Welcome to my fanfic side blog- I made this mainly to consolidate all the resources out there for creating and consuming fanfics that I enjoy. There are so many ways to customize your experience and so many people willing to help out with that!
Some of the stuff on here is kinda redundant, that's because everyone likes to do things slightly differently and I think its worth seeing all the different approaches people have :)
feel free to send an ask if there's something more you're looking how to do!
also my fic rec lists will be tagged "#fic rex fic recs" in case you are not interested in the same fandoms and want to block.
My ao3 bookmarks were growing unruly, and while additional filters can help, I wanted to see what other organizational methods ao3 readers were using, so I went on a voyage into the vast depths of bookmark tags. Aka:
The expedition's findings? Bookmark tags tend to fall into these eight categories. Very cool how one feature can serve different purposes for different readers!
A question from a tumblr user inspired me to write this guide, how to mass download fic from AO3.
To be clear, with mass download I mean a scenario in which you want to download your bookmarks, or all 30 fics from an author or similar, not something like ‘I want to download all of AO3’.
I will explain two methods that I have both used successfully (there are of course other options that I have not used).
Content:
Method 1: Flamebyrd's bookmarklet plus a Download Manager
Method 2: nianeyna's AO3 Downloader
Method 1 - How does it work, step by step
Known issues and limitations
And a big thank you to the authors of these tools!
Disclaimers:
To achieve the full benefit of method 1 and for method 2 to work at all you will need to use a PC. I have used both methods on Windows and method 1 also on a Mac.
Both methods used to work perfectly for me. After AO3 started using Cloudflare (I think after a bot attack) they still work but I have experienced more issues and a decrease in reliability (correlation/causation, who knows).
Always be vigilant what you install on your computer. And probably consider using separate browsers for your work/banking and for your fandom activities.
This information is current in February 2026.
This was cross-posted on tumblr and my WordPress blog
1) Method 1
Scope: adding a bookmarklet (1a) and a browser extension (1b).
Note that these tools are provided by different people. This option is completely usable with a graphical user interface. This is the method that I am currently using.
1a) Flamebyrd's bookmarklet
AO3 Ebook Download Helper (link)
This bookmarklet creates a floating window that contains the links to download the ebook versions of all works on aa AO3 page (be it author, search, series, etc).
How to install: Go to Flamebyrd's page (link) and follow the instruction to 'install' it in your browser.
Note that this bookmarklet does not automatically queue up fics for downloads. This is where 1b) comes in. However, you can of course use the bookmarklet on its own.
Notes: Flamebyrd has a lot of other useful tools for AO3
This bookmarklet is on AO3’s ‘Unofficial Browser Tools’ list (however the link they have on the page is broken 😊)
1b) A Mass Downloader / Download Manager
I use DownThemAll! (link to website) which is a free and open-source extension for Firefox, Chrome and Edge. (I use it with Firefox).
This is a great extension that is useful for any kind of mass download use case - not just for AO3.
How to install: Go to where your browser manages extensions, search for DownThemAll and install it.
How to use it: There is a step by step guide how I use method 1a) + 1b) below in this post (after the cut).
2) Method 2 - nianeyna's AO3 Downloader
Links: github link; Tumblr link
A python command line interface tool. This is the more technical and powerfull method. This means that you need to install Python (looks like the newer version of the tool does that for you).
I've used this method for several years and loved it, but have not used it for a while.
How to install it / how hoes it work: Follow the links and read the author’s documentation and FAQs.
3) Method 1 - How it works, step by step
Note: this was created with Firefox on Windows (and checked to work the same with Firefox on Mac)
Step 1: Go to any AO3 page that shows a list of fics (series, works by author, bookmarks, searches) and click on the bookmarklet.
Step 2:
The bookmarklet creates a flying window with all the fics and format options.
Select the fics you want to download (incl the mobi epub pdf...) part on the right
Right click and then select ‘DownThemAll’ > ‘Save selection with DownThemAll’
Step 3:
DownThemAll shows a list of all the selected fics and formats.
Select the fics / formats you actually want to download. In the example screenshot I have selected all epub files.
Then click ‘Download’ to start the download
Step 4: the downloads start
Step 5:
Change options by clicking the cog wheel in the lower right corner.
The default setting are a bit aggressive for AO3’s rate limiting and I’d suggest reducing the ‘concurrent downloads’ to 1.
