#ao3 metafandom

[miriam-heddy]

New Here?

Massive amounts of fanfic writing over a show's summer hiatus is a pretty common thing. I see some Tivo fans are patting themselves on the back. Maybe they're new to the ebb and flow of fandom.

The wait between Harry Potter novels was when the big stories happened--the ones that included novels far better than what JKR produced.

Hiatuses give people time to write through whole seasons instead of between-episodic stuff like ep tags.

And Methos completely caught fire in Highlander, and stayed there, but there really wasn't any man before that who had as many sparks with Duncan.

As for Buddie, if Tim Minear believes he's getting a S9 & S10, he may feel less pressed to Buddie Buck & Evan in S8. Endgames happen at the end. Maybe Tim is getting good vibes from ABC?

[catreginae]

General reminder that it's against AO3's TOS to mention making money on your fanfics. Don't advertise on AO3 at all.

Did you write a fic as a commission? Don't mention it on AO3.

Do you have a ko-fi/patreon/other site that lets people give you money? On AO3, you don't.

I think at best, you can mention you have social media platforms and you can mention money links on the other platform (but you can't say that your money links are on your other platofrms, just say you have other the platform).

It's a bummer that it's hard to make money with fanfics vs fanart but this rule on AO3 protects AO3 and all the works on there. "Nobody makes money on here!" is a defense. Don't ruin the defense.

[miriam-heddy]

Heads Up: Make some mistakes you didn’t catch? You can edit a story you already “published” on AO3. Isn’t that cool?

https://archiveofourown.org/faq/posting-and-editing?language_id=en#editwork

options for when you no longer like a fic you wrote

Orphan it. By adding it to the orphan_account on AO3, you remove your name from the fic and from the comments (if you replied to them). The work is removed from your account and from your stats. You will not see future stats or comments or kudos on that work unless you click into the fic yourself to investigate. You can no longer edit or delete the work after you orphan it. You can not get the work back.

Add the fic to an anonymous collection. This will remove your username from the story and from the comments if you choose to reply, but you will retain ownership of the work and still be able to edit/delete/orphan it in future. You can also regain ownership at any time by removing it from the anonymous collection. 

Add a disclaimer or other author’s note to the top of the story explaining how you feel, or what’s changed since you wrote the fic. 

Edit the fic. Either make changes to the existing story on AO3 or create a new story and include something in the summary or an author’s note that says you are rewriting your own work. You can even link the two together in a series or with the inspired by function. 

Delete the fic. While this will sadden readers for whom it might be a favourite story, this is always an option. Your Archive is your own, and you can control which of your works remain on the internet. When you delete your work, you’ll receive an automated email from the Archive with your fic attached as both a .txt file and a .html file. The comments won’t be included.

Remember that you wrote that fic at a time in your life when you felt a certain way or had a certain skill level. There’s no shame in that. You had to start somewhere to get where you are today. ❤

[icannotreadcursive]

I feel like there’s needs to be, like, handbook for authors who post on Ao3 for effective metatext.

By metatext I mean like tagging, summary, and authors notes (especially initial authors notes at the beginning of a fic). The means by which we communicate to our readers what they’re getting into.

Because we kind of all have to learn it by osmosis and there are conventions but nobody’s really taught them at the start, so there’s inconsistencies and misunderstandings or people just not knowing things through no fault of their own.

This ends up breeding frustration and confusion and in the worst cases resentment, hurt, and aggression.

I’m severely tempted to make such a handbook and get it circulating.

I think it would do fandom a lot of good.

[thepurplebones]

Me, seeing the reason why Supernatural is trending again:

[zeldreamia]

Tysm for bringing awareness to this!!! It’s absolutely important to know how to spot a bot and to report. And, even if it may drop your views on fanfics, definitely block guest comments if they feel they’re too damaging to your fic, your mental health, and/or you don’t wish to deal with them

That said, whether it’s a bot or a hater, neither of their opinions matter in the long run. Always doing your thing 🥰

Omg just got my first hate comment on ao3 and it honestly made me laugh

Nevermissaspecila guest account took the time out of their day to give me “heartfelt” critique pertaining to my writing on my “Haunted Views” fic. I don’t mind critique or ways to improve on my writing, I absolutely encourage it and if there are ideas to improve a story or to improve my writing skills, I really do hope someone wishes to acknowledge it!! /gen

TRIGGER: However, I find it very interesting that they used the term “lobotomized squirrel” to describe my writing skills 💀

I couldn’t help but laugh at the “emotional depth of a puddle” description when the whole comment seems to be simply rage bait fjghghehrgdg

Told me to delete my account, get a real job, stop “polluting the internet with your worthless existence” yada yada yada “fundamentally pathetic human being” blah blah blah

I did report the comment as spam and deleted it from my fanfic, but I wanted to take the time to tell this to anyone who decided to read this post to now:

YOUR WRITING MEANS SOMETHING!!!!!! You weren’t meant to write if you never had the urge or interest to, and so many of you choose to give us your creativity, inspiration, thoughts, and genius to entertain, give experience, and create an everlasting fandom to so many people. Writing is only “shit” to the people that that look no deeper than their own ego

A final word: the reason for writing is to write for yourself. Give us your skills!! Show us your talent!!! Let us know your thoughts and your beautiful, incredible minds!!!

