Fanfiction Writing Advice And OC Review

A place to get some unbiased feedback and review on your fanfiction, along with tips and advice on writing in general.

[ffwriteradvisor]

I've never really commented on controversies in the fanfiction writing community. Part of it was that I didn't want to feel that anyone visiting this blog was being pressured to adjust their beliefs either way, but part of it was that I didn't want to apply that pressure to myself here - I wanted to avoid arguments.

But, I can't in good faith continue to pursue that neutrality. Because it has come to a point where it's just allowing ignorance to fester.

I'm not a... proper fandom old, in my mind. I was never on any mailing list, I wasn't online at the time of Strikethrough and I was never personally impacted by the 2012 purges on FFnet - probably because I wasn't popular and because the (short lived) smut I put there simply was too tame to consider banishing. Same with the Tumblr porn purge for the most part.

But I at least tried to stay aware of the history. To know the rules and outlines to being a 'good' member of fandom. Formatting fics well, tagging properly, putting up content warnings where applicable when it came to common triggers and squicks while looking out for those that I didn't care for myself, and not getting into fights over who's fictional characters were better suited for each other.

It was never complicated. If you don't like it, you don't read it. If the writer places a warning sign up for a certain thing, you go in with the expectation that thing will be there. Leave a nice comment when you leave, if that's at all possible.

But that's apparently too difficult for some people.

So let me put it simply; the minute you decide that you're going to use someone's fandom creation or opinions as an excuse to attack them, be it through false reports or physical assault or nasty messages, you have become the bad guy.

I don't care if the person you're attacking was shipping two fictional teenagers. I don't care if their favorite ship is 'toxic'. I don't care if they were writing RPF. I don't care if they drew horny art. I don't care if the character they like is 'problematic' or 'glorifies bad behavior'.

It is all based in fiction. The characters are not real. The things those characters do have no impact on reality. The situations are not real. A picture of a fictional character in a sexual situation is not equivalent to a real person.

The only real people who are being potentially harmed are the artists you choose to abuse because of something that isn't real and those that have entered a space without doing their own due diligence beforehand. And I only have sympathy for the former.

Yes, I know that you can accidentally run into something you wish that you hadn't seen in fandom spaces. It has happened to me many times. And do you know what I've done in response? I learned to tag my things appropriately, put warnings in so that people know what they're walking into. I also made an effort to be better at curating my own experience; if someone I follow has begun posting things I don't care for - I unfollow and leave it at that. If that fails, I block.

I do not pretend to exist on some kind of flawless moral pedestal - I know my failings and I work to improve on them every day of my life. But I also know for a fact that the behavior far too many people are exhibiting in fandom spaces is unacceptable and that every precedent for it ever seen before has only ended in tragedy and tears.

I'm sure that there's plenty of people who can find a bad faith argument in my post - I'm not going to spend the time going back over it to find every potential hole and patch it over before release, because regardless of how 'perfectly' I try to word these feelings, it won't matter to someone who really wants to start a fight.

Because that's all this is about for these fandom Puritanicals - finding a fight wherever they can find one and using it to drag whoever disagrees with them through the mud so they can come out looking spotless in comparison.

It doesn't matter to them if the warning tag on a fic is covering discussion of war crimes. It doesn't matter if a writer puts a warning about suicide on their story so that way people who are triggered by that know not to go in. It's all about being able to point at someone and say 'this person thinks about terrible things and is a terrible person for it'.

They want to be able to point their finger at someone they don't like and say 'I saw Goody Proctor with the Devil', except it's about Goody Proctor even thinking about the Devil existing outside of a narrow 'acceptable' context.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

I think ao3 is literally the only site where no censorship means no censorship. you can post the most vile things on there — things that will get taken down on any other platforms — and ao3 will protect you, your works, and your rights to create whatever you want, however you want.

and no, this isn’t me saying “write that messed up, disgusting thing” because while, yes, write it if it’s what you want (I myself enjoy writing dark fics, something I believe would be considered “vile” to a lot of people), this is me saying in a world of censorship and capitalism, ao3 really is a treasure.

everybody say thank you ao3

[pipermca]

I got another spam comment today on AO3, and I want to share it as a PSA. But before I do, I want you to understand that you SHOULD NOT DO what this comment is asking. Ok? Ok.

