#(which is how i'll post it on ao3 and ffn)

[lisafication]

For those who might happen across this, I'm an administrator for the forum 'Sufficient Velocity', a large old-school forum oriented around Creative Writing. I originally posted this on there (and any reference to 'here' will mean the forum), but I felt I might as well throw it up here, as well, even if I don't actually have any followers.

This week, I've been reading fanfiction on Archive of Our Own (AO3), a site run by the Organisation for Transformative Works (OTW), a non-profit. This isn't particularly exceptional, in and of itself — like many others on the site, I read a lot of fanfiction, both on Sufficient Velocity (SV) and elsewhere — however what was bizarre to me was encountering a new prefix on certain works, that of 'End OTW Racism'. While I'm sure a number of people were already familiar with this, I was not, so I looked into it.

What I found... wasn't great. And I don't think anyone involved realises that.

To summarise the details, the #EndOTWRacism campaign, of which you may find their manifesto here, is a campaign oriented towards seeing hateful or discriminatory works removed from AO3 — and believe me, there is a lot of it. To whit, they want the OTW to moderate them. A laudable goal, on the face of it — certainly, we do something similar on Sufficient Velocity with Rule 2 and, to be clear, nothing I say here is a critique of Rule 2 (or, indeed, Rule 6) on SV.

But it's not that simple, not when you're the size of Archive of Our Own. So, let's talk about the vagaries and little-known pitfalls of content moderation, particularly as it applies to digital fiction and at scale. Let's dig into some of the details — as far as credentials go, I have, unfortunately, been in moderation and/or administration on SV for about six years and this is something we have to grapple with regularly, so I would like to say I can speak with some degree of expertise on the subject.

So, what are the problems with moderating bad works from a site? Let's start with discovery— that is to say, how you find rule-breaching works in the first place. There are more-or-less two different ways to approach manual content moderation of open submissions on a digital platform: review-based and report-based (you could also call them curation-based and flag-based), with various combinations of the two. Automated content moderation isn't something I'm going to cover here — I feel I can safely assume I'm preaching to the choir when I say it's a bad idea, and if I'm not, I'll just note that the least absurd outcome we had when simulating AI moderation (mostly for the sake of an academic exercise) on SV was banning all the staff.

In a review-based system, you check someone's work and approve it to the site upon verifying that it doesn't breach your content rules. Generally pretty simple, we used to do something like it on request. Unfortunately, if you do that, it can void your safe harbour protections in the US per Myeress vs. Buzzfeed Inc. This case, if you weren't aware, is why we stopped offering content review on SV. Suffice to say, it's not really a realistic option for anyone large enough for the courts to notice, and extremely clunky and unpleasant for the users, to boot.

Report-based systems, on the other hand, are something we use today — users find works they think are in breach and alert the moderation team to their presence with a report. On SV, this works pretty well — a user or users flag a work as potentially troublesome, moderation investigate it and either action it or reject the report. Unfortunately, AO3 is not SV. I'll get into the details of that dreadful beast known as scaling later, but thankfully we do have a much better comparison point — fanfiction.net (FFN).

FFN has had two great purges over the years, with a... mixed amount of content moderation applied in between: one in 2002 when the NC-17 rating was removed, and one in 2012. Both, ostensibly, were targeted at adult content. In practice, many fics that wouldn't raise an eye on Spacebattles today or Sufficient Velocity prior to 2018 were also removed; a number of reports suggest that something as simple as having a swearword in your title or summary was enough to get you hit, even if you were a 'T' rated work. Most disturbingly of all, there are a number of — impossible to substantiate — accounts of groups such as the infamous Critics United 'mass reporting' works to trigger a strike to get them removed. I would suggest reading further on places like Fanlore if you are unfamiliar and want to know more.

Despite its flaws however, report-based moderation is more-or-less the only option, and this segues neatly into the next piece of the puzzle that is content moderation, that is to say, the rubric. How do you decide what is, and what isn't against the rules of your site?

Anyone who's complained to the staff about how vague the rules are on SV may have had this explained to them, but as that is likely not many of you, I'll summarise: the more precise and clear-cut your chosen rubric is, the more it will inevitably need to resemble a legal document — and the less readable it is to the layman. We'll return to SV for an example here: many newer users will not be aware of this, but SV used to have a much more 'line by line, clearly delineated' set of rules and... people kind of hated it! An infraction would reference 'Community Compact III.15.5' rather than Rule 3, because it was more or less written in the same manner as the Terms of Service (sans the legal terms of art). While it was a more legible rubric from a certain perspective, from the perspective of communicating expectations to the users it was inferior to our current set of rules  — even less of them read it,  and we don't have great uptake right now.

And it still wasn't really an improvement over our current set-up when it comes to 'moderation consistency'. Even without getting into the nuts and bolts of "how do you define a racist work in a way that does not, at any point, say words to the effect of 'I know it when I see it'" — which is itself very, very difficult don't get me wrong I'm not dismissing this — you are stuck with finding an appropriate footing between a spectrum of 'the US penal code' and 'don't be a dick' as your rubric. Going for the penal code side doesn't help nearly as much as you might expect with moderation consistency, either — no matter what, you will never have a 100% correct call rate. You have the impossible task of writing a rubric that is easy for users to comprehend, extremely clear for moderation and capable of cleanly defining what is and what isn't racist without relying on moderator judgement, something which you cannot trust when operating at scale.

Speaking of scale, it's time to move on to the third prong — and the last covered in this ramble, which is more of a brief overview than anything truly in-depth — which is resources. Moderation is not a magic wand, you can't conjure it out of nowhere: you need to spend an enormous amount of time, effort and money on building, training and equipping a moderation staff, even a volunteer one, and it is far, far from an instant process. Our most recent tranche of moderators spent several months in training and it will likely be some months more before they're fully comfortable in the role — and that's with a relatively robust bureaucracy and a number of highly experienced mentors supporting them, something that is not going to be available to a new moderation branch with little to no experience. Beyond that, there's the matter of sheer numbers.

Combining both moderation and arbitration — because for volunteer staff, pure moderation is in actuality less efficient in my eyes, for a variety of reasons beyond the scope of this post, but we'll treat it as if they're both just 'moderators' — SV presently has 34 dedicated moderation volunteers. SV hosts ~785 million words of creative writing.

AO3 hosts ~32 billion.

These are some very rough and simplified figures, but if you completely ignore all the usual problems of scaling manpower in a business (or pseudo-business), such as (but not limited to) geometrically increasing bureaucratic complexity and administrative burden, along with all the particular issues of volunteer moderation... AO3 would still need well over one thousand volunteer moderators to be able to match SV's moderator-to-creative-wordcount ratio.

Paid moderation, of course, you can get away with less — my estimate is that you could fully moderate SV with, at best, ~8 full-time moderators, still ignoring administrative burden above the level of team leader. This leaves AO3 only needing a much more modest ~350 moderators. At the US minimum wage of ~$15k p.a. — which is, in my eyes, deeply unethical to pay moderators as full-time moderation is an intensely gruelling role with extremely high rates of PTSD and other stress-related conditions — that is approximately ~$5.25m p.a. costs on moderator wages. Their average annual budget is a bit over $500k.

So, that's obviously not on the table, and we return to volunteer staffing. Which... let's examine that scenario and the questions it leaves us with, as our conclusion.

Let's say, through some miracle, AO3 succeeds in finding those hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of volunteer moderators. We'll even say none of them are malicious actors or sufficiently incompetent as to be indistinguishable, and that they manage to replicate something on the level of or superior to our moderation tooling near-instantly at no cost. We still have several questions to be answered:

How are you maintaining consistency? Have you managed to define racism to the point that moderator judgment no longer enters the equation? And to be clear, you cannot allow moderator judgment to be a significant decision maker at this scale, or you will end with absurd results.

How are you handling staff mental health? Some reading on the matter, to save me a lengthy and unrelated explanation of some of the steps involved in ensuring mental health for commercial-scale content moderators.

How are you handling your failures? No moderation in the world has ever succeeded in a 100% accuracy rate, what are you doing about that?

Using report-based discovery, how are you preventing 'report brigading', such as the theories surrounding Critics United mentioned above? It is a natural human response to take into account the amount and severity of feedback. While SV moderators are well trained on the matter, the rare times something is receiving enough reports to potentially be classified as a 'brigade' on that scale will nearly always be escalated to administration, something completely infeasible at (you're learning to hate this word, I'm sure) scale.

How are you communicating expectations to your user base? If you're relying on a flag-based system, your users' understanding of the rules is a critical facet of your moderation system — how have you managed to make them legible to a layman while still managing to somehow 'truly' define racism?

How are you managing over one thousand moderators? Like even beyond all the concerns with consistency, how are you keeping track of that many moving parts as a volunteer organisation without dozens or even hundreds of professional managers? I've ignored the scaling administrative burden up until now, but it has to be addressed in reality.

What are you doing to sweep through your archives? SV is more-or-less on-top of 'old' works as far as rule-breaking goes, with the occasional forgotten tidbit popping up every 18 months or so — and that's what we're extrapolating from. These thousand-plus moderators are mostly going to be addressing current or near-current content, are you going to spin up that many again to comb through the 32 billion words already posted?

I could go on for a fair bit here, but this has already stretched out to over two thousand words.

I think the people behind this movement have their hearts in the right place and the sentiment is laudable, but in practice it is simply 'won't someone think of the children' in a funny hat. It cannot be done.

Even if you could somehow meet the bare minimum thresholds, you are simply not going to manage a ruleset of sufficient clarity so as to prevent a much-worse repeat of the 2012 FF.net massacre, you are not going to be able to manage a moderation staff of that size and you are not going to be able to ensure a coherent understanding among all your users (we haven't managed that after nearly ten years and a much smaller and more engaged userbase). There's a serious number of other issues I haven't covered here as well, as this really is just an attempt at giving some insight into the sheer number of moving parts behind content moderation:  the movement wants off-site content to be policed which isn't so much its own barrel of fish as it is its own barrel of Cthulhu; AO3 is far from English-only and would in actuality need moderators for almost every language it supports — and most damning of all,  if Section 230 is wiped out by the Supreme Court  it is not unlikely that engaging in content moderation at all could simply see AO3 shut down.

As sucky as it seems, the current status quo really is the best situation possible. Sorry about that.

[stu-dyingstudent]

Sakura Haruno fic recs: time travel AU

I'm finally getting around to recommending some good Sakura-centric time travel fics! There are plenty of them out there and they can be kind repetitive, but I always eat them up. Typically speaking, I really don't care much for the whole introduction bit at the start where it's the actual process of her being sent back... So just make it past there before you decide whether or not to continue!!! Also, I'm starting to think this list is getting kinda long, so maybe I'll do a second one?

