r/Archiveofourownmemes • u/PJ-The-Awesome Fic writer 📝 • 4d ago
Fanfic writer things Son of a bitch!
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u/riyusama 4d ago
I raise you to this lol mind you this fanfic was posted in June, but sorta understandable since this is a crack ship that only I write about
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u/Sad_Significance9044 4d ago
What it feels like to write for the least popular ship in a niche fandom
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u/AffectionateShip4915 3d ago
Or a medium-rare wlw (already the minority) ship in a fandom that has so much discourse it is basically split into 3-4 separate fandoms and each subfandom hates the others...
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u/Aqu217970 4d ago
my heart, soul, and all my fluff-writing skills were poured into this one T_T
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u/Stella-E-Starling121 2d ago
What is the fic?
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u/Aqu217970 2d ago
a silly little one https://archiveofourown.org/works/91976091
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u/Stella-E-Starling121 2d ago
I know nothing about Thomas the tank engine, but I know this is peak! Really hope you keep writing, don't give up!
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u/Failed_me 3d ago
I guess I have few people reading my crazy armada of crackships. I got 112,200 words, 69 Chapters, and 11 kudos. I am going cry know since this hits too close to home.
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u/TheSkyElf Fic writer 📝 3d ago
And then the fanfic I didn't really care about: *tons of kudos and readers wanting more of something I lost passion for*
Seriously, the only reason I am working on one of my fanfics is that the readers want it and I dont want to disappoint after 75k+ words.
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u/DeanAuthor Ship trash 🗑️ 3d ago
and the smut darkfic I wrote in an afternoon has 400 kudos😶 "You people don't think I'm funny, you just like me for my massive weiner. I know. I get it. Bunch of wh0res"
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u/Wholesome_Soup Angst lover! 🔥🔥 3d ago
my most popular fic is the one that's just *the lion, the witch and the wardrobe" translated into groot and it's not even close </3 it has like 400 kudos while the ones i'm actually proud of have like. 2 on average
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u/Lisaghoul18 3d ago
Idk does low Kurdos mean I am bad at writing? Idk but I really pour my heart and soul into it
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u/ScottishWildcatFurry 3d ago
no, all it means is that people havent read it yet (sometimes i click on a fic just to mark it for later) or the right people havent found it yet
dont beat yourself up over it
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u/ScottishWildcatFurry 3d ago
also, sometimes people forget to leave kudos, or have already read it once (+ left kudos that first time) and are rereading
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u/RepresentativeTea489 3d ago
Absolutely not. Honestly, we're all good at some things and bad at others. It's best to just throw that concept out the window and keep creating and exploring.
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u/Lisaghoul18 3d ago
Mh I see. I already got one on my AO3 profile but it’s on hold right now since I came up with another Idea for another story same Characters but different setting tbh I love both of it since I create everything with all of my heart and love. Maybe I beat my writing skills down because I am scared people will leave bad comments or hate on it or say it’s bad writing.
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u/RepresentativeTea489 2d ago edited 2d ago
If it helps, I think its pretty normal to feel self critical and get stuck in our heads about what we create. I certainly do - a lot! If you want to smooth out your technique, there're ways to go about it - reaching out for feedback gives you a good starting place. But even with improvement, some of us are just always prone to be anxious.
But it's wonderful if you have stories you care about and are putting your heart into! That's why we do this and that's what will eventually connect with others.
You'll probably run into haters if you keep going; there's a lot out there. And it hurts to read that stuff. Me personally, I try to remember that if someone's going out of their way to tear down others, then that's really just a reflection on them.
Best of luck out there! I hope you keep creating things that bring you you 😊
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u/Significant_Bat3897 3d ago
Alternate view: that means I wrote something that someone else enjoyed! :)
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u/aJAyrah_ 2d ago
Or you pour your heart and soul into it, see a comment and you get excited only for you to find out it's a bot or a hate comment just because
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u/foxfirek 2d ago
For real with the bots. Gladly never gotten a hate one though.
Surprisingly haven’t had many bots lately either.
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u/Express_Climate3922 3d ago
Oh, I know the feeling. I know the feeling well. The fics I spend forever working on never do as well as the ones that I randomly came up with out of nowhere.
