#I'm at 177k right now

[shiroselia]

The fact I'm so close to 200k that I'm starting to think I might have to prepare to maybe hit 300k...

The fact I'm actually seeing this stupid on a whim project through. I might have a lot of problems.

[hrrytomlinson]

Yo do you have like a rly basic rec list of staple Larry fics? I'm rly new to the fandom and I'm trying to work my way through (the longer the better)

Basic Must Reads for Newbies!

Disclaimer: these are the fics i read when i first started reading fic in 2015. since then, i’ve read 445 fics (excluding the 2 i’m reading right now - and yes, i really do keep track of every fic i’ve ever read - and yes, I really did count them) and these are the fics I recommend you read when starting out. please note that there are hundreds of other fics I would recommend you read, but this list is for specifically what I consider classic, super popular fics within the fandom!

Escapade 146k

In the grand scheme of things, finding a date for a wedding should be no problem for Louis Tomlinson. He’s rich. He’s handsome. He’s reasonably well behaved. But when the wedding is for his lifelong best friend (and former boyfriend), and is happening in under a month, finding a date for the ceremony and accompanying festivities becomes more of an adventure than he ever could have planned for.

The Dead of July 117k 

Being an Avenger means continuing to be Captain America and smiling and being honorable for the public and Harry does his best. But it doesn’t give him time to figure out who he is supposed to be once he takes off his uniform and puts the shield to the side. Just being Harry had always involved Louis, and Harry fears he doesn’t know how to exist without him.

or: Harry is Captain America, and Louis’ been dead for 70 years.

And Then a Bit 158k

“We’d like to give the fans what they want.” Magee states, placing his hand on the table in front of him and leaning forward. “We want to give them Larry Stylinson.”

Or, take a parallel universe where Louis and Harry were never together, mix in a two year hiatus and an impending comeback, pour in a dash of lost fans, two tablespoons of strong friendship and a Modest! employee with a good idea. Add a squeeze of pretending to be a couple, lots of kisses and a tattoo or two. Stir. Serve: the mother of all publicity stunts.

(aka Harry and Louis fake a relationship for publicity. Eventually it becomes a lot less fake and a lot more real.)

Jump Before We Fall 113k

Louis and Zayn’s lives revolve around running a hotel by the sea, Harry is a student who wants a life far from home for just a little while, Niall doesn’t know where life leads him and Liam thinks he has already found all purposes in his life.

Red Brick Heart 98k

Harry has only had his room for thirty-two minutes when it stops being his.

Uni AU. Harry had turned up at the halls of residence expecting fun, new friends, and maybe a life experience or two. What he doesn’t expect is a surprise roommate who’s loud and dramatic and obsessed with tea and is maybe, actually, all he’s ever wanted.

Wild And Unruly 123k

Harry is a cowboy sitting on the biggest oil reservoir in Wyoming, and Louis is the paralegal assigned to pressure him into selling his land.

Love Is A Rebellious Bird 134k

AU in which the boys still make music. Louis is the concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra, Harry is the New! and Exciting! interim conductor/ex-cello prodigy who “has made Mozart cool again” according to Esquire Magazine (Louis hates him immediately, which is definitely why he internet stalked him in his dark bedroom late at night that one time), and Niall is the best. Zayn and Liam are around too.

Don’t hum Bolero.

Young & Beautiful 227k

Louis, to his horror, attends an elitist university in which the name Zayn Malik means something, Niall Horan doesn’t stop talking, there are pianos everywhere, and Harry Styles, only son of a drug-addled, clinically insane ex-rocker, has a perfect smile and empty eyes.

Gods & Monsters 201k

The instructions were simple: seduce and destroy Harry Styles. Not once did they discuss the option of Louis actually falling in love. So, naturally, that’s exactly what he did.

Butterfly Gun (.epub) 100k

Harry has never been much of a fighter, but—as always—where Louis Tomlinson is concerned, a lot of things stop being true.

