#in all my beronica posts there are always tags like

[bravelittleocelot]

I am asking in the goodest bestest faith with my heart open trying to accept that there's an answer: how is bisexual polycule with Beronica the straighten endgame option for Riverdale just because they don't explicitly mention Jarchie? I mean, they could have not had Beronica? (Sorry if the post was old, I just was scrolling around the Riverdale tag). I also don't understand how Archie wasn't still canon bi, but that's harder to talk about I guess

Hey Anon! It's not that old, and as I mostly shoot my mouth off about RVD without much thought to how it comes across im absolutely happy to explain my jumbled half-baked thoughts lmao.

To be totally clear; I'm absolutely not erasing the bisexuality of the polycule nor am I discounting the fact that we absolutely had canonical bisexual archie even if he and reggie didn't kiss on screen/at all. None of these fools were straight at the end of the day. and for all my grievances with this show I do completely appreciate this. I didn't mean to imply that archie wasn't bi just because he didn't end up with jug in the polycule.

I complained about it being the 'straightest possible version of this' as in 'this felt very written by a straight person who has very specific views on queerness'. the tl;dr is; I felt like it was kinda fetishy and queerbaity to imply that only the women in the relationship are dating each other as well as the men, especially since they were the only ones who kissed on screen. We didn't get to watch archie or even jug have nearly the same level of queer exploration at all, and I think that's kinda shitty.

as a small disclaimer, i believe the writer is actually gay, im not trying to be like 'ugh a straight person wrote this' I'm trying to explain my feelings in terms that can be understood lmfao.

Now ofc, idk what was happening behind the scenes. Maybe KJ felt too uncomfortable to do a scene of kissing another man, maybe he didn't want to kiss cole, who knows. totally valid reasons.

To explain it bit more in-depth: It felt super queerbaity, or I guess bi-baity? to me to have a whole episode of archie figuring out bisexuality and never have him explore that more on screen, only to say that he was in a polycule that didn't include Reggie (who it was implied pretty heavily he had some feelings for) ((It should've involved reggie I'll die on this hill)) and only really seemed to imply that betty and veronica were dating. We got to see Veronica and Betty explore this side of themselves repeatedly and on screen, and I love that they did this, but I honestly think it kind of sucks that Archie didn't get to have that same level of exploration as well (even if it's lowkey implied he's gonna ride trains and fuck all summer until he ends up going to the farm instead). I really would've loved to see him figure out his feelings some more through dating Reggie or Jughead in a similar way Betty and Veronica got to explore that.

I haven't seen Every Bit Of Media OUt There, but growing up I always felt like the bisexual women on screen were always out having sex and kissing and being loud and proud while the bisexual men were always a bit more closeted and restrained, and never as loud and proud. This is a broader spectrum, but this is where that part of that annoyance stems from.

And like it's all well and good that we got to hear about the polycule, but it felt like an afterthought and a meatless bone thrown to the queer audiences out there, we didn't really get a chance to explore that side of things at all ((because we were too busy learning chic was playing bury your gays with kevin's dad and archie's uncle??? like wtf?? I guess we were going for a bit of a gritty ending but cmon)) and they kind of immediately break up on screen? It just felt like one last middle finger from the cw. And yknow, time constraints, endings are insanely hard to write, etc. But not one person was like "hey shouldn't we... explore this a little bit?" cmon,

tldr part 2: The should've done more or had a longer ending so that more stuff could be fit in.

anyway, I just think it would've been nice if we could've seen more of that whole deal, but at the end of the day it's just my opinion, sorry for the huge jumbled ramble its nearly 1 in the morning lmao.

[lightsaroundyourvanity]

everyone always says “whatever i don’t trust the cw” re: f/f relationships, and given last season that is fair, but this season there’s been a romantic wedding between two women on no tomorrow, and alex danvers came out on supergirl, and sara lance flirts with more girls every day

so idk call me naive if you’d like but i do genuinely believe that they are trying

[soyforramen]

Oh look, I write things.  Links to AO3:

Riverdale: 

Tis the Season - Riverdale Holiday Prompts (On Going)

Washing Machine Heart - Bughead.  College Laundromat AU

Pink and Gray - Bughead drabbles from prompts (On going) 

Lost in the Wood - Bughead Urban Fantasy inspired by the BHDC (WIP)

Asea - Bughead Pirate AU (WIP)

Short and Sweet - BHDC Challenge Collection

Cry to Me - Bughead, pre-show.  When Betty’s stood up, Jughead finds a little dancing goes a long way.  

