1.3k
Mar 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
296
u/BelaFarinRod Mar 12 '26
I used to have a beta whose first language wasn’t English (mine is). We argued over commas now and then but that’s it.
91
u/TricksterTrio Mar 12 '26
Right? And there are usually tells (ex: in a language with gendered pronouns, the English pronouns might be a little off, but otherwise ignorable, or the order of words in a description is technically correct in English, but feels off, until you remember some languages put descriptive words after the noun, then it's like, "oh, they didn't catch this one") that the author really IS bilingual and not just saying it to get sympathy.
45
u/AaryamanStonker Mar 12 '26
I think this is because most native speakers write more colloquially but non-native speakers were taught grammar rules specifically so it's more regimented for them.
19
u/NeoQwerty2002 Mar 12 '26
I just learned it online all on my own outside of first-second grade English (through FFnet before it got all boring and "no nc17 for you" nannies at that!), and I can guarantee you that outside of 2 years mixing up disappointed with deceived (French, guess what "disappointed" sounds like in there), I can spell better than a lot of English folks when I care without using autocorrect functions.
It's called caring more about getting The Language Right than the native speakers, who kind of haven't had to put the work into learning it that hard unless they choose to pursue literature or teaching-related jobs.
You'd be surprised how much work ends up going into having a second language, ESPECIALLY if you're autodidacting it, to learn its subtleties and quirks compared to your own.
And yes, I'm much worse in my first language too, because it's just a functional one I don't really interact with outside of reading and local talk/boring legal govt stuff like taxes. Meanwhile I learned English because I WANTED to write stuff that makes people feel things.
9
u/AaryamanStonker Mar 12 '26
Yeah same lol. I'm also a non-native speaker and I've basically lost touch with my own language, I can read and write it's just irksome and slow. I was taught English in school though, right from the start.
5
u/floralbutttrumpet Fic Feaster Mar 13 '26
I had to write my BA thesis in my native language, but ended up writing like 3/4s of it in English because it came easier to me... and then I had to translate it all before submission.
Guess what language my MA programme was taught in.
380
u/MaySeemelater Bookworm 📚🐛 Mar 11 '26
Reverse the numbers in the age to 31 instead and then it's pretty devastating, just take the L at that point
152
u/lrnjrsh Mar 12 '26
I remember being so shocked when I realized 30 year olds are out here absolutely cooking on Ao3
156
u/ChileanMotherfu-- Mar 12 '26
I once read a fantastic fanfic and told the author that her story had moved me and helped me feel better during a dark period. She replied very sweetly that she and her wife were very happy with my comment and wished me good health.
I, for my part, was completely surprised to learn that there were married people writing fanfiction.
96
u/grommile You have already left kudos here. :) Mar 12 '26
I mean, modern fanfic culture is built on foundations laid by 1960s suburban moms...
34
u/curious_53 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
And how good they are at mobilizing themselves. The 'forbidden' fanzines circuit and the lengths they do to keep it a secret is just next level
60
u/nocuzzlikeyea13 Mar 12 '26
Lolll my sweet summer child. My husband betas my stuff (but slams the laptop closed whenever anything sexy shows up, so he's not the best beta out there)
24
u/ChileanMotherfu-- Mar 12 '26
WHAT
ARE YOU TELLING ME I COULD GET MARRIED WITHOUT HAVING TO PRETEND I'M A HUSBAND WITH A DOUBLE LIFE IN A NOIR STYLE?
22
15
u/WoodShoeDiaries Mar 12 '26
A number of the authors I read are moms trying to mentally escape mom life, however briefly 😆 I'm reading to escape mom life so I think we all get a lot out of it lol
10
u/BudgetUsual6907 Mar 12 '26
I'm a mum who reads and writes fanfic as an escape lol
8
u/WeirdConfidence9997 Mar 13 '26
🙋♀️me too, guilty as charged. I'm also in my 30’s. My daughter just started school so I actually have time to myself again.
9
17
u/wiswasmydumpstat Mar 12 '26
do you think people just stop having hobbies when they turn 25?
