TV FanFiction Thread

[Cloud9Shopper]

Inspired by a discussion in the books sub, this is a place to discuss all things TV fanfiction, as not every show has its own fanfiction thread. So whether you want to share any favorites that you’ve read recently or want to show off your writing (or make a request for someone to write), come on in! 

Feel free also to discuss various fanfic posting sites (Archive of Our Own, AKA AO3, fanfiction.net, Wattpad, any others I’m missing). 

Mods: I don’t know if this belongs here so feel free to move it if not. 

[Annber03]

Guess we could all start off with links to our respective fanfic accounts, to give people an idea of what fandoms we write for and such. Here's mine:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annber03

https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3625845/Annber03

(Still working on transferring some of my stuff from FF.net over to AO3. Will get it all over there eventually.)

I've been reading a lot of good stuff lately, too-will go through and see what I can find to share :). Look forward to seeing what others have to share, be it their own work or others', and what fandoms they're into!

[BlackberryJam]

The best quality fanfiction I have ever read is the Jaime and Brienne fandom on AO3. The work there by many of the writers is publication-worthy. Perhaps it’s the dynamic of the relationship that attract fantastic writers or it’s that there’s a lot you can do with the relationship inside and outside of canon, but seriously, those are some great writers.

[Cloud9Shopper]

I’m not on fanfiction.net, but here’s my AO3 profile:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkatingThroughLife_35

Fair warning to anyone who wants to read it: My ER fic talks about alcoholism and recovery, so if that’s a trigger for you, no pressure to read and you can ignore it. My New Amsterdam fic is lighter material. I’m a bit stalled out in general right now since I’m in grad school and I’m thinking of changing the structure of my next chapter in the NA story. 

[LexieLily]

This is a great idea for a thread, thank you @Cloud9Shopper for starting it. I am in my Monk fandom-phase at the moment and am in the planning/writing stages of a multi-chapter Monk fic. Yay for me having a place to post the link to it when I am ready.

[DearEvette]

Ahh... I never did tv fanfic.  I wrote X-men fanfic for and Ororo/Logan romance dedicated site.  I never finished my story and it was ....yikes about 10 years ago but I still have the outline because I know how I wanted the story to progress I just never finished.  Sigh.  But here is the link to the story I think I go through about 10 chapters.

The Sweet and Lowdown

[Gramto6]

Great idea for a thread! I am looking forward to reading all the fanfiction!!

[KWalkerInc]

I wrote a couple of fan fics back in 2002-03 that have surprisingly survived several computer changeovers.  I didn't post them anywhere, just printed copies for a friend.  I wrote them to deal with my frustration over the way Drew and Kate ended on The Drew Carey Show.  (I don't think I remember seeing any stories about them anywhere.)

[MaryMitch]

There is a TON of Bonanza fanfiction, some of it quite good.  There are a couple Bonanza fan forums that have fanfiction sections.

Here is a small site dedicated to fanfiction:

https://womenwritersblock.net/library/

There are over 50 fandoms there but I think most stories are Bonanza stories. They actually have guidelines and rules, which is nice, and all stories are checked for grammar/spelling before publication.

[Annber03]

7 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

I wrote a couple of fan fics back in 2002-03 that have surprisingly survived several computer changeovers.  I didn't post them anywhere, just printed copies for a friend.  I wrote them to deal with my frustration over the way Drew and Kate ended on The Drew Carey Show.  (I don't think I remember seeing any stories about them anywhere.)

Aw, cool! I like that show, would've been fun to read those. I think I did try looking for fic for that show once and yeah, a lot of it is kinda scattered about on old Geocities websites and the like. There is a section for the show at AO3, but there's only three fics there. All good ones, though. 

[partofme]

Back around 2004/2005 I wrote a few Chandler/Monica (Friends) fics.  They're still on fanfiction.net but I'm not the best writer.

For years I didn't read fanfic at all, and then in 2020 I discovered Inspector Lewis and am now obsessed with Robbie/Laura fanfic.  There are a lot of good ones on fanfiction.net.  AO3 seems to mostly have slash fics from what I've seen which I'm not into.

[BlackberryJam]

12 minutes ago, partofme said:

Back around 2004/2005 I wrote a few Chandler/Monica (Friends) fics.  They're still on fanfiction.net but I'm not the best writer.

For years I didn't read fanfic at all, and then in 2020 I discovered Inspector Lewis and am now obsessed with Robbie/Laura fanfic.  There are a lot of good ones on fanfiction.net.  AO3 seems to mostly have slash fics from what I've seen which I'm not into.

Fanfic does fill in the representation gap through slash fic. I'm not out there reading Poirot/Hastings, but I can see the appeal for others.

My experience with fanfiction.net is there are a lot of Original Character (read, self-insert) fics. That is something that doesn't interest me at all. I enjoy the AO3 search functions as well. You can include and exclude certain things. So, you can exclude M/M fics completely if that's not your thing, but you can also exclude F/M fics. I love that about AO3. FF.net is just so unwieldy to me. 

I mean, some days I just want to find an explicit Austen crossover involving aliens. For funsies. 

 

[Annber03]

2 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

My experience with fanfiction.net is there are a lot of Original Character (read, self-insert) fics. That is something that doesn't interest me at all. I enjoy the AO3 search functions as well. You can include and exclude certain things.

There are some stories out there featuring OCs that don't fall into the self-insert category-I've read a few of them in some fandoms and they can be quite good. It's not easy to craft an OC that fits well into canon, but done right, it can be very entertaining :D. 

But yeah, more often than not the two things do tend to be one and the same. Lately I'm seeing a lot more in the way of "character/reader" fics.  The "Criminal Minds" fandom is getting swamped with them. It's pretty much similar to "character/OC" except it's even more of a self-insert in that the reader can literally insert themselves into the fic if they so wish. 

Those don't really appeal to me, either-for one thing, the fantasies they come up with involving the reader may not always match others' fantasies involving said character. For another, the "reader" bit is either so vague in its description, to where it's hard to really connect with it in any way to try and put oneself in there, or they're detailed enough to where you read it and wonder why the author didn't just go the extra step and make a proper OC. 

I also find it amusing that so many people are scared to write OCs nowadays lest they be afraid of them being seen as "Mary Sues"...but will then turn around and write/read "character/reader" fics. 

