#but the fics for that fandom count to like 20 max

[cooking-with-hailstones]

Statistical analysis of the most popular A:TLA fics on AO3

(All of this is accurate as of May 27 2024)

I like numbers and statistical analysis and for some unfathomable reason I find it calming. So last night I made this spreadsheet!

DISCLAIMER: This is not a judgement of the quality, value, or merits of any of the fics on this list. It's just me being curious about what's popular with the A:TLA fandom on AO3. I was genuinely surprised at some of the results!

Observations and analysis under the cut:

TL:DR, the fandom fucking loves putting Zuko into Situations.

Methodology: I'm including all fics from the first page of results from the most kudos'd, commented, hits, and bookmarks tagged under the Avatar: The Last Airbender (cartoon, 2005) tag on ao3. I am deliberately not including any larger multifandom flash fiction or drabble collections because I don't think they're super relevant. This ended up including 38 fics in total.

I put all the fics into one single spreadsheet in order to compare the differences between fics that are really high on the kudos count but not the hit count, or what has a lot of comments but fewer hits. Basically, I'm throwing a lot of things together to observe what gets engagement and looking at patterns that emerge!

Top 5 most popular fics by hit count:

Salvage - MuffinLance

Fractures - EvieNyx

Embers- Vathara

Towards the Sun - MuffinLance

The Art Of Burning - hella1975

Max: 1,407,170 (Salvage -MuffinLance)

Min: 78,168 (Risking it all - Sreeder)

Average: 349,442

Top 5 most popular fics by kudos count:

Salvage - MuffinLance

The Family You Choose - TunaFishChris

where the stars do not take sides - WitchofEndor

Fractures - EvieNyx

The beginning of a new and brighter birth - aloneintherain

Max: 59,947 (Salvage - MuffinLance)

Min: 3293 (Risking it all - Sreeder)

Average: 19,868

Top 5 most popular fics by number of comments:

The Art Of Burning - hella1975

Salvage - MuffinLance

Fractures - EvieNyx

Towards the Sun - MuffinLance

War Games - Lovely_Elbow_Leech

Max: 13,469 (The Art Of Burning - hella1975)

Min: 358 (Hallowed - Haircrescendo)

Average: 3634

Top 5 most popular fics by number of bookmarks:

absence of heat, excess of destiny - theycallmesuperboy

Salvage - MuffinLance

where the stars do not take sides - WitchofEndor

The Family You Choose - TunaFishChris

The beginning of a new and brighter birth - aloneintherain

Max: 150,317 (absence of heat - theycallmesuperboy)

Min: 430 (Risking it all - Sreeder)

Average: 9297

Highest kudos/hit ratio: Safety First - Haircrescendo (20.36%)

Lowest kudos/hit ratio: My Heart Burns For You - alwaysZutarian (0.89%)

Average kudos/hit ratio: 8.25%

Fic Ratings:

G: 9

T: 18

M: 6

E: 2

Unrated: 3

Popular authors (people who showed up more than once):

Aloneintherain (3)

Haircrescendo (5)

MuffinLance (4)

WitchofEndor (2)

Characters:

Literally all of these fics are Zuko-centric. Not all of them are Zuko-pov but every. single. one. focuses on Zuko as a main character. At least one of the following tags is on every single fic in this list: "The Gaang & Zuko", "Zuko & Zuko's Crew", "Zuko & Iroh" "Zuko & Azula" and "Zuko & [insert gaang member here]"

Relationships:

Ok this is what actually shocked me the most. I fully expected to see more Kataang, Zutara, etc in the top rated fics, but NO! Only 21 out of the 38 fics had any relationship slash tag, and of those, 20/21 were Sokka/Zuko (shoutout to My Heart Burns For You as the token Zutara fic to make it into this list). I did NOT realize Zukka was so popular! Now I'm super curious about what it would be like to run these numbers on FF.net because I know so much A:tla fanfic was written before ao3 existed and most hasn't been cross-posted, and Zukka wasn't a popular ship until more recently.

Other random observations:

There seems to be a pretty even split between post-canon firelord Zuko fics and canon-divergent "Zuko joins the Gaang early" fics.

Only one modern au as far as I could tell! (shoutout to "The Good Vanilla")

We all seem to love a Dadkoda fic

There is a very strong correlation between one-shots and a high kudos/hit ratio.

Seemingly no correlation between word count and number of kudos. The top kudos'd stories were mostly under 10k words, while all the other catergories were dominated by fics in the 100k+ word count.

I didn't really see much correlation between hits, kudos, and comments overall.

There were LOTS of fics that only showed up in one category, which was really interesting! I figured each list would look pretty much the same, and there were several fics that did show up on the front page of every category (Salvage definitely sweeps the board for overall most popular fic), but there was a lot of variation between each list! Some fics had TONS of hits but very few comments, some had truly wild kudos/hit ratios, some were just massively bookmarked.

Thank you for indulging in my nerdiness, and feel free to tell me what I missed or anything you're curious about!

Update: I did it again, this time with Legend of Zelda

[isa-ghost]

Happy 1 year of existing, AMFMN. Wow.

To think a rant about the lack of truly Phil-centric fics spiraled into something that, a year later, has left me more creatively fulfilled than I have been in a long time... It's still crazy to think about.

To think that in just a year, saying fuck it we ball and writing my first proper fanfic has made me so many new friends, lead to me meeting so many new cool people, that has inspired so many others, that has won silly fandom awards, that has gotten amounts of fanart I never expected.

To think that just writing this fic has genuinely boosted my general self-confidence and improved my ability to take compliments beyond anything I could've imagined.

And it all started because I got a HINT of a canon possession arc that didn't actually happen until nearly 2 months later, and got insanely excited about it.

👆🏻 She had no idea this would be a 20 chapter 17,000+ hits fic with too many amazingly vivid and gut-wrenching scenes to count. She thought this was 5-6 chapters max.

👆🏻 She didn't know in roughly 2 months she would watch this chapter play out almost point for point, but in the new Reset part of the island.

She had no idea she'd get hit with Apollo's dodgeball like 20 times throughout the canon possession arc.

The fact that it only took 3 days for the fic to double in its expected length. And then it turned into 20 and an alternate crack ending.

👆🏻 She didn't know she'd be assigned famous author by dozens of other Crows she'd never met before. She doesn't know Ama herself will read the fic. She doesn't know MaepleTea will read the fic.

👆🏻 Thank every single one of you for making it worth committing a year+ of blood sweat and tears into this fic. For engaging so much both on ao3 and Tumblr, for sending asks, for tuning into streams where I just gush about the fic for the same length as a Phil stream, for excitedly asking about updates and basically never demanding me to update on your terms. Thank you for showing AMFMN so much love, and for being so invested in it that you've given my other smaller works and wips a chance too.

I will never not be grateful for the astronomical amounts of luck I've had with how much reception the fic has gotten. I had no concept of average fic stats at the start, so to have it explained to me what a big deal it is to reach these numbers... I genuinely can't comprehend it. I wish everyone had this kind of luck.

I don't have the time for a celebratory stream today, but maybe this weekend, if Offscot and my beta readers are available to host and be there <3

[taumoebaa]

20 question for writers tag game

tagged by @softodettes (👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩)

1. Total number of ao3 works?

10 (3 are anon because they're just silly little drabbles hehe)

2. Total ao3 word count

104,415 (oopsie get this girl some sunlight)

3. Fandoms I've written in

Just Fourth Wing.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

Death of a Sun A Safe Place for Change (the couples therapy fic) Good Morning Evergreen (the one where xaden's eyesight is bad) Self Control (liam pining) Solace (the one where xaden is babygirl)

5. Do I respond to comments?

Yes like 99.67% of the time :) comments make me so happy and I love yapping.

6. What has the angstiest ending?

Good Morning Evergreen.

7. What has the happiest ending?

Solace. Xaden literally just gets smooches and tucked into bed at the end. It's the happiest of happy endings.

8. Have I received hate?

Yeah, very occasionally, but I kinda deserved some of it haha.

9. Do I write smut? And what kind?

Sometimes. Mostly really mild stuff. I don't really enjoy writing smut. If it's in there it's to serve some function of the plot.

10. Do I write crossovers?

Nope.

11. Have I ever had a fic stolen?

Nope. I'll probably cry if this ever happens to me.

