I was part of a fandom that peaked around 2020-2022, and I wrote a few chapters of a fic in that fandom before taking a long hiatus. Recently, I picked it up again and started updating it but it doesn’t get nearly as much interaction as it used to.
To compare, I got around 8+ comments per chapter but now I get just a few hits.
It’s hitting me hard realizing that the fandom is dead now. The series holds a huge place in my heart as it got me through 2020, and I really really love the fic I was writing for it. It makes me wonder if I should give up writing the fic, which honestly feels just as bad as continuing it. It feels like I’m throwing my words into the void atp.
How does one cope with this 😔

EDIT: Okay you guys are FAST at replying. I really appreciate your insights. I am definitely enjoying every minute of writing the fic, but just a little nervous about reactions when I post it (11 years, y’all, 11 years). So I will definitely tag it correctly when I do post it in a few months. Thank you guys! <3

This is a genuine question. I’m 25 and it’s been about 11 years since I’ve written a fanfiction. I established an entire character for Project Hail Mary who actually plays a huge role instead of just Ryland Grace’s love interest. Long story short, they work on a Hail Mary replica before launch and do a ton of experiments and tests. There’s a lot of science (I did a ton of research for it), it’s a slow burn, and I SWEAR there’s an actual plot. But lately on TikTok I’ve heard that people absolutely despise x OCs 😭 ya girl is already like 80 pages into this so now I’m wondering if I wasted my time writing it? Or am I overthinking it because I’m writing fanfic at my grown age?

I'm new to fanfiction and haven't read many but I was thinking about the concept of fanfic writing as a whole. I personally think fanfics are an actual form of literature. Of course the quality of their writing varies depending on their author and their goal for writing fanfics, and you should always appreciate the original creators work because if it wasn't for them that world and its lovely characters wouldn't exist, but I really don't think in terms of artistic value fanfiction is something less. I would say it's a different form of writing but not something less. What do you think? If you were original authors how would you feel if someone writes a fic of your story with amazing writing?

edit: some other questions I want to add: do get curious of the fanfic authors original works if their fanfiction are well written? I mean do you like their writing or you just like the world they wrote fanfiction for? if you were both an original author and fanfic writer would you be ok for people to knew your fanfictions as well?

I'm really curious to know how much of the authors actual skills shine in fanfiction through people's opinion.

Welcome to the Beta Bartering thread! Here you can look for a Beta, a Co-writer, or a Writing Buddy for your fic or offer your Beta services to fic authors.

Please note that you can request a beta reader even if you can’t offer anything in exchange, however it will increase your chances of finding a willing beta if you offer something in return.

The rules are straightforward.

• Make a comment below with the following information.
• Reply to people that you want to trade with. There is no one making matches for you, reach out to likely people in the thread.

If you're looking for a Beta, a Co-writer, or a Writing Buddy:

• Name and Link to your fic (if it's not published, link something else as an example of your writing).
• Tell us what fandom you're writing for.
• Can someone who isn't in your fandom make sense of your story?
• The genre of your fic - romance/smut/gen/mystery/horror/etc.
• What you're looking for from a Beta or a Co-writer - Grammar/Structure/Plot/Planning/Idea soundboard/etc.
• What your projected word count is.
• How frequently you update.
• What fandoms you are able/willing to beta for or what you can offer in exchange*.

Proposed options for no exchange wording:

• If you do not want to offer something in exchange, please leave a brief note that you are unable to offer anything at this time.
• Note: If you are unable to offer something in exchange at this time, please leave a brief note explaining.

If you're willing to Beta for someone:

• What fandoms you're well versed in or if you're willing to take on anything.
• Preferred genre/types of fics.
• Any subjects you're not willing to tackle.
• Types of Betaing you're good at or willing to try - Grammar/Structure/Plot/Planning/Idea soundboard/etc.
• Minimum or maximum word count.
• One-off (single session) or ongoing Betaing.
• Time constraints. Do you have a fast turn-around time? Is it going to be more than a week for you to get back to an author with notes?
• What you'd like in exchange * for your services.

