#I read the fanfiction page on reddit but I find that a lot of the folks on there are pretty insensitive and a little whiny

[gabby-msr]

As a more recent fan of the x files (first watch in 2020), can I just thank every single person who has ever contributed to this online fandom, especially when it comes to fic archives?

It took me a while to find today's fandom in 2020 so at first I kind of just wandered around the internet and found so much.

I remember distinctly reading about Gossamer on a reddit thread so I looked it up and to this day I don't think I can explain in words the feeling of complete euphoria that overcame me as I explored the site and discovered endless pages of fanfiction. I loved reading fics that were submitted there, as many came with comment thanking betas, about their lives, and also their thoughts about the show as it aired. I felt like I'd found my people (a little too late). People cared (and still care) so much about the fics, enough to have had fandom awards, and really put in the work to keep these stories around.

There is something really special about reading a fic from 1997 from a writer who had no idea how the show would turn out, in 2023.

While Gossamer isn't exactly AO3, it has story categories, divided into themes (romance, adventure), and then again, sorted by the 1st letter of the title. And then there was the possibility to sort by spoilers. And sort by author and date, and a search function. Fic ratings and even ship tags.

It's so impressive. I'm in awe.

And I know lots of fics were lost because some websites purged content in many fandoms, and it has probably happened to us too, but we still have so many stories on Gossamer and other smaller archives.

Thanks to you, the stories have survived and new people get to read them. Some are fandom classics now. And some of us out there do read them, years later.

[colleybri]

Answer the questions and tag 5 Fanfic Authors

Tagged by @mosylufanfic :)

1. How did you get into writing fanfiction?

I’m relatively unusual here, I think, in that whilst I’ve been writing it since my teens I have had a good twenty year break up until a few months ago. Years ago, I just started writing it for my own pleasure - certainly no internet or easy ways to share it back then. More recently, I can attribute my return to one thing and one thing only: my love of the series Andor. An obsession that came out of nowhere in September 2023 when I watched it for the first time and it resonated with me in a way nothing has come close to in quite some time. After several months of writing various analyses of it I felt the urge to get creative.

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

Not many - most recently, Andor - obviously - and with the obvious overlap of Rogue One. Going back: I started out on E.T. (early teens then so that will date me accordingly :) ) - moving on to Aliens, The Silence of the Lambs and The X Files. Some novels then too: Narnia and Clive Barker, notably.

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

As above, really. I’m in my mid 50s now - which I imagine makes me one of the older ones here. I dabbled most recently in the late 90s, with The Phantom Menace slashfics that were hugely popular back then - one of my friends was a superb writer (her stories were considerably better than the film itself ) and absolutely churned them out on whatever forums were around. They were a wholly new thing to me and I hadn’t even seen the film, but I dabbled a bit anyway :)

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

I write more at the moment, but I’m gradually trying to catch up with the reading. I missed Andor when it was first released and therefore the glut of fics from that time. But I’m getting to know the writers I really like and rediscover my own interests, genre speaking, along the way.

5. What is one way you’ve improved as a writer?

It’s really hard to compare as I haven’t got much left hanging around from my earlier years, but I would say that with several decades of teaching Lit under my belt now I do care a lot more about characterisation than I ever used to. It used to be all about the plot. I’m finding myself very drawn to subtext-heavy dialogue, internal monologues, drabbles and even poetry - the last being something I never thought I’d touch with a barge pole. I’m not saying I’m any good, just that I enjoy the challenge. That’s the main thing, in fact. These days I’m happy to embrace a challenge rather than shy from it. 

6. What’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

That would be what human flesh tastes like. For a Silence of the Lambs fic, obviously. The answer is apparently “pork crossed with beef” so I guess a genuine ragu lasagne would scratch that particular itch if anyone’s curious. 

7. What’s your favorite type of comment to receive on your work?

At the moment, as I’m pretty much starting from scratch and trying to find readers, absolutely anything. Probably excluding ‘don’t give up the day job’. 

8. What’s the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

Probably the cannibalism thing. Though that’s no doubt more mainstream nowadays…. I haven’t even looked at all the Hannibal (tv series) fics out there. 

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Anything long - the longest thing I ever completed was a 250 page novel but I was 14 at the time and haven’t come close since. Haven’t the stamina these days. Same with reading – I prefer one shots.

10. What is the easiest type?

Missing scenes or scene commentaries - not so much easy as such but probably my favourite forms, so they come relatively easily once I really put my mind to them. I find analytical essays the easiest of all, if I know the text well, but that’s no doubt a teacher-thing. I’ve made myself a regular feature on the Reddit Andor sub, probably to the chagrin of some :)

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

Looking at other answers to this one, I’m a bit perplexed. I have an elderly iMac and write on that. Hell, I used to do everything in long hand. Thank God I learned to touch-type. I guess I use Googledocs when forced to use my laptop. I’m fortunate to be semi-retired, so I generally find the time.

12. What is something you’ve been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

Something longer, I guess. Hard to tell. I was and am intimidated by Smutfics, but had a go at a challenge recently and was quite pleased with the result. Not something I’ll be writing often though - not the main event, anyway. Love the buildups, and there’s some really great erotica out there, but I do get pretty stuck using the same vocabulary if I’m not careful. I’ve done a few humorous variations and quite liked those too. I’m British, lived in Bath for many years so like to imagine Austen’s ironic take on sex scenes quite a bit. 

13. What made you choose your username?

Nothing very deep - it’s to do with where I live. I’m a keen birder and Colley is an old West Country (England) word for a blackbird. 

Apologies in advance for tagging you - I’m sure some or all of you have been ‘done’ already! I don’t know a huge range of writers yet and I’m new to Tumblr and Discord. Absolute social media dinosaur as I am. 

