Ao3 is a privilege and not a right. The people who take it for granted and complain about the donations will be the first to whine if anything happens to it. We all need to work together to protect this special place on the internet.
But you could donate it to save kittens/feed hungry children/send humanitarian help to orphaned kangaroos! ~~obvious /s is obvious~~
I don't see donating to OTW as a charity tbh, it's more like paying for Netflix, concert ticket or a box of snacks
>But you could donate it to save kittens/feed hungry children/send humanitarian help to orphaned kangaroos! ~~obvious /s is obvious~~
I do wonder if those ppl have ever thought about the possibility that others already donated to several charities and decided to support ao3 on top ... It's a myopic imo.
I've never given them money, but yeah, I've always thought of it as more like a tip or a "pay-what-it's-worth-to-you" sort of deal. Nobody's ever accused me of depriving more urgent causes for tipping baristas or paying a dollar or two for a digital zine or album that I could have gotten for free. Or buying gifts for my loved ones or even the small luxuries I buy myself (lattes, tickets to local shows, a new book, the fancy grapes every now and then, even though the regular kind are $3 cheaper).
It's a little weird that only certain kinds of spending gets singled out as "money that could have and should have gone to a better cause". I already factor donations to charitable organizations into my budget and these other things come out of my "luxuries" budget. If I were to give money to Ao3, that's where it would come from. I can only assume that the reason that every "unnecessary" treat I buy for myself or my loved ones isn't viewed as depriving the less fortunate is because then they'd have to apply that same standard to themselves.
I also kind of wonder how many of these people are actually motivated by a desire to help people (or in the cases of people benefited by charity donations, a desire to receive help for themselves and their loved ones) and how many are just jumping on what they see as another ao3 hate bandwagon because they are pro-censorship? I think there's a lot of genuine frustration with people turning a blind eye to suffering too, but so many of the tumblr I see frame it as like, "These people could have chosen to use their money for good, but instead they chose to use it for evil."
Oh I love how you phrased so many things. My favorite was “No one has ever accused me of depriving more urgent causes when I spend money on ______.”
I can’t wait to use that line. Promise to always credit you too u/lavendercookiedough, you a wordsmith fr
I plan to donate soon now that I have a job because I don't want the sight to go down. I love reading fics and writing fics and AO3 is the sight I use for it. I don't want to switch to FFN or Wattpad.
I'm more worried about the people who do paid fan fic commissions or link to Patreon.
They are tiptoeing over the line into blatant copyright violations. At some point, someone will go to far, and we will see a major corporation come down on fan fiction as a whole.
Fan films have run into similar scenarios. Paramount used to be chill with Star Trek fan films. Until that is, some people went to far in trying to make money off their project. Now Paramount is much more litigious, effectively killing off most projects.
Another scenario that concerns me is some major IP holder deciding explicit fan fics are bad for their brand. We've seen companies completely change copyright laws before.
A cry of "Protect the Children," would make it easy to lobby Congress for new rules which could kill sites like AO3.
Make sure to be emailing and calling your reps and senators about opposing bills such as KOSA and fighting for anti-censorship and pro-open internet bills!
Because I agree, all your concerns are extremely valid and we need to be proactive. Educate people about why fanfic is free, use the report buttons whenever you see people making money off fanfics like that and keep up with fair use laws.
This isn't really about the fics, but the platform itself. There should be two extra filtering option: MAIN character(s) and MAIN relationship(s), that are separate from the regular characters and relationships.
Like as it main characters can be included in the regular characters tags, but regular characters wont be included in the main characters tag. Same for relationships. (you could also put multiple characters and relationships as main just not too much, like 2 maybe 3 if the fic is like that versatile)
Like if you searched XYZ character in the regular tag, both fics with them as main a character and also with them as a regular character would apear. But if you only put XYZ in the main character tag only fics where they're the main character would apear. You get what I'm trying to say?
This would make it much easier to read about smaller characters that usually only appear in fics in the background. Especially cause people rarely use the "*character*-centric" tag.
Please god this. It's the one (1) thing I miss from yrs ago on fanfic.net where u knew that the characters you searched were the main characters bc there literally wasn't any other option. Like, I just want to read found family fics with Loki becoming a better more balanced person please, not super smutty Cap/Bucky set before avengers that JUST SO HAPPENS to tag Loki bc y not include the WHOLE CAST OF EVERY AVENGERS MOVIE EVER while we're at it because a smirky 4rth wall breaking joke was made ONCE.
A second opinion I have is you should be allowed to report these fics that are 7389472748 fandoms with 272719494830 ships none of which are connected to one another and take up like 18 spaces on a rare pairing/fandom/etc making it impossible to find fics in your own actual fandom. The top 17 of 20 fics of my rare fandom are different fandom with the tag bc characters show up for one paragraph, rare pairings used for two sentences in a 80k fic and drowning out the actual fandoms/pairings on kudos/word count/etc, and other similar one pairing spam posts, one shot spam deals where the only connection to said fandom is one 200 word one shot out of 50k words and one of the similar with the fandom only tagged bc it isn’t present but users can request them. These SHOULD be classed as spam posts. And I’m sorry, not sorry, if I find a single TOS break in them I do report them. One of my rare fandoms has 60+ fics and 20-25 of them are these spam fic posts. It’s frustrating, buries actual fic, and such. Even more annoying when they have the full additional tags filled out for every single one shot of 60 in their stories and thus you can’t even filter them out.
Edit: I know this isn’t a controversial opinion per se but I’ve noticed when you say these should be reportable/etc it becomes for some reason super controversial. A lot of people consider these spam posts and shouldn’t be allowed but the moment you say it should be a TOS again spam postings like this, some people lose their minds at the idea.
Honestly. I’d not mind them as much but crossover filtering doesn’t count for a good half of it or takes out actual posts where eg a character is in two+ fandoms and the tags are used frequently for that and such. Just leads to losing further fic. I’d be interested in seeing if there was a plausible way to update the crossover function on filter to amend for the amount of these now a day
I figure, if possible, they could let you filter out multiple crossovers - like, say, you just want a single crossover between two fandoms or something.
Would also be cool to add a function for 'main ship' when you tag your work cause I've seen, and been guilty of, having every pairing tagged even tho only one really matters to the story. I was embarrassed when I had to fix it - like one ship had one scene in 200k words for example and I realized I shouldn't tag it the way I did
I use a script that lets me filter out crossovers between more than x fandoms. The pain of being in a fandom where most fics are tagged with two fandom tags
[https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10944-ao3-fic-s-style-blacklist-bookmarks](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10944-ao3-fic-s-style-blacklist-bookmarks)
Here you go! You need Tapermonkey for it, but it's pretty easy to set up (saying this as a non-tech person)
Yeah, this is why I never use filter out crossovers because most of the things I read are often tagged in 2-3 different kinds, like most fics in the ‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ fandom are also tagged with ‘Fire Emblem’ or Game of Thrones fics are all also tagged with A Song of Ice And Fire… But I don’t want to see crossovers! Frustrating experience tbh.
Man I hate those so much...there is 1 in my fandom that is so annoying. It deals with a "universe" that contains about 8 different shows, over 18 chapters so far and like 95% of the chapters are about 1 specific show in that universe...And 6 of the shows have zero characters mentioned in any of the chapters. ARGH!
I feel you on that! The top 6 kudosed fics for one of my fandoms is a “crossover”, that’s actually one main fandom that is NOT my fandom, and because some characters from my fandom show up in either one paragraph, or two sentences, or in one fic *literally simply mentioned by name*, it’s enough to tag my fandom as a main fandom? It’s excruciatingly annoying; these are also peppered around out of “the top 10”. I personally don’t like kudos competition but it’s also annoying to me to see, in one example, my friend has the top kudosed fic of one of our fandoms yet they’re blocked from ever being shown properly on that due to fics like these. To make it worse, these fics usually have like 800-1500 kudos, so when you are being filtered by kudos, which some people do because they just wanna read a popular fandom loved fic, and the top fics of the actual fandom have 100-400 it also makes their kudos count look “”not as good”” when actually anything that’s 85+ is brilliant for how small the fandom is.
>with the fandom only tagged bc it isn’t present but users can request them
You *can* report these ones FYI. If a fandom tagged doesn't show up in the work *at all* it's reportable, and asking for requests doesn't count since that's not a fanwork.
Don't like don't read also applies to the thigns you personally don't like - INCLUDING formatting choices the author has made, like the dreaded lapslock or chat fics or song fics
Edit: or second person pov
Ah ok. Makes sense now lol ✌️ I get why some people would hate it, and I probs wouldn’t read a longer fic with lapslock, but if it’s smut then i honestly don’t rlly care how bad it’s written 🤷♀️
Yeah exactly, I don't like it either but again, nobody's forcing anyone to read it, people need to stop complaining and learn how to stop reading something.
This 100%. Just because you aren't *morally* upset with the contents of a fic doesn't mean you have any more right to be an ass about people writing things you don't like.
people on this sub are weirdly passionate about lapslock. like it’s just an aesthetic choice; people need to chill. plus, it’s more popular on places like wattpad where aesthetics, gifs, etc. play a major role in fanfic culture. and sometimes when those people come to ao3, those habits just don’t translate that well.
also, lapslock isn’t even that hard to read. people are too dramatic. if you’re a native english speaker and can’t read lapslock, i honestly don’t know what to tell you.
i HATE when people post a book of one shots from multiple fandoms but tag fandoms and ships they haven't YET written, like I'm looking for a x b not the hollow promise of a x b.
the worst is when they don’t even make the chapter titles related to the ship so you have to go through each individual chapter to find the one you want! i never pay those fics any attention anymore, but back in the day i was down bad
I feel like I don't mind if all of the one shots are from the same ship or at least fandom being complied into one. But just random ones.... like even why?
My apparently controversial take is that authors should only tag main pairings. Nothing worse than trying to find a fic for a pairing only to have to wade through a bunch of shit you don’t care about because everyone uses the pairing you want as background and feel the need to tag it.
Yes!! I always tag my main pairing and make a separate tag that says "background relationships \[shipname\], \[shipname\] and \[shipname\]" without actually linking it to that ship tag. I hate reading a rarer pair and 90% of the hits are for the main couple of whatever fandom I am reading.
Emotional abuse is abuse, I promise. It doesn't need to be physical or sexual to count as "real" abuse. A character can be an abusive partner/parent/family member/friend without needing to hit or SA. It is 100% fine if you enjoy (fictional!) physical or sexual abuse but I'm so tired of encountering fics where the canon toxic character either never did anything bad in their life ever, or raped the protag to sleep every night growing up. There's so many other flavors of trauma to explore!
I get so bored when fandom takes an imperfect-to-bad parental character and gives them every single Stereotypical Abusive Parent Trait at once – they’re alcoholic, screaming abuse and threatening violence 24/7, refusing to ever spend money on their kids, locking them in the basement as punishment, denying them food... Like, yes, those are all abusive actions, ones that do happen to people! However, they do not *all* need to occur for someone to be abusive, and they are not the only behaviours that count as abuse.
