#this is what comes of never using the bookmark feature on ao3....

[coffeedrgn87]

Flame Comments: Name & Shame

I woke up this morning and upon checking my mail I found the below comment, which I've since deleted (because why would I keep it?), but the email still exists. Unfortunately. I chose not to blur out the name of the commenter for the same reason that they chose to leave such negativity on my work.

Prior to taking a closer look at the comment, let's establish a few things.

Little Prince, Kneel is a BDSM fic I wrote some years ago. Due to popular demand and my own personal enjoyment, the fic became a fully-fledged verse with two completed follow-up stories and several one-shots.

The entire verse is locked 🔒 on AO3, meaning you have to be a registered user to access it.

The tags make it very clear that the story features BDSM, kink, smut galore, you name it.

With the above in mind, let's take a look at the comment. The first sentence says—'this is a good story, but not my cup of tea'. As a reader, if I come to this conclusion, I simply click away and find something else to read. I do not feel the need to leave a comment to tell the author of a story that their work is good but that it isn't my cup of tea. Why, you ask? Well, I read the tags. If they don't resonate with me, I simply find something else to read. There are so many fantastic works on AO3, the likelihood I'll find something to captivate me is high. And even if nothing takes my fancy at that particular moment, I've a bunch of books I can pick up and read.

The comment then continues—'Some one who likes this lifestyle may like it. I feel like Harry is degrading Draco.' This right here tells me that the commenter doesn't usually read BDSM fics. Fair enough, each to their own. No judgement there. There are plenty of topics I don't like. But I don't actively seek out authors on AO3 to tell them that. It isn't necessary or appropriate. OK, you can not be into BDSM and still be curious, I give you that much. I've read stuff I thought I might not like and on some occasions I loved it so much that I obsessively sought out other works that were in the same vein and on other occasions I realised that despite giving a story a try, it still didn't work for me. Do you want to know what I did in those circumstances?

I clicked away.

I found something else to read.

I didn't tell the author.

For what? Why should I continue reading a story that brings me no joy when I can simply find something else? Personally, I have so many bookmarks and an entire email folder titled 'to read' that I'm good until next century or so. On a final note, and to bring my thoughts back to the comment itself, there is absolutely no degradation happening in the story. Well, to be perfectly honest, there's one smut scene between Harry and Draco a bit of dirty sex talk. But that's not degradation. So, to me this reads like underhanded kink shaming, and I'll never stand for that. People are allowed their kinks and just because it isn't yours, doesn't mean you have the right to deny others the pleasure by sh*tting on it. Kink shaming isn't only wrong, it's also hurtful, vile, and causes extreme mental anguish to those who may enjoy a certain kink.

As for the next part of the comment—'In words Harry is so in love with Draco but in action he is just using Draco as play thing. The more I read the more I want them to break up.'—we are once again presented with a couple of problematic statements. For example, 'the more I read the more I want'. Clearly the story doesn't resonate with the reader. Instead of feeling supportive of the main characters journey they want them to break up. If that's their feeling, here's a fantastic suggestion: close your browser tab and find something else to read. Literally all of the commenter's upset could be solved by this simply move. But no, they're talking it one step further. They choose to leave a negative comment. Again, for what? There's no part in the reading process that says 'comment to continue reading'. Can you imagine if there was? The outrage of a quasi-paywall. I'm fairly sure that us writers would be secretly delighted, but also no. I want people to leave a comment on my work because they genuinely want to, not because they're being prompted to do so. And I think AO3's writing community would agree with me.

Now, the final part of the comment—'Sorry for the negative comment. Your wording is excellent tho.'—is the real kicker. Here, the commenter comes to the conclusion that their comment is negative, not at all constructive, and it perhaps even dawns on them that their comment is entirely unnecessary. So, instead of abandoning the comment, of stopping right there, deleting what they've written up until this point, and just moving on with their life, they add a 'sorry' and then close with 'your wording is excellent tho' which at this point means f*ck all. OK, maybe you've read some of my other works, decided to check out more, came across an obviously popular story with high stats and decided to check it out. Up until this point, great. No bother. I've been there done that. Even the part of choosing something that's not usually their style, also cool, we're all curious critters.

What is not OK though is leaving a flame. It's never okay to choose to leave a hateful/hurtful comment. I will give this person zero credit for their apology and their haphazard attempt at saying something positive. Nothing about this comment is cool or acceptable.

I'm all for having a reasonable conversation, in the comments or via Tumblr, though I generally prefer if people ask me if I'm receptive to it at that moment. It's a very simply thing, a small token of kindness, if you will. Works amazing in real life. I never fully know what's happening in my friends' life so if I really want to vent about something heavy I ask if they have the headspace for it.

It really isn't all that hard to observe simple commenting etiquette when choosing to share your thoughts with the author of a work. There's really only one rule: Don't be a d*ck.

[llondonfog]

My bro showed me this and I laughed, hope it makes you laugh too.

https://youtu.be/Dm2qng5aWnM?si=T0uh6sbnz3ebnpEJ

https://youtu.be/8YqGSQCwmDs?si=hyEytjBr4G4J2Uzp

Also, please share with me some of those darth vaders raising Luke stories, they sound so sweet.

Have you ever read Darth Vader and son? Or Are You Scared Darth Vader?? Both are funny and cute. (Both are children’s books but I love them and have them in my bookshelf. 💚)

Hope you feel better Lettie 💞🌺

ljdfaskjkdsfl thank you for sharing these, i cannot wait to start the ahsoka show for myself after all of these gifsets and memes— hayden is a real treat to the fandom and i'm so glad he's finally getting all the recognition he deserves!!

AND YES I LOVE THOSE LITTLE BOOKS ; u ; if you really want some vader raising luke fic recs, i am more than happy to provide the ones that i go back to time and time again for some good old comfort under the cut!!

ao3:

Force Bond: this series i read YEARLY. it is such a wholesome cornerstone piece of fanfiction in my life, i cannot get enough of it and am amazed by the fact that the author has kept it going with new updates twenty years later. basic premise is that luke escapes from tatooine and a crazed ex-jedi who wants to kill him as a young child and winds up on coruscant where a chance encounter with the emperor's right hand man might change their lives forever :')

The Emperor Skywalker Conspiracy: this short one is just for laughs, it's a great use of memes to react to the news that luke skywalker is darth vader's son as if you were in the sw universe and learning about it in real time through tumblr updates

Where Our Intrepid Hero Doesn't Get Away: a fun set of short drabbles exploring various different au possibilities within the sw universe of vader having to come to the rescue of his reckless son<3

The Family Tree: THIS ONE IS SO GOOD, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW IT CHANGED ME. i fucking love this trope- character a and b get stuck somewhere with no escape and are forced to have a heart-to-heart conversation ITS SO DAMN GOOD AND EMOTIONAL AHHHH

The Heir: i absolutely adore this concept and how the author presented it; palpatine raising a young luke as his son and creating a rift of hatred between vader and his child, only for vader to find out the truth and murder the emperor thus making his young son the rightful ruler. so full of angst and delightful twists, it's a fun read!!

ffnet

My Bitten Heart: told through an outsider pov of a rescue mission gone wrong. fully changed my perspective on writing when i read this over ten years ago.

Three Days, Two Nights and One Lifetime: one-shot where luke gets shot down over a desolate planet and experiences brief blindness and amnesia. who should find him in this state? :)

Between Flight and Longing: luke and han go to a distant planet in search of....something. vader happens upon them and a hilarious (and hurt/comfort) trio emerges as vader struggles to understand what could possibly be ailing his son.