12. Have I ever had a fic translated?

Nah. But maybe one day I'll translate one of my short fics to Chinese just for fun.

13. Have I ever co-written a fic?

Nope. But I do really want to :) Sounds like fun. I'm just too shy to ask anyone to do this with me.

14. What is my all-time fave ship?

Officially, these are evenly matched in my bookmarks. But my favourite will always be Achilles/Patroclus/Zagreus. Platonically, I also really love Zuko & Wan Shi Tong fics.

15. A WIP I'll never finish

I've been writing Translations in Aretia in the background for months now but I'm a little scared of posting another XVL long-fic where Liam/Violet has a stronger focus. There's also a bunch of canon re-write/missing scene fics that I'm not too motivated to write, a Brennan/Reader fic, and a Max/Tisaanah fic. I'll never finish these, probably.

16. Writing strengths?

Idk.

17. Writing weaknesses?

Dialogue. Especially dialogue between young characters. I have no idea how people in their late teens/early twenties talk. Tairn-speak is easier. I think the Hades fandom did that to me. I struggle with exposition too. Describing things always feels like a bland exercise. Prose is hard. Introspection is a nightmare. Writing is just really difficult.

18. Do I like foreign language dialogue?

I love it. I adore it. Foreign language dialogue and language barriers are among my favourite tropes. It's up there with accidental pet acquisition. My favourite CoD fic has a language barrier element to it. My current favourite book, Daughter of No Worlds, also has that. I just love this trope ruthlessly and indiscriminately.

19. First fandom I wrote for?

Fourth Wing.

20. Favourite fic I've written?

Good Morning Evergreen. I genuinely had so much fun writing this fic. I feel like with all my other works I'm pulling teeth just to get the words out, but with this one everything just flowed and I ended up writing it all in one sitting. I still re-read it from time to time which is crazy because I hate re-reading my fics. I also really enjoyed writing One Gentle Afternoon. Childhood memories are so fun for me :)

tagging @littlefirefox @copperfirebird @shipmistress9 but no pressure!!

omg a surprise cat

[musewrangler]

20 Questions for Writers

Thank you for the tag @ladysongmaster! I can't recall if I've done this one before!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 137

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 3,126,209

3. What fandoms do you write for? Star Wars ninety percent of the time. A smattering of Hornblower, one for Narnia, one in Silverado, getting into some original work as well.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Mirjahaal

Bajur

He Who Sheds His Blood With Me

Forging Ahead

I Felt You In My Bones

5. Do you respond to comments?

As much as possible. Made a resolution to do so more quickly xD

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hm. I tend to like happier endings and put all the angst in the middle. xD So...ponders. I think it's a short one from one of my Star Wars collections called 'And a Child Shall Lead Them'.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I have a lot of those I'm glad to say. But the most joy...quite likely the one for Brothers In Arms for...reasons. Don't want to spoil it. Though When the Mighty Don't Fall is a close second place.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

One time. But, deleted, blocked, done. :D

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope.

10. Do you write crossovers?

No. I'm sure folks can do it well---just not my cup of tea.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

An attempt was made once by one of those weird 'companies' through Amazon, but they took care of it fast.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

A wonderful person has translated a TON of them into Russian!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes I have! Doing one now as a matter of fact.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

This could be several categories. xD In books? Toss up between Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey and Faramir/Eowyn.

Movies? Han/Leia [shocking] and Etienne Navarre/Isabeau d'Anjou from Ladyhawke.

And of course---epic platonic friendship--Piett and Veers

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a Hornblower collection that I have not touched in too long, but I ALSO finish stories, so it will happen. At some point.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Likely character building, dialogue and action.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Description, pacing and editing. However, I write largely for fun-- being more lenient about editing for myself at the moment.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I have done it for Hornblower for realism but I don't often do so.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Star Trek actually. xD In high school. I don't think I even knew to call it fan fic then. I just loved Chekov from the original series. I grew up with the movies in the Eighties you see. Dates me I know. xD

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This is the all time hardest question about my writing. I like various of my fics for very different reasons. So I'm sorry, but I'll have to say more than one.

Brothers In Arms because exploring Max and Firmus as friends from the Academy was a DELIGHT. Then throwing in Myra and Sola...yeah I had a lovely time with all the characters and action in that fic.

In terms of really getting a setting and having a blast with historical fiction---War in the Shadows. I am a history NERD and I think I did pretty well with accurate time period world building while using Star Wars characters. ;D

And Mirjahaal hit a lot of delightful notes for me to play with so I have to mention it.

Gently tagging @afaroffsong @kraytwriter @freenarnian @scarvenartist @rainintheevening @klarionthewizard @tolkienreader1996 @mathmusic8 @saxifrage-wreath @galaxacious @hollers-and-holmes

[39oa]

f1 rpf graphing & archive insights

intro & prior work

hello! if you're reading this, you may already be familiar with my previous post about graphing hockey rpf ships and visualizing some overarching archive insights (feel free to check it out if you aren't, or alternatively just stick around for this intro). i've been meaning to make an f1 version of that post for a while, especially since i've already done a decent amount of f1 rpf analysis in the past (i have a very rough post i wrote a year ago that can be read here, though fair warning that it really does not make any sense; while i've redone a few viz from it for this post i just figured i'd link it solely because there are other things i didn't bother to recalculate!)

f1 is quite different from many team sports because a large part of my process for hockey was discovering which ships exist in the first place—when there are thousands and thousands of players who have encountered one another at different phases of their careers, it's interesting to see how people are connected and it's what was personally interesting to me about making my hockey graphs. however, with f1's relative pursuit of "exclusivity," barriers to feeder success and a slower-to-change, restrictive grid of 20 drivers, it becomes generally expected that everyone has already interacted with one another in some fashion, or at least exists at most 2 degrees of separation from another driver. because of this, i was less interested in "what relationships between a large set of characters exist?" (as per my hockey post) and more so in "what do the relationships between a small set of characters look like?"

process

my methodology for collecting "ship fic" tries to answer the question: what does shippability really look like on ao3? (the following explanation is adapted from my hockey post:) a perceived limitation i have with character tagging numbers on ao3 is that they don’t exactly reflect holistic ship fic; that is, if lando is tagged as a character in a max/daniel fic, it gets attributed to his character tag but doesn’t actually say anything about how many Relationship Fics exist for him on a whole. my best solution for this was essentially uncovering most of a driver's relationships and summing their individual fic counts to create an approximate # of “relationship fics” for each player. so any kind of shippability graph going forward will use that metric.

i used ao3’s relationship tag search and filtered by canonical in the formula 1 rpf fandom and only pulled relationship* fics (“/” instead of “&”) with a min. of 5 works. ao3’s counts are… Not the most accurate, so my filtering may have fudged some things around or missed a few pairings on the cusp, which again is why all the visuals here are not meant to show everything in the most exact manner but function more so as a “general overview” of ficdom. although i did doublecheck the ship counts so the numbers themselves are accurate as of time of collection.

(*i excluded wag ships, reader ships, threesomes to make my life easier—although i know this affects numbers for certain drivers, team principal/trainer/engineer ships, and any otherwise non-driver ship. i left in a few ships with f2, fe, etc. drivers given that that one character was/is an f1 driver, but non-f1 drivers were obviously excluded from any viz about f1 driver details specifically. this filtering affected some big ships like felipe massa/rob smedley, ot3 combinations of twitch quartet and so on, which i recognize may lower the… accuracy? reliability??? of certain graphs, but i guess the real way to think of the "shippability metric" is as pertaining solely to ship fic with other drivers. although doing more analysis with engineers and principals later down the line could be cool)

also note that since i grouped and summed all fics for every single ship a driver has, and since one fic can be tagged as multiple ships, there will be inevitable overlap/inflation that also lessens the accuracy of the overall number. however, because there's no easy way to discern the presence and overlap of multiship fic for every single driver and every single ship they have, and attempting to do so for a stupid tumblr post would make this an even larger waste of time… just take everything here with a grain of salt!

data for archive overview viz was collected haphazardly over the past few days because i may have procrastinated finishing this post haha. but all ship data for section 2 was specifically collected april 22, 2023.

