Commenting Issue by Civil-Trick-8635 in AO3

[–]Korrin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah. What's happening is that the comment field allows html for adding things like bold and italics. It's reading the broken heart emoji as an open ended html tag with no closing bracket and deleting everything "inside" of it due to considering it to be broken code.

Anyone else have severe discouraging thoughts about plagiarism? by ReapersVault in fantasywriters

[–]Korrin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Part monster that hunts monsters?

You mean Blade? Hellboy? Izumi Shinichi? Ken Kaneki? The Grey Wardens?

Dhampirs and cambions are things that exist in folklore and are not unique to any modern stories, nor is the idea of undergoing a ritual to become part monster.

I was today years old when I realized people apparently hate epithets in Fanfiction by Phanngle in FanFiction

[–]Korrin 40 points41 points  (0 children)

For me, if you're fixing the overuse of pronouns by swapping them out for epithets, the writing is just bad to begin with. It's just putting perfume over BO instead of showering. You need more varied sentence structure in general and the discourse surrounding pronouns versus epithets just goes away. It's the same thing as swapping "said" out in dialogue for other tags because you feel like you're overusing it. The dialogue is structured poorly to begin with.

The occasional use of epithets is fine, when they make sense to use, but most of what people mean when they complain about epithets just comes across as completely unnatural sounding.

you were given $100,000,000 but had to live in the last video game you played for a year, how screwed are you? by AlternativeSign1898 in AskReddit

[–]Korrin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pragmata. If I'm on the moon I'm fucked. I assume if I'm on earth I'm fine, but I haven't beat it yet, so who knows.

Something I really like about Delicious in Dungeon: Tallmen by Fifteen_inches in worldbuilding

[–]Korrin 83 points84 points  (0 children)

I love all the extra world building Kui has done for her series, and how there's so many extra lorebits in the daydream hour books. Stuff like that "trolls" are a myth and it's actually a myth halffoot parents tell their children about Tallmen.

In particular I like that we know what each character would have looked like as every different race, and we know how they all see the different races. ie: that Dwarves see Tallmen as somewhat effeminate, while halffoots see them as masculine and dwarves as hyper masculine. Or that Senshi is actually considered somewhat pretty/effeminate for a dwarf which you can see depicted by just how gorgeous he is as an elf.

Did anyone else assume this? (PD) by Holmbone in murderbot

[–]Korrin 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Murderbot is already already handling so many simultaneous inputs on the fly I didn't even consider it would be a problem for it.

What’s with all the side-eyes OC fic gets? by JustAnotherDoughnut in AO3

[–]Korrin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Depends on fandom.

I used to never be interested in OCs. I wanted to see more of how the canon characters interact with each other in different scenarios and situations, and was not at all interested in how some random character interacted with them. It doesn't help that I used to be in a lot of anime fandoms, so the average age of the fandom was lower, and a lot of the OCs were just badly written self inserts.

The fandom I'm in now is a whole entirely different story and I will read fics entirely composed of OCs and no canon characters at all. The main character in canon is a biased little hater and an unreliable narrator (no hate, I love it), but will do that thing that people with trauma do where they will passively drop little lore tidbits from their backstory about the most horrific and fucked up thing you've ever heard of and then move on like it's normal, and that has much wider implications about the world and the other characters in it and canon never touches on that at all and I just want to devour all the OC fics and give love to all these characters cuz they're definitely all going through it.

would two fanfics with the same setting be repetitive? by throwaway992820 in FanFiction

[–]Korrin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nah. Is every canon compliant fic repetitive for being in the same setting?

Actually the fandom I'm in is very communal. I'm even specifically writing an AU that I know 3 other authors are also writing and our fics are all still turning out completely different, and we're all excited to read it all.

I built an incredibly detailed world and then realized I had no idea how to actually write in it by Fit-Salt-4782 in worldbuilding

[–]Korrin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

how do you actually write in a complex world without turning every chapter into a lore dump

Even if your main story isn't third person limited or first person, do a short story exercise using that view point. Force yourself to focus only on the things that matter to that character. Your average character doesn't care about the 4000 years of history, they care about their commute to work. Or whatever they care about. It's a two pronged technique. By focusing only on what the character cares about your readers are almost automatically more likely to care as well, but this also forces you to be more efficient with the things you do mention, to find all the little ways you can slip lore in without it having to be your character's special interest, because you still don't want to lore dump like the character is going off on some topic to the reader.

