#I was on ff.net for official fanfic sites before Ao3

[chlorinewriter]

Tagged by @erinyra for the fanfiction writer bingo! I haven't done anything like this in ages, but thanks for tagging me! It's fun to think about (and to read through your tags). Tagging @ditttiii and @giurochedadomani in case either of you'd like to participate ^^ Clean template can be found here.

[livinginsunnyhell]

Ask game for fanfic writers! ⌨️🖊📓📝

1. What fandoms do you write for?

2. What pairings do you write for?

3. What is your most popular fanfic?

4. Do you write original stories as well?

5. What fanfic of yours should everyone have read?

6. What is a fandom you will never write for?

7. What is a ship you will never write for?

8. Archive of Our Own, FanFiction.net, Wattpad, Tumblr, etc. which platform do you prefer?

9. What are your favorite fanfics?

10. How do you stay motivated to finish what you’ve started?

11. What’s your longest fanfic?

12. Do you want to break your readers‘ heart or make them laugh?

13. What is your planning process?

14. What have others criticized about your fanfic?

15. OCs or no OCs?

16. Do you use sentence starters, writing prompts and/or fandom headcanons for your fanfics?

17. Do you use/follow advice from writing blogs/posts?

18. What is your favorite writing prompt?

19. Dead or overused tropes?

20. Can we get a list of all of your current available fanfics?

21. What’s your shortest fanfic?

22. Do you listen to music during your writing process? What music do you listen to while you’re writing?

23. Long chapters or short chapters?

24. How many WIPs (work-in-progress) do you’ve got?

25. How many WIPs will you finish?

26. First-person-narrative or third-person-narrative?

27. Do you take requests?

28. I will name you three things (drunk Ian — shared bachelor party — Gallavich): write a paragraph or two!

29. What’s more difficult? Fanfics or original work?

30. What writing software do you use?

31. Do you use beta/sensitivity readers?

32. Past or present tense?

33. Do friends and family know that you write fanfics?

34. How did you find the magical world of fanfics?

35. What is your favorite review?

36. Did you ever delete a work of yours?

37. Did your work ever get plagiarized?

38. Do you partake in any fanfic/writing events? (Big bangs, zines, NaNoWriMo, etc?)

39. Collaborations or working solo?

40. Do you have any rituals before uploading a fic?

41. What is something you don’t like about your writing?

42. Rudest review?

43. Guilty pleasure tropes and scenarios?

44. Does fanart of your fanfic exist?

45. Do fanfics of your fanfic exist?

46. Few long essay reviews or many short reviews?

47. What fanfic of yours is truly underrated?

48. What is your favorite sentence that you’ve used in a fanfic?

49. Where do you draw inspiration from?

50. Can we get a teaser for an upcoming chapter?

(Don't feel obligated to answer. Thought if you're into these kinda things, that'd be a nice ask. ;))

Oh this is so nice!! Thanks for sending this @annansmith

I chose a few of them to do. 

1. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, I’m writing for Shameless (Gallavich) but I’ve written for:

Veronica Mars (LoVe), Veep (Amy/Dan), Arrow (Oliver/Felicity), Once Upon A Time (Hook/Emma), The Old Guard (Joe/Nicky), That 70′s show (Hyde/Jackie), Sons of Anarchy (Tara/Jax), Vampire Diaries (Klaroline), Hart of Dixie (Zoe/Wade), Gilmore Girls (Rory/Jess), X-men (Rogue/Pyro), One Tree Hill (Haley/Nathan), and a few others.

2. What pairings do you write for?

Now I write Gallavich. 

But I’d say my top ones I love writing for now (my fanfiction writing has spanned about 14 years) are Dan/Amy, Veronica/Logan, Klaus/Caroline, Mickey/Ian.

3. What is your most popular fanfic?

My most popular fic on Ao3 is The Course of True Love (Arrow) and on FF Of Bloodshed, Babies, and Epic LoVe (Veronica Mars)

4. Do you write original stories as well?

Yes, I do. I’m working on a book, well, two books. But it’s going very slowly. The first is a memoir of my travels from around the world and the second is a vampire urban fantasy one. We’ll see how it goes, but I’d like to finish them by next year and see if I can get them published, but it’s hard so who knows. 

10. How do you stay motivated to finish what you’ve started?

Well, recently I’ve really been trying to finish everything I write. I have a lot of WIPs from years and years ago and even within the the last year, so this answer is pretty new. Basically, I focus on one fic at a time and write a little every day to stay motivated. Now, I try to update once a week on a certain day. I think comments/reviews and kudos and people being genuinely encouraging helps though. It’s also what’s gotten me considering finishing my older fics.

11. What’s your longest fanfic?

Of Bloodshed, Babies, and Epic Love (over 165k)

13. What is your planning process?

Now, it’s different. I have a doc of ideas and I wait to see which one I can’t seem to shake. Then I plan out each chapter with a few sentences and I have a list of things I want to focus on in the story. Usually, each story now has a kind of theme to it and a main focus. I sometimes will just want to write a certain situation/scene/focus and the story is born from there. But what really helps is writing down chapter 1, 2, etc. and having a sentence or two for what I want to happen. It doesn’t always go according to plan, but I never get writers block or forget what happened in previous chapters now.

16. Do you use sentence starters, writing prompts and/or fandom headcanons for your fanfics?

Probably a mixture of fandom (or my personal) headcanons. I don’t start with prompts unless it’s a challenge or sentence starters. Usually, I have a scene I already want to write in my head and then I sit down and write it.

17. Do you use/follow advice from writing blogs/posts?

Yes, I’ve read several books on writing. My undergrad was creative writing too, so I learned a lot there. I also follow writing instagram accounts which are helpful. I take everything I learn with a grain of salt and I see what is best for me. The best advice I heard recently was short sentences and so now I’m experimenting with that.

20. Can we get a list of all of your current available fanfics?

There’s a lot from many different fandoms. I used to be on FF.net as Psyc0gurl0 and now I’m ProstheticLoVe on a03. I like writing on ao3 better cause it’s easier and I love the tagging process. Plus the gallavich fandom on there is unreal. So to think about going back to ff.net to finish my WIPs seems like such a process now. 

Currently though, I’m writing an Ian’s POV 5 chapter fic called Chocolate. It’s not out yet, but it’ll focus on Ian from 1x06 to 1x09 or so and how his feelings for Mickey change and evolve. It’s the second part to a series called Chocolate and Cigarettes. Mickey’s POV was Cigarettes.

22. Do you listen to music during your writing process? What music do you listen to while you’re writing?

Yes, I listen while writing but I need silence while editing. I have a Love (lol) playlist. It’s basically all the love songs that remind me of couples I ship. So for example, The Acid is in there a lot because their music is great, but also Basic Instinct is so haunting. Overall, I like all music except country, so sometimes I’ll listen to my larger playlists while writing. 

23. Long chapters or short chapters?

So this has changed over the years. Initially, I wrote short chapters, then when I got back into fanfiction while writing klaroline they got a lot longer and now it’s just basically where the chapter has a natural ending. So the chapters are between 4 - 10k words depending. I try to get over 4k though. Right now, once I’m done with my current fic, I really want to write something over 100k.

24. How many WIPs (work-in-progress) do you’ve got?

A lot...none in Shameless though. Well, I guess my current one, but I haven’t posted that yet. I’d say I probs have about 10 WIPs spanning different fandoms. I know. But my goal for 2021 is to pick two and finish them. 

25. How many WIPs will you finish?

Not all of them. Some of them are from years and years ago. But I’d like to finish the ones that I still get reviews on. So there’s a SOAs fic I want to finish cause that fandom is so lovely. I also want to finish a klaroline one cause that was fun to write. And my Amy/Dan ones I’d like to finish. I would like to finish my Veronica Mars ones (I have two) but they need a lot more attention, so when people message me about them I tell them the planned ending.

28. I will name you three things (drunk Ian — shared bachelor party — Gallavich): write a paragraph or two!

“Fuck, Mickey, I probably shouldn’t have had the third Hot Toddy,” Ian grimaced as the world around him spun. 

Mickey laughed at him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Ian wanted to think his future husband just wanted to pull him closer, but he had a feeling it was to steady him.

