#fanfiction meta

[thecoramaria]

Fanfic readers trying to find another fic exactly like the last one they read:

#cora's original posts #just fanfic things #fanfiction #fanfiction memes #fanfic memes #just fanfiction things #fanfiction meta #fanfic meta #fandom culture #two cakes #second breakfast

[the-fluff-piece]

#fanfiction memes #fanfiction meta #on writing #in writers #writing meme

[wander-wren]

sometimes i wonder about what fandom is going to look like in 5 or 10 years. i think we might have already started to see a shift.

because, look, most of the oldest, biggest fandoms are from tv shows and movies, in particular ones that go on for years and scores of episodes. star trek, star wars, stargate (is everything star?), doctor who, supernatural…even sherlock really got its biggest popularity boosts in the modern day from tv adaptations. marvel and dc were comics first, too, but movies made them more accessible; their “cinematic universe” tags are the biggest on ao3 by far.

but what tv shows are we getting now? short, 8-episode things that get canceled two or three seasons in, that are usually less-than-faithful adaptations of other media anyway.

what movies are we getting? well, marvel turns more to slop every day, and everything else is remakes and sequels no one asked for. the general populace will still go see them and find some good movies that they like, but there’s not much really for fandom to grasp onto.

the best shows for fandom that we’ve had recently, that i can think of, are stranger things, game of thrones, and maybe our flag means death. stranger things is dying off, especially since they’re looking at a 3-4 YEAR gap between s4 and s5. game of thrones’s popularity plummeted after its final season, we all know that. our flag means death is still chugging fairly okay, but after that second season a lot of the fandom dropped it, and with it now being cancelled, i don’t see it sticking around.

yes, we can chalk part of this up to a new generation to of fans having this growing idea that fandom is super temporary, to be abandoned as soon as its not on trend. but media used to be on trend for a whole lot longer than it is now. seasons were longer, we had filler episodes, things were lower quality sometimes but at least they came out on a consistent schedule. i don’t mind if supernatural isn’t an artistic masterpiece, but if i was a stranger things fan waiting until 2026 for the final season, i would be annoyed if it wasn’t damn near perfect. that’s assuming i watched it at all—we’re all so used to not getting endings and moving on, so why would i bother?

i think there are two types of shows doing sort of okay about this. one is procedurals—9-1-1 is a popular one i’ve run into, and it started in 2018, around the beginning of the decline, but it’s managed 7 seasons in those six years, most of them with 18 episodes. the other is, honestly, anime—though we can and SHOULD talk about the terrible working conditions that make the fast turnarounds there possible. look at how big some anime fandoms are.

judging by the relative fandom popularity of other procedural dramas (grey’s anatomy, law & order, criminal minds), i think that’s going to remain sort of niche. fandom likes fantasy and scifi best, and they just don’t tend to have as strong of an overarching arc to dig into. at least, that’s why i wouldn’t watch them. i think there’s also a good chance these will start to die out in the coming years as well.

anime could also die out a little bit. better working conditions would necessitate less/slower content, and it’s true that most of the popular anime fandoms have been around for years, even decades.

so, what, no new, lasting tv show or movie fandoms anymore?

what will the biggest fandoms be in 5-10 years?

podcast fandoms have a shot. the magnus archives is still going strong, and i’ve been seeing a lot about dungeons and daddies. i think we’re kind of almost past the golden age for podcasts, but i am an outsider, so maybe that will change.

book fandoms seem like a kind of obvious choice, but they just don’t get as big without, you guessed it, a movie or show adaptation. and the downsizing has hit them, too—can you think of anything from the last 5 or 10 years that rivals harry potter, percy jackson, warriors, lord of the rings, hunger games, acotar…even game of thrones (asoiaf) again? i can’t. the collapse of the publishing industry is another post entirely.

