#PLEASE remember to comment on fics!

[pumpkinspice-prouvaire]

fic recs?

hello I am still feeling salty so I am going with some underrated/obscure fic recs that you should definitely make some time for!

The Future's Owned by You and Me (quillsand)- Criminally underrated Feuilly/Enjolras fic, the best Enjolras/Feuilly fic out there in fact. Some day the fandom will have to answer for the fact that this fic went under the radar in front of a court of law.

In an Age without Heroes (ShitpostingFromTheBarricade)- see above comments re: fandom answering for its crimes of letting great fics be underrated. It's a soulmate AU, but not as you know it (And it's also SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT)

Epiphany (Abidatchery)- beautifully written seasonal fic with great characterisation.

A Bad Penny (PBJellie)- Gay cowboys and banter, what more could you ask for

Vienna Roast (revolutionbarbie)- I'd actually completely forgotten about this one before I went fic rec searching, but it's fab and now I'm looking forward to a reread. A spin on the 'addiction fics' we sometimes see in the fandom, and a coffee shop au <3

(When We Were Young) We Used to Dream about Fires (LittleHandGrenade)- if you're looking for some angst and capable of being terrible Enjolras, check this one out

And the Nights Are Warm (readwritesleep)- OK so maybe I haven't actually read this one yet and it's just on my TBR, but I have it on good authority that it's a good one!

Remember that if you read and enjoy any of these fics to leave a kudos and a comment for the author! You will make their day <3

[erinwantstowrite]

i get a lot of asks about what fic recs i have and i am in fact compiling a list (i discovered most of them from alighterwood) but right now my favorite fic that i have been following is The Buzzard by FlightL3ss_Bird1029 on ao3 and it needs its own post specifically because i am that in love with it

it's an au where Tim doesn't become Robin and instead, Steph takes up the mantle. It has a prologue called Fledge that had me hooked from the beginning.

Fledge's description:

"When Jason Todd died, Tim took it upon himself to find a way to save Batman from his dark spiral of violence. Maybe if things had gone differently Tim would have offered himself up to take the Robin mantle and work alongside his hero. Unfortunately, Tim was too busy running his parents' company after the untimely death of his mother. But he knew how to be useful, and other opportunities presented themselves for him to do just that. He felt a little bad about helping to kidnap Damian, but decidedly less bad about helping Steph become a hero. He just hoped that his use wouldn't run out before getting to help his Robin."

The Buzzard's description:

"After a difficult year (for many reasons) Tim goes back to Gotham to help Jason Todd reconnect with his family. Whether Jason wanted that or not, well, Tim had time to wear him down. Between the tutelage of Deathstroke and Lady Shiva, he was well equipped to handle himself as Jason's equal and hit Gotham's vigilante scene as the Buzzard. His parents were dead and the lonely cavity in his chest kept growing every day, but it didn't matter. Tim's mission could and would succeed despite his personal feelings and failures. He was fine and he had a job to do."

Everyone is so well written in this and I think about it constantly. The Buzzard currently has 10 chapters, 103,528 words. I don't usually rec fics until they've finished but this one is always on my mind, so I had to

[amogus-real-not-clickbait]

part 1 of a little comic / art sequence that i've been working on! :D it's part tribute, part experimenting with brushes n colors and trying new thingz :]

| 1 | 2 | 3 | ... |

and thus continues my endless quest of spreading the carrot fics like a plague! if you've seen my art floating around you probs already figured that this au holds a very special place in my heart, forever and always!!

if you haven't heard of it, it's a fic series by @crowned-ladybug called carrot soup!! it made me wish i could speak colors and i need more people to share my struggle xd

go check it out if you're into sweet voice lore and qpr level gayness and just wanna feel warm and soft and warm (hurt/comfort my beloved) <333 there are some heavier themes cos everyone's traumatized but they're working through it! be sure to check the tags and stay safe! <3

[marimbles]

It seems to be pretty well established that most fanfic authors don’t mind when readers leave comments on old fics and in fact welcome it. But what about authors replying to old comments?

Do readers care in general whether an author replies? Is it expected and seen as rude if they don’t? Is it nice when they do but not expected? Is there a time limit to the welcomeness of replies? Like is it nice if they respond within a few weeks but if it’s been months or years it feels awkward because you don’t remember the fic anymore? I’m curious!

