#HUGO AWARD WINNING AO3

[barricadescon]

Barricades 2024 Final Schedule!

The time is near! Barricades 2024 is happening THIS WEEKEND, July 12-14 , all online!

We have the final schedule available on the website at barricadescon.com or right here, on this post! A more detailed schedule including descriptions is available in text under the Keep Reading break!

BarricadesCon 2024 Program

A full programming schedule of all the panels, their content, their presenters, their times, and whether they will be recorded. 

All times are in UTC, and can be converted to your local time zone at this link.

Key to types of Panels:

Convention Administration panels: Panels run by the Con Committee, to open and end the convention.

Guest of Honor: Special panels from our guests of honor. This year, our guests of honor are Jean Baptiste Hugo, a descendant of Victor Hugo who will discuss his project photograph his ancestor’s house; Christina Soontornvat, the author of the award-winning Les Mis retelling “A Wish in the Dark;” and Luciano Muriel, playwright of the 2018 musical play “Grantaire.” 

Fan/Academic Panel Presentations: Panels on history, fandom, or analysis of Les Mis. Scholars will share historical research, fans will share hobby projects, and the audience may get an opportunity to ask questions. 

Social Meetups: Casual unstructured time to meet up over video call and chat!

Social Games: Games and activities.

Friday, June 12th

Discord Server Opens: Friday Morning UTC

Read through the rules, explore the channels, and chat with other congoers.

Welcome Session 

Friday, 17:00-17:30 UTC

Session Type: Convention Administration

Presented by: Convention Committee 

Recorded: No

In this session, Concom 2024 will kick off BarricadesCon 2024 and welcome everyone. Concom will also walk everyone through some basic information and FAQs to help ensure a fun and interesting con for everyone.

The Cats of Les Misérables

Friday, 17:30-18:00 UTC 

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: Melannen

Recorded: No

A laid-back social panel to meet your fellow attendees, share pictures of your pets (or have them join you in the panel!) and chat about pets and Les Mis fandom generally.

(Guest of Honor) From Paris to Bangkok: a Thai-inspired retelling of Les Misérables

Friday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Guest of Honor

Presented by: Christina Soontornvat

Recorded: Yes

Christina Soontornvat’s Newbery Honor-winning children’s novel, A Wish in the Dark, is a Les Misérables adaptation set in a magical Thai-inspired world. Christina will discuss the inspiration for the book, how she decided when to be faithful to the original, and how Hugo’s powerful themes of compassion and forgiveness resonate across age ranges and cultures.

Learn more about Christina’s work at soontornvat.com.

The Yellow Passport: Surveillance and Control in 19th Century France 

Friday, 19:00- 20:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: David Montgomery, creator of the Siecle History Podcast

Recorded: Yes

Les Misérables takes place in a France of police spies, intercepted mail, travel restrictions and other elements of a 19th Century police state. What exactly were these ways French governments surveilled and controlled their citizens? How did they work? And how did people get around them? 

Meetup: Fan Creators

Friday, 19:00-20:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: Eli

Recorded: No

Come meet fellow fan creators! Casual unstructured time to chat with other fans. A good place for people who spend a lot of time on Ao3.

Break 

20:00-21:00 UTC

Early Transformative Works: The First Les Miserables Fanart, Fanfics, and AUS

Friday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Psalm

Recorded: Yes

This presentation will give you an overview of the earliest works inspired by Les Misérables – including illustrations, comics, poems, pamphlets, and novels. Which ones will stand the test of time? And what can these works tell us about the book’s reception and impact? Come learn about the forgotten, but fascinating first transformative works about Les Misérables.

Black and Pink International

Friday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Panel Presentation

Presented by: Darryl Brown Jr. (he/him), Senior Director of Programs and Advocacy, Black and Pink National. Kenna Barnes (she/they), Advocacy Manager, Black and Pink National

Recorded: Yes

This year, Barricades Con is donating all profits to Black and Pink International.

Black & Pink National is a prison abolitionist organization dedicated to abolishing the criminal punishment system and liberating LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by that system through advocacy, support, and organizing. Programming includes wrap-around services for those coming out of the carceral system such as but not limited to workforce development, transitional housing, newsletters to inside members and penpal matching, nationwide Chapters, youth-led research about young people living with HIV, and programming for and by people who do sex work.

Sex work as an issue sits clearly at the intersection of reproductive justice, prison abolition, and trans and queer liberation. Black trans women who engage in sex work face some of the highest rates of policing and surveillance, directly interfering with their ability to access safety and autonomy. We know that when we center the needs of Black trans women, especially those who engage in sex work, we are inherently able to address the needs of other system-impacted people along the way.

The Sex Worker Liberation Project (SWLP) is a collaboration between Black and Pink National and a network of current and former LGBTQIA2S+ people who do sex work across the country. This sex worker led group moves with the intention of building community, providing resources, and cultivating self advocacy tools.The SWLP is on a mission to tackle the urgent and multifaceted issues confronting sex workers, with a specific emphasis on the challenges faced by Black and Brown LGBTQIA2S+ sex workers.

Meetup: Brick Readers 

Friday, 22:00-23:00 UTC 

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: Mellow

Recorded: No

Come meet up and hang out with your fellow Brick readers! Let’s talk about weird nonsense from the book. 

Beat by Beat: a Les Mis 2012 Deconstruction

Friday, 22:00-23:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Eli

Recorded: Yes

To quote Eli: “As an avid Les Mis fan and also someone with an MFA in screenwriting, I find the script for the Les Mis 2012 movie absolutely fascinating. The choices they made, the added brick scenes, the added song, the pacing, the dialogue, the shots selection—all of it contributes to a very interesting adaptation that our fandom owes a huge debt of gratitude to (whether we like it or not 🥲). I would like to take an audience through the 9 major beats of a screenplay, apply it to Les Mis 2012, and share my thoughts on what the filmmakers did right for this adaptation and what they did wrong. I’ll compare it to the Les Mis musical (the direct source material) as well as the Brick (the secondary source material) for insight on the choices they made!”

History Researcher Meetup

Friday, 23:00-24:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: David Montgomery

Recorded: No

A chance for history researchers to meet up and discuss their research!

Atonement: A Theatrical Piece for One Actor, Based on Segments from Hugo’s Les Miserables

Friday, 23:00-24:00 UTC

Session Type: Panel Presentation

Presented by: Alexiel de Ravenswood

Recorded: Yes

This theatrical piece is a dramatic adaptation of scenes from Book 1 of the novel, focusing on the Bishop of Digne. Following the piece, actor Alexiel de Ravenswood will engage in q&a on the creative process and the themes explored.

Saturday, June 13th

Guest of Honor: The Photography of Jean Baptiste Hugo

Saturday, 15:00-16:00 UTC

Session Type: Guest of Honor

Presented by: Jean Baptiste  Hugo

Recorded: yes

Jean Baptiste Hugo is the great-great-grandson of Victor Hugo. He has extensively photographed Hugo’s home in exile on Guernsey, which Victor Hugo decorated following his own aesthetic philosophies–in particular, the journey from darkness into light, which we see reflected throughout Hugo’s literary career. M. Hugo will share his photographs and discuss Hauteville House as a physical realization of his ancestor’s ideas.

Reflecting on Directing Les Mis

Saturday, 16:00-17:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Cait

Recorded: yes

In Cait’s words: “I directed an amateur production of Les Mis at the end of last year, and would love to talk about how that went and share snippets from the show and behind the scenes. This will include talking about adapting Les Mis for the space and budget, approaches to certain scenes, dual casting lead roles, and probably raving about my lovely cast.”

The Fallibility of History in Les Misérables 

Saturday, 16:00-17:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Syrup 

Recorded: yes

Throughout Les Misérables, Hugo often reminds readers that what they are reading is derived from some form of documentation or hearsay. While this serves to provide credibility to the tales he is sharing, there are certain moments where Hugo opts out of describing exact details, despite his efforts at a historically-accurate record. In this panel, I will take a look at these instances where Hugo either addresses or obfuscates these events, and how by doing so, he reveals the fallibility of history, and highlights how history documentations are not always as reliable as they seem. Thesis: By crafting Les Misérables as a form of historical documentation, Hugo reveals the fallibility of history, and readers are able to understand how history and history documentation are not always as reliable as they seem.

