#edit i just checked and it's on the first page if you sort by kudos

[phaedo]

there are so many bad takes about wicked on this website and i truly cannot invest the time and energy to return to my 14-year-old self and talk about it in more detail

[taihua]

Beyond "Sort by Kudos": or, how to find new fics to read

This post recently made the rounds with a lot of people weighing in to say that kudos don't make a difference to what they decide to read, but oomf asked a question about how to find more obscure fics, so here are my recommendations! This is not a "how to use AO3" guide (those already exist elsewhere), but some ideas of what to look for when you've exhausted rec lists and the top kudos fics and hundreds of pages of search results remain.

First and most obvious: narrow down the tags! The "Include" and "Exclude" features are super useful for fic searches. Rating: Useful for when you only want dirty filthy smut. Limit the results to Explicit fics only. Or maybe you're weird and don't want explicit fics, so you narrow it down to General Audiences... ??? Categories: checking the "F/F" box can magically change the results from "the lesbian ship is mentioned once in this 200k multichapter fic about male characters" to stories that are actually about the ship you're looking for. Additional Tags: This is where the genre tags live. Sometimes you just really want a modern AU with Hurt/Comfort. Put that good stuff in here. You can also exclude any of these things that you don't want to see, so if you only want G-rated canon universe M/M fluff, exclude everything I mentioned above. You can use all these limitations in tandem with the "sort by kudos" feature to get a fresh list of fics at the top of the results.

Set a range of dates for when fics were posted, and then sort by kudos. I really like this one because it can show you what has been popular recently--the overall top kudos fics generally won't change because they end up there during the fandom's height of popularity or because they're the oldest fics in a fandom, but narrowing it down to the last year or the last 6 months can show you fics that are just as good but didn't benefit from the popularity boost the other fics had. (I know, popularity isn't everything, but kudos can also be a good indication of "lots of people enjoyed this so I might, too" and so it's not a bad place to start) It's also fun to play around with it when you're following a canon with ongoing updates. What was popular before [x was revealed]? What kinds of fan theories existed when the fandom was new?

Bookmarks: If you like a certain author's fics, check to see if they have any public bookmarks, since they probably like fics that are similar to what they write. Or you can see which other readers have bookmarked a fic you like, and check their other bookmarks.

Look for zine and exchange collections. Moderators choosing their zine contributors is a kind of inherent recommendation, and there's generally going to be a process for beta reading and editing to make these fics as polished as possible for publication. Exchanges will also sometimes have mandatory beta reading and minimum word count requirements, which can be a recipe for good fic. And both of these collections will probably have a certain theme to tie them together, which is great if it's a theme you like! It's possible to find challenges by searching for something like "[ship name] exchange" or "[character] zine."

And, because AO3 has a very good search function, you can use a lot of these search functions at the same time--if you want to find the most popular Modern AU zine fic from 2017, you can do that! Changing it up will ensure a fresh set of fics in the results each time you run a search, and setting the filters to all the things you like will improve the results according to your personal tastes too, which will ultimately make the "sort by kudos" element irrelevant.

Happy searching!

[gerec]

This might be a weird question, but what’s your approach to reading/searching for fics? As in, do you read based on most recently posted, most comments/kudos, etc? I’ve been relying on tumblr rec lists for cherik content so far but am getting through most of them hehe, so will probably be searching on ao3 myself more

Actually, I check the Erik/Charles and XMFC tags on ao3 every few days, to see if any new/recently posted fics catch my eye based on the summary/author. But that's mostly because I've been in this fandom so long that I really do feel like I've read everything - certainly I've read most/all the usual suspects that tend to grace every fic rec list. :D If you've only been reading based on rec lists so far I think you should definitely start doing searches directly on ao3.

The easiest/fastest way to find stuff to read is to just sort by kudos and/or hits based on your pairing or fandom. That's going to immediately bring up the most popular fics. The next step is to filter by adding an existing tag that interests you. Do you like alpha/omega? Regency aus? Coffee shop aus? High School aus? Canon fics? Mpreg? Boom - top x type fics in the fandom sorted by kudos or hits.

The next step after THAT is to use the 'search within results' field, specifically if you're looking for something that might not necessarily show up as a tag. For instance, if you're interested in fics dealing with art or artists, you might type those key words into the field which will pull up a bunch of fics that mention them in the fic title, tags or summary. You might get some stuff that's not 100% relevant but you will definitely find stuff that does apply. Ao3's search function is incredibly robust; you don't know how often I've been able to find a specific fic for someone just from messing around with the tags and filters :D

By the way, if you haven't heard of it you should definitely check out the old X-Men First Class Fic Rec Blog. It'll mostly be older fics in the fandom (the blog is on indefinite hiatus) but definitely still an excellent resource!

Edited to add: If you read a fic and enjoyed it, hit up the author's ao3 page and read everything they wrote for the fandom! It's a GREAT way to find new stuff to read :D

Hope this helps!

[genavere]

Hi there, Genavere speaking to you about Flame's Desire, a Fairy Tail fanfic set in an AU world with dark themes and a slower-than-lava-on-a-flat-surface slow burn.

What can help grab your attention to it? One, have you heard of @theguildawards? A blog that helps show case Fairy Tail content twice a year by holding nominations and voting for fanfictions and fanart. This story has won the Guild Awards 2022, Term One: Best Dark Fiction Award. Lucy knew she was going to die. - First sentence of the first paragraph of the first chapter. Why does she think that will happen? Guess you will need to read it to find out!

Here are some stats for you: Chapters: 28/Ongoing Upload rate: Currently scheduled to update twice a month! The latest chapter just dropped! Word Count: 150,229 - Nice, big, sexy number that will only get BIGGER! If you do the math, this fic is now over 600 pages in a novel! Rating: M for Mature - You have blood and violence, dark fantasy topics, epic battles, and a well developed story that builds on itself and the characters. Have I mentioned how slow of the slow burn it is? Those who love to read 200k+ fics where the love interests just touch hands will think this is too fast! As someone who adores established relationships in my stories, this is killing me Ships to Look for: Nalu, some Mira/Laxus, Jellal/Erza Troupes: Reincarnation, Sun/Moon, Nomadic Culture represented, Draconic people, Found Family, Protective Natsu, Protective Lucy

What others say about this story: Wow, this is really good. I can't wait for more. I love the world you've set up, it's rugged and beautiful. =D You write the characters very well, too. I'd love to see more from you! - GentleTouchGinger What a rip roaring start. I forgot how intense it was. Don't mind me while I reread this - alainehope EEP! I absolutely LOVE this story! I haven't come across a fairy tail story anything like it, and it's absolutely amazing! I cannot wait for the 5th chapter to come out! Everything about it is wonderful, minimal grammar/spelling mistakes, great story concept, and everyone's personalities match up with the fairy tail versions. anyway, keep up the good work and i will make sure to keep checking in on this story :) - Ellie Oh my gosh please continue this story, I love how you don’t portray Natsu as TOO dense and innocent as some other stories. - Kotorro I'm so glad they finally sorted things out! I'm foaming at the mouth waiting for the courting dances though - and wishing Lucy was wearing the garland Natsu made for her! Wonderful chapter! <3 - SleeplessSagittarius Oh my gosh I'm SCREAMING this is just so full of suspense and you're descriptions of everyone's magic are beautiful! - smol_warrior_1258 What an exhilarating chapter! Loved it! - ottermadness

In the end, only YOU can allow yourself to read an amazing story that is full of heart, characterization, great story points, and depth. Only YOU can allow yourself a simple click and check out one of the best stories in the fandom (in my opinion). This story is Written, Edited by @kiliinstinct, then Beta'ed by @phoenix-before-the-flame, gone over again by Kili, and then posted for our enjoyment... ...and all for free. Don't be a smuck and ask, "wHy sHouLd i?" Just allow yourself the awesomeness and free entertainment.

And don't forget to leave a Kudo and a comment!

do i really wanna read it tho? U beta'd it but whats so good about it? I wanna know

I have good taste in things. Ask any of my online comrades, i scarcely reccomend bad things.

Good characterization all around for both major and minor characters. I'm particularly fond of how Natsu is written in the fic.

Ever expanding lore. The world in the storys constantly bein built and expounded on.

Good pacing. Lives up to the slow burn tag (though im evil and think it could be slower, but alas, Rougie thinks thatd be too evil to do.)

Great action. Might be graphic to some but its an M rated fic for a reason.

Theres romance there but it isnt slapped on, its actually something that progresses and slowly grows instead of bein like, speedran.

I did another post here before on this a while back

You won't know if you'll like it if you don't give it a shot for yourself :]

[masteryaddleisagilf]

I got curious, so I did a bit of “research”

The most popular fic in English is an NSFW (incredibly raunchy, wow) Guardians of the Galaxy fic with 128.179 kudos.