“Probably should’ve cut you off earlier,” Mickey said tugging Ian closer. 

Ian wobbled and plopped down on the back steps of the porch. Mickey followed suit a moment letter and they both looked out toward the backyard where the Gallaghers, Balls, and a few of the Milkovich cousins were alternatively huddling around a fire, drinking, and dancing.

“I blame Lip for making us have this stupid shared bachelor party in the first place,” Ian grumbled.

Mickey kissed him on the forehead as Ian lay his head on his shoulder. “It’s Sandy’s fault too.”

Ian hmmed in response and Mickey knew he was going to fall asleep any moment. He ran his hand up and down Ian’s arm and watched as Debbie bounced over to them.

“Jesus, you aren’t even married yet and you two are like an old married couple. Are you going to come dance or what?” she whined.

Mickey looked down at Ian, whose eyes were already closed, and then back up to Debbie. She was watching them with knowing eyes.

“We’ll dance at the wedding. Go grab Lip, I need his help to get Sleeping Beauty upstairs.”

Debbie turned to go get her eldest brother and Mickey looked back down at Ian. In his sleep, he nuzzled Mickey’s shoulder, breathed deeply, and a gentle smile appeared there. 

3 more days and they’d officially be husbands. 

34. How did you find the magical world of fanfics?

I was about 10 and my cousin used to write a buffy the vampire slayer zine. There was a link to a site called buffyworld.com or something like that. And I found fanfic that way. There was a link on the site to ff.net and that’s how I stumbled across that. I stayed there for many many years until my second time in the veronica mars fandom around 2014 when I was lead to a03 and then I’ve been there ever since. On and off, my writing has fluctuated through the years based on my personal life.

49. Where do you draw inspiration from?

Everywhere! omg. It’s insane. Gallavich I love writing for. There’s so many different facets to them, but truly everywhere I find inspiration. I have a whole doc of gallavich ideas that have stemmed from other fanfics, headcanons from me and other people, rewatching episodes, what’s going to happen in s11, cute moments i’d like to see happen, holidays, and just general life. I saw a pic of WW2 vets who were in a long term relationship and i was like mickey and ian! another idea is born.  

[camryndaytona]

Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare is one of the most popular and successful young adult authors of today, however, a huge percentage of her fans have no idea of her past where she was know more for her bullying than her writing. I started this as a post on my “You Should Know” instagram, but eventually it got way too big and I had to create a post for it as well.

Terms to Know

Big Name Fan

Or “BNF” is an old term mostly used during the early 2000s, before ff.net or AO3.

They were the biggest names in fandom, producing the most popular art or fanfics.

Getting on the wrong side of a BNF could lock you out from the entire fandom, as you would be blocked from any forum they (or they friends) moderated.

The Inner Circle

In the early 2000s the Harry Potter fandom was essentially ruled by the Inner Circle. 

Although most of the Inner Circle changed constantly due to fandom drama and scandals, one member stayed for almost it’s entire duration: Cassie Claire

ff.net

Fanfiction.net

One of the early and most popular sites for hosting fanfiction.

The Draco Trilogy

Draco Dormiens

Author’s Summary: When an accident in Potions class turns Harry into Draco and Draco into Harry, each is trapped playing the part of the other. Romance, mistaken identities, Really Cunning Plans, evil bake sales, a love triangle, and snogs galore.

Draco Sinister

Author’s Summary: When Hermione is kidnapped, Harry and Draco must team up to rescue her from a thousand-year-old evil that threatens the entire wizarding world. Cursed demon swords, love potions, time travel, dementors, flying dragons, Draco wears leather, and everybody dies at least once. Except when they don’t.

It is notable for being the source of the Draco in Leather Pants trope as well as the catalyst for the Cassandra Claire plagiarism wank.

Draco Veritas

Author’s Summary: The sequel to Draco Sinister, featuring winter at Hogwarts, snogging, Quidditch, mysterious things and Rhysenn Malfoy.

Why was the Trilogy so popular?

As most people in fandom probably know, there’s usually two subsets of shippers: gay and straight (please note that, back in the early 2000s, there was still a lot of homophobia, and the heterosexual ships were undeniably more popular for that reason).

Since The Draco Trilogy had both Draco/Hermione and a lot of Harry/Draco subtext, fans of both ships flocked to the fic.

The Plagiarism 

Although she’d done it all along, it wasn’t until the second fanfic, Draco Sinister, that fans began to catch on. What was “it?”

Cassie including a lot of quotations from other work. And I mean a LOT. She lifted entire conversations and paragraphs from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Black Adder, Red Dwarf, and Terry Pratchett. At first she didn’t even mention this “inspiration,” so everyone assumed that this wit was all hers.

Once she was called out, she put a standard disclaimer at the top of her work, which was worded to imply that she might have borrowed a few, small quotes here and there, not that she was taking paragraphs and scenes. When she was called out for her continued plagiarism she switched to claiming that she “forgot” what her sources were.

Finally a former fan called Avocado got tired of it and reported her to ff.net. Within a day her works were taken down.

Predictably the fandom melted down over this and accusations began to fly. Cassie used her status as a BNF to ban anyone mildly critical of her from any message board or mailing list. A friend of Cassie’s claimed to be a real life lawyer and harrassed young fans with seemingly legal threats. There are even threats of people calling the police in an early form of “swatting.” Cassie tried to get a “hater” kicked out of university for “hacking” her and a REAL lawyer had to be involved before Cassie admitting to making it all up.

After all that began to die down, as she was working on the third installment of the trilogy, Cassie began accusing her friend and fellow BNF, Aja, of plagiarizing her. When that failed to incite the anger she wanted against Aja, Cassie began to claim that Aja was posting leaked spoilers for the Draco Trilogy. This infighting between the two lead to the collapse of The Inner Circle.

Laptop Gate

Although the third part of the Trilogy wasn’t as popular as the first two, due to the plagiarism scandal, it still racked up a ton of views when she began posting it. So when there was a potential threat to the continuation of the saga, readers were horrified.

This potential threat was a break in and the loss of Cassie’s computer.

Almost immediately after the robbery was announced Cassie’s lawyer friend (who was also her roommate) popped up again. This time, they were raising money to replace the laptops of Cassie and her roommates that had been stolen in the break in. Any extra money from the fundraiser would go to some vaguely mentioned charity.

Divisive comments poured in.

Some people expressed frustration that more “meaningful” fundraisers (like someone who had lost everything in a fire) didn’t get anywhere near as much attention and support.

Fans were even less happy when no proof was provided of either the break in or the charitable donation of excess funds (which was reported to be over $10,000).

When called out they changed the subject and posted links to another fan that was also fundraising (although they never posted any charity before or after, even when asked to do so the lawyer friend claimed to be “too busy” to share a link).

Published Works

After enjoying her celebrity as the Queen of Fanfiction, it’s no surprise that Cassie decided to venture into actual, original published works.

Except they weren’t that original, because it’s Cassie and she really, really seems to like “borrowing” from herself and others.

Let’s start with some name changes

Cassie

Cassandra Claire (with an i) is her fanfiction name

Cassandra Clare (without an i) is her published name

You may be surprised by how well this name change suited her. For a long time, before exposes began to be posted, you could google her published name without finding out about her history in fandom. Additionally, some of her victims from her fanfic days read her published books without realizing who the author actually was (until they started to recognize the quotes and paragraphs that she’d lifted straight from her fanfiction)

Her Writing

“Mortal Instruments” is Cassie’s Ginny/Ron incest romance fanfiction.

“The Mortal Instruments” is Cassie’s published work, about two fake siblings who fall in love with each other.

Similarities to Harry Potter

Now I haven’t read Mortal Instruments or The Mortal Instruments so I’ll let someone who has read them both do some explaining:

When I opened the book, I knew that Clary was Ginny. Alec was Harry. Isabelle was Clare’s version of Blaise (who back then was not officially male or female, and could therefore be interpreted by fandom either way). Valentine was a strange mixture of Lucius and Voldemort. And Jace, of course, was undeniably Draco.

