#this has been a fanfiction recommendation

[esamastation]

hi!!! i just wanted to pop in after reading some of your AC fics (ones where desmond, ezio, and/or altaïr are at the forefront so in this case: i was born for this, terrible two, stone angel, gift of living well, impermanence, three fold, & earthly scene) and say that you're a brilliant writer. as someone who's trying to write longer, more impactful stories, it's admirable how you prioritize the plot and how romance is a sweet part of it. (this is part 1 of this message bc of the word count!)

you construct romance in an original, cathartic way that feels effortless. i just finished 'i was born with this' and the romance that forms between the characters feels so natural and unforced. another thing i love in your fics is that when desmond goes back in time, he always (unintentionally at first) makes an impact in furthering knowledge, inventions, etc centuries ahead of when they were supposed to happen. more importantly, desmond finds his well-deserved happy ending.

your fic ideas are also so creative and out of the box. i'm currently going through the games right now and desmond has been so so much shit (unwillingly) and he deserves some rest and happiness :,) another thing i love is how you always leave a hopeful ending that makes me ache to know what happens after!! you flesh out the characters so much over the span of + 100,000k words, tie things wonderfully at the end, and make me feel out breath (in a good way)

yeah, to sum that up, you're an amazing writer!! i also wanted to ask you some questions about writing. i aspire to write long fics, but i struggle with plotting out events =( i feel like i rush the events in how i want to get to the end where the characters are happy! do you have a writing process? do you plot out your stories or kind of go with the flow? do you have any tips on improving your writing? i totally get if you don't have any advice! have a great day!

-

Thank you for your nice comments, sorry it took so long to reply, I was feeling very antisocial. Anyway.

I do not have a writing process - I'm what they call a gardner writer, I take characters and I put them into situations and see how things develop and plot either happens or it doesn't. Maybe I have vague plans like "here's a scene I want to see in future" and "this is a result I want them to come to" and then try to write towards those goals, but they don't always pan out. It's all very chaotic and leads to lot of dropped fics, but it's how I enjoy writing. (It really helps having someone reading your stuff and poking at the plot holes though, I got a lot of fics that only got as far as they did because nimadge or someone else was there along for the ride.)

I dunno if there's anything other that just practice that can improve a person's writing. Some people recommend writing short stories and flash fiction, some people say your should write X amount of words every day. If all else fails there's thousands YouTube videos on subject.

Personally I'm a huge advocate of taking ideas from other people and putting your own spin into them. Derivate, rehash, put them in a blender, see what comes out. Like, don't copy Lord of the Rings word for word and publish it as your own work, that's bad - but maybe dwarf and elf going on adventures together is a idea that could go places. Fanfiction is all derivation upon pre-existing ideas.

Related, I whole heartedly endorse anyone who wants to take plots and ideas I've written and taking a crack at them with their own style. It's pretty much how I learned to write as wee bab on a typewriter, stealing from the books I enjoyed. And hell, if you don't have a style, try someone else's. One is my most popular fics started with me trying to emulate the style and cadence of narration of a completely unrelated TV series I was watching at the time. I don't think anyone even noticed.

Once you have enough practice under your belt, your style will develop on its own.

[love-kurdt]

What are your all time favourite fanfics from each genre: fluff, smut, and agnst? <3

oh lord, this is TOUGH. i’ve read thousands of fanfics in my life and it’s borderline impossible for me to choose 😭

i can’t rlly separate them into genres per se bc most of them are multi chapter novel-length fics, but i will if applicable!

i’m not a huge fan of condensing entire works into a single word!!! authors work too hard for their writing to be trope-ified like that! so if any of the writers come across this post, please know that i would write fucking essays about these fics if y’all asked.

and one last disclaimer: i’m currently on my phone with limited cell service in europe and can’t jump between tabs to check peoples’ separate tumblr and ao3 usernames, so i’ve tagged who i know off the top of my head!!

so here are my top 10 (in no particular order, just listing what comes to mind first)

“in the sun” (kurt cobain x OC) by ugh-nirvana on wattpad. it has been my favorite fanfiction of all fucking time; i read this at least once a year. primarily fluff and angst, but it follows the OC and kurt through high school and into adulthood. the author and i are actually friends now bc we wrote two of the most popular kurt cobain x OC fics on wattpad 😭🖤

“the windows of this love” (byler angst) by delusional together (Whyyyyy) on ao3. phenomenal story, i cry every time i read it, and i’ve read it so many times it’s kind of a problem lmaooo. it was also one of my inspirations for TIMT.