In Mandarin, it is a mature RPF fic of the actors from The Untamed that resulted in AO3 being blocked in Mainland China. It currently has 26.916 kudos

For Spanish, the prize goes to an explicit omegaverse & mpreg The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System fic with  3.245 kudos

Indonesian gives us a BTS college AU with 1.569 kudos and French stays on the bandom vibes by giving us an explicit One Direction dystopian story. But the band rpf award goes to Tagalog* ***, with their first page (sorted by kudos) being all Kpop (ENHYPEN, EXO & SEVENTEEN) and no-fandom.

(For those curious, Korean has a low amount of Kpop rpf on their first page. I assume they publish it somewhere else)

Egyptian Hieroglyphics (which, yes, is an option on AO3) gives us a beautiful song translation with an impressive 495 kudos. I really recommend everyone check it out; it is incredible. Welsh** (160) and Old English (222)  also had their most popular work have an English translation. Latin (124), on the other hand, is just fully in Latin. There are a few translations, but they are provided by other people and not the original author.

Greek has a lot of Greek political RPF. Like, a lot. 

I was incredibly surprised by the fact that you can write fanfiction in Quebecois sign language. I was not surprised at all by the fact that Sindarin was an option.

.

A few of the languages had their most popular stories not be in that language and just be a case of mislabelling (or, in some cases, people using less-used languages on AO3 as dumping grounds for tests or personal notes.) Also, there were a couple of languages with no stories at all. 

If you have been thinking about writing fic in a language other than English, take this as a call for action. There are a lot of people out there reading in all sorts of languages. Even in languages with only a couple kudos, those are a couple of people who are incredibly happy to find a story of a media they love in a language they love too.

. Edits from 7/12/2022:

* Filipino*** is the standardized version of Tagalog and the way Ao3 refers to the language, which is why that is the word used instead of Tagalog. Feel free to reach out if there is a better way to word that sentence. 

** Welsh was included next to Old English as they both had English translations, and not as an implication that it is a dead language. Welsh is a living, thriving language with more than half a million speakers.

.

Edits from 26/12/2022:

*** More Tagalog speakers reached out asking me to change the language name to Tagalog. I did. The original note is left for those looking at the notes/asks and wondering what is going on. 

[thelucyverse]

Fic writer/reader ask

(particularly for ao3, as I don't think all other sites have the same stats page)

WRITER QUESTIONS

I tried not to add any jealousy or anxiety inducing ones about kudos and those kinds of stats, and keep this fun for everyone with interesting questions!

1. Top 3 fandoms written for (dash - fandoms)

2. Fandom you have most WIPs for

3. Do you have any abandoned works?

4. Are your comment threads (stats-totals) more or less than half of your inbox total?

5. Do you have more works or more bookmarks?

6. Without checking - which tags do you think you've used most?

7. Top 3 tags (works - filters - additional tags)

8. Ever written something inspired by other fanworks?

9. Ever done a collab with another writer or artist?

10. Most used rating (works - filters - ratings)

11. Ever used the 'inspired by' ao3 function?

12. One-shots or multichapters?

13. Most productive year (stats - years -wordcount)?

14. Ever written smut?

15. Do you reply to all comments?

16. Ever had someone make fanart, edits, podfic to your fic?

17. Do you accept (constructive) criticism in the comments?

18. Favorite kinds of comments?

19. Ever had someone write something inspired by your fic?

20. Are any of your stories translated into another language?

21. Do you write in your first or a second language?

22. First fandom you've written for?

23. Any tumblr tags to check if someone wants to find more about your writing?

24. Ever written a translation of your own or someone else's fic?

26. Last sentence you've written

27. Favorite quote from one of your fics

28. Still remember a favorite comment?

29. Ever made a collection and/or series?

30. Do you like writing for prompts, challenges etc?

31. Beta or no beta? What do you ask betas to look for?

32. Written any drabbles (100 word fics) or other exact wordcount challenges?

33. Most used warning, if any? (works - filters - warnings)

34. Ever check your Statistics, if yes what did you look for?

35. What fic or series of yours has the most/longest tags?

36. Standard author's note?

37. Standard end note?

38. Do you cross-post your works on several sites? Where?

39. Do you promote your works other than just posting them? How/why/why not?

40. Favorite story you've written? (in general or for a specific fandom)

READER QUESTIONS

A) Ever tried to leave kudos twice?

B) Ever managed! (through an old glitch) to leave kudos more than once?

C) Favorite writers? Feel free to @ if they're on tumblr & you want to make them smile!

D) Ever read on sites other than ao3?

E) Favorite fandom to read fic for

F) Favorite trope(s)

G) Pwp or gen fic?

H) Joined any author's mailing lists?

I) Ever read fic for a fandom without knowing the canon?

J) Shippy fics or character studies?

K) Do you listen to podfic?

L) What's your standard comment?

M) Do you have comfort fics you can re-read again and again?

N) Best fic you've read this week

O) A tag you always click 'exclude' on

P) Do you use author's bookmarks to find more fic you might like?

Q) Latest fic in your search history?

R) Bookmark, subscribe, mark for later or open tabs?

S) Are custom layouts and skins nice or annoying?

T) Sort by date posted, kudos, something else?

U) Check out author's pages or go back to tag search after reading a good fic?

V) ever use the bookmark search instead of the work search?

W) Oldest fic in your search history? (history - scroll down to bottom - click last page)

X) Ever made a fic-rec list?

Y) Any peeves that immediately make you click back out of a fic?

Z) Long fics or short fics? / Favorite fic length?

#) Ever had someone gift a fic to you?

§) A fandom or ship you wish had more fic for you to read

%) A feature you wish ao3 had

Because apparently this needs to be spelled out: as by the title, this is an ask meme! Send asks, not replies, not reblog additions tagging people! Asks!

[its-afucking-mess]

A little guide on ao3 (by an ao3 user and writer)

Friendly reminder for mobile users! Ao3 is a website. It doesn't have (as far as im concerned) an official app for mobile, so better get comfy with using crome on your phone.

Some video links ill leave for people who prefer video and audio:

- navigating the fanfiction sites

- popular fandom terminology part 1 and part 2

- shipping etiquette

i really reccomend coley's videos if you want to get to know more fandoms, or get an inside look to how some stuff works. There also might be more vids about fandom's and fan works, so don't hesitate to look through some of her stuff!

the explaining under the 'read more' ao mutuals wont kill me :)

(also tagging @ethanesimp since they asked for this advice )

So, what is Ao3 really?

Ao3 is a website made by fans for fans. There are no ads, and all content is free on Ao3. Anyone can post (with some age restrictions) and they can post anything.

How can I browse Ao3?

Ao3 does not require an account to view stories. You can easily browse as an anonymous user. You just are not able to view certain works, as creators have the ability to show their works to registered users only. Some cases, commenting is possible while anonymous, but again, it's up to the creator of the work.

If you want to be a creator and share works, you need an account.

An account also gives you the ability to bookmark works, so you can re-visit them, mark works for later, keeps a history of the works you've visited and allows you to favourite tags.

How do I get an Ao3 account?

When you first open the site, it gives you the option to "Get Invited". An invitation will be sent to your email anywhere from 24hrs later to a week later, depending on the amount of people in the automated queue.

After the invitation, you are able to set up your account like any other social media account. Pick a username, pseuds (name), description and bio. You can have a profile picture as well.

How do I navigate the site?

There are few ways to do so efficiently, but there's countless of ways you can experiment with to find which is more comfortable.

1st option: As the website loads, you can go to the 'Fandoms' tag.

Then, after clicking on it, this column appears. Through there, you can pick which media your fandom is from and from there, browse the huge list of different fandoms until you spot your own.

The list is in alphabetical order, so if your fandom begins with an "C", it shouldn't be too far down.

2nd option: At the top right, under your profile, and the options 'Post' and 'Log Out' should be a white oval search bar.

(im using my own account for demonstration)

When searching, there are many ways to work around it.

Personally, I press search as it is. It will lead you to a page where all the fanworks of the site are listed. (i believe its easiest, but always feel free to experiment)

From there, you press the 'Edit Your Search' button, located near the top right.

It will then lead you to a page with multiple fields.

Don't panic when you see all the fields. Only half those are of interest when you want to browse works for a fandom.

The most important ones are those under the Field name 'Work Tags'

Whatever you select under this field will be included in the works the site presents you with.

What are the work tags? What do they do?

Lets go through the options.

Fandom(s): when typing on this option, multiple fandom names will autofill in a list under the white space. If your fandom shows up, you can just click on it.

example:

From there, you can select the fandom you want to see works from. If your fandom doesn't show up, it can mean one of two things:

-there are no works for it

-it isn't popular enough to be picked up by the algorithm

After selecting one fandom, you can select another fandom, or more, to see works that are crossovers over universes.

