#ao3 stats are one of my hobbies

[agerefandom]

Top 10: Tumblr vs. AO3

Just felt like doing some statistics with my work!! Comparing AO3 popular fics vs. tumblr popular fics and seeing what I found out: thought other people might be interested as well! Ramblings about patterns and causes are under the ‘read more’ :P 

AO3 (by kudos): 

Class Outing: BNHA, regressor!Izuku (1247 kudos) 

Only Heaven I’ll Be Sent To: Resident Evil, regressor!reader, caregiver!Lady Dimitrescu (759 kudos) 

Cold Palms, Warm Heart: Twilight, regressor!reader, caregivers!Alice and Jasper (573 kudos) 

The Doctor’s Office: Twilight, regressor!reader, caregiver!Carlisle (403 kudos) 

Kitchen Friends: Marvel, regressor!reader, caregiver!Steve and Bucky (336 kudos) 

Sound and Silence: BNHA, regressor!Aizawa, cg!Hizashi (321 kudos)

Restrained: Death Note, regressor!Light, caregiver!L (309 kudos)

A Story For Sans: regressor!Sans, caregiver!Papyrus (278 kudos) 

Home Sweet Home: caregivers!Carlisle and Esme, regressor!Cullens (273 kudos) 

To Weather The Storm: caregiver!Tamaki, regressor!Haruhi (238 kudos) 

Tumblr (fics only): 

Class Outing (167 notes) 

Cold Palms, Warm Heart (159 notes)

The Playtime Solution: Sanders Sides, regressor!Logan (159 notes)

The Doctor’s Office (150 notes) 

Sugary Sweet: Twilight, regressor!reader, cg!Jasper and Alice (150 notes) 

Kitchen Friends (125 notes) 

Only Heaven I’ll Be Sent To (116 notes)

What Family Is: Harry Potter, regressor!reader, cg!Remus and Sirius (116 notes) 

Just Plane Overwhelmed: Sanders Sides, regressor!Virgil (111 notes) 

Golden Slumbers: Harry Potter, regressor!reader and Harry, cg!Fred (110 notes) 

Overall Tumblr Top 10:

Caregiver Valerie Frizzle headcanons & moodboard (409 notes)

Writing Prompts 2019 / 2022 (290/365 notes)

Caregivers Tiana and Naveen headcanons (244 notes)

Caregiver Jack Skellington moodboard (229 notes)

Caregiver Morticia Addams moodboard (224 notes)

Regressor Wybie Moodboard (205 notes)

Caregiver Bruno Madrigal headcanons (201 notes)

Caregiver Jack Skellington headcanons (191 notes)

Caregivers Sundrop and Moondrop headcanons (189 notes)

Caregiver Belle headcanons (182 notes)

This was really interesting!! 

Re: overall tumblr top 10: I think it’s funny that my throwaway moodboards are often some of the most popular content on my blog. Things I’m just like ‘ooh I gotta make this’ are mixed in with requests, I think that’s interesting! Ms. Frizzle just blowing away the competition, that’s amazing and I love it. Nothing is even close to how popular she is, and she deserves it. Jack Skellington coming onto the list twice? Come through king, I would love to write a full fic in Halloweentown sometime. 

Generally, the more ‘alternative’ characters seem to get a lot more attention on my blog: The Pumpkin King, Morticia, Wybie, Sundrop and Moondrop... Tiana and Naveen really snuck up there though! 

Moving onto the more direct fic comparison: 

....well this made me realize that I never published my Sanders Sides fics from this blog on AO3, whoops 

Setting that aside, fics with angst and plot tend to do better on AO3, while fluffy stories do better on tumblr: Sugary Sweet doesn’t even hit my top 10 on AO3 and it’s one of the fluffiest fics I’ve ever written, coming in at #5 on the tumblr list 

On the other hand, Only Heaven I’ll Be Sent To is by far one of my best performing fics on AO3, but comes in at number 6 (tied with another fic) on tumblr, probably because it features a lot of action and gore alongside the fluffy agere elements, same for Restrained showing up on the AO3 top but not tumblr’s. 

My Harry Potter fics do way better on tumblr, which is interesting? Maybe Harry Potter fans are still reading their fics on independent forums? Or Harry Potter folks on AO3 don’t cross over much with the agere crowd. (Or maybe they’re just overloaded with /reader fics) I haven’t been actually into the HP community since around 2011 so I’m not sure what’s up there. 

Big shoutout to Class Outing for dominating the top of both lists: BNHA is such a big fandom that it makes sense, and I wrote that fic on @agere-fandom-time, which I think got more interaction than this blog: it seems like people are more comfortable interacting with a group-run blog, rather than an individual writer. Or maybe that’s a natural consequence of more writers putting out more consistent content, letting the blog get bigger. I’m not sure! Either way, even if I’m not into BNHA anymore, I feel like it’s a good piece of my writing, so I’m happy for it to be my top spot. 

[johnnyutah]

average adam faulkner stanheight fan: if adam isn’t in saw xi we riot! @lionsgate @kevingruetert @jameswan #adamlives #justiceforadam #corpseinconsistencies

average john kramer fan: What people don’t realize about John, is he’s such a genius that even when he makes mistakes, he planned on making the mistakes. He is the greatest villain of all time

average jill tuck fan: Appreciation post for the Women of Saw 🩷 [the same ten photos that get posted once a week]

average lawrence gordon fan: last night i watched a 2004 tv movie about serial killers called ‘the riverman’, followed by the cheesy family rom-com ‘a castle for christmas’. today my friends and i are going to binge the entire third season of netflix’s ‘stranger things’. none of us have seen a single episode of the rest of the show and we don’t plan on it. then we might rewatch ‘another country’ together

average amanda young fan: sorry i haven’t been online in 4 weeks i’ve been too busy trying to get the new pig cosmetic in the rift [posted 7 weeks ago]

average mark hoffman fan: [underneath a gifset of costas mandylor in a republican christian propaganda ‘sci-fi’ movie] #hes so fucking hot #i would give anything to put him in a sports bra and make him do jumping jacks in front pf me i would literally do #ANYTHING #i need to make him into a marionett and fist him lol

average daniel rigg fan: Here’s a quick low effort doodle I did of Daniel! I just love him so much ❤️ [a literal masterpiece, the best art you’ve ever seen in your entire life] [3 notes]

average allison kerry fan: i am hardcore attached to ONE ship which is probably either allison/amanda or allison/lindsey and my whole blog is devoted to them. there are dozens of us DOZENS

average lynn denlon fan: okay so i know bahar is a realtor now but in her last instagram post where she’s congratulating her son on some new achievement, both the first and last words in the post have 11 letters, AND there’s an X and an I visible in the background of her post 👀?? is this a reach???