[panevanbuckley]

don't get me wrong i love ao3 i would sacrific my soul for ao3 but sometimes i really wish it had that one feature from wattpad where you can comment on paragraphs rather than whole chapters y'know??

[muffinlance]

I really do love your writing and Salvage gets me through when I am sad or depressed. However, I was wondering, how do you cope when someone who wrote a review didn’t like your writing? If you’ve had this before… I had one today and I am dejected. I’m working through my perfectionism and I keep telling myself, “my writing isn’t for everyone and it’s okay.” Any advice?

If it was unsolicited, especially on a fanfic? Delete it, block the person if you feel like, then go do your rage activity of choice before forgetting about it forever. That person is rude and doesn't deserve your time anymore than someone bumping into you on the street.

I've also found it useful to actively think of my fanfic as writing practice, and not even my brain expects perfection from writing practice. It also frees you do Try Cool Things.

Now take this digital blanket and cup of hot chocolate and go reread your nice comments.

[pokemon-radical-red]

I hate it when I headcanon a character who’s canonically a girl as a trans man and make ships of him and a character who’s canonically a guy and I refer to it as a gay/mlm/guyxguy/whatever ship and someone gets mad. Like omg let trans people have FUNNNNN. Why are queer headcanons and genderbends cool until they’re saying that the character is trans???

“OMGGG you’re so misogynistic I can’t believe you would erase FEMALE representation!!!”

and like half of the characters in the franchise are women, and a total of… NONE of the characters are trans men. Also, my headcanon doesn’t change the source material. If my stuff upsets you, you can block me and go engage with the source or maybe every single other fanwork, since mine is the only trans man hc for this character that I’ve ever seen.

or when people are like “WTF??? this is so transphobic!!! how dare you imply that a character who looks like that could be a trans man?!?! do you think that trans men are women or something??? she uses she/her, and you’re misgendering her!”

No, I don’t think that being a trans man makes you a woman or vice versa. That’s why it’s a headcanon, and the headcanon is that this character is actually a trans man and not a woman at all! You’ll never guess what pronouns most trans men had to use at some point in their lives, and you really won’t like it when you find out about pre-(or no-)transition trans men… or trans men who are in the closet… or trans men who don’t know that they’re trans yet.

“But the character is a kid!!! Saying they’re trans is sexualizing them.”

I’ve seen this one from other queer people. Like did you miss when all of the homophobes said this about your identity, or do you think that bigotry is only bad when it’s directed at you?

“Why would you say ‘testosterone could fix her’??? Are you trying to call her a delusional woman?”

Why would your brain even go to that first? This literally has to be a bad faith reading, because there’s no way that someone could see what I said and get this unless they were specifically looking for something to be mad at me for.

(Note for anyone unaware: “Estrogen would’ve fixed him!” was a meme going around at the time I said this. I’m not sure if it’s still super big, but this was a joke to the effect of that.)

“So girls can’t be tomboys anymore? You just wanna trans everyone?”

This is like actual real life transphobic rhetoric. This isn’t even just shitting on my headcanon, but in fact, sending transphobic hate to a trans man. Thanks 👍. Maybe you should go send JK Rowling another message about how much you loved her essay instead of bothering me.

[chronicowboy]

tomorrow will always and forever now be today (tomorrow is our always and forever) | 43k

"Think I can get a hug from my best man on my wedding day?" he asks, quietly hopeful in a way that makes Eddie want to tear off his skin.

"Sure," Chris replies with a shrug, turning to throw Eddie a cheeky grin. "Dad, Buck needs a hug."

Two things happen at once then: Eddie has to plaster on a smile authentic enough to convince the one person on this planet that knows him inside out—except he doesn't really have to fake his smile, not at first, because of number two—he sees groom-Buck for the first time. And groom-Buck is every bit as beautiful as Eddie might have imagined him over the years. Happy eyes bright and blue, pink lips stretched wide in a beaming smile, cheeks flushed pink with joy, hair carefully styled and stunningly golden in the morning sunlight. He's half-dressed too, tux jacket still on the hanger on the back of the chair, so Eddie gets an unbarred view of Buck's white shirt stretched taut over his biceps, shoulders, abs.