“that blue gibson” (dave grohl x OC) by thatbluegibson on wattpad. a literal masterpiece. cute, romantic, fluffy, spicy, all of the above.

“the rawest desire (in it’s friendliest form)” (byler smut) by bangingbiddies on ao3. they have a very apropos username; this fic had me slamming my laptop shut multiple times and screaming at my cat. probably the best smut i’ve read tbh.

“i’m a wreck (without you here)” (byler angst) by @oldfashionedmorphine on ao3. INSANE. BEAUTIFUL. LYRICAL. i cannot praise this story highly enough, it’s one of my favorite byler fics of all time. alcoholic mike wheeler is my favorite mike wheeler ngl.

“second chances and dances” (byler angst/fluff) by @foodiewithdahoodie on ao3!!!! i’m a huge sucker for dad mike fics, and this one is *chefs kiss*

“lost without you” (byler angst/fluff) by julia_skysong on ao3. another dad mike fic i actually just finished for the 3rd fucking time in the past 6 months. i recommend reading this whole series, it’s so well written (and is still being written!!).

“fence sitter” (byler smut) by pinkcash on ao3. exactly what the title suggests. sensually spicy and severely suspenseful.

“boy in my class [gerard way]” by lilyrose93 on wattpad. it’s a gerard way x OC. very cute, very cliche, but if you’re looking for ✨fluff✨, this is it. and listen, i know writing about real people who are still alive is kinda weird but like… this one is serious, ok??? 💀

“tell me i’m a bad man” by therevengeparade on wattpad. along the same lines as the one before this— it’s teacher/student frerard. very messy, very smutty, top tier drama. if it helps at all, this was probably my initiation to gay fanfic. so… thanks therevengeparade!!! love u!!!

-

happy reading, friends 🥰🖤✨

[bandtrees]

two conversations i want to have about "dead dove do not eat"

it's annoying how people treat it as a genre or descriptor in and of itself when it hypothetically should have no ties to "problematic" or "dark", it literally just means "what you see is what you get with these tags" - which is a concept that can encompass any kind of writing. in an ideal world dead dove is not a Type of fic, it is literally just a neutral descriptor, and i think it's very annoying how it got largely co-opted by proshippers who think it's shorthand for Dark And Twisted Porn™ and treat it as some kind of genre in and of itself

it just sounds incredibly lame. what's wrong with just saying "yeah heed the tags this is serious" instead of assuming everyone knows about a nonsense vaguely-artsy meme phrase. can we not just use our words

[caughtonwebcam]

k so I don’t do recommendations rlly but I’m obsessed with this one radiostatic fic rn called 666: Live On Air by @prince-liest and @aislinceivun on ao3 and I just wanted to advertise it cuz it’s literally my girl dinner rn its delicious PLEEAASSEEE go check it out it’s amazing I beg of you

[morgan-reblog]

So I kinda got back into Beastars after rewatching season 1 while working on stuff, will soon start season 2 (and prolly try to finish getting all the volumes even tho am missing 16 volumes).

Of course I fell back into loving LouGoshi and now I kinda want to read some fanfic.

Does anyone have good LouGoshi rec? Preferably stories that are completed. Am not really picky either, as long as it's not heavy whump and/or bad ending imma prolly be into it. Maybe not 100k and kire words either i suppose, seeing how my brain struggles to focuse at times.

[caitylove]

So I have a question for my fandom nerds and fanfiction people out there. Have you ever read a fic that literally altered your world view or stuck with you for years upon years? If so, what is it and what fandom?