average jeff denlon fan: No seriously let me finish seriously when you compare him to the other shitty men in Saw he’s NOT that b

average david tapp fan: i’m 39k away from publishing my 40k tappsing Everybody Lives AU <3 this is going to be epic [account has been deactivated for an indeterminate amount of time]

average brit stevenson and mallick scott fan: Hey I stayed up making this instead of writing my thesis paper for grad school. Here’s a 30,000 word document about the implications of Brit’s promotion within the Marshford group and how it would lead to her eventual demise and also how she rose to the top in her group. It also delves into her relationship with Mallick, whose existence, I believe, is an obvious literary reference to an ancient Roman play read by only me and three other people currently alive. I translated relevant passages and included them in my work. I got understimulated around page 8 so I did take a break to pierce myself in the same spot that I believe Mallick would have a piercing. If you read my fics on AO3 you will already be familiar with the location.

average peter strahm fan: haha peter does CRACK cocoaine haha i think he sniffeds some drugs! why else would he be so MANIC HYPER CRAZY!!! i love my crazy JUNKIE man LOL get him some andderall STAT!! if hoffman didn’t kill him the SPEED certianly would of! LOL!

average lindsey perez fan: i love lindsey perez i’m such a big fan of the character lindsey perez

average matt gibson fan: i literally would eat garbage out of a dumpster

average ezekiel banks fan: holy shit i just finished spiral what a good movie what the hell!!! what a cool addition to the saw universe! i bet everybody else loves this as much as i do! let me take a big drink of water as i check tumblr dot com to see all the nice things people will have to say about darren lynn bousman’s Spiral

average william schenk fan: my hobbies include: being a fujoshi,

average cecelia pederson fan: [pic of cecelia yanking on the metal loop around her neck and smirking] https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vT3f5IIzt5PG-M7G9_Z-gjY4gZaiUneTdMlYrFAcdBGcJo0-N-RDQcj2JfxOaBTxKa6J_DiDQNgqVpg/pub

average logan jigsaw fan: What people don’t realize about John, is he’s such a genius that even when he makes mistakes, he planned on making the mistakes. He is the greatest villain of all time

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Today is the one-year anniversary of me posting my first OFMD fic on ao3, and I'd honestly been hoping to be in a more celebratory mood, but I think that's still something to celebrate. I went back and forth on sharing my work for a long time, and I'm so happy I took the chance.

In the year since that first fic, looking at my ao3 stats, I've written 99 fics and 1,103,545 words. I've gotten about 21,400 kudos (and appreciate each one more than I can say). But even more than that, I've found new friends and deepened existing friendships through sharing my work and celebrating others' writing. I'm thrilled that my fics have become meaningful to other people, even if only in small ways.

If you've ever read one of my fics, thank you. Writing my fics has become an incredibly fulfilling hobby for me and I'm so grateful for those of you who've shared it with me. I'm glad I decided to post my first fic a year ago - here's to many years more.

[hollow-lime-green]

Fanfic Writer Interview

This looks fun!

How many works do you have on AO3?

55!

Which is not what is listed lol. This is maybe a good time to mention that I actually have a side PWP AO3 although I haven't used it in a while, and haven't written any PWP for JJK. So only go check it out if you like FE3H rarepairs or Hades, I guess.

And if you do the math between my two accounts, you still won't get up to 55 because a few of those are actually posted anon. I did some kinkmeme fills for the FE3H fandom and while I'm not ashamed of the content lol, I did those as more of a writing reset thing and they're not as edited/polished as I would like? So I just don't want them under my real accounts.

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

So first, just, full disclaimer - kudos is not a good stats metric to judge your fics. Kudos amount is not sensitive to quality, it is sensitive to fandom size, fic type (pwp vs plot-driven, oneshot vs multichapter, au vs canon), rating, and length. Please god do not ever judge based on flat kudos.

A better metric (which by the way you should still not care about metric when you do Enjoyable Hobbies) is hit:kudos ratio, which I find is almost always around 10:1. If I want to see how well a oneshot does, that's a good metric. Repeat readers can't give repeat kudos, so that metric is useless for multichapters.

Anyway this is why it's good to comment on the fics that you like - the nice words people say to you are infinitely more valuable and better than numbers. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

A Real Breakthrough - Arcane Jayvik, PWP, 4.3k Set in S1 Act 1 (so no spoilers for S2)

Yeah so this is my most kudosed fic and it is not even close. I love this fic, I snapped with this fic, however it is also the only thing I have ever written for Arcane so it's like this one massive outlier on my AO3.

2. it's not gay unless the domains touch - JJK Stsg 40k

It's a little surprising to me that this one has so many more kudos than 2sorcs, but that has more to do with a.) if you like 2sorcs you'll go back and read domains, whereas you may read domains and not go on to 2sorcs and b.) fandom life cycle and when domains was coming out vs 2sorcs coming out after JJK ended

3. Bend the Knee - Hades Thesterius PWP 3.6k

Ahahahaha i forgot about this fic, I did snap with it though. I will play Hades 2 when it actually full releases and then I'll probably be insufferable. Hades fandom was very very fun and friendly, especially the Thesterius subsection. It may have been the nicest and most accepting fandom I've been in.

4. two sorcerers chillin' in a hot tub (five feet apart cause they're not gay) - JJK Stsg 115k

she's up there! she's on the board!

5. The Torment of Stillness - Hades Charmes PWP 4.4k

good for her, I didn't realize this fic had done so well

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i really try to respond to all my comments, or if someone writes a bunch I'll respond to them as a group. I struggle to write comments myself, even when I absolutely love a fic, so to me it's no small thing when people take the time to comment, and responding is a way I can say 'thank you' and 'hi yes i am a real person and your effort has made me tangibly happy'. plus like, we're all doing this for community, and community only happens when we actually talk to each other. interaction is the life blood of fandom, and it's how you make friends :)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

weelllll I don't really write sad endings tbh. and maybe that's giving away the game a little bit with FIYM but I promise it's gonna be a tough road to the happy ending there. so if i had to pick one, it would be a Satoru POV piece but it almost doesn't count to me because those aren't exactly 'endings'. for that, I'd probably say the uncertainty principle (JJK STSG 1.4k) is the angstiest. it's also not really a plot story, so not really an ending, but I think 'angstiest character study' still counts.

by my definitions though, I am going to nominate Swan Song (FE3H Balthuri, 9.4k) This one is more full bore angst, although I think the ending is... optimistic? I really like this fic, although it is for a tiny tiny niche ship.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

uuuuuuuhhhhhhhh. how do you even measure happy? also i don't have a lot of longfics with 'endings' because i'm a piece of shit with abandoned wips (i am so sorry FE3H)

I'm going to say Limitless (Hades Patrochilles, 1.1k)? It's not a lot of plot to be ending but I think it's probably the most feel good? Second nomination to Condemned (Hades Thesterius, 7.5k) which has a little more plot.

