WIP blog ~ an ever growing fanfic universe ~ I am aware the header looks like trash, that's the aesthetic we're going for here. none of the fanfic tidbits on here are in any way beta read or written to make sense, I'm just writing what comes to my mind and, if it turns out ok, I might go over it and post it on ao3
Is it just me or has a lot of fandom forgotten what "AU" means? It's short for Alternate Universe. I keep seeing people talking about, like, "fake dating AU" or "only one bed AU." Unless your characters exist in a world where a) beds don't exist or b) beds exist in such abundance there could not POSSIBLY be only one of them, that's not an AU. It's just a regular degular story.
Okay I truly expected this to get like 5 notes, what is happening. Anyway some of these tags are bonkers. "An AU describes anything that doesn't happen in canon" bestie that's what fic is. You're literally describing fanfiction. Is there a huge category of fics that just summarize canon that I'm missing? What on earth is going on.
And for the "what about canon divergence" folks out there:
Fic where the Avengers are starship pilots or cowboys or, idk, cavemen or something <- THIS IS AN AU
Fic where Bucky becomes Captain America in the 1940s instead of Steve <- THIS IS ALSO AN AU, just the canon divergence kind
Fic where Sam and Bucky hook up during or after TFAWS <- not? an AU?? just because they didn't film it???
"What about if it's an AU where the Avengers are all giant slime creatures AND there's only one bed, that's an Only One Bed AU" bro c'mon.
handy dandy rule of thumb: an AU says 'forget what you know, this is the story now'. AUs often completely overwrite the existing canon, remixing it and reimagining it for the new setting -- a high school au of elden ring is completely incompatible with the canon, it's a whole new story, and part of the fun is in seeing how the author has translated the original into this new work.
if your fic says 'remember what you know, just add this' then it's not an AU :)
current fan creation landscape is kinda like if you went to a party with a homemade cake and everyone takes a slice and silently thumbs up at you with no attempt to start a conversation except for occasionally some guy sits in the corner with a tape recorder critiquing the cake as though he was a restaurant critic and another guy is handing the cake to an uber driver like "yeah i need you to find a restaurant that makes cake like this so i can have more of it" and the only person that's talked to you in 30 minutes is a very sweet little guy who was like "hey i liked your cake" and then ran away apologizing for bothering you the moment you said thank you.
someone brought a cake analysis robot to feed the cake into to determine the exact ingredients and supposedly it can spit out the exact same cake. and if you're like dude. what. then they're like well if it bothers you you should have made more cake. i'm hungry and i deserve cake. and you're like dude we're at a party.
Three months later you find out that fifty people locked themselves in a room to discuss how much they loved your cake and how they wished you made more. None of them ever told you.
A Simple Guide to Not Being Afraid to Write Comments to Fic You Read
I've seen a lot of posts about the current state of fanfiction comments. Writers, especially writers who have been in fandom for a decade or more, are frustrated by the lack of comments, and have noticed a definite decline in comments (and all other forms of reader interaction) in the past ten years or so. Many readers feel daunted by the expectation of leaving comments, afraid they'll do something wrong. As a fandom old maid, the latter confused me for a while, until I realized that most of the people who feel that way probably have not been taught this form of communication.
But your loving fandom elders are here for you. Come along as your auntie tumblr user icemankazansky makes this shit easy.
The easiest way to think of fanfiction comment etiquette is to compare it to something you likely already know: Gift Receiving Etiquette.
Fanfiction began as largely a gift economy. And a lot of it still is! You'll see authors participate in exchanges like Yuletide and Id Pro Quo; those are ficswaps in which authors write for a specific person to specific prompts. And even outside that, fanfiction is not written for money; authors write and post it simply for the joy of creation and community with fellow fans. Fic is posted free for anyone to enjoy. Is that not a gift?
So. When you as a reader finish the chapter or story you're reading and you are faced with the comment box, try to follow the same etiquette you would when receiving a gift. (And even if you didn't love this gift and it's not your favorite gift ever, we already know that it's more useful than the products from your cousin's MLM that they're passing off as gifts, because you read the story. At the very least, it entertained you for the time you took to read it.)
The big rule of gift receiving etiquette is not to insult the person who gave you the gift, either directly or indirectly. That's it. Full stop.
