I woke up this morning to 3 emails about reviews on my long fic. One on chapter 13, on on the epilogue of the first fic, and one on the most recent chapter of the sequel fic. It made me so happy that someone loves my story enough to read through it that fast.

I'm writing a dark dystopian pokemon story right now and ive poured probably idek how many hours into it gotta be pushing 200 and its probably gonna end up being 60-70k words when i fix the pacing and wrap up the last few chapters. its 54k words rn though and im thinking "whats the point?"

Like idk if im gonna release it anywhere and im not some english major or aspiring author but i keep trying to perfect it. i finished it in like 100 hours the first time around and i thought i would be done and could move on with my life but the story wasnt good. It was fine but it wasnt polished at all it had tons of plot holes and stuff because I’d change my mind about what I’d want so im going back through my second version completely rewriting the bullshit fairytale ending too. added tons of stuff fixed tons of plot holes and ive just spent soooo much time on it.

I even have plans for a second and third book but like why? my actual major is aerospace and like im spending time on this book that i could be spending studying or applying to internships. Part of me absolutely loves writing this and the other part needs it to be absolutely perfect because of how much time I’ve spent. I kinda see it as a creative outlet but idk am i wasting my time do yall ever feel this way too? If I had to guess I’d say it’s very common.

Ok so "Character x Reader" fanfictions are a guilty pleasure of mine, but hear me out: "character VS. reader" where Y/N fights the character.

It could be writing about Y/N beating the shit out of/killing a character you HATE or even Y/N just slapping some sense into a character that just annoys you. I can’t be the only one who sometimes wishes they could climb inside a tv or book and fight some of the characters.

The only problem is, I know there seems to be a very specific tagging system in AO3 when it comes to relationships and I’m not sure if introducing a new work relationship tag would work (but tbh maybe that’s a non-issue cause I really don’t know how AO3’s coding works) and I’m not sure how popular other means of fanfic sharing is since Wattpad is in a weird position, to put it lightly.

Edit: commenters have told me this used to be a thing ”back in the day”. So now all we have to do is bring it back! I might write some myself

Curious - is there a song that would be a perfect theme song for your stories or one that just feels like your stories?

I have one - it’s soppy, but I right a bit soppy :)

flamethrower? Standard cooking tool, cigar lighter

Superman eye lasers? shaving tool

Ice powers? arm grabbed by other character to press against head bump as a makeshift ice pack.

Character often turns into a giant magical beast to fuck up his enemies? designated emotional support animal for latest rescue target.

Ok so this might be an odd request but I’m looking for recommendations for fanfiction about politicians. Given the current world events I think this is the only way to properly process things.

I was particularly interested in Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron.

Thank you!

Here on Writing Weekends, share what you are going to write and are currently writing this weekend or if you're gonna take the weekend off.

Would love some advice please.

The short of it is, I am too embarrassed to read over my own work I published years ago and I have no idea how to get over my own squemishness in order to actually finish the damn story.

I've only ever written one fanfiction (which I began during the covid lockdowns in 2020.) I would like to re-read what I've published in order to actually sit down and finish it. In in overarching story I had planned I had published 14 and have around 8 more chapters to go.

I don't know how anyone can re-read their own work and not want to run for the hills. Whenever I have tried to, I can't get past a single paragraph! I'm just mortified for some reason! And it's not even that it's bad, people really like the story and it's done super well it has like 70k hits and a very high kudos rate.

But I would love to get over myself and read it in order to finish the story for the people who are still waiting.

If anyone has any tips or advice I'd love to hear

I'm posting this to both r/writing and r/AO3 (and  r/FanFiction) because I'm curious to see how the perspectives might differ.

You often hear the advice that if you want to be a writer, you need to read a lot. I agree with that, but I've been wondering if it matters what you read? Specifically, do you think reading fanfiction is just as valuable as reading published books when it comes to learning how to write?

I can understand the argument for reading published books. If you want to learn how professional authors approach sentence structure, prose, pacing, worldbuilding, or establishing characters and settings from scratch, published books can be great examples to study. There's obviously value in seeing how a complete, edited novel works.

But, I think fanfiction has a lot to offer, too. I've read some genuinely incredible fanfics with beautiful prose, compelling character development, interesting storylines, and a really strong understanding of human emotions. I've also read published books that I thought were poorly written, so I don't think publication alone is necessarily an indicator of writing quality. Obviously, that doesn't mean the two are interchangeable in every respect, but it does make me question how much weight we place on publication status when deciding what writing is worth learning from.

One thing I've noticed is that fanfiction often puts a particular emphasis on character exploration. Since readers might already be familiar with the characters and their world, authors can spend more time exploring their relationships, emotions, motivations, and development. This is especially interesting in alternate universes (AUs), where authors take established characters and put them in entirely new circumstances. Of course, published fiction can do all of these things, too, but I think fanfiction offers a particular kind of freedom to explore them. There's a lot of creativity involved in that, and I think there's a lot a writer can learn from it.