Do you write crossovers?

not exactly. I write AUs, but I don't generally cross characters over, which I feel like is more of what 'crossover' entails. No hate, just not something I feel particularly compelled to do.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

nope. literally never. it is extremely rare on AO3 (in my experience) unless you are dealing a Really Big Ship and you run into people with extreme T/B or characterization preferences. I have seen friends get hate, esp in Big Ships in the FE3H community, so I know it is a real thing that exists, but I have fully dodged it.

the closest thing I've ever gotten is someone being like "ew, you wrote Ares/Dionysus?? that's incest!"

but all you can do with that is laugh, because... my brother in christ, do you know Greek canon?

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yep. lots. I don't know what 'what kind' means, but I write all kinds. with and without plots, with and without inhuman genitalia, with and without consent.

i currently only have mlm and mlmonster posted, but i have written (and not been happy enough to post) wlw and het. hopefully that eventually changes, because I do feel bad that I don't have more equal opportunity smut out there. women are great we love women. i just don't feel like I write wl well enough yet.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

i have had someone ask, i don't know if they ever posted, it is still an extremely high compliment and it makes me smile that someone even wanted to do it.

i have had a fic recorded, which is definitely my peak (The Prince of Roses, FE3H Ashedue Sleeping Beauty AU 1k/6min). that was so cool. podficcers are very cool, they are doing god's work, and I would totally do it if I didn't hate my voice.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, and I think I would be a nightmare to work with, because I am very particular about everything.

however, i love love love collabing with artists and I have done that several times. and I would love to do more!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

FE3H Balthuri. It's so niche but it's so good. Balthus has a lot of depth to him if you look past the surface. And Yuri's backstory is an incoherent, impossible spaghetti bowl caused by the creative team not being able to say no to any single idea. love them.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

The Lion of Kupala - Balthuri Canon Divergent AU 30k Political Intrigue

i think my plot ideas for this fic were very interesting, but the amount of effort I put into the atmosphere building and stuff was burning me out compared to the size of the community. and I would expect the fandom for this ship is basically dead these days so if I did go back to it, it would be a pretty solitary labor of love. I am unlikely to finish my Ashedue fics either, but I am significantly more likely to finish those because there's more potential that people might cheer me on and help me get to the finish line for that ship.

What are your writing strengths?

comedy, apparently! i didn't really write comedy until JJK, so that was kind of a surprise.

i would probably say characterization too. different reads on characters are (or, can be) equally valid because you're working with limited text. I think the key is staying consistent.

i'm very good at dialogue matching if there is a good enough sample size to draw from, which I don't think there is for lots of manga. i don't think my dialogue matching is good for JJK, especially with the translation from JP making some of the ENG sound unnatural in the actual manga. but I think for my other fandoms, I did pretty good

What are your writing weaknesses?

action for sure. and people are very nice to me about my action scenes, but they are for sure the hardest pieces for me to write and they take a long time for me to conceptualize and wrangle into coherent words.

these days, atmosphere has been a weakness too, I think. i used to really focus on that in my writing, but it has been more fun to be a little more dialogue and plot driven vs super rich moments. that's part of why I burned out on some of my FE3H fics. it takes a lot of mental energy for me in the writing process to constantly check in on scene setting/atmosphere.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

clarity is the most important thing - your reader should understand what you are saying and be drawn into the context of the world. sometimes writing dialogue in other languages adds, sometimes it subtracts. does the character understand that language? if so, they should hear it in the reader's language so that is understood. if they don't, then it should be given outside of the reader's language. and in that case, you should always have your specific translation in the end notes (if you want the reader (not the character) to know what was said), or you lose some clarity/intent.

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Chainsaw Man.

when i started FIYM, the other Big Project I was looking at was a multipart 'X Lives and Here's Exactly How it Could Work in Canon". but i didn't find the ship very compelling and it takes a lot for me to write gen because I find the community is better/more active for ship fics. so we went with FIYM even though my idea was less fleshed out (narrator: that would soon change).

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

string theory (JJK, stsg, E, 17.4k)

which is funny because it's the only piece of FIYM that was totally unscreened by betas, it took the least time to write (proportionally), and I wrote it when I was probably at my lowest with anxiety, sleep deprivation, and stress.

actually right before I started therapy lol.

'tortured artists' or something like that

Ty for the tag @marichild <3 Tagging: @detta-pica @fireflywitch @ anyone else who wants to do it :))

[muirmarie]

I'm really close to a little ao3 milestone that I think is neat, and it made me think about how long I've been posting fics on different sites, so I went and looked, and my first fic posted on the world wide web was on ff.net on:

Which!!! Is twenty years!!!

And then my first fic posted on ao3 was:

Which is fifteen years! I just think that's neat haha 😊

Anywho ideally I'd post a fic when I hit this little milestone, but I think there's a good chance I might hit it tonight or tomorrow, and I don't think any of the fics I'm working on will be close enough for that. I also really wanna get the screenshot, so I keep checking on my stats every hour or so lmaooo /sigh

It's not a big thing, but it's kinda a big thing for me! I just want the screenshot lollll

Anywho I wish I'd known this January was my 20th year anniversary of posting a fic, but I'll try to remember for next year, when that baby becomes old enough to drink!!!

You know what would be cute, actually - I never cross-posted that fic to ao3. What I should do next January is I should post the original, unedited one, and then write a new version of the same story, for how I write now. That would actually be so fun???? I don't care that it's DEEPLY self-indulgent, I'm gonna try to remember to do it, it's less than 2k, it wouldn't be a big deal!

This is just a ramble lmao. I'm just feeling especially fond and loving about writing fanfic tbh. Truly best of hobbies <3 I missed it so much when I stopped, even when I was the only one stopping myself. It's nice to remember how lovely it is to love doing something!

[sitp-recs]

Hello!

First, I hope you're doing quite well and having a good day!

Second, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the post re: the writer who felt discouraged about not getting comments despite readers loving the works in quiet and gushing in other places (and would likely leave their fandom). More specifically, your tag about how your blog may fit in to all that.