Break  

Saturday, 17:00-18:00 UTC

What Horizon: Tragedies, Time Loops, and the Hopefulness of Les Amis

Saturday, 18:00-18:30  UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Percy

Recorded: yes

In Percy’s words: “I have directed a staged reading of the play and will have video clips to show! My play is focused on the rebellion and Les Amis; it aims to give the barricades the attention they often lack in adaptation and develop the individual characters of the insurgents. I’m working to make this episode of the Hugo novel and its historical context accessible to audience members who may not be familiar with the source material, while hopefully also bringing something new to the story for longtime fans.

One aspect of the story I’m particularly interested in examining is the persistent sense of hope associated with the barricades, despite the insurgents’ eventual defeat and the previous failure of the July Revolution. Linking the seemingly cyclical process of revolution and restoration, the metatheatrical tradition of tragedies aware of their own repetition in performance before the audience, and the nature of Les Misérables itself as a story that has been told and retold countless times, I hope to show the audience the worth of the insurgents’ struggle and the importance of their continued efforts. Many adaptations construe the rebellion as futile or as solely a tragic story, so I would like my adaptation to counter that idea, as Les Amis grapple with the meaning of their sacrifice and the impacts of their actions.

In a presentation, I would discuss these ideas with reference to Hugo’s original text and the ways in which the rebellion has been changed in adaptation, as well as other works that inspired me (namely Hadestown and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead). I’d discuss the choices I made in my adaptation process and show clips from the staged reading, touching on the different characters and the historical setting as well as the overarching themes with which I engaged.”

Cosette: A Novel, The (Fanmade) Sequel to Les Misérables

Saturday, 18:30-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: IMiserabili

Recorded: yes

This presentation is  a deep-dive into the 1995 fanfiction “Cosette” by Laura Kalpakian. It will include a short background on the author and the publication, a summary of the plot, an analysis of represented historical events in the work, character analyses and comparisons to the source material and other Les Mis adaptations, and memorable quotes. 

Musical Eponine and Grantaire in song and lyric edits: Personal research on their development

Saturday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Panel Presentation

Presented by: Ruth Kenyon

Recorded: yes

In Ruth’s words: “I’m an older musical Les Misérables fan who has watched the show develop from its beginnings at the Palace Theatre. I have a special interest in how the lyrics and the characters have changed over time. As plenty of people know now, I am also writing a book on the musical using these experiences. I’m working on Eponine’s chapter at the moment, and while I know fans have a lot of love for as she is now, I feel quite upset to see what happened to her as she was developed from the original French version of the musical. She seems to have lost quite a lot of emotional agency along the way. Grantaire has also changed over time; he was cut before the previews and there was a big re-write of his character when the show went to Broadway, but I really like what they have done with his character. I’ll provide examples of all this detail with material from my book and (trying) to sing bits of lyrics to explain what has happened to the characters.”

Barricades as a Tactic: How Do They Work?

Saturday, 19:00-20:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Lem

Recorded: No

This session will explore the tactical and strategic uses of barricades, with an eye towards what to consider when writing both canon-era fanfiction and modern AUs. After all, the strategic goals towards which the barricades were used in canon-era urban warfare were often quite different from the strategic goals of similar-looking tactics in contemporary protest movements. Core components of the session will be a map-based analysis of July 1830, a comparison with June 1832 highlighting strategic goals and considerations canon-era characters would have, and an exploration of various parallels among contemporary protest tactics (which may or may not *look* like barricades).

Meetup: Musical Fans

Saturday, 19:00-20:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: Erin

Recorded: No

A casual place to meet up with other fans and discuss the musical!

Break

Saturday, 20:00-21:00 UTC

Why is There a Roller Coaster in Les Mis? The Strange History of the Russian Mountains

Saturday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Peyton Parker/Mellow

Recorded: Yes

In Les Miserables there is an actual canon scene where Fantine rides a roller coaster. How did a roller coaster end up in Paris in 1817? And why did this ride, one of the world's first wheeled Roller Coasters, make a cameo in Victor Hugo’s novel?

It’s “Les Mis Meets Defunctland.”

We’re going talk about the earliest origins of the Russian Mountains, the fascinating history behind how they came to France, their many connections to the political turmoil of the time period, what they felt like to ride, why they were shut down, how they fell into obscurity, and why Victor Hugo included them in Les Miserables. It’s time for a roller coaster digression.

Fanfic Round Robin

Saturday, 22:00-23:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game

Presented by: Featheraly

Recorded: No

Participate in a round robin to help write a fic together!

Obscure(-ish) Les Mis Adaptations To Watch

Saturday, 23:00-23:30 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Pureanon

Recorded: Yes

Les Mis has been adapted many times over the years, and this means there’s a lot of adaptations to enjoy. Because of this, a lot of adaptations are underviewed or underappreciated. I’d like to use this panel to discuss some of my favorites/the most unique — 1925, 1948, 1967, and 1995. These are all very different, and aside from all being ones I enjoy, they’re fascinating looks at how different countries and different time periods adapt this story. 

The adaptations I’ve chosen are both some of the best and some of the worst out there, but they’re all unique. 1925 is one of the most faithful adaptations out there, and it uses the medium of silent film to full effect. 1948 has Valean get shot at multiple times in the opening minutes, and the revolutionaries fight with BARRELS in the barricade. 1967 is half one of the best Anglophone Les Mis adaptations ever, and half the drunkest. 1995 is more of an adaptation of how people react to Les Mis as a story than a straightforward adaptation, and it’s one of the most beautiful and unique versions out there. I intend to show a clip from each adaptation, so people can get a little taste of what each adaptation is like.

Recovery: a Fanfic Live Read

Saturday, 22:30-23:00

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Eli, Barri

Recorded: Yes

A full cast will live read a Les Mis fanfic written specifically for the con.

Compared to Some People Grantaire is Doing Just Fine (No, Really)

Saturday: 22:00-23:00

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Ellen Fremedon, Pilferingapples

Recorded: Yes

Grantaire and Marius are the two characters on the fringes of the Friends of the ABC, connected to the group by social ties rather than sincere political belief. In this panel, Pilf and Ellen will discuss the two characters as narrative foils, touching along the way on the problem with Great Men, bourgeois inaction, what it means to have the republic as a mother, and dying for love–plus those two pistols in Marius’s pocket.

Preliminary Gaities

23:00-24:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game

Presented by: Rare, Percy, and ShitpostingFromTheBarricade

Recorded: No

Preliminary Gayeties is the chapter where Grantaire gets drunk with Joly and Bossuet before the barricades.  It is perfect for a drinking game. 

In keeping with personal tradition, Rare, Percy, and ShitpostingFromTheBarricade will bring you a second year of our dramatic reading of the “Preliminary Gayeties” chapter of the brick. all while following specified drinking game rules (including classics such as “drink for brick quotes that appear commonly in fanfiction,” “pretentious classical references,” and “drink/eat when characters drink/eat”), and enjoying snacks mentioned in the chapter as they are mentioned. Everyone is invited to participate by reading, eating, and drinking along with this activity!

Sunday, June 14th

Publishing, Podcasting, and Promotion

Saturday, 15:00-16:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: David Mongomery, Alexiel de Ravenswood, Nemo Martin

Recorded: Yes

Whether it’s fanart, Tiktok videos or deep historical analysis, lots of us have THOUGHTS about Les Mis we’d like to share with the world. This panel discussion features creators sharing their advice on how to share your work with the world in a range of mediums.

Femme/butch: Dynamics of Gender and Attraction in Les Mis

Saturday, 15:00-15:30 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Eléna

Recorded: Yes

In Eléna’s words: “This is a presentation about parallels between femme/butch dynamics and les mis! The focus is on Marius, Cosette and Eponine and their individual gender presentation and attraction. There will be a focus on the original text, but I will also talk about headcanons & representation in the fandom space! I’m a femme myself, but I’ll try to incorporate butch and transmasculine viewpoints!”