PART I. f1 rpf archive overview

before i get to ship graphing, here are a few overviews of f1 ficdom growth and where it measures relative to other sports fandoms, since i find the recent american marketability of f1 and its online fandom quite interesting.

first off, here's a graph that shows the cumulative growth of the top 8 sports rpf fandoms from 2011 until now (2023 is obviously incomplete since we're only in may). i've annotated it with some other details, but we can see that f1 experienced major growth after 2019, which is when the first episode of dts was released.

something that fascinated me when making this graph was the recent resurgence of men's football rpf in 2023; while the fandom has remained fairly consistent over the years, i had noticed that its yearly output was on the decline in my old post, and i was especially surprised to see it eclipse even f1 for 2023. turns out that a large driver behind these numbers is its c-fandom, and it reminded me that out of all the sports rpf fandoms, hockey rpf is fairly unpopular amongst chinese sports fans! i wanted to delve into this a little more and look at yearly output trends for the top sports fandoms since 2018, only this time filtered to exclusively english works (a poor approximation for "western" fandom, i know, but a majority of sports fandom on tumblr does create content in english).

another thing i've long been curious about with f1 specifically is—because of how accessible dts and f1 driver marketing are to fans online, does f1 rpf and shipping culture skew a bit more "public" than other fandoms? i'd initially graphed the ratio of public fic on ao3 for hockey because i also wanted to see whether it was on the rise (again, apologies for how many callbacks and references there are in this post to hockey rpf... it's just easy for me to contextualize two familiar sports ficdoms together *__*), but i was surprised to see that it's actually been steadily trending downward for many years now. f1 fic, on the other hand, has steadily been becoming more public since 2016.

another note is that c-ficdom follows different fic-posting etiquette on ao3, and thus chinese-heavy sports rpf fandoms (think table tennis and speed skating) will feature a majority public fic—here's another old graph. since f1 fandom has a relatively larger representation of chinese writers than hockey does, its public ratio falls a little bit if you filter to english-only works, but as of 2023 it remains significantly higher than hockey's!

anyway, onto the actual ship graphing.

my ship collection process yielded 164 ships with 57 drivers, 46 of which have been in f1. all 20 current active f1 drivers have at least one ship with min. 5 fics, though not all of them had a ship that connected them to the 2023 grid. specifically, nyck de vries' only ship at time of collection was with stoffel vandoorne at 56 works.

once again because f1 is so strongly connected, i initially struggled a lot with how i wanted to graph all the ships i'd aggregated—visualizing all of them was just a mess of a million different overlapping edges, not the sprawling tree that branched out more smoothly from players like in hockey. this made me wonder whether it even made sense to graph anything at all... and tbh the jury is still out on whether these are interesting, but regardless here's a visualization of how the current grid is connected (color-coded by team)! i graphed a circular layout and then a "grid-like" layout just for variety lol.

of course, i still wanted to explore how ships with ex-f1 drivers have branched out and show where they connect to drivers on the current grid, especially because not too long ago seb was very much the center of the ficdom ecosystem, and the (based purely on the numbers) segue to today's max/charles split didn't really come to fruition until the dts days. so here's a network of f1 ships with a minimum of 75 works on ao3:

before i go into ship breakdowns, i also have a quick overview of the most "shippable" drivers, aka the drivers with the highest sum of fic from all their respective ships. the second bar chart is color-coded by the count of their unique ships to encapsulate who is more prone to being multi-shipped.

PART II. ship insights

first let's take a look at the most popular f1 ships on ao3, again filtered to driver-only ships.

here's another graph filtered to the current grid only, and then one that shows the 15 ships where one driver isn't and has never been an f1 driver:

for this section, i ended up combining my ship data with a big f1 driver dataset that gave me information on each driver's birth year, points, wins, seasons in f1, nationality... etc., so that's what i'll be using in the rest of the post. disclaimer that i did have to tweak a few things and the data doesn't reflect the most recent races, so please note there might be some slight discrepancies in my visualizations.

anyway—in my hockey post i did a lot of set analysis because i was interested in figuring out what made the players who were part of the ship network different from the general population. with f1, since almost Every Driver has at least one ship and it's a much more representative group, doing a lot of set distributions wasn't that interesting and so i stuck more to pure ship analysis. still, the set isn't completely representative, which i noted by checking the ratios of driver nationalities in my dataset and then in the large database of f1 drivers i merged with (though filtered to debut year >= 2000 to maintain i guess the same "dimensions").

while british and german drivers have been the most common nationalities in f1 since 2000, both in general and in my ship data, it seems that ficdom slightly overrepresents/overships them and then underrepresents brazilian drivers. i was also curious to see the distribution of ships by nationality combination (which is actually quite diverse), and though it once again wasn't surprising that uk/germany was the most common combination given that we've just established the commonality of their driver groups, i found it somewhat interesting to realize just how many ships fall under this umbrella.

i then once again wanted to see what the distribution of age differences looked across ships. the ships i graphed yielded a range of 25 years, with the oldest age difference being 25 years between piastri and webber. tbh, something that's interesting to me about f1 ships is not just how connected current drivers are but also how there is a very strong aspect of cyclicality, wherein long careers in combination with well-established celebrity culture and post-retirement pivots to punditry & mentorship position drivers perfectly to still be easily shipped with any variety of upcoming drivers, hence why we encounter a relatively significant variety of age differences.

of the ships with two f1 drivers, 38% were within 2 years of each other, while 44% had an age difference of 5 years or more.

more experimentally (basically i wanted to use these performance metrics for something!), i tried graphing driver metrics against "shippability" to see whether i could uncover any trends, normalizing to percentile to make it more visually comprehensible.

one thing that was interesting to me is that there is a strong correlation between a driver's points per entry and their number of ship fic; really, this isn't surprising at all because it's basically a reflection of whether they've driven for a big 3 team, and we know that the most popular drivers are from big 3 teams, but then i guess it does become a bit of a chicken and egg question... which is something i'm continuously fascinated by when discussing success and talent in sports fandom, especially in a sport like f1 where there is so little parity and thus "points" do not always quantifiably translate to "talent," making it difficult to gauge why and when a driver's skill becomes consciously appealing to an audience. i don't know but here's that scatterplot.

similarly, i also wanted to look at years active vs. fic to gauge which drivers have a High Number Of Ship Fic relative to how long they've actually been in f1, basically a rough rework of the "shippability above expected" metric i'd tried exploring in my old f1 post haha. because the set i merged with attributed 1 "year active" to a driver just like, filling in as reserve for a single race, and it also included drivers who maybe raced one season and then never raced again, but then i still wanted to include current rookies in their first season to show where their Potential lies... i settled on filtering to drivers who were or have been active for at least 5 seasons OR who debuted recently and thus have a bit of rookie leeway. there's a decent amount of correlation here, which is again... in f1, the underlying argument for remaining active for many years is that you have to be good enough to keep your seat, so it's expected that if drivers stay on the grid for a long time they will eventually accrue more fandom interest and thus ship fic. still, we can see some drivers who underperform a little relative to their establishedness—bot and per, interestingly also below the trend line in the points/entry graph–and then those who overperform a decent amount, like nor and lec.

this is somewhat interesting to me because i'd tried to make a similar scatterplot with my hockey set and found that there was... basically nooo correlation at all, but i also had to make do with draft year and not gp which i think might move the needle a little bit. regardless, it's just interesting to think about these things in the context of league/grid exclusivity and then other further nuances like the possibilities of making your niche in, for example, the nhl as a 4th line grinder or f1 as a de facto but reliable #2 driver for years down the stretch, and then how all of that impacts or shapes your fandom stock and shippability.

moving on, here's a look at the current top 20 f1 ships and how much of their fic is tagged as fluff or angst! out of all their fic, kimi/seb have the highest fluff ratio at 38.44%, while lewis/nico hold the throne for angst at 34.74%.

lewis/nico are also the most "holistically" tragic ship when you subtract their fluff and angst percentages (by a large margin as well), while jenson/seb are the fluffiest with a difference of 17.38%. really makes you think.

and finally this is a dumb iteration from my old f1 post but i thought this was kind of funny haha so: basically what if teammate point share h2h but the points are their shippability on ao3.

closing thoughts

that's really all i have! again, i don't know whether any of these graphs make sense or are interesting to anyone, but i had fun trying to adapt some of my hockey methodology to f1 and also revisiting the old f1 graphs i'd made last year and getting to recalculate/design them. i know there's a lot more i could have done in examining drivers' old teams since many ships are based on drivers being ex-teammates and not the current grid matchups, but it would have been too much of a headache to figure out so... this is the best i've got. thanks for reading :)

[1lostsoul0fishbowl]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by the absolutely lovely @staceymcgillicuddy and my wondrous darling @pearlypairings - thank you both! 🥰

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

15, 13 of which are complete and the last two very nearly finished. 😭

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

365,528 and counting. I’m a rambler!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Only Stranger Things… nothing else has grabbed my attention quite the way s4 did.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

With a Little Help From My Friends (my ultra-long found family fic)

Why Should I Cry For You (that one surprised me, it came from way behind!)