I've been dying to post some of these fics in a list, so please enjoy!

Started: 2024.08.16

Last Updated: 2024.08.26

note: feel free to check out my master list which has a bunch of Sakura Haruno fic recs (all organized)!

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Sakura - lilac haze || ffn/ao3 || M || minasaku || time travel AU || complete

AU. Non-Canon. Time Travel. Please see inside for full warnings. Cross posted on Ao3. On his deathbed he was granted eternal peace and place to rest for all of time. Of course that was not appealing to him. Ever unpredictable to the end he had a counter offer. One that the Sage had to consider. In which Sakura's going to have a rough time. A really rough time.

If there is one thing I want you to take away from this list, it is this fic right here. I kid you not, Sakura is one of the best fics I have ever read. I have never felt so gutted, so heartbroken, so giddy, so stressed, all from one work. It's a masterpiece all while being criminally underrated. The characterizations and storytelling are beautifully done. You feel for the characters and the relationships formed along the way are truly great. Please share this author some love.

Check TWs before hand!!

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The Misadventures of Kakashi and the Girl From No Where - Goldfishlover73 || ao3 || kakasaku || M || time travel AU || complete

When a girl called Sakura seemingly falls in the sky, Kakashi is skeptical. Far more skeptical than the rest of Team Minato are. War is approaching quickly and this strange girl is leaving more questions than answers in her wake, Kakashi must decide where his trust and loyalties lie in a constantly changing world.

Told in the perspective of Kakashi in his youth! Really interesting take and I love how strong Sakura is in this in addition to the fact that we get to see a different side of Kakashi that we aren't used to.

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Anachronistic Drift  - Elesrea  || ffn || gen || T || time travel AU || incomplete

Her plan was flawless. Save Shisui. Save the world. Time-travel, Sakura-centric AU

Sakura spends years training to be sent back in time and save the world from Sasuke. Whilst masquerading as her younger self, she poses as an unofficial ANBU to stay anonymous in her efforts of changing the shinobi world for the better.

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Tourniquet - lilac haze || ffn || T || minasaku || time travel AU || complete

She was his tourniquet. She stopped the bleeding, she stopped his bleeding. She stopped his pain, his despair, his loneliness. She was the first face he saw. She was the first person he trusted. She was the first person to keep his secret. She was his tourniquet. He did not love her. He only loved the idea of her. SakuraXMinato. Time-Travel Fic. Alt. Universe

I quite honestly think this is a hidden gem amongst time travel AUs since I never see people recommending it, but Touriquet is so good! What's interesting here is that it isn't Sakura that's playing with time, but rather Minato. The night of the Nine-Tails attack, rather than dying, he is sent to the future where post-war Sakura is the one to find him and keep the former Hokage alive. It's a delicate situation and one which is kept a secret from many, but through Minato's depression and difficulties with his new life, Sakura becomes a close confident.

Same author as Sakura! I gotta read more of their works

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Armour-Sleeved Single Hit - thatdamnuchiha || ao3 || T || madasaku || time travel AU || one-shot complete

Sasuke always told Sakura she was weak. Even after she trained with Tsunade for years he only had eyes for Naruto whom he considered strong. She would forever be invisible to him no matter how many mountains she toppled. Being a member of Team Seven despite Sasuke’s refusal to acknowledge her meant she got herself into her fair share of sticky situations. Getting stuck a hundred odd years in the past had to take the cake though. But she was just a weak little girl and compared to the shinobi of old she’d be ridiculously pathetic. Sasuke had said she was weak to him – a modern day shinobi who hadn’t been forced into battle after battle like they did in the Warring Clans Era. Obviously she’d be nothing more than a spec of dirt in the eyes of the Founders.

Sakura manages to find herself in founding-era Konoha! While trying to prove that medical ninja are capable fighters she unknowingly gains the affection of Madara Uchiha. After all, the Uchiha find beauty in strength. Super cute read!

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here are the fruits of your labor (would you like a cherry on top?) - snickiebear || ao3 || M || shisaku || time travel AU || one-shot complete

Shisui smiles and it is unlike any smile she has seen before. She cannot remember the last time she had seen a smile. 

Sakura manages to fix everything and now tries to live her life in a past she doesn't know. Shisui is the first to find her and the two of them form a close relationship that continues through her journey of recovery.

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The Moon Knows Best - darth_healer || ao3 || E || madasaku || time travel AU || complete

The Moon has played a cruel trick on Madara. He's still home, but it's not the same. Instead of a tranquil forest, there's a colorful vibrant village. Instead of the cliffside he knows so well, it's a collection of Senju faces, one of which belongs to his good friend Hashirama. And instead of Hashirama, Madara is saddled with a very interesting, pink-haired girl. MadaSaku in which young Madara goes forward through time.

Madara finds himself far into the future where the first to stumble upon him is Sakura. He's such a brat, but his and Sakura's interactions are rather entertaining.

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In the Magic Hour - summersirius || ao3 || E || minasaku || time travel AU || complete

It's not perfect, but everything is beautiful. —Minato/Sakura

A sharingan mishap lands Sakura in the past where she drops down in front of team Minato. With her hope of returning to the present time dwindling, Sakura excepts her new life and tries to make the best of the situation and the new bonds that come with it. The dynamic between Sakura and the older generation is quite refreshing and her mentor relationship with the former team 7 is great.

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Stumble - writer168 || ao3/ffn || gen || T || time travel AU || complete

Sakura wanted to die.Sasori was fine with staying dead.But it seemed fate had other plans for them, because when they both wake up younger with blood pulsing through their veins, they had to remember how to live again.Time Travel AU

Sasori and Sakura are both sent back in time and they try to make a difference in their respective villages. Told in the perspective of both characters, but primarily Sakura. She ends up forming a pretty sweet bond with Ibiki and Genma (which I love) and they help her through some things. Sakura has a rough time

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A Twist in Time - wolf08 || ffn || sasusaku || T || time travel AU || complete

With Konoha on the verge of destruction, Sakura is sent on a last-resort mission to save her world by travelling to the past. Join her in coping with her old body's shortcomings, testing the natural laws of time, falling in love all over again, and rediscovering who she is.

With Sakura frustrated at being back to where she started in her becoming of a shinobi, she begins to train with Sasuke. This time around in her life, her relationship with her brooding teammate isn't so strained. Pretty cute read imo

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Return & Rehash - SpaceNugget11 || ffn || sasusaku || M || time travel AU || incomplete

"You," Sakura snarled with bared teeth. Sasuke gagged for air, clutching at her forearm, but she only pressed harder into him. Her green eyes crackled, and she wished she could burn him alive with the heat of her anger.

Sasuke and Sakura certainly did not end in their last life on goods terms and it is prevalent from the moment Sakura awakens and attacks her teammate.

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An Inch of Gold - KuriQuinn || ffn || sasusaku || T || time travel AU || complete

Team 7 is sent on a mission to investigate a disturbance outside of the village, where they encounter an unconscious girl in a crater. The mysterious Sarada insists she's a shinobi from the Hidden Leaf trying to rescue her teammates. When the team discovers she possesses a Sharingan, things become even more unbelievable. [Part of the Legacy of Fire Series]

Sarada lands herself back in time all while crashing into another team 7 mission gone wrong. An Inch of Gold is in multiple perspectives, but they're all done quite well. Sasuke and Sakura are obviously rather flustered by the situation and the fact they have to deal with it in front of the team makes it quite entertaining.

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These Eyes of Mine (I Can See) - tsukuyue || ao3 || gen || time travel AU || complete

They've lost. Naruto was dead, killed at Kaguya’s hands. Along with him died any illusions of hope that they could win. They couldn’t win, but perhaps they wouldn’t need to. In attempts to stop the Fourth Shinobi War from ever occuring, Sakura is sent back in time to the moment of her birth. Protecting the people she cared about would be much easier if she knew all the facts. OR Where Sakura can see the dead, and Danzō deserves to die.

I'll be honest, I can't remember much, but I do remember that it was really good! I believe a large focus is the Uchiha massacre.

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Trials of Change - Espoiretreves || ao3 || gen || time travel AU || complete

Haruno Sakura made a promise. Looking in the eyes of her Shisou and the reanimated Hokage, she took on the most important mission of her life. Go back in time and try to prevent the 4th Shinobi War. Now, Sakura is back to her 5-year-old body, with all the knowledge and haunting memories of the future. She vows to keep her precious people safe and stop certain events from happening, without altering the timeline too much. The trials her emotions and logic put her through have her questioning her very existence, but for the sake of peace, she has to push forward. No matter what.

If you love Shisui then you'll definitely like Trials of Change. Him and Sakura form the most wholesome friendship ever and try their best in taking down ROOT. A huge cast is present here and the whole thing is just great. It seems as if everyone has some character development lmao.

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Time Flies Like An Arrow - Katlou303 || ao3 || gen || K || time travel AU || complete

Sakura traveled back in time with the intent of changing everything, but something went wrong, and now she's four years old having nightmares about impossible monsters and losing friends she has yet to meet.

I always like the ones where Sakura isn't fully aware she time travelled. I find it interesting in this fic to see how oblivious Sakura is to her situation, she's a four year old in mind and body. However, she still feels the need to make a difference in the lives of the people around her.

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cut the head off the snake - itsthechocopuff || ao3 || T || time travel AU || complete

when eighteen-year-old, post-war Sakura is thrown back into her tiny, pre-Academy body, she makes a decision. she'd had a childhood once already, and this time, she's more interested in Not Dying when the inevitable shit hits the proverbial fan. so she will work harder, care less, kill more, and smile when she's done.and hey, if she ends up reviving an extinct nature transformation to attract the most corrupt, power-hungry man from her timeline, all the better for her, right?

Sakura decides that her first order of business after traveling back in time is to infiltrate ROOT and that's exactly what she does. Sai, Shin, and Shisui are all great characters and team Ro is present as well. Very good!

Update: just found out it was recently completed!!

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Q: Do you guys like my little comments? If you look at my other lists you'll probably notice that I tend to reuse some of what I say (bc I'm lazy), but for the most part I try to add something new whenever I put a fic on a list. I know that descriptions aren't always very helpful, so I like to put a little something for y'all to get a better idea of what to expect!

Send me recs if you have any!!!