[girderednerve]

i read another book! i mean i read it a couple days ago but i forgot to post about it so i am posting now

the book is 'the hammer' by hamilton nolan. it reminded me a lot of 'fight like hell,' which i could not finish (it's not bad but i lost steam; also, the narrator enunciated both Ts in "atlanta", which i might also do if i were narrating a book but nevertheless sounds deeply wrong to me). both of these books are by journalists on the labor beat, and were a little unfocused for my taste. there's a good amount of bouncing around between subjects of past reporting, which is reasonable but doesn't really feel like it's book writing, you know? harder to keep on a central argument.

the central argument of 'the hammer' is that there are a lot of workers who want to organize into unions, that unions desperately need to expand their membership in order to be able to do anything, and that there is a disastrous & ongoing failure of established labor institutions to strategize & commit sufficient resources to new organizing campaigns. i think this premise is very reasonable, so many points there, but there were a few weird choices in this book, probably as a result of the 'bouncing around between subjects of past reporting' thing & the specific time in which the book was written. there is no substantial discussion of the UAW or the election of shawn fain, which feels weird because shawn fain's whole thing is that the UAW is swinging big at labor organizing in the south & they're fighting to get more workers included in UAW contracts, especially in EV manufacturing, and also because shawn fain was elected in no small part by the academic workers in UAW. the 2865 strike was an unholy mess in some very important ways (as an outside observer with an inside friend), but it was still a huge deal in the labor movement. i kept waiting for it to come up and it didn't! instead, there was a ton of stuff about sara nelson. like, not just her high-profile role in the labor movement or that time she called for a general strike or her aspirations for the AFL-CIO, her religious background & her health issues & (for some reason multiple times?) her appearance. i like sara nelson fine but i found this sort of dull.

especially because there is some good stuff in this book! we spend a bunch of time on the culinary union in las vegas (unfortunately, nolan narrates this book himself and he pronounces it as "kyulinary" for reasons i don't understand); there's a lengthy discussion of the complicated work that went into getting child care providers united off the ground in california, which requires one to poke the legal definition of a union; we spend time with workers in a fast food joint in a small west virginia town who tried to organize. this stuff is engaging and thoughtfully reported. there's also a bunch of reflection from nolan's own involvement in organizing his workplace, back when he worked at gawker. (i think the book was written before the bottom completely fell out of online journalism, because he doesn't really talk about the fate of the efforts to unionize online journalism, just takes a moment to dunk on the people who said it couldn't be done.)

i've never been in a union, but i liked what he said about being in his: that you argue a lot, it's frustrating, but it's also a kind of direct & immediate democracy that you don't really see anywhere else. there's a bit where a shop steward for the culinary union in a huge vegas casino stops to write down that the casino changed the layout of the gelato case and the workers there don't like it, which was memorable to me because i thought it was such a concise & specific & convincing argument for the idea of a union, even in the absence of glaring abuses. i vividly remember having stupid problems at work because someone who had a nice office & no idea what i did all day had had some kind of clever thought, & having no particular recourse in those situations; i would have loved to have some sort of formal avenue to go, 'hey, chucklefuck, you added fifty cents to all the prices but didn't give me any change in my cash drawer, fix your shit' or whatever.

anyway! that stuff was cool. i struggled a little more with nolan's political vision of the american labor union. the book ends with this like, long meditation on what labor needs to do (organize more workers) and speculation about why that doesn't happen (workers in unions want to protect what they have and aren't directly motivated to invest in organizing new workers, even though, as sara nelson puts it, power grows when you use it; there's no actual system to catch workers who are thinking about unionizing & connect them to local unions in their sector who can help). i found this part kind of preachy & historically vapid. nolan spends time on two failed union campaigns (the west virginia fast food place, and one guy in new orleans who tried to unionize his lowe's store), and in both of them workers tried to organize because of existing ideological commitments. one of the west virginia workers 'always wears a red bandana,' which, nolan explains to us, is part of west virginia's radical labor history & the legacy of the battle of blair mountain. the lone hero who tried to unionize lowe's did so because he knew about unions from marxist friends. it feels very strange to say, here are these two workers who got some genuine momentum rolling on unionization campaigns because of their political backgrounds (well, i'm counting the red bandana, even though WV politics can get weird; you can thank socialists a hundred years ago for the fact that we have any records of blair mountain at all, and socialists & their allies of five years ago for the fact that the battle site wasn't stripped for coal), and then just. you know. completely ignore the aggressive anticommunist turn of american labor politics in the last century. we discuss john l. lewis, we criticize the AFL-CIO's disconnection from marginalized workers & the continued membership of police unions, but we just don't mention this turn at all, even though the book is called, you know, 'the hammer'? weird choice! it talks about the connection between labor unions & democrats, mostly to say that these relationships have been transactional (we push for better policies for you, you get your members out to knock on doors & vote), but that they don't have to be, and then, um, talked about how great it was that UNITE HERE was canvassing. so i think that was going somewhere but maybe it wasn't going as decisively as i might've liked