1940’s AU. Even after six years apart, they can’t forget their shared wartime childhood.

Fading 202k

Louis knows about beauty; the combination of qualities that pleases the aesthetic senses. He creates that combination every day in the garments he designs while studying fashion at uni. The cut of the design, the color of the fabric, the intricacy of the stitching; it all comes together to create something beautiful. When the science student with the long legs and dimpled smile agrees to model for him, Louis decides he’s found beauty personified. Harry just thinks Louis needs someone to show him how beautiful he is.

Wear It Like A Crown 141k

AU. As part of a team of fixers hired to handle a gay scandal in Buckingham Palace, Louis expects Prince Harry to be a lot of things—most notably a royally spoilt brat. Never mind that the very same Prince Harry used to star in quite a number of Louis’ teenage fantasies.

Pull Me Under 140k

AU. As the first British footballer to come out at the prime of his career, it helps that Louis Tomlinson is in a long-term, committed relationship. Even if that relationship is fake. (Featuring Niall as Louis’ favourite teammate, Liam as Louis’ agent, and Zayn as Liam’s boyfriend, who just happens to be good friends with one Harry Styles.)

Feel the Chemicals Burn in My Bloodstream 123k

“Alright, alright. No need to bite,” Harry says, holding his hands above his head in a general gesture of surrender.

Louis quirks an eyebrow and his foot nudges Harry’s as he moves to sit straight. “If that’s what you think biting is, you’ve got another thing coming, Styles.”

Harry blinks at him before he feels his face flush and inside the marrows of his bones there’s pulses of heat, pulses of fire spreading through him. “Is that a threat, your Highness?”

“That’s a promise,” Louis answers just as the car halts to a stop. “One I intend to keep.”

Harry is a journalist with a lot of secrets and Louis is the future king of the United Kingdom; they live together for 60 days.

Empty Skies 134k

For three years, Harry has been running from his past. Now, he is moving to London and pledges to fulfil his only dream – making it big in the music industry. Not everyone has a place, though, and the competition is tough. As is his past catching up on him.

Louis is part of the biggest boy band of the world, and getting there had meant a lot of hard work, as well as sacrificing parts of his heart and soul. He’s still happy. Maybe not as happy as he could be, but who is he to complain?

Featuring Perrie as Harry’s adorable flatmate, Niall as his manager, and Liam and Zayn as Louis’ bandmates.

Unbelievers 136k

It’s Louis’ senior year, and he’s dead set on doing it right. However, along with his pair of cleats, a healthy dose of sarcasm and his ridiculous best friend, he’s also got a complicated family, a terrifyingly uncertain future, and a mortal enemy making his life just that much worse. Mortal enemies “with benefits” was not exactly the plan.

Or: The one where Louis and Harry definitely aren’t friends, and football is everything.

Relief Next To Me 333k

AU. What happens when a baker and a graphic designer meet via a very specific Craigslist post? Fate, friendship, food, and maybe more.

Bloodline 177k

Louis doesn’t know how to feel when his best friend, Liam, finds out about a brother that he never knew, who was placed for adoption before he was born and is bursting into his life at twenty-four years old.

Louis is very wary of the man who might replace him. He has always thought of Liam as his own brother.

What if Liam doesn’t need him anymore? What if there’s no room for Louis? After all, blood runs thicker than water.

Louis doesn’t like Liam’s new brother and he doesn’t even know him. That’s irrelevant, though.

He doesn’t like him. He doesn’t trust him. He doesn’t want him hanging around. He doesn’t want anything to do with him.

That is, until he meets him.

