captainauthor

Fanfic extraordinaire Find me on AO3

[captainauthor]

Master post, ig

Hi, you can call me Dan or Danny. I write fanfic (primarily Sherlock Holmes adjacent, but I'm branching out) and I post on AO3. Big fan of hurt/comfort and projecting my issues onto my favs.

☆ My Fics ☆

Hunger Pains (Baldur's Gate 3 [Video Game]) ⊹₊⟡⋆ Tav goes hunting for food and gets caught in a Gur trap meant for Astarion. ⊹₊⟡⋆ T, 5.1k, Complete - (Bad Things Happen Bingo: caught in a snare)

Caught in the Inbetween (Sherlock & Co. [Podcast]) ⊹₊⟡⋆ Sherlock and Mariana help John after a severe PTSD episode. ⊹₊⟡⋆ T, 6.1k, Complete

If I Could Hold You For a Minute (Sherlock & Co. [Podcast]) ⊹₊⟡⋆ John's hit by a car and it's a long road to recovery. ⊹₊⟡⋆ M, 14.9k, Unfinished

One Final Problem (Sherlock & Co. [Podcast]) ⊹₊⟡⋆ A few hours after falling down Reichenbach, Sherlock shows up in their hotel room with a shaky memory. ⊹₊⟡⋆ T, 5.7k, Complete - (Sherlock & Co. October 2025 Flashbang)

Your Lips Are Blue (Sherlock & Co. [Podcast]) ⊹₊⟡⋆ A suspect corners John and locks him in a crate. ⊹₊⟡⋆ T, 2.3k, Complete

Next Time, Say Something (Sherlock & Co. [Podcast]) ⊹₊⟡⋆ Sherlock tries to work through a case of appendicitis. ⊹₊⟡⋆ G, 4.7k, Complete

A Study In Olive (Sherlock & Co. [Podcast]) ⊹₊⟡⋆ The Baker Street trio ends up looking after a seven-year-old who's a little too good with a gun. ⊹₊⟡⋆ T, 43.6k, Complete

Up One Minute, Down the Next (Sherlock & Co. [Podcast]) ⊹₊⟡⋆ John is poisoned. ⊹₊⟡⋆ T, 4.9k, Complete - (Bad Things Happen Bingo: vomiting)

Brief Respite (Sherlock & Co. [Podcast]) ⊹₊⟡⋆ It's freezing, and John's got a concussion. ⊹₊⟡⋆ T, 1.8k, Complete - (Sherlock & Co. secret santa 2025/26)

☆ My Prompts/Resources ☆

For all my whump lovers out there, try out my Whump Wheel! A variety of whump and h/c prompts to get you started or to make a challenge for yourself.

☆ Requests ☆

My inbox is closed! Feel free to shoot me a message if you'd like, but I can't guarantee anything. I'm more likely to get to you if you request something from my Bad Things Happen Bingo card (most recent version below cut) but again, no promises.

(Last updated: 21 June 2026)

[souls4polls]

How long have you been writing fanfiction??

Less than 1 year!

For 1 to 5 years!

For 5 to 10 years!

For 10 to 15 years!

For 15 to 20 years!

For 20 to 25 years!

For 25 to 30 years!

For 30 to 35 years!

For 35 to 40 years!

For 40 to 45 years!

For 45 to 50 years!

For 50+ years!

Voting ended onJul 11

Feel free to reblog for other people to vote. DO NOT SEND HATE TO ANYONE FOR WHAT THEY VOTED. This is merely for fun and to see what people genuinely think.

[fic-dumpster]

[wretchedwomenblorbos]

“if you love this character then you must make her happy in your fics, right?” wrong. the horror. suffering. internal hemorrhage. hospital. immediately

[oldcoyote]

if you ever doubt that your ao3 comments matter or mean something: i have been struggling with my writing for 6 months straight, crying myself to sleep afraid that i will never be able to write again, that the thing i love most in the world has left me, that my writing is just gone

this morning i got this comment:

and after i stopped blubbering over it, i picked up my writing notebook, and re-read all my fic research, and opened up my document again for the first time in weeks without being afraid of it

you have no idea how much writers treasure every single comment we get. you have no idea how big an impact you can have. sometimes, just sometimes, your one "insignificant" comment changes everything

[whumptober]

Trope Vote 2026

It's July! That means this years trope vote is now OPEN!