Jace is so Draco, in fact, that it’s impossible to see him as his own character. The way Clare characterizes Jace is the exact same way she characterized her Draco. They share lines (the ones she didn’t steal from Buffy, of course), they share nervous tics, they share appearances, and they even share memories. The second I read the scene in which Jace tells Clary the story about the boy and the falcon, I felt an unpleasant jolt of recognition: that story is one Draco tells in one of the Draco Trilogy installments. I couldn’t remember which one. I couldn’t even remember who Draco told it to (Harry? Ginny? Hermione?). But I knew it was if not word for word taken from her fanfiction, it was very, very close.

Yikes. That’s a lot of similarities.

The same person I quoted about went on to say that the fanfiction was still much better than her published work, and that she’d rather re-read the fanfic than the non-fanfic.

Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dark Hunters

Almost immediately after The Mortal Instruments (the non-fanfic one) became popular, Sherrilyn Kenyon slapped it with a lawsuit for copying her urban fantasy series, Dark Hunters.

Kenyon fans attacked Claire fans, Cassie’s history was brought to light, and Cassie got to pull out her favorite argument “you hate me because I’m Jewish.” Which is interesting, because I’ve been working on this for two weeks, and I only just learned that she’s Jewish when I read about her accusing others of anti-Semitism.

Now as Cassie apologists will tell you, Kenyon did ultimately lose that suit, but it’s really, really starting to get repetitive over here.

I’ll borrow a quote from Ryan Givens, “If you meet an asshole in the morning, you met an asshole. If you meet assholes all day, you’re the asshole.” Or in this case, maybe you’re the plagiarist.

Common Questions

Has Cassie apologized for this?

She did occasionally

Has Cassie changed?

My opinion is no. She’s not.

Let’s see, as the “Queen of YA Literature” she has:

used Copy Right strikes to prevent people from calling out problematic passages in her books

sent her fans after critics

posted a hilariously ironic blog about cyber bullying

attacked her OWN FANS because they didn’t like the ending of a book

currently complains about people posting her real name (which is Judith Rumelt, in case you wanted to know) despite her own history of publishing people’s actual phone numbers online

Calls critics anti-Semetic while having this quote in her book

Claims that she was threatened when someone called her friend an “ignorant duck” 

Loves Token Minorities

Wrote a questionable almost rape

My Thoughts

I don’t like Cassie.

I really don’t.

And look, I’m not saying that Cassie is a narcissist, but here’s a fun little saying called The Narcissist’s Prayer:

That didn’t happen. And if it did, it wasn’t that bad. And if it was, that’s not a big deal. And if it is, that’s not my fault. And if it was, I didn’t mean it. And if I did… You deserved it.

Does any of that sound familiar, because it should. It’s basically Cassie’s text book responce of “avoid admitting fault until there’s too much proof, say I didn’t do it on purpose, blame someone else, claim to be the victim, find another person to accuse of drama.”

Now I’m going to again quote from ProblematicYA because I absolutely love their writing. In this quote, they’re talking about how all of Cassie’s books, even those set in different times or cities, follow the same pattern. Non-Shadowhunter meets Shadowhunter (who is basically Draco).

So what’s really my problem? My problem is the fact that Cassandra Clare is a marginally talented writer who has one story and one cast of characters up her sleeve, and yet somehow she’s sold millions and millions of books based on this. My problem is the fact that Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series was partially copied from her fanfiction trilogy, which copied a plethora of other authors, not even including J.K. Rowling, who provided her with the characters, premise, and setting for her beloved trilogy. My problem is the fact that Cassandra Clare is in the authorly equivalent of a time loop, and has come full circle. My problem is the fact that Cassandra Clare is, in essence, writing fanfiction of her own work, and it is getting published and she is getting paid bank for it, when other far more original and talented authors are getting absolutely nothing for their hard work. I may despise Stephenie Meyer and the world she’s created, but at least Twilight and its accompanying works are her own original product; at least she deserves to reap the benefits of the crazy fandom she’s inspired.

Look. I don’t believe in dredging up ancient history just to hurt people. Shit we did when we were teens shouldn’t be held against us as adults. People grow and change a lot from what they were as teens.

But bitch, you actually have to GROW AND CHANGE. And Cassie hasn’t.

Also, try actually apologizing for what you’ve done instead of silencing critics.

Sources and More Information

As always, I love, love, love fanlore and I linked to many of their articles throughout this post.

A user on the HobbyDrama subreddit made a great write up called The Cassandra Cla(i)re Saga.

ProblematicYA wrote several amazing articles on the subject:

Why I Have A Problem With Cassandra Clare and Why You Should Too

anti-bullying ya queen cassandra clare is a massive bully. water also wet.

They also have an entire tag dedicated to Cassie

Alli6 wrote Things you should Know

Cassandra Clare, Rape Culture, and the Oft-Forgotten Metaphor by The Book Lantern.

SnarkTheater also has pages of things tagged as Cassie Claire, including chapter by chapter break downs of the books.

source http://camryndaytona.com/2020/06/cassandra-clare?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cassandra-clare

[kenshi-vakarian7]

Author Questions

Thank you for the tag @rpgwarrior4824 and @natsora!

I think everyone I know has been tagged, but if you haven’t been, consider yourself tagged! ^_^

---

Author Name: kenshi_vakarian7 (AO3) or iceangelmkx (ff.net)

Fandoms You Write For: As of now, mostly the Mass Effect series.  I’m also writing a four-part, four-way crossover series for Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Soulcalibur, & Tekken, which has been ongoing since 2005 (O_O)!

Where You Post: FF.Net, AO3, and here.  My four-way crossover also has its own series of websites.

Most Popular One-Shot: Hmm I think most of my one-shots are just about even to be honest.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: Part One of my series, “The Ketsueki Quadrilogy: Chishio No Me.”  It recently reached 500 reviews.

Favorite Story You Wrote: Definitely the one I mentioned as my most popular multi-chapter story.  I had so fun writing it because it gave me the opportunity to write crossover interactions, make up dream fight scenes and awesome moments that wouldn’t likely happen in the actual games, and just... it was seriously an amazing two years, that’s for sure.  A lot of my favorite reviews were for this story.

Story You Were Nervous to Post: My very first fanfic.  It’s damn horrible now (like, I highly do NOT recommend anyone read it), but at the time, I miraculously got enough support from readers that I felt encouraged to continue writing.

How Do You Choose Your Titles: Let me tell you something... after years of writing, I find that coming up with titles is... not my strong suit.  I can’t even explain my process of picking titles properly.  I usually just go with my gut instinct and/or what sounds good.

Do You Outline: Definitely for multi-chapter stories.  I will write an outline for one-shot stories sometimes, especially if I don’t write it right away.

Complete: Between every site I’ve published, I currently have a total of 55 stories, which is... a lot more than I thought. O_O

In-Progress: Published-wise, I have two ongoing projects; Part 3 of my four-way crossover series (currently a quarter way done), and my Mass Effect fic, “A Family Twofold,” ...which I have not updated in almost two years. >_> Sometimes, I wonder if the latter is even worth continuing.

Coming Soon: Mass Effect-wise, I started 1 out of 5 prompts that I received forever ago!  Three of them are Freyder, one is Shakarian, and the other is Vetra/FemRyder.

I’m also currently working on two series; The Shepard Saga, a six-part series which focuses on my canon Shepard, Adam, and the temporarily titled The Angel from Nowhere, a three-part series that focuses on my Marc Shepard.

Do You Accept Prompts: Technically yes, but... I have 5 prompts that have been sitting in my ask box since November (sorry!).  I got one of them started, but it’s been a slow-go.

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: I’m personally excited to write and publish my six-part series, The Shepard Saga.  I’m not sure when it will be published, however...

[thecoolkidsbasement]

Milestones! (9/19/18)

Almost one year ago now I posted the very first chapter of IA to fanfiction.net with a bundle of nerves telling me I shouldn’t even bother; that no one would care like they did before because Fallout 4 was released and that’s what everyone would want to read. My best friend actually pushed and convinced me to just post it despite all my hemming and hawing because “what was the worst that could happen?” and if she didn’t push, and if I wasn’t convinced, IA would never have been posted with anxiety-bitten fingernails.

