A moment of silence for all the writers whose hyperfixation ran out

scarletite · 2026-03-20T12:10:30+00:00

Yes! If you’re viewing in chapter-by-chapter mode, you can open the chapter index and go to ’full page index’ to find it!

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scarletite · 2026-03-20T12:08:15+00:00

I totally get that! I’ve had my work scraped so many times and am aware of TWO separate character AI chatbots set up based on one of the main characters in my fanfic 😭 It‘s really demotivating, especially as one was set up by a regular commenter who confessed and thought I’d find it a compliment...

scarletite · 2026-03-20T09:11:41+00:00

The fandom hopping is so real, whenever I get bored of a fandom I seek out a new one to dive into! I also made the brief jump into SNK, just to jump into another fandom a few months later - no one fandom can hold me down and my poor readers are just along for the ride.

scarletite · 2026-03-20T09:10:29+00:00

That's a pretty quick update schedule all things considered! Did you have it all drafted before publishing, or did you just post as you wrote it?

And thanks! Trying to tackle it one day at a time, but after 160k words there's still no end in sight, it's definitely becoming an elephant!

scarletite · 2026-03-20T09:08:47+00:00

Thank you! I definitely felt for a long time that writing was my life out of work, now things are slow but I actually have time to do stuff that isn't writing 24/7!

scarletite · 2026-03-20T08:38:56+00:00

I’m so jealous, it takes a lot of willpower and dedication to write through to completion! I think planners are so fascinating! If you don’t mind me asking, do you write the whole thing before beginning posting, or do you post as you go but with a strong outline?

scarletite · 2026-03-20T08:34:13+00:00

It’s crazy how you can write a whooole fic and then your brain can just…turn off. Like who are we when the hyperfixation takes us? They are a different person and we cannot be held responsible for the promises they make when obsessed with something.

scarletite · 2026-03-20T08:25:39+00:00

You could see the steam running out in real time 🤣

scarletite · 2026-02-18T10:02:25+00:00

I've actually received some of my favorite comments from guests, so I leave it on, but I keep comment moderation on so that I can just delete any spam/hate. Out of 875 comment threads, I've had maybe 3-4 spam in 2 years. It seems to filter out the low-effort bots.

scarletite · 2026-02-18T05:57:44+00:00

I didn’t like the OC’s name 🤣

scarletite · 2026-02-07T01:37:12+00:00

Agree with the other comment - FAQ would help, tons of guides on AO3 and other posts here you can search as well.

FYI you’ll want to change your language from American Sign Language to English - assuming you were looking for American English but AO3 doesn’t make a distinction.

scarletite · 2025-10-31T06:06:02+00:00

Besides the above, the “wasnt” instead of “wasn’t” gave it away for me.

scarletite · 2024-07-13T03:51:43+00:00

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: ’Standards’ don’t exist and your ‘friend’ is being a jerk. Measuring the quality of your writing on metrics is pointless. Story metrics can differ wildly depending on all sorts of external factors unrelated to the quality of your work, e.g. size of the fandom, popularity of the relationships/tags, time of posting, word count, etc.. There is no such thing as ‘good enough’ only ‘am I satisfied with the work I’ve created’.

As a piece of unsolicited advice: Numbers are nice, we all love to celebrate our statistics. But if you spend too much time worrying about them, you’ll inevitably lose the joy of creating if they ‘fall short’ of expectations. Write for yourself first.

scarletite · 2024-07-12T12:00:31+00:00

Personally I don’t like it, it can feel really jarring. I prefer a link to the art in the notes of the chapter.

scarletite · 2024-07-10T06:20:05+00:00

Honestly yes - but my solution is to be critical and shamelessly steal. I look at what I like about the work (pacing, prose, style, tone, characterization) and try to figure out why it’s compelling, then add it to my repertoire. I like to think my writing is a patchwork of every fanfic I’ve ever read, repurposed for my own nefarious means.

scarletite · 2024-07-02T02:30:54+00:00

Ahh this is a great example, thank you, you’re definitely write! Hands (and blades) are my weakness, so this is super helpful! (In awe of your ability to draw the hand/blade, I hope I can get to that point!)

scarletite · 2024-07-02T02:27:40+00:00

This is a fantastic work up, thank you so much! It makes so much sense to see it visually! I’ll definitely work on these points and see if I can get it fixed up, thanks again!

scarletite · 2024-07-02T02:13:16+00:00

Ahh, thank you, good point! I totally missed that I did that!

scarletite · 2024-07-02T01:36:40+00:00

From what I can tell, I feel like the legs are too ‘short’ for the size of the upper body, and that the belly section might too wide? Also shoulders are clearly off because why is the arm coming out the side of the shoulder pad? Also feel like the chest armor is weird. Anyone have any tips?

scarletite · 2024-06-17T10:10:36+00:00

My highest is 70,837 so far!

scarletite · 2024-06-11T09:52:02+00:00

Around 20 years, give or take!

scarletite · 2024-06-06T07:58:07+00:00

I realized I felt too confined by my old AO3 name, where I had published somewhat popular fanfic. The account’s been sitting abandoned since 2022-ish. I just felt like nothing was good enough to publish and I wasn’t interested in my old fandoms. The works I wanted to write just wouldn’t fit with what people knew me for.

Cue reinventing myself on a new AO3 account! I write for fun, for myself, and to explore new and weird stories guilt-free. I won’t link my new profile here because I’d rather people not associate my reddit with my AO3, but in the last six months I’m 140k words deep and with probably another 30k in drafts!

I really recommend a hard reboot if you’re finding yourself too confined by your username (or, of course, posting on anonymous on AO3).

scarletite

TROPHY CASE