Ratings: Ratings are selected by author. It defines the level of maturity it has in the work

- General audiences is the tag you want to use when nothing bad happens in the work. No swearing, no sexual activities, no violence or gore. It wont contain scenes that minors are not allowed to see.

- Teen and up audiences is the tag used for most works on the site. It is what would be used when you have mentions of/vague sexual content or violence. Normally, the most extreme stuff on there is excessive swearing, heavy angst and hurt/comfort with no excessive details

- Mature is the tag that is for 18+. It is mostly filled with one of following : Violence, Sexual Content, Ab*se, R@pe, Death and SH.

Reader descretion is advised by looking at the additional tags the author has provided, especially for those with triggers.

- Explicit is like Mature, but contains more graphic content. Works rated explicit mostly fall under the 'Graphic depictions of sexual content', 'Graphic depictions of Violence and Gore' or 'Graphic depictions of Ab*se, R@pe, or Self H*rm

Reader descretion is advised, stronger than mature, since it can be much more triggering. The works are scarily detailed sometimes.

- Not rated: the author has not given this work a rating because none of the other ratings fit the work. Pay special attention to the tags.

Warnings: Also known as Archive warnings by older users. The trigger warnings of Ao3. There are 6 archive warnings:

-Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings: The author didn't use the warnings, either because none of them fit the work's theme and warnings, or to avoid spoiling the story. Pay attention to the tags for any warnings.

-Graphic Depictions Of Violence: It is pretty self explanatory. Can contain any sort of violence, from wars, to simple fights, to ab*se of any kind. Can and often contain death. The type of violence is in the tags.

-Major Character Death: A main character in the story will die in this work. Pay attention to the tags always. The name of the character will be mentioned, as well as the way they die.

-No Archive Warnings Apply: None of the warnings apply. It is most times a perfectly safe work. Check the tags to make sure though!

-R@pe/Non-Con: The work contains non-consensual activities. Ranges from non-consensua sex to non-consensual use and ab*se of substances. Very close attention to the tags!

-Underage: The main character(s) in this work are underage/minors. This is normally tagged along sexual content so be aware and pay close attention to the tags!

Categories: This regards the relationships in the work:

- M/M, or better known as mlm or a relationship between two non-woment (men mostly, can include characters under the non-binary umbrella)

- M/F, a heterosexual relationship (is inclusive of trans characters too!)

- F/F, or wlw, or a relationship between two non-men (women mostly, can include characters under the non-binary umbrella)

- Gen, no sexual or romantic relationships are in this work, or if there are any, they arent of main focus.

- Multi: Polyamorous relationships, or multiple relationships are included in this work (this is also where threesomes+ are tagged in sometimes)

- Other relationships: One of the two people in the relationship is non-human (mostly), or the relationships are platonic/family.

Characters: The characters you want to be included in the story. This works just like the 'Fandom' filter, so the same things apply. You can tag as many characters as desirable.

Relationships: The relationships that you want present in the work. This includes both major and minor relationships. It can also include ended relationships (tagged Past x/y) and implied/referenced relationships. This works just like the Characters and Fandom filter.

Additional Tags: These are things the author has included to give potential readers an insight to the story. 'Angst', 'Fluff' and 'Smut' are additional tags. Works like the Relationships filter, so all same applies.

Is there anything I have to avoid/ I should avoid?

There is this very infamous tag, 'Dead Dove: Do not eat.' This tag is a warining to readers that the things in the work are really messed up, and can include anything illegal in it. PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE REST OF THE TAGS IF YOU STILL ARE INTERESTED.

How else can I filter works?

You can choose how they are:

sorted (Titles, Authors, Hits, Kudos, Comments, Bookmarks, and Best Match)

the word count (from 1 word to millions)

the language (most are on there)

the amount of chapters

if the work is complete of not

when it last updated/when was posted

and if there are crossovers.

These are all options that author has to include, and therefore you can sort freely. Most are bulletin options you can click on.

What if I want to find a specific work?

If you happen to know one of these: Author, Title, Fandom or Rating, you will find it. If you were reccomended one, it's better to ask for the author or the title, to make looking for it easier.

Can I find a specific author/ user?

People search is for finding users on the site

Bookmark search helps you look through other people's public bookmarks. Not really used.

Tag search finds works that include this specific tag you searched. Also not used a lot.

People can see my bookmarks?

When bookmarking a work, you are able to do a lot.

if you do not want your bookmarks to be visible to the public, make sure to check off the Private bookmark box at the bottom left.

Common terms thrown around by Ao3 users:

-tags: the additional tags of the work

-kudos: liking a story

-bookmarks: saving/saved stories. makes it easy to revist. you can see your bookmarks from your profile

-hits: the amount of people that have clicked on a story. Isn't necessary they liked it, but they did click on it.

And those are the basics! If you had to take one thing only, its ALWAYS READ TAGS

I hope this helped the clueless souls even a bit :)

Im open to reply to any other questions, and you can send me them in my asks, messages or comments of this post

[aprillikesthings]

I'm so envious of people who write fast and write easily. I can often picture scenes but then I go to describe them and there's just no way they'd work that way, or once it's in words it looks fucking dumb, or I can't find the words to describe the things I can feel and see in my head, and there are days it's like this monumental effort to get down ANYTHING.

But also: up until l literally 2016 I had convinced myself I couldn't write fiction at all! So part of me still believes it's all been a fluke and I will once again be unable to write fiction any day now. Which isn't true??? That's. Not how it works.

I only started writing because I'd fallen hard for Amethyst/Peridot in SU, and there was a tiny handful of fics in the tag. I wrote down a silly headcanon in narrative form and posted it before I could change my mind--and people liked it!

And then I had an idea for a story, and then another story, and then another one--and people liked them! I was writing for a tiny corner of the fandom, but anything new I posted got about 100-150 hits and a few dozen kudos in the first 24-48 hours, because that was the number of people obsessively checking the ship's tag and attempting to read everything.

(It's still funny to think about, but I wrote, like, a double-digit percentage of the explicit Amedot fics out there; which means that anyone who liked smutty stories of those two had likely at least attempted to read my stories!)

And then like a week after the first K/DA video came out, I managed to post the first explicit Akali/Evelynn K/DA fic, and shit blew up from there. I will never forget the :O of watching my hit count climb to 1000 in a single day. I kept refreshing the fic over and over and realizing: dozens of people are reading this. Right this second. While I sit here in my pj's. WHAT. THE FUCK.

For a few months? I think?, that first K/DA fic of mine was the third most kudos'ed fic for the entire League of Legends fandom tag!

(If you sort for the pairing/explicit/by kudos, I'm still on the first page; but definitely not top five, lol.)

I still think my K/DA fics are some of my best writing, but a huge reason for it was being in a very active server (...which I started) and constantly bumping ideas off of each other. Also if you're writing all the time you just get better at it!

I wrote a few things for Arcane, and what's wild is that one of them is my most popular fic by FAR, but so many people were reading Arcane (...okay, specifically CaitVi) fics that that one is nowhere near the top for that fandom, by any way of measuring things.

ANYWAY. I've said all this before.

But I'm hella out of practice writing fic. I mostly yell into the void here when I'm stuck on something, though I've been doing that less lately.

But I've never been a fast writer! There's been a handful of times I've managed more than a thousand words in a single day, and I know people who can do like 4k words per day on the regular, no problem.

And even the stuff I do write, these days I want to edit like fifty times before posting them. Mostly because my ability to spot issues in my writing is sharper than my ability to fix them, I guess? But also because I constantly change my mind on things.

I'm not going to lie: I knew I wouldn't get a lot of readers, I'm writing an au a lot of people don't care about four years after the end of the show. But it still sucks to see how slowly any of my numbers increase. I got hella spoiled back in the day; I took a screenshot of the kudos email after I posted the one explicit CaitVi fic I wrote because it was BANANAS. (And posted it to facebook to brag lol.)

But dammit, I want to tell this fucking story. I haven't even gotten to the good fun stuff yet; the stuff I'm really excited about that I've seen in my head a thousand times.

I keep refusing to let myself write it, out of fear I won't write the stuff in between, but I think I might sketch out some of my ideas anyway, just to help push me to write the stuff between now and then.

ugghghgh it's been nearly a week since I managed to write anything on my au fic but I got some words down finally

Dunno if they're any good but it's something

Writing them being apart, meeting new friends; all that shit--it's difficult!

