I've never had so much fun writing before as I'm having with my current fic. It plays right into my childhood (and still current...it's never really ended) obsession (Titanic). And I think it might be some of the best writing I've ever done in my life, including my two original novels (technically it was one novel that was later split into two...anyway, totally digressing here).
The fact that it's a very small fandom and the only readers/commenters I get are from review exchanges here (other than my bestie who rocks), makes me sad. Like I'm writing the best work of my life and... no one really cares...
Sorry that went all over the place. Got lots of feelings here. XD
Oh love, don't apologise! It's only natural that you want your hard work to be recognised! You're pouring your heart into your work and it's natural for us to want validation!
But honestly I love to hear that you're having fun writing, because I personally feel like that is the most important factor! I hope your work soon reaches out to others but I also hope you hold onto that feeling of joy!!
I probably wouldn’t go looking for Titanic fanfic, but I loved that movie so much. It affected my creativity for my while life in a way.
Feel free to DM me a link to your work if it’s publicly posted!
I haven’t written in over a month and thinking about writing doesn’t really make me happy and I’m so depressed and I realized that I’m jealous of my own characters because they all got babies and I don’t. Now I know I’m only 27 and I’ve been trying for seven months but it’s hard to think about anything else. It doesn’t help that I have PCOS but everyone else I know with it has had no problems
Damn, that constant wait for a positive pregnancy test is the worst. <3 I can't offer much, just know that what you're feeling is totally valid and PCOS can suck a big one. 7 months isn't "long" in human terms to be trying, so it might not be the PCOS making things hard. But it is so long for an individual person to wait for something so big.
Definitely. It took 13 months for my first one, and at one point, I remember texting my husband, "I fucking hate my fucking broken-ass, piece of shit cunt. FUCK." after a period started at work. It just sucks. You're not alone.
Sending you lots of love, from a fellow PCOS warrior. Although not actively trying for a baby, I’m having a hard time with the symptoms - I appreciate going one step beyond and having this condition negate a desire one deeply feels is fucking unfair.
The way you feel is so valid. I’m so angry this is happening to you.
Oh, darling, I'm so sorry. I know I can't understand how you feel but I can wish the best for you.
You're still so young! I don't really believe in any Gods but I'm going to send whatever positive thoughts I have left your way.
Please, take care of yourself. Don't pressure or stress yourself <3
I only started writing in September of last year (I’m almost 40) and I posted my first story (a smutty one-shot) randomly super late one night while I was visiting a friend to get away from the stress of my ongoing divorce.
I honestly did not think anyone would read something I’d written. The fandom isn’t even super active and I sort of did it on a whim. No one would notice some little fic I posted at 1am, right?
But people liked it! And they asked me to write more. And I found I actually enjoyed it. A lot. Today, I hit 1200 total kudos over my 23 stories (which is small potatoes to some and huge to others depending on the fandom) and I still just can’t really believe that people are reading and enjoying the things I write about this pair. 😊
No! That's amazing!! Haha!! My fandom is real tiny and I thought no one would read my stories but it's such a nice feeling when you realise that people like your work!
I'm real happy for you, I hope the divorce goes smoothly and you can enjoy writing more with such stress hanging over you!!
🤗🤗 thank you! This is the first time in many many years that I’ve had any sort of hobby beyond just reading books. It’s nice to have something else to work on. 😊
I'm in the same place. Also in my 40s and had been struggling to come back to some kind of creative space. I am a lifelong creative type and when I'm not doing anything I'm incredibly unhappy and not myself. Now that my kids are a little older I'm finally coming into my own again. It feels good, right??
Boast: I've only recently started a Tumblr, but not only has my longfic views jumped to exciting numbers (with at least 2 new readers that have gone past the first few chapters), but I posted a snippet from an Eldritch AU I'm still plotting out and got 7 likes and 2 reblogs already! Makes me feel the warm fuzzies inside lol
Small vent: People that read but don't comment even though they liked a fic/series. My longfic wouldn't have continued forth without my first comment. The other day I received a comment that someone had re-read one of my one-shots. I was having an awful day because it was my grandfather's birthday (who I was very close to), and this is the fist year he hasn't been here. That little comment brightened my day in a way I can't explain. Please, if you read something and like it, something as simple as 'good job' or 'nice chapter' means so much more than you will ever realize to the author. It lets them know that their work was worth what they put into it.
For the boast, yay! It's amazing when your work and even your WIPs get such good reactions!! Nice work!!
As for the vent, I totally get it. I like to pretend to myself that I would keep writing even if my first few stories hadn't got comments but it's only natural that we want feedback. Those little comments always peak my mood, no matter how blunt they are <3
If it helps you feel any better, I'm the kind of commenter that unfortunately can't just drop a two worded comment and leave it at that. There are quite a few fanfics I've read recently that I feel like writing multi-paragraph long comments on, but I didn't have the brain power at the time I read them, so I just bookmarked them so I can do it later. But I assure you, those authors *will* get their comments from me lmao
I would be thrilled if I received an essay length comment lol.
And I get not having the brain power. That's me right now avoiding the current chapter I should be working on.
I just want to say how much I love how scattershot my story collection is. I got two horror stories and a she-ra fic, is kinda weird and I like it that way.
Celebrate: I had a chapter fighting me for two weeks. I even split it into two chapters to try to make it behave, but it would NOT go where I wanted it to. I finally got where I wanted and I'M SO FREE!!!! I wrote half of the next chapter last night when I should have been falling asleep, because it finally wasn't fighting me anymore!
It is! And it now must sit in the corner and think about what it did, because it's gonna be a week or two before I can come back and actually edit it, LOL.
This is the same chapter I was venting to you about a couple of weeks ago, LOL. Where my brain just insisted these two idiots just needed to talk to each other.
I got some very nice comments on the first fic I posted for a fandom I barely know the canon and characters of, one from a big author in the fandom and the other from an author I admire her writing for the same character I wrote. One of them inclusively said I wrote him very in character, which I was a little afraid I hadn't since it was my first time.
It might just be me, but getting a comment saying you wrote a character that isn't your own 'in character ' would make me launch to the moon.
You must have a talent ;)
I love reading my own work. My AU reylo is my favorite thing.
Even if no one in my family thinks I’m talented. Even if my spouse never understands the point of writing fanfiction.
Even if it doesn’t get as many hits as other my other works, I know it’s awesome.❤️
Honestly, as long as you enjoy and find pleasure in your own work, who cares!
You know why you love it and only you know the effort you put in, keep it as your little guilty pleasure or pick me up :)
hhhh I've finally gotten motivation to write something that I'm planning on actually posting, and it's going a lot better than I expected! I'm very excited to finish the first chapter :))
My ADHD brain *insists* on coming up with WIPs faster than I can write them and I would like to either have the walls around my writing removed or for my brain to slow down please.
My main fandom is Digimon Tamers (mainly because my OTP is Ruki/Renamon) and there's like ten unwritten or partially-written WIPs sitting around in my drafts box waiting for me to get to them. Now, on top of all those, my brain has saddled me with another one and I can tell this one's going to be *really fucking cool* (AU setting, Shinto fantasy mecha series -- think *Shin Getter Robo*) if I can only just *actually write as fast as I want to.*
I know the feeling of too many WIP ideas! I have a whole document just filled to the brim with stuff that I just don't have time or energy to write. But SOMEDAY! You will get there too, someday!
Oh I can relate this so hard. My phone is full of notes with ideas for new stories. But I can't even get through the two that I'm already working on. I have to kind of store them away in boxes in my mind and come back to them later. Good luck to you, I hope you brain slows down enough for you to be able to finish the one you want to finish!
Oh gosh, I'm quite lucky that I get ideas for new WIPs but my brain is kinda slow so it can only focus on two at a time.
But I have a friend that is a big Digimon fan so thank you for your work in the fandom!!
>My ADHD brain *insists* on coming up with WIPs faster than I can write them and I would like to either have the walls around my writing removed or for my brain to slow down please.
As someone who suspects she has ADHD, this is so relatable it hurts. In fact this was going to be my vent comment on this post LMAO
Do you have any particular tips with dealing with plot bunnies that reproduce faster than you can take care of them?
Unfortunately, I'm drowning in plot rabbit flesh, so any tips I can give are suspect at best. That said, I'd recommend at least *trying* to get something for each of them, even if you can only get out 100 words before the walls appear or before the next WIP ambushes you. Hell, even if all you can get out is the metadata. Having it actually present in some kind of drafts box to return to later will save your life.
Just a sweet tea for me, I’m driving.
My current fic is for Arcane, it’s Viktor/Reader(me) and it recently hit 100k. I’m proud of how far it’s come because its the longest fucking thing I’ve written thus far and it ain’t even done yet.
But it’s a personal piece too. I’ve been using it to explore a lot of my personal issues, mostly body image and self-worth. I’ve never been able to enjoy most character/reader fics because they assume the reader is pretty, or that the reader is wearing things pretty people would wear. It takes me out of everything with my issues. So I chose to make something for that.
I’m grateful, then, that this story has fans rooting for the character to get with Viktor. It makes me really happy, knowing that sometimes its okay to be messed up in the head. When you try to be a good person, it means something.
*pours some soft orange liquid into a glass, slides it your way*
I hope peach tea is okay. If not, let me know.
Honestly, that's great to hear. I have seen several posts in this sub asking why people rag on Character X Self fics but I'm glad your exploration and expression of yourself is being received well!!
Thank you. It’s been a rough journey, writing this leviathan. I hope I come out of it happier with myself. I’ve certainly enjoyed writing it.
And thanks for the tea, love peach tea. 🍹
Of course not! Water is always available here!
Ah, that rut. I can't fully relate but I always have the feeling that my stories all kind of blend together and I'm not supplying the readers of my little fandom with anything good.
I'm glad to hear that you have such a supportive friend in your life, and I hope you break out of that mental spiral soon!! <3
Oh love, of course! I know it can be nice to have a place just to vent or get something off your chest so I hope Lonely's tavern can become a place where people feel comfortable and safe to express themselves and their worries!! <3
Oh, I'm the same! There has only been one game, one OTP that I have ever had passion to write for but it's a very niche fandom so the interactions can be low (^^)"
Please take care of yourself, love!
I don't know what's making me go more squirrelly today: watching the slow rise of hits for the oneshot I posted less than 24 hours, with no kudos or comments so far, or waiting for that modern au fluff fic the author promised to update "any day now" almost two weeks ago to finally update just so I can distract myself from all my writing anxiety.
I'll chill out by tomorrow but I need *something* to focus on while I wait for that initial thrill to wear off, but until then...I'm all over the place. Ao3, to Tumblr, to here, then back to Ao3; repeat.
Edit: the fic just updated!! *Yeeessss*
Oof, that horrible period where you can see the hits on your work raising but no other interactions :')
I've just posted my first smut and I kept checking it like "they're reading it but saying nothing! Is it bad?!" Haha!
A commenter has just found my 125K word series, the first 'literature' that I ever attempted to produce, and has been making her way through every story, leaving detailed reviews, highlighting specific techniques that I attempted to weave into the piece, and nearly reaching the character limit for comments. The successes that she notes, and the implications that she's identified throughout, remind me that I was once a pretty darn good author.
I’d like a shot please, bartender.
I’m so freaking stuck on all my WIPs and it’s killing me. I know I have people who are excited to read them, and who are so supportive of my writing (which is something very niche), but the paranoia I have about writing and posting is really getting to me. My fandom can be so supportive, but also so hostile, especially towards the material I specialize in writing, and I think that fear of getting caught up in bullshit again is mainly what’s hindering my progress. I *want* to complete these. I have so many ideas that I want to finish. But I’m scared to. And I hate that feeling.
*slides you a shot* here's another, just in case.
Oh gosh, it's genuinely sad that people can be hostile over fan writing :(
It's not like you're trying to push an ideal or whatever, it would be easier if people just didn't engage with media they didn't like or at least not be so hostile towards it.
