r/FanFiction

I did it, I did it! After seven months of planning and spending all of September writing, I finally finished the first two chapters of my fanfiction, and I feel a strange sense of calm.

Whenever I wrote fanfiction, I wanted to move on to the next chapter, and then I'd get frustrated because as I wrote the next one, I'd hit writer's block and end up giving up.

But this time, I paid attention to my meticulous, almost autistic nature and set a timeline for my story, at least up to chapter seven, and I still can't believe I did it and that I already have half of the next chapter written from a draft I discarded a few months ago.

I'm amazing, and I have trouble admitting it. I've already published both chapters on AO3, in English and in my native language.

I still can't believe I did it. 🫣

Thinking about rewriting my first fic on AO3. I started it over a year ago and my writing has grown a lot since then, so it feels like a redo is necessary to bring it up to where I am now. Am I overthinking this?

So there's some of these stuff in the current multi chapter fic I'm writing - symbolism, metaphor, parallells... And I really hope and want people to notice them and point them out. But I also don't wanna be like "GUYS THIS IS A PARALLELL" I want ppl to come to the conclusion alone... Is there a way to encourage people to look/analyze closer? And do readers ever notice these?

Multiple times I have thought, “I wanna read a fic about XYZ,” only to scroll and scroll and change the search filters, and even though it seems like an obvious idea that multiple people would’ve written about, it doesn’t seem to exist.

So, whatever, I’ll just write those fics myself but surely I can’t be the first person who wanted them to exist?

So there’s this relatively small fandom I’m in. I ended up finding a couple of fics I really liked a while back, but my absolute favorite was from this one specific author who wrote an OC insert fic.

They had written the first season and some of the second, but then the story hadn't been updated in over a year. Since they didn’t have any other stories updating either, I just assumed the fic was dead. But it was my favorite thing I’d found, so I saved it to re-read in the future.

Because there weren't many fics available for this fandom, I eventually was just like, "Whatever, I'll write one myself to contribute."

I have a super specific writing process where I write the entire fic out in a Word doc first, and then I just edit the chapters as I publish them. So using that method, I had written and posted the first season (as its own fic) and was right in the middle of finishing up a new fic for the second season.

The other day, I went back to read some of the old fics in the fandom that I had saved. I go to my favorite one and to my joyous surprise, they actually updated! They had dropped multiple new chapters.

I didn't think anything of it and just started reading. The first three chapters were totally normal. But then I get to the 4th chapter and something feels... off.

Then I hit a specific part and I’m literally like WTF? Because the scene I’m reading wasn't canon to the show. And I knew that for a fact because I was the one who wrote it.

I checked them side-by-side and they had copied my whole chapter word for word. They literally just changed the name of my OC to theirs.

They couldn't even be bothered to edit the character's mannerisms to match their own OC! Mine has a very specific quirk that acts as a running gag, something their OC had never shown before, and suddenly their character is doing it out of nowhere.

And the rest of their update is like that. A couple of chapters will be their own work, and then they'll just word-for-word copy a chapter of mine.

I was so pissed at first, but now I'm just disappointed. Someone who I genuinely admired stole my work. And for what? Like, you hadn't updated in over a year, what was the motivation to steal someone else's work? And why mine? I know the fandom is small, but it's not like I'm the only person who wrote an OC insert.

Not that I'd want this to happen to anyone else, but I'm just blown away by the irony that the author I followed stole from me.

It's also just disheartening in a weird way. It feels like finding out your favorite athlete was doping. You know it happens and that people do it, but you just thought they were above that and that the hard work they put in before was legit.

Edit: yes I did report it, but it's still up. I'm hoping something happens soon. I've already started writing season 3, and I kind of don't want to post it now because of this.

I was reading a miraculous ladybug fic, and ladybug asked if chat had a secret Vine account, so I immediately scrolled up to see when it was published and sure enough 2016

I've been stuck for months unable to write my next chapter. I feel really guilty but I'm just stuck, I feel like this chapter has alot of pressure on it as it is when they finally talk again after a fight and I know everyone is going to be mad they dont immediately make up.

I'm also stuck on a comparison I'm trying to make. I want one of the protagonists to have a conversation with his friend about constellations while star grazing while struggling to sleep after the disappointment that day. I wanted him to tell the story of a constellation thats about someone failing to get their love and then his friend will say something like maybe they would have succeeded with help. Then they can plot together to win her back and we see their scheme next chapter.

I originally had it the constellation Lyra and have the story of Orpheus going to hades but loosing faith last minute but that doesn't feel right. I need a different story to use but I honestly can't think of a right one to use.

I'm in a small fandom. It's a 60+ (near 100+ technically) years old work with less than 50 fics between FFN and Ao3 combined.

Pretty much every fic is the same. "What if X survived and ended up with Y?"

But, it's fun nevertheless. It's nice seeing how everyone writes the plot in their own way.

Likewise, one of my favorite ships in a major fandom is a rarepair. You can tell most fans took influence from one BNF for the rarepair. Every other modern AU features the same traits. I don't mind, though. If I ever wrote the ship, I'd write them the same way too.

I've seen people discuss the "Oh. Oh." and whether you like it or not, it's become a staple of fanfiction. When I started reading/writing fanfiction aound 15 years ago, I would see them everywhere. I stopped for a long time and came back to it recently. A lot of things changed, but I still enjoy fanfiction! But its so strange because I haven't been seeing "Oh, oh" as much as I used to. Its been evading me! I don't read as many fics as I used to, but I couldn't understand why I couldn't find it at all.

And then I was reading a fic last night and BAM! The elusive italicised oh winked at me in the middle of the fic! Nostalgia rushed over me so much I had to put the fic down for a minute!

It's not a big deal, but its been so long since I've felt that kind of excitement of seeing something commonly talked about in the wild again. It's nice to reminisce on the good old days sometimes. :)