Lee’s Misérables: Jean Valjean, Confederate Hero

Saturday, 15:30-16:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Sarah C. Maza

Recorded: Yes

Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862) was as big a success in the United States as elsewhere in the world upon publication, hailed throughout the young nation as the commanding masterpiece of modern French literature. Why would a novel that celebrates violent insurrection and radical republican ideals be so warmly received in America? One of the (many) answers to that question is that the novel appeared in the midst of the Civil War, and that it provided engrossing reading to the many soldiers stuck in place for weeks or months in camp, hospitals, and prisons. Most surprising, though, is the evidence of Les Misérables’ appeal to Confederate soldiers (who jokingly called themselves “Lee’s Misérables”), as Hugo was on record as an ardent abolitionist. My paper will illustrate and explain the paradoxical appeal of Hugo’s novel in the South in two contexts: first, I will draw attention to the ways in which Confederate nationalists likened their cause to the European Revolutions of 1848; and second, I will explain the novel’s resonance within what Wolfgang Schievelbusch has called the “culture of defeat,” the emotional resonance, in some historical contexts, of narratives of doomed causes and heroic failure.

Guest of Honor: Luciano Muriel, playwright of “Grantaire”

Sunday, 16:00-17:00 UTC 

Session Type: Guest of Honor

Presented by: Luciano Muriel

Recorded: Yes

Panel about the details of the creative process behind the show Grantaire, from the discovery of the character during the playwright’s first reading of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables to the opening night of the staging at the Teatro Pradillo of Madrid. Why Grantaire? Why a dramatic monologue? Why include Amaral songs? What did the awards and subventions entail? All the answers to these and many other questions.

Break

Sunday, 17:00-18:00 UTC

1848 in Chile: The Society of Equality and the Siege of La Serena

Sunday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academc Presentation

Presented by: Duncan Riley

Recorded: Yes

While the Revolutions of 1848 are traditionally seen as a European event, they had a powerful influence in Latin America. In Chile in particular, university students who studied in France during the revolutions would lead a movement to oust the conservative dictatorship that had ruled the country since the 1830s. Inspired by the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine and the ideals of utopian socialism, a group of Chilean intellectuals and artisans founded “The Society of Equality,” a cross-class political club dedicated to creating a democratic and participatory republic. Inspired by these ideals, in 1851 the citizens of La Serena, a mining town in northern Chile, declared their independence from the central government. Members of the Society of Equality transformed La Serena into the torchbearer of their vision of a new “democratic republic” that would restore civil liberties and grant greater autonomy to Chile’s provinces and municipalities. In defense of these principles, La Serena endured a months-long siege by government forces. The conflict inscribed itself within broader international dynamics of revolution and empire, as the British Royal Navy Intervened on the side of the government, while French immigrants built barricades to defend La Serena from invasion. Ultimately, then, La Serena and the Chilean Revolution of 1851 provide a fascinating window into the transatlantic exchanges of ideas that drove movements of democratic reform in both Europe and Latin America during the Revolutions of 1848.

The Unknown Light Examined

Sunday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Presentation

Presented by: Madeleine

Recorded: Yes

In the tenth chapter of Les Misérables, Bishop Myriel sets out to perform the last rights of Conventionnel G, a man reviled by all of Digne for having served on the body that voted to execute the king during the French Revolution. The bishop and the dying man debate the nature of equality, divine authority, and resistance to oppression. G’s fierce defense of the French revolution and Myriel’s staunch condemnation of political violence represent diametrically opposed philosophies, but the two men have more in common than first appears. They are both men of faith, in their own way, called to serve by their profound love for humanity. Intensely shaken by this realization, the bishop kneels before the dying sinner and asks his blessing.

What does this role reversal signify? How do Myriel and G’s conceptualizations of God and morality compare, and why does Hugo seek to reconcile them? To answer these questions, this panel investigates the thematic implications of this chapter. We’ll dissect the characters’ debate, discussing the historical and religious context that informs their moral frameworks—and Hugo’s depiction of them. Drawing on analysis by literary scholars, we’ll situate Hugo’s portrayal of the bishop and the conventionnel within this same context, evaluating the extent to which G is based on the Abbé Grégoire. We’ll also examine the impact of this chapter on Bishop Myriel’s characterization and symbolic role in the novel. Lastly, we’ll explore how “The Bishop in the Presence of an Unknown Light" serves as a political and philosophical thesis for Les Misérables.

Revolutionary Rants: “Les Misérables” Onstage from an International Perspective

Sunday, 20:00-21:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Presentation

Presented by: Tessa, Anne, Kaja, Marie, Apollon

Recorded: Yes

What started out as an open call online to gather fans from around the world to rant about the musical version of Les Mis has turned into a group of musical fans from four countries getting together to discuss our different perspectives of various international productions of the show. Topics include our favorite cast albums, how our favorite character interactions are staged in various productions we follow (including Enjoltaire), our favorite actors from the different productions, and our favorite memorable moments from the show. And we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the major impact the 2012 movie had on us as well!

Paint & Sip

Sunday, 20:00-21:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game

Presented by: Psalm, Potatosonnet

Recorded: No

A short presentation on the artwork of Victor Hugo, his medium and subject matter, followed by crafting time inspired by Hugo’s work.

Les Mis Letters: Building a Book Club

Sunday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic presentation

Presented by: Mellow, Eccentrichat

Recorded: Yes

There are 365 chapters in Les Miserables. Les Mis Letters is an email subscription that sends you one chapter of Les Mis daily for a year.

Rachel and Mellow have been running the “Dracula-Daily” inspired Les Mis readalong since 2023! Mellow will speak to the behind the scenes process of setting up a Substack and discord server, while other readers will speak to the experience of reading Les Mis for the first time in this format or the small projects they’ve put together while following along.

Les Mis Singalong

Sunday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game

Presented by: Megan

Recorded: No

Let’s let loose by belting out our favorite Les Mis songs together! All singing abilities welcome and encouraged, it’s virtual after all 😀 It will be musical-heavy but we’ll be sure to throw in some other fan favorites!

Closing Session 

Sunday, 22:00-22:30 UTC

Session Type: Convention Administration

Presented by: Convention Committee

Recorded: No

Closing remarks by the convention committee, marking the official end of the convention.

Dead Dog

Sunday, 22:30-24:00

Session Type: Convention Administration

Presented by: Convention Committee

Recorded: No

 “Dead Dog” is a fandom slang term for a laidback “afterparty” that happens when a convention has officially ended. 

[aerodaltonimperial]

okay, i am GENUINELY not trying to be patronizing or condescending right now, but the amount of pearl-clutching and freaking out that's happened in the past six months or so about the wrestlers you write about finding your fic has been quite high, and VERY GENUINELY, if you are one of the people panicking: how did you not factor this in as a possibility in the first place? i'm being serious. how did you, when you sat down to write about real people, not think that those very real people with internet connections and a metric fuckton of boring travel time were not going to find fanfics about themselves if they wanted to?

we are in an age where fanfiction is mainstream. back in 2000, when i was in high school, you didn't talk about that shit, but now? people are reccing fanfics on tiktok videos. publishing has figured out that writers here put out good stuff and are repackaging it for profit. ao3 is a hugo award winning fanfiction archive. y'all. it's out there. it's all out there. this is a fan space. it's still our space. you can't stop them from ending up here, but that's on them, not us. if you're freaking out, then maybe this isn't something you want to be doing. i'm being very serious. if this is causing you panic, you probably should not be part of this in the year 2024. but, like, i would bet a fairly substantial amount of money that at least 50% of them are well aware of what their number one pairing on ao3 is.

they're already here. they already know. they have always known lol. i'm, like, 75% sure i've had lines lifted from fics before, and honestly, that's not a panic moment, that's a fuck yeah i really nailed that moment. you're not doing anything wrong. this is a fan space. as long as you aren't putting it in front of them and they came here on their own? besties, you're good. you're great. it's fine. i'm being serious, please stop panicking. you gotta roll with it if you're gonna be here. you gotta assume that, at any point, someone involved could find what you're writing. genuinely, if you are not comfortable with that, then you're gonna have to just keep your fics to some google docs you share with a few friends. i know that not everyone has had a red alert level 5 the call is coming from inside the house moment, but it's one of those things. it comes with the territory.

we gotta stop freaking out every month lol. take the acknowledgements and laugh about them. it's fun when they give shout-outs! they know what's cookin'. it's cute that they keep an eye on fandom and what's hitting with us. don't put it in their faces, don't tag them on social media with it, just keep doin' what you're doin' here in the fan space and having a nice time. i promise you'll be okay.