See that bit at the bottom? Don't do that. Insert ParamedicGuy.gif going "Don't."

Other malicious spam comments I've gotten seemed designed to make an author question their writing, or outright encourage them to delete their stories from AO3. This one is different, in that it tries to get you to destroy the work on your own computer.

If you ran that command, it basically locates your Documents folder, then deletes everything in it, including all subfolders. It also does it without any prompt, so you have no chance to second guess your actions.

This is just fucking trolling.

Coincidentally, we just did training on a cyberattack similar to this, called a ClickFix attack. You can read about how that works here.

As a general rule, if ANYONE or ANY WEBSITE tells you unsolicited* to do anything in Powershell, CMD RUN, command prompt, shell command, or something similar, DON'T.

*There are legit reasons for running commands in PowerShell or the command prompt, but in those cases you are likely seeking out a solution to a problem you are already experiencing. Don't just run random commands on your computer as recommended by some unlogged-in guest on a fan fiction site.

Always think and consider before taking action, and get a second opinion from a trusted source. When I got this comment I was pretty sure what the command would do, and it took me about three seconds of googling to confirm it.

Be safe out there!

[hardwiredweird]

This isn't just trolling. Nor is it a simple malicious attack to fuck with authors.

All of these things, starting with making people delete their stories from AO3 to now this, are all specifically designed to kill any digital paper trail so people can steal and make money off your fanfictions by just scrubbing the serial numbers off (and probably training AI on them).

These scammers have realized that even if people delete the stories off of AO3, authors can still prove that they are the original owner of the story by having locally stored documents that prove when the story was originally written.

That said: I want to impress on people once again to never EVER run any commands on your PC unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing! ESPECIALLY not if it's just a rando on the internet telling you to.

[tree-of-blue-squirrel]

"If you ran that command, it basically locates your Documents folder, then deletes everything in it, including all subfolders. It also does it without any prompt, so you have no chance to second guess your actions."

Sorry, but that isn´t just trolling. This is a command that could VERY EASILY ruin a person´s life if they don´t second guess it. It is malicious and irreversible unless you have every single thing backed up elsewhere (some people have backups for important stuff but not everything and most people might not even have backups for all of the important things)

so no, this is not just trolling, this is a targeted, malicious attack on ao3 writers, especially younger and less tech savvy ones who might actually run the command.

[rainintheevening]

Okay, we got a new one, boys.

[fleshengine]

Close enough welcome back Chekov's gun.

[comma-souptra]

Prev you can’t bury this in your own tags

[justbreakonme]

I also like the idea of showing something as a problem before it’s shown as a strength. Almost every character trait has two sides, and by showing the “bad” side first, it sets things up to not only make sense, but to also be very satisfying.

[snowstories]

My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.

[mossbear-minese]

I don't remember where I saw this piece of advice so I can't credit it, unfortunately

But it was along the lines of "instead of asking whether something is out of character, ask 'what would it take for this character to do this'"

Which I think fits really nicely with this advice of making the actual action itself also feel in character

[grayintogreen]

I think what might help the whole "low engagement in fandom spaces driving creatives out because they don't see the point in sharing anything only to get crickets or critics" is not the shaming tone of "look this is how you get nothing, you entitled shits" that tends to be very pervasive, but rather pointing out how actually rewarding it can be to leave nice comments.

I like to leave very long rambling comments on people's fics and that has actually netted me some very real, genuine friendships and we've become cheerleaders for each other. My friend has a D&D Podcast that she doesn't get ANY sort of engagement out of, so I started listening to it at work and livereacting the things I enjoy about it and showing her my investment and it makes her very happy and it makes me happy that she's happy.

Being nice to people... is actually a good enough reason to do things, shockingly enough. You don't have to do it. No one should shame you for not doing it. But it doesn't actually cost anything to make other people happy, especially if they created something that made you happy.