BONUS: These Inconvenient Fireworks (.pdf)

find more fic recs here

these are the fics i first read when starting out (for the most part) - there are SO many other great and iconic fics that aren’t on this list, but those are meant for other masterposts x

[maggieisalarrie]

Hi Maggie! How are you?? So I hope I'm not annoying you but I've been itching to read a famous/no -famous fic for a long time and was just wondering if you have any good ones?? Thank you so much for all the help! Have a wonderful day! 😊❤️💜

I’m doing well, thank you! How are you, love? You’re definitely not annoying me! I love giving you things to read! Please don’t ever feel bad for sending me a request! And I love famous/non-famous! 

Famous Harry

All Too Human by Gotthisniallthang (167k)

Louis has a 3 year old son and works at a daycare while getting his education degree.

Harry’s a fresh face Popstar with the world in his hands.

They meet over applesauce and hide n’ go seek. 

led by your beating heart by missandrogyny (29k) * I have recommended this one like a million times but idc because I love it and it’s so good! 

Nick leans over. “Oh,” he says, his voice smug. “Who is that?”

Harry just blinks at his phone. “Um,” he manages to stammer out.

“Who’s that, Harry?” Nick asks again, but this time he raises his eyebrows and smirks. Harry knows Nick is just teasing, and that he’s not really looking for new Harry Styles gossip, but, um. He might have found something. Accidentally.

Harry opens his mouth to speak, but all that comes out is another ‘um’. He really needs to work on translating his thoughts into words. But then it probably wouldn’t be any helpful right now, would it? His mind is as blank as a newly erased etch-a-sketch.

“Oh,” Nick says again, this time gleefully, seemingly having picked up on Harry’s distress. “Looks like we’ve got a story here! Are you going to call or delete her number?”

Her number. So Nick thinks it’s a girl. Well, Harry can’t blame him: 'Lou’ is kind of an androgynous nickname. His stylist’s name is Lou.

But this Lou, well, Louis, he’s kind of, really, really not a girl. He’s really pretty though, which, is something.

(Or: AU where Harry’s in One Direction, Louis isn’t, and they reconnect over a game of 'Call or Delete’.)

My English Love Affair by isthatyoularry (19k)

The thing about sleeping with a member of a famous indie band is that the inevitability of having a song written about you is most likely a hundred percent. The second thing is that in the end, nobody’s supposed to find out it’s about you.

The one where Harry writes a song about his English love affair and Louis sleeps with someone in White Eskimo and all he gets is a stupid song written about him.

And I just finished this next one not too long ago and I know you’ll love it! 

Your Mess Is Mine by amory (177k)

Louis is the father to the most brilliant little boy in the world who is all Louis really needs, or at least that’s what he tells himself. Harry is a gorgeous boybander fresh off a two year break and a massive scandal that’s left him a little broken and more than ready to move on.

They fall in love.

Famous Louis

In This Light for tilthesundies (99k)

Harry is a wardrobe stylist who likes to live in the moment, and Louis is a popstar who looks dreamy in double breasted jackets. Harry never stood a chance.

Pull Me Under by zarah5 (140k) Log In *also one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES EVER

AU. As the first British footballer to come out at the prime of his career, it helps that Louis Tomlinson is in a long-term, committed relationship. Even if that relationship is fake. (Featuring Niall as Louis’ favourite teammate, Liam as Louis’ agent, and Zayn as Liam’s boyfriend, who just happens to be good friends with one Harry Styles.)

Then We Talk Slow by letsjustsee (20k)

The picture showed Harry smiling widely (with a fucking dimple) at the camera, his glossy brown curls situated artfully around his shoulders. Louis couldn’t see his whole outfit, but it seemed to consist of a pink, floral button-up with most of the buttons undone. Louis could also detect the dark outlines of tattoos on his chest, although he couldn’t quite make out what they were underneath the shirt.What he could make out was that his own heartrate seemed to have picked up significantly.Shit.This was so not good. Not only had Louis drunkenly sent messages in a deliberate attempt to interact with this man, he was now insanely attracted to him without ever having met him in person.Maybe Liam was right – drunk tweeting really was a horrible, rotten idea.