[olderthannetfic]

Smth happened with the Hugo awards last year? Never follow it, don't care only thought AO3 being in it was funny for the meme. While at it: Does winning a Hugo even do anything for the winner? Never bought a Hugo book. Don't even think I've seen it advertised in bookstores. Anyway, fucking fishy what went on, and kinda funky seeing the ship burn. Probs not gonna change anything tho.

--

The Hugos have frequent drama.

The main reason this particular round is an issue is that it calls into question whether Worldcon should be held in China at all. On the one hand, this clearly fucked up a round of the awards. On the other, trying to make a major sff thing stick to only certain countries is pretty xenophobic.

Other rounds have usually been more about community in-fighting and gatekeeping and were often much funnier, especially when Chuck Tingle was involved.

I generally regard the Hugos as an annoying relic of a part of publishing I don't care much about, but yes, winning one does often lead to more sales and have an actual impact on an author's career. The newer and less successful the author, the bigger the impact.

For people into traditional sff publishing, they're a big deal.

[shouldertallabyss]

In this time of struggle when the hackers are knocking on every port, let’s read about the HUGO AWARD AO3 WON IN 2019 and remember why the Archive is so wonderful even when we can’t access it

[mariacallous]

Long gone are the days when fan fiction was treated as a guilty pleasure, exclusively consumed on a glowing iPad screen under the covers at night and never to be discussed outside of Tumblr. We’re living in an age where Supernatural star Misha Collins boasts about Dean/Castiel fanfic stats on Twitter, a Harry Styles fanfic on Wattpad has been adapted into a major movie franchise, and even Academy Award–winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao openly admits to writing fan fiction. The hobby has become a cultural phenomenon, referenced casually in shows like Euphoria, Only Murders in the Building, 13 Reasons Why, and Bob’s Burgers. And who could forget Archive of Our Own (more widely known as AO3) snagging that Hugo Award in 2019?

Born in 2009, AO3 is one of the biggest fan fiction sites today. It’s an open source, multi-fandom archive for transformative fanworks that, as of January 2023, is home to approximately 10.5 million works across over 55,000 fandoms, ranging from big names like Stranger Things and Marvel to the most niche corners of the internet you could imagine. AO3 is pretty much a household name now, at least for any Gen Z or millennial with some degree of online presence. And as fan fiction has become more mainstream, there’s also seemingly been a push by some users for AO3 to keep up technologically. More specifically, for the archive to function … well, more like TikTok. Picture a “for you” page greeting you as you log in to the archive. It automatically recommends your next fanfic to read, like an oh-so-helpful friend plucking a book off the shelf for you that they just know you’ll love.

Let’s be clear though: This idea isn’t going to see the light of day. “An algorithm is never going to happen,” Claudia Rebaza, a volunteer for AO3’s parent group, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), tells me outright. But the debate about whether AO3 should have an algorithm reveals what’s special about fan fiction and the importance of maintaining a space where creative works can just exist.

I get it. As someone born in 1997, it’s hard to remember a time before algorithms, rankings, and personalized recommendations. It feels like every place on the internet is trying to become more like TikTok, from Instagram with its Reels (until Kylie Jenner complained) to Twitter’s “for you” feed. For better or worse, the world today feels deeply online. When nearly every aspect of our lives feels optimized, it makes sense that some want fan fiction to keep up with the times too. 

But here’s the thing: AO3 isn’t social media. It’s simply a space that hosts an enormous collection of works. It’s basically a library on your phone. Being a nonprofit run entirely by volunteers distinguishes AO3 from other fan fiction sites like Wattpad, which is an entertainment company. “AO3 is designed to be an archive, not a social media site, and we’re a nonprofit that will also never run ads,” explains Rebaza. “So we’re not trying to make people spend more time on the site or make anything go viral.” 

Another aspect that sets the archive apart is its lax content policy. While the site still draws the line at some content—explicit material of real minors, flat-out plagiarism—nearly all fanworks are allowed. The only major requirement is that users must tag works containing rape/non-con, graphic violence, major character death, or underage content (alternatively, authors can simply tag “Creator Chose Not to Archive Warnings”). But as long as it’s properly tagged, it’s probably permitted “no matter how awful, repugnant, or badly spelled we may personally find that Content to be,” per the site’s terms of services.

It’s a policy that has been both praised and criticized. But one of the reasons for AO3’s hands-off philosophy is that fan fiction has historically faced a great deal of opposition and censorship. For instance, Fanfiction.net (FF.net), one of the first major fanfic sites on the web, banned all works based on anything by Interview with the Vampire author Anne Rice after she reportedly threatened legal action. (The law as it pertains to fan fiction is murky, but OTW believes nonprofit, transformative works fall under “fair use.”) In 2002, FF.net began implementing a strict “no NC-17 content” policy. Then in 2012, the site famously deleted a large number of stories, presumably ones deemed too mature. The move was widely coined the FF.Net purge by fans, and it sparked concerns about potentially disproportionately affecting authors of slash (same-gender pairing fics).

AO3 is one of the few remaining places on the internet where you alone are responsible for curating the content you consume. You’re armed with only a search bar and the use of tags and filters, sent out into the Forbidden Forest to find whatever your heart desires. And sure, that may feel like a daunting task, especially if you’re used to the likes of TikTok. But part of the beauty of it being algorithmless is that you can hand-pick the works you’re looking for and also easily avoid content you don’t want to see. If AO3 were to implement an algorithm, it’s highly likely you would encounter a lot more content you would have otherwise filtered out, scrolled past, or simply just been blissfully unaware of.

An AO3 algorithm could present a problem not just for readers, but for creators as well. Harassment has long been an issue in fandom, but it feels more intense and intimate in the social media age. In the early 2000s, ship wars and heated discourse mostly lived within the confines of forums, under usernames that nobody would care enough about to track down. Now? Not so much. Hollie, a moderator for the 329,000-member group r/fanfiction on Reddit, tells me how she’s seen things change over the 15 years she’s been involved with fandom. “Fandom has become more clustered into a smaller number of spaces, rather than being able to easily separate into different groups. [So] people with very different interests and takes overlap,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, there were ‘sporking’ (mocking fics) sites back in the day, as well as bullying and ship wars, but for the most part, people complained in their own groups about how terrible their rival ship was or how gross they found certain kinks or whatever. They didn’t usually go to the creators/shippers’ social media and fics to complain at them.” (Plus, if your fandom self is even slightly intertwined with your public persona, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that you will at some point be harassed, threatened, or even doxxed over fictional characters.)

An algorithm would only further knock down these walls. If someone really dislikes a ship or trope for whatever reason, one might assume they would go out of their way to avoid such content by using tags and filters, or simply interact only with fans who have similar taste. But if the algorithm shows people something they hate, they might feel more inclined to engage with that content and go out of their way to make it known just how much they hate it. 

There’s something quietly beautiful about AO3 not making it easy for us to snap our fingers and have a personalized story recommendation fall into our laps. I’d liken browsing the archive to wandering into a bookstore, picking a novel off the shelf, and being pleasantly surprised by how good it is. Sure, you might head to a genre you know you enjoy or gravitate toward a familiar author or friend’s recommendation. But when it comes down to it, you picked the book. Maybe an algorithm would have found a story you liked just as much, maybe not. 

Algorithms and modern technology can be convenient for discovering new content and tailoring things to your personal taste, but they can also impose their own limits. Sure, streaming is great—but are we really taking advantage of this infinite amount of content if all we see is Netflix’s top 10 and Recommended for You tab? Or are we perhaps missing out on shows we would have enjoyed, if only we’d known about them before they were canceled after one season due to (supposedly) low viewership? Is the skill-based matchmaking algorithm used in multiplayer online games like Call of Duty actually helping us enjoy gameplay more? Or is it ruining video games altogether?

If you’re on TikTok, you’ve likely experienced seeing a video on your “for you” page that you never would have clicked on yourself. Sometimes it’s merely annoying (no, I’m really not into watching people eat that Pink Sauce); other times, it can be outright distressing. For instance, if you’re into cute cats, the algorithm might think you actually want to see a viral video mocking domestic abuse. Algorithms often lack the ability to distinguish tone, and they generally don’t account for triggers or content warnings. It’s like shelving Stephen King’s It in children’s fiction just because the characters are kids.

