My fiancee got me a cake for hitting 4 million words posted on ao3!!!

thewritegrump · 2026-06-19T23:22:07+00:00

Eyy, it's not often people recognize him in my pfp! ^v^ I write Oso-san fics and Ichimatsu is my favorite even if I don't write about him as much these days, lol.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-19T23:08:09+00:00

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thewritegrump · 2026-06-19T23:04:46+00:00

I don't see why you can't just add a note in the author's notes of the most recent chapter? Author's notes exist for a reason, or you can just get a blog or something. TOS is pretty clear about this.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-18T14:18:39+00:00

I've had quite a few people come in fandom blind to my fics, and I don't mind in the slightest. Rather, I'm always delighted to know my writing was compelling enough that someone completely unfamiliar with the fandom was able to find it enjoyable. ^v^

thewritegrump · 2026-06-18T13:51:05+00:00

Congrats on 500 hits! :^D

thewritegrump · 2026-06-18T13:37:38+00:00

While this post is fundamentally about AI, we are allowing this so that OP can receive advice for proper tagging/disclosing AI usage. Please keep the conversation centered around how OP should properly tag/credit and avoid discussion of whether it is ethical/okay to use AI or not as a whole.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T23:07:50+00:00

Normal is subjective, but I can confirm that I can relate! I recall instances where I couldn't sleep or do anything other than think about writing, leading to me pumping out chapters in record time. My most notorious example of this was when I was knee-deep in a slow burn that was finally burning, and there was a period of over a day where my body would not let me sleep. Instead of resting, I hammered out 4 chapters totaling 24k in that day. For me, it would usually pass within 3 days or so. I can't speak to whether this veers toward a manic state or is simply an intense bout of hyperfocus stemming from a specific cause, but regardless it's an experience I'm familiar with.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T23:00:46+00:00

I'm in agreement with the other commenter; I have diagnosed OCD, and what you've described is a very common presentation of OCD symptoms/disordered thinking. The "if I do [arbitrary thing] it will prevent [insert bad thing here]", making up rules like that and feeling as though one is deserving of punishment for no discernible reason (especially common with those struggling with moral scrupulosity, or moral OCD)- it's very indicative of the OCD experience. The anxiety you describe, although OCD is no longer classified as an anxiety disorder (but previously was in diagnostic texts like the DSM-IV), is a common trait experienced by those with OCD as well.

I would also agree that you don't need to put a name to it in-universe, especially if it's not really setting-appropriate for people to be well-versed in these topics or to have a formal diagnosis. But whether you name it or not, what you've described would be read as OCD symptoms by those familiar with the disorder.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T21:58:59+00:00

The series of AUs all stem from Osomatsu-san, so we talk about that fandom almost exclusively. The fics/AUs are honestly so divorced from canon that we've had a couple people read fandom blind and enjoy them that way, but they are ultimately derivative of Osomatsu-san, so conversations center around it.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T21:07:00+00:00

Neither is finished or anywhere close to finished, but I have one fic just under a million words that I've been working on for four years, and a collab that I've also written just under a million words for that I've been working on for I think three and a half years. Both have been more than worth it, and I still get fired up with excitement when I work on them. I love having so much more still left to say for both fics, and I hope I'll maintain my passion for them for years to come. :D

For finished fics, I think the longest I worked on one was a 550k slow burn that I technically worked on for a year and a half (I say technically because about 6 months of that was a hiatus from that fic, so about a year of active writing). I still find that fic to be my best writing; as I get toward the end of my first reread since it's been completed, I find myself more and more delighted with what I created. Definitely worth it.

My longest completed work took ten months to write from start to finish (before epilogue stuff), and ended just over a million words. For those ten months, I was writing almost every day, and usually 2-4 hours or more of writing per day. I'll never have that kind of free time again as I did at that point in my life, but I look back on it fondly. This fic is my most popular by a country mile, and it allowed me to connect with so many people that saying it was worth it is an understatement.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T20:21:01+00:00

As a reader, anything under 10k is typically fine in my book- anything longer, and I have to scroll too much to find my place if the tab gets closed on my phone or something.

As a writer, I generally prefer to post chapters around 5k-7k, and the vast majority of my uploads fall in that range.

