#in my fandom there is a very popular ship that can get plenty of kudos

[random-shit-writing]

i saw a post talking about how getting 100 kudos or more per fic was normal for their fandom and i was sitting there like. bro. im lucky if i get 10 kudos

[cacodaemonia]

You seem to know a lot about AO3, do you know how to engage more of your readers? I’ve been trying to get comments on my fics but all I get is kudos. I just want to know if people are enjoying my writing

Hi there! I definitely wouldn't say I'm an expert when it comes to AO3, but I find the fandom culture around AO3 to be really interesting, so I do talk about it a lot, haha. I've only been posting works there since 2019, though, and I'm sure folks who have been doing so for longer or have volunteered as tag wranglers or on the policy & abuse committee, for example, would know a lot more than I do. <3

But I'm really sorry to hear that you only get kudos and no comments on your fics! That really sucks. :( Like you said, you have no idea what those people actually think about what you made—just that they consumed it.

Honestly, I'm not sure I'm a good person to ask about getting readers to interact because I post both fanart and fanfics, which isn't super common, at least among people I know. I'm pretty sure that most of the folks who comment on my works followed me from Tumblr to AO3 back when I used to post art here. If I wanted to share nsfw images, I could only post cropped versions of them on Tumblr, so I would sometimes do that and link to the full image over on AO3. I suspect that's a big reason why I even have subscribers on AO3, haha. My writing certainly isn't better than that of plenty of people who also write for very niche ships and don't get as many kind comments as I do.

I also started out in my current fandom making art and writing about more popular characters until I quickly shifted focus when I found some that I like much more 😂 But I'm sure that quite a few people found my stuff because of those old works, and some of them probably stuck around.

Speaking of popular... This isn't something I do because I'm only motivated to make things that I like, but of course, there's always the 'write stuff for popular ships/characters' option. :/ Even now, when I happen to include fan favorites in my fics or art, all kinds of people come out of the woodwork to comment on them. And because I'm a contrary ass, that then makes me not want to create works featuring those ships or characters XD;;; But anyway, that is one option, haha.

A friend recently told me that they started asking little questions in the notes of each chapter of their fics, and that seemed to encourage readers to respond in the comments, so maybe that would be a good thing to try? I haven't tested it, so I can't say.

One thing I have tried that I think has made a difference is adding a blurb in the end notes of my works that I got from @longlivefeedback! They have a great template that you can customize and try out if you like (just make sure to read the bug fix part about curly/smart quotes versus straight quotes, since the curly quotes will kill your html).

One tried and true method to get more people commenting on your fics, of course, is to get to know people who also like the fandom/characters/ships you write about. Read some of their stuff or comment on their art or just chat about headcanons etc. And maybe they'll check out what you wrote.

(My caveat to this would be: do not do this with the sole purpose of getting someone to comment on your fics. I've had plenty of people do this to me, and it was so transparent that they had no interest in me as a person, but just wanted me to draw their OCs or scenes from their fic, or reblog their art, etc. Trying to manipulate someone like that just for your own gain is such gross behavior, and of course, I'm not saying you would do it, but it's common enough that I wanted to mention it 😓)

Okay, unsurprisingly, this got very long and rambling, haha. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, but I hope you get more folks interested in your writing!

I'd be curious to know if other people have advice for @sonofhighrock! :)

[eridanidreams]

20 questions for fanfiction writers

tagged by @silurisanguine and @fangbangerghoul

Better late than never? Finally got back to these after a busy round of work...

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

7--but two of those are multi-chapter fics!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

231,487 right now; will go up very soon as I have several chapters in progress.

3. What are your top five fics by kudos?

stars through my fingers like grains of sand Overwhelmingly so; it's a Starfield OC/Sam fic that is surprisingly popular.

Disciplinary Action The first fic I ever posted. Also my first slash and first smut overall. Deus Ex prequels 'verse.

Small Kindnesses A sweet little interlude in the DX Prequel 'verse.

The Odysseus Gambit Deus Ex prequel OC/Adam Jensen longfic. Poor thing has suffered due to my health issues, but I'm writing on it again.

Mass Effect: Human Resolution A ME/DX crossover that I got 3 chapters into before Starfield sucked up my space writing feels. Semi-abandoned, sadly.

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Deus Ex prequels and Starfield. I may have something for Star Trek later, but that one's being difficult.

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

YES. People take the time to comment; it's only right to acknowledge them! And I love the interaction. I love talking about my fics, finding out what works, what doesn't, what people like, and what they're hoping to see.

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

Sadly, my current longfics are not finished, but both of them (stars and OG) have plenty of angst to spare. Also whump and hurt/comfort.

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

Small Kindnesses, for sure. That one's just a ray of hope, and I still get comments from people who tell me it's brightened their day.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Rarely, and those are the only comments I delete without response.

9. Do you write smut?

I hadn't originally planned to when I started posting my fanfic, but... yes. And from what I am told, very good smut.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Once; the aforementioned Deus Ex/Mass Effect crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't believe so? I write pretty niche stuff. It wouldn't surprise me if my fics had been datafarmed for a LLM, but I have no real way to know if that's happened. My AO3 account is now locked to registered users only because of this; if this affects you, I'm so sorry, but I am not going to feed those machines or open my fics up to comment spam.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not officially, but I've got a couple readers of my DX fic in Russia who translate for their own reading enjoyment! That was a hell of a compliment, I tell you!

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I bounce a lot of my ideas off my beloved husband, Epsilon, who makes everything better. Or at least more interesting. But I'm the writer. I have written fics in other people's universes before, which is fun, but that's still my writing.

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

Per fandom:

Starfield: OC Caitlyn Lynch/Sam Coe Deus Ex: OC Sloane Delacourt/Adam Jensen

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

I will finish my two big ones, dammit! I don't know if I'll get back to Mass Effect: Human Resolution.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I am damned good at character voice. I'm also a solid action writer, and I'm particularly strong at writing viscerally enough to evoke emotional responses. And banter.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I, um, might like intricate plots to the point where I overcomplicate them, and I have to take a step back and make sure I'm not turning the plot into an Escheresque abomination. I also write slower than I'd like. Comes from my internal editor being so loud; I edit as I go, but that slows me down. Toning that down's a work in progress.

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

Short phrases, if I can find sources, I'll do it; otherwise I use italics or guillemets to indicate the other language. It's respectful, you know?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Star Trek. I was... 10? I wrote them longhand in college-ruled notebooks, and they were all destroyed in a hurricane 30+ years ago.

Yes, I am that old.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Tied for first are stars and Odysseus Gambit. The one is space pulp, the other is cyberpunk spy technothriller, both with a hefty dose of romance without the stupid romance tropes. Those are both stories that grabbed me by the throat and demanded I tell them, and they're still clamoring to be written, so I'm still writing them!

[copperboom82]

20 Questions for Fanfic Authors

This took me so long to get to but thank you @justwhisperingfantasies and @xpurdyglambertx for the tag! This was a fun one and made me think.

How many works on Ao3?

15

2. Total Ao3 word count?

430,471

3. Top 5 fics by Kudos? (each title is linked)

✧ Unlikely Connections - SPN/HP crossover. Mostly a SPN series rewrite centered around Dean/OC ✧ Blood and Magic: A Potter-Winchester Tale - SPN/HP crossover, written for a secret santa ✧ Fading Hope - SPN/HP crossover. Dean/OC ✧ Flickering Light - HP, Fred/OC ✧ Under the Dark Blue Sky - HP, Fred/OC

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently Supernatural and Harry Potter. Considering expanding 👀

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes, always! The comments mean so much to me, and I connecting with readers has been my favorite thing about starting to share my writing

6. Angstiest Ending?

Hmm, while I do plenty of angst I can't say I've done a lot of what I would consider angsty endings. Probably Jealously?

7. Fic with the Happiest Ending?

Probably Home Sweet Home

8. Do you get hate?

I'm lucky enough to be able to say not really. One anonymous person on ff.net

9. Do you write smut?

Yep!