2020 is really what cemented these changes, though they were starting in the late 2010s, at least. with actual industries shutting down, there was room for indie creators making things alone in their houses to pop up, and people had more time on their hands to try new things out and get into them.

the two things that have really been on the rise since 2020 is rpf and video game fic—often both combined. we’ve got genshin impact, call of duty, minecraft of course being huge, rpf of various youtubers, and k-pop rpf. now, i think rpf is contentious enough that it won’t really become the main fandom, but video game fic…might be it.

even video blogging rpf can often be a blurred enough line that people are more comfortable with it. and the thing is…youtube creators are actually more reliable than mainstream television these days. they need to be, to maintain their platforms. they need to not cancel series and to live up to their own hype as best they can and to not abandon the channel for 3 or 4 years at a time. and again, you can talk about burnout and unrealistic expectations and all of those things, but it’s still true.

maybe i’m completely wrong. maybe in 10 years the film and publishing industries will all sort themselves out and we’ll go back to the status quo. but i think this position fandom is finding itself in is interesting, and i wouldn’t necessarily be surprised if what’s most popular (both in the specific source material sense and the medium/genre sense) is different some time down the road.

#wren wrambles #fanfiction #ao3 #fandom #fandom meta #fanfic #fanfiction meta #i’m curious what other people think about this #tempted to tag the fandoms i mentioned for reach but. dont know. we’ll see how this does

[thankyouforthefunny]

#fanfiction meta #fandom #tj klune #queer

[darkfire359]

There aren’t enough subby monsters in fiction. For some reason, a lot of people think that if a monster is huge and terrifying, bloodthirsty and evil, feral and vicious, filled with supernatural strength and power, et cetera et cetera, then the monster should be the dom in their monster/human relationship. But this doesn’t have to be the case!

I want to see:

- masochistic vampires who like getting holy water dripped on them in the same way a human might like waxplay

- dom humans who only offer their blood when their vampiric partner is on their knees and told to suck, or cradled in the human’s lap and gently offered a wrist

- werewolves that happily wear a leash and collar, or who enjoy the burn of being restrained in silver handcuffs

- eldritch horrors from the briny depths who want nothing more to be gently romanced and told that they’re pretty

… and so much more.

#fanfiction meta #this post is secretly about #Izzy hands #and #Edward Teach #Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a good example of this trope #Also thanks to all the writers who write #vampire!Izzy

[letters-to-rosie]

I'm trying to work on chapter 37 but I need to talk about it to write so lol

random things:

I saw this on pinterest and I can't find a source for the edit but it spoke to me like this has the perfect vibes for revolution!Pow lol

music inspo!!

recently clipping released a new song (I've missed them so much lmao I could have cried), a cover of J-Kwon's Tipsy, and I feel like it would 100% play in a club in Zaun in the fic

and idk if anyone is invested in the side ship of Gianna and Eve, but I imagine this playing when they're dancing while Ekko's being angsty in the latest heir (ap)parent chapter lmao. plus it's Rico, who is still my top choice for a Jinx voice if she were ever to be put in like a True Damage situation lol

anyway this is fun. I still gotta do some timebomb headcanons I promised a while ago and then forgot about oops lol

#rosie's writing desk #revolution-verse #timebomb #fanfiction meta #Spotify

[jacqulinetan]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged!!!! thank you @ursae-minoris-world, you're truly so so kind to think of me.

I'll be real honest, I'm only on tumblr very intermittently and I don't really know how to use the platform at all. I'm scared that my formatting will be really messy and make people angry if I put a wall of text on their feed. So hopefully I figure out how to do the jump cut. But I just finished a fic so it's very fun to do one of these and talk about my writing. And I always like to see other people too, so I thought, hey I will give it a shot. Here's the questions:

How many works do you have on ao3? Right now I just finished my 74th work on ao3! Fifty four of those are vld, twenty four are sheith proper

2. What's your total word count on ao3? 993,716 words. I'm set to hit a million this year, I think!

3. What fandoms do you write for? LOL can you believe it? We're still loving Mr. Keith Voltron in the glorious year of our lord 2024

4. What are your top five fic by kudos? Oh well, my sk friends aren't going to be impressed--- my kl fics always take top spots for kudos and bookmarks. I attribute this not to talent or popularity but just because that side of the fandom has a much wider reach. For the sake of the questionnaire, I'll answer properly, in order: 'it's you that's haunting me' takes the top spot by a wide margin at 2,591 kudos to date. 'that mullet, etc' is currently at 1,788 kudos, and after that it's 'cross my heart,' 'swapping out silence,' and 'things that go bump in the night.'