Not-so-iron Maiden (Eddie & Max sibling supremacy)

Tattoos and Trash Talk (Eddie and El bonding)

the shield and the shepherd (my very first fic! Eddie and Chrissy falling in love without Vecna in the way)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I’m absolutely tickled every time somebody likes something I wrote enough that they take the time to leave me a comment about it. I’ve even made a few friends that way!

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Into the Shining Sun? Even then, it’s angst with a very hopeful note to it. There’s enough angst in my real life; I like everything in my fics to turn out okay.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

So far, With a Little Help, because it ended with Eddie and Chrissy’s wedding!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, I haven’t. I honestly think it will break my heart if it ever happens. I stumbled completely by accident across a post here on tumblr hating on GreatMage and I literally cried about that for two days. (Shameful!)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope, I live firmly in the fluff zone. All of my fics are rated a very mild T.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Haven’t tried one yet, but maybe someday, if I can think of a good idea!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. How would I even know that? 🤔

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet, but @pearlypairings and I have kicked around a few fun ideas and someday we are going to make Clarkelley happen!

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

This is a nearly impossible question.

15. What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I’ve only got two WIPs and they’re both almost done, so— none!

16. What are your writing strengths?

Omg, I don’t even know, honestly. Umm… I guess building friendships and relationships between characters?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Anything outside of my comfort zone. I have a tiny little box I tend to stay in, and refuse to even try branching out.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

With the help of Google Translate, I’ve scattered some bits of Welsh dialogue here and there throughout Next Time I Fall. Apparently I got most of it wrong. So I don’t think I’ll try any other languages unless I’m actually familiar with them!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Probably X-Files? And then there was that random embarrassing NSYNC stuff… we won’t talk about that. Those were all just scribbled in old journals, though. I never actually posted anything publicly until I found Ao3 last year.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I think each one is my favorite while I’m working on it! But I think I have to say Next Time I Fall, because the response to it was so much more than I expected, and people’s engagement with and investment in the story has given me so much joy.

Randomly tagging @tnmdfhgkg @saltyseagoat83 @sokkas-first-fangirl

and for anyone else who sees this and feels like sharing, 🫵 *boop* I tag you!

[welcometololaland]

20 Questions aka. Oversharing on the Internet version 92840938

Thanks for the tag @rmd-writes - how did you know i didn't feel like doing work?

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

excluding the ones i've flagged for deletion (when i get around to it) - 46.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

972,000 and i'm going to hit a million by the end of the year! i have one co-written collab so we can subtract about 30k (ish) from that total (but with ALTA i'll still make a milly woohoo).

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Red, White & Royal Blue, 911 Lone Star, Top Gun Maverick (occasionally)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

ah man this kills me because it excludes my most beloved fic (love game lol). in descending order:

Speak for Yourself (RWRB, my very first fic for that fandom! 2021 me in her study writing a random 3k first chapter could never have imagined being this lucky)

The Ring-In (with @dustratcentral) (911 Lone Star, this fic makes me feel like my Tarlos writing has gotten worse instead of better lmao)

Fifty First Dates (RWRB)

(Not) A Cinderella Story (RWRB)

Cursed is a State of Mind (with @dustratcentral) (RWRB, just about to hit 1k! there's something magical about an ifyoustay collab apparently)

jeez i never realised how RWRB heavy that is...

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always. You put in the effort to comment on my work, I'm gonna put in the effort to reply to you. I appreciate comments so much, even if they're just emojis or one line or whatever. I appreciate every single one of them (except the mean ones).

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't usually go here, but I think it has to be Contaminated (RWRB).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

99% of my fics have happy endings (except for the fic above lol) but I'd say the happiest ending is in (Un)Professional Services because they're So. In. Love. and they just *spoiler* together and they're about to *spoiler*.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Rarely and I usually ignore it or delete it (so there's no point doing it).

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

A Lot. Usually served with a heavy side of feelings - I like it when the smut drives the plot, when it helps the characters have those Oh Shit realisations. I'm also a sucker for explicit, enthusiastic consent.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have written like 30% of a RWRB/Lone Star crossover that may never see the light of day because I keep forgetting about it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

If I have, I don't know about it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I've had a few of my fics translated by incredible people! Phonography, Warm Whispers and Baby, Make Your Move have all been translated and can be found above. I'm fine with people translating my fics, so long as they're linked to the original and remain on ao3.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes and I love it. I want to do it more often! @rmd-writes collab was an amazing experience. i've also loved working with @dustratcentral on so many of my more unhinged works.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I don't think I can choose between Alex/Henry and TK/Carlos.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Probably that damn crossover, unless there's like significant interest in me finishing it lmao.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Oh no. giving myself a compliment help. I would say worldbuilding. dialogue/banter. gratuitous feelings during sex.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

exposition. being concise. overwriting to the max @three-drink-amy (this is an attack on you as well but we are we).

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i've done it before but to be honest i'm scared to. 1) i don't want to get it wrong. 2) i don't want to annoy my very talented friends that can speak other languages by asking them 10 billion questions lol.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

...I plead the 5th.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Love Game. I don't care that it's not as popular. it's my child. Also, ALTA (because of the many tears that went into it). We are bonded by trauma.

open tag on this one and also calling: @reyesstrand @strandnreyes @heartstringsduet @alrightbuckaroo @three-drink-amy @goodways @iboatedhere @wandering-night19 @birdclowns @liminalmemories21 @indomitable-love @clottedcreamfudge @sherryvalli @cha-melodius @cricketnationrise @carlos-in-glasses @bonheur-cafe @theghostofashton @orchidscript @lemonlyman-dotcom @kiwiana-writes @freneticfloetry @sunshinestrand @nelsonnicholas @tailoredshirt @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut @lightningboltreader @hippolotamus @dumbpeachjuice @tellmegoodbye @ladytessa74 @louisii-reyes-strand @beautifulhigh @athousandrooms @villiageidiot @inflarescent @marjansmarwani @safeashousespdf @tintagel-or-cockleshells @sanjuwrites @lilythesilly @kiloskywalker @noxsoulmate

[racfoam]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

Thank you for tagging me @loneamaryllis!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 12 works on AO3!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

435,768 words. Woah.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Only Harry Potter.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

not you, not now - Female Harry, Snake Face Voldemort Soulmate Soul Marks AU

be proud - not you, not now AU Voldemort captures Harry in the graveyard

Harry Quits - A One Shot fic where Harry has had enough and leaves the wizarding world.

the v-neck - Harry notices the change in Voldemort’s robe and grieves over the loss of Voldemort’s v-neck. 😭😭 I'm happy to find this got a lot of kudos!

The Capybara Pond of Harrymort & Tomarry Snippets - A work where I put fic ideas and AUs.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why? Why not?

I always try to respond to comments. I love talking with my readers! 

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

be proud, maybe. I say it's got the angstiest ending because Harry remains trapped with Voldemort.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Harry Quits. Harry finally has had enough during the Atrium fight and he announces he is leaving. He ends up opening a flower shop in New York and Voldemort is a frequent visitor and they marry at the end! Just a very happy, short fic!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I recently got a hate comment on not you, not now that ended up failing in its task and made me laugh instead. 😂Otherwise, not at all.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do write smut, but I haven’t officially published any yet. I write dark smut, non-con, dub-con, tender soft smut. I like writing everything.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I wrote a crossover with Naruto and Harry Potter where Naruto and the other teens end up in Hogwarts but never published it. This was when I was 17 or sth so take it with a grain of salt.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge. Don’t steal writer's fics, or else… 🔪

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not yet,  but a reader asked my permission to translate not you, not now in Chinese if I remember correctly? Anyway, I hope they tag me so I can see it!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I did with an online friend but we haven’t published it.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Harrymort. I prefer Snake Face Voldemort with Harry, but Tomarry & Tomarrymort also shares first place. 