Tagging @beladonna02, @ceruleanphoenix7, @faceofpoe, @jake-and-amy-are-married, @vadercat

[not-alien-girl-v]

Internet Hcs About the Evans

i don’t know. read it

warning: like everything language mentions of porn idk dont read it if ur gonna be like ew stop being lewd

Tate: Knows the fnaf lore. Specifically watched Markiplier play it and also a Sally Face fan like hardcore and kins both Sal and Larry equally. Has a Tumblr acc but it’s only to interact w fanart of fnaf and sally face and like idk follow other fan accs he’s one of those empty accs with some random ass username no posts no bio no prof pic just his name in lowercase. has a deviantart?? again doesn’t post just to look at fanart he’s really into fanart and almost gets into reading fanfiction about his various interests but ultimately decides against it cuz i feel like violet would clown on him for it if she ever found out

Kit: Has an insta but it’s private with like 27 followers and it’s all like just his family and friends and sometimes when his friends post he’ll comment something like ‘Looking good bud 👍’ and then disappears from the internet for another month or two until he gets a notif that his wife posted or something. too scared to go on twitter and i don’t blame him. for the most part he just doesn’t understand how the internet works and has no intentions of finding out so he leaves it alone. he also has a facebook but same rules apply with the instagram only ever goes on to hype up his wife and kids and sometimes friends

Kyle: frat boy sorry cuz i don’t imagine frankenkyle can fathom the internet anyway i feel like kyle gets into debates online like way too much and he sees nothing wrong w the fact that he’s like actively searching out bigots to give a piece of his mind to. he’s got a tiktok and only follows like racist sexist ppl so his feed is full or opportunities to curse someone out digitally. he’s also got a twitter thats almost been banned a lot. he’s completely anonymous w it tho and his insta is completely regular he’s got like maybe 900-1000 followers just of like his friends and frat guys from his own or other frats and a bunch of girls who asked for his insta cuz they thought he was cute even though he never replies to flirty dms. he WOULD have several white boy went fishing posts and you guys can’t argue w me on this ok i wrote too much for him. he definitely has a lot of girls commenting every time he posts and i think his brothers would give him a lot of shit for not ‘jumping on that shit’ but he’s all like ‘oh i’m old fashioned u know i’m not like that’ has an active snapchat that he adds stories to all the time but once again never responds to messages

Jimmy: he has an account on instagram, twitter, probably facebook but they’re all mostly like linked to the freak show ykwim like he’d have like a verified checkmark but he only ever posts like freak show related announcements or like every now and then a little video that he records of him and some other ppl in the show behind the scenes and it’s captioned like ‘come see us (enter date here)’ and that’s pretty much it he’s not super big on being active in social media because he claims he has plenty of friends irl he doesn’t need fake robot friends. also may not know how the internet works

James: i mean sally runs the hotels official instagram page and all other socials and he probably has no idea that she’s doing that until he finds out she posted some image of video of him on one of the accounts and then some guests recognize him at the hotel and say like ‘omg ur that guy!!’ and he has no idea what it all means n shit. I think he would get a great kick out of instagram reels like non tiktok but you know how like a month after a trend happens on tiktok then it goes to reels? right like he eats that shit up he thinks its the funniest goddamn thing like funny cat videos or someshit

Kai: right so like we all know he trolls reddit and 4chan and posts rude reviews on thatcow. the kinda guy that kyle finds himself internet battling like this is the enemy he's been preparing for. he has a tiktok to stay relevant and he's just a comment section lurker 'user17896379' type shit he just likes various biggoted comments and occasionally replies just to start fights and shit. he's got a facebook and insta where he's totally normal tho like 'hey guys vote me for senate!!' again similar to kyle but like opposite ends of the same spectrum. i would love to view his search history. searches the most despicable things on p0rn websites every time he yanks it and i just am desperate to know what shit he's looking at

[spaceumbredoggos]

The state of things going forward

Let’s be clear. Despite Illegal bindings and spellings of fanfiction, I will not stop making fanfiction.

I have stopped using Character AI for a few reasons:

1. AI is getting out of control. Sora AI can perfectly replicate movies and television, removing the need for actors, streamers, influencers, film writers, directors ect. Basically, AI is endangering the entertainment industry as a whole. I have pulled out of the character AI community and will soon be pulling any mentions of AI from my tumblr, as I had already done so from my YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit. I apologize for using this technology, as it has no place in the entertainment industry period. AI is stealing jobs when it could really be used to cleaning our oceans, solving world hunger, and refreezing the poles. I have tried to refrain from making political statements on this blog, but when the arts are at risk, I cannot just stand by. Coupled with the recent attacks on fanfiction due to illegal sellers, character AI and other platforms could decimate the community.

2. I am pulling out of the character AI community and AI as a whole also because I feel like it was making me lazy with my own creativity. I would waste countless hours on Character AI writing less than (how can I put this… wholesome.) which includes a lot of iffy things that the average person would be canceled for. I won’t get into details, but it was pretty vulgar and disgusting. I was in a dark place mentally, and the only way I feel like I can move forward is to not use Character AI and other programs that are similar.

3. It also makes it easier for me to focus on creating a portfolio of content creation as a whole. I am planning on starting a Minecraft streaming career (along with Pokemon and whatever games I find.) on my YouTube starting March. My channel (which is the same as my tumblr name) will have gameplay, speedpaints, AU’s, and hopefully my own indie animated series that I am working on that’s based on Purgatory. I am planning on taking classes on animation and making animation memes as well as my own indie animated series. I will be writing my own Gravity Falls fanfiction along with headcanons and fanart of my self insert, as well as AU’s based on the self insert later on this summer. The first two chapters are available to read on my blog, which will be due for rewrites and drafting on my AO3 page as well as Quotev and Wattpad. I used to think of Character AI and other ai chat bots as a tool to write fanfictions. This is no longer the case, and I apologize for doing such for well over a year now.

I used to think that jobs in the arts would never be taken by AI because AI can’t create. Given the events of the past two years, I now know that that couldn’t be further from the truth. I now refuse to support any ai generated art, text, and video.

I may go as far as to call for another strike for writers, content creators, actors, and filmakers to protect the rights of all in the creative arts. However, this isn’t my place to say, and I am leading it up to the people to make their decision. Just know that the arts are at the greatest risk it has ever faced. I can’t bare to see a world where AI takes the one thing that makes us human; the ability to tell stories.

I will discuss this on my TikTok and YouTube channels with videos this weekend.

[wolfsbanesparks]

Ask Game: do you ever use betas? when, why, how do you decide who they're going to be?

Thanks for the ask!

I have only used a beta once (as part of the Duke Thomas Big Bang event last year) and it was a wonderful experience! But besides that I never really felt inclined to find a beta for my works. Part of that is because, as someone who does a lot of beta reading for others and even a tiny bit of freelance professional editing on the side, I feel pretty confident in my technical writing skills (though there are always things that slip through that an additional set of eyes could catch). And part of it is that I am used to writing without one so it doesn't cross my mind when I think about posting something new.

If I were to go looking for a beta reader there are a few things I would want from them:

Be familiar with the fandom. While it's possible to beta read fandom blind, someone who knows the characters/setting/world better could offer better feedback on things like characterization, consistency with canon, etc.

