books, writing, FF

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[shelvesuponshelves]

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

Chapters: 1/25 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Sirius Black, James Potter, Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin, Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Black Malfoy Additional Tags: Friends to Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, Suicidal Thoughts, Homophobia, Drama, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, draco malfoy gets the help he deserves, Party Games, including - Freeform, Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle, Seven Minutes In Heaven Game, im gonna put on, Hurt/Comfort, but not between the pairing, its more abt draco healing for that tag, Slytherin Harry Potter, Hogwarts Sixth Year, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, alternate universe no dumbledore, Sirius Black Lives, Bisexual Harry Potter, side pansy x ginny, side romoine, Mental Health Issues Summary:

Best friends since they were four, Slytherins Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy have been the shitty spoiled rich kids of Hogwarts for years. But when Harry decides he wants to improve himself and Draco can’t get on board, Draco’s world begins to fall apart when Harry moves on to new friends.

ft. No voldemort or Dumbledore, an incredibly plot-centric Sirius, party games, drama, and a whole lot of wholesome healing.

[shelvesuponshelves]

Chapter Eight is Up Now!!

[rettaroo]

A/B/O dynamics is such a weird fantasy sex trope. Like you’ve got all these weird elements of mpreg, soul mating/bonding, biting/vampirism, sex pollen/pheremones/Pon Farr, lycanthropy/canine-like anatomy, strange genitalia, breeding kink, complicated gender relationships/imbalances…. and it’s all customizable and everyone does it different, but somehow it’s still comprehensible to fic writers/readers we all just decided a few years ago to roll with it and write it into thousands of fics. Good job folks, it’s so weird but it works

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

not my tweet or my fic (and there’s a good chance of this comment being a bot) but yeah, don’t do this. sure, some writers wouldn’t mind having fanfics (or direct continuation) of their fanfics written by someone else. some may even be thrilled and happy. but the fandom etiquette is that if you want to write a fanfic or a continuation of someone’s fanfic, YOU POLITELY ASK THE WRITER FOR THEIR PERMISSION. not their readers.

also 5 months isn’t long at all. 5 months is 5 minutes when it comes to fanfics. I’ve waited years for my favorite fics to get updated (one of my favorite fanfics was updated by the author after 13 years) and I’ve never said anything to them about “it’s been ___ years, I don’t think it will get updated anymore”. because another fandom / fanfic etiquette is that fanfic writers write for free in their free time, they don’t owe you anything. maybe they will update one day. maybe they won’t. if you want your favorite fic to get updated, you comment something like “this is good!! I’m excited for what happens next” and maybe your positive comment will motivate the author to update. but you don’t say “it’s been ___ months or years”. fanfics writers write for themselves and their own enjoyment. they’re just kind enough to let you read their works for free. stop being rude and entitled to fanfic writers.

[elysianholly]

5 months? FIVE MONTHS????? That's considered an abandoned fic? Some of y'all don't deserve fandom.

[flootzavut]

MY EXACT REACTION like damn I have come back and finished fics after seven fucking YEARS. But I promise if someone did this to me, I would lock that shit down so hard.

Five months. Jesus Christ.

[thatfanficstuff]

if i found comments like this on my fic I would delete the whole damn thing.

I have quit posting ongoing series on wattpad because i would literally get "it's about time" when i hadn't updated in 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS.

This is what causes content creators to quit creating. Most of us battle wicked imposter syndrome half the time anyway.

[henshengs]

Tbh I think fandom generally needs to get better at sitting with the uncomfortable fact that a story/fanwork/meme/whatever can hurt one person and help another

[sensicalabsurdities]

This is why I think “tag warning” culture is kinder and more constructive than cancel culture / “no problematic content” culture. One size does not fit all, but if we learn to be more aware of the fact that the same thing can be emotionally validating or cathartic to one person and upsetting to another, and pick up a general mindset of thinking before we post, “what might people need a heads up for in this content?”, we grow more compassionate, more thoughtful, and more understanding of the differences in people’s experiences.