10. Do you write crossovers?

Yep! My biggest fic (both in popularity and word count 😂) is a SPN, HP crossover

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

No, and I'll be honest, I don't know that I could. I'm kind of a control freak

14. All time favorite ship?

Ooof idk how to answer this one! I write and read a lot of character/OCs. I love Dean/Cassie (Supernatural) and Fred/Hermione (Harry Potter). But idk that I have an all time favorite ship.

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have three very different versions of multi-chapter fics that I'm either publishing or will be publishing soon that I love, but have been backburned for a long time now and I don't know will ever see the light of day.

16. Writing strength?

(Hopefully) Setting up scenes and character development/capturing character emotions

17. Writing weaknesses?

I worry sometimes that I'm repetitive or overuse words. I'm sure my action/fight scenes and smut could use some work... I could probably go on forever about my weaknesses. So much ✨anxiety✨ no matter how long I've been writing 😂

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

If done right it can be really cool!

19. First fandom you ever wrote for?

Harry Potter

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Unlikely Connections is still on-going but will always have a special place in my heart. As far as completed fics? Probably When We Are Together

No pressure tags: @0ccvltism @nightxcreature @chevroletdean @supernotnatural2005 @sabriel4evah (p.s. if y'all have already been tagged/done this, my bad. I have not been on tumblr much lately)

[uss-genderprise]

20 fanfic author questions

tagged by @quietwingsinthesky. i don't usually do tag games but this is fun

1. How many works on AO3?

182, 174 if you exclude art

2. Total AO3 Word Count?

464,185. i think i'll be able to break 500k this year

3. Top 5 fics by Kudos

to absolutely no one's surprise, they're all star trek. there's also a lot of overlap with my top 5 by hits

Catch a Hint (1,613 kudos)

A Pressing Need (965 kudos)

Under Your Skin (665 kudos)

Beyond Mind and Matter (518 kudos)

Five Times Jim and Spock Kissed in Public and One Time Someone Noticed (512 kudos)

4. What fandoms do you write for?

these days it's almost exclusively torchwood, sprinkled in with some other doctor who and a bit of btvs. i used to write a lot of star trek tos/aos which i feel i'm more known for but i don't do that anymore

5. Do you respond to comments?

always

6. Angstiest Ending?

so many of my fics are angst, how am i supposed to choose? Love Is Hurting is my fic to get the most "nooooo whyyyyy" responses but i think The Agony of Hunger would be my personal choice

7. Fic with the Happiest Ending?

this is somehow even harder. i don't think i've written a proper happy ending in at least two years (unless you include smut where they decide to keep fucking after the fic is over). okay i just scrolled through basically all my fics i'm gonna have to say it's my very first trek fic, A Cat in a Bag

8. Do you get hate?

i've gotten a few extremely entitled comments but no actual hate

9. Do you write smut?

yes, i write smut. literally half of my fics are rated explicit and that's not even counting the more vague smut i just tag mature

10. Do you write crossovers?

i've written two. sometimes an idea grabs me and i have to do write it but it's not very common

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of, but then again i haven't gone on wattpad in years

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

no :( i do allow translations of my works and i would be very very happy if someone did translate them. HOWEVER i translated someone else's fic once (i don't think i did a very good job but also no one read it, so). maybe i'll translate some of my own one day. maybe i'll translate them into vulcan

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

not exactly? i've brainstormed with someone to the point where i don't think the fic can be considered purely my own, and i've edited someone else's fic to the point where it's basically just me writing based on the plot they tell me but i feel like that's still more theirs than mine. but i never outright wrote a fic with someone else

14. All time favourite ship?

it probably won't be my all time fav forever but rn it's johnto

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i don't have those. if i want to finish them i will. i swear. i will. really. and if i don't want to finish them then well. i know i won't finish them. those i have plenty of

16. Writing strengths?

i'm apparently very good at smut. i also think i'm pretty good at angst

17. Writing Weaknesses?

action scenes. how do they work? how do you write them not boring and bad? i can't even copy how someone else writes then cause i don't think i've ever read a good one either

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

really depends on how it's done. my most popular fic in both hits and kudos had large swaths of vulcan dialogue translated using a unique work skin, which i think is cool. doing dialogue like that and adding the translation in the end notes is very annoying unless you use the footnotes links. random words interspersed with english dialogue is fun if it's only terms of endearment or written by someone who actually knows the other language and is doing it naturally and well. "character said in [language]" only works if you make it extremely clear and usually takes me out of the story. sorry i have a lot of opinions

19. First fandom you wrote for?

excluding my complete oc au overhaul rewrite of a very popular children's magic series which was so far removed from the source as to be a heavily plagiarised original, my first proper fic was dan and phil rpf in like 2017 or something

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

again, really hard decision. Lovers Close, Enemies Closer is probably my favourite smut i've written. Paradoxical is one i worked really hard on but barely anyone read

tagging @shejustcalledmeafish @captain-ghost @deadianto and anyone else who wants to

[optiwashere]

Fanfic Writer Questions

Yay, thanks for the tag @askweisswolf! 💜

I'm gonna tag a few folks to do this if they want, but anyone that sees this and wants to join in can consider me tagging them! @bottombatch @jasminethetransvampire @centaursniper @underworldobsessed @quitefair @siyurikspakvariisis @riteontime

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

89, but that's not quite telling the whole story. I've written a number of one-shot collections, and those have upwards of 200+ short fics in them.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

As of right now, my stats page says 829, 334 words, but that's not correct really. I've abandoned/deleted/orphaned some works. The real number is probably over 1M.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I only write for Baldur's Gate 3 at the moment and that's gonna color the rest of the questions. Once I find a fandom that I like writing for then I tend to stick to that fandom for years. I'm interested in dipping my toes into the Pathfinder WOTR ficdom eventually, but probably only a little because my Golarion knowledge is real slim. If Dreadwolf is good, I'll probably wind up writing something for that as well. I wasn't very interested in video game fandoms for a long time, which is odd because it's only become more compelling as I've gotten older when I'm also playing fewer games.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Currently? I'm actually not at all surprised by this order, except for the one OC fic that managed to find its way there. That is pleasantly surprising, and I'm glad it's one that I also like a fair bit. 1. Take Me Under Your Wing (E-rated Aylin/Shadowheart/Isobel) 2. Black and Red and Smoking All Over (E-rated Shadowheart/Karlach) 3. Her Private Shore (E-rated Shadowheart/Asheera) 4. Arcane Mishaps (E-rated Shadowheart/Karlach -- yay, some t4t made it!) 5. Tasting Moonlight (E-rated Aylin/Isobel) Now, this tells a certain story on its face, but you have to remember that 4/5 of these were posted in Kinktober only two months after the full release of the game. That was the height of its popularity on AO3, and I highly doubt if these fics were released today they would have hit the same numbers. That also includes the Shadowheart/Asheera fic, by the way. I could see that one barely breaking 40-50 kudos these days. P.S. Stats are silly

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes, all of them. I get quite a few, and with so many fics across a fresh fandom it means that I occasionally get newcomers to various niche fics. Sometimes people stumble into a pile of fics that they like in one of the ships, and it's so delightful when I see it. Same with people that I see reading Light Casts a Shadow in order :') Most of the fun in fandom is interacting with like-minded people, anyways. Kudos and such are also people saying they like the thing, but people actually coming out to talk to me are my #1 priority. I like to hear y'all's thoughts and even wind up chatting a little in some cases :)

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

When Everything is Dark and Guided Through Gardens Gray both have fairly angsty endings, but I think Melpomene might be one of the darker endings of my smutty fics. Fragrant is My Many Flower'd Crown is absolutely my angstiest non-smut ending though.