Like you, I'm not a writer, in the sense that we don't come up with a story and put it out there, heart in our hands, hoping for someone to see it and enjoy it and maybe even to say as much to me. I won't discount OP sharing their friend's very valid feelings of seeking some validation and connection with their audience. I think that's a very human thing to want. And it's okay to be so disappointed that you stop interacting with a thing that doesn't make you feel good.

But I also don't want you to discount what you bring to fandom. Your blog is a big reason WHY I read in this fandom, and I think that's true of a lot of people, just based on the asks you get. Personally, your insight has helped me find some of the most beautiful stories and insanely talented writers and artists. For those of us old enough to remember a world without social media/smart phones (or even the internet as an easily accessible thing), one way people often found new media (and artists) is by reading reviews. And they weren't always kind. Reccers like you only share kind reviews. And they often say that one way to consistently find media you enjoy is to find a reviewer whose tastes seem to match up to yours and follow their lead when looking for new things to enjoy.

You (and all reccers) are a valuable part of the fandom ecosystem, helping introduce new fans to fandom as a whole. And your blog also often encourages being a better human in fandom. Because the reality is that newer, younger fans won't know the etiquette to being in these spaces. And that's just as important.

Thank you to all authors and artists for being brave enough to share a part of yourself through fandom. And reccers, thank you for your work on helping us find them. May we all go forth and treat each other very kindly.

Thank you so much anon, this was really special to read! To be completely honest I am just coming back after a fandom break, and I was not in the right headspace to interact with that kind of post (that’s on me!). I regretted reblogging it as soon as it was out as I did not want it to come across as “Liv’s self-pity party” because the discussion is much bigger and layered, but @eleadore’s ask triggered a very interesting discussion with great insights (strongly related to @garagepaperback’s comment about how some of us who have lurked for years might have a different understanding of fandom, and how the introduction of kudos etc by ao3 is re-shaping this culture at large 🤯)

I think it’s a nuanced discussion because of how fandom is structured and the way stats influence newcomers (both authors and readers) but I was talking with my friends last night and one key takeaway for us was what we saw in someone else’s tags: “don’t outsource your happiness”. I think it’s important to validate our craving for interaction and belonging, after all this is a social space! I love making friends with people who are just as obsessed with these two idiots as I am! But the moment this craving becomes our primary motivator, the moment we link our self-worth to external validation, we’re giving someone else the power to ruin our experience, our relationships, our passion. There’s nothing wrong with taking a step back when something that’s supposed to be fun and chill starts making us miserable instead. I wanna cultivate a healthy relationship with my hobbies so that I can still find comfort and refuge in them. That’s something that resonates with both creators and readers, I think, and something I wanna keep in mind as I move forward with the blog, in whatever shape or form it takes ❤️‍🩹

I appreciate your love letter to all reccers and the kind words about my recs. I’m so happy to hear that the blog had a lasting (and positive!) impact on your fandom experience. Thanks again for taking the time to write this message. Take care!

[khepiari]

Rant Post: On the ongoing Yuri Drought Complain: yes, the answer is: "Just create your own fic" even when it's frustrating.

People are responding to this: "Just write your own fic." With this, "Do you all want me to write tens of thousands of fanfics?"

The answer is YES!

Write it, you selfish, entitled critters.

Yes, pick a pen or keyboard and type.

Open your device and type. Write the shitty fics. Write the illegible stories. Write the incomplete stories. Write the syntax-murdering stories. You don’t want to do the labour but expect the fruits based on hopes of more fans = more fan content.

You don't even have to write a fucking, 10000 fics for your OTP. But write at least one. Keep writing one more. Then another. Yes, it's frustrating, but you have to do the job no one else is doing!!

If every fic writer thought this way, "I alone can't change or overcome the huge difference between my rare-pair ship and a popular ship," there wouldn’t be any fics for you to read on ao3 or any fansite. See right here. This defeatist attitude is the reason for the doom of your shipdom-related creativity. I remember someone had written 3k+ fics all by themselves for their rare pair. Fandom participation is literally built on the motto: where there is a will, there is a way!

Keep writing, since you love your ship so much, write for it. Write when there are no interactions. Write when there are no views. Write when there is no community to show it to. Lay the bricks for your community to build a castle on. Fandom is not an individual experience, if you want something you have to give something in return. You can't just keep taking and expect to be given all the time without doing anything in return.

On top of it, complaining about Yaoi/BL/MLM shippers hogging up the fandom space and topping stats is redundant. We are not fighting for a finite space as my friend put in her tweet. It is simply a matter of interest, insulting Fujos for lack of content in Hime-specific space is illogical. And fortunately, Yaoi shippers don't own anyone anything; their time, their labour, their hobby!

I have been a LawLu shipper for more than a decade, guess my fic count? Barely 50! I alone can’t make an impact on the numbers for my beloved OTP! But with my fellow LuLawLu Fujos, we made it possible!

Hence, LawLu is the second-biggest ship in the One Piece community! We all made it happen by writing things, making fanarts, and supporting each other's work.

As I have said before, you can't come to a potluck empty-handed and expect variety on your plate.

[consistentsquash]

5 Meta recs for Friday!

Happy Friday!!! <3 I read some really good meta on one of my fav author's writing process yesterday. So Meta Recs Friday! :D

My Writing Process by @squibstress

My name is Squibstress, and I am an unrepentant pantser.

This post is super poignant and really funny. It really shows fandom esp writing fic can be a lonely hobby and a social hobby at the same time. Also it's a super insightful look at not just the writing process because it's also about how the author thinks about the readers/reading experience.

I love, love, love the thoughtfulness Squibstress has for making reading more accessible. This is something you really only get in fandom. This extra attention to detail because it's a community and fandom is a garden <3 Personally I use a screen reader a lot and I can really tell the difference between fics which are going the extra mile for accessibiity on that.

Also TIL one of my fav authors is a pantser :D

Snarry-a-thon Recs by @danpuff-ao3

This is an incredible rec lists effort. Danpuff is making rec lists for Snarry-a-thon one of the longest running HP slash fests ever <3 Normally I don't have rec lists for meta posts but I feel this is such a brilliant meta level list. It's an amazing look at HP slash fandom evolution and also Snarry evolution. Insane levels of genres/tropes/characterization coverage! If you want to get a big picture Snarry fandom fic history this is the rec list for you!!

About Laugh and Forget (1) by @saehaerys

I am a big sucker for meta esp for fic meta for my fav fics. Laugh and Forget is a really dirtyhotbadwrong and super intense House of the Dragon/ASOIAF darkfic. PforPheobe's writing gives me serious Master and Margarita vibes because of that combo of darkness/humor/intense emotion. I have a Big Crush on their writing. Like I am not even a het incest reader but they sold me with their super dark emotional stories.

