#ao3 authors do better

[python333]

YOU SAID YOUVE 'ALREADY READ ALL THE ONES ON HERE AND AO3'? hello pls rec them i eat up parental dynamics for breakfast lunch and dinner (am currently starving)

I HAVE :3 HERES SOME RECS: literally anything by this person, esp in their grim au, this fic was just the first one i found in my likes -- inner child by meatonfork

situational awareness by mactavsh, reader saves the 141 by themselves!

right behind you by mactavsh, giving recs is actually making me realize how many fics i have liked by them LMAO this one is just ghost but its good trust me

platonic hcs w/ roach and ghost by issdisgrace, love this one, i never see any fics with roach--which is hypocritical of me bcs ive never written any with roach BUT ITS DIFFERENT OKAY

whats so funny? by euovennia, youngest member!reader and doesnt understand why they find stupid things funny!task force 141

as long as im here by kypticcafe, I LOVE THE TROPE IN THIS ONE!! youngest sibling type reader is always my fav (is it because im 14 and view all the cod chars as my moms/dads/older siblings? maybeeee)

i wouldve bookmarked the ones i found on ao3 but i disliked all of them :< no hate to those authors i couldnt find any gn reader ones that had absolutely no romance or flirting or anything and also werent dd:dne!

#cod #cod hcs #hcs #task force 141 #platonic taskforce141 #ao3 authors do better #THAT WAS A JOKE #OBVIOUSLY #love ao3 writers #just wish there was more platonic fics on there :<

[ejunkiet]

ej's adventures in romance: the good, the bad, the ugly

i've had kindle unlimited for the few months, and have been on a deep deep dive into all the recs from the romance genre that i can get my grubby little paws on. I've read.... many, many books. so many.

I've made a rec list of my new fave authors in the genre before, and this is not that. I'm just gonna list what I've read, by tropes, with ratings, and you can read my full reviews on goodreads. I've gone there. there are quite a few of the booktok hits here, because they came up on rec lists, and I'm gonna give my honest opinions on them okay. my goodreads!

Before we get down and dirty, have my actual recs from the last month: Heather Guerre remains a diamond in the rough, although she can now be joined by a further two authors: Kathyrn Moon (smutty RH queen) and Zoey Draven, a surprise last minute entry that doesn't shy away from darker themes, but handles them maturely.

other recs are the obvious: Talia Hibbert, Katee Roberts, and our very own @dominimoonbeam (whose book Doors I've been reccing a LOT lately, as I love it so much, and the sequel will be out soon >:3)

Okay. lets do this. this gets long, be warned. >:3

the "grovel" trope

books where the MMC fucks up and tries to make up for their mistakes. a good read where you get a healthy dose of angst and then a lot of making up for it. can be a great cathartic read.

Cate C. Wells has a whole series dedicated to this, "the five packs", one of which I already recommended as a guilty pleasure: the lone wolf's rejected mate". Now look, these books are ridiculous, the worldstate is terrible, each pack is a dude fest that reeks of misogyny, but they're pretty fun. I've read book 1 and book 3. I want to stab the MMC of book 1 with a rusty spork. you can skip it.

the lone wolf's rejected mate however is a ride, with a broken MMC who rejects his soulmate because he thinks he's too broken (literally, his wolf tries to kill her), and then they get captured, save each other, and he builds her a treehouse, yada yada. mind the content warnings, but if you want to read something OTT that basically epitomises the craziness that is the PNR and "grovel" romance genre, read this, and hold onto your butts.

the paranormal romance genre: shifters, vampires and more

Heather Guerre's books. okay, so actual recs. She focuses on characters from working class backgrounds with a sprinkle of the paranormal thrown in, everyone is over the age of 25 (thank god, most are in their 30s), and she can really write. I won't tag Eeshley again, but the "Tooth and Claw" series was their rec and *chefs kiss*. this is still the self-published romance genre, so these books could use an editor/polish, but honestly, I'm a big fan of her writing, and have picked up all her books. (her contemporary romance is also excellent.)