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

Almost certainly it's the final ficlet of my headcanuary collection, The Missing Piece. It's open-ended, but it's overwhelmingly saying that things will be all right.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Yeah, occasionally. The open stuff is a lot less common now, but there are a couple fics that have gotten pretty ugly comments. I moderate those away without locking down because my skin is plenty thick. I get a fair few anons, again thankfully reduced these days, that absolutely despise me. They make me laugh more than anything now because I've blocked so many. I've also seen some passive aggressive vague posting about me here and elsewhere, which is always hilarious.

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

Oh yes. Kinky, vanilla, descriptive and action heavy, flowery and emotive. All kinds, really. Usually trends towards loving and hopeful and sweetly emotional.

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

I haven't for BG3. Yet. There's a BG3/WOTR crossover that I really want to write, but I need to find the time for it between everything else.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yep, twice. And it was way more than one fic both times!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't think so? At least, not that anyone has ever told me. I'd love for someone to feel the urge to do that, though.

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

I don't think so? Technically, at least? I've certainly had writing brainstorm sessions that could count for this, but never anything where either of us wanted to call it co-writing.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

Ouch. I don't really have an answer for this tbh. I like to compartmentalize ships to fandoms. BTW, it's Shadowheart/Original Female Character for BG3. Yeah, all of your Tavs and Durges. Asheera's my favorite, of course, but I've never been so invested in a Canon/OC ship.

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

There's a fantasy AU I wrote for Parks and Rec with April Ludgate as a witch/vampire that I know I'll never get back to.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Emotional forwardness, probably. Maybe solid grammar? Writing speed? Anyways, I like to explore emotions explicitly with characters where they really feel everything to extreme degrees. It's hyperreal, but I think it's also compelling to both write and read.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plotting, weak metaphors, and consistent characterization.

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

I do it fairly often in fantasy fandoms without qualms. Also, I tend to use the italicized text in fiction to indicate that it's a different language, not that it's "wrong" or anything like that. Doing that in nonfiction, however, feels pretty gross. Real world languages? I don't do it unless I'm familiar with the language or know someone that can beta it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Technically wrote for? That's really hard to remember for me, but it was probably something like R.A. Salvatore Drizzt fanfic tbh. Could have been any number of fantasy series at that age though. The Dragonlance books, Black Company, or Discworld, maybe? Hard for me to really think back that far because I know for a fact that I used to write stories as a kid, but it's all very foggy and I lost all that stuff in a flood years ago. Posted for? A fandom I don't really want to associate with anymore.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Bend to Break to Mend is my favorite thing I've written for BG3, followed closely by It Is the Wound She Gave Me and Like I Am Safe Again.

[lynne-monstr]

Fic author interview! I was tagged by the fantastic @glorious-spoon. thanks, this was so fun!!

No-pressure tagging: @afincf-tirwer @shadaras @undead-robins @tka-trashfire @hils79, @nyelung, @vampirenaomi, @prince-of-elsinore

How many works do you have on AO3?

As of yesterday, 202!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

678,560 words. which i have mixed feelings about because. i'm proud i've managed to write so much but at the same time, i've been at this for over 10 years i wish the number was higher for all that time.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Things Best Kept Between Three People (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison) - 1,389 kudos

Escalation of Commitment - (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison) - 1,360 kudos

I say goodbye but mean hello - (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison) - 1,283 kudos

This is the Place Where I Sit - (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison) - 1,006 kudos

In Possession Of - (Leverage/Supernatural crossover) - 715 kudos

looking at these fics, it's very obvious that another way of asking this question is: "what's the most popular ship you've written." though i am very amused that an actual crossover made the top 5, considering how deeply those have fallen out of favor in the past twenty years.

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

I try my best! some years i am better at it than other. but even if i'm in a low energy moment, i appreciate every single comment <3

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

The leverage theme continues, apparently.

Just One Last Time (Leverage with Highlander elements. Eliot is immortal. Parker and Hardison are not).

I'm not usually a sad ending person but every one in a while I indulge.

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

Basically all of them lol. But I guess I'll say that ghost story fic because it got really sad before the happy ending.

This is not a ghost story (The King's Avatar, yuhuang, magical realism)

7. Do you write crossovers?

Yes! They are my original fandom love and such a wonderful self-indulgence. I should try to write more of them in 2024.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not on a fic, but I got plenty for my silly ramblings back in the shadowhunters fandom, sadly.

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

Yes! yay smut. I prefer mine with some kind of kink in order to hold my interest. (not that i don't enjoy non-kinky smut but when i do i tend to enjoy it for the emotional payoff rather than the sex itself)

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! How cool is that!? Love fandom translators and the amazing work they do <3

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

No. I don't think co-writing is a thing that I would enjoy. Trying to merge my writing style with someone else sounds stressful and also i think i might be too much of a control freak for that kind of collab.

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

Whatever my ship of the moment is!

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

I'm pleased that all my big recent wips have been finished! I've been working on a little "troubling rain is cursed" fic for a couple years now. it's only a few thousand words long so not sure it qualifies for wip status, but i would like to finish it so I can post it!

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think characterization and silly jokes.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Description. Despite my efforts I will never be one of those beautiful prose writers.

I think of my style as very "what you see is what you get" and I consider that to be both a strength and a weakness.

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

It's a hard no almost 100% of the time. And something I will likely use the back-button on.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

My first posted fic was hetalia (germancest) and I had such a wonderful time in that fandom!

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

Still really want to try and wrangle my onmyoji ot3 ficlet thing.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written

That question is cheating! But I'll go with my de-aged ywz fic because I never thought I could write a story over 10k words and I'm still very proud that I managed something nearly 70k!

Means of Transportation (The King's Avatar, yuhuang, de-aged ywz)

[cecilysass]

20 Fanfic Questions

Thanks for the tag (days and days ago now) @randomfoggytiger.

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 21 as of today, which is kind of wild. (I have some on Gossamer, too, because: old.)

2. What's your total AO3 words count?306,501. Working on another longer-ish one that will bump that up.

3. What fandoms do you write for?The X-Files by and large. One time I wrote a fic for a very popular fandom of the 00s I never actually posted, and now I feel differently about that fandom and never will. I can imagine a world where I might write for another fandom, but I am pretty XF-centric right now.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?Chicken Dinner, Pause, The Boy on the Beach, The Kaleidoscope, Unobserved.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?I do respond to comments, but not all the time. I get behind in responding, and then I have to not respond to any of them to make it consistent, if that makes any sense at all? (Because someone might wonder—why did she respond to that comment and not to mine?) I know, I know, I'm sorry.  I honestly love every single comment, and I prefer to respond to them. When I have my life together, I have had great conversations in comments before. 

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?As I read over my work, I have not done a lot of angsty endings, although I have plenty of angst. I have a very old fic written the summer between season 7 and 8 called Opposition and Synthesis (one of many post-Requiem fics) that is on Gossamer and ends angsty, but that’s not a widely read piece any more, lol. I would say of my more recent work, probably Ice Water ends the angstiest. 

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I have lots of happy endings. I couldn’t say.

8. Do you get hate on fics?Nooooo, not per se. I have gotten very critical comments from people who are disappointed by the turn the fic has taken, or comments taking issue with my interpretation of canon. I remember someone didn’t like the idea of Scully going on dates at all in the break-up era, and they complained about that in the comments on End of Story. That’s a difference in headcanon, so sometimes it’s frustrating when people feel theirs should prevail. But I haven’t really received what I would call “hate” exactly (so far) for which I am grateful.

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind? I have, but it’s not my favorite. It’s completely hypocritical of me because I like to read it, but it’s not my most comfortable area of writing. I think it’s a problem of not being terribly visual.  I do feel sometimes it’s necessary to a story, and my betas peer pressure me into including it sometimes, too.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?I haven’t. 

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? No.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes. People translated some of my fic into Russian one time.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? No. I would like to do that. 