[parkitaco]

ok people. i really don't want to have to be saying this but i am once again being struck by the lack of etiquette in the byler fandom and just in current fandom in general so i just. have to say something ok

first off i'm gonna say that fandoms come from a place of love and i know everyone most people have good intentions and love their fic authors but the etiquette around fics and art and all that lovely stuff is,, how shall we put it,, literally nonexistent.

listen. i love writing fic. i love that people like reading my fics that's insane hello?? i love getting comments and kudos and getting messages from ppl who are excited about my future projects it's great!!!

that being said, when i receive messages asking when things will be out/comments on wip wednesday snippets asking if the fic is out yet/messages asking me to tag them when the fic is published, regardless of how good the intentions are it comes off as very demanding and doesn't make me feel good as a writer who is doing this Voluntarily and For Free.

fanfic writers do this for fun!! we are not machines, we are people with our own lives outside of fandom and those lives have to take priority most if not all of the time. this means that yes!! sometimes fics take a while to write!! sometimes chaptered fics take a while to update!! and guess what?? that is totally ok. fanfic writers taking their time is not a bad thing. it means they care and are taking their time to create quality content. it means that they are spending time tending to their real personal lives, which is a normal and healthy thing to do.

there are plenty of posts about why demanding faster updates is bad, and i think that's pretty common knowledge, but i want to talk specifically about these very enthusiastic comments/messages/etc because i don't think anyone means harm but the thing is that fic authors simply do not owe you anything. we don't owe it to you to let you know when a fic will be out, we don't owe it to you to tag you when it is, and we definitely don't owe it to you to provide information that you can easily find out for yourself. as a writer i'm already putting insane amounts of pressure on myself and receiving it from other people, even if that's not the intention, is just not a good feeling.

especially because much of this information is readily available to you!! while you may not be able to find out when a fic will be out (which is probably because the fic author doesn't know either), you are entirely capable of checking the timestamp on a post to see how old it was, then using a little thing called Critical Thinking Skills to determine whether it's likely the fic has been posted or not. if so then great!! most authors have their ao3 accounts linked somewhere on their blog page so YOU (yes, you!!) can go look for the fic on ao3!! if you don't find it, ao3 has a super cool feature where you can subscribe to an author, so you'll get an email notification whenever they post!! and while you're there, if you're truly desperate for something to read, you can always go through the fics they've already posted, and if you've read everything there already and/or they haven't posted anything yet, check their bookmarks and see if there's anything there you like!! and as a last resort, there's always the trusty old search bar on ao3, which you are capable of filtering to every last preference!! the byler fandom is huge and there are tons of fics out there so undoubtedly something will fit your taste.

i know that can feel daunting, and i know it's disappointing when a fic hasn't been posted or updated yet, but the good news is that if you're seeing a snippet it means the author is working on it!! a little patience never hurt anyone, and taking those steps to determine for yourself what's going on with the fic rather than bugging an author who is just trying to go about their life and work on content during whatever free time they have just proves that you care. the simple fact of the matter is that fic authors don't do this for attention, they do it for fun, and therefore we can't cater everything to you or answer questions that you should find the answers to yourself. it's not our responsibility to keep track of people who want to be tagged when a fic is published or want to know when it will be out, because all our energy is going into creating the content you so desperately want!! i'm just begging everyone to be a little bit independent. asking an author for this information just shows you don't care enough to find it for yourself and this sort of laziness is part of why fandoms die.

tldr: fic authors are not machines designed to please you, use some critical thinking once in a while, and please for the love of GOD just go touch grass. breathe some clean air. you'll feel better i promise

[adriancatrin]

Best Zukka fic recs and/or Azula centric fics (bonus points for both!) I'm desperate for more content.

(digging thru my bookmarks) hoo boy ok let's see

i'm gonna put a cut because this might be long!! idk what all of the zukka 'classics' you've read so i just included 'em if they're my faves. list is in no particular order, pls heed warnings/tags on AO3 as some include potentially triggering content ~

like the sun inside of you by ofherlionheart: Zuko is sixteen years old when he’s handed a crown, a throne, and a hundred-year ancestral legacy of colonial imperialism. He’s not scared of the work; he’s scared of being consumed by the responsibilities and burdens he’s claimed. What Zuko doesn’t quite realize, yet, is that he’s not alone in this. Still in progress, one chapter left to go. Very slow-burn Zukka, and some great Azula stuff

To Cleave These Roots We've Made by Erisenyo: Sokka and Zuko have been roommates and best friends through college and graduation, through first jobs and new jobs and promotions, through friends getting married and sisters being pregnant and everything in between. But that all ends in four days. Four days to pack up an apartment. Four days before Zuko goes to law school and Sokka stays behind. Four days to untangle two lives that Sokka and Zuko have spent ten years weaving together. Can you call it a divorce, if you were never actually together in the first place? I don't remember Azula's involvement in this, but gosh darn it's a good one

i won't stumble as i follow down this path (cause words that are spoken are just other things to have) by jublis: It takes Zuko one year to visit his sister again. Featuring birthday weeks, struggling with your own goodness, and a future. Pretty sure this is a Zukki, ft. Azula very heavily

Destiny in the details by salytierra: Sokka heard that story before. Of course he did, the turning point of Zuko's destiny, the single bravest and most noble (or stupid) thing he's ever done. He retold the thoughts that went through his head back then, the repercussions... but he left out a single detail. And it's that detail that changes everything.  I need to see his soulmark. Sokka thinks, heart hammering in his chest. Fantastic post-canon soulmate AU. Azula's not in it, though

Divine Intervention by AggressiveStress: Sokka has had a lot of dates but they never stick around and he doesn’t know why. Literally everyone else knows why. Honestly I don't remember much about this one I just know I really liked it hahaha

Maybe I Don't Want Heaven by inkfingers_mcgee: Zuko does not realize that he wants to break up with Mai until she says, “We need to talk about us,” with an unmistakable finality, and the candles around his meditation mat don’t even flicker. // Five years after ascending the throne, Zuko reaches yet another crossroads of self. Sokka helps him through it. Mai incites national legislative reform. Azula is listed as a character in this one but I don't remember her role. The fic is great though. slow burn in case u haven't caught onto the trend of my fave fics yet haha

Of Tea and Turtle Ducks (and the Turtle Duck Guy) by Erisenyo: Sokka is nothing if not enthusiastic about his interests--Learning. Campus traditions. The campus turtle ducks. The guy who's watching the ducks so intently this year.  Zuko is nothing if not intense about duck watching. (It's not really about the ducks.) (Is it ever?) No Azula again but gosh darn it this fic is so cute. (expect more erisenyo on this list whoops)

this ultraviolet morning light by GallifreyanFairytale: sokka and zuko break up, make up, go undercover, thwart a rebellion, watch the sunrise, and change the course of fire nation history. not necessarily in that order. I don't remember the level of Azula's involvement in this fic, but I do remember she's in recovery and Zuko thinks about her a fair amount.

Empty Bodies, Empty Smiles by attackfish: Zuko sorts through the wreckage of his childhood and comes across a doll given to his sister. Not a shipping fic, just a character study of sorts of Azula as a child. It's... very sad, but incredibly nuanced in its understanding of her as a very unhappy and unfortunately disturbed child

Will We Last the Night by CSHfic/VSfic: Chief Arnook never assigns Sokka to protect Princess Yue, so he goes to fight the Fire Nation with the other men. When the moon dies, and the ocean spirit takes its revenge, Sokka is caught standing on the deck of a Fire Nation ship. Sokka should have drowned… and he would have drowned, if not for a certain Fire Nation raft fleeing the North Pole. An enemies-to-lovers season 2 rewrite, where Sokka is separated from the gaang during the Siege of the North, and travels the Earth Kingdom with Zuko instead Azula is just S2 Azula w/o redemption I believe, but my goodness the Zukka is just so. SO sweet

Burning Bright by Erisenyo: On a particularly hopeless night, Zuko sends out a messenger hawk to nowhere. He didn’t realize that his messenger hawk is deeply committed to completing the job. And that Sokka happens to be traveling straight through nowhere, at the time. I'm currently rereading this series for the umpteenth time, it's amazing, highly recommend, Azula is hyper intriguing in it too w/ a very complicated relationship with Zuko

All's Fair by Lovely_Elbow_Leech: Book one ends with two major diffrences: 1. Sokka went on the mission with Hahn (it did not go well) 2. Zhao survives the North Pole and that proves unfortunate for everybody (except Zhao, obviously)  Imprisoned on Zhao’s war ship, Sokka and Zuko have to work together to survive. They are not very enthusiastic about this prospect.  And they argue. A lot. Another of my top faves. Book 2 is in progress

Real Slow by surveycorpsjean: “I see.” Zuko closes the scroll. “Is the Water Tribe sending a replacement?" “Uh yeah,” Sokka gestures to himself dramatically. “You’re looking at him.” No Azula I believe but heckin' slow burn

this is a gift (it comes with a price) by WitchofEndor: There is a ghost on the Wani. But the crew have grown used to - even fond of - Prince Zuko. And no matter how many times General Iroh tries to gently explain the boy’s predicament, tries to suggest that he might attempt to move on, Prince Zuko can always be found watching the sea. There is a prisoner in the palace. Not Zukka, but the relationships in it are fantastic, including Azula and Zuko.

