Songlin @songlin - Tumblr Blog

I know it’s mermay and all but godddddd so many mermaid aus are so boringggggg like it’s not even au you just made up entirely new characters. if you’re not going to incorporate any aspect of their canon dynamics then what is even the fucking point. btw I’m allowed to be a hater about this because my birthday is in may so I reclaim it

sabertoothwalrus

ok leaving the haterism bit to answer this genuinely

honestly this applies to any au, not just mermaids, but I’d much rather read something where the writer considers WHAT the universe-altering aspect REPRESENTS and what it replaces. did the original world already have magic, and can it be substituted by mermaids (and does it work with the whole world and not just the bits related to the ship you’re writing this au for)? if not, did the original world have a narrative where characters are separated by factors beyond their control? was there a character with a canon arc that could translate well to being/becoming a mermaid? I feel like this is often ignored in favor of just retelling the little mermaid, but this time the characters look like and are named after other characters.

oftentimes, aus fail to interest me because they change the backstories to such an extreme degree that the characters couldn’t possibly be the same people anymore. for example, there’s no real way to do a modern no-magic coffee shop au of avatar the last airbender that doesn’t remove most of the stakes of what makes aang—a kid thrust into a war with the responsibility to save the entire world at the age of twelve, who feels responsible for the demise of his entire civilization and culture—interesting!! if you take all that away from him, then why does the character in question need to be aang if you could replace him with, like, peter parker and get the same outcome.

ALL THIS TO SAY!! you can do whatever you want. There’s no right or wrong way to participate in fandom. personally, I like engaging with fandom by playing with the material given and doing character/narrative analysis, and some people don’t!!

I mean this in a very positive and uplifting way, but I think some people will have so much more fun (and freedom!!) once they realize they are already making original stories with original characters and that they should lean into it!! I think that is just as much of a special and wonderful thing as creating fan content!!!

songlin

I also feel similarly! It's why whenever I approach AU writing, I always start with what connects my original content to the source material.

For me, Sherlock doesn’t have to be solving crimes in every universe. Other readers and writers think otherwise! Part of creating your story is teasing out what has to stay.

mephistopheles

"bottom" please consider 🫵 whether the word you are looking for is in fact "submissive" ! because if we decide that taking dick means your personality & character r inherently subservient 😃 we might as well just throw in the towel on the most basic premise of feminism & 🔫 kill ourselves 🎉

cosmogyros

canonkiller

many people sharing the writing post today... hard to keep up with..... know my universal advice:

if it sucks you should still write it

if it'll be unfinished you should still write it

if you never share it you should still write it

if it's not a linear fiction adventure you should still write it

if you will have fun writing it you should write it :)

there-is-no-hucow-level

Shout out to anyone who can't or struggles with cumming and is so sick of how everyone talks about it.

I need you to stop making cumming the goal post, the goal of sex should be mutual enjoyment and if you start talking about making someone cum and they tell you that's unlikely or won't happen your response should not be "I always make my partners cum don't worry I'll be the one to do it" or "you just need more care and patience, we'll go slower and take all night, you can trust me" or "you just need more stimulation, let's get you this and this and this and I'll be extra rough and dominant" those all suck, unless this person has specifically asked for your help, this person is telling you what to expect going in and hearing all that when you know and are comfortable with how you are is just annoying. That won't happen but we can have plenty of fun other ways, focus on that. I don't need you to fix the nothing wrong with me thanks.

wafflewarrior111

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

missroserose

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how? How does he know it?” Interrogate your witnesses. Cross-examine them. Make them explain their reasoning. It pays dividends.

heck-in-a-handbasket

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

ineedthesons

This is your "show not tell" advice explained!

tarysande

Editor here.

First, let me preface this with something very important: you can treat all of this advice as SECOND-DRAFT ADVICE. It is so much easier to rewrite this kind of stuff once you have words on the page. Telling yourself the first draft is totally appropriate and acceptable.

What we’re talking about here are FILTER WORDS (and to some degree verbs of being). Yes, “thought” words are included. But so are “heard, saw, looked, tasted, smelled” etc.—most words having to do with the senses.

This isn’t black and white advice; sometimes you’ll use these words and that’s okay. They’re not WRONG. They’re just weaker. And they’re weaker because they create distance between the reader and the experience of the character.*

If you want your reader to feel like they’re experiencing the story right alongside the character, you want to cut down on filter words.

*This is particularly important with first person and close third POVs. The reader always knows whose eyes they’re seeing through and thoughts they’re privy to. So you don’t need to tell them “I saw X.” Or “I heard X.” Or “I thought Y.” You can just jump into the action/observation as it’s happening.

This is also where you want to pay attention to verbs of being.