post-apocalyptic trope

Claire Kent's books. Imagine Joel from the last of us as a book series. I've only read Last Light so far, which is the prequel to a longer series that explores life in america 5+ years after an asteroid collides with western europe, causing global environmental catastrophes. I'm not 100% sold on her world building, but this is a romance novel, and the way she writes the characters and their relationships are human and organic, and the most realistic I've come across so far. the world state is the walking dead, with evil biker gangs that rape and pillage. i'm assuming this is an american thing, but can't comment on what it'd be like in the UK considering we no longer exist, due to aforementioned asteroid collision. probably for the best.

omegaverse and reverse harem tropes

yeah, I thought omegaverse was just a fanfic thing too. it's not, and it is super prevalent in het romance. it was never really my thing in fanfic, and the fact it is not a shifter thing was very surprising to me, as knots/packs/heat/rut still exist, but it's just humans with animalistic traits. I kept on waiting for the motorcycle gang in 'baby and the late night howlers' to turn into wolves, and they never did.

So Kathryn Moon writes some delicious reverse harem books. I read the first of monsterfucker series 'a lady of rooksgrave manor' years ago, and liked it, although there wasn't enough plot for me to continue. she writes excellent smut. Seriously, just really, really good smut. BIG FAN. I've been making my way through her 'Sweetverse' series, which has more connections and actual relationships between the characters, and polymances, and I recommend starting with Lola + the millionaires, if you can handle a little omegaverse. mind the content warnings, this is a book about recovering from trauma, which happened in the first book (baby's book, although offscreen. Lola has a lot of flashbacks in italics.)

Otherwise, you can stick with the monsterfucker books! I bought her latest monster series off of regular kindle, instead of KU, and I'm really excited to read it hehehe

"mars need more women" and "fated mate" tropes

hehehe okay HERE WE GO. these books are all about women ending up on planets where due to some sort of cataclysmic event - disease, mostly - 80% of the female population of the planet has died. now as we're not here for angst, the arrival of these women are usually due to some other species abducting them, and they are then "rescued" or recovered after a crash on metaphorical mars, which needs a better sex ratio to ensure the survival of the species.

this trope is coupled with "fated mate" tropes, where basically the rescued/recovered women end up with a devoted alien husband, who yearns until he can win her over (we're all about consent here folks)

the ice planet barbarians series by ruby dixon. this is basically na'vi aliens that crashlanded on an ice planet 250 odd years ago, and have made it their home, living in tribal colonies. to survive in this planet's toxic atmosphere, they've taken in a native parasite called a 'khui' which helps their bodies adapt to the climate and atmosphere. the women in the books also receive the same parasite to survive (they're given the choice), and this is the basis of the "mate bonds" formed throughout the series.

now book 1 is a rocky start, and the weakest of the series. I nearly put it down because of the first 20 pages. you can skip the first 20 pages. it basically recounts the abduction of the women from their home planet, and mistreatment by their captors (tw for sexual assault of a side character, not explicit). the ship malfunctions, and the women "cargo" are dropped onto the ice planet, where they are found by the not-na'vi, who are called sa-khui, because of the parasite.

now the rest of the series is about adapting to life on an alien planet, understanding the culture of the sa-khui, and gaining a devoted alien hubby. look, I read four books in a week. they're fun, they're exciting, the smut is good, and it's an easy read. it's also written by an experienced and practiced author, as the topics are handled maturely, it doesn't take itself too seriously, and it has great representation.

(one of my favourite books in the series, book 7, is centred around Lilah, who was born deaf and had a cochlear implant that was surgically removed during the abduction. the book focuses on her struggling to adapt to life on the planet, aided by a sa-khui that rescues her and learns ASL to communicate, and it's an excellent read okay)

I'd say read book 1 (maybe skipping first 20 pages, or even to part 2) for context, read book 2 (my favourite of the series omg), and then pick and choose from there!! I've read 1,2,4,7, and I'm gonna end up coming back for more hehehe.

