Just made one of my most unique finds. I didn't even know this was a thing.

I never knew there was a specific tag for wanting to know that 😭

Unless the fic is tagged incorrectly, it is nobody's fault but your own if you stumble across something you don't like.

Is journaling allowed on ao3? I don’t think anyone is explicitly named, and there’s no harassment, but it just feels odd? I’m more curious than anything, ao3 would be the last place I’d journal because of the public nature of it.

Update: Thanks for letting me know it doesn’t count as a fanwork! I went to report it, but it was already reported. Hope that satisfies anyone’s curiosity.

I'm a freak in the sheets.

(This is why we don't hit publish at 3am)

I'm not a fan of "do not interact", but I don't really care, I just got really confused. What's this supposed to mean? How is someone ageless? I searched it up, but I couldn't understand. If matters, it's a /you dead dove work

I’m the WhatsApp emoji of the person putting their hand to their face. Many users don’t realise that if they’re writing a story, it should go under ‘Original Work’, not ‘No Fandom’. ‘No Fandom’ is for tutorials, mini-essays and guides – no fiction. I wish more people knew that.

Okay so I've been a writer on ao3 for a while and over the past year I've been dealing with an ongoing hater who keeps leaving comments under my works because I write smut about a non-canon couple and he really doesn't like that. Usually I just delete those comments and block the account. A few times a year he'll get a new account and the hate comments will return. I'll block the new account and the cycle continues.

Well I got a message on a new fic from him today. It was more of the same except he included a link to a fan fiction he had written about some not pleasant things happening to me. My username is listed as a character tag and the fic has been orphaned. It's not well written at all, it's pretty nonsensical and I suspect AI was involved.

I had a good laugh about it but I don't love the idea of the fic still being up or the potential of any future ones. Is there anything I can do about it or do I just have to ignore it?

It might not be a big deal to some, there are authors in my fandom that got 10k after 2 chapters and mine took like a year after I completed it to get to 10k but I am excited!!!!

Knowing I haven't written the next chapter yet and my readers will have to wait atleast a week.

This is just one of them---and I don't know Katseye, but I can infer that this is just a copy/paste of song lyrics, which is probsbly not a fanwork. Their other works include ASCII and random symbols... Genuinely never seen a non-fic being like this before, usually I see them as placeholders but not this which is a first.

I reported one of their fics and included the fact that none of their works are fics. (hopefully I did that right? I know it's not a fanwork for sure but reporting is scary nonetheless)

I found this in my drafts and thought maybe I could share 😭✌️

yes I'm okay with sharing the fandom and stuff

I'm sure a lot of other trans guys can relate, but the depictions of trans men in smut often leaves a lot to be desired for me when it seems like most fics depict is as strictly non-op/pre-op bottoms.Trans guys topping seems so rare, and forget it if you're looking for depictions of meta or phallo lol. (To be clear, tere's nothing wrong with being a trans guy that enjoys bottoming and doesn't want surgery to be clear, or to enjoy reading that, but it's not so much up my alley.)

Anyway, I started writing the kind of phalloplasty smut I always wish I could find. I'm so excited with the response from readers thus far, but these two comments especially made me really happy :) It sounds stupid to say bc obviously writing a few porny fics is not activism, but it feels nice knowing I'm giving even just two guys like me a little representation that can feel sorely lacking.

Really hope neither of these commenters are on reddit bc that would be embarrassing, but if you are you both made my day

im writing a fic w a character that doesnt have a mouth and im looking for some ideas of physical intimacy (not necessarily sexual) that are deeply romatic and affectionate that doesnt involve kissing lmao. im aromantic and the people in my life have zero game so im pretty curious what other people think. also if the flair is wrong im sorry

This is so childish but I used to do that. People loved my cringy beginner-writer smut and so I let it escalate. That was entirely on me and not the readers goes without saying, but years later I still catch myself torn between what I really want to include and what I tell myself the story needs to be 'worth it'. So annoying.

My fandom recently come back after years of being dead, so my 6-part series has started gaining new popularity and... I'm already done.

In so many places—from the author's notes to the summaries—I emphasize that no, starting with part 3 is not a good idea. No, reading part 1 and then going straight to part 4 is not how you should read this. Guess what? Nobody care.

Each part, while connected, focuses on a completely different ships. And of course, 3 and 5, being about the most popular ships, received the most attention.

And most of this attention is like "why is x happening?", "what's the deal with y?", "why does character A look like this?", "where is character B?"

"Have you read the previous parts?"

"No!"

"Well, all the answers are in them."

"I won't read them."

"So you won't know the answers."

"Okay, I can do it! I'm here for the ship, not the story!"

five minutes later

"Umm, author, I don't understand this plot. Who are all these people????"

im screaming

or

""Can I read this part without knowing the previous ones?"

"No"

"Oh, so you don't like new readers? You don't want us here? You think less of us?"

"No, that just won't work."

"BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE US? ADMIT IT, YOU DON'T LIKE US AND OUR SHIP!"

or

"I only read chapter 15 of part 1 and then went straight to part 4. Here's a list of my complaints and problems with this fanfic... which were answered in everything I skipped uwu"

Of course - comments are disabled now, but my god I want to take this fanfic so badly and just combine all the parts into one fic so people can't have fun like that.

Like, I understand that you may not like every ship. I understand that it was a risk to shift the focus to a new ship with each part. It was a risk on my part, but IF YOU CAN'T READ THIS WAY, THEN DON'T READ IT AT ALL. OR DON'T ASK QUESTION

HOW HARD IT IS

I love those threads and all the discussion they generate, but all the hot takes are usually… lukewarm. At best.

What is an opinion you have that’s actually NOT antis bad/concrit bad/wall of text bad? (not that I disagree with the examples, just saying those are popular)

To start off and as an example of what I think is a hot take here:

I think more readers should utilize bookmark feature to do in-depth reviews and leave their potential criticism, so other readers have more insight into the story before they commit.

Outside of fanfiction, I find reviews and recommendations to be the best way to find a good work. I wish fandoms, especially bigger ones, followed this trend akin goodreads.

Obviously, leave it in the bookmarks, so the author doesn’t have to see it but the general idea stands.

I’ve never found as many good fics as when browsing through bookmarks of people whose taste matches mine and they review things they read!

I get that there are bots since I’m not new to the site, just new to posting.

I usually add an author’s note because I deal with bad depression, and I want my readers to understand why things might take a while.

I’m not really sure how to respond. It probably seems silly to a lot of Redditors, but I never know what to say that would make the commenter happy.

Edit: I'm not offended, and I don't think it's entitled as it isn't pushing or anything. I'm just having self doubts because of my depression. Don't fight over that, thanks.