And here we are. We’ll be hitting the one year mark on October 20th in one month, which is absolutely insane to me! As well, Inventor’s Absolution has hit so many milestones. So here’s some dumb statistics for you because I’m lame.

thecoolkidsbasement has officially reached 50 followers, bless you guys :,)

IA has reached over 300k words what the actual F U C K

Between the two sites they’re posted on (AO3 and FF.net), IA has amassed almost 17k in views/reads, 160 comments, and almost 60 follows/bookmarks! IA (on AO3) is also placed at #42 (out of almost 1300 fics) in the Fallout 3 fandom for ‘Most Reads’ at 4038 hits. It’s also spawned some cute fanart and fanfic from my amazing readers as birthday gifts (which I’ll be reblogging soon in celebration!).

At the end of it all, I can’t thank you guys enough because as I was writing this, I realized something. IA isn’t what it is today because I decided to post it almost one year ago--it is what it is because so many of you took an interest in Winona’s story (as well as Butch’s) and I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to sit and read with me! I know I haven’t been around much lately but I’m trying and your support means all the world to me right now <3 I hope to keep you guys entertained and on the edge of your seats for another year to come!

As always--happy reading, happy writing!

Faerie signing out

[velkynkarma]

Get to Know the Author

@bosstoaster has been tagging me all night :P

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

I’ve had the name ‘Karma’ for about 17 years now? I don’t even remember where it came from. The ‘Velkyn’ got added a little over 10 years ago when I decided I wanted to get back into fic writing. But I was still in that phase where you think you’re supposed to ‘grow out’ of fandoms and writing fanfiction, so I didn’t want any of my friends to know I was doing it. I was embarrassed. It was silly. I picked a different handle, VelkynKarma, which actually means ‘hidden Karma.’ Later I just liked the name and also got over my embarrassment for fic writing and just started using it everywhere.

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).

No matter what statistic you look at, Routine Maintenance wins across the board by a large margin. Parasite Knight only has 1 less subscription, though, so I guess it’s a fair contender on subs.

3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

Same as my tumblr icon, it’s one of my OC’s, Morrigu Lovel. He is a little smartass and I love him.

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

Oh for sure, there’s a few lovely readers that come back every time and always have something to say. I love you guys :) And a few others that don’t comment on every chapter or every work, but the comments they leave are always phenomenal and make my day.

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

Depends on my mood, and I don’t necessarily read the entire fic, just the paragraphs/scenes/chapters that really stick out to me. But yeah, I’ve got some favorites I return to a lot.

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

Oh geez. This one’s hard to say since I watch stuff on AO3 and FF.net. A lot? I think a lot of those fics are dead now though.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

Mmmm I don’t really have a tendency to stick to any particular series or AU for very long? I guess in terms of general themes I’ve done zombie AU’s the most, between Age of Heroes for Young Justice and Road Trip to End Times for Voltron...something about zombie apocalypse scenarios just fascinates me, especially since it can be done so many different ways.

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

252 user subs, 444 work subs, 2039 bookmarks. I didn’t even know that until now, huh

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

There’s some character interactions that are such hot-button topics in the VLD fandom I’m cautious about approaching them because I don’t want to deal with people complaining or begging for things to get escalated. Like, I love Keith and Lance’s interactions in canon, but don’t have much fic centered around them because ship lashback is real.

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

Short fic. What is brevity even? I can’t do zines or commissions because I can’t figure out how to manage a damn word count.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

Nope! I don’t write any ships at all. I just write platonic interaction. Though I guess I wouldn’t be adverse to a platonic ‘rarepair’ as long as I liked the characters’ interaction potential.

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

So far, 25. 23 of those are Voltron, 1 is Young Justice, and 1 is Supernatural (experimenting with cross-posting on both of those last two, some fandoms are just hard to break into or not on certain sites).

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

Oh boy. In progress? I wanna say 3. Notes? A lot, lot more.

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I jot down notes! Or email myself ideas if I’m at work/out and about. Or speak them into a little portable digital tape recorder I keep next to my bed, if it’s the middle of the night and I have an idea, but lack dexterity to type.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Not in a long, looong time.

16. How did you discover AO3?

Through TVTropes. Every time I finished a new series I’d swing by to read tropes pages and see if there were any decent fic recs. At first they all went to Fanfiction.net or livejournal but, over time, this ‘Archive’ thing kept showing up. I made an account to lurk or subscribe to things but didn’t actually start posting to it until at least a year later.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

Moderately well known in the platonic corner of it probably assuming people know bosstoaster and I are not actually the same person lol but probably not well known outside of that. Once upon a time I was a Big Name in the One Piece fandom, but after the timeskip I fell out of the fandom and lost my pirate king throne. That’s okay, it was fun while it lasted.

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

No but you all are too kind

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

In terms of ‘official’ authors, Brandon Sanderson is everything I ever aspire to be as a writer, and I take a lot of inspiration from that. For fic? My buddy BlackFriar was super helpful during the Young Justice era. More recently in the VLD fandom, @maychorian was big for just...getting me to stay in the fandom at all? One of her fics got me hooked and I stuck around, and then felt compelled to write, instead of just drifting off to the next interesting thing. And the Think Tank ( @bosstoaster @butteredonions @ashinan @mumblefox ) have all been huge for getting me to keep writing, between writing sprints and interesting discussions and a lot of encouragement, so that’s been huge for me this past year.

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

At the risk of sounding like that one video...just do it. It’s scary to put yourself out there, but just do it. You learn by doing. You also learn by absorbing new things around you, so read a lot and try new stuff; you never know when something completely random or a personal experience might actually add a lot to your story. And finally, write for you, first. Write the stories you want to see. Writing for comments/bookmarks/reblogs only goes so far. It means your motivation is reliant solely on people liking your work, which means you start writing for other people and not for yourself...and if reception is lackluster, it can kill your ability to finish a project, which hurts your practice at follow-through. It’s a slippery slope and starts to make the whole thing a lot less fun and a lot more of a chore. Write things you want to read, and if you feel like sharing them after, other people might like them too, but it’s important that you like it, first.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

Has to be plotted completely. If I try to wing it I meander or get hung up on trying to keep track of details. Turns into total garbage.

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

A few times, sure. Happens to everyone. Most often, it’s people begging, demanding, or insinuating that my platonic fics should include a ship, especially if the fic focuses on the interactions of two specific characters. Those are very frustrating because I’m always upfront about the fic being friendship only, and there are usually a million other ship fics already out there. Leave my platonic fic alone! I usually ignore the comments, or just politely remind people it’s friendship only and will remain that way. In one bewildering instance in a different fandom I had somebody who had been thoroughly enjoying the fic up until the climactic battle, whereupon they were furious at how it was resolved, and took great pains to tell me just what they thought. That one stung. I had to sit on it for a few days before I worked up the nerve to respond, and chatted with a few friends over it too. In the end I realized that it was more comparable to a fan really enjoying a canon work but being mad about a sudden twist that just didn’t seem right to them. It happens. I thanked them for reading, explained that I disagreed with their comments but did hear them, and thanked them for their time. Best I could do.

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

I am straight-up incapable of romance, period. Even so far as to slide into ‘fake’ romance (I once got prompted for fake marriage/dating and literally couldn’t envision how to do it? It’s just so foreign to me). Or flirting. I can’t even identify flirting IRL. Basically anything in that general area of writing is completely out of my league. I can write intense scenes that are intimate in non-romantic, non-sexual ways, but those are really difficult for me to do too and I’m constantly second-guessing myself in case it’s maybe too much.

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

If I told you I’d have to kill you. But no, srsly, I don’t like to share ideas in progress until it’s almost done, just in case. Sometimes I share and then immediately lose interest, but I’ve already raised peoples’ hopes, and that’s just a dick move.

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

I’ll have outlines, or sometimes need to plan around prompts. I don’t usually do series, so I never really need to plan too far ahead though. Sometimes if I’m plotting a crossover/AU I’ll obtain the source material and read/watch/play it to start gathering notes for that fic while working on a different fic, so that by the time I’m done writing the current story, the AU’s skeleton is plotted out and I have a place to slot in all the characters.

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

No. I’ve gotten better habits since working with the Think Tank but I still tend to be more of a ‘burst’ writer (no activity for days or weeks, and then suddenly word vomiting 100K in a month).

