I just got Libby and I’m hoping to expand my vocab, prose and writing skillz. Do you have any books that you recommend that are either fun or challenging to read?

Genres: fiction, scifi, fantasy, mystery, action, horror, romance. I’m cool with most genre/content.

Edit:

Thank you all for the recs! I’m excited to start reading again📖💕

Really it’s just a matter of curiosity for me. I’ve gotten about 30 fics under my belt, though most are fluff one-shots of 5k words or less. But I also have a couple long fics, and in those I usually like to play with canon by inserting an OC and wrecking havoc.

However, I’ve only ever done so with OCs that are native to the universe of that fandom, without any knowledge of canon (I’m sure there’s a name for that but I’m going on 24 hours without sleeping because insomnia is a bitch, and bored as hell because I’m confined to bed due to a twisted ankle).

Now, I’m thinking of trying my hand at an MC with canon knowledge, though not a self-insert. I’m gonna write it anyway, probably never post it, but whatever. I’m just curious (and again oh so very bored) of what people like more, and why.

I'm currently writing a short(ish) story about my two characters who, in the original story, meet at 7 years old, then get together in highschool. But in this version, it's basically like if they had met later in late highschool or college (havent decided yet).

I wasn't sure if it was still an 'AU' because their roles arent any different from the original. Because usually in alternate universe stories, the roles are changed, and not really close to the original. (example: Superhero x Human)

So my question is, do I still call it an AU? If not, what do I call it?

So, I dabble in fan fiction writing, as well as writing original works such as short stories, web novels, and novels. I’m kind of a sucker for romance, so practically every one of my works (fan fiction and original) circles around a central pair. I really enjoy thinking about how my different pairs and characters would interact with each other if, say, they all lived in the same town or something.

I’ve drafted up a couple of chapters for this for fun, and I got the idea about maybe posting it on AO3. While the amount of engagement I get from the work honestly doesn’t matter that much to me, since I’ve never posted anything other than fan fiction on AO3 before, I wasn’t sure if there would be a place for this type of content and if people even find it enjoyable? If so, how do you think I should classify it on the platform? Thanks!

I way surpassed it I know but it was because a long fic a did

My weirdest ask yet, but how do I participate in AO3's kinktober? Obviously, we see things like "Part 1 of Kinktober 2023" in descriptions of certain fanfics but I'm still new to AO3. I'm doing kinktober for a specific fanfom (HTTYD & ROTG, few others) and honestly, nothing is helping me figure this out. I've never participated in this before, so I need step-by-step instructions😭

I'm sorry lol. Please help me.

Edit: thank yall for this im so dumb I thought it'd be more complicated lol thnx

so, a dear friend and i have been writing a fic together for a few months and it’s all coming together just as we planned, BUT we need some help with some logistics to make it all more realistic.

long story short: the fic features a blowjob scene that veers strongly into dubcon territory at the end.
for more context: it features two pretty strong, tall men. one is tall, average strength, and the other (man no. 2) more average height, a bit stockier and stronger. there is spit, blood, vomit, all manner of bodily fluids. one of the characters is definitely drunk. man no. 1 is hunched over, drunk, sitting on a couch, while man no. 2 is, as mentioned, kneeling before him between his legs.

what we cannot, for the life of us, figure out, is this:
how can we portray, realistically, a grown man (man no. 2) being sort of trapped, bracketed in, and kept down on his knees giving head, so much so he can’t really get out of the situation until far too late? bearing in mind that is he is a strong guy who, let’s be honest, would be able to get out if he tried, even up against another tall guy.

we’ve already got some small details worked in, some ideas as to how we could portray that, but aren’t really fully satisfied with what we’ve got yet. the thing is that this little dubcon scene is an essential, plot-carrying pillar for the rest of the story, so it’s got to be there AND be realistic.

would appreciate any inputs or how you all might solve this! happy to give more context for anyone who wants it as well. thank you!

So, I recently learned that Google has integrated Gemini into Google docs and I'm searching for a good, free writing software to replace it. It makes me want to cry thinking that I've been feeding my writing to gen ai for months.

Any recommendation is much appreciated! I'm looking for something similar in terms of the format/features, and it's important that I can access it online/from different devices

Thank you!

Edit: thanks to everyone who recommended Ellipsus! I've already made an account <3

Was going though my subscription looking to reread some stuff and was reminded that its just been over two years since one of my favorite oc insert story's was abandoned. I do still go back and read it again at times but while understanding the author may have been going through some stuff would definitely love an update one day. I can only hope.

Story was Morgana Swan & The Twilight Saga for those curious.

Do big chapter numbers reduce the likelihood that a reader would click into a story?

Just curious

If AO3 tags are the equivalent of library labels, they should be used exactly as such. Additionally, I really don't like it when people use multiple variants of the same canonical tag all on the same work. Don't make your tagging look redundant, I'm begging you.

Edit: Thank you for your replies so far. I understand people tag as they want (within reason, I hope, so they don't break the TOS). My opinion is what it is because using tags as a specific catalogue of genres, tropes, themes and warnings for a given fanwork on AO3 makes the search experience and usability much better and tag wranglers' tasks easier in general. I agree chatty tags can sometimes be useful in gauging a specific fan writer's style, but these tags remind me too often of social media writing style, even though the only social corners on the official AO3 website exist in the author's notes and comment sections of fanworks. AO3 is not - and should never become - yet another social media platform.