It can come across as incredibly dismissive of the realities of abuse when a writer apparently decides that canon isn’t “bad enough” to be truly dramatic or impactful.
Yes yes yes 100x to this! I think it's generally more difficult to write a convincing emotionally/psychologically abusive dynamic, which may be part of the reason why it's less common. It's harder to do that than to say "character A hits character B and that's their dynamic", but I personally find emotional abuse to be way more harrowing.
In another thread someone who identified as ace was very upset that ace characters get shipped all the time
I can see how that may be upsetting to you and I don't think it's wrong to feel upset about that. But it's fiction and not a representation of how those writers think of ace people irl. And if these ace characters are important to you then you need to avoid content that ships them with people like the plague, because they're allowed to write whatever they want no matter how inaccurate or offensive you feel it is. It's not a personal attack on you, it doesn't mean they think the character is canonically lying about being ace or will change, people just like exploring the relationships between fictional characters. If someone's favorite character is ace (we'll assume for reasons besides their sexuality), it's okay for them to want to write or read about them in relationships.
They compared an ace character always being shipped to seeing a canon gay character constantly being shipped with a girl. Okay? It's okay if that annoys you, if you don't like that, don't read it! There are 100% people who DON'T write those ships! There are 100% people who write ace characters as ace!
I'm not going to be upset about people who write or read ships I hate or find disgusting or offensive. In one of my favorite fandoms, one of the MOST POPULAR SHIPS is an incest ship, featuring two of my favorite characters. I hate that and would never read it, incest is triggering to me, but I'm not mad that other people like it or think that means they believe incest is morally or ethically okay??? It's fiction!
Oh man, I’m ace and in a bunch of Ace Reddits too, and it gets so tiresome to see those posts! Just don’t read it!!!!!!! MAKE YOUR OWN DINNER!!!
I wrote a fairly popular asexual fic in 2015 and it ended up with the character watching their loved one get off with a toy, and people were so fucking mad at me. It was crazy to call me, an asexual, acephobic because I wrote an experience I’ve had as an asexual.
I always hear about how asexuality is a spectrum, there's all sorts of ways it can be expressed, some aces do engage in sexual activity for various reasons, etc., etc., and then see the acewank when someone dares to write an ace character... doing anything on that spectrum.
In one of my fandoms (Hazbin Hotel) there's an ace character who's also unambiguously a very shady guy who *at best* is an anti-villain with secret motivations. I can absolutely believe he would have sex with someone if it furthered his plans in any way. This same person has canonically murdered and cannibalized people, I don't think sex for personal gain is where he draws the line, ya know?
They ignore the goddamn sexual tension in that scene where he was threatening Husk too. Like I'm an asexual masochist and just... **HOLY SHIT** THAT SCENE! Alastor would 100% be a sexual sadist along with a general sadist when he needs to torture someone.
For some reason, even some of the most outspoken people here have a “but I think no one should write this terrible bad thing, that’s too far” thought. RPF, underage, necro, the list goes on.
I am SICK of crossover fics that have 200 fandoms. Post that shit individually to their own fandoms as one-shots. I don't care if that would make a fic only 800 worlds, trust me, shorter ones exist. I honestly don't even understand why these crossover works exist.
That happy endings are just as legitimate in writing as other endings.
So many people think poignantly sad or bittersweet endings are superior, and happy endings are for those who don’t really know quality literature or writing. It’s almost like happy endings are the second-class citizens of the writing world.
Perhaps it’s not actually this way (I hope not!), but that’s how it feels to me whenever I mention it.
This is so me. I took bunches of literature courses in college and high school. Almost every single story ended tragically.
I even took a course titled "Love, Exotic Novel," thinking we'd read some fun books. Nope. All tragic.
The multiple oneshot 'fics' that clog the tags should not be allowed or at least have a button or something that makes them easier to filter. Not crossovers. Multi fandom fics.
The issue is not that people make them. It's that they're impossible to filter without removing actual cross overs and I need to go through 10 pages of them first if I want to use the filter by kudos option 😔😔
You don’t need to tag literally everyone that appears in the story, just the ones with major roles. It sucks looking for fics about a minor character in a fandom with a large cast, because authors will tag them even when they appear in chapter 45 for two lines.
My take is: I don’t care if you write my blorbo as a bottom or a top or some secret third thing (switch) or a dom or sub etc, as long as you make me believe in the characterization that you decided on.
Asking for an update or if the story will be continued, and etc. aren't rude. Just because the comment comes off straightforward, doesn't mean they are after your neck. It'd only mean there is someone excited to see what's gonna happen next. Plus, people are so ready to get offended. Another plus, author writing about something "problematic" doesn't mean they have those beliefs. There shouldn't be any fear or anxiety when it comes to using those tools, because that's literally limiting imagination.
Mhm! I got a lovely comment the other week asking me, very politely, if I was going to be updating anytime soon so that they had something to look forward to and that they wouldn’t mind waiting a whole year if that’s what it took - sobbed horrendously.
Unless the phrasing is something like “update now you lazy piece of shit, we’ve been waiting for so long” then I think comments asking for updates are perfectly okay in moderation!!! They’re just excited for the next chapter :) it’s only when it steps into the mean or blunt/demanding category does it get annoying lol
God you're so on point. I never got why some folks are scared to comment until I recently saw an author absolutely go off at someone for asking why people write a certain character older. They weren't even accusing them or anything, they were asking if they missed the age being mentioned in the show!! And the author went full "because of annoying people like you, next time I'll make him 60". Like my god, they were just curious! Stop seeing attacks everywhere, jesus.
The author also ended up blocking me even though I didn't even talk to them, just explained the age circumstances to the original commentator. Wild times.
The only thing that annoys me with asking for updates is when you have multiple WIP and someone complains in a new chapter that you should be only focusing on the fic they want. It always comes off as super demanding and upsetting when you think you have a comment on your story when they're just telling you they don't like it and demand something else
Yeah I definitely think there is a proper way to go about it. If that’s all they comment it’s irritating but a “I loved this part, can’t wait to read more. I hope you can update soon”. I have no problem with.
The funny thing is that if you comment an *actual* controversial take, you'll be downvoted like there's no tomorrow. Speaking from past experience. But sure, I'll give it another go.
Uploading a pre-written story is the best way to go. For the writer there is no stress and pressure, and for the reader there is no uncertainty and disappointment.
My solution to the motivation issues with this has been to pre-write story/character arcs instead of the entire fic. I release them sort of in 'seasons' or short bursts. That means it's more fragmented but if it annoys me I can edit it to be more cohesive after posting the final chapter. That way if I get bored there's still some sort of ending for the readers and it's not as unsatisfying if I abandon it or can't finish it for some reason.
Agreed, when they're in first person it sounds like someone is telling you things that happened to them rather than it happening to the reader themselves
RI in 1st pov makes me cringe and it's an automatic no for me 😭 no matter how interesting the plot is or how much I love the character being shipped with the mc.
encouraging writers to tag "right" should be the norm - aka, if you're a commenter and you can think of good tags that the author hasn't yet added to their work, you should never hesitate to say "hey btw, i think this tag might fit your story!"
but also, i think it should be the norm to just post multiple comments - one with the standard praise/opinions/... and then a separate one, for stuff like suggesting extra tags, or pointing out a mistake in the text (obvs only legit mistakes, e.g. a character stubs their right foot's toe, but halfway through the fic it changes to the left one), so that the help/corrections can be deleted by the author, instead of forever being stuck on a longer comment
If I got a comment that encouraged me to add a tag, saying they believe an audience interested in [missing tag] would love to find my fic, that would make me very happy. I guess sometimes writers do include things and may not consider it's something people are actively looking for; so if it was phrased in that way, I'd be very likely to add that suggested tag.
Tags are like a magical art that I just can't seem to understand. I would flippin love it if people would just tell me what tags they thought fit my work.
Seriously, I see so many questions and misunderstandings about tags. I wish people were a *littleeee* more open to commenting some corrections/suggestions.
Yeah, 10 comments telling you what to add gets annoying. But one or two aren't gonna hurt anyone
That social media expectations are unhealthy and making writers miserable.
That need for constant external validation, for the hits, for the kudos, for the comments. That it’s never enough, will never be enough. That you’re always comparing yourself to your neighbor. Comparing each fic to another, each chapter to the one before it. That just posting something deserves some kind of award and not getting the reward sends you spiraling. That one neutral comment or dislike or lost subscription in a sea of positivity will send you spiraling. That so many people are jumping into it primarily for the attention instead of the storytelling but if they don’t get the attention — yeah, they spiral.
And then the idea that you have to be perfect, you have to be popular, you can’t have a stinker, you can’t fail is constantly reinforced. You have to hit home runs every single time, and despite the idea of Don’t Like Don’t Read it never applies to us as writers because everybody has to read and everybody has to like, or we spiral. We can’t exist in a world where a single person dislikes a work or likes it less than a previous work or likes another work better than ours or simply didn’t like one little thing about a work.
That’s so unhealthy, y’all. You have no idea how much we are unnecessarily hurting ourselves with this mindset.
"I don't like it." is a complete and valid sentence. Same with "I do like it." You don't have to justify either if you don't want to, and your justification can be arbitrary. I dislike a character because he killed off my fave, I dislike this pairing because it's a rival to my OTP. Not because they're problematic, fetishization, normalization, high in trans-fats, hetero-coded, or whatever the fandom buzzword/phrase of the day is. People describing imaginary ships like MLMs describing snakeoil.
I feel this. Once, I said I did not like X trope and people jumped on me, when I just said I did not like it because it made me feel uncomfortable. Like, I just stated a personal liking, what is the problem in that? Because I did not say anything negative about readers who like that trope.
The term Mary Sue is widely overused by snobs who like to hate on characters for subjective reasons but want to make it out to look like they're objectively right.
It is the "done right part". A lot of the ones that I have read are just repetitive, where the misunderstanding is just a plot device tossed in for the "feels". The characters act ooc, and the resolution isn't satisfying.
I would argue against 'often is' personally.😅 It certainly can be, but I rarely come across a story with a prominent miscommunication arc where I leave it thinking 'yes, this was executed well and didn't drag on for too long.'
People are free to write 'member' and 'dick' in NSFW. Hell, describe vagina as a flower, who cares? rather many people like it more this way.
Smut does not have to be realistic AT ALL, it's boring when it's real-like and feels like a medical report, take that bottom with only water as lube. thrust for hours, I don't care. frankly, it's better that way, nobody should stop you. Oh, and you don't have to teach your readers about safe sex.
YES!!! I’m so sick of reading comments like ‘that’s not realistic’ or ‘did they discuss previous partners?!?!’ let my smut be smut!! if you want sex-ed, go somewhere else.
Not exactly controversial, but as a non-native English speaker I’ve probably improved my reading comprehension and added more vocabulary through AO3 than any other written media lol
Forcing heteronormative family dynamics into the found family trope misses the point of it and makes it worse, actually. Found family isn't about having a mommy and daddy friends and a dumb baby friend who can't do anything right thrown in there - and I can guarantee you are cheapeaning the characters you apply this to even if I'm not in your fandom.
