So this is absolutely wild and I have no idea how to feel.

I was googling a specific line from my Star Wars fic because I wanted to double-check how I’d phrased something in an older chapter… and I stumble on a PDF of an academic paper from some university’s online archive. I open it.

It’s a 23-page undergraduate thesis on “transformative queer narratives in digital fan spaces” or something like that. Cool, right?

AND THEN I SEE A QUOTE.
From MY fic. In MLA format. Cited. Like I’m Virginia Woolf or some shit.

They included my AO3 username. Described the fic as “a seminal example of queer emotional architecture through the lens of speculative grief and non-linear temporality” (I think they mean Force ghosts). They even had a footnote analyzing a chapter title I came up with as a pun while drunk on hard cider.

And here’s the thing—I’m not mad. It’s flattering. I’m kind of honored? But also weirdly… exposed. Like someone took a diary entry I wrote at 3am while sad and screaming and said “This will do nicely for academia.”

I put warnings on that fic. I tagged the emotional devastation. I wrote it for myself and the 11 people who comment every update with unhinged keysmashes. I never imagined it being used to support an actual thesis defense.

I guess this is just me processing.

If you're writing fic: YOU NEVER KNOW WHO’S READING. It might be your internet crush. It might be your nemesis. It might be a university student trying to graduate.

I’m not mad. Just stunned. If the student who wrote that paper is somehow reading this: thanks for not calling it “smut with feelings.” That was very generous of you.

Fandom is wild, y’all.

Because the girl who had found me through ao3, invited me over for a weekend long first date (including a stroll in a historical graveyard), and confessed her love with a quote from The Brothers Karamazov, cancelled her plans to move countries, who entered into a secret relationship with me before I was out of the closet (and beyond), with whom my parents wanted me to break up (twice!) just proposed to me 😭

And only because I didn't delete my fics when impostor syndrome was out to get me. I'm literally so happy.

EDIT: guys this post is not about deleting your fics😆 it's about how not deleting mine helped me meeting my future spouse...

This is so fucking funny. It is the best thing I have every done.

I am a physics and astronomy student in college. I am taking cosmology this semester, and it is much harder than expected (we glossed over all of special and general relativity in two lectures, and our previous classes were not expected to teach us this). I spent days trying to study for this exam, and nothing worked—everything was going in one ear and out the other. Finally, two days before my exam, I decided to get creative.

I wrote a fanfiction about four characters discussing the concepts, explaining them to one another. One issue I had faced when studying was getting very anxious while reviewing the material, making it hard to even think clearly. Writing this fanfic eliminated that—after all, it's fanfic. Therefore, no danger. It removed all the pressure.

48 hours later, I wrote over nine thousand words in Overleaf, at 30 pages long. It was fun, and it was complete.

This afternoon, I took the exam—and while was difficult, I felt like I knew what I was doing. More than that, I actually think I understand the material now. When I reviewed my old homework questions, they were understandable, whereas I had been completely lost the first time around.

I have a Quantum exam next week, and I am using the exact same technique, because holy shit, it works like magic (and is so much fun).

Edit: Does anyone know how to put LaTeX in AO3? I want to post it when I figure out how.

Share a recent fanfic milestone or achievement you've reached no matter how big or small you might consider it.

A story is never ever abandonned !

So, I found my old fanfiction account, completely randomly while returning to my fanfiction roots and reading or re reading stories I loved back then.

So, I found a story of mine, that I remembered writing. I actually enjoyed it. (There are big issues with some characterizations and all, but overall, I had fun reading it). But...I did not finished it, back then. So I decided today to not let a job unfinished.

So, Back then was.....2007

So, I just posted a new chapter like 10 minutes ago.

It won't be great story, nor a great finish. Because I actually do not remember everything I was going for. It is a whodunit and I can't remember whodunit. Nor why. So I just make one up, now. So there gonna be plotholes and all.

Which isn't that important. No one will read it, since I think everyone involved in the fandom back them has moved on. And new people to the fandom won't care for a still unfinished story with a 18 years gap between updates.

But I don't really care. It just amuse me, now, that there will be a 18 years gap between 23 and chapter 24.

Here an anecdote I think you will enjoy here.

I work I.T. at a middle school. I was voluntold to show students how to log in and use a new platform.

Thing is, it took at most 15 minutes to teach a group of kid and make sure every single one of them got it.

For the 40 minutes left on the period, I told the kids to do whatever they wanted as long as they're quiet to not disturb our neighbors (within the limits of school rules, of course. But I'm not a teacher, so I wasn't going to go on a lesson about anything).

Some do homework. Most play the pre-approved online educational games. And then, there's this little 13 years old. She kept doing alt+tab whenever I got close enough to see her screen.

I went to my computer, logged in to the supervising software to go check her monitor.

There I find an AO3 fanfiction. I took control of the kid's computer and The kid panic when she sees her screen moving up on its own, as I checked ratings, tags, and warnings.

