Editing Tip: After Reading Through Your Fic/chapter For Spelling & Grammar Mistakes, LISTEN To Your Story

Editing Tip: after reading through your fic/chapter for spelling & grammar mistakes, LISTEN to your story through a screen reader before posting to pick up on additional errors. Sometimes it's easier to HEAR a mistake than to READ one. If you don't have a screen reader, use Google Translate. Copy a little bit at a time (max 5k words) into the translate box then press the speaker button, sit back, and listen.

Bonus learning opportunity: you also get to hear what your fic sounds like to people who listen to fic instead of reading it, so you can edit out any weirdness before posting, thus increasing your fic’s accessibility :)

This is something I wrote in one of my fics (🔞)

"Typical French pastry that you can find in every respectable bakery, wherever there is a bakery, that is to say everywhere. What’s the éclair, I’m asking you, if not the ultimate proof that the French are dirty-minded in every aspect of their lives? I mean, the most basic pastry that every baker learns first is nothing less than a long, thick, full and firm cock. And the best way to eat it? With your fingers, shamelessly moaning and shutting your eyes as you take it into your mouth, even on the street, in front of everybody’s salad;"

And that was a real conversation I had with a real friend in real café, eating a very real chocolate éclair 😋

i'm from California, and I'm writing a character from California right now. Should I add in stuff that I do, when I talk, to this character? For example, I've been told that I say "like" a lot ("there was, like, ten of them") and I talk really fast. So should I add that?

Go for it! I’ve lived in various parts of Canada as well as a few other countries, and I love putting in details from here and there. Even if no one else notices, I know it’s there and it makes me happy. Like when I watch TV shows and see my neighbourhood :)

Just like @kate0072, I’m a rather young reader, fanfic-wise. Reading-lover since forever, I fell into the fanfic-rabbit hole two years ago, after swearing on everything that’s precious to me that “NOOOOOOOO, THEY SHALL NOT HAVE ME!!!” (It’s not that I didn’t have a ticket to Hell already; let’s say I might get a better seat)

And then came the fanfic-writing sin (even better seat...) 

And I’ve been reading you today, my dear fellow succubuses. because yeah, RPF is my shit, but I never spared it a thought before. How come? 

Because everything I’ve been reading in this post and the comment section underneath makes total sense to me and has me wondering (like, never too late, right?)

I can totally understand how it can make someone feel uncomfortable to read about two real people getting together, living experiences together, having sex, drinking peyolt, eating grilled locusts and whatnot. I was myself beyong shocked when I stumbled onto a one-shot starring the president of my country with his political nemesis (I mean, WTAF?)

Is there somehow a psychological boundary that our mind has already decided that cannot be crossed? Because all the RPfics have been reading before I started writing my own were perfectly fine to me. The talent I read was mind-blowing, and I was just in awe with what authors, young ones even, could produce. And that was what counted - and still does - the most: the talent.

How would I feel if I were shipped with somebody else than my actual partner for instance? Would I like to know about it? The fun fact is, as a female teacher, I know I’ve already been “shipped” with all the male teachers around my age by the students... (why male only? Why my age? Don’t ask...). Do I want to know what crossed the minds of my oh-so-innocent-little-nippers? No, thank you very much! Is it intrusive? Yes, it is. Can I do something about it? I mean, without looking/sounding like a total freak?  I don’t think so. Why not? Because my status as a teacher makes me a public person, whether I like it or not. It has his pros, and well, its cons. Don’t make me start when one kid meets me at the hospital, or at the terrace of a café with my best friend, who’s male too. (Hang on, maybe I should start looking up for my name on ao3...)

So what to say about all these actors, singers, TV hosts, Youtubers, my president... whose public lives are already under heavy scrutiny by journalists, photographers, ready to bounce on any bit of words, moves, news... to feed their appetite for gossip, fuel rumours, create new ones and turn them into the new canon? It’s base and vile, I hear. Okay, I get that. That’s why I don’t read, listen or buy any of this. 

But on ao3, I do. Because it is fiction, fiction that is comfortable with itself, not trying to prove and lead us on with anything. And I’m sane enough to make the difference, even if there are canon elements inside the story. And the authors’ talent makes me completely forget that there is some extra-linguistic reality attached to it (there is an extra-linguistic reality to very noun and verb by the way)

On the other hand, the fact that I’m pretty comfortable with reading/writing RPF might be also due to the fact that the celerities my stories are about, know pretty well what shipping is, and even ride the wave themselves on a high level. They don’t act dumb or ignorant about the phenomenon. One could argue that they are being used by their industry, that it doesn’t mean they are comfortable with it. There again are the cons of a public person. 

Hearing public people deny this, or feel offended, sounds a little hypocritical to me.

So for us, readers and writers alike, our level of acceptance comes down to where we put our own limit to shipping. And this is a personal matter. For instance, I’m not comfortable with Main Character/SI fics. So, I’m going to avoid them (thank you ao3 and your tagging system) but certainly won’t judge them. I’m sure there are awesome ones, from amazing writers, with great plots. 