 While Mighty Oaks Do Fall by WitchofEndor: The newly-crowned Fire Lord Ozai offers his firstborn son to service in the temple. This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake. Wacky crazy fic. There's something funky fresh happening with Azula, but it's an in-progress fic so. who knows where it'll go

I probably don't need to include The Art of Burning but it's in my fave bookmarks so. Same for Blue

Also in retrospect I have a lot of issues with this fic, but here's my post-canon Zukka w/ Azula redemption fic: New Heights

[rayshippouuchiha]

went ransacking through my ao3 bookmarks bcs i live vicariously through these when the going gets tough. some of these might have already been recc'ed alrd but im too lazy to check 🫠

The Menagerie by zegez

Tsuna collects everyone as pets, literally, most if not all of them are animals. it's glorious and very cute

Bad Influence by Emric84

Toji and Tsuna meet, what follows is a catastrophe for everyone else. Toji27 is the most left field ship i had ever encountered but by god was it good while it lasted. ABANDONED but had enough content to it BUT STILL GOD IM SO SAD THIS WAS SO GOOD????

body aches by HeavenlyDusk

In which KHR was originally a very different story.

This one is a little heart breaking but also really hopeful bcs tsuna is learning to be more comfortable w/ being Tsuna™ the protagonist while still maintaining some semblance of himself from a past life. its still ongoing but i have it as one of my comfort fics <3

Overcast universe by Ocearna

a khr rewrite where 1827 meet and bond as kids and tsuna getting that cloud influence. cloudysky!tsuna my beloved.

Beginnings and Middles But No Ends In Sight by Ourliazo

Arcobaleno shenanigans before the curse.

in the hearts of men (there be madness) by Silverfox579

YKNOW WHAT'S SOMETHING THAT'S ALWAYS FASCINATED ME IN CANON AFTER I GOT OVER THE ANIME ENOUGH TO NOTICE IT??? THE HYPER DYING WILL MODE PERSONALITY like after the kyaa badass tsuna lets gooo, you start wondering what the fuck is going on there actually bcs basil is not like this,, what goes on here 👀👀

or!! dark!tsuna au-ish in reborn's pov

Bargaining chip by Mina37

like the one before but in xanxus' pov this time

My Sweet Affinity by Chaotic_Roses

criminal minds au featuring tired w/ a mysterious bg leader tsuna, freshly released from prison hitman reborn, intern gokudera, Hana, and scammer kyoko.

[this could've been] a villain's origin story by petroltogo

Tsuna running into and unknowingly helping villains after helping release xanxus from the ice box should've really been the hill where it all went wrong, surprisingly tho, only shenanigans. featuring!! chikusa and tsuna childhood friendship that i very much adore

whisper in my ear (i'll build your dreams on bones) by Silverfox579

its only a one shot but gOD I WISH THEY EXPAND ON THIS ITS SO COOL I AM IN LOVE W/ THIS FIC I HAVE THIS FIC PLASTERED ALL OVER MY SOCIAL MEDIA, IF I HAVE ANY WAY TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR I WOULD ASK PERMISSION TO PRINT AND BOOK BIND IT FOR PERSONAL USE BCS THIS!! CONCEPT!!!

or!! the five times the stress of war and battle got to tsuna and wakes up the God in his head. (the last two are spoilers for the manga but hnnnggg i NEED to rec this)

a rose by any other name (would taste just as bitter) by heyimflamel

sealing flames has very, very dangerous repercussions. not only are you sealing this person's will to live but sealing someone w/ sky flames whose purpose is to harmonize? you get something dangerous indeed. dark!tsuna corrupting flames one guardian at a time.

High School Montage by HeavenlyDusk

a montage of vongola tenth gen as they navigate through high school through outsider pov. slice of life-ey and very chaotic (the side story w/ the childhood friends oc my beloved 🫶)

The Boy in the Ice by eloquentelegance

UA has to deal w/ these weirdos lurking around their courtyard all thanks to the mysterious ice pillar that just dropped from the sky w/ a boy frozen inside.

rattle this ghost town by blackkat

Mukuro meets Naruto and spirits him away lmao

Set the Skies Ablaze by cywscross

K(anime) and khr crossover that took me by the neck and never let go. it's essentially discontinued now but the 3 chapters it has??? keeps you coming back in hopes that it does, miraculously, update 🫠

To the Beat of My Own Drum by Seito

College AU where reborn is the normal one and tsuna and his friends bring the chaos in his life. the found family that this fic gives and radiates is so 🫶🫶🫶 like i love it so MUCH

that's it for now bcs im sleepy hehehe

!!!!!!!!

[sarcasmandships]

his! do you have any peterick fic recommendations? i've already read all your works on ao3 and i'm waiting desperately for updates so until then i need something to read because i feel like i've already read soooo many fics and i'm running out of material plz help :)

hiiii, im glad you like my fics and I'm sorry im terrible at updating i used to be so consistent but uni is just killing me with assignments rn! but i promise the restaurant au will get an update soon and im planning to edit death by a thousand cuts before i add to it again cos im just not really happy with the quality of it, but that will also be coming soon i promise!

anyways onto what you're really asking about; recommendations. im not sure if you're looking for smut or stories with plot so here's just a mix of things i've really liked ( i suck at bookmarking things so I've just searched through my history and there's deffos stuff i've missed im sorry)

Literally just read kick me in the face & ask me how my head feels by fkingdeathwish today - devoured this in a few hours and this fic made me like stories in first person. its so good and also has the best andy/joe/pete friendship dynamics i was smiling the whole time. but also features a lot of petekey tho which might not be ur thing

(smut) going down, down by @pyrchance - i read this the other day and its 10/10

Anything by snitchesandtalkers but some of my favourites are i've been checking my list, crooked love, making out inside crashed cars (smut), silver screen dream, the antidote to everything (except for me), we're friends when you're on your knees (not finished but still so so worth reading), amateur pornographers (smut obvs), a little less 16 candles (a little more bite me)

brutal love by @notastumph- this one is so good but like i also had to take a 5 min break between chapters cos the angst and heartbreak was getting to me so much (in the best way)

and i'll burn by jiksa - just read the tags first

the house on rosewood lane by scarredsodeep - this one is so fucking good, i don't even like horror and i was obsessed with this and couldn't stop reading

hey doctor, i'm certifiable by derridoid (smut) - so good and the ending made me laugh sm

husband on the payroll by das_verlorence-kind - what can i say, i love the fake relationship trope

also ive changed my plea to guilty by das_verlorence_kind - again just check the tags incase it’s not ur thing

accidents will happen by rusty76

again pretty much everything by @annoyingpetekey but some favourites are (i just wanna) get some, so pretty (when you're on your knees), and come on (and fuck me like you doubt me) - all smut

That Schrodinger guy made some really good points, you know? by @earlgreytea68

but i'm reflecting light by looks_a_scream - this one is deffos a favourite

the purgatory of my hips by auralcosm

edgar allan potato by emeralcitydowntowngirl - another absolute favourite, i have such a soft spot for soulmate AUs but I've never read one as good as this, again features a lot of petekey but it is all in the past

to take what i'm given with grace by likeasugarcube - their whole 'marriage of convience' series is amazing but this is the main fic and it is sooo good

anything by littlesnowpea but favourites include love in the middle of a firefight, but there's no preparing for this, and nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy (pls read tags first tho)

december is for cynics by looks_a_scream - another favourite

secrets i don’t want to keep by perceived_nobility (although i think they’ve changed their name to invisible_man now) anyways this one is only accessible if you have an ao3 account but it is so so good an hurts in all the best ways, would advise paying attention to some of the tags tho

Also pretty much anything written by appleremix or vampyerika

Ok so I have like another 30+ pages in my history but this is already so long, so i hope you enjoy some of these assuming you haven't read them already!