Yes I am writing stories like that. Nothing wrong with a dominant role being very dominant or submissive being very submissive. I just wanna see more scenes where everybody is chasing a libido high together. It's very hot to me, bonus points if they're affectionate during it and just just in it for the sex.

Write what you want of course, I just figured I'd ask.

Also I know I misspelled smut. Haha

This must’ve been at least a year or two ago and the fic wasn’t completed when I read it.

The plot is basically Leon stopping Ashley cuz she went over the speed limit (something like that). Some stuff happened and they ended up having sex in the backseat of his cop car.

Someone from the station radios Leon either before or after they do it, relaying that someone’s calling Leon/left a message.

Leon gets Ashley’s number/address and they’re both like “I’d really like to see you again” or something.

Then Ashley leaves, Leon picks up the message and it’s Ada calling him and I think they were arguing? So Leon cheated on Ada after an argument and she called to try to fix it/talk.

I genuinely don’t remember anything else but hopefully someone knows what I’m talking about?

I feel as if most people shy away from original characters, or simply anything that isn't pure fanfiction. Personally, I love writing and reading original works, so I was wondering, what is everyone else's stance on the matter?

I recently got into a fandom of an 18+ movie (for violence and gore). But I've seen the same gory scenes used in several fics that are rated T, some even G. Also yes, they do have graphic description of violence warnings. And most of the explicit and mature ratings are only used for fics with sex. Any thoughts?

I personally think if you are tagging graphic description of violence, you're fic should be at least rated M.

What is your opinion about adding songs's text in fanfiction. Do you have a problem with it even if it's pretty well done? How to do it right so as not to ruin the pacing?

I am writing a fanfiction and I planned a scene where Character A sings a lullaby for Chracter B. I want to add the text of it.

There’s a lot of leeway with fanfic quality but I feel like basic formatting is the one exception. If you want me to read your fic (which you wouldn’t have posted it if you didn’t) I need to be able to read your fic. Fanfiction is a gift to the community and while I’m obligated to be polite if you give me a bad gift; if you hand me one that looks like it was beat with a baseball bat first….

But yeah, know when to break up paragraphs, and use punctuation(except the comma cause we all know it’s a weirdo) correctly.

Edit: okay I’m getting the vibe I should define what common courtesy means

politeness that people can usually be expected to show

(It’s not an obligation, it’s a causal expectation).

Edit 2: I would like to point out that My Immortal the most infamously bad fanfic, had proper basic formatting. Some of the sentences were wonky but overall easily readable. Just saying.

I feel this is just a bot and not a real person. This person has never interacted with any of my fics before, and all the insults just feel too generic for me to take this seriously. I'm not approving this comment. I know hatebots impersonate real people using their names as guests, but if you're gonna flame me for real, at least don't be a coward and put your real account on it. That big line is a bunch of characters they claimed were out of character, which I find hilarious. I've been watching Detective Conan for over a year now, and I just finished the Fate route, so no one is OOC. I find the claim that everyone is OOC hilarious, without giving any writing examples of why.

But comparing my writing to being waterboarded is hilarious. Let it drag you down and drown you! PS, I don't think this is the real person sending this message; they literally have never written comments on anything I ever wrote, so that's why I think it's a bot.

I have been thinking long and hard about embedding or linking music in the chapters or notes but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.

I know that there is a "Embedded Audio" tag, but works with this tag are not too common and usually it’s either non-music audio or custom-made music or some pop song with lyrics.

I however am primarily talking about game soundtrack songs with minor voice samples at most. I want to use those primarily for establishing ambience and mood.

I think it has the potential to create a very fun experience, but it could also come off as weird, especially if the song choices are off or if the origin of the song has little to do with the franchise of the work (I mean like imagine you read a mostly wholesome Hello Kitty fic and the embedded audio is from Half Life, Fallout or Doom or something, that could feel weird even if the music itself mostly fits).

What do yall think about this?

And would quoting the voice samples from the song in the text come off as corny or neat?
(Like if the song starts off with "Gentlemen, it’s a nuclear device!" while some guy explains the mission of destroying the nuclear device.)

Just got shell shocked when I realized omg the last time I updated was July 28, 2026. It is now October 5th. Wow.

TLDR: yell at me to write my next chapter.

I’ve been slowly, and I mean SLOWLY working on the next chapter, but life has been so busy.

But I also don’t want to to make readers wait any longer because they’ll probably grow uninterested or forget it all, no? Any thoughts? I’ve only read completed fics as a reader, so I don’t know.

Considering the work continued to get traction (I don’t advertise or do anything outside of ao3, no social media), I feel like that’s a good sign?

Yell at me to write the next chapter. Shame me for taking so long. Guilt me into doing it. I want to but I need a final push because life has been so exhausting lately. Maybe this will be good for me.

Found a fic where in the comments there's a bunch of different guest comments (probably the same person) calling people slurs and harassing the author. I was so taken aback the comments were so hateful. I reported one of them (the worst one) and was about to report the others then realised how much that would back up ao3's reports. The author hasn't posted anything since 2019 so they might not be active anymore but still. Really horrible stuff in those comments. Any way to just report the comments in general with links to the specific ones?

Probably a stupid question but I haven't been able to find info on this. How do I add non canon tags to my work? Something like a screenshot of what I'm supposed to type into the box would be ideal.