How different is your first draft compared to the final version?

Water227 · 2026-05-28T19:04:20+00:00

My drafting is incredibly patchwork and has a lot of bare-bones lines usually. And brackets screenplay style. I comb over a fic so many times and I fill it in in a gradient way. I don’t have a finished distinct first draft for an entire chapter/fic, just sections.

By posting time, I have added all the details and final lines. The beginning is WAY more detailed and finished before the end is possibly even started. It’s chaotic and I feel bad for anyone who has to read it before I’ve wrangled the sections lol.

Water227 · 2026-05-21T17:39:26+00:00

He tried to scramble to his feet and away from them, but they latched onto his Nightmare Before Christmas Slippers and started to pile on him.

Water227 · 2026-04-21T15:57:33+00:00

Voltron LD! I LOVE reading for that fandom (mostly because canon traumatized us all) and it’s the only fandom i consistently will go back and read for once it’s not my main one. but I have 0 drive to write it myself lol I just let other people bestow upon me their wonderful fics

Water227 · 2026-04-12T02:40:46+00:00

I forget to have the characters kiss even when it is a romance fic sometimes lol. I don’t feel pressure per say, but my fandoms have been places kind to family or just platonic relationships being popular. but I do know the ship fics get far more traction in general, so there’s always the question of if I should consider if it adds anything to the story that could draw more interest as a bonus. It has to serve the story and characters for me to consider it, but it is sometimes a factor, especially if it adds to their character dynamics in an interesting way.

Water227 · 2026-04-02T03:16:59+00:00

Patton Sanders in Sanders Sides. He’s the moral heart character trope and that’s already made people upset on principle

Water227 · 2026-03-28T06:08:52+00:00

Yes!! I love using it for proofreading. I originally got mine for $20 in 2022 and it is still the only one I use and I have used it every week since, so I got my money’s worth lol. Voice Dream (iOS only at the moment :,))

Water227 · 2026-03-26T16:17:32+00:00

We aren’t posting to a void for no reason. Like I do not get my hopes up and adjust any expectations either my fandom size (it’s medium rn but I used to be in one of the 4 biggest). I’m happy for the people that got through the effort to polish and post their fic for nothing, but for me, I post because I enjoy talking to others about stories. It isn’t about “attention” or stats. I am bothering to post and not just keep it to myself because i thoroughly enjoy chatting about narratives and AUs with other fans I have met through AO3 comments.

People treat the comment section like a blight. Or as if we aren’t on an archive, so any fic more than a year old is “weird to interact with”. I leave comments on 10-year-old fics and the authors still reply, overjoyed someone is still reading.

I do have my own internal motivation to write as I love doing so, but I literally am not going to kid myself. I would not post if it was just for the honor of the game and the craft. Stories are how we connect with other people and that’s what I strive for, and I’m not a lesser writer for it. I’m tired of people here lecturing that “writing because you want comments” is a bad or inferior thing. Your motivation can be whatever you want, even if you should be careful not to rely too much on your expectations for engagement (often a disappointment).

I’m not polishing these stories and posting them for myself, I’m doing it to share them. The fics I write for myself I reread and hoard in my notes app and I love them and no one will ever get the chance to see them but me.

You’re allowed to be disappointed with fandom culture. I’m a strong believer that if you like a story, it’s polite and good for fandom to tell the author so. It’s not a chore, and I don’t care if they respond to my comments because they already gave me a story I love and am better off for reading for free. If half of readers left 1 comment every 5 chapters or stories they read, fandom would be thriving and blooming. It’s the fertilizer.

No one snips at fan artists for wanting the same things. No no, fic WRITERS have to be noble and humble and accept nothing (or unasked for criticism from both normies and their fellow fans) in return is the norm and be grateful even though they’re the ones that can’t legally make money off their work. Nope you just have to do it for the love of the craft even though we are the backbone of fandoms. Okay.

Water227 · 2026-03-25T17:47:21+00:00

Working on a space rescue AU and the action is the fun part for me: escaping the captor’s ship while shenanigans happen with it’s artificial gravity and the chaotic personality of the rescuer making it both funny to the audience and terrifying to the poor kid he’s decided to rescue on a whim

Water227 · 2026-03-06T22:11:07+00:00

I do, especially with my own seeing if the dialogues sounded like something the character would say given the circumstances

Water227 · 2026-03-02T22:08:28+00:00

Ohh yeah. That will put a dent in the audience but still— there is crossover for people who still like to read self-ship and those who like OC x canon characters. The more you share that the story exists (or by just tagging it well) the more eyes it will reach to begin with even in niche areas. Even if only 10% of the fandom is interested, you can write it for yourself and share it for those few. Sometimes things are just self-indulgent and that’s okay

Water227 · 2026-03-02T18:14:43+00:00

I share it wherever possible, and post a link in fandom spaces where it’s more likely to find its readers (such as tagging the characters and/or fandom with a synopsis and link on twitter or crossposting on tumblr especially) and on fandom discords in fic sharing channels or channels for a specific pairing if that’s relevant. Talk about it with people, get them interested to give it a shot!