Note: the tool remembers these settings, thus you need to do it only once
Step 6:
Nevertheless, after some time AO3’s rate limit will kick in.
The tool wall recognize this and pause downloads for a few minutes (you can adjust this time in the settings). After the pause, they will resume automatically. See the blue lines / files in the screenshot.
This will inevitably also cause a few downloads to “fail”, see red lines / files in the screenshot.
Step 7: Resume / retry the failed downloads: when all blue downloads are completed after one or more pauses, you can select the failed red downloads and press “resume” to retry them.
4) Known issues and limitations
General download issues
a) Fics keep failing to download. This is probably a temporary Cloudflare or AO3 server issue.
Workaround: try again later
b) Very large fics do not download reliably or not at all (in some formats). I have seen this rarely but reproducibly in certain fics.
Workaround: sometimes another format works
Known issues and limitations of method 1 (1a+1b)
c) Max 20 fics in one go. This is an AO3 limitation as this is the maximum number of fics AO3 displays on one page.
Workaround: select and queue up fics from several pages, one after the other.
d) A fic does not correctly download (infrequent)
Sometimes a fic does not download correctly. You can notice this when you look at the file names of the downloaded files and it is not the title of the fic but a number.
Workaround: manually redownload the fic
e) An older version of the fic is downloaded
I experienced this when I downloaded an incomplete fic with method 1a)+1b) and some month later when I tried to download the now completed fic, I got an older incomplete version in the download.
This one is harder to notice as the fic does successfully download and the file name looks correct.
I have noticed this relatively recently and this issue does cause me some grief. This looks like a caching issue, but I've cleared the cache of Firefox and that did not help. I have no idea what the root cause is.
My current workaround (that may or may not be suitable for you): I do a mass download. I subscribe to incomplete fics that I want to come back to later. I do a manual download once I get the e-mail that the fic was updated / completed.
I will update this post if I find a better solution.
---
I also have a an older guide How to download fic from FFN
For anyone who hasn't seen them before, Hidden Search Operators are handy tricks you can use when you're either searching or filtering AO3.
summary: string is a generic way of explaining that you can search AO3 for a specific word that appears in a summary. You can do this from the search bar in the header, from the Any Field box at the top of the Advanced Search form, or from the Search Within Results box at the bottom of the filter menu.
Examples:
summary: Bruce
summary: "Bruce Banner"
summary: Bruce OR summary: Banner OR summary: Hulk
You need to put quotation marks around your search term if it is more than one word. The quotes make sure that the site searches for those two words together.
The other two operators listed work best in the Search Within Results box.
expected_number_of_chapters: 1 will return results where every fic has only 1 chapter currently posted.
You can use -expected_number_of_chapters: 1 if you want results where every fic has more than 1 chapter currently posted.
otp:true will return results where there is only 1 relationship tag on the fic. If you want results where there are 2+ relationship tags (and no fics with only 1 relationship tag) then you can use otp:false
This post is going around again (with an unfortunate syntax error on it - this version is correct), so I thought I'd add some information that folks have mentioned wanting in the notes.
Any time you want help with how to use AO3, look for the question mark bubbles. Clicking or tapping on those bubbles will open up a pop up window with information on that specific part of AO3. For example, here's the information for Include filters.
2. When you log into AO3 for the first time, you'll have a banner on your dashboard that gives you a ton of links and information that's useful for new users. A lot of people will dismiss this banner without ever reading it, but you can get it back at any time.
Go to your Preferences, scroll down to Misc. and check the box next to Turn the new user help banner back on. Update your preferences, and the banner will return.
3. When you first tap or click into the search in the header bar, a little popup tip appears below the text box. This is showing you an example of a search that you can do.
4. If you've never seen the filters before, click or tap on any tag that you're interested in. On a wide screen like a laptop, the filters will appear on the right hand side of the screen. On a narrow screen like a phone, you can tap on the Filters button for the menu to appear.
5. The FAQ has a series of questions related to Searching and Browsing on the Archive. You can find the FAQ in the dropdown under the word About in the header.
6. You can also just click on stuff and see what happens. For example, if you're wondering what the four icons at the top corner of each fic blurb mean, you can just click on them and get a popup with the key. Same thing if you're wondering about the icons at the top right of a bookmark.
7. I almost forgot ☝️If you want to see fics based on the primary pairing but you're okay with additional ships being in the fic (so otp:true won't work for you) - there's a script for that! AO3 Only Show Primary Pairing.