A famous/non-famous AU in which Louis banters back and forth with his new record company on Twitter, only to find out that Harry is the man behind the tweets.

zipping across the stars by orphan_account (10k)

One Direction consists of five people; Louis, Zayn, Niall, Liam, and Gemma. When the band preforms at Wembley Stadium the boys are introduced to Gemma’s younger brother Harry.

Louis wishes he had known that before he threw himself at the boy for six hours but he can’t stop now can he?

Please come back for more! 

[comfortlesshurt]

oh thank god it's over. just hit the 60% reach goal on that fic TONIGHT, so it was close!

rambling about goals update under the cut. (now with a fun little graph!)

newly published word count was easy thanks to Seven Songs of Suffering!

I made a little more progress toward having my VLD word count beat Spider-Man. it's still far off, but it's over halfway now!

40k in 42 days wrapped up this month, and that went way better than I expected with well over 40k drafted in those 42 days. BUT I am already so much happier NOT tracking my word count every day, so I'm glad to be done with the challenge too.

I KNOW I have been promising this bingo prompt fill for months now, but I'm here to shamefully say I failed that again. October for sure ;_;

finished the outline I said I'd do, but it could use some fine details. even having the loose plan has helped a lot with drafting though, so I'm happy with it.

Seven Songs of Suffering was a surprise because I fully forgot I was going to do it until the day it started, but that was also fun! 10/10, will be trying week-long challenges again when they come up.

ngl, I fully intended to get most of that editing done this month, but when I got into it I figured out that is Not Reasonable. (in my defense, I could EASILY read 177k of someone else's fics, but 177k of my OWN? in a MONTH? no.) also, once I got into it, I realized how much I despise looking at my own Spider-Man fics right now, so that's making things hard. so I guess that'll be a goal I slowly work on.

I am officially BURNED OUT on LTS(LTFH), but I hit all my goals AND reach goals for it. I skipped writing for it one day this month and had a few days where I was under my daily word count par. For October, I'm giving myself a free pass to write as little as I want for it. Instead, I'm hoping to focus on writing oneshots and (perhaps more importantly) reading other people's fics. I feel like I'm not soaking in enough inspiration because I've REALLY cut back on my reading time to make room for all this writing.

I'm not technically done with LTS(LTFH) for the month, but I'm leaving out whatever else I draft in the next hour and a half because I want to finish up this progress post now.

Total word count toward LTS(LTFH) in September: 44,306

Daily average excluding 1 day not written: 1,528

also I DID massage the expected post dates a bit based on expected chapter counts, so only fic 1 is in a rush at this point. the rest have so much content to get through posting before them that I'm a little less worried about finishing them on time. (chapters for longer fics calculated assuming ~3.5k/chapter, not based on actual outlines)

September 2024 Plans!

As promised, I'm focusing on editing this month! No fandom update--you're still stuck with my Voltron obsession. I plan to publish one new chapter or oneshot tops since I'm focused on other things. (I have not been in a mood to finalize drafts, so I keep starting or working on them but not finishing.)

Had another mid-month change of plans, so if you saw the original goals, no you didn't!

General goals:

Newly published WC: 3,022/3,000

Have VLD surpass SM WC: 51,386/100,258

Since I missed the for funsies goal last month, here we are again aiming for 250k overall hits on AO3 by the end of the month! (Is it important? No, but it will make me feel good to be able to say I have a quarter of a million hits, you know?)

Recycling some goals from last month:

Finish 40k in 42 days by 9/14

Finish one bingo prompt

Full outline for LTS(LTFH) fic 1

Seven Songs of Suffering:

Did I forget I said I was gonna do a September challenge? Hell yeah, I did! These will be on the shorter side, and I'm not promising to do all seven. (But all seven is the goal in theory.) Since I forgot, I'm giving myself an extra week to wrap these up, so they're now due 9/21.

