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Lesser-known steps of the writing process:

Finding all the paragraphs where you used some hyper-specific word more than once

Rearranging paragraphs that you swear you wrote in the right order but turned out to be totally backwards

Going for a walk, coming up with the perfect line, and forgetting it as soon as you get home and open your laptop

Creating a separate document where you can dump all of those nice sentences that no longer fit in anywhere

Waking up in a cold sweat because so-and-so was supposed to be barefoot but never actually took his shoes off

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The Fanfic Author’s Guide to Metatext

(As Used on Ao3) by Eiiri

Also available as a PDF here. This thing is 13,000 words.  The PDF is recommended.

Intro: What is Metatext?

Metatext is everything we fanfic authors post along with our story that is not the story itself: title, tags, summary, author’s notes, even the rating.

It is how we communicate to potential readers what they’re signing themselves up for if they choose to read our story, how we let them make informed decisions regarding which fics they want to read, how we get their interest and, frequently, how they find our story in the first place. A lot of metatext acts as a consent mechanism for readers, it’s the informed part of informed consent.

Since most of us who write fanfic also read it, we understand how important this is! But, for the most part, no one ever teaches us how to use metatext; we have to pick it up by osmosis. That makes it hard to learn how to use it well, we all suck at it when we first start out, and some of us may go years without learning particular conventions that seem obvious to others in our community. This creates frustration for everybody.

Enter this guide!

This is meant to be a sort of handbook for fic writers, particularly those of us who post on Archive of Our Own, laying out and explaining the established metatext conventions already in use in our community so we (and our readers!) are all on the same page. It will also provide some best-practices tips.

The point is to give all of us the tools to communicate with our audience as clearly and effectively as possible, so the people who want to read a story like ours can find it and recognize it as what they’re looking for, those who don’t want to read a story like ours can easily tell it’s not their cup of tea and avoid it, nobody gets hurt, and everybody has fun—including us!

Now that we know what we’re talking about, let’s get on with the guide! The following content sections appear in the order one is expected to provide each kind of metatext when posting a fic on Ao3, but first….

Keep reading

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writing is the most insane hobby it's like,

is it easy? no

is it fast? also no

but is it fun? well,

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me during an 'on' writing period: writing at a sustainable pace is totally possible! you just have to do it every day, like Stephen King says! it doesn't have to be a lot of words each time, but even if you set out to write only 100 words you'll often write a lot more, and even if you don't, it all adds up! I'm not saying it's easy but with a little bit of applied discipline I can surely do it!!

me during an 'off' writing period (aka now):

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Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!

Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It's me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here's the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.

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Why are there so many different types of arrow?

Huge thanks to Ruby Ferguson for teaching me to make some of these, and Jim Gerlinsky for making the grappling hook arrow

More Outtakes on Patreon

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PSA: AO3 HAS BEEN INFECTED WITH AI BOT COMMENTS.

Have you seen one of these dipshits? If you post regularly on ao3, chances are YES, but more likely you didn't notice nor suspect it was a bot. Sometimes they start off nice, or even praise you before getting nasty out of nowhere, like so:

But much like Grok, their newest obsession is nazism.

I don't know where they come from, or what purpose this could possibly serve other than suicidebaiting random people in the internet, I guess; but apparently they've started parroting names from real users to send these comments and shifting their general length to go by undetected. Maybe those are scrappers trying to train 'reviewbots' to be sold as part of some scam service promising to give feedback for newbie writers, who the fuck knows.

Here are more examples of the tone and backhanded compliments you can find in these:

If you regularly post on AO3 or interact with writers in it, please pass this along so they don't feel insane receiving bombs in their inbox. This is ridiculous.

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"If my book is not perfect then-"

Then what? People will actually discuss it? fill your plotholes with fanfiction and headcanons?

People dont care about perfection. perfection is boring. if your story is perfect people will forget about it. its how we are wired. we remember the strange, the weird and all things left open.

Perfection isnt the goal, interesting is

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SO weird to me that the default assumption in modern fandom is that you must be attracted to your favorite characters. nah man those are just my funky little guys and gals i want to study them under a microscope. i want to put them in a mason jar and shake it and see what happens

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Im just feeling a certain way rn

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words to use instead of running?