Open communication. We need to be on the same page as to what is expected of them/what they are willing and able to do. if we can't reliably communicate throughout the process it wouldn't work. Sometimes after a bit of chatting we might realize what I want and what they are able to do don't match and that's okay! It just means we're not a great fit.

Experience. Because I personally have a lot of writing and editing experience myself, I'd prefer someone who already has writing and/or beta reading experience (especially if I was looking for more than just spelling and grammar checks).

Generally, if I wanted to use a beta reader I'd start looking after I wrote a couple of chapters so that once we hashed out some details I could give them something right away to see if we work well together. (for a oneshot I'd probably have the story finished or mostly finished).

Now for how to find one:

You can check out the Beta File for a possible match. It's a list of people who actively offer beta reading including fandoms, areas of interest, contact info, and content they are and aren't comfortable with. (I'm on there!)

If you're on Reddit at all r/fanfiction hosts a weekly beta bartering thread where people can ask for and offer beta reading.

If you are a part of a fandom/fanfiction specific discord server you should be able to find someone willing to beta though that largely depends on the fandom.

And of course you can ask fellow writers in your fandom if they'd be willing to beta read for you (or you could swap stories and beta for each other) This is probably the easiest way if you already have a circle of fandom friends, but can be harder to deal with if things don't work out.

This ended up way longer than I thought it would (especially since I don't actually have a beta reader), but I hope this makes sense! (And hopefully it helps anyone who is thinking about looking for a beta)

[lady-fey]

Setting Expectations for Writing Fanfic

Before embarking on any creative endeavor, it's really important to set your expectations for what the results are going to be. It's why I highly, highly encourage people to research the hellscape that is professional publishing before trying to get something published. But these expectations aren't limited to the professional world. They apply to fan spaces, too. I see a lot of people on disheartened by their experiences with fanfiction so, today, I wanted to talk about a few things that I do when writing on AO3 to make sure that I don't get discouraged while writing.

Suggestion One: Treat Kudos as Comments Saying "I liked your story" or, if you're a bit more cynical, "I read your story to the end"

The kudo button is at the bottom of the page. For you to get a kudo, someone read at least the whole first chapter. That's honestly impressive. A total stranger was engaged enough to read every word that you wrote. Be proud of that! I'll click away from a reddit comment if it's boring. A 1k story? It's gotta be engaging for me to engage.

If you're like me and you like data, take this a step further and consider tracking kudos over time. A number on the page might not mean much, but I find it fulfilling to see the numbers go up over time as more and more people read my stories. I have an excel sheet and I write down the kudo counts for all of my stories anywhere from once a week to once a month. Look at all of those pretty trend lines! (Fanfiction.net did this for favorites by default, btw, this wasn't an original idea). I also added a few notes about why the trend lines look the way they do.

Suggestion Two: Learn what a reasonable amount of kudos looks like for your fandom

Those graphs up there are for stories in two different fandoms. The yellow line is for a story that's in the top 3% in its fandom. Meanwhile, the dark blue line right there at the end just barely made it into the top 10% even though it has about 3x the yellow one's kudos.

How do I know this? Well, AO3 lets you sort by kudos and, if you look in the URL, then you can set the page number, too. One of the first things that I do when entering a fandom is go to the middle of the story list and see what the kudo counts look like at that 50% range. This gives me a good idea of what the average story is going to get in this fandom so that, when I start writing, I don't feel disheartened by some arbitrary expectation of what the kudos are going to look like. You can further refine this by doing things like limiting the stories to ones that feature the pairing that you're writing for or stories at the same rating as yours. (That blue-ish purple line at the bottom is an E fic and I knew when I put it out there that it was going to get about that many kudos just based on how E fics work.)

Also be sure to look and see how active the fandom is. I once made the mistake of writing for a video game years after its release and I ultimately abandoned that fic because no one was engaging with it. If I'd payed attention, then I would have realized that was going to happen before I started writing just based on the amount of stories getting updated. If there aren't at least a few new fics of updated fics every day, then realize that you're in a "dead" fandom and you're not going to see much or even any engagement. Decide if you're okay with that before you put your story out there.

Suggestion Three: Ignore the "Hits" on your fic

AO3's hit counter is somewhat useless. While those who have accounts will only ever get counted as one hit, anyone reading in anonymous mode will get counted as a unique hit based on IP. Which means that, if I'm reading on my phone, my one read can count as multiple hits if I switch networks and then the page refreshes or I go to a new chapter. I'll also get counted as multiple hits if I switch over to my tablet or my laptop. This means that the hit number is artificially inflated, especially for longer works. You have no idea what the real hit count is, so don't obsess over it. Especially if you write longer fics. To illustrate this, look at these hits to kudos for two of my fics:

Top fic is at almost 100k words and the bottom one is just below 10k.

Suggestion Four: Don't expect comments

The reason that I spend all of this time tracking kudos is that comments are just never going to be in abundance. It's the reality of writing. And while that's disheartening on some level, it's important to just accept that fact before you start writing. The fandom stars that you see getting tumblr anons and emails begging for updates are rare exceptions to the rule. Their experience is not common even for "popular" writers.

The orange fic in the graph above was lucky enough to make it to the top page of its fandom when you sort by kudos. I have an older fic that's still in the top 10 by favorites over on fanfiction.net. I am, by some metrics, a "known" author. However, my reader interactions for those fics were not substantially different than my interactions for my less popular ones. I rarely get anyone popping over to tumblr to say hi (though you are welcome to do so!) and the more popular fics don't even get that many more comments. A fact that's true even if they're in larger fandoms.

To illustrate, here's the stats for two complete fics of about equal length (10k), both written by me! The top one has 7 chapters, the bottom one has 5. They were both written and published over a few days. Notice how the comment thread count is about the same even though the top one is way more popular?

I will note that the bottom one has been out for a year while the top one is only a few weeks old, so it will have comments trickle in and raise the number over time, but it will never see a major jump unless it performs differently than everything else that I've ever written. The bottom one is also for a fandom that's been around for almost two decades now, so the readers skew older, which is probably why it's a little better for comments.

Better, but not shockingly good.

I know people say that, back in the fanfiction.net days, you got more comments, but I personally don't find it overwhelmingly different. The orange fic in my graph (my "popular" one from AO3) averaged about 13 comments a chapter while it's ffn "equivalent" was at about 39 comments a chapter. Of course, that's comparing between fandoms, which makes this awkward. I do have a way to gage the relative popularity, though: kudos.