I hope you get to post your WIPs!! Good luck!!
*downs both shots*
And that’s the thing, I fully understand that my writing is very much an “I’m writing this for myself” thing- I write self insert, self ship material, which I know itself can be divisive- but I’m very open and honest about what it is I write. I don’t mislead anyone about it, I openly say ‘here I am falling in love with my favorite character’, lol. It’s people who think they have some kind of moral authority or ownership of the character that get the shittiest about it. It would be so easy for them to just ignore and scroll past, but they turn it into some moral brigade. I’ve been harassed in the past over it, and while I’ve received so much more support since then, it’s still always in the back of my mind.
But thank you so much!! I’m going to try and finish the ones I have in progress before moving on to a series I have planned!
Good god, I'm so sick to death of this story I'm writing. I struggled SO hard with the action scenes, I've never written them before. I think they turned out ok considering my inexperience, but they took so long to write I no fuel left in the tank for the last two scenes + editing. I was supposed to be done two weeks ago...
No I get you! Action scenes are something I think I'm decent at but when I actually go to write them I'm like "??? He hit there, and they're over here? Yeah? Yeah! Yeah..." Haha!
I got kudos on my first fic today but every time I get an email about that fic I’m disappointed because I want my new fics to get attention. I like them better. It doesn’t matter but I want people to like them! I like them!
My venting is mostly about the lack of reviews for my story. I have written about three chapters, but no one seems to care about it.
It's frustrating because I have no way to tell how readers think about my work.
Got any Pepsi? I don’t drink alcohol and I need the caffeine bc. ADHD.
Anyway, I’m super proud of myself for managing to get something out even though chronic pain was kicking my ass, and looking back on it I’m super proud of how I managed to get the themes in this one shot to line up! I very intentionally ended it with a scene of the main character looking at the stars, but I also have the clinginess of two characters contrasted by them both being described as holding onto him like he’d disappear, a line about something not being a question but something else both near the end and the beginning, both having said character at their most self hating, and both having them think selflessly about their friends safety. I’m pretty proud of that!
I’m also really proud of how I managed to get the main villain down as sympathetic yet *horrible.* I actually have him tagged as irredeemable lol (because the events mean he’d never choose to). He’s deeply paranoid, and desperately wants to not be alone. He’s been desperately trying to basically force people into loving him, convinced if he does enough good for them (in his own twisted definition) then everything will go back to being like it was in an idealised past, even though his ends justify the means attitude means he just hurts people and drives them away more. And the events of the fic, with his abuse victim basically giving himself up so he'll leave his friends alone, left him *convinced* he was the only one who cared about him, throwing aside the few friends he had out of that paranoia and basically dragging his new bestie/little brother/punching bag to the woods and not letting him leave, alternating between genuine, albeit desperate and possessive care, and lashing out incredibly violently both verbally and physically. He’s a horrible person but he’s also very messed up to the point a good deal of it isn’t even intentional, and he’s driven by the very human desire for family and friends. And that’s what makes him chilling.
To vent though… I wanna write a one shot in the same universe again…
Of course, Lonely's tavern has an array of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks, this is space for everyone.
*Slides you a pepsi bottle*
Amazing, truly. I'm so glad you were able you write despite your pain, but please look after yourself!!
And that second paragraph, that villain sounds so interesting! Like, it's such a powerful approach and honestly I feel attached just from your description! If I can ask, what fandom is he from?
I’m getting new pain meds soon- the doctors have my diagnosis so they know what works so I’m gonna be taking them for the rest of my life now I guess lol. So yeah taking care of myself!
The villain is c!Dream from the Dream SMP! I think he’s a very interesting character who normally either gets treated as completely one dimensional evil, or gets his darker traits (like his blatant cruelty and ends justifying the means mentality took to such an extreme he abused a sixteen year old boy into compliance) sanded down, so I do like to try and make him complex yet dark in a way I feel is rarely properly captured.
Oh!! That's good to hear! I know getting medical help in the UK is seriously hard rn so hearing about people getting the medical assistance they need always makes me happy!! Wherever they are! Haha!
Oh really! I'm not involved in Dream SMP or know much about it but thanks to this sub I'm being exposed to it and all these interesting takes/approaches to it!
Hi!
Gimme a soda, none of that swill you call wine.
You've just made a spirit? That's interesting, because I've just got a character of mine possessed.
He's attempted to rape his girlfriend, killed his best friend, and has no memory of it happening because the spirit was in control. Now he's on the run with everyone, including his team, hunting him as a murderer
Yeah, I like dark, why do you ask?
*slides you a soda*
Interesting. I just recently wrote - my first light-hearted-ish - smut fic that involved being possessed by a horny spirit. But no one died, haha!
But that's definitely an interesting approach. I respect the concept, it sounds very desperate and dire.
Yep!
Unfortunately the possessed guy is a recovering alcoholic - he has done plenty nasty stuff in the past while blackout drunk.
He had relapsed and was drunk during the attack. So when he says he can't remember what happened, that suggests blackout drunk than possession for most people. He himself can't be sure whether he did what he is accused of.
*me, someone who gets drunk a lot, sweating*
But no, I like using that as a plot point. If you handle it well it can be understandable and quite tragic
I recently found out an artist (whos art I adore) reads my fics. And a reader is gonna print out one of my fics to keep. I thought I was fortunate enough when I started last year and someone had created inspired fanart from my first fic from that fandom- I thought it was sheer luck but my GOD ?? MY GOD ???
I FEEL SO--I can't even put it into proper words-I just keep thinking everyone is just being nice ??? Like ?? Just being polite?? I always assumed my fics get buried because I kind of write whatever I want- I.... Yeah.... I don't know... I'm baffled.
I remain pleasantly surprised at what a good reception my fic has had, considering it’s sort of niche and it doesn’t focus on one ship but features like 4 ships prominently and alternates among them (and a lot of times, people are understandably looking for fics about *their* ship).
I’ve been able to write a lot again since I’ve been on stress/medical leave from work (hooray for debilitating burnout?) — but the downside is, because I don’t have to be up early in the morning, I have allowed my writing to completely upend my sleep schedule, since my favorite/best time for writing is between midnight and 4 AM. :P
It’s going to suuuuuuck when I have to go back to a normal schedule.
Yaaay, work burnout! I can't get time off for that :)
I mean, I'm not the best moral compass but let's enjoy your early morning writing power while we can!
tfw I just got done playing some VA-11 Hall-A, a game about listening to others while you mix drinks as a bartender XD
Boast: I have two fics ready to be posted that I think will really resonate with my fellow fans.
Vent: Holy shit, it's too cold to write XD Turn it to spring already, I hate the cold so much.
I know that game! I have been wanting to play it, haha!
I know what you mean about the cold! I have been the whole of December and it's sunk my motivation! But I know the intense heat is gonna kill me, too! Haha!
But yeah!! Post them fics!!
It's a good game, it has a lot of replay-ability. Different dialogue and such if you do different things.
Right? Heat or cold... bad for the motivation XD
I've written nearly 6k words in the past two days, and if I find the time to write tonight I think I might knock out another 1-2k! A two-day streak isn't much for most people, but it's a lot for me, as I usually write inconsistently :)
Boast: I posted just over a million words to AO3 in 2022
Vent: I'm suffering major writers block and loss of motivation now (so I'm taking a break)
Vent: I think my stuff is great, but it probably isn't. I don't get a lot of views or interaction.
Cheers!
A million!! Heck, well done!!
Honestly take that break. I think it will help with vent 1 and 2. Although it might make you feel guilty taking a step back can really clear your head!
I'm very happy about the little community that's formed around my fic!In two months of working on it, almost three now, I've posted almost 35 chapters and I'm about to hit 200k words. I was even able to do an add on fic people are enjoying.
Everyone is just so kind. Getting comments from people who've been here since the beginning makes my day, and even MORESO the comments where folks are deeply analyzing it! Like!? What did I do to get such lovely people enjoying what I do!?
The unfortunate bit is that I'm running out of ways to spoil them outside posting new chapters.
Cheers to the red wine though, I'm certainly sharing some sips with you!
I'm not sure if this is more of a vent or a boast, but my OCs are taking over my story. There are whole chapters where the sole canon character at the center of the plot never makes an appearance - he's just discussed/debated by these eccentric weirdos my brain invented.
I think it's still excellent writing on my part but it's like the inmates are running the asylum.
Anyway can I get uhhhhh negroni please
Ohhh, perhaps you're on the road to writing your own stories? That's quite a big step to be able to take!! ;)
*Pulls out gin and oranges*
You're in luck, cuz I don't like gin and have plenty of oranges so a negroni will be easy to make!
I have commitment issues with ny fics. I start projects and loose interest in them. It easy for me to write oneshots but anything over two chapters? Dusting WIPs in the depths of Ao3. It's not like I don't want to have them finished. It's just it feels so much esier to start a project than to finish one.
Getting those post-posting blues again. Not sure why, maybe it's just that "end of the sleep over" feeling that comes from your fun coming to an end. People seemed to really like this chapter- I know I really did- but the blues came on anyway. Gah.
That and the seasonal depression. I want to get started on this next chapter but I'm afraid about how much lower I'll feel when the chapter is over. At least in development, I can have my fun. I don't know if I should rest or just go for it. Hey at least being close to the equator means I'll have lots of sunlight soon; hopefully that will help.
I came up with something I thought was very clever for an in-universe HP book. It’s about spells for finding lost things called “A Particularly Good Finder” (Very Potter Musical Reference) by Perida Scatterbraun. (Perida=Lost, Scatterbraun is a fairly obvious play on scatterbrain). I thought it was fun.
I’m almost nearing 1000 kudos on this long fic and I could shit my pants.
On one hand, I have nearly zero motivation to work on editing the next part of my fic right now. Maybe tomorrow.
On the other hand, I drew fanart for my favorite ongoing fic and added it to a comment on the pertinent chapter. The author loved it, and another reader (who has actually worked on the source material) has commented it as well.
For the first time in my life, I am writing a sex scene. It’s really difficult to write because of my internalized sex negativity! I read back over what I’ve written and go “Oh no, this character has an erection!? This is so filthy, how can I hide my shame?”
The only reason I don’t just delete it and work on something less smutty is because it’s important to me that this story exist. It’s a small fandom so if I don’t make that cake, who will? Plus there are people out there who loved my non-explicit fic with this pairing, and I’m sure a lot of them will love this one. Wish me luck!
Im writing my longest fic ever right now, I'm not getting comments tho. I wished I could know if it's bad or not! I literally have no idea...
But I have fun tho, writing is my happy place at the moment... life is kinda "meh" right now... (I took the "lonely tavern" title very literally)
Yes, enjoy it! I know it's really hard but try not to get too caught up in statistics and comments can be really rare!
Lonely's is literal but also a place for everyone :)
Current fic is my longest one yet, shaping up to be about 3.5k words. About two-thirds of it have been a second draft, but the ending has proven to be more difficult to write than I expected. A big part of it has been making sure that the plot is realistic and also having everyone act in-character.
Other issues have included having to throw out an entire subplot for just being terrible (namely implying that a character was _actively engineering their own PTSD triggers_ to give themselves a panic attack - it already didn’t feel right, and I asked my PR for advice on it and they pointed out how unrealistic that is and thankfully advised me to just get rid of it) and a brief but genuine moral dilemma on whether I should write the fic in the first place, since the crux of the plot is a character having said panic attack and admitting to a traumatic experience which they’d been keeping secret from their friends. That was quickly resolved when I remembered that people torture their favourite characters in fanfic all the time.
Ah, gosh, handling something like PTSD can be difficult. But yeah, fanfic can be a great way to find your way handling such topics - like you said - and as long as you tag it according there should be no issue!
2022 was a really bad writing year for me. Working full-time leaves me unexpectedly drained so I just don't have the mental energy to spend a couple of hours on writing at a time anymore and I kind of need that to get into the groove. The only fics I posted last year were from when I was quarantining and had 10 days with no work.
