Fanfiction Writing - Blog Posts
I kind of suck at tagging, so I made this infographic to help make it easier.
I have been seeing a lot of discourse on certain tags lately about fanfiction and writing fics that are “out of character”. And I don’t like conflict, so I was keeping my nose out. But now I’ve seen some things that I just can’t let go, and as the self-proclaimed fandom mom, I feel like I need to step in and state this loud and clear—
Fandom is for you.
The whole point of fanfic and fanart and cosplay and anything fan related is for you, the fan, to take a work that has already been created and have fun with it. Make it your own. Dive in and explore and do what you will. Fandom is meant to be a creative outlet where you can share ideas and art with other people who have the same interests as you.
THAT BEING SAID: it is never. And I repeat, NEVER okay to gatekeep fandom. And yeah, I fucking hate the word gatekeep. But it’s the only way to describe what I’m seeing happening. And so I’m going to use it again—
It is never okay to gatekeep fandom. It is never okay to gatekeep characters. And to throw negativity at anyone’s work, let alone come straight out and tell them that they’re wrong for shaping a character a certain way— I’m sorry, but where do you get off? I am completely understanding of wanting characters to stay true to the source material. I am completely understanding of having your own opinions about/expectations for a character and wanting them to behave a certain way. But YOU, my dear friend (or rather, we), are not the creator of those characters. Which means that we have no right to tell someone else what they can or cannot do with them.
The whole point of fandom is to let your imagination run wild. And if that means that a typically good character leans more evil in a fic, fine. If they make decisions you don’t agree with, great. If they do things that directly contradict what would have happened in the source material, even better!!
LET. PEOPLE. CREATE.
Let them throw characters into crazy situations and analyze how they react. Let them stretch them out like putty and poke at all of the soft bits inside. Let them shape them into something completely other just to see what happens. Let them be curious. Let them explore. Let them have fun.
Fandom should be fun.
And the second one person starts dictating what is right or wrong for a character or a ship, that’s the second it stops being fun. And that’s when fandoms die.
Don’t gatekeep something that doesn’t belong to you. Because again— It doesn’t belong to you.
You are allowed to have your own opinions. You are allowed to have your own expectations for characters. But who do you think you are, to flat out tell someone (or a group of people) that the way they write someone is wrong? That the way they have imagined something is wrong? That their creativity, their expression, their joy, is wrong? Or, as I’ve seen more recently, when someone gets dejected by the posts you’ve made telling them they’re creating wrong, you have the audacity to tell them “that’s okay, now that you know you did something I don’t like, you can reevaluate your work and try to improve!”
How dare you.
Because once again, I hate to break it to you, but you’re not the creator of these characters. And I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the actual creator is probably just so happy to see the diversity of idea that has sprung from their creation. So who do you think you are, to dictate an entire fandom?
If you don’t like it, move along. Click out of the fic, find something else to read. I understand having frustrations when things don’t go as you’d hoped, when a piece of work that you were excited about crosses those outer lines of your expectations and you feel disappointed. Again. But you know what? That’s your expectation. What about the person halfway across the world who reads the same fic and finds themselves in it? Finds a small piece of comfort that encourages them to hold on for just one more day. What happens when your words completely discourage the creators of your fandom, have them second guessing themselves? What happens when they lose confidence and stop creating completely? What happens when the fandom dies, and suddenly there’s nothing new to explore— to your standards or not?
You are allowed to have your opinions. Of course you are. You are allowed to express them. But you are never. EVER. allowed to tell people that they are wrong for making art that you don’t agree with. For using their imagination in a way that doesn’t fit into your small box of approval.
Let creators find happiness.
Let creators create.
✨ Writing Fanfics for all Fandoms: Fanfic Writing Tips 🖋️
Hey friends! I hope you all are having a wonderful day so far. Fanfiction isn’t just storytelling; it’s love for the characters, worlds, and fandoms we all hold dear. Whether you’re writing your first one-shot or working on a multi-chapter epic, here are some tips to make your fanfic even better <3
. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆ . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . . . •
💡 1. Stay True to the Characters
Their canon gives you the blueprint, but your job is to bring the characters to life in new situations. Ask yourself:
How would they react to this scenario?
