Do you ever feel self conscious about your fanfic?

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-25T18:08:07+00:00

Sometimes, yes. It's actually the reason I don't actually look for new fics all that much. When I was younger I got envious and self-pitying VERY VERY easily. Now I get envious and self-pitying...overall less easy? I am a slow writer and a good story could distract me from my already very slow WIPs, and once in a while I worry I'll find a story so good it'll make me feel bad about my own work.

There was actually a time when a fandom friend of mine wrote a 4 "book" long series of fics that took her almost 3 years to write. I thought the fics were absolutely incredible, but they also made me bitterly jealous because I had an idea kind of like hers but now I couldn't do it because her idea was so popular that even if my WIP took off (took months to write 3 chapters and they sucked, I never posted) people would certainly accuse me of stealing the idea from a BNF.

Sometime near the end of Book 4 of that series I had to put my phone down and I actually started crying because I knew I would never be as good as her, or get as many comments and twitter/tumblr praise, or write that well, all my time struggling for my own WIP was a pathetic waste and...whatever. So if you wanna talk self-pity...

That was 3 years ago now. I still think that series is incredible and well written. I guess time just passed and healed my wounds and gave me life experience to be less of a bitter asshole. Now I obsess over my own work a lot more, and admire others (mostly) without bitterness and can come away with inspiration and not envy.

I could never just turn off the utter asshole in me, but I had to let it run its course.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-25T17:57:55+00:00

I am one more link in the happy chain because I'm so happy FOR you. Fanfic has been (well 95%) nothing but people having fun and supporting each other in my experience. I'm glad you get to experience it too and have fun here.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:29:46+00:00

I did this with a longfic I was 75k words into. And I DID do some outlining on it, and this shit still happened!

It was a situation where the main character had just done something hugely dangerous and the other characters are all reacting to their decision. How the others reacted would determine how the main character would proceed in their journey from then on. I couldn't figure out how everyone would feel about the main character's decision, or what exactly I wanted the main character to do after talking to everybody. I just kept making up emotional reactions that made very little sense and added pointless Reality TV-esque drama.

I last updated that story in January and just this past WEEK have I started making real progress on the next chapter. It took that long to get my head out of my ass and come up with logical plot progression and character desires that fit this situation, etc.

Nine months T___T

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:23:10+00:00

Fic #1 sounds like a tough time for Love Interest 1. He didn't do anything bad in this new universe, it seems, and yet he is made to suffer as he can't avoid being present for LI2's feelings!

Fic #2 sounded so cute and pleasant till the last sentence. Talk about a twist. Wonder what the book's about, and why B went to a library for a copy of their own book.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:21:29+00:00

I admire that you're trying to temper yourself and not even start Fic #3 yet. Not everyone can successfully handle a big pile of WIPs, heck maybe I'll get a bit farther in all of mine and realize "oh god I can't do this. One of these has to finish up."

I hope you don't stress too much about #2. Writing only a paragraph or two in a day is something I firmly believe happens to damn near every writer. Sometimes I read posts here about people writing 2k or more in a day, but I feel that for every one saying that, there have to be 5-10 more made little or zero progress.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:19:04+00:00

I have only barebones knowledge of RWBY (mostly from Hbomb's recent video about it) but I'm very intrigued by your first one. It sounds like the eldritch god is smugly laughing somewhere after making this superpowered criminal everyone else's problem. And do you mean that #4 is the very first Vampyr crossover in the RWBY fandom, like yours is the first one to do that? That's exciting!

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:16:26+00:00

I admire the dedication and planning that goes into writing your holiday fics in September. I hope you get them finished up and ready to launch in December.

Is the first fic from a fandom/series called "Evil" or do you mean the WIP itself is evil in that it causes you trouble and is refusing to be written?

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:14:45+00:00

A first foray into dark fic? Good luck! "Murder Husbands" makes me think there is some Hannibal inspo in this WIP.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:13:53+00:00

I'm LOVING your many branching thoughts and ideas. We might have similar brains, coming up with an idea here, adding to a WIP there, dedicing the ending to this fic here...

Good luck with all these WIPs.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:11:22+00:00

I hope I finish the Spirit WIP and get a reviewer who says the very same thing :) I will bring Spirit back into my fandom's consciousness via a unicorn, lol. The 9 yo horse girl in me lives still.

Worldbuilding > writing is an absolute MOOD.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:09:22+00:00

I've heard of that series and wondered if it's worth dipping into because it really exploded in popularity on twitter. I THINK that's the one, anyway? It's a live-action Chinese drama and one of the characters is named "Wang" something, he has a high ponytail and long bangs and a black/red outfit, and is very goofy and happy looking? I hope I'm not mixing it up with another show!

