Anna Todd, One Direction Fanfiction and Why Some People just Suck.

I’ve been watching 50 shades of Grey drama all month, and now, a new cause just popped up on my screen. And it is without a doubt the most stupid thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

I'm legit sitting here, unable to believe my own eyes.

It's been a while since I posted anything on here—actually; it’s been a while since I posted anything except random chitchat and my stories.

And while I was gone, something AMAZING happened.

Amazing, I promise.




You see, a wattpadder not only got a publishing deal (Woot! Woot) they also sold the movie rights to their Wattpad book.




And of course, I’m absolutely thrilled, excited—maybe feeling a bit bloated even—about this magnificent offer that one of our own has broken through to the outside in such a beautiful way. And surely, I think, every other wattpadder must be just as excited as me for this kind of news that changes a lot not just for the author, but also for the whole Wattpad community, right?





What I found, is that apparently it’s not enough to be happy for another being. No, you have to make sure you can approve of this work because your opinion is the only one that matter.

And because Anna Todd’s story, “After," happened to be a one direction fan fiction, then all hell breaks loose. Fans of the band and people who hate the band is all yapping about how horrible this deal is. How Anna’s story not only depicts Harry Styles as a bad person, but also how Anna’s story portrays reading, writing and wattpad as a bad thing…

That is a lot of claims.

And now they’ve all taken to twitter. Now, I’m not an avid twitter user. In all honesty, I feel like the character limit is simply too hard for me, but yeah. I’m on there. And what do I see? Stupid ass hashtags demanding Anna Todd’s head for the atrocity of accepting a pretty nice deal that ANYONE would have taken if they were in her shoes.



If you don’t believe me? Check #SuspendAnnaTodd and #SueAnnaTodd on twitter.

Basically, they’re demanding that:

1. Anna Todd doesn’t publish her fanfiction.


2. One Direction sues her.


3. Twitter suspend her.

Just like with 50 Shades, I refuse to go into a debate about the literary merit of the books. I have my preferences, and they’re probably different from everyone of you who reads this blog.





I also refuse to address the fact that it’s apparently “glorifying abusive relationships." Because, Abusive relationships is a thing—seriously, it is. Look it up on Amazon—and some people enjoy reading those for a variety of reasons. Just like they enjoy reading about taboo subjects or even dinosaur porn. Maybe they’re trying to play “spot the warning signs” or simply to pass the time. It doesn’t matter. It’s a thing. If you want to do something about it, write a book to counter it. Or make sure you do yours to educate and warn the young people in your life.

But you know what you shouldn’t do? Bash an author simply because she got more popularity than the literally thousands of authors who writes the same thing.

However, what I will address is the following claims:

“After is making Harry Styles look bad.”

“After is making Wattpad look bad.”

“After is making directioners look bad.”

^All the things I’ve read today.

Let’s take the first:


“After is making Harry Styles and One Direction look bad.”
This one, I personally disagree with and there's a few reasons why:

1. Anna’s story—while featuring all the boys—is in another reality where “One Direction” doesn’t even exist. They’re just five completely random guys, who happen to be friends.

2. In the published book—as well as the movie—Harry’s name will be changed. And even if it wasn’t, a quick search on www.howmanyofme.com shows that there are 399,900 people in USA named “Harry” as their first name and 7,593 people with the last name “Styles.”

And a stunning amount of 10 people is literally named “Harry Styles" in the United States. 

Of course, that could be a lie—the internet always lies—but the point is: Anyone could go out and change their name to “Harry Styles” if they technically wanted to. Here in Denmark, I think it costs like 500 Danish Crowns. (I once met a guy named “Elvis”…. He had changed his name to that from his birth given name)

The point is, the Main Character in After, is based on Harry’s looks and name. The personality, earnings, talents, sayings, is completely of Anna’s own imagination and is, therefore, not a true representative of Harry Styles.

3. For those people, who claim they can’t think of Harry the same way after reading the book: It’s not the author’s fault. Anna hasn’t drilled it into her reader how they should feel. Instead, if you’re anxious about this, make sure to explain this to whoever claims After changed how they view Harry: They’re not the same person. At all.

“After is making Wattpad look bad.”

^No. Just no. You know what makes Wattpad look bad? Users who worry what others will think and therefore resorts to name-calling, personal insults and bullying to make a point. And that doesn’t just account for Wattpad—but for everywhere.

“After is making directioners look bad.”

^No, sweetie. You’re making yourself look bad. It’s top notch to stand up for what you believe in, and by all means, write a reply/comment/anything voicing your thoughts. But to resort to name-calling, personal insults to not only Anna Todd, but also her fans, family, friends AND husband? That’s what makes you look bad.





The most astonishing about all this, though? Is that it's literally YOU that makes all of this a success. If you don't like the book. Don't support it. Don't talk about it to let others know it exist, just go about your day and ignore it.

And if you want to do something else, to help get what you want on the shelves, then promote stuff you really like instead. Instead of wasting time bashing an author, and getting into fights with countless of fans, go read a book and tell all your friends about that one instead. That's the only way you can actually change anything here. Plus, it'll make my timeline look less cluttered. :)




Peace.

Also, #SupportAnnaTodd and support the #VerifyAnnaTodd tags instead. They're much better causes.