What’s going on emotionally that wasn’t explored in canon? You can add depth or explore alternate versions of them, but keeping their core personality intact makes your story feel authentic and lifelike.
✍️ 2. Play With Tropes
Fanfic is a space to have fun, so lean into the tropes we all love! From slow burn to enemies-to-lovers, from hurt/comfort to time travel AUs—write the kind of story you want to read.
🖤 3. Balance Canon and Creativity
Canon is the foundation, but fanfic shines when you expand on it. Fill in the gaps, write missing scenes, or twist the story into an alternate universe. The best fanfics respect the source material while boldly reimagining it.
📖 4. Use the Fandom’s Language
Fan communities thrive on shared knowledge. Using terms, references, or memes specific to the fandom can help readers connect with your story. Just make sure it enhances the story and doesn’t feel random.
💡 5. Use Tags Like a Pro
Good tags help readers find your work. Include:
Pairings or relationships (e.g., #Destiel, #Reylo)
Tropes (#SlowBurn, #EnemiesToLovers)
Genres (#Angst, #Fluff, #AU) And don’t forget to add warnings if needed (e.g., #MajorCharacterDeath).
Tired of waiting for new fanfics?
Write your own fanfics!
Now YOU can control how the plot controls and hey! You don’t have to wait for updates anymore!
(Side effects may include: shitty writing, unfinished works, spelling errors and writers block)
I don’t know if anyone has ever done this before but, here ya go… The Different Types of Fanfiction!
I probably left a few out, but these are the most common, compared to their base fiction’s canon plot. Enjoy! XD
is there anything better as a writer than an AO3 message that someone went through all your fics in a fandom? “[person] left kudos on [story1]. [person] left kudos on [story2]. [person] left kudos on [story3].” GLORIOUS. like you actually read words I wrote and thought “hmm, yes good, I will continue” and then did so. magical. i saw some Youths out there afraid this is “stalking” but as an Old let me tell you au contraire, it is a rare sweet nectar that warms our ancient dead hearts 💖
I'm sorry, cringe culture can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, cause it's dead!
Nothing like sitting in Taco Bell for two hours eating and planning out a fanfiction with your best friend
"Ao3 should allow multiple kudos" "I want to be able to leave more than one kudos"
COMMENT ON THE FUCKING FIC
I SWEAR TO GOD NO ONE COMMENTS MUCH NOW WHEN THE ONLY WAY TO SHOW APPRECIATION FOR A SINGLE CHAPTER IS COMMENTING AND I AM NOT HAVING THIS BULLSHIT BE LIKE TIKTOK WHERE NO ONE EVER COMMENTS POSITIVITY
FOR FUCKS SAKE JUST COMMENT ON THE FUCKING FIC YOU DON'T NEED A MULTIPLE KUDOS BUTTON YOU NEED ACTUAL WORDS
TRUST ME ON ANY WEBSITE OR APP I POST COMMENTS AND WORDS ARE 10X BETTER THAN ANY PLAIN LIKE AND WORDLESS REBLOG IF YOU LIKE SOMETHING LEAVE WORDS
COMMENT
ON
THE
FUCKING
FICS
I'm not posting much, and I probably wont be for a while cause I'm deep into writing a fic.
Seriously, I was sure I wasnt gonna write much, but once I got into it wrote almost 3k words in a single chapter...
I don't know how it happened and I need to ask a question: if it makes sense in the story (there's a logical reason to the 3k words I have written and the many more to come), but the focus of the story should be a couple getting together, will you, reader, read through the daily life of the main character before they get together with their loved one?
