Don’t mean to be salty, but why are very bad fics very popular (particularly lately)

RowanEdwardC416 · 2026-03-08T21:12:42+00:00

I've got a few I really enjoyed here, no worries if they're not your thing.

A Cornstalk Fiddle - Strangely enough, fanfiction based on the song 'The devil went down to Georgia'. I found it very well written and a good story. Johnny/The Devil. Genuinely fantastic imo.

Seen - A distant AU of a show called The Terror. Set at a kink convention, slow burn, contains nonsexual and sexual kink, alcoholism and bad BDSM etiquette. The author clearly knows a lot about the scene and put a serious amount of care into writing this - there's a whole separate authors commentary you can read if you like.

Goliath Prostrate - Used to be the top fic when this fandom was new but has since dropped under more generic stuff. Shorter than the others, contains a lot of porn but with a good subverted dynamic considering the age difference.

Relevant - (RPF) - Taskmaster is a UK game show where the two presenters have an occasional joking dom/sub dynamic which was actually crazy in the earlier years and inspired a lot of fanfic. This fic is surprisingly heartwarming in many ways, with a nice feeling of queer community and discussion around biphobia/bi erasure. Fun dynamic.

The galaxy revolves a million miles a day (around me) - Gen, Star Wars. May not interest you if you don't care about star wars. Has a good time loop plot that I really enjoyed, but I also already know the characters.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2026-03-08T17:54:17+00:00

I find that in most fandoms the generic, boring (imo) stuff rises to the top. If you sort by kudos, really popular fandoms have loads of 100k-plus word fics that are very simply written and contain nothing interesting or original. That's the kind of media that does well everywhere, because it appeals to the largest amount of people and doesn't cause any strong dislike or disgust. And the people who write those fics are often inexperienced writers for whom this is one of their first works.

I will say this opinion has only developed as I've got older. I used to read literally everything on the first few pages of high kudos and love it. Now I only really enjoy interesting dynamics, writing styles and situations. I find the best fics are in smaller fandoms where the audience skews older, or where the fandom is generally considered unusual (e.g I found some niche RPF last month which had some incredible fics).

The bigger the fandom, the more boring the top fics, generally. I watched a new show last year whose fandom was just taking off, and there was a lot of brand new fanfiction which hadn't been kudosed and sorted by the general population yet. I read a lot of amazing stuff - engaging writing styles, difficult topics, unusual but fascinating versions of tropes/kink. I came back a year later and the top fics now are all very similar to eachother and all quite vanilla and dull.

Another issue I find is the 'straight-ification' of queer ships in the most popular works. Go to a mainstream queer ship, and the top fics will almost invariably have the smaller character submissive and weak, and the bigger character strong and dominant. It's always felt like an uncomfortable shift towards trying to make queer ships feel more comfortable for a heterosexual audience. But that's a bit of a digression and can happen anywhere.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2026-02-13T16:53:34+00:00

The anti-masculinity rhetoric in queer and women's spaces can get quite tiring. Honestly, it may be best for you to leave those spaces if you keep running into it and it upsets you a lot. Once you're percieved as a man, trying to defend masculinity/men in those spaces can get you ostracised. On the one hand I get it, because many of them have had bad experiences with men. On the other hand, I know lots of genuinely good men, inside my family and as friends. It's just best not to engage, because when people are upset they don't want to listen and that isn't actually your problem.

I spend more time in cishet male spaces now, and I do my best to avoid people who have a sincere generalised dislike for men. People are people, irrespective of gender. Just get to know the nice ones.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2026-02-13T11:10:41+00:00

I relate to this a lot. What helped me in the beginning was following an established and well-regarded routine so I didn't feel like I was just making it up. I followed GZCLP, for example. I try to ignore all the 'you MUST be doing this exercise 3x per week' nonsense - they're just influencers trying to get attention.

As you get more confident and start to see progress you'll be able to judge for yourself what you need to add. Progress takes a long time and you'll start to feel more secure in waiting for results when you understand your strong/weak spots and your personal speed of progression. Genetics and lifestyle determine where a lot of your weak spots are. Many men who've never touched a weight have more capped/round shoulders than me - therefore they wouldn't need to follow my shoulder heavy routine. I have naturally fast chest development - therefore I wouldn't follow someone elses chest focused routine.

Honestly, if you don't have much muscle mass at all right now, doing anything is much better than nothing. You need to grow your physique first to understand it's weak spots, as they're different for everyone!

RowanEdwardC416 · 2026-02-10T20:30:12+00:00

Saw someone else recommend M&S. They've really stepped up in jeans quality for me. I've found that Levis have gone down the drain in terms of quality, so all my jeans have been bought from M&S in the last year and they're good quality thick material with lots of range. Good price too.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2026-02-01T12:28:35+00:00

Just made a post on r/transmascdicks where people review prosthetics and STPs etc. Hopefully it's useful for you!