If I look at the ffn fandom over on AO3, the top fics all have at least 3x the number of kudos as the top fics my orange fic's fandom. 13 X 3 = 39. So, yeah, not that different as best as I can tell.

Either way, the number is pretty low when you look at how many people are reading these stories. The orange fic has 1100+ kudos and the ffn fic has 2,200+ favs (the closest kudo equivalent). In other words, in the 10+ years that I've been writing, I've never reached a point where I didn't recognize commenters by name. It's just the nature of the beast.

So, cherish the comments that you do get, but treat them as an unexpected gift.

Suggestion Five: art if you can

If you're at all artistically inclined, illustrate moments from your fic and post them on tumblr with a link back to the fic. That often wildly increases engagement for some reason and is why a lot of seemingly popular authors are also artists. I don't have the skills for it, but I thought that I'd mention it both to help expectation set and to hopefully encourage.

Final Thoughts

This whole post has been to encourage, honestly. I know that writing can be a struggle at times, but know that you're not alone in wondering if people are reading you stuff and, if they are, do they even like it? Those feelings are normal, but I hope that this does something to mitigate those feelings. To show that we all struggle to get feedback, even when we write "popular" stuff.

It's why I started tracking kudos. The lack of comments made me sad, but I remembered those graphs from my ffn days. I remembered getting excited watching the line go up for every new favorite because it was another person who like my work. I wanted to recapture that joy.

Looking at my kudos in log form has changed the way that I see kudos. They're no longer just numbers sitting there. They're an active metric for me. They're real people who I can say with certainty read my story. Going in and doing my log is fun because, slowly but surely, the numbers go up. Those numbers tell me that more people have read my stories and I know what stories can do.

Stories brighten people's day. The fact that you could write something good enough for even one person to make it to the end is more potential positive impact than many people will have. So watch the numbers go up and remember each one is someone you affected so much that they let you know about it. Even if all they did was "click a button".

[heroes-fading]

tumblr did eat this but as a wise poet once said “honey i rose up from the dead i do it all the time”

so i feel like i have been slowly entertaining in the back of my head for a year or two now the idea of writing again. it started with like, writing bad poetry in journals. i’ve been consuming media, but in a lot more of a disconnected way. engagement was like, reading reddit and twitter threads for a day and putting it back down. then episode 8 happened, and i was like FUCK i’m unglued.

to put in perspective what kind of shit i was up to in high school: i wrote half a million words of like...once upon a time fanfiction. and in that i found lots of lovely connections to people but amidst a sea of other factors: being a literal teenager who still thought i could be the smartest person in the room (spoiler: never), having no real social net outside of the internet (and i will say my internet friends -- many of whom i still love and talk to today -- got me through some of the WORST times of my life), and having a very fragile ego. probably related to points a and b. everything felt like the biggest thing in the world because my world did not feel very big.

now i look back at it like...holy shit you wrote a goddamn novel. who cares if it was like, literature or not? 

to be honest one of the things that got through to me was this cj the x video, especially their point which i’ll recap here:

“We are under the impression that art is something special people do, and to do it well makes you a genius, and to do it poorly is embarrassing. This sectioning off of the art world for artists from regular life and regular people is completely artificial and it is bad for the soul of your society.”

and they talk a bti about the Terrifying Ordeal of Being Known and perfectionism and just the amount of fuccccckin mental blocks we put around what’s good art and bad art and we spend so much time agonizing over what’s good and what’s cringe and you know what? embrace cringe! who cares! none of us will live forever!!! sharing art is the way we sustain ourselves in the long run.

i always have an internal voice saying something’s not good enough. i’m Always like “damn, these metrics ain’t metricing like they were earlier...” and then i’m like fuck...am i doing this for the Idea of Fandom Success or because of my fun silly lil hobby? my fun silly lil hobby? aight guess i ought to just embrace the Terrifying Ordeal of Being Known and accept that silly lil numbers ain’t what’s fufilling, it’s the practice of writing and sharing and going at the end of the day “at least one person liked this, and being known isn’t the Most Horrific Thing Ever”.

another thing i Never did when i was a teenager is tell anyone i wrote fic in real life. now my husband and friend and sister-in-law know (the latter involved either alcohol or being confined to a plane, which is a lot like alcohol) and you know how much they think i’m embarassing? they don’t. oh and actually a co-worker. they just go “lol, this is My thing” and it’s a novel they tried to write in college or fanart they post on a secret instagram or a monsters inc page they ran in high school (all real examples) because everyone has some kind of thing they care about, some artistic expression, and we’ve conditioned people to think trying is embarassing. trying is vulnerable and the point, i think! no matter how cringe! 

and vulnerability is this awfully stingy thing because sometimes when you think about it for too long it’s not unlike putting your hand on a hot coal. like, fuck, laying awake at night knowing that people know You Tried and what if they still didn’t like it? humiliating. awful. please schedule me with the goddamn firing squad. you didn’t get the metrics you wanted. or worse, you did and now people don’t think you deserve it. they’re gonna find out you’re just a big fanfiction writing fraud.

but maybe that’s the point! i don’t know! vulnerability is hard and painful and growth and sincerety is almost WORSE. but there’s also something lovely and cathartic about it and at the end of the day knowing that other people feel that, too. can never get too lost in either sauces of thinking you’re the worst thing ever or the best and the only one who gets it. just gotta accept the vulnerability of it all~

i’m back in my daydreaming era, i think fic gave that back to me. i shut her off for a little while, but she’s still there! and it’s not the worst thing, having overwhelming creative ideas on the treadmill or in a hotel lobby or furiously writing in a google doc in the middle of the night even if it does feel Silly. sometimes it does make the world a little more magical, framing in a narrative. 

(my therapist at some point has made comments about my narrative framing skills in the context of my life and getting out of a shitty family situation with a lot of embedded generational cyclical fun stuff to a point i have a lot of the things now i used to dream about despite it, my pathological need to write my way out also applying to my life and maybe it’s not the worst way of moving a locus of control inwards. i used to dream about feeling safe and being respected interpersonally and professionally because it’s something no woman in my family ever really got and i get that now. anyway, as i said, radical vulnerability!)

narratives are powerful and meaningful and art is too, i don’t care if it’s fanfiction at the end of the day! we’ve all felt something or gptten something or felt community and that’s meaningful enough. 

this is a very long-winded and frankly chaotic way of saying sure, i’m a writer enough!

[stormears]

The Fic Was Okay But I'm Making Fanart of It and I Investigated All the Author's Socials

do u like my stupid light novel post title...