Dear Diary - Jughead finds Betty’s diary and gets more than he was expecting.  (Mind the tags please)

The Critic and the Chef - Bughead.  Jughead’s a chef and Betty’s a critic.  Things go about as well as you’d expect.  (Served with a side of SweetE; WIP)

This Time Around - Bughead. Persuasion, part 1. Years after he left without a word, an engagement throws Betty and Jughead back together.

Only You - Persuasion, part 2.  Wherein Betty and Jughead try to navigate friendship post Riverdale.

Palm Readings and You - Bughead body swap.  (WIP)

Short and Sweet - A collection of Bughead drabbles based on Raptorlily's prompt lists.

Pearl’s and Poetry - Varchie drabbles from prompts (On going)

Centerfold - Varchie; Veronica comes across a familiar face in the most unexpected place

A Wizard’s Peril - Varchie short chapter fantasy (WIP)

Saints and Sinners - Veronica Lodge was no saint.  (Self-Introspection)

Louboutins and Lace - Beronica ficlets

Yellow Isn’t Just for Friendship - Writtten for the Riverdale Pride and Joy Zine.  A Beronica re imagining of the Pilot Episode

Daffodils and Hyacinths - Veronica Lodge opens up a flower shop in Riverdale, right across from Betty’s tattoo shop.

It’s My Party (I’ll Cry If I Want To) - Betty/Toni.  It’s Betty’s birthday party and Archie shows up with her.  (Leslie Gore series)

What’s a Girl Supposed to Do? - Veronica’s determined to find out why Betty’s been avoiding her for weeks.  (Leslie Gore series)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Jeronica AU; They’ve got nothing in common, this isn’t a relationship, and she’s the most stable thing in his life.

Strawberry Blond - Barchie (one-sided); Their meeting didn’t go as planned.  Perhaps it’s time to move on.

The Haunting of Thornhill - Horror.  A week long college experiment goes horribly wrong. (WIP - Mind the tags for future chapters)

Sacrifices Have to Be Made - Horror, S2 divergence. A different take on the murders plaguing Riverdale.

Fairytales Don’t Always Have Happy Ending - Polly centric, wherein she escapes from the sisters and finds help along the way.  (WIP)

Morning In America - The kids of Riverdale aren't alright.  (Or a Polly centered fic on the spring semester before it all fell apart.)

Enough - Moose Introspective piece, written for Riverdale Pride & Joy Zine

Riverdale: Founding Families as Symbolic of 20th Century American (WIP nerd)

Parentdale:

Kill Your Boyfriend - Gladys&Alice friendship; Alice always did have the best ideas

New Year’s Day - Cleaning up after New Year’s was always a pain, but at least Fred had FP there to help (Fredsythe)

X-Men: 

Promises and a Table for Two - Romy; When Remy proposes to Rogue, it comes with an offer she can’t refuse (WIP, new chapter hopefully this month?)

Drunk on a Plane - Romy; Two failed engagements and a trip to Key West (WIP, though IDK why since it’s mostly written...)

Dancing on my Own - Rogue never wanted this life.  Movie-verse

Hurry on Home - Romy. Stuck in another banal meeting, Remy schemes on how to get out of it after Rogue starts texting him.

HP:

Libraries - Fremione; If Fred knew work study was going to be this boring, he’d have signed up for psych experiments instead (WIP)

Blind Dates and Sorbets - Fremione one-shots

Someone Like You - Fremione.  Fred meets a familar Muggle in London who knows nothing of the wizarding world.

Crispers, Cats, and You - Fremione.  Muggle AU (WIP)

Five Little Words - Fremione.  A different take on a magic bound marriage. (WIP)

50 Sentences - Fremione.  Writing exercise 

One More Song - Fremione.  A one-night stand and a single Weasley.  What else could a girl ask for?

Can’t Get You Off My Mind - Fremione.  When Hermione can’t get him out of her head, it’s obvious a potion is the reason.

Morning Angel - George/Luna, postwar.

So Much Better - Ron/Pansy, post war.

Other:

Sympathy for the Devil - Good Omens; Aziraphale’s dalliances with the arts concoct a devilish song

Fade (Into You) - Ada/Leon; Ada needs a safe space for a night

[nomadicbeard]

Hi! I saw on one of your posts you said that you used to be a stucky shipper. I actually started off as a stony shipper but then absolutely fell in love with stucky but I like both . I was just wondering what made you "jump ship" on stucky lol. Sorry if this comes across as annoying or anything im just curious!