[fountainpenguin]

130 Reasons Why I'm Fairy Trash

💚 Green Train Arc

(July 2016 - Ongoing)

"Vick-ay, you do not need to be this way with me. You know that when you are playing hard to get in this way you are doing, it is only for resulting in making me more and more likely to be shorting out my Fakeifier. I only ask that you, like, try to understand how difficult it is to be me, who is attempting to slot myself into your human Earthling culture." "Lose the slimy alien look, Chang. Then we'll talk."

- Fluff & Romance with mild Drama and Light Angst

- Prompts related to Mark, Vicky, Tootie, and immediate associates (like schoolmates or Vicky and Tootie's parents)

Summary

Mark Chang spends years charming the love of his life (Vicky Aingeal) as the threat of forced betrothal swings ever closer to his head. Tootie, who's only too eager to send her sister into space to live with aliens, tries to help. But even when they are together, a relationship between a human and Yugopotamian from completely different cultures was never going to be easy... (No, I'm not over the fact she sent him Valentine's gifts while broken up and took him back even after finding out he was an alien. hey. what.)

Rated Gen and T

Read on FFN | Read this arc on AO3

130 Sums | Full 130 Prompt Series (AO3) | Other Arcs

Cloudlands AU - Detailed warnings & other AU info

#130 arc guides - More posts like this

More Fairly OddParents 'fics

Highlights of this arc:

- Vicky and Mark have very different opinions on what to do with a dead dog. - Funnily enough, this isn't the first time Mark and Happy Peppy Gary have carpooled while heading into space. - Tootie reluctantly helps her sister’s weird boyfriend pick some flowers. Apparently he’s allergic or something? - Mark switches from elementary school to high school. How hard can it be? - Mark and Vicky babysit Timmy together. Mark hesitates to treat his friend the way Vicky orders him to. - Vicky does some very deep soul-searching. Which is weird, because I didn't think she had a soul. - Vicky struggles through a relationship with a boyfriend who sometimes needs to be 10 years old and run off to play. - Mark plays Rock, Paper, Scissors for Vicky's life. - Mark has the brilliant idea to invite Vicky to his coronation. You know. On Yugopotamia.

Read on FFN | Read this arc on AO3

"And tell me that we belong together and dress it up with the trappings of love ... I'll be the greatest fan of your life." (x)

[curioussubjects]

Kara/Lee Fic LiveJournal Links

It occurred to me a while ago maybe not everyone is familiar with navigating LiveJournal, much less how to go about finding fic there. I figured it could be helpful to have a list of personal journals and communities to make that easier, or just to have on hand. What's included on this list: * Authors (prolific and/or widely rec'd, some with partial AO3 archiving); * K/L Communities (great sources for other fics and fanworks); * General Battlestar Galactica (2003) fic communities; * Friend-Locked and Deleted Journals (for reference and archived links, if applicable); * Authors that moved all their fics to AO3 (not linked, also for reference). All that being said, this post is neither a rec list or comprehensive. Mainly, I wanted it to be a point of entry for new fans or fans who aren't familiar with LiveJournal. With that in mind, if I forgot a community or user you think should be here, let me know and I'll edit the post to include them. Let me know if there are any issues/questions!

If you see your username on this list and you'd like to be taken off of it, just let me know and I'll edit the post, and likewise if you have your fics listed on LiveJournal and you'd like me to link to them.

Note: You might notice reference to a specific archive for Kara/Lee fic, called Fallout Shelter, as you explore these links. The bad news is that the site is offline. Unfortunately, the site wasn't archived very well either, so pretty much all the fics that were exclusively archived there are gone. The good news is that the archive was a repository for fics originally posted on the ApolloStarbuckFic yahoo group, which was saved during the massive archival effort to backup YG back in 2019/2020. The even better news is that the data for that group might become available some time next week. I'll make a post explaining how to go about sifting through all the messages if/when the data becomes available. Keep in mind though that I haven't seen this data yet, so I have no idea what, if anything, is saved in the group's messages and files. Still, though, definitely something to be excited about!

Fics under the cut! ☺

General Communities

Battlestar Recs BSG 2003 Fics BSG Creative BSG Epics BSG Fic Finders BSG Kink BSG Remix BSG Slash

Kara/Lee Communities

The Applecart Beyond Insane KaraLeeFic No Takebacks Pilots Big Bang Pilots Presents Reel Pilots SASA HQ (additional fic tag)

Authors (A-Z)

alissabobissa (general k/l tag, ffn) anr (general k/l tag) apodixis bantha-fodder (general k/l tag on dw) that i should suffer (archived) brynnmck (general bsg tag) coffeesuperhero (general fic masterlist) daphnaea (general fic masterlist) dionusia (general k/l tag) elly427 (general k/l tag) embolalia (general k/l tag) fahye (general fic masterlist) hackaddict indigo419 kate98 (lj deleted, find on ffn) kdbleu leavingslowly leda13 (general fic tag) letterstonorah (lj deleted, general k/l tag on dw) liminalliz (general fic tag) lint (deleted lj, fin on ffn/ao3) lotus79 meyerlemon (lj deleted, find on ffn) mnemosyne olaf47 sangga (general bsg tag) shah-of-blah (general bsg fic tag) stars-like-dust (general bsg fic tag) svilleficrecs (general fic tag) tamsibling thefannishwaldo (general bsg tag, also on ffn) voleuse whatimages (general bsg tag) widget285 (general bsg tag) wisteria- (general bsg tag) zeplum (saintstreet, plumunited) F-Locked Journals queenofthorns (f-locked on dw) rawles/peri-peteia (ao3, dw) workerbee73

Deleted Journals/Fics

kag523 latteaddict nancy777ca (some fics on ffn) oxymoronassoc (archived, see below) Look Him Straight in the Eye Just Something Out of Step shawngf sloanesomething (archived, see below) And So I Woke (1 [might be gone], 2, 3, 4, 5) All the While Byzantium (SVU crossover) Terms Five Things that Didn’t Happen on Colonial Day Untitled

Find on AO3: callmeonetrack elzed Innibis ninjamonkey73 rachelindeed rayruz scifishipper SomewhereApart

[hua-fei-hua]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @justpastsaturn~!! man it's been a while since i've partaken in something like this lol

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

63! 64 if you count the random anon one i don't technically write but for which i do overly-elaborate html for a friend. and um. a lot more if we want to also count each chapter of the single-ship ficlet collection works i have as a separate work ehe.

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

heh. 772,261 words since june 2016. C:<

3. what fandoms do you write for?

these days just genshin, but in the past i did jjk, bnha, soul eater, flip flappers, and attack on titan. a number of years ago i also had a fma fic up on ffn, but i deleted it and never ported it to ao3. should still be on my google drive, though.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

//HEAVY SIGH.

sparklers (BnHA), 939 kudos

Orchid in Bloom (BnHA), 476 kudos

the diner at the end of the night (JJK), 474 kudos

Fermata (BnHA), 413 kudos

Veneer (BnHA), 368 kudos

5. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

i do!!! mostly it's bc i have can't-shut-up disease, but through the years, i've also found it to be a really good community-building exercise!!!! i'm not the type of person to get involved in fandom discord servers, so i've come to really treasure the friendly environment the comments section of a wip can foster, as well as the friends i've made because of it~

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i am actually a hardcore happy-ending person myself, so pretty much all of them end with some sense of hope. there's a kagerou days au i wrote for bnha back in the day, though, so i guess time looping to die for one another infinitely counts here.

7. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

tbh i have a hard time quantifying the happiness of all the different endings i've written, esp since it's been years since i've written simple self-indulgent "and then they all lived happily ever after the end" kinds of endings ahahaha,,,

8. do you get hate on fics?

no but someone impersonating me left a hate comment in my name on a fe3h byleth hannibal au back in may 2021. that was crazy i hope ao3 user dikhotomia is living their best life writing whatever the fuck they want after that incident.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

i wrote exactly one (1) explicit fic which was literally just a 16k word sex scene bc the logical endpoint to xiao genshinimpact's character arc is that he needs to get fucked. i don't make the rules. outside of studying blorbo, though, i don't really feel any compulsion to write smut

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

nah. i'll write fusion aus, where cast a goes into setting b and may or may not try to retell the story of canon b, but i like to put the "transformative" into "transformative works" in those situations, to the point where people sometimes can't tell what story i'm basing the narrative off of LOL

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my memory or knowledge, no.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, several times!! mostly back in my bnha days, where i had one fic (partially) translated into chinese and russian, a different fic reviewed and fully translated into chinese; going even farther back, i also once had a query to translate one of my snk fics into french, but i never really heard back from that person so i assume that one fell through.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i'd say yes. there's the aforementioned fic i do the overly-elaborate html for, but also back in high school, a couple friends n i sat around my computer between rounds at a speech tournament and took turns turning one of my kouhai's scripts into a bnha fic that kept on going off the rails bc i implemented a "no backspacing" rule and once our turn typing was over, we had to have our hands-off the computer until it was our turn again.

14. what's your all-time favorite ship?

let's just cut to the chase and make this post timeless: i like it when a ship is basically just MONSTER x MONSTER FUCKER. if not on a literal level, then a spiritual/metaphorical level! bonus points if both parties think the other person is the monster fucker!!!!

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

well i actually recently decided to let go of zenith, so i don't really have any "i wish i could finish this" thoughts abt it anymore tbh... i think abt finishing my html sanitizer 2.0 so that i can post the notes for it more conveniently though lol

16. what are your writing strengths?

heh. bitches love my characterization. and imagery/use of metaphor!

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

SOMEONE will probably snipe me if i say poetry, but i still find my poems to be rather stiff and overly-literal, so i still consider poetry to be a weakness of mine. and fight scenes. DEFINITELY #1 weakness fight scenes.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

for a word here or two there, i don't mind as long as it's culturally appropriate. (you will pry my dearly beloved "aiya" out of my cold dead hands) like that's just how people talk in real life. for longer sentences or conversations, then i'd like it if there are translation notes left somewhere. at the very least, i'd kind of like a narrative or aesthetic reason if the meaning can't be parsed from context alone.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

pokemon, if we're counting my being five years old and unaware of what fanfiction is! otherwise, attack on titan or my little pony.

20. favorite fic you've written?

tbh i try not to play favorites w/my fics anymore, since if a darling of mine doesn't get the attention i think it deserves, i end up having a tough time getting over it emotionally, which has sometimes led to unnecessary bitterness and resentment towards the fic or even fandom/community itself.

tagging~ @kanonavi, @cadriona, @tempests-bards-and-birds, @followerofmercy, @chickycherrycola, and anyone else who might feel like it hehe

[disconnected-from-reality]

Fanfic rec: Bones B&B

Hi~! After so many years, I'm back with a new set of fanfic recommendations! This time it's for a different show, one near and dear to my heart, which is pretty much a give away from the title of this post. I've been a fan of Bones for more than a decade now, I've known the show way before I've known Sherlock. But it has only occurred to me this 2024 that Bones might actually have some fanfictions out there. Lo and behold, there are quite a number around, and the next thing I know, I've read enough for a post like this!

