#i am not a very popular writer

[kitausuret]

I have trouble with my fanfics. I never really like them and I’m not sure if other’s enjoy them. I don’t get that many compliments or votes. What should I do? I want feedback.

Hi anon! It's always rough when you're feeling down about your writing. For that first part, unfortunately all you can really do is - you guessed it - practice. Keep writing! I know, nobody likes to hear that, but you've got to first and foremost allow yourself to write something that sucks. Just get it out onto the notebook, or word document, or whatever you use. That's always gonna be step one.

Secondly, think about what you enjoy about what you read, whether in fanfic or in other kinds of prose. What about it makes it enjoyable to you? Can you make note of anything that you can adapt into your own writing? Your old language arts and literature teachers probably had the right idea, that the best writers are also big readers. It's all about learning and adapting!

For specifically your own writing, if there's anything you're unsure of, I strongly recommend getting a beta, or at least a trusted writer friend that you can at least use as a sounding board. I personally have never used a beta, but I have people I can go to if I feel stuck on something or need to run a part by someone. Sometimes you can even find them in fandom communities!

Which then leads us to the second part of your ask - actually getting feedback. Now, I'm not sure where you post. I don't recognize the terminology of "votes", so if anyone can clue me in that might be helpful LOL. I personally do not post my fics outside of Ao3 and Tumblr. In the past I've also used FF.net and DeviantART. I have by far gotten the most feedback on Archive of Our Own, followed by fanfiction.net, but again, I don't use the latter anymore. I really like Ao3 so if you don't already, you might try posting there.

I also don't know what kind of fics you write, if it's with popular characters or a rarepair, if it's a huge fandom or a tiny one, on and on. Feel free to come off anon if you're comfortable and we can discuss this further. But I definitely collected my small handful of readers by simply being active in fandom - and by leaving feedback/communicating with other writers. I also would encourage you to look into fandom events, exchanges, Big Bangs, even just fandom weeks! There are lots of low-stress ways to almost guarantee more feedback.

Now, if you're like me, and you're literally creating the tags you want to see in the world, there may not be others that you know of yet. BUT, frequent communication and leaving feedback on works that are maybe similar to your own can help build relationships! I also love joining fandom Discords because a ton of them at least have a writing/fic channel.

Almost every single writer I've traded feedback with, I either met through commenting on multiple of their fics, finding them through fandom tags on Tumblr, or meeting them in a Discord server. Usually one of the above feeds into the other two. It's scary sometimes but putting yourself out there really does lead to more feedback and encouragement.

Finally, you have to accept that not all of your fics will take off. Even the ones you're really proud of. Hell, I just made a post about that yesterday. Typically, it's not that what you're making is bad or poorly written. Sometimes it's just niche. Sometimes it's just not what people click on when they're going through the tag. That's why it's important to, as much as you can, write for yourself.

Bottom line, keep practicing, reach out to friends for feedback, hang out with other writers, and get active! Above all, though, have fun. I know it sounds silly, but when you're doing something for free, please make sure that ultimately you're enjoying it. You have one guaranteed reader: yourself!

[thevegetablewhichnoonedaresname]

absolute DEARTH of dungeon meshi fanfics on ao3. in many ways but particularly gen fics that are over 2000 words and focused on adventure, magical shenanigans, fluff/angst, or some combination of those

[folerdetdufoler]

Hi, I wrote my first evak fic in early 2023, before that I had been an avid reader for years. I know the fandom is a little quiet but there's this hardcore group of writers and readers that seem to have been around since the start and all know (of) each other. I don't know how to word this without sounding envious but it seems to me that group doesn't really read, comment on, give kudos or support new fics outside of their little circle. I want to believe it's a time issue but I have to say it comes across cliquey and a little hurtful. I really hope I am just being an insecure baby but I would be so happy if the established and popular writers would give me feedback and leave comments.

hiya! congratulations on writing and posting! i know it can be a big, scary jump from reading to writing and sharing, so applause for that in the first place.

i'm sorry your contributions to the fandom haven't been received the way you'd like them to be. if i'm included in this group of writers and readers, then, well my reasons for not reading/commenting/supporting are possibly going to be more hurtful than what you're already experiencing! i've whined about it years ago (first here, then here), and unfortunately it all still stands, because i have done absolutely zero work on bettering myself as a human being. i think i've read a handful of fics, mostly because they've been sent to me directly, with someone asking for my thoughts, and i managed to put in the effort to read it and offer a polite response. but there are also a bunch of fics that have been shared with me that i haven't read, even when i've said i would. i'm sorry if you have specifically done this with me in the past, because i have not treated your work, your creativity, with the respect it deserves.

i can't speak for anyone else, on how they choose to spend their time reading or writing, or the relationships they have with other fans. on the one active skam discord i'm in, i think a lot of them know each other from other fandoms, or have different relationships beyond writing/reading skam fic. also, as skam fades, people might only have the bandwidth for enjoying and supporting fanworks from established relationships, the same way you still want to support a favorite author even when you or they have changed genres or whatever.

but in reality i don't know the group where this is happening or why. i agree, it would be nice to receive more readers and commenters in general, and being jealous of the attention other people receive is natural. but i don't know how to change your relationship with that group, or my relationship with reading & supporting.