But also once again I ended up googling shit like "what were school lunches like in the 1960's" (bad, but mostly bad in the same way home cooking was at the time--nothing fresh, lots of meatloaf and canned green beans and pints of milk)

[dotsayers]

20 Questions: Writer’s Edition

tagged by the beloved @myrmidryad 

this is a LONG one so here’s a cut to avoid do you love the colour of the sky syndrome

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

101 after a recent purge... no one may know about my Past

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

329004! used to be about 350k but again... purge

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

on ao3 i’ve written for (chronologically) doctor who, skyfall, discworld, les mis, star trek, lord peter wimsey, marvel (various), in the flesh, red vs blue, roosterteeth rpf, check please, hockey rpf, star wars, daredevil, rivers of london, dishonored, emmerdale, dirk gently, holby city, hot fuzz, kj charles, guardian, the covert captain, taskmaster rpf, good omens, ghosts, roswell new mexico, leverage, schitt’s creek, the magicians, 9-1-1, it chapter two, the magnus archives, the old guard, the mandalorian, the ritual, the locked tomb

way back on the pit of voles i wrote for twilight, harry potter, hetalia and xmen first class. and on the newsround chatrooms i wrote exclusively harry potter fic about my oc neville and luna’s daughter

as you can tell i am not prone to staying in one fandom writing wise, i tend to end up with one complete fic and seven abandoned wips concealed deep in my google drive

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

finally see what it means to be living (captain marvel, carol/maria, i really hit the zeitgeist with this one i think i was something like the fifth fic in the ship tag)

do whatever you think (the magnus archives, this series is actually #2-7, then #8 #9 and #11 for me so i’m going to cheat a bit)

standing in a world of my own (daredevil, matt/foggy/karen, another zeitgeist hit! really miss writing for daredevil actually... it’s a perennial fave)

a winding road that stretches towards the truth (iron man, tony/rhodey, i STILL don’t know when this got so many kudos. i swear i looked away when it was at 100 and suddenly it ended up here)

where the long shadows grow (star trek aos, kirk prime/spock prime, thank god some people are checking the prime kirkspock tag is all i’m saying!)

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

i don’t really Do angsty endings... possibly a blanket of stars just because i ended it on something of a cliffhanger and then completely zoned out of rnm for long enough that i forgot where i was going with it. there was definitely the intention of fixing things but then i just... did not do that. and now the show is on s3 and i’m over a season behind! life comes at you fast

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

where the long shadows grow, because it reunited kirk prime and spock prime and they DESERVE TO BE HAPPYYYY. i’m a complete sucker for presumed dead/back from the dead stories, actually, so on a similar theme i have two (TWO) daredevil fics which follow the trope, one about ray coming back post-s2 (might never be normal again) and one about foggy and matt reuniting post-endgame (in the corner, taking up space). this is the only time i will ever acknowledge endgame ever again

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

i do write crossovers! in fact i am often roundly mocked by my friends for the increasingly esoteric nature of my crossovers. way back in secondary i wrote a twilight/labyrinth crossover where angela was sarah and jareth’s daughter  because i had a massive crush on a girl who liked both twilight and labyrinth. however, since that has been comprehensively scrubbed from the internet, i think my craziest crossover is probably part three of ‘traced upon the skies’, already an esoteric crossover of rivers of london and hot fuzz, when i added in a crossover with the horror movie ‘the ritual’ just because i wanted rafe spall’s character to be happy 

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

EXTREMELY rarely and only with extreme embarrassment. i will not be any more specific than that

9. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

i used to really struggle with doing this, to the point that i had over 300 comments just. lingering in my inbox unanswered. so i decided to give those up and just commit to answering them from then on, which has been working fairly well for about a year and a half now. i love getting comments but i get overwhelmed really easily and struggle with replying in a way which feels meaningful without getting in my head about it! 

10. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

yes lmao it was for a harry potter fic on ff.net where harry got sorted into hufflepuff instead of gryffindor. it wasn’t a very good fic but i think the fact it was clearly written by an 11 year old should have scared off at least some of the less flattering comments.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don’t... think so? i don’t know how i’d find out to be honest, my vanity googling is rarely very effective

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes! as bronze may be much beautified (skyfall, mallory/bond) got translated into chinese, i was extremely pleased. i think it’s mandarin but the ao3 page for the translation doesn’t say and my mandarin is.................. extremely poor

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

also yes! me and jess little-smartass have written a lot together, although only our star trek/les mis series has been published, more’s the pity. we spent a lot of les mis fandom time workshopping aus and we were always extremely correct about all of it, imo

14. What’s your all time favourite ship to write for?

oh god. i think probably kirk/spock, although there’s some recency bias to that since i reread space manhattans recently and was reminded of my love for them. i really like writing jon/martin but i’ve mostly done that from outsider pov which is a bit different to writing shipfic, i think. joe/nicky from tog was also something i really liked writing but i struggle with plotting longer fic with them

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

i recently went through my abandoned fic folder so i actually have a few options for this. the obvious choice would be ‘any of the hockey ones’ but i did delete most of those just for my sanity. more recently i started writing a vaguely smutty pre-the thing mac/fuchs fic for alex @milkdrinker5000 which i really WANT to finish but am struggling with. most obscure answer (even beyond the thing) and most likely to remain unfinished is the insanely in depth post-tog booker/copley fic i had planned out back in about october. i wrote a good 6-7k of that one and then i realised it was going to be, like, difficult, and decided if i was going to put that much work into something it may as well be the novel im meant to be writing

16. What are your writing strengths?

once a friend told me i had an excellent facility for dialogue and ive thought about it every time i write ever since. i love writing dialogue and i think i’m good at knowing what sounds ic and what is right out. 

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

one of the things i struggled with for a really long time, and honestly still have trouble with, is depicting action in words. once i wrote a hockey fic which featured multiple hockey games and i spent probably four times as much effort editing those to make sense and be interesting that i’ve ever done on a talkier scene.

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

i’ve done it but only when i knew more or less what i was talking about - i did italian at school so i felt confident using it for nicky in something particular and real. i try not to italicise when i drop in words from other languages, which is what i usually do when i’m using a language i haven’t studied in depth (for example, joe’s use of arabic in some of my fic), and to only use words which i’ve heard used by native speakers in that context. i think if you don’t feel confident using another language, generally speaking, you shouldn’t do it. and for god’s sake don’t use google translate for a full sentence

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

harry potter on the newsround chatboards. ariana lovegood-longbottom my sweet child

20. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

this used to be an easy question because hands down the fic i was proudest of on posting it was i’ll be seeing you. i spent a year and a half on research and writing! but these days i do cringe a little at my hockey fic, and i think i’m prouder of some of my shorter works. let’s do a curveball and say layer on layer, down on down, which is my favourite of my rnm fics and the one i like most from a narrative voice perspective. getting michael right was stressful and i’m still proud i got it down for a TIME LOOP FIC, my absolute favourite trope

tagging @little-smartass and @leescoresbies just in case they want to try this

[sarkywoman]

Writing Asks

Tagged by @under-the-shady-tree, thanks!

20 questions, writer’s edition, let’s go!!

How many works do you have on AO3? 85

What’s your total AO3 word count? 712708

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Oof, uh... since like, 1999? Um, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Andromeda, Supernatural, Heroes, NCIS, DC, Marvel, The Umbrella Academy, Kingsmen, ASoIaF/Game of Thrones, Borderlands, Community, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Doctor Who/Torchwood, Final Fantasy, Harry Potter, Misfits, I think I’ve forgotten some...

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Noble Blood (Game of Thrones, ASoIaF - GRRM)  A Song of Bastards and Wards (ASoIaF - GRRM, Game of Thrones)  Young God (Borderlands)  Story and Sorcery (Loki: Agent of Asgard, Marvel)  My Shame is True (The Umbrella Academy (TV))

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? I try to! Comments are so important in the fanfic community and I know how hard it is to think of something to say about a story, even when you’ve loved it to bits, so I don’t want people to feel ignored. Especially because I appreciate comments so, so much! I will say though, I have lapses, often when my mental health isn’t good, where I simply don’t know how to respond to people and then months go by and I feel weird about replying... so sorry if you’ve ever commented on one of my stories and got silence - it was me not you!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? The Aimless One (Misfits (TV 2009)) Straight up the saddest story I’ve written, no question. Normally writing sad stuff doesn’t make me sad but I had to take a break in the middle of this to just try and grapple with the idea I’d had because it tapped into a lot of depressing thoughts I have about life and death in general. The comments were all complimentary but so upset that at first I was like ‘hooray, it had the desired impact’, then after a while I started to think ‘why did I want to hurt people like this?’

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? Probably  Realising All You Ever Wanted, a Hobbs/Dirk fic for the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency fandom. There’s such minor conflict in that one that the sugary sweet ending isn’t out of place. 

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written? Well. I have some fandoms that are sort of crossovers already, things like Marvel where you have comic versions and movie versions and it doesn’t really feel like a crossover to be picking and choosing. Same with a Dirk Gently/Thor fic I did, because Thor cameos in the DG canon, but not this Thor. I think the most ambitious crossover I’ve worked on was a collaborative chatfic with @freshgratednutmeg that we’re never likely to post, where the need for more background characters in an Umbrella Academy A/o fic led to it being crossed over with Marvel and Brooklyn 99. (Leading to such amusements as Diego sparring with Rosa, and Five competing with Shuri in class.)

