ao3commentoftheday

[ao3commentoftheday]

These skins are, in order:

Dark mode galaxy

Gold and floral

Pastel plaid (it's actually gingham, but I love alliteration)

Byline

[ao3commentoftheday]

what accessibility features are folks looking for in ao3 site skins?

I'm aware of text size and high/low contrast colour palettes, but what else can I work on taking into account?

[ao3commentoftheday]

i hope that podficcers know they provide an invaluable service to society, which is "can enjoy a damn good fic while doing laundry/dishes" and "bedtime story except i dont have to sear my eyes out" and "the act of transforming this into spokenform has added another layer to the narrative" and so on and so forth

[ao3commentoftheday]

thank you podficcers 🫡❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🩷

also just going to add 2 things real quick:

you can have ao3 in dark mode if you log into your account, scroll down to the site footer, and tap on Reversi

in order for podficcers to be able to transform your text into their spoken art, they need the author's permission. you can give them that permission easily by putting a permission statement on your profile (or by using the tag podfic welcome on your fic)

i hope that podficcers know they provide an invaluable service to society, which is "can enjoy a damn good fic while doing laundry/dishes" and "bedtime story except i dont have to sear my eyes out" and "the act of transforming this into spokenform has added another layer to the narrative" and so on and so forth

[ao3commentoftheday]

I have no overarching idea for what I want to do with this site skin, but I learned how to do a cool thing with buttons. Is this anything?

this is literally the only thing I've got going on in this skin so far so suggestions welcome 😆

[ao3commentoftheday]

I'm editing an old fanfic that I want to publish, but I found out I actually don't like the ending, but it's a very extensive rewrite. What can I do about it?

If this is a fic that you like or care about, then delete the old ending and write a new one. Don't try to work with what you have, just lop it off and start fresh from wherever the last part is that you still vibe with.

If this is a fic that you're just publishing because you don't want to have it hanging around in a drafts folder anymore and you might as well just post it, then post it as is. Just because you no longer like the ending doesn't mean that others will agree with your assessment.

You can add on an author's note that you've changed your mind about the ending, if you feel self-conscious about it. You could even include the alternate ending as a note or an epilogue chapter if you want.

These are the two options I'd choose between if I were in your shoes, but I know that my writing decisions aren't always what you might call 'normal' 🤣 so I'll open it up to the blog and see how they'd handle the situation

[ao3commentoftheday]

I'm editing an old fanfic that I want to publish, but I found out I actually don't like the ending, but it's a very extensive rewrite. What can I do about it?

If this is a fic that you like or care about, then delete the old ending and write a new one. Don't try to work with what you have, just lop it off and start fresh from wherever the last part is that you still vibe with.

If this is a fic that you're just publishing because you don't want to have it hanging around in a drafts folder anymore and you might as well just post it, then post it as is. Just because you no longer like the ending doesn't mean that others will agree with your assessment.

You can add on an author's note that you've changed your mind about the ending, if you feel self-conscious about it. You could even include the alternate ending as a note or an epilogue chapter if you want.

These are the two options I'd choose between if I were in your shoes, but I know that my writing decisions aren't always what you might call 'normal' 🤣 so I'll open it up to the blog and see how they'd handle the situation

[ao3commentoftheday]

I'm editing an old fanfic that I want to publish, but I found out I actually don't like the ending, but it's a very extensive rewrite. What can I do about it?

If this is a fic that you like or care about, then delete the old ending and write a new one. Don't try to work with what you have, just lop it off and start fresh from wherever the last part is that you still vibe with.

If this is a fic that you're just publishing because you don't want to have it hanging around in a drafts folder anymore and you might as well just post it, then post it as is. Just because you no longer like the ending doesn't mean that others will agree with your assessment.

You can add on an author's note that you've changed your mind about the ending, if you feel self-conscious about it. You could even include the alternate ending as a note or an epilogue chapter if you want.

These are the two options I'd choose between if I were in your shoes, but I know that my writing decisions aren't always what you might call 'normal' 🤣 so I'll open it up to the blog and see how they'd handle the situation

[ao3commentoftheday]

long post

This got long and I apologize but I really needed to put this into words somewhere.

I recorded my own podfic. The finished project will probably be under 1 hour of audio, is straightforward (one "character"), and due to the nature of the content, I genuinely feel that my attempt would be better than anything someone else could've done on my behalf.