Safety and practicality issues aside, an algorithm would ultimately just plain suck the fun out of AO3. I don’t want to see only the biggest, most popular content. I want to live in the corner of my little niche fandom, enjoying whatever weird things I like regardless of how many views, kudos, or comments are involved. In a world dominated by algorithms, stats, and virality, let me have my fan fiction.

[weatheredlaw]

i just saw your bio, what hugo award did you win/what year?

uh so archive of our own won a hugo award and by proxy anyone who's ever posted to AO3 ALSO won (sort of, but not really). it's really a joke more than anything, but you know what, maybe someday.

[icefir-windbreaker]

A little heads up

They will go into maintenance so meaning the AO3 will down from 07:00 UTC (1:00 AM) to 17:00 UTC (11:00 AM) on July 1. So I don't want people to start freaking out when that happens.

Links here:

[evelynandcelia]

Why Not Take All Of Me?

Read on AO3 here!

CHAPTER 4

Rex and I wrapped shooting a few days ahead of schedule. All through filming, I could tell Rex’s heart just wasn’t in it. His lines lacked the emotional vigor I’d come to admire. It was clear that something was weighing on him, but I never asked what it was. Beyond polite small talk, Rex and I weren’t exactly close. I thought he was a good person with a good heart. That didn’t mean I was interested in being more than what I had signed up to be, which was essentially lucrative arm candy.

I was interested in marrying Harry and starting my life with Celia. Every second I spent in Rex’s house felt like a monumental waste. I would’ve asked for a divorce the second we were finished filming Carolina Sunset but I knew better than that. I wanted to control this divorce narrative just as tightly as I had controlled my marriage narrative. The timeline had to be flawless to maximize profits; a few months before the release was ideal. What would unfold between me and Rex in the tabloids would act as the prelude to our film counterparts. Salacious curiosity would create a blockbuster.       

“I’m staging an affair with Harry,” I explained to Rex over a glass of orange juice. It was a Sunday morning and Rex was eating breakfast. 

“I need you to do the same with one of your girls. It doesn’t matter who.” I was wearing a white skirt and a blue polo; my tennis racket was on the table. Celia was due to meet me at the Beverly Hills Country Club for a round of tennis in less than half an hour, so I was keen to get this over with quickly.   

He leaned back in his seat. I was expecting shock, but instead, I watched relief wash over his handsome features. “I think we’re on the same page. I’m in love with Joy. We’ve been together for a little while now.”

Ah, I thought, of course, he fell in love. His phoned-in performance now made perfect sense. The whole time, he was likely thinking about how much he wanted to boot me out of his house.

“Oh.” I couldn’t keep the smile out of my voice. “That works perfectly then. I’m happy for you.”

“Joy is pregnant.”

And, of course, she’s pregnant.

“That doesn’t affect the plan,” I assured. “We’ll say the stress of filming a movie about people straying from their marriage exposed the cracks in our own relationship. We both fell in love with someone else. People will feel sorry for us but not too sorry because we both cheated. No one is truly to blame. Then we can just sit back and watch Carolina Sunset make millions. Everyone will want to watch our marriage fall apart on screen.”  

Rex just smiled and stood up. He offered me his hand. “It’s been a pleasure doing business with you, Evelyn Hugo.”

• • •

Carolina Sunset set a record for the longest stay in theaters. The rags couldn’t get enough of the photos of Harry and me with our swollen faces and guilty expressions. Rex’s “secret” relationship with Joy garnered just as much attention – and the addition of a baby only made the story easier to peddle. The public ate it right out of our hands.

When the tabloids about us began to wane, Harry and I got engaged. The ring he gave me was a dazzling emerald with a halo of diamonds. That ring was on the cover of every magazine for the next month, and Carolina Sunset continued to reign supreme at the box office. We were drunk on money and fame and that invigorating realization that we had done it. And still, we wanted more.

Our lives peaked when Harry told me he had fallen in love with John. They met at a party and were immediately taken with one another. I was so happy for him - happy that he had found what I had found in Celia. The fact that John was already married to Celia only made my joy sweeter.

That year, Celia and I were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. We lost to Ruby Reily in a very predictable show. I should have never gotten my hopes up, but a part of me felt like there was no way I couldn’t win. I knew I gave a stellar performance, both on and off the screen. I was on such a high that an Oscar seemed inevitable. Thinking like that wasn’t just selfish—it was dangerous.

My pride was suffocating me. The world knows just how to make you happy enough to ease you into the warm bath of complacency before pushing you under.

It all came to a head a few weeks before Harry and I were to get married on Capri. This was the first wedding that I had complete control over, and I was being fastidious. Every detail mattered, from my dress to the guest list to the kind of wine they would serve at dinner. To say I was sparing no expense would be an understatement; I could’ve financed a small country with the amount of money I spent on that wedding. Looking back, I don’t know where I got off, throwing around that all that money. But at twenty-nine years old, my wealth was a security blanket.

“I don’t know about this color, Evelyn. In the wrong light, blue clashes with my eyes and washes me out.” Celia turned around in the full-length mirror and eyed herself from behind. She tapped her hip with a finger. “Does my backside always look this big?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Gwendolyn had dropped off over a dozen bridesmaid dresses at my house for Celia to try on. We were only a fraction of the way through them. My bedroom was littered with the discards. “Honey, you look great. But if you don’t like that dress, just try on another one.” 

I stood up from my bed and began going through the rack. Most of the dresses ranged between a soft, cerulean blue and a deep navy. Selfishly, I wanted her in blue because the Celia in my mind’s eye was always in blue. But if wearing a potato sack had made her happy, I would have promptly sent my assistant to the nearest farm. Lately, I’d been trying to do everything I could to ease Celia’s nerves. I knew my marrying Harry was crushing her. The encroaching wedding had sent her into an anxiety-riddled tailspin, and her accompanying mood swings were giving me whiplash. One minute, she was over the moon and couldn’t keep her hands off of me. The next, she was bitter, jealous, and insecure. We started to fight more and more. Just the night before, we’d gotten into an argument about the institution of marriage. Celia resented the idea of people getting married who weren’t actually in love with one another. Although she never admitted it, I think it was one of those childhood beliefs she hadn’t been able to let go of. 

I didn’t go to her wedding – Celia decided she didn’t want any of her friends there – but I saw the pictures. She wore a modern, shift-style white dress, and her long red hair was parted down the middle. Hollywood Insider published an image of her and John standing just outside the church where they said their vows. He was holding onto her arm and she was beaming. Her smile looked genuine, even to me. When other people fake a smile, it never reaches their eyes. If you look closely enough, there is an unnatural dullness. But Celia had mastered how to impersonate happiness. In the picture, her wide blue eyes were soft and alive. The camera captured it all perfectly. No one could ever say that Celia St. James wasn’t a truly talented actress.

She knew these marriages were necessary for us to get what we wanted. And that broke her heart.

I offered Celia another dress, and she accepted it in a begrudging way. I was sliding the delicate zipper up her back when I heard the sound of the front door opening and closing. 

“Evelyn?” Harry’s voice echoed through the large house. Even with the distance, I could tell he sounded strained. “Do you have a minute?”

I opened the bedroom door. “Sure, Harry, come on up. Celia is trying on dresses for the wedding.”

When he entered the room, I swear the temperature dropped by a few degrees. A knot grew in my stomach. Harry knew how to deliver bad news; he’d given me plenty of it, but this was different. Something was very, very wrong.   

“Did you come over to help me pick out a dress?” Celia joked lightheartedly. She didn’t know Harry like I did. She couldn’t read what he was thinking like I could.

“No,” he said, shaking his head slowly. He handed me a thick manila envelope. 

I sat down on the bed, inspecting it. “What is this?”

“Just open it.” There was a slight tremor in his voice.

“Okay.” I slipped my hand inside the envelope and pulled out the contents. 

Up until that moment in my life, nothing I encountered had ever felt insurmountable. I could make anything a reality if I was clever enough and worked hard enough. When I wanted to make it big in Hollywood, I married a man who could help me get there. When Don blackballed me, I used Max to reignite my stardom. When I wanted Celia back, I went to her apartment and won her over. When I wanted more money, more fame, I made a deal with Rex and earned millions.

Nothing was beyond fixing until I saw those photos.

