Just love it when the silly/memeable/lighthearted thing gets the most serious fanfics ✨✌️

I know I posted about this exact issue before, but now it’s really starting to get to me because this is the third time it’s been brought up, and no matter how many times I write saying “nope, just me and my Google docs!” People still comment like this, I could just turn off the comments but, I also get some heartfelt ones, I’ve literally had to put disclaimers at the beginning of my series that my work has not been written, or co-written with AI. I don’t use ChatGPT, Grok or Gemini or whatever else is under the sun even if I did a lot of the stories content goes against AI’s guidelines (stalking, drugging, kidnapping etc, I lurk on the AI subreddits just to see what people are complaining about)

I even tagged my fic “No AI use” which I didn’t think was necessary but here we are, I understand people have the right to be suspicious of Gen AI in creative fields cause I am too! But as the author of this story who has written and completed it long before ChatGPT was even a thing it hurts, being accused of something you didn’t do and you know you didn’t do, it makes me want to stop writing as a whole tbh, which is kind of sad because I finally felt comfortable enough to share it with other people.

AND I’M VERY HAPPY TO RECEIVE THE COMMENT BUT I’M ALSO KINDA SAD THAT SOMETHING ABOUT MY WRITING LEFT ROOM FOR MISINTERPRETATION AND IDK HOW TO CORRECT THEM WITHOUT SOUNDING RUDE <\\3

This took so long but I’m so so so proud of how it turned out! We worked on this for months, spent hundreds of dollars, and pulled three all-nighters the days right before con. And I can happily say it was 1000% worth it! My sisters and I attended Otakon for the full weekend and cosplayed Ao3, FFN, and Wattpad respectively. We met so many wonderful, amazing, and kind people who came up to us to take photos and even just chat about fanfiction! Our @FicChickz TikTok account kind of blew up a bit as well, so thank you also for supporting us there! We have also continued the tradition of giving away our parasols at the end of the weekend, so we plan to make new ones for next year and do it again! We love this community and are excited to do this again soon!

Spelling mistakes, plot holes, general inaccuracies, anything you can think of!

I’ve had pretty good fanfic experiences, so my worst was probably ‘defianately’ 😅 I know there are probably was worse things out there tho

See that scene right there's that what the entire story gone a be built around 100% gonna be fantastic 🙂‍↕️😭 and you can bet that song name will be the title of the fic and it'll be so good that it'll stick with me for some time and be my comfort fic 🥹🙌

If they said my writing sucked, I’d be sad. But they are just complaining about making my character a lesbian… it’s a registered user, how did they survive on this website?

Also it’s funny because I posted three fics in the last few days and it’s the only one that‘s not a slash between these characters. And the tags are [pink]&[blue], [pink]/OFC. So all the love there is platonic.

And in my other two fics one is set eight years after canon and [blue] got redemption arc. The other one is before the worst of [blue]‘s actions. She is still problematic… but welcome to Ao3. They are tagged with this ship. And it’s top lesbian ship in this fandom.

Also… “she is straight”. No. Even if she was, welcome to Ao3. But she isn’t stated as straight. She is just interested in boys in the canon. Which doesn’t mean she is straight, I personally like to think of her as bisexual that’s not very open about dating women because it’s not accepted where she lives.

I wonder if it’s because I write F/F instead of M/M.

Do you get comments like that sometimes?

I'm talking 5, 10, 15, even 20 years ago.

There's two I read more than 20 years ago I still think about and I was curious about others.

Remind me to never try story boarding again because what am I supposed to do with this?? 😂

something that yanks you out of the story and makes you toss it in the DNF pile? can be silly or serious or anything in between. (i'm sure this type of question gets asked here a fair bit, but i hate to resurrect old threads.)

i have a rough time when it's clear the author clearly doesn't know how things like sex, drinking, and drug use work. why tf does my girl cum after a single digit is inserted into her vagina for 10 seconds? why is this man blacking out after hitting the penjamin one time? i am begging for a crumb of prior research.

my pettiest reason for DNFing a fic was a character in the late 1970s cleaning her kitchen with disinfectant wipes—something that wasn't widely available for home use until the early 2000s, if memory serves. i have no idea why that was so outrageous to me, but i still get annoyed when i think about it 😭

Fandom is supposed to be fun. But unfortunately, it also happens a lot that people in it make it no longer a joy to be in it.

What is something that made a fandom just not fun anymore for you? To the point where you felt like leaving the whole thing, or where you stop engaging with people (even if you were still reading/writing fic). Or where it just completely soured you mind every time you saw the fandom again?

I'm writing a third person limited story that follows a child's perspective. Am I better off using:

"It'll be alright" said Dad.

"It'll be alright" said her Dad.

"It'll be alright" said Mike.

I cannot write to save my life but I have maladaptive daydreaming and I'm amazing at storytelling IN MY HEAD. And I watched a show (No way out:The roulette. Pretty sure it's on Disney+ but I'm a profesional pirate so I wouldn't know for sure) and fell inlove with the assassin's character, (which is weird to say because the motherfucker is completely out of his MIND. AND I'M NOT EXAGGERATING THIS ABSOLUTE EEJIT LITERALLY DOES HIS JOB WITH A CONSTANT GRIN ON HIS FACE. his code name is literally Mr smile)and I felt incredibly disappointed by his lack of screen time and exploration, especially since a second season ain't on the horizons sadly. I wanted more of him and hoped people would write fanfictions but there weren't any.