[todayisafridaynight]

Funny thing: i was under the impression that minedai is a rather larger ship. Like, if you were to ask me, I'd say it's like the second/third biggest one after kazumaji, and now you're telling me it's small? Was i living in a lie all this time??? Who wrote all those fics on ao3 then?

relative to other rgg pairings and excluding any that don't involve kiryu or majima, it is probably the second largest pairing. though considering most general art and works consist majorly of the first two, it's weird to acknowledge sometimes

[sing-me-under]

everyday I wake up and see another post about how the dsmp should have been called bbhsmp because cc!bad paid for the server, and everyday I have to take a deep breath and not scream because oh my god cc!dream did NOT name the server after himself. It was originally just a fucking let’s play SMP for the OG members. Tommyinnit named it Dream’s SMP! Because it was clickbait! And it caught on among other content creators and their fans! Because it fed the algorithm! That’s all! If you’re going to be insistent on calling the SMP something else, at least know the reason it was named in the first place! I’m perfectly down with renaming the DSMP, but please, for the love of god, the D in DSMP was not intended to denote the actual irl owner of the server.

[doctorweebmd]

i think one of the most inspiring/ego boosting things in the world is when i'm reading a fanfic and some of the characterization/phrasing/layout seems familiar and then at the end i see a shout-out to me or my work. or seeing someone say they started writing, or drawing, or something else because of something i wrote. like.

just the thought of having inspired anyone in real life... and that person going on to inspire others and to grow their craft and get joy from it... like this endless spiders web of interconnecting hearts, where lives were changed because of something so so simple as a story posted for strangers online...

... it just feels so direct and powerful. like, against all odds, i've touched people's lives that i will never speak to, never meet. it gives my life so much meaning. makes it feel like there's a place for me in this world, ya know?

[nonbinaryeye]

Today or tomorrow I might finish another durgetash smut!

[meljwrites]

i saw you like gay books too and wondered if you have read the song of achilles, also why not share this gem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RmPmUApxd4

Yes i do love gay books pls pls send me more asks about it 🥺

I have read the song of achilles. I was seventeen and i actually got it for free through my school. I started reading it at sports day lol. It wasn't my fave unfortunately, I think the rape scene kind of turned me off of it. That is a beautiful video, though!!

I also read her book circe a while ago, though that was less memorable bc i think i was distracted while listening to the audiobook or actively in the middle of university.

[dykegeology]

Authors will write fictional characters in the 1990s that are basically an amalgamation of homophobic tropes then go online in the 2020s and talk about how iconic they were for writing lgbtq characters then like HELLO??

[ashinaisshin]

Hi there! Will you be posting about any interesting differences between Al-Haitham's voice over/character stories between English and CN?

If I find notable differences between the two versions, yes, I'm more than happy to rant write about them!

[valeriehalla]

I am so utterly fascinated by “Saki”, the 18-year-running mahjong manga in which you, the reader, become gradually, frog-boilingly aware (over the course of nearly two decades’ worth of mahjong tournaments) that none of these girls are wearing underwear and most of their boobs are slowly expanding.

I need you to understand that I have, like, an anthropological level fascination with this comic. From the perspective of someone who is also a comic artist and writer, two things delight me about it:

the fact that I understand completely how an artist gets from “the fans can have a little hint of skirted asscheek” to “the pussy is completely out on center page” over the course of 18 years; and

the way in which the pussy being out is treated by the characters and diegesis as being utterly unremarkable.

Okay. Point 1. The frog-boiling.

Let me put this in perspective for you. There was already a meme about how the characters in “Saki” don’t wear underwear when I was in middle school. I am thirty now. Okay? And it’s still going.

In the time since, this has stopped being a joke. It is now indisputable canon. This is not because anyone outright says it at any point. It’s because the underwear ran out of places to hide. I’m obsessed with this thought: somewhere in the over 20 volumes of “Saki”, there is a panel in which underwear was objectively deconfirmed. And it would be so hard to figure out where that panel actually is. Maybe the artist didn’t even realize it when she drew it! The frog? Boiling!!

And of course there is also the breast expansion. I don’t know how to put a spin on this. They are just expanding. Like, this happens a lot with artists: you define a character as being, in your mind, “the one with the big boobs”, and over the years you emphasize that trait further and further so that the signal doesn’t get lost in the noise. It’s just that normally—in like a wildly popular manga series about mahjong published by literally Square Enix, for example—normally there would be a point at which the boobs stopped getting bigger. Like, an editor would step in or something. Or you would get to the point where you cannot draw the character in the same panel as her mahjong tiles without her breasts spilling over the tiles, and you’d go, “Well, this is now untenable.”