A bit under a year ago, one day in February, I had a horrible idea that Jaehaerys had coveted Saera and in his terrible covetousness he messed it all up, sending her away for cold repentance, and she fled from his face in mischief and utter disillusionment of their bond. It became increasingly unbearable for me to regard this passage of faux history.

I love fics written by authors with 100% commitment and love with their biggest Canon Feelings/Character Feelings inside it. This fic totally has that vibe. Really raw and super emotional.

The Lightning Struck Tower: “It is My Mercy, Not Yours That Matters Now” by @ashesandhackles

I really love the canon analysis meta from AshesandHackles. Honestly I am not a big reader of HP meta because it's a pretty old fandom and I feel like I don't really see a lot of value in meta at this point. But Ashesandhackles is brilliant at analysis and I feel like I just find new things to love about my fav characters and their parallels when I am reading their meta.

Harry recognises the flaw in the ending chapters of Deathly Hallows, and wins the Elder wand with an Expelliarmus too. Interestingly, it’s a spell Harry learnt by observing Snape in Duelling Club with Lockhart.

This one has incredible, incredible analysis of Snape, Harry and their relationships with Dumbledore. This is definitely not a shipping meta but I feel it's like 10x more powerful than a shipping meta because it just uses the canon to show the similarities/difference between the characters.

Re: Metrics by eldritcher

This is a funny and poignant personal post on writing stats/fandom stats.

Participating in fandom while refusing to buy into fandom's current metrics is a difficult position to take, because it's led to edgy questions now and then re: what keeps me in fandom since my metrics are pathetic (not my wording; my cousin deems anything below five-hundred kudos pathetic). 

Artists/authors have a lot of emotional connection with stats for lots of valid reasons. I feel bad when my fav authors are worried about stats but also I totally get it. Eldritcher is pretty idgaf about stats except comments because they love being super chatty and meta on comments. But also it's totally impossible to ignore other stats sometimes. The meta has an interesting point. If you are somebody who cares a lot about your progress, then you got to measure something. But like what's the right thing to measure?

[honeyhotteoks]

First off: you're my absolute favorite fanfic author! The way you write the characters and their emotions and dialog is just beautiful! Into the Aurora and This Night Together inspired me to actually give my writing a fighting chance!!!

With that said...how did you start posting your work? I really want to, but I'm sooooooo nervous!! What if no likes it? What if everyone hates it? And is there a certain way to format the post? I'm fairly new to ✨️actually✨️ posting on tumblr and have no clue what I'm doing 😬

oh my gosh, thank you so much!! i’m so honored to know that i helped inspire you to write fic 😭

this is a great question!! i have lots of advice for you, check under the cut~

okay so as far as how i started posting, this is probably not the post helpful answer. i’ve actually been writing fanfic since i was probably like 14 for various fandoms, i used to post on ff.net then on ao3 and now here, and it’s just been years of publicly posting fandom works online. that being said…… at some point you will just want to rip the bandaid off and when you do, i have some advice

there are going to be people who don’t like what you write, it doesn’t matter what you write or how you write. you like my work and i have a lot of followers, but i’ve had people give pretty negative feedback about aurora, tnt, and some of my one-shots. or reviews that aren’t “mean” necessarily but are “constructive”…. however, i’m a big believer that in the world of fan fiction, unsolicited constructive criticism doesn’t belong in comments when the author is posting their hobby for free. all i’m saying is that it’s gonna happen at some point, but you have to remember that the people doing that aren’t writing fic, and i genuinely do not care about the critical opinions of someone who’s never put themselves out there creatively before.

something that hurt when i started posting was the lack of engagement, and i know this is something a lot of writers still struggle with, especially on tumblr. there are fics i have written that are like deeply dear to me and i’m really proud of but have so few notes compared to other fics and that used to really bum me out. what i’ve learned is this:

people actually aren’t perpetually online they just seem it, so if you post something once and never mention it again, people with busy lives are going to miss it

the time you post doesn’t have to matter… but if you’re trying to drum up engagement, then consider the time of day you’re posting. tumblr has good analytics to tell you blog engagement stats and stuff like that, i find that can help with knowing most of your followers are from XYZ time zone and they probably will not see something you post at 2 PM during the work/school day vs. 7 PM or something like that

try not to be sad if you get a majority of likes and not reblogs. i personally like tons of work that i intend to read later, i treat my likes like bookmarks, that doesn’t mean someone didn’t like your work enough to reblog it, it means they use their likes differently OR potentially they have a blog where they don’t feel comfortable reblogging fanfic, especially nsfw fic.

if you’re posting anywhere, know your tags. don’t post something with two hashtags and assume it’ll find its way. unfortunately it won’t, so make sure you tag everything appropriately so it lands in people’s suggested feeds

if you do all of that and then your fic gets some notes but not that many….. and you’re wondering….. why didn’t more people like it? well part of that might just be that it’s not showing up at the top of people’s feeds anymore. if you want to establish yourself in the writing space, engaging with readers is important. if you get a really nice review in a reblog, don’t be afraid to reblog it back. if you get a certain number of notes, don’t be afraid to reblog your own fic and say thank you for 100 notes etc., just to push it up on people’s feeds.

if you’re posting on AO3, just make sure that you’re filling out all the tags, warnings, pairings, etc. AO3 has been around a while and is a well oiled machine, and i know a ton of readers on there use the filters to find the exact niche of fic they want to read. i cannot tell you how many fics i pass by that don’t have tags, are missing a good description, etc.

okay now as far as formatting goes…… here are my thoughts after a lot of trial and error:

before you decide on anything formatting wise, just remember that readers engage with fic on tumblr in a variety of ways. some people are on desktop, some people are on your actual blog web address, and some people are just on mobile. before you teach yourself html coding for fancy lettering in ombré colors…… are your readers going to be able to see it in dark mode? if not, maybe don’t invest the time, because the first thing i do when i see a post like that is scroll because it’s taking me too long to know what’s going on

so yeah, are there rules to format? yes and no. content “yes”, visual “no” but people do follow a particular trend. what i like to do is keep it simple to avoid the formatting issues i mentioned above, but i also invested a little time in figuring out a “look” for my posts so when people are scrolling they might see my layout and know it’s me. details below->

1. a header image or header images, it’s the quickest way for people to get a vibe and it might capture an aesthetic. some authors have a header made for them as an author, some do a custom one per fic, but i typically just make an aesthetic black and white collage and go with that because it looks cool but i don’t have to learn photoshop to do it. go with what you know on this one

2. a title and a SHORT description, i think ‘untitled’ is tough…. people won’t read or remember your fic. no description means people are guessing and might not click, and too long means people might scroll. my rule of thumb is a couple sentences.