I'm confident in the emotion/tone in the recording, I'm satisfied with the room acoustics, and I think my diction was generally coherent, but I keep hitting other roadblocks and secondguessing myself.

I was a semi-professional singer for years, but my voice in this recording occasionally isn't the oily smooth quality that many people demand from narrators (there aren't sudden jarring mistakes like voice register breaks, but yeah, I got a little gravelly or fatigued in some emotionally difficult sections and didn't notice at the time when I recorded it). Re-recording isn't a viable option because I needed a specific set of circumstances and logistics to do this the first time.

Also, although I have about 7 years of sound editing experience and a variety of software tools, editing the audio is very challenging on this because my mouth is anatomically prone to adding a plethora of weird non-speech noises that range from distracting to disgusting. Despite trying a slew of "magic" plugins/tools (even some AI stuff, to my shame), they did little or nothing in my case and the only truly effective option is to edit them out one by one. I know exactly how to do that, but it's going to mean HUNDREDS of spots to manually edit and consequently MANY hours of effort…for something that will probably only get a few listeners due to its niche content.

I really don't want to outsource the labor to finish this, partly because I have zero money to pay anyone to do it but also because it's extremely personal writing and I don't want anyone to hear it before it's finished. But I also don't want to actually scrap the project because I do think the overall voicing was authentic and I've wanted to do something like this for a long time. It helps my motivation if I only work on a tiny portion of audio each week, but at that rate (because life and employment are things), it will easily take YEARS to finish it.

I welcome your thoughts but don't have a specific question here. Thank you for letting me unload.

*hugs* I'm glad you were able to get this off your chest anon. It sounds like it's weighing on you a lot.

I think this is a labour of love that you're doing, and I think that you should put in as much effort as you want to put into it. If that means not editing out the random noises, then that's totally fine! This project is important to you for a lot of reasons, and you're doing all of this with the expectation that very few people will be interested in listening to it.

That tells me that you're doing this for you. Not for anyone else. Those concerns about narration quality or popping plosives or whatever else seem to me (just based on this ask) like they're more like intrusive thoughts. You're trying to protect yourself from a negative response, and you're identifying all of the issues that a potential listener might have with your recording.

But with something as personal as what you describe, I think the protection is more likely tied to how important this work is to you. I know that, for myself at least, when something I've made means as much to me as this work seems to mean to you, it's really hard to hear even a little bit of negative feedback.

I'll let the podficcers and listeners share their thoughts in the notes, of course, but I think you're better off deciding whether or not you want to post this publicly and whether or not you want to allow comments on it. This one might just be for you, and that's okay. You're the most important audience member you have. 💗

[ao3commentoftheday]

medieval times work skin

I decided I wanted to attempt a work skin instead of learning javascript, so here's a version of the medieval times site skin that you can put onto an individual fic so that other people can see it (instead of just you)

To create a work skin:

Go to your Dashboard

Select the link to Skins

Select the button labelled My Work Skins

Select the button labelled Create Work Skin

Give your work skin a unique title (otherwise it won't save)

Paste this code into the CSS box

Select the Submit button to save the work skin

To use the work skin on a fic:

Edit or create a new fic

In the Select work skin box (located below where you choose your language), type the name you gave the work skin

Post the fic

Anyone who allows the site to show them the creator's work skin will see your fic with the parchment background, illuminated border, and drop capital letter on the first paragraph.

[ao3commentoftheday]

I'm editing an old fanfic that I want to publish, but I found out I actually don't like the ending, but it's a very extensive rewrite. What can I do about it?

If this is a fic that you like or care about, then delete the old ending and write a new one. Don't try to work with what you have, just lop it off and start fresh from wherever the last part is that you still vibe with.

If this is a fic that you're just publishing because you don't want to have it hanging around in a drafts folder anymore and you might as well just post it, then post it as is. Just because you no longer like the ending doesn't mean that others will agree with your assessment.

You can add on an author's note that you've changed your mind about the ending, if you feel self-conscious about it. You could even include the alternate ending as a note or an epilogue chapter if you want.

These are the two options I'd choose between if I were in your shoes, but I know that my writing decisions aren't always what you might call 'normal' 🤣 so I'll open it up to the blog and see how they'd handle the situation

[ao3commentoftheday]

This got long and I apologize but I really needed to put this into words somewhere.