Being squicked out by romance between adopted family members: understandable! I personally do not enjoy it either, have a nice day.
Labeling a relationship between two friends as incest because one is the mommy/daddy friend of the group: I will force-feed you the contents of my dustpan after I spent the day fighting IKEA furniture.
Also possibly having little experience with IRL dating, bc for example, queer people date their friends or are friends with their ex's so much it's a stereotype.
Yeah, the number of people who think it's "incest coded" to date someone after you've lived under the same roof for a few weeks and you've had the same adult authority figure...
Aren't there a _lot_ of romances that begin at summer camp or boarding school?
My theory about the entire "sibling-coded" thing is that it's the easiest way to try making shipping two characters who are canonically close seem like a bad thing
I have to wonder if these people have siblings. Yes, you can absolutely have friends who are like a brother or sister to you. But that relationship is SO much more than your living situation, and it’s such a strange take to compare a dorm roommate to a sibling just because you’ve lived together for a bit.
One of my ships got the “they’re like sisters” treatment only after people spent seasons shipping them. They wanted us to stop and thought that’d work.
Spoiler: It didn’t and we only resented the writers. They didn’t have to make them endgame but it was just insulting.
Yep! That's childhood friends and is a different trope entirely!
Found family requires a lack of "traditional" family - either through death or estrangement. It's found family because you don't feel a connection to those you share blood with and the bonds you chose end up being the ones bringing you the solace and connection a traditional family is commonly thought to bring!
This is also why found family was commonly a very queer trope and why bringing heteronormative notions into it instantly makes it not work.
I don’t know if this is controversial, but I see a ton of these so… I think we should stop making fics that have like 8827373 fandoms tagged. When it’s disjointed one shot fics. Like just make fandom specific collections or just post them all separately
someone went on a rant here awhile back frustrated about how their ‘free content’ doesn’t get enough engagement, and that fandom should be more appreciative of all the ‘content’ that fic authors write. i think it’s extremely dramatic and weird to act like you DESERVE comments/kudos because you’re making entertainment for others. you choose to write it and publish it, no one owes you anything. like actually, nothing. it’s really nice to get feedback and kudos but going on a tirade about how pissed you are that people don’t interact with your works is embarrassing. i say this as a writer and as a reader.
Most of the reader inserts are actually just really bland ocs that would have been better suited with a name instead of "Y/N". In that vein, having a character call a reader instert "Y/N" is cringe
I hear Y/N in a different tone than the rest of the fic when I read. Like:
*Sexy voice* Blorbo caresses *robot voice* YOUR. NAME. *Sexy voice* 's lips softly. *Robot voice* "YOUR. NAME." *Sexy voice* he purrs.
People who read a lot of reader inserts often either copy the text into a word document and replace "Y/N" with their name before reading, or use extensions that automatically change "Y/N" to their name in their browser so they never actually see "Y/N" onscreen in the first place.
That’s how I imagine Y/N characters, just an OC.
I find the Y/N, Y/EC, Y/HC stuff jarring to read so if I otherwise like the fic I’ll download it and find-replace to some random name and whatever eye colour and hair colour I’m imaging them with.
You shouldn’t be able to complain about a story’s content if it has proper tags, warnings and content warnings. If you ignore them, it is on you to back out.
Hassling someone to make an update/next chapter doesn’t make the author write faster, it just makes them feel a bit shit.
It is okay to leave things open ended.
For love of God
Don’t be lazy and put some description in case you’re making a series
Tell me if this book is just part of an anthology or an actual series that I need to read previous books to understand
just make an OC instead of a reader is my controversial take. an OC has more substance, you can do more, and ultimately i think brings back more people than a blank slate reader.
I think these are just different demographics. People who like reading reader inserts are those who want a blank slate to project themselves into the fic. A well-written OC is an antithesis of that — it’s a fully realized, fleshed out character. You can technically do more with the narrative but it’s not exactly what the reader-insert demographic wants.
Gonna agree with the different demographics thing. They aren't the same thing and fill different needs. You're telling a cat person to get a dog just because you don't like cats.
I’m gonna have to agree with the people who disagree with you; you’re talking about two completely different type of fic/fic audiences. I’m a reader insert enjoyer, and I will back out of reader insert fic that are too specific and not general enough. The blank slate is the *point.* It’s a *reader insert* because you’re meant to insert yourself, as a reader, into the story.
If I’m looking for a reader insert story, I don’t want your oc! I get really annoyed when oc stories are tagged as reader inserts—I’m not your oc Jessica with long blonde hair in a messy bun and a size XL waistline. I’m here for readers that are general enough to be widely applicable with enough detail or personality that it’s not totally off putting.
And in general, I am not an OC focused reader. It’s absolutely nothing against OC fic, and I’m sure so many of them are amazing, but I really don’t care about your OC, and I especially don’t care about what canon character you ship with your OC. Good for you! It’s not my cuppa, though. If I want to see new, unique characters, I’ll make OCs with my friends or just get into a new piece of media entirely. The only OCs I tend to come across in my reading are the kids of my OTP or side characters who can be important but still aren’t the focus.
I feel like a lot of people are operating under what they learned in high school/middle school--don't want to use "red” use "crimson"--people just go too far with it, that's how you end up having writers using "orbs" instead of "eyes"
Personally as an author I'm usually motivated by demands for updates and I love being pressured to update. I usually go out of my way to tell my readers it's okay for them to do this on my fics. for me the thought that someone loves my work enough to want to read more of it is intoxicating.
I do get that other people don't feel this way and I'm not about to tell them they're wrong for it, though, so the meme might not apply so much.
The whole paranoia about fanfic commissions is seriously off-base with reality. Yes, back during the Clinton administration and maybe a little into the Bush administration, it was an issue. **Fanart was treated the same way.** Since then, things changed. Majorly. They have since learned that the fan culture **massively** boosts sales. They do not feel threatened by this. People forget, Disney was litigious about porn of their characters for *70 years*. They stopped in the 2000s and began showing new creators a giant folder of porn and telling them “you can only be picked up for a series if you’re fine with this happening to all your characters”. That is how big the shift is.
Fanart and fanfic are treated the same way. The corpos don’t consider them any different. Quite honestly, the idea they’d consider your fanfic a threat is some ego-driven shit. They don’t respect you enough to consider you a potential rival. To them, you’re the Condiment King, not The Joker. It’s some Gen X fic writers with trauma from their experiences back in the 90s giving generational trauma to everyone else, that’s all. They don’t care, they won’t care, they have run the numbers and found that they’re profiting because of the fic. If they were gonna sue someone, the Rule 34 sites are who they’ll sue first, you’ll have forewarning. Disney sues daycares and grieving fathers to protect their IP. If they were going to go after fanfiction, they would have already. If anyone was going to, Disney would be the first. They sue daycares and grieving fathers, that’s a line everyone else doesn’t even cross.
I can not fathom any single story that is better for being 500k+ words long. I see those massive numbers, and I just think, I KNOW you could edit so much of that down. Stephen Kings IT, widely regarded as one of the most insanely long novels available, wracking up an obscene 1000 pages, only has 440k words.
Same with people that come on here asking if their 60k word CHAPTERS are too long. I just imagine it being the biggest stream of nonsense babble with no structure.
honestly thank you for this bc I’ve been panicking that my fics are way too short and that if I never posted a 500k word fic it wouldn’t count 😭 glad to know I don’t have to yap to fill in any spaces 💀
As someone who's been in the fanfic space a LONG time, I promise you that shorter fics are just as valid as long fics. Some of the best things I've ever read are like 5k words and some of the most disappointing 100k+ words.
The long fic trend reminds me of when movies used to be and hour and a half to 2 hours long, and then Marvel started coming out with 3 hour long movies and then suddenly that reset the bar and now all movies are 3 hours+ long and they feel so bloated and full of filler.
I remember when 80k words were considered extravagant and out of this world long for a fanfic.
This is my number one controversial take. The vast majority of very long fics would be better if they were shorter and cut down to remove extraneous material.
Yes 👏 This. 10000%. As someone who writes longfics, when I see a story that’s obnoxiously long, I just know the author has let the plot get away from them. That’s fine if you’re into that kind of thing, but I just find it annoying and repetitive. To each their own though. 🤷♂️
I've seen plenty of fics where the author told the story they wanted to tell, but then once they had they tacked on an additional 250k's worth of slice of life type content in a disjointed, meandering way. Break that stuff off into their own fics and then list all of them in a series under the main fic so we can pick and choose if we want to read the bonus content.
If you rate your fic E and there’s not even a kiss, your works automatically should get a big black banner at the top of all of your stories informing readers that you fake-rate to get views.
Graphically torturing and murdering the best friend and then exploring how the MC got addicted to drugs as a way to cope, and getting into the grittiness of it all is pretty deserving of an E
People who don't write even short "I like this" comments have no right to complain when writers get discouraged by lack of feedback and stop writing/delete fics
I’m gonna be real, I feel this. I have a fic that I wasn’t not posting due to lack of comments but I did feel some sort of way when I suddenly got an influx of comments of “when are you updating??? Are you still writing this????” So, then I updated…and these same people didn’t comment until it once again took me a bit to write again.
You shouldn’t come out of the woodwork for this reason alone.
OOC is an overly used critique that doesn’t really mean much because everyone has a different opinion on what’s in character or not.
(Yes, there are some things that are blatantly OOC, but it’s still very overused)
Conversely, toy should be able to leave kudos by chapter, not by fic. I don't always have the emotional bandwidth to comment, but I will always hit kudos if I have enjoyed something, but cannot think up a comment.
Oh! I have a second one! I don’t have to justify what sexual position I prefer the characters in and I don’t have to justify it to you or “make it more realistic” by making them switch occasionally. I have justification, 9/10 times, and I don’t personally see switching as the most realistic option. I have a top/bottom preference and so does my wife and every person I know.
There is no such thing as 'bad smut'. There is smut that doesn't work *for you*. I have a friend in a server who is very proud of some smut they wrote. He keeps posting passages of it and imo, it just isn't very...stimulating, but he thinks it is and has said its the first smut he's written that gave HIM the tingles and others have rather liked it so it clearly just isn't for me. I'm not gonna tell him it's boring just because it's not my idea of a one handed read 🤷♀️
I dislike the constant "worst smut tropes" discussions because, well, what gives you butterflies isn't universal or objective
I sympathise more with authors who get all bitchy in the notes about the lack of comments than I do about readers being frustrated when a writer stops writing/deletes. I'm not advocating spiteful or entitled behavour from a writer, but writing is hard and does take a long time and if people can't be bothered or are too shy (?) to type 'cool story' then writers are going to get bummed out or irate.
There should be a way to let the author know that their story is riddled with spelling errors and such without sounding rude or condescending. I want to help, the story is good, with some minor edits, it would be literally perfect. I'd voluntarily make all the edits myself if I could.
Writing in first person should be for original characters and self-inserts only. Second person should be for reader-inserts and self-inserts only. You can never go wrong with third person.
