[effinfanfiction]

I started this blog in about 2013 (I was 12!! (ignore that I wasn't supposed to be on the internet because neither were you(probably))) but it feels more like a fanfiction positivity blog + general writing advice now, and I don't mind at all :) Although, I haven't used fanfiction.net in years, and I mainly peruse Ao3, I think I will keep this iconic icon for old times sake.

Anyways, thank you for following no matter the reason! There's quite a bit of you somehow. I wish I had tagged things in the past, but I didn't so there's still a tinge of a chaos here that is reminiscent of fanfiction.net as a website.

With appreciation,

Admin Star

[golyadkin]

you'll get the urge as an artist or a writer to say out loud the things you're worried about "the proportions are off" "kind of out of character" "i'm not good at summaries" "didn't get as much detail as i wanted" "i made a mistake and here's how" and that's the self-conscious part of your brain telling you "it's bad and if you don't tell them you know it's bad then they'll think you're stupid" but you've got to ignore that little voice and pretend you think it's good or else that little voice is going to ruin your life

[incognito-insomniac]

Some of the best advice I have ever gotten was from a creative writing professor. She said never apologize for your work. Never critic it before someone else does.

Her reasoning was you are the creator. You made your work from nothing and can see all the flaws and seems and holes. But your audience may not see any of it. Maybe they will; maybe they won't. But if you TELL them about the holes and the mistakes and the problems....they will 100% see them. So don't tell them. Don't sabotage yourself just because you think you're not good enough.

[gardenvarietyhuman]

💥🙌👏

[ineffablebookgirl]

Well shit, Henry Jenkins, out here in 1997 dropping truth bombs

[addressmysol]

Oh hey I need this for a research paper I'm writing, thank you!

[angstbotfic]

i mean he had been out here since 1988 dropping such bombs:

"'fandom' is a vehicle of marginalized subcultural groups (women, the young, gays, etc.) to pry open space for their cultural concerns within dominant representations; it is a way of appropriating media texts and rereading them in a way that serves different interests, a way of transforming mass culture into a popular culture"

Jenkins, Henry. “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 5, no. 2 (1988): 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038809366691.  

there are even some earlier works in fan studies but that’s what i have ready to hand. 

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

its so freeing when you realize you can literally write whatever you want 

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

it doesnt have to be good or anything you can just write things and post them and it doesnt matter at all

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

“your story sucks” what are you going to do? refund the money u didn’t pay? you are a bozo

[bizarrelittlemew]

me when i outline

[velvetys]

Sorry it’s early but you really can’t use fanfiction terms in a non fanfiction context like if someone is trying to sell me a book to read and they tell me there’s an enemy to lovers I would be annoyed because why are you spoiling the story lol

[azurebluuu]

sorry op this is kind of a tangent but this is why i hate how booktok has not only affected how ppl talk about their fave stories, but how it's basically gnawed its way into how publishing companies promote books. it basically encourages authors to build their entire story entirely around marketable tropes so that they turn more of a profit

"it has enemies to lovers!" "it has friends to lovers!" "this is a slow burn!" WHAT IS THE PLOT??? what makes your story unique?? why should i read it??? describing your story entirely in tropes and fanfiction terms makes your story sound extremely uninteresting lmfao.

[nerdgul]

Fanfiction is for when you want to read familiar characters in a setting where you already know what's going to happen. I care about this coffee shop au because I already love these characters and just want to see them in fun familiar situations

Books are original content for new stories new characters in new situations. Why should I care if it takes place in a coffee shop? Give me a reason to love these characters!

[dicklessthewonderclown]

nothing will ever amaze me the way fanfiction authors do. like, you wrote silly little stories about my favorite little guys? and i can read them?? for free??? that’s fucking wild.

you poured your heart and soul and very being into your writing and then put it out there for anyone to read? insane.

you spend a truly incredible amount of time writing novel-length, high quality stories, again, FOR FREE, that anyone can read, again, FOR FREE??

shoutout to every single fic author in existence, you guys are fucking incredible and i love all of you so much

[miabrown007]

i did this instead of writing

[pagesinmylife]

I don’t care if this comes off as cruel but you are not entitled to fanfiction. You are not entitled to podfics. You are not entitled to translated works.

Creators are not paid to make fanworks. People spend years of their lives writing fic and getting nothing in return except positive interactions. You can ask to make a translation. You can ask to make a pod fic. But you cannot demand it.

And because the only thing fanfic writers get in return for their work is positive feedback, taking away an authors ability to receive that is disgusting. Authors deserve to have full control and ownership of their works.

Fanfic isn’t a product to consume and then demand more of. Authors and creators deserve better.

[yuugisbarber]

There’s fanfiction…. And then there’s FANFICTION. The kind of shit you happen upon at like 3am or some other ungodly time because you were trying to find a fix for ur fixation at the time and you are just SUCKED IN and every sentence feels like a line of cocaine and it has quotes and imagery that permeate your brain and it’s the shit that sticks around in your consciousness forever and it never goes away and it’s always going to be one of Those Fics.

[jdotsodomite]

i hope you write (i hope we both write)

[zetarays]

hand in unedited hand

[cedar-west-deactivated20230408]

If your plot feels flat, STUDY it! Your story might be lacking...

Stakes - What would happen if the protagonist failed? Would it really be such a bad thing if it happened?

Thematic relevance - Do the events of the story speak to a greater emotional or moral message? Is the conflict resolved in a way that befits the theme?

Urgency - How much time does the protagonist have to complete their goal? Are there multiple factors complicating the situation?

Drive - What motivates the protagonist? Are they an active player in the story, or are they repeatedly getting pushed around by external forces? Could you swap them out for a different character with no impact on the plot? On the flip side, do the other characters have sensible motivations of their own?

Yield - Is there foreshadowing? Do the protagonist's choices have unforeseen consequences down the road? Do they use knowledge or clues from the beginning, to help them in the end? Do they learn things about the other characters that weren't immediately obvious?

[mishkatelwarriorgoddess]

Thank you so much for this!

[nightmarist]

A COMINT !!

[bloodtroth]

I was today years old when I learned that when you type “otp: true” in AO3 search results it filters out fics with additional ships, leaving only the fics where your otp is the main ship

[djinnhatescold]

Gamechanger

[downtroddendeity]

Here’s a cheatsheet of all the available hidden search functions. “-creators:[whatever]” is another exclusion that can be particularly useful.

[huntersoftheapocalypsis]

rt, to make my life easier

[thatrandomsarahchick]

Holy shit. Rt to save time

[heyheresathou]

ao3 author: *writes the most devestating ending to a 150k fic that simultaneously calls back to the first chapter and beautifully wraps up every theme in a few paragraphs*

also the ao3 author (in the endnotes): uwu i never know how to end these things T_T

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

have you ever read a fanfic so good that you wanted to write a fanfic about that fanfic, but was too shy / too intimidated to ask for the author’s permission and too afraid that your writing wouldn’t be half as good as theirs and that it would be an insult to their work that was basically a literal masterpiece, so you just sat there fantasizing about their work and how beautiful it was and how you wished you could just eat it and how you wished canon could write your blorbos half as good as this writer did and how you just wanted to cry because you just loved that fic so much????

[nextstopparis]

when in fics they say two characters gave each other a look this is always what i envision in my head