I've been seeing a lot of comments lately that are just along the lines of, "Thank you for writing this story and sharing it with us." A+, top of the class, full marks, you're doing amazing. If you don't feel comfortable commenting on the story itself, that is perfect feedback. And that's the most basic way you respond to a gift, yes? Thank you for the gift. Thank you for thinking of me. Thank you for sharing.
Does this rule mean that you cannot say anything at all that might be negative about anything? No, absolutely not. What you want to avoid is saying something that is, at its core, a negative evaluation of the author or their work. Let's do some examples.
Character A's obliviousness about Character B's MASSIVE crush on them made me so frustrated! I was tearing my hair out internally screaming, "JUST LET HIM LOVE YOU."
✔️ Excellent comment! You're allowed to have all sorts of feelings about things that happen in the story, and in fact authors LOVE to hear about any emotions they made you feel. Yes, frustration is not a positive emotion, but the thing you are expressing frustration about is not the author themselves or their shortcomings.
Contrast that to:
I was really frustrated that it took you so long to post this chapter. The cliffhanger at the end of the previous chapter had me tearing my hair out, and then you just left us hanging FOREVER!
❌ Nope! Here what you are expressing is frustration with the author and how fast they come out with new chapters. Imagine your sister buys you a gift for your birthday, but she isn't able to give it to you until the next week, and you respond with: "What took you so long?" I think Emily Post would frown on that.
Reframing
The way you say something and the point of view from which you give feedback can have a HUGE impact on the message you're sending. Let's take the last comment (the one about wanting an update) and see what happens when we reframe the same sentiment as a positive:
I was SO EXCITED to see that you updated this story! I have really been looking forward to seeing what happened after the cliffhanger in the last chapter.
✔️ Now it's not an insult. The author will be happy to know that you are happy to see new work from them.
This idea extends beyond the story itself: to the fandom, the characters, the pairing, the tropes, etc. Let's do some examples.
I looooove reading about these sexy boys SO IN LOVE even though the movie you're writing about is SOOOOO problematic.
❌ Nope! Assume that the author enjoys the canon, characters, pairing, etc. in the stories they write. This comment is insulting to the author because it basically says, "That thing you love is not great, and you should probably feel bad for liking it." Imagine your aunt gifts you a sweater from a popular retailer, and you respond with, "This is so cute, I love it! It's a shame that it was made in a sweatshop." Do you have a valid point about the canon or the retailer's business practices? You very well might. Is this the proper time and place to talk about it? Absolutely not.
Let's do a reframing exercise. You should be very careful about how you approach commenting negatively on anything in the story that appears in the tags list, but you can make it a compliment and good feedback if you have the right perspective. See the difference with these two approaches:
I kind of think frottage is disgusting, but I liked it in this story.
❌ Nope! You just told the author you think their kink is disgusting. That's like telling your poor aunt who is just trying to keep you warm this winter that she has awful taste in knitwear. Try again.
Frottage normally isn't my kink, but I love your other stories with this pairing, so I decided to give it a try, and I'm SOOOOO GLAD that I did! This story was 🔥🔥🔥
✔️ "This normally isn't my thing, but you made me expand my horizons!" Authors love to hear that. That's like telling your aunt, "I never thought this color looked good on me, but I look so cute in this sweater! I'm so glad you helped me step outside my comfort zone, because I'm the better for it."
thank u, next
The last thing I want to address is this new trend I've seen in commenting lately: placing an order. If your mom surprises you with new headphones, you don't respond with, "I wanted the white ones 🙁," or, "You should get me a new phone, too." It's easy to see why that isn't appropriate in a gifting situation, and it's also not appropriate when commenting on fanfiction.
Let's do some examples:
This fic was soooo cute, but it would have been a million times better if Character A had been with Character C instead of Character B.
❌ There are a few things going on here. Number one, you're telling your mom you wanted the white headphones, not the ones she actually bought you. You're also disparaging the A/B pairing that the author chose to write about, and as we discussed, we can assume that the author wrote the pairing because they liked it. Even if it's not their favorite and/or they also write A/C, they made a choice for this story to be A/B, and the comments section of a fic is not the place to question choices the author made in their own work.