P.S. Answers to this ain't going to change what I wrote, I'm perfectly satisfied with it, and as soon as I have my ao3 account, I'm going to publish it all. Though I sincerely want to know if people actually read through long stories or simply skip to the parts that interest them. Cause I had a friend back in high school who would do just that (actually only reading the dialogue parts) with all the books they read, and it made me mad.
Especially now as the author, everything that I'm writing I'm putting my soul into. I'm actively researching street names and housing arrangements for the university my character studied at in 1994. I know people aren't exactly going to fact-check my story, I wouldn't as a reader, but it would be bad if someone just skipped through all these parts.
tl;dr: would you be willing to read a story, from a 1st person perspective, of a character going through their life, or would you just skip through to the parts where them and their significant other get together?
I'm lost trying to write a fanfiction. I got the first chapter and half of the second down. At least I'm going somewhere with it.
💥🙌👏
Chapters: 15/? Fandom: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic Summary:
“Potential.” Riko slammed Neil against the wall again and whirled on Kevin. Kevin stared back at him, white-faced and tense. “You said that goalkeeper had potential and then wrote him off as useless when I offered him to you...” - The Foxhole Court, Ch. 13.
Nathaniel was given to Ichirou as his private hitman after his skills as a marksman were revealed when the Moriyama tracked him and his mother down after they ran away.
Riko decided to surprise Kevin with matching “pets” after he found out the goalkeeper that Kevin was interested in had a twin.
When Nathaniel is ordered to join the Ravens for a year to cover for a series of hits, his smart mouth meets Andrew’s prickly attitude and things get interesting.
Final Moments on Stage
Famous Singer Reader x Peter Parker
Summary: It's the final night of your American tour, and you can't help but reflect on your life.
Y/N stared out at the crowd before her. Thousands of people squished into one stadium just to see her. Hear her songs. Her voice. It’s incredible.
“LA, I need to tell you something.” The crowd exploded as she spoke. “I need to tell you how much you mean to me. The fact that you are all here, just to support me, is incredible.”
Y/N turned to face the left side of the stadium, smiling as they cheered for her. “If you had told little 16-year-old me that I would be playing in a venue this big, that this many people wanted to hear my song…I don’t think I would believe you.”
She thought back to all of the shit she went through in her high school years. The bullying and the depression. As she glanced backstage, though, she couldn’t help but think of the best thing to come out of high school. There stood her boyfriend Peter, who had stood with her through it all. The spotlights made it impossible to make him out fully, but there was no mistaking that silhouette.
Y/N turned back to the crowd, knowing they saw her looking backstage. She grinned as she thought about all the fan theories that would come out of her getting distracted.
“I have one more song for you, LA, and then I sadly have to go back home to New York.” She giggled as the crowd booed at her declaration. “Don’t worry, though.”
Her earpiece started counting beats as the soundtrack for her song started playing. Taking a deep breath as the lights changed, she thought of the boy standing offstage waiting for her.
“I’ll be back. I promise.”
I can not put into words how obsessed I am with the fic I am currently working on. It's the Justice League OC insert but I also just keep convincing myself that I could publish it?? For some reason?? I am however way too dedicated to the fanfic communtiy to do that 😭
Anyway, I'm going to start posting more stuff about it soon I swear!! Its just that I have to actually get my shit together first
Timpanist!Kaz who, despite taking a little bit longer than others to tune the timpani, is one of the most skilled players.
Timpanist!Kaz who spends a ridiculous amount of time choosing the perfect pair of mallets for every piece.
Timpanist!Kaz whos eyes keep finding the principal cellist....
Cellist!Inej whos fingers practically dance on the fret board of her cello.
Cellist!Inej who is constantly breaking her bow strings from how passionately she plays
Cellist!Inej who has to ignore the broody timpanist to not get distracted.
Trombonist!Jesper who is well known for how fast he can play.
Trombonist!Jesper who can become proficient in any brass instrument in under 30 minutes.