Talent should be what counts the most, to me. All the more so when it’s free.

Edit: just a passing thought: what to think of Shakespeare's historical tragedies? To ship or not to ship Anthony and Cleopatra?

Hi! I'd like to know other people's take on RPFs. Cause to me it seems that when I first started writing fanfics in the early 2010s, many writers were publishing RPFs for the most diverse fandoms and nobody thought there was anything wrong with it. Recently however, especially on Tumblr, I have seen so many people trying to explain why it's bad, when all I do is writing AUs and I'd never bother the real people with it, so I don't think there's anything wrong with that...

RPF is a semi-squick for me, and I think a lot of that comes from the unfortunate events of the last decade or so where both fans and journalists have shown actors fanfiction (of various kinds) involving them. 

Everyone imagines stories about strangers all the time. I’ll see someone on the train on my commute and take a guess at what they do for a living or what they’re studying at uni etc. Sometimes I’ll see two strangers together and think ‘aw what a cute couple’ with no reason for saying that except they seem to be having fun together. 

But I don’t have to worry about those stories ever getting back to those people. They’ll never know I had those idle thoughts, and I’ll forget about them within thirty seconds of moving past them on the sidewalk. 

Beyond the idea of the stories somehow getting back to the people involved, there’s also the fact that some people out there don’t have the best critical thinking abilities. If they read a story in a tumblr post, for example, they’ll assume it’s true rather than finding the original post and seeing the fandom tags on it. Ditto someone telling their friend about this story they read and someone else overhearing and assuming it’s a news story instead of a fic. That’s what takes a fictional story and turns it into gossip/rumour. 

I’m not crusading against RPF. If writing it makes you happy and you’re able to keep it away from the people you write about, fair enough. These are just the arguments against it that I’m aware of. 

Blog? Any thoughts either in favour or against?

ABCs of your OCs

a list of oc questions in alphabetical categories - i made each category based on the first word I could think of in alphabetical order, so enjoy!

A: Aptitude 1. what are your oc’s natural abilities, things they’ve been doing since young? 2. what activities have they participated in? 3. what abilities do they have that they’ve worked for? 4. what things are they bad at? 5. what is their most impressive talent?

B: Basics 1. what is their hair color? 2. what is their eye color? 3. how tall are they? 4. how old are they? 5. how much do they weigh?

C: Comfort 1. how do they sit in a chair? 2. in what position do they sleep? 3. what is their ideal comfort day? 4. what is their major comfort food? why? 5. who is the best at comforting them when down?

D: Decoration 1. how would they decorate a house if they had one under their name? 2. how would they decorate their child’s room? 3. how do they decorate their own room? 4. what type of clothes and accessories do they wear? 5. do they like makeup/nail/beauty trends?

E: External Personality 1. does the way they do things portray their internal personality? 2. do they do things that conform to the norm? 3. do they follow trends or do their own thing? 4. are they up-to-date on the internet fads? 5. do they portray their personality intentionally or let people figure it out on their own?

F: Fun 1. what do they do for fun? 2. what is their ideal party? 3. who would they have the most fun with? 4. can they have fun while conforming to rules? 5. do they go out a lot?

G: Gorgeous 1. what is their most attractive external feature? 2. what is the most attractive part of their personality? 3. what benefits come with being their friend? 4. what parts of them do they like and dislike? 5. what parts of others do they envy?

H: Heat 1. do they rather a hot or cold room? 2. do they prefer summer or winter? 3. do they like the snow? 4. do they have a favorite summer activity? 5. do they have a favorite winter activity?

I: In-the-closet 1. what is their sexuality? 2. have they ever questioned their sexuality? 3. have they ever questioned their gender? 4. would/was their family be okay with them being LGBT? 5. how long would/did it take for them to come out?

J: Joy 1. what makes them happy? 2. who makes them happy? 3. are there any songs that bring them joy? 4. are they happy often? 5. what brings them the most joy in the world?

K: Kill 1. have they ever thought about suicide? 2. have they ever thought about homicide? 3. if they could kill anyone without punishment, would they? who? 4. who would miss them if they died? 5. who would be happy they died, anyone?

L: Lemons 1. what is their favorite fruit? 2. what is their least favorite fruit? 3. are there any foods they hate? 4. do they have any food intolerances? 5. what is their favorite food?

M: Maternal 1. would they want a daughter or a son? 2. how many children do they want? 3. would they be a good parent? 4. what would they name a son? what would they name a daughter? 5. would they adopt?

N: Never Have I Ever 1. what would they never do? 2. what have they never done that they want to do? 3. is there anything they absolutely can’t believe people do? 4. what is the most embarrassing thing they’ve done? 5. have they done anything they thought they’d never do?

O: Optimism 1. are they optimistic or pessimistic? 2. are they openly optimistic, throwing it on others? 3. are they good at giving advice? 4. is there anyone in their life that throws optimism on them? 5. were they always optimistic?