You should write a story where Character Z who is not even in this story does [thing that is vaguely referenced in the B plot].
❌ "You should get me a new phone, too."
I want a sequel. 😞
❌ "Thank you, next!"
You can reframe this kind of sentiment if you are careful about it, and it's not all you say.
I really loved this story. I would be so interested to see these ideas explored further if you ever decide to write more in this universe.
✔️ Not "gimme." Not "more." This is, "If you build it, I will come." It is a HUGE difference.
You already know how to do this. You know how to graciously accept a gift; just use that same etiquette, and boom! Now you know how to fearlessly write a comment to fic you read. You're doing amazing. Go forth and comment.
"The easiest way to think of fanfiction comment etiquette is to compare it to something you likely already know: Gift Receiving Etiquette.
... I want to address is this new trend I've seen in commenting lately: placing an order. If your mom surprises you with new headphones, you don't respond with, "I wanted the white ones 🙁," or, "You should get me a new phone, too." It's easy to see why that isn't appropriate in a gifting situation, and it's also not appropriate when commenting on fanfiction.
I want to add that lots of artists sell character packs for super cheap! And artists do custom quick portraits for super cheap! It's been a while since I made an updated list so lemme just make this a resource update post.
Places you can get free or insanely affordable art instead of stealing/using AI
PICREWS - FREE
Picrew Hell by @brightgoat - Lots of skin tones (light and dark, both human and fantastical!), tons of horns/wings/ears, head coverings, fun BG options, etc.! Ex:
2. Tiefling Maker by @crowesn - this one is incredible. SUCH cool clothes, so many multi-tone skin options, tons of horns, tons of really nice braid/curl/dreadlock options, etc. Great for tieflings but also great for orcs, fairies, etc. Ex:
3. Avatar Maker by Baydews - I feel like this one is famous at this point. Lots of combinable hair and also has horns, special ears, etc. Ex:
4. Fantasy Girl by spotchy_pooch - this one doesn't have as many skin options but the outfits are super cute and everything is very geared to specifically fantasy outfits and items. Ex:
There are tons of other Picrews and free online doll makers, both for humanoids and specific creatures. @obi-troll-kenobi has kindly compiled a massive list with links here.
CHARACTER PACKS
Ginny Di makes characters with downloadable character sheets and photos. The packs are available on her Patreon and occasionally she posts selected characters for free.
2. @za-ra-h makes monthly npcs and pcs you can use in your own games, available on Patreon in her stunning painterly style. She also does custom commissions!
creating Digital art
3. @offbeatworlds creates gorgeous, fully-painted character portrait packs with ready-made icons that you can get on Patreon. They're also posted on Tumblr.
Portrait Packs for TTRPGs!
Other portrait packs also available but not pictured
11 - Equine Kin
12 - Celestial Children
13 - Dwarves
14 - C
4. @rosieelfgirl has a dark elf pack with 8 character portraits and descriptions of optional lore, items, etc. There's also a cheaper art-only option if you're planning to do the backstory and things yourself!
✨Noteworthy NPCs: Dark Elf Denizens✨
My first character pack is here!
Eight portraits, tokens, profiles, plot hooks and quests for your TT
5. @topbanana-art makes character posts for sale on Kofi for around £2/pack, or downloadable for patrons on Patreon.
You can search 'character pack' or 'npc pack' on Tumblr, Kofi, or Patreon to find more artists that make these packs.
CUSTOM COMMISSIONS
A great way to directly support artists and also get custom art is through commissions! I'm featuring @yourdndstories at the top here since they do $25 doodle commissions and +$5 character token commissions:
Sorry for spam, but I'm doing ONE LAST BUMP on this, because the brakes on my car went out unexpectedly and that was a $500 repair I did not
Below are a few other artists who take commissions at various price points. Just checked and comms are currently listed as open for:
45liza109
annteya
astrozure
aukkenopsia
coffee-bard
dire / portentous-offerings
eren
janedoe297-art
rossysculpts
selann
starrycove
varis art
vicious-mongrel
This is just a sampling so feel free to add any artists I missed for Picrews/doll makers, character packs, or commissions!
I wanted to write my own OC ask questions and here they are! Feel free to use them.
🔴 Red- What is a trait your OC has that those around them don't see very often? Is it seen by a rare few or completely overlooked?