overall i thought 'the hammer' was a pretty good time & a lot of it was very interesting. i would not call its political analysis incisive, and also it doesn't spend nearly enough time on labor safety. it mentions black lung briefly though so points there too

[wrishwrosh]

been ambiently seeing some takes recently about the transition from writing fanfiction to writing traditional fiction/writing for professional publication and how evident Fic Style is in the writing of ppl who make that transition, where fic writers fail or fall short etc and. one thing i havent seen ppl talking about in the conversation is that i think the most basic premise of what makes a fic a story is different? like in traditional writing classes ive taken we talked a lot about the point at which fiction becomes a STORY and what elements need to be present for that to happen. it’s not a formula but you can feel when a piece isn’t quite a story yet. it’s still just some stuff happening. but the key question of story in this framework is “what happens? what becomes different?” and i don’t think that is the key question of fic.

like the whole deal with fic is that you know from the start what is going to happen. the form and culture of ao3 and the tag system have shaped the genre such that knowing what you’re about to read is inextricable from the reading experience. and separately from tagging in the majority of fic (in many cases excluding gen, apologies to gen) you know the premise from the start: these people are going to get together. a whole bunch of other stuff is likely to happen! it can be informed by the source material in an enormous variety of ways! but broadly speaking the main question asked by a lot of fic is not WHAT is going to happen in the story but HOW the story will arrive at that ending

and then in a lot of ways aberrations from that basic framework are then expected to be tagged—gen, breakup fics, hurt no comfort, pwp—in ways that still end up creating the reader’s expectations. it then becomes a question not of will they break up?? but how will they break up? why? how will other characters react? etc etc. to the point where NOT tagging is rare enough to become its own stylistic choice. 

and it’s not like this is a narrative structure that’s absent from original/professional/literary fiction. i can think of a bunch of stories and novels that start by telling you how they end. i think this is a delightful storytelling tactic. but I think it’s a slightly different balance to strike in writing when divorced from the built-in fic system of an audience that already cares about the world or characters and perhaps more importantly an audience that implicitly understands what the ending will be. in an audience for example of romance readers or an audience for certain kinds of historical fiction, the understanding is still there. but for other genres if you’re going for this structure you have to SAY what the ending will be up front in the text itself, and you don’t have to do that with fic. and i think failure to do that adequately is what some ppl are picking up on when they complain about the obviousness of fic authors publishing traditionally.

[bittercoldbrew]

Tideline (2786 words) by BitterTori Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Coral Island (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Rafael (Coral Island Video Game)/Original Character(s) Characters: Rafael (Coral Island Video Game), Original Non-Binary Character Additional Tags: Slice of Life, Getting to Know Each Other, Fluff, Oh No He's Hot, Rating May Change, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Falling In Love, this is so self-indulgent please don't look at me, his autistic swag has bewitched me body and soul Summary:

Mika's just trying their best, starting over, taking some time to help clean up their grandparents' old farm and figure out what they wanna do with their life. But wow, that's way easier said than done. Turns out the farm is far larger and in much worse shape than they realized.

Maybe their life is, too.

A sleepless night drags them out of bed and into the quiet, pre-dawn streets of Starlet Town in search of direction, or answers, or something. What they find is a handsome, soft-spoken blacksmith willing, at least, to listen.

Maybe that'll be more than enough.

