What is the highest number of notes on a post you have made? What's your most "successful" post?
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About the AO3 "No Guest Comments for a while" warning
If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:
These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:
But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.
Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.
If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.
Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.
Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.
Update: There's now a Megathread about this on the AO3 subreddit.
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Isadora Smackle & Maya Hart 🥼🎨 the friendship we deserved to see
You can find it in my fic...
FIRE IN THE WATER
(along with various other dynamics)
Log in to AO3 to read/comment
UPDATE:
Chapter 33: VOLTAGE DROP (Isadora POV)
Chapter 33 features 👇
Isadora trying and failing and trying again to connect with Maya
Farkle seemingly more interested in Riley than his girlfriend
Patrick unable to lose his feelings for 'Dora'
Brandon acting suspicious
Zay being Zay
Lucas in a sad bad mood
...
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*sees my mutuals logged on at the same time* ugh WHAT a day. Thank god you’re here. *doesn’t interact with them in any shape or form*
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What still remains l Michael Shainblum
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One of the hardest things for me to learn and practice in my writing is that people do not say that much.
My characters frequently have tailored conversations about their inner struggles. They open up to partners, maintain perfect communication with friends, and remember to hold back exactly the right information from enemies. Yet irl I've observed and contributed to much miscommunication, lost opportunities, and unconscious distrust of friendly motivations. Natural speech is not tailored, and appropriately expressing abstract thoughts takes uncommon skill.
We've heard film media fans deride "therapy talk" wherein characters uncharacteristically divulge their inner struggles to others and receive perfect, textbook advice in response. This feels inauthentic because most humans don't talk like that! We skirt around our problems, we feel uncomfortable when others vent, we want to avoid conflict and rejection, and our well-meant words often do more harm than good.
People also tend to talk a lot, but say little. As writers, we generally don't want our stories stuffed with useless conversations, banter, and small-talk that don't advance the plot—we want that story grown up and moved out! lol. But please, include those things. Have scenes where friends hide thoughts from friends by joking around or discussing hobbies instead, where a rival saves the MC's thoughtless speech for later, where a happy couple argues over a minor miscommunication. These aspects can add depth to a story that feels manufactured, or life to characters that sound scripted.
If this is you, take your time; natural dialogue takes a while to finesse. Currently, I try to write the meaning behind the dialogue first and make it messier and more natural in redrafts. Conversation scenes where "nothing" happens can still tell the reader about the characters. As with all the lessons I've learned/shared, each piece of writing advice should come with a "Daily Value" label affixed, lol. Balance is needed and adjustments should be made until you have the story you want.
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+ If you appreciate this advice, consider visiting my ko-fi and Buy Me A Coffee! Thank you for reading 🤗
+ Check me out on AO3, Pinterest, and Unsplash
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