(P.S. If someone hates you for doing something good, you’re doing something they could never achieve 😉)

[spn-season-16-chronicles]

SPNews

9th August 2021

Today shall be marked in fandom history books as Castiel/Dean Winchester tag crosses 100k threshold as the first ship in AO3's history. Because of how the website operates the actual 100 000th fic is unknown, but there is a handful of candidates for the title. (for me it was this fic by warcriminalapologist).

Destiel inevitably trends on the hellsite, as well as on twitter, with tag DeanCas100k there.

Misha, core perpetrator and instigator (joking(kinda)), tweets - and posts about it across all of his active social media platforms - about ship reaching this gigantic milestone. In few words that you normally don't expect from actors. Trends over twitter almost instantaneously. Fandom theoretises about Misha having an account on AO3 and reading (and writing) fanfiction. And top/bottom debate gets reignited yet again

All the love and respect for fanfic writers who have put countless hours into creating that frankly unreadable ammount of wonderful material. And for artists and beta readers putting effort into creating all those fics as well. And finally for the readers, creating that community and appreciating creators with good words, encouragement and kudos. You all are amazing

What will happen tomorrow?

And now weather

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/716061146519633920/please-please-report-people-who-put-their-ko-fi

Is kicking and screaming about how "there’s literally no argument that can win when popular blog says you’re wrong," a cute way of saying, "I've realized how many people disagree with me, and I have learnt new information that makes me nervous about insisting that AO3 is *checks notes* run by cops, but backing down humiliates me so I'm going to pretend I'm losing this argument because I'm a victim being bullied by a BNF"?

--

Oh, it could be a million different things.

But it for sure is pretending that somebody with a few thousand tumblr followers is categorically different from somebody with... a few hundred? A few dozen? It's not like one can tell on Tumblr! Nobody would even know how many followers I have if I didn't say now and then, and I've had people whining about my supposed popularity way back to when I had few followers but had a rash of asks in a row. ("Waaah, people interact with you, so you're more popular than meee!!" Jesus.)

This idea that ~BNFs~ are soooo different goes back decades, and it's poison.

And I don't even mean that you're making some rando's life suck by treating them like some fake internet micro-celebrity (though most people branded "BNF" do have a worse fandom experience after they get popular). I mean that it's bad for oneself to perceive categorically different Celebrities or Authorities in people who are actually peers.

You're not lesser than those other people just because you don't have a hit fanfic. You're not even necessarily less popular.

Yeah, sometimes, if you shit on so-and-so's objectively awful fanfic, their legions of annoying fans will show up to yell at you, and that's annoying. Fandom and tumblr fame are still on a long sliding scale. This isn't BNFs vs. Regular Joes: It's a bunch of people with constantly fluctuating social ties interacting in a thousand directions with a thousand power dynamics every moment.

"I'm less popular so no one will listen to me" is a cop out people use when they aren't confident in their own arguments.

I've been tumblr popular for, what, two years? Three years? I was just as willing to argue with people about things I believed in before that. It's only the number of reblogs agreeing with me that has changed.

If you make a good point and you argue it well, some of the bystanders will agree with you.

If you make transparently idiotic points, many of them will not.

This is what it means to be in an intellectual society that values discussion.

And if you don't like coming to the salon to argue with the other nerds intellectuals... then why on earth are you interacting with the kinds of posts I make?

It's particularly true for my own posts because I read my entire activity list and notice commentary, including tag commentary, but I'd have this assumption for any post that gave off Metafilter/Reddit/LJ's Metafandom type vibes. Come to the discussion place, signal that you're open to discussion, expect discussion to ensue.

[miriam-heddy]

I liked it better on AO3 back before fanfic writers…

…used the tags to list every sex act they included n a story and whatever else was on their mind.

Yes, I know. This was like hundreds of years ago. Wev.

[evolving-dreamer]

The life of an fanfiction writer aged fine as wine

OKAY WHOEVER READ MY ROMITRI FANFIC ON FANFICTION.NET FROM LIKE 12 YEARS AGO AND LEFT SEVERAL REVIEWS SLAMMING ME FOR MY RUSSIAN TRANSLATIONS (that I got from google translate) PLEASE STOP I WAS LIKE 13.