I've got this fixation on a Pokemon fanfiction I saw in passing. It stars an MC, whose character is definitely over the line into Edgelord territory, in a Dark and Dystopian fantasy world where a lot of characters are saved by the MC and comment on how cool and mysterious he is as he journeys to a faraway place trying to fight overwhelming evil. The "edge" is not over the top, crazy levels but damn. It is there.

The author mentioned how this fic was a huge passion project spanning years for him. So I...investigated. A lot. Deep diving into the various links to other socials he left around. Like maybe too much but hey, I was curious and it was not difficult.

I found his deviantart where he shows off the 10 or 12 commissioned artworks of his Pokemon characters. I also found out there this 20+ chapter fic is something he started TEN years ago or more. I saw his (defunct?) video game review site. He has a YT channel where he uploaded some soundtracks of obscure video games years back, nothing else. I read much of his reddit history, seemingly his main socmed, where it's made very obvious where he works, or worked. I found where he cross posted the fic to Bulba Garden forums and got the most traction on the fic out any site he's posted it on (still not a lot).

One small factoid standing out to me is that even when he did get big comments (mostly on Bulba) he responded in a sorta robotic way to them. Talking only plot points and never like, gratitude for the reader's time, or excited investment in his plot. His responses were like notes or quotes from a wikipedia article; and any back and forth comments between his readers always read like two scientists discussing their findings of a petri dish. It was a very...dudebro-ish dialect of fanfiction discussion, I must say. It made me kind of annoyed by him.

But. I still liked his fic pretty okay and am going to write him a nice big fat fic comment one day. I'm also sketching up a little fanart of his characters to link in my comment. It's one of many pages of my fanfic journal where I make notes about fics I read/write and create "posters" and moodboards for the same. It's just a sketch now but will receive color too. I know my comment will take 2 boxes what with how much I have to say about the fic and observations I've made. He'll get a big comment flood, and some fanart!

See if he sits up and acts fucking interested then.

[cryptidunknown]

so recently i’ve been kinda having a bad time with my mental health and with christmas break right around the corner i think i’m gonna use this break time to work on my mental health and self care a bit.

there’s a lot of things i need to work on, but the reason i’m here is because one of my biggest problems is social media addiction. specifically tiktok.

i spend most of my day every day hopping from one app to the next, just opening them and scrolling for a bit and not finding anything satisfying and hopping to the next app. i don’t even post on any sites but tumblr, but i have tumblr, tiktok, twitter, facebook, pinterest, reddit, discord, youtube, and snapchat all on my phone and i check all of them several times a day. i don’t even talk to people on discord or snapchat, i just open it compulsively to check the notifications tab (even though i have push notifications on and i rarely get notifs since i don’t actually talk to people) i won’t even watch anything when i open youtube half the time. i don’t tweet and i don’t interact with anyone on facebook. i spend 2-3 hours every day scrolling tiktok and getting nothing out of it. it’s all just escapism and compulsion and, i believe, a genuine addiction. and i think the first step to fixing my mental health issues is to put an end to it.

i’ve tried to stop this before and it hasn’t worked. it doesn’t matter how many times i delete apps or put time limits, i’ll either just find something else to doomscroll or i’ll ignore the time limit entirely.

so this time i'm trying a different tactic. im going to post on here every day (or every other day) to share how much time ive spent on social media that day. I'm hoping this will hold me accountable and give me an actual reason/incentive to spend less time scrolling.

here's the goals/game plan:

no snapchat or discord unless im actually responding to a notification or messaging someone. im leaving them on my phone because i actually do want to use them to make more friends, but im no longer allowed to just open them without reason.

same for youtube, im gonna turn on notifs for my favorite channels so i know im not missing anything and im not allowed to open it unless i actually plan on watching something. same idea with reddit but i might just delete that because the only thing i actually do on there is read r/nosleep

twitter and facebook i actually use to get news and stuff, so im still allowed to check those but i am going to start being conscious of how many times i open them every day

im not deleting tiktok yet because i have a friend or two and my mom who sends me things on there and i like sending things to them. i think for now im gonna just impose a 1-hour time limit on tiktok. this hasnt worked before but i hope it will now since im reporting back to yall. im also required to actually check my dms and the following page when i use it instead of just endlessly scrolling the fyp

tumblr is always allowed because i get actual enjoyment out of it, but i am going to start being more conscious of how many times i open it every day. also am going to make an effort to use it on desktop rather than the app bc i have WAY less problems with scrolling when im on desktop (this goes for all social medias tbh)

a03, my kindle app, podcasts, music, and pretty much anything that involves actually reading or otherwise engaging my brain is always allowed

i think a lot of the reason i turn to social media in the first place is out of boredom and my brain craving easy stimulation. so i think the only way ill be able to successfully avoid compulsively opening social media is to replace it with a less brain-rotting, but still reasonably easy to digest stimulation. I have a couple different ideas for this. ive found that a03 can make a good substitute for that constant stream of content that i crave, and while it may not be the best way to spend hours of my day, binge-reading fanfiction is still better than endlessly scrolling tiktok. so for now at least, a03 is one of my... coping mechanisms is the word i guess. i also picked up the first Heroes of Olympus book from the library and plan to read it over thanksgiving break this week, because it should be easy enough to digest that i dont get bored every few pages and try to open my phone like i do whenever i try to read a book nowdays. my long-term goal is to be able to read properly again, but for now i think a03 and middle grade fiction is a good start. ive also never read HoO and im really excited about it lol. ive also got a knitting project im working on, a podcast im binging (TMA), a few shows i want to catch up on, and games i want to play. im listing these out because they are all easy, digestible forms of entertainment that i can turn to instead of scrolling and get actual enjoyment out of. i know most of them are still just consuming content but right now im just trying to find things to replace endlessly scrolling social media and the things i listed are all things i Actually Enjoy.

this post has gotten very long and sporadic but hopefully i can look back on this post when i need a reminder of how badly doomscrolling and social media addiction affects me and why i need to quit.

im gonna attempt to give a daily update on how much time i spent on social media that day. all posts about this will be tagged as just "#cryptid stops scrolling" in case you wanna block that

and here’s my screen time from last week just to give y’all an idea of where we’re at

[deniigi]

Okay so I'm about 30k into writing a fic, with about the first 20 chapters roughly plotted out, and I was thinking about starting to publish the first chapter with weekly updates, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with the publishing. Do you think it's better to write a large portion then sit back and post regularly or start posting and kinda wing in the end?

What’s a good chapter length?            

Idk if this is the same anon, but these asks seem like they go together I think!!

