Anyone fancy a fanfiction thread...

[Icantreachthepretzels]

For a cold, Sunday afternoon?

Writers - bemoan your lack of comments, your mounting WIPs and the fact that none of them ever seem to just bloody write themselves (mine isn't - and I'm not going to write it, so I don't know what it thinks is going to happen).

Readers - bemoan the lack of updates for the fic you're reading, or that the one you were loving turned out to have been abandoned in 2013, or that everything was going swimmingly until some surprise mpreg happened.

And of course, it's not all bad - tell me the fic you're most proud of writing, or the favourite thing you read all year. Open to all celebrations and commiserations.

I'm talking a thread on trope talk, stats talk, reviews, posting snippets of what you're writing and disecting fandom drama. Is FFN about to die? Is there anything on Wattpad worth reading - and can anyone over the age of 14 actually navigate it?

So, throw your hair up in a messy bun, try not to get sold to a band by your crack addict mother, and come and talk about it all - the highs, the lows, and the tongues battling for dominance.

All lovers of fanfic - and those just fanfic curious (and those who are fanfic horrified) - welcome! Tell me all about what you're currently writing/ reading.

Less of a writer these days but an avid reader. My fandoms are firmly stuck in the 70s/80s though apart from one current show.

Dont get me started on waiting for updates and abandoned fics. I mean, I get it, I've written enough, but 🤬🤬🤬

I would love to start writing some fan fic. I don’t know that much about it - are there any unwritten rules? Is it okay to include “scripted reality” shows and people from that, or is considered inappropriate? E.g drag race contestants, or TOWIE?

Sorry a bit low brow!!!

Which fandoms are they?

Mine are all 90s - Buffy/ Angel and Harry Potter.

I'm the other way around started out just reading andnow pretty much only write! I do remember the frustration of waiting for updates (and the fear it would get abandoned) but now I just have guilt when it's been a month and I still haven't finished my latest chapter.

Despite my user name, my fanfic passion is Batman and Green Lantern. FabulaRasa’s work is the absolute best and I refresh every day to see if she’s written anything new!

@SupposeItDoesnt - that's 'RPF' which is real person fic. Some sites don't like it because it opens them up top legal action, but Ao3 has some rpf stuff and is prettyfree and easy with what is posted. I imagine there is plenty up Drag Race and TOWIE fic out there.

The only real rule is to tag correctly. It's fine to write anything you want, but if it's gross and disturbing make sure you give warning!

@HermioneWeasley I had to google Green Lantern (not much of a comic fan) doyou read about them as one person or as the corps? And if one person -(this is the important question) do you ship them with Batman?

A Jaime x Brienne (from Game of Thrones / ASOIAF) writer and reader for over a decade here! 👋

Fandom has thinned out over the years (as my output) but I still have a WiP on the go... I've learnt my lesson about finishing writing a multi-chapter fic before posting!

I've learnt my lesson about finishing writing a multi-chapter fic before posting!

When I first started out I was so good. I was doing an Angel the series rewrite and I wrote all of season one before I started posting, then I wrote season 2 while season one was being published. By the time it came to s3 I still had a couple of episodes to write when I posted the first chapter, but was in no danger of running out of chapters. By s4 I'd writen about half when I started posting and in the end only just managed to stay ahead of myself. s5 came with many hiatuses 😂

I write just for HP now - I always start with a cushion of chapters, but I proscratinate on writing and get addicted to posting and I soon run out. And then comes the guilt. I do know better than to publish a just written first chapter and expect to make it the end of a longfic though.

Best fanfiction ever:

Hell is other people Alex Rider fan fiction that kept my ds on the edge of his seat for a very long time. It is almost but not quite finished and he occasionally asks me to check to see if there's an update even though he read it about 3 years ago.

I read a LOT of fanfic. Like, 99.9% of my reading nowadays is fanfic.

