, it means a lot to me :) and enough to ask about my WIPs!!! thank you for giving me the opportunity to ramble about them, haha. Hilariously, the original WIP #4 was just finished yesterday, so you get a peek at its replacement on the list- a canon divergent fic where, when Mt. Tonglu opens about 450 years into Xie Lian's second banishment, he happens to come across a 'young boy' being menaced by a frenzied ghost.