P: Personality 1. what is their best personality trait? 2. what is their worst personality trait? 3. what of their personality do others love? 4. what of their personality do others envy? 5. do they hate anything about their personality/about other’s personalities?

Q: Questions 1. do they ask for help? 2. do they ask questions in class? 3. do they answer questions that make them a little uncomfortable? 4. do they ask weird questions? 5. are they curious?

R: Rules 1. do they follow rules? 2. would they be a strict or laid-back parent? 3. have they ever been consequenced for breaking a rule? 4. have they broken any rules they now regret breaking? 5. do they find any rules they/others follow absolutely ridiculous?

S: Streets 1. are they street-smart? 2. would they give money to someone on the streets? 3. have they ever gotten in a fight on the streets? 4. has anything happened to them on the streets? 5. are they cautious when out?

T: Truth 1. are they honest? 2. can they tell if someone is lying? 3. is it obvious when they’re lying? 4. have they lied about anything they regret lying about? 5. have they told truths that have been spread against their will?

U: Underdog 1. have they been bullied? 2. have they bullied anyone? 3. have they been physically attacked by a bully? 4. have they ever been doubted? 5. have they surprised people with being good at something?

V: Vomit 1. do they vomit often? 2. do they get lots of stomach aches? 3. are they good at comforting someone ill? 4. what do they like as far as comfort goes? 5. do they burp, cough, or hiccup most when nauseous? when vomiting?

W: Water 1. do they drink enough water? 2. have they learned to swim? 3. do they like to swim? 4. can they dive? 5. can they swim without holding their nose?

X: Xylophone 1. what is their favorite genre of music? 2. do they have a favorite song? 3. do they have a favorite band/artist/singer? 4. can they sing well? 5. can they rap?

Y: You 1. how old were you when you created them? 2. what inspired you to create them? 3. were they different when they were first created? 4. do you enjoy writing them more than other characters? 5. what’s your favorite thing about them?

Z: Zebra 1. what’s their favorite animal? 2. do they like animals? 3. cats or dogs? 4. what’s their dream pet? 5. do they have any pets at the moment?

I write my fics out in Google Docs and then paste the text into Ao3 when I'm ready to post it. Does anyone else have the problem of pasting with italics? If there's a word in italics next to punctuation, Ao3 will add in a space for some reason and it's kind of infuriating.

One of the AO3 translation volunteers (Min) created a Google Docs script to handle issues when copying from a doc into AO3. It’s really easy to use

create a copy of this google doc. It contains the script that will do all of the HTML formatting for you.

Delete all of the text from the document.

Write or paste your fic/chapter into the document.

Go up to the top menu and click the new menu option Post to AO3, then choose Prepare for posting into the HTML editor

Note: because this is an apps script, you’ll need to give it permission to run the first time. 

The script will automatically mark up your document with the required HTML that you can then paste into the AO3 composition window. \o/

To revert your text back to normal, just go back up to that menu and choose Remove HTML. It will look like regular text again. 

Once you have the doc, you can make a new copy of it for each new fic you write and that way you’ll always have that script available when you need it :)

For other cool stuff, read this post from @ao3org - which is where I found this script in the first place ❤

This, this, this was exactly what I needed! A reminder that, come what may, I was utterly entranced, possessed, bewitched, enamoured, ecstatic-high when I wrote my stories, chapters after chapters. And I won't allow myself to forget that! Thank you ❤️

Let’s talk about Confidence

This is a message I just sent to my beta. And I want all my fellow writers out there to know why this isn’t selfish – it’s essential. 

A lot of writblr culture revolves around self-deprecation. I myself have made a lot of posts about drafts, and how the early drafts are “bad,” and the excruciating process of stepping back, seeing all its flaws, and tackling it again and again with another round of edits. 

And that is a very important and necessary part of the process.  BUT.

I can tell you, that as I was writing each of those horrible early drafts, I was in love with them. I felt good when I finished them, I felt they were doing the work they needed to move the story forward. It was only a few days later, or in some cases, months, or in terms of full drafts, years later when I reread scenes and realized they didn’t work anymore. 

Here’s the thing: You can get floods of memes and fanarts and kudos and comments and reviews and messages and asks, but nobody should love the story as much as you do. Because YOU are the one writing it, it’s YOUR fingers on the keys – not a single one of your readers can make your story take a single step forward. That’s on you. 

So I don’t care if you write fluffy oneshots or epic multichapter fics, don’t you for one second berate your own writing or get bogged down comparing it to others’ because it’s “not good enough.” My shitty first drafts of scenes weren’t good enough. But I fucking loved them, I loved the story they were going to tell, and I loved writing them. 

LOVE YOUR WRITING. Brag about it, obsess over it, reread the stuff you wrote and congratulate yourself on the amazing work you’ve accomplished. Because at the end of the day, THAT is what will keep you creating and perfecting your art.