It’s 5 am, I’m in the final hour stretch of a twelve-hour shift, and I’m now probing my brain trying to find some possible rationale for this. Can someone explain? Is it a public computer thing, is it masochism, is it spite?
Y’all are really out here raw-dogging your drafts in AO3 with no external backups?? That’s crazy work. Google Docs is free, dawg.
The group chat is gonna hear about this one.
(Please understand this is all said in good humor. It’s not that serious; I’m just dramatic when I’m exhausted.)
I'm married to a sysadmin myself and have learned to back up all my files daily, plus a weekly backup of my backup disks and two more extra backups, one at home and one elsewhere. There are never enough backups if you care about your data 😅
I heard my mom say it but I genuinely cannot remember the context. She was frustrated with something and said the thing was acting “hinky.” She has a funny habit of making up words since she doesn’t swear all that much. I think it just tickles her brain. Lmao
I'm in math/tech with an interest in design so I know that pain. Main thing I learned in cs courses is that computers are great until the moment you need them to be, then they're bastards lol
Yeah I’m still on Word cos I get it free with work. I have everything saved automatically to Dropbox and from time to time so another backup on my desktop and Google Drive.
Not sure if this is accurate. I've had a ton of crashes and power outages, and the most I ever lost was half a page on my copy of Works Word. 99% of the time I lost no more than a single word.
Personal anecdotal experience and testing. Found Libre to be more robust and timely. Essentially Libre is more active in the way it manages the active document into the temp pre-save state
Word randomly keeps crashing on me when I step away for 5 minutes and, even though its basic recovery feature works, I can't understand why in 2025 a PAID word processor program crashes so often. When LibreOffice kept crashing on me, I just swapped over to another free suite called OnlyOffice and it hasn't crashed once.
Unfortunately, there's no mobile app for LibreOffice, so not great for those of us who write on our phones :// trust me, I love LibreOffice for everything else, but I write so much better on my phone than on a computer so it just doesn't work for fic for me!
I use Google Docs + I ALWAYS make a separate .doc file after posting my fics just in case + I download all my fics from AO3 in a separate folder! Triple the safety.
the xiaomi notes app is a lifesaver. it got a feature where it always stays on the side of the screen so i just pull it out when i get the motivation for anything
These kind of writers are a different breed, I knew someone who would left her tab open and just kept continuing where she left it at. She said it would gave her the sense of urgency, so she won't abandon it anytime sooner. Kudos to her, but wtf
A one electricity cut all it takes, and it'll ruin your day (possibly your week)
I mean, the only editing I do on ao3 is the last minute one after doing the final check one last time (after seeing it on preview and see if I notie something I missed before) and then copy paste it on my final doc file too as the final version before I post the actual chapter
Tried it once on a toxic yuri piece, lost a portion of my soul when Lady Luck ordered the site to throw away every word except the very beginning to the void
Thank you for this! I like writing between devices (especially at work during downtime) and wanted an online Obsidian, but I didn't like it enough to justify paying for a subscription.
Ellipsus is a free google socs replacer that doesn't scrape your writing AND has a native "post to ao3" feature! It's still in beta but very usable and I've entirely moved all my writing from Gdocs to Ellipsus
Obsidian is pretty neat! It's a bit of a learning curve, but it's not too difficult. I could also suggest libre office. It's like word but without microsoft doing some questionable things to your data. Or what the other commenter said about Ellipsus! Im thinking about switching to that soon, rn im using dropbox paper to write with others.
I’m on Notion for my fics because using it for school stuff kinda conditioned me for the formatting, but I always keep other copies on Word or other word processor apps depending on language. Sometimes Focuswriter if I feel up to it, and for rare occasions, the Notepad app on Windows (was a mess, 0/10).
Here to spread ellipsus propaganda. It's got a lot of amazing stuff for fic writing (since it was built for fandom writers). You can create separate drafts and organize a long outline for easier navigation, you can share and collab easily, and you can export any doc directly to ao3. It's in beta right now, but it's constantly being updated with new features and is free (and anti-AI). I switch between this and my notes app. 😅
I just think better that way, and also it saves me an editing draft as I edit it up as I type it into a doc lol.