[sncrlynwtms]

fandom etiquette as a whole died when people who didn’t grow up on fandoms became stans during lockdown, yes, but why am i seeing people openly mocking fics on twitter. why am i seeing screenshots of fics with captions like “bro what is this 😭.” why am i seeing people mock fic writers for not knowing how sports or theater or college or any other organization operates in the real world.

“college is absolutely nothing like this” “why are we writing four people on the team scoring a hat trick in one game” “so tech work is nothing like this, hope that helps!”

if you don’t like a fic, and if you can’t suspend your belief enough to enjoy a fic that exaggerates or ignores real-world orgs, you don’t have to read it. you don’t have to screenshot it and put it on blast for twitter. you don’t have to post a link to it in the replies. the back button is literally there on your phone. it’s not giving baby’s first fandom anymore, it’s giving entitled asshole and it isn’t as cute as you think it is.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Heads up on some fucked up spam comments going around AO3 - a friend just got a comment claiming the commenter had their name and address and was adding them to a list of ICE agents. Any comment claiming to have your personal information is a scam designed to panic you into engaging with it. Report, delete, and consider locking your fic comments to registered users only.

[frogsandfries]

Hi, I've worked in banking and healthcare, so apart from working directly in tech, I like to think I've got a pretty good handle on scam behavior.

Most scams want you to panic.

I want you to take a second and breathe. Did you give AO3 your address when you made your profile? Is your address associated, openly, on the internet, with your personal business (i.e name, phone number, address, etc)? How would a person have found out that your email address is associated with an AO3 account?

The answer to the first question is, no. I have an AO3. They never asked for my address. They don't need that information for me to have an account.

The answer to the second question, for the vast majority of the internet, I'm going to reasonably assume, is also no. If you're using, like, your whatever-professional certificate/license associated email address for your AO3......uhh, stop that? We use personal emails for recreation, you goose.

See? Logic defeats a scam almost every time.

Don't panic. Think.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Thank you for adding this! What my friend received was absolutely an AI-generated scam text meant to cause panic and further engagement. It's no different from those awful "I know you looked at porn" email with current levels of fucked-up added to it, and it's most likely run by a bot. Do not engage.

[thatsbelievable]

TRUTH. What you need is imagination, and you don’t need to go anywhere to use it.

[caitymschmidt]

Yeah, sure, seeing new things is helpful as a fantasy writer. But. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that exposure to new things is the same as traveling. You know what else exposes you to new things?  The internet. Documentaries. Books. Freaking Youtube. So when you’re bored of cats and cooking tutorials, go on an adventure!

You wanna write create some fantasy creatures but don’t know where to start? Go check out some videos The Weird Creatures Earth has Had.

Want some inspiration for your Super Evil Villain’s Villanous Deeds?

Or maybe you want some weird locations to kick start your Fantasy World Terraforming?

Or maybe you need knowledge of bunches of historical places and cities and cultures?

But maybe you’re basing fantasy on the modern world?

Okay but lets say you want to start from the same inspiration as GRRM? (and part two!)

That’s just the stuff I could quickly grab. Things I’m subscribed to, that I know offhand. There is So. Much. Stuff. Online.

The best thing about the internet is that it means its not just the fortunate sons that get to learn, and explore and imagine and write. We get to see stories from all over the place, from all sorts of people, who bring All Kinds of New Ideas.

[ultimatebottom69]

I like you.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

not mine. found on reddit, but my god scam bots on ao3 are both embarrassing and hilarious 😭 I was told their usual goal was to either get users’ personal informations/money through fake commissions or get them to delete their fics so that these bots could ‘safely steal their works to train their ai without writers being able to claim ownerships of their own works since the original sources were deleted’ but I don’t even know what the point of this is. just to scare people for fun? because some people might unfortunately believe them. just to troll?

I was also told that if they were commenting as a guest comment, they sometimes used the urls of random innocent and legit users (since anyone can use any name they want if they’re commenting as a guest user), which is just bad for the innocent users who were impersonated by these losers.

anyway, if you got a comment like this, report them for scam.

it’s also important now more than ever for us all to leave nice comments on the fics we like. with the rise of scam bots plaguing ao3’s comments section, getting a genuine, nice comment from a real person means so much to writers who gave us these wonderful fics to enjoy for free.