5. Do you respond to comments? I do! for me, one of the best parts of fic is the community between authors and their audience. For the majority of my fandom life I've considered myself more of a reader than a writer, so I really treasure it when I leave a comment and an author responds. It's so special. As an author, I do respond to every comment, though sometimes it takes me a long time. I'm always so impressed that people are not only reading my words but digesting them and thinking on them too. It's wild to me. A very precious gift.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oh, my friend, that fic is yet to come. the wip I've got on my closest back burner has a real humdinger of an angsty ending. I'm excited about it. hmmmm if I had to answer now.....I'm not sure! usually I'm a happy ending kind of girl

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? well well well, now I have to answer this one properly don't I? Are we thinking happiest like 'biggest emotional pay off for the reader'? Or happiest like 'Keith is wildly happy' by the end? I think 'heart nailed open' has a very good emotional pay off (though I wrote it so perhaps I can't judge too well on behalf of the reader). If I am really thinking, in which fic is Keith truly the happiest he could ever be by the end...well, I try always to make Keith happy but, in 'the whole story' he has everything he could ever want AND a very nice couch.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not routinely. I did, actually, get a very nasty comment on a fic in 2023 and it legitimately hurt my feelings. Made me feel like I should not be writing at all, actually. But, can you believe it? Friends came out of the woodwork-- people I rarely talk to, even-- and jumped in my comments section and really defended me. like, I really had all kinds of people on my side, defending me! So that meant a lot to me, and I was honestly so surprised, and I'd like to give every one of those friends the kindest hand press because I really did feel very taken care of in the aftermath.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Oh, I don't know! I have plenty of E rated fics but I don't know if I will ever master a true PWP. to me, the sex scenes I write are not so original or exciting, nothing to really write home about lol. I'm not a fan of publicly being negative about my stuff, so I will simply say that I wish I could write some really off beat toe curling wild kink, but it's probably just not my personality to do so LOL

Is this getting really long?? should I be embarrassed ? should I close the tab and never think on this again? hmmm no

10. Do you write cross overs? Cross overs with what, my dear? There's only one Keith

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Oh I think 'it's you that's haunting me' strolled on over to wattpad or some such site without my permission back in the day, but I've never really looked into it. What I don't know cannot hurt me, right? I highly doubt that there's been some crazy highway robbery for perfchan words.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I don't think I have! But I did have someone ask to record a podfic for one of my stories, and I was so flattered and thrilled!!!!!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nope! I don't have much interest in this, I am very shy about my writing and I fear I would be too cagey to be a very good collaborator.

14. what's your all time favorite ship? Keith x Being Loved and Cherished the Way He Ought to Be

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? (covers face) I don't have any unfinished WIPs.... it's not in my Type A personality to leave things undone.....

16. What are your writing strengths? This is something to really ponder!!! What /are/ my strengths!!! huh!!! well. I figured out early on that my favorite things to write are atmospheric and setting heavy -- both my most popular fic (it's you that's haunting me) and my most personally beloved fic (heart nailed open) have this in common: they have a lot of detail about the setting, and a lot of effort put into ~vibes~ of the story. so I think, if I could be self indulgent and chose which writing bits I'm good at, it's that type of thing. I really like crafting a scene you can settle into with all of your senses

17. what are your writing weaknesses? too many to list!!! I very often read my own writing and I always enjoy it (I wrote it for myself afterall) but sometimes I wonder....why did I spend so long on this particular bit? I think I am not very good at making a story tight. I wish I could master the art of being able to 'trim the fat' so to speak, really be precise with the story, but I simply don't have the chops! I can never understand how to make it better than I already have! perhaps if I keep writing long enough, I will get better at this

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? this question would really open up a can of worms on the kl side of the fandom LOL. I will admit it, I've had Lance speak spanish a time or two. I don't speak spanish myself so in those rare instances I have been VERY careful to keep things straightforward and try really really hard to not be cringe worthy to native speakers

19. First fandom you wrote for? the first thing I posted online was a USUK fic in a hetalia LJ comm. I can distinctly remember the first time I ever read a fic with *there was only one bed* (it was usuk) and WHEN I TELL YOU MY EYES WERE OPENED. I was forever changed on that day. of course I wanted to try my hand at writing after that

20. Favorite fic you've written? You would ask me to chose a favorite of my children!!! Oh! I simply could not!!! No, seriously, it's 'heart nailed open.' I love that fic

This got so long !!!!!! I can't imagine anyone reading all this !!!!!!!! but omg if you did thank you!!!!!! I'm shy about tagging people in the best of times, and like I said at the very beginning, I am very very shaky on tumblr etiquette, so I had better not tag anyone. but if my friends enemytosleep or grem or kacy or monday happen to see this, I would be very excited to read your responses!!! okay bye!!

