Do Furry Writers Not Get the Attention They Deserve vs. Furry Artists?

Hello, Papabear, it's me again. 

For these last 2 weeks I been feeling very upset about something in the furry fandom. I feel like the artwork in the fandom can overshadow everything else in the fandom, like writing. Now I’m not really mad at artists, but it really burns me up when furs go look at a nude wolf rather than read a good furry story. I know I’m barking at something that can't be changed but ... how can us furry writers compete with furry art?

Werehog the Werewolf

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Dear Werehog,

You’re correct that furry art gets a lot of attention in the fandom (after the art, it’s probably fursuits), but don’t write off authors yet (pun intended)! Furry writing is very important! Heck, the modern furry fandom began because of sci-fi writers who told stories about anthros. And you couldn’t have furry comic books or furry novels without writers. Good writing is important. There are few things worse than a comic by a good artist who also tries to write it him/herself but has no skill with the pen.

Furry writing is also the only one of what I call the three main furry arts—drawing, fursuiting, and writing—that crosses over to the mainstream. Many novels that nonfurries read that belong to the science fiction and fantasy genres include furry (anthro) characters. So writers are really the main artistic connection between the fandom and the mundane world.

What does this mean? Well, for one thing, it means that writers stand a better chance of making money in the mundane world than do fursuiters or artists, so you can put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Yeah, the art (usually the porn art; do note that there are a lot of furry porn stories, too, please) gets much of the attention, but there is a huge community of furry writers out there from whom you can learn and get support (good example is the Furry Writers Guild). And there are also lots of furry boards out there where writers contribute stories and evaluate each others work. In addition, I don’t know of any furry art awards (other than at furcons), or for fursuit design or performance, but I know of at least two awards for furry writers: the Ursa Major Awards and the recently initiated Cóyotl Awards. (Actually, the Ursa Major Awards do have a category for published illustration, but the emphasis is really on furry fiction in novels, comics, graphic story [combo of art and lit, but story and character are the main consideration there] etc.)

So, you’re actually incorrect when you say that writers don’t get recognition in the fandom. They do. Check out the guild and go from there.

Hugs,

Papabear