[chemicallyyourss]

Hey guys,

I’m new here and sort of wanted to introduce myself and ask for some advice/suggestions.

I’m somewhat new to tumblr- I’ve had accounts before, but never really fully understood how to work all the features, and still don’t, lol. So if there’s maybe a guide or something somewhere that would be uber helpful and appreciated for me!

I used to write quite a lot- both fanfiction-sorts and original works- mainly on Wattpad, Fanfiction.net, and AO3 (yes I know the distrust that comes with Wattpad users lol, but I was 14). I have always mainly written for The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer- my absolute favorite book series of all time and my comfort series as well- as well as some other fandoms like funny enough BBC Sherlock and Hamilton, and I had quite a lot that I wrote for The Lunar Chronicles. I’m really wanting to get back into the flow of writing and see about reposting my old works onto here in a master list and also working on some new ones, again both fanfiction and original. I’m also wanting to get more into drawing and such- fan art and other things. I never drew that much of fanart other than some sketches and designs and bookmarks that I mostly kept to myself, but I’d love to start making my own so that I can work more towards drawing specifically what I want to see, as I’m such a perfectionist and there’s not that much The Lunar Chronicles fanart especially for my favorite couple. I do do several forms of arts and crafts like crocheting, knitting, pottery, art, etc, and I especially did good with photography and realistic drawings and charcoal drawings, and I’d love to incorporate that and also get better at other types.

So I was looking into devices that could help me out and make it easier to do these things. I don’t really like writing on my phone, as the keyboard is so small and I like a wider view and such. I used to write on an iPad, but that was waaaay back in 2014 or so. It didn’t give me all the features I’d liked, but it was enough to do my main bit of writing. I’m not that informed about technology and such so I’ve been trying to look into what products may be best for what I want, like an iPad and keyboard, a MacBook, etc. I’m not that well off so I can’t necessarily just drop a thousand or so dollars on stuff, especially if it doesn’t work best for me. If anyone can respond or even message me with some ideas and resources and information as to what would be most beneficial all around for this sort of project, I would be so appreciative. Thank you so much!

**you can skip down to the other two asterisks if you don’t want to read all about me or get bored lol, please read below the bottom asterisks at the end though**

I guess I’d like to say a bit about myself as well. I know I don’t have my page strictly shown as a “The Lunar Chronicles” fan account, but that’s pretty much what it is, plus some poetry, quotes, landscapes, art, Adventure Time stuff, cats, and memes. You pretty much might as well view me as a Lunar Chronicles fan account lol. It sucks because I figure I may have a hard time getting seen and interacted with since I’m not broadly showing that I’m absolutely obsessed with the series, but I really want to get the word out while still maintaining my individuality on my page.

I started reading The Lunar Chronicles when Cress was coming out, I think right after Scarlet had been released. I was preeeetty young back then, which is a little embarrassing because back then most of the fans were in their 20’s and I was a teenager, but hopefully more people my age have found the series now. I won’t say how old I was back then, but I will say I’m 21 now lol. You can do the math yourself if you want.

My OTP is Kaider, Kai and Cinder. I legitimately adore them, like ridiculously so. They make me so giddy honestly lol. I wrote mainly for their ship, but rereading the series for maybe the 20th time, I am starting to adore Jacin and Winter as well. I just think Kai and Cinder are so underrated and overlooked a lot of the time. I loved writing for them and I’m an absolute sucker for their fanfictions, so if you find any or write any I haven’t already checked out, hit me up and I’ll devour it lol. And Id love to share my current works and hopefully future works! I was relatively young when I wrote them all, but I’ve always written quite a bit and been more talented at that more than anything else- not to brag, it’s just I’m mostly a one trick pony and that’s the trick lol.

So, I’m a 21 year old female from the USA, and have lived in a very small town for all of my life so far, but I’m trying to move to a midsize city with my husband soon. I’ve been married since May 2023, and I’ve been with my husband since 2019. We’ve known each other vaguely since middle school, but really started speaking maybe 2 months before we started dating lol. I have 3 pet cats, 2 calicos and a male tuxedo, all food names. I absolutely adore them lol. I used to take care of a feral colony, and got them all spayed and neutered and most rehomed to good families. I’m very passionate about TNR and animal rescue, and the fight against cat overpopulation. I’m a huge cat person. I do have a dog that I’m currently long term taking care of for a relative for the last year and a half, but none of my own.

I grew up a huge book nerd and was a gifted kid until about highschool, when I sort of burnt out and also started coming under some heavy struggles with mental health, stress, and issues at home. I grew up with a father suffering multiple issues including vascular dementia, which he’s now in the late stages of and is mostly bedridden. He’s a huge sensitive subject for me. I took care of him a bit growing up and my life was pretty much anything but ordinary and it was very stressful. I had to do a lot of things kids shouldn’t have to. We also struggled a lot with 2 disabled parents, so as soon as I was old enough, I got a job and started relying solely on my own income. I mostly worked 2 jobs in highschool.

My childhood is a whole wild story I could go on forever about and I’d be more than happy to if ever asked, but I’ll pretty well leave it at that for now.

I ended up joining a college program while still in high school to practice and study Culinary Arts. I then entered college with a major in Culinary Arts with a focus in Baking and Pastry Arts, and I also studied business and was working for a degree in Home Science Education. I wanted to teach culinary classes, probably in a highschool, and maybe have a cafe of some sort. Eventually I did drop out of college with no degree so far but quite a few certifications. I started to struggle with my mental health and physical health a lot, and I was very stressed and my father had declined drastically and I just couldn’t take it at the moment.

I worked in several fiends, including Food Service, Healthcare, Opticianry, Management, etcetera. I currently work in a hospital as part of Registration, but I really want to work towards a career in Human Resources, and maybe finishing my Culinary education.

Like I said above, I’m very passionate about cats and TNR, and I have supported tons of TNR programs and tried my best to help people out with resources and such so they can spay/neuter their pets and keep animals and stray/feral animals safe. I’m very against kill shelters and euthanasia. I’d love to either open a rescue or Cat Cafe of sorts maybe, or at least volunteer/work at one, and I’m currently trying to get involved in CASA work, as the struggle with my goddaughter and the rough custody battle against one absent parent was a lot and I really want to help out more kids like that.

I was actually raised Amish/Mennonite and converted out, which is funny. I always get tons of questions about that so feel free if you’re wondering. I speak English obviously, but I’m also semi-fluent in Spanish and I know just a little of Pennsylvania dutch, which is my areas dialect of Amish/Mennonite language (I’m not in/from Pennsylvania but we call it that). My husband and I are not Amish/Mennonite, and my husband has never been.

I identify as a cisgender queer woman, and I am diagnosed with OCD, PTSD, and MDD, and have always struggled with eating disorders. I’m very big on mental health advocating, as well as general welfare and health. I grew up without much healthcare and it’s been hard working to cover my bases, and I finally was diagnosed in 2021, the same year I was able to start taking care of myself without being held back. I also have some physical illness issues, including heart issues and kidney issues. The kidney issues were furthered from my mental health issues and consequences of long episodes and dark, sick times. I was extremely sick for a very long time but I’ve gotten a lot better, even though I do still have flare ups and occasional issues. I’m a pescatarian, for many reasons, including my eating issues, my love for animals, and namely my sister showing me a slaughter documentary when I was a toddler. I never really liked the taste anyways so it’s easy for me. I eat any seafood, eggs, and dairy, although dairy does make me bloat so I avoid it usually. I’m a coffee and caffeine snob and used to be a barista so I’m properly addicted and have a drink bar at my house for coffee, energy drink refreshers, and mixed alcoholic drinks. I support 3rd party politics, namely the Green Party.