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

By a HUGE margin

28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

Oooh, that’s a toss-up between Phantasmagoria and Prince of Memory. The former because I love writing horror and it’s an idea I’d wanted to tackle for a while. The latter because it was a personal writing challenge to myself that I honestly wasn’t sure was going to go over all that well, but the response was stunning, and I was quietly surprised.

29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

Caged Bird, from a different fandom. I make it a personal rule to never delete stories that I’ve posted, but ooh man, I wanted to get rid of this one really bad. I was happy when LJ gutted it. I actually don’t have any real dislike for any of my Voltron stuff.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

Still writing because I’d die if I stopped. Like a shark. But with writing.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

That flash of inspiration, when you get an idea and suddenly it’s building itself almost too fast for you to keep up. Dialogue. Action sequences.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

Getting started. Titles. Editing. Research. Any particularly emotional moment.

33. Why do you write?

Because fandoms are fun but I have so many questions after. “What if X happened? What if Y was a factor? Why not Z?” I try to hunt down answers to these questions in fandoms and if the fic isn’t already written, I write it. Also to challenge myself to do things that haven’t been done in the fandom yet, or to tackle things I haven’t tried yet.

I think everyone’s been tagged already so...feel free to play if you want, I guess!

[bewarethewolfarmy]

(While I totes don’t do anything else, enjoy the paper I wrote for my history class about fanfiction XD

A Poet In Whom Live All The Poets of the Past

In Virginia Woolf's “Letter to a Young Poet” she advises a young poet on being a poet; she says how all poets before and after exist within in, and that they help to move his pen, to write. In this he is ancient, and in this all creativity is a spring from which poets, all writers, drive from. So then what would her opinion of fan fiction be, the writing of stories, and poems, based on others' works? Why then does the common consensus seem to be that the drawing off of others works seem to come off as a bad thing? Fan fiction is not a bad thing innately, yet it is believed to be. Whether it is arguments about its legality, it's usefulness, or it's actual content, fan fiction has the misfortune of being given a reputation for being “bad.” Yet it has always existed; whether Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or a theater company's production of Shakespeare, the world builds it's tales on the backs of old. The continuation of it by writers today should not be an issue worth arguing but it is and so it shall be. Fan fiction does little harm and indeed instead it helps writers. It fosters ability and language skills and despite fears of copyright infringement and the content of their stories, it does not harm those whom they are based on nor readers and writers of the stories thus it should be applauded and treated with the respect it deserves as a writing style

First though there is an important question to answer: what is the subject known as fanfiction? From the perspective of a writer of fanfiction the definition would be “a piece of written prose or poetry which borrows from and is influenced by a previous work or individual”; fanfiction is something that is born from not both media such as movies and tv shows but also from real life people, thus the existence of the controversial but still fanfiction genre known as RPF or Real Person Fiction. In a more professional side, on page 20 of the online edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction “fan fiction” is defined as “amateur science fiction and fantasy fiction; fiction that uses characters or a fictional universe originally created by a professional author or for a television show, movie, etc. Also a work of such fiction” emphasizing an existence in primarily science fiction and fantasy; “fan fiction” in this form has been in use since at least 1939 where it appeared in Le Zombie, though it's shorthand name ��fanfic” according to Oxford did not appear in published form until 1976 almost forty years later, undermining the popular belief that fanfiction itself is a new form. Before the age of internet, fans would publish their works in anthologies and fan-made publications known commonly as fanzines; dating back to the 1930s with the creation of The Comet in May of 1930, the existence of fanzines, primarily for fans to share among each other, allowed for the propagation of mostly non fiction letters and discussions. But the existence of fanzines such as Spockanalia, the first documented Star Trek fanzine, allowed for the spreading of fan written stories, making for some of the earliest examples of what we call fanfiction today. As the World Wide Web took hold, the sharing of fanfiction became easier, with the advent of specialized sites used for housing fanfics of specific media, ranging from Lumos for the Harry Potter community to Anne's Story Page for Titanic. Nowadays the primary sources of fanfiction in the general community are down to a handful of major sites: Archive of Our Archive, abbreviated as AO3, and Fanfiction.net, FF.net, are of the current main sites but many writers of fanfiction also use sites such as Mediaminer.org and the social platforming sites Tumblr and Facebook to post their works as well. On those dedicated sites such as AO3 and FF.net, the stories are always separated out the same as any published work, by genres such as romance or humor, as well as by their specific fandom, such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

As a form born in the shadows then, to people who were simply writing what interested them using stories they knew, what is benefit in making it respected and more mainstream? Well, one is the creative aspect. The creation of new stories is not a spontaneous thing; before a human may learn how to form their own sentences, they have to mimic the words spoken around them by others. It is only by taking those pieces that they can begin to form something else; similarly a writer using old media to create something else is a stepping stone to creating their own works. Authors such as Meg Cabot, RJ Anderson, Cassandra Clare, and E. L. James have all admitted to having written fanfiction in the past; Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods and The Graveyard Book, notes on his official Tumblr that “...it’s a good place to write while you’ve still got training wheels on - someone else’s character or worlds...” and in an article on The Bustle, Emma Lord says of fanfiction that “Fan fiction, for many people, is just a gateway drug to all other fiction writing.” This also counts as an educational use, helping students of creative writing and English in general to feel more comfortable in writing outside of a strictly academic environment, as explored in both “Going Public” an article by Jayne Lammers and Valerie Marsh, and “Literacy Engagement Through Online and Offline Communities Outside School: English Language Learners’ Development as Readers and Writers” by Guofang Li. Marsh and Lammers' subject “Laurie” says how “ 'the problem with [school] writing… is it wasn't storytelling at all. It was just regurgitation of facts or it was analysis of stories that were already there' “ and Li writes of a subject “Yina” that “ when I first interviewed Yina at the beginning of fifth grade, she expressed frustration and lack of confidence in English” (p. 314, Li) but how after two years, in which Yina has involved herself in fanfiction and fandom in general that “Yina’s volumes of sophisticated writing of different genres suggest that she had become an accomplished writer in English” (p. 314, Li). Lammers and Marsh's paper also goes into the societal use of fanfiction, noting how “Reviews both compliment Laura's writing and also provide confirmation that Laura reached a fellow audience member—an experience Laura describes as 'meaningful.'...she derives a level of satisfaction from knowing her work was read by a social other—someone who shares her passion for Wicked”. In Angela Thomas' paper “Fan fiction online: Engagement, critical response and affective play through writing”, she states “The range of practices...is quite astonishing: collaborative writing of fan fiction, the teaching of...the intricate details and specialised knowledge of the field....and dealing with management issues related to a 200 member community. For a group of predominantly 13–17 year olds, the level of writing, discussion and negotiation involved in these practices is remarkably sophisticated.” (p. 229, Thomas).

What then are the arguments against fanfiction? The major one is that of copyright; many authors, including Anne Rice, Orson Scott Card and Diana Gabaldon, have famously spoken out against fanfiction, feeling it is “illegal” and “infringes upon their copyright.” The problem with that is difficulty of arguing for copyright; to copyright something an expectation must be met that  “the material is original, fixed in a tangible medium of expression, and owes its origin to an author.” (p. 201, Chatelain), which is difficult to prove with writing being inspired by other works often. In the case of The Wind Done Gone, a published work by Alice Randall based on and parodying Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell , though lower courts allowed for the blocking of the publishing of the book, the federal appeals court ultimately overturned the ruling and the estate of Mitchell ended up dropping the case and settling outside of court. In addition the existence of the Fair Use Doctrine, Section 107 of the Copyright Law, allows for the use of copyrighted work under certain circumstances, notably nonprofit. But fanfiction writers are not often looking for money when they write; as mentioned in previous paragraphs fanfiction is more a stepping stone, hobby or educational tool than anything else. As Emma Lord mentioned in another article “6 Things Everyone Who Enjoys Fan Fiction Has Heard Before, And Is Totally Over”, “people who write fan fiction don't do it for the money. We do it for the community, and for the chance to connect with writers and readers...”.

