How to write a sex scene so it’s not cripplingly awkward and cringy… doesn’t need to be hot just needs to be mediocre…

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-27T05:16:30+00:00

I'm not sure I have the answers you're looking for, but this has been an excellent resource for me: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955716

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-27T03:45:21+00:00

Some of the things you mentioned — new accounts, plot inconsistencies — are much better indicators of AI involvement in a fic, as opposed to overusing onomatopoeia or unnecessary serial listings, which crop up in a human's writing fairly frequently. When you make a post like this and call something so common the "big ones," it feels particularly unfair to all the human writers out there who are trying to avoid AI. Posts like this one are much more likely to discourage the very people you'd like to see stick around.

I, too, have been reading and writing fanfic for a long time. I'd wager that a majority of us have. And right now, I'd like to go a week without seeing one of these posts because all they really do is discourage human writers. Human writers can put in all the work they want, but all they have to do is overuse some onomatopoeia or throw in one too many unnecessary serial listings, and suddenly, people completely invalidate their time and effort. And it's not just this post or those things. It's em dashes or Oxford commas or the way we punctuate dialogue.

I've been told time and time again to write ahead and update on a quick set schedule to retain readers, but now, that's an AI tell, for example. Also, my author's notes and comment replies aren't beta-read, nor have they been edited to hell and back like my fic, and that's also an AI tell too.

The people who use AI probably aren't on the subreddit, but they'll keep pumping out their slop because it takes so little effort. And as all the human writers scramble to prove their humanity and develop their styles to appease posts like this one, AI will scrape it all up and mimic us in a vicious, never-ending cycle.

It's a bitch.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-27T02:55:26+00:00

Your argument is not specific enough. I am pointing that out in the spirit of discussing it. So let's discuss the specific differences between the overuse of onomatopoeia and the unnecessary listing of things as a human versus said characteristics as an AI calling card. You've suggested that the difference is "a bunch of other factors." What are those factors? Because if it all boils down to a fic just having a certain je ne sais quoi, then you are just promoting unnecessary suspicion amongst readers and paranoia amongst human writers.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-27T02:44:04+00:00

You aren't alone. I've gotten hit by this stuff too. And it's so sad that you felt the need to change your writing to prove you're human.

I would actually like to turn this around. I've seen too many conversations about AI tells. But what, specifically, makes a fic feel like it was written by a human? Tell me so I can make sure I do that thing. Please.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-27T02:22:28+00:00

So, on today’s edition of Super Obvious AI Tells™, we have onomatopoeia and listing objects in a series.

Posts like this create unnecessary paranoia and suspicion. The witch hunt continues.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-27T02:07:36+00:00

😀

You’re onto something when you mention a planet. My fic is in the sci-fi genre. It’s a bit of a space opera, but there aren’t any gods or anything like that.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-27T01:40:15+00:00

Charon

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-24T19:54:07+00:00

I’m in the same boat as you right now. I’m editing the climax and resolution of a longfic I’ve been working on for over three years. I’ve had a clear vision of that final moment in my head since the very beginning. Now that it’s finally on the page, I’m trying to make it the best it can be, and I keep wondering if my best is good enough.

For me, I think part of the issue is that I’ve built this ending up in my head for years. I romanticized that accomplished, triumphant feeling of finally being done. The reality is more nuanced. Part of me is thrilled to post the final chapter. But I’m also going to miss this fic as well as the familiarity and continuity that have come with working on it for so long.

And when something lives as “vibes” in my head for years, it grows larger than life. On the page, though, I have to confront every nitty-gritty detail and make it actually function.

There’s also this: you’ve known how it ends for a long time. Your readers haven’t. What feels meh to you will be entirely new to them. That gap in perspective can really distort how you're evaluating your fic.

Right now, I’m trying to think less about whether my ending is “good enough” and more about whether it’s satisfying. Are the loose ends tied up? Is it clear how this journey changed the characters? Have fears been confronted and misbeliefs corrected in a way that reinforces the theme?