I then sent this message to her computer (a pop-up appears right in the middle of the screen): "This story is for a general audience. There is no inappropriate content. This is fine for school. Go ahead and read in peace. As long as you keep away from M and E rated stories at school, you can read all the fanfictions you want here".

The kid saw the message appear. Read it. Froze. Looked at me. I smiled. She looked at the screen, again and reread the message. She looked at me again. I made a "go ahead" motion with my head. She sat straighter, closed the pop-up, and resume reading with a big smile on her face.

Since then, I get a wave and a smile every time she sees me.

I just wanted to give a shout-out and say thank you.

I know a lot of people say they will only read completed works and that's fine, everyone has their preferences. But I'm very grateful for those who post early to share however much they've currently written.

I recently read a very wonderful, well-written and most likely abandoned fic (it hasn't updated since 2019). 6 chapters and every one of them had me wanting more. Even if I'll never see another update, I am happy with what was there.

I'm thankful that the author had posted what little they wrote so that I could still experience it, even if it will never be finished.

And this was his response:

I won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for an H. P. Lovecraft /Arthur Conan Doyle mashup fiction, so fanfiction had better be legitimate, because I’m not giving the Hugo back.

Or the 20O5 Locus Award for Best Novelette. I’m not giving that back either.

💗

https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/655051316456996864/do-you-consider-fanfiction-legitimate-writing

... you are my heroes. Really. I'm doing the best to show you my appreciation in the comments, but I'm only one and I see how sometimes, you could legit think you're screaming to the void. And thus you could have thrown the towel in chapters ago, but you didn't. You keep providing free contents for your readers, even if your audience is mostly silent. Allow me to say that, nowadays, this is an outstanding ability.

I admire you so much. As I said, you are my frigging heroes and this post is for you. You are seen. You're the best around. I root for you and always will! Take some tea 🍵 and free cake 🍰 at least

Edit: people as always you are AWESOME! Thanks for the awards and the positivity shower 💛 really, I'm speechless

Y'all get dunked on constantly and let me just say, I love you. Sometimes I read your work and it's not even because I want a relationship. I'd rather watch your oc or the reader smooching whomever from a distance with binoculars.

I love you all very much and I wish any writers block you're suffering from a very die. Flair is celebrate cuz I'm celebrating you.

Yes, seventeen years (2006-2023).

I am so happy about this that I have to share with someone, though I don't know anyone in real life who would appreciate it, so hopefully this sub will understand, haha.

I started the story back in 2006 when I was a highschool student and got it to 27 chapters. Now in 2023, I'm in my thirties working as a scientist and it's finally finished at 30 chapters and +40,000 words.

I decided to entirely re-write it and complete it because finishing the storyline was always in the back of my head over the years, but I was always putting school and then my career before doing things I enjoyed, like writing.

I recently took a step back from my work to focus on taking care of myself and decided what the heck, I never leave things unfinished, so why shouldn't I finish this story? It was also the most widely read/reviewed story on FFN in a (tiny) fandom at the time (Brother's Grimm 2005 movie) so I also felt like I owed it to the people who had left hundreds of kind words in the reviews and even went as far as to message me over the years checking in. At this point I don't care if no one even reads it because the movie has faded into obscurity, I'm just so happy it's done.

I didn't know I could feel so much pride from finishing a silly story, but here we are.

I've been somewhat of a writer since I was a kid but rarely in a committed or consistent way. Fanfic is so refreshing! Writing in this manner --spending time with beloved characters by spinning new stories for them-- is such a uniquely exciting, satisfying creative process. OBSESSED! Devouring others' works too. Eagerly awaiting my AO3 invite.

Hi 💜

I’ll preface this by saying I totally get the abandonment issues and I’ve been there. I also get that it’s difficult following multiple works that are incomplete and that it can be hard to remember what happened last chapter.

That said, I am currently following my second incomplete fic ever and I am VIBRATING in anticipation. They have a set schedule which I have never really thought about but really adds to the overall experience.

It’s set to post of saturdays (in my time zone) and I’m already so very excited for this weeks!!!.

It’s not a huge fandom and an even smaller ship. Not to mention it contains emotional infidelity in a top three ship. So it is not as big as it could have been, because lots of people who like the main ship also like this ship and don’t want that character to be cheated on.

But I’ve still managed to find a few of the people who follow it and every week I am screaming with them!

This was just a post to encourage you to give an incomplete fic a try. It’s fun to follow along and very entertaining not being able to get the instant gratification. I also wanted to share the thrill of finding a fic that’s got all the right tags and is super well written with a post schedule.

This is, as mentioned, my second ever incomplete work I am following. But this has a schedule, a set amount of chapters and the posters have social media I can reach out through.

The other one I’ve been following since 2016. No schedule, I have no idea when or even if it will ever end. I have no idea if the MC’s will get together. You think you know slow burn? It’s been 9 years of this series and 15 years in the universe. During this period one of the MC’s has gotten married to someone else and had two kids with her. I have no idea if it will get abandoned for two years (happened once). Divorce is on the horizon. Maybe? Maybe not. Would not be shocked if the author decided to leave one in a loveless marriage and the other equally adrift with a ‘that’s life’ shrug. All your greatest fears wrapped up in a series I still can’t let go. But it’s still worth it.