For now, I'm listing some of the fanfics that really spoke and hit my heart. Maybe in my next post I'll try to categorize them in some way.

As usual, all works are complete unless stated otherwise. Happy reading!

Quicksand by MoreBonesPlz [Words: <46,783 | T: Suitable for teens] What if after the infamous B&B conversation in the truck during The Doctor in the Photo where Booth told Brennan she'd missed her chance, Brennan didn't acquiesce? What if once opened, she no longer found it possible to close the Pandora's box with respect to her feelings for Booth?

The Whole in the Sum of the Parts by fourth_rose [Words: 21,933 | Mature | Also available in Ao3] Children change things – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes from the very beginning. Season 1 AU.

The Passenger Seat by cortexx [Words: 3,345 | Teen And Up Audiences | Also available in FFN] Four times someone adjusted Brennan's seat in Booth's car over the years, and the one time she did it to Booth.

Servare Vitas by newscaper [Words: <101,948 | T: Suitable for teens] To Save Lives. A Bones Novel. Brennan helps Booth try to lay old ghosts to rest as he becomes a sniper for the FBI, a decision with life and death consequences that could change everything. 

The Science Teacher in the Public School by FictionWriter91 [Words: <47,114 | T: Suitable for teens] Story is AU with a mix of canon. What if Temperance and Russ were taken with their parents instead of being left behind? What if Brennan is now a well loved science teacher at a public school like her father used to be? Brennan loves her work and her students, especially Parker Booth, who is very talented and adores her. Things couldn't be better. Then she meets Parker's father.

Right from the Start by Christi Whitson [Words: <265,871 | M: Mature] Season 1 re-write, tweaking the details and one of the tertiary characters. Because I think that under the right set of circumstances, BB would have fallen for each other right from the start. Peter is a threat to Brennan, and Tessa doesn't exist. More drama than angst. 

An Aggregation of Maladjusted Companions by jazzyproz [Words: <251,013 | M: Mature] Suffering from a declining solve rate following their returns to DC, Booth and Brennan are forced to attend a team-building convention. Neither of them think they need the workshops or exercises, but it's apparent to everyone around them that if they don't do something, the whole team will soon be falling apart. Can they fix their broken partnership?

Stupid Alpha Male - Ardialene [Words: <9,292  | Suitable for more mature childen] No matter how many times Booth denies it, Brennan knows that her partner is a true alpha male. And she has evidence to prove it.

Let the Games Begin by TRUSSELL33 [Words: <159,075 | M: Mature] What would Booth do if Brennan suddenly came on to him? Written as a challenge on another site but am thinking of turning it into a short story. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Wise Mind by naelany [Words: 13,416 | Teen And Up Audiences | Ao3 Account Required] Temperance had made the - perfectly logical - decision to rebuff Booth’s advances not once, but twice. After all, she was a mundane and he was an online, high order Sentinel and would one day find his Guide. To her mind, there was no point in starting something with the man, no matter how attracted they were to each other, because in the end he would leave her.

Confessions from a Bottle by MoreBonesPlz [Words: <27,052 | T: Suitable for teens] Booth believes he is happy in his relationship with Hannah until an intoxicated Brennan reveals her true feelings for him and makes him question what happiness really means.

Problem Solving, the Booth and Brennan Way by Hannah Taylor1 [Words: <384,802 | T: Suitable for teens] Brennan has a problem she's not sharing.Booth wants to help fix things,as always,only to find the conversation skewing in a direction he'd never expected. Set several months post-The Boy With the Answer.

How My Heart Behaves by mia101 [Words: <57,376 | M: Mature] Brennan thinks she understands what sex is all about...until Booth gives her a glimpse that makes her think otherwise. But who's teaching whom? And what will they learn...?

The Heart Won't Lie by razztaztic [Words: 16,531 | T: Suitable for teens | Also Available in Ao3 | Ao3 Account Required] Alternate ending for 6x09 "The Doctor in the Photo." What if Booth hadn't been there to save Brennan and she was hit by the car?

The Heart of the Matter by fourth_rose [Words: 7,546 | Mature] "What do you mean, you know you can't have me? It's not like you've ever asked!"

The Intern by cortexx [Words: 1,766 | Teen And Up Audiences | Also available in FFN] Brennan is trying to choose a new intern, and is slowly weeding out the ones who are unacceptable candidates. A case of mistaken identity narrows down the competition when one candidate makes an inappropriate comment to Parker about Bones.

Maternal Instinct by tempecameron [Words: <20,878 | T: Suitable for teens] Dr. Temperance Brennan can handle remains that are thousands of years old, but can she keep up with one small child? BB fluff, Parker cuteness, relationship drama, weird author's notes.

Snowed In by Imagination-Parade [Words: <23,752 | T: Suitable for teens] Booth and Parker get snowed in at Brennan's apartment after Parker insists that they spend Christmas with her. Set after 3.09 "Santa in the Slush"

Let me know what you think of this list. I'd love to have some feedback! I'll be back with a new list soon, hopefully!

Looking for other fanfic recommendations? I might have something you're interested in, or if you have requests feel free to ask!

[thank-god-and-you]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by @4getfulimaginator2022. Thank you! <3

How many works do you have on AO3?

I'll use my FFN stats since I'm not transferring everything from there over to AO3. Fic count on FFN is 204, though that's not including the ones I archive privately, so technically the number of fics I've posted is 253.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

Again, going on FFN word count since that's where everything is. That stands at over two million: 2,197,752.

HOWEVER, I also have a further 817,563 words of fics privately archived, so in actuality I've hit the three million mark: 3,015,315! I knew I must be climbing up there, but I had no idea that I'd surpassed it, so that made me happy!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, it's Downton Abbey (Anna/Bates), EastEnders (Suki/Eve), Game of Thrones (Daenerys/Jorah), Gentleman Jack (Anne/Ann), and The Incredibles (Bob/Helen).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Sed Me Domum et Aedificabo a Throno [Game of Thrones, Daenerys/Jorah]

Tokens of Deep Affection [Wreck-It Ralph, Felix/Calhoun]

Vivat Crescat Floreat  [Game of Thrones, Daenerys/Jorah]

Magic in Mundanity [The Incredibles, Bob/Helen]

Veritas, Unitas, Caritas [Game of Thrones, Daenerys/Jorah]

And favourites on FFN, since I still use that site:

1. Seeing is Believing [Pokémon, Jessie/James]

2. Swinub May Fly [Pokémon, Jessie/James]

3. The Shadow Proves the Sunshine [Downton Abbey, Anna/Bates]

4. A Comedy of Errors [Pokémon, Jessie/James]

6. A Meeting of Fates [Downton Abbey, Anna/Bates]

5. Do you respond to comments?

On FFN, yes, since it's done via PM. On AO3, no. I really appreciate all comments, but I despise that it counts my response, and I won't inflate my comment count. But of course I read each one.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

One of my suuuuuper old Pokémon fics, Twisted. It's sooooo bad. Young teen Dan was dark and depressed. If I didn't think it was important to leave everything up to show progression, I'd delete it and pretend it never existed.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Nearly all of my fics have happy endings because I mostly write fluffy oneshots, so pretty much take your pick.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did once have a comment on a Dany/Jorah fic which had nothing to do with the fic and just hated on the ship, which I rolled my eyes hard at. What is the point in seeking out something you don't like? Weirdo behaviour. And, you know, it was from a Dany/Jon stan, so...people in glass houses and all that.

9. Do you write smut?

I do. Not as often as I used to, but when the mood strikes. Most of my smut scenes/fics are archived privately, though.

10. Do you write crossovers?

No. I did extensive planning for one once, but the crossover universe was mostly just there as background. Whether I ever get around to actually writing it remains to be seen, but I wouldn't write another because I have no real interest.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone once asked wayyyyy back in 2012 if they could translate one of my fics, but I don't know if that ever happened. And I deleted it to archive privately, so probably not, LOL.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not! I'm not sure if I'd be any good at it, I'd feel the pressure!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Well, it's been over twelve years since I wrote my first Anna/Bates fic, and I still write a little bit for them most days (just a slow and steady process). I still love all of my old ships, but Anna/Bates has had the longevity to endure almost nine years after the end of the show (I don't count the movies because they're whatever), and they're still so, so special to me. <3

(Although I do spend most of my time these days completely fixated on Suki/Eve because MY GOD, that ship has completely altered my brain chemistry.)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

It's not a 'doubt I ever will' thing just yet, because I am still very much writing Anna/Bates fic, but I have one in particular that I haven't touched in six years where the final line of the penultimate chapter has lived rent-free in my head for all that time...I've just never committed it to paper yet, and I'm still a couple of chapters away from it.

But I finally finished the bonus chapter of Made of Starlight [Downton Abbey, Anna/Bates] seven years after posting the final chapter on FFN, so there's every chance I'll pick it back up in the near future.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I don't think I'm particularly good at anything, but if I had to pick something...Dialogue, maybe? I always have lots of fun with characters interacting with each other, anyway, regardless of whether it's good or not.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Description. I feel like it's often clunky and not evocative enough.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I used to write it in italicised English. Nowadays, if a character is speaking to another in a language they both understand, I'll still do this, but if it's from the POV of a character who doesn't understand it, I'll write it in the other language but try to do the HTML on AO3 where hovering over it on desktop will give the English translation. For example, this was pivotal for the fourth chapter of Vivat Crescat Floreat, since the whole point of the chapter was supposed to be Tyrion's frustration at not knowing what the hell Daenerys and Jorah were talking about. It would not have worked if the audience could read the Common Tongue right off the bat, but the hovering at least gives the audience the context that Tyrion does not have.

I don't bother on FFN since hardly anyone uses that site anymore, haha.

Of course, the only language that I do know is English, so I have to rely on translate for other languages...which, let's face it, can be horrendously inaccurate.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Pokémon. I don't keep up with the anime much these days, but I'm always there for a new game, haha.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I don't really do favourites because I'm mostly just meh about what I've written, but I'll always have a soft spot for A Meeting of Fates, purely because it was the first multi-chaptered fic that I ever finished.