#perfchan #my writing #fanfiction meta

[writtenbyevie]

more fics where the protagonist feels their oh. moment coming and tries to outrun it. like they’re fucking booking it, heading for the high hills, well over yonder, but their oh. moment keeps right on up. It’s on their tail and getting closer and closer and closer, until suddenly it’s not just close it’s right fucking there, here, and the protagonist can’t avoid it anymore so they’re forced to finally go

Oh.

Oh.

#is this based on personal experience? #why yes #yes it is #am i currently emotionally sprinting for my goddamn life and somehow aware enough to write this post #also yes #it’s called dialectics #i am both stupid and smart at the same time #these truths coexist #evie stop rambling in the tags about ur not manz #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #fanfic tropes #fanfic meme #ao3 memes #fanfiction memes #fanfiction meta #writing #writing memes #writeblr #writers of tumblr #evie’s jeevies

[alpaca-clouds]

"But why not make money?"

I had a very exhausting talk with my bestie yesterday. I was telling her about what I was writing (which mostly included stuff about my Tav, who obviously is technically speaking my OC). And only after a while they realized: "Wait, you are still writing fanfiction?"

I was like: "Yeah, duh."

To which they went: "But why? How much time are you spending doing that? You cannot even monetize it, right?"

To which I just stood there: "... Yeah, it is... called a hobby?"

And that is this weird thing about the creative stuff, right? That people kinda go: "This is not a valid thing to do unless you make money with it." Like, sure, there will be people who might suggest when your hobby is gaming, that you should stream, or who ask you when you say you do sports if you are playing in some kind of tournament. But usually when you say: "Yeah, no, just doing it for fun," people will tend to accept that. Sure, there is gonna be exceptions to that rule, duh, but it is how those things usually do.

But once you are doing something creative... people suddenly want you to make money from it. As if being creative is just not a valid hobby. Not a valid thing to do to just... relax.

And look, folks. I have written original stuff for a while and got one book published as well as several short stories. And what can I say? It is really not worth the hassle. Like, my livetime earnings over several years of publishing original fiction were maybe around 150€. Sure, there were some additional patreon earnings, but not much else. In fact, I did make more money from non-fiction publishing which was funnily enough way less of a hassle (because with one exception it was all examples of people asking to be allowed to publish one essay or paper I wrote).

So, it is not even as if we are talking about big gains monetary wise. Sure, publishing in English would probably give a bit more return - but let's face it... Nothing even close to rewarding the work gone in there.

And if folks have fun with their own stories and stuff... sure. But not everybody needs to do that.

I am having a lot more fun writing, since I started writing fanfiction again. Partly, too, because in fanfiction I can write a lot of stories that either way would have no place on a book market. Because even in anthologies there is rarely room for a very simple, 1000 words sharp slice of life story in which characters just hang out. But it is the kinda stuff I enjoy writing. Just as there is not much room for all my bathing smut stories lol

So, yeah. No. I might have gotten really angry about that yesterday. Because it annoys me. That instead of people going: "I am glad you have a hobby you enjoy" folks will instead go: "But what is your art really worth if you do not monetize it?"

Let people just have hobbies, for heaven's sake.

#vent #rant #personal #writing #fiction writing #publishing #novel writing #fanfiction #fanfiction meta #fandom #art #creative writing

[em-writes-stuff-sometimes]

High Valyrian in darilaros (princess) Chapter 3: Pyre

Hey, all - as promised, here's a translation of some of the stuff that was said in the last chapter. I didn't include translations there as it wouldn't have been developmentally appropriate for Babey to be fluent in HV as a three-year-old; given that it's her POV, I figured that including the lines without translations would be an appropriate way to convey this.

So, starting off with the thing Rhaenyra says to Daemon during the funeral scene:

"Ñurho valonqro paghyro jēdunna, lo tolijī kepa ñuha kirimvī rhēdos pendan."

This is the verbatim line from Episode 1 that translates to:

"I wonder if, for those few hours my brother lived, my father finally found happiness."

I took this straight from David J. Peterson's translation.