Hey! As you can see a couple of people have asked me this over the last couple of weeks and I’m really lazy and haven’t got around to responding yet, but the people deserve an answer so here we go. Before we start a quick disclaimer: I’ll only be talking about the ships themselves, not the communities or any of the discourse surrounding them. This is not a ship-bashing of any kind and please do not take it as such, it’s just my own personal experience surrounding these characters and these relationships. 

 Buckle your seatbelts kids, this is a long one.

I first got into Marvel c. 2015. I’m European so I’d never really watched any marvel movies before that, I watched Age of Ultron on a plane and remember being vaguely aware the Steve/Tony was a thing (what is pretty interesting is that to this day I have no clue where that knowledge came from) but was mostly just excited by the superhero stuff. I then got home and watched The Winter Soldier and fell in love. I love the Winter Soldier, it’s probably still one of my favourite marvel movies (it got kicked out of its top spot by Black Panther last year unfortunately) and to me no other marvel movie could hold a torch to it at the time. So I came onto tumblr, searched up The Winter Soldier and was just inundated with Stucky stuff, as expected. I rolled with it, got invested just from constant exposure (it was also around the height of the Stucky ship) and as far as I was concerned, that was that. I was super into Stucky for almost six months and was pretty much your average shipper, I didn’t understand stevetony, loved Steve Rogers, was close to creating a Stucky sideblog wit some ridiculous pun as my username, I was gone over this ship.

Then one day, I sat down and read the man on the bridge by boopboop on ao3. You’ve almost definitely heard of it, but it was the most popular fic in the Steve/Bucky tag on ao3 at the time (for some reason I had just never got around to reading it until then, it was long and I didn’t have the stamina I have now). It was your pretty standard Stucky fic, Steve gets Bucky back, they have to deal with his trauma which results in Steve and Bucky declaring their long lost love for each other etc. etc. What was different about this fic, was that it was all told from Tony’s point of view, and since Steve and Tony were on the same team at that point, their dynamic was a huge part of the fic. And I found myself falling completely in love with Steve and Tony’s dynamic. I went back to the fic for this post (and god it is a good fic) and pulled up the first couple of chapters and instantly just found so many instances of that dynamic

(grade A stevetony arguing over each other’s safety with a side of flirting from Tony)

(Idk why but the image of Steve and Tony not going to sleep, but rather staying up and brewing coffee together was such a vivid one when I first read this fic, I still remember it to this day. )

(Tony picking Steve flowers while trying to desperately play off that he didn’t aka. Tony caring while trying desperately not to care)

(Everyone knowing that Steve would definitely come to Tony, apart from Tony himself.)

Now obviously, this is a stucky fic and I went into it knowing this, but I found when Steve and Bucky finally got together I felt honestly a bit bored, a bit cheated. I had no idea why at the time. I remember very clearly x-ing out of the fic at the end and feeling really uneasy, I came onto tumblr, went straight back into the Stucky tag and all was well.

When I next went back onto ao3, I started out with a couple of oneshots in the Stucky tag, but for some reason it wasn’t working for me anymore. I remember sitting there, a little bored, not at all invested in this relationship and just missing something. I figured I was probably missing Tony’s presence in the fic and so filtered in Tony Stark’s character tag. I read a few of those and all was well but I realised the same thing was happening as had happened in man on the bridge, the moment that Steve and Bucky got together, the fic lost something for me. Desperate at this point, and a little annoyed at myself I conducted an experiment and went into the Steve/Tony tag on Ao3 and as they say, the rest is history. If you go onto older posts on my main blog there’s a pretty drastic, almost overnight shift c. January 2016. I have to admit, I expected Civil War to be a conversion so I enjoyed stevetony without consequence for five months, while still labelling myself as a Stucky shipper because I expected to be pulled back to Stucky after civil war, the reality was that somehow I came out of civil war shipping stevetony harder than ever before. From there, I spent two years reading my way through the stevetony tag on ao3 and finally set up this blog in 2018, with a really obscure reference as my username and it’s been stevetony til I die ever since.