"choosing theo" is another in this genre, but it didn't quite vibe with me. it leans into the 'rescued human ends up on a planet that needs women for propagation', with a matriarchal society where the men go to husbandry school to learn how to please women, and all residents of the planet are required to participate in three month long marriages to try to find potential mates to propagate the species. the premise is a fun one, but the first book is not the strongest, and I didn't continue from there. (another rusty spork for the MMC...)

dothraki in space trope

we're at the end of my trope list! I liked the ice planet barbarian series a lot, and I'd kept on seeing the Horde Kings of Dakkar by Zoey Draven recommended, and they are good. (thank you woofs >:3) think dothraki from GoT in space; humans live in small, poorly maintained colonies on the Dakkar planet, where they aren't allowed to hunt or damage the earth. offenses are punishable by death. these books lean into the captive trope, and handle the issues of the worldstate and navigating cultural differences super well, with a heavy dose of consent and BAMF heroines that rise up to their situation and make a place for themselves in their new (objectively better) lives.

i'm on book two now, and I love the maturity in the characters and the writing (which I did not find in 'choosing theo'), and they're an excellent romp. fantastic rec, really glad I picked this up >:3

am I finally going to take a break from my reading binge now? I keep on saying I will, and then not doing that ahahahaha. my kindle library is still stuffed full, mainly with other books from my fave authors above, but also some nice space horror to round it off.

next on my list is gonna be either 'Haunt, Heart, Havoc', a horror romance that I've been meaning to read forever, or 'Dead silence', which is aliens meets titanic in space. >:3 if you read all of this, KUDOS TO YOU, have a lovely sunday ahahaha!

#ej adventures in romance #so nobody asked for this but I've been keeping track hehehe and honestly it's been super interesting diving into romance land #you can still find better writing - especially with actual smut - on ao3. #in general romance authors go for volume and tropey plots that don't do the subjects justice! major romance pitfall #which I blame on the need to churn out full books for consumption. commercialisation ruins quality #tmi

[thevioletcaptain]

if you as a fic reader ever become possessed by the urge to do a popularity bracket with the fics other people wrote and shared for fun and for free, consider:

don't ❤️ 

#just!!!! make a rec list!!!!!!!!! #popularity contests do nothing but drive writers out of fandoms by pitting people against their friends #and invariably result in people being assholes in the comments as if the people who wrote the fic can't see it #like ''oh clearly fic x is better than fic y'' #or ''why is fic c even in this poll?'' #nobody gains anything by you doing a bracket to see which fic is the ''most popular'' #a stat which could be found more easily & less cruelly by simply hitting the sort by bookmarks/kudos button on ao3 #anyway ugh. i saw that one of my fics was being pitted against one of my friend's fics in this bracket that's going around #and i have no idea who is ''winning'' because i refuse to look. but either way it's gonna feel bad!!! #because i want my friend to get his flowers so i want him to win!!! but i also would like to know that people like my fic!!!! #so it's just a lose/lose situation even though i generally don't give a shit about numbers #but this turns it into a schoolyard popularity thing #and the emotional response to having people *vote* on if your work is *better or worse* than other fic is hard to ignore #cannot reiterate enough JUST MAKE A REC LIST #or if you absolutely must do a bracket like this do it in a private chat server or something #don't create a public forum for people to pass value judgements where the authors can see it #and feel bad if they get told their fic is ''worse'' than someone elses #but also feel bad if they get told theirs is ''better'' because it came at the cost of telling another author they weren't good enough #ANYWAY i still feel sick with a super sore throat and a headache & am probably extra cranky because of it #(still testing negative thankfully so it's probably just weather/allergen related) #gonna go make some tea and prep the fic updates i want to post today #cass says things #fandom problems #wank adjacent

[sexynetra]

If I had a nickel for every time a drag race stan account on Twitter screenshotted one of my fics and posted it publicly, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