Whoops, okay, if you've been wondering what I've been up to lately, the answer is mostly playing Coral Island, and now also writing fic about Coral Island 😅 What can I say? I love this game and I love Rafael and I wanted to write some stuff about him and my farmer, so here they are, being cute and awkward and sweet imo 🥹 Thanks for reading 😌<3

[longlivefanfic-net]

I know its 3 AM and God willing no one is currently on this website looking for fic recommendations but if you are, I have GOT to recommend the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that its you by greatunironic on ao3.

Steddie ship, set 16 years after s4, and truly some of the most incredible prose I have ever read. You want to think about what it means to grieve and sob your eyes out? Boy howdy is this the fic for you! You want to see your fav characters get happy lives all grown up? Well besties here it is! You want to read one of the most beautifully described sex scenes that is so delicate and light it almost completely veers away from being explicit to break your heart in a gentle way? HERE. YOU. GO. I will literally be thinking about the fic for the rest of my life. god damn. “Grief and growth live hand in hand, Steve.”

[kats-fic-recs]

More Bnha Fluff fics

Sense-memory

'After living in the wilds alongside darkness and magic both for a very long time, his people know the eyes can be fooled; but learn something with your hands and you know it for life.

Learning with his mouth, however, is something Izuku never considered.'

--

Katsuki teaches Izuku about kissing. [Barbarian!Deku AU]

Just A Regular Red Bike

There was all sorts of magic in the world. Magic that kept a bicycle chain from snapping, and magic that fished moonlight out of the sea, and magic that tasted better when you baked it into bread first. And then there was the kind of magic that most people wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, the kind of magic that could change things.

The kind of magic that Midoriya Izuku reached for with both hands.

“What the fuck is this?” the witch demanded.

“Ah, I—!” Izuku took a step back, wide-eyed, surprised at the vulgar language. “I don't know!”

“The hell do you mean, you don't know? What kind of post-boy are you?”

“I don't read the post,” Izuku said, a little annoyed now. “I just deliver it. Reading it would be a breach of privacy.” He paused, and then leaned forward a little, unable to stifle his curiosity. “Why, is it something bad?”

The witch crushed the letter in his fist.

Inhibitions

Todoroki gets zapped by a Quirk that effectively lowers someone's inhibitions, and Aizawa deals with the strange, humorous, heart-breaking fallout.

The train ride back is something of a nightmare. Not because it goes badly, or because something awful happens, but because Aizawa can’t get rid of this feeling in his chest every time he sees Todoroki’s unusual, carefree smile. He looks like nothing has ever hurt him.

the river walked me home

Shouto's life is a deck of precariously stacked cards, and one online article about Endeavour's approach to parenting sends the whole thing tumbling down. Not everyone believes it. Half the public denies it. But even if it turns out there's no truth in the article, the staff at U.A. are under enough fire as it is, and sending Shouto home for the upcoming week-long break is inexcuseable in the eyes of the press.

Not to mention, Aizawa wouldn't stand for it anyway.

Or: Shouto spends a week or two hiding from the world in his teacher's house, where he is introduced to Animal Crossing, the sweetest cat in the world, and the bizarre concept of feeling safe in his own home.

The Secret Deku Box

“Y’know, Bakugou never, ever talks about girls,” Kaminari says, his voice thoughtful.

“And I wonder why that is.” Ashido rolls her eyes.

“I’m just curious!” Kaminari whines. Kirishima drags the box out, unlabeled and unassuming, the lid not even fully clasped over the edges. “The guy has to— Whoa, what’s that?”

Kirishima realizes a little belatedly that this is a serious breach of privacy, and Bakugou will actually murder all of them. “Nothing!” he cries, attempting to shove it back under the bed, but Ashido snatches it away.

“Please be his porn stash!” Kaminari whispers as she whips the lid off.

No raisins? How about a date?

Izuku steps inside and shuts the door behind him. Uraraka’s lying on her back in bed, reading a shoujo manga. “I just realised Kacchan’s handsome. He was minding his own business and I tried to touch his lips. Am I a pervert? Am I gay?”