Lost in Balms [Downton Abbey, Anna/Bates, privately archived] is one I had a lot of fun with. I started it in April 2017 and completed it July 2023, but during all that time I had such a clear image of how I wanted the climax to go down. I actually wrote the fic in an entirely linear fashion, so thinking of that one scene kept me going for five years until I actually reached it, and it was one of the most satisfying things to write because of how long it had taken for me to get there.

And not a fic mention per se, but the fourth 'chapter' of And Beauty There Echoes the Speck of Our Souls [EastEnders, Suki/Eve] gave me all the feels to think about and write. I wrote it at a time where I was struggling with Suki and Eve's breakup in canon, and it brought me great comfort to focus on. And another Suki/Eve fic that I'm working on right now is giving me the same warm fuzzies because it's something I desperately want at some point in the future. <3

[arokel]

10 questions for 10 writers

thank you so much for the tag @strangethings-everywhere ! secretly I've always wanted to do one of these

1. Is writing a hobby or a way of life?

Way of life for sure; I'm basically never not thinking about it. I start to feel awful and purposeless if I go too long without writing at least something.

2. A journal full of notes or a clean completed manuscript?

Clean completed manuscript, unfortunately. I wish I could be less persnickety about my first drafts but so far that hasn't happened. I do sometimes make extensive outlines though and those are always by hand, but they're usually pretty clean too :/ no scribbly scribbly for me

3. Who or what inspired your writing?

I've been writing since I was five years old and telling stories since I could talk, so I guess I'll say that when I was first reading chapter books I asked my parents why books always have a few blank pages at the end and they said it was so you had space to continue the story yourself if you wanted. They made it up on the spot and they don't remember saying it at all, but it's always stuck with me.

4. Which is worse: Someone you ‘idolize’ reading your first draft or listening to you sing?

Listening to me sing, 100%. I post my barely-edited first drafts on ao3 all the time lmao. But I also feel like with a first draft it's easy to say hey this is a first draft, if there's stuff you don't like I'm happy to hear criticism! Whereas with singing, that's just your voice. You can practice the song but at some point whether they like it or not just comes down to something about you that you can't change. (Although I am a hashtag classically trained singer so my feelings of needing to live up to that might not be universal.) (Don't ask me to sing opera for you because I don't actually like opera.)

5. Has writing from someone else’s POV changed your perspective?

I think most of the perspective changes that have come out of stories have been from reading for me? Like the first time I was really exposed to the idea of transness was a Harry Potter fic (suck on that, JKR) and that obviously really stuck with me. But I think the desire to write from queer povs really helped me come to terms with my own sexuality, maybe more than actually doing it. I guess writing narrative essays, which I do less frequently than straight up fiction, is usually a way for me to explore things I feel about myself and about the world.

6. Tumblr, AO3, LiveJournal, or FFN?

AO3 foreverrrrrrr. I was on ffn in my misspent youth and Very briefly on lj, but ao3 has been my home since 2014 and it would take a lot to get me to move.

7. AO3 word count? And are you satisfied with it?

646,046, and soon enough it'll jump another 100,000. Honestly not sure how I feel about that.

8. What movie/book gripped you irrevocably?

I will never not love Tamora Pierce's Tortall series. I know they're kind of dated and don't hold up in some places, but they've been in my bloodstream so long that they're basically a part of my understanding of the world. They shaped so much of my ideas on literature - how to create compelling characters and relationships, what makes a world believable, what fantasy even is - and honestly I think they're responsible for about 50% of my sense of humor and at least a quarter of my relationship to gender. They were my first fandom and in the end I'll always come back to them.

9. What’s the highest compliment you could ever be given, and have you been given it?

One of my plays deals with a very difficult emotional subject and is quite frankly pretty depressing the whole way through, and after the premiere a friend of mine came up to me and said "it was so so funny; I was laughing the entire time." That's what I always want my writing to do, not so much in fic but out in the world - I want to give people catharsis, and I hope they leave the reading or viewing experience feeling a little better than they did going in. And also I want people to laugh at my jokes.

10. What defines your writing style?

Can I say inconsistency? No but really it's definitely dialogue. I struggle with descriptive prose sometimes, but I never have to work at dialogue. I think it's my strongest area and people always tell me it's snappy (thank you Tamora Pierce). Other than that uhh... too many commas probably.

tagging @violasmirabiles @fregata-magnificens @kjxlll @borealopelta @uwu-dowoon @teaforarteza @icegreyrose @shadowquill17 @ris-d-deridex and using my 10th tag for anyone else who wants to participate!

[broomsticks]

wolfstar fandom survey results pt. 1/many: demographics of survey respondents

in winter 2022 the big wolfstar server decided we were curious about the fandom and decided to put together a survey. from early Oct to early Nov 2022 it got 400+ responses to a bunch of questions from age to house sorting to gender, general continental location, 'Marauder you most relate to,' favorite non-wolfstar ship, fic, and tropes. the whole thing is a monster to analyze and can probably keep my little nerd face busy for years lmao, but I'll be attacking it in small bites so have some results as I make them!

also: i was not involved in the design of this survey beyond 'server member' and did not have any input into which questions were asked and how!

i also did not keep track of where & how this survey was publicized, i genuinely have no idea and can only make guesses from seeing the results.

i also also, as of time of writing, have no plans to rerun this survey on any sort of regular basis! with that in mind, thoughts and comments are welcome!

• • •

first things first: a general overview of respondents:

The largest category of respondents was 25+, with 80 respondents from the smallest bucket of age 10-17.

60% of respondents answered "0-5 years" to the question "How long have you been in the Wolfstar fandom?". The remaining 40% was equally split between the other two options "5-10 years" and "10+ years."

& the vast majority of respondents lived in North America or Europe.

This global distribution generallyyyy holds true across ages and length of time in fandom.

NA fans make up a majority of both the oldest and longest-participating categories. there's interestingly an increase in European and Asian fans in the very youngest parts of fandom, and an Oceania peak in the intermediate 5-10y and age 18-24 buckets.

Unsurprisingly, age and length of time in fandom are related. Passes the sanity check too (no six-year-olds admitting to reading fic!), which is a good sign for this data!

• • •

>96% of respondents read fic primarily on AO3, 2.5% on Wattpad and 1% on FFN. Data not shown bc of post image limit.

More detailed analysis of this data specifically is going to be a bit complicated because multiple selections were allowed (respondents picked 1.65 options on average) if anyone has tips or tools for how to analyze this, lmk!!!

• • •

With how much age and fandom length correlate, it's not surprising that they're largely similar (few Slytherins in young fandom! and the opposite for Gryffindor in older fandom!) but it was interesting to see that both these trends have more to do with fandom length of time than chronological age.

[emyn-arnens]

20 Questions for Writers

@hobbitwrangler @grey-gazania @runawaymun @echo-bleu tagged me to do this, so I guess I really should do it! I did this one recently on my main for all the fandoms I've written for, so I'll keep this limited to Tolkien fics here.

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 82.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 128,198.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Currently mostly Tolkien, with the occasional dash of Timeless and Narnia.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

As the Hare Flees Before the Wolf (T, Celegorm & Eöl, 1.8k): Curufin is not the only son of Fëanor Eöl meets upon the plains of Himlad. Or, Eöl meets Celegorm while pursuing Aredhel and Maeglin, and things go very badly for him.

Here at Journey's End (G, Frodo & Legolas, 1.6k): They stay for those they love.

West, West Away (G, Sam & Thranduil, 3.6k): Sam meets an unlikely kindred spirit on the journey West.

and I will love with urgency, but not with haste (T, Aegnor/Andreth, 3.1k): A summer evening spent in a glade near the shores of the Aeluin.

with death on his brow like a crown (G, Aegnor & Finrod, ~600 words): Five times Finrod foresees Aegnor’s death, and one time he foresees his own.

5. Do you respond to comments? Yep! It may take a while depending on spoons, but I almost always do. The only exceptions are for comments that make no sense to me or demand me to write more for a pairing.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? There's a lot of contenders for this, but let's go with Like a Wave That Should Engulf the World (G, Faramir/Éowyn, ~700 words), in which Faramir foresees Éowyn's coming death.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? For Charity (Boromir, Faramir, Éomer, Lothíriel, and Éowyn, 2k), for sure. Two thousand words of pure ridiculousness.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not since ye olde days of posting on FFN.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Very rarely and very vanilla, with emotions and metaphor taking precedence over mechanics.

10. Do you write crossovers? Nope. Not much into reading or writing them.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nope.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? *looks at header, url, and blog title* I don't think I even need to say.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? For the sake of answering the question, my Glorfinwyn AU, but only because I'm not sure I have the skills to pull it off, and my perfectionism is a raging beast. But I do really want to finish it, even if it's three years from now because I'm the slowest writer I know.

16. What are your writing strengths? Characterization and description/scenery, although I've been struggling with the latter lately. Dialogue has finally been getting easier, though.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Plot, body language, and describing emotions.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I'll sprinkle in some individual words/pet names (all shamelessly ripped from RealElvish.net) here and there that should be guessable from context clues. I don't do full sentences very often both because I feel it isn't necessary most of the time (sorry JRRT), and because I know people don't enjoy having to scroll to the notes for translations. But I will admit to having a weakness for Elves lapsing into their native tongues during uh. heated moments with their partners.

19. First fandom you wrote for? LOTR, years ago. And here I am back again!

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? This is so hard, but Over Seas of Starlight (G, Frodo & Gandalf, 3.6k) is near and dear to my heart. Sailing West, my beloved.

Tagging @sotwk @afaramir @halfelven @curufiin if you haven't done this already!

[within-its-cave]

Fic writer self-recs

Tagged by: @mrslittletall

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favourite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers.

Alrighty, I've only got 8 so let's see the lucky five. I'll be linking to all sites I've posted these on because my AO3 is restricted to registered user only

War and his Sword (AO3, Quotev, FFN) (Supernatural)

A very short (533 words) one-shot of War cleaning his sword and musing about weapons. Particularly about the memories they share with their wielders, and how you can tell a lot from a person based on how well they maintain their deadly dance partner. Also a bit of headcanon of how the Horsemen created their weapons and those weapons' importance to them.

In Which Pestilence Adopts a Child (AO3, Quotev) (Supernatural)

Despite the problems with it now (mind the A/N chapter), it holds a special place in my heart. It was my come back to writing. And how I enjoyed writing it! So much emotion and passion poured into it, and the way I did emotion at the time...I am still proud of it.

I am honestly afraid I won't do it justice in the rewrite, but it needs a rewrite. I need to finish telling Euthalia's story.