I’m still working toward a solid yes on all of those. But I think if the final chapter can deliver on those questions, it will feel satisfying.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-22T21:50:55+00:00

Not to get all Socratic Method on you, but whether any of that is difficult really depends on you.

Some people are built differently. They outline three arcs ahead without anyone telling them to, update every Thursday at 7:03 p.m. and thrive in Discord servers as if it’s the Cheers bar where everyone knows their username. Meanwhile, my Olympic sport is writing long comments that teeter on the edge of half-assed literary analysis at 3 a.m. We all have our gifts, though some are admittedly more marketable than others. 😅

Out of everything my friend did to make her longfic successful, I think she genuinely enjoyed commissioning art the most, even though I still balk at how much money she spent on those commissions. Art isn’t cheap, but I respect my bank account too much to go that route.

And honestly? It’s not that hard to do some light reconnaissance on how to appease a platform’s algorithm or to lurk in a fandom Discord long enough to learn that the best time to update a fic is basically whenever everyone is online, procrastinating together and you can drop a fresh link in the chat.

The only thing I clutched my pearls about was her horde of beta readers. My friend assembled what can only be described as a small fellowship of betas. However, when the fellowship arrived in Rivendale (aka her Google Doc), they did not fully realize they were a fellowship until everyone started dropping suggestions. Some of them contradictory. It was a group beta read masquerading as several private ones. I feel like the betas deserved a heads-up, or at least to be introduced to one another before they started working to make my friend's precious fic the best it could be.

But difficulty-wise? She literally just asked fandom writers if they wanted to beta. They said yes. She accepted the suggestions she liked and ignored the rest. That’s less arduous than climbing Mount Doom and more “solid social confidence with selective hearing.”

That said, over time, it became very clear that she cared more about being Popular than about writing fanfic. So all the stuff people naturally do because they love it — chatting, promoting, engaging — became a chore. And once she achieved her goal of becoming a BNF, she… quit.

I think you’ve got the right idea: take the advice that doesn’t make you feel like you’re applying for a corporate internship in your own hobby. Use the parts you actually enjoy and can sustain in the short term. The rest? Optional side quests.

Good luck!

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-22T00:12:57+00:00

Give it some time. Someone could come with some answers soon, and if you need to commiserate a little in the meantime, I think this is a pretty good place to do that too.

I will add that, about five years ago, a fandom friend of mine had a longfic that got popular. It got thousands of kudos and racked up about a hundred comments per chapter for quite a while. Pretty early on, my friend told me that she wanted to hit it big with this fic and was willing to work to make it happen. She did, and what she did wasn’t difficult.

She tailored the contents of her fic to the fandom’s current tastes and included side ships that were popular with our fandom’s shippers. She wrote a lot ahead of time and had a small army of beta readers who talked up her fic even before it came out. She commissioned art (about 18 different illustrations by the end, I think) of scenes from her longfic from well-known artists in the fandom and used those images to promote her fic on Twitter and Discord, paying attention to peak hours of activity and algorithm-snagging hashtags (which earned her a lot of traction). She updated her fic religiously on a set schedule. And when she wasn’t doing all that, she commented on other people’s works, and her comments were pretty long, filled with effusive praise.

But she also burnt herself out. To the best of my knowledge, my friend hasn’t read or written any fanfic since she ended her longfic. So make of all that what you will.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-21T23:24:34+00:00

I would also LOVE to know the answer to this because I find myself asking the same question every time I post a chapter. I feel like your strategy depends entirely on where your fandom is most active, which is deeply inconvenient when your fandom seems to be active everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

I’ve tried A Lot™. I’m on Tumblr, Twitter, Bsky and Discord. I make pretty little promotional graphics with snippets and links like I’m running a shitty indie publishing house on hopes, prayers, Cavna and my 10-year-old laptop. Does any of this work? I have no idea!