Another argument is the content of fanfiction. It is often denounced as lazy writing, often by authors such as George R R Martin who dislikes the useage of the word to what is done now with fanfiction. The discussion of fanfiction in public is something that the writers then dread; “And even though I was only 11, I still had the common sense to keep my mouth shut about it” says Emma Lord in “6 Things”. “ The idea of children using existing characters in their fiction writing was definitely considered bad practice” (p. 229, Thomas) is one point on it, “Anonymity affords Laura the opportunity to take risks with her writing in the fanfiction context without fear of failure or personal judgment” (Lammers and Marsh) is another. In addition is the stigma of it all being about smut, stories in which the main focus is on sex; the issue with this is the statistics. As of May 12th 2017 there are 143,086 fanfictions under the Harry Potter tag on AO3; of them 41,636 are rated “Teen and Up”, 39,765 are “General” in other words safe for children to read, 27,683 are “Explicit”, 25,272 are “Mature” and 8,762 are “Not Rated”; the majority of fics, 55.5%, are notably not Mature or Explicit which would include sex or other graphic materials. Over 84% of the fanfictions for Power Rangers is Teen or General and it is almost 59% for Angel: the Series fanfictions. While this can fluctuate between sites and between fandoms, Twilight for instance only has 40%, it is arguable that fanfiction is much more than public opinion might state.

So again, would Virgina Woolf mind fanfiction? One might say no, that by drawing upon the works of our writing ancestors, we are simply fulfilling the state of being the poet within whom lives all others. In addition there is an argument that can be made that perhaps putting effort into protecting fanfiction is unnecessary; with the protection of the Fair Use Doctrine, and many authors either condoning or simply turning their eyes from fanfiction of their work, fanfiction can appear be not be in danger. But it is not so simple as to say that fanfiction should be protected. It needs also to be embraced, in recognition as the tool for writing and for writers themselves that it is; whether because it helps a person learning a new language, or assists in socializing, or even just allows a would-be writer to grow without judgement, fan fiction writing should be given at least the respect of other writing conventions.

Bibliography:

Chatelain, Michelle. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Copyright Law: Fan Fiction, Derivative Works, and the Fair Use Doctrine." Tulane Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property, vol. 15, Fall2012, pp. 199-217. EBSCOhost, offcampus.lib.washington.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=84608741&site=ehost-live.

This paper explores the legal standing of fanfiction. The author starts off with an explanation of fanfiction but then goes on to explain how fanfiction is protected under the Fair Use Doctrine. The part that interested me the most was near the beginning where she discusses copyright and talks about phonebooks which allowed for a reasonable introduction into how fanfiction fits into copyright laws. It also makes mention of the fact that fanfiction and parody are what is called “transformative works” as well as the existence of the Organization for Transformative Works which runs Archive of Our Own and acts to protect fanfiction writers from legal battles.

Christian, Kaelyn. "Fan Fiction and the Fair Use Doctrine." Serials Librarian, vol. 65, no. 3-4, Nov. 2013, pp. 277-285. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/0361526X.2013.838726.

Similar to the previous one, this article also explores the connection between the Fair Use doctrine and fanfiction. This one though is the one that goes into the The Wind Done Gone case and what happened, giving us one of the few examples of actual published fanfiction going up against it's source material and why fanfiction is still legal. The fact that the Wind Done Gone was allowed to be published despite it's nature as a fanfiction of Gone with the Wind is important to writing.

Gaiman, Neil. "Neil Gaiman's opinion on fanfiction." Neil Gaiman. Tumblr, 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 May 2017.

This is the Tumblr blog for Neil Gaiman, author of the Graveyard Book and the Sandman series. As a well-known and well-liked author, his work have been subjected to interpretation and fanfiction as well as fanart. Thus his opinion on fanfiction is important; the fact he acknowledges it as something that should be best used to grow and not simply an end result of writing works to show why fanfiction is not harmful and is indeed beneficial. I like the humorous way he talks about it as well and the fact that while writing is his livelihood and he has every right to react like some others, being more defensive over his work, he treats his fans with the respect and trust enough to let them write and respect his livelihood at the same time.

Lammers J.C. & Marsh V.L. (2015). Going Public: An Adolescent's Networked Writing on Fanfiction.net. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 59(3), 277–285. doi: 10.1002/jaal.416

I originally choose this article with my outline for the paper so it was the first article I found connected to fanfiction. It goes into the social and educational uses of fanfiction, specifically on how it helped the paper's subject “Laura” with writing. I like that it goes into how important anonymity can be to a fanfiction writer and how vital it is to have the community aspect of fanfiction writing for growth of self confidence. It pairs well with the Guofang Li paper to create an image of fanfiction that goes beyond its hobby status and to a practice that is worth encouraging in young writers so they can better stretch their creative wings.

Li, Guofang. "Literacy Engagement through Online and Offline Communities outside School: English Language Learners' Development as Readers and Writers." Theory into Practice, vol. 51, no. 4, Oct. 2012, pp. 312-318. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00405841.2012.726061.

I choose this article because of its engagement with English as a Second Language students. My thoughts were that ESL students might find fanfiction useful for the development of language skills and the social connection; the article verified my beliefs I think. Like the Marsh paper, this one also focused on subjects, specifically “Yina”, and their development over time which helped to show how writing over time had assisted her instead of simply conjecture. Paired with the Marsh and Lammers writing, it explores how teachers can better help students to be able to feel comfortable writing as well as better develop their skills both in writing and social aspects.

Lord, Emma. "6 Things Everyone Who Enjoys Fan Fiction Has Heard Before, And Is Totally Over." Bustle. Bustle, 17 Nov. 2014. Web. 13 May 2017.

This is an article off of Bustle that I found while looking up information on how fanfiction is generally viewed. Written by a fanfic writer herself, it explores some of the common misconceptions and ideas of fanfiction that the public has. It is not entirely scientific but for a subject that is largely based on societal opinions and uses, and since it is written by someone who is indeed a part of the thing I'm discussing, it helps to clarify opinions on the matter. Most notably the idea that we as writers are not in it for money and we are not simply writing smut, nor are devoid of original ideas just because we choose to write based on others works.

Lord, Emma. "13 Things Fan Fiction Writers Are Very Tired Of Explaining." Bustle. Bustle, 08 Apr. 2016. Web. 13 May 2017.

An article by the same person who did “6 Things”, this one elaborates on the ideas of the first one, going more into what fanfiction writers themselves are like, not simply what our work is like. One notable thing is that she points out that people make fun of fanfiction with the belief that we're not the same as other people or other writers and won't be hurt by the insults. This being a misconception I've experienced myself with my friends I feel it is important to remember considering it's attachment to the idea that if you write fanfiction, you don't talk about it to others unless you know they are trustworthy. Another thing that did not get into the paper proper but that I see is the idea that fanfiction is based on our own feelings when it isn't always true; smut can be written by asexuals and abuse can be written by people who are entirely against abuse. Emma Lord notes that all writers involve some part of their desires in their stories but it is not the main reasoning behind writing.

Martin, George R R. "Someone Is Angry On the Internet." Not A Blog. N.p., 7 May 2010. Web. 13 May 2017.

I needed an argument against fanfiction and I knew that some authors dislike it: looking up who I found this, the writer of A Song of Ice and Fire's official blog. It's an interesting piece where he talks about how bad fanfiction is and why it shouldn't be done, based on how he thinks fanfiction has become something terrible based on what he used to write and how it apparently hurt others. The biggest issue I have with it is that it does make erroneous claims, such as that H. P. Lovecraft died poor because he allowed fanfiction and that the fanfiction GRRM himself admits to writing which didn't use the same characters from media but did use ideas and assumingly settings was better than fanfiction that uses characters from media. Still he does a good job of at least attempting a civil tone about the whole situation I think.

Ohnotheydidnt, and Goofusgallant. "Book Post: How authors feel about fan-fiction." Book Post: How authors feel about fan-fiction - Oh No They Didn't! N.p., 19 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 May 2017.

This is primarily a list and short summary of a group of authors thoughts on fanfiction. It includes JD Salinger who never dealt with fanfiction proper but did get angry over a proposed sequel of his book The Catcher in the Rye, as well as those more in favor like JK Rowling. One thing I found important that they included was the fact about some writers seeing it only about the money; while Anne Rice and GRRM mention how they are protective of their works because of wanting to be the only ones to use them, Orson Scott Card according to the post flatly says that it's about the money for him which is a valid reason. It's also funny Charlie Stross' opinion who supposedly compared himself to a dragon when it comes to fanfiction.

