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I really don't understand how "without getting kudos or comments a fanfiction author is going to assume that people who clicked their fic didn't like it" became a controversial take.

I don't know why some people think an author should imagine, or guess that people who click their fic enjoyed it it when nobody is telling them that.

If you're re-reading a fic constantly, or leaving it up in your tab so that it re-loads every day for a hundred days the author is not going to know that unless you tell them. They'd love to hear it. It would make their day.

And if you don't tell them you liked their fic, there's no reason for them to assume you did.

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do u ever get a comment on a fic thats just so sweet that ur like Maybe slaving over 24k of fanfiction was worth it for user SprinkleTrashcan2012 to leave a three paragraph comment

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The most dangerous moment for a writer is when you're looking for a fic with specific content but there is not enough of it on Ao3 or not quite the right thing and, as you are digging deeper and deeper into the archive, you can hear the devil whispering into your ear "Oh, if only someone interested in this specific thing could write it... Oh wait, is that a keyboard I see under your fingers?"

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the best fanfic is the one the author had fun writing actually.

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Ao3 version that lets you open the 'director's cut' where I, the author, explain every detail in excruciating detail to you and what it is in reference to.

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[Image Description: A Tweet that reads: Hey, you. You're valid for writing fanfiction. Someone has stayed up late reading your words on their phone with auto-rotate off. Someone has dropped everything when they got that update email. Your work has made someone happy and you do it *in your spare time*. You're awesome. End ID.]

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me when i’m scrolling ao3 and i see truly outrageous freak shit getting kudos and comments, realizing that perverts are keeping the true spirit of fandom alive and well

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not to be dramatic but I genuinely cannot picture my life without AO3

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In my humble opinion

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Its very funny seeing people write fanfic and then get mad when you call it fanfic. Like Im sorry but you are the one convinced here that something being categorically fanfic makes it inherently stupid and shitty and cringe. And I dont think its all that serious.

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I'm Gonna Talk About AO3 Fic Summaries For a Minute:

I'm saying this with all the love in my heart and I'm saying it to hopefully help some fellow fic writers:

If your fics have a tendency to flop, especially if the ship is popular enough that multiple fics get posted a day, there's a possibility that you may just not be good at writing summaries.

And I get it! Writing summaries is the WORST! I just wrote the whole fic, now you're telling me I gotta write it again but in a short way? Well yes! Because the summary is the part people are actually looking at to decide whether or not to click on your fic. For a lot of (I would even say Most) people, tags are usually not enough unless the tag happens to be their super niche fixation.

The good news is that writing a fic summary is not actually hard. The better news is that the best summaries are short! I feel like the expected comparison would be that you want it to look like the blurb on the back of a book, but I'm gonna take it a step further and say you actually want it to look like an elevator pitch for a book, which is to say, like 3 sentences. You only need a paragraph.

There are a lot of great articles online on how to write an elevator pitch, and I genuinely think a lot of what you'll find in them applies to a good Fic Summary, but let me give you an idea of the pattern I'm most fond of. It's something like:

"X is Y. But when Z occurs, X becomes A."

1: establish the existing circumstances. Give us an idea of something that is true at the beginning of your story

2: introduce the inciting action. What causes the existing circumstances to shift.

3: hint at how characters might react to the inciting action. It depends on the story you're telling how much you'll want to give away here, but you can be vague if you want, just give us an idea.

Some examples of the summaries for a few of my fics so you can see how I apply the formula:

"The first time you make eye contact with your soul mate, you see a vision of their greatest accomplishment. They call it your Peak. Unfortunately for Will Graham, his soul mate's Peak is a vision of blood and horror. Fortunately for Hannibal Lecter, his soul mate's is too."

-this is the summary for my most read fic. Four sentences, in and out. As you can see, it adheres to the formula pretty exactly. The first two sentences establish the conceit of the au and tell us what world we're in, the other two sentences tell us both what the inciting action is and how both romantic leads will (at least initially) respond to it.

"Will and Bev have a game they like to play. They go to bars and see who can get the most phone numbers from strangers. One night, he meets a very interesting stranger. Is he safe falling hard and fast for Hannibal Lecter, or is the mysterious man making his way into Will's heart hiding something much more sinister beneath the surface?"

-this one was a lot tougher to summarize, because the hook of this fic is actually that it leans really hard into the idea that the reader knows Hannibal is a serial killer but Will doesn't. But I wanted to make it clear that it was also an Alternate First Meeting AU, so I eventually arrived at this 4-sentence summary that might not be perfect but still gets the job done. Also, including it here allows me to talk about my trick of ending the summary with a question. It's a little bit cheesy, but sometimes that's what I'm going for. It's very "will Vanessa stay with Roberto or leave him for Sebastian? Tune in Monday night to find out!" In a way that I think is kind of cute and fun.

"Will is both embarrassed and intrigued when he finds himself drawn to a collar at the pet store. When Hannibal finds out by mistake, it escalates into some very ethically questionable therapy"

-included this one just to show that the formula can work for smut, too. This one's only 2 sentences but it tells you everything you need to know

Okay one last thing I want to address before I leave this way-too-long post, and thats the inclusion of quotes from the fic in your summary. I don't personally do this very often, but I totally think it can get people to click if you use it correctly. In fact there have definitely been some fics that I might've scrolled past, but their voices for the characters were just too perfect. The keys to using quotes in your summary, in my opinion, are:

-Stick to sections that are mainly dialogue. If your voice for your characters is good, that's a selling point. Show that off.

-Make the selection relevant to your pitch. Use quotes that relate back to the inciting action.

-include a Summary after/before your quote. The quote alone is not enough. Even if it's just one sentence, sum up the hook in your summary.

-keep it brief! Only give us what we need to know we wanna click the link!

Okay that's all I got for now but I hope this is helpful to someone out there maybe 💖 good luck, writing summaries is annoying but you gotta do it.

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love is stored in the friend who reads your fanfiction

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This character is unemotional TO YOU. I'm writing a fic where they have an emotional breakdown, though.

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in 2025 let’s bring back being enthusiastic on ao3. leave a comment on every chapter. leave kudos and, if necessary, leave “double kudos” in the comments. tags and notes on bookmarks. the whole nine yards. let’s show fanfic authors how much we love them.

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