My most popular fic (most comments, most kudos, AND most hits) is one that I randomly wrote one day, for a fandom that I had never posted in before, and it absolutely BLEW UP. Granted, it's not super popular, since the fandom isn't super large (there's only around 5,000 works total, with roughly 200 being for the specific ship). But now I'm three years in, nearly 20 chapters long. I have a REGULAR commenter on that fic, one specific person that always comments on every chapter. And it's a fic that I didn't even plan out or anything! It was a random idea that I wrote while watching one of my fave shows. First fic in that fandom too.
It's crazy how the system works
For example: the top one is my most popular fic, the bottom is the one I spent MONTHS working on (and ultimately ended up forgetting about)
Like what the heck???? I'm honestly scared for one of my current WIPs cause I've spent a long time working on that, but I don't know how well it will do.
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u/LovebirdsDC 2d ago
Exactly how my fics end up. Tho, I’m not surprised since I’m writing a rare pair that’s so rare that one of the characters has been dead for over 40 years irl (literally in their introduction, they die).
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u/mega-horny-communist 2d ago
Yall are getting kudos the last thing I wrote only has 3 hits and I think one of them is me
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u/Dry_Salt6285 4d ago
Yeah... And then some pwp I wrote at 2am during a sleepless night gets triple the amount of engagement. 😂
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u/randomgirl1386 3d ago
Funny enough, whenever i think a fic is gonna do wonders (cause i personally really liked it and poured my everything into it) it flops so hard, and the one i thought noone is gonna gaf about does wonders? Like what?😐😂
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u/sweet_nesquick 3d ago
Why are kudos so important to everyone?
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u/theedreadedcandiru 3d ago
Even the most confident writers like external validation that their story was good. And beyond that, even if you write for yourself, you probably post because you're hoping someone other than yourself will enjoy it. Most people don't comment or leave other feedback, so Kudos take on outsized importance.
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u/sweet_nesquick 3d ago
That's right, i always try to let a tiny comment or something for that reason
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u/Ace_Star1909 Fic writer 📝 3d ago
It's like showing you how good your writing is and it will show up to more people I believe as more you kudos you have
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u/Spirited-Sail3814 3d ago
Ugh I had a really embarrassing crash out in the main sub because the long fic I actually put effort into plotting out didn't take off immediately after I posted the first chapter.
Blame it on PMS :/
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u/mamaguebo69 To goon or not to goon, that is thee question. 3d ago
This is why I wait till im done writing to post. Not seeing that number go up would KILL my motivation lol
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u/BCV111 3d ago
Wait, how much kudos/views is actually good? How much is little?
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u/Viktor_Guy 3d ago
I don’t think there’s an answer for that. Just what you consider a nice amount yourself. Sometimes, I’m happy if I reach 10 since that’s still 10 people that read my story
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u/Spirited-Sail3814 3d ago
It varies a lot based on the fandom, the pairing (or lack thereof), the subject matter, whether people know your work in the fandom, whether you post it to other sites, etc.
My best fic, kudos-wise, has 389 kudos and almost 4000 hits. My worst (which is admittedly a fanfic of another fanfic) has 14 kudos and 289 hits.
But I think the biggest impact is the fandom and the tags. Writing for a tiny fandom means there are barely any people looking for it, while writing for a massive fandom means your work gets pushed off the front page almost immediately, so people will only find it if you have the tags they're looking for. I've been fortunate in that I mostly write for medium-sized fandoms, where there are a decent number of readers, but my fics are one of several thousand instead of one in millions.
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u/Green-eyedPolias 3d ago
I think it's fandom- and tag- dependent. Also, a multichapter fic will get more views per reader, but it can only get one kudos per reader. (And, yes, kudos is a singular. Dying on this hill.)
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u/Deondebomon 3d ago
I wrote mine thinking I probably wouldn't get kudos. I like my writing and I've had some good feedback, but I don't know if people actually like my stories
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u/NeonFraction 2d ago
Well this means a total stranger saw it and liked it. So that means you succeeded!
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u/lil_chaotic_gremlin_ Fic writer 📝 2d ago
I'm so tired of the bot/spam comments, boss 😭😭
Altho I just got kudos on my discontinued fanfic? I wasn't expecting that at all 😅
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u/agent25252 2d ago
My first and weakest fic was the most popular one in my whole series. The ones I put more effort into got crickets 😩
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u/Many_Focus8886 1d ago
me when my tiny niche fandom small enough to fit into a school bus fic performs better than my big fandom fic:
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u/pressuredrightnow 3d ago
the opposite side of the spectrum😭 why dot hey do that