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? Mulder and Scully. Duh.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Okay, I have told this story a few times, so bear with me if you’ve heard it, but I had a WIP I hadn’t finished between 2000-ish and 2021. That’s right. Twenty years. It would be very reasonable to assume I was never finishing that fic, as the first two parts had been up on Gossamer for years and I had not been seen or heard from in decades. Then during the pandemic I came back to thinking about the show, and when I came back to the fandom there were oddly people who still knew my fic. And I remembered this WIP and still had some of the ancient Word files of later chapters on my Google drive, so I decided to make a little project of finishing it and posting it to AO3. And now it’s finished. (It’s called Bloodline. You can read it and see if you can tell where the narrative is written 20 years apart.)  So I don’t believe in doubting you’ll ever finish WIPs. Never say never.

16. What are your writing strengths? I think dialogue. I would not have said plotting when I restarted this hobby, but I do think I have gotten better at plotting. And I do plan things out. I do a lot of research.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Smut. Logistics in moving around in general – like when someone is standing or sitting and how they move from one place in the room to the other. I write in present tense a lot but past tense sometimes, so sometimes I mess up tense absent-mindedly. I’m also a very slow writer who rewrites a lot. When I see people get a prompt and then post the fic a few days later, my mind is blown, because I could absolutely never. People who do Fictober also have my deep respect, because that would be a very, very hard thing for me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I would only do it very sparingly or with extensive help, as I’m not a fluent speaker in anything but English. I could probably write a little French or Spanish dialogue to understand (I think I did write a tiny bit of Spanish dialogue in We’re Not Here To Get Involved In Personal Problems). But I would really want a more fluent speaker to look it over if I were doing any significant amount.

19. First fandom you wrote for? The X-Files, really, if you don’t count that middle school Victoria Holt romance novel sequel I wrote for English class.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? I’m going to choose three, okay? Is that egotistical? I’m sorry if so. I’ve always really liked Jackson Van De Kamp’s Not-So-Final Repose. It’s not perfect, but it’s quirky and fantastical and sentimental and has a special place in my heart. It’s also more like a play, which is probably one of the genres my writing is most influenced by. I also really like The Boy on the Beach, which took a year to write and involved so, so much research, which was fun and a positive experience. Finally, I like How To Eat Pleasant Holiday Meals With Co-Workers, which was a prompt for a holiday exchange (early MSR Thanksgiving) that I expanded into a series of Thanksgivings over the years. I ended up really enjoying imagining each of those Thanksgivings, especially the last one. That last one is my forever post-revival headcanon now lol.

Would anyone like to do this? I'm going to tag @mollybecameanengineer if she hasn't yet, but anyone should.

[yallemagne]

Writer Asks

Tagged by @bluecatwriter

I think I've done this one before!! There's more questions this time, but this is an interesting blast to the past to see how I've changed.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

59 works

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

300,805 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now, Dracula. In the past: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Jesus Christ Superstar, Sanders Sides, Castlevania, Elisabeth, etc.. If you fuse the fandoms that intersect it's about 18 fandoms.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Orice (Dracula, Jonathan has A Time; unsurprising, it is my longest by far)

When Providence Favours Witches (Castlevania [specifically Netflixvania], Trevor gets adopted by Lisa; also not surprising, very popular fandom)

Lückenbüßer (TF2, Trans Scout talks to Ally Medic; shocker!! that's a single-chapter fic!!)

Pseudo-Asthma (JJBA: Battle Tendency, Joseph has a heart-to-heart with his mom; woah! that was only 3 chapters!!)

Bewitching (JJBA: Phantom Blood, Dio genderbend; of course, I can never escape it even if it is a hiatus fic)

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

Yeah, sometimes even if it is just to say "thank you!!" I like to talk about my writing a lot and comments are the place I get to go into detail about my thought process.

6. What's the fic you wrote that has the angstiest ending?

Vulture in Saviour's Robes, I had people yelling at me for this one (in a good way), so it's really no competition, huh.

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

It's gotta be one of the one-shots iojegp. To suggest a less well-known one: A Pitiable Performance, J&H and Dorian Gray crossover, Utterson and Lanyon go to see a play and Sibyl Vane is the lead actress.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not much. Oh wait--- oijegpioerg trauma engaged. Orice got a LOT of hate at some point, someone in the fandom really wanted me dead so they rallied a bunch of people against me. My crimes were: 1. writing a Jonathan POV story 2. supposedly writing Renfield to be a bad guy. None of it reached my comment section thankfully, but when I found out I was very paranoid that someone would dox me over fanfiction.

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

For a period of time, I swear that was all I wrote iojgepri. My specialty is dom/sub with plenty of aftercare, though I've also written some dubious consent stuff. Silver Crystal Carousel (Dracula, John/athan dom/sub) is my most recent smutfic, it was so hard to get back into the dirty groove especially since I was writing in first person.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Yeah, but not much. I get plenty of ideas for crossovers, but they're pretty difficult to write.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah. I'd say lost and you'd say love was translated into Russian and posted on ficbook.

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

Same answer as before: Only one (The Apostles), and it was mostly a self-imposed research project with my friend. They did the research, and I wrote the incorrect quotes and a short Jedas one-shot.

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

How could I possibly choose. If you go by fic count it's Jesus/Judas ijopegij. I'd say... JonMina and JonEri. I really like writing already established relationships.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but don't think you ever will?

So many. So many of them. There's some that are barely started!!! To name one y'all will be familiar with: the continuation of An Odd Doctor.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been praised for my characterization a lot recently!! Specifically with VH in Orice, I've gotten a lot of compliments on his characterization being complex. I'm really happy about that.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Everything-- *gets shot* I don't know how to articulate!! Sometimes I get ideas and I try to write them, but it's all in pieces, and I don't know how to fix it into a fully-fledged narrative.

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

I have gotten help with that in the past for Lückenbüßer. I don't do it often, it is difficult to pull off in a way that doesn't take the reader out of the story. I suggest a translation key in the notes. If you aren't familiar with the language and don't have a buddy who is, I'd say it's perfectly acceptable to write the dialogue in your native language and put it in italics.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

There is no way of knowing, truly. On ao3, Greek Mythology and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood. Why both? The Daffodil's Echo was written first but The Shocking Absence of Grief was posted first.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

How does one choose!? I'm very proud of what I've done with the Orice series. Of course, it's not done tho. I'm very proud of finishing Perfidy (Elisabeth and Rudolf crossover)!

Get your ass over here @fitzrove!! You too @company-and-co!!

[infiniteeight8]

Fic Writer 20 Questions

Tagged by @sweaterkittensahoy

I have two AO3 accounts (infiniteeight and crimsonquills) because I switched pseuds due to a troll in a fandom like, 10 or 15 years ago. So for AO3 stats questions, first number is infiniteeight, second number is crimsonquills, total in parentheses. The crimsonquills number is misleading, though--only about half my works written under that pseud are uploaded.

How many works do you have on AO3? 426 + 235 (661)

What's your total AO3 word count? 584,163 + 721,769 (1,305,932)

What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, IronStrange (MCU), Steter (Teen Wolf), and LazyTown. I have a lot of formerly serious fandoms, and I've dabbled in even more. There are 21 listed on infiniteeight and 28 on crimsonquills, to give you an idea, and that's not a complete list.

Top Five Fics by Kudos

For infiniteeight AO3 handle (all of these are Clint/Coulson, which makes sense, since it's the biggest fandom I've been in for the past 12 years):

Trump Card 

Relief 

Made Omega 

A House is Not a Home 

Five People Who Flinched From Phil and the One Person Who Never Did

For my crimsonquills AO3 handle (this is a little misleading--I have some very popular stories on this handle that aren't on AO3, though I keep meaning to upload them):

Full Body Workout (Steve/Tony, comic Avengers)

A Meeting of Minds (Steve/Tony, comic Avengers)

Beneath the Armor  (Steve/Tony, comic Avengers)

A Light To Guide You (Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon, The Phantom Menace)

Doubts  (Steve/Tony, comic Avengers)

Good grief, only now have I realized that my most popular Man from UNCLE fic (The Mirror, Mirror Affair) is not on AO3! I was certain it was. It looks like *none* of my MFU fics are on AO3. Oops? I really have to fix that...