I often prefer my ships canon so please for the love of god tag it if it’s not so I don’t blunder into Sam bumming Dean! And if you insist on bum love please just add in something about lube. SPIT DOESNT COUNT.

What are your favourite tropes?

Angst

Sam bumming Dean! And if you insist on bum love please just add in something about lube. SPIT DOESNT COUNT.

No that's some classic fanfic content right there.

What are your favourite tropes?

Gotta be mutual pining. I love me some slow burn sexual tension where they're both convinced that the other could never love them. I write wolfstar and it is the top tier trope for them.

@Icantreachthepretzels specifically Hal Jordan as the green lantern (there are other green lanterns in the DC comics as it’s a position rather than a specific super hero) and yes, it’s always about him being in a relationship with Bruce/Batman

Ooh love mutual pining and also enemies to lovers! Add in a dash of touch-starved and blushing shyness and I'm done!

Been writing for 25 years the men change as my crushes do, I’m all Brenner at the moment.

I want to know more about you writers. What's it like to have readers loving your work? Do you get fans?
I've heard about the twilight writer getting famous via fanfic but has anyone else broken through?

I'm such a praise-whore but getting feedback puts me on such a high! Back in the day, I certainly had readers who would look for my stuff but my generation as it were have left the fandom and I don't write frequently enough to get a new gang! Still get kudos on AO3 a couple times a week!

I love reading fanfic. Some of the writing I've read in the fandoms I follow is incredible! Some of the long multi chapters I've read are way better than a lot of published novels

I tend to prefer canon compliant fic and post series stuff. I tend to read X-files and West Wing at the moment. Still a surprising amount of stuff being written despite both series ending in the 00s.

I've actually recently just started my first ever fanfic. Wouldn't say I'm the best writer but I'm enjoying it and I hope to improve with practice

That must be so nice to get good feedback.
I went through a short phase of reading them inspired by mumsnet threads like this one. I was amazed by the vast selection. There was something for everyone no matter how niche.

getting comments is absolute highlight of writing (though I know- I know- write for yourself...) but it is so lovely getting told how wonderful your are and how much someone is loving your work. Someone from China once sent me an extremely long DM on FFN telling me how my fic had helped them find peace and asking to translate it, so now I have a Chinese translation of some of my work, which is pretty mind boggling.

Negative comments (luckily much rarer) can ruin your day though, so it's swings and roundabouts.

@Orangelover good luck with your first fic! Which fandom is it for? (I love X Files - but I'm so happy with the show that I've never needed to read fics about it. Fun fact for the fanfic nerds though - 'ship' as a term comes from The X Files - when the fandom was split between those who wanted M and S to justbe friends (weirdos) and those who wanted them in a 'relationship' who became known as 'shippers'.)

oh - and another example of someone else breaking through like E.L James, there was also Cassandra Clare who started out life writing The Draco Trilogy and now has written The Mortal Instruments series. She uses her fanfic penname as her writer name (not her real name) presumably so she kept her fan base when she started publishing original work.

Cassandra Clare was deeply mired in fand drama and scandal, back in the day though (Cassandra clare plagiarism debacle) * - and so The Mortal Instruments is both a bit notorious and looked down upon in some circles.

*This was a crazy time in the HP fandom, when there were Snape wives and everything. I don't think anything like that goes on anymore.

Well, if anyone wants to read my stuff it's here - archiveofourown.org/users/goldstraw/works

#shamelessselfpromotion

@Icantreachthepretzels It's a West Wing one I'm writing at the minute. CJ was my favourite character so just a little exploration of what I feel she got up to post series with the other characters popping in every now and then

I completely see why Mulder and Scully were the original ship. I'm too young to have watched the x files when it aired but watched it since and had been warned it was a slow burn. Some of the smutty fan fic I've read in the x files random is

I will check it out thank you. I tried to write one but it was about film stars rather than characters. Zero readers. I enjoyed it though and that was on wattpad. Spent more time on the cover art than the writing.