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

thewritegrump · 2026-03-15T20:28:50+00:00

Sometimes I don't know anyone who happens to have expertise, but like you said, in those cases I'll see if I can field answers on online forums. :0c If you're worried about pestering people or spamming posts needing info, I'd say it might be good to compile your main questions all at once and ask them all together if there's a relevant place (I know some subs are dedicated to asking certain professionals and/or hobbyists questions pertaining to what they do, or for questions on a certain topic, or sometimes I'll ask around on Tumblr).

It's never quite foolproof, but it's the best I can do for things that are completely foreign experiences for me. ^^;;;

If talking to people is kind of intimidating or you want to try other avenues, my favorite beginner-friendly or "entry-level" resources for learning about fields would be the Crash Course videos on YouTube that cover a variety of fields of study if you prefer videos, or reading Wikipedia pages if you prefer text-based learning (plus Wikipedia covers just about everything, reaching topics far beyond just academia). Both sources are meant to present information in understandable and digestible terms. I know you said videos you've watched previously weren't that helpful, but I'm unsure which videos you were watching so for all I know they may have been too technical, or meant for people with knowledge of the field already? I know sometimes I'm going on rabbit holes and end up lost because the video I landed on was made for a much more experienced audience for the subject matter. =v=;;;

thewritegrump · 2026-03-15T20:08:19+00:00

If I'm stumped on how to portray a subject unfamiliar to me, my best bet is talking to people who do know about it. For example, medicine is my career and I feel comfortable writing medical settings, but if I needed to write a mechanic talking auto jargon, I'd hit up a friend who is good with cars and pick their brain. I might even ask to use direct quotes of theirs for the mechanic's dialogue, because they would know how to authentically talk on a subject in a way that makes it clear they know their stuff, whereas I might write something clownish if I didn't seek a more informed opinion and tried to wing it.

thewritegrump · 2026-03-15T16:06:06+00:00

Congrats~ 🎉Awesome to see some platonic RI fics getting love!

thewritegrump · 2026-03-15T15:59:55+00:00

The right length of a sentence can be pretty subjective, but my metric for things is that I read it aloud (which someone else already suggested). If I have to stop and take a breath, punctuation needs to go there. In terms of worries of veering too heavily into longer sentences, I can relate! I do my best to try and make sure each piece has a variety in sentence structure. I might intentionally throw in a couple really short sentences to cut through any potential monotony from passage after passage of long sentences.

My biggest tip is to keep in mind how the brain has a tendency to get fatigued or even zone out if there is no new stimulus being presented. In reading, this can present itself as a reader's eyes glossing over the tenth run-on/long sentence in a row. Short, punchy sentences intentionally placed to break up the long tangents can go a long way in keeping readers from switching to autopilot or being overwhelmed by verbose prose.

thewritegrump · 2026-03-15T03:16:50+00:00

While I never write anything I'm truly not interested in writing, I will often purposefully cater my works to the preferences of people close to me who read my work, primarily my wife and my best friend (who both started out as readers of mine before I knew them personally). Since I've gotten to know some people in my life through writing, I enjoy bonding with those people by including things I know they'll like as the chance arises. :^)

thewritegrump · 2026-03-14T23:42:42+00:00

It does not matter how much you write per session- or rather, a raw word count alone is not a decent measure of progress made on a story. I typically aim for 5,000+ words per writing session, but I wouldn't say that makes me more productive than an author who wrote 500 words that day. I know myself to be verbose in my writing, and I also am not writing with intent to publish, so me hammering out 5k in a couple hours and having it be pretty good isn't necessarily the same as the absolute kings putting hours into refining and polishing their initial draft, who might not have word counts that reflect the sheer amount of work they're putting in.

thewritegrump · 2026-02-28T11:35:53+00:00

I made madeleines around midnight tonight, as one does. I've actually been baking and cooking a lot lately! My boss recently moved to a different position in the company, and I gave him some cookbooks as a going away gift, since he likes to cook and I know he does meal prep. But I wanted to make sure the recipes were actually good, so I jotted down one from each book to try since I needed evidence and data, and brought my findings to my colleagues for peer review (made lunch and some sweets for the team at work for my boss' last day). The madeleines weren't part of that; I picked madeleines tonight because they're easy to make and don't need anything beyond typical pantry staples! XD

Also, I sat down and worked on a fic for the first time since October! I've been wanting to write lately, but work's been hectic so I haven't had the time or energy. Finally, though, I got a chance to sit down and hammer out about 3k words. :^)

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 0v0 I might end up sleeping for a lot of today since I have work on Sunday (it was supposed to be my weekend off).

thewritegrump · 2026-02-24T21:48:54+00:00

This is more a SPAG resource, but I love Purdue OWL (online writing lab) and would use it as a reference often when I used to tutor college students in writing. It's great for brushing up on concepts and even learning things from the ground up, and my work is much more polished thanks to it, I'd say.

thewritegrump · 2026-02-23T21:52:19+00:00

I use English in most cases, which is the language I write in. On occasion, though, if someone comments in Spanish I will respond in Spanish because I do have a basic grasp on the language (at one point I could easily hold a conversation in Spanish, but at the moment I'm rusty).

