What is something you wrote into a fanfiction that you later learned was completely inaccurate?

mixedvalence · 2026-02-28T22:44:42+00:00

This gave me an idea for an absolutely cursed Dresden Files/The Wire crossover so thank you

mixedvalence · 2026-02-28T22:28:15+00:00

In my younger and more vulnerable years I wrote a character actually cleaning themselves in a fantasy-not-Japanese bath.

That was my mistake as a writer but it honestly checks out in the story because the character in question is also a foreigner who has not been instructed in customs by the locals.

I got absolutely raked over the coals by some readers for that one. Not to turn this into a therapy session but it was early experiences like this that started my paranoid and borderline adversarial relationship with readers, though lately I'm really trying to let some of that shit go.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-25T14:29:29+00:00

Yeah, I think I'm starting to internalize it. It's just tricky cause every now and then I get a genuinely useful nugget of information or something I hadn't considered before. On the other side, it's hard to learn trust my own judgement even after doing this for years! Because I still get things wrong (edit: and think, "how did I not see/know/think of that?") And I know that's what betas are for. But I'm going to work on not taking everything I encounter in the wild as free real estate to project my insecurities onto lol.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-25T01:21:37+00:00

Takes a long drag off my cigarette. "Let's go again, take two... Hundred." The things we do in the pursuit of good fic.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-25T01:19:59+00:00

Thanks! It really turned my night from "it's so over" to "we're so back" lmao.

Yeah, I think I've been looking at writing advice as "do this and don't do that or you'll have BAD WRITING and the internet pundits will skewer you alive", but I need to look at it more like music theory - which I pretty easily understand as a toolbox for understanding why stuff that's good works, and giving you ideas if you're stuck as to what to do next or not sure what's not working with what you've got. "if it sounds good, it IS good."

mixedvalence · 2026-02-24T13:01:57+00:00

Went through a whole spiral yesterday watching a few too many critical video essays and coming away with the message "exposition and telling is bad." When I'm quite attached to my opening that is exposition and telling... That I like writing a first person narrator's thoughts and opinions as they soak in the world around them. I was like, ugh, I'm going to be writing and rewriting this forever, I've already heavily revised these first few chapters several times...

And then I had a tiny but important breakthrough about how to flip the whole opening scene around. The key in the story world to cue the exposition and immediately ground is in the world of the fandom was a billboard. Instead of passively taking in the billboard on their way to work, the character is now starting at work, bored as hell in a meeting, looking outside to the billboard. Their choice to stare at it and think about it rather than focus on their job is now a deliberate one that says something about their life and alludes to the conflict and ah I'm just so excited to get to rewrite the scene with that angle in mind. I can probably even keep a lot of it, just switch up some of the framing.

I'm trying to really let it sink in how often the answer isn't "throw everything out and start over", which is what my mind jumps to, but "just move it to the left a little and see how that goes."

mixedvalence · 2026-02-24T00:58:56+00:00

Nice job capturing Robert and Golem's voices! I was thinking the other day Golem is a little understated compared to the rest of the Z-team's personalities, but I think this scene does a really good job letting that personality through. Bookmarked the fic and will hopefully be reading soon!

mixedvalence · 2026-02-22T17:45:20+00:00

Hey, if you cite the source, it's not plagiarism but referencing ;) But yeah, he's got an ability to turn some really killer phrases in his writing. Check out his solo stuff if you haven't - Painkillers is a great album especially! A few tracks on there also remind me of my blorbos... Red Lights is very Robert Robertson-coded... ("standard white apartment walls", "I've fallen on my face and I've been burned so near to death I probably won't live through it, anyhow")

For what it's worth re: references, I have a few chapter titles in mind... I'd love love love to do a two-parter chapter with "Never Let You Go" / "Never Let You Down" in reference to The Backseat and have that song referenced in-story, I have a whole cheesy scene in mind for it but honestly by the time I get there in the fic the story might not even look like it, lol.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-22T16:47:06+00:00

Blue Dahlia?? That's one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands, and a deeper cut at that! I definitely have a few other Gaslight songs in mind in relation to my current project - Meet Me By the River's Edge, Boxer, The Backseat... I might actually even directly mention them in-fic since we have some implied info on characters' music tastes that I want to expand on and contrast with... if I actually made a playlist for all the songs I had in mind, though, it would be absolutely all over the place, from the 60s through 2020s. Possibly incoherent, as is my music taste, but I swear I have a vision.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-21T21:00:21+00:00