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Maybe be proud… mostly cus of all the smut scenes I need to write. It's planned for 10 chapters max yet I can't seem to get to writing them... 😔

16. What are your writing strengths?

Descriptions and emotions.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue! Curse you, dialogue!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

It's cool, especially if you do a pop-up translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Officially, Harry Potter.

20. Favourite fics you’ve written?

It has to be not you, not now. I am so proud of the graveyard and everything else. I put my all into this fic, it's the best of my writing and keeps pulling out the best stuff from me. It was my first ever fic and I am so happy so many people like it. I made so many friends with this fic and I am so happy I published it and I love writing it.

I also love be proud because it explores what would have happened had Voldemort managed to capture Harry on the graveyard.

Tagging @limonium-anemos @cindle-writes @mayfriend @isalisewrites @mosiva @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger @mishqua @shouldertallabyss @maidenwychelm @purplewitch156 @ginnruin @skaelds @latteloves @duplicitywrites @mrmxlemons @itsevanffs @cannibalinc @monsieurclavier @liquidluckandstuff @aglassroseneverfades @cordeliawrites @pinktom and whoever wants to join!

[romanscool]

inspired by this!

20 questions to get to know ur writer <3

1- How many works do you have on AO3?

6! (which will be 7 on January 25th!!)

2- What's your total word count?

119,732

3- What fandoms do you write for?

Have written for anything Alice oseman related (heart stopper/I was born for this especially) and Hannibal but now,,, the formula 1 RPF brain rot is real

4- Top five fics by kudos:

1- F1 RPF: which could mean nothing (but does it ever?): 245

2- F1 RPF: short and (bitter)sweet: 89

3- F1 RPF: a whisper of what once was: 61

4- Hannibal (TV series): salt over wounds once again: 52

5- F1 RPF: dinner is served: 30

5-Do you respond to comments?

I do!! all of em!! I absolutely LOVE when people comment on my fics and I ADORE responding too! <3

6-What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

probably salt over wounds once again,,, could NOT come up with anything else than that sad-ish end for them haha

7-What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

definitely which could mean nothing (but does it ever?)!! I loved writing my silly little maxiel finally making out haha

8-Do you get hate on fics?

i've had once a person commenting it wasn't very canon-compliant when the whole point of the fic was that it wasn't canon compliant... dunno if that counts haha usually people are really kind

9-Do you write smut?

I try... I fail mostly but I'm learning so

10-Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope!

11-Have you ever had a fic translated?

I haven't! I've translated one of my own fics a while ago now though

12-Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

never also! kind of one of my writer dreams tbh

13-All-time favourite ship?

maxiel (Max Verstappen/Daniel Ricciardo) is a strong one these days but. can't truly say if it'll last until next year and a new hyper fixation haha

14-What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

dinner is served... unfortunately I'm trying so so hard but I just can't find the motivation/energy/inspiration to finish it; as much as I want to, that little guy will probably end up being 1/?ed forever :( I'm still hoping for that one flash of un-writer-block though

15-What are your writing strengths?

oh well I dunno about that! I've had people complementing my ending of chapters/cliffhangers as well as dialogue so maybe that? I've always really like the soft atmosphere I usually install in my fics too, so...

16-What are your writing weaknesses?

i have a LOT. non-consistency is probably the worst, writing really taking a toll when my mood changes (which is often)... I'm having lots of problems with smut these days too so maybe that as well!

17-Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

love it! especially if another character is listening in and understands half/very little of the conversation! can really deepen a character and story, adding a little bit of miscommunication is always fun too :P

18-First fandom you ever wrote in?

Haikyuu... that anime phase in 2020 was BRUTAL

19-Craziest crossover?

never done any! maybe that's a thing to revise though haha

20-Favourite fic you've written?

I don't even have to think about it, which is weird, because I'm so very attached to all my fics. but yeah. which could mean nothing (but does it ever?) holds a special place in my little heart <3

that was so fun!!

[charleslelurk]

Annual Writing Self-Evaluation 2024

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: 23

2. Word count posted for the year: 240k

3. Fandoms I wrote for: F1 RPF (and One Direction but I am keeping this to just F1 writing)

4. Pairings: Max/Charles, Carlos/Lando, Charles/Carlos, Lando/Max F, Lando/Max V, Max/Daniel

5. Story with the most:

Kudos: Drunk Myself Down (298)

Bookmarks: Erosion (235)

Comments: Erosion (48 comment threads)

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): I think the fic I worked on in 2024 that I am most proud of... might be one that is not posted yet. Dare I say. So for the sake of this evaluation, I am going to say Erosion because whenever I read any part of it back, I am really just dumbfounded by the fact that I wrote it. Like... I did. But I do not feel that I am actively being the caliber of author who pulled of Erosion, if that makes any sense. The prose and metaphorical language my brain made for Erosion feels like something that I can't just tap into at any time, like somehow something else inhabited my body while writing that fic. We'll never know how I managed it.

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why): It's not that I am not proud of it, but I can see now how much more potential Four Week Wedding had if I had given it more time, but alas I cranked that puppy out in one afternoon and hit post. Sometimes, you just need to let the brainworms be free, whether they are perfectly polished or not.

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received: It has to be Bee's reaction to One Glimpse of Relief. I cried real tears over Bee's messages on discord after Bee read it. I was straight up distracted for hours by rereading the comment they left on the fic and the messages, like maybe nothing compares to bringing your friend so much joy that their joy moves you to tears? Idk though.

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: All across November I was suffering™️ because that is always the worst month of the year for my joint disorder, as well as the absolute lack of sunlight in the northern hemisphere. I still did manage to write during those months, but even November to now is like night and day as far as how much motivation and energy I have to write.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: I learned a lot about myself and my writing through the kink prompts. Mostly because I tried to write kinks and tropes that I was scared to, like I almost posted that prompt list with only 20 items because I wasn't sure there were another 10 in the generator I was really comfortable and capable of writing, but then I did write things that scared me and got positive responses and even some new insane brainworms from it so it was a cool experience. I think I suffer from constant "what if I don't pull of whatever I am trying to do in my writing and then it's embarrassing" disease so it's always scary to write a dynamic or situation for the first time, but I tackled some of the things I was scared to write through the kink prompts (Side note, there are still four prompts in my inbox I want to eventually get to, but I needed to write some longer form stuff for a bit and work on my WIPs)

More under the cut.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: This is from In the Silences because I am a sucker for star imagery.

"Do you–" Lando hiccups. "Do you think I fucked up too much?" Carlos can read between the lines. He knows what Lando is asking. Carlos tips his head back and looks at the stars, ample in the sky. They hang above him, millennia old. He envies them. They don't have to deal with emotions or heartbreak. They just get to exist and shine, to bring joy to people millions and trillions of miles across the galaxy.  Carlos supposes what Lando did really is inconsequential compared to all of that. Miniscule, in fact, to the grand scheme of things. 

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: Well, I started writing again. After spending tens of thousands of dollars on a creative degree I let get dusty for 5 years, I finally started writing again. Even if it has largely been F1 RPF. But that's like sort of a big deal. To me.

But also, I hadn't written smut for... a decade before this year. I was so scared to be bad at it, that I just gave up even when I was still writing fic before my great writing hiatus. And you know what? I fucking love writing it, and it's so fun. I'm really glad I got over myself.

13. How do you hope to grow next year: I don't want to put pressure on myself to write another 200k+ words next year but it would be pretty cool to write even more next year than I wrote this year.

But I also want to continue to challenge myself to write unique stories. I want to write more canon compliant, chaptered fic and challenge myself to write race sequences and strategy. It scares me because it always feels like there is something else to learn about F1 and someone always knows more than me, so it will be embarrassing for someone to catch mistakes if I am to write races, but I should just do it.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): Dare I say... Lando? His inability to filter and the way he wears his heart on his sleeve just got my writing gears turning again and again and again.

