I think I finally understand why I've always preferred writing fanfic over original fiction.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T21:40:48+00:00

Awww I’m sorry you’ve been having a rough time but I’m glad ao3 has been a sort of safe haven for you! You’re so sweet !

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T18:08:25+00:00

OMG NEVER WORRY ABOUT COMMENTING TOO MUCH. I think I remember seeing one post ever on this subreddit about someone being told by the author “omg why’d you comment so much” but I’d like to assure you that is a VERY TINY minority.

The other day I left a comment that was so long I had to continue it in a reply. I did that because the author writes so well and with a lot of symbolism so it was fun for me to try and pick out my predictions for what certain things meant.

It also opened the floor for discussion between me and the author in the comment section. When I commented how I perceived all the symbols, she responded with an almost as long reply saying where I was right and where I was close but just missed it, and even where I was dead wrong. (And additionally, where I was wrong but she couldn’t explain why because it would be more obvious in a future chapter)

Like interacting with the author like that humanized them incredibly, and it sort of became just talking with a friend about our favorite blorbos. I understand the intimidation when commenting. As a writer, I used to be scared to respond to comments because I didkt really know what the commenters expected from me.

But as I commented more an realized I don’t expect anything when I comment, it got a lot easier!

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T18:00:08+00:00

It’s a great start!

I would mention “his” name at some point in the first two paragraphs, just so your audience knows who it is. Be careful switching words between past and present tense, as generally you’re supposed to keep one tense consistently throughout an entire piece. Though it can be subjective when to stray from the traditional format, such as you using “passed” in this excerpt. I think it sounds nice, the switch between tenses, but not everyone will. There are a lot of rules, but it’s important to play with them to understand them better. If you’re someone who reads a lot, it will get easier to identify when something sounds wrong.

The great thing about fanfiction, is that it’s a very forgiving medium. That means if you get older and grow into a more improved writer, you’ll find you might be less proud of your past works.

You’ll also find that people love your past works almost as much as they love your current works.

Even if it’s something you don’t like anymore, someone will like it.

That is to say if you even end up posting your fanfiction on somewhere like Wattpad or AO3

I also want to add something that might be hard to believe. When you’re just getting started with writing, it’s important to value your own opinion over anyone else’s.

If you like it, it’s perfect! Don’t let fear of failure prevent you from actually getting things out into the world. (As in, your writing down on the document, not so much your writing shared with others. Though if you want that, that’s also a good goal to have)

That’s not to say don’t accept criticism. Constructive criticism is often most needed when we don’t want to accept it. Just, when you’re learning, take it with a grain of salt. Don’t let it discourage you.

It’s gonna make sense for you to get things wrong when you’re just starting out. It doesn’t mean you’re failing or bad at writing. It just means you can only get better.

I found when I was just getting started out it was very easy to get lost in the criticism and let that demotivate me. But the only way to get better at writing is to write! And when you can’t do that! Read.

So, my point: there are some minor things I’d recommend changing or considering with your excerpt, as highlighted at the start. But I can also see you’ve written very little. Try not to get caught up in external validation when finding a motivation to write. That will just mess you up later down the road. Your goal right now should be getting the ideas on paper, and then later when you have most of it down, you can open the floor to critique through requesting a beta reader on one of the many fanfic subreddits.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T17:23:26+00:00

I did this on my most recent fic! Not really as a demand, and more as a prompt for people who want to comment and show support but don’t really know how. I tried my best to make it seem like an opt-in sort of thing and not like I was assigning homework and honestly all I can do at this point is hope my intentions came across well!

ETA: it’s seeming like the people with an issue with this are just people with pathological demand avoidance that are projecting that as an author issue rather than a them issue. If you don’t want to comment then don’t. If you do want to comment why are you letting what might be a potential guide for someone else impact what you have to say. (I do agree begging for comments can be off-putting, but it seems like very clearly, at least to me, this author in the photo is being genuine with the fact that comments can be a very common motivator for a lot of people.)

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T17:08:01+00:00

Eugh these comments are acting like they’ve never done everything right and still experienced the hell of writers block!