But of course, to each their own-if that's what people like to write, more power to 'em :). I think a lot of writers go through that "insert oneself into the story" phase in general as it is (hell, some still do it even as adults-I know some professional writers have had characters based off themselves at some point). It's an inevitable and, in some ways, necessary, I think, milestone for writers to go through at some point. 

[Ceindreadh]

I have gone through sooo many fandoms!  I finally learned my lesson about not posting multi-part fics until I actually had the whole damn thing written (or at least plotted), because I'd say I left a few unfinished stories in pretty near all of them. 

Although I did go back and finish two of them after 12 or 13 years when I regained my interest in CSI NY earlier this year, so maybe I'll revisit a few of my older fandoms as well!

I'm on fanfiction.net as Cein https://www.fanfiction.net/u/14782/cein , Archive of our own as Ceindreadh https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceindreadh/works  and Squidgeworld as Ceindreadh https://squidgeworld.org/

Squidgeworld is a relatively new archive that replaces Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve, which archived a lot of stories on mailing lists, back in the day. 

 

 

[Mabinogia]

20 minutes ago, Ceindreadh said:

I finally learned my lesson about not posting multi-part fics until I actually had the whole damn thing written (or at least plotted), because I'd say I left a few unfinished stories in pretty near all of them. 

haha, that's totally my M.O. Back when I was writing fanfic (haven't in a while, but am starting to get back into it hopefully. I do miss it). I used to write what I call "soap opera style" which was basically, here are the characters, here is a general set up, now....write! It was so much fun. 

I think my favorite "story" was a series of "episodes" of House where various characters from other shows/movies etc. turned up in the Clinic. It was the perfect set up because I wasn't committed to ending the story and got to play with Dr. House interacting with all kinds of different personalities. 

My most recent story was a personal project. I hated the way Sherlock ended. I hated pretty much everything around the character of Euros, so I rewrote it. I think that is mostly what I use fanfiction for, rewriting the wrongs I think the actual writers made. LOL

I am now attempting a Remember WENN fanfic which is the most complicated one I've ever attempted because it takes place as WWII was ravaging Europe and I want to get the history right and, since AMC never released the show on DVD and barely ever reran it, I haven't seen most of the episodes since the 90s! I've had to do a lot of online research about some character backgrounds. This story has been floating in my head almost daily for years. It has morphed quite a bit from it's original concept. 

Do you all find that happening? You start writing one thing and by the end it's a totally different story? It is both frustrating (because the story ends up not quite making sense without a lot of editing (which I am terrible at)) but also extremely exciting, because it's like watching the show (but with words) because you don't know what's going to happen next.  

[Annber03]

1 hour ago, Ceindreadh said:

I finally learned my lesson about not posting multi-part fics until I actually had the whole damn thing written (or at least plotted), because I'd say I left a few unfinished stories in pretty near all of them. 

I'm keeping that in mind with a couple multi-chapter fics I'm plotting out now. The only multi-chapter things I've written for fandoms thus far has been a series of one-shots, so while I'd like to get them completed someday, and plan to, at least it's not a continuing story that needs a proper resolution or anything like that.

But yeah, with the actual multi-chapter stories I'm working on now, I want to make sure they're done, or very close to done, before I start posting any of them. I personally have no problem reading WIP fics, and incomplete ones, but I know others tend to have reservations about reading fics like that, so... Plus, knowing it'll be complete gives me peace of mind, too :).

1 hour ago, Mabinogia said:

I think that is mostly what I use fanfiction for, rewriting the wrongs I think the actual writers made. LOL

I think a lot of fanfic writers tend to use it for that purpose, and I always feel like a bit of an outlier in that regard :p. Sure, there's storylines I wish had gone differently, or stuff that happened in shows I wasn't happy about, but even if I am writing a story that changes that stuff to go more the way I would've written it, I still don't treat it as a, "This is how things SHOULD'VE gone" sort of thing. I just see it more as a "what if" opportunity instead of a straight up "fix-it". 

Course, I think some of that is due to the fact that I often tend to stay close to canon in general, hence my propensity for a lot of missing scene/episode tag types of stories. I am trying to branch out more, though-I'm currently plotting a case fic for "Monk", which is a type of fic I've never written before, so that's an interesting experiment :p. I'm having fun planning it, though :D! And there's crossover ideas I've occasionally thought about that I'd love to write down the line if I ever found the time. I've long had an idea for one, for instance, that blended "Strangers with Candy" and "Community" that would be so fun to do. Problem is, I'm not well versed in writing the kind of comedy those shows traffic in, so...yeah. But maybe someday...

Quote

I am now attempting a Remember WENN fanfic which is the most complicated one I've ever attempted because it takes place as WWII was ravaging Europe and I want to get the history right and, since AMC never released the show on DVD and barely ever reran it, I haven't seen most of the episodes since the 90s! I've had to do a lot of online research about some character backgrounds. This story has been floating in my head almost daily for years. It has morphed quite a bit from it's original concept. 

Do you all find that happening? You start writing one thing and by the end it's a totally different story? It is both frustrating (because the story ends up not quite making sense without a lot of editing (which I am terrible at)) but also extremely exciting, because it's like watching the show (but with words) because you don't know what's going to happen next.  

Oh, yes :D. Sometimes you come at it from one angle, and then it turns out that no, actually, it works better written from this angle instead. 

I've also had those stories that just kinda tumble out all at once and come together really easily. I love those, but sadly they're not common :p. 

I've never seen "Remember WENN" (and given your description of how hard it is to find, that would explain why), but I've heard of it, and that sounds like a fun idea. I share in your frustration, though-that's the downside with some fandoms, especially older ones-there's only so many places you can find to watch episodes or which only have bits and pieces of certain seasons or whatever, and it does make things tougher when trying to write for them. But good luck with that fic idea, I hope it all turns out well :)! Thank goodness for the internet, that does help make things a little easier in terms of researching this stuff sometimes. 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Annber03

[JustHereForFood]

Thanks for the thread! I love fanfiction, but so far I have only read it, not written anything. I usually read when the series/book/etc. ends or is inbetween seasons and I need a "fix". I initially started after Harry Potter ended and only later discovered that there is fanfiction to almost everything!