“Oh. Oh, my god.” I heard Celia’s voice, but I didn’t look up at her. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the stack of photos in my lap. There, in black and white, was my relationship with Celia twisted through a camera lens. Many of the photos were seemingly innocuous. I saw a grayscale version of Celia and me eating sandwiches after a round of golf, our hair in ponytails, and Celia’s shoulders sunburnt and freckled. It could’ve been two friends enjoying a casual afternoon together. But then there were photos of us at my Malibu house, out by the pool. Whoever did this somehow managed to get a camera over the twelve-foot perimeter fence I’d had installed. Celia was sitting on my lap, kissing my neck intimately. I could remember that day, the feeling of her smooth skin sliding against mine and the smell of her coconut sunscreen. 

There had to be twenty shots of just that scene. They got progressively more indecent; my hand made its way inside Celia’s bikini bottoms, and she began touching my breasts. Our faces were somewhat hidden, but it was clear enough who it was. I was the biggest star in Hollywood. My face was recognizable at any angle. 

Every time I didn’t think they could get any worse, I’d see another scene laid bare, and my stomach would drop, and blood would pound in my ears. My face was hot, my hands sweaty. A morbid curiosity forced me to keep flipping through the photos. There were pictures of me arriving at Celia’s hotel in Georgia and leaving in the morning looking disheveled and satisfied. The disguise I’d worn wasn’t as convincing as I had hoped. My signature lips were left exposed; that was all it took to identify me. 

Celia was sobbing. I could hear her but she sounded like she was in a room over instead of right next to me. The only thing I could concentrate on was the fury building inside me, burning hotter and hotter. It started at my shoulders and cascaded down my body in pulsing bursts. My muscles were stiff, and I kept clasping and unclasping my hands as if to make sure it was still me in this body, and I hadn’t just fallen into someone else’s nightmare. But it was real. It was all real. Our lives as we knew them were over. Someone out there knew who I was. My love for Celia was going to ruin me. 

The pile of photos dropped to the floor in front of me. Harry started picking them up and putting them back in the envelope. Crazed with anger and shame, I tore the photos from his hands and began shredding them. My body split down the middle, Celia’s arm removed at the joint. The tatters fluttered to the ground, powerless. Beautiful, happy, cherished memories became nothing but scraps of black and grey and white dots.

I felt Harry’s arms around me, lifting me onto the bed, sitting me back down like a doll.

“I’ve already called the lawyers,” he said in a hushed tone. “We’re going to figure this out, Evelyn. Do you know how many cover-ups happen every day in Hollywood? We can pay a team of publicists to bury this thing six feet under.”

If I had something to say, I couldn’t have said it. My throat was locked, my lips so tightly pursed I wondered if they would look bruised the next day on set. If there even was a next day on set.

Celia spoke up for me. “Who took these? And…why?” She was trying and failing to wipe away the twin rivers of mascara that were beginning to dry on her cheeks. The tip of her nose was bright red, and her eyes were swollen.

“We’re working on that,” Harry said. “The envelope just showed up on George’s steps this morning. He saw them and called me immediately. We hired a private eye who’s worked with all the big names. He’s good, real good.”

A private eye? I thought. What was this, a goddamn movie? 

“Does the press have these?” Celia asked in a very small voice.

“I don’t know. No one has contacted us.” 

We all knew that didn’t mean the rags hadn’t seen them. A little over a decade before, tabloids had the decency to give celebrities advanced copies of their stories so they could read and review them before the magazines went to mass print. Those days were long gone by the time I arrived in Hollywood. Gossip in the late 50s and early 60s was more salacious and more damaging to celebrities' images. If the shrewd, spineless editors at Sub Rosa or Hollywood Insider got their hands on the pictures of me and Celia, they wouldn’t let a soul know until the papers came off the press. They had to operate that way if they wanted to break a juicy story. I would know the same moment the rest of the world knew. 

It wasn’t hard to imagine the headlines:

Evelyn Hugo and Celia St. James: An Unnatural Union No One Saw Coming

How Long Have Evelyn and Celia Been Lying to Us?

American Families Axe Hugo’s Films; Star is Branded a Sexual Deviant

“Evelyn, we will bury these, I promise,” Harry repeated. “Nothing is going to change.”

I wanted so badly to believe him, to think there was a way to circumnavigate this scandal without jeopardizing a single ounce of my fame, but the photos were too damning. Someone had seen Celia kissing me. This wasn’t a libel suit we were dealing with. They had the truth, and no matter what Harry or I did to try to fix this, those photos would always be living in the back of my mind, haunting me, cursing me for doing something as horrendous as loving another woman.

“I want to talk to George.” My voice cracked in that way that only happens after you’ve cried for a long time. But I hadn’t even let my eyes water. I was too angry to cry; crying could come later. First, I needed to assess the damage.

“We can drive there right now.” Harry looked relieved to see me lucid again. He offered a hand to help me get up off the bed, and I took it. 

“I want to come too,” Celia said. She was standing by the doorway, still dressed in a blue gown. It was now covered in wrinkles from how she’d been sitting on the floor.

“Celia, no.” I shook my head. “A person is stalking us; that much is evident. We need to stay far away from each other until we can figure this out. Just…leave. I’ll call you when I know something.”

“This is my life too, Evelyn. And I’m not just going to stand by and let you push me to the side. These pictures are of us.”

My mental stamina for the conversation was rapidly waning. I just wanted her to leave so I could focus - so that I could fix things, or at least try to. “I realize that. Of course, I realize that. But they were sent to my publicist which means it’s my responsibility to handle this. The best thing we can do right now is not give that goddamn stalker any more fodder. If you came with me, they could get another picture.”

“So what if they got another picture?” She sounded defeated. Her hands were against her sides, nervously pulling at a loose thread. “So what if the rags published it? Would that really be the end of the world?”

“We’ve had this conversation before – I’m not having it again.” I walked past her, through the bedroom door, and began moving towards the front of the house. Harry was close behind. 

“If you think you can run from this forever, you’re only fooling yourself,” Celia said from the top of the staircase. Her arms were crossed, her face pulled and sullen. I had seen her that distraught before. It was the day she left me.

I pulled my gaze from her because I knew I would change my mind if I kept looking at those soft blue eyes and thin, pressed lips. I would give it up for her, just like she wanted me to. Maybe I would finally say the words that she’d been aching for me to say: You get all of me. The tabloids would print those heinous headlines, and we would escape to the Midwest to start our quaint, invisible lives well outside Hollywood’s insidious grasp. Celia would teach. I’d be a nurse. When one of our neighbors recognized us, we’d laugh at the idea of meeting, let alone being, a celebrity. No, we would just be two women in love, trying to live our lives peacefully. 

That could be our reality. Instead, I turned to the door. “Celia, you started sobbing when you saw the photos. You can’t tell me that you weren’t thinking about how this could devastate your career, or how it could bankrupt us, or how it could land us in goddamn prison.”

The house was completely silent for a moment. We were perfectly still, our glassy eyes trained on the other. And then she said, “No, I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking about how this was going to ruin us.”

[ravenkinnie]

Ah thank you!

I recently started to write my first fanfiction (I’m still working on it since it’s multi chapter). I had A LOT of fun writing it despite not knowing if it’s actually good or bad. But regardless if people would say it’s good or bad I really liked what I wrote for the first like 4-5 days but yesterday I re-read it and suddenly I hated so much of it? Literally cringed at some stuff my brain came up with and felt no (positive) emotion while reading it, at all!

Now like I said it could totally be that my story is objectively bad but is it normal to suddenly feel so differently about what I wrote? I feel embarrassed about it…like I put my feelings into it and that’s wrong

Is there a way to overcome this? I had so much fun writing but now I’m stuck because every new sentence makes me feel..almost ashamed? :(

you have to leave it for a while, there are multiple fics I fucking hated while writing, made peace with it editing and then fucking hated while posting. and then I reread some months later and went yeah this is okay I don't know what's wrong with me. there are very few ones I didn't despise while working on them dhshjsjs I think with time it's easier to push through it because you're able to judge more objectively what you're good at and where you're struggling and accept that it's a process that sometimes produces drafts that suck

if you have a disease where you don't do new things unless you're immediately perfect and natural at them you're going to swing from hating it to thinking its great and fun and that's just something you have to push through. you will notice waaaay more wrongs and holes in your stories than other people reading because you know the ideal you created in your mind before and that means sometimes you will overlook the things that fit that picture and only focus on discrepancies - I think that's what having a beta or writer friends can be good for, so they can look at your wips from an outside perspective but I'm a loner writer who never has a beta shshsjjs

also on a hater note. sometimes you gotta click on things you think will fucking suck and see that they do suck but both OP and people reading enjoy it and think to yourself does it matter if its good if its fun. nobody is winning hugo awards on ao3, its like smashing barbies with words, there's no pressure to be ~good~ if you don't care about it

[fairestcat]

We Did The Thing: Musings On the AO3, Wiscon, and Winning the Fandom Culture Wars

HOLY SHIT WE WON A MOTHERFUCKING HUGO.