I guess I’ll sort of wrap this up but going into what I like- my favorite color is black- haha- my favorite book series is The Lunar Chronicles as I said and my OTP is Kaider from that series, I like some other series like the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman, the original Sherlock Holmes series, and others, I love The Walking Dead series and I love Rich and Michonnes relationship from the tv show and Daryl and Carols relationship as well, I haven’t gotten to read all the comics but I’m working on it, and I’ve working through all the sister shows and spinoffs, my favorite movie/show genre is horror especially psychological horror. I love all of Jordan Peele’s movies and a lot of A24 horror movies. I never got to watch many classic or cult favorite movies and shows so I’ve been trying to work through them all. I watched Orange Is The New Black and adored it. I’d say my favorite shows so far are tied between BBC Sherlock (my comfort show) The Walking Dead and Adventure Time, which are both very personal to me. I don’t exactly have a favorite book genre, but I guess it would have to be dystopian/romance and comedy. Comedy anything is always good lol. I like quite a lot of music, mainly Classic Rock, Grunge, Rap, Trap Metal, Pop Rock, Underground, Alternative, Indie, and others. I was a semi theatre kid- semi because my school didn’t have drama or theatre and I couldn’t afford to go see many plays lol. I loved Hamilton, Heathers, Falsettos, Dear Evan Hanson, and others. I was a part of choir but I’m not too confident in my voice lol. I used to write a lot of fanfiction and original stuff as I said, and I also wrote and read poetry. My favorite poets were Charles Bukowski, Emily Dickinson, Robert M Drake, and Sylvia Plath. My favorite authors would probably be Marissa Meyer (though I haven’t read her other works other than TLC yet) and Neal Shusterman. Their writing style really appeals to me and I write somewhat similarly. I’d say my favorite bands are Queen, The Beatles, Hozier, SuicideBoys, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise. My favorite song of all time is Hey Jude.

I do have a tattoo, currently only one, but I’m planning more, one to commemorate my father and one to reference Adventure Time, and some for my cats. I currently have a geometrical and floral pattern on my sternum. I want more floral pieces as well besides the specific pieces I mentioned. I have several ear and cartilage piercings and I’m not planning on any body piercings besides my nose.

I am generally a big advocate for peace, equality, kindness, etcetera, and I mean that wholeheartedly. It takes a whole lot to get me messy and/or violent or mean. I’m very supportive and understanding and accepting of all things- besides legitimately morally wrong things that I don’t even want to name here. I’ll just say I’m lgbt+ supporting (and a member), BLM supporting, race issue awareness supporter, accepting and understanding of all genders sexualities religions backgrounds disabilities mental health issues etc, sexual assault and abuse awareness supporter and a victim, a mental and physical health advocate, against euthanasia and for TNR, am working towards HR work to better help the workforce and also working towards child advocacy and animal rights.

**

Aaaalllrighty, I think that’s more than enough. Thank you if you read much of any of that, feel free to inbox me or ask me anything, and please PLEASE if you have advice about the products I would need for writing and drawing please let me know!! I really want to get back into it and share my works.

Thank you!

Cat gif for tax (jammin)

[optiwashere]

I just found you on ao3 and i wish i had earlier all the recommendations were fine but your writing is the perfect mix for me. All the high kudos fics in f/f don't hit the same.

No question just appreciation for my new favorite author!

Hey anon, this is all incredibly sweet of you to say! Thank you 💜 Hope you continue to enjoy the fics.

I would just say that I'm very happy with having anyone that reads my stuff. I love hearing from anyone and everyone that comments on my fics or leaves an ask here. And holy shit, some of y'all have been coming out in force lately. The reaction to Nightsongs alone is super inspiring, and very sweet! I try to ignore my stats altogether, but that's incredibly kind of all y'all.

That said, I'm also not a doofus and I've been around fandoms for a while. So I know "the game."

I rambled a lot about pointless shit, so it's all under a break. It wound up being more directed at other fic writers than about your original sentiment, anon. Just another day on this strange planet for me.

Please don't think about this stuff too hard or too much. It will never make you happy. If you're a "big name fan" it will just be awful for you for different reasons. I wasn't a BNF, but I was very recognizable in a previous fandom. It wasn't pretty for me then either lol.

But if you're curious, it's all down to how people sort, read, and how momentum in fandoms works.

You need either a big social circle or to write for the biggest ship/trope to fit into those sorts of rec lists, or have an external social media find you. Not that those rec lists are totally irrelevant to quality! Far from it sometimes. But they are a specific type of popularity that you as the reader have to be aware of. Even you mentioned that you used rec lists, but from my understanding most people sort by word count, hits, kudos, or bookmarks.

It's the reason I tend to just sort by new and go with the flow.

That does mean that sometimes you have to wade into unknowns as the reader. Sorting by those sorts of metrics tends to perpetuate momentum rather than indicate... really, anything.

Not to say anything negative about the quality of the high kudosed femslash for BG3! I just don't read a ton of fic these days, and I have very specific things I look for (usually it's characters that aren't cis). Plus, there's one ship that's the very clear fan favorite, and there's a few tropes that are the obvious favorites. So you have to orient your perspective around those realities as a writer if you plan on keeping stats visible.

So the way I see it? I don't write a popular pairing, I write trans fics which in the smut might feature things that some readers do not want, and I don't write the biggest OC trope for Shadowheart/Tav works. Therefore, I tend not to be found by a certain subset of readers. Additionally, I write one-shots linked together by a series rather than singular longfics, so I don't "gather" additional metrics to make discoverability easier on the usual fronts listed above.

All that to say: I'm really happy that a lot of people read and comment on my fics :) Love my li'l gaggle of readers so much!

And additionally, most importantly maybe, I don't want to see in my inbox the sorts of talk I've been seeing in the fandom places I've been poking my toes in lately. That is, I don't want to see others being put down to prop anyone else up. Fandom is meant to be fun, it's meant to be a hobby.

Am I annoyed by some things in the fandom? Absolutely. Without question. But I try to avoid that stuff at all costs to save my sanity and focus on the things I do enjoy instead.

My motto is love what you love. Read what you enjoy. Fuck the rest, ignore it.

[hungerpunch]

hi do you know what happened to manykinsmen? I loved their valtteri/toto fic and it's gone from ao3 and their tumblr deactivated. I hope he's doing ok

Did manykinsmen delete their ao3? I used to have all of their kmag and nico fics bookmarked but I can't find them anymore 😔😭 nobody wrote hulknessen as good as they did 😔

hey anons, thanks for your patience. i've barely been able to come up for air between stuff this summer. and honestly i was waiting to see if i could get a reply from him myself. unfortunately, i haven't gotten one. all i really know for fact is that jon decided he needed time & space away from fandom back in may. he's gone on hiatus & then returned before, so i'm hoping the same is true this time and that he's okay.

i didn't realize he'd deleted his ao3 works, which is definitely a bummer :( and also a reminder that it's always good to download your favorite fics bc you never know when an author might decide to remove them (there is a download feature baked into ao3).

[noirshitsuji]

AO3 Stats tag game

Thank you for the tag @queer-cosette!

Rules: check your AO3 stats and answer each question with the correct fic!

Turns out all of mine are Miraculous Laydbug,,, which,,, not much of a plot twist, but yes.

Most Hits:

les illuminations en douche et d'autres miracles pubères (9,229 hits total)

Shower epiphanies and other pubescent miracles: of Marichat, emotional teenage delinquency, adults' questionable understanding of how the world works or should work, political power play, investigations, reveals, memes, half-baked meta, and the first-ever Save Nooroo Foundation (that the author is aware of). Or, simply put: canon on crack, featuring Adrien “romantic pro-gamer” Agreste, Marinette ”Schroedinger’s Very Tired™ friend” Dupain-Cheng, Gabriel “you don't need the two most powerful objects in the universe, you just need a therapist” Agreste, Plagg and Tikki “five more minutes of this and they'll be throwing hands with the Meta Consciousness for putting them here" the kwamis, and many, many more.

