Rating all of my fanfics (also a master list)
In celebration of finally passing 500k words on AO3 here's a full list of my fics and I'm rating them based on how much I enjoyed working on them, how interesting the premise was, how easy/hard it was to execute, and how it really looked like in hindsight. In no particular order.
heavy is the crown (10k words) Oscar Piastri is the prince of Australia meeting Mclaren driver Lando Norris at a gala in Monaco where they had the night of their lives. It's my latest fic and I enjoyed it very much, the premise was so simple, I mean the way they looked at each other at the FIA gala?? it almost like the fic wrote itself based on that picture alone. The fic required a light world building where Australia got their own royal family. Don't have the benefit of hindsight yet if it's actually good but right now it's a solid 8/10.
coffee, butter and other lies (24.8k words) Oscar is running a cafe near Albert Park, completely overwhelmed during race weekend, and Lando, a stray DJ from England, came to help. It's a good 7/10 for me, it was very low stake and it meant to be low stake. The premise is a straightforward coffee shop AU and the hardest thing to keep track was the emotional logic of the characters.
in the split second (188k words) Oscar discovers F1 champions have supernatural talents and he learns how to replicate them. See, this is my first (and quite possibly my only) longfic and I started it in May last year and finished by new year's. It was around the time Oscar had back-to-back wins and at the time the premise made perfect sense, it really looked like Oscar discovered a cheat code, so I worked on the fic as a dramatization of IRL races, every single chapter is a self contained race weekend. It's a good formula, but committing to it was like having fate as my co-writer and fate was a fucking bitch because at no point in the seven months I was working on this have I ever been correct in predicting the ending. Still, I committed to it, and I'm pretty happy with the way I wrapped it up, but I'll probably will not do it again. 6/10
what die didn't stay dead (43.8k words) Oscar can see ghosts, Carlos became a ghost after a crash. The premise to this came from a Taylor Swift song marjorie and the story quite literally haunted me the entire time I was working on it, it got simple but profound world building and I was so relieved when I finished it. I didn't even think I'd enjoy writing horror at the time. Eight months later I think it still held up, the whole idea that what made you human is memories is still compelling to me. 9/10
for better or worse (37.4k words) Lando got diagnosed with cancer before the 2025 season, Oscar dominated that season while clinging to his friendship with Lando, before Max joined in. This was my first ever fic and it's still one of the angstiest thing I've ever made. Had fun with Lando and Oscar taking turn in holding the pov but in hindsight it skipped a lot of important parts. I learned the difference between using & and / in the tags, and this one's using & because it's purely platonic between Lando and Oscar here but I think this one's way more intimate than some of other romantic fics I've made between them. 7/10
a healthy middle (19.1k words) When Lando needed them, Oscar and Max came to the rescue. This was just a very indulgent missing scene from for better or worse where Oscar and Max were taking care of Lando. I had fun but it was a bit rushed (I literally posted it when I was about to start a hectic work trip). Could've left it marinate a bit. 6/10
you dream of walls that hold us imprisoned (33k words) Oscar was an architect who promised Lando they're not moving to Monaco for good, then Oscar went missing. See this is one of those instances where I was listening to a song and that song just became a hyper fixation that the only way to exorcise it out of my system was through a fic, and the songs for this fic were Frank Ocean's White Ferrari and Lucy Dacus' Lost Time. Think the premise still holding up, it's about one of those anxieties you have when you're in a secure, long term relationship and the worst thing you're ever feared was losing your loved ones (through death or time wormholes). Still loving it, 9/10
closer than you think (18.1k words) Oscar was raised in a Red Bull system and became Max's teammate in 2024, and he was struggling. I had fun with the Max/Oscar dynamic and I really think they'd make good teammates, and there should be more Red Bull Oscar or Oscar and Max as teammates, but this fic was at least 3k words too long, there were quite a few unnecessary scenes. 6/10
wrong number (2.1k words) Teenager Oscar used an old number as his own notes app, not knowing it went to Lando the entire time. I did this in 30 minutes while eating in a Din Tai Fung eating mala noodles and shrimp mayo. Took me longer to figure out the chat format than the substance of the story, but somehow got a lot of engagement? I don't understand AO3 sometimes. 7/10
steady hands (13.4k words) Oscar is a surgery intern in a hospital where his superiors are people like Carlos, Charles, and Max, and Lando's his roommate. This one's fun because I don't usually cast this many people for a fic, the way Oscar interacted with Carlos as his superior, complaining with Logan, being accepted as the fourth member of the 2019 trio with Lando, George and Alex, mentorship with Charles, and trying to impress Max? The way Oscar awkwardly trying to ask Lily out?? It got everything I wanted, 8/10
growing pains (13.9k words) Max is the youngest chief trauma surgeon who thinks Charles would not leave him, then Charles asked for a reference letter. It's in the same AU as steady hands but it's about Max and Charles. I don't usually do Lestappen but I like their own brand of rivalry, like, they're both traumatized but the trauma's at different end of a spectrum? delicious. At some point here I realized there were not enough F1 drivers I could cast to be doctors in this hospital because how the fuck I included Zhou, Grosjean and Magnussen here. 8/10
missing the apex (21.7k words) Oscar is a nurse meeting Lando who's apparently a vampire and lived next door and had been feeding on his patient, Daniel. It grew into its own thing and it managed to ask interesting questions about the morality of things and some philosophical questions about what it means to be a vampire, and I’m happy at the way Oscar’s and Lando’s characters became so fully realized but at the beginning I was just trying to get something closer to WWDITS and once again I've failed to do comedy. 7/10
you're a much better actor than me (20.3k words, still ongoing) Oscar works at a communication agency with mostly dodgy clients, he walked in on his two bosses, Max and George, making out in a meeting room. This is a classic workplace AU and I've made two mistakes of trying to do it in Bahasa Indonesia and trying to do it as satire/comedy. It's very hard to do, I'm still working on it though. 7/10
stop the clock (13.4k words) Oscar is a McLaren engineer with a secret long term relationship with Carlos from back when he was still in the team, and then a tragedy happened. This was probably the only fic that got me genuinely chocked up in the middle of working on it just because of how sad it is, and it came from the same kind of general anxieties about being in a secure long term relationship and your biggest fear is not showing up enough for your partner and them dying. 9/10
Suzuka interlude (2.2k words) McLaren gives Oscar and Lando literal homework about past rivalries and they work on it in Lando’s room. This one’s also another quick one with lots of historical references and character studies based on this whole idea that clearly their rivalry is different than others in the past like Prost and Senna or Hamilton and Alonso, all of which turned toxic in the end, and there’s a bit of hubris in thinking that they wouldn’t end up like that. Was fun character exploration and it still looking good even after their first title campaign wrapped. 8/10
the last dance (5.7k words) Prost is a grim reaper and Senna’s the kind of guy who likes to flirt with death. The amount of time I was toying with the idea of Personification of Death and Formula 1 did not correlate with how many words it actually produced in this fic because you’d think there’d be many things to say about how every driver have, at one point in their lives, flirted too closely with the grim reaper. I eventually settled with Senna’s story and for a long time I loved it until someone in the comment said why didn’t I end it with a kiss of death, which was such an obvious choice that I didn’t even think about so now I hate it. 7/10
Clarity under pressure (32.3k words) Arvid signs himself up to be the first severed driver that allowed him to beat Max. There’s a cost. This one’s a crossover with Apple TV’s Severance and it’s a non-ship, non-Oscar fic. The concept is pretty solid knowing that many drivers always say “when the helmet is on” they almost turn into a different person so I just make it literal in this fic. Absolutely happy with the ending and I’m just so glad I finished it. 9/10