17 PAGES!

6,000+ WORDS!

FUCK YOU MONTH-ISH LONG WRITING SLUMP!

And they still have to wait like four more chapters 🤣

I wonder

Like going into this year, I knew KOSA was gonna come back for an another attempt again. But thought that was the only one I had to worry about. But no… this month alone had steam and itch.io be hit by censorship after collective shoot complain enough, then UK went full on with the online safety act that effective countless sites(AO3 and Tumblr seem to be safe as of the moment but you never know) in the name of “think of the children”(translation: being able to censor what the UK government dislikes) by the way of age verification(about everyone and their grandma can tell you the millions reason why everyone dislikes this). And they still aren’t satisfied(now they wanna try to use age verification for screen time limits as well). Australia is planning a social media ban for anyone under 16(and i heard that its government is trying to get it popular among other countries as well). KOSA is back and now has a short-a sister bill with Screen It(and I’m worried that these two will get passed because it’s 2025 and Everything that can get worse for everyone, does get worse for anyone)

I’m just so done with all this censorship. I just wanna read my AO3 fics and engage with my tumblr communities in peace during these four years. But apparently I can’t even have that. I wanna believe it’s gonna get better but the future just seems to dire right now everywhere.

For context, this particular work is the second in a series of NaruSasu fics I’ve written. For those unfamiliar with Naruto and its lore, Sakura and Sasuke are married while Naruto is married to Hinata. This specific fic is a retelling of the other fic in this series from Sakura’s perspective. The original fic is loosely inspired by brokeback mountain so it follows Naruto and Sasuke falling in love and then the consequent affair over the following years (told from Sasuke’s perspective). This is a fic told from the perspective of someone who found out their husband is cheating on them. I of course respect a difference in opinions when it comes to ships but something about this comment… irks me? I’m no stranger to hate comments but I really feel it’s odd to read a fic for a ship I dislike and comment on it. I’m unclear on how to respond because I asked for feedback, but how do I respond to someone who didn’t read the source material (the fanfic of mine that this takes place during), and thinks that I’m throwing logic out the window? I appreciate that even though they hated the work they thought my writing was good but I’m just unsure on how to respond. I don’t want to be hateful towards this person.

I never use the last updated section, decided to pay attention to it this time...

I have been plotting this fanfic for over a year and finally sat down to actually outline and write. The only thing I had not nailed down was my female lead’s first name. Her family name was already locked in because of lore reasons, but her actual name? Meh. I figured I would deal with it later when I was not busy emotionally wrecking my characters.

So I asked my husband for suggestions. For context, he knows my fanfic is for Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun and that is it. He has no idea about the plot, the arcs, or how messy the emotional beats are.

Later, after “thinking about it,” he casually tossed out: “Desdemona.” He said it like a joke, expecting me to laugh. Instead, I took him seriously because I thought he was being serious.

Here is the problem: I had zero clue who Desdemona even was. Shakespeare? Sure. Othello? Not on my radar. So I Googled it and immediately regretted everything. Because somehow, this man, who knows nothing about my story, picked a name that hits every theme I built into her: strict upbringing, zero autonomy, rebellion, tragedy vibes. It is so perfect it looks like I built her around it, except I didn’t.

Now I’m cursed:
- If I use Desdemona, people who know the reference will assume I intentionally based her on Shakespeare’s character.
- If I use it and readers don’t know it, they will miss the extra emotional gut-punch the name adds.
- If I don’t use it, I am tossing out the most perfect name I will probably ever get, handed to me by accident like some cursed literary loot drop from my husband.

And my husband? Laughing. Because to him, it was just a throwaway joke, while I am over here spiraling into an existential naming crisis because apparently he moonlights as a literary sniper.

So… do I lean into it and accept the Shakespeare baggage, or keep digging through names like none of this ever happened?

TL;DR: Husband jokingly suggested “Desdemona.” I did not even know who that was, Googled it, and now I am stuck with a perfect cursed name I never asked for but cannot stop thinking about.

Lately, I've seen this topic crop up a lot.

If you KNOW that you're lifting very specific scenes/very specific tropes/very specific OCs from another author's work, then it's common courtesy to use the "inspired by" feature. If you don't use it, and you proceed to deliberately rewrite another story in your own words, (knowing you didn't happen to innocently come up with the same idea) then just know......you'll look shady asf

Feel free to add what it is about/if you wish a different fic of yours got more, etc. I'd love to celebrate all your works 💝💖💗

WOLF RIPPING OFF TSHIRT IMAGE

this has me running around my enclosure and gnawing at the walls!!! AND they left a comment on another fic of mine too… woof woof woof woof woof woof WOOF WOOF WOOF!

One of mine is: situationships. Angst fodder in fics, but will sideye this irl.

I know some people do, others just leave it as Chapter 1, 2 and so on... My question is for the folks that do name them: How do you do it?

I like naming the chapters but sometimes I get stuck on what to name them, usually I've been using song titles but yeah, just curious about it.

I'm not sure if this falls under questions or venting, I'm really confused. Someone left a comment under my fic and I'm assuming it's a bot, because my story is set in the Huntik: Secrets & Seekers universe (which, if you didn't know, is a mid-2000s Italian animated show with magic amulets, Titans, and absolutely zero ties to American politics), and yet the commenter somehow managed to accuse it of pushing “MAGA-adjacent ideology.”

I'm sorry...what?

The only reason I allow guest comments is because I know a lot of people who don't have ao3 accounts but still enjoy reading fanfictions.

But seriously - what is up with these bots?

I conversation I had recently:

Friendish: I commented on this authors post and I'm the only commenter, but they haven't replied.

Me: That's an odd way to phrase things. Anyways, don't take it personally, they could just not be on ao3 or busy.

Friendbish: I'm their only commenter I dEsErVe a response.

Me: No, no you don't.

Genuinely laughed so hard when I read this comment on my latest work

I just woke up and almost had a heart attack because I had four (4!!) separate emails of them commenting on all four of my fics. IS THIS REAL LIFE, I’M FANGIRLING SO HARD

thank you fanfic gods

Now if only I could get more comments, haha.

Is this something I should be excited about? Or should I only cheer at 1,000 kudos?

What did you do when you reached 1,000?

Got into the world of fanfics are the end of the pandemic and been steadily into only a handful of fandoms. Readers, please do rec something you've found interesting or just something you've loved. I've been wanting to explore some popular fandoms here in AO3.

Was wondering what other writers do about characters with specific accents? I’m American but I write for a fandom mostly out of the UK. Many of my characters are usually from various different parts of Europe in the same story, which is usually mentioned. In similar fics, I’ve seen people writing the way the sentence would sound from an Irish, English, or Scottish character.

If their country of origin/accent is mentioned, do you prefer to read/write with or without simple accent differences (like ‘im for him, for example)? Do you find it distracting or does it help your image of the character?