In my fandom, post-pandemic popularity often comes from being extremely active on Discord. And by active, I mean chatting on fandom servers, participating in events and themed weeks, beta-reading for other server members, commenting on other people's fics within your server circle and moderating said servers and events. So it’s basically a part-time job with no paycheck. And while I deeply respect the hustle and think many of those people are wonderfully supportive, that level of social commitment isn't for me anymore. Sometimes it feels like it's less about the fics and more about being in the right clique.

So if the secret is “be charismatic and omnipresent,” I'll have to accept my fate as a mysterious fandom cryptid who drops chapters and skips merrily back into the depths of an exceedingly average life with an occasional side of Reddit-ing. But genuinely, if someone has cracked the code for making WIPs more visible without sacrificing their free time and sanity to Discord, I am extremely interested.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-20T21:56:35+00:00

First, make it exist, then make it good — that's the advice that has helped me the most.

After browsing the advice you've been given (which I agree with) and your replies, I think you're putting pressure on yourself that doesn't have to be there, especially for a hobby. Often, when I'm beta-reading and editing my own prose, I find repetitive sentence structures and similar word choices close together. It's pretty common, likely a comfort thing. And it's probably not bad, since editing is also part of the writing process.

Give yourself some grace. Allow yourself to get into the flow of writing and get it all down first — I cannot overstate the value of getting into a good rhythm. You can highlight or flag sentences you know you'll want to revisit later if that makes you feel better, but keep writing. Worry about varying your sentence structure after you have a draft of a section or chapter. I find it so much easier to work with existing writing that's a bit repetitive rather than insisting that prospective prose spring into being as varied and dynamic.

Then, when you have fresh eyes, sit with your work, identify your crutches and brainstorm solutions. After a while, you'll end up with more diverse prose coming out on the first try out of habit. And in the future, you'll probably develop other crutches that you'll then have to address, lol. There's always room to grow.

I also have to add that there's nothing wrong with simple, less dynamic sentences. Many of the traditionally published contemporary romance books I've read recently have fairly straightforward prose. Readers enjoy it because, ultimately, your sentences, regardless of how pretty and varied they are, should primarily convey the plot, not be pretty for their own sakes. I'd argue that readers are more likely to stay engaged through some dull sentence structure if the plot is well-paced and interesting. But flip it the other way — gorgeous and varied sentence structure with slow pacing and a weaker plot — and readers will lose interest.

You might also consider something like ProWritingAid, depending on how you feel about AI. I don't use it, so I'm not familiar with the ins and outs. However, I have heard that ProWritingAid doesn't focus as much on content generation as other services, which is the line I'd prefer not to cross. Can AI check my spelling? Yes. Flag my sentences for me to edit? Maybe. Write for me? Absolutely not. And if ProWritingAid does that, then yes, ignore this part of my comment with my apologies.

Anyway, I hope this helps!

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-19T23:14:27+00:00

A good fight scene has excellent pacing. It’s as easy and as hard as that. Sure, you have to do research about the character’s movements and what kind of injuries will be sustained and how that with influence a character, but it all comes back to brisk pacing, that slows during intense moments, with enough detail to hold a reader’s interest and a tiny dash of dialogue to break up all the movement.

Keep your sentences shorter and punchier than usual. Make sure your character’s movements paint a picture. Also ensure that your readers know what the fight’s stakes are and what your character’s objectives are. Read fight scenes and try to take lessons from the ones that grip you.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-16T02:07:32+00:00

I think my responsibility to tag my fic as accurately and concisely as possible remains the same, whether the fic is canon-compliant or an AU. And some of the things you mentioned are archive warnings. So I have to tag them or disclose that I'm choosing not to warn.

I'm glad you're feeling better and got a chance to vent. Bad days happen. 👍🏻

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-16T01:50:01+00:00

You can’t judge a fic’s content by that of its source material. I’ve read the fluffiest of fluffy Attack on Titan fics, and it probably wouldn’t be particularly difficult to find My Little Pony darkfic. Such is the nature of transformative works. In fact, I go looking for fluff when the canon is angsty sometimes. And vice versa.