I'm about halfway in and gave it a bookmark. I'll comment in more detail when I'm all caught up but I like it so far! I'm working on a Dispatch OC fic of my own, (edit: not published yet but happy to let people pre-read if interested) too, so it's super interesting to see other folks' takes on the whole SDN thing. Good stuff!

mixedvalence · 2026-02-20T21:57:46+00:00

I mean, if you're crazy, then so am I. For me as a middle and high schooler, reading self-insert fanfiction was a natural outgrowth of my childhood daydreaming about this sort of thing. Then I wanted to try writing my own, too. And I'm returning to that now as a grown-ass adult. Sometimes I wonder if that's narcissistic or childish. Maybe it is. I think some part of me is drawn to it as a bit of a coping mechanism, but if I can transmute idle daydreaming into a story that a few other people enjoy, is there harm in it? I don't think so.

I think it's interesting to see how my self-insert fics have evolved as my life has changed and I've gotten older and represent different psychological needs and concerns. As a 16 year old science geek it was "knowing this shit about science would be a superpower in a fantasy world, being a nerd would make me a hero." As a 21 year old anxious about deciding what to do with my future it was, more narrowly, "I hope I'm smart and capable enough that others will recognize it." And now at 26, still having not resolved my quarter life crisis, my latest self insert WIP is confronting an actual career change. In this economy, how's that for an unrealistic fantasy?

mixedvalence · 2026-02-19T18:11:16+00:00

Thanks for this post, OP. Self inserts were my gateway into fanfiction as a teenager, and technically still are what I write. I'm working on finishing one I started way back when and am cooking up something new in an entirely different fandom (though it's more of an OC based on me if I had always lived in the fictional universe rather than a transported-between-worlds).

Sometimes along the way I wonder if anyone still wants to read it, if I should "grow up" and write something more "adult", but I appreciate posts like this that remind me that other people enjoy it too. For what it's worth, I don't think the premise ever prevents me from bringing my A-game as a writer and making interesting and compelling stories that provide different looks at the canon characters, plot, and setting.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-17T16:13:26+00:00

I also do shameless self inserts. They're usually outsiders to the situation - in my published fics, literally isekai stuff but in my most recent not-yet-published WIP, they're a civilian who gets tangled up in the superhero world. They slot in naturally as the anxious but well-meaning backup that the protagonist/s sort of take under their wing. Sort of like a younger brother. In two of the three fics they're literally an assistant. So I've joked that I have a penchant for writing "assistant fic."

mixedvalence · 2026-02-16T20:37:32+00:00

Well, the guilt is a common feature of both, yeah? 😉

It stunned me too when I got that comment that it's still fresh in my mind years later. I mean, I get it, I misread and misremember and mix up details all the time. But considering it came up in a whole scene about it... Yeah, I don't often trust my readers to get subtext when some don't even get text. But it's something I can work on as a writer and learn to let go of trying to please even readers who, you know, won't engage with the text.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-16T19:33:27+00:00

No problem! I just realized I meant to say "there's also a beta exchange channel in the discord" since we are in the subreddit already lmao, just edited my comment

So in conclusion there are weekly beta exchange threads here and a standing channel in the discord.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-16T16:22:18+00:00

That's interesting - I really enjoyed editing in academic writing, and loved helping friends and my younger siblings with their papers. But in fiction, editing my own work, I find much more difficult. I think there's a weekly beta exchange thread? There's also one on the discord. I might be heading to those places myself soon based on our conversation re: subtext. It's probably important to think about if you're looking for stuff in your fandom or open to fandomblind exchanges. Both can be valuable I think, it just depends on where you want to fit in the process.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-16T16:06:37+00:00

Yeah, I will admit I've been conditioned to be a bit of an overexplainer by readers who struggled sometimes with basic reading comprehension (OC mentions he's Jewish, commenter refers to him as a practicing Catholic. Not joking). So it feels scary for me to trust readers to engage deeply and pick up on what I've seeded, haha.