I remember that I couldn't get used to AO3 at first, because their search functions were so different from other sites, but I currently prefer it and only read there. They got some great improvemens few years ago, mainly that I can now filter crossovers out, which was one of my main complaints, as I'm not interested in those - maybe if it is a crossover between works that belong to the same universe, such as various comics, but not some random combinations. But those seem popular, so to each their own. 

[Mabinogia]

9 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

I am trying to branch out more, though-I'm currently plotting a case fic for "Monk", which is a type of fic I've never written before, so that's an interesting experiment :p. I'm having fun planning it, though

Oh, that sounds fun! Monk would be a great character to write for. I'm afraid of writing "detective" fic just because I have a hard time planning things out and with a case to solve you def need some planning. Good luck, and keep having fun.

12 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

I think some of that is due to the fact that I often tend to stay close to canon in general

I'm completely the opposite. I have a terrible memory so sticking to canon is very hard for me. I tend more towards alternate universe stuff. 

Sherlock was a very special case because I just hated that finale sooooooooo much. lol

 

[JustHereForFood]

11 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

Sherlock was a very special case because I just hated that finale sooooooooo much. lol

I disliked the entire last season and parts of season 3 as well, but by the time it ended, I lost all interest in reading anymore fanfiction for it. And I have read tons of it inbetween seasons 2 and 3 and then 3 and 4. Some really great stuff in there and I dare say that if the writers took any inspiration from some of the explanations for season 2 and 3 finales that fans wrote, it would have ended so much better.

[Cloud9Shopper]

One of my ongoing fics has an original character but I tried to make her not a Mary Sue and not a self-insert. (She doesn’t know anyone in canon, except the canon main character, until she ends up in the ER-verse.) I know it was a risk but it was essential to the story I felt like to make sure we see her POV on the issues in the fic.

I have been updating my ER fic as I write each chapter and was updating weekly for a while and missed last week, although I had to put my New Amsterdam one on hiatus because Max and Helen have sooo many scenes that I need more time to rewatch them together and write. But now that I’m learning more, I sort of wish I had waited to upload the ER fic until it was done and stagger posting then.

At the same time, I’m at the point with it where I don’t want to take it down for revisions and start again but I’m type A like that and would find flaws with the rewrite and want to get stuck in endless rewriting. 

I love the idea of canon divergent fics myself. One of my ER one shots I have an idea for will be alternate ending/canon divergent. 

Edited July 12, 2021 by Cloud9Shopper

[Annber03]

2 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

Oh, that sounds fun! Monk would be a great character to write for. I'm afraid of writing "detective" fic just because I have a hard time planning things out and with a case to solve you def need some planning. Good luck, and keep having fun.

Ha, thanks :D! Yeah, it's not easy, that's for sure-makes me appreciate the people who write mystery series in general all the more. I'm trying to use my interest in true crime shows to help come up with the plot and the details of the investigation and everything :p. 

Quote

 

I'm completely the opposite. I have a terrible memory so sticking to canon is very hard for me. I tend more towards alternate universe stuff. 

Sherlock was a very special case because I just hated that finale sooooooooo much. lol

 

LOL, understandable. Yeah, I love reading AUs and canon-divergent stuff and all that sort of thing, I've come across many excellent fics of that sort out there. And I've had a few ideas of that sort floating around in my head that I think would be fun to write, too. Just, for whatever reason, whenever I go to write a fic most of the time, I always seem to wind up sticking close to canon. I don't really know why. I know when I very first get into a fandom, sticking to canon helps me in terms of getting used to writing the characters and everything.

But I do think it would be good for me to try and branch out a little more from time to time, so we'll see how that goes. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

Just added a chapter of my ER fic. I posted above when I linked my profile, but for those of you who missed the post, this story discusses alcoholism and recovery for anyone who has triggers and isn’t comfortable with those topics.

My A/N in Chapter 1 also explains why/how I chose the plot so if you haven’t seen S14 of ER and don’t want any spoilers whatsoever, proceed with caution (or not at all; I won’t be offended!)

I Promise You I Will Learn from My Mistakes

(The title is a lyric from Coldplay’s Fix You.)

[LexieLily]

3 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I have been updating my ER fic as I write each chapter and was updating weekly for a while and missed last week, although I had to put my New Amsterdam one on hiatus because Max and Helen have sooo many scenes that I need more time to rewatch them together and write. But now that I’m learning more, I sort of wish I had waited to upload the ER fic until it was done and stagger posting then.

It sounds like you and I tend to like the same shows, based on those two examples, so I will definitely be checking out your ER fic. Mark/Susan was my fandom 'ship of choice but I'll read (mostly) anything. Let us know when you start to post the NA one! I have multiple shows/universes that I would love to write for but more often than not the plots don't get past my brain to the page. What usually happens is that I get distracted by a new show, new couple-of-choice, and fall down that rabbit hole for awhile. :) I don't seem to be able to multitask in fandoms/fanfic-writing, and unfortunately that's why I have a few stories in my fanfiction dot net account that are abandoned. Shame, because I was excited about the storyline and the idea(s) when I started them! Does this happen to anyone else?

I am also working on a case-fic for the Monk fandom but I've not done a solo fic in the fandom before much less a case-fic, which is why my idea is perpetually in the planning stage where it has been for the last year. (Had the perfect excuse during quarantine to get some writing done and I didn't. Boo!) I did co-write a fic with another writer in that fandom but she mostly handled the mystery component while I focused on the romance/interpersonal drama of which there was a lot. 

I'll go ahead and post the link to the main page here if anyone was interested *shameless self-promotion* :)

https://www.fanfiction.net/u/12842625/After-The-End-KK-MNJ-Collab (Buys A Watch is Story 1)

[Cloud9Shopper]

3 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

It sounds like you and I tend to like the same shows, based on those two examples, so I will definitely be checking out your ER fic. Mark/Susan was my fandom 'ship of choice but I'll read (mostly) anything. Let us know when you start to post the NA one! I have multiple shows/universes that I would love to write for but more often than not the plots don't get past my brain to the page. What usually happens is that I get distracted by a new show, new couple-of-choice, and fall down that rabbit hole for awhile. :) I don't seem to be able to multitask in fandoms/fanfic-writing, and unfortunately that's why I have a few stories in my fanfiction dot net account that are abandoned. Shame, because I was excited about the storyline and the idea(s) when I started them! Does this happen to anyone else?