Trombonist!Jesper who always finds himself hanging out in the wind section
Flautist!Wylan who always comes in on time
Flautist!Wylan who fills his sheet music with doodles instead of writing in notes
Flautist!Wylan who always finds himself with the brass players
Horn player!Nina whos case is covered in stickers
Horn player!Nina who is friends with everyone in the orchestra
Horn play!Nina who might be something more with the bass player
Bassist!Mattias who is always gets his dynamics perfect
Bassist!Mattias who hoards rosin
Bassist!Mattias who isn't quite sure what he and the horn player are but is too scared to ask
Guys if the Crows were in an orchestra what instruments would they play? Here my thinkings:
Kaz: either concert master (violin in charge) or timpani (highest paid player)
Inej: cello
Nina: french horn
Jesper: trombone
Wylan: flute (duh)
Mattias: bass
Kuwei: guest alto saxophone that is only there for one piece
Heskall: conductor
Pleaaase let me know your thoughts 🙏
more questions for the people :)
THIS IS IN THE CONTEXT OF FANFICTION
would you rather have the story start at the beginning of the mc's life (when he's 7)or at the start of the actual plot and then learn about his life before slowly through the book?
Little Snippet of what I'm working on right now :)
"Alright, kid." George crouched down to be at eye level for Theo. "When you get on the ice, what are you gonna do?"
"win." Theo adjusted his gloves.
"And what are you gonna do if someone tries to stop you?" Mémé asked.
"Destroy them!"
"That's my matnaggewinu (fighter)!" She cheered.
George patted Theo's shoulders. "Make 'em cry, kid."
I love this family so much, hopefully nothing bad happens to it-
anyway I'm trying to not be so focused on his backstory because I know people mostly want to read (and what I'm the most excited to write) is him in the Justice League and eventually the batfam, but I'm also trying to make sure you get to learn more about him as a character and a person and not just a traumatized teen hero.
But why fanfiction?
I got asked again recently why I write fanfiction and not ‘proper books’ (I’m pretty open about my fic writing, I’m not ashamed). I told them what I’ve told everyone else - I’ve done both and this is so much better.
I self-published a YA novel a few years back, the plot of which I was super proud of, and I even have ideas for two sequels, but they’ll never see the light of day. I just have no motivation to write them, and world building is hard and that amount of effort just doesn’t seem worth it.
See, everyone I knew wanted to read my novel, but no one wanted to buy it. Probably about 40 people read it but I only sold 16 copies, and for the effort to format text into a publishable format, the cost of ordering proof copies only to find it was wrong and to do it all again, and the stress of the whole process was just so not worth those few dollars that I made. But I knew going into it that I wasn’t going to be one of those fairy tale stories of an unknown author suddenly becoming a sensation overnight. The story was too obscure, set in Western Australia and wasn’t an ‘outback romance’ which is the only ones that seem to be popular in this setting. I’m more than okay with that because I have fanfiction now.
The difference? I have thousands of people reading my stories, and not just reading them, but I get feedback from some of them (never enough, we authors are fickle creatures who always want more comments, more interacton, more discussion). The thing is though, fanfiction gives me an audience that I will never have from my YA novel. That audience already exists, it’s out there, and they’re hungry for the story to continue. Not all fanfiction is successful - the people who read it aren’t a mindless mass; they have expectations, standards, itches that need scratching. Quality matters, but not just the quality of the writing but of the idea. It’s not just formulaic bullshit that a ghost writer can churn out, change the names but the plot is the same and then throw a big name author on the cover and it’s instantly a bestseller. We’re forgiving of small mistakes if the plot makes us want to keep reading until dawn lights the horizon, we’ll salute the authors who write in English when it’s not their native language and will gladly offer help with those phrases that they’re not sure of, and best of all, we stick together to protect and support each other from annon hate so those ideas have a safe place to grow. We’re a community, a family.