Main relationships: Lovesquare, DJWIFI (morphing into Chloninya), unhinged Gabenath, and team dynamics

Second most kudos:

I Know What You Did in the Cat-acombs - collab fic w/ @galahadwilder, @maggies-scribblings, and @veebeejeebies (366 kudos total)

Two part-time superheroes get lost in the creepy catacombs, but spooky skeletons, rabid rats and akuma apparitions are the least of their problems. Written for the @mlwritersguild's October 2020 Event, for the prompt 'Haunted House'.

Main relationship: Lovesquare/Adrienette main

Third most comments:

i'm just so bad at things i don't understand (20 comment threads total)

Human!AU. Tikki and Plagg are childhood friends who fell apart following a tragedy at their hometown in Normandy, but one day Plagg walks into her confiture shop in Paris asking for her help and she finds herself unable to refuse him. Working out their own ghosts is not their only problem, though, not when the son of Paris' most infamous fashion magnate runs away and collides with them. *** She regrets it. Of course she regrets it: yesterday she got blinded by the image of the boy she used to know, the one who lived on the dairy farm just outside of Saintévie with his dad and their workers and no siblings and thus no friends to speak of at all, not until he’d met her and the rest of them, at least. He was always a shadow, though, and they’d all told him as much once and he’d jokingly replied that there was only one sun he’d ever want to be cast off from but wouldn’t tell them which, and it hurts her to think he might have meant– Maybe shadows are the burns suns never get to inflict upon the land, Tikki thinks, but if they have no sun to follow, their tendrils turn into annihilating flames. Maybe this is why the fire started.

Main relationships: Plagg/Tikki, Plagg & Adrien & Tikki, Tikki & Marinette, Adrienette

Fourth most bookmarks:

well somewhere along the way in our words i must've gotten lost (45 bookmarks total)

Written for a blog request for the @mlwritersguild: Beelya where Queen Bee visits the Césaire house after Alya writes an article about her fighting Mr. Pigeon alone. Normally Chloé would like the publicity but Alya had titled it ‘The Birds and the Bees’. After that she ends up coming back to complain about her mother. And her father. And about the fact that her oldest friend seems uncomfortable around her. Her visits becomes weekly, then almost nightly. (Don’t forget to include Chloé redemption (and some “Bee Movie” jokes).) * Alya isn’t quite sure how she ended up here, in a place where she isn’t even surprised Chloé would seek her out to talk about her dad, where she wouldn’t even mind her doing so, where she would expect it, where she would– (–thud. She might be in trouble.)

Main relationships: Alya/Chloe, Team Miraculous

Fifth most words:

tried to touch you but you're cutthroat (stay to see it unfold) (4,426 words total; technically #2 in this list is the fifth longest, but I thought I'd discounted in the interest of showcasing more stuff)

If you scratch your claws against enough things, eventually everything around you's gonna give. It's not science. It's what being a Cat Wielder is. Some of them just learn it the hard way. (Or: The life and times of Chloe Bourgeois.)

Main relationships: Chloe/Luka, Team Miraculous (AU - Black Cat!Chloe and Ladybug!Luka)

Least words:

Similarly to Coco, my shortest is also a Valentines Day drabble for the @mlwritersguild event last year.

too much could be an overdose (100 words total)

Main relationship: Adrino

Tagging all the people in #2 and whoever else wants to do this!

[numinousmysteries]

Fanfic ask time! :DDD 10, 25, 30~

Thanks for the ask @randomfoggytiger. Here you go:

10. shortest wip of the year: Hmm I really only have one WIP going right now that's somewhat long (or at least long for me) but I did start another shorter piece that's within the same universe as the longer WIP and might become part of it at some point, so I guess that?

25. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read: I've read (and re-read) so much fantastic fic that I know I'll forget some. I only just started using the bookmark feature on Ao3 to save my favorites so there are dozens that have slipped through the cracks, as well as others on Gossamer and other places, of course. Here's what comes to mind immediately:

I re-read Isometry by @syntax6 which is just perfect, and that led to reading Universal Invariants for the first time and it's equally fantastic.

I am a 20+ year prufrock's love stan but I actually never read A Moment in the Sun until this year and I adored it. I'm not the biggest AU fan but I will trust prufrock's love to translate Mulder and Scully to any world in any century. I also re-read Promises to Keep which is super angsty but worth it.

I re-read Blinded by the White Light by @dashakay at least once a year and it never fails to make me cry.

Times Colliding by OnlyTheInevitable. So well-done and I'd love another chapter!

The entire Unfinished Business series by aka_Jake. I like to pretend MSIV never happened (along with like, everything post-Existence) but aka_Jake makes it right.

How have I never read Dryad by @aloysiavirgata before? I adore everything she writes and this is no exception.

Hour of Lead by Darla Black hurts so good.

And like everyone else in the fandom, Gaslight by @sisterspooky1013 kept me on the edge of my seat for weeks.

30. favorite fandom to read fic from this year This is an easy one. The X-Files always and forever.

[booksandabeer]

*Obi Wan voice* Hello there! I found myself wondering just now, since clearly you have an extensive list of stucky fics that you read and rec, if you have a favourite fic? I see you mention so many, so I assume your reading a lot of them all the time, sooooo is there *the one* that you found for yourselves? That is all, have a nice day (◕‿◕✿)

Hello there, mysterious person speaking in Obi Wan voice! 😊

Thanks for the ask! To my equally great joy and despair I do indeed read A LOT of fanfic…and yes, I have spreadsheets, folders, lists…it’s a whole (slightly insane) thing. So my first reaction to your question was hysterical laughter. One? I’m allowed to pick only one? *makes big sad eyes at you*

Ok, well. Hm, let’s narrow it down. I kind of consider my AO3 bookmarks my unofficial faves collection (but I haven’t updated that in quite some time, and I almost never put WIPs on there and I can think of at least 2 very strong contenders in that category right now that I should definitely list, so take that with a grain of salt.) In my bookmarks I use the tag ‘All Time Favorites - Top 10 - Best of the Best’, and scrolling through those I just noticed that not only have I used this tag for 11 fics (go figure) but I’m also not even sure about my selection anymore. Ask me again in 3 months what my top 10 are and you’ll probably get a different answer again. Ok, I realize I’ve been waffling on and on in a desperate attempt to not have to make a choice, but I cannot pick just one. Have three instead (even that is painful). And since I’m a cheating cheater who cheats, all three are actually series… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Notebook No. 6 by magdaliny | 2 parts | 56K | M to E rating

Author's summary: There's a story and it goes like this.

I have already talked about my absolutely deranged love for this series (the first part at least) here, so I'll quote myself:

Come for the spectacular Bucky-voice and his exquisite descriptions of the transcendent love he feels for one Steven Grant Rogers, and stay for his musings on travel, science, religion (Bucky is Jewish in this and the way he confronts, explores and lives his Jewishness is one of my favorite aspects of this fic), history, philosophy and just humanity in general.

This is a story that is at once full of despair and pain, but also brimming with hope and life and love. Yes, it gets very dark at some points, and it will destroy you multiple times before the end. But it will also help you pick yourself up off the floor, gently take you by the hand and say: But look at all the beauty in the world—don’t you forget about the beauty.  

The Hundred Year Playlist by @girlbookwrm | 6 regular parts + 1 collection of “B-sides” | 300K | T to M rating

Author's summary: Steve and Bucky, start to finish.

What it says on the tin. I call this the "Canon-Compliant Stucky Bible" (it ends before IW, and some parts have been shafted by newer canon, but still) or alternatively "The Stucky Sample Platter" because it's got it all: Pre-War Stucky! Wartime Stucky! Bucky: The Winter Soldier Years! Steve: Man out of Time! Bucky Recovery Fic! Wakanda Stucky (aka these ding dongs finally get together)! And every single part is brilliant. Tbh, I never know if it's a good idea to rec this to people who are fairly new to Stucky because I fear it will ruin them for everything else (at least the canon compliant/adjacent stuff). But then again, that's stupid because there are so many wonderful stories in this fandom, I have yet to run out of them!

Welcome Home, Son by @beaarthurpendragon | 2 parts | 50K | M to E rating

Author's summary: Fuck IW/EG. This is how it should have gone. Featuring Bucky & Ayo friendship, a million and one Stucky feels and a soft slice-of-life epilogue.