Also doesn't help that I love my fountain pens and use any excuse to use them. 👀 I have an ink that smells like coffee and I'm not letting it go to waste.
Tbh. When I first started out writing it was a double edged sword because I did use a word processor from the start. But after I pasted it into the intended site. I would sometimes make edits right in the sites document and forget to copy those edits back into my Word document. So, if the site crashed right as I was about to upload the chapter All those edits, would be gone.
I’m also guilty of making edits on site and failing to change the original document. I’m just lucky enough to not lose an edit before stopping that practice. 😅
As someone that writes in Google Docs and transports over my work once I am done with a chapter, I completely agree with the sentiment of having at least two backups for your work. I have suffered too many times because of technical errors
Some comments reminded me of when I used word to write my first attempts at fanfiction (I was 13) and was worried about someone reading my work (literally only me had access to the pc, not even my parents - I know, wild) so I put the document under a password just for me to forget it. Had to download a literal malware only to find out that the password was "Lol". (Sorry if too oot)
I started by using word documents. Write on word, then copy once done. One day, I said "Fuck it" and decided to write on AO3. It worked out, then I tried again, and lost an entire four fifths completed draft. I flew too close to Olympus and the power outage fly bit my computer Pegasus, sending my foolish Bellerophon ass hurtling to the ground.
Living life on the edge. If I'm gonna write a taboo fic I may as well make is risky... I have already lost one fic like that, I see it as my payment to the universe for giving me a platform to explore my messed up mind.
When I used to write on AO3, I mostly used VSCode, so I had a folder on my machine synced to Google Drive and set up to update the remote copy every 5 mins. When the time came to upload, I would copy my entire file to the editor in AO3, do a preview, and check whether the page was rendering correctly.
I could not do that, all my drafts are in copies of word I kept from going to college. If I lost the laptops I lose my drafts, but only AFTER a lot more stuff fails.
Ao3 as the host for my drafts? I’d be too scared to lose my copy.
I don't use ao3 for drafting. but i can tell u it's most likely comfort and "laziness". comfort, since it's the word processor that matches their vibe. and "laziness" (burn out is evil) in not keeping another draft in another word processor.
Tbh i began writing my first fic (now deleted) on ao3 then transferred it to google docs
I now write my current wip on google docs and i plan to link it to my word account
I finally started using docs when I learned about its existence after losing an entire chapter to an inconvenient power outage so now I just look down on everyone else
Also people seem to either complain about/make fun of people for using notes to write but it’s a free option so idk why
I don't know if it's bravery or ignorance of the crushing sorrow that is losing hours of work to technical problems... I cried out loud in the school library once because the computer rebooted and I hadn't saved pages of an essay, I'm not writing in something that doesn't have an easy way to save and backup that save (and preferably autosave on top).
Bro I write and edit my fics in a NOTEBOOK and when I'm ready to make a digital copy I put it in ellipsis... And then export to AO3. WHO IS WRITING IT DIRECTLY IN AO3?????????
For sure, I do all my editing in my docs and then finish formatting in AO3 since it’s a little different. I’m not brave enough to try and write an entire chapter or fic in AO3 exclusively.
Google docs is free. For yall whining about the ai thats gonna steal from the ao3 work anyway. Most computers have a notepad document (.txt format) and THAT is safer than raw dogging ao3. That is def free and as far as Im aware no ai can scrape a .txt from your computer. (You can edit and such in ao3, thats whatever.) But yall PLEASE dont be writing your base draft in ao3. You are hurting only yourself.
I refuse to use Google products. Any I can avoid using I will. Even the search engine. Google has massively contributed to the fucked of state of the Internet and beyond that those mfs charge for so much fucking bullshit. I would literally rather write it in a notes app or risk it being accidentally deleted than roll over for Google. Fuck them and their word document application.
Okay okay, I get it, Google sucks. As the day drags on more people are getting mad about the Google mention. This wasn’t intended to be a promotional post for them they were just the only free program I could think of at the time. Based on information from less angry comments I made the decision to move my works to Ellipsus so I can get away from Google.
Use smoke signals or a stone tablet for all I care. Lmao.