[catgirl-catboy]

Ironically, metafandom writing (such as essays about how fandom operates) ARE a stated part of Ao3's mission statement. So an essay about how nasty incest shipping is IS, in fact, the kind of thing Ao3 wants to preserve :D (This is a common mistake, tbh, more people SHOULD know that they are 100% allowed to put their meta, literary and critical analysis, and fandom historics on Ao3. Meta March Matters is an event all about this, I highly recommend checking them out)

calling it an essay is a bit of a stretch. More of a guilt trippy rant...

[the960writers]

A handbook for fanfiction writers on Ao3 regarding effective use of meta text, including good tagging practices.

Chapters: 14/14 Fandom: Fanwork Research & Reference Guides - Fandom, Writing Guides - Fandom Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Additional Tags: Writing, Writing Guides, Metafandom, Metatext, Fannish Nonfiction, Writer Resources

[twistedsinews]

Questions for an Author

Tagged by @chyrstis and @guileandgall

Tagging... @corpsebrigadier, @gatticus,  @faejilly, @ anyone who wants to do the thing!  <3

Name: FireEye

Top 5 Fandoms Written: I'm sitting here not knowing the answer to this question, so.  *shrug?*  All of them.  By numbers I have no idea (my fics are scattered across the internet, and my personal are behind in updating), by word count even more difficult for me to determine, by how much fun I've had?  *hands!*  Saints Row is probably up there, Cyberpunk is ticking up, can I count the Final Fantasy metafandom as one or is that too much?  :P

Top 5 Fandoms You Want To Write For/More: Moon Hunters, Ultima, Final Fantasy V, Trials of Mana, and what else am I gonna do with all of these Cyberpunk feels?

Stories You Wish More People Knew About: So I just took a glance at my AO3 stats, and... a lot of my stories are doing as well as could be expected, particularly for how many tiny, tiny fandoms I write in?  Granted, some of them have been there for a good long while.  But...

1. I remain stupidly proud of Thalassophobia

2. I still love the adventurous theme of Frightful Tides of Smoke and Ash.

3. To Catch a Thief got plenty of love, but I am still amazed at how it turned out and yet fuck that tense in particular, omfg.

Ship(s) Written The Most: No actual clue.  AO3 gives me Faris/Butz, but I think I've surpassed that with V/Jackie alone in the past month, so.  *sideeyes*

Character(s) Written The Most: See above, re: clue.  Per AO3, Butz, Faris, and Gat are tied for 15 each.  XD

How Many OCs Do You Have: At least 24 I can count off memory, some more developed than others, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some and there've been some I've misplaced over the years. (Tabletop characters, etc.)  Not counting random characters I develop solely for the sake of plot, or characters from original works.

How Many Series Do You Have: ehhh.  On AO3?  One, properly.  It has the prologue of an old WiP in it that was supposed to be 1 of 4, and nothing else.  I could probably gather quite a few of my oneshots into series, but I’d have to sort them out.  Other than that, I have two series in progress (sort of), one being the one on AO3 as already mentioned that I plan to revisit and finally write out in its entirety and one being my Ultima thing.

What Do You Do With Fics You’re No Longer Interested In? It's less I'm not longer interested and more I get easily distracted by bright shiny objects.  Anything I haven't finished stays in my WiP folder, under the completely reasonable assumption that I'll finish them all eventually someday.  :P

Coming Soon: uh... cheesy confessions, Nomad!V's living in an apartment hijinks, T-Bug~♥, Kidnappings (plural apparently), The Quest of the Avatar (I've been saying for years), and a (one (1)) metric fucktonne of fix-it fic.

Not yet started? All of the above, and then some.  Keep in mind: I write most things in one sitting.  (Which is part of why I don't have that many longer fics to my name).

...actually, that's not the entire truth - I've had small snippets of my Ultima saga on paper for a decade or more and have bits of dialogue and "[premise]" stuff thrown into files for later.  It's just... not really started more than what's in my head, you know?

Line From A WIP: “Hath no one ever shown you compassion before?”

Do You Accept Prompts? ...yes?  I don't think I've ever gotten any when I wasn't explicitly asking for them or reblogging a prompt list, but *shrug?*  I will happily take prompts.  XD

How Do You Feel About Kudos? I do not in fact think Kudos are single-handedly responsible for the decline of comments on fanfics or comment culture in general, and I think they are a perfectly fine way of saying 'I liked the thing!' if you have nothing more of which to comment.  I have seen people talk about kudos that make me second guess, and I get a little irrationally worried when I get comments without kudos, but ultimately I try to trust that it's basically a like button and I am fine with that.  In short: I like them.