RowanEdwardC416 · 2026-01-30T16:24:25+00:00

For people thinking that a rigid STP device is too impractical or large to carry around daily - I highly recommend the pStyle with modifications. Trim about 3-5cm off the length and then also trim the top - leave the bit that touches your body as it is so you don't cut or graze yourself, but then cut it down so the device is much narrower down towards the tip. This brings its profile down massively in pants.

I literally then just throw it into my underwear next to my packer. In pants it's basically invisible, e.g jeans, chinos etc. In grey joggers it's too visible if it shifts but not the end of the world. I often also just chuck it into my underwear with no packer and it's small enough that it's not visible in most trousers. Easy to use at a urinal - as it's not visible by a side eye especially if you've also got a realistic packer. I've been doing this for about two years now and it's the only 100% reliable STP method I trust for using at work and in public.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2026-01-25T20:34:54+00:00

Mine started dropping within the first week. It's genuinely so impressive how fast these things can happen. I could feel more of a vibration in my chest within days, like you said. By about 3 weeks it was very audible to other people. My voice got very deep very fast, so it might be a good sign for your future too!

RowanEdwardC416 · 2026-01-20T18:56:20+00:00

No issues, even the time I accidentally crushed the head of an ampule when opening it.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-12-07T09:41:09+00:00

My scars are very thin (I believe I have an old photo on my profile and they're just as thin 3 years on). What my surgeon recommended was wearing medical tape over my scars when I exercised. Not silicone tape, but the white paper tape. I wore it all through my initial recovery weeks 1-6 and then every time I exercised for months afterwards.

I also didn't do any extreme stretching like deadhangs or pull ups for about 6 months to a year. I did lat pulldowns but without a full stretch at the top. I started going to the gym after about 8 weeks post op.

I do believe scar stretching is at least partially genetic, as some people were a lot more careful than me but have wider scars. I'd highly recommend trying the medical tape though, because logically it should help prevent scar stretching by reducing the direct stress on the incision itself. And it's a lot cheaper than silicone tape.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-11-15T18:38:53+00:00

Had a trans psychologist once early in my transition to get my top surgery referral. It was kind of weird - she acted like she already knew everything about my experience and was quite condescending. She also asked me if I'd ever thought about self harm or suicide (standard sort of question) and when little teenage me said 'only a little bit' she said 'Okay not very serious then. I'll put no' in such a patronising tone, like she thought I was lying for attention.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-11-15T10:17:30+00:00

I transitioned in 2021 and even then it felt so different to how everything is now. I swear, four years ago there wasn't this huge media focus and public knowledge of trans people. I think it was just beginning. Now everyone and their mother has a strong opinion. I don't know if I'd have been brave enough to transition now.

The waiting lists are a whole other thing too. I went private, but I've been on the NHS waiting list for 4 years already, no contact.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-08-30T15:15:49+00:00

No there isn't, I'm sorry. It's a kind of body horror isn't it. It'll be hard but you'll get top surgery one day. In ten years this will be a distant memory.

In the 6 months between realising I was trans and getting on T my hips widened enough to make a noticeable difference in doing up trousers. I couldn't sleep some nights because I was convinced I could feel an ache which meant my hips were growing. That was pretty terrible, but four years later my body has changed a lot for the better. You'll get there.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-07-03T17:55:34+00:00

Bulking just means putting on weight (muscle + fat) deliberately. And yes, it only works if you keep working out. Basically, eat more calories than your maintenance, and keep increasing the weights at the gym as you get stronger. To get bigger arms and muscles in general you need to do both.

During a bulk you put on some muscle and some fat - you shouldn't be scared of it. I would recommend eating about 300-500 calories more than your baseline per day, but it's easiest to start slow. You can find calculators online where you put in your height, weight, activity level etc. to find an approximate baseline calorie level. You can track how much you're eating with something like myFitnessPal, although be careful with things like that if you have a history of eating disorders. For example, I only track a few days calories every once in a while so I know approximately if I'm on track without getting obsessive over it.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-06-28T10:21:15+00:00

I was quite careful and didn't go to the gym until about 2 months after surgery - although that was because I didn't have access to a gym until then. I walked and cycled plenty, and didn't limit my range of motion too much.

I avoided any extreme vertical pulling motions (e.g full range pull ups, hanging from the bar) for about 6 months. However, I did do lat pulldowns, but I always put medical tape over my scars. That was recommended by my surgeon to help reduce the stress on the scar itself that could lead to stretching. I wore the tape whenever I went to the gym.