I have also talked about this series before, so I'll quote myself again:

A Bucky-centric character study set during his time in Wakanda, about the rediscovering/rebuilding of his identity, his friendship with Ayo (her characterization is wonderful in this), coming to terms with his past and his potential future(s), and his complicated feelings about and for Steve Rogers.

I would love to quote some lines here just to showcase how well-written and thought-out, how beautiful and poignant this story is, but I don't want to lessen the impact during the actual reading experience. So, please read this. And then read the sequel. You won't regret it.

--

Ok, dear mysterious person, i hope you got something out of this very long reply. I have to quickly post this now, otherwise I will start to rethink my choices (again).

If anybody else wants a rec or just to talk fanfic, my ask box is always open!

[fizzingwizard]

Since I just finished replying to comments...

The other day I saw a post talking about AO3, and one of its points was that if writers don't reply to comments, they shouldn't complain about lack of reader engagement.

Which I thought was interesting, because I never really knew how people feel in general about comment replies. I have always enjoyed replying, even just to say thank you.

But I started out writing fanfiction on fanfiction.net when I was 11 years old, way back when. On ff.net, the way you replied to comments ("reviews") was through basically a private messenger. No one saw your reply except the person who received it, and if the conversation continued it would also be through private messenger.

That meant that replies to comments weren't included in the overall comment count for the fic. If the fic stats said "50 reviews," then all 50 come from unique readers. But on AO3, when you reply to a comment it continues the public comment thread, and is counted as a new comment. You can still find out how many reader comments you have in the Statistics breakdown, but afaik that is only viewable by the fic author. What readers see is the total comment count including replies, similar to how the count of bookmarks in the fic descrip is different than in your Statistics because it doesn't include private ones.

That's why, when I started using AO3 more regularly a couple years ago, I wasn't sure whether it was OK to reply to comments. Obvs the feature exists, but I wondered if in terms of etiquette, an author replying to each individual comment would be seen as padding the comment count - intentionally trying to make 50 reviews look like 100 to impress or entice more readers. At the same time, not saying anything to thank a reader who consistently leaves comments feels like ignoring them. It's funny because although I replied to reviews on ff.net, I didn't often get replies to my own reviews, and it never bothered me. It never occurred to me back then to expect replies, and not getting them never discouraged me from continuing to review. "Padding review count" there was like leaving a bunch of anon reviews of your own fic etc and I think that was the sort of bad behavior in writers which was frowned upon.

So what I've done on AO3 is pretty much reply to every commenter, but not to every comment. If I post a new chapter, I reply to every comment it gets. But if someone goes through my fic and comments on ten chapters en masse, I usually only reply to the most recent one, not all ten. I'm always happy to see someone enjoyed themself enough to want to comment each time they reach the end of a chapter, but I also don't want to annoy them by sending ten variations of "Thank you" at once lol.

Which brings me to another point, and that's the content of comment replies. I often see posts about people being unsure about what to say in a fic comment, and that they feel bad only saying "I like it." As a writer I definitely love both long, in depth comments AND short and sweet ones - they both totally make my day. But what about the content of the comment replies? haha. That's where I get embarrassed sometimes lol. I'm typing "Thank you so much!" so many times that I wonder how many people would prefer to not get a reply if it's going to be the same each time. And then I look back and go crap, I said the same exact phrase to this person the LAST time they commented... or that I left a reply to one reader that is unintentionally almost a carbon copy of one I left someone else...

Detailed comments are much easier to reply to, because there's material to work with. I'm not even talking long comments - just one single detail, like "This chapter was fun, I especially enjoyed the picnic scene" is easier to think up a unique reply to than "I like it." But I equally love both comments - just with the latter how witty I'll manage to be depends on my energy level xP

None of this is anything that keeps me up at night! It's just fanfiction: both in commenting and replies to comments, there should be no pressure and no rules beyond the Golden Rule. The number one thing which threw me was author comments included in the full comment count on AO3. But the thing about ff.net is, we didn't have kudos - the number of comments on a fic was the only metric besides hits which could signal that a fic was well-liked, and considered more reliable than hits because hits were easier to inflate. But on AO3, you have the addition of kudos. Kudos to me is the equivalent of getting a like on a post on tumblr - it's really not very meaningful unless you're getting tons of them, but it's better than getting nothing. And now I realize that being used to judging fics by comment count is something I carried over from ff.net, and maybe not something AO3 users ever think much about - they probably think about kudos. Which does make sense. (ETA: I think I didn't make it clear, but my thoughts on kudos and comments relate to not wanting to run afoul of how they may be perceived by the majority, not because I believe they're actual proof of a fic's value. I think it's better not to consider number of comments, or at least not consider it very highly, and certainly not in comparison to how interesting the fic seems to you. Just read and find out!)

So this long-winded post is just me expressing surprise at the differences I'm still experiencing switching from ff.net to AO3 even all these years later. I always thought of replies to comments as something I like to do, not necessarily something readers look forward to receiving. And I still don't know if they do overall, like the post I referenced at the beginning suggested. But I'm so grateful to all my readers and commenters. And if anyone asks me to stop replying to their individual comments, maybe because they're a prolific commenter on many fics and get deluged with "Thank yous" too often, that should be easy to manage xD

[parmahamlarrie]

Hi! I saw your tags post abt being a super organized fic reader and I was curious if you had any tips/advice for someone wishing they were better at that? 😭

(I’ve stopped and started using an airtable a couple of times over the years but (adhd) can never seem to stick with it and just end up with a billion open tags again and no system.)

Hi there! I'm going to try to explain and keep it brief, but feel free to message me privately if you have more questions!

I have ADHD too, and I just could not find anything I wanted to read if I had the tabs open. I also love using fic rics to see what other people have loved!

As far as TBR (to be read) fics, I have a large (read: very large) Notes App with all the fics I've seen and liked that are under 10k(ish). I have a Mac and iPhone, so I like that the list is available on both. They're just the bullet points that you can check off, and when I find one, I add it to that list with the title, tropes, and length (in hindsight, I think I should have added author? but oh well). I also bold the ones I want to read most, but this... has turned into hundreds being bold too. So, who knows how much that helps. Then I download the fic in the azw3 file, as I typically read longer fics on my kindle.

When it's time to pick something to read, I can search by trope, length, or (usually) I tend to kind of randomly choose, often by playing the "alphabet game" of reading one fic per letter of the alphabet. From this list I also sometimes make monthly To Read lists (like this month, for all my spooky reads).

For all the fics I want to read under 10k, I have them privately bookmarked on AO3, since those I tend to read on my phone/iPad.

As far as the fics I have finished reading, I track them all on an excel sheet. I usually screen shot the ones I've read on my phone so I can add them later, and I use the check mark feature on the Note to show which I read when I come back around to tracking them.

The excel sheet is also very organized, by month I read them, yeah, a large alphabetical list of everything I read, by popular tropes, what rating I give them out of 5, and if I would rec them or not.

Then I just go down the column each month of the ones I said I would rec and use that list for the rec list I make each month.

Okay... this sounds so confusing and all over the place, but I hope it helps! I can post pictures of things if that would be helpful! And I'm happy to share a blank excel sheet if needed!

[feathersandblue]

@gazingattheradianceofthesun replied to your post “So Google banned AO3 from showing up in search...”:

Why?

The short version?

​Because they want to protect German youths from realizing that there's Peter Parker/Tony Stark underage rape/noncon A/B/O fic (mating cycles, in heat, come inflation, daddy kink, humiliation, object insertion, dom/sub) freely available on an archive that does not care how much porn or graphic violence you put in your story, that's why.

Even worse, easily impressed teenagers might stumble accross that gen-rated meet cute coffeeshop AU where they're BOTH barristas and there's only ONE brewing machine! Imagine the scandal.

The long version is this: Germany has a relatively strict pornography law wich makes it a criminal offense to make pornographic material available in any shape or form to people under eighteen. Which, according to a court decision from 2020, can also extend to written and fictional content (for example, sexting with minors). There's been a legal battle with pornhub and xhamster as they're not requiring age verifiction from users. Some providers have already blocked access to their sites.