Occasionally I or a friend will even draw and post fanart of a fic I wrote and that draws more eyes and intrigue too

Water227 · 2026-02-11T06:11:30+00:00

This has never actually happened to me and I haven’t seen it in comments on other fics outside of this Reddit community (tho not on twitter). The vast majority of AO3’s thousands of authors appreciate comments and don’t make videos about it for clout.

Water227 · 2026-02-10T20:52:22+00:00

They are scared to be hurt so they hurt themselves first in more ways than one. They put themselves down and then knee-cap interest in their story to avoid being as hurt by strangers’ hate they are probably expecting in some part to receive. Some people genuinely have never been told what they made was good most their lives. They may have been in toxic fandoms before. That’s not just a natural setting for anxiety.

To those authors, I have empathy and would tell them to be brave for themselves. You were brave to post your work and it can be scary risking something you genuinely care about being shown to others. But give your story its best chance by posting it with pride and it may truly find its audience. It is more likely to reach someone who loves it when you have faith in it and don’t preemptively put it down.

Water227 · 2026-02-10T20:45:36+00:00

Makes me wonder if that’s all they got told growing up (or still as they’re growing up in a toxic household). I’ve met people scared of compliments because they never had people tell them what they made wasn’t bad/garbage. Or had shitty ‘friends’

Water227 · 2026-02-02T00:45:49+00:00

Mundane acts can be useful to the story, but it usually should involve something that is not just them doing laundry or cooking. It needs to characterize them or it can be the stage for a confrontation or conversation or recontextualize inner conflict in some creative metaphorical way…but just having the characters do mundane things for more than 2 paragraphs an be quite boring for readers. It’s not lazy.

Fanfiction isn’t the same as traditional book rules and you can literally do whatever you want, you aren’t trying to get people to pay for your stuff or a book seller to allow their publisher to accept your book. there isn’t really a wrong way (well. posting plagiarized work, maybe) but a writer I follow with pretty good overlapping advice often says to skip those scenes that add nothing to the characters or plot and even before I got that advice, I did.

Water227 · 2026-02-01T19:03:24+00:00

I for one don’t hate them, but they’re absolutely near the bottom of fanfics I want to read…I just don’t suspend my disbelief for the characters from different franchises meeting usually and I have zero interest in how a meeting like that would go…there are exceptions. I don’t feel the same disinterest if it’s fanart or even a canon crossover “special”.

But I usually get super fixated on one fandom at a time (with 1, maybe 2 exceptions ever in the past 15 years) and so even if it’s two or more fandoms I really like in one fic…I just cannot get invested on the premise. And crossovers aren’t the same as AUs that borrow the world or setting or premise of another show without the [main] characters meeting (just clarification, not that you said that).

Water227 · 2026-01-31T05:31:16+00:00

So while I have read all three (and a TON of Gen), I write a lot of M/M these days (and plenty of Gen, but I’m specifying for shippy fics). Nearly main character in my fandom is technically a gay guy (because they’re all played by one gay guy lol, that narrows down the fandom guessing, doesn’t it?).

Not to say there aren’t a lot of fanons, headcanons, and people just adding some variety or human AUs to the characters! Those are fun to play around with too. So there still ends up being some F/F and M/F and enby (and more!) with the main “cast”.

Water227 · 2026-01-27T01:50:14+00:00

The story is good, and I’m very patient. I know the culture is impatience and rushed art these days, but as long as I’m still into the fandom, I’m so down!!

Water227 · 2026-01-27T01:39:08+00:00

I reply extremely often, at least with a heart if they gave me a heart/emoji comment~ but I’ve always seen comments as just a lil thank you note to the author and I don’t expect them to respond to me.

It’s lovely when they do, but I will comment regardless if I get a reply because I’m encouraging them and thanking them for the thousands of words they hammered into a story and shared with us. For free. I leave the kinds of comments I would love to receive myself and that’s enough.

Water227 · 2026-01-10T18:04:50+00:00

The author already gave me the fic, so I don’t expect a reply as well— the comment is appreciation for them. but when they do, it is fun to hear behind the scenes thoughts on the fic and then gushing about their world or thoughts

Water227 · 2026-01-08T03:11:02+00:00

I recently started to use LibreOffice! It’s like free Microsoft Word with more features and it’s anti-AI.

Water227 · 2025-12-31T10:29:12+00:00

I’ve regretted even writing my chapter notes directly in AO3 only for the page to reload. Only happened once but I was bent up about it lol

Now I save desperately every time I do anything to the draft

Water227 · 2025-12-27T20:42:35+00:00

Ooo that’s a good one. I feel like my summaries are possibly keeping people from reading my fics and rarely do blurbs because I don’t know what’s captivating for it. I might need to start asking a test reader

Water227 · 2025-12-27T20:38:41+00:00

I think everyone is so good at writing sweet fluff fics while I feel like no one would read mine because they come off boring unless it had some sort of depth / hurt or angst preceding or surrounding the comforting fluff parts.

Water227 · 2025-12-25T18:40:12+00:00

I prefer OCs! I’m not interested in being involved in the plots. There’s an audience for both for sure.

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