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.

@EscapeTheCastle you should try posting it on Ao3. Wattpad has a very young audience and a difficult interface and I think a few fics get masses of readers while eerything else sits at zero because it's so difficult to browse. Ao3 is much more user friendly, has more people reading and those people tend to be older.

I find Ao3 the easiest fanfic website to navigate from a readers POV. Very user friendly search function and it’s easy to bookmark fics for later.

I find Wattpad and FFN much harder work to browse through , so I rarely look on those sites these days.

Is Ao3 a world of our own or another site? I used to spend hours on LiveJournal back in the day - reading, not writing.

Oops I meant Archive of our own, not world.

Yes - archive of our own is Ao3

Yes, Ao3 is Archive of Our Own

I used to write them all the time as a teen but keeping up with demand was difficult.
I tried to find some to read recently but finding anything I liked was difficult. Then I stumbled onto a story of Ron and Draco doing some very dodgy things with a thanksgiving dinner and gave up.

Haven’t done fan fiction since I was a teenager but this has inspired me to have another look! Used to like Harry Potter and Marvel fanfic.

Can I join? I mainly like LOTR and other Tolkien. Also True Detective.
I have started writing many times but never finish anything. Any tips to get me to push on? Should I start with one shots?

Definitely! Are you the type of person who likes to plot stuff out and then write or (like me!) finds that plotting takes the fun out of it so I tend to write and figure it out as I go along!

Do you have a picture of an outcome you want your characters to get to? Working backwards can help!

I have been curious about reading fanfiction for a while but I don't know where to start.
Is fanfiction just for big franchises like Harry Potter or can you find thing like Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer fan fiction?
Also is it all about sex, I prefer romance and don't enjoy reading detailed sex scenes.

Yes, you can find Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer fan fiction.

Some of it has explicit sex, but some doesn’t.

I usually use Archive of Our Own (Ao3) for fanfiction, that’s got a rating and tagging system that gives you an idea from the fix summaries of how explicit (or not) a fanfic is likely to be.

Yes you can find Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer and pretty much anything you might want to find (I think the most random I've ever seen is Bing Crosby/ Bob Hope fanfic)

No it's not all sex - on Ao3 there is a rating system. General audience is family friendly, Teen and Up is like pg13, Mature is like 18 and then Explicit is- well - explciit (though it can be violence not sex).

There are plenty of fanfics with no sex in at all!

Ao3 has a pretty good filter system so you can include and exclude tags. You can filter for M rated romances and exclude E fics so you don't get the smut. You can also filter for any pairing you like (or choose gen - where pairings are not the focus) and any tropes you like like romance, fluff, angst, hurt/comfort.

@GracePooleslaugh - the high of publishing something (and getting comments!) can be quite addictive. Maybe write a one shot and publish it - and that will spur you on to do more and more.

The more I write, the more I plan out. When I first started out I just used to wing it. But now my marauders era fic I'm writing has pages and pages of detailed notes across many documents, including not only story lines but bits of world building (like the backstory of werewolves, or Hags gaving a cottage industry of fabric making) and what subjects the characters take for OWL and Newt, as well as the name of every student in their year and their house and blood status. I've even made a timetable so I know what days they have which lessons and can plan around it.

For me the planning is as much fun as the writing, I add things to it as I go along when I get a good idea and it means I have things I'm excited to write about, so I keep plugging on until I get there. I might be more inclined to give up if I didn't already have all this stuff I really want to write and share.

But when I start planning it's just a basic outline. It grows as the story continues.

I think it comes down to whatever works for you. Start writing an idea you're excited about. If you decide you need a plan - or have an idea you don't want to forget, stop and write it down in a separate document. And keep that open as you write, adding to it as necessary. If you reach the end without a plan, that's fine too.

Although it is the most sensible course of action (ha!) to write an entire story and then start posting, you might stay more mtoivated if you write a few chapters - and post them slowly while you write the rest. Reader interaction can really encourage you to keep going. (The flip sideof that- of course - is a lack of reader interaction can leave you feeling all "what's the point?" and you give up.)

@Icantreachthepretzels any chance you’d share the link to your fics? I love HP fics and need something new.

@PleaseStopExplaining sure - here's my Harry Potter stuff

Harry Potter fics

I used to write Bad Girls (90s women prison drama) fanfic eons ago. I’d quite like to get back into it but I’ve never felt the same inspiration from another series. I used to accidentally make all my stories angsty balls of tension, then I would start another one saying “this one is going to be happier, honest” before ramping up the angst again.

I think angst is the backbone of fanfic! (unless it's smut). No matter how cheery you ant a story to be, the angst always creeps in.

Thanks, will have a read.

Hope you enjoy : )

Thank you so much for your advice, I'm going to have a crack at it!

Good luck! please report on your progress!

Will do! I have an idea that I've been mulling for a while (v angsty idea) and I'm going to take the plunge.

Really like the thread, hope it keeps going.

Maybe we could mention some of our favourites?

I write a lot more than I read - but I did enjoy these one shots:

Dumbledore's Socks - very charming, with pratchetesque humour and an unsettling last line.

Sirius Black's guide to using an extraordinarily intelligent cat to order a broom.- quite cute and funny, with a suckerpunch at the end.

The best longer fic I read this year was The Howling Nights from the Last Enemy series. It's a James/Lily marauders era fanfic. It was well written (if a little purple prosey at times) but very slow paced. When it was good it as really good. The only problem really was that Lily was so insufferable I couldn't bring myself to read the next installment. Butlots of people rave about it.

This beauty is my all time favourite. LOTR fandom
archiveofourown.org/works/3782664/chapters/8412798