It's still somewhat of a gray area whether erotica actually falls under the porn category. Especially since "Shades of Grey" features prominently on book store sales counters and Amazon makes explicit erotica easily available to everyone. If the fictional characters are underage, that area gets a lot grayer, however.

But just to illustrate what it means when someone takes the issue seriously: the most popular (*cough*) German fanfic archive fanfiktion.de has been complying with German youth protection laws for years by reminding their writers NOT to make sex the focus of their stories (sex scenes are only allowed to make up up to one third of a text, no PWPs, no heavy kink), and by making possibly entwicklungsbeeinträchtigende* 18+ rated fic available only to adult users (who need to register with official ID) between 23.00 and 4.00 o'clock. Depictions of sexual abuse of underage characters, bestiality, necrophilia are all forbidden without exception.

*entwicklungsbeeinträchtigende = negatively affecting the development of of children and youths

The status quo, for years, has been that fanfic archives based in the US and operating under US terms were flying under the radar. But we've reached a new stage in the fight for net neutrality and control of the free internet. It's not really about porn, it's mostly about politics. It's become a free speech issue.

Countries like China and Russia have been limiting their citizens' access to social networks and content-featuring sites with the help of Big Tech fior quite a while, and now the US and Europe are striving to do the same. Only that our governments are struggling with inconvenient laws that technically forbid any kind of censorship. Hard to keep up the pretense that you're protetcing free speech when you're actually not.

What's happening now is that under the pretense of protecting people from misinformation and disturbing, offensive, or "harmful" content, both the US and the European Union are trying to introduce legislation that forces Big Tech into compliance and thereby forces everyone into compliance because everyone ultimately relies on the tech giants (Google, Meta, Twitter, Amazon, Apple) to access content.

If Google excludes "alternative" media from its search results, that's the fight against misinformation, and everyone applauds. If Google excludes AO3 from its search results (in compliance with German youth protection laws) everyone is aghast. But it's really only part of the same package.

Ultimately, both things are the consequence of governments interfering and trying to control what you are allowed to see. They only have the best of intentions, of course. Never doubt your benevolent beloved parent, The State.

For now, you can still access AO3 from Germany by simply typing the url or using your bookmarks, or access the page through external links. The next step is to block access to the site. I don't think that AO3 has the means to do anything against it. But it would be interesting to know whether the OFTW was contacted in advance on the issue of age verification by the German officials.

[astromechs]

2022 year in review

thank you for the tag @seek--rest

Number of stories posted to AO3:

22

2. Word count this year:

64,281 (this doesn't include things I didn't publish, and this doesn't include things I wrote in private rps with friends, so I have no idea what the actual word count is, that's just what AO3 told me from what I've posted lol, but I would imagine with all that put together it might be close to 100k)

3. Fandoms I wrote for:

taking the list from AO3 (in alphabetical order):

Captain America/Avengers (movies)

Daredevil (comics/TV)

Goncharov (1973)

Guardians of the Galaxy (comics/movies)

Jessica Jones (TV)

Moon Knight (TV)

Nova (comics)

Peacemaker (2022)

Scarlet Witch (comics)

She-Hulk (TV)

The Boys (TV/2019)

X-Men (comics)

4. Pairings:

ok so the list of all the pairings that got stuff posted to AO3:

Adrian Chase/Christopher Smith (Peacemaker)

Jean Grey/Wanda Maximoff (Marvel unless otherwise noted)

Gamora/Peter Quill

Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanoff

Gamora/Richard Rider

Matt Murdock/Marc Spector

Matt Murdock/Jennifer Walters

Matt Murdock/Peter Quill

Jessica Jones/Matt Murdock

Matt Murdock/Elektra Natchios

Queen Maeve/Starlight (Annie January) (The Boys)

Matt Murdock/Foggy Nelson

Matt Murdock/Richard Rider

Katya/Sofia (Goncharov lol)

Wanda Maximoff/Matt Murdock/Richard Rider

5. Stories with the most:

Kudos: this might be all i ever wanted (all i ever wanted to happen to me) — got right in at the She-Hulk finale hype so I think that helped to boost it

Bookmarks: same as above; people were really loving that one at the time it dropped!

Comment threads: whatever happens (happens to the both of us) — my first Peacemaker fic, and I think the timing of this hit when a lot of people were finishing up the show, but I'm really flattered and honored!

Word count: ghost behind my eyes

6. Work I'm most proud of (and why): I'm going to cheat and pick a few:

ghost behind my eyes — at 10,143 words, it remains my longest self-contained one shot, and I'm really proud of the character work I did here. Christopher Smith and his character development are really important to me, and here's to hoping that will continue in Peacemaker season 2!

standing at a broken altar (asking if we feel relief) — represented a whole new creative venture for me, featuring characters I (at least at the time) had never written into fic before, and I'm someone who's... honestly pretty lapsed, religion-wise, and writing this made me think about faith, how it's questioned, tested, and found again, in a way I haven't in a while. That's a theme I'd like to explore more in future writing — and I'm planning to do more of this through Matt.

almost paradise — the story that's been a long time coming for me. Gamora is literally one of my favorite characters of all time, and to say I... did not handle Infinity War well is putting it very, very mildly; that movie came out not that extremely long after a big personal loss in my real life, so losing a character that dear to me at that time was something I took really hard. This is the first time I've actually acknowledged her death in a piece of writing, and I'm proud of myself that I did.

7. Work I'm least proud of (and why): none of them? I don't usually post something unless I feel pretty good about it.

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received:

cannot express how much this comment made my year. yes, I do. when women.

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: Honestly, my biggest challenge surrounding writing is just... working around my own chronic illness (which involves episodic fatigue) and mental health struggles. For one of those reasons or both at the same time, there were periods of the year that made writing more difficult than others. I'm working on incorporating smaller, more manageable writing goals during those periods so that I can still keep working without exhausting myself.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: I wasn't expecting Matt Murdock Slut Era to extend for as long as it did, and yet here we are.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: from almost paradise:

What he deserves, he thinks, is to be left here, alone with ghosts because that’s all he’s fit to provide company for — maybe until he becomes one himself. Because, yeah, if Ego had been telling the truth, for all his words had been worth, with the destruction of his planet, Peter can do that now. That might actually be better for everyone involved, because all he does, clearly, is pull people into a total shitstorm or get them killed. Sometimes both.

But people don’t ever really get what they deserve, do they? His mom, the kindest person the universe would probably ever know, hadn’t deserved to die from a tumor in her brain, put there by an evil man she’d chosen to give her huge heart to.

And he doesn’t deserve a hand reaching toward him, pulling him up from the floor.

12: How did you grow as a writer this year: My writing got a lot smuttier LMAO But it also just... reflected a "fuck it, we ball" type of attitude that I'd been slowly embracing. Inventing ships, writing whatever the fuck I want. I've grown a lot, and I feel really liberated.

13. How do you hope to grow next year: I hope to continue just... following my bliss. I've come a really long way in not caring as much about an invisible audience and just writing whatever I want, and I aim to keep doing that. I aim to keep believing in myself in that way and going the distance with my screwball ideas.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): Would like to thank the discographies of Massive Attack, CHVRCHES, and Taylor Swift for fueling my writing. Also anyone when I said "I'm gonna put these blorbos together" who said "do it".

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: I mentioned it before, but almost paradise was written during a depressive episode and I've joked it was me flinging out all my unresolved grief issues onto the page instead of going to therapy in December (using, you know, one beloved character of mine grieving another beloved character's death as a proxy), so. yes.

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: Don't write to cater to an audience; write to cater to yourself. If you love what you do, readers can see that love, and they'll believe in it, too. Readers are really good at telling what is and isn't genuine, so the best thing to do is just... be yourself.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: I have an existing WIP to finish, and a few more ideas in the can! Featuring: more Vigilmaker, more self-indulgent blorbo ships I invented (featuring either Matt Murdock or Rich Rider or both likely), and GOTG Vol 3 about to wreck my life, so of course I would imagine a good bulk of my writing this year will be related to it. This is all I'll say.

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read:

(no obligation!) @paperprinc3 @literatigeek @sgtjamesrogers @mari--lace @quillsmora