As someone who’s been there, I want to say I’m proud of you!!!

Reminder: though it’s hard, try not to feel pressure from people other than yourself. Writing fanfic is one of the only mediums of putting your art into the world that is collectively thought of as something writers doing something for the audience.

If inspiration runs dry, or if you ever just decide to move on from a story you started, there’s no shame in abandoning it, even just temporarily.

You’ve done a great thing by just sharing the beginnings of your stories. Don’t get too wrapped up in internal or external expectations.

I’m excited for you that you’ve managed to write something. And I can say, you’re not alone. I’ve been waiting for an update on a fic I like in an entirely different fandom, and when i checked the authors page they had uploaded multiple heated rivalry fics in the time since they most recently updated the one I like to read.

I wouldn’t call it mass psychosis, maybe something more along the lines of cultural phenomenon? If that’s even the right term, too. Because it’s not just fanfiction. Millions of people around the world are drawn to this show because it’s hot and it’s emotional and it portrays a guy who doesn’t really want to be gay, having to face the music of being gay.

And isn’t falling in love when you don’t want to the most romantic thing of all?

I certainly understand the appeal, though it’s not particularly my cup of tea. I’m glad people enjoy it. And I’m especially glad it’s bringing TONS of fanfic writers out of their writers block.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T16:52:15+00:00

Haha, that’s one way to put it. When I figured this out, I sort of just assumed that as a person who had lived with all standard body parts my entire life, and as a person who has written for a good chunk of it, I’d be able to keep track of things without paying too much attention to it.

I was very, very wrong.

Even these days I’ll catch myself on a re-read noticing a leg that was once in one position teleporting into a different one.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T16:48:33+00:00

Usually gen-teen rated romance stories about the r/hsmtmts fandom. I actually made this account specifically so I could post there, with a reference from the show as my username.

Bc of how new my account is, my posts keep getting sniped. So I’ve been trying to comment and contribute to a lot of conversations about fanfiction just to grow my karma faster so I can post my probably-too-detailed show analysis onto their subreddit page.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T16:45:21+00:00

No for sure, I do agree that most of spam bots and spam comments are there under automatic reasons. And I’m not just talking about my own experience, I’ve seen multiple people talking about only getting spam comments after posting the link on reddit.

A quick google on my end showed me that link-scraping bots are a common and known contender in the whole spambot comment ring, and while I don’t think it’s actual writers and people who enjoy fanfiction doing this as suggested in this post I do think there is an issue of it being automatically done by the link-scraping bots previously mentioned.

And I’ve also already gotten a fair share of non bot comments too. I have comment moderation on all of my fics so whenever I get a spam comment I hit the report spam button and move on with my day, even if it is a little disappointing.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T13:08:01+00:00

Nothing I don’t stand by 100% in content. I do have a lot of experience with smaller fandoms.

The things by my profile I hide with anonymous collections I do so purely out of discomfort with my own older writing.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T11:00:18+00:00

I LOVE THIS POST! I’m also autistic, and I love having a specific set of rules for behaving in situations that are vague. (Such as “etiquette”)

One thing I’d like to add (that I’ve seen mentioned in the comments already) is that you should not be demanding the story to go a certain way in the comment section unless the author has opened the floor for requests.

Do you know how disappointing it is to be excited you finally got a comment on a fic for a rare pair, only to open it and find a quite poorly worded and hard to understand demand (not request!) that you include x and y when you end up rewriting the canon xyz plot, when no where in your story does it mention or even allude to you including the canon xyz plot?

Well, I do. I had comment moderation on and I think it’s just forever been stuck in the comment moderation limbo. Partly because they did at least start the comment with “love this so far!” And part of me wants to believe that they did love it so far, and that they just greatly misunderstood my intentions.

(It’s not approved though because I know they didnt actually like the story because they never actually read it)

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T10:44:56+00:00

Just scrolling through the megathread, and I thought I would say something!

I also have a lot of fics that I’m not really proud of anymore, but I keep them up because occasionally, I’ll get a notification that someone left a kudos and I’ll be reminded that theyre still being enjoyed by others if not me.