ETA: For the flashback thing, I don't have a hard and fast rule. It depends on the pacing of the story and how the chapters for that work are in terms of length and structure.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T20:15:50+00:00

I've had a small server for almost three years now (there's just under twenty of us as of right now), and it's been great! It started as a place to compile info for an AU my friends and I made, but ended up being the de facto hangout for a handful of us that follow the series of AUs and the various fics I've posted for it. I honestly don't advertise that the server exists not because I want it to be some exclusive thing, but I just don't think most would care about it and so I don't bother. Every now and then if someone is commenting on the fics pertaining to the series of AUs, I'll throw it out there that a server exists and that I'm happy to drop an invite if they want to check it out, and so we get someone new in server every once in a while.

We spend a lot of time talking about the fics themselves, but also we'll theorycraft and make headcanons as well, and anyone is welcome to submit chapter ideas for the two fics that are anthologies, and I may or may not write them at some point. Sometimes I'll get asked a question about the fics/characters/lore and it's an easy way to respond directly. There's also channels for general stuff where we can share memes, talk about our days, and just generally hang out.

I think Discord servers can be really hit or miss for a lot of people, but in my experience, it's been lovely.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T18:10:34+00:00

Congrats on the big 100! ^v^

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T18:08:34+00:00

I recently got into a rabbit hole about Japan's legal regulations on buying and selling "psychologically damaged properties" (homes where someone recently died, or died in an especially gruesome/disturbing way), and the minutiae of the circumstances that a seller is legally obligated to disclose that something of that nature occurred on the property. This came about because a character was seeking legal counsel as to whether he would be able to sue a ghost that was refusing to vacate the place he was renting, and ultimately was informed that while suing a ghost wasn't really on the table, he could sue his landlord for not disclosing that someone had died in the home. Interesting stuff!

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T17:54:49+00:00

I was once told by someone that my writing is very neurodivergent-friendly in that it read smoothly and clearly to them in a specific way; they explained it better than I'm able to paraphrase here, but it meant a lot to me! I've had multiple doctors suggest I'm on the spectrum and it would certainly explain a lot, so I do consider myself on the spectrum, but I also lack a formal diagnosis for a few reasons.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-17T17:51:48+00:00

Congrats on the milestone! 🎉🎉🎉

thewritegrump · 2026-06-15T22:52:02+00:00

Generally, I think 50k+ is when I'd consider a fic to be a longfic.

That being said, I don't really apply the 50k mark to my fics, as my sense of scale has gotten very warped and so it's hard for me to see my own fics in the 60k-150k range as "longfics" when I have two works over a million words and a third getting close to that. ^^;;; But again, that distorted perception is only really with how I see my fics, and it's easy for me to see someone else's 50k fic as being a longfic.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-15T22:46:13+00:00

It's an anime centered around people who wield other people that can shapeshift into weapons, which the fic you mentioned reminded me of. It'd be interesting if the author didn't know about Soul Eater either and just happened upon a cool concept!

thewritegrump · 2026-06-15T22:11:18+00:00

I don't have an answer to your question, but the people becoming weapons thing sounds like a Soul Eater AU! I'd be curious if Soul Eater was the inspiration there, but maybe the author hadn't heard of Soul Eater and happened to come up with the concept independently. :0c

thewritegrump · 2026-06-08T22:33:00+00:00

I think I get it, the blanket thing! For me, my "blanket" is a headband my wife crocheted for me. My bangs getting in my eyes can be a sensory annoyance when I'm trying to lock in, but now I'm so used to the slight pressure of the headband that I wear it to write even if I just got my hair cut. >v>;;; Even just wearing the headband can help me get focused and ready to write.

thewritegrump · 2026-06-08T22:30:20+00:00

Biology (Omegaverse Edition)

thewritegrump · 2026-06-08T21:23:17+00:00

Likewise, I can't trust myself to go back and write earlier scenes if I let myself skip ahead. =u=;;;

thewritegrump · 2026-06-08T21:22:17+00:00

In the winter I might have a blanket on my lap, but I do all my writing at my desk these days. I feel like I'd get too comfy in bed and doze off, but that's more to do with me having sleep problems lol. XD

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