Dear Readers,
I've been doing this for 15 years.
From time to time I used to hear from people on the Yahoo Groups about how I inspired them and how they wanted to get into making capped pics because of me.
I started out with one simple rule and that was to NOT do other people's universes.
Now there were early caps where I did parody them. Tributes where I mentioned them. But the bulk of my works are unique.
Yet nothing I've ever created seems to catch on like the universes of old. Nobody uses the Bimbonic Plague, Chameleon Dress, or anything.
Heck, my newscaster series about "wanking swaps" predated the FOSE, but oh well.
I've done this for 15 years and nothing I've created ever got picked up like the Great Shift, Bikini Beach, and now there's costume guns and the FOSE.
It gets to me I guess. Maybe it's my fault for not liking universes to begin with.
The thing is, in the early 2000s a lot of captioners out there traded story for convenience of how a change or swap occurs. Literally captions could be boiled down to one sentence and that's it.
"After he went to Bikini Beach.", "This is him after the Great Shift.", "He used the medallion of Zulo on his neighbor.".
Maybe I wrote the originals so well that anybody else trying to tackle it might just be like the examples above. Maybe that's my lot in TG fiction history.
I just don't know. Everything I create seems to start and end with me.
It's not going to live on. It never takes on a life of its own.
It's static. It never grows. I have no influence upon the TG fiction world.
That's what's really hard about being a TG Fiction writer.
New ways of swapping or transforming are easy. Anything can be a magic talisman. There's a wealth of myth and legend to utilize, and you can create your own. Sci-fi works too. And it doesn't matter how absurd you get either, just look at butt suction for proof!
But when you create things that are new and nobody else jumps onto it, when there's still werewomen, medallion of Zulo, Bikini Beach, reversal rings, and so on going strong generation of captioners after another and nothing you've ever created ever caught on...that's hard.
Kinda why I was mad to learn about the FOSE. My series turned out to predate it after I learned about it, but my series was originally posted to a Yahoo Group and the creation of the FOSE was independent from it. I didn't even know what the FOSE was until I started the blog and discovered other TG blogs.
Heck, that's how I learned about costume guns too.
So, how do you measure the success of a TG Fiction captioner?
Is it by telling memorable stories?
Is it by creating an endless concept?
Is it by the flattery of imitation?
You see, I almost died in 2014 and if I had this would've been it. All the old ones would still just be on Yahoo Groups being ravaged by spammers.
Eventually after so much inactivity this blog would probably be taken down automatically.
And I have made no lasting impact on the genre. Nothing that'll carry on after I'm gone.
Yet in 50 years time people will still make stories about the Great Shift, and the others.
15 years and not a single concept I've created has caught on.
Sincerely,
Gensabi
Maybe you should make an exclusive universe, and advertise on other blogs? Mention yourself visit them? Just an idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion, but that's not really how it's done. I mean, catching on happens naturally, like a viral online thing.
DeleteMaybe do more with the exclusive universe? Like do a cap trade with other bloggers?
DeleteCap trades? Actually I always thought of my stuff as a shared multiverse, and that was originally going to be demonstrated by the MULA device series. I think that was too ambitious at the time though.
DeleteAs much as the universes are fun... my favorite TG captions have always been the work of specific authors. While FOSE and costume guns, and medallions are fine mechanisms, it's what specific authors do with them that makes worth remembering. You have many stories from years ago that stuck with me that had nothing to do with any of those universes.
ReplyDeleteI come to this blog because you write stories and pair them with pictures that speak to ME. Usage of a trope doesn't make someone a favorite author to me at least. Plenty of people write mother/son captions, but yours are some of the few I actually keep coming back to.
Who knows how history will look at the TG caption image phenomena... but almost no one keeps at this for 5 years much less 15.
I am sorry I don't comment on your work more... but your one of the only captioners I have enjoyed for 15 years... and I am sure I'm not the only one who feels that way.
Thanks, I really do appreciate that. I'm glad to hear that stuff I've written, especially the old ones, are memorable to anybody.