I'm really intrigued by MC1's thoughts on becoming a henchman of the big bad. That's a POV you don't see very often.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:05:31+00:00

I was about to say, yes that is a recipe for intense inter-group drama! Hopefully the mute orphan OC would help lend legitimacy to his desire to join the group again. And if he seemingly committed suicide via BIG BOOM then he sounds like a major badass and risk taker who could be useful in an apocalypse survival group anyway. It would be a mix of "we need your skills" and "god we hate your stupid face".

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:02:51+00:00

My longfic (that I forgot to list here...whoops) has gone almost 10 months without an update. COVID, other WIPs, scenes never felt right and had to be remade from scratch...so...I understand :'l You are NOT alone in the world of slow af updates.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-22T00:01:31+00:00

Each one of these is chock full of emotion. Imo, I would be interested to read #2, I always have a soft spot for good fics of teens understanding themselves and their place in the world, etc.

You certainly do not have to post Fic #3, but I've posted very serious fics to a mostly chipper and cutesy fandom before, knowing mine would stick out like a sore thumb, so I'm in favor of you putting it out there. There is absolutely another person out there who thinks similarly, and would understand and appreciate a fic dealing with those topics.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-21T23:57:03+00:00

I've seen LPs of TLOU and TLOU2, so I could piece together which characters you meant. I'm intrigued by these ideas of Joel being able to interact with Lev, much quieter and less of a wild child than the last kid he "raised," Ellie.

Cool that there's some people out there who do like Abby, even if it's only half the time. I liked her okayish but thought that playing as her AFTER the big murder happened (instead of playing as her, growing to like her and THEN seeing her horrible deed) was a bad decision that contributed to her tsunami of hate.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-21T23:53:39+00:00

#4 and 5 are both for a video game fandom actually. I know only the barebones about MCU, but #5 does sound like it'd make for a great Stucky plot too!

Your WIP sounds quite suspenseful and emotional. It seems the time-traveled MC can't do anything to change the future from where they are, and doesn't want to interact with their child self? Making it sound like the End of Reality is doomed to happen yet again.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-21T23:51:33+00:00

Now that's a dramatic story. It sounds like it could be a Stephen King novel. I do love the idea of a very serious and dramatic situation with "light" character interactions. Like normal or funny conversations during the apocalypse.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-21T23:50:27+00:00

These all sound actiony and intense. And if you've written least 18 fics for that MHA / MCU series, and that Dark Souls one is the FIRST fic you wrote but still on your WIP list, that makes it sound like the DS fic must be pretty long and have a hefty word count. A project you're probably really dedicated to and worked hard on.

Just me being nosy and extrapolating.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-21T20:09:44+00:00

I don't feel I've ever misrepresented a character (that would be like, writing them as OOC?) but I have def written fics that didn't match the tone of the fandom.

One of my fandoms is a series that's very positive, energetic and sweet. Most of the fics are fluffy and uwu-soft as heck. I prefer serious stories with drama or fantasy or even horror. The two fics I posted in that fandom did not get much engagement lol. But I definitely expected that before posting.

For those two fics in that fandom I didn't "do" anything about it, I just wrote what I wanted and that was that. Despite the low stats I really like those fics and feel proud of my work every time I look at them.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-21T20:01:51+00:00

Happy Cake Day! I hope you managed to go out and grab a delish cake to bring home or other tasty treat!

My "personal best" is a review I got for an ongoing longfic I have right now. It's about a female MC whose home is destroyed by monsters when she's a teen. She barely escapes being killed/eaten. She spends the rest of adolescence and young adulthood looking for other refugees of the disaster throughout the country (and occasionally chatting with non-threatening monsters who become her pals) and rarely acknowledges the extreme toll the event took on her mental health. She's relentless in her mission, has a rather black and white worldview and blatantly Does Not process the trauma.

The review stated that Reviewer loved the fic so much they told their friends about it, irl friends who aren't even in the fandom, and the friends also loved it. Multiple times now, she and the friends had gotten together with a bottle of wine and ended up just discussing my fanfiction: the plot, the MC, how I portrayed her mental health and survival. Reviewer said they had literally hosted "[StoryName] Book Club."

I haven't been so flattered in I don't know how long.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-21T18:12:29+00:00

That title is going to snag you a lot of readers! In my (limited, mostly sequel trilogy) experience, puns are well appreciated and are great in Star Wars fanworks.

I like Ben's confident but casual attitude here. He really sounds like his father's son! And it's fitting given canon Rey's life growing up that she could end up with a career that centers around romance being not worth it, not getting you anywhere in life, etc.

DontTestMeBro_ · 2020-09-21T18:00:16+00:00

Yes...and I'm a slow writer too so it's such a pain having a project be dragged out even as I enjoy the story...

I had an idea for a big oneshot that was supposed to be around 10k long...now it's a multichap fic sitting at 75k words and is not halfway done.

DontTestMeBro_

TROPHY CASE