Wattpad is like entry level fanfic. Tumblr is next. Then you’re onto the deep dark holes of AO3, ff.net, live journal, and some other janky websites.
You start off on Wattpad, things are easy to navigate, occasionally you’ll find a masterpiece. Chapters range from 13-50 depending on how long each chapter is, or how easy the storyline is. Now, no hate to authors on WP. I’m one of them. It’s just an easy app to navigate and write on, everything is there and it’s the best place for inline comments!
Tumblr has a bigger expansion of what you want. Need smut? What kind? We’ve got DDLG, omegaverse, angst, and just *chef kiss* perfection. Wattpad can have those, sure. But the people who write on Tumblr are the people who KNOW how thirsty you are. There is a fine line between Wattpad and Tumblr (not really but kinda imo)
AO3 is where Gods roam. Everything is filtered to your liking, tags upon tags! This is where word count matters. There could be 5 chapters but it could be well over 50k words. (Gold imo). There aren’t a lot of exciting comments that Wattpad has, but it just gives the reader a lot more time to focus on the actual storyline. People who write on AO3 do so with such....grace? Fluidity? Understanding? Whatever it is, it’s just such a nice place to read on. Only downside is that there is no app.
Ff.net is where I started after Wattpad and tumblr. I had an account on ao3, but I just liked having an app on my phone rather than having thousands of tags. It’s a difficult app to use imo, but this is where I first started reading epic length books. I realized how much I enjoy books that are over 90k words. If there is a book here, you’ll most likely find it on AO3 also. Vise versa. These two are neck and neck with some great authors. Maybe I just haven’t found terrible authors, but mostly they are either above average, or just gods in general.
Live Journal, and other janky websites (Ashwinder, marvel fanfics etc.) are these underground places that can both excite you or annoy you. I use live journal as a place of reference for when I want to find more books. Chances are that they are deleted because it’s been so long since someone updated their book/website. But I still recommend branching out.
This was literally just me ranting about my experiences and opinions on fanfic sites. As for AO3 and their millions of tabs when you’re reading, I have come up with a solution! Well not really a solution... but since I like having my books all in one place, I’ve chosen to download mine as Epubs and make covers! It’s so satisfying when you see them all in one place. Here are some examples of mine! I’ve taken inspiration from all over tumblr and Pinterest! You can tell some of them are straight copies/altered versions of actual covers, thus meaning credit goes to the original creators!
Camerado, TSOS, Phoenix song, and A Chance in Time are my favorite covers!