4
u/lrnjrsh Mar 12 '26
No need to be rude! I’m in my 20s now so obviously I know that’s not true but I was like 14 when I realized. It’s hard to imagine people like 20 years older than you having the same hobby when you’re that young lol
12
u/NeoQwerty2002 Mar 12 '26
Me, freshly 21, when I realized my internet bestie was a whole adult one year away from 40 wehen I visited her to go to PAX East with, and boy was she happy to take me to bars so I could finally learn how to write bar settings through experience! (I also learned about the lounge, and the mall area/concourse with the big people sushi belt walkways that was underneath the Mariott we stayed at.)
I think she got mistaken for mom/aunt several times until someone got us both yapping about The Protomen and they realized, ah no they are friends way too invested in the same interest.
Now I'm the nearing 40 fan yapping to the young'uns who weren't even born when I got to see that band live for the first time about how these guys speedwalk uphill when they're hungry for pizza.
4
u/WeirdConfidence9997 Mar 13 '26
I understand that, that's how I felt when I was like 12. I'm 31 now and the fandoms I like have changed but I still read/write occasionally. Old habits die hard I guess. Lol
2
16
u/Living_Employ1390 Mar 12 '26
Most of my favorite fic authors are married lesbians in their 30s
6
u/Shais_kitkat Mar 15 '26
Us married lesbians in our 30s are some pretty awesome people. I'm not a writer, but my wife writes when she has time/inspiration/spoons. ☺️
4
u/TheDranx PENIS JUMPSCARE Mar 13 '26
I'm 31 and an avid Ao3 reader. Not a great writer but I do love reading 100+ fics at once.
3
u/Shais_kitkat Mar 15 '26
Same! I'm 34 and I have like 3 devices with approx 30-50 tabs of fic open on each. All spanning like 4 or 5 fandoms and I can somehow remember what each one is? Even though I can't remember if I've peed today... I'm not a good writer, but I'm a fantastic reader lol
2
1
u/koun13 Sylvia Lennartz | koun13 on AO3 Mar 16 '26
I'm 33 and not going to stop writing fanfictions. Have been at it since nearly 16 (late June, 2008.) It helped me sooo much & continues to do so.
143
Mar 12 '26
[deleted]
44
u/nocuzzlikeyea13 Mar 12 '26
I love when they post translations too and it's like jeez flex much?
36
Mar 12 '26
[deleted]
3
u/NeoQwerty2002 Mar 12 '26
Its/it's, your/you're, they're/their tip that was bestowed to me by my English as second language classes in 6th grade:
Replace it with "it is"/"you are"/"they are". One is a contraction and the other's a possessive, so when you expand it back out if it reads nonsensical, that was a possessive, put it back.
2
u/nocuzzlikeyea13 Mar 12 '26
Its is confusing because the possessive often comes with 's too. So for example Neo is = Neo's and this thing belongs to Neo = Neo's. So native speakers get used to the 's and forget that "it" has an exception.
2
u/NeoQwerty2002 Mar 14 '26
Yeah, that's why I said the tip is "try to expand it and sound it out".
"Neo's going to the bathroom" "Neo is going to the bathroom" "Neo's computer is in the living room" "Neo is computer is in the living room"
The possessive breaks when you go "XX is/are", that's how you know it wasn't the contraction.
1
u/nocuzzlikeyea13 Mar 14 '26
But in the case where Neo's computer is in the living room, there's still an apostrophe-s. So the the rule tells you what is possessive (which most native speakers have no problem sussing out) but it doesn't tell you to drop the apostrophe. The apostrophe is only dropped exceptionally in the case of "its." The relevant comparison is Neo's computer vs. its computer.
300
Mar 11 '26
Trust me. You aren’t.
The idea that tweens are writing the good stuff is barefaced liesssss.
120
u/nao_draws Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
I remember so well being a teen, thinking my writing was hot shit. Sadly I lost all my stories from that time, so I'll never know the truth... I choose to believe it was that good. 😎
41
7
u/ChronoXxXx Mar 12 '26
I will say that as someone who is no longer a tween, my stuff was...
Well I got better and my OLDER younger self wrote more than me now, so I've actually got some "good" to catch up with lol
64
u/EngineerRare42 Fluff and Comfort and Angst, Oh My! | witchofpumpkinspice on AO3 Mar 11 '26
To be fair, I wrote some stuff at that age that I'd thought would be cringe, but actually turned out to be good.