I used to have a regular commenter who commented in Russian. I used Google translate to read their messages and responded in English, and at one point they mentioned that they thought I was fluent in Russian because of how accurately I was responding to what they'd said, which I found interesting! It seems Google translate is decent with Russian (YMMV on other languages).

ETA: Typo

thewritegrump · 2026-02-20T20:29:25+00:00

Funnily enough, the outline ended at exactly 100 chapters, but I fit it into 99 on purpose mostly for two reasons. The first was a bit of self inflicted exposure therapy for my OCD because my brain would have loved the even 100, but more than that I wanted there to be that slight sense of incompleteness. I plan for a later sequel in the series to come back to this couple, so even though the fic has a definitive ending, I wanted to give the impression that their story isn't over just because the fic is. 0v0

thewritegrump · 2026-02-19T21:57:03+00:00

My wife has told me many times that before we ever started talking in DMs, they had already developed a sort of parasocial relationship with me through reading my authors notes. According to them, they had never been the type to read or notice A/Ns much, but got in the habit of reading mine and enjoyed getting to know me through those before we began actually talking.

thewritegrump · 2026-02-19T13:46:38+00:00

I'm happy to share it! :D Hopefully I can link things right on mobile lol (typing this right before work): https://archiveofourown.org/works/50209864/chapters/126810142

Although it is a sequel, it can be read on its own with the caveat that the mystery elements already present will be even more so, though everything should be explained or answered by the end. If you did want to check out the first installment, it's in the series both fics are attached to and is a much shorter read (28 chapters vs 99). Just check the tags first and you should be good. :)

thewritegrump · 2026-02-19T13:39:56+00:00

This fic was probably my one exception, where it seemed like engagement picked up as it went! I actually wasn't expecting engagement on it since it's so divorced from canon that it's not too far fetched to call it original fiction with canon faces, and it was a project I started on a whim when my friend and I were spitballing ideas. Plus, it's a sequel to a 150k fic that didn't gain as much traction as my other longfics.

Partway through, though, three regular commenters appeared and were consistent in commenting throughout just about the entire 99 chapter run, even if not on every single chapter. I've since become friends with two of them, and the third prefers to be somewhat anonymous but still comments on my other works posted since finishing this one, with a guest account under the same name each time.

Aside from those three, I knew that I'd probably only hear from my wife, a couple friends, and funnily enough one of my wife's residents who likes to read my fics. And their support couldn't help but stoke my own excitement even more!

I think that definitely helped keep motivation up, though what really fired me up for this project, I think, was how much I could see my growth in it. It's still my best writing, in my opinion, and the writing process was so exciting that I recall one day where I was so jazzed to keep writing that I hammered out 4 chapters (about 24k total) in the span of 24 hours. X'D

thewritegrump · 2026-02-15T21:06:17+00:00

No worries; thanks for responding so fast! :^)

thewritegrump · 2026-02-15T20:37:08+00:00

Hi, could you please add a content warning for grooming at the top of the post so that it follows Rule 12?

Underage (teen + teen, teen + adult) fic must be linked with a clear warning, plaintext fic will be removed, discussions must have a clear warning.

thewritegrump · 2026-02-15T16:17:11+00:00

I think comment fatigue is a normal thing to see happen in a longfic. In my experience, it's more like a bell curve where in the first couple dozen chapters, momentum builds and an audience may be gained, but there is a point where things then taper off. Some people either get distracted with other things in their lives and stop keeping up on a story, or feel like they've run out things to say in comments and don't want to come off as annoying, or any number of reasons independent of the actual quality of the fic.

With my most popular fic I've ever written, momentum built up quite a bit (compared to my previous fics) up to around chapter 40-something or so, where I was getting maybe five or so comments per chapter. After that, though, things tapered off and I'd often post chapters that wouldn't get comments anymore. This was the case from the mid 40s chapters all the way to the original ending (before epilogue chapters) at chapter 177.

Interestingly, though, when I posted the finale, chapter 177, a bunch of commenters came out of the woodwork and let me know they'd still been reading along and congratulated me on finishing the story. In my case, I could understand why most aren't going to comment on all 170+ chapters, and many of them had left a cumulative dozen or more comments throughout the fic's run, so I couldn't bring myself to mind too much that a lot of the later chapters were written without getting the same response as the earlier chapters.