And a big thanks to @nuklearis-sutotok for inspiring me to get back into writing. I doubt this fic - or many of my other fics - would exist if not for him.

Hfihar Duvek (AO3, Quotev, FFN) (Star Trek)

My first completed multi-chapter work and the start of the ambitious Mahhoi'eri Temtactau series shared with @nuklearis-sutotok . This AU series is about Half-Romulan Leonard McCoy. This fic is about how his mother, Eleanora McCoy, ended up on Romulus and her struggles during the first year.

It is angsty. The third chapter kicked my ass emotionally. I am so proud of it and I want to reread it soon. Everything is so raw so felt...and yet with a ray of hope. This is a family who is trying despite their government.

Ahr'ehraet Hru'dheno (AO3, Quotev, FFN) (Star Trek TOS)

This fic continues the Mahhoi'eri Temtactau series. It's supposed to be the 3rd major work but I haven't got to write the in-between fic yet. It's still early in, but I am happy with it. It follows T'Anahos (my half-Romulan McCoy) in his struggles on Krik's Enterprise after having been under Pike. T'Ana's still got his personal demons to face, being an ex-Tal'Shiar Major and all.

And oh there will be angst. I cannot wait to get to certain episodes.

Also the title is in Romulan and means "the Chief of Security is Tired". Also that "dh" makes the "th" sound.

Surprise Adoption (AO3, Quotev, FFN) (Supernatural)

Ever wondered what would happen if Sam and Dean were adopted by the Four Horsemen as children? Now, there's a bit more context to this... Sam has desire manipulation on top of his demon blood powers and Dean as war manipulation with a bit of pyromancy. They accidentally kill John and so the Horsemen adopt them. This story follows how the series would change.

It's got angst (I love writing angst, can you tell?), and the boys adjust to their new lives and learn to trust the Horsemen. It's also still early on and in progress like Ehraet, and it currently has my focus, but I am proud of it so far and want to see it to the end.

Tagging: @nuklearis-sutotok @deepspacedukat @knighthoneybee @girlvinland and @just-a-sleepy-idiot

[fountainpenguin]

Minor Fanfic Updates

- I'm slowing Life of a Loser's posting schedule down to just Wednesdays and Saturdays [my time zone] instead of every other day. An update will go out Thursday so the end note can inform readers of its schedule change, and the next one will be Saturday.

-> Update schedule was so frequent because I didn't see the point in holding out too long when the whole 'fic is already up on FFN (and I'm not familiar with best schedule for chapters that average 3k words or less, and this 'fic is summer vibes so I didn't want to take forever), but I do think the every other day schedule is overwhelming. Slowing down is smart.

- I have several Hermitcraft-themed 'fics in the anonymous Guess the Authors collection that will have authors revealed on Monday. I spoke more about what that means for subscription emails and plans HERE.

- Updated my Pinned Post to include a What's Going On? section. I added the FOP 'Fics page link, the MCYT 'Fics page link is there but currently unlinked, and I updated my Currently Updating section.

-> You can check that any time you want to see the update schedules for my current projects.

- I've been making Frayed Knots progress, but it's still slow (I have a big, personal thing happening IRL that takes lots of my attention; everything I've been updating throughout the summer is stuff I'd prepped in advance).

-> I was hoping to post consistently in June or July, but I think sometime in August/September is more likely, as I would rather have multiple chapters on hand before I post. My big thing ends early August, so I'll be able to give more attention to writing new content then.

- I've been thinking of finishing Come What May before posting more Frayed Knots. It has 6 chapters left and then I can finally wipe my hands of it after starting it in 2018. I'd love to finish it before 2025. Thank you to everyone for being patient with it!

- I recently added new headers to Dog's Life, Origin of the Pixies, and Frayed Knots that include links to their chapter-by-chapter recap info, so that's there for anyone who wants a recap guide as they go. I've prepped a more detailed recap for the next Frayed Knots chapter that recounts what's happened thus far in Act 3 since it was on hiatus a long time.

- Drafted a series page for my MCYT 'fics (similar to my 130 Series Table of Contents page). It will be up on Monday after Guess the Author is revealed. The purpose of this page:

-> To be linked in my Pinned Post for easy access to people browsing my Tumblr (as previously my only AO3 link there was my multifandom Personal Faves list)

-> Help people see what I write and direct them to series so they can customize the content they receive AO3 emails for

-> I was linking to every other series on my individual MCYT series pages, and there are a lot of them. Every time I added a new series, I had to edit every series page and it got annoying. I'm planning to redirect people to the Tumblr page for series info, which mirrors my current set-up with the 130 series (as of my recent footer update).

-> After the author reveal on Monday, I'm going to update the footers for all my MCYT 'fics (as they are currently inconsistent) to link to this page. I'm working on some more detailed descriptions for series content as well, which will also be linked there to help people decide if they're interested in reading.

- Factor It In still on hiatus for now. I was hoping to update it again in August, but my IRL busy-ness has slowed my ability to get Frayed Knots up. Factor It In is not abandoned; just paused while I work on a 'fic that's older.

-> /cry smile as I think about how Frayed Knots is only one year older than Factor despite them being posted online 6 years apart

-> I promise I have not lost interest in Factor, lol... It's my baby, but it's also my middle grade-adjacent style experiment and it's important to me that it feels a certain way, so I don't want to rush it.

-> Might finish some little WordGirl one-shots I have sitting around, though. They've been sitting with me since 2018... I've just been nervous to post them because. idk. Feelings about them.

- I have been sitting on a far-future Inside Out draft since the movie came out, and now that Inside Out 2 is out (it was lovely! Seeing it a second time today with family), I'm tempted to finish it... You might see that or maybe you won't.

-> It's about the inherent awkwardness of trying to control a body and flirt with another's emotions you know exist but will never meet, especially if you yourself are an emotion and aren't getting the physical sensations that other parts of the body are :') Anxiety and Ennui also getting dropped in my lap, my beloved...

All righty! Thanks for reading my work!

[drgrlfriend]

Fic Writer's Showcase Game

I was tagged by @there-must-be-a-lock - thanks!

Rules: Go to your published works on AO3 and list the first fic you ever published there, the last fic you published, any fic that you wrote for a fandom/ship only once, your favorite fic you wrote in the fandom/ship that has the most works, the fic you wish more people read, the fic you agonized over the most, the fic that sprang fully formed from your mind without any effort, and a work you are proud of—for whatever reason. <3

First Fic: Full Circle

So, this is how I got into writing fanfic. Someone on a non-fandom message board I was on was a big fan of fanfiction, and I thought, "Wow, I haven't thought about fanfiction since my X-Files days! I wonder what it's like now?" I went to FFN (this was pre-AO3) and the top fandom was Pirates of the Caribbean, which I didn't know much about, and I think the second top was High School Musical, and the third was X-Men. So I read some X-Men stories, especially Wolverine/Rogue, and one of them was a very compelling story about pregnancy loss which ended with a very ambivalent ending -- basically, a phone ringing and you don't know if the character will pick up. My friends, I COULD NOT SLEEP. I had experienced a pregnancy loss in the prior year, and I *had* to write a happy ending to this story. In retrospect, it was the RUDEST thing but I was new to fandom and I didn't know anything. I wrote it in an email and then eventually sent it to the author like a cat dropping a dead mouse in her lap, and she was very kind and encouraged me to post it. And that was ::checks notes:: at least a decade ago. Yikes.

Last Fic:

Chrome-Plated Heart Technically a WIP but it's all completed and is just posting twice a week until it's done. A Winterhawk Marvel Pacific Rim AU.

One-Hit Fandom:

Hope

I am kind of a serial fandom monogamist and once I'm in a fandom I tend to linger for a few years, so I only have one one-off in the Cabin Pressure fandom and it's more of a ficlet. A little Douglas Richardson & Martin Crieff cutscene from St. Petersburg. I don't even know their portmanteau!

Favorite Fic in the Fandom with the Most Works:

Lucky in Love

Wow, I had to check but I'm actually now tied for fandoms -- Marvel and Teen Wolf both have 18 fics each. So, I'll go with Marvel, and Lucky in Love, my first Winterhawk fic. I think it's rare to write a fic and then not want to change much about it a few years down the road, but I still reread this one from time to time and I still really like it! Fic I Wish More People Read:

Quriosity

Hmmm. It seems greedy to say so because it got a great reception, both within the 00Q fandom and just objectively in terms of number of hits, etc., but I feel like there's not as much crossover between the Bond fandoms and others I'm in, so if there's one fic of mine I would encourage people to take a chance and try if they know me from Marvel or Teen Wolf fandoms it's this one. There's a lot of fics in my repertoire that have themes of touch starvation / touch aversion but this one is the mostest.

Fic I Agonized Over the Most:

Freedom's Reach

I'm tempted to say the current fic I'm writing (my selkie!Bucky MTH2022 fic) but I think that's just a tendency to think whatever you're writing now is putting up the hardest fight. Freedom's Reach is my Winterhawk historical AU (e.g. American Civil War era) with mail order bride, and I don't know what I was thinking to write 1.) Inherently uneven power dynamic, which is something I typically dislike 2.) In an era I know nothing about 3.) Requiring frequent misunderstandings which I typically dislike. My poor beta @kangofu-cb is a saint for all the whining and self-doubt she had to put up with as I wondered whether I was walking all those lines.

Fic that Sprang Fully Formed: For Everything There is a Season

So, Google tells me that the Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle happened on November 7th, 2020, which means that within the week I had started posting this fic, and I'm pretty sure I wrote it in one evening. What can I say, I was inspired to think of ... Pierce ... and his ... Restore America's Glory supporters ... getting a pile of manure dumped on him. Go figure.

Proud of for Whatever Reason:

Pretty When You Cry

I am NOT good at writing short, capture-a-pivotal-moment-and-let-it-speak-for-itself fics. As the length of this post attests, I am a prototypical ADHD overexplainer. This fic managed to be short and sweet and intensely smutty but with all the feels somehow crammed in. And then, to overexplain, I had to do a second chapter from the other POV but I like how (to me at least) it doesn't feel repetitive or boring; it's the same events and dialogue but the internal narrative is so different it's still interesting. So, yeah, smutty little feels fic with Winterhawk failing a one-night-stand, check it out. I think between nox and lou most of the Winterhawk regulars already got tagged, so I'm tagging outside the fandom or people I haven't caught up with in awhile so, um ... @flamingo-queen-writes , @drunktuesdays , @pantstomatch, @shatteredhourglass, @1000-directions ... and anyone who wants to do this; I haven't been online for a bit so I'm sure I missed a bunch!

