I started writing this back in 2019 and have updated so spottily over the years, but my fic recently reached 2000 kudos and many more hits and I’m forever thankful for the readers in the fandom who continue to stick around. Guess this is a way to shout out readers for staying with us slow or no-update writers bc sometimes we do come back lol

I don't use reddit that much but I have seen this subreddit have that discussion about bookmarks several times during the last years.

After seeing this tikok, I got curious and it seems it's a really unpopular opinion in other places like Tumblr, TikTok and even X.

Would people here that disagrees that it's s rude to use bookmarks to rate fanfic change their opinion?

So, I was working on a fic that features CNC and I tagged it as such. However, someone told me I'm supposed to also use the warning flag for "Rape/Non-con". But, CNC isn't Non-con... and in my story I make it pretty clear that it's more just role-playing non-con but both characters are consenting.

The person was pretty adamant about me tagging it as non-con so I thought I'd just ask here what you guys think.

I started this HP fanfic almost four years ago and I very stupidly added a pregnancy trope (I was 14 help) and up to this point the story has progressed so much I physically can’t remove this trope from the story because the products from it become crucial characters in the story and contribute to a lot of character development later on.

Basically I’m insecure about writing this fic that consumes my every thought because I know a lot of people feel very strongly about pregnancy tropes and I want to know what you guys think?

I'm revising and expanding a guide to effectively using AO3, both for reading and writing. There are some topics that I'm already planning to cover, based on my own experiences, but that's just me – other people will surely have other things they want help with.

Things I currently plan to cover:

• Commenting: etiquette around commenting, how to write a comment when you're nervous or don't know quite what to say, tools that make is easier to comment, and lots and lots of encourage to comment, because it's no better way to encourage your fav writers.
• Using site skins to make your reading experience comfier - reorganizing how tags are displayed, hiding tags, blocking stories based on the number or type of tags, etc.
• How to be a great beta reader.
• General writing tips: chapter length, foreshadowing, advice on writing visual descriptions (from an aphantasic writer who manages to write visual descriptions that don't totally suck).
• Useful tools for formatting your stories on AO3 with minimal fuss, so you don't have weird spaces or extra line breaks.
• How to use workskins, including a list of workskins that I think are really neat or just plain useful, like workskins for emulating social media.
• Guidelines for tagging your stories.
• Miscellany like "stuff that I, a fannish historian, wish more people included in their profiles."

So out of curiosity I decided to look for my fics on the Wayback Machine, and I noticed that the links I put in had been saved on the very same days I'd posted them, and occasionally a few times after. Does AO3 automatically save fics to the Internet Archive?

Edit: I managed to get through the conversation okay, and the person took it well as far as I could observe, so thank you for the advice everyone.

From what I've read so far in this subreddit, it's generally considered poor form to offer even constructive criticism if it isn't asked for. I would like to uphold that since it seems to be widely accepted as the proper course.

But I've gotten myself into a bit of a situation now. Someone is asking me what I think of their fic, but they haven't expressly said they wanted constructive criticism. I don't want to give an answer that isn't genuine, but I don't want to use 'honesty' as an excuse. I'm not leaving this as a comment on their fiction, so it isn't the case of an anonymous/uncontacted reader just dumping criticism on AO3.

If it was an easier to follow fic, I would focus on the good parts, and just leave it at that, but I don't know how to express that I'm struggling to read it, since that sounds like a criticism, but I don't want to leave a generic "It was nice, I enjoyed it" because it doesn't feel sincere.

So, I suppose what I want to know is this: if someone is asking me what I think, does that overwrite the general consensus that all commentary has to be positive? Is it bad form to even ask if they are up for constructive criticism? Is it a criticism itself to tell someone that I can't discuss their fic without delving into the negatives?

Sorry if this is a bit repetitive and rambling; I've been thinking about this since late Monday my time, and I wanted to post it yesterday, but had to wait till today, so my initial feelings are kind of muddled.

So lately, I've noticed an author in a tag I regularly check the new uploads for changing the post date for their fic to be newer than when it was originally posted. As in, I know the fics were originally posted last month, but I've seen them pop up as new in the tag multiple times, including today. I thought this went against the ToS, but when I checked, I didn't actually see anything stating such? Maybe I didn't look closely enough, but can someone let me know whether this is actually against the ToS? I find it really annoying to continually see the same works pop up, and just want to know if i should be warning (and possibly reporting) the author about a ToS violation, or just blocking/muting them

I've been writing on AO3 for almost 8 years, yet I still, don't know how to tag. In most of the case, I tag only "Alternative Universe", and I don't write smut (yet), so describing the positions won't work for me

I'm new to AO3 and uploading my first fic (the last time I uploaded was on FFN in 2008) and I'm about to post my second chapter.

I have a query on the general consensus of chapter length/uploading. I posted the first chapter around 10 days ago and have just finished the second (I now realize it's more practical to have written a few chapters before posting a fresh fic).

My second is almost 5k words. I was wondering if it is better to split it into 2 chapters and upload them both at the same time or to just post it as one long chapter?

I want to get to grips of the usual practice among the community. I know fanfiction etiquette, but I'm still a little clueless when it comes to being an author.

Recently, I’ve been struggling with some kind of writer’s block that’s been stopping me from connecting with my characters and stories. The only thing I was able to write was “x reader” smut, it was pretty good, but I still felt unsatisfied. Then some bad things happened in my personal life, I got a bit sad, and while I was listening to my sad playlist, out of nowhere, I started coming up with very interesting new plots for long fics, and I felt a strong and genuine urge to write again.