* Bartering Ideas!

Since some people want Betas but are too busy to reciprocate or aren't confident in their writing skills and some Betas don't write fics themselves, you can offer other things in exchange. Please do not offer monetary exchanges.

If you aren't sure what to offer, you can also open this up to the Beta to suggest a barter in exchange.

Here are a few ideas for bartering:

• Reciprocal Betaing (of course that's welcome!)
• Reading and commenting on their fics.
• Write a fic for a fandom/subject/pairing/brotp of their choice.
• Make fanart for them.
• Name an OC after them.
• Edit/give assistance with a non-fic project.
• Research help for this/future fics.

Feel free to get creative, people have many specialties they can draw on!

Here's a link to the previous ones just in case there's someone in there that catches your interest.

I’ve seen a lot of people, especially in fandom spaces, that for some reason refuse to read stories in first person. I’ve never understood why and as a writer it kinda sucks for me because first and even second person writing come naturally to me unlike third person, which Ive always struggled with.

First person comes so naturally to me that I constantly slip back into it by accident even when I’m trying to write in third. I’m currently trying to write a story in third person because of this (and also because it’s a good exercise to improve my writing) but it genuinely takes me like 4 times longer to write in third person.

Because of the difficulty I’ve been facing I was motivated to ask you guys, why? Why do so many of you prefer 3rd person so much, sometimes to the point where you refuse to read first person entirely?

...and I can not tell if I've become a better or worse writer, but at least I posted! 4 years may not seem like a lot (and it isn't really) but it still did take a lot to FINALLY finish a fic even if it was just a one shot. I'm in the middle of several 10k+ word fics but none are anywhere close to being completed lol.

It's hard to compare my writing from before because I used to just write humor for the most part, and now I think everything I write is a lot more serious (or straight up depressing). But making sure a fic is written is appropriately emotional is very different than creating fun situations, so I have no way of evaluating my own work.

But either way, I'm happy that I have finally posted again! I've been thinking about it for so long but kept putting it off, so as soon as I finished writing I did the most minor of edits and posted just so that it was finally done. I know that stats may get to me later but for now I'm just happy to make this step :)

i don't drink coffee and the characters i'm writing about are obsessed with it, to the point that i genuinely think it counts as a character trait. they all (probably) have their own unique ways of taking their coffee, i would like some suggestions on what on earth those ways happen to be

i'm just trying to gather opinions in it bc i'm working on one rn and ive got multiple ideas

After reading one or two chapters i get an error message that says 'Story does not have any chapters. Please check to see you are not using an outdated url.' I have to wait for 15 minute and reload for it to fix itself. Is there a permanent solution to this problem?

At first I didn’t like time travel/time loop fics, and I can’t really remember why I didn’t like them, just that they irked me. But one day I stumbled upon a time loop fanfic that looked interesting enough, and it was the best thing I ever read.

Because there’s just so much you can do with time loops and/or time travel, and it scratches an itch I never knew I had.

Another trope that I didn’t like was omegaverse. I avoided it until I learned about the humble alpha/alpha and omega/omega pairings.

So I’m admittedly curious to know about what tropes you guys might’ve had similar experiences with

Share the last review you've gotten on a fanfiction!

I just started rereading Percy Jackson and I literally devoured the first two series under two weeks. However, as a certified Leo, Jason and Piper liker, it bums me out that the half year they spent building the Argo II and generally preparing for the big quest is skipped over completely. Can anyone recommend fics that explore that time period? Preferred Leo/Piper/Jason but any ship, including lack thereof, works.

Also looking for recs where Percy is awakened sooner and spends "filler time" in Camp Jupiter during the timeskip. Boy deserved to have fun with his Roman friends and actually spend time with the exchange program.

Yeah basically just wanted to ask if you guys can recommend any. I would love if the story is set after/before lotr but if you have a good one that is during lotr then pls recommend it too. Thanks!