This post is extremely long now, but if you're wondering about other things just drop them in the notes.
Is there a way to set a default language when posting works? I checked the FAQ and there doesn't seem to be but I wanted to check to see if anyone on the blog knows a way to set a default language.
There isn’t.
For a really long time, AO3 defaulted to English as the language for posting works, but this lead to a lot of non-English works accidentally being added to the Archive with their language set as English.
Instead of forcing only non-English writing users to choose a language, AO3 now requires all users to choose from a dropdown. If you forget, it’ll give you an error and a reminder - and I definitely forget a lot of the time XD
They made this change back in the fall of 2019, and at the same time they also made an update to make it easier to filter by language. Basically, they’re trying to make the Archive a friendlier place for non-English works.
I don’t know if there are plans for a user-level setting that can be applied to set a default posting language, but you can always contact Support to give feedback and make requests.
That said, there might be user scripts out there that people have written to do this for them. If anyone knows of one, please share in the notes! I’m sure it would be appreciated.
is there such a thing as a beta but instead of reading for line edits or plot notes, they just read my work and recommend what tags to put on ao3 outside of like. warnings.
Lulu's Totally Unofficial Guide to the Top 10 Freeform Tags to Add to Your Fanfic
Genre - Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Slice of Life, Case Fic, etc.
AU - If it's an AU, what kind? What role do each of the characters play? How is it different to their canon role?
Parts of canon - If it's not an AU, what part of canon is it about? Is it set before, during or after a particular episode?
Themes - Are there any topics or ideas which you are trying to explore, or which come up repeatedly?
Minor Warnings - Is there anything you think you should warn for that isn't included in the archive warnings?
Format & Length - Is your work art, video, podfic, etc? Does it use a particular format like a Drabble or 5+1?
Characters - What is going on with each of your major characters? If you had to describe them with one or two adjectives, what would you pick? (Format as [Adjective] [Character Name].)
Relationships - What is going on with each of your major relationships? Are there any relationship tropes like Slow Burn or Enemies to Lovers in your story?
Tropes - Are there any tropes or common story elements in your story that haven't been tagged yet? If your work was on TV tropes, what are the first things you would add?
Sex - If your work includes sex, what kink(s) and specific act(s) does it involve?
Remember: you can always look at the drop-down menu for suggestions. But! If you want to tag something that doesn't appear on the drop-down menu, you can & should write in a new tag!
AO3 is currently down. We do not have an estimated return time currently. We're looking into it with one of our third-party support providers and will update when we have more information. Thank you for your patience!
We've identified the problem and are working on a fix. We expect to remain down for several more hours. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience!
AO3 is back up! We appreciate your patience. We've got our protections against bot traffic turned up a bit higher than usual, so some users may experience problems if they're using a VPN or similar tools.
AO3 will remain down for at least several hours until we can consult our database vendor's support team and resolve the underlying issue. We're very sorry for the inconvenience.
AO3 is currently down. We do not have an estimated return time currently. We're looking into it with one of our third-party support providers and will update when we have more information. Thank you for your patience!
We've identified the problem and are working on a fix. We expect to remain down for several more hours. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience!
AO3 is back up! We appreciate your patience. We've got our protections against bot traffic turned up a bit higher than usual, so some users may experience problems if they're using a VPN or similar tools.
AO3 will remain down for at least several hours until we can consult our database vendor's support team and resolve the underlying issue. We're very sorry for the inconvenience.
be the first to comment on a fic! whether that be something that was just posted yesterday or a fic that was written five years ago and never garnered any attention, sort the fics by number of comments, then go to the very last page and find something to comment on
please reblog these challenges so they can reach more people!
AO3 will be down for about 15 hours starting at 08:00 UTC on January 21 (what time is that for me?) while we make some improvements to searching bookmarks and series, including:
adding the ability to search, filter, and sort bookmarks by word count
making sure bookmark search results are correct when you use tags containing letters and numbers
preventing series blurbs from listing tags that were only used on draft works
preventing series blurbs from listing tags used on restricted works for guests
updating series bookmark search so it only searches the tags on works you can access
AO3 has recently seen a rise in guest spambot comments making false accusations about work creators or other users. For example, they may claim that a particular user is discriminating against minorities, trying to hide the fact that they use AI, or are at risk of having their works stolen or deleted.