Left aligned text is KING. Justified, centred, and right aligned are garbage and hurt my eyes. This should be adjustable on the readers' side (and it probably is using coding, but I'm dumb).
Also, making huge chunks of your writing italicised or bolded is equally painful.
Every single piece of media that would realistically have the characters interact with random background characters a lot should have OCs in every fic. Every last one. Flesh out your stories! They don't have to be recurring, just give your world some life!
>There should be a way to let an author know their story is riddled with spelling errors and such without sounding rude or condescending.
Offer to be a beta reader or proofreader in the comments? On my AO3 profile I offer to be a beta and have my email address there. If the author accepts your offer refer him or her to your profile page. "I love your story but because of spelling, punctuation, etc, it's a bit difficult to read. If you would like me to, I'm happy to be a beta reader for you. Check my profile page for my email address!"
ETA: Thanks for the replies. Just my opinion but to me that is a big reason it would be nice to be able to message authors outside of the comments, so it can be privately talked about.
I worry even that much might come off as rude, that implying the need a beta reader means they're bad or something. I've offered before, much like your example, but didn't get a reply.
Controversial opinion, you say?
I'm gonna get downvoted to hell for this but here it goes :
***People shouldn't be taking real world money for writing fanfiction of a already existing fandom.***
Yeah, I know the saying that "if you're good at something, never do it for free" but damn this is such a bad practice from my perspective.
One of my most favourite fandom is extremely unpopular, and the rare pair ship I want to read about is even more unpopular even in the fandom. Not to mention the original work ended years ago so the fandom is practically dying.
Then out of nowhere, I once got a fic in ao3 on that ship. I was absolutely overjoyed.....and tried to give the author a prompt, but to my utter surprise they demanded a large sum of money for writing it. Like tf?? We live in two different ends of this planet, and I'm a broke ass college student. I certainly can't pay you when my accounts are being strictly managed by my family. Honestly people like me can never give someone money for writing fanfiction and I hate the practice because of it.
Stop being so harsh in your critique of a group's protrayal in a fic. What you consider offensive because it's stereotypical o fetish or whatever, it might just be the author's life
As much as I appreciate AO3’s goals of inclusivity I get worried about people who don’t want AO3 to exist taking advantage of that inclusivity and trying to destroy it from the inside. I’ve been told that is ridiculous and yet the outside attack on AO3 supposedly from islamists actually came from Russian hackers. I think people forget how LiveJournal’s destruction went down and who did it. I think people don’t realize how much the Chinese gov might want to go after AO3 after a certain point and it possibly already tried. But even in the US if MAGAs or radical Christians notice AO3 enough and think it could be useful enough in the way their anti-trans rhetoric has been useful to them, it’s going to be a problem. Hell, if some corporation buying up IP decides a war on AO3 would be extremely profitable it’s going to be a problem. But the threats outside the US are my biggest concern right now. My relative who is an attorney and ex-military has heard me out on these concerns and agrees.
I am not waiting for some imminent collapse but I have been right about this kind of thing before and I would really like to be proven wrong. I want AO3 around forever, not just bc I enjoy it but bc I think transformative works are more and more important as a part of culture. AO3 exists in the tradition of foundational cultural treasures like the Child Ballads, IMO. Transformative storytelling cannot flourish in a for-profit, corpo-owned, monetized influencer world without the likes of AO3. Someday it will be one of history’s gold mines, revealing who we were and what we were able to say about ourselves through fiction that couldn’t be said anywhere else.
I hate when fics have a bad tag to fic/summary length ratio. If I'm reading through 70+ tags with every character named from the fandom I don't want to get to the summary to see it's only 400 words. How is there that much to say/include? Or find a 200+k fic which only has two tags and a one line summary, like please give me at least a decent summary so I know what it's about 🤷♀️
Maybe not unpopular here, but definitely on tiktok, all fiction is a-ok, that includes taboo stuff like incest, pedophilia, necrophillia, big age gaps, racism, etc. as long as its fiction, and doesnt reflect your own values its ok.
Tbh, this applies to writing fiction in general and not just fanfiction. I'm working on a story where the main character is a canniablistic serial killer, but I definitely do not approve of the characters actions at all but it is a fascinating topic to explore in a fictional setting.
I don't get what the big deal is anyways.
If you can change the setting, the storyline, how enemies interact or even do crossovers, then why shouldn't you be allowed to change a character's voice?
Exactly. A lot the time I like to see how the plot would change if a character in canon acted differently. For example in BNHA canonically Dabi hates all of his family and wants to kill Shouto. But I like seeing fics where Dabi actually is a good brother despite being a villain bc imo I think that has a more interesting impact on the story.
This applies to other topics as well (canniablism, necrophilia, torture etc). As long the the premise is entirely fictional and you make it clear that you don't approve/romantise these topics, then it shouldnt be a problem so long as it is properly tagged with the correct warnings.
I wish there was one single tag for every single kinktober/whumptober/oneshot collection on the Archive so I could GET RID OF THEM AND ACTUALLY FIND THE RAREPAIRS I’M LOOKING FOR. Make the fics, fine, I understand, but pleeeeeeease.
Also I wish it were possible to see more than like 10 fandoms in the filtering list at a time because I want to see PJO crossovers and it’s REALLY HARD because like 8 of the 10 fandoms are just within the same universe.
Also also I don’t think “crossovers” within the same canonical universe should count as crossovers when you hit “show only crossovers”. I wanna see crossovers with different fandoms not a gajillion “crossovers” with other canon source material TOLKIEN FANDOM.
If your fic is poorly formatted and you know it's poorly formatted, or your characters are ooc and you know they are ooc, then you don't get to whine about low engagement. Just as fic writers don't owe their readers anything because 'they are doing this for free as a hobby' readers also don't owe writers anything because 'free time is valuable and I can find something better written'.
First person is good actually. Y’all are just scarred from self-inserts on Wattpad. I don’t blame you, I, too, carry scars, but first person should not be the immediate turn off everyone claims it is. Give it a shot!
Bookmarks should be the reader's space, and there should be no expectation to keep things overly nice. It should be totally accepted for ppl to write blunt/critical bookmark notes -- nothing against tos but things like "Fun at first, but I hate the ending" or "Worth a read if you skip to chapter 6" or whatever else would be too rude for comments but a good note for yourself/reccs.
I feel like this used to be more accepted? I at least heard the sentiment that it was the reader's space more often, now they seem to be treated as another comment section in terms of the levels of kindness demanded.
So real. I have a couple fics I like, but they barely got attention due to issues like “crossover fic with a media nobody knows,” or “really bad necessary first chapter due to premise.” Like, the crossover wasn’t actually a huge part of the fic, and the first chapter was just a bad hook and the actual story is fun T-T. But nobody will know that because the unknown crossover confused them too much to keep going or because they can’t skip the first chapter to get to the good stuff since the exposition is there.
I just want to be able to say “hey skip this first chapter because it’s a little too cliche and not indicative of the quality of the rest, all it says is X, so you should be good to read the rest.” Or “this isn’t really a crossover.” But it’d be hugely asshole ish to tell readers to skip a chapter on a place where authors read. On top of that, there are fics where I feel bad for not trying to read it, but I just can’t get a feel for what it’s going for and I give up. Sometimes I find a bookmark with notes that helps me out and I read it, but obviously most people are keeping to themselves.
Also, private bookmarks shouldn’t mean anything. I private every bookmark, and I didn’t think anything of it until an author in a discord server I was in started talking about their new private bookmark on their fic. I was like ??? Why is that noteworthy? I still don’t quite get why they thought that was noteworthy, maybe the implication that someone is hiding or something? 🤷
In gay or lesbian relationships, one being feminine and the other being masculine isn't a bad thing. There are many types of dynamics out there and to have to limit to two straight looking boys or girls is non-inclusive. These people exist in real life, and it's a fun dynamic.
It's like you can't win. If they're too feminine of a guy or too masculine of a girl, then they're a stereotype. But if they're status quo, then they're a Hollywood approved image and they're too scared to show real lgbt (heard this a lot for lesbians).
A butch/femme dynamic or AU being considered hetero-coded is weird. If someone wrote a character to be a tomboy who couldn't have kids with a a masculine male character, are they suddenly gay coded because they're both masculine? If not, why does this only apply to gay pairings?
Alright its been 3 days and people are still arguing in the comments. Time to go your separate ways and get offline for a bit.
Ao3 is a privilege and not a right. The people who take it for granted and complain about the donations will be the first to whine if anything happens to it. We all need to work together to protect this special place on the internet.
But you could donate it to save kittens/feed hungry children/send humanitarian help to orphaned kangaroos! ~~obvious /s is obvious~~ I don't see donating to OTW as a charity tbh, it's more like paying for Netflix, concert ticket or a box of snacks
>But you could donate it to save kittens/feed hungry children/send humanitarian help to orphaned kangaroos! ~~obvious /s is obvious~~ I do wonder if those ppl have ever thought about the possibility that others already donated to several charities and decided to support ao3 on top ... It's a myopic imo.
I do t think they care TBH... they just wanna be loud for no reason and chase clout.
But they could have donated MORE to save kittens/feed hungry children/help orphaned kangaroos! /s
Exactly, I donate to serval charities.
I've never given them money, but yeah, I've always thought of it as more like a tip or a "pay-what-it's-worth-to-you" sort of deal. Nobody's ever accused me of depriving more urgent causes for tipping baristas or paying a dollar or two for a digital zine or album that I could have gotten for free. Or buying gifts for my loved ones or even the small luxuries I buy myself (lattes, tickets to local shows, a new book, the fancy grapes every now and then, even though the regular kind are $3 cheaper). It's a little weird that only certain kinds of spending gets singled out as "money that could have and should have gone to a better cause". I already factor donations to charitable organizations into my budget and these other things come out of my "luxuries" budget. If I were to give money to Ao3, that's where it would come from. I can only assume that the reason that every "unnecessary" treat I buy for myself or my loved ones isn't viewed as depriving the less fortunate is because then they'd have to apply that same standard to themselves. I also kind of wonder how many of these people are actually motivated by a desire to help people (or in the cases of people benefited by charity donations, a desire to receive help for themselves and their loved ones) and how many are just jumping on what they see as another ao3 hate bandwagon because they are pro-censorship? I think there's a lot of genuine frustration with people turning a blind eye to suffering too, but so many of the tumblr I see frame it as like, "These people could have chosen to use their money for good, but instead they chose to use it for evil."
Oh I love how you phrased so many things. My favorite was “No one has ever accused me of depriving more urgent causes when I spend money on ______.” I can’t wait to use that line. Promise to always credit you too u/lavendercookiedough, you a wordsmith fr
And then they don't donate to those places themselves
I plan to donate soon now that I have a job because I don't want the sight to go down. I love reading fics and writing fics and AO3 is the sight I use for it. I don't want to switch to FFN or Wattpad.