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I went through a period where I was very sporadic about it, but now I reply to them all. I'm even going through and answering old comments that have been there, unanswered, for years. The responses I've gotten from folks receiving a reply anywhere from a few months to 8 years later have been lovely. :D

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Definitely no heartbeat detected (IronStrange, true Drabble). I don't normally write much angst, and when I do, it's always with a happy ending. But that one was a prompt.

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

I don't think I can actually pick one? Almost all of my fics have happy endings!

Do you get hate on fics?

Nope. Which surprises me, honestly, because I've written plenty of tropes that other people get hate for all the time.

Do you write smut?

Yes! In fact, before I started writing the daily ficlets, I was primarily known as a smut writer. Almost everything I wrote was smutty. I find it kid of amusing that the drabbles have changed that.

Craziest Crossover?

Has to be the Band of Brothers/Terminator crossover. It's only posted on my old livejournal, but I'll upload it to AO3 one day and just watch people goggle at it. LOL.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. The closest that I know of is someone who copied the entire first chapter (or couple of chapters?) of one of my more popular fics and then took it in a totally different direction. I contacted them and they were apologetic--the meant to go back and rewrite the beginning once they were done with their version, but they never finished it. They put a note and an inspired by tag on it after I contacted them, and that was fine with me.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Many times! Translations are always welcome.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yup! A couple times, although it's not something I do regularly.

All time favorite ship?

Hmmm. Difficult question. Longest lasting active ship is Steter, but all time favorite? I think it might be Marcus Cole/Neroon (Babylon 5).

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

This is a weird question for me, because I don't really work on more than one thing at a time, except for brief pauses on epic fics to knock out something short. And if I start to lose steam on a story I'm writing, there's not really a "doubt" phase. I either believe I will finish it, or it gets trunked and I don't consider it a WIP anymore, because it is no longer "in progress", it's just abandoned.

What are your writing strengths?

Characterization! I've had many compliments in this area.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Visual description, definitely.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Peppering in other language words to remind me of a character's background and for flavour is useful, but writing entire sentences in another language knock me right out of the story. If I have to check a footnote or hover text to know what they're saying, I instantly lose immersion.

Other language text that you can figure out from context is better than footnotes, but in my experience people rarely do it well.

First fandom you wrote in?

Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was on paper (one of those yellow note pads), but I never shared it with anyone. First fandom I actually posted in might have been Star Trek: Voyager? Or possibly Stargate: SG1. I'm not actually sure which came first. I have the stories (I think), but they aren't dated.

Favorite fic you've written?

Oh, gosh, I'm not sure. Maybe Patterns (Marcus/Neroon)? I've written better stories and more popular ones, but I have a soft spot for that one.

Tags (very optional): @airas-story. Um, anyone else? I am bad at remembering people.

[rekishi-aka]

Fic Writer Meme

Did this on Dreamwidth and decided to copy it over

1. How many works on AO3? 80, 2 of them are posted to the anon collection for Reasons.

2. Total word count on AO3? 1,418,357

3. Top five fics by kudos? (At least for the first few this is more a reflection of popular fandoms I've written in) Living on my own (MCU, Captain America) - 1209 Kiss a Frog (When He's Your Witcher) (The Witcher (Netflix)) - 768 Light Beyond Darkness (The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)) - 530 This is (not) an X-File (Teen Wolf) - 430 When Ravens Croaked Over Blood (Merlin BBC) - 373

4. What fandoms do you primarily write for? Whichever fandom I'm currently in. This is really varied. I had a long Hockey RPF phase, I had a long Tolkien phase... There's really no rhyme or reason for what fandom I might go for.

5. Do you respond to comments? I usually do, but exceptions apply.

6. Angstiest ending? Possibly "Thoughts in Darkness" (Arthuriana). I usually don't write angsty endings so...

7. Fic with the happiest ending? Most of them are, I prefer to write this way.

8. Do you get hate? Not really. One person tried to scam me, but otherwise not really.

9. Do you write smut? I used to but not at the moment.

10. Do you write crossovers? Occasionally! I've written: The Western Hills (Robin Hood King of Thieves x Merlin BBC), although that's more of a fusion The Truth One Chooses (Merlin BBC x The X-Files) An The X-Files x German politics crossover from the 90s that is currently not posted anywhere (that I know of)

11. Ever had a fic stolen? I'm not aware but could have happened without me knowing it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Only by myself 😂

13. Have you ever co-written a fic? Yes, the aforementioned The X-Files x German politics crossover from the 90s, but my coauthor is lost to time. I've also co-written a series.

14. All time favorite ship? I've been in fandom too long for that game. ^^;; Mulder and Scully will always have a special place in my heart if for no other reason than nostalgia.

15. WiPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Plenty!

16. Writing strengths? I can carry a plot through many many many words.

17. Writing weaknesses? I'm terrible at writing short and not blowing things up to epic proportions. I'm also not very good at glossing over details.

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue? Hm. This is a difficult question for a couple of reasons. Because a lot of it depends on whether the author is proficient in all the languages they write dialogue in. The second is whether the dialogue pieces are then translated into the main language of the fic. Like "[Words in non-English]," she said. Same thing in English." would work, as an example. Or a footnote.

Unless it's a made up language in which case eh. Or the point is that the other person doesn't understand. Although that depends on how it's pulled off as well.

I think an exception to that rule might be when most readers would be familiar with both languages. Like a fic that is written in German having some English dialogue would probably okay without translating the sections. A fic in Flemish would be okay with some dialogue in French, maybe.

I'm more on the fence with accents. Writing accents is really iffy, because it can be discriminatory and most people don't do it well (myself included, probably). At the same time, if you have a character who speaks with an accent in English but of course speaks fluently in their native language and need to display both in the same story without resorting to learning the other language fluently.... You need to do that somehow. And always pointing out "he said with a Russian accent" is really meh for story flow.

This is a really difficult and sensitive topic, because it's easy to make it othering, but sometimes just necessary.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Longhand before I ever knew what fanfic was: Sailor Moon :D First published on the internet when I know what it was: The X-Files

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written? This is like picking a favourite child 😓 I love all of them differently. But I still remember "Tentacles: A Love Story" very fondly. <3

[sineala]

How would you say fandom culture has changed over the years? What are some differences you notice between older and younger fandom folks?

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to answer this, and I’m not sure I have a really good answer, but I’m going to try.

I’ve been in fandom since approximately 1995. Maybe 1994. At that point, the world wide web was a relatively new part of the internet, and the fandoms I was in had most of their activity on privately-hosted mailing lists (predating eGroups/OneList/Yahoo Groups) and on Usenet newsgroups, with fiction beginning to be available on websites as part of either fandom-specific or pairing-specific archives as well as authors’ individual pages. Fanfiction.net did not yet exist. LiveJournal did not exist. AO3 definitely did not exist. If you wanted real-time chat, there was IRC. I was coming in basically at the tail end of zine fandom; zines were no longer the only way of distributing fanfiction, as fandom started to move online. So I have a selection of zines from 90s-era Western media fandoms but even by then zines weren’t where I was doing most of my reading.

I think in terms of generally “what it was like to be in fandom,” the big-picture stuff hasn’t changed. Fandom still produces creative fanwork and likes to, y’know, get together and talk about fandom. Also, almost every fight or complaint that fandom has about something is a thing that has been going on for actual years. People complain that, say, the kudos button is ruining comment culture because back in the LJ days the only way you could comment on a story was, well, by leaving an actual comment, or sending an email on a mailing list, and this might mean that people who would have otherwise commented have left a kudos instead. But back in the LJ and mailing list days, people were complaining that commenting was going downhill since the days of zines, when in order to comment on a story you had to write a real paper letter and mail it and because you had to do that, the quality of feedback was so much better than you got nowadays because people could just dash off a quick email or comment. You get the idea. Top/bottom wars are not new either. Pairing wars are not new. If you’ve been in fandom a while, you will pretty much have seen all the fights already. I think one thing that is new, though, is the fandom awareness of things like privilege and intersectionality and various -isms, as well as things like “providing warnings might be nice” (do you know how much unwarned deathfic I have read? a lot!) and I sure won’t say we’re perfect at any of this now, but I think fandom is trying way way more about all that stuff than it used to.