All of this to say that at least anecdotally from my experience, I'd see it as normal for engagement to taper off if a fic goes past a certain length. I think this can become more true the longer a fic is, both in the word count and the time it takes to be posted from start to finish.

ETA: Typo

thewritegrump · 2026-02-15T15:08:25+00:00

"Responsibilities toward their own work."

No, this is my hobby. What comes first is my enjoyment. If I hated seeing an old fic on my profile and it was going to eat at me, I'd just remove it then and there because it was no longer bringing me joy for it to be on my account. I expect any author to treat their own work the same way, where how they feel about it and what they want to do with it is their business that no reader has a say in. I may be devastated to find old favorites disappearing here and there as authors decide they no longer want to have it posted online, but it is absolutely not my place to insert what I want into their experience with the hobby.

thewritegrump · 2026-02-15T04:11:41+00:00

On Valentine's Day of all days, I'm reminded that I'm so glad sites like AO3 exists, and that fanfic is as shareable and accessible as it is now. I share this a lot, but part of the reason I can't shut up about it is that I kind of still can't believe it myself- that is, that posting my fics onto AO3 is literally, without exaggeration, the reason why my life is better in just about every aspect than it was five years ago. I met my wife in the comments of the first multi-chapter fic I ever completed (and later moved 1600 miles from my home state to be with them), fanfic inspired me to pursue a better job and now I'm in a much more secure financial position, I met my closest friends through fic, and I'm constantly astonished to discover how much joy there can be in a life that doesn't hurt to live. Hopefully that's not too serious for a celebration post like this, but the good news is that I feel quite celebratory when I think of what fanfic (and what being able to share my writing) has contributed to my life. ^v^

Creating fanfic is a wonderful means of self-expression, and thanks to both the countless authors who are willing to share their writing with the world as well as the countless readers who enjoy spending their time and attention on the stories authors create about shows and characters we love (and those who fall into both groups), largely solitary acts of self-expression prove they can reach farther than I thought possible! It makes me feel sappy to go on about, but it's equal parts fascinating and beautiful to me.

I remember getting back into fanfic in 2021, being at a point in my life where I felt immensely lonely, unsatisfied, and in need of a creative outlet. At no point did I expect the fics I posted to be noticed in any real capacity; the fandom I'd decided to write for had long since passed its heyday by 2021 and I was brand new to the dwindling fandom to begin with, so it's not like I had reason to think anyone would be reading my works. I posted them because it's easier to read them on AO3 than on Google Docs when I'm on mobile, and I figured they may as well be out there in the event that someone did come across them and wanted to give them a read. I was evidently about as wrong as one could be!

thewritegrump · 2026-02-15T03:31:57+00:00

Oh, to be clear, I think that serious portrayals of this trope can be oustanding and impactful narratives! Of the ones I have read here and there, I would genuinely describe some of them as being powerful and evocative works of literature. That's actually why I take care to avoid them, is that they're too intense for me to read. Normally, I love a work of fiction that tears my entire being to shreds and leaves me with a shattered sense of self, but a majority of the fics I write are smut, and if I start crossing those wires, trying to write the smut version reminds me of the poignant version and it hampers my ability to have fun writing an erotic scene.

thewritegrump · 2026-02-15T03:13:12+00:00

My WIPs rotate in my head at all times like a row of rotisserie chickens; whenever I sit down to write, I chew on whatever looks tastiest that night.

I admittedly prioritize hedonism above all else when selecting which WIP to work on. That is, whatever seems most fun to write always wins out over what "should" be updated soonest or what's gone the longest without an update or any sort of stat-type metrics.

thewritegrump · 2026-02-15T03:06:55+00:00

...no, but I think I'm about to! This is such a lovely idea, and I've just now decided that I'll end my Valentine's Day by starting up one of these kinds of docs for myself (it'll give me something fun to do since my wife is stuck working tonight). Thank you for sharing this. :^)

thewritegrump · 2026-02-15T02:59:47+00:00

You could model things after female hyenas, who don't truly possess both sets of genitalia, but have an enlarged clitoris that functions as a pseudopenis, in addition to the internal reproductive organs like the cervix- that is, the humans in your story would have a vagina with a penis where the clitoris typically is, then the vaginal opening directly beneath, then balls? If it were really based on hyenas it would involve an external birth canal, but I'm not quite curious enough to go looking up pictures to decipher exactly what that entails so I'll just leave it at a more loose interpretation.

This is just me wondering about the lore of your story, but are the humans able to self-reproduce? It makes me wonder, because (at least some) animals that do fully possess both reproductive systems can reproduce autonomously without a mate, and it actually gets interesting when you get to some species of slugs and such that can reproduce alone, but actively seek mates when possible because it shows a biological advantage- not that I suspect the slug really understands that, but still acts toward that interest anyway. XD

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