“That’s a little gay, yeah,” Uraraka says, sitting up. Izuku flops into a boneless, dramatic heap on the floor and helps himself to the chips on her low table. “I think it’s normal to notice someone’s attractive, though. Like, Bakugou is good-looking, unfortunately, so I doubt it’s all that weird to think about kissing him a couple times. Do you like him?”

“I,” Izuku says and then pauses. “I don’t know. I’ve never had a crush before.”

“Can you imagine going on a date?”

“Hrkl,” says Izuku.

“Oh dear,” says Uraraka.

Toxic masculinity? No no- Manipulative masculinity.

It was at this point that Bakugou, to Aizawa's horror, and the rest of the class's utter disbelief, promptly burst into tears.

Or

Bakugou can cry on demand, and he has absolutely no problem using this for his own personal gain.

Who knew?

You feel like home (You are home)

Izuku loses his memories during Christmas Eve due to a quirk incident.

Turns out he is a hero and apparently he has a husband? Enter Bakugou Katsuki.

Is it normal to have the biggest crush on his husband, even if he doesn't remember him?

Green Spider Silk

In which Izuku has a secret identity as Spider-Man, the city's beloved new superhero. Fighting crime, he can handle. But his longstanding crush on his bully, Kacchan? That's a different beast entirely.

--

This is the legendary upside-down kiss scene.

bite and reciprocate

Kacchan’s teeth graze against Izuku’s wet skin after a shower, and when they’re alone sometimes Kacchan will lift up his scarred hands and nibble and kiss his wrists.

Izuku understands what this is. Kacchan knows what he needs, Kacchan always knows what he needs, and Kacchan is taking care of him by biting back.

You Got a Boyfriend?

In the middle of a bar on a Friday night, Bakugou's out with his old classmates, his friends, drunk as fuck, and head over heels in love with the man sitting right next to him. Does Deku even know how fucking beautiful he is? How incredibly cute, and important? Well, he's about to.

Bakugou's madly in love with his childhood friend (aka, his husband) and he's about to make that everyone's problem

Autumn Metamorphosis

Every idiot on the planet thought that Summer was Deku's best season. He'd traipse around in clingy tank tops and shorts and his skin would glisten. Katsuki had to admit, it was appealing.

But it had nothing on Deku in Autumn.

- or -

Katsuki is a premium Deku simp, especially in Autumn. Watch him simp his way into Deku's heart!

Boom, Badoom, Boom

Izuku's working the kissing booth at the school fair, it just so happens Katsuki has been crushing on him since the first grade.

“Did you—“ Izuku parted his mouth with no sound leaving it, “Did you pay?”

“Yea.”

“For a kiss?”

Play It Cool

Izuku accidentally becomes Katsuki's secret cuddle buddy.

(or that time Izuku and Katsuki snuggle on real pretenses then false ones, each finding a way to poorly miscommunicate their emotions cause what do these boys do aside of making carters in infrastructures and in each other, make the whole class of 1-A weep for them, and manage a romance to bring Ryan Gosling to the brink of tears.)

[castelled-away]

Do you ever read a fic & then some random side characters that pop up again & again throughout the whole story do something together in the background while the main character is occupied with their own thoughts & just brushes over them like a fleeting, unimportant observation? And you’re like these two, I wanna ship these two. And then you keep your eyes open for more background interaction like those as a secondary goal besides reading & enjoying the fic (that’s when a fanfic really starts to live at least to me).

Though I’m all insecure & paranoid now bc the author surely didn’t mean to paint these two in a romantic light & just needed that side interaction as a description filler & im reading too much into this, but like…I ship it. Oops. How did that happen

Link is here: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830772 (it’s actually Part 2 of a longer 5-Parter-Series & Part 1 was already awesome but it keeps. getting. better.)

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

I’VE GOTTA LOOK AT THIS FOR FANFICTION PURPOSES

[trivalentlinks]

genuine question: do you think fan fiction non-trivially benefits the creators of the corresponding original work?

[schneckmag]

Amazing how ghost became the patron Saint of 'he wouldn't fucking say that' within a month. Astounding even

[backhurtyy]

nellie smilehoneyy coming to you live from london