Fanfiction has also given me a platform to improve my writing. Looking back at the standard of my work at the very beginning (and even in my novel) I cringe now at how terrible it was. I’ve written over 1,200,000 words of fanfiction and I’m forever improving. I know how to properly punctuate dialogue tags now, my vocabulary has expanded, I’m not afraid to use adverbs just because some twat said ‘show, not tell’ is better. If an adverb makes the story flow better than three extra waffly sentences then I’ll damned well use it and be proud of it. I’m more confident in my writing and that shows in the quality. I would never have gained that confidence by selling fifty thousand books to ‘silent readers’. It’s the interaction, the feedback, the community that fanfic has that has made me a better writer.
So that’s why I prefer to write fanfic over ‘proper books’ and I will fight anyone who says that we’re not real writers. At the end of the day, people read fiction to be entertained and if I can honestly say that thousands of people from all over the world have been entertained by my fanfiction, that makes me a real bloody writer.
When a side character starts getting more interesting than the main character
Writers when they finally finish their first draft after months of hard work, blood, sweat and tears 🥹
Screaming relief 😩
Good Lord 😭😭😭
*Scrolling on my phone and seeing a writing meme*
"Oh wow this is so funny!" I say as my story collects dust in the background
When I write a paragraph after a week of running away from my WIP:
I don't even do outlines anymore, but this still happens. Planning means nothing; never has.
Do you think Charles can affect and control his own mind?
I just imagine him being done with Erik and not wanting to argue, so he puts his fingers to the side of his face and just falls unconscious. Imagine Erik’s shock as Charles just falls to the ground mid-argument.
And, what if he did this in Days of Future Past on the plane. Erik starts naming dead mutants and Charles is just “fuck this, let’s scare the attitude out of him”. And just pretends to dead in front of him.
‼️Spider-Man/X-Men Fic Idea‼️
Spider-Man is one of the least human in the Avengers. Like most of them are human, human with a slight advantage or super soldiers. We do have Thor but he looks and acts like a human, even though he is uncultured and a bit awkward.
But Peter crawls, walks on walls and ceilings, scurry’s on all four and he can bend in weird ways. He can also lift the weight of an elephant, among other things.
Peter finds the School by accident, he’s lost or hurt or both but he sees a guy flying around and thinks “they can probably help me”. He seeks help from Professor X who is probably sceptical but still lets him stay for a few days to get back on his feet.
The students find out that the Avengers prefer it when Peter “acts like a human” instead of a spider and talk X into letting him stay.
Telling Peter that the Avengers are mean to him and trying to get him to stay is harder.
(These are just ideas, you can change stuff if you feel like it, it’s your Fic not mine but I would like to be credited if you take inspiration)
‼️BATMAN FANFIC IDEA‼️
Batman and Two-Face get hit with a de-ageing gun and become teenagers again. Chaos ensues. (Could be a great idea for a Bruce/Harvey fanfic.)
How does Gotham deal with temporarily losing its main superhero and a supervillain? How does the Batfamily and Justice League deal with this?
You can obviously choose what you want to happen but it would be funny for the Batkids to expect their dad to be sad and angry but he's the opposite, dancing on tables, drinking, partying, flirting, singing loudly (like belting 80s pop songs).
‼️Peter Parker In Gotham Fic Idea‼️
A Peter Parker In Gotham fic but not the Tom Holland-Peter but the 20 year old Peter Parker who has both collage, work and patrol. Who shamelessly flirts with both Nightwing and Red Hood as Spider-Man but literally dies when meeting them out of costume.
The guy is used to Deadpool and is not impressed or shocked at anything the Bats do. You d!ed? Okay and? You k!lled somebody with a ballon? Sound believable. You stalked me? Okay, what do you want me to do about it?
He is tired and done with everyone’s sh!t, he will befriend your villains and your neighbours. He will stop a fight by treating to call your and your enemies parents. Does he have their numbers, yes.
Batman and the Joker fighting:
Spider-Man, a hand on his hip: Mr, do you want me to call your butler?
Batman: You don’t have his number.
Spider-Man, phone in hand: Are you sure?
Alfred: Mr Batman, get home it’s dinner
Joker: Wtf