I just couldn’t read Stucky anymore. That’s what I mean when I say on this blog that stevetony has ruined me for every other ship, because it has. Steve and Tony’s firecracker dynamic pulled me away from what was fast on its way to becoming my favourite ship in 2015, all because they had a bit of banter on the side in a fic. It’s kind of depressing really, the sort of hold that Steve and Tony’s dynamic has over me, 

It’s strange you say you fell in love with Stucky, I fell absolutely out of love with it. I have thought a lot about how I ended up falling into stevetony and why I was so drawn to them instead of Stucky in the first place and I think it all comes down the the story itself. To me, Steve and Bucky’s relationship carries much more weight as a friendship, I still have no doubt that Bucky is one of if not the most important person in Steve’s life, but having that be a lifelong friendship is way more powerful and impactful to me, (especially since what I know I misconstrued to be Steve’s obsession with Bucky is actually Steve’s obsession over the past. I’m not saying Bucky isn’t dear to Steve and he does want to obviously rescue him, but looking back on it there’s more to Steve’s obsession with Bucky than just love, it’s a fear of change and it’s him desperately trying to hold onto a past that’s gone.)

Conversely, I feel like adding a romantic element to Steve and Tony’s relationship enriches the story being told, if you look at something like civil war (either MCU or 616 tbh) in the context of Tony being desperately in love with Steve, it makes a lot more sense, especially with things like The Confession in 616 or the stuff brought up in that strange conversation in the conference room in the MCU. There’s lines from Steve like “I’m home/you gave me a home” or even straight up “he loved you” and his tormented behaviour throughout infinity war and endgame that just really makes you wonder, not to mention lines from others like “you two still gazing into each other’s eyes/sounds like both of you got into bed with the wrong people” and they did have to share a bed at Clint’s farm after all lol. The tragedy of their story is heightened if you look at it through the context of them being absolutely in love with each other, just never having actually got around to telling it to each other’s faces. This tragedy is heavily implied in The Oath/The Confession in 616 when they confess their deepest darkest secrets to the other’s comatose/dead bodies, and apparently it’s always been that they love the other person. Actually you could easily introduce a romantic element by making relatively few changes to the MCU, but that’s a post for another time (I have a long and comprehensive list in my notes app on how little you actually need to change to make that happen, it’s literally the matter of a few lines of dialogue and one major story change at the end of IM3, an interesting thought exercise to say the least).

Finally, there’s a quote that came up on my dash the day I made that fateful venture into the ao3 stevetony tag, “your soulmate isn’t someone who comes peacefully into your life. It is someone who makes you question things, changed your reality, somebody that marks a before and after in your life. It is not the human being everyone idealized, but an ordinary person, who managed to revolutionize your world in a second” to this day, it resonates so strongly with me about stevetony. It’s everything I love about this ship just compressed into a quote. 

So yeah it was basically a bunch of happy coincidences, but thank god it happened. As a writer, stevetony has taught me so much about character and dynamic, stuff that is honestly invaluable. When you have long fics that basically detail the day by day life of Steve and Tony post-civil war in rural Italy and consists of them sleeping, crying and working through their repressed feelings (looking at you @silkspectred ), it is the characters and their unique dynamic that drive the entirety of the story. Steve and Tony, in the hands of a compelling writer, can keep me hooked over a frankly embarrassing number of words. I still have a bit of a special place for Stucky in my heart really, it did start me out in marvel after all and it was one of my first ever ships, but your first love is only so good until you meet your true love, not to get all sappy but stevetony has completely destroyed my ability to ship anything else. I might get a bit flirtatious with some other ships, like sambucky (I still love Bucky, and I love Sam!), or the riverdale ships (beronica and jarchie or bust), or even the game of thrones crack ships (daensa til the day we die), but I’ll always come back to stevetony.

So yeah this escalated into a far longer post than I intended to make but I’ve never really spelled out on this blog how or why I ended up jumping Stucky to Stony when I know it’s usually the other way around. I guess it just comes down to stevetony catching me out when I least expected it, and never having let go of me since. 

[veronicadvalle]

I mean my s1 experience was VERY isolated because outside a group of people I didn't engage with the main fandom but I remember everything that wasn't Bug/head being shunned. Like this group shipped everything from Archieronnie to Jarchie to Cheronica and constantly got hate from the main fandom for daring to disagree. I still remember when a wlw Beronica shipper was called homophobic slurs by them and run off tumblr... That was one of my earliest RD fandom experiences, ugh..

yikes yikes yikes yikes yikes yikes

i’m not gonna comment about that specifically because I have no recollection of it. 