I recorded my own podfic. The finished project will probably be under 1 hour of audio, is straightforward (one "character"), and due to the nature of the content, I genuinely feel that my attempt would be better than anything someone else could've done on my behalf.

I'm confident in the emotion/tone in the recording, I'm satisfied with the room acoustics, and I think my diction was generally coherent, but I keep hitting other roadblocks and secondguessing myself.

I was a semi-professional singer for years, but my voice in this recording occasionally isn't the oily smooth quality that many people demand from narrators (there aren't sudden jarring mistakes like voice register breaks, but yeah, I got a little gravelly or fatigued in some emotionally difficult sections and didn't notice at the time when I recorded it). Re-recording isn't a viable option because I needed a specific set of circumstances and logistics to do this the first time.

Also, although I have about 7 years of sound editing experience and a variety of software tools, editing the audio is very challenging on this because my mouth is anatomically prone to adding a plethora of weird non-speech noises that range from distracting to disgusting. Despite trying a slew of "magic" plugins/tools (even some AI stuff, to my shame), they did little or nothing in my case and the only truly effective option is to edit them out one by one. I know exactly how to do that, but it's going to mean HUNDREDS of spots to manually edit and consequently MANY hours of effort…for something that will probably only get a few listeners due to its niche content.

I really don't want to outsource the labor to finish this, partly because I have zero money to pay anyone to do it but also because it's extremely personal writing and I don't want anyone to hear it before it's finished. But I also don't want to actually scrap the project because I do think the overall voicing was authentic and I've wanted to do something like this for a long time. It helps my motivation if I only work on a tiny portion of audio each week, but at that rate (because life and employment are things), it will easily take YEARS to finish it.

I welcome your thoughts but don't have a specific question here. Thank you for letting me unload.

*hugs* I'm glad you were able to get this off your chest anon. It sounds like it's weighing on you a lot.

I think this is a labour of love that you're doing, and I think that you should put in as much effort as you want to put into it. If that means not editing out the random noises, then that's totally fine! This project is important to you for a lot of reasons, and you're doing all of this with the expectation that very few people will be interested in listening to it.

That tells me that you're doing this for you. Not for anyone else. Those concerns about narration quality or popping plosives or whatever else seem to me (just based on this ask) like they're more like intrusive thoughts. You're trying to protect yourself from a negative response, and you're identifying all of the issues that a potential listener might have with your recording.

But with something as personal as what you describe, I think the protection is more likely tied to how important this work is to you. I know that, for myself at least, when something I've made means as much to me as this work seems to mean to you, it's really hard to hear even a little bit of negative feedback.

I'll let the podficcers and listeners share their thoughts in the notes, of course, but I think you're better off deciding whether or not you want to post this publicly and whether or not you want to allow comments on it. This one might just be for you, and that's okay. You're the most important audience member you have. 💗

[ao3commentoftheday]

Hi, hello, I hope you're having a nice day! Big fan of your blog and your lovely site skins! :D

I tried to look if you've answered this before, and I apologize if you have and I just missed it (or if this is a silly question orz), but do you know if there's a way to filter for fics in an 'either or' sort of way? so like, searching at the same time for fics with ship/tag A or ship/tag B but not just fics with both A and B tagged? (I hope that makes sense)

Thank you so much for all of the hard work that you do, giving people advice and answering so many questions, as well as the skins that you make and share. It's very appreciated! ♡

Thank you so much for your lovely compliments 🥰I'm glad this blog is useful (and I always love to hear that folks like my site skins).

As for your question? It makes total sense! and it's also possible :D

So first you need to understand that AO3's Include filter works like an AND (capital letters necessary). meaning that when you include more than one item, you'll get search results that only include all of the things you've marked off to include in your filters.

What you're looking for is an OR filter - one that gives you results with any of the things you want to include, even if it's just one from a list. To do that, you need to use the Search Within Results box instead.