A vague memory of reading this fic around the end of 2021 to the start of 2022 just recently came to mind, and I'm interested in checking it out again except I can barely remember a few details about it. Here's all I can recall:

The story included a scene of Yelena and Kate being undercover spies at a party or something big rich person event, ultimately ending with one of them being severely injured afterwards.

The story included some sex scenes, I remember it specifically including Yelena being uncomfortable with her own body, and her and Kate working through that.

I also recall a scene of the pair enjoying funnelcake together, likely near the end of the story as a happy ending sort of scene.

If anyone happens to be able to identify the fic based on these vaguely recalled memories, I'd be grateful for the help. No worries if not :)

I know the prompts were released like two months ago, but I only decided to participate shortly before Day 1. Since I’m busy, I’ve been trying to write ahead of time, so sometimes I’d write 2-3 short fics in one day just to avoid having to write every single day.

The problem is that I don’t have anything ready for today’s prompt. Would it be okay if I just posted it a day or two later instead? Or is the whole point of Kinktober to post each fic on its designated day?

This is my first Kinktober ever, so I’m not really sure how it works ;( I’m probably overthinking this, but I just wanted to ask!

Platonic ships or romantic ones.

for all those writers who have OCs I want to do a fun little activity. Provide information about your OC in a top level comment (Name, Fic they're from, Fandom, age, role in the fic, relation to the Canon Characters, and a brief description of them) and we answer questions about them as them.

Try and ask OCs multiple questions and you can post multiple OCs

As the title says, I’m looking for Transformers Fanfic RecommendationsI wonder whast it would be like if a human were to go to Cybertron. Of course, I’m open to other topics as well, so thanks!

Hi guys, sorry if this is graphic but I’m looking for an ao3 fic that was still updating. Jaehyun is a bit of a sociopath and he breaks into Doyoung and Gongmyung’s home while they’re grieving their parents death, kills GM, sets their childhood home on fire and then kidnaps Doie. He keeps him in the basement barely fed and injured, and then randomly lets him live with him upstairs like nothing disturbing is going on, except Doie knows despite the doors and windows he can’t escape. Basically taunting him because why are they living like regular roommates when this man is a sociopath?

In JH’s pov he basically thinks he’s God and he’s been this way since he was a kid. His mom was afraid of him and he “had” to kill her because of it.

The last chapter I read Jaehyun got a girlfriend and she kept coming over while Doie kept trying to warn her to run away. Eventually he kills her inside the home and the chapter ends with Doie witnessing the scene. Idk if he’s playing mind games on him by living as if everything’s normal only to kill someone in the house for no reason.

Either way, sorry for the disturbing content. My morbid curiosity got the best of me and now I wanna know how it ends. I tried narrowing the search down to the past two years since I’m sure it was posted either this year or last year, and nothing came up so I wonder if it’s locked or only accessible to people with accounts? Please help me out. None of my tags are working

There's a Merlin fic I'm looking for.

I don't remember all of the tags, but I remember it was a fic where Merlin and Morgana fight and his magic is revealed to Arthur and the knights.

I remember Morgana realizing that Merlin was a much more powerful sorcerer than her and I specifically remember a scene where she makes it rain and Merlin begins to choke her out before stopping because Arthur was watching(I think)

I think it ended with Merlin beheading Morgana? I don't really remember.

I'm pretty sure it was a stand-alone fic, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities that it was a chapter in a one-shot fic.

There's also another Merlin magic revealed fic where he nearly gets crushed by a cave in, and Arthur has to fight with his values and his love for Merlin. I think Lance or Leon already knows about the magic in that one? Idk I just remember he had to use a shield to keep boulders from crushing everyone.

If there’s any poly fanfics for Faberrittana (Quinn, Rachel, Santana, Brittany) that would be best.

But if the fics just include these ships(not being poly): Faberry, Pezberry, Brittana, Quittany, Quinntana - that would be okay too