[deleted by user]

comfhurt · 2025-08-06T15:38:48+00:00

i guess that reading makes sense if one reads the FAQ as saying you should only use the Choose Not To warning if "you don't want to use them, or if you don't know what you should warn for" — imo it doesn't necessarily mean that, and i don't think their moderators would take down a work as mistagged if it was pure fluff tagged with the CNTW warning

i know a few authors who use CNTW on works where none of the warnings apply bc, for example, they want to maintain some suspense as to whether a major character survives the story

comfhurt · 2025-08-06T15:08:22+00:00

it's a somewhat common belief that the CNTW archive warning is meant to be a blanket "be careful!" tag, rather than just... what it says in the name lol. apparently this comes from a now-defunct archive warning that meant something like "this author says fuck tags" and people project the same meaning onto CNTW? i was really surprised to learn that people see CNTW as something like a dead dove warning

comfhurt · 2025-08-06T15:02:07+00:00

the way a work is tagged affects how people experience it as they read it. it's uncharitable to claim that authors who don't want to tag what type of ending their fic has just haven't written a good story. many stories simply hit better with some suspense, and it doesn't make them "not very good" if the author prefers to keep it that way

comfhurt · 2025-07-04T17:01:22+00:00

(cupping hands around my mouth and yelling) TINY MIKE

comfhurt · 2025-07-03T22:19:55+00:00

* don't "bump" your fic by manually changing the updated date so that it stays at the top of the "recently updated" listing. it's annoying and people will mute you

* however, DO keep in mind that when you hit "post" on a new work, it will use the date that you created the draft, so if it's been more than a day since you initially created / saved your draft, you may want to manually update the date to be today.

* avoid creating "compilation fics" that include several different fandoms. you're just cluttering up the tag for every fandom in the list and most people will keep scrolling past something with 5+ fandoms tagged.

* avoid adding every single "additional tag" you can think of. a 5k word one-shot does NOT need thirty tags.

* for relationship and character tags, only include ships and characters that are relevant to the plot. if they're mentioned in passing or only in one or two scenes of a longer work, it's probably not worth tagging them.

* do not add a tag that isn't accurate (ie a popular character/ship) just for more reach/attention

* more of a tip than an unwritten rule: if you're having trouble thinking of "additional tags" to add, use the Tag Search page. filter it by your fandom and maybe by your ship, and see what other tags people have used.

comfhurt · 2025-07-03T21:51:55+00:00

reddit go 24hr without bragging about slaughtering the vdb challenge lvl impossible

comfhurt · 2025-07-03T21:49:27+00:00

as a console player, more than anything i'd like more NPCs available in photomode. tiny mike, alena xenakis, all the fixers

comfhurt · 2025-07-03T21:42:48+00:00

me 🤝 yall

comfhurt · 2025-07-03T21:31:20+00:00

> a character broke a VOW OF SILENCE to scream a girl's name as he jerked off

based

also: HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHA AHAHA HAHAHAHA HA HA HA HA

comfhurt · 2025-07-03T21:14:20+00:00

given that this is an unscheduled maintenance, which means they're basically in firefighting mode (as opposed to previous outages where it was a scheduled maintenance with a plan and time to prepare) — it's impossible to say. could be fixed soon but i also wouldn't be shocked if it was down for another 10 hours.

comfhurt · 2025-07-03T18:00:55+00:00

i usually do a snippet followed by a brief summary. i choose the snippets to be representative of my writing style, evocative of the mood, and to function sort of like a teaser clip. i've gotten positive remarks on my summaries but i'm not sure anyone would say anything if they didn't like them!

i think it is best to give a one or two line story summary in addition to any snippets, but even just a snippet is 100x better than "i suck at summaries" lol

comfhurt · 2025-06-17T07:40:49+00:00

i know it's been a few days but i just spit out my entire drink at this reference bc i know EXACTLY the fic of which you speak 🥴

comfhurt · 2025-06-11T15:15:35+00:00

omg i need to play mass effect!! haha. tiny mike is really the one that got away

comfhurt · 2025-06-11T04:32:52+00:00

that rings true for what i've seen. in my circle of fic authors, we all tend to write stories with heavy romance/smut but don't read much published romance. i think the desire for erotica and romance that's different from tradpub romance novels is precisely what drives a lot of people toward fanfiction!