Prucher, Jeff. Brave New Words : The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Oxford ; New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Online.

This was included for the definition of fanfiction and because it's an official dictionary. I was actually surprised to find an Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, and one that included “fan fic” and “fan fiction” as actual definitions. It makes sense the definition is based on sci-fi and fantasy stories considering its placement but the definition is better I feel than some other places that emphasize the internet as a portion of how fanfiction exists, as well as actually gives examples of when fanfiction was used as a term in previous publications.

Rice, Anne. "IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ANNE ON "FAN FICTION"." Anne Rice the Official Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2017.

As with the GRRM post, this was included primarily as a comparison against fanfiction. The important portion of the post, on Anne Rice's official page, is small, not much more than a few lines, but it is infamous within the fanfiction community for cementing the idea that she is against what we do. She's civil about it but there is little in the post on what exactly drives her to be upset over fan writings outside of her work being copyrighted.

Thomas, Angela. "Fan Fiction Online: Engagement, Critical Response and Affective Play through Writing." Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, vol. 29, no. 3, Oct. 2006, pp. 226-239. EBSCOhost, offcampus.lib.washington.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=22317451&site=ehost-live.

This one I liked for going not only into how fanfiction helps writing and how writers learn from reviews and connect through them, but also how fanfiction communities grow. The example of Middle Earth Insanity is just one of many where a group of writers and fans worked together to make a coherent community where they could all talk and enjoy themselves without worry of being judged or having to look through multiple other works to see what they most wanted. It also includes the existence of fanfictions close relative, “roleplaying” where multiple writers work together to create one story, and multiple fascets of how to write. Like other articles on fanfiction it focuses on one subject, Tina this time, and what her thoughts and experiences are but the act of having a literacy study helps in a subject that is about writing.

Woolf, Virginia. Letter to a Young Poet. N.p.: Private, 1932. Fadedpages.com. Web. 12 May 2017. <http://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20120709>.

This is the online version of the letter which I took the title of this paper from. I had heard about it during a lecture in my literature class and that line specifically made me think of fanfiction and how it is the work of those building off of others. I thought it fascinating to think of fanfiction writers as simply having within them the souls of those who wrote before and will write after so I wanted to include it; in addition as I put in my own definition of fanfiction, while the most common form is prose, there is still many fanfictions that are written in the form of poetry and I myself use the hybrid form of prose poetry, or poetic prose, to write. I think thinking of not only authors but poets in terms of how fan made works exist and evolve is important to the narrative.

[loubuggins]

Wow! First of all, I’m so sorry someone has been using your story as a means to harass you. That is extremely uncalled for and by the sound of it, you seemed to have handled it better than most would. As to this “guest,” I say they need to step off their soapbox for a minute and take their own advise about chilling out. A critique is for the story, not the writer. It is no one’s place to condem the person behind the story. A bad story does not correlate to the author being a bad person. Not that your story is bad, I just mean in general.

And it’s infuriating when people shrug off fanfics as lesser works compared to “official” works. As if you aren’t putting in just as much time and energy into your writing as a published author would their own. A book isn’t automatically better than a fanfic. Trust me, I’ve read published works that are far lesser quality than some fanfics I have read before.

I loathe guest reviews. It’s one of the many flaws to the review systems of AO3 and FF.net. It’s fine if someone wishes to be anonymous, but there is no reason why we as authors cannot address those who are anonymous. These fanfiction sites really need to update their systems.

Again, I’m sorry you are dealing with these nasty reviewers, Night. Always remember that the positive reviews outweigh the negative ones! You have a wonderful story, no matter what these haters may say or think!

Reply to Guest

So, I got a review this morning which I read and sorta shrugged like fair enough; think how you want to think but then it kind of made me think well no actually, I want to put my side across because I don’t get why people should be allowed to just assume things about me as a person and me just smile like “okay!”.

This wasn’t even like a hateful review or anything but I wanted to reply to it and I couldn’t because once again, someone is a guest so I’m unable to directly reply to them. And, I didn’t deem it necessary to go back into the story and edit it just to reply to a review.

And yes, if you’re reading this anon guest who wrote this review, I did decline your review to be on my story just because I felt it didn’t really have a place there. You weren’t commenting on the story itself; just commented on me so I didn’t see the point in accepting it.

So, Guest wrote:

“You’re not a fan of criticism, are you? You get testy about reviews and then lash out at people you suspect might be children. If this is your “art” be mature about it and accept people won’t like it. Everyone hated Van Gogh in his time. Da Vinci was labeled a heretic. Michaelangelo was hated as much as respected. If you do not enjoy your work being judged, I recommend not publishing it. Part of maturity in both art and life is knowing and understanding that you can’t tickle everyone’s fancy. Like your story though. Maybe just not take it so seriously. After all, it’s fanfiction about teenage superheroes. Not the next great American novel. A chill writer, is a better writer. Neil G. Told me that one at a literary conference in London. I would never argue with a wordsmith of his caliber.

Happy trails. May your pencil remain ever sharp.”

First off, you’re very wrong about that first sentence. I don’t mind criticism at all, in fact, I welcome it on my stories. How else would I improve as a writer without criticism? I can see why you thought I am unable to accept criticism considering you posted this on Chapter 22 of my story where I directly reply to a review by someone. 

I don’t get testy about reviews nor do I “lash out” at people I suspect might be children. Please don’t make assumptions about me purely based off of this one part where I did write a paragraph in response to a review. I happily accept criticism but something you need to understand before judging me etc is the situation and context this came from.

The person who I am directing that at in the author’s note of chapter 22 is a troll, plain and simple. For weeks beforehand, I had been receiving hate from them constantly. Every time I updated my story, I had a comment from this one person in particularly who offered no critique in any way whatsoever and purely gave abuse. Initially, I handled it gracefully, ignoring them and just bypassing their pointless comments until that one there. Even then, I replied maturely; whether you think so or not is beside the point but personally, I was very happy with how I dealt with it. I deleted their comments after this as I refused to give them the power to constantly tear me down as a person when they offered nothing to be salvaged creatively. They offered nothing to help improvement.

And that is where you need to realize the difference between “Criticism” and “Hate”. Criticism is when people don’t particularly like your work but they at least offer a reason and/or offer ways of improvement. Hate is what this person was giving me each and every time I posted a chapter. Calling me things such as a “Stupid bitch” and “Whore” is not criticism and that is something I will not put up with. When people directly try to hurt me through that, I’m not going to just sit there and take it and I don’t know any other sane writer who would. I’m always going to defend myself when people try to use my story as a way of trolling and giving me abuse. 

I have to say, you do come across in this as very patronizing and condescending. Whether that is your intent is neither here nor there but I am mature enough, thank you. I accept people not liking my story. I accept people giving me harsh criticism when they dislike my stories. I can’t please everyone. I already know that and I don’t need someone to belittle me by telling me it. Just saying. 

Again, I don’t care if my work is judged. At the end of the day, people can think however they want to. I can’t change that and as long as I am happy with what I write, I am going to publish it. I don’t know where else you could have gotten this idea in your head that I lash out at readers and reviews. I never ever lash out for no reason at people. Even when I’ve had criticism telling me how “I don’t know how to write these characters at all etc, etc.” I have still replied with dignity and told them that their opinions are their own and that is fair enough. 

Please don’t tell me about being mature because frankly, you don’t know me and I am much more mature about certain things that get sent through to me than most know about. I have been writing for a long time and I know what is acceptable and what is not and what needs a response. Again, this isn’t said in a negative way, just… I already know and the way you’ve worded it makes it seem like you’re just trying to belittle me which isn’t 100% appreciated but if it’s with good intention, then thanks.

Thank you; I appreciate that and am glad you like it. I hope this response to your comment doesn’t make you think less of me or my story or anything like that; I just wanted to reply is all and defend myself and get my side across.

Haha, again, I don’t understand where you are getting this from. I don’t take it seriously and am actually a very chilled out, laid back person. It takes a lot to get a rise out of me so yeah. And, I would hope it wasn’t the next great American novel considering I’m British and if it was going to be one anywhere; it would be here in London.