That did not happen. There is no ceiling. The frog is soup.

Point 2. The complete and utter mundanity of all of this.

It’s like this, okay: there’s no shortage of trashy ecchi manga out there. There’s a million other comics doing wildly bawdier things with wildly more improbable bishoujos.

The vibe with “Saki” is different.

It’s hard to explain this, but it feels like the world of the comic is fundamentally uninterested in the fanservice happening on the page. I cannot describe it as “leering”, because I cannot conceive of a person in the story from whose point of view one would leer. I think the artist is probably into it—I can’t imagine anyone is making her do this—but “Saki” the comic has no opinion on the matter.

There are essentially no male characters in “Saki”. Like, there was one guy? Kind of? At the very beginning? But he is gone now. They put him back in the toybox. He does not exist. It appears to be some level of canonical that in the world of “Saki”, almost all humans are women. Those women are sometimes romantically into each other. According to comments the artist has made on Twitter (which I cannot source), they have lesbian baby technology, so it’s no problem. It’s so much not a problem that the story is about mahjong, instead of any of that.

So, like, the fiction here appears to be this: this is the, like, meta-narrative of the fanservice of “Saki”, right: it’s just normal that they don’t wear underwear and their boobs are arbitrarily big. It’s been normal. It was normal before the story of the manga began. It’s just how things are. Nobody bats an eye about it, and if they do, it’s in sort of a lesbian kind of way so like what’s the problem, we love lesbians here. This is literally normal for girls.

The fanservice simply diffuses into this all-encompassing aura of disembodied, ambient sluttiness. The framing of the panels demands you acknowledge it, and the story demands you already be over it, because it’s mahjong time now, and we’re playing mahjong.

Do you get??? why I’m so fascinated??? Are you not a little enraptured???

Anyway, I have no idea how to end this weird post. I guess the conclusion is that women stay winning????

[delku]

this has to be the result of like. #oneguy or overtagging or something right. this can't be an earnest & concerted effort

[omotelie]

WHERE’S MY FUKING CAPO

[kenzie-ann27]

read something kinda off-putting on twitter and now I'm sad :(

[elusianknight]

it was bc astarion and durge had the same writer for a period of time, potentially also affected by the fact that a lot of the production was done at the mocap studio Neil runs, so his availability is probably far more flexible than others (who have day jobs outside of acting/production/etc). neil also directed a lot of mocap, and did mocap for characters other than Astarion as well, including many monsters, all character creation animations (origins, etc).

it is a bit annoying how much content astarion gets with dark urge compared to literally every other companion. like yeah, i get budget/time constraints, but it's so obvious that astarion was larian's darling and while it's not exactly unwarranted (astarion is a great character, he's easily one of my favourite companions!) it's kind of sickening that astarion gets a whole conversation to talk you out of breaking up with him, reassuring the dark urge that they're not a monster and they're worthy of his love, whereas lae'zel and shadowheart are kinda just like "oh [default sad expression] okay"

to not even make the slightest mention of how wyll in particular was treated with regards to larian's writing (which again, i get — his rewrite was a slapdash addition to the game because he wasn't very popular in early access)

[sh1-n0bu]

WRITERS AND FUTURE WRITERS, PLEASE LISTEN UP

i saw a few tiktok videos that was very concerning to me and i decided to share some of the knowledge i got because as a community of people who freely write things about characters, we need to protect our work. i have just decided to edit this post and to put the whole videos here since a some reblogs were of how i was spreading misinformation.

GOOGLE DOCS IS NOT SAFE (full credit to woppydoesthings on tiktok for information)

thank you to @lighteez for suggesting “reedsy” as an alternative option

thank you to @braingoaaaaaah for suggesting “click up” as an alternative option

thank you to @koungacris for suggesting “LibreOffice” as an alternative option

thank you to @stellarnathy for suggesting “notion” as an alternative option

THEY GOT THE AO3 WRITERS AS WELL (full credit to tiktok user sakuradarling) (sadly i can only add one video in per post and the tiktok user had turned off saving videos but i have decided to link the original video https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSFbq1PRA/)

apparently some thieves i am NOT calling them people because who with moral compass would do this shit? are copying, pasting and printing out popular fanfictions on AO3, binding them, turning them into actual books and selling them on places like Etsy WITHOUT crediting the original authors. which is why we can’t find some certain popular fics or authors on AO3

TUMBLR IS SELLING OUR WORK/PROMPTS TO THIRD PARTY WITHOUT CONSENT

i think i came across a post or two about it. i think my mutual @livelaughlovesubs has reblogged a post about it. check it out and turn on a switch on your blog settings that prevent this. stay safe and protect your works writers

spread the word everyone, because… genuinely what the fuck?