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: Um is this a good time to mention that a number of the less insane moments from Borderline of a Bad Idea are straight from the homoerotic situationship I was in my freshman year that briefly ruined my life? Like, my situationship got insanely jealous when I started to have a thing with a guy (pause for laughter, yes I am gay now, but I thought I was bi then), and we slept in the same dorm bunk on multiple occasions... yeah. I can't speak on it too much without revealing more about the plot of the fic but Carlos and Lando's initial shenanigans and tension is highly inspired by my own college experience.

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: I'm sorry to say it but... writing an outline does help. I'm being so for real. When I get an initial idea, I write whatever scene is in my head. But then... I have to figure out how the characters got to that point. Whether it be physically or emotionally, there is a lead up and ramifications of whatever that brainworm is. And that has to get figured out. So you better make a bit of an outline. Legit all of my fics that aren't one shots have an outline. Sometimes more specific than others but that outline helps no matter what.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: I am obviously looking forward to finishing Borderline of a Bad Idea. It's going to be insane. But I also have a WIP I started over the summer that I am slowly working on that will be... hopefully my best work yet when it's posted. Fingers crossed. I need it to leave people in shambles, I want to make readers cry. And then I am working on a fic for the Carlando Winter Break Exchange and I am very excited about this fic. It's very... different in certain ways. But the different is good (I hope). Those are probably the next three substantial fics I will be posting, but after that I don't know for sure. There is something like 8 fics on the docket, but who knows how many of those will see the light of day or not.

[celinou]

Thanks @lenorelovesmax for tagging me 🤍

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 2, currently. Well, more like one and a half baked scene that has no context, to be more accurate.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 194.036 words.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? I have like the one fic, the other thing has 2 kudos. So... - A Walk in Chiaroscuro (354)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes, absolutely. It's pretty rare when I don't. I like to tell people that I appreciate their support and comments or to answer questions they might have about the story or the choice I made.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't do angsty endings. I'm too old and too jaded by life to appreciate them anymore. I'm at a point in my life where I need to know there's hope and happiness at the end of the line.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I'm guessing there will be some kind of repetition since I've only published Awic... Soooo, it's a Walk in Chiaroscuro! ...but if you want to know about the ones that I keep in my drawer never to see the light of AO3, the happiest ending goes to Let's Write a Love Story (it's a Homestuck fanfic)

8. Do you get hate on fics? No. I'm writing in a mostly dead fandom so far and for kind of a rare pair so, people have been starved of content. They were so nice and sweet to me in the comments.

9. Do you write smut? I wish! I don't have the chops for it but I so wish I could write good smut! Honestly it's something I really want to push myself into exploring. Unfortunately your girl is a bit too vanilla in her taste which makes for poor reading. I don't fear being bad... I fear being boring, you know?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've ever written? I've never done that, no. But who knows what future will lead me to write.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? No. I don't have enough reach to be the target of theft.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope. And tbh I don't have the patience to translate it myself in my native language.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Could have... but no. There was an attempt at a joined project for Dragon Age but, unfortunately, it didn't work out in the end. I'm not abandoning the idea of writing for Dragon Age but I'll probably go in a very different direction since it would be a solo project.

14. What's your all time favorite ship? I... don't have one... Yeah, I'm not much of a shipper at the core. I mean I did write for Caulscott but I practically ship Max with everybody in LIS so... I was more interested by Nathan's potential as a love interest more than the ship itself. Outside of LIS... I can't think of any ship rn, I'm afraid.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Tough question. If I abandoned a project I don't consider it a WIP. It's a dropped thing that goes in the reusable idea bin... and if I'm still working on it, I don't go into thinking I won't finish it. So, it's hard to say really. To not leave you with such a vague answer, I'll give you this: the fic I planned to write about the Hidden Object Games series Dark Parable, that never took off and never will (for I have better/much more attractive projects to work on). It's a dropped thing. But now you can see I have weird and obscure taste.

As for original projects: I have a Horror RPG project that probably won't ever see the light of day, called: The Clockmaker. (because I realized I'm shit at pixel art, tragic)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Hum... No. I don't mind people doing it but I tried it myself in my pirate epic and, let me tell you, I'm not that good a multilingual as to be witty in more than 2 languages. I found what I wrote cringe af when I read back my text in the editing phase and scrapped it all out.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Homestuck. I started writing fics very late in my life. (I wrote original stuff before that)

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? A Walk in Chiaroscuro. Because it's the only fic I went into unafraid to write what I wanted without thinking about who might read it. And to this day it's the truer work I've put out. Not the most personal by any stretch but the one I indulged in the most. And I'm so proud of it. Flaws and all.

I tag @sourrind and @momochizoey if you feel like doing it. And everybody who'd want to as well, consider yourself tagged, friend!

[cooking-with-hailstones]

The Legend of Zelda: stats of the kingdom

A Statistical Analysis of Popular Fanfiction in the Legend of Zelda Fandom on AO3

I like numbers and stats and for some unfathomable reason I find it calming. So over the past couple weeks, I’ve been making this spreadsheet!

DISCLAIMER: This is not a judgement of the quality, value, or merits of any of the fics on this list. It's just me being curious about what's popular with the Legend of Zelda fandom on AO3.

Feel free to go explore the spreadsheet. My own observations and analysis under the cut.

TL:DR, Link has a lot of kinky sex. Sidlink and Zelink are vying for who’s the most popular ship. Also, this fandom has a shit ton of sub categories that are truly islands unto themselves and have their own conventions.

Methodology: I'm including all fics from the first page of AO3 results (20 fics per page) sorted by:

Hits

Kudos

Comments

Bookmarks

Anything tagged under the Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms tag that was in the top 20 most hits, kudos, comments, or bookmarks made it into the spreadsheet. This ended up including 51 fics in total.

I put all the fics into one single spreadsheet in order to compare the differences between fics that are really high on the kudos count but not the hit count, or what has a lot of comments but fewer hits. Basically, I'm throwing a lot of things together to observe what gets engagement and looking at patterns that emerge!

Popular fandom subcategories:

Botw (41 fics tagged as such)

Linked Universe (9, including one mostly set in the world of BOTW)

OoT (2)

(I do wonder what it would be like to run these numbers on other fanfic sites, given the popularity boom of ao3 over the last 15 years or so. But also, Botw was an insanely popular game even by Zelda standards, so… who knows?)

Tags:

Character tags: Obviously, Link was by far the most popular character, but here are the characters that had a minimum of 3 appearances per category. Yay champions!

Zelda

Sidon

Mipha

Urbosa

Revali

Daruk

Story tags: Again, just going by sheer numbers, here are the story tags that appeared at least 3 times in every category:

Slowburn

AU – canon divergence

With honorable mentions to fluff, angst, double penetration, anal sex, amnesia/memory loss, and mute or selectively mute Link, who all cracked above 3 instances in 2 separate categories.

Relationships:

This was a tight race, but shoutout to Sidlink for eking out the win for the most highly rated ship in the Zelda fandom with 13 fics qualifying in my ranking. Zelink is close behind at 10 fics. (That being said, Zelink takes it by volume: 7,797 fics tagged as Zelink vs Sidlink’s 2,193)

Other popular ships:

Revalink (8) (this one surprised me! I didn’t realize my beloved birb was so popular)

Miphlink (3)

Link/Monsters (2)

Sidon/Reader (2)

Ganzelink, Ganlink, Malink, Miphzelink, and Miphzel all made single appearances.

(Pls don’t start ship war discourse in the notes kthanx)

All right, let’s deep dive into the numbers!

Fics in all 4 categories:

Interim - starkraving

Sands of time -tirsynni

Congrats you are officially the most popular Loz fics across all of ao3! at least according to my particular scope of analysis.