I also wonder whether reading fanfiction can help you develop your writing instincts in ways that published fiction might not. You can study how different authors handle the same characters with different dialogue, emotional scenes, character arcs, tension, and relationships. And while fanfiction has the advantage of working with characters readers may already know, I don't think that automatically makes the writing itself any less valuable to learn from.

Of course, fanfiction has its limitations as a learning resource, too. Working with established characters means you don't necessarily have to develop them or introduce them to readers from scratch, and fanfiction doesn't always go through the same editing process as traditionally published work. Those are real differences, and I can see why reading published fiction would be important if your goal is to write an original novel.

So, if your goal is to write an original novel, do you think reading and studying fanfiction is just as beneficial as reading published books? Or are there certain skills that you can only really develop by reading traditionally published fiction?

I'm not suggesting that you should read exclusively one or the other. I'm more curious about whether you think fanfiction deserves the same consideration as a learning resource for writers, and whether the distinction actually matters as much as people sometimes make it seem.

For example, if someone said they read constantly but the vast majority of what they read was fanfiction, would you consider that just as valuable as someone who primarily reads published novels? What if someone asked you who your favorite author was, and you named a fanfiction author? Would that be seen differently from naming a traditionally published author?

I feel like there are two fairly obvious responses to this question: either that published books are obviously better to learn from, or that reading is reading, and you can learn something from anything. But I'm interested in the reasoning behind those answers, particularly when it comes to actually studying writing instead of reading for enjoyment.

TDLR: Is fanfiction is taken seriously as something you can learn from, especially if it's the main thing you read. Is there a meaningful difference between studying the craft of a talented fanfiction author and studying the craft of a talented published author? Are there skills or perspectives you'd be missing if you rarely read published books? Or do you think the quality and variety of what you read matter more than whether it's traditionally published?

I'd love to hear people's thoughts, especially from those who read both fanfiction and published fiction or who write both themselves.

EDIT: for some reason this sub has gotten the best, most thought out answers

I have an OC who's running away from a multiversal organisation and travels into different universes to do so. They have been running for hundreds of years but have the mental age of 15 as that's when they started running.

How do I write someone who has a lot of experience but is still mentally a teen?

I'm obsessedddd w/ the idea of a bucky barnes × reader ff where the reader is flirty, impulsive, constantly teases him, says things that make him go red. And he's annoyed, exasperated, exhausted.

I'm not opposed to age gaps (arent all his romances age gap lol). But i would much much much like a slow-burn with SLOW progression and max bantering!!

In fact, steve rogers × reader could very well do justice to this dynamic as well. So give it up ;)

I beg you if you're writing for an anime/media or anywhere outside the USA please use metric. It takes me out so bad when characters say miles etc. when they would never 😭 itS something so simple that will 100% raise your quality.

Edit: 1. 50.2% are American. The comments track for this stat. 2. Lack of reading comprehension and context clues is the gift that keeps on giving 3. People are taking this personal, like I pissed in their breakfast or something. 4.google is free Edit2: bean soup

Hello everyone, I'm here to see if anyone has an epub of the Devil Wears Prada fanfiction, Between Two Devils and Ms Sachs by Melanacious?

I know that can be found on LiveJournal and incomplete, but I'd really would like to read it on my kindle.

Any help is appreciated.

A prime example now that I think about it would be something like what happened to Scarlet Witch in one of the DC/Marvel crossovers, where when she crossed into DC she accidentally accessed the same chaos that the Lords of Chaos do.

It doesn’t have to be that overpowered though. Maybe an MCU sorcerer goes to DC, losing access to spells that required different entities ie the Bands of Cytorrak, but eventually learning to tap local entities and forces ie the Parliament of Trees.

Basically, I’m looking for magic working different due to being in a different cosmology or interacting with something from a different setting.

So, uh, first time doing one of these. I always hesitate because every "Lost Fic" post reads like a fever dream XD But anyway it was at least a year ago, I was browsing the Dean/Castiel tag, and it was specifically a case fic. Written exactly like an episode of the show. It was sex pollen, and it started off with Dean in a bar not knowing he had been affected. Sam teased him because he seemed to be attracted to a man who had dark hair like Castiel, and then they left. They then drove to another location just the two of them, and then Cas came up on his motorcycle. Dean was incredibly attracted to Castiel on his motorcycle before he even knew it was Castiel. There was a very specific description in Castiel in all the leather on his red motorcycle.

Then Castiel got out and started working the case with them, and I think the case was sex pollen was making people go crazy or something (or, like, an angel was mad? still don't know). Still Sam and Castiel didn't know Dean was affected.

