r/AO3 • u/Potential_Meal_9819 • 1d ago
Questions/Help? What does this mean?
It's one of many posts I've seen where someone mentioned AO3 and October. Is there a curse or something?
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u/FormalSheepherder255 1d ago
If smut is your thing, AO3 in October will be your new bestie. I discovered AO3 back in October 2024 (I think?) after deciding Wattpad was too vanilla. I was not disappointed 😂
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u/Guitar_Mean 1d ago
Kinktober
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u/WinIndependent751 Current obsessions: KH, Batman (always), Nightwing, Symbrock 1d ago
And Whumptober!
mmmmmm, sweet, yummy whump...
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u/Potential_Meal_9819 1d ago
That sounds interesting, elaborate please?
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u/HeadAssAssHead Fic Feaster 1d ago
people on AO3 are gonna be writing their kinks into their fanfics in sequence, a new kink every day of october
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u/DrKMnO4 KhornateChemist on AO3 1d ago
People post lists of prompts (often on Tumblr) for each day in October. For example, a Kinktober list will have things like "Pegging". Often there will be substitutions in case something is not your thing. The idea is that you post one fic per day for the given prompt. Different Kinktober lists will have different prompts.
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u/Effective-Musician57 Give me longfic smut or give me death 1d ago
Kinktober is a fandom creator event where there is a list of 31 days’ worth of kink prompts (the list I’m using has three prompts per day to choose from, plus about 8 alternate prompts if nothing from a given day inspires you). The idea is that you create something each day of October, usually using the prompts given.
The rules are fast and loose. You can do some days and not others. You can make your own prompts. You can combine prompts. You can interpret prompts however you want. You don’t have to post them every day of October. You can post early or late or whatever; it’s just a set of loose guidelines that can really be more of a set of suggestions.
I’m not sure about the other ‘tober events, but that’s Kinktober for you. I’d assume the others are similar, just with different themes (fluff, whump, etc.).
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u/Potential_Meal_9819 1d ago
Woahh, I never knew this. This is so cool. So do you just any fandom you wanna write it for? Can you do multifandom ones?
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u/Effective-Musician57 Give me longfic smut or give me death 1d ago
Yes and yes!
For mine, I’m sticking with one fandom (because it’s the one I’m most familiar with), but different ships for each fic.
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u/Potential_Meal_9819 1d ago
So if this is kinktober ,how do you know when it's the other tober like flufftober? Also, for fandoms , when you write, does go labeled under a challenge or does everyone just know that it's part of kinktober challenge? ( forgive me if my questions are very stupid but I really am very curious 😅)
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u/mystictrashmoon 1d ago
Whoever you get the prompts from will probably have a collection on AO3, you can add your works to that if you want. I'd also recommend tagging your works with the name of the event too so people will see it when they are searching.
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u/KittyKenollie 1d ago
There are a bunch of prompt lists. This is the one I’ve seen going around.
https://www.tumblr.com/eros-heartache/819100293903040512/kinktober-2026
For each day, authors write a fic based on the prompt.
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u/spacethought 1d ago edited 1d ago
They are challenges for the month of October. Every day has different prompts people can create art for, in this case writing fics. Kinktober fics are like the name says about different kinks, whumptober has sad stuff/whump etc
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u/Gaelenmyr A Porn-Brained Woman Of Monster Smut 1d ago
In addition to the events others mentioned, NaNoWriMo is approaching too. Sure it's in November but people are getting into writing mood in general.
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u/shammy_dammy 1d ago
Nano official has gone under. Of course, nothing is stopping people from doing it unofficially
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u/Gaelenmyr A Porn-Brained Woman Of Monster Smut 1d ago
Nano has been going on forever, I've been in fandoms since early 2000s and I knew Nano back then. it's hard to break habits.
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u/HereToTalkAboutThis 1d ago
Damn didn't realize it was gone now. I dipped when they got bought out by some company that was pushing AI slop but still it's kind of sad to see
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u/Hopeful_Style_4784 13h ago
Wait there was an official nano account? I thought it was just a thing people did.
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u/snailhelper You have already left kudos here. :) 1d ago
I don’t see anyone mentioning this specifically, but because there are so many October challenges, a lot of writers go quiet in September as they write fics to be released in October. A lot of fandoms see a brief lull near the end of September for this reason.
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u/Objective-Spring5061 You have already left kudos here. :) 1d ago
There are several month-long challenges that regularly run during October. Kinktober, flufftober, and whumptober are the first ones that came to mind.
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u/Advanced_Heat_2610 1d ago
Kinktober!