Okay, so I’m not here to tell you how to live your life or write, but I can tell you how I think about chapter fics and chapters.

Starting with chapter fics and posting:

lot of it depends on your motivation. What drives you? What encourages you and makes you want to write?

If comments and kudos drive and encourage you, then by all means! Go ahead and post a couple of chapters. I often post around 3 chapters of a long-fic to see what kind of reception it gets. If folks are excited about it with me, then chances are that I will extend it into a longer piece than originally intended or plotted out because I want to give those people time and space to play in the space with me. An immediate and broader reception puts a little more pressure on me to keep a fic moving and that pressure often takes the form of excitement, which can be really fun for everyone involved.

If folks are a little lukewarm at first, then I take that as a sign that I’m writing mostly for myself and a handful of super cool folks and that means that I’m going to work at a more leisurely pace and trust that those readers will stick with me and indulge me (and they usually do because readers are great!) This means that I’m still having fun, but I can post in a more erratic way and people aren’t going to mind or notice all that much because we’re all being chill in a little bubble together. In this case, a lot of times, I’ll just write out the whole fic and post it at once or very quickly over the span of a week or so. (Whispering Seas and Level Up were like this. I wrote them primarily for a limited audience and myself and so they went up lickety-split because I wasn’t so invested in building suspense or keeping the momentum rolling. It was about what I was enjoying.)

So from there, it depends on you.

What feelings are you chasing friend? Validation or relaxation? You interested in rolling around in the writing process or are you trying to get/fling an idea out into the abyss because it just needs to be out there?

Either way is totally fine. But knowing which way you lean will help you decide what posting method will help make sure that you finish the fic (because that’s the hard part and the end goal here.)

For chapter-length:

this depends on your fic, your pacing, your writing, and the overall length of your piece.

For me, when I write chapter-fics, I want to give my readers a good 15-30 mins of reading time per update. That feels like a really satisfying chunk of time for an update or chapter to me. I, personally, read pretty fast and luckily, I write at the speed of light, so my chapters tend to be around 4,000 words.

If I’m writing a climax, I’ll take it up to 6,000 words. But when I start butting up against 8,000 words in a single chapter, I’ll start to consider breaking it into 2 because usually there is a natural splitting point in there somewhere and around then, you start to run the danger of having too many ideas in one long stretch.

That can exhaust your reader.

Also for me, personally, I find that chapters that are shorter than 2500 words are a little frustrating. Chapters that are around 1000 words are especially frustrating, because I just have to keep hitting that ‘next’ button and every time I do that, I break out of the story.

So if you’re doing short chapters (around 2,000 words I would say) your pacing needs to be on point. You need to make sure that you are driving those transitions (i.e., there better be a cliff-hanger at the end of every chapter to keep me wanting to crash forward in spite of everything telling me I’ve got important shit I need to do) And you need to make sure that you have a very specific reason for keeping the chapters so short (i.e., building suspense or moving between POVs or settings).

Obviously, this is different if you’re writing a slow burn or if you’re doing something with more purple prose, in which case more is more and less is more, but if you’re trying to drive a plot, these would be my suggestions.

They may not work for you and your story-telling practices and likes, though, so definitely don’t consider them a rule!

Hope that helps, anon(s)!

[dummerjan]

the day started good i got up at around 7 and walked the dog and before it had turned 8 i was frying tofu and having breakfast motivation and enegry bursts hit me at random times and make me do even more random things but i take what i can get however ever since i have been wasting away in bed scrolling tumblr or reddit and reading the odd fanfiction but not actually doing anything really fun (though i did watch an episode of the untamed special edition this morning that counts for fun and something i actually want to do) just like the last few weeks there are plenty of things i want to do that i enjoy doing and i have all the time in the world i really do i have barely any responsibilities at the moment and yet i find myself watching the same old vaguely entertaining but unmemorable youtube videos and listlessly scrolling page upon page of tumblr i could try knitting i could do embroidery i could work on the dozen or so sewing projects i have started or planned out in my mind i could be baking or reading books (i did read some pages of buddenbrooks when i was waiting in hospital and i really enjoyed it it is a surprisingly fun book and yet i hadn't turned a page since spring) i could watch the dozens of shows on my mdl watchlist that i am excited about and yet... which once again leads me to the question if i am having a depressive episode but can't tell because my meds prevent excessive crying or maybe i am just lazy really fucking lazy and understimulated and bored because i have been out of school for 11 months now and have yet to figure out what i want to do next i did have an aptitude test for an apprenticeship on friday so i am making some progress i am doing things a lot of very new to me very stressful things i wouldn't have pictured myself doing even half a year ago maybe all of those new experiences are why i am finding myself so unmotivated and not the slightest bit eager to do any of the stuff i do have a weekly spanish course which means 2,5 hours of social interaction in a foreign language and i am a guest student in a slavic studies course at uni and the first online meeting took place this week but those things are actually surprisingly easy once i am in the situation even if beforehand i was reluctant and would have preferred to quit before even starting i am not nearly as anxious or exhausted afterwards which is great and promising for future endeavours but i feel so lazy and useless and just shit about literally spending all day in bed in uncomfortable positions and feeling shit about it

[olderthannetfic]

If someone wanted to get to know fandom history better, do you have any specific blogs/youtubers/websites to reccomend reading through??

--

I recommend not trusting youtube.

The place to start for AO3-adjacent history is Fanlore. Just browse around. There are tons of different great articles. Fanlore is strongest on the sort of fandom that came out of Star Trek fic zines in the 70s and that progressed through Usenet, Mailing lists, and Livejournal. This is more of an English language fandom of US tv shows emphasis, though it varies.

There are certain individual fandoms with really distinct, interesting histories, like Sherlock Holmes. I know there are various podcasts and things that cover that. I can't recall what the one was that people liked that was broader. I remember the Three Patch Podcast being popular for Sherlock-centric stuff.

The hard part is finding things that cover Fanlore's weak points. It's just not as developed for English-speaking anime fandom from the 1980s-2010s. (Now that anime fandom, at least for m/m shipping, overlaps more heavily with AO3 use, I suspect things will improve for recent fandoms.) And being in English, Fanlore is very spotty on non-English fanworks fandom. It's strong on fic, podfic, and vids but weaker on fan art and AMVs. For example, Fanlore's DeviantArt article is quite short.

The place I personally encounter fans outside of my AO3/tumblr bubble is r/FanFiction on reddit, but that's better if you have a question to ask than for easy browsing of fandom history posts. And of course, it can be hard to tell if a post is good if you're starting from zero.