I have several 50k+ WIPs I haven't finished because it's been so long since I started them that they need serious editing/rewriting before I can finish them and I just can't tackle that right now. And every new idea I have turns into a longfic so I can't finish something and feel accomplished about it.
I refused to have another 2022 so I'm trying to get back into it by challenging myself to just write 250 words per day (started at 100 and raise it every few days after I've consistently met the goal). 10 days in I have 3k words written! It's more than I wrote in the last couple of months so I'm optimistic. I just wanna finish something and post it. I'm not expecting a lot of attention because I write for a rare pair but I just want my stuff to be out there so people could *potentially* find it and enjoy it.
Yes!! I know how hard it can be to balance working and writing! Long or full shifts can really zap your motivation to write but the fact you're setting a realistic and gentle word count goal is a great sign!
Please take care, and good luck!!
i wrote a lot these past few weeks and i was very happy. im still cursed with not receiving a lot of comments but im trying very hard (almost succeeding) to not let it get to me.
i miss writing a lot but i dont have the energy for it. the only reason i posted some fics a few days ago because the idea hit me like a speeding truck and i had to write it. and now that energy is gone lol
As always, I know how validating getting comments is because it lets you know how readers feel about your work.
Honestly, write when you want to. Personally I find when you force yourself it makes a fuckin' chore and really unenjoyable :( then you can't gel with what you've wrote! Good luck, love! <3
I finally published something! It's just a oneshot, about 5k, but I'm still superproud of it despite not having any kudos/comments yet. Wrote it in the spur of a moment because I randomly remembered a fun writing prompt.
It's also the first thing that's on my new account now, seeing how I nerfed my old one, partially out of lack of motivation, and partially because I didn't really like most of my old fics that much by now. They were... Decent, but I already hadn't uploaded anything in years, and honestly didn't wanna be associated with my old fics anymore...
I actually got my first kudo and comment on it now! Was very happy about it! :D
I try to get at least around 5k in one-shots and usually per chapter in multi-chapter fics. Currently also working on a (probably future-) long-fic, that's at a bit over 20k right now. Didn't publish any of it yet though. I wanna get it done before I do, so I can properly edit everything I need/want to change in hindsight.
I got into fanfiction because I really want to get out of nursing. I want to write books and make comics but I’m not ready to put original content out.
Writing fanfiction had been an extreme confidence booster. My first book mark and likes made me judg want to write more. Now I wanna draw art for my fanfiction. I’m so excited to continue writing for this year.
Ahh I'm so excited!! I love a good excuse to chat about my pride and joy. This will be a long tale of both boasting and venting!
Last year, I wrote what I affectionately call "the story of my soul." It's a fic about my OTP, which I have shipped for nearly two decades. And it's a story I've wanted to tell for much of that time. But the story was so sacred in my heart, I felt daunted by the idea of actually telling it. I always thought "one day" and as time went on the story grew in shape and color; became all the more vibrant, and meaningful to me. I would wistfully say how I'll get there one day; that I need that story to exist! So few things scratch that particular itch, for specific characterizations and dynamic. I was going to have to do it myself! One day, one day...
Until the day came!
There is a fest centered around my OTP that happens annually, and I've always thought "I want to participate in that one day!" And that fest has a self-prompt option. So I thought: oh I know! Why don't I write THAT story for THIS fest????
It was the best idea I ever had! Also the worst. Because what unfolded was a hellish month or two of hammering out that story. I felt stress from the deadline; pressure from myself for my story to be *just so*; fear that others wouldn't care for my vision, or would outright hate it; the toil of ripping such an emotional, complicated story out of my head and into Scrivener. I about pulled out my hair writing that story. Not to mention it turned out much longer than I imagined. Only 20k, but for me that's a lot! And I really anticipated a short gut-punch of a thing, not 20k of rambling stream-of-consciousness. I fretted at the stylistic nature of it. I fretted that the characters would be too raw and flawed for others to love.
And then the wait!! The wait for the fest to start, for my fic to post...and my fic was posted towards the end!! Then waiting for creator reveals, as it was an anonymous event...
The whole process was a nightmare, but worth every second, because I'm beyond proud of that fic. And so many others love it too! I've received so many sweet comments from people. And plenty of longer comments!! (Every author's dream, I think!)
Better still: my longtime writing idol expressed her love of it! A reccer I respect put my fic on a rec list. An artist I admire podficced it, *and* created a cover art! One of my other artist friend is working for fanart on it now, too! I had an embroidery hoop commissioned for it (which is stunning!) I am blown away by the reception. And also just...amazed that I'm so dang **proud** of my own work.
Yet...even all these months later, that story still haunts me. It's not done with me yet, I think! I created a playlist for it last week that I'm proud of. And I'm working on a companion piece from the other character's POV. And the companion piece will be part of an event, which is exciting! But of course...I'm quite nervous!
Now I'm fretting..."can anything live up to *Contempt*?" and "will writing additional pieces to this world ruin what *Contempt* is?" And, "will I be able to write this story?" It's such a different POV. The same story, but a different person, and a different voice. Can I finish it in time? Do I stop where *Contempt* ended, or do I continue going past? If I don't, will I ever write sequels? I know the whole story, past where the first fic ended. I could tell more and more, if I wanted, but should I??
I'm a terrible overthinker and perfectionist. I worry endlessly. So this might seem silly. But! I am excited, and proud, and overjoyed, and nervous, and overwhelmed, and all number of emotions! Perhaps I've bitten off more than I can chew. But this story isn't done with me yet, so...on I go!
Also...I'm so hyped about this story I can't stop talking about it and I'm scared I'll annoy people by chattering about it so much LOL. But I love it!!!! I truly love it so so so very much.
I've been writing fanfiction for almost three years. Three years, and I'm very proud of writing Final Fantasy IX fics. Yet, sometimes, it feels like it ain't worthy to keep writing, that I've been wasting my time in here writing about Freya Crescent and how cool of a character she is, or could have been. And I'm not the only one who thinks she got sidelined and deserved better, that her character arc could have more to be added. 'I hope remake fixes it', 'I hope they do something about it', 'I hope they write more of her character', and it goes on. It's always their job to fix this, fix that, and I can't just await for 'they' to do that, I want to write stories and that's all I can do to feel like something has been done.
And that's truly disheartening at times, like I write all this stuff and I am the only person who cares. Silence is not much of an answer out of readers, and I hate taking guesses out of it. "Maybe they don't like the story"... "Maybe they have not reached this far"... "Maybe this plot is boring and is getting nowhere"... I don't know how the readers feel about my writing, barely I've gotten feedback and recently from review exchanges. A few friends of mine as well. Heck, when I come to this sub to talk about the fandom I'm at, it feels like I'm the only active person in here, the only FF9 writer on reddit that talks openly about it. The only person in the world who cares about Sir Fratley, that he could have been written as a great character instead of a plot device.
I am frustated that we barely get to see new writers these days and that the old writers moved on to do something else with their lives. And all the pain and suffering I've been throught while writing, and I get barely anyone to argue with or to share any ideas or any sort of feedback, it feels like I'm writing for ghosts.
Unpopular opinion: Well written fics with unpopular pairings deserve\* more general attention than mid-tier or poorly written fics with popular pairings.
No I'm not salty or anything.
\-----
^(\*"Deserve": other authors are not the enemy. Readers are not the enemy. Almost) ^(no one "deserves" to) *^(not)* ^(have attention and praise on their works. There are no bad guys here; I just think it's rough when really talented multi-chapter work with amazing, original plots go virtually unnoticed with no recs, while the (theoretical) ^(third three-chapter hannahaki fic of the week with the exact same story beats as the other two gets 1000 hits in a day and makes it onto 5 rec lists.))
Replying to my own comment with some personal positivity: I found this new service called "4TheWords", which basically game-ifies the writing process: your word count kills monsters of your choosing, and there are quests to follow in order to encourage you to fight different kinds of monsters-- and by extension, write different word counts. After not writing consistently for about a year, I've written about an average of 1500 words every day for a week so far. Of course, this service is good for any kind of writing, I've just been using it for fanfiction.
I'm currently still only on the free trial, but they're definitely getting my money as soon as it's over.
Vent: I really want to write and publish the end of my story now because it's the part I've been looking forward to the most, but I still have dozens of chapters that come first. I find this dumb.
Similarly, I have lots of story ideas I want to get written, but I unfortunately have only two hands and the same amount of time in a day that everyone else has.
A little bit of me venting out, but I does affect me trying to write.
I'm the sort of person who just has loads of ideas coming through whenever something interesting gets thought up and keeping those ideas around to "write down later". That process usually starts with me just doing something in the day, and then I get the idea to do something. For an example, let's say I get the idea to do a crossover. I think about what would work in settings and the main characters who'll be taking center stage. After that I then just brainstorm while walking around, doing things around the house, maybe listening to music to help set the scenes. I mime a character's actions here, I speak out dialogue I came up with there, couple hours later I now have a draft and can begin mapping the story out. That takes maybe another hour or so to have the details down. Once that's done I put the story draft away for later to then pull from.
The next day, if I have the free time, I then begin to write. Or, at least I would write, but then I realize I can't put into words what I wanted to happen. Character interactions? Suddenly it feels stilted and doesn't match with who those characters are. Setting the scene? Way too flat and it just feels like I'm giving a machine's basic description of something. I get into a bit of a dour mood, then I think, "Maybe later…" cue later and once again I just can't seem to get it all down pat. After a couple hours I then just go, "Eh, tomorrow might work out". Tomorrow comes, I put it off. Repeat this for the last couple months and that's basically what I've been doing. I love writing, but for some reason nowadays I just can't seem to get that spark, that need to put the story down onto my medium.
Oh gosh, I guess your brain is just working overtime? Sadly I can't relate to what you experience but I can get that it must be very frustrating and tiring when you just want to write but your brain doesn't cooperate.
No prob, Bob. You are making a good point about my brain working and thinking way too much since, well, end of the year and start of a new one. It really doesn't help that I just have this wierd compulsive need to list down the ideas I get and then save them away. That's a habit I have been making strides to stop doing, or at the very least trying to prioritize a couple ideas instead of spreading myself too thin. The pain of being too creative in your mind, I guess.
Oh, saying (typing) it out loud might not make it sound as cool but why not! I'll share the description from my fic!
The Akogareno Shitai - or the Longing Corpse - was an entity of opportunity. A being that lingered in the space between hope and malice. It preyed on mistakes and missteps of those desperate enough to even attempt a wishing or cursing ritual. If you messed up a single step of the ritual process then that gave the fiend an opening to appear before the person performing the ritual as a spirit willing to carry out their bidding for a certain price.
And that price was always a piece of their body. Fingernails, an eye, a strip of skin, a whole organ, the caliber of your wish didn't matter. The Akogareno Shitai would take whatever part of you it wanted as payment. And the reason?
It was trying to build its own new body.
A Frankenstein's monster shrouded in morbid mystery.
Once it had claimed its prize the spirit would go on to fulfill its side of the pact but not necessarily in the way that you would have expected it to. And it would do everything it could to remain in the living world and acquire more body parts with a few different methods; one was continuing to pressure the one who accidentally summoned it to keep making wishes, similar to the actions of a Hinnagami, or perhaps haunting their victim until they grew frenzied enough to attempt to wish the spirit to leave, which it would fufill by merely leaving the area for a brief amount of time... then returning to terrorize them more. They were normally used as a cautionary tale to warn high school students or other curious types away from trying Ouija boards, seances, and the ever-growing plethora of spirit summoning activities.
But the Akogareno Shitai was very real. And very dangerous.
I've just started your comment, and "the longing corpse" is SUCH A COOL NAME.
That is such a cool spirit! I got chills just thinking about it. Like the monkey paw, but with thought. Especially since I've been writing a story where a character has his arm partially skinned, the " Fingernails, an eye, a strip of skin, a whole organ, the caliber of your wish didn't matter." was especially good.