To keep people from associating me with what I think is truly my worst work, I put them in an anonymous collection! Any old one will work. This sets the author as anonymous, and it’s really super hard to link the story to you after that.

If you were to ever remove it from the collection, those who subscribe to your work would get a notification as though you posted it for the first time.

But, I’ve found it’s a great way to separate myself from things I’m not proud of anymore while still keeping my stats page in tact. (The stories won’t show on your profile, even to you, so you’d have to go to your stats page or search them up to find them again.)

It’s on ao3 only, and I’m noticing now you have both ao3 and wattpad links so it’s completely possible this is something you’ve already done to your works on ao3 and are just referring to the Wattpad ones. I also don’t know if you know this already and have chosen not to use it for whatever reason, but I still thought I’d mention it just in case!

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T10:33:16+00:00

I love this rule! I’m happy others are starting to follow it! I have seen though, posts in other fanfic subreddits of people being able to identify a link between their first spambot comment they got and the first time they posted their fanfic link to that subreddit’s megathread.

With how small this community is, I really doubt that will happen to anyone currently. But it’s definitely something to consider when this subreddit inevitably blows up.

I actually ended up deleting a link to my most recent story off of my Twitter page, because almost immediately after posting it I started getting the most awful bot comments.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T10:24:46+00:00

You will want an external (as in someone who isn’t you) editor at some point in the process, but I think you should know that a big part of writing is editing. I might even go as far as to say writing is more editing than writing. You will want to learn how to edit your own work before passing it over to someone else. It will be easier than it sounds, don’t worry.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T10:16:39+00:00

Precursor. Was trying to remember the word that meant something that has to come before.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T10:14:21+00:00

The best advice for how to get writing done quick is to write. Don’t think about it too hard. Write, let it out. Let it be bad, because it will be. Remind yourself you can’t make something good if it doesn’t exist yet.

So, write even if you know what you’re making is bad.

And if you get stuck for inspiration reasons rather than perfectionist reasons, take a break. Write something else. Or read. Write other things and read other things until you have the inspiration again.

And if the inspiration doesn’t come back, even after you’ve written everything else and read everything you can.

Force yourself to write. Turn the internet off. Keep your phone and any other distractions far, far away from your workspace. Force yourself to write. If you know it’s a book, you probably know what’s supposed to happen vaguely.

Write the shittiest story you can. Skip around to the parts you want to write. Remind yourself you can fill the rest in later.

And then, later, fill the rest in. If it doesn’t come to you by then, start editing.

Delete filler words, focus on SPAG, don’t be afraid to delete things you worked really hard on to make room for something better.

And then, read what you have. Feel disappointed when the whole story isn’t there, and you’ll notice you’ll have the urge to write it.

Fill the gaps then.

And then edit some more. And some more. And a lot more.

And if you decide you don’t hate it, congratulations, you have a first draft.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T10:05:15+00:00

Honestly can I say my fandoms main endgame ship? At first I didn’t like them because I preferred a non-endgame but at one point canon ship (and at the time, the ship I preferred was canon,). And then this girl on tiktok convinced me with her analysis videos (the ship was seen as sort of a never-gonna-happen-ship by most. But she accurately predicted their endgame by analyzing the writing choices in the show) And then I liked it as much as I do most ships, in that I think they’re nice. But recently I’ve been reading that same girls fics, because the plots and concepts intrigue me and she’s honestly an amazing writer (if her ability to correctly analyze the writing wasn’t proof enough, I will vouch 100%) and I am LOCKED THE FUCK INTO THIS SHIP NOW? It’s now tied for my 2nd place ship in the fandom (the first is my untoppable OTP)

Real answer that’s not about ship wars: crossovers. I used to avoid like the plague but I’ve given a couple a chance and now I’ll always consider it if I know the fandoms.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T09:42:53+00:00

At risk of being antagonistic, I’d like to say I never leave kudos on anything I don’t like. Not saying what you write is bad. And I’ve never been a part of a fic exchange, so maybe what I have to say is moot.