[jumpingjacktrash]

this is very important.

and we also need to let go of the scrupulosity that says you must be 100% responsible for your readers’ comfort. there are several reasons to get rid of that.

bullies and manipulators will use it to jerk you around

it will either pointlessly increase your anxiety, or

give you a false sense of security, depending on whether you think you CAN actually tag for all triggers, and

you really, REALLY can’t. you can’t. it’s not possible.

i have so many obscure little triggers from school-based abuse that even i couldn’t tell you how to avoid them, and without that conversation there’s no way in hell for you to know that if you have an authority figure knock pencils or pens on the floor i’ll think i’m fine but then i’ll have nightmares the next 3 nights. i didn’t know until it happened. then the next time, it didn’t happen, but the smell of plasticine clay set me off. my medical trauma is like... i can read the most gruesome body horror, and then a throwaway line where a nurse is a little brusque will send me to frown town all day.

my mental health is not for you to protect. it’s not your job and i honestly don’t want you trying. i kinda find those “mind the warnings and take care of yourself” author’s notes condescending and rude, though i know they’re kindly meant.

just... tag for the basics. non-con. body horror. animal cruelty. if a frequent reader asks politely for you to tag a particular thing, and that thing is easy to identify and either exists or doesn’t exist in your work (say, vomiting, or death by fire), you might want to agree, but you do not have to. it is perfectly valid to say, “sorry, bro, but i really can’t keep track of extra tags, so you might not wanna keep reading.” i have cognitive disabilities, i usually can’t remember whether i’ve had lunch on any given day, i’m not going to promise you i’ll remember to tag for like... arguments in an elevator. i’m not mocking your triggers, mine are just as finicky, see above, but i just can’t do it, fam.

re OP’s point, SO MUCH YES, and also let me point out that sometimes a tag warning is helpful not because you want to avoid a thing, but because you don’t want it to be a surprise.

[redshiftsinger]

Yuuuuup. Also, “choose not to use archive warnings” IS A WARNING. It’s just a vague one. It’s “there may or may not be any or all of AO3′s Archive Warnings present in this fic”.  If you’re worried about something specific, either ask the author (POLITELY, with the understanding that they don’t owe you an answer), or ask a friend you trust to look over the media in question and report back. Or just... don’t read it. Be responsible for your own mental health to the best of your ability. 

[on-fic-writing-spree]

Vague warnings are absolutely useless, and yeah, if they’re writing any sort of content, it is THEIR JOB to tag it PROPERLY. And if they don’t and someone asks if x topic is involved and they’re just “I don’t need to answer this I don’t owe anyone an answer for my work” do you realize how STUPID that is? But ok miss the point of the post.

“Vague tag” vs “tag common triggers” are two very different topics. A tag for “problematic content” doesn’t include anything about the content and therefor, on its own, is a useless tag. Problematic content can include way too much.

“Choose not to use archive warnings” isn’t EVEN a tag. It’s literally “I don’t want to use these warnings. Maybe they don’t apply. Maybe they do.” It literally tells you ABSOLUTE JSCK SHIT about the following content.

[redshiftsinger]