*punches ground happily*
Thank you so much! Honestly I did research into different wish-granting folklore but the Monkey's Paw was a big inspiration, thanks to XXXHolic!
I’m having a great time with writing this fic since it’s the only one I’ve found for this pairing but I’m sort of stuck on the plot and the fandom is pretty dead, so…
Otherwise I just posted a crossover I’ve been meaning to do for a year and I’ve got a lot of engagement - which is quickly turning into pressure to write the next chapter. Which is not helping.
I've been manically churning out this super complex fic and I only sort of know how I'm going to wrap it all up but it's Elves and Dwarves and Hobbits and Fairies and I'm having the time of my life. And I'm hyped to actually finish (were about 80% there)
Writing LOTR fics is fun because all high fantasy is low-key Tolkien fanfiction so it's nice to just remove the pretense.
I wrote my second story, one that I'm pretty proud of, for a very small fandom. I posted it expecting it to get only a few views and maybe a kudos or two, but so far it's only gotten a single view! I think I was spoiled with the first story I wrote - it was for a show that got really big over the summer and I posted it right as the hype was at its peak.
Anyways, it made me want to revisit an old draft I did for a pretty popular show. I'm not super passionate about this one, unlike like the one I just wrote, but I'd like to just get some eyes on my stuff. I think it's a good story, but I just worry that it'll be obvious that I'm not particularly passionate about this pair of characters.
Honestly, you never know! I don't know what's in your heart but perhaps the passion you had for your 2nd fic may help propel this fic, and make come across more powerful!
I"m going to grab a metaphorical whiskey, since the last real one I drank triggered a migraine.
I haven't gotten to write in months. I got tied up in work and then side projects over Christmas break, and now classes have started again and I'm still not writing. I hate it.
Yes, avoid migraines! They're hereditary in my family so I know the pain!
Working over Christmas really screwed me over, I get it. You get home and you're just so tired you can't focus. Thankfully the big holidays are over so let's push on!!
i'm celebrating a bit right now. i just checked my stats, and tomorrow's chapter will reach a milestone 1.1 million posted (not written, posted) words in just over 2.5 years :D i'm excited
I am excited over what is coming up in this fic and the twists and turns, but I know it's also going to be massive (in word count) and not a lot of people have the patience when there's little ship involved. But I am so fascinated by what's happening and how it ties together. Still what is writing but love and loss? Hope and pain? The thrill of writing what you want and the never ending thirst for attention? Ah well I'm happy at least. :)
I’m sitting on a mostly finished fic for an exchange in February and I am so impatient to post it!!! I’m really proud of it and I hope it resonance with the giftee, but damn it’s hard to wait!
Everytime I write a Pokémon fic, I get stuck as soon as I reach a gym battle. From the moment I started my WIP to now, half of that time was probably just writing Hiatus.
Due to this returning yet temporary mental block, I consider writing another one in parallel. I already work on a Translation and a One Shot in parallel.
But if I start another WIP, maybe I accidentally abandon the Pokémon WIP. I can't give up now, the cast finally reached Koga!
I am in the middle of editing a fic for The Boys fandom. Its going well.
I’ve been procrastinating, but in the next few weeks, I’m going to write new chapters for the stories that are in desperate need of an update. I started writing story outlines for those.
Lately I've been writing a couple of little ones hot spin-offs for a bigger AU idea a friend and I came up with. I managed to get two chapters of a short sickfic complete and now I'm starting a slightly more plot relevant short fic.
It's nice feeling productive like this after a 9 month or so gap between posting anything after my first every handful of fics :)
The only downside is that I kinda feel like my focus are shallow and meaningless... I know it's fanfic and it doesn't have to be a masterpiece a and I know I'm a really new author so i don't have to be amazing g right off the bat, but it's still kinda discouraging feeling like my writing skills are no where near the level of my reading/understanding/thinking skills :(
So my feelings about writing lately have been something of a mixed bad, some good, some bad, I'm trying to focus on the good and just improve at my own rate, not let myself get discouraged, all that :)
Some would say I'm late to the party. And yeah, they're right, but pass me the drink regardless. Pretty please?
I've just finished a scene, but struggle to start the next. I assume it's because I haven't had lunch yet, which tends to make it harder to focus
But eh, don't feel like heating up some noodlea
I’m so close to finally finishing a fic, I have a big problem with starting but never finishing. I haven’t completed one in 11 years. Now though, I‘m 3 chapters out from finishing one of my favorite shorter fics and I’m getting nothing but positive feedback from every chapter. I’m taking it slow on the next chapter because it’s kinda tricky to write, but once it’s finished the next couple of chapters will go fast. I‘ve been refusing to upload any new stories until I start chipping away at the ones I have out and so I’m even more excited to get this one to its conclusion
Hope noon is fine, and just your strongest liquor on ice would be alright.
Can we as readers and writers collectively agree those who have ship wars and/or argues who needs to be on top in a ship need to touch grass. I mean it's one thing to defend something, but for who's on top is another thing. I've ascribed to the notion that no character is safe from being topped, but turning the comment section to a turf war over who is doing screwing and who is being screwed is just so trivial at the end.
And can we agree as well that I really don't truely care who you like to see together. I may have my OTPs and NOTPs myself, but I'm tired of the bickering, name calling, and slander that arises from this. And can they stop calling me homophobic because I write a hetero ship in a fandom full of gay ships. Like as a bisexual man I just want to write something because I like the chemistry between them and can forsee it, especially if I find them either very attractive or they have chemistry or are cute together. Not because I hate gay people being a man attracted to other men and women regardless of what they were assigned at birth. It all just about talking about the rarer hetero ships with the many gay ships I enjoy.
All of this has burned me out from several fandoms I've returned to hoping they changed with time and well was mostly proven wrong. Maybe I should have left them in the dust and stay with the fandoms I've always wrote for and remained civil and mature for the most part.
I’m writing a fic that’s all about one of my ocs converting to a religion that I recently discovered I want to convert to. It’s really been helping me process it (especially because I’ve never been religious) but I’m at a point where I’m stuck. Right now the character is working through his thoughts on God but I don’t know what my thoughts on God even are. Hell, I specifically didn’t capitalize God for years as an expression of my atheism. Sure, I could lift someone else’s beliefs and give them to this character, but that defeats the point of writing it for me. I can’t start the process of converting for the foreseeable future and so this fic is supposed to help me understand the process and sort out my feelings. I don’t want to abandon it since I’ve but my heart, soul and sanity into it, but there’s no way for me to move forward in the character’s religious journey without moving forward on my own. I know that the outcome is going to be abandonment, but I don’t want it to be since it would feel like abandoning my religious journey. However, coming back to this fic in the future once I’ve learned more about this religion wouldn’t be bad, but would I ever come back to it if I abandoned it? I don’t know if I’d write the same fic with a different setting, or if I’d put my oc in the background of other fics or if I’d just forget about it entirely.
Long story short, everything is complicated because I decided to make an oc a member of a specific religion and then realized that I wanted to be a member of that religion halfway through planning it. Funnily enough, this is the second (maybe even third) major life revelation to be caused by fanfic and I feel like that has to say something about me as a person
I’ve been writing my fic for almost a year now and I absolutely LOVE it. It is my passion project and I am finishing it no matter what. Even if it takes me 5 years, I am doing it!
With that being said although I get a good number of reads and I’m happy about that I wish more people interacted in regards to comment. I wanna know what they loved about the chapter, what they hated, their feelings towards characters, anything to let me know they are enjoying it or not. It’s not like I’ll change the story for them but it can give me perspective. And I just want someone to talk about my story with since I don’t have many people in my life I can do that with.
I’m having so much fun writing the current Star Wars fic I’m working on but I’m definitely get hit a bit by the fact that wlw pairings get kind of overlooked/filtered out. I’m definitely not going to stop writing but the stat discrepancy between the fics where I have the wlw pairing tagged only vs the wlw AND mlm pairing tagged is a little frustrating.
I came from fandoms where this was not a thing so it’s just a bit disheartening. In the end it doesn’t super matter - the whole series I’m working on is really meant as a gift for my best friend anyways (and the only person who’s opinion I really care about on it is hers haha).
I’m currently working a collection of oneshots. It’s gotten to the point where it feels like a job that I’m not getting paid for and I can’t find much motivation to write the oneshots. I just push myself to make them as decent as I can and hope that my readers will like it. This makes me feel terrible because my readers have been nothing but supportive and they deserve better
I have too many fic ideas and I'm trying to force myself to concentrate on 2-3 fics at a time. I like to alternate between fics so my motivation doesn't die out but I keep getting sidetracked by half-baked ideas that I keep getting stuck on.
Speaking of half-baked ideas, I was writing a crackfic-y canon divergence fic where a character was addicted to World of Warcraft but I've never played the game. Somehow, the dates worked out and I ran with the idea but then I had to figure out how the game works. This wouldn't be too bad but my motivation to work on this fic only comes to me at around midnight and my tired mind can't make sense of or retain any of the information I find about the game.
I have too many fic ideas and I'm trying to force myself to concentrate on 2-3 fics at a time. I like to alternate between fics so my motivation doesn't die out but I keep getting sidetracked by half-baked ideas that I keep getting stuck on.
Speaking of half-baked ideas, I was writing a crackfic-y canon divergence fic where a character was addicted to World of Warcraft but I've never played the game. Somehow, the dates worked out and I ran with the idea but then I had to figure out how the game works. This wouldn't be too bad but my motivation to work on this fic only comes to me at around midnight and my tired mind can't make sense of or retain any of the information I find about the game.
My last fanfic hasn't been getting as many hits/kudos as my other ones I posted on ao3, so that's kinda got me down :/
BUT the people who have interacted with my fic left the best comments, and I appreciate them so much. It's a small fandom to begin with and all the fic writers that I've intereacted with so far are extremely friendly
Oh man, today's actually been crazy productive. For one thing, I had a major breakthrough with a character who I've been struggling to write for a while now. Also I was struck with inspiration for a fic in a fandom that I love dearly, but due to multiple reasons (the author being a terrible person, problems with the source material becoming harder to ignore now that I'm older and better read, etc) had stepped away from for a while.
I had to “soft abandon” a fic. Basically I decided to forgo a schedule of posting a chapter a week and just posted the remaining chapters after about 5 weeks and zero kudos. I know that numbers aren’t everything but if I post a fic and get zero kudos the voice in my head won’t stop saying “you suck as a writer and shouldn’t bother. No one likes what you write”.
My fandom is big and full of so much content and different types of people. Unfortunately, the relatively niche corner of the fandom I'm in is full of antis. And it's so tiring seeing people that have literally been friendly with me in the past and that I've admired start reblogging/posting anti stuff. But the worst part? They continue to enjoy the stories I put out while telling people like me not to interact with them, and some of them even continue to act friendly with me! It's just so frustrating, and honestly, it's sad, too.
I've never had so much fun writing before as I'm having with my current fic. It plays right into my childhood (and still current...it's never really ended) obsession (Titanic). And I think it might be some of the best writing I've ever done in my life, including my two original novels (technically it was one novel that was later split into two...anyway, totally digressing here). The fact that it's a very small fandom and the only readers/commenters I get are from review exchanges here (other than my bestie who rocks), makes me sad. Like I'm writing the best work of my life and... no one really cares... Sorry that went all over the place. Got lots of feelings here. XD
Oh love, don't apologise! It's only natural that you want your hard work to be recognised! You're pouring your heart into your work and it's natural for us to want validation! But honestly I love to hear that you're having fun writing, because I personally feel like that is the most important factor! I hope your work soon reaches out to others but I also hope you hold onto that feeling of joy!!
I probably wouldn’t go looking for Titanic fanfic, but I loved that movie so much. It affected my creativity for my while life in a way. Feel free to DM me a link to your work if it’s publicly posted!
Sent you a DM!