#had a few moments of panic after marciagate #but then I was like #this won’t breach containment #and also??? #so fucking pussy I secretly hoped they were talking about my fic :) #like wow you saw a video of Nymphia skating and went just like that one fic! #huge for me as an author tbh #also idk if this person has a tumblr but if they do hi!! we are mutuals on twitter and I think this is very funny #and honestly it made me feel better about my writing skills so :) #drag race #rpdr #RuPaul’s drag race #twitter #nymphia wind #plane Jane #✈️ #planymphia #also I think it’s funny that I was so surprised when I saw my own fic tweeted #like. girl. #afaik there’s 2 planymphia skating fics on ao3 there was a good 50% chance #okay I deleted my original caption but #i feel like this doesn’t need all that much context #except that I think this is really funny #and I was initially freaked out but then went haha nice #v funny to have my own fic tweeted at me I feel like Hannah Montana secret double life

[noblogname765]

What I particularly love about Good Omens lore and its deriving fan fiction and art is that the canon (book, show and Neil’s explanations) gives authors and fans so much room to imagine and think of their own stories which still may fit or are based on the canon.

Angel and demon can be man/woman-shaped; can have whatever genitalia they please (or none! or both?); can keep their relationship purely platonic/have any type of sex - fluff/kink/sneksex (holy f… but ok)/other dimension ineffable alternative; can let their wings out and stop time how they like it; Crowley can get whatever snekish and Aziraphale whatever hedonistic. We can easily picture them banter/drinking/shagging/just being themselves in any scenery and time starting from Eden to now. And I love and accept any of it, and it totally fits my headcanons!

I deliberately exclude from my ‘fan bubble’ any fic/art without happy endings, or where A or C are enjoying being cruel to each other, or being sadistic etc. I came to this fandom (or it came into my life?) not for this. It brings me so much joy, and I so looking forward when next week (!!!) we will see where the canon is heading!

#I think it’s crime that it’s allowed to give only 1 kudos per work at ao3 #some fics deserve all kudos in the world #thanks to all the authors - you do fantastic staff and make our lifes better! #good omens #ineffable husbands #good omens season 2 #good omens fanart #good omens 2 #me and good omens fanfics #good omens fanfic #go2

[passthroughtime]

i hope you don’t mind me not participating in sunday six for so long and not updating my fic... i’m having a bit rough time handling my life irl right now

#meaning i’m having the worst start of the year ever #i’m EXHAUSTED fucking exhausted from my living situation and it doesn’t seem to get better any time soon #naturally i don’t have it in me to write because i don’t have enough time to relax. it’s been three fucking weeks. #i just don’t know even my body gives up from this stress and not like something terrible is happening #it’s extremely upsetting also considering that i love writing and it’s the only activity that makes sense to me #and always has been like that it’s in my core #and i. can’t do it. i can’t. i have no willpower or strength and it’s not writer’s block i’m just SO TIRED ALL THE TIME #therapy and years of medication mean nothing at this fucking point. props to me for not killing myself tho. well done 👍 #sorry for ranting i am so frustrated that i can scream. i have actually. didn’t help. #well ahem i hope you understand 🙏 i feel bad that i’ve promised the chapter a long time ago and NOT TO BE THAT AO3 AUTHOR but #i really wanted to keep my promise. fuck me i guess #putting letters together one word at a time

[quaranmine]

i need to learn how to write normal person reviews on ao3 because my default review state is to write an entire essay about what i just read, which is FANTASTIC for authors, but half the time i'm reading late at night or i don't have the time to type it up, so instead what happens is that the fanfic languishes for months in my phone's browser tabs as a "reminder" for me to write that review essay i have in mind, but i never get back around to it.

so i need to just make myself write normal 1-2 sentence reviews even though i secretly want to write essays, because writing ANYTHING is ultimately better for the author than me just thinking about it and not actually doing it

#it's like i have so many thoughts and i feel guilty if i dont put those into a review #so i'll wait til later when i have more time to gather my thoughts #BUT 75% OF THE TIME LATER DOES NOT COME AND I FORGET ABOUT IT. #so i need to suck it up and write a regular review or just leave a '<3' or whatever #because the author cant read my mind so i have to say Something #it's a 'something is better than nothing' sort of thing #except i know full well that with more time/energy i could do more. becuase i know more! i just dont have the time/desire to type it then #anyway this post goes out to the poem on ao3 that i've had my phone tabs since JUNE that i never got around to reviewing #bc the first time i read it was on the train while commuting so i couldnt type out all my thoughts at the time #and then i never got back to it. why.