DeleteEvery picture is worth a thousand words, and I just tend to find the words that gives a TG story.
I guess it's just that when you think about it, the tropes people are using are still going strong even if their creators are long gone. When I'm gone nothing I've created as Gensabi has that same lasting effect. When I'm gone the creations of Gensabi stop, and nothing survives or surpasses what I did with it.
The tropes have nearly become part of the collective TG fiction consciousness, and I'm just over here on the side of the road like a truck stop on the road to oblivion. And nobody wants the recipe for my gravy and biscuits.
What sticks with me from your caps is your mom/son swaps, specifically more the older son (teenager up) ones. I've always loved the fantasy of copying/having your own mothers body, realising that you came from what is now between your legs etc and you do that well. The best ones you've done are using clothes to transform piece by piece, could a universe come from that perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure. I don't think I've done one of those in awhile. I actually would NOT want to be my own mom. Though I had a friend with a really hot mom. I got introduced to the mom/son genre early on in reading capped pics. I particularly liked the works of JJim.
DeleteThey're addictive to write. Sometimes I think I do too many of that type. I used to have better variety, but I guess people do like this genre.
I don't really state ages anymore, and honestly there are tons of women nowadays in their 40s and 50s that look like they're still in their 30s. Then there's 81 years old Sophia Loren!
maybe your legacy could be your merging captions like "fringe benefits" &"late retirement options"
ReplyDeleteThanks, but it's not that simple. Of course there's my whole body of work, but nothing I've done has a life of it's own.
DeleteAnd I think I'm gonna be fine with that after all. I'm going to make a new post.
if you ask me your legacy are these booty suck captions. you're the first person to do it, and it's catching on. with the current influx of women in dresses,spandex, jeans, and yoga pants that like to show off there rumps you got a lot of booty to work with. you sir may have just made something that will make people forget about the great shift, and the costume gun.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Really? Others are doing butt suction caps now? I mean, I originally did it as an absurd way to get into a body. I mean, in a way the way we fixate on the booty it almost seems natural.
DeleteI'd like to thank the inventor of yoga pants for this great new era of civilization. For now we can boldly booty like we never had a booty before! Huh. Booty Trek!
Perhaps refering to an entire community of captioners and TG writers as Nazis - I'm talking about your rant on Rachel's Haven here - simply because they have a different idea of what's acceptable than you has something to do with your legacy not catching on.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'
You know what? How else do you describe forced participation in order to even read the capped pics? Is it wrong to believe everyone should have access? I get views on here from countries all around the world and not all of them may speak or understand English that well. Do I close off their access just because they don't comment?
DeleteBack on my Yahoo Group people told me one reason they didn't comment on my stuff was because they were trying to do their best to keep up their level of commenting on the Haven not because they WANTED to, but because they HAD to.
So, when I joined the Haven I experienced how restrictive it was before I was granted "Laureate" status and literally given a free pass and all access while others had to go through a system of commenting and capping themselves and doing cap trades just to get access to the bulk of the capped pics.
Do you know why my stuff isn't on there? Because Rachel wouldn't let my capped pics be seen by everyone regardless of status they achieve.
That's restricted access to art. Just like the NAZIS raided museums and took famous art away from public appreciation. Away from public view.
Look, I'm an American and the concept of freedom and liberty doesn't just stop because I don't get feedback from people on what I do. I'm not going to be a hypocrite.
And since I moved out of Yahoo Groups and onto blogs do you know what I've found?
Most blogs started up by people indoctrinated into capping through the Haven are defunct because they got over extended. They had too many "cap trades" to do. They couldn't keep up with the level of captioning expected from them. They burned out.
So are you saying it's acceptable to limit access to a captioners work?
I do this for people to read and enjoy. Why on Earth would I support limiting who sees it?
My works aren't only for an elite group of commenters. It's for everyone.
I hope they saw my point. Lurker rights isn't popular but that's how some captioners started out. Some people are still afraid of being found out that they read these.
So you're saying that I'm being punished for standing up for truth, justice, and the American way. So be it. At least my conscience is clear and I can live with myself still.