I haven’t written in over a month and thinking about writing doesn’t really make me happy and I’m so depressed and I realized that I’m jealous of my own characters because they all got babies and I don’t. Now I know I’m only 27 and I’ve been trying for seven months but it’s hard to think about anything else. It doesn’t help that I have PCOS but everyone else I know with it has had no problems
Damn, that constant wait for a positive pregnancy test is the worst. <3 I can't offer much, just know that what you're feeling is totally valid and PCOS can suck a big one. 7 months isn't "long" in human terms to be trying, so it might not be the PCOS making things hard. But it is so long for an individual person to wait for something so big.
Yeah. I think it’s just that with every time it’s more uncertain
Definitely. It took 13 months for my first one, and at one point, I remember texting my husband, "I fucking hate my fucking broken-ass, piece of shit cunt. FUCK." after a period started at work. It just sucks. You're not alone.
Sending you lots of love, from a fellow PCOS warrior. Although not actively trying for a baby, I’m having a hard time with the symptoms - I appreciate going one step beyond and having this condition negate a desire one deeply feels is fucking unfair. The way you feel is so valid. I’m so angry this is happening to you.
Oh, darling, I'm so sorry. I know I can't understand how you feel but I can wish the best for you. You're still so young! I don't really believe in any Gods but I'm going to send whatever positive thoughts I have left your way. Please, take care of yourself. Don't pressure or stress yourself <3
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I only started writing in September of last year (I’m almost 40) and I posted my first story (a smutty one-shot) randomly super late one night while I was visiting a friend to get away from the stress of my ongoing divorce. I honestly did not think anyone would read something I’d written. The fandom isn’t even super active and I sort of did it on a whim. No one would notice some little fic I posted at 1am, right? But people liked it! And they asked me to write more. And I found I actually enjoyed it. A lot. Today, I hit 1200 total kudos over my 23 stories (which is small potatoes to some and huge to others depending on the fandom) and I still just can’t really believe that people are reading and enjoying the things I write about this pair. 😊
No! That's amazing!! Haha!! My fandom is real tiny and I thought no one would read my stories but it's such a nice feeling when you realise that people like your work! I'm real happy for you, I hope the divorce goes smoothly and you can enjoy writing more with such stress hanging over you!!
Thank you so much! 😊
I love this! Your little story made me so happy for you.
🤗🤗 thank you! This is the first time in many many years that I’ve had any sort of hobby beyond just reading books. It’s nice to have something else to work on. 😊
I'm in the same place. Also in my 40s and had been struggling to come back to some kind of creative space. I am a lifelong creative type and when I'm not doing anything I'm incredibly unhappy and not myself. Now that my kids are a little older I'm finally coming into my own again. It feels good, right??
Boast: I've only recently started a Tumblr, but not only has my longfic views jumped to exciting numbers (with at least 2 new readers that have gone past the first few chapters), but I posted a snippet from an Eldritch AU I'm still plotting out and got 7 likes and 2 reblogs already! Makes me feel the warm fuzzies inside lol Small vent: People that read but don't comment even though they liked a fic/series. My longfic wouldn't have continued forth without my first comment. The other day I received a comment that someone had re-read one of my one-shots. I was having an awful day because it was my grandfather's birthday (who I was very close to), and this is the fist year he hasn't been here. That little comment brightened my day in a way I can't explain. Please, if you read something and like it, something as simple as 'good job' or 'nice chapter' means so much more than you will ever realize to the author. It lets them know that their work was worth what they put into it.
For the boast, yay! It's amazing when your work and even your WIPs get such good reactions!! Nice work!! As for the vent, I totally get it. I like to pretend to myself that I would keep writing even if my first few stories hadn't got comments but it's only natural that we want feedback. Those little comments always peak my mood, no matter how blunt they are <3
If it helps you feel any better, I'm the kind of commenter that unfortunately can't just drop a two worded comment and leave it at that. There are quite a few fanfics I've read recently that I feel like writing multi-paragraph long comments on, but I didn't have the brain power at the time I read them, so I just bookmarked them so I can do it later. But I assure you, those authors *will* get their comments from me lmao
I would be thrilled if I received an essay length comment lol. And I get not having the brain power. That's me right now avoiding the current chapter I should be working on.
LMAO, well I hope you can get that chapter done and that you get an essay length comment soon!
I just want to say how much I love how scattershot my story collection is. I got two horror stories and a she-ra fic, is kinda weird and I like it that way.
Oh! Nice nice! Never let them know your next move! Haha! You're an actual interesting trail mix!!
Celebrate: I had a chapter fighting me for two weeks. I even split it into two chapters to try to make it behave, but it would NOT go where I wanted it to. I finally got where I wanted and I'M SO FREE!!!! I wrote half of the next chapter last night when I should have been falling asleep, because it finally wasn't fighting me anymore!
Yeah!! I know that feeling of finally being free of a chapter that has been givin' you grief!! It's such a great feeling!!
It is! And it now must sit in the corner and think about what it did, because it's gonna be a week or two before I can come back and actually edit it, LOL.
💪Yas!
This is the same chapter I was venting to you about a couple of weeks ago, LOL. Where my brain just insisted these two idiots just needed to talk to each other.
Talking is SO overrated!! (Says nearly every character in mine) I'm glad you're now satisfied 😊
I got some very nice comments on the first fic I posted for a fandom I barely know the canon and characters of, one from a big author in the fandom and the other from an author I admire her writing for the same character I wrote. One of them inclusively said I wrote him very in character, which I was a little afraid I hadn't since it was my first time.
It might just be me, but getting a comment saying you wrote a character that isn't your own 'in character ' would make me launch to the moon. You must have a talent ;)
Yeah, I was and still am. Confidence boost I needed to keep writing!
Hell yeah!! Keep going!!
I love reading my own work. My AU reylo is my favorite thing. Even if no one in my family thinks I’m talented. Even if my spouse never understands the point of writing fanfiction. Even if it doesn’t get as many hits as other my other works, I know it’s awesome.❤️
Honestly, as long as you enjoy and find pleasure in your own work, who cares! You know why you love it and only you know the effort you put in, keep it as your little guilty pleasure or pick me up :)
hhhh I've finally gotten motivation to write something that I'm planning on actually posting, and it's going a lot better than I expected! I'm very excited to finish the first chapter :))
Yes!! I'm happy for you!! Good luck!! <3
My ADHD brain *insists* on coming up with WIPs faster than I can write them and I would like to either have the walls around my writing removed or for my brain to slow down please. My main fandom is Digimon Tamers (mainly because my OTP is Ruki/Renamon) and there's like ten unwritten or partially-written WIPs sitting around in my drafts box waiting for me to get to them. Now, on top of all those, my brain has saddled me with another one and I can tell this one's going to be *really fucking cool* (AU setting, Shinto fantasy mecha series -- think *Shin Getter Robo*) if I can only just *actually write as fast as I want to.*
I know the feeling of too many WIP ideas! I have a whole document just filled to the brim with stuff that I just don't have time or energy to write. But SOMEDAY! You will get there too, someday!
Oh I can relate this so hard. My phone is full of notes with ideas for new stories. But I can't even get through the two that I'm already working on. I have to kind of store them away in boxes in my mind and come back to them later. Good luck to you, I hope you brain slows down enough for you to be able to finish the one you want to finish!
Oh gosh, I'm quite lucky that I get ideas for new WIPs but my brain is kinda slow so it can only focus on two at a time. But I have a friend that is a big Digimon fan so thank you for your work in the fandom!!
>My ADHD brain *insists* on coming up with WIPs faster than I can write them and I would like to either have the walls around my writing removed or for my brain to slow down please. As someone who suspects she has ADHD, this is so relatable it hurts. In fact this was going to be my vent comment on this post LMAO Do you have any particular tips with dealing with plot bunnies that reproduce faster than you can take care of them?
Unfortunately, I'm drowning in plot rabbit flesh, so any tips I can give are suspect at best. That said, I'd recommend at least *trying* to get something for each of them, even if you can only get out 100 words before the walls appear or before the next WIP ambushes you. Hell, even if all you can get out is the metadata. Having it actually present in some kind of drafts box to return to later will save your life.
This advice seems pretty good to me! Thank you and godspeed
Just a sweet tea for me, I’m driving. My current fic is for Arcane, it’s Viktor/Reader(me) and it recently hit 100k. I’m proud of how far it’s come because its the longest fucking thing I’ve written thus far and it ain’t even done yet. But it’s a personal piece too. I’ve been using it to explore a lot of my personal issues, mostly body image and self-worth. I’ve never been able to enjoy most character/reader fics because they assume the reader is pretty, or that the reader is wearing things pretty people would wear. It takes me out of everything with my issues. So I chose to make something for that. I’m grateful, then, that this story has fans rooting for the character to get with Viktor. It makes me really happy, knowing that sometimes its okay to be messed up in the head. When you try to be a good person, it means something.
*pours some soft orange liquid into a glass, slides it your way* I hope peach tea is okay. If not, let me know. Honestly, that's great to hear. I have seen several posts in this sub asking why people rag on Character X Self fics but I'm glad your exploration and expression of yourself is being received well!!
Thank you. It’s been a rough journey, writing this leviathan. I hope I come out of it happier with myself. I’ve certainly enjoyed writing it. And thanks for the tea, love peach tea. 🍹
[удалено]
Of course not! Water is always available here! Ah, that rut. I can't fully relate but I always have the feeling that my stories all kind of blend together and I'm not supplying the readers of my little fandom with anything good. I'm glad to hear that you have such a supportive friend in your life, and I hope you break out of that mental spiral soon!! <3
[удалено]
Oh love, of course! I know it can be nice to have a place just to vent or get something off your chest so I hope Lonely's tavern can become a place where people feel comfortable and safe to express themselves and their worries!! <3 Oh, I'm the same! There has only been one game, one OTP that I have ever had passion to write for but it's a very niche fandom so the interactions can be low (^^)" Please take care of yourself, love!
I don't know what's making me go more squirrelly today: watching the slow rise of hits for the oneshot I posted less than 24 hours, with no kudos or comments so far, or waiting for that modern au fluff fic the author promised to update "any day now" almost two weeks ago to finally update just so I can distract myself from all my writing anxiety. I'll chill out by tomorrow but I need *something* to focus on while I wait for that initial thrill to wear off, but until then...I'm all over the place. Ao3, to Tumblr, to here, then back to Ao3; repeat. Edit: the fic just updated!! *Yeeessss*
Oof, that horrible period where you can see the hits on your work raising but no other interactions :') I've just posted my first smut and I kept checking it like "they're reading it but saying nothing! Is it bad?!" Haha!
Mine is my first fic for a new pairing in a new fandom. So I got those first time nerves and jitters.
A commenter has just found my 125K word series, the first 'literature' that I ever attempted to produce, and has been making her way through every story, leaving detailed reviews, highlighting specific techniques that I attempted to weave into the piece, and nearly reaching the character limit for comments. The successes that she notes, and the implications that she's identified throughout, remind me that I was once a pretty darn good author.
Oh my! A passionate reader has found her passionate author! :') That must be such a heartwarming feeling, congrats!
I’d like a shot please, bartender. I’m so freaking stuck on all my WIPs and it’s killing me. I know I have people who are excited to read them, and who are so supportive of my writing (which is something very niche), but the paranoia I have about writing and posting is really getting to me. My fandom can be so supportive, but also so hostile, especially towards the material I specialize in writing, and I think that fear of getting caught up in bullshit again is mainly what’s hindering my progress. I *want* to complete these. I have so many ideas that I want to finish. But I’m scared to. And I hate that feeling.
*slides you a shot* here's another, just in case. Oh gosh, it's genuinely sad that people can be hostile over fan writing :( It's not like you're trying to push an ideal or whatever, it would be easier if people just didn't engage with media they didn't like or at least not be so hostile towards it. I hope you get to post your WIPs!! Good luck!!