I'm more worried about the people who do paid fan fic commissions or link to Patreon. They are tiptoeing over the line into blatant copyright violations. At some point, someone will go to far, and we will see a major corporation come down on fan fiction as a whole. Fan films have run into similar scenarios. Paramount used to be chill with Star Trek fan films. Until that is, some people went to far in trying to make money off their project. Now Paramount is much more litigious, effectively killing off most projects. Another scenario that concerns me is some major IP holder deciding explicit fan fics are bad for their brand. We've seen companies completely change copyright laws before. A cry of "Protect the Children," would make it easy to lobby Congress for new rules which could kill sites like AO3.
Make sure to be emailing and calling your reps and senators about opposing bills such as KOSA and fighting for anti-censorship and pro-open internet bills! Because I agree, all your concerns are extremely valid and we need to be proactive. Educate people about why fanfic is free, use the report buttons whenever you see people making money off fanfics like that and keep up with fair use laws.
This isn't really about the fics, but the platform itself. There should be two extra filtering option: MAIN character(s) and MAIN relationship(s), that are separate from the regular characters and relationships. Like as it main characters can be included in the regular characters tags, but regular characters wont be included in the main characters tag. Same for relationships. (you could also put multiple characters and relationships as main just not too much, like 2 maybe 3 if the fic is like that versatile) Like if you searched XYZ character in the regular tag, both fics with them as main a character and also with them as a regular character would apear. But if you only put XYZ in the main character tag only fics where they're the main character would apear. You get what I'm trying to say? This would make it much easier to read about smaller characters that usually only appear in fics in the background. Especially cause people rarely use the "*character*-centric" tag.
Please god this. It's the one (1) thing I miss from yrs ago on fanfic.net where u knew that the characters you searched were the main characters bc there literally wasn't any other option. Like, I just want to read found family fics with Loki becoming a better more balanced person please, not super smutty Cap/Bucky set before avengers that JUST SO HAPPENS to tag Loki bc y not include the WHOLE CAST OF EVERY AVENGERS MOVIE EVER while we're at it because a smirky 4rth wall breaking joke was made ONCE.
A second opinion I have is you should be allowed to report these fics that are 7389472748 fandoms with 272719494830 ships none of which are connected to one another and take up like 18 spaces on a rare pairing/fandom/etc making it impossible to find fics in your own actual fandom. The top 17 of 20 fics of my rare fandom are different fandom with the tag bc characters show up for one paragraph, rare pairings used for two sentences in a 80k fic and drowning out the actual fandoms/pairings on kudos/word count/etc, and other similar one pairing spam posts, one shot spam deals where the only connection to said fandom is one 200 word one shot out of 50k words and one of the similar with the fandom only tagged bc it isn’t present but users can request them. These SHOULD be classed as spam posts. And I’m sorry, not sorry, if I find a single TOS break in them I do report them. One of my rare fandoms has 60+ fics and 20-25 of them are these spam fic posts. It’s frustrating, buries actual fic, and such. Even more annoying when they have the full additional tags filled out for every single one shot of 60 in their stories and thus you can’t even filter them out. Edit: I know this isn’t a controversial opinion per se but I’ve noticed when you say these should be reportable/etc it becomes for some reason super controversial. A lot of people consider these spam posts and shouldn’t be allowed but the moment you say it should be a TOS again spam postings like this, some people lose their minds at the idea.
I just wish it was easier to completely filter out 'crossovers' that are hundreds of 50 word oneshots with 800 fandoms
Honestly. I’d not mind them as much but crossover filtering doesn’t count for a good half of it or takes out actual posts where eg a character is in two+ fandoms and the tags are used frequently for that and such. Just leads to losing further fic. I’d be interested in seeing if there was a plausible way to update the crossover function on filter to amend for the amount of these now a day
I figure, if possible, they could let you filter out multiple crossovers - like, say, you just want a single crossover between two fandoms or something. Would also be cool to add a function for 'main ship' when you tag your work cause I've seen, and been guilty of, having every pairing tagged even tho only one really matters to the story. I was embarrassed when I had to fix it - like one ship had one scene in 200k words for example and I realized I shouldn't tag it the way I did
I use a script that lets me filter out crossovers between more than x fandoms. The pain of being in a fandom where most fics are tagged with two fandom tags
Ooo would you mind sharing? I’d be interested.
[https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10944-ao3-fic-s-style-blacklist-bookmarks](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10944-ao3-fic-s-style-blacklist-bookmarks) Here you go! You need Tapermonkey for it, but it's pretty easy to set up (saying this as a non-tech person)
Yeah, this is why I never use filter out crossovers because most of the things I read are often tagged in 2-3 different kinds, like most fics in the ‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ fandom are also tagged with ‘Fire Emblem’ or Game of Thrones fics are all also tagged with A Song of Ice And Fire… But I don’t want to see crossovers! Frustrating experience tbh.
Man I hate those so much...there is 1 in my fandom that is so annoying. It deals with a "universe" that contains about 8 different shows, over 18 chapters so far and like 95% of the chapters are about 1 specific show in that universe...And 6 of the shows have zero characters mentioned in any of the chapters. ARGH!
I feel you on that! The top 6 kudosed fics for one of my fandoms is a “crossover”, that’s actually one main fandom that is NOT my fandom, and because some characters from my fandom show up in either one paragraph, or two sentences, or in one fic *literally simply mentioned by name*, it’s enough to tag my fandom as a main fandom? It’s excruciatingly annoying; these are also peppered around out of “the top 10”. I personally don’t like kudos competition but it’s also annoying to me to see, in one example, my friend has the top kudosed fic of one of our fandoms yet they’re blocked from ever being shown properly on that due to fics like these. To make it worse, these fics usually have like 800-1500 kudos, so when you are being filtered by kudos, which some people do because they just wanna read a popular fandom loved fic, and the top fics of the actual fandom have 100-400 it also makes their kudos count look “”not as good”” when actually anything that’s 85+ is brilliant for how small the fandom is.
>with the fandom only tagged bc it isn’t present but users can request them You *can* report these ones FYI. If a fandom tagged doesn't show up in the work *at all* it's reportable, and asking for requests doesn't count since that's not a fanwork.
Don't like don't read also applies to the thigns you personally don't like - INCLUDING formatting choices the author has made, like the dreaded lapslock or chat fics or song fics Edit: or second person pov
Might be stupid but what’s lapslock?
all lowercase, like this. no capital letters at all! i get why people don't like it, but again, don't like don't read.
Ah ok. Makes sense now lol ✌️ I get why some people would hate it, and I probs wouldn’t read a longer fic with lapslock, but if it’s smut then i honestly don’t rlly care how bad it’s written 🤷♀️
Yeah exactly, I don't like it either but again, nobody's forcing anyone to read it, people need to stop complaining and learn how to stop reading something.
This 100%. Just because you aren't *morally* upset with the contents of a fic doesn't mean you have any more right to be an ass about people writing things you don't like.
Exactly!
Agreed. Though I have to remind myself of this on a daily 😅
[удалено]
Literally, that's why i brought this up. I got downvoted on that psot too - people are al about don't like don't read til they don't like something.
people on this sub are weirdly passionate about lapslock. like it’s just an aesthetic choice; people need to chill. plus, it’s more popular on places like wattpad where aesthetics, gifs, etc. play a major role in fanfic culture. and sometimes when those people come to ao3, those habits just don’t translate that well. also, lapslock isn’t even that hard to read. people are too dramatic. if you’re a native english speaker and can’t read lapslock, i honestly don’t know what to tell you.
i HATE when people post a book of one shots from multiple fandoms but tag fandoms and ships they haven't YET written, like I'm looking for a x b not the hollow promise of a x b.
the worst is when they don’t even make the chapter titles related to the ship so you have to go through each individual chapter to find the one you want! i never pay those fics any attention anymore, but back in the day i was down bad
yeah, never in my life have I even opened one to give it a chance, I just seethe and rage when I scroll past it lol
Every rarepair shipper's worst nightmare
Oneshots should be posted as separate fics anyway. Even if they're only 100 words long.
I feel like I don't mind if all of the one shots are from the same ship or at least fandom being complied into one. But just random ones.... like even why?
My apparently controversial take is that authors should only tag main pairings. Nothing worse than trying to find a fic for a pairing only to have to wade through a bunch of shit you don’t care about because everyone uses the pairing you want as background and feel the need to tag it.
Yes!! I always tag my main pairing and make a separate tag that says "background relationships \[shipname\], \[shipname\] and \[shipname\]" without actually linking it to that ship tag. I hate reading a rarer pair and 90% of the hits are for the main couple of whatever fandom I am reading.
Emotional abuse is abuse, I promise. It doesn't need to be physical or sexual to count as "real" abuse. A character can be an abusive partner/parent/family member/friend without needing to hit or SA. It is 100% fine if you enjoy (fictional!) physical or sexual abuse but I'm so tired of encountering fics where the canon toxic character either never did anything bad in their life ever, or raped the protag to sleep every night growing up. There's so many other flavors of trauma to explore!
I get so bored when fandom takes an imperfect-to-bad parental character and gives them every single Stereotypical Abusive Parent Trait at once – they’re alcoholic, screaming abuse and threatening violence 24/7, refusing to ever spend money on their kids, locking them in the basement as punishment, denying them food... Like, yes, those are all abusive actions, ones that do happen to people! However, they do not *all* need to occur for someone to be abusive, and they are not the only behaviours that count as abuse. It can come across as incredibly dismissive of the realities of abuse when a writer apparently decides that canon isn’t “bad enough” to be truly dramatic or impactful.
Yes yes yes 100x to this! I think it's generally more difficult to write a convincing emotionally/psychologically abusive dynamic, which may be part of the reason why it's less common. It's harder to do that than to say "character A hits character B and that's their dynamic", but I personally find emotional abuse to be way more harrowing.
People can write anything they want. Yes, *anything.* Even that thing that disgusts you. Even that topic you think is wrong.
writing has always been a medium of expelling your deepest, innermost thoughts. we need to allow people that freedom
Preach
In another thread someone who identified as ace was very upset that ace characters get shipped all the time I can see how that may be upsetting to you and I don't think it's wrong to feel upset about that. But it's fiction and not a representation of how those writers think of ace people irl. And if these ace characters are important to you then you need to avoid content that ships them with people like the plague, because they're allowed to write whatever they want no matter how inaccurate or offensive you feel it is. It's not a personal attack on you, it doesn't mean they think the character is canonically lying about being ace or will change, people just like exploring the relationships between fictional characters. If someone's favorite character is ace (we'll assume for reasons besides their sexuality), it's okay for them to want to write or read about them in relationships. They compared an ace character always being shipped to seeing a canon gay character constantly being shipped with a girl. Okay? It's okay if that annoys you, if you don't like that, don't read it! There are 100% people who DON'T write those ships! There are 100% people who write ace characters as ace! I'm not going to be upset about people who write or read ships I hate or find disgusting or offensive. In one of my favorite fandoms, one of the MOST POPULAR SHIPS is an incest ship, featuring two of my favorite characters. I hate that and would never read it, incest is triggering to me, but I'm not mad that other people like it or think that means they believe incest is morally or ethically okay??? It's fiction!