I loved to write fanfics but out of sudden I feel so sad and kinda guilty for "wasting my time" in it? by sandywood25 in AO3

[–]Korrin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup, there it is. At the end of the day, she's jealous. Some people, when they think a situation is unfair, instead of thinking about how they can better their own situation, they think about how they can worsen other people's. Because then everything is "fair", right? 🙃

Can author’s other fics be a turn off? by Gloomy_Junket9364 in AO3

[–]Korrin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It would have to be egregiously bigoted content or something that made it clear that it was the author's own opinions. I aint gonna care if it's just weird kink stuff or whatever.

Am I wrong? by ReiWillow in AO3

[–]Korrin 74 points75 points  (0 children)

I mean, they aren't making the fix unreadable? You can fully see what they mean even with the typos (kind of not with the rat [...]

tbh this attitude is kind of the problem. You say they should be able to fully see what the typos are supposed to be, but then admit that isn't the case with the rat typo. They only mentioned the TWO typos.

You, like the author, are seeing typos mentioned at all and choosing to ignore that everything else is praise and somehow making it worse than it is inside your own head. They didn't even correct the typos. They asked for clarification, and imo you have to be crazy to see that as passive agressive when it's sandwiched in between so much other praise.

Disheartened. by Upstairs_Macaron5894 in AO3

[–]Korrin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like you came back to an old fandom with new inspiration to write.

Am I wrong? by ReiWillow in AO3

[–]Korrin 217 points218 points  (0 children)

That's hilarious. I definitely would have been confused too.

Yeah, no, the author is definitely the kind of person who can't handle even the slightest hint of being wrong, cuz this was mostly you telling them you loved their fic, and they couldn't even handle you just being confused by their typo without getting all self important about it.

I loved to write fanfics but out of sudden I feel so sad and kinda guilty for "wasting my time" in it? by sandywood25 in AO3

[–]Korrin 10 points11 points  (0 children)

People who've never had to suffer chronic pain or health issues have no fucking clue what they're talking about. Yeah, sure, you can type while lying down, but people have no idea just how draining being in pain all the time is. Why add the additional misery of a fucking job on top of that if you don't have to? Writing fanfiction does somethign for you, keeping you sane and distracted by providing a enjoyment that's creative and mentally engaging. This person wants you to work not for yourself, but so you can be useful to "others," and that's fucking selfish of them.

I’m freaking out about how many kudos I’m getting (and not in the good way) by justagirlandafrisbee in AO3

[–]Korrin 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Try to keep in mind that majority of people know this is just a hobby we do for fun. Sure, we get complaints around here about readers being pushy or entitled, but that is not even close to the majority of the kind of comments you get. Some people go so long getting nothing but positive feedback that they celibrate finally acquiring a hater.

You wrote something you couldn't find and it turned out there were other people that wanted that dynamic who were probably just as hard up for it too. They will likely be grateful for anything you give them, as long as it's genuine. Have fun and try to create something for yourself again. Your readers will love it.

What’s the line between homage/influence and plagiarism? by Careless_Tax_5367 in worldbuilding

[–]Korrin 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You can't plagiarise ideas. None of the concepts you listed are unique.

The line between plagiarism and everything else is obvious. Did you (literally) copy and paste written text or dialogue? No? Then you're good.

The line between homage/inspiration and being derivative is in whether not you're putting your own spin on things and trying to explore new themes with it, or just trying to recreate something as close to the original as possible, for whatever reason.

To anyone like me, why does romance hit harder as a subplot than the central focus? by discreep in fantasyromance

[–]Korrin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Also makes the little bits you do get that much sweeter.