But I do remember that there was some very loud anti-bughead as well back in the day. I think the clip of epi 8 got leaked and everyone knew bughead was coming. so it was the pro-aromantic Jughead people hating on bughead and basically doing the whole, “if you support bughead, then you support xyz” spiel. On top of that, some beronicas also hating on bughead left and right. 

And I think we should address the elephant in the room and admit that there is an actual cancer of a blog that has distorted the fandom but also ruined many people’s experiences, mine included. That’s why I kept a large distance between myself and the b/ghead fandom.  And unfortunately, they were very loud, commenting on most every post in the tag with their “opinions” with no regards of politeness since they were always so rude if they didn’t agree. 

So there is just hate and negativity left and right. And the behavior is all the same since it’s  all born out of negativity. I just wish people would stopppp but it’s beating a dead horse at this point. It’s almost like the natural course of all fandoms. it’s just a matter of ignore and focus on the good. =.=

Side note, but does anyone remember that one user who received “anon hate” and responded and published it like it was just another normal anon hate …. but it wasn’t anon. it was their blog so it looked like they sent it to themselves. they claimed they got hacked. I literally have no idea what was going on there but I just remember that one instance since I was a quiet spectator back then. 

[miss-lkb]

Maybe not you but a lot o shippers get these signs as absolute true and keep spreading hate to beronica and coleneti accounts and that for sure helps the antis to get irritated

Define “a lot”. It’s pretty hard to quantify how many “shippers” are actually spreading hate when it’s on anon. Have you considered it may just be a couple of people sending the same “hate” to multiple accounts? There will always be a few bad seeds in any fanbase…but they are the exceptions, not the rule.

It’s these type of generalizations that led to my post. You say “a lot [of SH people] get these signs as absolute truth” but you don’t provide an actual number or provide evidence to support this claim. And based on the amount of likes and reblogs on my post, it seems more SH people share my sentiments than not.

Lastly, to touch on the beronica and coleneti accounts. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and free to express it (thank you 1st Amendment). People are free to ship what they want, just be respectful of others and understand not everyone will agree with you. Also, if you want to express your opinion in a way that’s offensive or slanderous, just don’t tag it improperly or go to Sprousehart posts to leave anti comments unless you want some heated replies. Obviously, this goes both ways.

Ultimately, like what you like, ship what you ship, just stay in your lane and don’t be an asshole. This is supposed to be fun after all, right?

[aussiekirkland]

A big tag

I was tagged by @justletmewatchmerlin thanks!

Always post these rules! Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you. Write 11 questions of your own. Tag 11 people.
 Answers: 1. Favourite language? I never really thought about it so I’m gonna say Japanese even though that makes me sound like a weaboo
2. Would you like to go to university? (If you’re in university, what do you study?) I was at WAAPA last year doing a diploma of jazz and now I’m at Murdoch studying random units (intro to psych and drawing right now) until I figure out wtf to do for my major
3. Where do you want to live the most? Ultimately I’d love to live near the beach so I could go all the time, but I wouldn’t want to be super far from the city either
4. Last film you watched? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I think?
5. Favourite ship? That’s a very situational question but right now it’s Beronica
6. Have you ever watched Prison Break? (if not then go and watch it, mate, new season is coming) No I haven’t but I’ve heard of it
7. What’s the weirdest thing about you? Every time I make a guy friend I’m paranoid that he has feelings for me (a well based fear but still it’s stupid)
8. Which countries have you visited so far? Zilch, I am but a poor Australian
9. Who was your first celebrity crush? Lana Parrilla (this was like a year ago haha)
10. Who is your celebrity crush now? Camila Mendez
11. What’s your biggest fear? Not getting my shit together for good (I’m pretty sure it’s different every time though)

My questions: 1) What’s your Myers Briggs type? 2) Do you prefer skates, bike, scooter, skateboard or something else? 3) What’s your favourite month of the year? 4) Have you been watching Riverdale? You should, it’s really good 5) What do you do to recover from a long week? 69) What do you think is the gay agenda? 7) If you could become amazing at any instrument right now, what would it be? 8) Beach, forrest or lake? 9) What’s your favourite scent (candles, soap etc)? 10) What are your hobbies (other than tumblr)? 11) Where do you want to be 1 year from now?