It's open for everyone to vote on their favourite tropes - including many highly-requested additions from your 2025 honourable mentions!

The vote will be open until the 27th of July.

We aim to have the prompts list ready for the end of August.

If you want to chat about your favourite tropes, the Discord Server is always active for our wonderful community of whumpers.

Finally, if you're looking for a comprehensive list of the tropes, then here are the A-Z lists that Surro put together some time ago:

The Grand List of Whump A-H [X]

The Grand List of Whump I-Q [X]

The Grand List of Whump R-Z [X]

We can't wait to get the WT ball rolling this year!

-Mods Surro, Yenn, Vanne and Kitty <3

Whumptober 2026 Trope Vote

The Trope Vote is back! Choose as many - or as few - of your favourite prompts as you like from the list below. This helps us greatly when d

[partywithponies]

YOU CAN'T JUST PUT "DEAD DOVE" OR "DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT" OR "DEAD DOVE CONTENT" WITHOUT ANY FURTHER TAGS OR WARNINGS

IT LITERALLY MEANS "HEED THE TAGS" "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" IT'S LITERALLY MEANINGLESS WITHOUT ANY FURTHER TAGS OR WARNINGS

YOU'VE JUST SAID "BE WARNED" TO ME AND THEN LEFT WITHOUT ELABORATING

BE WARNED OF WHAT? BE WARNED OF WHAT???

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

if you comment some demanding shit like this on fanfic writers’ works, you don’t deserve the privilege of getting to read fanfiction for free

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[scorpiaok]

shoutout to AO3 authors who write 100k fics for free while juggling mental illness, academic burnout, 3 jobs, and a deep-rooted need to fix fictional people.

[001x456]

fanfic writers and fan artists are carrying fandoms. they are the backbone of fandoms.

thank you fanfic writers and fan artists

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

please please please please reblog if you’re a writer and have at some point felt like your writing is getting worse. I need to know if I’m the only one who’s struggling with these thoughts

[gribblythefifth]

One thing that’s helped me so so so much is mentally separating my experience of the writing from the written thing itself. Usually when I start to feel like my writing is worsening, what’s actually happening is that I’m tired, frustrated, or sad. I’ll think “man I suck at this,” “why am I struggling,” “god it’s so bad” etc etc. These kinds of thoughts are a sign that I’m mentally/physically worn out.

Feeling discouraged about writing is normal. It’s a part of the process. Frankly, it’s apart of any craft!

And to be fair, maybe there are kernels of truth in some of my negative thoughts. Maybe my draft does need more work. (By the way, a draft that needs work isn’t inherently “bad,” it just needs work, but that’s slightly left of my point right now.)

When you feel challenged as a writer, it can be really easy to read that challenge into the piece. Mercifully, your reader wasn’t there with you during the process. They can’t necessarily tell you struggled to write it. They have a distance from the piece that you don’t.

There have been many times I’ve confused the normal frustrations of the writing process with my fundamental ability as a writer. I’ll vent my frustrations on the piece itself—using it as some kind of punching bag, as proof that I’m suddenly “not a good writer”. The thing is, few projects can bear the weight of a person’s self worth.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve received good feedback from trusted readers or returned to a piece after a break and realized for myself that the prose doesn’t read as badly as it once felt.

It takes practice, but try to remember: the writing exists outside of your inner experience of it.

[theunfortunate-author]

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[wild-moss-art]

This is why I read the reddit comments

[awsydawnarts]

[quarterclever]

I love how the notes for this are just chock full of examples of the most batshit specific things people research for their fanfics. Truly a treasure trove.

[quarterclever]

Some of my favorites

[quarterclever]

And my absolute fav

[captainauthor]

Haven't written more than 200 words since mid-November (depression episode goes crazy) only to sit down the other night, lock in, and knock out 5,000 words in a single sitting. Mentally ill, who??

[captainauthor]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Mordryn needs food. Not wanting to burden the others, he goes hunting on his own. Too bad he ends up in a Gur trap made for Astarion.

My second submission for @badthingshappenbingo ! It's been....a while (seven months...)

Some mild (named) Tav whump for the BG3 enjoyers