I am also working on a case-fic for the Monk fandom but I've not done a solo fic in the fandom before much less a case-fic, which is why my idea is perpetually in the planning stage where it has been for the last year. (Had the perfect excuse during quarantine to get some writing done and I didn't. Boo!) I did co-write a fic with another writer in that fandom but she mostly handled the mystery component while I focused on the romance/interpersonal drama of which there was a lot. 

I'll go ahead and post the link to the main page here if anyone was interested *shameless self-promotion* :)

https://www.fanfiction.net/u/12842625/After-The-End-KK-MNJ-Collab (Buys A Watch is Story 1)

I was never really a Mark/Susan shipper. I liked Mark and Elizabeth together before the show gave them too much angst, as they did seem to truly enjoy each other before the tumor and Rachel the hell spawn showing back up. 

I have two chapters posted of the NA one but had to make a note today that I was putting it on hiatus. It’s going to be shorter than the ER fic (four chapters):

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32281105/chapters/80012899
 

I’d love to know what you think of one or both! I have a hard time getting engagement from people who have actually seen the shows. (For those of you on Reddit, there is a fanfiction sub and people are super nice and read each others’ fics fandom blind. Fandom blind means a fic can be read with no prior knowledge of a canon. So I consider my ER fic to be a good fandom blind read because my main character isn’t fleshed out a lot in canon so I created a lot of her backstory. My New Amsterdam story is harder to read without knowing the show, but maybe someone disagrees.) 

 

[LexieLily]

2 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I was never really a Mark/Susan shipper. I liked Mark and Elizabeth together before the show gave them too much angst, as they did seem to truly enjoy each other before the tumor and Rachel the hell spawn showing back up. 

I have two chapters posted of the NA one but had to make a note today that I was putting it on hiatus. It’s going to be shorter than the ER fic (four chapters):

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32281105/chapters/80012899
I’d love to know what you think of one or both! I have a hard time getting engagement from people who have actually seen the shows. (For those of you on Reddit, there is a fanfiction sub and people are super nice and read each others’ fics fandom blind. Fandom blind means a fic can be read with no prior knowledge of a canon. So I consider my ER fic to be a good fandom blind read because my main character isn’t fleshed out a lot in canon so I created a lot of her backstory. My New Amsterdam story is harder to read without knowing the show, but maybe someone disagrees.) 

I don't have an A03 account (well, I do, but it's been so long that I forgot my password and I barely used it besides!). Can you review as a guest?

Also, there is a fanfiction sub on Reddit? Well, there goes *another* rabbit-hole! :)

[Annber03]

1 hour ago, LexieLily said:

I don't have an A03 account (well, I do, but it's been so long that I forgot my password and I barely used it besides!). Can you review as a guest?

Also, there is a fanfiction sub on Reddit? Well, there goes *another* rabbit-hole! :)

Yes, you can review as a guest :)! And yep, feel free to poke around the fanfiction subreddit-I've been there for a few years now and it's a very fun place to hang out :D. Lots of good discussion and whatnot there.

And I'll second your recommendation for that "Monk" fic. As for the other shows being discussed here, "ER" I've seen a bit of, "New Amsterdam" none at all, but I have heard a bit about that one. And I have read fandom-blind before for other fandoms/stories, so yeah, I'll set aside some time to check out these fics, too, along with whatever else others share here 

It is tough to multitask with fandoms, yeah. I've got fics from at least three, four fandoms I've been alternating between poking around with and working on, and it's hard sometimes to know which ones to work on first. I basically just go with whatever strikes my mood at the moment, or whichever fandom(s) I'm currently the most obsessed with. 

Haven't written a lot in the way of shippy fic, for some reason-again, love to read it, but just don't think to write it often. I've got a lot of pairings I love, but even then, most of my fics involving them are friendship ones instead of romantic ones. I'd like to write more romance, though, it'd be fun to see what I could do with that for some of my favorite ships :D. 

[Ceindreadh]

I used to find it difficult to ignore canon in some respects.  So if a character I liked, left or got killed off, it sort of put a damper on things for me and a lot of times I couldn't bring myself to keep writing in that fandom.

It's usually easier to pick and choose the canon I want to keep when the show is completely done and dusted and I know that there's not going to be any more episodes coming along to mess up the view of the characters that I already have. 

I'm currently working on a CSI NY fic that I'd started back just before the third season was about to air.  So I'm pretty much ignoring a lot of the later seasons, and it's a lot easier to do now that that show is finished, rather than when there were new seasons airing that kept messing with the story I'd plotted. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

How do you guys generally feel about stats on your stories, comments/reviews, kudos (if you’re on AO3)?etc.? Is it something you pay a lot of attention to or do you try not to care about it?

I was in a honeymoon period with fic when I started my ER story. I was like yay I get to write what the show didn’t and was really proud of my idea. As my story has gone on, though, I can tell I’m not resonating with fans, and it’s tough to want to stay in the fanfic world when I get silence. I read comments on other ER stories and see readers who are moved to tears, who adore the story, writers getting pages and pages of comments, and it’s hard not to compare myself. 

I know there could be a million reasons for this and I’m not going to speculate on every possible reason because neither me or no one else knows for sure. It could be anything from it’s not a romance to it’s summer or my writing does plain stink. But  yesterday I told my friend that for as happy as I am that I told my main character’s story, I’m also a human being who likes validation every so often. That’s not even to say I need constant praise to feel good. It’s just that it’s hard for me to keep going when I feel like I’m screaming into a void.

I balance the limited activity of ER by doing New Amsterdam ships, so that helps a bit. And I have some other shows on my watch list that maybe I can get into more active fandoms for. In the meantime, I just want to vent that it can be a bummer when you feel like your story isn’t affecting or touching anyone, or that no one is reading it. 

[Ceindreadh]

7 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

How do you guys generally feel about stats on your stories, comments/reviews, kudos (if you’re on AO3)?etc.? Is it something you pay a lot of attention to or do you try not to care about it?