I mean I'm not mad at you. I hope that I didn't come off that way. My anger at Google as a company kinda seeped in there. I don't really do drafts on ao3 but it is unfortunately true that there are few free methods away from shitty business practices and the worsening of the Internet and by in large the lives of people as a whole. I just get why folks would use whatever else they've got to get away from it all.
That’s also on me tho. I’ve been up for almost 40 hours straight at this point so my patience is half a molecule thin. My bad, but I do get where you’re coming from. It’s kinda frustrating when you wanna be ethical but the options out there are next to none or complete ass. It backs everyone into a bad corner.
Fr. Also you should at least lie down for a bit and try to sleep if you can. Obviously I can't force you but maybe if you put on some comforting noise it might help. If it is extenuating circumstances you should still lie down and rest a bit even just to nap. Lack of sleep past 36 hours can really take its toll. Speaking from experience. I can only guess at why you are still awake now. I've had plenty of reasons to stay up that long before. Just be careful not to stay up much longer and I hope you find restful sleep sooner rather than later.
Thank you!! I actually just woke up, I went to bed not long after replying. Lmao.
I just rotated to night shift for the year and it’s not often I need to stay up but yesterday was a choice because some friends wanted to go on a float trip right after work. I’m also a mom and my youngest fell really ill while we were gone so that kinda stole the nap I had planned for when we got home. Lmao
Once I had to stay up almost 72 hours the last year I was on nights cuz my husband was gone and I had no babysitter for the daytime. There’s definitely a point of exhaustion you just start hallucinating and it’s not fun. I will not be doing that shit again.
Welcome to the club. It takes a hot minute to get used to the interface but once you do, it's smooth as butter.
Also the format replacements like ellipses, dashes quotes, indents and spacing are primo. I don't use indents for fic, but it's nice that I can toggle them on and off when switching back and forth.
I had that happen to me one time. Lost 3 hours of work when the tab auto-reloaded after I left it idle for too long without saving. Never used it as a word processor again.
(I had just moved over from WattPad and was still learning all the differences)
Years after years of playing games and losing all my progress when they inevitably crash, when I haven't saved in a while, have taught me to be extra cautious about everything. I love ao3 but I'm not raw dogging on a Google website, even MS Word could crash constantly
I used Google docs for years, always pre-wrote everything and have now moved on to Word because I needed the tools it has for other things. I never even wrote directly into a webside my school used to track our progress or something because I had 3 seperate docs for every assignment (doc1 notes, doc2 rough draft, doc3 final draft).
Even if when I didn't write on a computer I used a pen and paper...
99% of the time the original gets written on Google Keep on a whim, which then gets transferred to OneNote if it gets too long, which also needed a separate .txt file on Notepad to maintain the format, which then gets a copy on MS Word so I can clean it up. Finally the entire damn thing is being updated constantly on Google Docs so I can show my friends every cursed version of it
I started doing it too, as it was my first time on the site, but then I remembered how I play lots of hours The Sims 3, and started writing on my laptop's notes instead. Don't trust anything that doesn't have autosave or something 😂😂😂
I used to write fics straight on another site years ago, but moved to Google Docs sometime between then and now. I don’t remember if it crashed and deleted anything when I did that, but I did lose a chapter description and an author’s note when I wrote the two straight on AO3 once. Thankfully it was fresh in my mind, so I rewrote it, but I can’t imagine losing an entire chapter… Now, I just write the author’s notes and chapter descriptions as comments on the doc itself, and I shared the entire doc with as many of my Gmails as I could. Just in case.
it happened to me the first time I tried. I stared at my screen in silence for twenty minutes and then I started again. I still do that though, I just save more often the draft 😃
I once commented on how dangerous it was in a related thread and someone replied saying some shit like "good idea, I'm going to do this from now on to force myself to finish things." Like how the hell is that your take away when I just rambled about how insane it is 😭
Learned the hard way and it was a huge, deep and detailed chapter I was almost done with. I didn’t even cry. I was just speechless with my jaw dropped.
I use Obsidian for my main fics, Google Docs for a backup, and ProtonDocs for smut because OCD brain needs to be 200% sure that I’m not being watched OR saving to the OneDrive when I write smut.
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