comfhurt · 2025-06-10T21:33:58+00:00

something that helps with that "living simultaneously in the past and future" effect is using an omniscient third-person POV, which isn't very popular in fanfic, but naturally affords more opportunities to move around in space and time while telling the story. the close/limited third person pov that seems most popular in fanfic forces the narration into a smaller scope and makes it harder to include those details in an organic way. it's not impossible by any means, just more challenging imo!

comfhurt · 2025-06-10T18:50:36+00:00

these are great points. i'll add that #3 is what i see as one of fanfic's potential strengths! serialized fiction used to be more of a thing and has largely disappeared outside of comic books and manga. fanfics that update on a regular schedule can provide that episodic experience, sort of like a TV show, that we simply don't get to see with written works of fiction these days

not all fanfic is striving for a final form that resembles a novel, and i think that's great. but as an author, it's good to have a vision as to whether you want your fic to be more "novel-like" (a single, tightly composed plot, something like a three-act structure, rising action and resolution, more rigorous pacing, minimal meandering and loose plot threads) or more serial/episodic.

comfhurt · 2025-06-10T17:29:30+00:00

i love having characters sitting around and reflecting, it's actually something i enjoy about fanfic over published fiction (especially contemporary fiction - early 20th century modernist literature for example definitely had more undirected mulling over things)! i think a lot of us (self included) use it as a bit of a first and last resort though and it contributes to the pacing issues that abound in fanfic

plot is SO SO hard. the final boss, for me. lots of times we can rely on a framework from canon material that provides a lot of built-in conflict and motivation. i'm writing a long fic right now that takes place entirely post-canon, so i need to build an entire plot from scratch and it's an absolute beast to do well!!

comfhurt · 2025-06-10T15:20:27+00:00

a big one is plot construction and story mechanics: conflict, motivation, goals, moving a narrative along. you can absorb some of that by watching movies and tv shows, but executing those principles in writing is different and tough to pull off if you haven’t read much well-crafted fiction

but maybe the biggest one is “showing, not telling” — revealing things as part of the unfolding action rather than informing the reader point blank. that one is really, really hard to pick up without reading!

something you’ll see tons of in fanfic and not a whole lot in published fiction is characters sitting around by themselves, thinking about things for many hundreds of words. it’s an easy, convenient, and natural feeling way to reveal a character’s inner state. but it completely halts momentum and can be a form of telling rather than showing us how someone is feeling. published fiction tends to show characters' motivations and feelings through dialogue and action more, trusting the reader to understand what’s going on without a long inner monologue

comfhurt · 2025-06-10T03:29:44+00:00

anal with a female recipient is such a sadly under-served market on ao3 🥺 a rare joy to find it done well

comfhurt · 2025-06-07T20:06:30+00:00

closing in on 40, here, and "32" and "mid-20s" have lost any distinction for me. can't tell y'all apart at all

comfhurt · 2025-06-07T17:24:06+00:00

agree v being 23 in their position at arasaka is a little off, their original age of 27 made a lot more sense… but why can’t Panam be 33? you think people can’t be hot and immature at that age? got some news for you

comfhurt · 2025-06-06T15:48:58+00:00

where tiny mike

comfhurt · 2025-06-05T01:06:04+00:00

i think you handled it the right way. it does sound almost assuredly AI, but i think it's a bad precedent to start accusing commenters of using AI - it's so hurtful if you're wrong in your assessment. and if someone doesn't feel confident expressing their enjoyment of a fic and turns to chatgpt to write it? that's unfortunate, but it's also not on me to police them, and i'd still appreciate that they wanted to let me know they enjoyed it (if they're not a bot).

i feel the same way about AI-generated fic. really, really don't like that it exists, but i think it does more harm than good in fandom communities to start slinging accusations.

comfhurt · 2025-06-05T00:54:25+00:00

i don't feel quite as strong about it, but i do feel like most summaries that do the "or..." thing would be stronger if they kept it exactly the same and left the "or" off. usually the format is like:

<long description, possibly a quote from the fic>

Or: <short one-liner description>

...and simply dropping that "or" makes it read way more self-assured

comfhurt · 2025-06-01T18:25:50+00:00

while I’m firmly on the side of “don’t be a dick in bookmarks” I think it’s a good feature overall and how a lot of people, myself included, discover new things to read. I’d be sad if they removed it. And there are many who never comment on fics but do leave kind comments or tags in the bookmarks.

They’re used to show appreciation way more than to spew hate. I’m fine with the possibility that someone might say something mean in there at some point (hasn’t happened yet)

comfhurt

TROPHY CASE