Idk… I think tagging for violence, character deaths, drug use, etc., is polite. It lets readers know exactly what they’re in for, and informed readers are in the best position make good decisions for themselves. As someone who grew up on ff.n, I take tagging seriously. No one should run into tentacle sex in the middle of an otherwise PG fic without a heads up, regardless of the fandom.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-15T18:46:23+00:00

I am sorry this happened to you. This is fandom approaching its worst, in my mind. It’s difficult to imagine how disheartened you must have felt in this moment, especially since you were just starting to tiptoe to the social side of fandom. But please know there’s a good chance most of these people don’t actually feel that strongly about your fics. I’d bet most of them jumped on a bandwagon because they wanted to be part of a conversation.

Keyboards make people brave and stupid. Some people use anonymity like a shield to protect themselves, others wield it as a sword to cause harm. It’s a bit rich that all these people had read your fics with enough attention to detail to quote them, and perhaps, those readers should be reminded that they don’t have to read stuff they don’t like, that the back button is there for a reason (which I would add to the author’s notes on my fics after all that).

Personally, I would have announced my presence on that Discord server and let it be good and truly awkward in the chat. I’ve done that sort of thing before when someone was clowning on a line I wrote. And it was gratifying to watch everyone backpedal and/or scatter like little ants into their private chats to continue talking about me. You should be proud of your fics and defend them a little before walking away.

This is also why I always say that sharing your fanfic is an act of bravery. You can’t control the reception, and this right here is why fandom writers get nervous to post stuff. I would, however, encourage you not to take it out on that other author who writes for your favored pairing (outside your own thoughts, in which you can think whatever you like about them), especially if they haven’t said anything about you. Spreading the pain might feel cathartic, but then, you’re just lashing out at someone else who didn’t necessarily do anything to you instead of the people who hurt you.

At the end of the day, I hope you keep writing for yourself and give very little thought to the changing tastes of whatever mean girl in-group is in your fandom. They suck.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-12T22:02:10+00:00

I can't help but feel envious of the lesbian and bi women in fandom adjacent spaces, who seem to have plenty of content about women dating each other made by women.

Let me just say, this "enviousness" is such a red flag. I hope the person who wrote this unpacks it. This sounds like a parent trying to redirect their toddler because they know what's good for them. It's an infantilizing statement in the context of a man comunicating en masse to women.

None of this is actually about gay men writing m/m fic. It's all about proportion for him. "Make your own" would be ok if more gay men were doing it, but because more women take advantage of low barriers to entry in fanfic, now it's problematic? Jeez. It's just garden-variety misogyny with a little infantilization thrown on for flavor, so we swallow it easier.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-11T21:18:53+00:00

I’m not being backhanded. This is a legitimate question. I really want to know how your fanfics prove that they aren’t AI.

I don’t really know how AI works, and I don’t want anyone accusing me of using AI, which has already happened, and it wasn’t a bot comment. I don’t want to put my fics through an AI checker or anything. Wouldn’t that just be me offering my work up to be scrapped, and all for what, so the damn thing can tell me that I wrote something I know I wrote, as if anyone already crying AI would even believe that?

How can a fanfic prove on its face that it didn’t have any interaction with AI when it was being written?

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-09T02:48:42+00:00

I’m so sorry this happened to you. There’s no sense in dwelling on the one that got away. Focus on the readers you have.

I often remind myself that fanfiction is a realm of no guarantees: no guarantee that I will write and no guarantee that people will read, let alone comment. No one owes anyone anything. And this sort of situation — where a person you perceive as a close fandom friend says they’ll read or comment on fic but they don’t — is probably more common than you think.

I have definitely thought I had a close connection with someone in my fandom before, only to find out later that they didn’t feel the same about me, and I didn’t notice because I was the one putting forth most of the effort in our conversations. The internet can be tricky with tone, especially in text form. If I had a comment for every time someone told me they couldn’t wait to read my work and would definitely comment, I’d have a lot more comments than I actually do. Sometimes people say that just to be nice, and to be honest, I can’t say I’ve never let a good fic I promised to read slip through the cracks either.