That box is down near the bottom of the Filters menu, and you can type your OR statement in there. It's really easy when the tags you're looking for are just one word, for example

fluff OR angst

To create an OR filter for relationship tags, i recommend taking an extra step (that pays off by not relying on one specific spelling). That step is finding the tag ID number. You can do this by tapping on the tag and then on the RSS button

That buttons is for setting up an RSS feed (which, if you're interested in AO3 push notifications, might be something you want to do) but it also importantly has the tag ID right there in the third line

The number 9835 there, after /tags/ is the tag ID number. (it's the ID number for Kirk/Spock) Grab that for your filter. Then tap into the other tag you want to get results for and do the same thing for that one. Here's the ID for Kirk/McCoy: 996611

Now I can go to the Search Within Results box and type in

relationship_ids:9835 OR relationship_ids:996611

and enjoy the results 🎉 You can type in as many ORs as you like (or at least, until you hit the max character limit on the URL of the results page)

[ao3commentoftheday]

i really need to take a break from my wip but am having a hard time actually doing that. it is constantly on my mind and not working on it makes me sad/bored/impatient, but i am so burned out on writing it that i know i won't do the story justice unless i take a break. the last time i took a break it was too short because i started writing again the second i had regained some creative spark. i used that spark up fast and was right back in burnout after just a couple chapters

how can i take a longer more restorative break without immediately running back to my wip as soon as ive started to recover?

There's a post that someone mentioned on one of my posts forever ago, and I've reblogged and shared it a few times since: Rehab for Writing Injuries. I recommend you give it a read.

Since you've been through this before, you've already learned that you can't run full-tilt at a story like you did last time. That's an important lesson that you've taken on and I'm glad you're listening to your own past experience.

On top of the advice in that post related to having a maximum writing ilmit per day (5 minutes. 100 words. something very small), maybe consider doing things that you wouldn't ordinary consider "writing" at all.

If the story won't leave your mind, then you probably do need to get it out in some way just so you can have a little peace. But that doesn't mean you have to sit down with a keyboard and start typing.

tell the story to a friend

tell it to your phone and record a voice note

draw or paint the scenes that you're thinking of

record a piece of music about it, or create a playlist of songs that could be a soundtrack for your story, if it were a film

And of course, my favourite: daydream. Give yourself permission to just lay down somewhere comfortable and relax into the story with no intention of trying to remember or record or transcribe or otherwise nail down any of your thoughts at all. Let the story wash over and through you and then fade away as you gradually fall asleep.

The most important part of that is not trying to hold onto it. Just let it go. It'll keep coming back, and it might be different every time, but it might also be the same in some ways. That's how it is with stories.

You should also check in with yourself to make sure it's the story you're thinking about, though. If it's the guilt of not writing it that keeps plaguing your mind, then that's a whole different issue to deal with.

If the thing that keeps you up at night or that keeps distracting you from your intention to relax is the painful realization that you've got a story out there that isn't finished? Then you need to spend some time digging into why you feel guilty over an activity that you do for your own enjoyment, and then find some compassion for yourself 💗 We've all got unfinished fics - ones we're writing or ones we're reading - and that's okay. Life happens and fics get abandoned. There's no shame in that.

Have any of you ever been in anon's place before? What did you do to help yourself take that much-needed break, even if the wheels were still turning on the story in your brain?

[ao3commentoftheday]

I'm editing an old fanfic that I want to publish, but I found out I actually don't like the ending, but it's a very extensive rewrite. What can I do about it?

If this is a fic that you like or care about, then delete the old ending and write a new one. Don't try to work with what you have, just lop it off and start fresh from wherever the last part is that you still vibe with.

If this is a fic that you're just publishing because you don't want to have it hanging around in a drafts folder anymore and you might as well just post it, then post it as is. Just because you no longer like the ending doesn't mean that others will agree with your assessment.

You can add on an author's note that you've changed your mind about the ending, if you feel self-conscious about it. You could even include the alternate ending as a note or an epilogue chapter if you want.

These are the two options I'd choose between if I were in your shoes, but I know that my writing decisions aren't always what you might call 'normal' 🤣 so I'll open it up to the blog and see how they'd handle the situation

[ao3commentoftheday]

This got long and I apologize but I really needed to put this into words somewhere.

I recorded my own podfic. The finished project will probably be under 1 hour of audio, is straightforward (one "character"), and due to the nature of the content, I genuinely feel that my attempt would be better than anything someone else could've done on my behalf.

I'm confident in the emotion/tone in the recording, I'm satisfied with the room acoustics, and I think my diction was generally coherent, but I keep hitting other roadblocks and secondguessing myself.