Wrong! Vague warnings are as useful as they’re meant to be. “hey uh there might be some icky stuff here” is a warning. It’s not specific, but it gives you a heads up, and if you don’t wanna chance it, guess what? You don’t have to! You can be like “nope I don’t wanna see any icky stuff today” or “there’s some particular icky stuff I don’t wanna see so if you’re not telling me what the icky stuff is, I’m just gonna go somewhere else”.  Do you realize how stupid it is to act like the world owes you specific, detailed content warnings at all times? Do you realize how utterly entitled and bratty you sound when you say things like that?  Like, yes, content warnings are a good thing to have exist. But you know what else exists and has every right to?  - neurodivergent people who aren’t good at figuring out which warnings to include, or who need to not go on scrupulosity spirals every time they try to tag a fic, so they need a vague warning option that covers the bases without stressing them out unduly - people who like mystery and don’t want to know exactly what kind or degree of icky ooky spooky is coming “problematic content” is indeed a useless tag, I suggest people shouldn’t bother much with that one. Because “problematic” is intensely subjective! Vegans think eating meat is “problematic”, I think being a militant vegan and trying to force your own dietary choices on other people is “problematic”. There’s no standard.  “Some of this content might be triggering” is a very different matter, however. A trigger is subjective, hence the “might”, but the statement implies that the content it’s applied to deals with some heavier topics. Thus, not useless. And “choose not to use archive warnings”, as I said, means “this may contain rape or noncon, graphic depictions of violence, major character death, and/or underage content”. Those being the archive warnings, you can reasonably assume when you see “choose not to use archive warnings” that if you do not want to see those kinds of content, you should not read that fic. It’s very simple. Take responsibility for curating your own experiences, don’t expect everyone else to do it for you. If you’re an adult, it’s your responsibility to decide for yourself what amount of risk you’re willing to take in your fic-reading; if you are a child and struggling with sticking to content that you feel is appropriate for you, then ask an adult who’s actually responsible for you (your parent, for example) to help you.  I’m not your parent. It is not my job to parent you. 

[on-fic-writing-spree]

Also as someone with a neurodivergent brother and someone who actually is going into psychology while being fairly certain they have ocd and / or adhd, you can leave you ableist shit to yourself. Having Autism or ADHD or any other mental illness does not give you an excuse to not tag properly. If you can’t tag properly, you shouldn’t be sharing the content. Period.

[on-fic-writing-spree]

“There might” it’s not even “there will be” this is the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard. You are responsible for what you produce just as much as I am responsible for what content I read. If you aren’t properly tagging, I did not agree to see whatever bullshit content you put in there.

I don’t know how fucking stupid you have to believe that “choose not to use warnings” is a warning. It’s literally saying there is no warning. Asshole.

[flootzavut]

It literally is a warning. The adult response, if you're aware that there might be something in this fic you don't want to read (which you are now aware of because the writer said it was possible), is to close the tab and not read that fic. No one is making you read fics tagged cntw. Don't read the fucking fic!

Some people WANT to read fics where they don't know what they're getting. You don't. That's completely valid. I don't either. So I filter out "chose not to warn" fics.

Just. Don't. Read. The. Fic.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[bi-files]

I’m a patron of the arts (I leave nice comments on aO3).

[byler-alarmist]

I'm a patron of the arts (I reblog on Tumblr dot com)

[hypotenussy]

the number 1 rule of fanfic is have fun and be yourself. the number 2 rule is the average healthy adult male can lose roughly 2 liters of blood before dying.

[thecharmingquirksofothers]

incredible prev tags

[beardedmrbean]

Next up someone is going to claim that the Narnia series isn't kids books.

Kids books is probably not the best way to word it, you can enjoy them at every age, including your childhood, as you get older you may find new truths in them, but they're still good for any age.

[cookingwithroxy]

I want you to understand this. I NEED you to understand this. My mother read me the hobbit as bedtime story, and I started pushing myself to read before pre-school so I could in fact read the hobbit for myself instead of having to wait for bedtime.

I didn't do so right away but jesus wept I PUSHED myself to learn to read SPECIFICALLY so I could read The Hobbit! It is, in fact, a children's story! And children only see page count as 'there is a lot of this fun story to read!'

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[power-handmaiden]

when I was in high school I had a literature teacher who had a policy of unlimited extra credit. All you had to do was read a book by a notable author (his discretion) and have a little chat with him after school to prove that you read it. No limits, no need for variety (one month I decided I really loved Kurt Vonnegut and just read everything of his I could get my hands on).

