#fanfiction culture

[anxious-m3ss]

“I hope this email finds you well”

First of all the only emails that ever find me well are from AO3

[roomwithavoid]

“dead dove” is not a warning. it has never been a warning. if you use “dead dove” as a trigger warning you are missing the entire point. the origin of it is that if you see a bag labeled “dead dove” and open it, you should expect to see a dead dove. that’s not how so many of you assholes use it. you expect me to know whatever secret code you came up with and then have the audacity to get upset with me for stumbling across something i didn’t want to see?

putting “dead dove” and nothing else on something is like putting “trigger warning” and not elaborating. you stupid dumb fucks.

[stormxpadme]

so has this been done or

[farenmaddox]

If you see this, reblog and put in the tags what extremely niche research topic you've found yourself derailed by while attempting to write fanfic. Bonus if it was supposed to be PWP.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Maybe it's my leftover instincts from the "flame wars" phase of ff.net but whenever I see people getting a bit too invested in complaining about fanfics getting their blorbos wrong, like it's some sort of personal insult to them or a systemic injustice, I get worried. It wasn't that long ago that getting someone's favorite character "wrong" was considered a "sin against fandom" and people who ran around bullying new writers into quitting were considered heroes saving people from bad fanfic. There's a reason ao3 doesn't have forums like ff.net did, they were are magnets for targeted harassment, especially for female fanfic writers who wrote characters that were "too perfect".

There was never a perfect era where all fanfic writers lived together in harmony and if we just did x y or z we'd all go back to it. There's always been an element of bullying and judgment in the community and if we aren't careful it'll sneak back.

[frogdottir]

Well folks, from recent observation— turns out that creating mental scenarios in my brain while driving for 6 hours does NOT increase your word count. 😞

[rosekillerbf]

at the end of the day, it's me and that one fanfiction i read when i was 14 against the world.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Reminder that a blogger who writes fanfiction (Or any form of writing) is not free real estate.

There is no guarantee that they do requests. Thats a special gift that some really lovely people offer.

It should not be the norm. It should not be expected.

Just be considerate, guys- it doesn't take much to check a persons bio/pinned post for the words 'Requests Open'.

[thesoftboiledegg]

Looking back at the fics I read years ago that clearly had young authors, it's funny how they thought the world works. Teenage characters lived alone without adults and never worried about bills despite having no source of income. Their houses never got dirty or ran out of groceries, and they only went to school when it was convenient for the plot.

But, to be fair, plenty of adult shows also have teenage characters who only go to school when it's convenient for the plot.

[lunarriviera]

all of us who are fic readers, we say these things about fic. we say things like, this fic walked into my living room, slapped me across the face, and took my lunch money. we say, this fic hurt me in my feelings, this fic dared to perceive me. when what we are trying to say is: i remember.

i remember what it felt like, my mouth on the cotton, the warmth of skin seeping through cloth. i remember what it felt like, waking alone and trying to figure out why i felt so terrible—do i have the flu? did someone die?—and then having it all come back in a rush: oh right, i was left behind and i’m surviving it, somehow. i remember what it felt like, being so in love it threatened to spill out, did spill, ruined everything it touched, saved me even as it flowed away and was gone.

because fic, like fiction like poetry like songs, is a mnemonic device, a little engine of memory, a container that holds recollection like a liquid. it says, don’t forget. don’t forget what it felt like to love someone that much.

alternatively and in corollary, fic is an imaginary. it says: imagine if it were you, that someone loved. imagine someone loved you once, once you mattered to someone, once someone chose you. one day something made them stop, then turn, then see you in a different light. one day they realized: no, this is different. this is more. this is love. one day they felt for you something that made them lose their breath, that almost doubled them over, one day they thought about losing you and realized they might not survive that. one day they got it, that you were it for them.

fic says: know that you loved another on this earth. don’t forget. and don’t forget to imagine that (perhaps) you were equally beloved too.

[fairfowl]

Naming your fanfiction "cupcakes" is similar to naming your fic "my immortal"

In theory, they're very normal fan fic titles... but they have implications

Know your herstory?

[matcha-milkies]

trying to do normal person things like go to the supermarket and work at your job with the most mouthwateringly delicious fic from last night bubbling in the back of your mind

[snowviolettwhite]

Me writing fan-fiction, making the brooding tough character secretly being neurodivergent and a giant softie who needs to let their walls down. Also writing the awkward character who the embodiment of human sunshine secretly willing to break the law and kill if anyone dare hurt the people they love.

[silver-studios]

What do people really think about authors including details from their personal life in their author's notes?

I know I do it sometimes when I ramble. Plus I like to look back on my own work later and see what was going on with me at that point in my life. I don't really mind it when other writers do it because I think it's kind of fun.

I'm curious to see what others think though. Thoughts?

[mrs-hatake]

Tumblr isn’t AO3

dear writers, tumblr isn’t ao3. meaning it doesn’t have a navigating filter like the fanfiction website does.

when you post a story of character a x y/n and then tag character b in it, your post will turn up when i look up character b x y/n fanfics and it’s very frustrating.

“but there are mentions of character b in the story!” cool, that doesn’t mean you have to tag them. mention their appearance in the authors note but not in the tags.

i cannot filter out character a x y/n when i’m searching for a specific pairing so please mind the tagging etiquette on tumblr so that we don’t end up cluttering the search tags.