For a moment, Eddie falls into the greatest betrayal his brain has ever laid out for him, imagining that he might have got to see Buck like this for the first time from the other end of the aisle if he'd just been brave enough to—

"I think he meant you, kid," Eddie teases as he drops their suits to the couch. He widens his stance, so Jee can run through his legs and evade another of Chimney's grab attempts, then he ruffles Christopher's curls as a steadying act before he's suddenly in front of Buck. And he tries not to think about the pathway cleared through the living room by Jee's chase, or the fact that they're under the archway between the kitchen and the dining table, or the knowledge that Bobby is an ordained officiant where he stands behind them. "Hey, Buck," he says softly, smiling genuinely now because this is Buck.

"Hey, Eds," Buck murmurs back, and it's the first time since they'd promised to have each other's backs that Eddie can't quite decipher the emotions making Buck's voice thick.

Eddie wraps him in a hug then, careful and detached as he can manage, but it's Buck in his arms, warm and alive and his for just a few more hours. He doesn't let himself hold Buck's hips like he used to before—before he'd realised why he'd wanted to hold Buck's hips so tightly—just splays his fingers over Buck's back and tries to focus on the soft cotton under his palms rather than the way Buck's temple rests so perfectly against his. Eddie stays there, for too long probably, fingers digging in too tight possibly, and squeezes his eyes shut when they start to water. He's clinging, and he tries not to think about how it feels a little like Buck is clinging to him too.

"Ah," Eddie huffs as he pulls away, taking two steps back just to be safe. He catches Maddie's eyes on him then, sadder than they should be for the happy tears she'd been crying just before he'd got here, and Eddie wonders if her big sister omniscience is working on him too. "Come on, Buckley. Got to make an honest man out of you sooner rather than later."

"Whilst we're on the topic," Chim intervenes, a wriggly Jee on his hips with two shoes on—finally. "Are we sure he should be wearing white?"

(OR: eddie gets trapped in a time loop on the day buck marries natalia)

@butchdiaz @danielsousa @shitouttabuck @alyxmastershipper @diazass @911-on-abc @folk-fae @stagefoureddiediaz @jeeyuns @piningeddiediaz @robsumagpie @athenagranted @prince-buck-diaz @eddiediaztho @carryingbears @ladydorian05 @made-ofmemories @sherlockcrossing @violet-rot @binickmiller @rainbow-nerdss @thatnamewill-probably-change @ducksbellorum @organizedstardust @mangacat201 @faggotjoness @sibylsleaves @kaseysgirl86-blog @daughter-of-winterfell @thisyearsloveisnow @goodiecornbread @wordsofdiana @thehumongouskargomice @xandromedan @acebuddie @girlnamedjesse @pirrusstuff @angstydiaz @haradrimculture @pinky-promisesss @starlingbite @dontneedmyheart @spaceprincessem @shortsighted-owl @buck2eddie @diazly

[shotavampire]

A moment of silence for my Arthur Conan Doyle/Ciel Phantomhive noncon fic I deleted after getting 1 (one) hate comment. I've grown so much since then (I ignore mean comments now)

[wanderinginksplot]

A Different Perspective on Comments

I know the 'comment/reblog versus like' debate is so common that people just scroll past most of it. Still, I want to share something I realized about my process, because I haven't seen this perspective yet:

Comments remind me that a fic exists.

I am an adult. I have a time-consuming job, a home, and family life that take up the majority of my time. I also have 10+ WIPs at any given moment. I often don't remember that I meant to write more for one story or another.

Here's how the process usually goes: Someone leaves a comment. I am 🥰 for the next two days, and I think about the comment. Often (and especially if the comment pointed out something specific), I start thinking about the plot, the characters, and what I was thinking about doing next in that fic.

As soon as I start doing that kind of plotting, I write it down. Next thing I know, I have half a chapter written and the next four parts outlined.

Likes are fine, but I almost exclusively see them and go, 'Huh.' Not a bad 'huh', but I don't think about them. They don't make me re-explore my fic. I'm glad someone liked my writing, but that's as far as that goes.