I was in a honeymoon period with fic when I started my ER story. I was like yay I get to write what the show didn’t and was really proud of my idea. As my story has gone on, though, I can tell I’m not resonating with fans, and it’s tough to want to stay in the fanfic world when I get silence. I read comments on other ER stories and see readers who are moved to tears, who adore the story, writers getting pages and pages of comments, and it’s hard not to compare myself. 

 

 

I do miss the heady days of my earlier forays in fanfiction.  When I was writing about ER and NCIS and Torchwood and the shows were still running and every story would get a ton of hits.  I lived for the comments and reviews.  The actual numbers, I don't think I was really too concerned about them at the time.  (possibly because I started out on the newsgroups where there wasn't any way to track readers)

But even then, I'd post something that I'd put my heart into and had worked on for ages and it might get a small reaction, maybe a few reviews.  And then I'd post something that I'd tossed off in an evening and I'd get masses of reaction to it. 

There's no accounting for the whims of fanfic readers.  In some cases, it could easily be that the writers of the other stories have accumulated fans and followers simply because they've been doing it longer. 

 

But I completely understand what it's like to give your all to your writing and not get anything back. 

It still gives me a little thrill every time I check my email and see a notification for a new review or like or Kudo.  I just wish I was better at writing reviews, because even when I absolutely love a story, I can't always articulate just why. 

[Annber03]

The whole "lack of comments" thing has been a common complaint among a lot of fanfic writers in recent years, yeah-it's a topic that comes up regularly in the Fanfiction subreddit. I think some of the issue is due to the fact that a lot of sites are structured nowadays towards more social media oriented settings. There's not much room or options for discussions and reviews and so on, it's all likes and kudos and subscriptions. As a result, people have gotten used to using those methods to show their support for whatever or whoever they're following, and think that's all the more they need to do. Perhaps if more sites did go back towards being based in community interactions, that might change people's mindsets a bit. 

4 hours ago, Ceindreadh said:

I just wish I was better at writing reviews, because even when I absolutely love a story, I can't always articulate just why. 

This is another issue as well, definitely. As is the fact that some people are hesitant to review anymore because it seems that no matter what they say, they run the risk of some authors being unhappy with their reviews. Either they're not long enough, or not detailed enough, or they're too critical (there's been a lot of debate over whether or not people should give unsolicited criticism nowadays, I've noticed), or they're not critical enough, and so on and so forth. So some people start to wonder, "Why bother?" Better to just click a button and avoid any potential fighting and drama that may result in the comment sections (which, again, ties back to the way social media tends to operate in terms of discussion nowadays). 

And then of course, there's other reasons as well. The fandom's older/smaller or the author's writing for a niche genre/pairing/character/etc.. And alongside the fact that, as noted, some writers have more comments because they've been writing longer, perhaps they know how to market their fics better, too, or have friends from other places who come to read and support their work, and on and on from there. 

Also, if someone is writing a multi-chapter fic, I've heard a lot of people say that they hold off on commenting on those until they see the story's been officially completed, because they don't want to risk getting invested in a fic that doesn't get finished. Course, I've always thought that was a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, too, because the main reason a lot of multi-chapter writers say they quit writing is because they aren't getting more engagement. So the whole thing becomes a bit of a vicious cycle after a while. Still, it's a reason I've seen nonetheless.   

So yeah, in short, you're not alone in longing for more comments and whatnot. But just because people may not be commenting, that doesn't automatically mean they aren't reading and enjoying the fics :). 

As for me, I love comments and kudos and favorites and such, certainly, and it's exciting to get notifications for those. But I don't pay attention to the specific numbers themselves. I just post my work, and basically hope that people enjoy it enough to respond in whatever way they wish. Sure, depending on the fandom or the type of story I'm writing, if I am getting radio silence, I may sometimes try and look at why that can be, and react accordingly from there. It's natural to wonder why some stories aren't picking up steam, and what can be done to change that, if anything. 

But for me, I've been writing since I was a kid, I wrote before I had the internet and before people other than teachers and my parents read my stuff. And that's the main thing that keeps me going. I just have stories that I need to get out of my head and onto a page. Whatever happens beyond that, I just roll with it as best I can. 

[LexieLily]

11 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

The whole "lack of comments" thing has been a common complaint among a lot of fanfic writers in recent years, yeah-it's a topic that comes up regularly in the Fanfiction subreddit. I think some of the issue is due to the fact that a lot of sites are structured nowadays towards more social media oriented settings. There's not much room or options for discussions and reviews and so on, it's all likes and kudos and subscriptions. As a result, people have gotten used to using those methods to show their support for whatever or whoever they're following, and think that's all the more they need to do. Perhaps if more sites did go back towards being based in community interactions, that might change people's mindsets a bit. 

That is a very good point and to be honest it does play a little part in why I'm not the greatest fan of Archive Of Our Own. [/no disrespect meant to people who post there! It seems like the highest-volume fanfic site after fanfiction dot net and may have outpaced it, I don't know.] A03 does have review options, yes, but the kudos button is just that, a button, and it's often easier to do that then to leave a review. I'm guilty of it too, on Facebook and Twitter, leaving a like on a comment or post and not engaging in discussion. Maybe it's just easier to press a button to say that you like a story without having to go through the steps of leaving a review. I don't know. 

[Annber03]

10 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

That is a very good point and to be honest it does play a little part in why I'm not the greatest fan of Archive Of Our Own. [/no disrespect meant to people who post there! It seems like the highest-volume fanfic site after fanfiction dot net and may have outpaced it, I don't know.] A03 does have review options, yes, but the kudos button is just that, a button, and it's often easier to do that then to leave a review. I'm guilty of it too, on Facebook and Twitter, leaving a like on a comment or post and not engaging in discussion. Maybe it's just easier to press a button to say that you like a story without having to go through the steps of leaving a review. I don't know. 

Exactly. I also know that a lot of authors are hesitant to reply to people's reviews on there because they're afraid of it "inflating" their comment count. Except...the site literally put a "reply" button there for people to respond. If they thought that was a concern, my guess is they wouldn't have allowed authors the opportunity to reply in the first place. But if people see authors aren't replying to reviews, for whatever reason, that could make them hesitant to review as well. Numbers just seem to be more of a factor in terms of how sites work nowadays in general. 