🟠 Orange- What is a trait your OC hides about themself from others? Do they refuse to acknowledge it or begrudgingly accept it?
🟡 Yellow- What is something your OC wants but knows they can never have? How does it feel to never get this specific desire?
🟢 Green- What is considered a weakness in your OC that is actually a strength? What is a strength in your character that can be twisted into a weakness?
🔵 Blue- How would your OC spend a single day of interrupted peace? Where would they go or who would they be with?
🟣 Purple- What is something that your OC could not live without? What keeps them grounded in the worst of times?
⚪️ White- When was a moment in your OC's life that they felt the most vulnerable and exposed? Were they alone or surrounded?
⚫️ Black- When was a moment in your OC's life that they felt the most in control and secure? Was it gained through negative or positive means?
🎱 8 Ball- What situation was your OC lucky to escape from or get out of? What or who helped them unexpectedly?
🔮 Crystal Ball- What kind of future does your OC want to have? What would they do to make it real?
🪩 Disco Ball- What was an achievement that your OC felt worthy of celebrating? Was it a personal victory or a big impact on everyone around them?
⚽️ Soccer Ball- Who is someone that your OC believes in and roots for? Are they private about their admiration or do they make it well known?
"original posts only" as an opt-in?? If you have to make a useless change, at least don't make it the default!
And no way of letting bloggers choose whether or not they want their reblogs to show in the tag search, when until now that has always just been blog specific and people use weird tag systems on their blogs specific only to their blogs??
I don't tag for the search, it doesn't make sense for posts to show up there when I just tag stuff or people the posts remind me of, not what's actually in the post, or trash talk about a fandom I don't like and I definitely don't want that to show up in the search for people who are looking for content in that fandom.
Staff if you feel the need to keep that weird update around, at least make it so we can choose whether or not we want our reblog tags to count for the search!
Best would be an opt-in button per reblogged post, so the default would still be to not show them. Maybe in addition to that a blog settings thing to change whether you want to generally share reblogs to search or not, to always turn the slider to 'on', but the original default should definitely be 'off', holy f-
And a setting for when you make an original post, for whether you want ppls reblog-tags to even be allowed to show in the search, would be very appreciated too.
now that I’ve been back a while I’m getting the age old “is this okay to reblog” questions on my posts, and I would like to say what I have always said which is that 1. Yes. 2. You should never
Ever
post a single thing on this site that would make you uncomfortable or cause trouble for you if someone shared it elsewhere. Yes, even if you disable reblogs on the post.
It’s not nice, but you have absolutely zero expectation of privacy or containment regarding anything you post to any social media. Even if it’s social media that only your friends can view. It’s still up and out there.
If it would be upsetting or dangerous or just plain awkward for something you post here to show up elsewhere—I cannot stress this enough—Do Not Post It.
obviously we can’t always know if something we say/share will cause trouble for us down the line. I am no stranger to looking back on a post with regret wondering why the hell I said that.
But if at the time of making the post itself you think “nobody should share this,” perhaps save it to your drafts for a day & come back to it.
Disabling reblogs is a curation feature that helps contain the post’s audience in the context of your activity feed. It’s something to use if you don’t want endless notifications on a post that has found the wrong audience. If someone screenshots & shares it, you won’t be notified to suffer the commentary, that’s all.
If someone has an unpublished multichapter fic that is several chapters in but the author is fairly certain they'll never finish, do you think they should publish it? Or just trash it/keep it in their drafts forever?
I've posted some of these with the comment "this is as much as I have, and the muse for it has left me. If anyone wants to pick this up and run with it, feel free! I release it to you." Or similar. Haven't yet been taken up on it, but that's another reason why I put them up on AO3.
Alright, to ao3's soon to be arriving Wattpad Refugees, a basic guide to general user culture:
1.) Unlike Wattpads vote system that let's you like each chapter, the ao3 equivalent kudos only allows one per work. Everyone is generally quietly annoyed about this. To engage with each chapter, you're heavily encouraged to comment. Trust me, it makes people's day.
2.) Ao3 has no algorithm. By default it's latest updated work first. You can find things to your taste through searches, filters and tags.