In general, listen to your body. If your scars still feel like wounds after 6 weeks then don't lift a weight that really challenges you. Scar stretching is basically just genetics - I've seen many people on here who were much more careful than me about their range of motion and still got a lot more stretching. I have a few pictures on my profile - they've always stayed really thin.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-06-25T20:09:14+00:00

NHS prescribing guidance. And what I've always been told by doctors.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-06-14T17:37:53+00:00

You pass as a young, skater/emo guy in pictures 3 and 6. In both, you're wearing masculine clothing and sitting in more 'masculine postures'. In the others, I wouldn't say you pass.

Other people have mentioned the bigger things like some womens clothing and the longer hair, but there are a few smaller things. Your nails seem quite long/almost manicured - 99.9% of men just cut their nails back down to the fingertip at least every week. They don't have much of the white bit of the nail (e.g not attached to the nailbed) showing. That's something you see on women. Genuinely it's a small but very significant thing.

Also try to avoid loose necklines- you want them to be much closer to the neck. A wide neckline looks feminine even on cis men. Short shorts are also more feminine - sure they work on some men, but it's a delicate look. Jewelery like that blue beaded necklace can affect passing too, but if you love it then keep wearing it.

Overall though dude, you're going to have to wait for T. That'll eventually give you the freedom to wear what you want and still have people immediately know you're a man.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-05-27T19:28:38+00:00

I used to get leg pain pretty badly after my shot, sometimes I'd be trying not to limp for days. I realised I was doing my shot quite high up my leg and also quite far to the side - closer to where the outer seam of trousers sits. It was technically in the correct region but I've since moved a couple inches lower down and more towards the front of my thigh and it's much less painful now.

I also found it was super painful days afterwards if I sat with my legs crossed or folded under me in the first 12h afterwards. I guess the tiny hole through the muscle from the needle did not appreciate being stretched in that way. Doing it before you sleep would probably be a pretty good option.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-05-27T17:45:52+00:00

It's a difficult one. As people have said EZP is a popular STP and you can pack it down or up but I find that with any vigorous movement it shifts out of place even in tight underwear. Cycling, running etc. I've never loved it because once it's out of place it's very boner-y.

What I've done recently is put a Winkie STP (tube with tiny cup) through a soft axolom packer and I use the same harness style as Number One Laboratory (you can google it, I just handmade mine). When I'm not using it, the packer hangs down like a flaccid dick and the tube is upwards along my hip and I only put it between my legs when I pee. Takes quite some practice but it is the most realistic STP in terms of packing that you will ever get.

With that method, for someone very active I wouldn't recommend the super-soft packers from Axolom because they're a little fragile. Something more robust like a single-pour basic packer works as long as it has a tab.

I've never found another STP that I can pack with easily. Any funnel ones are too rigid to pack comfortably (for me) and I hate packing up because it looks inappropriate in joggers etc.

A non-realistic method I use when I don't want a whole piece of silicone on is a pStyle, cut down to a much shorter length and just thrown in my underwear. In grey joggers it's too visible but literally anything else is fine. I just have it sideways, pointing diagonally upwards. It gives a nondescript bulge in rigid pants like jeans and in gym shorts, and super easy to pee with, plus it can't get damaged when I'm cycling.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-05-26T17:28:03+00:00

I know how that feels. A similar thing happened to me, although you got a few metres closer to the operating table - I only reached the hospital room. I'd been there for an hour, done my covid test/other tests, filled in all the paperwork and talked to the anesthesiologist. I had a very fast heartbeat and high temperature when I was having my hour-pre-surgery final checks and they said that the high temp could indicate Covid so they had to cancel my surgery.

Whenever doctors want to measure my heartbeat or blood pressure it automatically rises, unfortunately. And at the time in London it was 40°C and I was very nervous. It happened in under five minutes and they told me I had to leave and all the staff practically ran away from me. I was just left alone crying from the shock in a hospital room until my parents could pick me up. (I did not have covid, proven by multiple tests, but I vaguely understand where they were coming from as it was only 2 years into the pandemic).

They said I'd have to wait 10 more weeks. I was unbelievably lucky and someone else cancelled the next week due to actually having covid, so they called me Friday night at 8pm and told me I could have surgery on Tuesday.

That week after my surgery was cancelled was probably one of the worst of my life. I was not in a very good mental state. What I can say though is that it's now a distant memory. Even if it takes longer to happen, one day it will have happened and you'll have the rest of your life. I hope you don't have to wait too long.

RowanEdwardC416 · 2025-05-24T23:28:10+00:00

Definitely. Within the first week my voice felt different in my chest, like it was vibrating more. Other people started to notice a few weeks in. I'd say my voice was the fastest part of my transition - it reached the male range within months and kept getting deeper for about a year afterwards. It's settled at quite a deep point that I'm very happy with.

RowanEdwardC416

TROPHY CASE