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Yeah, but it’s never been very well-reasoned so it’s been fairly easy to dismiss. Some people expect everyone to share their own perspective of the characters and it’s weird.

Do you write smut? If so what kind? Not really. I can go there and have done on occasion, but it doesn’t interest me very much. I think I did it more when I was younger because I felt like it was a necessary aspect of grown-up fanfic writing (when I started I was a teenager amongst mostly adults... or other people lying about their age too lol). These days I’m more likely to fade to black or allude to the acts. But I’m not averse to writing it or anything, but it’s never the focus of my story.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Only in the sense that I see them on other sites I didn’t upload to, sometimes in other languages, sometimes not. They normally say my name somewhere on them so they’re not stolen as such, but it’s still uncomfortable to see my work circulated to other sites without my permission.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Not with my permission, but yeah. I don’t know how to feel about translations. Obviously I want people of other languages to be able to read my work, but at the same time I’m not fluent enough to be able to check the translator’s work, so I won’t know if they’ve done any better than google. Word choice is pretty important in fiction. A bad translation can totally warp a text.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not for posting or sharing, but me and @freshgratednutmeg cowrite all the time.

What’s your all time favorite ship? All time?! That’s impossible to answer. I’m a multi-shipper for starters, in pretty much every fandom I’ve been in. When I find a ship I love, I love it intensely above all others for the duration of the fixation. Then eventually it gets set aside when I find a new fandom. I’m also indecisive enough to not really have an all-time favourite anything. 

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? A Song of Bastards and Wards (ASoIaF - GRRM, Game of Thrones). I can’t begin to describe the pages of notes I have for this beast. Unless I threw them out, which... scanning my room... is a distinct possibility. Ouch. I’d hoped to parallel the books for a long time with this one, but the amount of work for a project like that is too much when you’re no longer as passionate about the source fandom. I suspect what I might do is scenes with interconnecting notes, just so people get some sense of closure.

What are your writing strengths? Dialogue, baybee! Kinda makes me want to be a scriptwriter. People are always telling me that the characters ‘sound like’ them. I think it’s from reading voraciously from when I was young and being quite a social child, that moving speech patterns and quirks into writing is something that comes very naturally to me. Too natural, in fact, because IRL I write how I speak and that’s not always suited to the situation.

What are your writing weaknesses? Most things other than dialogue. Even thought processes are an internal dialogue, so they’re okay, but then like... a fight scene? A sex scene? Just even... what are their hands doing while they’re talking? How are these people physically present? Where are they? Are they inside, outside, is the building on fire? My descriptive skills are lacking, to say the least. It’s something I’m working on.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I’m not quite sure what’s meant by this. I’m not fluent in anything other than English so I don’t see that would work well for me. I know a few phrases in German/French/Welsh/Latin/Spanish but nothing useful for conversation. Dropping in words can work, if it’s the same way the speaker would use them amidst their English. Most of the time the characters I’m writing wouldn’t be speaking in another language anyway. We can blame the tag-team of English colonialism and American media for that one I think. I think that sometimes authors utilise a character’s language in a way that just exposes how little the author actually knows of the language and that’s a bit cringe for me.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Buffy the Vampire Slayer. None of those are online atm because they’re so so bad XD I should post them just so people can see improvement but... I can’t even read them, they’re hilarious. The most gratuitous self-inserts, the most ludicrous arguments, the most out-of-character romantic declarations.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? Hmm, that’s a quandary. I think I’ll differentiate between favourite to write, and favourite end product. Favourite to write was probably  Noble Blood (Game of Thrones, ASoIaF - GRRM) because it was just a romp through my favourite themes. Given it’s one of my most popular stories, I’d say that just proves you should write what you want! I was going to quickly say  Young God (Borderlands) is my favourite fic for quality of the finished product, because I pretty much just sat down one evening and spilled it into a word doc then reread it back and thought ‘huh, did I write that? Awesome’. But I’m happy with a couple of more recent things I’ve done for The Umbrella Academy fandom, notably  The Price of Parenthood, which is very different to what I usually write and is a look at the life of one of the mothers who gave up her child to Reginald. Also The Water Calls, which was the only thing I managed to write for the recent MerMay event. It took me a little while to puzzle out how it all fit together, then once I had it worked out it came together wonderfully and I was very happy with the tone of it. 

Tagging anyone who fancies doing it.

[much-brighter-ink]

farrah and “how did you fail a survey?”

This is months late, but it’s finally here! Keep in mind that this was written at 1 AM over the weekend and is completely unedited, because if I try to edit it I’ll leave it for later and never actually post. 

598 words, Clark’s POV, only TWs are cursing and a very brief reference to alcohol - enjoy my shitty writing! 

“Yeah, there were two, the Blood cast and the Axe cast- Eliza, no!” Farrah interrupted herself as the tiny curly puppy dove into a pile of mail by the front door, a clasp envelope clutched between her tiny teeth. 

Clark bent down, stroking Eliza’s ears and prying out the envelope. He skimmed the label. “Do you need this?” 

“Addressed to Annleigh O’Daniel and Farrah Torres. I have no idea what the fuck this is, I doubt it’s schedules- oh, shit, Clark, look at this.” 

He glanced over her shoulder at the page. “GCHS Tigers 2017-18 Pre-Season Survey”, the title read, to the left of a huge letter F, circled in orange gel pen. 

“Riley.” 

“How… how did you fail a survey?” Clark muttered, bewildered. “They’re not supposed to be graded, that doesn’t even seem like something Giles Corey would send out-” 

Farrah groaned. “Riley again. I have very little memory of taking this, but here, look at the questions if you’d like.” 

“Mind if I read them aloud?” 

“Be my guest.” 

“Question one. Full name. ‘My name is on the envelope, bitch, smiley face, my middle name is Annleigh’s sixth middle name’-” he turned his focus over to Farrah again. “Do you recall these answers at all?” 

They let out a sigh and an eye roll. “Considering how thrilled I was about cheer this year, how shitfaced I probably was when filling this out, it’s not a surprise that I don’t - though the last one is true, kudos to me for remembering that.” 

“Question two. Pronouns, height and weight, cheer position, date of birth. ‘She/they and I appreciate the woke points’, ‘short enough to kick your ass, maybe ask Chess how much I weigh because apparently she can’t hold that heft’, ‘Flyer,’, ‘July 28, 2002’.” 

Farrah seemed to be in an okay mood, so Clark didn’t bring up the second question again, since she’d stiffened at the mention of Chess in most other contexts. 

Next question. He stared at the paper, trying to make sense of what the survey was asking. 

“Question three. ‘Please check off a personality type, based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and add T (turbulent) or A (assertive) after the dash at the end of the letter sequence and proceed to question thirty-nine. If you have not yet been typed, please fill out the following quiz and I will send back your type with your score. If you are between types, please write your type(s) in the blank below with an x for a letter you’re stuck between.’ And ‘XXXX-x, first you ask for my birthday and then try to fucking psychoanalyze me? Guess again, loser’… okay, I sort of understand your answer to that. Keywords: sort of.” Clark sat down. “Question thirty-nine. Multiple choice, again. ‘We are: a) the soul of the school, b) the pride in the name, c) the heart and the flame, d) all of the above.’”

Farrah rubbed her temples. “What’d I say?” 

“That you were cheerleaders. I mean… valid? True?” He really didn’t get this, but he doubted they did either. 

“Let’s see the last one.” 

Clark cleared his throat. “Alright - question forty. ‘How do you think we’ll place in competition this year?’ You said, I quote, ‘you tell me, captain, I just got here, parentheses, please don’t @ me’,” he finished. “Any constructive criticism for your past self?” 

Farrah snorted. “More like… literally no captain does this except Riley, she’s way overthinking this.” 

“Fair.” 

“And I’m glad this isn’t part of my transcript, unless she’s managed to hack into my report card.” 

Clark chuckled. “Also fair.” 

[saveourskinship]

Thanks for the tag @thusatlas I’ve never done one of these. So

How many works do you have on AO3?

16 works, but if you count my collection of drabbles it is 42 (soon to be 61 once I finish updating my Ficlet Snack Pack.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

429863

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Harry Potter mostly, but when I was twelve I wrote Greek God fanfiction but it’s hard to tell what fanfic in that space. I mean, the masterpiece that is Lore Olympus isn’t exactly fanfic, right?

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1) Transit of Venus

2) Curse of Fascinus

3) Her Curious Valentine’s

4) Are There Still Beautiful Things

5) Always Being Let Go

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do! Even if it’s just to thank someone and wish them a lovely day. I think the only comments I haven’t responded to are ones like ‘huh?’ or ‘eh?’. I can’t do much with those.