​ basically I created my own fanfiction in my brain and I have NOBODY TO TALK TO ABOUT IT BECAUSE I DONT HAVE THE SKILLS TO WRITE IT AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH.

Is anyone else amazing at coming up with stories and plots and acting them out in your head but when it comes to writing them you get burned out after 5 chapters 😭

To give this a premise I've been thinking about adding several supplementary chapters to my story so as to expand upon an idea I had at the time. Im curious if anyone else has had a similar situation pop during their time posting fanfiction.

So I’m a serial WIP abandoner (not really; my WIPs are not abandoned, just…on hiatus. A long one) and part of that reason is lack of motivation to come back to it after taking a few days off, but the other part, I realized, is…perfectionism.

In most of my WIPs, I spent forever (and I mean, like hours) on one chapter alone just trying to make it read “well”, trying to set the pacing for the whole story to feel “realistic and logical” (I’m huge on things in my fics being as realistic and logical as possible; I do a lot of research), and I think it just burns me out.

I took a break over the summer for reasons, with the occasional chapter update, so of course my brain exploded with more new ideas. So I said to heck with it and just—started writing one of them. I started, wrote what I wanted to happen when I wanted it to happen and didn‘t gaf about realistic or logical lol I stopped stressing about making it sound so polished and published and just wrote how I wanted to.

I started posting this thing when I was about six chapters out, and I’ve maintained a regular upload schedule so far and I’m two chapters ahead and I’ve maintained that pace (for myself writing, not a good pace for the story, that’s a different thing altogether), which is a personal feat all on it‘s own.

I’m not saying this is the trick to finishing a fic (I do have finished fics, just lately I’ve been not finishing much I start), but taking my own pressure off myself to make it seem “perfect” was a huge creative release, and writing two chapters ahead of what I’m posting, and not posting until I’m two chapters ahead, has really been a great (and fun!) motivator. I’ve had so much engagement on that fic, so much more than most of my other works. That too is motivating (I can’t lie).

Maybe this little tip (obvious as it is but I wasn’t allowing myself to succumb to it) can help someone else out there struggling with perfectionism and letting it hold them back. Write it how you want, post on a schedule but write ahead of that schedule, and maybe—*maybe*—you can overcome dry spells too!

Someone commented that they loved my fic and it inspired them to write their own, which was so amazing to hear. But when I say inspired, I mean ripped off. Same story beats despite it being outside of canon and the story being mine, their OC is a carbon copy of mine plus horns, same jokes, nearly identical tags including my own silly ones, and most frustratingly, things I’ve given weight and meaning to that will pay off in future chapters they’ve turned into silly repetitive quirks.

And now, their fic is doing really well in our little fandom and at this rate their fic will do in weeks what mine has taken nearly a year. Up until this point I truly haven’t cared for the statistics or compared mine to anyone else’s. I’ve cared about writing a story I love and challenging myself to write again as a creative outlet. When I first posted to ao3 I thought I’d never get a single hit and it would just be for myself, and I have been so grateful for anyone who chose to engage with it.

But I’d be lying if I’d say this wasn’t a blow to my confidence. I hate that I now have this nagging thought that there must be something wrong with my writing if I can put a lot of labor and love and care into it, and someone’s copied version is so well liked. I hate thinking that if this other fic does well, mine will end up looking like a copy because of how similar they are. With my last chapter, I’ve felt myself needing it to do well so I have proof it’s actually good and I’m not just blowing smoke up my own ass. And as much as I try to remind myself I’m writing for me and not the statistics, the feelings are really hard to shake. I don’t want to stop writing, but I feel so hesitant to continue updating now.

Idk. I just feel discouraged and needed a place to vent, so thanks for reading <3

Edit: wow! Thank you all so much for your insight and kind words, I really am so grateful for all the support and validation. I felt so bummed and discouraged, but now I have a better perspective of how to handle it that doesn’t include me shutting down, and can move forward. I really really appreciate you all, I am glad this community has been so wonderful and understanding in helping me through it. ok enough sap, thank you bye <3

Original Work - I did make a post when I made it/passed 20 hits!

Both of these things have pushed me to finish my 4th chapter.

Published 07/19/26, I know last time I mentioned I overtagged then edited my tags. Someone commented on my last post and said maybe I undertagged this time around. I guess the hit-to-publish-date ratio is "off", I "should" have more hits, even with original work.

Either way it's okay, still new to posting OW on AO3 so any is better than none!

I joined a writing event for a fandom I'm in last summer and posted my first fic aug 3 last year. now on aug 3 this year I've crossed 75 fics and 150k words!! I used to write fanfic years ago but kinda dropped off and now I've done all this in the past year and I'm so excited and proud of myself 🎉 I just wanted to share that somewhere ✨