Fics in 3 categories:

Displaced - socksock

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

Popular authors (people who show up more than once in multiple categories sorry comments georg)

MarquesGillette

MaryDragon

SilvermistAnimeLover

ObakeAri

Hits:

Top 5 most popular fics by hit count:

Displaced - socksock

Interim - starkraving

To Save Hyrule - orphan_account

Sands of time - tirsynni

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

First page by hits:

Min: 117,917 – Sidon’s Epic Pining Adventure (ObakeAri)  

Max:  189,622 – Displaced (socksock)

Average: 145,385

Average wordcount for fics with the most hits:

140,909

Kudos:

Top 5 most popular fics by kudos count:

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Interim - starkraving

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

26 Minutes and 42 Seconds - T_5Seconds

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

First page by kudos:

Min: 4917 – Finding Link (Umbreonix)

Max:  10321 – Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy (Icka M Chif)

Average: 6981

Average wordcount for fics with the most kudos:

41,136

Comments:

Top 5 most popular fics by comment count:

Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes - KR5

This is an Adjuration - notfreyja

My Art - KR5

Sidon's Epic Pining Adventure - ObakeAri

Priestess of War - KR5

Woohoo! You all get to meet KR5 aka Comments Georg. Comments Georg has long conversations and RPs in the comments of their ao3 posts, which are usually fanart. TO BE CLEAR, THIS IS TOTALLY FINE AND COOL! I think it’s quite delightful! However, it does completely bork my ranking system because outside of comments, these posts do not have a lot of engagement (like, less than 100 hits and less than 20 kudos) and I don’t think they count towards my analysis of “what is popular in the Zelda fandom writ large”. But they qualified based on my criteria. Which I think speaks to the weakness of my criteria more than anything else tbh…

Anyways, shoutout to Comments Georg for truly showing off what it means to be a statistical outlier.

First page by comments:

Min: 1568 – The Quiet River Rages (MaryDragon)

Max:  43808 - Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes (KR5)

Average: 4131 (which goes down to 2042 if we exclude KR5’s impressive max, which is a full order of magnitude more than notfreyja in second place with 3470 comments. Very much demonstrating the power of a statistical outlier!)

Average wordcount for fics with the most comments:

275,593

Bookmarks:

Top 5 most popular fics by bookmarks count:

Interim - starkraving

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Sands of time - tirsynni

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

First page by bookmarks:

Min: 973 – Expatriate (thehoyden)

Max:  2984 – Interim (starkraving)

Average: 1468

Average wordcount for fics with the most bookmarks:

70,027

Fic Ratings:

G: 3 (literally all fanart from KR5)

T: 22

M: 8

E: 17

Unrated: 1

Observations:

I ran this twice. Once including crossovers, and once excluding crossovers. This filtered out a lot of large drabbles and things like “flash fiction fuckings” which, no judgment, you do you, they just weren’t super relevant for what I was looking for. If you wanna see these stats including all the multifandom stuff that shows up, here’s the link for that:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DXDKXutIzVC-Iac93fFSDohAkphrn67yV-DmRt9xXmU/edit?usp=sharing

(I’m going to break academic professional analysis here and get on my soapbox for a sec – please don’t post big multifandom one shots where you tag like 20 different fandoms and every single kink that gets written about across 103 different chapters. This is literally what series are for. These kinds of things just clog up the tags, and it also makes it harder for people to find the things you’ve written that they want to read! I know this was a convention on ff.net, but this is not ff.net! We can make authors' lives and readers' lives easier!)

There were 38,427 fics in the tag “Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms” (including crossovers, that goes up to 41,634). I manually added one back in though because it was entirely a botw story, just loosely inspired by another game.

Linked Universe fans comment a LOT. Strong correlation between high comment and Linked Universe fandom subsection. Y’all are very involved and active, and you show support to your authors. I salute you!

Sidlinkers, y'all are horny and I respect it.

Zelinkers, dear god we do love a slowburn.

All the most highly kudos’d fics are very low in the comment count. It’s almost an inverse correlation.

Excluding crossovers increased the correlation between hits and kudos quite dramatically.

There were not very many au’s other than canon divergence. Only one modern au as far as I could tell from a cursory examination of tags.

Lots more clustering, far less disparity between min and max numbers than when I ran this with A:TLA numbers.

Far less consensus on a vibe. Way fewer big writers, but lots of little writers doing their own thing.

Truly a lot of E fics. We are horny bastards.

We need more stuff written for games other than BOTW!!

There aren’t as many fics that are like “oh everyone in the fandom has read these fics”. There are probably those fics in each subcategory of the fandom, or within the specific ships, but there aren’t as many general fics that have entire fandom-wide appeal.

Thank you for reading! This was a lot of fun, and I hope you found it interesting. Shoutout to the Hateno Hangout discord for helping me refine this mess :P

Further shoutout to my partner who helped with writing some SQL to help with tag analysis. Truly partner of the year.

If you want more of this kind of egregious nerdiness, I did this with the top fics in the A:TLA fandom a couple weeks ago: https://www.tumblr.com/cooking-with-hailstones/751749202663669760/statistical-analysis-of-the-most-popular-atla

[polkadotjersey]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

finally doing this :) thank you for tagging me @kingfisherprince <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

currently 22. hopefully more soon :)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

243,150 (kinda crazy to think this is proper novel length by now)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

i currently have wips for formula 1 rpf and cycling rpf, also write football rpf (slowly making my way through all sports tags, i suppose.)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

top spot for every other sunday (crazy kudos count, i still can't quite believe it). next are an evolutionary theory of the soul (seb/charles), algorithm (max/charles), little lion man (lewis/max) and in the dark you can't see shiny cars (max/charles). nice pairing mix as well!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Usually, yes. (although i confess i had a rough patch last year and let many go unanswered just because i had no energy to interact anywhere, but i still love each and every comment i get.)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

that... has to be lonely hearts club (seb/charles), i think?

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hard to figure. i realize i write a lot of endings as begginings, so... which one is the happiest? I suppose in every other sunday they're quite happy (and also kimi is doing the macarena, so there's that.)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope. i love that these fandoms are so chill <3

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes. the boring kind (sorry!)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

never did. not sure how i'd go about it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

erhm actually yes. wattpad debacle of 2022.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes! (thank you to all the lovely translators of my fics, you are the best <3)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no. but i am open to.... 👀

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

no OTPs, i am all about spreading the love

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

charles lifeguard AU (main pairing to be determined). i wrote a lot of the setup, just mainly charles, alex and carlos being chaotic best friends working at a fancy beach resort.

16. What are your writing strengths?

who knows? I think i am good at storytelling (pace, etc). ooh also non-linear narratives. i am quite proud of those.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i write at a snail's pace. can't do past tenses to save my life. still not confident writing in english, so i get stuck a lot.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i only ever did it when it's relevant to the fic (like in a matter of expression (seb/charles), which is all about languages)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

12 year-old me writing bad harry potter fanfiction counts, i suppose? the evidence must still be lost somewhere on the internet

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

time and again (seb/charles) is my all time favourite.

i am tagging @sebchal, @kritischetheologie, @antimonyandthyme, @astronomical-light and @cupidskissx (no pressure to do it, i am just sending my love to you)

[truessences]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

I saw this from a mutual @teafiend and I'm gonna do it lol

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

9; they're mostly one shots. I think there are two that are multichapter. There are two that are part of a series of oneshots.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

I'm not sure if there's a formal way to check it but 26,602 (as of 11/3/23)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now Stranger Things. I have one Harry Potter one.

In the past, on FF.net there might be more, like from Final Fantasy VII and more Harry Potter but I don't post on there anymore so I'm not counting it lol.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Closer to You (Mileven oneshot) - 91 kudos

2. One More Light (4 or 5 chapter fic Mileven) - 58 kudos

3. Dirty Dancing (Dramione oneshot) - 55 kudos

4. It's a Mad World (One shot about Mike and Eddie's first meeting) - 49 kudos

5. Roll Away Your Stone (Mike & Max fix set in S3) - 40 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why? Why not?

I always try to, since I don't get a lot of interaction (which is fine, I know how this works lol) so when I do, the comments are super appreciated. I don't post for comments but they are always nice.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?.

Ummmm lol I don't think any of them end angstily lol but maybe not Happily Ever After. At least the ones that are finished lol. Maybe Dirty Dancing because of how it ends? I don't know lol. I'm still debating on if my Stranger Things-Titanic AU will end happy lol

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I feel like they're all pretty happy but not like Happily Ever After kind of thing.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet lol

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No, I don't feel like I would be good at it lol. Maybe one day and maybe in the Stranger Things-Titanic AU will be my first. I've written it before kind of... but not in a fanfiction... hard to explain lol.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

No but I did have an idea years ago of a Peter Pan/Hermione Granger fic but no idea where I wanted to go with it so lol.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. Stealing people's fan work is low hanging fruit so get a life.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No... but I have written with people before for other "fan" stuff.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

That's hard lol I don't think I have an ALL TIME fave but I'll name a few and not in any particular order. And because I like these, doesn't mean I've written a fic for them or read a fic of them (most likely I have though). I actually did a post a while back on some fave anime ships, I'll link that. Fave Anime Ships.