In a very gross way, comments are like laxatives. If you want more shit out of me, shove comments down my throat. My motivation will jump from toodle-doo to PHWOAR if anyone knows or understands what that means.

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

The Alternate Ending (Tragic) to Transit of Venus.

Transit of Venus was already pretty angsty, but the people wanted to see the most harrowing of the five endings I wrote. So I put on my patent-pending Sob Through Anything glasses (eucalyptus on the nose grip, moisture wicking on the glass) and edited a Romeo + Juliet- style ending.

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

No, but I do write Easter Eggs. Though I do have a plunny to crossover Derry Girls with Harry Potter where the character of James is Harry being sent to Derry for his protection.

It is the only crossover I’ve ever dabbled in and the the couple pages I’ve written are utter madness so I don’t hold out hope I’ll ever publish it..

Oh, but do songfics count? Because then I have LOADS. Mostly Taylor Swift because folklore stole my soul.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes, my favourite was telling me the entire premise of Transit of Venus was stupid and I should have taken a leaf out of their country’s way of doing things to up population and given tracts of land to couples . Soo... colonialism with implications of people displacement and other more heinous consequences they found preferable to a soul spell.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do write smut. My favourite type of smut to write is romantic, sensual smut. I’m also very much looking forward to writing the smut for my crackfic.

I think my most favourite smut scene I’ve written though is in Her Curious Valentine’s where Theo reads really bad, gratuitous Dramione smut out loud in the company of both Draco and Hermione while they try and ignore him.

I laughed a lot writing that.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I honestly have no idea how I’d even check that. But probably not. I doubt anyone would want to take credit for anything I write.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but as an exercise to practice my Te Reo, I occasionally translate passages of my own.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Dramione. I ‘White Flag by Dido’ Dramione. I stan, simp, ship, fangirl and tresh Dramione. I refuse to feel guilt, only pleasure. Please don’t come for me Ronmione fans, I like Ron, okay? I’m just shit at writing him and just make him say, “Bloody hell!” all the time.

But also Theo with anyone, particularly Harry. Theo is my favourite character because he is almost 100% fanon. He epitomises the Harry Potter fanfic community for me so I have to love him forever and ever.

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

I’m writing a WIP called ‘The Madnesses of Men’ that details seven women’s relationships with the men in their life: The three Black sisters, Pansy, Luna, Ginny and Hermione. Each has a Seven Deadly Sin as the title of their chapter and each has a completely different writing style. Luna’s chapter is entirely poetry. Bellatrix is an exercise of insanity and a stream of consciousness. Narcissa’s is all letters to Andromeda that she never sent.

I would love to finish it because it is something very different for me but I’m struggling to find Pansy and Andromeda’s voices. Le sigh, maybe one day. (But let’s be honest, it’ll never happen.)

What are your writing strengths?

Humour - I have a knack for gargling up ridiculous scenarios when I’m brushing my teeth, giggling maniacally like a calcium-deficient vampire while frothing at the mouth with reckless abandon. I put these scenarios in my writing and it goes over well.

Angst - People tell them I make them cry and have been known to punch the heart’s out of people’s bodies so I thank them and wish them a nice day. I once exacerbated someone’s chronic pain condition (which I still feel soul-crushingly guilty about) and was asked to reiterate the ‘Heartbreak’ tag on a fic. I guess that means I’m good at it. Sorry again to that reader!

Trope Twists - My favourite thing to write are twists on tropes. I enjoy finding new ways to tell old stories. Stay tuned for my take on the ‘Unexpected Pregnancy’ theme coming soon.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Run-on sentences - I have a tendency to, more often than not, plug in far too many words which I think stems from some sort of childhood instinct that if I kept talking and talking then my sister won’t find out I drank all her juice and accidentally threw it back up on her favourite Skydancer.

Sticking to my plotting/theme - This has happened a lot. Incandescent was supposed to be a cottagecore, cute, fluffy romance Theomione. Now it is a sprawling space opera where Hermione has fought a god, has learned another version of herself will either save/destroy the entire world (not to mention Atlantis) and rescued a star after it was eaten by a black hole. Oh, and it takes place over one weekend.

The Absolute and Total Defeat of One Draco Malfoy had been fully plotted out for twenty-two chapters. It only took three for me to completely deviate. But it’s a crack fic, so it felt inevitable

The montage/transition pieces - I hate writing the banal parts between plot points. And I hate it because I’m really bad at it. I either skip over it too much or get bogged down in too many details.

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

I personally like reading dialogue in other languages. If used in a way that makes sense. Especially if the fic is set somewhere that doesn’t speak English, I like to learn a little of the setting’s language to immerse myself.

I tend to use use other languages sparingly in my own writing. Mostly because I don’t want to get it wrong and when I try, I end up in four hour long research holes of the best way to say ‘Hello’.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Ancient Greek mythology, I think. If it can be counted. Would that make ‘The Iliad’ or ‘The Odyssey’ fanfic? Oh gods, I’m going to obsess over this for days now.

What’s your favourite fic that you’ve written?

Transit of Venus because it taught me a lot, though I feel like I best nailed the setting I was going for in Are There Still Beautiful Things. The Absolute and Total Defeat of One Draco Malfoy always cheers me up.

But if I complete it and start posting (which I am DETERMINED to do, I WILL finish it before I start posting), I think my favourite will be my new WIP: What’s Owed When.

Tagging: @ohlenalena​ @megamegaturlte

[inevitably-johnlocked]

I’m sort of new to AO3 and have a question. I know stories can be reposted on AO3 by changing the date but rarely see it done. Does it violate some hidden expectation of the community if someone reposts without any changes, just for more kudos? Reblogging is literally what tumblr is for. Its a social network, people promote their stories here. But AO3 is not a social network. You're a kind person who knows this community. Pls tell me if I'm out of line thinking this is not acceptable.

Hey Nonny!

Ahhh, as far as I’ve ever seen, the only time I’ve seen a fic “reposted” on Ao3 is if it was either:

Posted originally on FFNet and they’re reposting it to Ao3 because FFNet is essentially dead and terrible;

Someone deleted their story for whatever reason, and decided they erred and wanted it back up; or

They want it under a new pseud, so they repost it and remove the old one.

I’ve never seen it as the one you suggested, but as far as I know, it is a violation to multi-post the same story.

EDIT: Ah yep, it is, under the Spam section:

B. Spam and commercial promotion

Promotion of commercial products or activities is not allowed. Repeated identical or nearly identical posts in multiple places, e.g., a large number of identical comments promoting a website, will also be considered spam regardless of commercial content.

So yeah, Nonny, if you’re seeing it, you should flag it with the Abuse team so they can check it out.

But as I said, usually reposts are one of the three reasons I listed, so give the author a chance first.

EDIT 2: OOF.

HOWEVER.

I just legit re-read your ask again and I apologize, I misunderstood... as far as I know, there’s no TOS against changing the pub date on a fic, but again, I’ve never seen this happen... A fic does get auto-updated every time someone makes a small edit to it, so it MIGHT be a back-end thing that makes the fic bump to the top of the newest-fics thing when an author updates it. I’m not 100 on this, as I don’t publish very many fics. Perhaps someone can let me know the proper etiquette for this practice. Seems... wrong to me, but I’ve old-assed fics no one reads anyway, LOL.

But you ARE right, Ao3 isn’t a social media site. If an author wants people to read their older stories, they should promote them elsewhere, like twitter, or other fic blogs to ask if they can promote them. 

I didn’t know you could change pub dates this outside of drafting the pre-post. I DO believe that it DOES edit the “updated on” part if you make a small change to the fic, which THEN bumps a fic up to the top of the newest page. AGAIN, not sure on that. It seems a bit... improper... to do either of those things, to be frank. I’ve never seen either of these happen here, but I’m just someone who recs stuff people tell me too, LOL.

[theothersarshi]

I’m doing NaNo and thinking. I’ve written a lot of fanfic over the years. 

I started writing fanfic when I was... 13? I think? My first fic contained a Mary Sue, go figure. It was also in the Harry Potter fandom, where I’d landed by desperately searching for this one story I downloaded from a pre-torrent filesharing thing once.

I used to write for favorites and comments back in the good ol’ days of ff.net. I would be so excited to see those, and to have people interact! Any comment was a celebration! I wanted to become POPULAR!

(I was also the sort of kid who was constantly pushed to excel in everything, and who was told/implied she should be one of the top performers in Important Stuff in my region. It’s just a few years ago that I realized I’m allowed to pursue hobbies that I’m not good at; I’m in my thirties now, lol. I like life a lot more now. Go figure.)

I think I tried to follow popular trends and imitate works I enjoyed. It never worked out. 