There are some fights we actually don’t have anymore, as far as I can tell. I feel like it’s been years since I’ve seen the “real person fiction is wrong” battle, but also I don’t hang out in a whole lot of RPF fandoms, so it’s possible that’s still going and I just don’t see it.

There also used to be a recurring debate about whether gay relationships that were canonical were slash or not. When slash started, obviously this wasn’t a question because there weren’t canonical gay relationships in fandoms, period. But as gay characters began to appear in media, people started to wonder “does slash mean all same-sex relationships, or does slash mean only non-canonical same-sex relationships?” Now, you may be reading this and think that sounds like an incredibly weird thing to get hung up on, but that’s because what appears to have happened is that the term “ship” (originally from X-Files Mulder/Scully fandom) has, as far as I can tell, come up and eaten most of the rest of the terminology. Now people will just say, “oh, I ship that.” For any pairing, gay or not, canonical or not. Fandom seems to have decided that for the most part it no longer actually needs a term specific to same-sex relationships as a genre.

Similarly, there are a few genres of fic that we used to have also pretty much don’t exist anymore. There are also plenty of genres that are well-entrenched now that are also extremely recent -- A/B/O comes to mind. But there are some kinds of fic we don’t write a lot of now. Like, I haven’t seen smarm in years! I also haven’t seen We’re Not Gay We Just Love Each Other in a while. There was also a particular style of slash writing where you’d basically have to explain, in detail, what made you think that these particular characters could be anything other than straight. You’d have to motivate this decision. You’d have to look at their canonical heterosexual relationships and come up with a way to explain why all those had happened in order to reconcile how this one guy could have romantic feelings for another guy. When had he figured out he wasn’t straight? Who might he have been with before? How does he interact with people in ways that make you think he’s not straight? That kind of thing. You had to, essentially, show your work. And these days a lot of fanfic is just like, “Okay, Captain America is bisexual, let’s go!” It’s... different.

Fandom also used to skew older, is my sense. A lot older. I don’t know, actually, if it really was older, but I get the sense now that there are some younger people who are surprised that adults are still in fandom. I have seen people saying these days that they think they’re too old for fanfiction because they are not in middle school anymore. And I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the barriers to access fandom are a lot lower than they used to be. You used to basically have to be an adult with disposable income (or know an adult with disposable income who was willing to help you out; but even then if you were reading explicit fiction you also had to swear you were 18+, usually by sending in an age statement to whoever you were buying the zine from or to the mods of the list you wanted to join, so a lot of fandom was very much age-gated). Internet access was not widely available. Even if you had internet access, you maybe didn’t have your own email address, so you couldn’t sign up for mailing lists; free email providers didn’t exist. If you wanted to buy zines, you had to have money to buy them. If you wanted to go to cons, you had to be able to afford the cost of the con, travel to the con, et cetera. If you wanted to have a website you had to know HTML. Social media did not exist. You want to draw art? Guess what, you’re probably drawing it on paper! You might be able to upload a picture to your website if you have a digital camera or a scanner, but both of those things are expensive, and also a lot of people don’t have the capability or the money to download pictures from the internet (some people have data caps with overage charges, and some people have text-only connections!), so they won’t get to see it. Maybe you can sell your piece at a con! You want to make a fanvid? We called them songvids, but, anyway, you know how you’re doing that? You’re going to hook two VCRs together and smash the play and record buttons very fast! If you want anyone else to watch them, you are either making them a tape personally and mailing it to them or bringing your vids to a convention. Maybe you can digitize them and upload them, but it’s going to take people hours to download them!

(Every three hours my ISP would kick me off the internet and I’d have to dial in again. If it was a busy time of day, it might take me 20 or 30 minutes to get a connection again. And that was assuming no one else in the house needed to use the phone line. Imagine if your modem went out every three hours now.)

And now, for the cost of my internet connection, I can read pretty much whatever fanfiction I want, whenever I want it. I can see all the fanart I want! I can watch vids! Podfic exists now! Fanmixes exist! Gifsets and moodboards exist! If I want to write fic I can write it with programs that are completely free, and as soon as I post it everyone in the entire world can read it. If I want to draw or make vids that may require some additional investment, but I may also be able to do it with things I already have. Do you have any idea how good we all have it?

There are a couple of kinds of fan activity that don’t seem to exist anymore, though, and I miss them. I know that roleplaying still goes on, but I feel like these days most people who do real-time text roleplay have switched to things like Discord. I know that in the LJ days, RP communities were popular. But I really miss MU*s (MUDs, MUSHes, MOOs, MUXes..), which were servers for real-time text-based RP with a bunch of... hmm... features to aid RP. There were virtual rooms with text descriptions, and objects in virtual rooms with descriptions, and your character had a description, and they could interact with the objects as well as with other characters, and you could program things to change descriptions or emit various kinds of text or take you to different rooms, and so on. Just to, y’know, enhance the atmosphere. It was fun and it was where I learned to RP and I’m sad they’re pretty much gone now.

I also don’t think I see a lot of fanfiction awards in fandoms. Wonder where they went.

Going back to the previous point, the barriers to actually consuming the canon you are fannish about are way, way, way lower now. You can pretty much take it for granted that if right now someone tells you about a shiny new fandom, there will be a way to read that book or watch that show or movie right now. Possibly for free! Of course you can watch it! Why wouldn’t you be able to?

This was absolutely, absolutely not the case before. I’m currently in Marvel Comics fandom. If there is a comic I want to read, I can read it right now on the internet. I have subscribed to Marvel Unlimited and I can read pretty much every comic that is older than three months old; the newer ones cost extra money. But I can do it all from the comfort of my own home right now. I was also, actually, in Marvel Comics fandom in the nineties. If I wanted to read a comic, I had to go to a comic book store and hope they had it in stock; if they didn’t, I had to try another store. Not a lot of comics were available in trade paperback and they definitely weren’t readable on the internet. I used to read a lot of Gambit h/c fic set after Uncanny X-Men #350. I never found a copy of UXM #350. I still haven’t! But I did eventually read it on Unlimited.

Being in TV show fandoms also had similar challenges. Was the show you were watching still on the air? No? Then you’d better hope you could find it in reruns, or know someone who had tapes of it that they could copy for you, otherwise you weren’t watching that show. It was, I think, pretty common for people to be in fandoms for shows they hadn’t seen, because they had no way to see the show, but they loved all the fanfic. The Sentinel had a whole lot of fans like that, both because I think it took a while for it to end up in reruns and because overseas distribution was probably poor. So you’d get people who read the fic and wrote fic based on the other fic they’d read, which meant that you got massive, massive amounts of fanon appearing that people just assumed was in the show because it was a weirdly specific detail that appeared in someone’s fic once. Like “Jim and Blair’s apartment has a small water heater” (not actually canonical) or “Blair is a vegetarian” (there’s an episode where his mother visits and IIRC cooks him one of his favorite meals, which is beef tongue).

Like, I was in The Professionals fandom for years. I read all the fic. I hadn’t seen the show. As far as I know, it never aired in the US, and it certainly never had any kind of US VHS or DVD release. I’d seen a couple songvids. I eventually saw a couple episodes in maybe 2003, and that was because my dad special-ordered a commercial VHS tape from the UK and paid someone to convert it from PAL to NTSC. I didn’t get to see the whole show until several years later when I got a region-free DVD player someone in fandom sent me burned copies of the UK DVD releases and then I special-ordered the commercial release of the DVDs from the UK myself. But if I were a new fan and wanted to watch Pros right now? It is on YouTube! For free!