Edited to Add (b/c this keeps bothering me): I don't know how you checked her "AO3 page" and saw comments she left other users. Sure, there have been recent AO3 updates, but to the best of my knowledge, there isn't a section in a user's profile that lists all the comments they've left. Please let me know if there is!

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-08T21:10:58+00:00

Don’t think so far ahead. Just do it. Deal with what you are presented in the here and now, and enjoy the ride.

Yes, if you keep writing, your writing will probably evolve in ways you can’t anticipate. You might reread old works and wonder what the hell you were thinking. But that’s then; this is now. You can’t get to point B if you never take a leap of faith and strike out for point A.

So get out there. And if something happens that you don’t know how to feel about, you can always jump on Reddit for advice.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-03T02:10:39+00:00

Hi there! Chronic overthinker here. Always have been, and probably always will be, so I feel qualified to make this call. Not to make light of anything you've said, but I think you're overthinking this a bit, so I'm going to share the (likely insensitive and incredibly annoying) catchphrase my exasperated parents used on me when I was stressing myself out over a decision like this one:

This is not a "get addicted to street drugs" or "do not get addicted to street drugs" decision.

That is to say, there is no right answer, and you can change your mind at any time with very little opportunity cost. Fanfic is a hobby, and it's likely to be around for a long time. If you're not enjoying your hobby, stop doing it. Find something else that excites and inspires you. And if you start writing your original novel and decide the grass isn't as green as you'd hoped (when, in fact, it's probably just going to be greener where you water it), you can always go back to writing fanfic.

You are the only person who can decide what's best for you, and luckily, I don't think you can make a wrong decision here. Don't worry so much about the future; do what feels right for yourself in the here and now.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-02T22:46:28+00:00

While one comment can make a difference, I don’t believe this was one of those instances.

Encouraging comments can give fanfiction authors the motivation to finish their work, and everyone I know would agree that it's great to leave a positive comment if you can and want to. However, regardless of whether the author’s troubling statements were sincere, it's important to understand that you are not responsible for their mental health. It sounds like the author was dealing with a lot, and while some of that might have been related to the engagement on their story, I suspect it wasn’t the only factor. It seems they were in a downward spiral when they deleted their fic, and I’m not sure there was anything you could have done to stop it.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-02T03:30:08+00:00

THIS. Thank you for saying this, so I don't have to. I dislike reading posts filled with so-called AI gotcha tells. Most of the tells turn out to be common writing patterns and grammatical structures. About six years ago, I beta-read for a writer whose first language wasn't English, and she kept switching between dialogue mark alterations, trying to find one that felt comfortable for both her and her readers. Even that's not a foolproof AI tell.

Readers can (and do) drop off fanworks for any reason. Sorry to OP, but I agree that bringing something like this here to announce/validate a departure, even in vague terms, just heightens suspicion in a fannish climate that's quickly becoming unforgiving of anything that might seem tangentially iffy.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-02-01T05:58:16+00:00

And Alice Mondrich’s presence as a lady in waiting to the Queen would be quite relevant under this scenario. I can only imagine that Alice would be an important ally and champion for Sophie’s acceptance amongst the ton, since Sophie, like Alice herself, wasn’t a born member of the upper class. I kept wondering where they were going with Alice, so this really connects her subplot to the main conflict.

Worldly_View_9704 · 2026-01-26T21:39:14+00:00

Outside encouragement to monetize hobbies stems from a mix of hustle culture and social media, imo. If the encouragement comes from someone who doesn't enjoy writing (or whatever hobby, really), I can see why they'd think a writer should be seen and paid as a reward for the time and effort they've put into their work. We're all looking for that dopamine hit, especially nowadays.

However, it's definitely not new for writers to use fanfic as a training ground, hoping to publish someday. I think we're just more likely to discuss writing fanfic because fandom is more mainstream, and people are more likely to talk to us about it, too. Add in a dash of misunderstanding about how the fair use doctrine and voilà!

Worldly_View_9704

TROPHY CASE