3.) 'No archive warnings apply' and 'user has chosen not to use archive warnings' mean two very different things. No archives warnings means the work is free from any content that could require a warning tag (character death, graphic depictions of violence, non-con, etc). User has chosen not to use archive warnings means it could contain any of the warning content, be it hasn't been explicitly tagged. Treat it like an allergen. No archive warnings apply is allergen free. User has chosen not to use archive warnings, may contain traces or whole chunks of the allergen. If you're likely to have a bad reaction, maybe don't take the risk.
4.) Speaking of warnings, ao3 has very few restrictions on the type of work that's allowed. Whatever your personal thoughts or feelings on that are, thats how the site is. You're likely to run across some dark subject matters and a lot of people are uncomfortable with reading that. You're well within your rights not like these works and have your opinion on whether they should be allowed, but harassing the authors of such works (or any works) is more likely to come back on you than them. Ao3 operates on a strong policy of 'don't like, don't read'. Use the tagging system to your full advantage to only engage with the kind of works you want to see.
We look forward to welcoming you all and seeing the fantastic works you create. Happy writing!
I for one am not annoyed about the one kudos per work rule; I think it works very well to 1) level the playing field between one-shots and longfics, since the latter naturally gain more hits and comments and otherwise tend to become the default form and 2) to incentivize commenting.
I have never wanted to leave More Kudos and I am very happy with the fact that each kudos on my work represents a unique account. I like when the one-kudo-limit means I get a 'bonus kudos! <3' comment.
I think that was an excellent design choice overall.
"Level the playing field"? Kudos are for authors, not readers looking for fic. It's not a playing field, it's an archive. As an author who almost exclusively writes multi chapter fics, I wish someone could leave kudos on all my chapters. It'd be nice to know which readers were still with me over the months/years of writing a fic, cuz - heaven knows - people don't comment enough. And I'm not finding the inability to leave multiple kudos an incentive to comment. People who leave a kudos after reading my story when it's in its early stages don't tend to come back later to comment on a later chapter.
Gentle reminder that very little fandom labor is automated, because I think people forget that a lot.
That blog with a tagging system you love? A person curates those tags by hand.
That rec blog with a great organization scheme and pretty graphics? Someone designed and implemented that organization scheme and made those graphics.
That network that posts a cool variety of stuff? People track down all that variety and queue it by hand, and other people made all the individual pieces.
That post with umpteen links to helpful resources, and information about them? Someone gathered those links, researched the sources, wrote up the information about them.
That graphic about fandom statistics? Someone compiled those statistics, analyzed them, organized them, figured out a useful way to convey the information to others, and made the post.
That event that you think looks neat? Someone wrote the rules, created the blogs and Discords, designed the graphics, did their best to promo the event so it'd succeed.
None of this was done automatically. None of it just appears whole out of the internet ether.
I think everyone realizes that fic writing and fanart creation are work, and at least some folks have got it through their heads that gif creation and graphics and moodboards take effort, and meta is usually respected for the effort that goes into it, at least as far as I've seen, but I feel like a lot of people don't really get how much labor goes into curation, too.
If people are creating resources, curating content, organizing the creations of others, gathering information, and doing other fandom activities that aren't necessarily the direct action of creation, they're doing a lot of fandom labor, and it's often largely unrecognized.
Celebrate fan work!
To folks doing this kind of labor: I see you, and I thank you. You are the backbones of our fandoms and I love you.
Hi! Quick AO3 question: I wrote a comment on a fic that has comment moderation enabled. Within 1/2hr, the author approved it & my comment appeared on the chapter. I noticed some typos so I edited it (my memory says twice, but maybe it was all at the same time). My comment has now disappeared -- does this mean the author got sick of me & deleted it, OR does editing an approved comment on a fic that has moderation enabled just automatically make the comment disappear until the edits are approved?
Hi! Every edit has to be approved by the author again - a good thing, as otherwise someone could make a short generic comment, get it approved, and then change it into hatemail!
Because a friend told me she never knows what to write and then never comments, but wants to learn how to do better, I thought I’d compile a list, and maybe it will help someone else as well!
As always, this is unofficial and just from my personal experience writing and reading fic, and talking with other fic authors.
My posts on beta reading | ao3 bookmarks
What to comment
Honestly, authors love friendly comments, no matter how small. Here are some ideas for short comments you can write to pretty much any fic you enjoyed:
I loved it!