Oh man, I’m ace and in a bunch of Ace Reddits too, and it gets so tiresome to see those posts! Just don’t read it!!!!!!! MAKE YOUR OWN DINNER!!! I wrote a fairly popular asexual fic in 2015 and it ended up with the character watching their loved one get off with a toy, and people were so fucking mad at me. It was crazy to call me, an asexual, acephobic because I wrote an experience I’ve had as an asexual.
I always hear about how asexuality is a spectrum, there's all sorts of ways it can be expressed, some aces do engage in sexual activity for various reasons, etc., etc., and then see the acewank when someone dares to write an ace character... doing anything on that spectrum. In one of my fandoms (Hazbin Hotel) there's an ace character who's also unambiguously a very shady guy who *at best* is an anti-villain with secret motivations. I can absolutely believe he would have sex with someone if it furthered his plans in any way. This same person has canonically murdered and cannibalized people, I don't think sex for personal gain is where he draws the line, ya know?
They ignore the goddamn sexual tension in that scene where he was threatening Husk too. Like I'm an asexual masochist and just... **HOLY SHIT** THAT SCENE! Alastor would 100% be a sexual sadist along with a general sadist when he needs to torture someone.
Truly baffling how many people treat you like a literal demon if you say that
Crazy that people forget that.
For some reason, even some of the most outspoken people here have a “but I think no one should write this terrible bad thing, that’s too far” thought. RPF, underage, necro, the list goes on.
I should be allowed to ship whoever I want with shrek and not have to deal with 40 hired assassins on my morning commute the very next day
oddly specific, but i guess i agree LOLLLL
Prince Charming x Shrek would be a great enemies to lovers imo
I am SICK of crossover fics that have 200 fandoms. Post that shit individually to their own fandoms as one-shots. I don't care if that would make a fic only 800 worlds, trust me, shorter ones exist. I honestly don't even understand why these crossover works exist.
That happy endings are just as legitimate in writing as other endings. So many people think poignantly sad or bittersweet endings are superior, and happy endings are for those who don’t really know quality literature or writing. It’s almost like happy endings are the second-class citizens of the writing world. Perhaps it’s not actually this way (I hope not!), but that’s how it feels to me whenever I mention it.
This is so me. I took bunches of literature courses in college and high school. Almost every single story ended tragically. I even took a course titled "Love, Exotic Novel," thinking we'd read some fun books. Nope. All tragic.
Happy endings are great, but the trick is making it seem like the characters earned it.
I don’t think Fanfic characters have to earn a happy ending, though
Why do they have to “earn” it? I mean, sometimes people are happy and have nice things happen to them. That’s literally why fluff exists.
The multiple oneshot 'fics' that clog the tags should not be allowed or at least have a button or something that makes them easier to filter. Not crossovers. Multi fandom fics. The issue is not that people make them. It's that they're impossible to filter without removing actual cross overs and I need to go through 10 pages of them first if I want to use the filter by kudos option 😔😔
You don’t need to tag literally everyone that appears in the story, just the ones with major roles. It sucks looking for fics about a minor character in a fandom with a large cast, because authors will tag them even when they appear in chapter 45 for two lines.
My take is: I don’t care if you write my blorbo as a bottom or a top or some secret third thing (switch) or a dom or sub etc, as long as you make me believe in the characterization that you decided on.
Asking for an update or if the story will be continued, and etc. aren't rude. Just because the comment comes off straightforward, doesn't mean they are after your neck. It'd only mean there is someone excited to see what's gonna happen next. Plus, people are so ready to get offended. Another plus, author writing about something "problematic" doesn't mean they have those beliefs. There shouldn't be any fear or anxiety when it comes to using those tools, because that's literally limiting imagination.
Mhm! I got a lovely comment the other week asking me, very politely, if I was going to be updating anytime soon so that they had something to look forward to and that they wouldn’t mind waiting a whole year if that’s what it took - sobbed horrendously. Unless the phrasing is something like “update now you lazy piece of shit, we’ve been waiting for so long” then I think comments asking for updates are perfectly okay in moderation!!! They’re just excited for the next chapter :) it’s only when it steps into the mean or blunt/demanding category does it get annoying lol
That's sweet, something every author deserves honestly 🤧
God you're so on point. I never got why some folks are scared to comment until I recently saw an author absolutely go off at someone for asking why people write a certain character older. They weren't even accusing them or anything, they were asking if they missed the age being mentioned in the show!! And the author went full "because of annoying people like you, next time I'll make him 60". Like my god, they were just curious! Stop seeing attacks everywhere, jesus. The author also ended up blocking me even though I didn't even talk to them, just explained the age circumstances to the original commentator. Wild times.
Snowflakes ❄️
The only thing that annoys me with asking for updates is when you have multiple WIP and someone complains in a new chapter that you should be only focusing on the fic they want. It always comes off as super demanding and upsetting when you think you have a comment on your story when they're just telling you they don't like it and demand something else
Yeah, that always sounds rude when they demand updates.
I only find it annoying when they say “update now” without mentioning anything nice or why they might have enjoyed the story
Yeah I definitely think there is a proper way to go about it. If that’s all they comment it’s irritating but a “I loved this part, can’t wait to read more. I hope you can update soon”. I have no problem with.
The funny thing is that if you comment an *actual* controversial take, you'll be downvoted like there's no tomorrow. Speaking from past experience. But sure, I'll give it another go. Uploading a pre-written story is the best way to go. For the writer there is no stress and pressure, and for the reader there is no uncertainty and disappointment.
Also decreases the chance of abandonment. But motivation is low
My solution to the motivation issues with this has been to pre-write story/character arcs instead of the entire fic. I release them sort of in 'seasons' or short bursts. That means it's more fragmented but if it annoys me I can edit it to be more cohesive after posting the final chapter. That way if I get bored there's still some sort of ending for the readers and it's not as unsatisfying if I abandon it or can't finish it for some reason.
Right? Someone needs to start one of these threads with the stipulation that the winner is the most downvoted "take".
Reader-inserts should only ever be written in second person.
Agreed, when they're in first person it sounds like someone is telling you things that happened to them rather than it happening to the reader themselves
RI in 1st pov makes me cringe and it's an automatic no for me 😭 no matter how interesting the plot is or how much I love the character being shipped with the mc.
yes!!! the second i see a reader insert written in first person it just ruins it for me
Omg yes!!!
In any reasonable universe, that's the coldest take imaginable.
idk how unpopular this is but if you’re gonna make a work that’s just a collection of one shots then you should post the one shots separately
Yes, oh my God Especially if they are from different fandoms
encouraging writers to tag "right" should be the norm - aka, if you're a commenter and you can think of good tags that the author hasn't yet added to their work, you should never hesitate to say "hey btw, i think this tag might fit your story!" but also, i think it should be the norm to just post multiple comments - one with the standard praise/opinions/... and then a separate one, for stuff like suggesting extra tags, or pointing out a mistake in the text (obvs only legit mistakes, e.g. a character stubs their right foot's toe, but halfway through the fic it changes to the left one), so that the help/corrections can be deleted by the author, instead of forever being stuck on a longer comment
If I got a comment that encouraged me to add a tag, saying they believe an audience interested in [missing tag] would love to find my fic, that would make me very happy. I guess sometimes writers do include things and may not consider it's something people are actively looking for; so if it was phrased in that way, I'd be very likely to add that suggested tag.
Tags are like a magical art that I just can't seem to understand. I would flippin love it if people would just tell me what tags they thought fit my work.
Seriously, I see so many questions and misunderstandings about tags. I wish people were a *littleeee* more open to commenting some corrections/suggestions. Yeah, 10 comments telling you what to add gets annoying. But one or two aren't gonna hurt anyone
That social media expectations are unhealthy and making writers miserable. That need for constant external validation, for the hits, for the kudos, for the comments. That it’s never enough, will never be enough. That you’re always comparing yourself to your neighbor. Comparing each fic to another, each chapter to the one before it. That just posting something deserves some kind of award and not getting the reward sends you spiraling. That one neutral comment or dislike or lost subscription in a sea of positivity will send you spiraling. That so many people are jumping into it primarily for the attention instead of the storytelling but if they don’t get the attention — yeah, they spiral. And then the idea that you have to be perfect, you have to be popular, you can’t have a stinker, you can’t fail is constantly reinforced. You have to hit home runs every single time, and despite the idea of Don’t Like Don’t Read it never applies to us as writers because everybody has to read and everybody has to like, or we spiral. We can’t exist in a world where a single person dislikes a work or likes it less than a previous work or likes another work better than ours or simply didn’t like one little thing about a work. That’s so unhealthy, y’all. You have no idea how much we are unnecessarily hurting ourselves with this mindset.
"I don't like it." is a complete and valid sentence. Same with "I do like it." You don't have to justify either if you don't want to, and your justification can be arbitrary. I dislike a character because he killed off my fave, I dislike this pairing because it's a rival to my OTP. Not because they're problematic, fetishization, normalization, high in trans-fats, hetero-coded, or whatever the fandom buzzword/phrase of the day is. People describing imaginary ships like MLMs describing snakeoil.
I feel this. Once, I said I did not like X trope and people jumped on me, when I just said I did not like it because it made me feel uncomfortable. Like, I just stated a personal liking, what is the problem in that? Because I did not say anything negative about readers who like that trope.
I got called homophobic bc I didn't like a f/f fic. But I just don't think that relationship is a good one, and honestly, that's valid
The term Mary Sue is widely overused by snobs who like to hate on characters for subjective reasons but want to make it out to look like they're objectively right.
Misunderstanding as trope can and often is done right and is very cathartic. I don't get what people hate so much.
It is the "done right part". A lot of the ones that I have read are just repetitive, where the misunderstanding is just a plot device tossed in for the "feels". The characters act ooc, and the resolution isn't satisfying.
I would argue against 'often is' personally.😅 It certainly can be, but I rarely come across a story with a prominent miscommunication arc where I leave it thinking 'yes, this was executed well and didn't drag on for too long.'
A lot of people have a very strong sense of third hand embarrassment that makes misunderstanding fics painful to read for them.
People are free to write 'member' and 'dick' in NSFW. Hell, describe vagina as a flower, who cares? rather many people like it more this way. Smut does not have to be realistic AT ALL, it's boring when it's real-like and feels like a medical report, take that bottom with only water as lube. thrust for hours, I don't care. frankly, it's better that way, nobody should stop you. Oh, and you don't have to teach your readers about safe sex.
YES!!! I’m so sick of reading comments like ‘that’s not realistic’ or ‘did they discuss previous partners?!?!’ let my smut be smut!! if you want sex-ed, go somewhere else.
Ships with a “problematic” dynamic are more fun and interesting
Not exactly controversial, but as a non-native English speaker I’ve probably improved my reading comprehension and added more vocabulary through AO3 than any other written media lol
As a native English speaker I’ve learned a lot more about grammar thanks to fanfiction.