AO3 is popular, yes, and continuing to become so :). A large part of that is because it doesn't have the kinds of restrictions that FF.net does regarding what they allow in terms of fics, but people also like the more detailed tagging system (though some complain it can be TOO detailed sometimes, too, which, yeah, I can see that), and the fact that the people in charge are more active in keeping things running smoothly and keeping site users updated on any changes and updates and such to the site (a complaint that's dogged FF.net over the years) and things of that sort, as well. But FF.net has been running for over twenty years now, and is still very popular in its own right as well, so it's clearly got something about it that's working for plenty of writers as well :D. 

For my part, I do review, both at AO3 and FF.net, and I like to leave lengthy reviews as well. When I first started leaving reviews back at FF.net they were shorter, because I didn't always know what to say, too, and even now, sometimes with my lengthy reviews, I'm afraid I'll come off more like I'm rambling :p. I do get a lot of the reservations people have behind not reviewing.

But I like to review just 'cause I REALLY loved a story and want to say so, and to talk with other fans about the series in question, or the characters, or the ship I'm reading about, or whatever. I've befriended many people in my fandoms through reviews over the years :). I don't really have people offline to talk to about my favorite fandoms, so I think that factors into why I'm so chatty about them online. Plus, interacting with other people is a good way for them to discover you (general "you") and your work as well. Not to say reviewing should be used as a quid pro quo thing, of course, 'cause it shouldn't. Just that that kind of personal interaction can go a long way towards building the kind of community and mutual support and so forth that a lot of writers long for. 

[LexieLily]

10 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

But I like to review just 'cause I REALLY loved a story and want to say so, and to talk with other fans about the series in question, or the characters, or the ship I'm reading about, or whatever. I've befriended many people in my fandoms through reviews over the years :). I don't really have people offline to talk to about my favorite fandoms, so I think that factors into why I'm so chatty about them online. Plus, interacting with other people is a good way for them to discover you (general "you") and your work as well. Not to say reviewing should be used as a quid pro quo thing, of course, 'cause it shouldn't. Just that that kind of personal interaction can go a long way towards building the kind of community and mutual support and so forth that a lot of writers long for. 

I bolded this because I think that's important and so true. If you (general you) are the sort of person that reads stories and reviews them in a way that makes it clear that you are engaged as a reader in the story, in the fandom, etc, as opposed to the basic "Update!" or "Great story! I love it!" reviews, that probably does go a long way in getting feedback on your own work in return. Me personally, the longer types of reviews are more rewarding to me as a writer, even if it's a flame/negative review, because you can hear what is working for the readers and what isn't, what they're enjoying and what they're not, and maybe keep that in the back of your mind for the next stories you write in that particular fandom. I (and I'm assuming a lot of writers) are a tiny bit self-indulgent in that way that we work hard on whatever stories we put out, whether it be a one-shot or a multi-chapter story, and it's nice to feel that it's worth it and people are engrossed in the story.

....And, also, seeing it written out so often in this thread, Archive of our Own, I just realized why it's nickname is Ao3 :)

[Cloud9Shopper]

Thanks for all the insights, guys.

I do try to do the “right” things. I kudos when I like a story and comment when I have something to say, but it hasn’t led to comments in return. Maybe the other writers in my fandom are generally closer and it’s hard to break in. (In the ER fandom, there seems to be a tight-knit group of Luka/Abby writers and I don’t like that pairing, although I won’t derail the discussion here to talk about why, especially since ER has its own forum here.) I’m not going to write about a couple I don’t like, though, just to be more popular in the fandom. I think I’m too old for that kind of thing haha.

I also got fed up with social media early in the year before fanfic was even back on my radar and so don’t have profiles these days. I’m sure that’s part of it too.

I’m grateful for the short reviews just as much as the longer ones. It’s just hard not knowing if people are silently enjoying my story or if it’s terrible and people gave up a long time ago. 

I haven’t had any negative reviews yet (at least) so haven’t had a chance to deal with that situation. But I guess that’s a good thing!

I may cross post to FF.net at some point and see if I get more reaction there, too. 

 

[JustHereForFood]

8 hours ago, Annber03 said:

So yeah, in short, you're not alone in longing for more comments and whatnot. But just because people may not be commenting, that doesn't automatically mean they aren't reading and enjoying the fics :). 

I confess to this. I am always hesitant to sign up for any site (it took me ages to sign up on this site for example, even though I was reading regularly), so I just leave a kudos for the fic I like, since I can do that anonymously. Especially since most of my comments would just be some sort of "I really liked this".

I once contemplated commenting on a fic that I liked but was really disappointed in the final chapter, so much that I wanted to leave a comment about how depressed I felt after finishing it, because all the comments I saw were very positive and how amazing the ending was and I just wanted to point out that it felt very depressing to me. But after a few days I cooled off and decided against it, as I worried that the author would be too saddened by that, as it was clearly not the intent of that ending. But I spent an unhealthy amount of time on this dilemma.

[BlackberryJam]

It's the age old dilemma of wanting to comment, but not knowing what to say so just doing nothing instead.

Most writers will tell you that even a comment that is just a smiley face is better than no comment at all. I like the fact that I can kudo on AO3 just because it's easy and quick and I can do it on my phone. If I don't log into my account, I can leave a second kudo as a guest. You can also comment on most AO3 works as a guest as well. No need to sign up or sign in.

As far as criticism goes, most people really don't want it, even when they say they do. Criticism goes down much better in smaller beta groups.

 

[ElleryAnne]

Interesting thread.  I'm a reader of fanfic and I give kudos to practically everything I read, but generally only comment on a small number of fics. The two main reasons I don't comment more often:

1 - I think my comment would be so similar to other comments that the author won't care about it; 

2 - From previous comments on the fic, I can see that the author doesn't reply - so I figure maybe the author doesn't even read comments.  

I'm more likely to comment when the author has a note at the beginning or end of a chapter stating that they read and appreciate comments even if they don't reply.  And I'm much less likely to comment (or even read it) if they say that they know the work is a mess but they're posting it anyway. 

Obviously, the comments upthread here have given me new insight on that, so I'll try commenting more often.

