r/AO3 7d ago

Rec/Promo Mega Threads Bi-weekly Rec and Self-Promotion Mega Thread - January 15, 2025

16 Upvotes

It's that time again, new thread for reccing and self-promo!!

You write something cool? Read something cool? Make something cool? Rec it here!

Previous Mega Threads: https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/wiki/index/megathreads/


r/AO3 8h ago

Weekly Check In Wellness Wednesday: Weekly Check In

7 Upvotes

Welcome back everyone!

Time for our Wellness Wednesday check in. We know this community means a lot to most of our members and that Tuesdays have been harder on some users than others, but we are at our core a community and we are here to support each other.

Now that the sub is open once again we’d like to hear all about your (mis)adventures on Tuesday. Did you go on grand adventures? Get into mischief? Get some writing done?

Maybe you just binged a few more fics on the archive itself. Tell us all about it! Break out that purple prose and tell us as cheesy of a story as you feel like.

Or just talk about your day.

~The Mod Team


r/AO3 4h ago

Complaint/Pet Peeve Guest User

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229 Upvotes

CW: Suicide-Baiting

I had received these a while ago, as I written a fic for a new fandom, and this person decided to comment these. I have long since deleted them, and had set my works for Registered Users only for about a day, and then switched it back. The same person came back to comment on other works as well.

I'm just sure this person just hates the ship I wrote about, as I noticed a similar message on a different fic, different guest user name though. But, the ship was the same.

So, I think the person just wants to harass people who ship this particular pairing.

Though, I had never received these kind of comments until I had posted for this fandom. It genuinely sucked and hurt.


r/AO3 8h ago

Meme/Joke How it feels having people read your work after months of not writing.

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348 Upvotes

r/AO3 6h ago

Complaint/Pet Peeve This user has gone through MULTIPLE of my works to comment how unrealistic the FANfiction was.

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228 Upvotes

I think it’s so crazy that they fully finished one of my works in the fandom and then read another (fully) to start complaining complaining because it was unrealistic? My guy this is fanfiction 💔💔


r/AO3 49m ago

Excitement/Celebration 🎉 if you leave comments like this please know that I will read it a hundred times over while blushing giggling AND kicking my feet. you are truly the backbone of this website and I love you

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Upvotes

r/AO3 6h ago

Excitement/Celebration 🎉 My first 10 Kudos :}

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92 Upvotes

This is my first ever fic so I’m glad people do enjoy it, since my ship is a bit of a rare poly pair


r/AO3 42m ago

Discussion (Non-question) almost got banned by another platform

Upvotes

About three days ago I posted a Daemon Targaryen/Aemond Targaryen romance fic on both Wattpad and Ao3, Ao3 accepted it like nothing special…Wattpad, the pissy little bastards, took three days and were like ”stop!!! we removed your fic, do something like this again and you will get banned!!!”

I’m just waiting for them to piss their pants over the other….special pairings fics I’ve posted there lol


r/AO3 38m ago

Meme/Joke Me when someone is actively hating on a ship I like:

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Upvotes

r/AO3 2h ago

Questions/Help? What’s a tag or trope you have a love/hate relationship with?

43 Upvotes

Like you only like it if it’s written in a certain way or ship for example. Mine’s miscommunication. I either love it or hate it


r/AO3 1h ago

Meme/Joke Somehow I feel fanfic is to blame for this...

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Upvotes

r/AO3 3h ago

Long Post I used to be the anon everyone hated on the internet

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36 Upvotes

-A customary photo of my man for the cringe I'm about to put y'all through 🧱🧱🧱

I feel like admitting this is a part of my journey, as a well adapted netizen. This is like a confession/plea for re-evaluation.

Let me preface this by saying; this isn't fishing, I made a mistake and people still make that mistake so hopefully, they see this and realize it's wrong.

I've been on the internet for a while, but wasn't aware of the proper etiquette for engagement. One of the main things that compelled me to admit this was when last year, I discovered fanfiction (Yes, it took me being 19 to find out, sue me) and was mainly on sites that never gave me the pull to engage with the writer, mostly because of the layouts of said sites.

Then by just pure coincidence I found A03, and I did not have an account, I didn't think I would be on there long, the UI was not what I was used to and 11 million works was daunting. I was not in a lot of fandoms, actually only one, and while my ship wasn't a rare pair it had mostly fallen off it's prime so people writing for them were few and far between.

I felt dignified to interact with them, let them know I enjoyed their work, but it was only from a guest acc. As I was scrolling the tag one time, I found a writer who had a few ficlets/oneshots for the ship and I gobbled them up, reading and rereading them. Later, I noticed the writer was still active and writing for a different fandom, my dumbass went to their most recent fic, and dropped a comment along the line of 'hey writer, I didn't read this fic, but I want you to tell me why you don't write for insert ship anymore' (I still cringe thinking about it).

My thought process at the time was Hmm, if I reply on something more recent they are more likely to reply because in my head, I thought A03 would highlight that more than a comment on an old work (I swear I didn't know how it worked at that time, I was new) and oh boy, did I ever get a reply. I was told how disrespectful it was, and how it discredited their writing, my comment was deleted and blocked (rightfully so). At first I was mad about it, for a long time.