I might start with a brief overview of what the internet was like early on:

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fandom_and_the_Internet

There are a lot of broad articles like this that could provide some ideas of where to look next.

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Timeline_of_RPF

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Slashed_Sources

It's also often easier to approach certain long tumblr posts with many reblogs via a fanlore page:

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Was_Fanfic_Any_Different_in_the_Olden_Days%3F

[nought-shall-go-ill]

Writer ask game - 1, 6, and 32

Sorry for taking so long to reply to this, wonderful @hpeveryonelives! I’ve actually started a Tumblr hiatus, but I wanted to quickly answer before I good and proper delete the app. Thank you so much for asking though! They were so fun to answer.

1. How long ago did you start reading fanfiction? Writing fanfiction?

I started reading fics as a wee bairn in around 2005. I started writing fanfic not long after that (2006 maybe?), but the first fic that I ever published publicly was made in mid-2007. I was then really into fanfic for about 2 years before taking a 12-year or so hiatus and returning last year.

6. How do you find new fic to read? Where do you primarily read fanfiction?

I go through stages! When I first returned to fanfic I was aware that the world had changed a lot since my days on MNFF and HPFF, so I just searched online for recommendations. I then found a lot through Reddit, though I quickly became disillusioned with that, and then I became fully committed to Ao3, so I would just search through the tags/filters/ships on there.

These days, however, I am quite a bit busier, so I rely mostly on Tumblr (after creating my page) and Discord. I am aware this makes me miss a lot of smaller fic writers though, so I am hoping to rectify this (and return to my Ao3 strategy) when life calms down a little.

32. Copy and paste your top three favorite lines/jokes/sentences you’ve ever written. What fics do they come from?

This is a hard one, as I can be super critical of individual sentences after the fact, but here are a few from some recently published fics that I don’t entirely hate:

① Until the Tree Dies, Chapter 2:

The second rumour limped in on a Tuesday morning and haunted the castle for the rest of the day.

I like it because I think it encapsulates the combined disgust and ever so slight fear of Remus I imagine Snape having just several years after the prank.

② The Other Half of the Sky, Chapter 1:

Yet just as from time to time she saw the most exceptional sights in the rundown areas of this otherwise quaint coastal town, she often wondered if exceptional things might be possible from her very own brand of filth.

I’m not 100% satisfied with the composition of this sentence, but I do so very much love the meaning behind it for my protagonist. I think it embodies a lot of what her journey will be.

③ The Other Half of the Sky, Chapter 2:

Emmeline had the sort of handshake that made Lily think she would be rather good with horses.

This is nothing special, but it made me chuckle when writing because I felt people would just know what Emmeline was like from that one sentence. And I was right! @mabeltothknows commented pretty much saying exactly that.

Thank you so much again, lovely!

[beemovieerotica]

so there was a reddit post about how somebody's manager at work hunted down a fanfiction one of his younger subordinates was writing on ao3 (based on 1 line), realized the characters were loose stand-ins for him and the subordinate in romantic/sexual scenarios, then he read it out in front of her coworkers to embarrass her.

overwhelmingly people sided with the writer (which I agree with) but for a lot of like....objectively bad reasons. "those writings were PRIVATE!" "fanfiction is an intimate, sacred activity to explore one's self" and....I'm sorry but y'all NEED to learn your rights.

if you post your fanfiction online, on a publicly accessible site, it is not private. you have no argument for "my privacy was invaded" and you will not win that case. unless somebody hacked your google docs,

you need to shut the fuck up, and not admit to writing anything.

if someone finds something they believe that you wrote online and seek to humiliate you for it, in a professional setting, you are in a great position to get that person fired.

especially if the content is sexual.

because publicly attributing sexual ideas to a coworker and reading it in the workplace is, in fact, sexual harassment.

the burden of proof is entirely on THEM to establish that you wrote the work. and if you've been smart about your online presence and don't have a fucking carrd 20 pages long listing down life details that can 100% be used to identify you, then you'll be fine.

it is extremely difficult to prove who the author of a work is unless actual, legal names are included. i guarantee that HR doesn't give a shit about investigating authorship of a fucking fanfiction UNLESS you have done the work for them by admitting you published it.

they will, however, be happy to get rid of a manager who distributes weird, romantic / sexual stories to his subordinates.

your fanfiction is not private and it is not sacred. be smart about it. keep your mouth shut.

[hughjidiot]

Hugh Jidiot’s Weekly Whatever #1

Hey there friends and fans! Welcome to the inaugural post of my new blog, the Weekly Whatever.

Since I’ve recently had some more free time added to my schedule, one of the things I want to do is be more sociable online. To interact more with the folks who follow me, whether they follow me for my fanfiction, my original fiction, my opinions on cartoons and media, my stupid memes that aren’t half as clever as I think they are, and so on.

So I’ve decided to start this new blog series where I talk about everything I listed above, share random facts about myself, discuss upcoming projects... Pretty much ramble about whatever’s on my mind. I do have a fair number of follows, so hopefully at least some of you will find some of my blathering interesting and could potentially open further avenues of conversation. Naturally if I want to get really in depth into a particular subject that will get its own blog post(s) in the future.

Let’s start!

- All my life I’ve loved creating things, writing stories in particular. From a young age I decided I wanted to make a living writing books, and I’ve been regularly writing fanfiction on and off for well over a decade as a way of cutting my teeth. The Hugh Jidiot moniker is probably my... tenth account I’ve had over the years? At any rate, it’s by far the most successful.

- I’m hoping to make this the year I finally write a novel I’ve dreamed of writing for years, now that I’ll be having a lot more free time. I have many ideas, some more developed than others. Currently I’m in the process of refining one idea that’s been in my head for years, and hope to start on the project proper soon.

- This project in question might not even be a traditional novel. It might work better told in a non-traditional format like a web series, or even an audio drama.

- In case it wasn’t obvious by anyone who’s seen my stories on Reddit, I love horror. I grew up on Goosebumps and was reading Stephen King as early as 6th grade. I hope to write more horror/thriller themed fanfiction as well at some point.

- I’m also interest in a lot of other creative venues: graphic design, drawing, sculpting, painting, even tabletop game design. That last one in particular is a favorite hobby of mine, and creating a full tabletop game - board game, card game, RPG or whatever - has also been a lifelong dream of mine.

- I’m a tarot geek, big time. I love studying the meaning behind all of the different cards and how they link when paired with others as part of a larger reading. Of course I don’t really think tarot cards can predict the future; I just think they’re neat.