I tag @songbirdpyka @icarusflyinghigh @paganlesbean @inquisitivespirit @techno-trashcan @legallypossessed @elithelizard @oatmeal-chemist @kenkel98-vision @shintoga @phansnuts

[jarchieriverdale]

I'm writing a Riverdale fanfic (Jarchie mainly, with Beronica on the side) which is one of my first proper fanfics ever. Any general tips or maybe even just tips for being brave enough to actually, you know, share it? I'm feeling so awkward about this entire thing!

Can I first start of with saying: so much kudos to you for wanting to put your fic up! Fandoms getting new fics and writers is always a huge YES because we always need more & definitely welcome it ^_^(This definitely ended up being really long, but I made a list further down if you don’t wanna read all my rambling. I’m not sure what specifically you’re feeling awkward about, but I covered a bunch of stuff :))

Reading this I was like, I’m probably not the best person to ask because I have really bad anxiety ?? but then I was like, actually, you know, that’s why I’m probably one of the best people to ask because HOW the HELL do I manage to do this despite that? And honestly it involves a lot of self-talk + bravery + a fuck-it-I’m-gonna-do-it-who-cares mood. And I have a feeling this post is going to be rather long, but I’ll just talk through my own experience and what I’ve told myself, and maybe it’ll help you (or someone else) as well. :D

(I decided to put this under cut IT’S SO LONG IM SORRY (& if you’re on mobile I’m even more sorry t_t) 

I’ve actually been writing stuff for YEARS. I started fanfics in middle school, before that I was writing my own little stories. Little me in primary school and early middle school, so badly wanting to be a writer (I RP’d a lot between 07-10 as well). But I never shared my writing. SOMETIMES with close friends, if I bought up an original story and they were interested I would send it to them. Otherwise, I wasn’t about to share it with anyone. ESPECIALLY not my fanfics when I started. A lot of my earliest have gone unseen by the world (and myself for years). I’m sure this may apply to a lot of people if you’ve written stuff for years, regardless what type of writing it is. I don’t know if you’ve written other stuff before anon, but if you haven’t that’s okay because we all gotta start somewhere & if you want to share it right away that’s one hell of an achievement and damned awesome. On the other hand, if it’s taken a while, that’s great too. Either way, sharing can be one hell of an anxiety inducing situation.

Okay, so when it came to finally posting stuff up, I’d definitely been writing a while, but at this point I knew I really wanted feedback on my writing, and to see if people enjoyed it, so that was a huge factor in me sharing it online. I’d never find out what people thought if I kept it to myself forever. Critique can sometimes be tough (just before my ImperialRemnant account on AO3 I wrote fanfic elsewhere and definitely had “this sucks” reviews - which isn’t so much a critique, but actually being a dick because they weren’t helpful - and definitely had fics that did rather terribly - still do - but it’s all a learning process & you eventually get used to it).

It’s also important where you post it, AO3 would be best of jarchie and beronica, as well as tumblr. Fanfic.net usually does better with gen fics. They’re the only ones I use, although I have accounts on some other sites I still gotta go on.

So I’ll go through things you should remember if you’re nervous about putting up fics (and things I have to remind/tell myself constantly):: 

1. I’ll start with the fact you’ll definitely get reviews/comments/critique like I said previously. But most people are REALLY REALLY nice, so don’t freak out (I tell myself, as I’m trying to rationalise), and I haven’t had anything terrible since making my ImperialRemnant account on AO3 or fanfic.net. And there are always times your fics won’t get any comments at all– and that’s fine too! I’ve had that happen to me, and in the long run, it doesn’t feel like a huge biggy??Also, sometimes people aren’t gonna like what you do and they’ll say that, but that takes me to a second point–

2. It’s not your problem if somebody doesn’t like something. This is really important to know. You wrote the fic because it’s a concept you wanted to write, and something you really wanted to share and that’s amazing. You put tags on everything in your fic, so the person will go in and know what to expect, so if somebody does say something, then it’s like… “it was in the tags/summary? Why did you read this then? Wtf?” then 0% your fault. (Tagging’s important guys! I do find it hard so if you do too then try! You’ll usually be fine). 

3. In regards to quality of fic, there’s definitely is a lot of amazing stuff out there, and that’s overwhelming. But you gotta know, there’s a lot of bad stuff too. I hate to say it, because it’s the nice thing to say all fic is good, but the reality is that’s not true. Your fic may not be the best (hey it may be damn amazing I haven’t seen it xD), but there’s a damn good chance it’s not going to be the worst either. Say to yourself this fic isn’t terrible, it’s fine. Your quality will improve over time anyway when you grow as a writer (Lord forbid there’s stuff from a year ago I published and I’m like… why did I do that…but that brings me to the next point).