Great fic!
Thanks for writing this!
Thanks for sharing your fic with the fandom :)
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 10/10 perfection
So happy I found this!
Reading this made my day
I had fun reading this
You’re a great writer!
Love your writing style
<3<3<3
Amazing!
Kudos!
If you want to write something a bit longer, you can for example
Tell the author where you have been reading the fic or what you were doing while reading it
Tell the author what you should have been doing instead of reading fanfic (and that it was worth it to read the fic)
Copy a passage (or several) from the fic you particularly enjoyed
Did the author write a note at the end or beginning of the fic? Maybe even ask a question? Sometimes you can reply to author’s notes in your comment
How did the fic make you feel? Happy, made you cry, made you laugh, made you jealous of a character, or made you want to punch an antagonistic character’s nose in? Write it in the comment!
Is it your first fic in a fandom or with a ship? Your favorite fic in a fandom, or with a specific character? Did you read it in one go? Did you savour it slowly reading over days or weeks? Have you enjoyed every update of a multi-chapter? Do you wish you could read it again for the first time? Write anything you want to let the author know about your reading experience!
Is there a character you particularly enjoyed in that fic/chapter? Tell the author you think they wrote xy character really well!
You can always start or finish your comment with one of the suggestions from the short comments to make sure the author knows you liked it :)
If you really don’t know what to write, or are reading fic in a language not your own (though authors usually don’t mind you commenting in your native language) and aren’t comfortable commenting in either language, you can also leave emojis as comments, for example variations of:
for any fics:❤️💕💜💗💞💓💖💟🤩😍🥰
for humor fics: 😂😆🤣🤪💯
for shippy fics/getting together: 🎉💖🥳💋💘💏👩❤️💋👩👩❤️💋👨💑👩❤️👩👨❤️👨🫶
for angst or hurt no comort: 🥹😭🤯😱🫣😢💔❣️❤️🩹🖤 maybe still include a ❤️heart in there so the author can be sure you still liked it!
for smut/pwp: ❤️🔥💯🫣😋🤩🥵😈🤯🫦
There are even some stickers you can comment by copying the html! A few tumblr posts with stickers to copy can be found here & here!
Don’ts
There isn’t much you can do wrong when writing comments on fic, but there are a few things you should keep in mind:
don’t criticize (unless negative critics/what they can do better has been specifically asked for by the author, and then stick to the kind of criticism asked for, and best try to include something positive too to soften the blow)
don’t demand more/ask for updates - you can tell the author you’d read it if they wrote more, but don’t put pressure on them, you don’t know what’s happening in their lives right now and for what reason new entries might have slowed down, and they don’t owe you regular or any updates!
don’t tell them what to write (unless the author is taking prompts, and in most cases the comment section is not the right place for prompts, check what the author specified)
Remember: Fan fiction are free, from fans for fans, so etiquette is a bit different than in the Amazon reviews of books you paid good money for! Fic authors don’t have to cater to you, just enjoy that there are fics shared with the fandom :) If you don’t like something, or don’t like a part of something, either close the tab or quietly ignore the issue and just enjoy the parts you do like.
And in general, to end this on a positive note:
Yes, you can comment on older fanfics!
Yes, comment on several fics in a row if you’re reading through fics by one author!
Yes, comment on as many chapters of the same fic as you like!
Yes, you can make art for the fic and tell the author about it!
Yes, absolutely tell the author if you’re still thinking about a fic hours/days/years… after reading it!
Yes, send authors asks on tumblr/other sites talking about how you love their fics, if they link these sites in the author’s notes! (But also comment on Ao3)
Yes, you can comment/review even if you don’t have an account (at least on Ao3 and ffnet)!
Yes, please let the author know if you’re reading a fic for a second time, even if you just write ‘re-read kudos!’
The best comments are also written directly on the site the fanfiction got posted on (so usually ao3/ffnet and not tumblr/discord), both because it makes the note count higher, and because then the comment won’t quickly get buried under unrelated messages or posts.
If you want to leave long comments about different parts of a fic or chapter, you can also make use of the floating Ao3 comment box! It allows you to type your comment while you're still reading, without having to leave the page!