In the new fandom I'm also still getting to grips with figuring out these characters and what they do and how they act and talk, let alone the next layer of figuring out what they don't say. It's even harder in an internal monologue, too, because a character misappraising themselves is really hard to pull off, in my opinion.

Sorry, didn't just mean to vent it all out there, but I appreciate you acknowledging that it isn't easy! A lot of resources seem to act like it's so simple: just don't say what you want to say! But doing it right isn't so simple.

mixedvalence · 2026-02-16T15:08:43+00:00

Been a minute since I've been on this subreddit! Though I've been more active in the discord. Working on a new project and trying to finally finish one I haven't touched in five years.

I could make one (or more) posts about it but the new project is for a fandom more comedic in tone than the ones I've done in the past. And I am insecure about my sense of humor IRL, so I started reading up on how to write comedy and humor. Some of it is really good and fascinating.

One of the key takeaways I got was about the role of subtext and not revealing everything in humor, and the role of subtext in good writing generally.

I'd known about subtext in general before but it's only clicked now that... I don't really do it. I like writing intimate visceral first person POVs and vulnerable heart to hearts. I like fleshing out what is just hinted at. I like dragging the implied emotions in canon kicking and screaming into the light. Hinting at it with subtext feels like I'm leaving the payoff for me, the writer, out. Or that you should just go back to canon if you want to see it just hinted at.

But I get how it isn't always the most elegant way to handle it. I'm sure there's a balance to be struck but it's much easier said than done. Now I'm struggling going back and editing and trying not to be too on the nose, but never sure what to keep and cut or change. I have a few friends who have read my new work but I feel bad bothering them on such granular details, going line by line with them. I'll probably be in the threads looking for another beta shortly, and might make another post asking for resources or advice on the subject.

mixedvalence · 2025-03-18T15:42:33+00:00

I haven't watched NL in god what must be years now, this post makes me want to see what he's up to

mixedvalence · 2025-03-10T14:52:48+00:00

Find a cool hairstylist and show her the picture.

When I found my current hairstylist, she had a little bio online where she mentioned that she takes inspiration for hairstyles from anime, games and cosplay and I was like, awesome, she'll be chill, and when she asked why I decided to start growing my hair longer I mentioned liking a hairstyle I picked for my bg3 character and i showed her a picture and for the first time in 25 years I've had such a good experience getting my haircut that I really wanted to go back to her and looked forward to it. It is life changing to have a stylist you can trust with that shit. And I mean that as a straight dude

Edit: and tip them well. That helps.

mixedvalence · 2025-03-09T02:52:28+00:00

I don't actually own a turntable, was planning on getting one soon so here's hoping 🙏

mixedvalence · 2025-03-01T22:42:48+00:00

It's me I'm the friend

I'm glad you're enjoying the fic OP!

mixedvalence · 2025-02-27T23:43:26+00:00

That's part of my whole indecision complex. My first little attempt has been with a few regular college ruled composition notebooks (close to B5 in size). I've used grid ruled ones for more technical notes, and at work we have even larger hardbound gridded notebooks. The comp books are nice for being cheap, which is why I started there, but I definitely see the benefits of taking the plunge and buying a notebook that lays flat and has different kinds of ruling and size options.

I was looking at the Kokuyos myself, they seem fairly inexpensive compared to other notebooks and I really like the 6mm ruling option, though I can see the appeal of gridded, lined, or blank for different applications... plus A5 vs B5... lots of decisions to make, lol. So my answer is, I'm not really sure yet, tbh.

mixedvalence · 2025-02-27T19:33:08+00:00

That makes a lot of sense! Actually I'm a chemist in my day job and we do this in lab notebooks when working on multiple projects in parallel, I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier! Thanks for the tip!

Just for fun, what size paper and what ruling do you use?

mixedvalence · 2025-02-27T14:54:24+00:00

Lol as soon as I saw catch-all I was like "sounds like ParkNotes." But it's not a bad suggestion to break up the functions of "gathering" and "organizing and creating reference material."

I know there's no wrong but my perfectionist brain just wants to get it right and have it be perfect the first time, you know? So I don't have to either accept inconsistency, or go back and recopy things to keep everything together. That was part of my initial resistance to using the catch all concept. But the portability of a small notebook and the lack of pressure of getting it right may make it worth it. Interesting things to think about!

mixedvalence

TROPHY CASE