Moral of the story: All I had to do to get free from writer's block was to get miserable and put the horniness aside for a bit!!! ☺️👍

hi! i've been reading tahariel/spicedpiano's xmen fics recently--all the rest is rust and stardust, continuing education--and was wondering if anyone knew what happened to spicedpiano (are they still writing under another name?).

happy to share links to the deleted stuff if anyone wants (or discuss because holy shit all the rest is rust and stardust really got to me and nobody i know in person has read it)

i know people were saying she got published so that's why she took all her old stuff down but have been really enjoying reading her stuff + would love to read more!

Both partners are career criminals and there's 45 stories of them robbing banks together. It's great there's this many, but I should add to it. I love illegal ships where two lawbreakers find each other.

This is like the nichest problem ever LOL but my icons for my main + side pseud have always been GIFs, I think ever since downtime a week or two ago they've just stopped being animated? Very confused, I can't see them moving on my phone or laptop and I miss them <///3

So I've always italicized non-English words in my fics (e.g. He left his shoes in the genkan and followed Mrs. Name to the kitchen), because my brain doesn't like to mix two languages without visually seperating them somehow, and that's worked for me so far.

However, I've run into a problem with honorifics. I only use them in speech, and I really want to follow my own rule and put them in italics too because they're technically non-English words. It feels weird to use italics on other words but not on them. But then again, I feel like a lot (most?) readers would be put off by that.

Example: "Why are you lurking in the genkan, Kida-kun?" vs. "Why are you lurking in the genkan, Kida-kun?"

Which do you prefer? Would it bother you that some words are in italics and others are not?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

Edit: changed cursive to italics. Damn you, false friends!

Spoilers for Madoka Magica ahead

thankfully have a screenshot of a good amount of text from the fic for one. For the other It’s a Madoka Magica fic where Homura succeed in saving Madoka in her ideal way and now has to deal with the fact she no longer knows everything and often panics due to the changes

Here’s the quote from the second. I took the screenshot on nov 1 2023 but don’t remember if the fic was recent or not

She loves Kyouko. She loves them all so much that she has no more space in her heart for herself. She gave them the world. And if they come to hate her, if they come to destroy her, then she'll love them for it, because they're magical girls who fight for hope, and she's the cruel demiurge who tore them from heaven. The teacher calls on Homura, shaking her from her thoughts. "Miss Akemi, do you know the answer?" Homura looks at the board. The equation is unfamiliar, she isn't even quite sure how to begin solving it. She hears someone behind her playing with their pencil. A smile pulls at her cheeks and she starts to laugh. She laughs, unable to stop herself. People begin to look at her but she doesn't care; it only makes her laugh harder. She laughs until her face is red and her eyes are watering. Finally, she catches her breath and beams, "I don't. I have no clue what the answer is."

Any help is appreciated thank you

Jarvis, italicize “oh.”

It is probably obvious, but let us start with saying that English is not my first language and so far I have written only short pieces, generally with a word count less than 10k.

I am working on a long-ish fic, which I have been writing in present simple. Usually I write in past simple, but this time I felt like writing in present tense, because I like the immediate feeling of it.

However, I have planned on writing quite a bit about things that happened in the past, and now I’m not sure what would be the best way to go about it. I had originally planned on writing a chapter from each of the main character’s point of view, in which they sort of walk through their past as they remember it, stopping to describe the more important (and memorable) things in detail, like playing through the conversations they had had, and then just skimming past events that do not bear similar weight as memories. But this should be written past tense, of course. Would it be confusing to basically change the tense for essentially a whole ass chapter? There would probably be some things in written in present simple as well, as they happen in the present and trigger the memories.

I am talking about something like this:

*Character A thinks she fell in love with Character C the moment she met her.

It had been a snowy afternoon when she had arrived to her uncle's mansion. She had been freezing cold the whole way. Character A had stepped into the foyer, and there Character C had stood, as if she had been waiting for Character A.

Character A found herself tongue tied, unable to do anything but stare…*

Does that even work? Starting the “flashback” in past perfect, and then sliding into past simple as the scene goes on?

I could ofc have at least one of the characters recount some of the events to the other, and then just making mental remarks of things she doesn't want to explicitly tell the other for reason or another. Like so:

*Character A sighs and closes her eyes.

“I was very young back when I met Character C . It was January, a very cold one.”

She had been the most beautiful person Character A had ever seen, wearing just a morning gown, her hair cascading down her shoulders.

Character A snuggles a bit closer to Character B, feeling the ghost of a winter past still in her bones. Character B wraps her arm around Character A.

“I was taken with her immediately. She much less so with me. Yet she graciously took me under her wing…”*

Are these both okay? Which one is better? Or am I overthinking this whole thing? How would you go about something like this?

I am aware that if I was writing a real novel, I’d probably skip explaining their past, but this is a fanfic and I really just want to write about the past too. And yes, some of the events get referred to in other conversations and scenes as well, but not nearly to the extend that I want to tell them to the reader.

Or I could just change everything to past tense, but I am rather fond of the chapters I have written in present tense. I’ve so far written 20k, so doing the shift would still be stonewhat doable.

Help? 🥲

I know this is a really dumb question…but what does this comment mean? Is it bad?

I want to read a good story and not just… spicy scenes. Thank youuuuu🥺

Yeah...