Then Dean was in the car one time watching Castiel interrogate this girl who was near the house they were at standing in the rain with an umbrella. He kept thinking that she was too close to him, too close to him even though Castiel was just asking her questions, and then Dean got out of the car with his gun to shoot her. He was stopped just in time by Sam or Castiel I can't remember which.

But yeah then the fic started its falling action and then Sam and Castiel realized that Dean had been affected by the sex pollen, Dean and Cas confessed to each other, and then Dean and Castiel had sex in a car.

I think it ends with Dean treating Castiel to a coffee in his favorite greasy diner. The motorcycle makes another appearance.

Anyway this fic lives in my head rent free, and I would read it again except it got deleted :O Does anyone know it?

I'm of the mind that wrting a story and intentionally leaving out all pop references because they will date it is wrong.

We live in the world we live in, complete with Spotify and I phones and GPS and Chat GPT. To try to be all neutral would adversely affect the story, I think. Well what about us folks who were born more than a week ago? Our pop references will be different. Is it too much on the younger crowd to pepper in a few? (Example: I have two in a long-ish chapter fic)

Y'know back in my day (waves cane) when I was reading a book and I came across something I didn't know I looked it up. In the dictionary, in the encyclopedia. You have a computer in your pocket. Just look it up.

"but it takes me out of the story!" Well, I'm so sorry but literature is complex. It's fanfic not Dick and Jane. (Oh noeees! An older pop reference!)

Well, anyway, while I'm still here, the two references were Monty Python (I actually said the name of the show: "Monty Python") and Die Hard in case you're curious.

"omg idk if yall read i rmb reading a fic that whenever atsu was at home he started getting fucking horny and feverish and he didn’t know why and he kept pumping himself off in the living room bc on that sofa his body would just get so horny and turns out when omi visited the week before he left one of the shirts he gymmed it under atsu’s sofa to ward off visitors and claim atsu in his own secret way but they didn’t realise the scent was making atsu jerk off daily until he was exhausted at practice 🙄🙄🙄"

This message was sent in a forum/group chat that I’m in, the person doesn’t remember where they read this but it looks so interesting and I would love to find and read it. I’m 90% it should be on ao3, I already tried searching with all the obvious tags

Help is appreciated 🙏🏾🙏🏾

I got a bit busy on Tuesday so we’re doing this on a Friday today

As always, here are the rules:

1. Leave a song lyric in a top level comment. Let’s keep the lyrics to 1 - 4 lines or one verse if the song has shorter verses. To not bury other prompts, let’s limit it to 1 - 3 consecutive prompts in a row.

2. Reply to prompts if you have an extract that you feel matches the meaning of the lyric, has the same vibe, your extract contains words from the lyric in it or the phrase itself is used in the extract.

3. Upvote the ones you like and try to at least comment on one answer to your prompt

4. Be mindful of the sub’s NSFW rule

5. Have fun :)

I've been wondering if anyone else has entertained this sort of idea as well; a friend of mine has been working slowly but surely on a really nice fic, and while it's not gonna be done for a while I was thinking of perhaps trying to print a mock hardcover version of it for them once it was finished sometime in 2027. Not only would I think it be a cool celebratory gift for getting something like that done, but also just a neat memento to have for a brief period of my life to look back upon in the future.

Maybe he asks an odd one to not die or whatever but otherwise he just tries his best.

Maybe he’s really good at it. Maybe everything he says comes out as a command. Maybe he says things as random jumbled words, randomly shouting a word and running away. And then whoever is left to just figure out and guess whatever he wants.

Maybe?

Thanks for any recs!

I am a beginner writer and am wondering if anyone has any tips on how to write in character dialogue. I find that oftentimes my dialogue seems either too wordy or it's not exactly something that the character would say.

6-7k words in, I suddenly changed my mind on a central point of the oneshot I'm working on. (Namely, which of the three POV characters gets a concussion - not a trivial matter in a whump fic.) As I'm chronically indecisive and a very slow writer, changing directions this late in the game may not be the wisest choice, especially when what I most want is to finish the damn thing. Rewriting is a momentum-killer... but a big part of me wants to keep writing with the changed plot, full steam ahead and damn the horses.

(6k may not seem like much, but the full thing will probably not go far over 10k.)

Have you changed your mind on an important aspect of your fic when you were already in deep? If so, what did you end up doing, and why?

For anyone unfamiliar, it's a big ol' fic exchange for small fandoms that's been going on since 2003. (I myself started participating in '06, making this my twenty-first consecutive signup!)

It's a pretty fun event to get to read and write for things you might not get to most of the year. (Here's the list of nominated fandoms this time around.)

So is anyone else already signed up and excited? Anyone else not signed up yet but planning to before signups close in a week? (If anyone is intrigued but wants more info, there's some more at the collection FAQ and their Dreamwidth signup announcement post.)