[disconnected-from-reality]

Fanfic rec: Bones B&B - 6x09 (Doctor in the Photo)

Have you ever had a phase in your fanfic reading journey when you are just fixated on a specific part/episode/scene, and you just want to read every single alternate outcome or fix-its the fanfics out there have there to offer?

Well, me too, and this is how this post has come to life! It's quite a shame there's not a lot of fanfics out there for this episode, so I tried to list the fics that could possibly scratch the itch. Haha!

Fanfics in this list are set either during or post Doctor in the Photo. You will be able to recognize on the very start of each fanfic. And as usual, all are complete with happy endings.

Enough about my ramblings. Have fun reading!

The Anthropologist in the Accident by Serendipity730 [Words: <32,019 | T: Suitable for teens] This is set before the final scenes of the Doctor in the Photo. What if Booth hadn't been there to rescue Bones from the car?

Secrets and Regrets by CJsMom [Words: <50,910 | T: Suitable for teens] Post Doctor in the Photo. Brennan doesn't confess to Booth, but tries to deal with her regrets on her own. Eventual B & B.

Try by MiseryMaker [Words: <29,774 | T: Suitable for teens] Post "Doctor in the Photo" fic. No matter how dark it gets and no matter how many times they screw it up, it's never too late. Not when two people are really in love.

Quicksand by MoreBonesPlz [Words: <46,783 | T: Suitable for teens] What if after the infamous B&B conversation in the truck during The Doctor in the Photo where Booth told Brennan she'd missed her chance, Brennan didn't acquiesce? What if once opened, she no longer found it possible to close the Pandora's box with respect to her feelings for Booth?

Change in the Story by TheZygomaticArch [Words: <79,749 | T: Suitable for teens] I didn't like how the relationship between B&B was handled after Doctor in the Photo- so here's is my alternative. I wanted more struggle and passion! And then what happens when they DO get together? Lots of love,conflict,&twists. Same crimes. New story.

Stars Above Our Heads by TempeJill [Words: <42,341 | T: Suitable for teens] Following the events of The Doctor in the Photo, Booth severely distances himself from Brennan, leaving her to feel lost and alone, without even the comfort of Angela or the other squints to help her through it all.

The Heart Won't Lie by razztaztic [Words: 16,531 | T: Suitable for teens | Also Available in Ao3 | Ao3 Account Required] My story for the 2012 Secret Santa Fanfic Exchange, organized by Biba79, which answers this prompt: "What if Booth hadn't been able to get to Brennan in time and she was hit by the car in 'Doctor in the Photo?"

You Look Like Yourself, But You're Somebody Else by cortexx [Words: 90,073 | Mature | Also Available in FFN] A different series of events that follow 6x09 - The Doctor in the Photo

The Prize in the Consolation by LJLanham [Words: <8,438 | T: Suitable for teens] Another follow-up to "The Doctor in the Photo." Will Booth and Brennan both come to their senses with a little help from Angela?

Let me know what you think of this list. I'd love to have some feedback! I'll be back with a new list soon, hopefully!

Looking for other fanfic recommendations? I might have something you're interested in, or if you have requests feel free to ask!

[clotpolesonly]

20 questions for fic writers!

tagged my @thotpuppy!! &lt;3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

209

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,195,283

3. What fandoms do you write for?

on AO3, i have posted for: Teen Wolf Merlin Raven Cycle Captive Prince Dark Rise Supernatural (crossover w/TW) once upon a time, back in FFN days, i also wrote and posted for Harry Potter (primarily) and then one each for Newsies, Little Mermaid II, and Twilight. none of these fics ever got finished lmao.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Metamorphose (Merlin, Merthur, 7750 kudos) Happiness is Effortless (TW, Sterek, 7746 kudos) Much Ado About You Two (TW, Sterek, 7046 kudos) I'll Dissolve When The Rain Pours In... (TW, Stackson, 6172 kudos) We Duel At Dawn (Merlin, Merthur, 4949 kudos)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i respond to all my comments!! (except for comments on old suspended WIPs that ask if i'm writing more, which i let sit in my inbox to haunt me like a beating heart under my floorboards slowly driving me insane until i figure out if i am writing more or if i can definitively tell them it's abandoned alkfdgh) i've been stuck recently though and have let my inbox get backed up for a month, so i really need to go on a reply spree soon 😭 it's just a point of pride, i guess? i made the decision that i would Respond To All Comments/Reviews I Ever Get when i first started posting back on FFN in ye olden days (like 2008 lol), and i've been pretty darn good at keeping that promise to myself. and i just think it's nice!! FFN had private messaging, and a lot of those responses turned into whole conversations and friendships that lasted for months. community engagement is a good thing and i like reaching back to the people who reach out to me.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

proooobably These Gordian Knots We Tie (Sterek)😅 though An Empty Glass Is An Ugly Mirror (Dydia) is also pretty bleak.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

uuhhh most of them??? i write a lot of fluff, LOL, i wouldn't know how to pick out just one that stands above the rest when the vast majority of my posted oneshots are sappy as fuck 😂

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i really don't, tbh. which i count myself lucky for, cuz i hear a lot of horror stories. but i've only gotten a small handful of negative comments, most of which were bitching about disagreeing with the characters' choices. i don't think i've ever fielded personal attacks or what ye olden FFNers would've called flames, lol. proportionally, they're negligible.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

on occasion. out of my 209 fics, only 13 of them are explicit, which is roughly 6% lol. including my 7 mature fics (not all of which are rated so for smut, i don't think) ups that to 9.5% 😂 i'm just not very interested in writing smut, not to mention it's both difficult and kind of boring and repetitive when you think about it. i feel like i'm notorious for romances that use one kiss as the climactic ending, if even that, haha. when i do (rarely) write smut, it's usually in dedicated pwp format, rather than integrated into a larger story, cuz i just feel like most larger stories (mine, at least) don't need it 🤷🏻‍♀️

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

the only crossover that i've written and posted was Teen Wolf/Supernatural, cuz i just could not resist the urge to have Allison call the Winchesters and tell them that her father had gone on a hunting trip and he hadn't been home in a while. i just needed that in my life, and i was offended that no one else had written it. also i thought that Dean "Easily Flustered By Flirtatious Men" Winchester should really meet Stiles "Doe Eyes, Witty Banter Someone Needs To Sex Me Right Now" Stilinski. for reasons.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i have! the reason that i teeechnically have a wattpad account is because someone yoinked To Be A King wholesale and posted it over there themselves, and i needed an account to be able to message them to take it tf down. weirdly, they changed some of the names, but not the distinctive names? the identifying names?? like Mordred or the names of my OCs. it was an odd choice. anyway, they took it down immediately with no other response. i think that's been the only time, as far as i'm aware.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i've got 15 translations listed in my related works 😍 8 of them by the same industrious person, bless them.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

not since that one disaster of an attempt with a friend in early high school, lmao. that's when i realized that i am a control freak with high and unforgiving standards. she was writing her parts 1) badly and 2) WRONG and it drove me up the wall. i can't handle not having complete control of the narrative 😅 i write alone.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

that's not faaaiiiiiir, patently impossible to answer, next question

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

if i don't finish For Shell And Safety someday, it'll be a fucking tragedy, cuz i'm really proud of that one and i was so so invested in it when i started it and i've still got Thoughts on how it's supposed to end, i just got stalled out in the middle of it and never found my momentum again. but.....it's been 6.5 fucking years. however, i feel like, because i do still have those thoughts and plans, that one might have a better chance than REM-DAC, because THAT one stalled out right before it was supposed to be over due to the sudden realization that i actually wanted there to be a sequel and i couldn't tie up the loose ends in the first fic without knowing how to set up for the second one. but. i never figured out concretely what i wanted to happen in the second one. and it's been 5.5 years there too. still no concrete plans. so, despite that one also being a GREAT FIC that i'm VERY PROUD OF and deeply invested in, i will have to at some point accept the reality of how low the odds are that i will ever actually get back into the swing of it and finish what i fucking started. they haunt me.

16. What are your writing strengths?

i'm really not quite sure 🤔 strengths and weaknesses are easier to tell from an outside perspective, lol. i feel like i write good natural-feeling dialogue. at least, the professor in the one short story technique workshop i took in college told me as much 😂 said i had the best dialogue in the class. been riding that high for a decade aldkfjghf

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

idkkkkkk 😅😅😅 pacing maybe?? like, long form pacing in lengthier narratives??

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i have avoided it so far, lkajdfgh. objectively, i think it can be done well and it can be done badly, and different methods serve different purposes so it depends on the story which is most appropriate. the online medium provides more avenues for it than print, like the hover text translations that used to be more popular before phones/touchscreens without cursors became the most prominent way to read things, or superscript links to footnotes with translations. some people put the translation directly into the narrative like an echo, but that gets really tedious really fast, and it would be simpler and more streamlined to just cut out the other language entirely and say "XYZ" he said, in french instead. overall, my preferred method is to filter it through the understanding of the POV character and their potentially limited/imperfect grasp of that other language. if they don't know what's being said, we don't know what's being said. if they pick out some words and get the gist, we see their thought process of figuring it out. it informs our understanding of the character, as well as providing an obstacle and creating tension. if you want to include a full translation of the foreign text, you can in endnotes or a postscript, but i don't really think it's necessary. if people wanna find out what it says, google translate is free 🤷🏻‍♀️ probably best not to use google translate to write the thing, though. if it's not a language you speak, preferably find someone who does speak it to translate, to make sure it's accurate and not butchered. hence me avoiding writing anything that requires other languages 😂 cuz i'm a monolingual usamerican loser who doesn't want to go to as much trouble as it would require to branch out like this. i am a "so-and-so said something unintelligibly french" bitch.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

cut my teeth on Harry Potter back in the day

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

another patently impossible question, i have no answer for this, i love all my fics equally (or at least in tiers uwu)

.

i am tagginggg: @adamprrishcycle @flightspathfic @nooowestayandgetcaught @adrianfridge @nyxelestia and anybody else who wants to do it!!

20 questions for fic writers!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

[danpuff-ao3]

@hprecfest 3/3: Days 21-31

Day 21: a thought-provoking fic

When the Rose and the Fire Are One

by perverse_idyll (@perverse-idyll). Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 81,618. Dysfunctional relationships. Minor Harry/George. Dubious consent. Sex magic. Secondary character death.

Harry’s haunted by guilt. Snape’s warded by roses. Each must free the other in order to free himself.

This is the fic that has ingrained itself in my brain more than any other, I think. PI is so clever and this whole world is well considered and fleshed out. 