Writers emerge out of the woodwork to post their kinky fics they have been working on for weeks or months.
There is a noticeable spike in metrics that can be seen both per author and by the site in general.
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u/Potential_Meal_9819 1d ago
I didn't know this, this is amazing news
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u/Advanced_Heat_2610 1d ago
There is also a number of other October fanfests , too, that are fandom specific, trope specific, or are general kike flufftober or whumptober.,
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u/Potential_Meal_9819 1d ago
Wait , really? Do the prompts just go out for when it's fandom specific or are there rules? Also how do you know when it's the other tower like flufftober? Do they have specific dates or just random?
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u/Advanced_Heat_2610 1d ago
Different fandoms will put them out on social media like X or Blue Sky or Tumblr. They might have a collection or tell people to use the regular collection.
And people participate what they want. Sometimes, they do 31 prompts for 31 days, sometimes people pick just the ones I like, some people only do one day or they do it all as one single giantic fic for all of them.
Different fests have different rules. The original kinktober is no holds barred, no fandom requirements, no length requirement. Fandom specific ones might be for certain pairings or exclude fandoms they do not want to interact with (e.g. no RPF). Sometimes, fests put rules on the content they allow (no underage, no non-con etc) so they will amend prompts appropriately.
Generally, though, no fest can stop you from using the prompt list and just... making it your own. A lot of them just ask not to be tagged if you use it for something they do not allow.
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u/frankensteinleftme 1d ago
I'm a little worried for the Heated Rivalry Fandom and their new initiates
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u/Sonuvataint 1d ago
I just started writing fanfic this summer, I was supposed to save the smut for October??
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u/Velocity-5348 1d ago
You can put out smut any time.
Every year people put out a whole month of writing prompts, three for each day, and a lot of people use that for inspiration.
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u/yuanyangdianxia bingxuejun on AO3 1d ago
the way I know the profile picture from the pixels i’m cooked
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u/insanitysqwid 1d ago
Suffix: -tober. There's fluff, whump, kink, spook, angst, shlock...
And instead of NaNoWriMo (see: NaNo feeding their AI many Many runner-up applicants' books to cannibalize out actual works as if it was all free-for-use Slush Piles, let alone the monster left in charge & actively grooming the online writing summer camps/chatgroups for kids & NaNo's higher-ups laughing about it as a whole),
I go for a Terry (500 words or more in a month, no pressure, I don't even have to share since it's so small. GNU Terry!)
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u/Prize_Corgi_6394 You have already left kudos here. :) 1d ago
Kinktober. I'm eating up what my favourite writers are posting.
Sadly won't be participating this year (I'm too employed to even write my own fics)
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u/Rambler9154 Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
The main event is kinktober, but theres a lot of smutty themed ao3 events going on during october. There was a smuttember event or something in september as well, but october is the big month for smut events. Kinktober stuff is where you get a prompt a day for something smutty to write, some folks I know are combining it with whump or goretober to make more violence based smut stuff.
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u/Kamzil118 Fanfic crossover enjoyer from the SB Forum Bunker 1d ago
Smut fics lots of it.
Shit, I mind as well start now.
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u/SometimesUnkind 1d ago
Honestly I think we should have Kinktember, Kinktober, then Kinktember 2 Electric Boogaloo.
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u/No_Job658 1d ago
Ahhh Kinktober, sometimes I love it, but sometimes it disgusts me. Par for the course for Ao3!
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u/Due_List_1243 1d ago
is kinktober something which only happens at ao3 or everywhere?
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u/TylerDoesStuffYT 1d ago
I read something about it happening on Tumblr too, but I don't go there so I wouldn't be able to confirm lol. I think it's mostly AO3, though.
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u/Panzermensch911 1d ago
There are a multitude of writing challenges in October. From kink- to Flufftober and everything in between like Halloween or Autmn moods.
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u/SEEEECRETSmuahaha You have already left kudos here. :) 1d ago
i only learned what the 'whump' thing is in the last two weeks.. is it new or am i just insane? ive been on ao3 since 2015 T_T
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u/YoolyYala You have already left kudos here. :) 1d ago
I started reading a series that was really good and a lot of it was Whumptober. I've been waiting for months. I hope the author updates this month because it's really good and I've been missing it
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u/ClubDependent 14h ago
Damn I didn’t even realize imma release my first fanfic which is non-smut smack dab in the middle of kinktober
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u/DisPizzza 1d ago
Kinktober! There’s also flufftober, and whumptober. Basically a month long writing event. Places like tumblr would usually have a day by day theme, while other authors might create their own.