These comments often copy existing AO3 usernames in order to make their accusations seem more legitimate. They may also try to lure people onto other platforms (similar to the art commission scam), or use fake links that actually lead to pornographic images.
As always, we recommend that you do not click on any suspicious links or give your contact information to scammers. Instead, simply mark the comments as spam or report them so that the Policy & Abuse committee can remove comments left by these spambots.
Learn how to recognize them and what to do below the cut!
How to recognize this kind of spam:
The comments come from guests, not logged-in users.
The comments may start with praise for you and your writing, trying to lull you into a false sense of security. Or they may claim that you are a bad writer, trying to make you too upset to realize that the comments are fake.
The comments may accuse you or another user of promoting discriminatory beliefs, deceiving fans, or similar behaviors that might cause other people to shun or harass the accused individual. They may claim that they checked social media to find that the accused user is "brazenly sharing hateful content" or "bragging about using AI".
The comments are often pleading or angry, asking you to "stop lying to your readers", "don't remove the AI prompts from your work", or suggesting that you "consider adding more diverse characters" to "repair the trust you've lost with your audience".
So far, these comments have all been from guests. Our advice is to flag them as spam to better filter them out.
To help train our automated spam-checker to block similar guest comments in the future:
If the comment is on your own work:
Go directly to the comment on your work, either by clicking on the link in your email or in your AO3 inbox.
Click on the "Spam" button to mark the guest comment as spam and remove it from your work.
Note: The "Spam" button only appears when viewing a guest comment directly on your work. This is because the AO3 comment inbox is merely a copy of the work's comments – deleting a comment from your AO3 inbox does not delete the comment from the work itself.
If you see comments like these on someone else's work:
Feel free to let the creator know the comment is from a bot, and that they should mark it as spam.
You can also report the comments as botspam via the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form linked at the bottom of every page on AO3.
If you are reporting multiple guest comments, please submit only one report, and include all comment links in your report description. (You can get the direct link to any comment by clicking the "Thread" button on the comment, and then copying the URL of that page.)
As of December 2025, bots have also left guest comments harassing users by:
threatening to report you/your fic to the authorities or your employers
alleging security concerns like your email being compromised or spyware on your computer
claiming that they know your address and are going to visit you at your house
saying that you will die alone and unemployed over the holidays
What these bots claim is not true. These accusations do not mean your work will be deleted or that your accounts are insecure. We recommend that you mark these comments as spam following the instructions in our previous post.
These examples also do not represent the full range of harassment comments that you may receive. We will continue to try and keep you updated about trends; however, please note that the exact wording the bots use will continue to evolve.
If you're not sure if something is a spambot comment, you're welcome to contact Policy & Abuse for assistance. Refer to the original post for more information!
How To Change Text When the Cursor is Hovering Over by La_Temperanza
Another Changing Text On Hover by mackerel_cheese
Linked Footnotes by La_Temperanza
Making Complex Shapes / Hover-Over Effects / Choose Your Own Adventure / Changing Ao3’s Preset Headers: Author Notes, Chapter Titles, Fic Titles etc / Invisible Links+Link Aesthetic / Interactive Elements / Animation/ Retroactively Appearing Text by InfinitysWraith
Page Dividers by Linwelin
Email
Nonspecific email window by La_Temperanza
Basic Gmail by sunsetcurbed
More Gmail by DemigodOfAgni
Texting
You don’t need to code iOS, because 221b_ee made a generator for it
inspired by iOS by CodenameCarrot and La_Temperanza
Another version of iOS iMessage by Azdaema Codes
Retro iOS by Azdaema Codes
iOS, Android by gadaursan
iOS, Signal, and WhatsApp by lordvoldemortsskins
WhatsApp by ran_a_dom
WhatsApp by etc e tal
kakaotalk by beherrscht
LINE by noliteobdurare
LINE chat by ran_a_dom
Social Media
Facebook Messenger by ran_a_dom
Facebook post by BluebeardsWife
Tumblr by phyripo
Tweaks to that by Aposeopesis
Instagram by gadaursan
Instagram DMs by xslytherclawx
More Instagram DMs, including light and dark modes, by monarch_v