3. content tags, and this is VERY important — people need warnings or clarity on what the fic is about. most people skim the tags to find out if they want to read it over a description, especially when we’re talking very short form fic or smut. that’s why tags might be funny or informal, but it’s also really important to tag anything that might be triggering in a variety of ways. something i always make sure i include is every sex act or kink (i never know what triggers one person and not another), and anything related to: violence, abuse, self harm, mental health, physical injury, death, food/diet content, and body descriptors of reader. if you’re writing self insert and you’re describing the reader a particular way, that’s fine but you should disclose it. some of my fics are specifically written for ‘curvy’ reader in mind and its tagged that way vs. like …. ‘short/small/size-kink’ reader. Gender is also important here, i always tag fem!reader because i feel like that works, but i often see more trans inclusive terms like afab!reader etc., so it’s up to you! but we definitely want to be mindful of readers who could feel dysphoric if surprised by pronouns/body-parts/etc.

4. a clear identifier of the ships in the fic. i.e. put the ‘yunho x reader’ or ‘idol!yunho x fem!reader’ tag high up so people know who they’re reading

5. otherwise, i personally recommend keeping the top of the post short, putting in a cut, and then posting everything under the cut because a long post is just a lot to scroll through etc. i favor the small text for my fics headers and regular size text for the actual body of the fic just to keep it looking nice.

hopefully this helps! i’d be happy to talk through anything else too, i love getting into this stuff. my biggest recommendation would be to ask yourself what kind of work you want to post and invest some time in developing a style for your format etc. - even if it’s close to what other people are posting that’s okay! just keeping it consistent and looking good helps get readers to click, so search around and see what you like and then play with your posts in drafts before you do anything.

good luck!!!

[angelosearch]

Chaos Theory has reached 500 hits on ao3!! ...which might not sound like a lot but I am pretty proud considering it's a little over a month old and written for a 25-year-old fandom.

More ao3 stats:

Chaos Theory is at 29 kudos!! So close to 30 ahhh

I've published about 70k words on my account... WHAT?! A novel is about 50k and it's been *checks calendar* less than two months!! I have about 82k words of fanfic written overall if you include the stuff I am still working on.

I am at nine total stories, eight (lol) of which are Final Fantasy VIII

My second most popular fic is a Hazbin Hotel one-shot that is a week old and has 487 hits, 68 kudos, 10 bookmarks, and three comments. Damn writing for newer fandoms is weird.

I feel so proud and accomplished but also this might be the most into a hobby I've ever been??? I love it here thank you to all my amazing readers ❤️❤️❤️

P.s. I also got an interview for grad school so yaaaay accomplishments

[sequencefairy]

Writing Wrap-Up 2023

It is, once again, the end of the year! I wrote a lot!

First of all, I have officially published all my original stuff written for Space Fruit Press on Amazon Kindle under my penname, so if you enjoy my fic, I would love to encourage you to check out my original stuff, too, since all those dollars help me on the journey to doing that full time instead of having a full time job that really cuts into my fangirl time.

In addition to what is available on Amazon, there is another anthology of work coming from the press, and I will have a story in it! I need to write it, but it will exist. I'm very excited about this story, as well.

From a fanfic perspective, I have published only three things this year:

And I Was Never Afraid of the Dark (Oh, the Weapon You Made of My Heart) - shyan, wip, unfinished, 9.4k, demon!shane

Shane pulls Ryan out of Hell at 3:37 on a Tuesday afternoon. He’s not looking at his watch at the time, but he infers the time later after he’s finally managed to get up off the desert floor, and has hauled them both back to the car he’d parked in the lot at the trailhead a little over a week ago. Ryan’s a deadweight in Shane’s grip, head lolling back against Shane’s shoulder and body limp and unhelpful in Shane’s arms. His eyes are closed.

My Rivers Tilt Towards You - geraskier, fae!jaskier, 29k, strangers to friends to lovers, canon-divergent au

Geralt pushes the door open one-handed. As it creaks, announcing his presence, Jaskier looks up from the long table he’s sitting at. There’s a mug of something at the bard’s elbow and his songbook is open in front of him. “Geralt,” he says in greeting, and for a moment, Geralt is sure that the bard’s eyes shine in the dark, reflective like his own. He blinks, and the moment passes. Jaskier’s mouth curves into a smile. “Is it done, then?”

Coax the Cold Right Out of Me - shyan, complete, 4.1k, vampire!shane, established relationship

“Shane,” Ryan says, insistent, eyes gleaming in the dark. Shane lets his eyes fall shut, and sighs. The little red and white cooler they usually bring on shoots got left behind at the hotel, an hour and a half away in Jackson. “I’ll be fine,” he says, not looking at Ryan, and ignoring the ache in his gums. He’s gone longer without, he can make it through one shoot and then the drive back before being sated. “You don’t have to be.”

(more rambling under the cut)

So I spent too long making this, but whatever. Let's have fun with infographics, baby!

Anyway, interesting look at the last couple of years for me! I have clearly been in a quality over quantity place regarding wordcounts + things published over the last few years.

I have, over the past couple of years, been feeling like my writing has changed quite a lot, both in terms of what I am interested in writing, and also what I am interested in publishing both to AO3 and as original work.

I think there's also probably something in here about the fall out from the pandemic, as well as something about the fact that I've been medicated for the ADHD for a year now, and I've had to learn how to write in a way that is not an unhealthy coping mechanism and instead as something I do for fun, as a hobby that I enjoy.

What I have been producing lately, in 2023, is some of my favourite writing I've ever done, and I feel like I really levelled up this year in terms of tackling themes and ideas that the me of 2021 wouldn't have even imagined was possible.

With that said, the other fun comparison across years is this one:

Clearly, when you only publish three things in a year, it skews your stats, but I do also think that My Rivers was definitely a thing I needed to finish and write in order to become the person who is currently sitting on about 70k or so of active WIP for a different fandom altogether.

I adore, always, all the love that my shyan fic gets, this fandom is demonstrative in a way that no other fandom has ever been for me, and I've made the best kind of friends in this fandom. Even if I never publish another shyan fic ever (which I am certainly not saying is the case), I still treasure every single one of these fics which allowed me to meet people who've become extremely fucking important to me.

In addition to published fic, of course, the other thing to talk about is all that stuff I'm sitting on that hasn't been published (yet).