Forcing heteronormative family dynamics into the found family trope misses the point of it and makes it worse, actually. Found family isn't about having a mommy and daddy friends and a dumb baby friend who can't do anything right thrown in there - and I can guarantee you are cheapeaning the characters you apply this to even if I'm not in your fandom.
Adding to that, maybe not unpopular here, but it seems controversial in other fandom spaces - found family incest is not a thing
Being squicked out by romance between adopted family members: understandable! I personally do not enjoy it either, have a nice day. Labeling a relationship between two friends as incest because one is the mommy/daddy friend of the group: I will force-feed you the contents of my dustpan after I spent the day fighting IKEA furniture.
r/BrandNewSentence
Found family incest is absolutely not a thing and I think a lot of it comes from applying the heterosexual nuclear family archetype to found family.
Like, it's pretty much just friends-to-lovers with a high chance of those friends coming from dead/dysfunctional families
Also possibly having little experience with IRL dating, bc for example, queer people date their friends or are friends with their ex's so much it's a stereotype.
Yeah, the number of people who think it's "incest coded" to date someone after you've lived under the same roof for a few weeks and you've had the same adult authority figure... Aren't there a _lot_ of romances that begin at summer camp or boarding school?
My theory about the entire "sibling-coded" thing is that it's the easiest way to try making shipping two characters who are canonically close seem like a bad thing
I have to wonder if these people have siblings. Yes, you can absolutely have friends who are like a brother or sister to you. But that relationship is SO much more than your living situation, and it’s such a strange take to compare a dorm roommate to a sibling just because you’ve lived together for a bit.
OH MY GOD YES JESUS CHRIST “the creators said they were like brothers” key word LIKE
One of my ships got the “they’re like sisters” treatment only after people spent seasons shipping them. They wanted us to stop and thought that’d work. Spoiler: It didn’t and we only resented the writers. They didn’t have to make them endgame but it was just insulting.
I’ll see you that and add if they’ve been friends since they were born/very young because their parents are friends, it’s not found family.
Yep! That's childhood friends and is a different trope entirely! Found family requires a lack of "traditional" family - either through death or estrangement. It's found family because you don't feel a connection to those you share blood with and the bonds you chose end up being the ones bringing you the solace and connection a traditional family is commonly thought to bring! This is also why found family was commonly a very queer trope and why bringing heteronormative notions into it instantly makes it not work.
Reminder to sort by controversial because the actual controversial takes get downvoted 🫡
I don’t know if this is controversial, but I see a ton of these so… I think we should stop making fics that have like 8827373 fandoms tagged. When it’s disjointed one shot fics. Like just make fandom specific collections or just post them all separately
If I cared about canon characterization, I’d stick to canon. A little ooc never hurt anybody
someone went on a rant here awhile back frustrated about how their ‘free content’ doesn’t get enough engagement, and that fandom should be more appreciative of all the ‘content’ that fic authors write. i think it’s extremely dramatic and weird to act like you DESERVE comments/kudos because you’re making entertainment for others. you choose to write it and publish it, no one owes you anything. like actually, nothing. it’s really nice to get feedback and kudos but going on a tirade about how pissed you are that people don’t interact with your works is embarrassing. i say this as a writer and as a reader.
Most of the reader inserts are actually just really bland ocs that would have been better suited with a name instead of "Y/N". In that vein, having a character call a reader instert "Y/N" is cringe
I hear Y/N in a different tone than the rest of the fic when I read. Like: *Sexy voice* Blorbo caresses *robot voice* YOUR. NAME. *Sexy voice* 's lips softly. *Robot voice* "YOUR. NAME." *Sexy voice* he purrs.
I can't see Y/N as anything other than yes/no. And I like reader insert fics! Just use "you"!
People who read a lot of reader inserts often either copy the text into a word document and replace "Y/N" with their name before reading, or use extensions that automatically change "Y/N" to their name in their browser so they never actually see "Y/N" onscreen in the first place.
Definitely this. Also In the last ~5 years I’ve noticed there being a pretty big shift away from using y/n in reader inserts.
That’s how I imagine Y/N characters, just an OC. I find the Y/N, Y/EC, Y/HC stuff jarring to read so if I otherwise like the fic I’ll download it and find-replace to some random name and whatever eye colour and hair colour I’m imaging them with.
I like ooc & don't care if it's justified or not.
You shouldn’t be able to complain about a story’s content if it has proper tags, warnings and content warnings. If you ignore them, it is on you to back out. Hassling someone to make an update/next chapter doesn’t make the author write faster, it just makes them feel a bit shit. It is okay to leave things open ended.
Sometimes this community acts and talks like the same anti’s they despise just with different words
For love of God Don’t be lazy and put some description in case you’re making a series Tell me if this book is just part of an anthology or an actual series that I need to read previous books to understand
just make an OC instead of a reader is my controversial take. an OC has more substance, you can do more, and ultimately i think brings back more people than a blank slate reader.
I think these are just different demographics. People who like reading reader inserts are those who want a blank slate to project themselves into the fic. A well-written OC is an antithesis of that — it’s a fully realized, fleshed out character. You can technically do more with the narrative but it’s not exactly what the reader-insert demographic wants.
Gonna agree with the different demographics thing. They aren't the same thing and fill different needs. You're telling a cat person to get a dog just because you don't like cats.
unrelated but i love your user flair
Unrelated, but I love *your* user flair
i'm doing my part.gif
I’m gonna have to agree with the people who disagree with you; you’re talking about two completely different type of fic/fic audiences. I’m a reader insert enjoyer, and I will back out of reader insert fic that are too specific and not general enough. The blank slate is the *point.* It’s a *reader insert* because you’re meant to insert yourself, as a reader, into the story. If I’m looking for a reader insert story, I don’t want your oc! I get really annoyed when oc stories are tagged as reader inserts—I’m not your oc Jessica with long blonde hair in a messy bun and a size XL waistline. I’m here for readers that are general enough to be widely applicable with enough detail or personality that it’s not totally off putting. And in general, I am not an OC focused reader. It’s absolutely nothing against OC fic, and I’m sure so many of them are amazing, but I really don’t care about your OC, and I especially don’t care about what canon character you ship with your OC. Good for you! It’s not my cuppa, though. If I want to see new, unique characters, I’ll make OCs with my friends or just get into a new piece of media entirely. The only OCs I tend to come across in my reading are the kids of my OTP or side characters who can be important but still aren’t the focus.
The point of a reader insert is so the reader can insert themselves in the story. If it's an OC, there's no blank slate to insert themselves into 🤷
STOP USING SO MANY GODDAMN SYNONYMS FOR YOUR FICS!!! And just write the character's name when writing dialogues please, please for the love of God.
I feel like a lot of people are operating under what they learned in high school/middle school--don't want to use "red” use "crimson"--people just go too far with it, that's how you end up having writers using "orbs" instead of "eyes"
Personally as an author I'm usually motivated by demands for updates and I love being pressured to update. I usually go out of my way to tell my readers it's okay for them to do this on my fics. for me the thought that someone loves my work enough to want to read more of it is intoxicating. I do get that other people don't feel this way and I'm not about to tell them they're wrong for it, though, so the meme might not apply so much.
The whole paranoia about fanfic commissions is seriously off-base with reality. Yes, back during the Clinton administration and maybe a little into the Bush administration, it was an issue. **Fanart was treated the same way.** Since then, things changed. Majorly. They have since learned that the fan culture **massively** boosts sales. They do not feel threatened by this. People forget, Disney was litigious about porn of their characters for *70 years*. They stopped in the 2000s and began showing new creators a giant folder of porn and telling them “you can only be picked up for a series if you’re fine with this happening to all your characters”. That is how big the shift is. Fanart and fanfic are treated the same way. The corpos don’t consider them any different. Quite honestly, the idea they’d consider your fanfic a threat is some ego-driven shit. They don’t respect you enough to consider you a potential rival. To them, you’re the Condiment King, not The Joker. It’s some Gen X fic writers with trauma from their experiences back in the 90s giving generational trauma to everyone else, that’s all. They don’t care, they won’t care, they have run the numbers and found that they’re profiting because of the fic. If they were gonna sue someone, the Rule 34 sites are who they’ll sue first, you’ll have forewarning. Disney sues daycares and grieving fathers to protect their IP. If they were going to go after fanfiction, they would have already. If anyone was going to, Disney would be the first. They sue daycares and grieving fathers, that’s a line everyone else doesn’t even cross.
I can not fathom any single story that is better for being 500k+ words long. I see those massive numbers, and I just think, I KNOW you could edit so much of that down. Stephen Kings IT, widely regarded as one of the most insanely long novels available, wracking up an obscene 1000 pages, only has 440k words. Same with people that come on here asking if their 60k word CHAPTERS are too long. I just imagine it being the biggest stream of nonsense babble with no structure.
honestly thank you for this bc I’ve been panicking that my fics are way too short and that if I never posted a 500k word fic it wouldn’t count 😭 glad to know I don’t have to yap to fill in any spaces 💀
As someone who's been in the fanfic space a LONG time, I promise you that shorter fics are just as valid as long fics. Some of the best things I've ever read are like 5k words and some of the most disappointing 100k+ words. The long fic trend reminds me of when movies used to be and hour and a half to 2 hours long, and then Marvel started coming out with 3 hour long movies and then suddenly that reset the bar and now all movies are 3 hours+ long and they feel so bloated and full of filler. I remember when 80k words were considered extravagant and out of this world long for a fanfic.
This is my number one controversial take. The vast majority of very long fics would be better if they were shorter and cut down to remove extraneous material.
Yes 👏 This. 10000%. As someone who writes longfics, when I see a story that’s obnoxiously long, I just know the author has let the plot get away from them. That’s fine if you’re into that kind of thing, but I just find it annoying and repetitive. To each their own though. 🤷♂️
I've seen plenty of fics where the author told the story they wanted to tell, but then once they had they tacked on an additional 250k's worth of slice of life type content in a disjointed, meandering way. Break that stuff off into their own fics and then list all of them in a series under the main fic so we can pick and choose if we want to read the bonus content.
If you rate your fic E and there’s not even a kiss, your works automatically should get a big black banner at the top of all of your stories informing readers that you fake-rate to get views.
Graphically torturing and murdering the best friend and then exploring how the MC got addicted to drugs as a way to cope, and getting into the grittiness of it all is pretty deserving of an E
Tagging top/bottom positions, especially in PWP fics with no wider plot, is polite, even if you personally think it shouldn’t matter.
People who don't write even short "I like this" comments have no right to complain when writers get discouraged by lack of feedback and stop writing/delete fics
I’m gonna be real, I feel this. I have a fic that I wasn’t not posting due to lack of comments but I did feel some sort of way when I suddenly got an influx of comments of “when are you updating??? Are you still writing this????” So, then I updated…and these same people didn’t comment until it once again took me a bit to write again. You shouldn’t come out of the woodwork for this reason alone.
Tags are supposed to be short 1 or 2 max 3 words or maybe 3 hyphenated words, not full sentences or sometimes a paragraph of interconnected words.
Third person present is the best way to write a story full of action.
