#20 truths

[retrowrimay]

Day 20: 20 Truths

Despite the variety of names (twenty facts, twenty ways, 20 moments) the twenty truths fic is a brilliantly simple concept. At it's heart, a 20 truths fic is a list of facts about a character, a short series of events, or a historical bullet-point list of the in-canon universe, the 20 truths fic is a format meant to get right to the point of the matter at hand.

Conventions

The only true rule to the format is that the list must be twenty items long, and that they must have a central theme. The twenty truths could be about a character's backstory, or their relationships to other people in the cast. The truths may be lore, or meta-text. The list could be a narrative that builds to a conclusion, or a form of poetic prose.

It is often popular to use the format to deliver headcanons or canon-divergent fanons.

History

My attempts to track down the origin of this format failed me. However, I do not come to this report entirely empty-handed.

Reaching what seems to be it's peak popularity on Livejournal and Fanfiction.net (FFN) in the mid aughts, this format was the most concentrated in the Naruto fandom, and therefore in some adjacent anime fandoms as well to a lesser extent.

As the time is also made a decent headway as a standard format into the Harry Potter fandom, due to that fandom's contemporary popularity.

This format, while never truly disappearing, had a very short burst of popularity, and has remained relatively unused as a tag or named format for the past two decades, even though the format is still used.

Citrus Tasting Notes

Orange: Here are twenty facts about a character!

Lime: Twenty facts about a character's love life!

Lemon: Twenty facts about what the in-universe sex toy market might be like!

Grapefruit: This is a BDSM dungeon evening itinerary.

Stats

At the time of this post's drafting, there are only 46 Works in the "20 Things" tag on Ao3. Alternatively, using that term and synonymous terms gets a total of 1,487 works on FFN. Unfortunately getting any further metadata from all of those search parameters combined on that site is a task beyond my scope at this time. So the below stats come from the much smaller sample of 46 works off of Ao3.

The top additional tags associated with this tag (after disqualifying synonymous tags) are:

Angst - 5 works

Future Fic - 4 works

Character Study - 4 works

Post-Canon - 3 works

Introspection - 3 works

Today, the top five fandoms in the tag are:

Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball - 3 works

Avatar (Cameron Movies) - 3 works

Kyou Kara Maou! - 2 works

Hunter X Hunter - 2 works

Teen Wolf (TV) - 2 works

Reader Feedback on the Format

Criticism

With such a niche format there is not a lot of specific criticism that I could find. What is there is similar to that of the other numeric list format on our prompts, the 5+1: boredom with formulaic writing, as well as distaste for specific tropes.

Praise

Those that use the format appreciate the structure that it provides and the ability to convey complicated ideas in deceptively simply formats.

[whatfallsforever]

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

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Invader Zim Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim) Characters: Dib (Invader Zim), Zim (Invader Zim) Additional Tags: 20 Things, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Enemies to Lovers, Denial, POV Second Person, but its dib addressing himself, Drabble, retrowrimay, retrowrimay26, fitting 100 words in this format was one of the trickier things to plan, Gay Dib (Invader Zim) Series: Part 5 of RetroWriMay 2026 Summary:

Soon you won't be on your own anymore.

---

@retrowrimay Day 7 - Soulmate AU @retrowrimay Day 20 - 20 Truths @retrowrimay Day 26 - True Drabble

[it-can-cait]

Rules: Tag 20 amazing followers you want to get know better! Tagged by: @rearadmiral16 Name: Caitlin Nicknames: Caty, Cait, doodlebug, Yentl, Mama Mayer Gender: Female Star Sign: Libra Height: 5'9 Sexual Orientation: Straight Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff Favorite Color: Blue Favorite Animal: Sharks or Sloths Average Hours of sleep: 6-8 or 14 Cat or dog person: Always said dog and then I got my two kitties, so both! Favorite Fictional Characters: SO MANY. Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Olivia Pope, Laurel Castillo, Mellie Grant, Aria Montgomery, Stefan Salvatore, Caroline Forbes, Zoe Hart, Lemon Breeland, Emma Swan, Brooke Davis, Haley James Scott, Nathan Scott, Lucas Scott, Jamie Scott, Payton Sawyer, (the entire cast of OTH basically) Number of blankets I sleep with: 1 Favorite Singer/Band: The Lumineers Dream Trip: Australia to scuba The Great Barrier Reef Dream Job: actress/performer or something that allowed me to travel a lot When was this blog created: 2016 Current number of followers: this is embarrassing... 11 When did your blog reach its peak?: Hopefully soon What made you decide to make a Tumblr?: My bestie @rearadmiral16

[dashes0fconfessions]

Day 20 → Your views on drugs and alcohol

Personally, I believe that it is fine to drink occasionally and enjoy per say a few glasses of wine or cans of beer. This is of course if you are within the legal drinking age. However, I do not appreciate the "drink yourself wasted" type of people, which is basically  what this young generation is doing. .Drinking yourself so you black out, so you forget pain. Drinking so you get alcohol-poisoned. I don't get it.  Alcohol is maybe the worst drug that you can use.  My views on drugs. I don't like that people have to use drugs to try to forget the world, the abuse of it. Although I don't believe that it is more or less dangerous than alcohol. There are a lot of people that say weed is so much worse than alcohol, but I care to disagree. Weed is proven to medically help cancer patients and I doubt that alcohol would do the same.  I don't like when people use drugs or in that matter drink too much, but in the end it is their choice and that's fine. As long as they don't drag me into it.

[dashes0fconfessions]

Day 19 → What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics?

Religion: I think that religion is something that is apart of you, but in different ways. I think you can believe and have faith in other things than the main religions that define religion nowadays. It all lays within the individuals to decide.  Politics: I believe that a lot of politics go hand in hand with corruption. Even in the so called "western world". There are a lot of politicians that are trying to make this world better, but it is interesting to see how little they and the system do, in some places.  Sorry for not really answering this, but I'm kind of on autopilot today. 

[dashes0fconfessions]

Day 18 → Your views on gay marriage.

I would like to change this to; Your views on marriage/equality. I believe that marriage is something special and you marry the person you love and know you can't live without. Love has no limits or boundaries, it doesn't care for genders, races, religion or anything. Love conquers all.  If you find that someone, the someone that completes you, then nothing else matters. Marriage is a commitment and a right that everyone should be allowed to have. Because love, in the end, is a beautiful thing.

[dashes0fconfessions]

Day 17 → A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.

The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini. 

This book is such a powerful book. It might not have changed my views, but it gave me a wider understanding on the world. The way Hosseini portraits things in the way he writes, is both powerful and depressing. I love this book nonetheless.  

[dashes0fconfessions]

Day 16 → Someone or something you definitely could live without.

Mom, I love you. I couldn't bare living my life without you. You are my inspiration in the everyday  You are the reason I know that you should NEVER stop trying and the reason why I know that I should never give up. To see all the things you have gone through and that you are still standing straight, is beyond admirable.  You are there when I'm happy. You support me when I'm down. You know all the right things to say, all the things to mend me. You make me smile, laugh. You taught me how to love with my whole heart and any kindness I have is from the kindness you have shown me. I'm so lucky that you are my mother.

I love you.