[mishkakagehishka]

Idc anymore i think i'm a good enough writer that i can say that when i noticed the pattern in what exactly makes a book "good" on booktok (and, bc of that, what makes it popular and top bestseller lists), it feels almost demeaning and denigrating to the entire craft. Idk if i should blame the way tiktok-esque social media has utterly rotted everyone's ability to concentrate and read more than three sentences, but literally none of those books are objectively good.

(Yes, yes, art is subjective. HOWEVER. Art is subjective when you look at style, at themes, at motifs, at plots and characters. Art is still a craft, it still requires skill. I've seen beyond the tiktok quotes of these books. Not even their editors are good given the amount of typos/spelling mistakes. That is not something that you should find in a traditionally published book.)

You look at these books, and you know the only reason for their existence is to make money. I cannot and will not accept that as art.

(I'm on Tumblr, of course I have to explain every point. Artists who make money off their art =/= people who only create art meant to be profitable. There is a difference between an artist who hopes to monetise doing what they love, who creates what they wish to see more of and who happens to then create something that other people wish to see more of, and a person who looks at what's trending and decides that making an unholy frankenstein's monster of a book that mashes all those trending tropes and motifs together would get them rich quick. The fact that a lot of these booktok books become popular because of nepotism is just the cherry on top. It's soulless.)

And to finally say what I wanted to say, it's because none of these books have any deeper message or even artistic value to them. You will find a few out of context quotes or paragraphs, ones written specifically so they'd look deep and beautiful when taken out of context, so that people would post them, so that people would buy the books. Entire books written just so those few lines could become viral and make cash. It cannot even be compared to a hook line writers would post to get people interested in their works, because in booktok's case, those are the only lines of quality and in the context itself, they are often out of place and forced.

I just hate booktok, i hate what modern social media has done to art. It's all created to be quickly consumed, for the few ☆aesthetic☆ glances, and then discarded. Just to make more money for those who are already nepo babies. As if artists needed more obstacles to jump over.

#of course historically it's always been the same #people with free time to create (rich powerful) created #very rarely did you see someone from a humble bg make it as an artist #which is why killing maiming everyone saying Shakespeare was actually a rich guy btw #but like it makes me angry personally #before you call me just jealous - i don't have any wish to monetise my art #my career ambitions lie in a different field (tho adjacent i suppose since i'm a linguist) #i'm saying it makes me angry for other writers who want to make money doing what they love most #it's always been hard. you've always had to have connections or fight tooth and nail for a chance at being published #why? because of how SUBJECTIVE it is #but at least if your skills distinct you and if you bring a truly unique concept you'd have better chances #then modern social media rolled around and no longer can we just publish and disappear no no #WE have to market our works. on twitter on instagram on podcasts on the radio and tv it's up to the authors #i already found that demeaning enough as an introvert #but now it's not even that. publishers no longer look for unique and distinct #they found out booktok is the real cash cow. they look for colleen hoovers who publish fifty books a year #all of poor quality but with enough aesthetic lines that they can easily be marketed thru #the youth who uses AO3 tags and ''omg it's so girlboss!'' and ''it has representation! (not really it's always piss poor rep)'' to market #it to others. who take the same line over and over and go ''omg... this is so deep'' but the lines never look good in context

[hopefulbuthelpless]

Watching reviews of booktok books is such a surreal experience because im finding even the summaries too cringe to withstand and so i go to escape into the comments and its entirely people who are super into it. Like i go to find other people talking abt how badly written this shit is and its all "omg ive been so obsessed w these books so glad youre talking about these <3" like i beg your fucking pardon?????