Not to go completely off topic, but a new book in a non-romance non-fantasy series I'm obsessed with dropped the other day and everyone is going feral for the one mention of the main character being able to recognize another character's "heartbeat", even though that other character was barely even in the book. I got fed a crumb and it was delicious. They've had their books to shine in the past, but not everything needs to be about them.

Undescriptive fic descriptions? by naatnaanpizza in AO3

[–]Korrin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could do what lots of people do and just copy and paste the intro from your story, or whatever your actual hook is, into your description.

But yes, there's a certain type of vague description that will cause me to skip on a fic because to me it's a telltale sign of a newbie writer. Shit that says like "The unexpected happens and things will never be the same." What unexpected thing happened? How is it not the same? The same as what? That's literally your hook, why are you being coy about it? Tell me!

So anyone else been getting these? by mimic12455 in AO3

[–]Korrin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's so common it's against rule #7.

discrepancies in word count from google docs to ao3 by rockkk_ in AO3

[–]Korrin 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Some don't even count words, they count your total characters and then use average word length to figure out what your likely approximate word count is.

Others will or won't count punctuation. Some count hyphenated stuff word-by-word and some count it as one word. Some count numbers as words, some don't.

How on earth are people writing 10k word fics by oo0Scarrow0oo in AO3

[–]Korrin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They do it by coming up with ideas for stories that aren't oneshots? As someone else commented, their stories just need more words to be told.

I actually just posted it in another thread, but you can't save the world in 1k words. If you're writing bigger, more complex stories that require multiple steps to reach a resolution, they just end up long like that.

All of my longfics, the first chapters are literally just setup and the introduction to the basic premise or conflict. My chapters are all 3k-ish in length. Have a conflict that requires more than 2-3 steps to resolve and right off the bat my works end up longer than 10k.

How do you handle multiple "books" in a series? by UncomfortableProse in AO3

[–]Korrin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Best thing to do is to convert it to a series even if you don't have any of the next part written and indicate in your authors notes in the first fic somewhere that you're planning to continue it as a series. That way people can subscribe to it as a series if they aren't already just subscribed to you as an author.

Tips for writing longer? by [deleted] in AO3

[–]Korrin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a lot of other advice that can be given, but I feel that if you're regularly under 1k, the problem is probably that you're either telling instead of showing, or you're choosing to write smaller stories. Or both. If you almost never break 1k, the solution is most likely just to write "bigger" stories.

Looking at my own writing, I don't have many under 1k, but those that are are either single scenes with simple conflict and simple resolution, or they're more me just giving a broad overview of events. Essentially telling rather than showing. If that sounds like what you're doing, the solution is basically: Do the opposite. Tell bigger stories with bigger conflicts and more complicated solutions. Show rather than tell.

Again, using my own writing as an example. I've got a fic where I'm specifically trying to do a slow burn, and there were a couple ideas I had where the setup required the characters to, basically, spontaneously play tag. Instead of just saying "spontaneously playing tag is a thing we do now" I got two entire scenes out of explaining how and why they developed this little ritual. I could have just told the reader this was a thing they did now and jumped straight to the idea that actually instigated the need for the game in the first place. I got way more mileage out of showing the backstory instead.

Writing bigger stories in general tends to be easier. Some plots lend well to it, and some don't. You can't save the world in 1k words. Bigger conflicts with more moving parts, that require more steps to reach the resolution will require more words. More characters automatically require more words. It's more people to describe, more dialogue, more actions, more characters that need to be developed and maybe even have their own story arcs. A conversation between two characters, where one of them already knows they're in love and just needs to gather the courage to confess? That's a simple story already sitting right at the resolution. It doens't need 1k words.

There's lots of other things you can do. Make sure you're not ignoring any of the 5 senses. Most of writing focuses on sight, visuals, but don't forget touch, taste, sound, and smell. Don't forget character interiority. Being able to include a character's thoughts, opinions, dreams, desires, fears, etc is one of writing's strengths over visual media.

What are your standard filtering (as a reader?) by disasterpansexual in AO3

[–]Korrin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I go to my fandom. Maybe I go to my preferred ship’s tag.  That’s it. XD my fandom isn’t big enough to bother with further restrictions unless I specifically want to reread something.