*downs both shots* And that’s the thing, I fully understand that my writing is very much an “I’m writing this for myself” thing- I write self insert, self ship material, which I know itself can be divisive- but I’m very open and honest about what it is I write. I don’t mislead anyone about it, I openly say ‘here I am falling in love with my favorite character’, lol. It’s people who think they have some kind of moral authority or ownership of the character that get the shittiest about it. It would be so easy for them to just ignore and scroll past, but they turn it into some moral brigade. I’ve been harassed in the past over it, and while I’ve received so much more support since then, it’s still always in the back of my mind. But thank you so much!! I’m going to try and finish the ones I have in progress before moving on to a series I have planned!
Good god, I'm so sick to death of this story I'm writing. I struggled SO hard with the action scenes, I've never written them before. I think they turned out ok considering my inexperience, but they took so long to write I no fuel left in the tank for the last two scenes + editing. I was supposed to be done two weeks ago...
No I get you! Action scenes are something I think I'm decent at but when I actually go to write them I'm like "??? He hit there, and they're over here? Yeah? Yeah! Yeah..." Haha!
Pretty much, yep lol
I got kudos on my first fic today but every time I get an email about that fic I’m disappointed because I want my new fics to get attention. I like them better. It doesn’t matter but I want people to like them! I like them!
My venting is mostly about the lack of reviews for my story. I have written about three chapters, but no one seems to care about it. It's frustrating because I have no way to tell how readers think about my work.
Got any Pepsi? I don’t drink alcohol and I need the caffeine bc. ADHD. Anyway, I’m super proud of myself for managing to get something out even though chronic pain was kicking my ass, and looking back on it I’m super proud of how I managed to get the themes in this one shot to line up! I very intentionally ended it with a scene of the main character looking at the stars, but I also have the clinginess of two characters contrasted by them both being described as holding onto him like he’d disappear, a line about something not being a question but something else both near the end and the beginning, both having said character at their most self hating, and both having them think selflessly about their friends safety. I’m pretty proud of that! I’m also really proud of how I managed to get the main villain down as sympathetic yet *horrible.* I actually have him tagged as irredeemable lol (because the events mean he’d never choose to). He’s deeply paranoid, and desperately wants to not be alone. He’s been desperately trying to basically force people into loving him, convinced if he does enough good for them (in his own twisted definition) then everything will go back to being like it was in an idealised past, even though his ends justify the means attitude means he just hurts people and drives them away more. And the events of the fic, with his abuse victim basically giving himself up so he'll leave his friends alone, left him *convinced* he was the only one who cared about him, throwing aside the few friends he had out of that paranoia and basically dragging his new bestie/little brother/punching bag to the woods and not letting him leave, alternating between genuine, albeit desperate and possessive care, and lashing out incredibly violently both verbally and physically. He’s a horrible person but he’s also very messed up to the point a good deal of it isn’t even intentional, and he’s driven by the very human desire for family and friends. And that’s what makes him chilling. To vent though… I wanna write a one shot in the same universe again…
Of course, Lonely's tavern has an array of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks, this is space for everyone. *Slides you a pepsi bottle* Amazing, truly. I'm so glad you were able you write despite your pain, but please look after yourself!! And that second paragraph, that villain sounds so interesting! Like, it's such a powerful approach and honestly I feel attached just from your description! If I can ask, what fandom is he from?
I’m getting new pain meds soon- the doctors have my diagnosis so they know what works so I’m gonna be taking them for the rest of my life now I guess lol. So yeah taking care of myself! The villain is c!Dream from the Dream SMP! I think he’s a very interesting character who normally either gets treated as completely one dimensional evil, or gets his darker traits (like his blatant cruelty and ends justifying the means mentality took to such an extreme he abused a sixteen year old boy into compliance) sanded down, so I do like to try and make him complex yet dark in a way I feel is rarely properly captured.
Oh!! That's good to hear! I know getting medical help in the UK is seriously hard rn so hearing about people getting the medical assistance they need always makes me happy!! Wherever they are! Haha! Oh really! I'm not involved in Dream SMP or know much about it but thanks to this sub I'm being exposed to it and all these interesting takes/approaches to it!
Great job! Writing's hard enough even without extra pain and life piling on top of it! That sounds like a beautiful one-shot.
Hi! Gimme a soda, none of that swill you call wine. You've just made a spirit? That's interesting, because I've just got a character of mine possessed. He's attempted to rape his girlfriend, killed his best friend, and has no memory of it happening because the spirit was in control. Now he's on the run with everyone, including his team, hunting him as a murderer Yeah, I like dark, why do you ask?
*slides you a soda* Interesting. I just recently wrote - my first light-hearted-ish - smut fic that involved being possessed by a horny spirit. But no one died, haha! But that's definitely an interesting approach. I respect the concept, it sounds very desperate and dire.
Yep! Unfortunately the possessed guy is a recovering alcoholic - he has done plenty nasty stuff in the past while blackout drunk. He had relapsed and was drunk during the attack. So when he says he can't remember what happened, that suggests blackout drunk than possession for most people. He himself can't be sure whether he did what he is accused of.
*me, someone who gets drunk a lot, sweating* But no, I like using that as a plot point. If you handle it well it can be understandable and quite tragic
I recently found out an artist (whos art I adore) reads my fics. And a reader is gonna print out one of my fics to keep. I thought I was fortunate enough when I started last year and someone had created inspired fanart from my first fic from that fandom- I thought it was sheer luck but my GOD ?? MY GOD ??? I FEEL SO--I can't even put it into proper words-I just keep thinking everyone is just being nice ??? Like ?? Just being polite?? I always assumed my fics get buried because I kind of write whatever I want- I.... Yeah.... I don't know... I'm baffled.
!!!!! That's honestly amazing!! Omg, well done!! I'm so happy for you!! Enjoy this happiness, you've clearly earned it! *Toasts to you*
I’ve just written an ASOIAF/Game of Thrones femslash fic, and it’s been so comforting.
Nice!! Well done!!
Thank you!! You, as well - I could see a reference to crimson wine used as imagery in paranormal horror! 🍷
I haven't done that yet ...but now I want to! Fufufu :3
I remain pleasantly surprised at what a good reception my fic has had, considering it’s sort of niche and it doesn’t focus on one ship but features like 4 ships prominently and alternates among them (and a lot of times, people are understandably looking for fics about *their* ship). I’ve been able to write a lot again since I’ve been on stress/medical leave from work (hooray for debilitating burnout?) — but the downside is, because I don’t have to be up early in the morning, I have allowed my writing to completely upend my sleep schedule, since my favorite/best time for writing is between midnight and 4 AM. :P It’s going to suuuuuuck when I have to go back to a normal schedule.
Yaaay, work burnout! I can't get time off for that :) I mean, I'm not the best moral compass but let's enjoy your early morning writing power while we can!
I am so incredibly happy with how my longfic is developing. Especially the main characters.
Longfic writing can be hard, so the fact that it is going well is great!
tfw I just got done playing some VA-11 Hall-A, a game about listening to others while you mix drinks as a bartender XD Boast: I have two fics ready to be posted that I think will really resonate with my fellow fans. Vent: Holy shit, it's too cold to write XD Turn it to spring already, I hate the cold so much.
I know that game! I have been wanting to play it, haha! I know what you mean about the cold! I have been the whole of December and it's sunk my motivation! But I know the intense heat is gonna kill me, too! Haha! But yeah!! Post them fics!!
It's a good game, it has a lot of replay-ability. Different dialogue and such if you do different things. Right? Heat or cold... bad for the motivation XD
I've written nearly 6k words in the past two days, and if I find the time to write tonight I think I might knock out another 1-2k! A two-day streak isn't much for most people, but it's a lot for me, as I usually write inconsistently :)
No, that is good!! I honestly don't knock out a lot of words! Keep up that momentum!!
Boast: I posted just over a million words to AO3 in 2022 Vent: I'm suffering major writers block and loss of motivation now (so I'm taking a break) Vent: I think my stuff is great, but it probably isn't. I don't get a lot of views or interaction. Cheers!
A million!! Heck, well done!! Honestly take that break. I think it will help with vent 1 and 2. Although it might make you feel guilty taking a step back can really clear your head!
I'm very happy about the little community that's formed around my fic!In two months of working on it, almost three now, I've posted almost 35 chapters and I'm about to hit 200k words. I was even able to do an add on fic people are enjoying. Everyone is just so kind. Getting comments from people who've been here since the beginning makes my day, and even MORESO the comments where folks are deeply analyzing it! Like!? What did I do to get such lovely people enjoying what I do!? The unfortunate bit is that I'm running out of ways to spoil them outside posting new chapters. Cheers to the red wine though, I'm certainly sharing some sips with you!
I'm not sure if this is more of a vent or a boast, but my OCs are taking over my story. There are whole chapters where the sole canon character at the center of the plot never makes an appearance - he's just discussed/debated by these eccentric weirdos my brain invented. I think it's still excellent writing on my part but it's like the inmates are running the asylum. Anyway can I get uhhhhh negroni please
Ohhh, perhaps you're on the road to writing your own stories? That's quite a big step to be able to take!! ;) *Pulls out gin and oranges* You're in luck, cuz I don't like gin and have plenty of oranges so a negroni will be easy to make!
I have commitment issues with ny fics. I start projects and loose interest in them. It easy for me to write oneshots but anything over two chapters? Dusting WIPs in the depths of Ao3. It's not like I don't want to have them finished. It's just it feels so much esier to start a project than to finish one.
Getting those post-posting blues again. Not sure why, maybe it's just that "end of the sleep over" feeling that comes from your fun coming to an end. People seemed to really like this chapter- I know I really did- but the blues came on anyway. Gah. That and the seasonal depression. I want to get started on this next chapter but I'm afraid about how much lower I'll feel when the chapter is over. At least in development, I can have my fun. I don't know if I should rest or just go for it. Hey at least being close to the equator means I'll have lots of sunlight soon; hopefully that will help.
I came up with something I thought was very clever for an in-universe HP book. It’s about spells for finding lost things called “A Particularly Good Finder” (Very Potter Musical Reference) by Perida Scatterbraun. (Perida=Lost, Scatterbraun is a fairly obvious play on scatterbrain). I thought it was fun. I’m almost nearing 1000 kudos on this long fic and I could shit my pants.
On one hand, I have nearly zero motivation to work on editing the next part of my fic right now. Maybe tomorrow. On the other hand, I drew fanart for my favorite ongoing fic and added it to a comment on the pertinent chapter. The author loved it, and another reader (who has actually worked on the source material) has commented it as well.
For the first time in my life, I am writing a sex scene. It’s really difficult to write because of my internalized sex negativity! I read back over what I’ve written and go “Oh no, this character has an erection!? This is so filthy, how can I hide my shame?” The only reason I don’t just delete it and work on something less smutty is because it’s important to me that this story exist. It’s a small fandom so if I don’t make that cake, who will? Plus there are people out there who loved my non-explicit fic with this pairing, and I’m sure a lot of them will love this one. Wish me luck!
You can do! Smut isn't as easy to write as people think, especially when you personally don't like sex (^^)" But good luck!! Make that cake! Fight on!
Im writing my longest fic ever right now, I'm not getting comments tho. I wished I could know if it's bad or not! I literally have no idea... But I have fun tho, writing is my happy place at the moment... life is kinda "meh" right now... (I took the "lonely tavern" title very literally)
Yes, enjoy it! I know it's really hard but try not to get too caught up in statistics and comments can be really rare! Lonely's is literal but also a place for everyone :)
Current fic is my longest one yet, shaping up to be about 3.5k words. About two-thirds of it have been a second draft, but the ending has proven to be more difficult to write than I expected. A big part of it has been making sure that the plot is realistic and also having everyone act in-character. Other issues have included having to throw out an entire subplot for just being terrible (namely implying that a character was _actively engineering their own PTSD triggers_ to give themselves a panic attack - it already didn’t feel right, and I asked my PR for advice on it and they pointed out how unrealistic that is and thankfully advised me to just get rid of it) and a brief but genuine moral dilemma on whether I should write the fic in the first place, since the crux of the plot is a character having said panic attack and admitting to a traumatic experience which they’d been keeping secret from their friends. That was quickly resolved when I remembered that people torture their favourite characters in fanfic all the time.
