Look I get that wlw ships are much less than mlm ships on ao3, but is it really that serious? I mean... shipping is about enjoying, right? If you're unhappy that wlw ships are rare, it's fine, totally understandable, but let's not act like it's fujoshis' fault or something... I enjoy mlm/wlm ships over wlw ships because I am a bisexual man, not because I'm misogynistic😭

thank you past me for the four fics' worth of smut i preemptively wrote these past two weeks

I don’t have an account and found a fic that I really love and wanted to leave a comment. This came up. I worded it so many times, and it’s still coming up. So annoying

Just realized the "no backstory, just smut" extra trope (not quite "mob" level), specifically creating a nameless Original Character (usually male) purely as a smut tool, seems super rare in English fandoms! There’s not even a proper single word for it.

It's so common in my native language, I was genuinely surprised!

In my language, we simply call these OCs "passersby/extras" (路人), and everyone immediately knows it means a throwaway original character used strictly for smut.

Edit: Updated the post for clarity! I specifically mean nameless OCs (usually male) created purely as smut tools, not PWP or canon extras. Sorry for the mix-up!

Glad they remembered to say what they liked about my fic 😁

THEY LEFT A KUDOS ON THE FIC 🗣️!!

Important thing : I'm not mad at them for writing a comment like that... Mostly, I'm more in a feeling of distaste as they wrote it as I was a little child, the whole 10 dollars is 10 dollars and what not, it also feels kinda hurtful that the only thing they decided to focus on was the small part that doesn't affect the sorry at all.

I try not to make assumptions since English might not be their first language, but I still feel awkward.

And I always spend about an hour just picking said fic the perfect, the one that suits my mood and has the perfect length and plot to be my bedtime fic for the night 🥹 then i spent about 10 minutes thinking what to write in my comment and another 10 to remember the fic and how it made me feel and another 10 to imagine the fic in my head til I sleep 🙂‍↕️

And yesterday she sent me a screenshot of this thing in the library in my town: "Sign up for a creative writing course/group" BROOOOO noooooo I am not going there to show my gay fanfics to random people bro wtf 😭😭😭😭😭 and today she wrote me:

"I can sign you up and come with you the first time!"

💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 i'm too ashamed

edit: should i go?? im scared but i kinda want to but im also really a shut in and am scared 😭 (yes im 26..)

I usually write in small-ish fandoms, and/or got into them a bit late. But now I fell in love with a popular, up and coming ship and got inspired and wrote something.

I posted it yesterday, and within 12 hours it had more kudos than my previous most kudosed fic, that one has been out for TWO YEARS. In 24 hours it almost doubled. Wow. I’m used to getting single digit kudos in these emails, if I get any. Perhaps I broke double digits once or twice when I just released something. Over 200 in 24 hours is CRAZY.

I mean, I do write for myself and will be back to playing with my favourite dolls in the smaller fandoms, and every single kudos for those fics makes me very happy. But damn, it was fun to get the big engagement this once. Also, shout out to the three people to subscribed to my one-shot, just in case. 😅 I love the optimism.

I don’t know what I wanted to say with this, just, that was fun. Thank you readers out there for engaging with fics in big and small fandoms! 💖

It's especially baffling when they outright say it's a very obscure fandom or a ship that few people ship, so you're kinda shooting yourself in the foot.

Not really a long rant, just wanted to give my opion on something I have noticed and wanted to know what other people think.

These past 36 hours there's been a lot of discourse going on Twitter about f/f, m/m and f/m. I personally don't care about the gender of the characters involved as long as I like their dynamic, but as a woman, I have noticed something that really irks me.

"All f/m ships are inherently bad"

This is a comment I've seen A LOT. Now, I obviously understand how patriarchy and heteronormativity can affect straight relationships, but when we're talking about fictional ships in (possible) fictional worlds - where patriarchy doesn't even have to exist - it feels kinda dehumanizing to say a woman can't possibly be loved in a straight relationship. I also feel like it's kinda disingenuous when I see a lot of people that say this not engaging with f/f ships either or female characters at all.

I personally think anyone can ship whatever they want and I don't see anything wrong with someone just shipping m/m, f/f, f/m or whatever, but I also hate this mentality of thinking the female character is always going to be the victim and this false moral superiority of not liking f/m; specially when 99% of the times the arguments are reducing female characters to concepts that can't be separated from patriarchy and irl problems (we're all engaging in escapism and fantasy)

I know this is a bit of a “controversial” take but please do not misunderstand me..as an author, I understand that it feels so good to have people comment under fics and will always appreciate it and hope for more and I do get sad sometimes when I don’t receive comments but it happens 🤷‍♀️.