"But Ink, where do reblogs fit into this?" I am so glad you asked. The motivation from a comment only lasts so long. It's not fair to expect the same commenters to keep giving feedback. But when you reblog, more people read the fic and can give their own thoughts, which makes the author think about the work and the cycle keeps going.

So, in conclusion, comment if for no other reason than that it reminds your poor, tired fic writer that the fic exists and that people are interested in reading more.

[shotapiss]

As a reader, I will read most fics that have the tags I'm looking for even if everyone is ooc. I think it's fun to see how writers interpret the characters and how they change them to fit the themes of their story.

As a writer, however, I am not allowed to write ooc under any circumstances and if I do I will be killed with rocks

[marokra]

the feeling when you’re looking through your old bookmarks on ao3 and come to the realization that the hermitcraft fic you hyperfixated on when you were younger was either deleted or you didn’t bookmark it like an idiot

[wondrouswendy]

Forget to Remember, Chapter 7 Fandom: Alan Wake (Video Games) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Fictional Alex Casey/Alan Wake, Alex Casey/Alan Wake, Alan Wake & Barry Wheeler, Alan Wake & Alice Wake Additional Tags: Explicit Sexual Content, Canon Compliant, Canon Retelling, POV First Person, Romance, Horror, Angst, Drama, Humor, Friendship, Character Study, Self-Discovery, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss, Miscommunication, Canon-Typical Violence, Slow Burn, Established Relationship, Alan Wake Has 99 Problems and Dramatic Irony Is #1 Series: Part 2 of Kill Your Darlings Summary: The trip to Bright Falls was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, a chance to get out from under the collapsed remains of my writing career and to reconnect with my wife. But it was just another part of the spiral. The longest fall into dark depths. I landed into the arms of the person I least expected, the hero I had forgotten.

Alan faces a long afternoon waiting around Elderwood National Park before he can confront the kidnapper at Lovers' Peak. Time spent idling, however, leads him to have to confront the circumstances which pushed him and his wife to take a vacation in the first place.

Read Chapter 07 here on Ao3!

[sarcasticgaypotato]

If you want to know why fic authors beg so desperately for comments, here's why; I just ran the numbers on what percentage of comments to kudos my more recent works have gotten (only going as far back as 2020, so TRP isn't being included) and the average is about 5.2%.

The absolute best ratio was a fic I posted (under a different name, if you're wondering why you haven't seen it) that had 12.5%. The majority of them were under 10%.

So, even being the most generous and looking at the fic with the highest percent, less than a FIFTH of people who read and liked it left a comment.

I get it, I'm guilty of it too sometimes, it can be hard to remember to leave comments or know what to say, but here's your reminder from a fic author that even just a 'this was great!' comment will really mean a lot.

[todayisafridaynight]

dude I just gotta say thank u for all ur amazing art bc I JUST finished y7 last night and I'm missing my emo losers (daigo and masato) ONLY TO FIND THEM EVERYWHERE HERE plus mine!!! ur fics are also on point as well I think I commented on the "quiet" one but everything aside ur style is just so nice on the eyes and very fun! bonus ur nanba is very cute he's so silly to me fr :3

HIIIIIIII ive been watchin you go through all my art in real time ngl LAKRJLRKJ SO THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!! masato's my evil awful toxic girlfriend and i miss him every day and i love being delusional about him and daigo so im glad my goofy postings do somethin for others too lol.... thank you so much for all your love and support !!!!!!

[mexigum]

Hello Tumblr,

I've once again come crawling back to ask for help finding a fanfiction... about Hetalia..

I might have a problem, a nostalgia problem

ANYWAYS! does anyone here know the name of that one Gerita and USUK fanfic where Italy ends up in a mental asylum for being gay during the 1940s/50s. And like, America works there as a doctor but he's secretly just as insane as his patients if not worse. Because he and England are just straight up serial killers who call themselves the "Message Man". I think Italy loses an eye to them at some point?

OH! And France runs the damn place as a priest of all things.

I read it a couple years back during middle school/first two years of highschool. I want to reread it but i don't remember the name and can't find it. :( and with the whole, authors going scorched earth and deleting all of their fics recently, I'm worried that it might be gone forever. I can't be the only one that remembers this fic, I could have sworn that it was really popular at the time.