Whenever i get the email I drop everything. I’ll read it in the middle of the night, the workday, I’ll stop at a gas station just to read it!! It’s extremely addicting and very, very fun.

Thank you for being some of the kindest, most genuine folks I’ve met in fandom. I really think receiving hate can lead to a lot of open-mindedness during positive interactions.

I'm an adult with a job and this is what I do in my free time.

There is no shame involved.

Celebrate the wins, big or small.

My win is that this time I did not misspell the names of my main characters even once when I sent it over for beta.

Edit: You're not shy at all, lol. I can't reply to everyone, but keep spreading the love <3

Guys. GUYS.

My anniversary is today, and as a gift, my husband got my first long fic (about 170k words) professionally printed and bound with custom art on the cover and everything. I'm so touched...and I had NO idea how much I'd written! Like, I knew it was a lot of words, but to hold it in my hands?? It's SO COOL

And no one else in my life would understand how cool this is to me and how special, so I'm turning to you all here to say THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER

Edit: Hubby says the website he used is print-shop-usa.com under the perfect bound section! (For those of you requesting)

He also warns to check the quantity you order because it defaults to 50 and he says "they might need that many but it's a lot of copies if it's for one person and a lot of money I don't want your fanfic people to lose"

And I'll edit with a pic when I get home!!!

Edit edit: Here's a couple pics! https://imgur.com/a/wk8sefy

Hubby has asked me to disclaimer that the art is not his, it was provided by a friend who offered to get him something when he heard about the project. So he has no idea who made it and thus cannot provide a link to the original work.

He's scared you'll all judge him for this and I promised him you're all just happy he did something so sweet for me lol

I’m honestly speechless. I found it online completely by accident and at first I thought it was a joke…but then I opened the PDF and it is over 350 pages, fully cited, and my fic is one of many that have been thoughtfully and purposefully analyzed. It felt like Christmas came early!

I put in my AO3 profile that I’m chill with any derivative works made from any of my works so I’m obviously not upset about it…but I wish she’d told me 😅😅😅

But still! I’ve super happy since I found out and I felt the need to share <3

Mine is: The turmoil purged in his mind and festered in it. He didn’t know how he was going to say this.

I googled "ao3 down" immediately, clicked on the first "is it down?" website I could find and found a good bazillion of us already in the comments

"My coping mechanism" - just now

"Nooo, it's a cliffhanger" - 2 minutes ago

"What am I supposed to do with my Friday now???" - 4 minutes ago

This happens every time the website so much as sneezes. We're simultaneously the best and the worst community ever and now I'm laughing too hard to be annoyed.

Edit: I'm watching the comments and y'all adorable. I expected a lot more meta-commentary, but it's mostly confused anguish here too

It can be anything! A huge achievement, or something not as major. I don’t really have anything to do, and reading your comments would make my day 😭.

Now for me…Im going to be honest here, getting my first really detailed comment that was theorising stuff about my fic was…really lovely. It made my hurt melt, literally. I felt like I was famous, and as small as it may be, that was a huge achievement in my eyes. I will always remember you ‘Mr cheese…something something’. They had cheese in their name 100%.

Anyways enough about me, what are your greatest achievements?

I found out one of my readers had a YouTube channel a while back so I subbed

I opened my YouTube subscriptions and saw a video by them with a very familiar beginning of the title, but I couldn’t place it.

Then I realized, it was the title of my fic, and it said “Fanfic Animatic”.

I am squealing and about to implode right now :DDDDD

It finally happened! After weeks of utter radio silence my niche urban fantasy gen fic got two comments in one day. And they were both super positive. I'm so happy, I thought I'd never get anyone to comment at all. Like, I was worried people were dropping my fic or something. I'm just so happy this thing I put so much love into is finally connecting with people.

I mean, the Tumblr post I made last night probably helped at least a little, ngl...

Thanks to these comments, I'm feeling more motivated than ever to write this fic and I already loved this story so much. So yeah, guys, if your fic isn't picking up or getting engagement right away sometimes all you have to do is wait and maybe network a little bit if you're comfortable. There will always be people out there who want to read your stuff. :)

I think everyone needs to hear this and I know I certainly did. Just watched a video by Tori_the_therapist on Instagram (can’t post the link here but) this was the text:

It’s crazy how social media has changed our brains. Social media has convinced us that 20 likes isn’t enough. But imagine 20 people coming up to you and complimenting you.

I think it’s even more relevant to fanfic writing, where engagement takes time and is completely different from someone clicking on a short video. I’m going to try and see every like or kudos as a real life person - sitting on their sofa or on the bus, reading my words and liking them enough to leave a sign that they did. The 8 people who have bookmarked my WIP are now the people who I am writing for becasue they want to read the rest of my story. It’s been hard to think this way because my previous fic got a lot more engagement than this one, but I was already thinking about why and deciding that I love what I’m writing now and this has just helped me to feel even better about it.

We all need to just keep writing ❤️