These are the seven most active of my WIPs. I am desiring to publish Moonlight on Broken Glass before the end of December, but since I'm the porn and instead of writing it, I keep going back to refine other parts of it, I have some doubts in my ability to get a draft done in the next few days.

All together, that's about 82k of wip, in various states of done that I'm working on. So, really, this year, I've written like, well over 100k, which is always my quiet goal going into any given year.

I don't have anything else to say about this, but I had fun making these little pictures and looking at all my wips. It was, all told, a good year for writing, even if it started off kinda slow.

[trytofic]

Video Games

Day 2! I'm doing pretty well with these prompts! I'm loving doing this! hehe <3 These will be crossposted on my Ao3! Thank you to @shadamytober <3

Day 2: Video Games

Ao3

Amy makes a character that looks a lot like Shadow.

Spending hours with tails will make anyone start to enjoy different hobbies. Sonic and Tails played video games and talked about repairing tech. Knuckles enjoyed talking about books with Tails. Amy always enjoyed cooking with him but one day a video game caught her eye and she played it for hours once she got home. 

It was a MMO, that at first, she was a little skeptical about until she noticed how much you could customize your characters. Your whole party was customizable and the outfits you could pick from made her want to play even more so she could unlock everything she wanted. Her party was a powerhouse, all attack and strength, less on the defense, but her character was all the speed she needed to get through any fight.

One day as she was at home finishing a quest, her front door burst open from Sonic and Tails. She got nervous as she looked at the two, immediately covering the screen. She wasn't ashamed of the game per se, but her characters specifically made her nervous. 

“Amy, are you playing that MMO I started a few weeks ago?”

“Uhh, well I..”

“I never knew you were into this kind of stuff, Ames!” Sonic inched closer to the screen and she blocked her character from his view with her hands.

“You’re such a high level! Oh and that armor, I’ve never seen it!” Tails inches closer to try and peak at the game closer. When Amy’s face turned bright red Sonic smirked and grabbed Amy holding her away from the computer.

“Tell us more Tails!” He laughed as she wiggled in his arms. 

Tails walked over to the computer and clicked on her party. Her player character was in gray armor with red and gold accents. The sword she had was named Arondight. He hovered over her stats and the speed was maxed out and the strength was almost at the max as all her other stats. 

“You got Arondight? That level is super hard and you need so many players to help get it! That's so cool Amy! It's based on the King Arthur legend and it's supposed to be super strong! Ah, see, there isn't even a durability bar! This is so cool Amy!”

“Yep, cool weapon, nothing else to see! Please let me go Sonic!” She shoved her hands on his face trying to free herself. 

“Wait, let's see the pretty face behind the helmet!” Sonic grinned. Amy jolted and she tried to get Tails to stop, but once he clicked “remove armor” she froze.

On screen showed a strong face, and black spiked hair with red streaks. His eyes were pointed, serious and stern, and very noticeably red. The two boys turned to see Amy’s face a bright red and her eyes looking anywhere but their faces. Sonic let Amy go and she simply pointed to the door. Sonic smirked and Tails shook his head no. 

“I wonder if Shadow might like this game. Maybe I should tell him to come over.”

“Sonic…” Tails reached out to his brother until Amy turned to Sonic.

“You breathe one word and I’ll make sure every town you visit never gives you chillie dogs again.” She stared into his eyes.

“You’ll have to beat me there first!” Sonic ran out of her house and Tails just watched as Amy covered her face. 

“I’ll make sure Shadow doesn't find out.” He told her.

“Thank you Tails. I just… want to make sure I don't say anything that will make our friendship awkward. I just need some time.”

“He will come around, Amy. Just take your time.” He waved running after his brother. 

Amy took in a deep breath trying to calm down. She had a crush on the darker hedgehog for a while now, but she didn't dare ruin their friendship after it took so long to get Shadow to open up in the first place. She smiled at the player character on the screen and shut the game off. She just needed a little bit of courage and some time. 

[fiadorable]

fic author q&a

thanks for the tag and the questions, @curator-on-ao3 ���

Why do you write fanfic? I have peered into the multiverse and the multiverse peered back. Thusly, I am compelled to tell others of what I've seen.

Which of your posted stories do you think about the most, even though the story is "finished"? I don't really think about my stories once they're finished. I might continue to think about a story if I feel it has sequel potential. So stories like zoom, zoom and the scorch I still think about, but not something like love is a ghost you can't control or you are cordially invited

If you could give yourself fic advice from when you first started writing fic, what would that advice be? Writing fanfiction is real writing, despite what literally every adult tells you. It's okay. They don't know. But you will, one day.

What's your relationship to fic stats? They exist. I look at them every now and then to see what people are finding interesting, but I don't put much stock in them because they are imperfect representations of the reach and impact of my writing. Having a single person read and leave a thoughtful comment is better than 100 kudos.

Is there a pairing or scenario or friendship you miss writing? If so, why? If not, why not? I really miss writing OutlawQueen. They're such a fun, passionate couple, and spinning them into AUs was effortless. Still my favorite power couple because they not only kick ass to save the world but they're also single parents who found second love together and enjoy their large, wacky, recursive family.

What motivates you to write? I am happy when I write. I am invested in my happiness.

Why do you write for the fandom(s) that you write for? Whenever a piece of media presses the Plot Bunny Button, I write for it. I do not get to pick which ones push the button. I just live here.

If you're stuck writing a WIP, what do you do? Start/work on another WIP! Other options include phoning a friend, doing something else for a while, video games, cleaning, etc.

What do you wish people knew about comments? Emoji comments are a great way to still leave a comment when you don't have spoons for words but want to do more than hit the kudos button.

Maybe there's a question you wish had been on here. What's that questions (and answer)? How are you feeling about writing today? Well, Fia, I'm glad you asked. Writing feels like garbage today, but I know that just means I need to take care of myself a little more before I sit down to write. Later, or tomorrow, or the next day I'll feel differently. And that's okay. No sane person loves their hobby all the time or even most of the time.

Tagging: @ussjellyfish + @justreckin + @emonydeborah + et.al.

[commehter]

I Was Bored Earlier This Week...

...and instead of doing anything productive, I poked at SToFLO's tags on AO3 for grins and giggles. Then I broke out the calculator because I am a dweeb. Here's some of the more interesting numbers.

The ATLA fandom on AO3 is rather large, of course, but I was impressed with how well SToFLO's stats held up. Top 4% for kudos, top 2% for hits and bookmarks, and, finally, the top 1% for comments! (The last one might actually be cheating a bit. I've had a few long conversations in the comments' section.) Now, to come back down to Earth, what that actually means is StoFLO was on pages 75 for kudos, 37 for hits, 31 for bookmarks, and 20 for comments. Heh, yeah, I don't think anyone will be finding the story without a bit more filtering.