“It was rainy.” Versus: “The rain pounded against the roof.” Or “The rain howled like an injured animal.” Or “The rain tapped against the window like an anxious lover.” All of these are inviting the reader deeper into the experience of the story by using stronger verbs and similes. And, at the same time, they stir feelings (instead of TELLING feelings). And feelings keep your reader engaged. Engaged readers keep turning pages; engaged readers become FANS.

the-haiku-bot

This is also where

you want to pay attention

to verbs of being.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

defilerwyrm

The most valuable advice that Author Ex gave me through the years that we wrote together was this: the problem with all these filter words is that they create distance in the POV.

That means that when you read a line like

John saw that the curtains were open.

It immediately takes you OUT of the character's perspective and instead tells you what they experience as a secondhand observation.

You don't have to get fancy or purple with how you rephrase things like this. Not everything needs a ton of breathing room.

You wanna know what's perfectly impactful while keeping a tight POV?

The curtains were open.

Simple as that.

songlin

This was one of my all time most powerful writing lessons! This mindset shift makes you a stronger writer immediately in a way that just keeps getting easier and better for you.

radioactive-earthshine

Not sure why it's a new trend among fic readers to assume if the fic has not been posted within the week it's inappropriate to comment on it, like the fic has to be hot out of the oven to give feedback for.

I got a comment on a fic that is less than a year old and it was mostly an apology for being a comment on an "old fic" and how late they were in commenting.

Just comment on the fic. Doesn't matter how old it is.

eternalgirlscout

a while ago I read an omegaverse fic where part of the premise was that the guy had like, abnormally long and intense heats, which as you can imagine was used for horny reasons. but it was a fairly grounded omegaverse setting as far as it goes, and I could not stop thinking "he has pornworld endometriosis and needs to see an ΩBGYN"

mromitosen

I am a PASSIONATE commenter on fanfiction, but sometimes it slows down my reading because I don't want to read if I don't have the mental energy to leave the long comments I want to

Still, as an author, I know even a short note can mean the world.

So, I put together a little guide with different “levels” of comments, so it’s easier to leave something without overthinking!

Hopefully this helps someone else too!

thetrekkiehasthephonebox

the best fanfic is the one the author had fun writing actually.

thetrekkiehasthephonebox

the second best is the one the author used to work through some issues.

mikkeneko

the third best is the one the author wrote out of spite due to some really dogshit discourse going on in their fandom

songlin

The Only Unproblematic Slash Fic was literally every one of these, which I guess makes it the most powerful of all time

344j3

legolas. what do your fujoshi eyes see

allthingswhumpyandangsty

hils79

I wrote this fic in 2008:

I wrote this fic in 2000:

lunarriviera

ngl this one broke me a little tho

inevitably-johnlocked

Johnlock Fic Recs Fic Recs Roundup: January 18 to 24/26

NEW

Omegaverse Pt. 3 (MFL Full Series and WiPs)

5FF: January 23/26

REBLOGS

5FF: December 5/25

Sherlock and John’s Wedding

Animal AU

Christmas-Time Love Confessions (Updated Dec 2025)

COMMUNITY RECS

John or Sherlock Cheat on Each Other (Jan 2026)

Therapy / Counselling Fics (Jan 2026)

MASTERPOSTS

Fic Rec Roundup: Week of January 10 to January 17/26

Fic Rec Roundup: Week of November 30 to December 6/25

Emotional Wreckage (Dec 2025)

Together Before the Fall and its Aftermath (Jan 2026)

rosemoonweaver

GUYS. DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN WRITE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE FICS ON AO3

rosemoonweaver

Other things you can do:

Linked footnotes

Customized page dividers

Sticky notes

Lined paper

Paper that looks stacked on top of each other

Old looking paper

Newspaper articles

Tumblr posts

iOS text messages

Emails

Fake ao3 authors notes and kudos button

Freaking discord chats

Its fucking amazing. Ao3 is fucking amazing. Can I legally marry a website?

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

transformativeworks

frownyalfred

me, quietly whispering to the ao3 page of an author who doesn’t even know I exist: I am obsessed with you

newskyillusion

me, whispering to the ao3 page of an author who hasn’t updated anything in four years: I think about you often and I hope you’re alright

azrielgreen

me, whispering to the ao3 page of an author who wrote one life altering banger and nothing else: I hope your pillow is cool and your skin is clear and you find money in a forgotten jeans pocket

jezebelgoldstone

me, whispering to every single person on this post: please leave one singular comment saying literally any of that

tippenfunkaport

keepfandomweird

Hi and welcome to the introductory post for the pan-fandom Keep Fandom Weird event.

Sometimes you get stuck in a rut. Sometimes fandom at large gets stuck in one long hard rut. Stop snickering, this is a serious topic. Do you ever long to read and write some classic fandom weirdness? A modern no powers coffee shop AU has its place, but weird shit has its place too. And that place is here, @keepfandomweird dot com.

This is a bingo event! You sign up, you get a bingo card, you get to working. Any fandom, no rating limits, anything you're into. There will be an AO3 collection you can add your stories to.

Stay tuned for more!

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Songlin