As time passed and I made an effort to improve my style, things happened. I became more and more pleased with my work; I started editing my own works, and being more careful about what I put on the page. I no longer cringed to reopen old files. And, slowly, I got those kudos and hits and what-have-yous that young me craved, but I think I started liking my stories more than the enthusiasm hit of feedback.

I never achieved the thousands-of-kudos sort of recognition that was my Absolute Goal when I was a teen. But I no longer care so much. I write things, and then I forget about them. And when I come back, it can be a bit of a pleasant shock.

Mangaka (Bleach, Ichigo/Gin) is a story I wrote when I was trying to be more poetic, sort of. I really liked the result, and some other people did, too. I remembered it as being sort of popular. You know. A few dozen kudos.

I checked the stats recently and it doesn’t have “a few dozen” kudos. It has 432 kudos, and 110 bookmarks. This is nuts. It’s one of the most popular fics in the pairing on Ao3. It blows my mind.

The Affair of Loki and Darcy (MCU, sort of Darcy/Loki) is a cheerful crack fic I wrote one evening and which just... blew up. It was among the first fics for the pairing (first 50, anyway). 

I checked it, too. 415 kudos, what the heck?!

Yachiru Knows (Bleach) is one I wrote... and forgot about. Entirely. The memory of it was erased from my mind. I assume I just got a plot bunny and got it out of my system? Probably?

This is hilarious, because it turns out it’s my most popular fic. 493 kudos. I can’t even begin to explain how much I went “what. What. WHAT.” at the screen when I sorted my fics by kudos and saw this one. After forgetting it existed.

But I’m really happy about my recent stuff.

Aimless (Harry Potter, Hermione/Snape) is a story about feeling adrift, empty and depressed and trying to find meaning in life after doing amazing things in one’s youth, while your relationships are falling apart and you don’t know how to fix them. I wrote it over four years, usually when kind of depressed myself, and I was surprised to see it resonated with many more people than I was expecting. (Don’t get me wrong, it’s not insanely popular, but I wasn’t expecting it to be read much at all.) 

But the one I’m weirdly the proudest of is...

A Fair Trade (MCU, Mission: Impossible, Loki/Benji Dunn). 

It’s not the best fic I’ve ever written. It’s not the deepest, or the most thought out. It was written in a frenzy after watching Mission: Impossible and seeing the actor who played MCU’s Hawkeye had a role in a M:I movie or two. I had a plot bunny which was supposed to be pure smut, but it ended up going on for 30,000 words. 

I’m very proud of it because it has 23 kudos. And it is the only fic in this pairing. I have dragged 23 people into this ship that should have never been, and I don’t even know how I did it, but they seemed to like it. 

[ageless-aislynn]

My 2020 Fanworks Year In Review

Let’s start off by saying 2020 was... a year. :S But it was a weirdly productive year for me when it came to writing. I also learned how to do a better job in making GIFs (I think I’m doing better, anyway ;) ) and I made a few vids along the way. So, how about a recap? ;)

VIDS

A little bit of a light year when it comes to vidding. I made 6 vids. All of the Flash vids can be found gathered here as their own chapters, linking back to their Tumblr post or Youtube page. ;)

1. “Stay” (Harry/Caitlin | SnowHarry, The Flash) 2. “Mine” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseFrost, The Flash) 3. “Strict Machine” (Harrison Wells doppelgangers & Eobard, The Flash) 4. “I Know You” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow, The Flash) 5. “I Just Want You Back” (Eobard/Caitlin | Snowthawne, The Flash) 6. “Storm” (Evelyn/Lee, A Quiet Place) (Secret Santa gift for Kat/littletonpace)

GIFs

I’d made a few GIFs before in the past but it was a sort of laborious process using Paintshop and Animation Shop. Now that neither of those work on my current computer, I’ve been looking for new ways to do graphics. After trying out a few free options, I’ve found a method that let’s me combine my vidding skills with GIFmaking and I’m having so much fun! :D Right now, I’m just focusing on trying to make clean GIFs with the occasional hopefully funny caption.

One of the first GIFs made this year:

The last made this year:

Winner of the “I also made a couple of GIFs for something other than the Flash, I promise” Award: ;)

;)

FICS

Yeah, this was the “Go big or... go bigger” year for me when it comes to fics. I wrote what could conservatively be called “a crap-ton” ;) number of fics, all for some variation of Snowells or another... except for the final one. *dramatic music* ;) A previous “big” year for me was 2016 with... 6 fics written. o_O

Cut because there are 50 titles incoming. O_O ;) Please check the ratings/warnings at AO3 for each fic, though I’ll go ahead and warn here for the most explicit. ;) 

1. “The Thousandth and the First” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow/Snowthawne) Chapter 1 was written in 2019, ch 2-10 came in Feb/March of 2020. This is still currently the longest multi-chaptered fic I’ve done. (Note: rated NC17 (E), though a PG13 edited version is available on my Livejournal comm - collected as part 1 and part 2) 2. “Equal Opportunity” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow, Frost/Nash) (Note: rated R (M), PG13 edited version available on my Livejournal comm) 3. “Elevated” (Eobard/Killer Frost | Frostthawne) (Note: rated NC17 (E) The Frostthawne Escapades fics are all higher rated, either for explicitness or being slightly more potty-mouthed than the rest. *looks at Frost* Frost:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )  4. “First Date Second” (Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 5. “Star-Marked” (Frost/Nash) 6. “First” (Frost/Nash) 7. “Batman Vs The Robot Flea And The Ninja Hedgehog” (Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 8. “Fair Play” (Killer Frost/Eobard | ReverseFrost) 9. “Crazy For You” (Frost/Nash) 10. “Breakfast” (Frost/Nash) 11. “Unrequited” (Sherloque/Caitlin | Snowloque) (Chapter 1 of 4, WIP) 12. “Granted” (Caitlin/Harry, SnowHarry) 13. “Caught” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 14. “Five Times Eobard Came To Caitlin’s Rescue (And The One Time She Came To His)” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 15. “What Love Is” (Frost/Nash, Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 16. “Would You Be Mine (And Would You Ask If He’d Be Hers, Too)?”  (Frost/Nash, Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 17. “Getting To Know You” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 18. “Cupid’s Kiss” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow)  (Chapter 1 of 3, WIP) (Note: rated NC17 (E)) 19. “Kidding Around” (Eobard & Caitlin) 20. “Good Evening” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 21. “*With Benefits” (Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry)  22. “Haunted” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow, Frost/Nash) (Chapter 1 of 5, WIP) 23. “Good Night” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 24. “Melt” (Frost/Nash) 25. “Broken” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 26. “Goodbye/Hello” (Caitlin/Harry, SnowHarry) 27. “Scandal, Us?” (Frost/Nash) 28. “Distraction Techniques” (Caitlin/Harry, SnowHarry) 29. “I Know” (Caitlin/Harry, SnowHarry) 30. “Kitty Cait” (Flashpoint Caitlin/HR, Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 31. “Fire and Frost” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 32. “Somnambulist” (Frost/Nash) 33. “In Need of Rescue” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 34. “Maybe” (Earth-2 Killer Frost/Harry) 35. “Dark/Light” (Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 36. “Refuge” (Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 37. “One Day” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 38. “...And Make It Better” (Frost/Nash) 39. “Rhyme Time” (Caitlin/HR) 40. “True Enough” (Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 41. “Forgiveness” (Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 42. “More Than Anything” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 43. “Nefarious Business” (Eobard/Killer Frost | Frostthawne) (Note: Part of The Frostthawne Escapades .) 44. “Quitters Never” (Killer Frost/Eobard | ReverseFrost) 45. “Back” (Caitlin/Harry | SnowHarry) 46. “Frostbite” (Killer Frost/HR) 47. “Inevitable” (Eobard/Caitlin | ReverseSnow) 48. “Just Your Average Wednesday”  (Eobard/Killer Frost | Frostthawne) (Note: Part of The Frostthawne Escapades .) 49. “Confession” (Eobard/Caitlin | Snowthawne) 50. “Cold Hands” (Jordan Mahkent/Caitlin Snow, Stargirl, The Flash)

50 exactly, no way! :D My writing muse was on 🔥 fiiiYAH 🔥 this year, lol! ;)

FANWORKS GOALS FOR 2021

Naturally, I hope I can keep improving when it comes to fics, vids and graphics. I have several vid ideas in progress for a couple different fandoms. Hopefully at least a few of them will eventually get done. ;) 

I’m hoping to finish the last of my Snowells Kisses prompts in January, which includes “Unrequited” ch 2-4 (2 and 3 are done), “The Ice Dragon and the Winter Fox” (WIP) and the final prompt, hopefully fittingly titled “Epilogue.” I’m really excited for all of them and I hope anybody who reads will enjoy them. I’ve put a lot of thought and planning into each of them, so... *fingers crossed* that it shows! ;)

“Cupid’s Kiss” ch 2 is done, ch3 is in progress. “Haunted” ch 2- 5 is finished, the sequel “Split” is in progress (probably will be 4-5 chapters). They’ll both be finished before I start posting “Haunted” since it has an “Empire Strikes Back”-style ending. ;) 

I really enjoyed dipping my toe into the Stargirl world and I have several more ideas in store for Jordan and Caitlin but want to finish everything else first. ;) 

The Big Beast of ReverseSnowThawne aka “Try” aka the biggest fic I’ve ever written with the smallest title, lol, is still in progress. If it goes as projected, it might be 25 chapters? :S I’m not sure anybody is here for that but darn it, I still would like to get it done anyway! ;) It’s continuing to lumber along at the rear of the pack. Hopefully it will rumble across the finish line one of these days. ;) (These particular versions of Eowells, Caitlin and Mattobard exist very vividly to me, I don’t even know why. Mattobard!Eobard is a different version than any I’ve written so far and I really want y’all to get to meet him. :D )

Anyway, if you read all of this, thank you. You are a super star! :D Many, many, many thanks to everybody who’s taking time to read, watch, like, kudos but especially to reblog and comment, it means A TON, I cannot even tell you how much. *big, smishy hugs*

Here’s to a 2021 that brings us a much better RL and many more fanworks to enjoy! 