Incredibly comprehensive Twitter by gadaursan
Display case of gadaursan’s work by Fluffycorn_njst
More Twitter by starskin
Update by starskin
Yet More Twitter by etc e tal
Twitter, Reddit, and LiveJournal by aerynevenstar
Examples
Twitter mockup inspired by aerynevenstar by TheBrookesNook
Reddit by spookedcroon
Update by jinsake
More Reddit by knave_of_swords
Yet more Reddit (2020 version) by timstokerlovebot
SnapChat by Azdaema Codes
More SnapChat by starskin
Twitch Chat by Ultraviollett
4Chan by anonymous (cw: slurs and discussion of pedophilia in the live example)
Amazing Discord by unpredictableArtist
Slack derivation by me
Another Discord by Heterochromia_Mars
Tweaks by junietuesday25
Unspecified forum by fencesit
BlueSky post by anon
YouTube comments by LupaMoe
Blog post by intherainex
LiveJournal by sesuntaMew
bubble by me
Writing
Notebook Lined Paper by La_Temperanza
Post-It Notes by La_Temperanza
Letters and Stationery by La_Temperanza
With parchment backgrounds by allollipoppins (you can leave off the MDZS symbols)
Online newspaper article by ElectricAlice
Example
Simplified newspaper by Anubis_2701
Newspaper Article by lordvoldemortsskin
More documents by hangingfire
Online journal by enigmalea
Screenplay by astronought
Script or screenplay by Ninjabunny99
Screenplay on an actual piece of paper by junietuesday25
Shooting Script by Walzer
Calendar by Linwelin
AO3
AO3, including comment section by lordvoldemortsskin
AO3 header by ElectricAlice
Comment and Kudos buttons by La_Temperanza
Complete fic-within-a-fic by cheju
Gift fic email by rileys_words
Fandom Specific
Disco Elysium by SarunoHadaki
Blaseball by facingthenorthwind
Fire Emblem by gadaursan
Tweaks by Clover_Zero
Deadpool’s Thinking Boxes by La_Temperanza
Homestuck extended by unpredictableArtist
Star Trek PADD by duskyspirit
Example
Incredibly expansive Among Us by Umbry2000
Another Among Us by mystyrust
S-Class by unpredictableArtist
IDOLiSH7 Rabbit Chat by associate
A3! LIME by associate
Runescape by fennfics
Nameless: the one thing you must recall by sqbr
Minecraft by Ultraviollett
Final Fantasy XIV Linkshell by Pent
Honkai Star Rail by Pent
Rain Code by faish
Ace Attorney by QuailFence
Other
Wikipedia by styletests
Scoreboard by revanchist
Google search by gadaursan
Yelp reviews by kiwiana
Amazon reviews by kiwiana
Silent film intertitles by Kitsune_Scribe
Zoom chat by mystyrust
Replika AI chatbot by FaeriMagic
Cards Against Humanity by L56895
Most can be found in the collections (also check the bookmarks) A Guide to Coding and Fanworks, AO3 Useful Workskins, and/or AO3 Social Media Workskins. If you’ve written a skin, add it to these collections!
still poking away at a new site skin, and I'm making it so that users can decide on their own font for various areas of the site, but I'm wondering which one I should set to begin with
If you want to try out another font, just to see how you feel about it, you can create a site skin using the Wizard and read AO3 in any font that you have installed on your device.
log into your AO3 account
Go to hi! username in the header and choose Dashboard from the dropdown menu
Select the Skins link (if you're on desktop, this will be along the left hand side. If you're on mobile it will be just below the site header)
Select the Create Site Skin button (at the top right of the page)
Select the Use Wizard button (at the top of the page)
Give your site skin a unique title. If your title isn't unique, you'll get an error message when you try to save. I usually add my username to the end of whatever my title is and that tends to work.
In the box next to Font, type in the name of the font you want AO3 to use. If the font name is a single word (like Arial), you can just type in that word. If the font name is two words (like Calisto MT), then put the name in quotes. You can use either single ' or double " quotation marks.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the Submit button. This will save your skin.
On the new page that loads, select the Use button to use the skin.
Big reminder, folks, that many people, especially veteran writers, are locking their fics nowadays, which means if you don't have an account, you can't see the full library of AO3 and are missing out on a lot of good work. Please go sign up for an account! It's well worth it, and you are missing out on a LOT by not having it.
every time i see a fic exchange doing all the hard shit themselves instead of using ao3 to make it easy because the people running it are (i assume) too young to even know it exists i feel myself aging another decade emotionally
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
hey guys. did you know that ao3 will do all the matching for you. it will even do things like match on specific pairings or tags. it takes thirty seconds and it sends the assignment emails out too