On the other side of the spectrum, the "Ozai Dies" tag (or "Ozai is Deader than a Doornail" on SToFLO) is only 3 pages long with 57 works total at the time of my integer-based tomfoolery. And would you look at that! I managed to find a recognized tag on AO3 small enough that SToFLO is in the top 5 when sorted by bookmarks, kudos, comments, hits, and word count! I find this especially funny because I only added the tag as a clarification that the main character was not actually canon!Ozai.

Jumping back to that semi-inflated comments number, it snagged SToFLO places on page 2 of "Zuko-centric" and page 1 of both "Fire Lord Zuko" and "Fire Nation Royal Family."

Not too shabby, all things considered!

Anyway, when I was done with my nonsense calculations, I cleaned up the tags on the story and took the opportunity to add a few that were missing before. One casualty was my beloved "Updates at the Pace of my Capricious Muse" tag for an "Aiming for Monthly Updates" tag.

I've never actually held to a writing/posting schedule before, but I think it's about time I gave it a try. For a few reasons, not least of which is the sheer discrepancy of the amount I updated SToFLO in its first year compared to its second. I know monthly is a pretty slow update rate, but this is fanfic written in my spare time as a hobby; and, even as slow as monthly is, this last year I've actually been posting less than that. (I suppose if the extras in Folktales and Fables are counted, then it's roughly the same amount of chapters/content for the series as a whole as monthly posts would be, but still.)

I'm hoping to update SToFLO every 28th of the month from now on, so keep an eye out for the next chapter and I'll see you in about a week! Happy reading!

[woodswolf]

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats 🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that? 🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately? (Hope you have fun with these! And you don't have to answer all of them if you don't want to !:D)

writer's truth or dare ask game

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats

a lot of my old ninjago stuff has tons of hits and kudos n shit even though i do not care about it anymore lol. some of it's good some of it Is Not. but i digress. anyway i added the word count graph bc i think it's really funny that DLD is lapping the second longest item twice over (and it's going to be more than 3x over after i finish chapter 5 🥴 <- DERANGED)

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?

kinda a long story actually. starts with reading a TIME magazine article about HP fanfiction back around the time the last movie was coming out. (i read it in print though, can't figure out where to find it online. it had a lot of like fic recs n shit in it, honestly kinda funny looking back on it.) from there i found out that the HP news fansite my dad visited a lot (mugglenet) had a fanfiction subarea and went through a lot of shit on there. eventually i tried posting my own bad shit but it got rejected by the moderators (deserved lmao) and from there i moved over to FFN somehow and started doing shit there. at which point i was still in the middle of my Coraline Special Interest phase and thought "hm. coraline seems very Killable". and the rest is history lmao

🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?

N/A because i actually don't really do much editing. my mom was a newspaper editor for her career before she had me and the general rules of grammar got knocked into me very quickly from the combination of Her and just like. looking shit up sometimes, or mimicking how things were written in books maybe. fuck if i know honestly, i've been writing as a hobby since i was like 9-10 or some shit and over time it's just gradually become part of my process that i don't fuck up formatting and if i do it's only genuinely by accident.

as for shit like rewording sentences and shit like that, i also generally do that as i go but i'll also do that on rereads (because i reread my stuff all the time). ill just see something that's like "oh that's awkwardly worded or there's a word missing or whatever" and i'll make the edit as necessary. that kind of stuff is 9/10 and only because i have to find where the edit is needed again in whichever area im editing it

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

no paragraph breaks or far too few paragraph breaks. everything else im flexible on but that's my hard rule. from there it's shit like if the spelling/grammar/punctuation is especially bad - it's like if you didn't care to Write this well then i probably won't care to Read it well. theres other things (e.g. it often bothers me when people leave blank paragraphs between every paragraph even if i won't stop reading it over that) but those are the ones that'll make me click off INSTANTLY.

thanks for the ask!!

[khepiari]

Rant Post: Imagine crying over fanfic stats! Laughable!

Imagine crying over fanfic stats! Over fanfic. If you don’t have enough fics, write your own stories. If you don’t have enough art, make it. These days, people think fandom exists for just creating content!

If you are a passive fan then behave like one. No one owns you shit, and using words like “misogyny” and “comphet” will not help your cause. And this obsession with numbers! The AO3 site works on how you use your brains to find the fic you want to read. Suck it up. There is no pot of gold sitting for the shippers at the end of topping these rainbow stats.

There is so much mutual clowning that happens outside the AO3 website and Twitter spaces too! People have Discord channels, Facebook groups, events, zines, and Instagram broadcasting channels to share their love for their fandoms and ships.

Yet here we are, people obsessed with AO3 stats.

And when people are willing to create new things for their respective fandoms, there is a dearth of interaction. A plant can grow from the cracks of the concrete, but it will need sunlight, water, and nutrition to blossom flowers. For fandom creators be it wlw or mlm or gen creators; positive and supportive interactions are their light, water and soil.

How can you expect to be fed but not reciprocate in return? If you don’t do the bare minimum of hyping your creators, what's the point of being in a fandom? Why will someone put their labour out there if all they get is endless negativity? One of my favourite fic writers entirely stopped writing for the wlw community of her fandom because of negative interactions and hateful campaigns. This is one of the main reasons many writers quit wlw spaces and abandon writing or creating anything!

I remember when I was publishing My Little Husband on ffnt more than a decade back. I had readers "who couldn’t write well" according to themselves, who often gave me prompts and scenes to add to the story. They also helped me correct my typos, plot holes and syntax because I was a very young and inexperienced writer writing something very ambitious. It was one of the best and most positive experiences of my life because the story was truly an interactive experience! That first encounter has shaped me as a fic writer today.

That’s why I love the current culture of Threadfics! They are so much fun! Fic writers who have a bone for an idea but not enough meat throw it at us the readers. And then all of us rush to it like a pack of hyenas but pull a reverse hunting by adding in the meat to this bone and creating something fun and weird.

Instead, of using the fandom space as a positive and creatively enriching place, so many of you have driven away people with negativity. And it's not just about wlw shippers any more, it's a comment on the entire fandom atmosphere post-pandemic!

Some of you want a seven-course meal catering to your 3-star Michelin appetites from the home kitchen of a hobby cook! This is not how it works!

P.S.: If you want to read: My Little Husband, here is the slightly cleaner version on ao3.