Love to you all! 

♥♥♥

[isidar-mithrim]

Tag game

Thank you for the tag @fightfortherightsofhouseelves and @clarensjoy!! 

Also, I’ll take this opportunity to apologize for all the tag-chain/game I ignored lately! I’m quite busy this period and while I do still check tumblr almost daily – especially now that I can’t wait for new @giblimort‘s amazing portraits *_* – it’s more like a few-minute scroll in the homepage and maybe read the occasional ficlet so I might miss the tags or more probably I might be lazy about answering them ^^’ But it always makes me smile that someone thought of me, so be aware that it’s appreciated and it makes my day lighter <3 @narukoibito @sybill-the-seer @ballerinaroy and I’m surely forgetting someone ^^’

Fandoms: Harry Potter, the one and only ;)

Where you post: Tumblr and Ao3, but I also have an account on the italian fan fiction page EFP (but my last stories are missing and most of the old ones that I’ve translated needs to be changed/edited, so I would kinda beg any passing italians to read them in English or ask me what version I would suggest XD). And one on Wattpad that I haven’t updated in a long while...

Most popular one-shot: Well I’m not sure what defines “popular” here, so I’ll kinda cheat and check the Ao3 stats I think for the first time ever and give you:

one for “most hits”: Fantasies [NSFW and basically Hinny PWP, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised it’s the one with most hits XD]

one for “most kudos”: Standing on tiptoe [whoa, hadn’t seen it coming!]

one for “most bookmarks”: Letters for beyond (featuring the Potters)

one for “most comment threads”: so there are 4 with the same number, two of them are the two above, and between the remaining two I’ll pick A new beginning, a post-war chat between Harry and Neville ^^

Most popular multi-chapter: among my only two proper multi chapters, of which one is incomplete so far and with just 2 chapter and the other is complete with just 3 short chapter (what an achievement XD), Better than fireworks  is the one among all of my stories, including one shots, with “most bookmark”, “most subscriptions” (by far) and also “most comments threads”: [all this support is absolutely amazing, but I admit also kinda make me feel guilty because it’s almost been a year since I posted it and promised to finish it, ups ^^’ And the ironic thing is that I still plan too. One day. Maybe XD]

But I’ll also cheat a little bit again, naming a4 one-shots series, “Have a biscuit”. If you like Neville and McGonagall, I’ll be honored if you’d give it a try ^^

Favourite story written so far: Ahhh that’s a tough one, I tend to be quite fond of my stories (yay for the modesty, lol – I swear that when I’m not that thrilled I always admit it, though XD)... Let’s say “As though by a mother” but I might give a different answer in a week XD

Fic you were nervous to post: I’m not sure I’m never actually “nervous” before posting (more like, afraid that the story won’t appreciated as a I hope/that it won’t interest people), but I guess I must have been a bit nervous before posting my first ever pic translated in English, which also happens to have a not-so-usual writing style: And yet it tastes good

How you choose your titles: Ahhhh, good question. I guess it depends. Tbh I’m not that good at titles, or sometime I have a (supposedly) great one in Italian that doesn’t really translate (or isn’t that good) in English or viceversa. [Example: the “Have a biscuit” serie has English titles that I like way better than the italians, but a story like “Souls of Ink”, while having a good ring in English, to me it’s way more powerful and poetic in Italian, “Anime d’inchiostro”].

Sometimes I don’t have a title until the end and I kinda throw something there, sometimes I have the title from the very beginning and it could be a big part in inspiring the story. I tend to use title that are neither too short nor too long, and I don’t usually use songs quotes or the like. Plus, I’m very happy if the words/phrasing of the title recur literally or metaphorically in the story! I also try to match the “feeling” of the title (and the summary) with the “feeling” of the story. Like, I’d go for a more poetic/dramatic one for an angst story, and for a more comedic-like one for something more fluffy or silly.

Complete: Well, that’s easy, since I mostly stay away from multi-chapters XD (and for good reasons – see above XD) All my one shots, and most of my “closed” series, as in, series that I imagined with a beginning and an end or something like that (so, series like “Next Generation” don’t really have a complete/incomplete status) 

In progress: Again “Better than Fireworks”, and I’ve also just realised that I’ve yet to finish translating (despite being at a decent point) the second and last chapter of “Of Matilda, war and Peace” [speaking about being bad a title, lol XD] Ups ^^’

Coming soon/Not yet started: ahhh coming soon probably nothing, ehm, but I’ve at least 4 one shots in the making and that I want to finish one day (most of them started months if not a years ago... I’ll list them below), plus the draft for the rest of Better than Fireworks, plus several random missing-moments or AUs ideas and a long Hinny post-war story started few years ago in Italian (roughly 100.000 written) that needs to be heavily rewritten, translated and possibly finished ^^ Same for a shorter bit of a Jily seventh-year story, if we have to say it all...

“Ghost of the past”, a Hinny one shot from Ginny’s pov with a difficult conversation – I’m very fond of this one, but I have to work on the second part/end. The first/main part is finished and even betaed by the amazing @narukoibito! <3

“Of those who stayed”, a silver trio one shot – again from Ginny’s pov – during DH, when they try to steal the sword. I’ve the first (long) chapter done and again, even betaed by the wonderful @floreatcastellumposts but knowing myself I want to finish it first. I might decide that it’s okay like this (in Italian I’ve already posted it a one shot), but since I had a sort of sequel in mind for now it’ll stay in my drafts ;)

“The man who lived” – This one is all in just Italian so far (I’m rewriting an old piece – I’d probably restart it directly in English now); again Ginny’s pov (wow, hadn’t realised it!), again DH, this time since she (in my head canon) realise Harry might have gone to Voldemort during the battle, until the end of the battle

A one shot that’s it’s a series of Hinny snippets about James Sirius Potter coming to life (from the very start). Old one written in Italian and never posted, that a again needs to be finished. Same for a collection of snippets around Hinny’s wedding (but this is “draftier”)

A one shot of Harry and the Potters waling Teddy at King Cross; I’ve just a very little bit of it written + most of the draft, and it would be the sequel of the one shot “What parents would want”

The random Missing Moments that I’ve have in mind are: a conversation between Bill and Ginny in the hospital wing in HBP, plus maybe a bit more from Ginny’s pov in that period (like going back home from Hogwarts); a conversation between Bill and Ron in DH, not sure if during Ron’s first or second stay and Shell Cottage; Hermione finding out about Arthur’s attack; Dumbledore taking Slughorn’s memory (when it happened, how he found out... I’ve several head canon about it!)

The random AUs moments (and I say moments just because I wouldn’t really be interested in writing a whole story, I only imagine few moments of it): Hermione brining Harry at the Burrow at Christmas after Godric’s Hollow, with is locket attached to his chest (I think I stole the idea from Flo’s!); the trio finding Ginny in the cell in Malfoy Manor as well; and some dumb “Lily and James are resurrected post DH” trash XD Oh, also a real muggle AU with Harry as a self-defence coach and Ginny as trainee!

Do you accept prompts? As you can imagine especially in this period I’m not very good at commitment ^^’, but if you have a specific idea and want to give it a try (maybe during the winter holidays?) I’d be honored, if not able to make any promises!

Upcoming works you’re most excited about: definitely “Ghost of the past”!

I’m tagging @ballerinaroy again, @remedial-potions, @thedistantdusk, @thebiwholived and whoever wants to join ^^

EDIT: Ehm I got caught up with the stats when I wrote this and without realizing it I put a multi chapter in the “Most popular one shot” section, lol XD Problem fixed ;)