This story features probably the best original character I’ve seen in fic (Odile, my love). The magic in this story is phenomenal and I’m actually obsessed with it. The magic and history of Spinner’s End, and Severus, and Eileen, has fully become canonized in my brain, I swear to god. The characterizations of Harry and Severus are top tier. The sex is scorching. The emotions are a rollercoaster both exhilarating and terrifying. And the end!!!! Oh god, this is the fic that I think about for days after I read it, wondering what comes after. 

While another of PI’s fics has captured my heart more, this is a close second and captured my mind more. It’s truly a masterwork and I cannot recommend this fic enough to people.

Niemöller, or Four Times When Harry Didn’t Speak Up and then When He Finally Did

by Leela. Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 7,904. 

They came, and they came, and one day Harry noticed.

When I posted the original version of Masquerade (new version on AO3 | old version on FFN) years ago, someone commented that it reminded them of Niemöller. So of course, I had to look it up and read it, and I fell in love! It really makes you consider an alternate way the world could have gone in the wake of Voldemort’s demise, and veering too hard in the opposite direction of Voldemort and the Death Eaters. It’s all the more real as time goes on and we see how prone our society is to extremes, and how our natural inclinations may be to “over-correct.” 

In the notes Leela linked to this poetic version of a confessional prose from Martin Niemöler, from who this fic gets its name:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—      Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—      Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—      Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Day 22: an unfinished fic

The Release of Sisyphus

by starcrossed. Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: idk. LJ link.

The epilogue to Nights of Gethsemane and Invictus.

I've been waiting for TEN YEARS. TEN YEARS!!!! And I'll keep waiting cuz I've still not given up hope 🥲

This is the follow-up to NoG and Invictus that takes place years after the fact. Post-war, adult Harry, reconnecting with Severus. The last posted chapter is the worst place to leave off on, only because it was so close smut!!!! You just KNOW that's where chapter 16 would have gone if it had updated.

It hurts my soul a bit because I love this series so much, and so my soul will always be waiting for closure with this story. You know, until the author comes back in a year or two or ten with updates!! (Rec for NoG here.)

Day 23: a soulmate fic

Corresponding Shapes

by bleedcolor (@bleedcolor). Harry/Severus. Rated: T. Words: 5,516. Soulmate identifying marks.

For a very long time he hadn’t known what the names meant. He’d woken up the morning of his 7th birthday and there they were; red as blood, one more thing to brand him as a freak in the eyes of his aunt and uncle.

I love the idea of this one, Harry marked by two fates. I’m forever a sucker for soulmate-identifying marks, but the idea of this one is too neat, and Harry not knowing which name is which right away! It’s so sweet and lovely

Day 24: a holiday fic

The Christmas Hate List

by lizzy0305 (@lizzy0305). Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 11,465. Humor. Romance. Fluff.

Most people have a wishlist for Christmas, but Severus Snape is not most people - he has a hate list. There are five things Severus hates about the season, but with Harry Potter’s help, he gets reminded of the one thing he still loves about the Holidays.

GOD, Severus is such a HATER and I LOVE IT. But also, Mr. Grinch over here falls in love and we get a good laugh out of it. What a good time this is!

Gratia Plena

by Femme (@femmequixotic). Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 18,972. 

Memories of a drunken kiss lead two lonely souls together at Christmas.

One of the more serious and angsty Christmas fics I love, but love it I do! I can’t help but love Femme’s work. This is right up my alley in general, even outside of the holiday season, as it features 2 difficult men with a hell of a lot of chemistry (and history). This suits just right when you’re in the mood for something less merry and bright.

The Nutcracker’s Delight

by perverse_idyll, rinsbane (@perverse-idyll). Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 17,119. 

Severus Snape meets the Nutcracker. 

A fun holiday crackfic! It’s such a good time, full of whimsy and festivity, and written by 2 creators I’ve long admired. It’s such a good time and will for sure get you in the holiday spirit!

Day 25: a fic rated T

a scratch for every itch

by bleedcolor (@bleedcolor). Harry/Severus. Rated: T. Words: 11,478. Magical maladies. Pining. Humor. Idiots to lovers. Fluff.

Severus Snape is an itch that Harry just can’t scratch.

This one can also work for the “comfort fic” prompt. It’s a lighthearted, feel-good Snarry with a lot to love! The magical malady here is so whimsical and cute and so fitting for the HP-verse.

The Sleeping Prince

by who_la_hoop. Harry/Severus. Rated: T. Words: 42,758. Postwar. Hogwarts 8th year. Deaging. 

It’s hard to ignore your past — and impossible to do so when you can’t remember your future. But a meddlesome portrait, a dragon with an ancient grudge and true love’s kiss teach an unlikely Prince that a regrettable past doesn’t have to mean an unhappy ending.

This is one of my favorite fics. I don’t generally care for de-aging fics, but this one is exactly what I would hope for. Lots of cute, awkward teenage romance. I love seeing how distrustful and angsty teenage Severus is. And how sweet and dorky Harry is!

Day 26: a fic with an ending you can't stop thinking about

Penance is the Play

by Maeglin_Yedi (@maeglinyedi). Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 66,439. Underage. Student/teacher. Dysfunctional relationship. Manipulation. Coercion. Humor & angst. 

Harry wants revenge. Harry has a plan. But is Harry Slytherin enough to avoid his own trap?

Yet another fic I read way too many times back in the day. And still do. But it’s so good!!!! And that ending still haunts me to this day, I swear to god.

And Mine the Gall

by perverse_idyll (@perverse-idyll). Rated: E. Words: 5,505. Sequel to In Infinite Remorse of Soul (Albus/Severus, Harry/Severus). 

It’s one thing to deny oneself; it’s another to be denied. In which Albus learns (again) that sins of omission have consequences, even unto the next generation; and that what he denied to Severus shall be visited upon Harry.

These 2 fics are dark and delicious and AMAZING AND PERFECT AND I’m obsessed and will think about them forever. It also features a line that has lived rent free in my head fOR YEARS. 

“Severus,” he sobs, an explosion of defeat, because the love that will poison his life has a name.

Day 27: a Muggle AU

Marks

by florahart. Harry/Severus. Rated: G. Words: 5,136. College/university. Student/professor. Podfic available.

Harry's a computer science student, but he needs a writing credit to qualify for an internship. All the writing classes are full, so he ends up in Snape's lit class as a substitute. Snape has a reputation as a hardass, but it can be said that no one passes his class without learning to write, so that meets the requirement, and then, once Harry starts working on that, it turns out they have something else in common.

I nearly recced this fic a handful of times already, for podfic day (JocundaSykes did a terrific narration of this!), comfort fic, and a fic rated G. So when it came time to choose a Muggle AU, I finally had to choose this one! There is still the essence of what I love about Snarry here: a bit of student/teacher (though as unproblematic as can be), with Snape as the mean teacher with a bad reputation, and Harry as the student who is smart and competent in some areas, but not Severus' area. It's a feel good fic that I often return to when I need something light and easy.

Day 28: an underrated fic

A Series of Events

by babygray (@babygray). Harry/Severus. Rated: M. Words: 67,251. Mpreg. Miscarriage. Underage. Student/teacher. Angst.

In January, the impossible occurred. It took Severus until April to realize just what that was, and to believe.

Not gonna lie, I don’t know how to gauge what’s “underrated” or “overrated” or “appropriately rated” but I do know that this is a fic I love too much to have no one to talk to about it. It’s like…idk how to explain this fic. It’s niche. It’s unique. It itches.

Okay “it itches” might sound weird, but like…this fic crawled under my skin and randomly reminds me of its presence. It’s not a happy fic, there are no easy answers, it’s all gray and complicated and sad and so real in a way that I’m obsessed with.

Molly’s Advice

by Arrisha (@arrisha-ao3). Harry/Severus. Rated: M. Words: 7,189. Postwar. Angst. Infidelity. 

Snape used to have a secret; Harry only now begins to realise his own.

Okay, Arrisha’s work is all amazing, but this one is my favorite and no one talks about it???? Or at least, I’ve not seen anyone talk about it, WHICH IS A SHAME, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED, THIS FIC IS WONDERFUL, PLEASE READ IT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

Day 29: a post-canon fic

The Beating of This Fragile Heart

by Writcraft (@writcraft). Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 33,146. Fluff & angst. Hurt/comfort.

After the war, the last thing Severus Snape needs is the memory of a fleeting wartime kiss and a very persistent Harry Potter thwarting his plans to live a peaceful and solitary life. It’s only when Harry’s life is endangered that Severus is finally forced to confront his feelings head on.

This is one of my favorite fics and it does my heart so good! It’s such a lovely love story featuring a Harry who knows what he wants, and a Severus too scared and insecure for his (or Harry’s) own good. Their love here brings me so much joy.

Day 30: a pre-canon fic

Buried Roots

by yletylyf (@yletylyf). Severus-centric. Evan/Severus. Rated: M. Words: 19,036. First Wizarding War. Violence. Romance. Tragedy.

Severus Snape and Evan Rosier nurture their shared love of the Dark Arts, and find themselves drawn into Voldemort’s world. Severus is sure he can navigate anything in life, with Evan by his side.

I so thoroughly enjoyed this fic, as a well considered look at how Severus might have come to the Death Eaters. It does my heart good how impressed others were by Severus and his gifts, and how those gifts drew the Dark Lord’s eye. It was good to see his friendship/relationship with Evan Rosier, as well as the other connections Severus makes. There is no real goal to “excuse/forgive” Severus’ choices, but also makes his journey understandable and very real. I really appreciate Lety’s grasp of various characters and showing them in the best and worst ways, which is exactly what I love to see! 

Day 31: a fav amongst favs

The White Road

by perverse_idyll (@perverse-idyll). Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 47,887. Lily POV. Romance. Redemption. Afterlife. 

One day, comfortably set up in the afterlife, Lily Evans Potter switches on the telly and gets hooked on the Harry Potter show.

I’m pretty sure this is the fic I’ve read more than any other, except maybe some of my shorter faves. Maybe. I first read this fic around the time it was first posted, and I’ve reread it at least once a year ever since. It’s TRULY one of the best stories I’ve ever read. Seeing Snarry’s romance unfold from Lily’s POV is incredible, and PI is so masterful in making us feel their great love when we’re not in either of their heads. 

Not to mention Lily’s character here is incredible. She’s spunky and vivacious, but has moments of meanness and vanity. She’s no saintly vision of Lily, but a very human Lily, for all that she’s dead. This is the story that really made me love and appreciate what Lily could be, as more than just Harry’s perfect martyred mother. 

Also this is the fic that gave me a voyeurism kink.