4. SOMEBODY WILL LOVE YOUR FIC, I GUARANTEE THIS. I didn’t know this at first but learnt it quickly and have to remind myself EVERY TIME. Even if, later, you’re going “oh god that fic was a dumb idea”, there will be someone, at some point, who will have loved it and enjoyed it and wished there was more. It may just be one or two people but goddammit your audience is always gonna start small, and if it stays that way it will always be worth it for someone (that someone can be yourself too!). The best feeling is when somebody gets excited from your updates (HUGE reason why people should leave comments if they love a fic, because there’s a lot of people who are passive readers even when they love love LOVE a fic & just leave a kudos, definite issue. But I hope as a fandom we can not be like that?).

5. Your writing is not going to be perfect to you, it’ll never be perfect, you’ll be sure there’s a way something could be written better, but maybe you don’t know how to make it better (especially if you don’t have a beta!). I never expect fics, when I go in to read them, to be perfect. No writer is perfect, even properly published writers. You’re going to have to tell yourself it’s the best you can do RIGHT NOW for THIS fic. Put it through an editing program maybe if it’ll make you feel better (I use prowritingaid sometimes?) or leave the fic and go through it later. It’s gonna be fine.

6. Don’t expect much at first. Sometimes first fics can be very successful for people, but there’s a shit-ton of people where this doesn’t happen and it takes a while. When I first put fics up on AO3 they only got less than 10 kudos or something? You will eventually write something that a lot of people may love, but it can take a while. I think… well I’ll give you an example with the Star Wars fandom– I first wrote TFA & Kylux on AO3 before The Force Awakens had even come out, so obviously I didn’t get a lot of attention. When the movie came out, there was few fanfics but I was already there so a lot of people would read my fics (dunno if they liked them, but since they were some of the ONLY ones that existed they didn’t have much choice ;P). If you’re writing fics in a growing fandom you might be more likely get more attention later on your fics, if only because there’s few choices. Some of my fics still have barely any kudos, but I have nearly 60 fics and they’re gonna be a hit or a miss (& they eventually gather more kudos overtime, so even the worst fics have at least a few). With Jarchie, I was actually surprised I got as many as I did, but this fandom’s in the process of growing and I assume a lot of people are reading all the new fics?? It’s probably good for you actually, to right now put a fic when people are reading it and into it. 

6. It gets easier. Man, I ain’t even kidding, the first time I was putting up a fic I was freaking out like mad, going back and forth between the tag, mouse hovering over the publish button, re-reading a billion and ten times. It was ~kinda~ easier in a fandom where nobody was reading the fics because you definitely don’t expect much, but there were a couple of people who definitely enjoyed the series I was writing once I’d put some stuff up. And as time went on, it got much more easier. There’s a huge gap of time I didn’t put any fics up and it was hard to update again, but now that I did it, it’s once again easier to do it. I still have internal battles with myself over it, but it’s quicker to get over it and much easier to win. 

7. I forgot a note so I’m just gonna add it quickly. But if you’re really weird about it, you can first send it to a friend to look over, or a mutual or something. Or, since I myself never could do that, just tell someone about the idea– and I suggest telling someone you know won’t make a negative comment about it. Sometimes a “that sounds interesting” or “that sounds cool” can be even a little helpful. If you’re lucky, might even go a long way.

Honestly, my mind goes through a whole lot of panic, and sometimes it just takes a good mental day, and some excitement about the concept of my fic, to be able to be brave enough to finally put something up. I usually have low expectations when I share it (being a pessimistic person by nature, so as not to disappoint myself), but I’m like… somebody’s gonna like it at some point, it’s not the worst fic I’ve ever seen, it’ll be okay. And if a fic doesn’t do well, then you just need to put it behind and move on (repress memories haha). Leave it up, don’t take it down, somebody may eventually come across it and love it, but there’s no harm done having fics that don’t do well. It might just be that it’s not gonna appeal to most people, and that’s okay.

At the end of the day your fic’s gonna be okay. There’s a bunch of amazing, unique, horrendously weird, terrible, awful fics out there and the last thing you need to feel is awkward. I know this ended up being a monster of an essay but I hope it’s helped, even a little.

tl;dr? No need to feel awkward, sit yo ass down and just fuckin’ do it. Shit’s crazy.