MORE ABOUT BOTS AND SCAMS ON AO3’S COMMENTS SECTION HERE

[ffwriteradvisor]

you look active so question do you know of any post or site with a list of just about every medical condition someone can have?

as i want to give some oc's of mine random medical conditions but only place i currently know of with something like that is Wikipedia

Uh, yeah, I'm not really the place for that because that would take a lot of research (seriously there are thousands, if not millions of unique medical conditions), but it really depends on what you want for the characters. Something that might help is looking for comorbidities if you want characters who have multiple disabilities because the truth of it is, a lot of conditions run in packs, or look for any blogs run by disabled people. A good resource to check with would be scriptmedic, though I don't think Aunt Scripty has a completely exhaustive list of 'everything that can possibly happen to a human body', because - again, There's A Lot.

[queenangst]

idk if this is a young fan thing or new fandom culture but some of yall think fics are abandoned way too quickly. a few months or a year or two is not unusual to go without a fic update. sometimes fics take longer to write, other times writers have rl events, or maybe there's multiple fics and one gets more priority. there are tons of reasons for fics not to be updated every week or every month. it also isn't uncommon for people to come back and update fics after a number of years—ive read updates that took five, or ten years. people's lives change, but they still want to tell their stories. personally, i never consider a fic abandoned unless the author has said so; though if it's been a few years i manage my expectations. but a last update being a year ago is... generally not a sign that a writer has abandoned their fic

[feroxargentea]

Calling all X-Files fans still out there!

AO3 are archiving all the fanfic from the 1990s paper-and-ink fanzine DTA (Dreaming the Answers), published by cj2017 and me. But it's been 1000000 years and we no longer have current contact details for any of the authors!

If your fic was published in DTA and you want updated username/contact info adding or your username removing, or you don't want your fic to be archived at all, please contact the Open Doors project and let them know, or contact me. More info is here on the announcement post on AO3.

Please spread the word, thank you!

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

reblog if you love archive of our own and how they firmly refuse to let censorship have any place on their platform

[wingdingery]

will die on the hill of “dead dove: do not eat” DOES NOT MEAN “there are various unspecified things in here that might disturb you, so be warned”

it means “i know the contents of this bag (a dead dove) may be upsetting, so i have labeled the outside very clearly with what is inside (a dead dove), and if you look inside, you should not be surprised to find a dead dove, because that’s what the label very explicitly says is inside the bag”

i realize this is a losing battle because enough people have made it mean the other thing as to make the tag totally useless, but seeing people argue over what it should mean gives me a headache because it literally could not be clearer

[squirrelstone]

Maybe if people updated more we wouldn't turn to ai

You’re a pathetic, impatient loser. Fanfic writers owe you nothing, and their writing is their own, not yours to do with as you choose, you entitled brat.

[kkglinka]

This is a Moving Forward PSA for everyone using AO3. I am witnessing the results of a culture clash and communication failure. Not a lack of communication, but a misunderstanding caused by changes in fandom culture.

Before fic tagging was common, fics weren’t tagged. You had a pairing, if applicable, an author’s note about genre or general content, and if they were feeling charitable, a vague content warning. There are even a few genres of fic where even vaguely tagging literally spoils the plot and impact (such as horror, psyche thriller, in which the likely content is implicit to the genre). As a result, there is a basic category tag that permits this, as a courtesy to “old-fashioned” writers.

“No Archive Warnings Apply” means the fic is PG13 at worst, probably fluff, totally safe.

“Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings” is the polar opposite. It’s a glaring Enter at Your Own Risk billboard. It means: a shitload of warnings apply but I ain’t telling because this story requires shock value. It’s very important to read the author’s notes for those fics because they might be using that older format from above.

But without the context of fandom culture that generated AO3, it’s understandably easy to conflate the two categories, given their similar wording.

[mrv3000]

“No Archive Warnings Apply” means there’s no

graphic depictions of violence

major character death

underage

rape/non-con

“Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings” =  HERE BE DRAGONS. (implies that one or more of the above exists, but the author doesn’t want to give anything away by tagging)