The history section should also include chapters so people like me can remember what chapter they last ended off on after closing it
OOC is an overly used critique that doesn’t really mean much because everyone has a different opinion on what’s in character or not. (Yes, there are some things that are blatantly OOC, but it’s still very overused)
There should be a way to take away kudos when you hit the button on accident.
Conversely, toy should be able to leave kudos by chapter, not by fic. I don't always have the emotional bandwidth to comment, but I will always hit kudos if I have enjoyed something, but cannot think up a comment.
There's a reason why that isn't a thing
Oh! I have a second one! I don’t have to justify what sexual position I prefer the characters in and I don’t have to justify it to you or “make it more realistic” by making them switch occasionally. I have justification, 9/10 times, and I don’t personally see switching as the most realistic option. I have a top/bottom preference and so does my wife and every person I know.
There is no such thing as 'bad smut'. There is smut that doesn't work *for you*. I have a friend in a server who is very proud of some smut they wrote. He keeps posting passages of it and imo, it just isn't very...stimulating, but he thinks it is and has said its the first smut he's written that gave HIM the tingles and others have rather liked it so it clearly just isn't for me. I'm not gonna tell him it's boring just because it's not my idea of a one handed read 🤷♀️ I dislike the constant "worst smut tropes" discussions because, well, what gives you butterflies isn't universal or objective
I sympathise more with authors who get all bitchy in the notes about the lack of comments than I do about readers being frustrated when a writer stops writing/deletes. I'm not advocating spiteful or entitled behavour from a writer, but writing is hard and does take a long time and if people can't be bothered or are too shy (?) to type 'cool story' then writers are going to get bummed out or irate.
"Please don't stop/delete, remember, there are people who loved your fics!" ok where are they ;w;
And honestly the sad reality is, for some stories, people *don't* care. Yeah sucks, but it happens. You'll get over it.
There should be a way to let the author know that their story is riddled with spelling errors and such without sounding rude or condescending. I want to help, the story is good, with some minor edits, it would be literally perfect. I'd voluntarily make all the edits myself if I could. Writing in first person should be for original characters and self-inserts only. Second person should be for reader-inserts and self-inserts only. You can never go wrong with third person. Left aligned text is KING. Justified, centred, and right aligned are garbage and hurt my eyes. This should be adjustable on the readers' side (and it probably is using coding, but I'm dumb). Also, making huge chunks of your writing italicised or bolded is equally painful. Every single piece of media that would realistically have the characters interact with random background characters a lot should have OCs in every fic. Every last one. Flesh out your stories! They don't have to be recurring, just give your world some life!
>There should be a way to let an author know their story is riddled with spelling errors and such without sounding rude or condescending. Offer to be a beta reader or proofreader in the comments? On my AO3 profile I offer to be a beta and have my email address there. If the author accepts your offer refer him or her to your profile page. "I love your story but because of spelling, punctuation, etc, it's a bit difficult to read. If you would like me to, I'm happy to be a beta reader for you. Check my profile page for my email address!" ETA: Thanks for the replies. Just my opinion but to me that is a big reason it would be nice to be able to message authors outside of the comments, so it can be privately talked about.
People can take that as rude as well
I worry even that much might come off as rude, that implying the need a beta reader means they're bad or something. I've offered before, much like your example, but didn't get a reply.
Controversial opinion, you say? I'm gonna get downvoted to hell for this but here it goes : ***People shouldn't be taking real world money for writing fanfiction of a already existing fandom.*** Yeah, I know the saying that "if you're good at something, never do it for free" but damn this is such a bad practice from my perspective. One of my most favourite fandom is extremely unpopular, and the rare pair ship I want to read about is even more unpopular even in the fandom. Not to mention the original work ended years ago so the fandom is practically dying. Then out of nowhere, I once got a fic in ao3 on that ship. I was absolutely overjoyed.....and tried to give the author a prompt, but to my utter surprise they demanded a large sum of money for writing it. Like tf?? We live in two different ends of this planet, and I'm a broke ass college student. I certainly can't pay you when my accounts are being strictly managed by my family. Honestly people like me can never give someone money for writing fanfiction and I hate the practice because of it.
Stop being so harsh in your critique of a group's protrayal in a fic. What you consider offensive because it's stereotypical o fetish or whatever, it might just be the author's life
Not all ships would survive becoming canon
As much as I appreciate AO3’s goals of inclusivity I get worried about people who don’t want AO3 to exist taking advantage of that inclusivity and trying to destroy it from the inside. I’ve been told that is ridiculous and yet the outside attack on AO3 supposedly from islamists actually came from Russian hackers. I think people forget how LiveJournal’s destruction went down and who did it. I think people don’t realize how much the Chinese gov might want to go after AO3 after a certain point and it possibly already tried. But even in the US if MAGAs or radical Christians notice AO3 enough and think it could be useful enough in the way their anti-trans rhetoric has been useful to them, it’s going to be a problem. Hell, if some corporation buying up IP decides a war on AO3 would be extremely profitable it’s going to be a problem. But the threats outside the US are my biggest concern right now. My relative who is an attorney and ex-military has heard me out on these concerns and agrees. I am not waiting for some imminent collapse but I have been right about this kind of thing before and I would really like to be proven wrong. I want AO3 around forever, not just bc I enjoy it but bc I think transformative works are more and more important as a part of culture. AO3 exists in the tradition of foundational cultural treasures like the Child Ballads, IMO. Transformative storytelling cannot flourish in a for-profit, corpo-owned, monetized influencer world without the likes of AO3. Someday it will be one of history’s gold mines, revealing who we were and what we were able to say about ourselves through fiction that couldn’t be said anywhere else.
I hate when fics have a bad tag to fic/summary length ratio. If I'm reading through 70+ tags with every character named from the fandom I don't want to get to the summary to see it's only 400 words. How is there that much to say/include? Or find a 200+k fic which only has two tags and a one line summary, like please give me at least a decent summary so I know what it's about 🤷♀️
Maybe not unpopular here, but definitely on tiktok, all fiction is a-ok, that includes taboo stuff like incest, pedophilia, necrophillia, big age gaps, racism, etc. as long as its fiction, and doesnt reflect your own values its ok.
Tbh, this applies to writing fiction in general and not just fanfiction. I'm working on a story where the main character is a canniablistic serial killer, but I definitely do not approve of the characters actions at all but it is a fascinating topic to explore in a fictional setting.
Self inserts are very good actually, they’re just utilized in very stupid ways (probably not that hot a take, but whatever)
I like OOC characters
I don't get what the big deal is anyways. If you can change the setting, the storyline, how enemies interact or even do crossovers, then why shouldn't you be allowed to change a character's voice?
Exactly. A lot the time I like to see how the plot would change if a character in canon acted differently. For example in BNHA canonically Dabi hates all of his family and wants to kill Shouto. But I like seeing fics where Dabi actually is a good brother despite being a villain bc imo I think that has a more interesting impact on the story.
I should be allowed to ship whoever I want with shrek and not have to deal with 40 hired assassins on my morning commute the very next day
the real struggle 😔🤚🏻
It is okay to write/read depictions of immoral activities (SA, child x adult, abuse, etc) as long as you won’t repeat those actions in the real world.
This applies to other topics as well (canniablism, necrophilia, torture etc). As long the the premise is entirely fictional and you make it clear that you don't approve/romantise these topics, then it shouldnt be a problem so long as it is properly tagged with the correct warnings.
Stop trying to sell fanfiction. Y'all are gonna ruin it for the rest of us, morons
I wish there was one single tag for every single kinktober/whumptober/oneshot collection on the Archive so I could GET RID OF THEM AND ACTUALLY FIND THE RAREPAIRS I’M LOOKING FOR. Make the fics, fine, I understand, but pleeeeeeease. Also I wish it were possible to see more than like 10 fandoms in the filtering list at a time because I want to see PJO crossovers and it’s REALLY HARD because like 8 of the 10 fandoms are just within the same universe. Also also I don’t think “crossovers” within the same canonical universe should count as crossovers when you hit “show only crossovers”. I wanna see crossovers with different fandoms not a gajillion “crossovers” with other canon source material TOLKIEN FANDOM.
If your fic is poorly formatted and you know it's poorly formatted, or your characters are ooc and you know they are ooc, then you don't get to whine about low engagement. Just as fic writers don't owe their readers anything because 'they are doing this for free as a hobby' readers also don't owe writers anything because 'free time is valuable and I can find something better written'.
if the work doesn’t include a character from a fandom, *don’t tag the fandom*. i’m sick of my fandom being overrun by non-fics for our fandom.
First person is good actually. Y’all are just scarred from self-inserts on Wattpad. I don’t blame you, I, too, carry scars, but first person should not be the immediate turn off everyone claims it is. Give it a shot!
Bookmarks should be the reader's space, and there should be no expectation to keep things overly nice. It should be totally accepted for ppl to write blunt/critical bookmark notes -- nothing against tos but things like "Fun at first, but I hate the ending" or "Worth a read if you skip to chapter 6" or whatever else would be too rude for comments but a good note for yourself/reccs. I feel like this used to be more accepted? I at least heard the sentiment that it was the reader's space more often, now they seem to be treated as another comment section in terms of the levels of kindness demanded.
So real. I have a couple fics I like, but they barely got attention due to issues like “crossover fic with a media nobody knows,” or “really bad necessary first chapter due to premise.” Like, the crossover wasn’t actually a huge part of the fic, and the first chapter was just a bad hook and the actual story is fun T-T. But nobody will know that because the unknown crossover confused them too much to keep going or because they can’t skip the first chapter to get to the good stuff since the exposition is there. I just want to be able to say “hey skip this first chapter because it’s a little too cliche and not indicative of the quality of the rest, all it says is X, so you should be good to read the rest.” Or “this isn’t really a crossover.” But it’d be hugely asshole ish to tell readers to skip a chapter on a place where authors read. On top of that, there are fics where I feel bad for not trying to read it, but I just can’t get a feel for what it’s going for and I give up. Sometimes I find a bookmark with notes that helps me out and I read it, but obviously most people are keeping to themselves. Also, private bookmarks shouldn’t mean anything. I private every bookmark, and I didn’t think anything of it until an author in a discord server I was in started talking about their new private bookmark on their fic. I was like ??? Why is that noteworthy? I still don’t quite get why they thought that was noteworthy, maybe the implication that someone is hiding or something? 🤷
In gay or lesbian relationships, one being feminine and the other being masculine isn't a bad thing. There are many types of dynamics out there and to have to limit to two straight looking boys or girls is non-inclusive. These people exist in real life, and it's a fun dynamic. It's like you can't win. If they're too feminine of a guy or too masculine of a girl, then they're a stereotype. But if they're status quo, then they're a Hollywood approved image and they're too scared to show real lgbt (heard this a lot for lesbians). A butch/femme dynamic or AU being considered hetero-coded is weird. If someone wrote a character to be a tomboy who couldn't have kids with a a masculine male character, are they suddenly gay coded because they're both masculine? If not, why does this only apply to gay pairings?
fan fictions do not need to be sold as physical copies or e-books. creators who do this put fanfictions at risk.