- I’m secretly five raccoons who stand on each other’s shoulders and don a trench coat when I need to go outside.

- To give you an idea of just how much I love writing: in fifth grade we had a creative writing assignment to write a short story based around an illustration. Most kids’ stories were one or two pages. Mine was seven pages.

- I love Pokemon, even though I sort of fell out of it in recent years and am just now trying to get back into it. One of my possessions I still have from my childhood is a small stuffed Squirtle, who is also my favorite Pokemon.

Well, I’d say that’s enough rambling for now. Hope some of you found this interesting, at least. Until next time, peace from the heart my friends!

[agrarianradfem]

hi, this is random but what do you like to read? I'm in a rut, so was wondering if u have recs or current reading list or tbr or smth? I rmbr u saying that u read 3 hrs a day? :)

Hi!! I do read a lot! Mostly nonfiction, romance, and a little bit of fantasy and contemporary/literary fiction. I’m currently reading The Hellion’s Waltz, the third in Olivia Waite’s Feminine Pursuits series (all three are ff historical romances set in England - Hellion’s Waltz isn’t out yet but I have an advanced copy). I would absolutely recommend the first, The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics if that sounds interesting.  In general, here are some of my favorite books: Nonfiction:  - Sweetness and Power by Sydney Mintz: A history of sugar, colonialism, and power dynamics in its production and consumption. Is rather academic but it is readable and slim. - Who Cooked the Last Supper?: This book is always recommended among radfems with great reason - women need to learn that the male way of thinking is wrong in so many ways, and that women have been making vital contributions to humanity that have been misattributed (purposefully and incidentally because of patriarchy) to men.  - Milk by Kurlansky: This is the history of milk. It includes a wrong fact about the history of cheese (Kurlansky misattributes it to a man as part of Myth of Man the Hunter - see Who Cooked the Last Supper? to learn more about misattributions. Cheese was absolutely developed by women who were at home caring for children). But otherwise it’s a great and very readable history of one of humanity’s most important foods.  - In The Shadow of Slavery: All about how enslaved Africans brought their foods and food traditions to the Americas and how food was a key part of resistance. Great information about things like rice cultivation in South Carolina and food as resistance in Brazil.  - Invisible Women by Criado-Perez. Excellent book on the ways in which failing to sex disaggregate data (aka not separating out data on women vs men instead of lumping it all together) fails women, from car design to snow clearing plans. Great as an audiobook.  - Fran Lebowitz Reader: This audiobook is amazing.  - In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. He brings his humor to Australia and you’ll want to purchase plane tickets immediately. (Can’t wait for Australia and NZ to open to vaccinated travelers!) I also love Thunderbolt Kid, At Home, and The Body by him.  - The Emperor of All Maladies: This is a history of cancer and its treatment. This is a tome, but is absolutely fascinating.  Romance:  - A Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics: Really a lovely novel about female empowerment (like the real kind: standing up for oneself in the face of male efforts to hinder women, women becoming the best patrons and confidants for each other, etc) - Ravishing the Heiress: This is a straight romance, and one not the best intro to the genre for lesbians who don’t read any straight romance. But for fans of the genre (or even just romantic subplots in books and fanfiction) this is a masterclass example of a marriage of convenience and slow burn romance.  - Devil in Winter and Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas. For those who loved Bridgerton, these are amazing. DinW is one of the most beloved historical romances of all time, and Marrying Winterborne is from her newest series and that book is becoming beloved as well. 

Fantasy: - When Women Were Warriors: This is a story told in three parts (it’s not three books, you have to read all three parts to complete the story) set in pseudo-medieval England about a matriarchal, matrilineal society where lesbianism is common. Great for fans of fantasy who don’t need magic, creatures, or space travel, etc.   - All the books written by Tamora Pierce. Her books are mostly YA/Middle Grade but they have excellent pacing, plots, and character development. My favorites are the Alanna books and the Immortals series. These are great if you’re someone who likes shorter books where for attention purposes or just for a fast read. I reread these all the time - Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs: TW sexual assault at the 1/3 point in the series (and for basically every book in the sister Alpha and Omega series). This is Urban Fantasy for all the fans of werewolves, vampires, fae, fairy tales, wendigos, and all the other scary legendary creatures. Features a great female lead, a straight romantic subplot, inter-species alliances and wars, fighting for good, and is set in the Pacific Northwest. There’s a billion of these books (read in order) so you’ll have plenty to keep you reading if you like the first.  - Daughter of the Forest: TW graphic sexual assault. This is a famous retelling of The Six Swans story. Straight romantic subplot. This book is constantly recommended as one of the best retelling stories and I agree. I would recommend reading rather than listening to an audiobook of this one because there’s no reason to read the assault scene - just get to it and skip a few pages and resume. I fully believe that if this book was written now it wouldn’t have the descriptions, but it is important to the plot.  Contemporary/Literary Fiction:  - Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters: TW for abusive relationship and prostitution. This story of the underground of London at the turn of the century is a lesbian classic for a reason. Happy ending! Great exploration of the time.  - Bastard Out of Carolina: TW graphic sexual assault of a child. This book is a really hard read about the ways in which women pick men over their own daughters, religion oppresses women, poverty is worse for women than men, women are expected to be quiet and just suffer their burdens. I read this for the first time in a Women’s Writing course in college and it made me bawl my eyes out. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.  - The Well of Loneliness: I love sad books and this is no exception. Sad lesbian at the turn of the century. Historically important book.  - Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver: This ecofiction book is not the usually recommended book by her. This takes inspiration from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and interweaves three stories of women, life and death, and the health of the environment.  I use goodreads and Kirkus reviews to find books all the time. If any one of these sounds interesting, put it into goodreads and you’ll be able to find other books by the author, books similar to it, and lists that contain the book (for instance, if you look up prodigal summer it’s probably on an ecofiction list and you can find a ton of ecofiction books that way!). Kirkus is amazing for finding new and upcoming books. The online reviews are free (I think - my mom is a paid subscriber to the magazine). For nonfiction I also look through Washington Independent Review of Books.  Another underrated way to find books is Facebook and Reddit! If there’s a genre you really like, then find a facebook group for it. This is a great way to find what others love, new releases, and you can save posts (underutilized thing fb does) and have something to scroll through the next time you are looking for a book. Reddit has a bunch of subreddits for different genres. Many of the large genre groups run books clubs (fantasy runs a bunch of structured book clubs, romance runs buddy reads, etc.).  Hopefully this gives you some place to start!