Edited July 15, 2021 by ElleryAnne

[Annber03]

5 hours ago, ElleryAnne said:

1 - I think my comment would be so similar to other comments that the author won't care about it; 

Ha, even with all the complaints I have heard authors make about comments, I can honestly say I've never heard of that ever being an issue for them. I think the only time an author would be bothered by the similarity is if all they're getting are comments like, "Loved this!" or "Update soon!"...but in that case, I don't know if it's the similarity that bothers them as much as it is the fact that that's all they're saying. 

Speaking for myself, that would never be an issue for me :). I don't care how many people tell me, for instance, that they think I captured the characters well in a fic, or they thought x line was funny, or a certain scene got them emotional, or whatever, I'll be thrilled to hear it each time. Plus, considering a lot of authors like to have those lines and scenes that stand out, it would make sense they may get a lot of reviews making similar comments about those aspects as a result, as that was clearly the author's intent. 

Quote

And I'm much less likely to comment (or even read it) if they say that they know the work is a mess but they're posting it anyway. 

Yeah, I totally get this. I understand authors wanting to be modest and self-deprecating and all that, but indeed, if you (general "you") want someone to read your story, you gotta sell them on it. Telling someone, "Yeah, I know it sucks, but read it anyway" doesn't exactly instill much confidence. Plus, comments like that can also sometimes read like the author's trying to fish for compliments (kinda like the way that people will show off photos of themselves while simultaneously being, "OMG I look soooo horrible in this one LOL"), and that can be really off putting, too. 

9 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I do try to do the “right” things. I kudos when I like a story and comment when I have something to say, but it hasn’t led to comments in return. Maybe the other writers in my fandom are generally closer and it’s hard to break in. (In the ER fandom, there seems to be a tight-knit group of Luka/Abby writers and I don’t like that pairing, although I won’t derail the discussion here to talk about why, especially since ER has its own forum here.) I’m not going to write about a couple I don’t like, though, just to be more popular in the fandom. I think I’m too old for that kind of thing haha.

As well you shouldn't. Writing something one clearly doesn't enjoy just to try and get popular is definitely not the way to go, no-people will see through that. They can tell when someone's genuinely invested in what they're writing about and when they wrote a story simply because they felt they had to do so, and which they clearly didn't enjoy writing. 

But yeah, unfortunately that happens, too-you can be a supportive part of a fandom and yet sometimes it still doesn't bring returns, simply because, for whatever reason, you're just not in sync with the rest of the fandom's tastes. Nothing wrong with that-everyone's got their niche, which is part of what makes fanfic so fun. But sadly, it does mean sometimes that some writers may not get as much attention as others (and hell, even people who do write popular stuff can still struggle if they aren't writing about the popular character/ship/genre the "right" way. And yeah, cliques can make it harder, too, definitely.

I like your idea of posting to FF.net as well. Certainly couldn't hurt-any exposure is better than none at all :). 

[festivus]

I wrote two fics a couple of years ago for a fandom that I thought was kinda niche but is probably not. I read Marvel so it's way smaller than that. (I'll probably die before I ever get through all of Marvel. So. many. fics.)

Anyhoo, one of them did pretty well considering I'm a new writer and not in with the cool crowd. For some reason, the second one which I like better, has hardly any kudos. When I read a story I like I go to the person's dashboard and check out their other works. I also think having a presence on Tumblr helps get readers. I have one but I never post on it. I just use it to follow some people I like, I don't have time to keep up with it. This place takes up all my time. Also I'm just too introverted for it. Tumblr requires commitment I just can't handle.

I rarely leave comments, it's just not my thing. I always leave kudos though. 

[Aliferously]

So I got back into fanfic writing during the pandemic, because you have to while away the hours somehow. I don't do Tumblr because I'm old and I can not figure out how it works and I deleted Instagram because it was driving me insane. I don't really advertise my fics, didn't know it was a thing.

I enjoy comments, but it's sort of two fold for me. I put a lot of work into writing and I do hope that people will like it. It's disappointing when you check back after 24 hours and only one person has commented. On the other hand, I can tell that my story has has been clicked (and hopefully read) about 15.000 times and counting so I consider that a win. 

The thing I dislike is one word comments like "awesome" or "cute" (I think I may have gotten an actual sentence once, but only once, but usually just one word) because that doesn't really tell me anything. 

Not that I'm sitting around waiting for harsh criticism, but still.

I haven't posted at ff.net in years. I find Ao3 much easier to use, and they have a save as draft feature.

 

 

[Cloud9Shopper]

3 hours ago, Aliferously said:

So I got back into fanfic writing during the pandemic, because you have to while away the hours somehow. I don't do Tumblr because I'm old and I can not figure out how it works and I deleted Instagram because it was driving me insane. I don't really advertise my fics, didn't know it was a thing.

I enjoy comments, but it's sort of two fold for me. I put a lot of work into writing and I do hope that people will like it. It's disappointing when you check back after 24 hours and only one person has commented. On the other hand, I can tell that my story has has been clicked (and hopefully read) about 15.000 times and counting so I consider that a win. 

The thing I dislike is one word comments like "awesome" or "cute" (I think I may have gotten an actual sentence once, but only once, but usually just one word) because that doesn't really tell me anything. 

Not that I'm sitting around waiting for harsh criticism, but still.

I haven't posted at ff.net in years. I find Ao3 much easier to use, and they have a save as draft feature.

 

 

I haven’t gotten any of those one-word comments yet but it’s like the equivalent of being on online dating and a guy sending you a message that just says “hi.” I always hated that. 

I agree with you. I like to think my fic came from the heart and deals with the topics in a very realistic way but I know not everyone needs to agree or even has to read it. I do get a few hits on every chapter from posting in Reddit or I guess people just finding it in the ER or New Amsterdam listings (depending which story they look at). I didn’t get my first comment on my ER fic until Chapter 6 and that felt like an eternity. Haha. 

[Blergh]

Another frustration re fanfic reviews: When an authors have explained that they haven't exactly followed the show's storylines to the nth degree  in the summary and/or opening disclaimer (along with them not owning the show or characters), and, despite this, there are folks  reviewing who will chime in with 'such-and-such' having happened, etc.  on the shows  makes ' this and that' impossible in the fanfics to have occurred. Sakes, if folks aren't willing to at least see if there are no other possibilities for other directions re the shows or characters besides what the shows depicted, what are they doing reading fanfics in the first place?