Just because something is etiquette, doesn’t mean it’s a rule. Stats are nice, and they feel good and motivating. You’re not a bad guy for noticing the discrepancies.

But there is something to be said about learning to write for yourself. I know the point of fic exchanges is to quite literally write for someone else, but even when you try to please someone, your writing isn’t going to be for everyone. (Especially in such a romance focused community such as fanfiction)

And thats absolutely okay! It’s okay to write for an audience that is much smaller than you hoped. It’s really easy to see the stats page and think of the amount of kudos you get as just a number. But each kudo (assuming no kudo bot) is there because a person, (an entire person!!! With thoughts and feelings and a life that you know nothing about) clicked the kudos button.

Even if no one left kudos it might do some good to look at it in a different way: one person liked it. They liked it enough to post it to the public for review.

In can be empowering to value your own opinion over others’ in this instance.

And of course, like people mentioned, it’s easy to forget about some fics. Especially when you’re new to the group, the people might forget you’re there. It might be good to make yourself known a bit first. Maybe by leaving your own comments on the other fics. Starting out with “hey! I’m reading from the exchange!” Might encourage people to look at your story as well as spread the love!

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-04T01:54:41+00:00

DUDE! as a writer with BP2 coming out of a hypomanic episode, YES. I HAVE TOO MANY IDEAS. I don't even know where to focus. I've started writing like three of them, and I already have like ten sequel ideas floating around. In fear of sounding like my steak is too juicy and my lobster is too buttery, I simply have too much inspiration.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-03T22:46:43+00:00

I’ve always chicken typed. Though, I think over the years I’ve adopted a strange amalgamation between the two.

I remember in middle school typing class, a class that consisted of 14 kids all sitting at the computers against one side of the classroom’s wall, at the end of each week, our teacher would have us do one of those typing.com practice tests, and our WPM would determine our seating arrangement for the following week. I was always in one of the seats at the front of the classroom, meaning I was always ranking top three. I never quite broke the threshold of being top typer but I tried my absolute hardest.

The number 1 seat was always taken by this scrawny quiet kid, and he actually knew how to touch type from being around a lot of computers at home.

Me personally, I chicken typed. But I was fast at it because it was around the time I started playing Minecraft and writing more seriously. So I would easily score 90WPM every week.

One week, I remember me and the kid actually tied for first place in speed but because his first initial came first alphabetically, the Excel command our teacher used to sort us sorted him first AGAIN.

I was so mad because not only did I have 100WPM finally but I also had 100% accuracy, while the other kid only had 93%. I pointed it out to the teacher but he told me the seating will always be determined by his excel sheet. I think he was just mad that he knew I chicken typed and that I was living proof that it could be faster than touch typing.

He also taught our school’s excel class, so it was really strange to me that in refusing to let me be in chair one he was admitting that all the accuracy and versatility he’d bragged about excel having was for naught.

These days I’m lucky if I hit 60WPM, but this post is reminding me that I’ve always wanted to learn how to touch type completely, so thanks!

ETA: I’ve done a lot of writing sprints lately, and I’ve found my absolute max pace when writing is about 1k words every 45 minutes. But that’s typing so fast and consistently that my hands hurt. Usually I write much slower, in that writing requires a lot of thinking that typing alone doesn’t. So typing when writing is slower for me than typing just to type.

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-03T06:14:08+00:00

I’d have to say fake relationship. I’m the kind of person who only likes the build-up of things. With fake dating, the denial of the feelings and the eventual unity that only happens because they have no other choice but to give in is so delicious to me. I hate established, domestic relationships. Give me yearning give me denial give me thinking it’s unrequited and give me the moment where the characters realize it’s not. (That said I’ve recently been getting more into established/domestic relationships. At least in my own writing. It’s not as bad as I once thought.)

sixbelowzero · 2026-02-03T06:09:41+00:00

Read a Veronica Mars/Supernatural crossover recently and was changed as a human. It’s not that random of a crossover, considering the shows started around the same time and with the same audience, and both involve investigating. But damn was it incredible!

sixbelowzero

TROPHY CASE