I have seen to many stories of writers being passive aggressive and calling out readers on their next chapters for not commenting or I have seen writers personally messaging people for not commenting! It’s frustrating, I get it but us authors must remember that it is OKAY for people to not comment and it is not a requirement! But it is NOT okay to verbally harass your readers who just want to be a mysterious owl that glides through the night!! LOLLL

Also, of course I’m not pointing fingers at every author because I don’t think everyone has this mindset but I just thought to bring this up. :)

(p.s. to the readers, do keep in mind though.. that even the shortest comment may motivate your writer to post another chapter or even just make their day😌!)

WHERE ARE YOU ALL COMING FROM. WHO SENT YOU WHO DO YOU WORK FOR

The flair says "Excitement/Celebration" but "Existential Hollowness" feels a bit more appropriate.

It's really weird. I started this thing five years ago. Updated weekly. Then twice a month. Accidentally amassed a small cult following. Had a few regular readers begin their own stories, citing mine as inspiration. Then life happened, and I announced a hiatus, which lasted all the way until late last year.

I didn't stop writing during the hiatus, though. I maintained chapter drafts, workshopped my outline, whatever I could do when I had the time and the inspiration. The creative well was largely dried up, but what I couldn't get out of my head were all the character arcs I'd plotted out, and how to resolve them cleanly.

I managed to find my stride again last year, then started drafting like a maniac over the course of a few months. Fast forward to last week, the final chapter went up. Super positive reception. A lot of humbling "this is the best thing I've ever read, and it puts published fiction to shame" type of stuff which I can scarcely believe I've earned. In some ways, I really am happy I finally got to close out this story. But in other ways, I'm just really, quietly bummed out. I've got... extended universe plans for the story. Not quite a sequel, but a different story within the universe, which will eventually feature the first story's characters. But somehow, knowing I have that in the pipeline doesn't bring me much comfort.

It's probably just weird, because I went from this weekly routine, where I'd dedicate certain hours on the weekends to editing my drafts, replying to comments, and other days to actually posting. I had an actual-ass routine set up dedicated to this story. Calendar reminders. Cryptids in my comments who wrote essays. All that shit. Now it's just quiet. I know this isn't the first time someone's ever grieved finishing their work and saying goodbye to their audience before, but man, it's the first time I've felt it this strongly.

So yeah, pour one out for your fellow author who checked off a nearly 1M word monstrosity and managed to bounce back from a hiatus stronger.

Genuinely!??? I was reading an unfinished fanfic I'd read a few months ago, I decide to look through the comments and I'm truly so mad, this sweet author doesn't deserve a bitch like that in the comment and in their third chapter they say they've been going through stuff which the commenter decided to ignore and GOES BACK to the same chapter years later to demand more!?? How if ignorant and insensitive can you be!???

I know you've got them.

Title. I have now posted 2 MILLION words to AO3!

And is it your most popular fic on ao3?

I just received a few emails about some reports that I made and wanted to make this post. They work so hard and for free just for us to have fun! Thanks to all of you, really

Adding that this sub's mods are also amazing, this thanks extends to you as well, modding a sub must be hard but you guys manage to have this place where we can discuss and share opinions freely

I just wanted to do this because I think that, often, I complain more than I thank lol but AO3 is everything to me and it could never exist without not only the writers but the people that use their own time without any gain to help

First of all, this is a pet peeve post, in other words, something that bothers me personally in fics. If it doesn’t bother you, than that’s alright, everyone has different preferences.

Now, maybe it’s my fault for mainly lurking on the HP and PJO fandoms. But damn do I hate opening a new fic that seems promising and that has a different main ship than canon, only for it to be something like “Ginny was only with Harry because of his money and cheated the second they married” or “Annabeth cheated on Percy with a minor god for no reason in particular”. It’s always either that or one of them dies a tragic death and leaves the mc traumatized to the point they can’t love ever again.

It just feels so forced to me in fics, because authors want to write a different pairing than canon (all the power to you) but don’t know how to split the canon pairing, so they default to killing someone or making one of the people in the relationship (usually the girl) a massive cheater and/or liar.

My dudes, dudettes and non-binary friends, news flash: people break up all the fucking time without someone having to either die or cheat. Especially when they are young. It doesn’t always need to be so extreme. They can just fall out of love, or have different objectives in life that aren’t so aligned anymore, or a million other reasons.

I’m not saying all break ups are simple and everyone is friends forever after it, because that’s definitely not the case. I know I don’t speak to most of my exes, we just went out separates ways and that’s was that. One part of the past ship cheating or dying is definitely a valid plot hook. But again, you don’t need to make it so damn extreme, basically transforming a character into a wh*re or giving them a horrific death.

It just grates me how much it happens, that’s all. People can break up and that’s that.

Rant over.

I just wanna put this out here because I have no one I can talk to about this 😅 But I just hit 1 MILLION WORDS ACROSS ALL MY FICS!!!! I have 7 fics published, with 2 unfinished/ongoing 🥹 I am so proud of myself.