Bamon (Bonnie Bennett & Damon Salvatore)

NejiTen (Neji Hyuga & Tenten)

Cloti (Cloud Strife & Tifa Lockhart)

Hacy (Harry Greenwood & Macy Vaughn)

Kanthony (Kate Sharma & Anthony Bridgerton)

Cole Cassidy & Sombra (this one is new but I really like it lol)

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Nothing, I plan to finish everything.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm not sure lol, I feel like I capture character voices well. I tend to write in third person and I can still get across how my characters are feeling and thinking. I also write original novels and have been for over 10 years so I hope my strengths have strengthened over the years.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Tenses really kick my ass and I overthink it. I feel like some people have really beautiful and lyrical ways of writing and I definitely can't do that lol.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Haven't and won't.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter

20. Favourite fics you’ve written?

Um.... I'm not sure if I have a favorite lol. Maybe One More Light only because I actually teared up a little when writing one of the chapters because I just let my fingers go and it flowed. Whether or not it's good, well lol but I do think that one is emotional.

But that's it!

[musewrangler]

20 Questions for Writers

Thank you so much for the tag @wendingways I'm FINALLY getting around to it. :D

How many works do you have on AO3?

132

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

2, 962, 169

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Wars, Hornblower, Narnia [just one]

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Mirjahaal

Bajur

He Who Sheds His Blood With Me

Forging Ahead

I Felt You In My Bones

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do as much as possible. I appreciate my readers making time to say something. It takes effort on their part and I want them to know I am grateful. Equally, I get lots of fun thoughts from my readers and it's delightful to interact with people. :D

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh definitely the fic I could never write. ;D By which I mean---there was a prompt somewhere that said 'the aftermath of a scene you'll never write'. So I knew immediately what that was and ripped my own heart out to write "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night". Literally, I was ugly crying the whole time. And it convinced me that nope, I can never do this in my 'real' fics if you will. xD

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmmm. I am a girl who likes a happy ending. Granted, it's after kark tons of pain and suffering usually xD, but...

I think I'll land on the Dragon Speaker. I could name quite a few others, but I spent more time developing the happy aftermath so that's why I choose it.

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

I've said it before---I have some of the BEST readers. And I've had folks who've disagreed with some of my takes on character or plot, but they are welcome to do so if they are respectful and they are. It produces good conversation and perspective. I can think of one time I had someone actively unpleasant, but let's hear it for delete and block! :D

9. Do you write smut?

Nope.

10. Do you write crossovers?

No. It's just not my cup of tea.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of and I hope not. Obviously, a lot of us have similar ideas----writing is just like that. But I don't think anyone has taken my work directly. That kind of thing does get me riled up because I know the work all of us creators have done to make these stories. Don't do it, kids.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes I have and it's very fun! I have a very industrious and delightful reader who has translated a lot of my work into Russian. :D

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

I have a few times. :D

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

Depends on context here. I don't read or write fics for just romance. I need purpose beyond the couple if you will. If we're talking within Star Wars then canonically it's Han and Leia. If we're going with my own fanfics it's a toss up between Mara and Max Veers and Firmus Piett and Sola Naberrie. ;D If we're talking broad literary ship Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing.

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

WIP I will never finish? What are you talking about?

Genuinely, I hate the idea of abandoning my fics. Just can't. Some of them are taking longer than I had thought, but that's ok. Life happens. I will finish. ;D

16. What’s your writing strengths?

I think I develop character fairly well. I like to have a plot mapped out before I start writing, so I think I do all right with story cohesion and flow. I am a firm believe that you need to care about the characters more than anything else. World building and correct editing are good things, but if no one cares about your characters, it can get boring and readers lose interest.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

A good balance of action, description, and dialogue. Dialogue is easy for me and I like the characters interacting. But action and description are very important as well to SEE the scene and I need to work on my descriptive choices. I'm also ridiculously impatient. I want to publish NOW. And this means that perhaps some needed editing or more polish/depth is overlooked. I'm working on that.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Absolutely. I've used mando'a a lot now in Star Wars. In history AUs I've dabbled a smidge in French and Latin to set the tone a bit. Definitely do your homework whether using a real or fictional language. People notice!! :D

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Haha. So in terms of more serious writing like I'm doing now, it's Star Wars.

But.

I wrote by hand in notebooks during high school for the original Star Trek. Had all kinds of crush on Pavel Chekov. xD We watched the re runs of it and I liked the movies as a kid so....

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh goodness. Can that really be answered? I like them all for vastly different reasons. If we're going for world building then likely Dragon Speaker. If we're going for in depth history fun, then The War in the Shadows. If we're going for fic I saw most clearly in my brain as I wrote and LIVED it, then Showdown at Alliance Ranch. Within the ER verse, quite possibly Fidelity because writing all that courtroom drama and the intense brotherhood of Firmus and Max going through that was just so satisfying.

But over all story? Honestly can't pick just one. Sorry!

Gently tagging @hollers-and-holmes @winterinhimring @kraytwriter @kanerallels

[explosionshark]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @coraniaid and @isagrimorie. thanks!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

45 stories

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

361,583 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Actively? Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Life is Strange, Mass Effect, Avatar the Last Airbender, Warrior Nun. But i'd be down for other stuff!

Formerly: MTV Scream, She-Ra, Oxenfree

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

You Got Cool (She-Ra, 6,990 kudos)

Everybody Needs a Fence to Lean On (Life is Strange, 2,140 kudos)

Tear You Apart (Life is Strange, 1,918 kudos)

Every Other Freckle (Life is Strange, 1,579 kudos)

Dream Blue Haze (Life is Strange, 1,535 kudos)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I've been trying to more recently! But I'm not always great at it. At the very least when someone comments something detailed and thoughtful I try to reply - those comments always mean a lot to me.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Not fully intentionally but the place @holdsteady and I left our collaborative fic How to Live Here was basically right after a massive fight/breakup between characters that we fully planned to resolve and then just.... never did. Oops. Surprisingly, people are very rarely mean to us about this.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Body Language? Very much intended to have that one wrapped up with a bow.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not in a long time. Last time I really did was on some of my Life is Strange fics (either homophobic hate or bc i was writing a ship people didn't like).

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yeah! Femslash only.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I sometimes joke about/hc elaborate crossovers when I'm watching stuff with my friends, but I don't really have any interest in writing any. Or reading any, really, for that matter.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah! Had one of my LiS fics translated to Vietnamese. That was cool.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeah! I co-wrote How to Live Here with my best friend @holdsteady! That's the only one that's been published, at least. @nataliving adn @jewishsuperfam and i have worked on some stuff together too and that's been fun :)

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

I don't know if I actually can pick one but honest Buffy/Faith are all-timers and absolutely formative. Second to that would be Rachel/Max/Chloe from Life is Strange.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

God, How to Live Here absolutely haunts me. There's a few Mass Effect ones (Shepard/Liara arranged marriage AU and my Jack/Miranda series) that I would love to finish but probably never will. Those are the ones that probably have the most written for them that I just haven't wrapped up.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at a lot of it! I write pretty good smut, I'm good at character voice, I think my writing is pretty readable

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Actually writing lmao. I struggle with coming up with workable ideas. I intimidate myself out of projects a lot. I fall off stuff kinda easy too tbh. And I'm TERRIBLE at writing alone - for anything bigger than a oneshot I need someone to hype me up and hold my hand through it or else I get bored or lose confidence :?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Generally in favor of skipping the google translate stuff. It's usually pretty whack

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Technically digimon when i was a little kid and before I even knew what fanfic was. First i posted was Danny Phantom

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I think Body Language is probably my best fic but for sentimental reasons I really love How to Live Here, since i wrote it with my best friend.

tagging @nataliving, @holdsteady, @shittinggold, @earthenterran, @lafgl, @aliceinwondrbra,, @strangesmallbard, @areweunderscoreweare, @jewishsuperfam, @morningsound15