Do You Read Fic As Well?  Yes, although not as much as I used to.  Like, back when I'd go through pretty much anything that looked as though it would fit my fancy in any fandom I happened to enjoy so extensively that I'd not have anything left to read.  Recently, I've been reading mostly fic I get in exchanges or that I've prompted on Tumblr and not really that much else.  It's something of a dumb egotistical anxiety thing, though: I read other people's stuff and get self conscious about my own writing, feel super uncreative, my capacity to actually sit down and write feels inhibited, and/or I feel like I'm going to plagiarize something by accident (which I don't think is as far fetched as it sounds, how awkward - my creative brain gets stuck on weirdly specific things at random and doesn't always keep in mind where it got them from) or someone will think I got the idea from [already known fic].  It makes me sad I've fallen so far away from it, because reading fic is something I enjoy deeply, but... that's why I'm trying to make an effort to get back to it.

[icannotreadcursive]

There are!

A lot of times they stack, so there will be broader level fandom tags like “Marvel” or “Star Trek” then more specific subtags that stack underneath them.

So a search by “Star Wars - All Media Types” which is the broadest Star Wars tag will pull up work only marked with a subtag like “The Mandalorian”

I go over this and similar matters in the Ao3 metatext guide I’m working on, which should be edited and ready to post in the next few days.

okay uh. do fandoms like marvel or the witcher that have multiple fandom tags on ao3 have a catch all tag?

[rhienfic]

so i’m linking up with my last ao3 account today. 

It’s not really that big a deal, ultimately, but I feel like telling a little story here, under the cut, for anyone who’s interested, or who wonders why on earth I used to have three separate ao3 accounts. (And maybe so nobody thinks there are stolen-story shenanigans happening, like did a few years ago; thank you to the people who noticed and told me about that, yet again.) 

Once upon a time, seven years ago, I had three AO3 accounts, and their names were rhien, werebear, and snowflake8. 

I was very new to fandom and fanfiction. I was not new to writing, but I was VERY new to writing anything even a little explicit, and I was Extremely Nervous About It. (Aren't we all?) 

In addition, when I tumbled into fandom and fanfiction, I did so in the most meta way possible: through Rainbow Rowell's book Fangirl... but not the actual main story of Fangirl. (Which I love, but.) No, no, it had to be the Simon Snow parts of Fangirl. I wanted more Simon Snow like I've maybe never wanted anything in my life. I'll write more about this later, maybe, but for now, suffice it to say that I was head over heels, writing fanfiction of characters and books that DID NOT (yet) EXIST, and the thing of it is -- at first there was almost nothing in the fandom. ("Fandom." Metafandom? How can there be a fandom for books that aren't even real?)  

It was a heady, but weird time. And because the fandom (metafandom?) was SO INCREDIBLY TINY, it made me feel very, well. Conspicuous. VERY conspicuous. I ran a blog (worldofmages) where I tried to collect anything that anyone made about the Snowverse, or even vaguely related, or that looked like it might possibly be related. I commissioned art, I ran a couple of giveaways, I started the worldofmages wiki (though I don't know how to use it, so thank goodness for all the people who contribute).

And I wrote fic. So did other people! It was fantastic. But early on -- conspicuous. At one point I had, by wordcount, written more than half of the total Simon Snow fic that existed. (That I could find, anywhere, and believe me, I LOOKED.) At one point, in 2015, if you googled "Simon Snow fanfiction," you got my fics, first hit, first page. And that was very cool and wild, don't get me wrong! But also it was a very weird thought when I, a fandom n00b, wrote an E-rated fic for the first time (the first one in the fandom posted on AO3) and then thought -- omg, what do I do with this.

Basically, I was extremely anxious about it, and what I ended up doing was making a separate AO3 account just because I felt so damn VISIBLE and it was freaking me out.

But now it's later -- much later. Things have changed. There are real books now -- two! with a third on the way! -- and the fandom is HUGE compared to those early, pre-CO days. Huge and active, and I can't even EXPRESS how much joy I get from seeing all the art, the fic, the events, the zines... it's amazing! There are so many people now who care about this the way me and a few, few people used to, all alone, and it's AMAZING. 

So. Turns out, life is too short for misplaced shame and fear, and I want to be a more integrated person. (Even if it means embracing the part of me that writes weird E-rated vampire stuff. Maybe especially then.)

So here we are. 

[multsicorn]

OH OH i think i’ve found where all the Good Omens meta is.... it’s on dreamwidth.... lol

oldskool fans with an oldskool fandom (that recently exploded x ten thousand, but y’know, just how many of us have loved this book since before we found *fandom,* maybe) and I’ve seen your names since metafandom, yep.  (nope, no one has seen my name.  i was lurky mc lurkerson back then.)

do i have the impetus to try to join in?  i really don’t know.  and i don’t *need* more things to spend hours reading.  but i’ve gotten so used to assuming that unlike fanfic, which is wonderfully centralized on ao3, i mostly won’t even be able to *find* meta... it’s something.  idk.