Ahem.

More seriously - or at least more verbosely - I think we won the fandom culture wars. How weird is that?

This is a sort of rambly post. It's about the OTW and the AO3, but it's also about Wiscon, because that's the community I'm in where old-school SFF fandom and transformative works fandom collide, and it's where I've watched this transformation happen over the last decade.

Back in October I made a tumblr post about the history of the OTW/AO3: On the AO3 all these years later.

That post is mostly just quotes from the comments to @astolat's original post that started the AO3: An Archive Of One's Own - and quotes from the post I made back then linking to hers:  An Archive of One's Own, Or: Why Shouldn't We Ask For Everything We Want?

Those posts are from May 2007. I was on the OTW Finance Committee by that fall.

One year later, in May 2008, I went to my first Wiscon. I was on two panels: "Fanfic and Slash 201," and "Fanfic Rising: The Organization for Transformative Works."

They were back to back on Saturday night. "Fanfic and Slash 201" from 9:00 to 10:15 and the OTW panel from 10:30 to 11:45. All fanworks panels at non fanworks-specific cons were late night panels back then. Or, occasionally, on Monday morning after half the con had gone home.

I don't remember who else was on the Fanfic 201 panel, but the OTW panel was me, @oliviacirce and ellen_fremedon. The three of us had never met before that con. @oliviacirce and I had been in Chicago Friday night for a Panic! At the Disco concert and hadn't gotten back to Madison until 3am. I have no idea how we were even still coherent for a 10:30 PM panel.

None of us wrote the panel description, which reads even more impressively antagonistic in retrospect.

"The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), led by fanfic writers, fan vidders, and fan artists (including writer Naomi Novik) seeks to establish a new regime in copyright law, in which 'all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity.' Should there be an exception for fanfic under copyright? Is OTW a good idea? (Some fans are afraid that OTW's activities will end BigMedia's tolerance for fannish creations.) What does the law say? What's the viewpoint of those who create original works -- should authors lose control of their original creations, as long as fans claim protection under a fanfic exception? And what about OTW's commitment to offer protection for RPF (Real People Fanfic)?"

At the time I would have said it was a pretty good panel, and yet we spent a distressing percentage of the panel defending the mere right of fanworks to even exist.

I went back to Wiscon in 2009, which was an...eventful year. It was the first Wiscon post-Racefail and it sparked a lot of discussion of intersecting modes of fannishness and particularly online fandom vs. offline con-based fandom, which was at the time a much bigger divide.

Wiscon 2009 was also the year @ellen_fremedon went to a panel on historical fiction, and got jumped on by Ellen Klages, who was one of that year's Guests of Honor, for the sin of mentioning fanfic in her presence.

After that Wiscon I posted Wiscon, Media Fandom and The Larger Fannish Conversation, about my experience of that divide, particularly as a transformative works fan at Wiscon.

Here's the thing: online media and fanfic fandom is a vibrant, active community within broader SF fandom. [...] And to a large extent media fandom is where the young female fans are, the women who are the future of fandom. We're there at Wiscon too; I was amazed by the number of people from LJ fandom I saw at the con this year. And yet, when it comes to having a voice in larger fandom, we're still the embarrassing cousin shuffled off into the corner (or the hotel lobby). Even at Wiscon, the feminist science fiction convention, we're mostly under the radar, carving out a tiny niche for ourselves.

Last year we had two general, broad-topic fanfic panels. This year we had a fanfic panel, a vidding panel and the media vs. book fandom panel, which was not explicitly a media fandom panel but had an audience heavily weighted towards media fandom participants. And I walked into those panels and I thought "Here! Here are my people!" But it was frustrating too. Why are we relegated to the corner, why are we willing to be relegated to the corner? The conversations we're having, the things we're doing, they don't exist in a vacuum, they're relevant to the larger fannish conversation, they're especially relevant, I think, to the conversation going on at Wiscon. And I think it's time we were a bigger, more open part of that conversation.

So, we set out to make that happen. The OTW and the AO3 were a big part of that. Everyone who was worried at the time that the OTW would bring too much attention to fandom was right to be afraid. And wrong to be afraid too. Because that attention was how everything started to change. The OTW was fandom coming out of the closet, and like any coming out it was a powerful, transformative moment for those involved.

In 2010, a group of fans held the first ever Wiscon Vid Party. 

At Wiscon in 2010, we held the first ever vid party in one of these hospitality suites on the Saturday night, from 9pm to 3am. That's six hours of vid programming! It was mostly unthemed, other than "here are some amazing vids!"[...] The general vibe of the party was loud, a little bit raucous, and pretty informal. We had a mixture of sofas and armchairs, stackable seating, and standing room. People came and went at will. We put a sign on the door asking people to keep conversations to a minimum, and it worked pretty well to keep chatter down while still allowing people to relax and have a good time. It was pretty much like a really big living room.

I missed that con due to the whole move to Canada and get married thing I did, but I remember my first Vid Party in 2012, looking around the party room and having this amazing feeling of being surrounded by my people.

I loved Wiscon, but it was always a fraught experience. There was always this worry that I'd say the wrong thing in the wrong place and suddenly get that disappointed, "oh, you're one of those fans," response. The vid party was the one place at the con that you could just walk in and that worry went away.

And then there started being more of those places. We started suggesting more and more fic and vid related panels.

In 2012, @oliviacirce and I were both on two transformative works panels. "What makes a great transformative work?" and "Fans Fix SF." In a step up from previous fanworks panels at Wiscon they were both during the day. But they were also both in the smallest panel rooms at the con, and both panels fit comfortably into those rooms. Conference 5, where "Fans Fix SF" was held, is still the only room Wiscon uses for programming that's so small it isn't wired for microphones.

And then in 2013 I suggested ten panels for Wiscon and nine of them ended up on the schedule. They weren't all explicitly transformative fandom panels, but a lot of them were, and most of the panel descriptions were informed by my experience in transformative works fandom. Looking back, that was a sea-change moment, because an interesting thing happened. There mostly stopped being transformative fandom-specific panels at Wiscon, because it started being okay, even expected, that fanfic and other transformative works might come up on any panel, from the audience or the panelists.

At Wiscon 2018, I went to a panel on #OwnVoices fiction. Every panelist was a published author and/or professional editor. In the course of the panel, every panelist mentioned fanfic in general or the AO3 in specific in an explicitly complementary fashion. I nearly burst into tears in the back of the panel room.

Afterwards, I met up with @oliviacirce and ellen_fremedon to flail about it, at which point we realized that it had been ten years since that first fateful OTW panel where we all met. And that ten years both felt like so long ago, and also so recent for everything to have changed so completely.

At Wiscon 2019, the three of us were on another panel together. We called it "Fanfic: Threat or Menace - Ten Years Later," and this time I wrote the description:

Do you remember a time before the AO3? Do you remember a time when mentioning fanfic at Wiscon risked a lecture on its illegality and/or immorality? We sure do! In 2008 we met on the panel “Fanfic Rising: The Organization for Transformative Works,” & spent most of our time defending the right of fanworks to exist. In 2018 we were amazed to realize just how much had changed. Let’s talk about how the perception & reception of fanworks have changed, both in fandom at large and right here at Wiscon.

We made it onto the schedule. They once again put us in the smallest panel room. We looked around the lobby on Thursday night and said, "yeah, that ain't happening." We eventually moved to one of the largest panel rooms.

It was almost completely full.

I started the panel by reading out the original panel description from 2008. There was laughter! revolutionaryjo came up afterwards and asked to take a picture of the description on my phone. There were so many people in that room who had no idea what the Wiscon of a decade previous had been like. It was amazing.

Best Related Work? The OTW and AO3 changed the nature of the relationship between fic readers and writers and the entirety of mainstream organized SFF fandom.