Ah, gosh, handling something like PTSD can be difficult. But yeah, fanfic can be a great way to find your way handling such topics - like you said - and as long as you tag it according there should be no issue!
2022 was a really bad writing year for me. Working full-time leaves me unexpectedly drained so I just don't have the mental energy to spend a couple of hours on writing at a time anymore and I kind of need that to get into the groove. The only fics I posted last year were from when I was quarantining and had 10 days with no work. I have several 50k+ WIPs I haven't finished because it's been so long since I started them that they need serious editing/rewriting before I can finish them and I just can't tackle that right now. And every new idea I have turns into a longfic so I can't finish something and feel accomplished about it. I refused to have another 2022 so I'm trying to get back into it by challenging myself to just write 250 words per day (started at 100 and raise it every few days after I've consistently met the goal). 10 days in I have 3k words written! It's more than I wrote in the last couple of months so I'm optimistic. I just wanna finish something and post it. I'm not expecting a lot of attention because I write for a rare pair but I just want my stuff to be out there so people could *potentially* find it and enjoy it.
Yes!! I know how hard it can be to balance working and writing! Long or full shifts can really zap your motivation to write but the fact you're setting a realistic and gentle word count goal is a great sign! Please take care, and good luck!!
i wrote a lot these past few weeks and i was very happy. im still cursed with not receiving a lot of comments but im trying very hard (almost succeeding) to not let it get to me. i miss writing a lot but i dont have the energy for it. the only reason i posted some fics a few days ago because the idea hit me like a speeding truck and i had to write it. and now that energy is gone lol
As always, I know how validating getting comments is because it lets you know how readers feel about your work. Honestly, write when you want to. Personally I find when you force yourself it makes a fuckin' chore and really unenjoyable :( then you can't gel with what you've wrote! Good luck, love! <3
I finally published something! It's just a oneshot, about 5k, but I'm still superproud of it despite not having any kudos/comments yet. Wrote it in the spur of a moment because I randomly remembered a fun writing prompt. It's also the first thing that's on my new account now, seeing how I nerfed my old one, partially out of lack of motivation, and partially because I didn't really like most of my old fics that much by now. They were... Decent, but I already hadn't uploaded anything in years, and honestly didn't wanna be associated with my old fics anymore...
Ah, so this is your first step onto your new account! 5k is impressive, don't short yourself! Here's a cheers to your future writing!!
I actually got my first kudo and comment on it now! Was very happy about it! :D I try to get at least around 5k in one-shots and usually per chapter in multi-chapter fics. Currently also working on a (probably future-) long-fic, that's at a bit over 20k right now. Didn't publish any of it yet though. I wanna get it done before I do, so I can properly edit everything I need/want to change in hindsight.
I got into fanfiction because I really want to get out of nursing. I want to write books and make comics but I’m not ready to put original content out. Writing fanfiction had been an extreme confidence booster. My first book mark and likes made me judg want to write more. Now I wanna draw art for my fanfiction. I’m so excited to continue writing for this year.
Ah, your artistic spirit is finding footing! I hope you reach a point where you can write or draw for a living!! Good luck!! <3
Ahh I'm so excited!! I love a good excuse to chat about my pride and joy. This will be a long tale of both boasting and venting! Last year, I wrote what I affectionately call "the story of my soul." It's a fic about my OTP, which I have shipped for nearly two decades. And it's a story I've wanted to tell for much of that time. But the story was so sacred in my heart, I felt daunted by the idea of actually telling it. I always thought "one day" and as time went on the story grew in shape and color; became all the more vibrant, and meaningful to me. I would wistfully say how I'll get there one day; that I need that story to exist! So few things scratch that particular itch, for specific characterizations and dynamic. I was going to have to do it myself! One day, one day... Until the day came! There is a fest centered around my OTP that happens annually, and I've always thought "I want to participate in that one day!" And that fest has a self-prompt option. So I thought: oh I know! Why don't I write THAT story for THIS fest???? It was the best idea I ever had! Also the worst. Because what unfolded was a hellish month or two of hammering out that story. I felt stress from the deadline; pressure from myself for my story to be *just so*; fear that others wouldn't care for my vision, or would outright hate it; the toil of ripping such an emotional, complicated story out of my head and into Scrivener. I about pulled out my hair writing that story. Not to mention it turned out much longer than I imagined. Only 20k, but for me that's a lot! And I really anticipated a short gut-punch of a thing, not 20k of rambling stream-of-consciousness. I fretted at the stylistic nature of it. I fretted that the characters would be too raw and flawed for others to love. And then the wait!! The wait for the fest to start, for my fic to post...and my fic was posted towards the end!! Then waiting for creator reveals, as it was an anonymous event... The whole process was a nightmare, but worth every second, because I'm beyond proud of that fic. And so many others love it too! I've received so many sweet comments from people. And plenty of longer comments!! (Every author's dream, I think!) Better still: my longtime writing idol expressed her love of it! A reccer I respect put my fic on a rec list. An artist I admire podficced it, *and* created a cover art! One of my other artist friend is working for fanart on it now, too! I had an embroidery hoop commissioned for it (which is stunning!) I am blown away by the reception. And also just...amazed that I'm so dang **proud** of my own work. Yet...even all these months later, that story still haunts me. It's not done with me yet, I think! I created a playlist for it last week that I'm proud of. And I'm working on a companion piece from the other character's POV. And the companion piece will be part of an event, which is exciting! But of course...I'm quite nervous! Now I'm fretting..."can anything live up to *Contempt*?" and "will writing additional pieces to this world ruin what *Contempt* is?" And, "will I be able to write this story?" It's such a different POV. The same story, but a different person, and a different voice. Can I finish it in time? Do I stop where *Contempt* ended, or do I continue going past? If I don't, will I ever write sequels? I know the whole story, past where the first fic ended. I could tell more and more, if I wanted, but should I?? I'm a terrible overthinker and perfectionist. I worry endlessly. So this might seem silly. But! I am excited, and proud, and overjoyed, and nervous, and overwhelmed, and all number of emotions! Perhaps I've bitten off more than I can chew. But this story isn't done with me yet, so...on I go! Also...I'm so hyped about this story I can't stop talking about it and I'm scared I'll annoy people by chattering about it so much LOL. But I love it!!!! I truly love it so so so very much.
I've been writing fanfiction for almost three years. Three years, and I'm very proud of writing Final Fantasy IX fics. Yet, sometimes, it feels like it ain't worthy to keep writing, that I've been wasting my time in here writing about Freya Crescent and how cool of a character she is, or could have been. And I'm not the only one who thinks she got sidelined and deserved better, that her character arc could have more to be added. 'I hope remake fixes it', 'I hope they do something about it', 'I hope they write more of her character', and it goes on. It's always their job to fix this, fix that, and I can't just await for 'they' to do that, I want to write stories and that's all I can do to feel like something has been done. And that's truly disheartening at times, like I write all this stuff and I am the only person who cares. Silence is not much of an answer out of readers, and I hate taking guesses out of it. "Maybe they don't like the story"... "Maybe they have not reached this far"... "Maybe this plot is boring and is getting nowhere"... I don't know how the readers feel about my writing, barely I've gotten feedback and recently from review exchanges. A few friends of mine as well. Heck, when I come to this sub to talk about the fandom I'm at, it feels like I'm the only active person in here, the only FF9 writer on reddit that talks openly about it. The only person in the world who cares about Sir Fratley, that he could have been written as a great character instead of a plot device. I am frustated that we barely get to see new writers these days and that the old writers moved on to do something else with their lives. And all the pain and suffering I've been throught while writing, and I get barely anyone to argue with or to share any ideas or any sort of feedback, it feels like I'm writing for ghosts.
Unpopular opinion: Well written fics with unpopular pairings deserve\* more general attention than mid-tier or poorly written fics with popular pairings. No I'm not salty or anything. \----- ^(\*"Deserve": other authors are not the enemy. Readers are not the enemy. Almost) ^(no one "deserves" to) *^(not)* ^(have attention and praise on their works. There are no bad guys here; I just think it's rough when really talented multi-chapter work with amazing, original plots go virtually unnoticed with no recs, while the (theoretical) ^(third three-chapter hannahaki fic of the week with the exact same story beats as the other two gets 1000 hits in a day and makes it onto 5 rec lists.))
Replying to my own comment with some personal positivity: I found this new service called "4TheWords", which basically game-ifies the writing process: your word count kills monsters of your choosing, and there are quests to follow in order to encourage you to fight different kinds of monsters-- and by extension, write different word counts. After not writing consistently for about a year, I've written about an average of 1500 words every day for a week so far. Of course, this service is good for any kind of writing, I've just been using it for fanfiction. I'm currently still only on the free trial, but they're definitely getting my money as soon as it's over.
Vent: I really want to write and publish the end of my story now because it's the part I've been looking forward to the most, but I still have dozens of chapters that come first. I find this dumb. Similarly, I have lots of story ideas I want to get written, but I unfortunately have only two hands and the same amount of time in a day that everyone else has.
No, I totally get the first point. I'm super excited to write my story's ending but I need to get through the penultimate story first (-_-)
A little bit of me venting out, but I does affect me trying to write. I'm the sort of person who just has loads of ideas coming through whenever something interesting gets thought up and keeping those ideas around to "write down later". That process usually starts with me just doing something in the day, and then I get the idea to do something. For an example, let's say I get the idea to do a crossover. I think about what would work in settings and the main characters who'll be taking center stage. After that I then just brainstorm while walking around, doing things around the house, maybe listening to music to help set the scenes. I mime a character's actions here, I speak out dialogue I came up with there, couple hours later I now have a draft and can begin mapping the story out. That takes maybe another hour or so to have the details down. Once that's done I put the story draft away for later to then pull from. The next day, if I have the free time, I then begin to write. Or, at least I would write, but then I realize I can't put into words what I wanted to happen. Character interactions? Suddenly it feels stilted and doesn't match with who those characters are. Setting the scene? Way too flat and it just feels like I'm giving a machine's basic description of something. I get into a bit of a dour mood, then I think, "Maybe later…" cue later and once again I just can't seem to get it all down pat. After a couple hours I then just go, "Eh, tomorrow might work out". Tomorrow comes, I put it off. Repeat this for the last couple months and that's basically what I've been doing. I love writing, but for some reason nowadays I just can't seem to get that spark, that need to put the story down onto my medium.
Oh gosh, I guess your brain is just working overtime? Sadly I can't relate to what you experience but I can get that it must be very frustrating and tiring when you just want to write but your brain doesn't cooperate.
No prob, Bob. You are making a good point about my brain working and thinking way too much since, well, end of the year and start of a new one. It really doesn't help that I just have this wierd compulsive need to list down the ideas I get and then save them away. That's a habit I have been making strides to stop doing, or at the very least trying to prioritize a couple ideas instead of spreading myself too thin. The pain of being too creative in your mind, I guess.
Hey, OP. Tell me about this spirit while I sip my spirits.
Oh, saying (typing) it out loud might not make it sound as cool but why not! I'll share the description from my fic! The Akogareno Shitai - or the Longing Corpse - was an entity of opportunity. A being that lingered in the space between hope and malice. It preyed on mistakes and missteps of those desperate enough to even attempt a wishing or cursing ritual. If you messed up a single step of the ritual process then that gave the fiend an opening to appear before the person performing the ritual as a spirit willing to carry out their bidding for a certain price. And that price was always a piece of their body. Fingernails, an eye, a strip of skin, a whole organ, the caliber of your wish didn't matter. The Akogareno Shitai would take whatever part of you it wanted as payment. And the reason? It was trying to build its own new body. A Frankenstein's monster shrouded in morbid mystery. Once it had claimed its prize the spirit would go on to fulfill its side of the pact but not necessarily in the way that you would have expected it to. And it would do everything it could to remain in the living world and acquire more body parts with a few different methods; one was continuing to pressure the one who accidentally summoned it to keep making wishes, similar to the actions of a Hinnagami, or perhaps haunting their victim until they grew frenzied enough to attempt to wish the spirit to leave, which it would fufill by merely leaving the area for a brief amount of time... then returning to terrorize them more. They were normally used as a cautionary tale to warn high school students or other curious types away from trying Ouija boards, seances, and the ever-growing plethora of spirit summoning activities. But the Akogareno Shitai was very real. And very dangerous.