Control - Halsey

Sweet but Psycho - Ava Max

Bury a Friend - Billie Eilish

Daylight - David Kushner

Secrets - OneRepublic

I Can't Decide - Scissor Sisters

Rescue - Lauren Daigle

Editing by priority:

All are getting a technical review and a review of summary/tags, but some older fics are getting some extra help. This is NOT intended to be complete by the end of the month. It's just a list to keep me on track for when I don't feel like drafting new stuff.

Emeto: title change, style update

Flu: title change, style update

on the run: deadass don't remember this one, so we'll see

5 Times Lance Doesn't Matter +1 Time He Finally Does

Smiling 'cause you're used to it (a house that's always haunted)

Chemicals, chemicals in my brain (where'd you go, where'd you go anyway?)

Nowhere to call home (so I'll pack and run away)

5 Times Peter Struggled with Spider Metabolism, +1 Time Tony Helped: possible style update

Whump Bingo: major edit--these were barely edited in the first place, oops

Anywhere but Here: style update

Sick Days

Take the worst situation (make a worse situation)

We are the reckless (we are the wild youth)

Cocktails and Consequences: content edit since I barely drank before I wrote this and didn't research alcohol at all

Sickdays 5.0 Day 7: Temperature: title

See me here (meet me here)

And it hits between the eyes on this side

Sickdays 2.0 Day 2 & 5: Sick at a Party & Gently Tinged with Red: title, brainstorm for a closing chapter

Sickdays Day 5: Rapid Onset: title

Impressions

Sickdays 4.0 Day 1: The Oblivious Partner: title

Sickdays 4.0 Day 7: Chain Reaction: title

Sickdays 5.0 Day 6: Public Illness: title

I've got you stuck on my mind (and it's driving me crazy)

Days locked in a haze (trying to forget you)

Sickdays Day 6: Public Illness: title

I want to know who you are (I want to know who you were)

Will you stay with me for another day? (I don't want to be alone in this state)

I'm keeping you at bay (and I'm lonely)

Sickdays 5.0 Day 3: Caretaking Focus: title

Weightless (only wait for a fall)

Hiding It

I feel strange

Bullies and Bailing: possible content edit because I just don't like this one at all

Made a Mess

Season Three

Oh god

I'm not saying I told you so...

Sickdays 5.0 Day 4: Not the Norm: title and possible content edit because I HATE this fic with a burning passion

Accident

Don't ruin this

Rapid Onset

No Right Side: content edit because I don't like how this came out

Frostbite

Happily Ever After

Wes

Touch of the skin brings trembles and shivers

Favorite Outfit

Sleepless folks watching light grow (through their early morning windows)

Folklore

Origins

Ember

Monster

Red

Food

Peace

Road Trip

Fentonworks

+2 anonymous works

LTS(LTFH):

As always, I'll be working on this in the background. Still hoping to have the first fic ready for the new year!

Fic 1: reach 50% completion on 100k rough draft (reach goal: 60%)

Fic 2: reach 40% completion on 50k rough draft (reach goal: 50%)

Fics 3 & 4: note ideas, adjust outlines, & just generally figure these out.

Side stories: add content as it comes up in main fics.

Longer term:

As always, this is a loose plan and I may adjust future goals based on current performance.

September 2024 - editing published works and drafting LTS(LTFH).

October 2024 - currently looking into Whumptober; if not that, it's another big LTS(LTFH) month.

November 2024 - still NaNoWriMo (though now unofficially), definitely LTS(LTFH) as the project. I won't be starting from a blank doc, but I never was a NaNo rule follower, and I'm just happy to add 50k to a project or split it between two or three.

December 2024 - LTS(LTFH) major content and continuity edit plus first technical edit. (Or possible writing break month. TBD.)

January 2025 - LTS(LTFH) fic 2 & 3 & aspiring first publish date for fic 1.

February 2025 - LTS(LTFH) fic 2 & 3.