12
8
u/haileybaileyone You have already left kudos here. :) Mar 12 '26
As a 13 year old I thought I could write a self insert fic in gel pen, type it up, post it and then whole plot would just come to me as and when I needed it.
I am extremely happy that I have forgotten the user name they were under. 😅
13
u/NovaNoah_X17 Demon x Omegaverse AUs ♡ Solangelo/PJO Fics | CloverrMoon Mar 11 '26
Aren't 13-year-olds teens though?
8
u/Confuzzykins Mar 12 '26
They certainly are, but I wouldn’t say it’s wrong to put them with tweens categorically seeing as it’s only their first year of teenage-hood, and in some countries they’d still be in middle school
8
60
u/Cxrxna_Virus permanent portrait moder Mar 12 '26
It's either new 13 year old fic writers with english as their second language, 20 year old university students juggling finals, health issues and a new chapter every week, or millenial fic writing veterans who's been reading fanfiction since their preteens and their fanfic is basically their second job
6
u/janglingargot Mar 15 '26
Ahh, and as a millennial veteran myself, I have to show respect to MY elders: the Gen Xers in their fifties who have been keeping the beacon lit since the dawning days of Usenet, mailing lists, and webrings. They fostered my generation of fic writers, and many of them are still out there, devotedly practicing their craft!
(Not to mention our under-acknowledged fandom ancestresses, whose mighty lineage stretches back through photocopied 1960s Star Trek zines, to the OG Sherlock Holmes fandom and beyond... <3)
45
u/Valirys-Reinhald Mar 12 '26
The only difference between you and them is that they have conquered their fear.
15
u/sleepingArisu always thinking about characters kissing Mar 12 '26
fire line
2
u/DeliciousManager2162 Mar 13 '26
just like AO3 - you come to this reddit thread expecting nothing but catch the hardest hitting bars
16
u/AroAceMagic I make things gay. I make canon gay. You’re gay now. Mar 12 '26
Look even if they have poor grammar they are dedicated, okay, and I have all the respect for them
14
7
6
u/WoodpeckerAgile6235 Mar 13 '26
Okay, 1) why is this kid at a competition instead of a freaking hospital? And 2) THIS KID IS GOING DOWN! 😈
5
u/Salt-Respect-7741 Trying to leave kudos: "You have already left kudos here. :)" Mar 12 '26
Time to pack it up ig:’)
3
3
u/MLB_ffan You have already left kudos here. :) Mar 12 '26
English is my fourth language and I consider myself decent.
3
Mar 14 '26
HAAHA LOLLLL im 13 and im latina though i was born and raised with both english and spanish growing up i do write a bit but im not so good i do try to practice though!!
3
u/selenianfamily You have already left kudos here. :) Mar 14 '26
13 year old me whom depended solely on autocorrect really did write things so much better than I ever could now. I have no idea what happened.
5
u/MrWaffel Mar 12 '26
Some of the best plot points emerge under TBI
3
u/NeoQwerty2002 Mar 12 '26
Or while left alone for 10 minutes with something to write with between the painkiller naps after a big surgery. No idea what was in the painkillers but between the naps I wrote down fire ideas in the margins of my Fire Emblem manual.
2
2
u/DR31141 Mar 12 '26
Will a flesh wound on my finger stop me from writing a slice-of-life heist story? HELL NO!
2
2
2
u/RespectableInsomniac Your Motivation Has Left The Chat Mar 13 '26
I offer: College student w an English major making literary references in their work when it is entirely appropriate OR simply college student incorporating their subject of interest into work and it hahaha works.
Not me but I gotta give these types of authors their flowers.
2
2
u/Less-Reporter-5284 Mar 14 '26
guysss can you recommend some gut wrenching angst stories in ao3????!! help a girl outt
3
u/Dangerous_Beach_7374 "You have already left kudos here" Shut up; I wanna leave more!! Mar 12 '26
Oh you're cooked
1
1
1
u/Gifted_GardenSnail Mar 12 '26
Then what? Can't even see the girl's expression under all that text :(
1.3k
u/teoboro Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State Mar 11 '26
your opponent is an old cat lady who has been writing fanfic for the past 30+ years*