Now, for the funeral rites by the 'man wearing the eye dress' (lol - this is a reference to the fact that the Valyrian High Priest wears the robe with the glyph on it that looks a little like an eye) - I actually translated an entire thing for this, but only included a snippet of it in the chapter. I based it heavily off the Velaryon funeral rites in Episode 7, so if you notice similarities that is why. Here's what the High Priest would have been saying while Babey was off in baby la-la-land:

"Tubī Arryno Lentro Dārie Aemme se Targārio Lentro Dārilaros Baelon perzyrty mōrqittot, vapār jedo mōriot Gaelithoks pōjyz perzyssy sitta rāelilza luo dāriot, hannagon Visenio Hinon gierūlti." We join today upon Visenya’s Hill to commit Queen Aemma of House Arryn and Prince Baelon of House Targaryen to the eternal flames, the realm of Gaelithox, where He will keep their fires lit until the end of time.

"Sȳndor zijosy rēbarose, Dāria Aemma eglio ilvot trēso Dārilaros Baelon zȳhos gūros se tegot hen eglio ilvot lanto taloti hembis. Pōja muña se valonqar hen ñuqir se jeson āmāzīlusy daor, yn ānogrosa gierī ozletaksi humbilza." As she passes into shadow, Queen Aemma takes her trueborn son Prince Baelon with her and leaves two trueborn daughters upon the earth. Though their mother and brother will not return from ash and dust, they will all remain bound together in blood.

"Targārio ānogro rȳ ōrbrar ojāris, sētenondi hen ībī iemnȳ nȳmas. Hen perzȳ sīdas. Va perzȳ āmāzissi. Hen prānot istas, vapār drējī mōrī iksis." Smoke courses through Targaryen blood, and magic rings within their bones. From the fire did they rise. To the fire they must return. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be until the very end.

Hope this helps!

#fanfiction stuff #fanfiction meta #terms of endearment meta

[thankyouforthefunny]

Absolutely insane how teen wolf has 140,000 fanfics and they’re completely off the radar on tumblr, the fanfiction website. I couldn’t even tell you who the main guys from it are but I’ve been absolutely pummeled with supernatural content on here from day 1.

I’ve seen more content about fucking Dracula (1987) than this mainstream show that ended less than a decade ago

#teen wolf #sterek #fanfiction meta #ao3 meta #dracula

[zetalial]

One big difference between fanfiction and other forms of fiction is that in fanfiction the reader typically knows more than the characters. They already know the answers to any canon mysteries and details. This means that stuff like dramatic irony and playing with readers expectations can be uniquely effective in fanfic.

In most fiction, the characters are more familiar with the setting than you are as you're learning about it for the first time.

#meta #fanfiction #fanfiction meta

[darkfire359]

The Library of Alexandria (i.e. Fanfiction.net) seems to be burning RIGHT NOW. As in, pages that existed an hour ago have disappeared. As of right now, the main pages for Supernatural and Warriors have blanked out. The crossover pages for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, and A Song of Ice and Fire as well. The main crossover pages for books and TV stopped working for several hours (though they seem to be back for now). I’ve heard of random chapters missing from things too. Apparently alerts died last week.

I’d heard vague rumors about Fanfiction.net dying at some point, but I (like many people, I presume) procrastinated actually doing something about it. Unlike ao3, there isn’t a nice download button for anything except your own fics (and even then, things get downloaded as .html files).

Don’t procrastinate anymore. Save your own fics, save all your favorited fics, save every fic you can.

#supernatural #buffy the vampire slayer #Harry Potter #a song of ice and fire #warriors #warrior cats #fanfiction meta #fanfiction.net #books #crossovers #TV shows #if anyone knows a reason why this ISN’T a burning fire situation please let me know

[notachaconne]

Actually I have several fics in my bookmarks that are wildly out-of-character because sometimes an out-of-character fic just has something else in it that I want. I'm shallow that way.

And I sometimes like fics that take some traits of the characters that feel important to the author and riff on those, and disregard a lot of other things.

And I also like fics where the original work they're riffing on has rich and complex characters who can be interpreted and extended in wildly creative and contradictory ways with decent levels of plausibility: that's also good.

And there is overlap between all these.

#fanfiction meta

[thecoramaria]

Please reblog for a larger sample size 💖

#cora's content updates #cora's original posts #cora's polls #fanfiction #just fanfic things #just fanfiction things #fanfiction meta #ao3 #archive of our own #chapter titles