At the end of the day, I know I’m a chill writer and so do my readers. It doesn’t really matter if others don’t know/think that about me because I know myself and I know I would never react at anything unless it was necessary which in this case where I wrote a big response to someone on chapter 22, it was as I had been getting abuse from them for a long time. And that in itself is maturity. I deleted there forthcoming comments because I didn’t want to see them and they were a troll and I knew if I continued to just delete their comments and move on, they would go away which lo and behold, it worked. I don’t get bothered by them anymore because I was the bigger person and decided they were not worth getting riled up over. Simple as that.

Sorry you feel that I may not be mature or able to handle criticism but I am more than capable of dealing with any criticism respectfully as well as outright hate. 

Even my reply to your comment; I know you might think of it as ‘immature’ but I don’t. I see it simply as backing my corner and explaining why I may have ‘lashed’ out during the time I wrote that response to a review. When people comment as a guest, it makes it harder to reply which is why I wrote this. Hopefully you see it, but if not… *shrug*. 

It’s a shame I deleted their comments as it would have probably made you understand what led to a response like that but since I don’t, I respectfully ask you not to judge something you don’t understand as there was a lot more to that whole situation than most are aware of. 

I thank you for the comment anyway; I don’t agree with a lot of what you said but I appreciate the way you have tried to go about making a point. The only ‘issue’ I would have is how it comes across that you are attempting to speak down to me like I am a child which I am not. 

This might just be the way I read it and that might not have been the case at all, in which, I still appreciate the advice you attempted to give.

Have a good day!

[camryndaytona]

Why The Office Of Transformative Works is Amazing

I was playing around with the demographics on this account (because I do that when I’m bored) and I realized that some of you are really young.

Therefore, some of you may not know the utter hell that was fanfic and fan content before Archive of Our Own.

If you’ve never been on a livejournal account, I suggest heading to sapkowski-cafe which is an older site (about the Witcher books/games) that will give you just an idea of how unorganized live journals can be. It’s an unusually well done livejournal too, so keep that in mind. 

And if you’ve never been on fanfiction.net I don’t know what to say to you. Try it. Just try.

If you’ve never been on either of those then I envy you. Truly I do.

Basically, this guide is for people who don’t know what “lemon” has to do with fanfic, because thanks to AO3 and the OTW, we don’t have to use that term anymore. Because it’s weird.

Terms to Know

OTW

The Organization for Transformative Works

A nonprofit organization run by and for fans to provide access to and preserve the history of fanworks and fan cultures.

AO3

Archive of Our Own

A nonprofit open source repository for fanfiction and other fanworks contributed by users. The site was created in 2008 by the Organization for Transformative Works and went into open beta in 2009. As of May 2020, Archive of Our Own hosted 6 million works in over 36,700 fandoms.

Fanlore

Also run by the OTW, fanlore.org is essentially wikipedia but for fandom. If you want to know about well known fanwork such as My Immortal or The Very Secret Diaries or terms like A/B/O or slash fic then fanlore is the place for you.

ff.net

Fanfiction.net

Basically, a really old site (that for some reason people still use???) for posting fanfiction.

Why are they important?

I use AO3 and OTW pretty interchangeably because, for those most part, they have the same goal: Protecting Fan Work

Although there are fewer today (I think), a lot of people used to be very much against the idea of fanfiction, thinking that it took away from the authors somehow. Just google “Anne Rice Fanfiction” for an idea of how one well known author tried to take all fanfiction down from the internet.

The OTW believes that fanwork (as long as it’s not for profit) is protected under the “Fair Use Doctrine” and they’ve lobbied the government to keep it that way. They’re a registered nonprofit and you can visit their “legal advocacy” page to read the official jargon.

It was actually started because of one livejournal post from 2007, written by the user Astolat (who would go on to found the AO3). They (and many others) were upset about a now defunct site called Fanlib, which was created by corporations who wanted to monetize fanwork. At the time, fanfic was still in something of a legal gray area, where no one was entirely sure if it was legal or not.

Astolat proposed that if fanfic creators didn’t band together to make their own site for fanfics, then it would be destroyed by corporate greed. They argued that it was, in fact legal to write fanfiction, and laid out the groundwork for a nonprofit that could host fanfics. That would become the AO3.

Overtime that project separated into five distinct parts:

The Archive of Our Own, which launched in an invite-only beta form on November 14, 2009, formally pledges “to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate.”

Fanlore, an open source wiki focused on preserving fandom history and collective knowledge

Transformative Works and Cultures, a peer-edited academic journal devoted to advancing fandom scholarship

Open Doors, a fanworks preservation project that identifies older fanfiction archives in danger of shuttering and being lost to time, then rescuing them by transferring their contents to AO3

Formalized legal advocacy for fanworks and other transformative works through the organization’s legal committee, which does things like filing and joining amicus briefs in cases impacting the fan community. The committee also educates fans on important laws and alerts them about changes to laws throughout the world that could impact fanwork practices.

AO3 Won a Hugo Award (and why you should care)

You read that right.

I (and 4.7 million other fanfics) can officially say I won a Hugo Award. Will I put that on my resume? No.

AO3 founder Astolat had this to say about the award:

“All fanwork, from fanfic to vids to fanart to podfic, centers the idea that art happens not in isolation but in community. And that is true of the AO3 itself. All our hard work and contributions [as AO3 volunteers] would mean nothing without the work of the fan creators who share their work freely with other fans, and the fans who read their stories and … nourish the community in their turn.”

Fanfic Today

The way we think about fanfic today comes from the AO3. It’s turned from something marginalized, something that was assumed to be only for porn, terribly written, and tropey to something that has become a large part of mainstream culture.

Today fanfic is often seen as a home for marginalized people, where people can explore their sexuality, where new and upcoming authors can test their skills and receive feed back.

It’s also proof of who runs the world of online fandom. Remember, the AO3 was founded by primarily women who wanted a place to write non-heterosexual stories. It was women like Astolat who coded the site from scratch.

Something I think we should learn from today, in the time of Net Neutrality, is that the whole reason AO3 was created was because fans saw corporations trying to take their work, profit off it, or remove it from the internet.

Fun Facts

I’ve mentioned astolat several times in this post, would you believe that it’s the username of Naomi Novik, the NYT bestselling author?

I’ve published and read fanfiction on both ff.net and AO3, so when I tell you that AO3 is vastly superior, I know what I’m talking about.

The longest fanfic of all time is 3.5 million words long.

The term ‘fan fiction’ itself derives from the Greek fanaticum fictatas, which translates literally to ‘Writing yourself into Harry Potter’.

My Immortal (a Harry Potter fanfic) is often considered to be the worst thing ever written and you know what, they’re right.

One of these facts was a lie.

BUT HOW ARE LEMONS INVOLVED (bonus round)

For those of you who read “this is for people who don’t know what Lemons have to do with fanfic” and thought “well I don’t know”: this is for you.

Lemon means sex.

Because fanfiction.net didn’t have a comprehensive tagging system, authors would include the world “lemon” in the summary of their fic so people could either find NSFW content or avoid it at their discretion.

One of the amazing things that AO3 has done is implement a sitewide tagging system with filters. That’s something that was unheard of in fanfiction before the AO3. Author’s often put trigger warnings, but you couldn’t remove anything from your search based on those warnings.

On AO3 you can simply “exclude” anything you like.

For example: there are 24055 works tagged as “the lord of the rings” but if I remove any listing that includes Frodo there’s only 20212 works (which tells me that everyone hates Frodo). Since AO3 gets new submissions everyday, those numbers will change by the time this is published. 

That’s important because you can do more than just remove characters you don’t like. You can also remove any sort of tag you don’t like, from one of their official Archive Warnings (which is what they believe to be the most common types of triggering content posted to the site): are Rape/Non-Con, Graphic Violence, Major Character Death, or Underage. You can also remove literally anything else, including specific kinks you don’t enjoy like blood play or anal.

I’m using kinks just as examples because it’s what most people use the warnings for. You could also chose to remove “slice of life” or “no beta reader we die like men.”

None of that is something you could do on ff.net and it is SO AMAZING I CAN’T EVEN DESCRIBE IT.

source http://camryndaytona.com/2020/06/ao3?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ao3