I think also one of the things about fandom that’s not immediately evident to new fans is the way in which it is permanent and/or impermanent. There are probably people whose first fannish experience is on Tumblr or who only read fanfic on FFN and who have no idea what they would do if either site, say, just shut down. But if you’ve been in fandom a while, you’ve been through, say, Discord, Tumblr, Twitter, Pillowfort, Imzy, DW, JournalFen, LJ, GeoCities, IRC, mailing lists. And sure, if Tumblr closed, it would be inconvenient. But fandom would pack up and move somewhere else. You would find it again. It would, eventually, be okay. Similarly, if you’ve been in a lot of fandoms, if you’ve made a lot of friends, drifting through fandoms is like that. You’ll make a friend in 1998 because you were in the same fandom, and then you might go your own ways, and ten years later you might be in another fandom with them again! It happens.

But the flip side of that is that I think a lot of older fans have learned not to trust in the permanence of any particular site. If you like a story, you save it as soon as you read it. If you like a piece of art, you save it. If you like a vid, you save it. Because you don’t know when the site it’s on will be gone for good. I have, like, twenty years of lovingly-curated fanfic. And I feel like people who have only been in fandom since AO3 existed might not understand how much AO3 is a game-changer compared to what we had before. It’s a site where you can put your fic up and you don’t have to worry that the webhost is going out of business, or that the site might delete your work because they don’t allow gay fiction or explicit fiction or fiction written in second person or fiction for fandoms where the creator doesn’t like fanfiction, or whatever. Because all of those things have absolutely happened. But, I mean, I still save pretty much everything I like, even on AO3, just in case.

So, basically, yeah, fandom is a whole lot more accessible than it used to be. I think fandom is pretty much still fandom, but it’s a lot easier to get into, and that has made it way more open to people who wouldn’t have been able to be in fandom before. There is so, so much more now than there ever was before, and I think that’s great.

[olderthannetfic]

Antis are mass reporting fics on ao3 to get them (temporarily) taken down.

https://twitter.com/Lala_Zee/status/1408915178935173124?s=19

This is a very popular fic that hit 24k kudos this month and the author started in 2017.

https://twitter.com/Lala_Zee/status/1405141401134829579?s=19

That sounds highly alarming. I do wonder if there's more to it though. I haven't been officially involved with OTW since 2014, but the guidelines were set up to thwart mass reporting. (I think they thwart it on a technical level too these days, but there was also a policy that the Abuse team can disregard extra reports of the same work and/or potentially treat them as harassment.)

If things are working properly, the work would only get hidden once the team makes it to that report and is actively investigating (so a short period of time). I wonder if that's the case here or not.

My big question is whether this person posted commercial spam. They do have a fic patreon where people get early releases of their famous fic that antis hate them for. If they were so monumentally stupid as to mention the highly text-searchable word 'patreon' on AO3, then they have only themself to blame. This is one of the only ways to open yourself to FFN-style grudge reporting on AO3 because almost nothing is against the rules there.

(Grudge reporting = reporting legit rules violations but choosing which fics to report based on you hating the author/the ship/the fandom/etc.)

There are also plenty of people, including me, who now and then get sufficiently pissed at commercial spam to go report a bunch of it without any other motivation than that.

It takes two seconds to put 'patreon' or 'ko-fi' into AO3's works search. You can even narrow it down by number of kudos or hits or whatever else. Nobody had to "comb through their work" if this really is what happened, nor is posting commercial spam a minor violation of AO3's rules.

If, as they imply, AO3 is really screening their work for ages while hunting for problematique shit antis hallucinate is there, that awful, and AO3 should be held accountable. I'm just a little skeptical since most people who get hit with the 'no commercial spam' rule behave similarly to this.

AO3 staff cannot and will not post their side of the story because Abuse cases are confidential.

[easilydistractedbyfanfic]

fic writer interview

I was tagged by @aadmelioraa, and though I’m late answering, this couldn’t have come at a better time since I’ve been thinking a lot about writing (in general) lately. Thank you! <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

60, with 58 of them in one fandom

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

719,515. This number really blows my mind and I am determined to get to a million words before too much longer. 

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

Only 3 at this time. Primarily t100, and one fic each for Bridgerton and Wu Assassins (coincidentally both Netflix shows). I also have an upcoming fic that will be in another (new-to-me) fandom (The Last Kingdom - clearly I have a thing for Netflix Originals).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

All are t100 Murphy/Raven fics, since that’s primarily what I write. It’s so funny to me but I don’t think there’s any rhyme or reason about what gets the most kudos. I love all my story-babies (even the ones that aren’t as good), but for sure some of the fics that I am most attached to as a writer don’t equate to popularity.

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

Yes, I reply to every single comment. I don’t get massive amounts of comments, so of course that makes it easier for me to engage, but I find it very meaningful when people take the time to give positive feedback and praise, and it genuinely motivates me to keep writing. By engaging with readers of my works, I’ve become more friendly with a lot of great people.

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

Hmmm. Personally, I find “angst” difficult to define in fanfic. I tend to use that word almost interchangeably with “emotional”, and I know not everyone does. Although I don’t write a lot of open-ended or open-interpretation endings, I do enjoy reading those. But usually my characters at least have hope at the end of the story, if not a typical ‘happy ending’. So I guess that means I’ll say that Ashes Will Scatter as well as A Well Made Mistake are my angsty-est endings, because they are very much... open. Both Murven stories, though that’s probably obvious.

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

I don’t have a rule not to write them, but so far I have not. I have to care a LOT about the characters in a story to write a fic focused on them, so I am more inclined to take settings & plot from one show and incorporate it into a fic focused on another show rather than to merge two shows (and their characters) together.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I would not categorize it as hate, but I have gotten anti-Murven comments on my fic, which is mostly amusing to me. Look at my fic list - does it really look like I’m going to stop writing them any time soon?! LOL!

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

This question made me laugh. Oh yeah, I write smut. Typically hetero smut, though relationships of all types & genders are in my stories.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think I’ve had a fic stolen, per se. But I have been asked in a comment if someone could take my story, change the character names and post it to another site for another fandom. I don’t think the commenter meant to be rude (likely different customs/culture in their country), but that was a big NO for me.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I do know that at least one lovely reader told me that they translate my fics for their personal reading, which is incredibly wonderful.

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

No, but I am not completely opposed to it! I’m a bit of a Type-A so I’d really have to trust the person I was writing with & feel like we interpreted characters similarly though.

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

I had never felt an urge to write anything before Raven and Murphy came along. I liked plenty of ships and fandoms, and read fanfic for years. But nothing sucked me in like them and compelled me to start typing. I don’t usually obsess to this level, so while I can’t say what I’ll answer in the future, I really can’t ever imagine these two falling out of favor in my book.

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

Oh man... I want to say NONE because I really would like to finish the two stories on ao3 that I categorize as WIPs (A Simple Plan & Only Then You’ll See). I do expect both of them to get done at some point, but Only Then You’ll See is for sure my biggest and most ambitious story. I also do have plans to write sequels to a few of my fics, although I don’t count them as WIPs since the stories already on ao3 are what I consider to be a finished work and any continuation/sequel will be a stand alone story too.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Characterization, original ideas and to some extent, plot. Sometimes dialogue. I can’t say that anyone else would consider them strengths in my writing, but they are usually things that I am proud of in my works.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Cutting out unnecessary dialogue because I am super-freaking wordy. I cut out what I think is a lot sometimes but am still left with a very wordy fic. Emotional dialogue is particularly difficult. Also I am very much a pantser and I often rely too much on my ability to pull a rabbit out of my hat in a fic I’ve started where I don’t always know where things are going. I don’t hate this because it’s my style, but I do think I need to get better at PLANNING my fics rather than just diving in and “see where it goes”.