Yes, I was tearing through books constantly, and talking to this teacher at least weekly. Because even though I always loved reading as a kid, literature was always a very weak subject for me in terms of a teaching-to-standardized-test school setting (I just do awful on "what color were the curtains" type multiple choice questions. Those details don't stick in my memory THEY JUST DON'T). But that didn't matter for this class. I could just read my way out of any bad test score. I have always had fond memories of how I "fudged" my way through that class and "abused' the extra credit policy.

I was thinking about it again today, and only just now realized that he absolutely tricked me into being well-read, while my teenage self thought I was totally getting away with something. THAT MOTHERFUCKER. I hope he's doing well.

[cykelops]

chatgpt is a threat to the symbiotic relationship between fanfic writers and their betas. we are losing our traditions. eradicate the soulless machine and ask your friend who has a full time job and 3 kids to annotate your omegaverse fanfiction like any other responsible adult.

[1000-life-hacks]

[libraryladyintraining]

You better believe it!

[homunculus-argument]

Libraries are sneaky, because once you go in, it's soo easy to get a library card, and once you have one, you can pretty much grab one of everything of all the stuff they have there with no consequence, and take it home. But then once you're home and you've read all the stuff you'll have to go back to the library to return the stuff, and once you're at the library again, you're at the library again, so might as well pop in to see what they got, and then you're hauling half their shit home again, and then you'll need to return to the library to return them, so you're at the library again

And the next thing you know you've read 3000 books, your crops are clear and your skin is watered, an angel descents from the heaven to suck your dick twice a week, and also you've got some books to return so you've got a perfectly valid reason to go pop in to the library. Just a little bit.

[isuggestusingyourlocallibrary]

I suggest using your local library!

[rozzed]

why not have the reader re-read a sentence now and then? it won't hurt him....

[honestlyvan]

Another thing fandom needs to start doing more of is projecting on tops.

There are delicious amounts of psychological distress you can inflict on that guy once you get into his head. The brainworms of forcing agency and initiative on someone who genuinely is Not Fucking Ready For It are exquisite.

[honestlyvan]

To quote myself: Domtops in fics are always written to have such uncomplicated and healthy relationships to their sexualities and for my mental health I need us to collectively start giving them complexes about being some kind of monstrous predatory freak of nature instead.

Make that guy have a panic attack b/c someone in his daydream told him to stop and he kept going anyway.

[honestlyvan]

New and improved! Sad Wet Dog of a top is thinking about how he wants to hurt you but doesn't want to hurt you and the contradiction is slowly and steadily making him Lose His Whole Fucking Mind.

[imconfusedallthetimehelp]

Grace: *does something*

Rocky: "why Grace so 🎶🎶🎶 stupid. Question."

Grace: "Excuse me buddy?"

Rocky: "...🎶🎶🎶 stupid. Hmm. Need word."

Grace: "...what does it mean?"

Rocky: "Meant add strength to word. But some Eridians think also .....rude"

Grace: "So a swear word. I'm not giving you the human word for that."

Rocky: "Why not. Question."

Grace: "Because this human thinks they are rude too."

Rocky: "Do not be little 🎶🎶🎶 Grace. Give Rocky human swear word."

[myfairkatiecat]

My friends and I all took a “which Jane Austen love interest would you fall for?” and I was like ooh ooh I hope I get Mr. Knightley. But also if they have Henry Tilney on there he’s super underrated and I would get his humor better than Catherine anyway so I want him too. One of my friends said she wanted Mr. Darcy and I was like eh hard pass. Everyone looked at me like I committed sacrilege and I was like look! I love him! As a character! And I think he’s great for Elizabeth! I am really super happy that Elizabeth ended up with him. And also perfectly content to not be Elizabeth because he’s just not for me. And then we took the test and I got Mr. Darcy and one of my friends said “I forgot not liking him was a prerequisite for falling in love with him” and I threw my phone at her (spiritually, not physically, bc phones are expensive)