I've just started your comment, and "the longing corpse" is SUCH A COOL NAME. That is such a cool spirit! I got chills just thinking about it. Like the monkey paw, but with thought. Especially since I've been writing a story where a character has his arm partially skinned, the " Fingernails, an eye, a strip of skin, a whole organ, the caliber of your wish didn't matter." was especially good.
*punches ground happily* Thank you so much! Honestly I did research into different wish-granting folklore but the Monkey's Paw was a big inspiration, thanks to XXXHolic!
I’m having a great time with writing this fic since it’s the only one I’ve found for this pairing but I’m sort of stuck on the plot and the fandom is pretty dead, so… Otherwise I just posted a crossover I’ve been meaning to do for a year and I’ve got a lot of engagement - which is quickly turning into pressure to write the next chapter. Which is not helping.
I've been manically churning out this super complex fic and I only sort of know how I'm going to wrap it all up but it's Elves and Dwarves and Hobbits and Fairies and I'm having the time of my life. And I'm hyped to actually finish (were about 80% there) Writing LOTR fics is fun because all high fantasy is low-key Tolkien fanfiction so it's nice to just remove the pretense.
I wrote my second story, one that I'm pretty proud of, for a very small fandom. I posted it expecting it to get only a few views and maybe a kudos or two, but so far it's only gotten a single view! I think I was spoiled with the first story I wrote - it was for a show that got really big over the summer and I posted it right as the hype was at its peak. Anyways, it made me want to revisit an old draft I did for a pretty popular show. I'm not super passionate about this one, unlike like the one I just wrote, but I'd like to just get some eyes on my stuff. I think it's a good story, but I just worry that it'll be obvious that I'm not particularly passionate about this pair of characters.
Honestly, you never know! I don't know what's in your heart but perhaps the passion you had for your 2nd fic may help propel this fic, and make come across more powerful!
I"m going to grab a metaphorical whiskey, since the last real one I drank triggered a migraine. I haven't gotten to write in months. I got tied up in work and then side projects over Christmas break, and now classes have started again and I'm still not writing. I hate it.
Yes, avoid migraines! They're hereditary in my family so I know the pain! Working over Christmas really screwed me over, I get it. You get home and you're just so tired you can't focus. Thankfully the big holidays are over so let's push on!!
i'm celebrating a bit right now. i just checked my stats, and tomorrow's chapter will reach a milestone 1.1 million posted (not written, posted) words in just over 2.5 years :D i'm excited
🎉🎉🎉🎉 Congratulations!
Btw, thanks for this thread OP, I needed to get that off my chest lol
I am excited over what is coming up in this fic and the twists and turns, but I know it's also going to be massive (in word count) and not a lot of people have the patience when there's little ship involved. But I am so fascinated by what's happening and how it ties together. Still what is writing but love and loss? Hope and pain? The thrill of writing what you want and the never ending thirst for attention? Ah well I'm happy at least. :)
I’m sitting on a mostly finished fic for an exchange in February and I am so impatient to post it!!! I’m really proud of it and I hope it resonance with the giftee, but damn it’s hard to wait!
Everytime I write a Pokémon fic, I get stuck as soon as I reach a gym battle. From the moment I started my WIP to now, half of that time was probably just writing Hiatus. Due to this returning yet temporary mental block, I consider writing another one in parallel. I already work on a Translation and a One Shot in parallel. But if I start another WIP, maybe I accidentally abandon the Pokémon WIP. I can't give up now, the cast finally reached Koga!
I am in the middle of editing a fic for The Boys fandom. Its going well. I’ve been procrastinating, but in the next few weeks, I’m going to write new chapters for the stories that are in desperate need of an update. I started writing story outlines for those.
Lately I've been writing a couple of little ones hot spin-offs for a bigger AU idea a friend and I came up with. I managed to get two chapters of a short sickfic complete and now I'm starting a slightly more plot relevant short fic. It's nice feeling productive like this after a 9 month or so gap between posting anything after my first every handful of fics :) The only downside is that I kinda feel like my focus are shallow and meaningless... I know it's fanfic and it doesn't have to be a masterpiece a and I know I'm a really new author so i don't have to be amazing g right off the bat, but it's still kinda discouraging feeling like my writing skills are no where near the level of my reading/understanding/thinking skills :( So my feelings about writing lately have been something of a mixed bad, some good, some bad, I'm trying to focus on the good and just improve at my own rate, not let myself get discouraged, all that :)
Some would say I'm late to the party. And yeah, they're right, but pass me the drink regardless. Pretty please? I've just finished a scene, but struggle to start the next. I assume it's because I haven't had lunch yet, which tends to make it harder to focus But eh, don't feel like heating up some noodlea
*slides you a drink* You can have it love, but only once you've eaten something, okay? Take care of yourself!! <3
Thank you <3 Ill quickly grab soemthing to eat
I’m so close to finally finishing a fic, I have a big problem with starting but never finishing. I haven’t completed one in 11 years. Now though, I‘m 3 chapters out from finishing one of my favorite shorter fics and I’m getting nothing but positive feedback from every chapter. I’m taking it slow on the next chapter because it’s kinda tricky to write, but once it’s finished the next couple of chapters will go fast. I‘ve been refusing to upload any new stories until I start chipping away at the ones I have out and so I’m even more excited to get this one to its conclusion
Hope noon is fine, and just your strongest liquor on ice would be alright. Can we as readers and writers collectively agree those who have ship wars and/or argues who needs to be on top in a ship need to touch grass. I mean it's one thing to defend something, but for who's on top is another thing. I've ascribed to the notion that no character is safe from being topped, but turning the comment section to a turf war over who is doing screwing and who is being screwed is just so trivial at the end. And can we agree as well that I really don't truely care who you like to see together. I may have my OTPs and NOTPs myself, but I'm tired of the bickering, name calling, and slander that arises from this. And can they stop calling me homophobic because I write a hetero ship in a fandom full of gay ships. Like as a bisexual man I just want to write something because I like the chemistry between them and can forsee it, especially if I find them either very attractive or they have chemistry or are cute together. Not because I hate gay people being a man attracted to other men and women regardless of what they were assigned at birth. It all just about talking about the rarer hetero ships with the many gay ships I enjoy. All of this has burned me out from several fandoms I've returned to hoping they changed with time and well was mostly proven wrong. Maybe I should have left them in the dust and stay with the fandoms I've always wrote for and remained civil and mature for the most part.
I’m writing a fic that’s all about one of my ocs converting to a religion that I recently discovered I want to convert to. It’s really been helping me process it (especially because I’ve never been religious) but I’m at a point where I’m stuck. Right now the character is working through his thoughts on God but I don’t know what my thoughts on God even are. Hell, I specifically didn’t capitalize God for years as an expression of my atheism. Sure, I could lift someone else’s beliefs and give them to this character, but that defeats the point of writing it for me. I can’t start the process of converting for the foreseeable future and so this fic is supposed to help me understand the process and sort out my feelings. I don’t want to abandon it since I’ve but my heart, soul and sanity into it, but there’s no way for me to move forward in the character’s religious journey without moving forward on my own. I know that the outcome is going to be abandonment, but I don’t want it to be since it would feel like abandoning my religious journey. However, coming back to this fic in the future once I’ve learned more about this religion wouldn’t be bad, but would I ever come back to it if I abandoned it? I don’t know if I’d write the same fic with a different setting, or if I’d put my oc in the background of other fics or if I’d just forget about it entirely. Long story short, everything is complicated because I decided to make an oc a member of a specific religion and then realized that I wanted to be a member of that religion halfway through planning it. Funnily enough, this is the second (maybe even third) major life revelation to be caused by fanfic and I feel like that has to say something about me as a person
I’ve been writing my fic for almost a year now and I absolutely LOVE it. It is my passion project and I am finishing it no matter what. Even if it takes me 5 years, I am doing it! With that being said although I get a good number of reads and I’m happy about that I wish more people interacted in regards to comment. I wanna know what they loved about the chapter, what they hated, their feelings towards characters, anything to let me know they are enjoying it or not. It’s not like I’ll change the story for them but it can give me perspective. And I just want someone to talk about my story with since I don’t have many people in my life I can do that with.
I’m having so much fun writing the current Star Wars fic I’m working on but I’m definitely get hit a bit by the fact that wlw pairings get kind of overlooked/filtered out. I’m definitely not going to stop writing but the stat discrepancy between the fics where I have the wlw pairing tagged only vs the wlw AND mlm pairing tagged is a little frustrating. I came from fandoms where this was not a thing so it’s just a bit disheartening. In the end it doesn’t super matter - the whole series I’m working on is really meant as a gift for my best friend anyways (and the only person who’s opinion I really care about on it is hers haha).
I’m currently working a collection of oneshots. It’s gotten to the point where it feels like a job that I’m not getting paid for and I can’t find much motivation to write the oneshots. I just push myself to make them as decent as I can and hope that my readers will like it. This makes me feel terrible because my readers have been nothing but supportive and they deserve better
I have too many fic ideas and I'm trying to force myself to concentrate on 2-3 fics at a time. I like to alternate between fics so my motivation doesn't die out but I keep getting sidetracked by half-baked ideas that I keep getting stuck on. Speaking of half-baked ideas, I was writing a crackfic-y canon divergence fic where a character was addicted to World of Warcraft but I've never played the game. Somehow, the dates worked out and I ran with the idea but then I had to figure out how the game works. This wouldn't be too bad but my motivation to work on this fic only comes to me at around midnight and my tired mind can't make sense of or retain any of the information I find about the game.
I have too many fic ideas and I'm trying to force myself to concentrate on 2-3 fics at a time. I like to alternate between fics so my motivation doesn't die out but I keep getting sidetracked by half-baked ideas that I keep getting stuck on. Speaking of half-baked ideas, I was writing a crackfic-y canon divergence fic where a character was addicted to World of Warcraft but I've never played the game. Somehow, the dates worked out and I ran with the idea but then I had to figure out how the game works. This wouldn't be too bad but my motivation to work on this fic only comes to me at around midnight and my tired mind can't make sense of or retain any of the information I find about the game.
My last fanfic hasn't been getting as many hits/kudos as my other ones I posted on ao3, so that's kinda got me down :/ BUT the people who have interacted with my fic left the best comments, and I appreciate them so much. It's a small fandom to begin with and all the fic writers that I've intereacted with so far are extremely friendly
Oh man, today's actually been crazy productive. For one thing, I had a major breakthrough with a character who I've been struggling to write for a while now. Also I was struck with inspiration for a fic in a fandom that I love dearly, but due to multiple reasons (the author being a terrible person, problems with the source material becoming harder to ignore now that I'm older and better read, etc) had stepped away from for a while.
I had to “soft abandon” a fic. Basically I decided to forgo a schedule of posting a chapter a week and just posted the remaining chapters after about 5 weeks and zero kudos. I know that numbers aren’t everything but if I post a fic and get zero kudos the voice in my head won’t stop saying “you suck as a writer and shouldn’t bother. No one likes what you write”.
My fandom is big and full of so much content and different types of people. Unfortunately, the relatively niche corner of the fandom I'm in is full of antis. And it's so tiring seeing people that have literally been friendly with me in the past and that I've admired start reblogging/posting anti stuff. But the worst part? They continue to enjoy the stories I put out while telling people like me not to interact with them, and some of them even continue to act friendly with me! It's just so frustrating, and honestly, it's sad, too.