I was a semi-professional singer for years, but my voice in this recording occasionally isn't the oily smooth quality that many people demand from narrators (there aren't sudden jarring mistakes like voice register breaks, but yeah, I got a little gravelly or fatigued in some emotionally difficult sections and didn't notice at the time when I recorded it). Re-recording isn't a viable option because I needed a specific set of circumstances and logistics to do this the first time.

Also, although I have about 7 years of sound editing experience and a variety of software tools, editing the audio is very challenging on this because my mouth is anatomically prone to adding a plethora of weird non-speech noises that range from distracting to disgusting. Despite trying a slew of "magic" plugins/tools (even some AI stuff, to my shame), they did little or nothing in my case and the only truly effective option is to edit them out one by one. I know exactly how to do that, but it's going to mean HUNDREDS of spots to manually edit and consequently MANY hours of effort…for something that will probably only get a few listeners due to its niche content.

I really don't want to outsource the labor to finish this, partly because I have zero money to pay anyone to do it but also because it's extremely personal writing and I don't want anyone to hear it before it's finished. But I also don't want to actually scrap the project because I do think the overall voicing was authentic and I've wanted to do something like this for a long time. It helps my motivation if I only work on a tiny portion of audio each week, but at that rate (because life and employment are things), it will easily take YEARS to finish it.

I welcome your thoughts but don't have a specific question here. Thank you for letting me unload.

*hugs* I'm glad you were able to get this off your chest anon. It sounds like it's weighing on you a lot.

I think this is a labour of love that you're doing, and I think that you should put in as much effort as you want to put into it. If that means not editing out the random noises, then that's totally fine! This project is important to you for a lot of reasons, and you're doing all of this with the expectation that very few people will be interested in listening to it.

That tells me that you're doing this for you. Not for anyone else. Those concerns about narration quality or popping plosives or whatever else seem to me (just based on this ask) like they're more like intrusive thoughts. You're trying to protect yourself from a negative response, and you're identifying all of the issues that a potential listener might have with your recording.

But with something as personal as what you describe, I think the protection is more likely tied to how important this work is to you. I know that, for myself at least, when something I've made means as much to me as this work seems to mean to you, it's really hard to hear even a little bit of negative feedback.

I'll let the podficcers and listeners share their thoughts in the notes, of course, but I think you're better off deciding whether or not you want to post this publicly and whether or not you want to allow comments on it. This one might just be for you, and that's okay. You're the most important audience member you have. 💗

[ao3commentoftheday]

I just asked a question about collections and omg as soon as I hit the ask button I realized I went on this big rant in a panic about how collections work, and I probably sounded super rude 😭 Just wanted to say thank you for all the time you take to answer questions and open discussion for the community! It's so informative and helpful, and I always love seeing a new post from you come up on my dash ❤️

To ease your worries on the rant part, I'll just post the most relevant parts of your original question (for the record, it didn't seem like a rant to me, but I don't want you to feel bad about it)

A few years ago I turned off the "Allow others to invite my works to collections" setting and removed all my fics from any random collections I'd previously approved. Just now I went to edit and old work to add a note to it, and in the "Post to Collections / Challenges" section of the "Edit Work" page, there were six collections listed on it as if it were already part of them! I never approved any collections on this fic except for the official fest it was written for. When I backed out and looked at my fic's page, the only collection listed for it is the fest that I originally posted it to. When I checked my Collections page, they lined up with the collections in my "Awaiting User Approval" tab. If I had posted my edits without noticing them, would the fic have been added to those collections? I couldn't find anything mentioned about it in ao3's FAQ when I was just skimming through it.

I haven't reached out to Support for an official answer on this one, but I did a little experiment with one of my own works. I have two accounts, so I just had account #2 add a work by account #1 to a collection. Then I edited the work and saw the collection listed there, just like you said, even though I had never approved it.

I added an Author's Note, just like you had planned to do, and I saved my changes. The work did not end up being added to the collection it was invited to.

It's possible this is a future site feature in the works. It's also possible it's a bug. You can always email Support to ask and/or let them know this is happening, but at least you know that you can save your work without worrying.

Also, if anyone out there has their fic in a collection and wants to take it out, just edit your fic and click/tap on the little X at the top right of the collection name. That'll remove it from the collection. Save your fic and you're done.

Thank you for your kind words, anon, and I hope this helps!