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

I don’t think too much about it. I’ll put in a necessary language if that’s what a character is speaking or what the story calls for.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

t100

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

This question is always too hard! I can’t pick a favorite child and it’s the same for my stories. Objectively I can see & say that some are better than others, and there are some where I might change things if I re-wrote them now, but they were all necessary for me to write at the time I wrote them. So MY favorite story will likely always change based on a lot of factors. Today I’ll say Across The Ocean Wild And Wide because I made a point of trying to get better with description in that story, and I feel like I accomplished that. Also it’s very fairy-tale and I’d never tried anything like that before.

I’m gonna tag @jarleene @hopskipaway @she-who-the-river-could-not-hold @osleyakomwonkru and anyone else who wants to fill this out! Happy writing!

[azaleablueme]

20 Questions: Writer’s Edition!

@remedialpotions, thanks for the tag ❤ !

How many works do you have on AO3?

18 so far  (I am yet to transfer all my fics from FFN -that’s another WIP)

What’s your total AO3 word count?

265,067

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

Only Harry Potter!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

When Fate Decides Fly Away Home Beyond Words A Moment Lost Unspoken Promises Honourable Mention : In Search of Hermione (it’s partly (8/60 chaps) posted on AO3 but it’s my all-time most popular fic

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? I used to try and reply to all. I can barely do that anymore as I get very little spare time now and try squeezing in a chapter update when I do. Also, I get pretty tongue-tied when I see all the lovely reviews so I try saying thanks by writing some more...

Fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

All that I want to tell you For all the angst in my stories, I do prefer to have only happy endings. Not for this one though - this is the saddest fic I have ever written.

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

I’d say Stranger Stranger . the fic itself is pretty angsty at the start which makes the ending all the more happy? Does that make sense? (it does in my head)

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

Nope. Not my thing.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Oh, plenty. Still do.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes, when I am in the mood for it. Mostly smut with a lot of feels. (Mostly)

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of...

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have been approached for translating a few in Chinese and Russian.  Did request them to credit me and send me a link. But I haven’t heard back so I don’t really know 🤷‍♀️

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not exactly co-written but Fly Away Home was @jenn582​‘s plot baby which she allowed me to adopt and I’ve had loads of fun working out the details with her.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Ron/Hermione of course 💕 What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Oh, it’ll take me a while but I will wrap up all of them for sure. Unfinished work gives me a lot of anxiety 😬

What are your writing strengths?

Honestly, I have zero clue. Plots, I guess? Being able to stuff in a lot of crazy WTF moments? (Is that a strength at all?!)

What are your writing weaknesses?

commas and em-dashes. 🤐

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

Never tried but wouldn’t mind with a language that I know thoroughly. Since I speak/read/write three languages I know google translate messes up rather miserably at times. So I wouldn’t dare rely on it. 

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? As strange as it may sound, it’s a one-shot I wrote just a few days back.  Inexplicably Fond. It came out exactly as I had envisioned.    Loved doing this! tagging @aloemilk @honouraryweasley12 @trademarkblue 

[bettsfic]

You may have answered this before, but what happened your experience been like writing for/getting traffic to fics for dead or old fandoms? Eg breaking bad or the secret history. I always find myself thinking it’s not worth writing for an old fandom even if i have ideas but i’ve never actually done it so idk if that’s accurate

i love writing for small/old fandoms and rare pairs. my westworld fic is the only one in the caleb/dolores tag somehow, even though i shipped it so hard it launched me into breaking bad. i spent nearly all of last year hopping around in old/nonexistent fandoms and i had a really great time. if you look at the comments on my small fandom fics, they’re amazing. they’re so thoughtful and insightful and personal. i really love them. 

i’m not going to sit here and tell you traffic doesn’t matter. it matters to all of us to some degree, although possibly in different ways and for different reasons. it’s hard not to see traffic as a metric of belonging. you put yourself into something, you give it a platform, and perhaps its reception allows you to feel accepted or loved, or less alone, or briefly reassured that your existence has meaning. there’s nothing wrong with that. there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be seen. 

when i started writing fic, traffic and comments meant everything to me. i was absolutely in it for the attention, because i’d never received good attention before. i’d been accused all my life of “attention-seeking behavior” like it was a bad thing, like the solution to that often destructive behavior was to just ignore me until i suddenly grew a sense of self-acceptance and existential security all on my own, like getting mad at a plant for dying without any sunlight. a plant can only stretch toward a window so far.

my relationship with traffic was not a healthy one. for a long time i couldn’t separate myself from the work, so negative comments hurt me and positive comments defined me. i mistakenly believed that people who liked my writing liked me, when that’s the very opposite of the purpose of pseudonymous community writing. it took me a long, long time to realize and accept that nothing is about me. but that’s probably a post for another time.

after a few years of writing and posting fic, and attending workshops and receiving good mentorship, a very unexpected thing happened: i got enough attention. i didn’t think it was possible. i thought i’d just spend my life wanting more and more and never being satisfied. i couldn’t conceive of what “enough” of anything looked like. enough time, enough money, enough love. some of us spend so much of our lives hungry that we don’t know what fullness feels like. we don’t know what it means to be able to bear moments of emptiness because we know the things we need will always be in our reach. many of us, maybe even most of us, do not know what it means to trust that all our needs will be met on any given day, at any given time. 

something similar happened with sleep. i’d lived most of my life in a state of extreme sleep deficiency. waking up was the hardest part of every day of my life. then when i was 23 i was finally in a position where i could sleep as much as i needed to. for months i slept for 10 to 12 hours a day, and then slowly as i made up for all those lost hours of sleep, it slipped down to 9 and then 8. i fell asleep when i was tired; i woke up when i was ready. i let myself nap, but i found that i no longer needed to. i’d never known a life without fatigue, and then finally i was awake.

once i’d received enough attention, i started to see everything differently. whenever i wrote something, i started seeing it, not in terms of fearing its failure, but readying for its potential success. because i’ve found success is much, much harder to deal with than failure. once you separate yourself from failure, once you don’t let it affect your self-perception, success becomes terrifying. i have never met a single person who is emotionally prepared for the harrowing fallout of success. 

whenever i post anything, a tweet, a text post, a fic, i ask myself, “what if this goes viral?” what happens if i post a multi-chap fic in a new fandom that ends up becoming the next juggernaut? what happens if that fic gets 10k kudos and a thousand comments? 

a viral tweet or post eats up your activity feed for days. you don’t get anything for it, except every once in a while you might see yourself on a buzzfeed listicle. once, a student showed me a screencap of one of my own tweets that she’d seen on facebook. writing a popular fic is fun but it’s also, for me anyway, overwhelming, because i don’t see writing fic as a content/consumer situation. i see myself as a member of a community, and when you’re placed too high on a pedestal, you’re no longer a member of that community. you’re a content creator. it’s the difference between telling a story to your friends over drinks and acting on stage. when you’re done telling the story to your friends, they speak back to you. when you bow at the end of a play, all you can hear is applause. both are good things, but conflating the two is a bad idea. you’ll never be happy if you’re seeking applause but getting conversation, and you’ll never be happy if you’re seeking conversation but getting applause.

there are plenty of people well-suited to entertaining, who thrive on popularity and strive for fame. i’ve learned that i am not one of them. nor am i one of those people with a billion sock accounts, who hates attention so much they drop fics anonymously, or maybe don’t post them at all. i’m in a place where no matter what i post, i’m content with the reception i get. if i post a fic that gets 10 kudos and 2 comments, i’m grateful to those people who kudosed and commented. if i post the kind of wip that, when it updates, people tweet “X JUST UPDATED” and drop everything they’re doing to read it, and each chapter gets 50-100 comments, i’m grateful for that too. it’s very fun, waking up to lots of excited and kind comments. either way, i’m doing the work i enjoy: helping people, or myself, feel something, or escape, or believe in love and kindness and beauty if they’re in a dark enough place to doubt it. to me it doesn’t matter if that’s for me and two other people, or two thousand, or twenty thousand. it’s all good and worthwhile work to be doing.