Running—to go faster than a walk

Barreling - to move at a high speed or without hesitation

Blazing - of outstanding power, speed, heat, or intensity

Bounding - to move by leaping

Cantering - to move at or as if at a canter (i.e., a 3-beat gait resembling but smoother and slower than the gallop); loping

Careening - to proceed or move quickly

Coursing - to proceed or move quickly

Dashing - to go at a pace faster than a walk

Galloping - progressing, developing, or increasing rapidly

Hastening - to move or act quickly

Hieing - to go quickly; hasten

Hurtling - to move rapidly or forcefully

Hurrying - to carry or cause to go with haste

Hustling - hasten, hurry

Jogging - to run or ride at a slow trot

Loping - an easy usually bounding gait capable of being sustained for a long time

Racing - to proceed or move quickly

Ripping - to proceed or move quickly

Rushing - to cause to move or proceed fast or faster

Scampering - to run nimbly and usually playfully about

Scooting - to move swiftly

Scurrying - to move in or as if in a brisk pace; scampering

Scuttling - scurry; a short swift run

Skipping - to move or proceed with leaps and bounds or with a skip

Speeding - to make haste

Springing - to make a leap or series of leaps

Sprinting - to run or go at top speed especially for a short distance

Tearing - to proceed or move quickly

Tripping - to go at a pace faster than a walk

Trotting - to proceed briskly; hurrying

Zipping - to move, act, or function with speed and vigor

Hope this helps with your writing. Do tag me, or send me a link. I'd love to read your work!

More: Word Lists ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

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Tanghua糖画 /Sugar Painting is a traditional Chinese folk art where melted sugar is skillfully shaped into figures, animals, or patterns on a flat surface. Using a ladle, the artist pours the hot syrup with quick, precise movements to create delicate designs. Once cooled, the sugar hardens into an edible artwork, often enjoyed as both a snack and a cultural treasure. (cr 中国冀派糖画Hebei-Style Sugar Art)

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How people obtain sugar in pre-industrial times in china by Lu Lei鲁磊

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Fanworks vs. Published Works

Okay, so, I was on Reddit and there was this discourse of fanfic v. published work, and how the lines are beginning to blur more and more, particularly among readers, and how dangerous this is for fandom spaces because fanfic is not designed for the same sort of engagement one has with a published work. They look similar and feel similar, but equating them can be devastating for fanfic writers, particularly if people start reviewing and critiquing fanworks the same way they do published works.

The comparison on that subreddit—which I had never encountered but might well have been around forever and new to no one but me because sometimes I do live in a cave—was that fanfic is like a potluck. And I love that because it's 100% accurate.

At a potluck, you make something for people to enjoy out of love. It’s really shitty to go to a potluck, then walk up to someone who made what you believe is a subpar casserole and start in like you’re a food critic. You’re missing the point of the potluck. And you’re kind of a dick.

In a restaurant, the rules are different, just like in the publishing industry. You select a restaurant, you pay for a meal, and if the meal isn’t to your liking, you can leave the restaurant a review on Google or Yelp or the platform of your choice (assuming you didn’t just throw a tantrum in the restaurant itself, but that’s another discussion). And sure, YMMV from other diners’ experiences, but even if everyone loves this restaurant and you don’t, it’s perfectly acceptable to leave a subpar review listing the reasons why it didn’t meet your standards. It’s fodder for future diners to consider at this point, less for the restaurant itself. The way book reviews are meant to be for readers, not the author. The author will see it, they might get annoyed, but unless they want their career to go up in smoke, they won’t respond. Just like restaurant owners who go nuclear on bad reviews, word spreads when someone can’t take criticism.

And no, it’s still not cool to critique someone’s potluck dish even if that person is a professional chef. They still elected to invest their time, talent, and creativity to bring that dish to the potluck and are getting nothing out of it but the satisfaction of their dish being enjoyed. The potluck should be a safe space for everyone—the chef knows to expect unsatisfied customers at work; when they’re at play, when they’re relaxed and enjoying something with a chosen community, it’s really shitty to start acting like a customer in the restaurant. You don’t have to love what they brought but keep it to yourself and go try something else.

As a published author, it bothers me a lot more when people invade my fanfic space to be critical than it does any of the 20+ works I have for sale on Amazon and other vendors, and this is why. Fanfic is more personal because it’s unpaid labor created out of love and a desire for community. It’s not a commodity, and treating it like that is how you murder joy and, for some creators, sometimes the drive to ever create again.

So don’t be a dick at the potluck, okay?