The Wiscon Vid Party is still happening, and it's still a marathon of amazing vids, but it's not a really big living room anymore. The Vid Party is the Friday night feature in the biggest panel room. There are Premieres. There’s a sing-a-long. People come who have never watched a vid outside of Wiscon. People come who've never even heard of vids outside of Wiscon. The first year the Vid Party was in the big room, I walked into the room just before the show started, looked around, and realized I didn't recognize ⅔ of the people in the room. And I was so happy. Because I no longer need the Vid Party as a safe space to let down my guard, the entire con is now that place.

We did that. We made that happen.

The OTW made that happen. The AO3 made that happen. But also, a whole lot of individual fans made that happen. We stepped out of our corner, we stepped out of our closet. We demanded a seat at the table. And now we have a motherfucking HUGO AWARD, and when Naomi Novik got on stage at the Hugos and asked everyone who felt that they were part of the AO3 to stand up to be acknowledged, a notable number of this year's other Hugo nominees were among the attendees who got to their feet.

[sanziene]

We’ve all joked about having Hugo Award winner on our resumes, but let’s be real, this would be all of us:

Hiring HR: I see you’ve listed a Hugo Award under achievements, can I see the piece that won you that award?

Fanfic writers:

[barricadescon]

Barricades Con 2024 : Schedule for Friday, July 12

The day is HERE! It's the first day of Barricades 2024! Plan your convention time with this handy schedule! (Note: this post is ONLY the schedule for Friday, July 12! for a complete weekend schedule, see this post , or go to the barricades con website!)

All times are in UTC, and can be converted to your local time zone at this link.

Key to types of Panels:

Convention Administration panels: Panels run by the Con Committee, to open and end the convention.

Guest of Honor: Special panels from our guests of honor. This year, our guests of honor are Jean Baptiste Hugo, a descendant of Victor Hugo who will discuss his project photograph his ancestor’s house; Christina Soontornvat, the author of the award-winning Les Mis retelling “A Wish in the Dark;” and Luciano Muriel, playwright of the 2018 musical play “Grantaire.” 

Fan/Academic Panel Presentations: Panels on history, fandom, or analysis of Les Mis. Scholars will share historical research, fans will share hobby projects, and the audience may get an opportunity to ask questions. 

Social Meetups: Casual unstructured time to meet up over video call and chat!

Social Games: Games and activities.

Friday, June 12th

Discord Server Opens: Friday Morning UTC

Read through the rules, explore the channels, and chat with other congoers.

Welcome Session  Friday, 17:00-17:30 UTC

Session Type: Convention Administration Presented by: Convention Committee  Recorded: No

In this session, Concom 2024 will kick off BarricadesCon 2024 and welcome everyone. Concom will also walk everyone through some basic information and FAQs to help ensure a fun and interesting con for everyone.

The Cats of Les Misérables Friday, 17:30-18:00 UTC 

Session Type: Social Meetup Presented by: Melannen Recorded: No

A laid-back social panel to meet your fellow attendees, share pictures of your pets (or have them join you in the panel!) and chat about pets and Les Mis fandom generally.

(Guest of Honor) From Paris to Bangkok: a Thai-inspired retelling of Les Misérables Friday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Guest of Honor Presented by: Christina Soontornvat Recorded: Yes

Christina Soontornvat’s Newbery Honor-winning children’s novel, A Wish in the Dark, is a Les Misérables adaptation set in a magical Thai-inspired world. Christina will discuss the inspiration for the book, how she decided when to be faithful to the original, and how Hugo’s powerful themes of compassion and forgiveness resonate across age ranges and cultures.

Learn more about Christina’s work at soontornvat.com.

The Yellow Passport: Surveillance and Control in 19th Century France  Friday, 19:00- 20:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation Presented by: David Montgomery, creator of the Siecle History Podcast Recorded: Yes

Les Misérables takes place in a France of police spies, intercepted mail, travel restrictions and other elements of a 19th Century police state. What exactly were these ways French governments surveilled and controlled their citizens? How did they work? And how did people get around them? 

Meetup: Fan Creators Friday, 19:00-20:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Meetup Presented by: Eli Recorded: No

Come meet fellow fan creators! Casual unstructured time to chat with other fans. A good place for people who spend a lot of time on Ao3.

Break  20:00-21:00 UTC

Early Transformative Works: The First Les Miserables Fanart, Fanfics, and AUS Friday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation Presented by: Psalm Recorded: Yes

This presentation will give you an overview of the earliest works inspired by Les Misérables – including illustrations, comics, poems, pamphlets, and novels. Which ones will stand the test of time? And what can these works tell us about the book’s reception and impact? Come learn about the forgotten, but fascinating first transformative works about Les Misérables.

Black and Pink International Friday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Panel Presentation Presented by: Darryl Brown Jr. (he/him), Senior Director of Programs and Advocacy, Black and Pink National. Kenna Barnes (she/they), Advocacy Manager, Black and Pink National Recorded: Yes

This year, Barricades Con is donating all profits to Black and Pink International.

Black & Pink National is a prison abolitionist organization dedicated to abolishing the criminal punishment system and liberating LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by that system through advocacy, support, and organizing. Programming includes wrap-around services for those coming out of the carceral system such as but not limited to workforce development, transitional housing, newsletters to inside members and penpal matching, nationwide Chapters, youth-led research about young people living with HIV, and programming for and by people who do sex work.

Sex work as an issue sits clearly at the intersection of reproductive justice, prison abolition, and trans and queer liberation. Black trans women who engage in sex work face some of the highest rates of policing and surveillance, directly interfering with their ability to access safety and autonomy. We know that when we center the needs of Black trans women, especially those who engage in sex work, we are inherently able to address the needs of other system-impacted people along the way.

The Sex Worker Liberation Project (SWLP) is a collaboration between Black and Pink National and a network of current and former LGBTQIA2S+ people who do sex work across the country. This sex worker led group moves with the intention of building community, providing resources, and cultivating self advocacy tools.The SWLP is on a mission to tackle the urgent and multifaceted issues confronting sex workers, with a specific emphasis on the challenges faced by Black and Brown LGBTQIA2S+ sex workers.

Meetup: Brick Readers  Friday, 22:00-23:00 UTC 

Session Type: Social Meetup Presented by: Mellow Recorded: No

Come meet up and hang out with your fellow Brick readers! Let’s talk about weird nonsense from the book. 

Beat by Beat: a Les Mis 2012 Deconstruction Friday, 22:00-23:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation Presented by: Eli Recorded: Yes

To quote Eli: “As an avid Les Mis fan and also someone with an MFA in screenwriting, I find the script for the Les Mis 2012 movie absolutely fascinating. The choices they made, the added brick scenes, the added song, the pacing, the dialogue, the shots selection—all of it contributes to a very interesting adaptation that our fandom owes a huge debt of gratitude to (whether we like it or not 🥲). I would like to take an audience through the 9 major beats of a screenplay, apply it to Les Mis 2012, and share my thoughts on what the filmmakers did right for this adaptation and what they did wrong. I’ll compare it to the Les Mis musical (the direct source material) as well as the Brick (the secondary source material) for insight on the choices they made!”

History Researcher Meetup Friday, 23:00-24:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Meetup Presented by: David Montgomery Recorded: No A chance for history researchers to meet up and discuss their research!

Atonement: A Theatrical Piece for One Actor, Based on Segments from Hugo’s Les Miserables Friday, 23:00-24:00 UTC

Session Type: Panel Presentation Presented by: Alexiel de Ravenswood Recorded: Yes

This theatrical piece is a dramatic adaptation of scenes from Book 1 of the novel, focusing on the Bishop of Digne. Following the piece, actor Alexiel de Ravenswood will engage in q&a on the creative process and the themes explored.

[starrisontruffle]

Do you write McLennon?

John kisses Paul.

[izhunny]

I cried when I opened my mail today...

This is the gift honoring my donation

This is the gift honoring my donation next to a quarter for scale :)

I never select the gifts when I donate. But I couldn't resist the commemorative logo with the hugo spaceship denoting the 2019 win.

Yeah. I really really cried.

[lily-onher-grave]

good evening everyone and may I introduce you to the now Hugo Award winning

Learn Me Right

[oadara]

The entire AO3 database has been nominated for a Hugo Award. Jonerys fan fic writers congratulations to you and to all other fan fic writers out there!!