Edited July 19, 2021 by Blergh

[Annber03]

8 hours ago, Blergh said:

Sakes, if folks aren't willing to at least see if there are no other possibilities for other directions re the shows or characters besides what the show depicted, what are they doing reading fanfics in the first place?

LOL, agreed.

"This doesn't fit with what happened in canon!"

"...yeah, I know. It's almost like that's the point, or something." 

Some people's reading comprehension can be...iffy, to say the least, in general. They'll go into a fic that's clearly tagged with a certain ship or group of characters or certain tropes/genres and then gripe about what's there and act shocked that it's either being written or that they're not writing what they want them to write instead, and you're just sitting here like, "The hell were you expecting?" If I see a story for ship A/B, I'm not going to go in there and be like, "I hate this ship, you should write A/C instead." That would be a very stupid waste of my time. 

But some people just love them some big drama and to do about things, I guess. 

[BlackberryJam]

This isn't my ship and isn't my interest, but this is what I love about AO3.

Fanfiction fills that representation gap and I love it. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

For the first time ever (that I know of, since I obviously can’t track who looks at my fic and scrolls on past on AO3), someone rejected to read my ER fic. I definitely understand these things happen for many reasons and I certainly don’t read every ER fic or even every fic in my other fandoms. But someone asked me to describe the story and once I did, they totally lost interest because season 14 of ER upset them too much. (For those not familiar with the show, there’s an alcoholic character who relapses in that season and it takes up a lot of screen time. I think the relapse storyline upset the person who asked me about my fic even though it’s about someone else on the show and not that storyline. I just got the idea from season 14.) 

I definitely do the same (have clicked out of fics with topics I’m not comfortable with; I missed one fic with an mpreg tag and I almost died when I realized what I was reading) but it’s a bummer to be rejected anyway. Ah well. 

[BlackberryJam]

1 hour ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

For the first time ever (that I know of, since I obviously can’t track who looks at my fic and scrolls on past on AO3), someone rejected to read my ER fic. I definitely understand these things happen for many reasons and I certainly don’t read every ER fic or even every fic in my other fandoms. But someone asked me to describe the story and once I did, they totally lost interest because season 14 of ER upset them too much. (For those not familiar with the show, there’s an alcoholic character who relapses in that season and it takes up a lot of screen time. I think the relapse storyline upset the person who asked me about my fic even though it’s about someone else on the show and not that storyline. I just got the idea from season 14.) 

I definitely do the same (have clicked out of fics with topics I’m not comfortable with; I missed one fic with an mpreg tag and I almost died when I realized what I was reading) but it’s a bummer to be rejected anyway. Ah well. 

OoooOoo...mpreg is a hard, hard NO for me. I also hate the ever popular soul mark fic. Ugh.

Tagging is so important. I came across a smuffy fic that included lactation kink and wow, did I nope out of that one pretty damn fast. It spoiled me on that author because she would write these sex fics and never use tags so you'd be reading along and suddenly the female was ejaculating for 90 seconds and it was spraying out 3 feet. Just not something I wanted to read. I mean, tag for that, right?

[Cloud9Shopper]

19 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

OoooOoo...mpreg is a hard, hard NO for me. I also hate the ever popular soul mark fic. Ugh.

Tagging is so important. I came across a smuffy fic that included lactation kink and wow, did I nope out of that one pretty damn fast. It spoiled me on that author because she would write these sex fics and never use tags so you'd be reading along and suddenly the female was ejaculating for 90 seconds and it was spraying out 3 feet. Just not something I wanted to read. I mean, tag for that, right?

Oh gosh. I would’ve backed out too. Or when a female character who was never gay or bi in canon (or even hinted that she thought she might be) is suddenly a lesbian in fic. It’s too weird for me. 

My friend shared a fic with me the other day where the character was written as having “27 orgasms in three minutes” but we were laughing way too hard at the writing to be offended. 

[BlackberryJam]

1 hour ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

Oh gosh. I would’ve backed out too. Or when a female character who was never gay or bi in canon (or even hinted that she thought she might be) is suddenly a lesbian in fic. It’s too weird for me. 

My friend shared a fic with me the other day where the character was written as having “27 orgasms in three minutes” but we were laughing way too hard at the writing to be offended. 

I’m fine with sexual representation in fic, just tag it. As I mentioned before, I’m fine with Poirot/Hastings slash fic existing. Just tag it so I don’t wander in expecting Case Fic and suddenly Hastings is on all fours wearing a horsehair buttplug. 

[festivus]

To me the point of fanfiction is to tell stories not told in canon. That includes making characters gay or bi, who aren't in the original material. Also, I like pairings that aren't in the original, like that's why I'm reading fanfic. There were a million Jack and Ianto fics and I'm over here searching for Ianto/Owen. Same with Mulder/Scully. I tried some but I was more interested in the what if of Dogget/Scully. Not to say that I don't read canon pairings, I do. Like, I never thought about reading Jaime/Brienne but when I get some time I'm gonna search that out. There's one fandom pairing I wish I could find more of; Quentin/Eliot, but I haven't been happy with most of the writers for them. It's been a few years so maybe I'll check back and see if any new blood has come aboard.

[BlackberryJam]

25 minutes ago, festivus said:

To me the point of fanfiction is to tell stories not told in canon. That includes making characters gay or bi, who aren't in the original material. Also, I like pairings that aren't in the original, like that's why I'm reading fanfic. There were a million Jack and Ianto fics and I'm over here searching for Ianto/Owen. Same with Mulder/Scully. I tried some but I was more interested in the what if of Dogget/Scully. Not to say that I don't read canon pairings, I do. Like, I never thought about reading Jaime/Brienne but when I get some time I'm gonna search that out. There's one fandom pairing I wish I could find more of; Quentin/Eliot, but I haven't been happy with most of the writers for them. It's been a few years so maybe I'll check back and see if any new blood has come aboard.

Uhmmm...there needs to be more Krycek/Scully thank you very much. :)

Jaime and Brienne bang it out in TV canon, so that's a thing. Book canon seems very much headed that way as well. There are over 8k Jaime Brienne fics, so if you need a recommendation, let me know. JB is my jam.