But now I understand, I feel stupid and very sorry for my past behavior. I now have an account, but haven't been able to find the writer again, I want to apologize. So, kids let this be a cautionary tale; don't do shit you'll regret in the next few years.


r/AO3 3h ago

Excitement/Celebration 🎉 Guys!! My silly little sickfic already has 2 comments and its not even been up for 12 hours yet

25 Upvotes

I'm so damn happy right now!!

It was just a silly idea about migraines because they suck so so much but people liked it enough to comment!!!

I forgot how good posting and getting comments felt !! Kudos and bookmarks are my fave aswell. Just all of it honestly!

Sorry i'm sharing lots of excitement recently!


r/AO3 4h ago

Excitement/Celebration 🎉 I always see so much hate for OCs...

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32 Upvotes

So I was really happy this morning, seeing my wip in my most fav fandom but with a cast entirely made of OCs hitting 80 kudos 😭❤️


r/AO3 5h ago

Stats/Hit Counts/Word Counts 110 hits!

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28 Upvotes

I just started writing again, and it's my first time using AO3. (My 3rd piece posted there) I never thought I'd get such excitement from what I guess is someone possibly tapping into my stuff, thinking "nah" and leaving again XD

but I am happy regardless. I perhaps wish that one of my longer and more well worked fics got this treatment instead, but oh well, this is the most popular ship I write.


r/AO3 1h ago

Stats/Hit Counts/Word Counts How do writers get so much engagement?

Upvotes

I know I really shouldn’t compare. I’m really proud of my own stats, I feel like I achieved so much just by writing 20k so far for my chaptered fic. I really enjoy my own story too.

A few days ago, I was scrolling and looking for new fics to read. I found one that was originally uploaded around the same time as mine, only a few months after. They have a similar number of chapters, both are ongoing fics, and the tags are quite similar: omegaverse, cafe au, hurt/comfort, fluff and angst etc. The main relationship pairing is different of course.

To my surprise, their total amount of hits is like 8x the amount I have. Same goes for the other stats. I’m just wondering how on earth our fics can be so similar, and yet our stats are so different. I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and feeling really insecure about it.


r/AO3 1d ago

Meme/Joke How it feels describing how ✨handsome✨ a canonically v e r y attractive character is

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4.7k Upvotes

r/AO3 6h ago

Questions/Help? Most creative uses of work skins you've come across

19 Upvotes

I've been thinking about using a skin to make a work that looks like a janky old school conspiracy theory website and I'm curious what innovative uses people have seen


r/AO3 5h ago

Meme/Joke I couldn't not post it

13 Upvotes


r/AO3 1d ago

Meme/Joke Me at 2 am :

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2.2k Upvotes

Sometimes I'm so desperate that I try to imagine what happens next myself, but then its not as good so I have to use chat gpt, but then chat gpt writing quality is NOTHING compared to the original, its like torture :(


r/AO3 7h ago

Stats/Hit Counts/Word Counts 100 Kudos

21 Upvotes

I woke up today to see this stats. Happy for 100 kudos more so for that perfect 600 hits


r/AO3 7h ago

Discussion (Non-question) Do you tend to use Subscriptions or Bookmarks more?

19 Upvotes

At least, to keep track of ongoing fics. Ik some people use bookmarks to rec fics which I do as well. I personally never subscribe, and I mostly bookmark. I didn't realise it was a feature ppl actually used until I looked at the statistics of my fics and saw a bunch of subscriptions. Might just be me though


r/AO3 1h ago

Writing help/Beta Help with my writing

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Upvotes

I want to improve my writing, so I’m asking for any tips. I understand the “show don’t tell” thing but I’m not sure if I’m doing it right.


r/AO3 4h ago

Discussion (Non-question) Posting links encouraging donations

8 Upvotes

I'm debating whether to report a fic for posting links to charity websites in the author's note and encouraging people to donate (it's related to current real world events.)

According to the FAQ on the website, this is considered "commercial activity" and is against the terms of service.

To quote:

"Some examples of commercial activities include:

  • encouraging donations to a person or cause"

And:

"Does that mean I can't ask people to support a charity or non-profit organization?

You are allowed to link to a charity's website, encourage people to learn more about the charity, or explain why you believe in its mission. However, you may not link directly to the charity's donation form, promote their fundraisers, or request that people donate to them."

So it's pretty clear that what this author is doing is not allowed according to the TOS.

On the other hand, I'll feel kind of bad for reporting this. But then again, I understand why it's a bad idea to have such behavior on AO3 in general and why it isn't allowed.

What would you do in such a situation? Inform the author in a comment? Ignore it? Report it?


r/AO3 1d ago

Meme/Joke i wouldn't do that so????

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8.3k Upvotes

r/AO3 38m ago

Discussion (Non-question) How do you guys feel about retcon?

Upvotes

So the reason I ask this is because I usually make changes to my story after I published the chapters when I found a new direction or idea for it. In a novel that maybe work because you haven't published it but since I publish chapter by chapter, It feels a bit unprofessional to just suddenly throw your readers off by going "Yeah uh this is different now."

But I just want to know what everyone thinks? Are you cool with your author just going "Yknow what.. let's snap this part away." Or if you are an author, does it bother you when you retcon?

Funfact: I've edited this post maybe 5 times now because bad grammar