A nebula is hard to navigate

AO3 / chasing plot bunnies...

[awizardcommandingsleep]

Yet another writing ask

Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?

Anything that you'd like to write but feel like you're unable to?

How would you describe your writing style?

Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them?

What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?

What's your ratio for rating your works?

Your favourite ao3 tag.

How slow is a slow burn?

Thoughts on cliffhangers.

Top three favourite fic tropes.

Three tropes that are fine but overrated.

If you write in more than one language, what's the difference?

Rate your worldbuilding skills from 1 to 10.

Write and share the first sentence of a new fic. Just that.

What's your favourite plotless fic you have written?

Are one-shots really underrated?

Past or present tense? Why?

First, second, or third person?

Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you?

Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what's your secret?

What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again?

Dialogue or description? Why is the other one so hard?

Thoughts on flashbacks/flashforwards.

Is writing the whole thing beforehand better or worse than writing it as you go?

What would you describe as OOC?

Do you agree that one shouldn't start a story with a piece of dialogue?

Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

What's the hardest thing about writing?

Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't.

What was the most difficult fic for you to write (but in the end you made it)?

Do you have a word/expression that you always use in your writing?

Give your writing a compliment.

Do you write to improve? Or is that not a concern for you?

Thoughts on writing challenges/contests.

How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of?

Do you research before writing or while you write? Is it fun or boring for you?

"This never happened" fix-it fics or "this happened but" fix-it fics?

Wildest AU scenario you have written?

Write a 9-word fic.

[jule1122]

This one has some great questions!

[drawaleol]

First TaeKey of the year. 🦊🐥

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

❝ What’s the point of bots mass commenting on people’s works on AO3? What do they get from doing this? ❞

Besides trying to get your personal information and/or get you to “commission” them (you will almost certainly not get what you paid for, or it will be just AI-generated stuff), the only reason I can think of as to why these bots would do this, is because they want to use/steal your works to train their AI, and in order for them to avoid getting a copyright strike (since the works you create are YOUR OWN—even if it’s fanfiction of other people’s copyrighted characters—you can absolutely copyright strike anybody who steals your fics), they want you to delete your works off the internet.

Once the original material, which in this case is your fic, is deleted, it becomes way more difficult and complicated for you to claim ownership of your own work. Because it’s already been deleted. There’s no proof that you posted it first.

The bottom line, the bots are trying to get you to delete your works so that it would be easier for them to steal your works to train their AI without getting hit with a copyright strike from you.

Don’t delete your works.

MORE ABOUT BOTS AND SCAMMERS PLAGUING AO3’S COMMENTS SECTION

[frederickchiltonsdivacup]

I'm gonna go check on my WIP. just in case it wrote itself while I was gone. You never know.

[aetsiv]

i think because of the whole "writers write for themselves" notion that's becoming increasingly popularized, people forget that we still thrive off interaction and kindness. i write for myself but kudos and comments and bookmarks and really any sort of interaction with my fics genuinely motivates me to keep writing and keep sharing my works.

[evilwriter37]

I write for myself.

I post for community.

[bidet-of-evil]

i just think drabbles are such a cool writing challenge, and i never see people do them anymore. tell a story in exactly 100 words! revive the drabble!

#revivethedrabble

[plushworldz]

trust i got yall fr 💯💯💯

[zukkaoru]

[image text: Got a really crazy fic coming up in the next 7-8 years. Stay tuned. /end]

[hopelessvalentines]

“you’re my best friend, now i’ve got no one to tell i’ve lost my best friend.”

….

[musicalmelody001]

[saltwaffle]

full offense but none of you would have ever survived fanfiction.net in 2009

[jetru]

remember when writers had to be all like: “omg omg lemon starts HERE” y’all are lucky that ao3 has tags and filters you can set

[domicileensnared]

Sometimes shit was marked “lemon” and it’d just be them making out, and sometimes they’d just start pissing on each other

No rules, no laws, you took your life into your hands opening fics

[frostyemma]

A/N: this contains SLASH, that means TWO MEN, if that makes you uncomfy, DON’T READ!

A/N: please don’t sue me, o anime overlords, I’m not making any money off of this! I’m just a broke student! I don’t have any money!

A/N: I totally wrote this while high off 10 Red Bulls wheeeeeee!!!!!

A/N: COMMENT if you want me to continue the next chappy!!!

[raimagnolia]

No, no, no

remember when there’d be interactions with the author and the characters?

InuYasha: I don’t get why I have to be here for this

A/N: Because it was in your contract!!1!1 *revs chainsaw*

[janekfan]

god those were lawless times. 

[the-apocryphal-one]

[olderthannetfic]

No, no, and NO.

AO3 does not live in “the cloud” because that is other people’s computers, and other people’s computers are vulnerable to censorship.

AO3 is on its own computers. It does still have to be housed somewhere, and I suppose a determined enough hater could try to find that place and go after it, but it’s a lot harder than sending spurious complaints to Amazon or whomever going “BadWrong things are hosted on your cloud service!”

Owning the servers is a core tenet of OTW/AO3.

[zz9pzza]

Warming up a new database server….

[elfwreck]

When people involved with AO3 talk about “the cost of servers” they don’t mean “the cost to pay Amazon for space on their servers.” They mean, like, the cost to physically own them, and eventually replace them with new ones. And the operating costs to run them.

AO3 is not “in the cloud.” AO3 is stored on physical machines that the OTW owns.

While this is not a solution that can work for everyone who wants to deal with controversial content, it is why AO3ple sneer at alt-righters who complain about getting thrown off hosting platforms.

[ficwip]

[eclec-tech]

A very happy FWAD to my fellow fanfic writers!

[the-pen-pot]

This is your semi frequent reminder that there is no official AO3 app

All those are unofficial and available on the Google play store as of August 13th 2025. They mirror AO3's content and insert ads, for which the developer gets paid by page impression (that's every time the ad appears in the fic you're reading) not just clicks.

No money goes to AO3, nor to the fic writer. It goes to the person who did the bare minimum.

Many of these apps have poorly worded or non existent privacy policies, so they may also be mining as much data as possible and selling that on to unknown third parties.

Please, just use the official AO3 site and the browser.

[anachronicwriting]

When does someone you know, become someone you used to know?

Is it like a year after you've stopped talking or, is it when you just don't know where they are, what they are up to anymore?

When does someone you talked to, day in day out go back to being a stranger?

[drawaleol]

Angel Key and his demon Taemin 🪽

(Work in process)

[discocritic]

for every "🌹" received in my inbox i'll post one random sentence of a random WIP i'm currently writing

[makaylajadewrites]

I wanna do this omg

[jamiemoonymarks]

Normalize leaving unhinged comments on ao3 fics you like. I'm tired of being the only one brave enough to write "I am chewing on this fic" in the comment section. Be weird. Authors will love you for it

[fieldbears]

If I didn't want readers to chew on it, I wouldn't have spent all that time on the mouthfeel