#HOW. HOW DO PEOPLE UNİRONİCALLY READ THESE THINGS WİTHOUT WANTING TO KILL THEMSELVES #it really truly feels like that meme of where the fuck am i. hello. who are you people and which fuckin pod did yall walk out of??? #WDYMMMM THE CRAWL TO ME SCENE IS HOT. THE 2 MINUTE SNAPSHOT THAT WAS READ OUT WAS ENOUGH TO TAKE ME BACK TO WATTPAD JEFF THE KILLER X READER #circa 2018. like how are yalls standards SO LOW #like im not gonna act like im better than everyone reading smut. nicke btw youre not allowed to comment on the ao3 author thing. i KNOW #i also have trash taste but at least my trash is well fucking written which this shit decidedly is not #its giving astarion “on. your. knees.' played as romantic and also IN THE REAL WORLD and worse written. tbh

[p-perkeys]

After some years of confinement, Bellona Kinney finds herself a free girl. It’s a little peculiar how well it’s all worked out for her, but who has time contemplate it? She finds herself seeking the help of an unlikely mentor. Is it a coincidence or planned? Her sweet escape into the great, big world begins… now!

#marvel #daken akihiro #Bellona Kinney #fang #akihiro #ao3 #ao3 author #ao3 fanfic #fan art #fanfic #alternative universe #what if #I don’t know why he’s smoking #it just fit the general vibe #even though he’s never been shown smoking ever I don’t think #I feel like it’s a thing he’d do on occasion #also had to do Bellona’s scars #keloids and indents I feel would be better than the scales they give her

[nooomagnus]

I’m really…. not sure how I feel about this. Like, I guess it’s innocuous? And I see what its creator was trying to do, and it’s cute, but even if it had picked a better haiku this still makes me kind of…eh. I understand bots are gonna scrape my writing basically no matter what, especially since my stories aren’t locked to ao3 users, but it still doesn’t feel great.

Also imo the point of comments (and fic in general!) is fan-to-fan interaction, regardless of length a comment is a little sign another (human!) person out there read something you worked pretty hard and connected with it somehow. And it has an element of effort and emotion, someone liked your fic enough to even type out a few emojis about how it made them feel — that’s what separates it from kudos. when I get a comment notif, it’s a little ‘omg someone read it!’ My excitement at seeing that I had a comment was honestly a little deflated on seeing what it was

Idk this isn’t to bash the person who made this and obviously they were doing this to make fic writers happy, but nevertheless I have kind of mixed feelings on it :/ curious to hear people’s thoughts

#I would feel differently if it were a human doing this! #very differently! if you wanna leave a haiku on my fic PLEASE do I will be obsessed with it #but the randomness works a lot better on tumblr than it does ao3. also #I feel like this works on tumblr bc of reblogged #reblogs* #but in an ao3 comment section most likely the only person who will pay it any attention is the author #fic tag

[simsukka]

#this feels v ao3 author of me but #sorry for disappearing i've actually been dealing w a disease and i have surgery next month to help w it! #so ive been unable to play sims or do anything #been rly bedridden #BUT IM BACK im doing slightly better #not a day has gone without me thinking about my precious sims <33 #the sims 4 #ts4 #ts4 gameplay #gameplay #ts4 legacy #ts4 screenshots #simblr #ts4 simblr #sims 4 gameplay #the sims story #the sims legacy

[acidloe]

Just logged in to ao3 to see this...

Time to spam a bunch of nice comments I guess

#ao3 #it won't undo what others have aparently been doing but may make authors feel better about their efforts if they've seen the bad comments

[antiv3nom]

so this has been in progress for a Hot Minute, but at this point i just gotta post it, so! as i promised probably about a month ago, i made fanart for one of the first scenes in @nibeul‘s trio swap fic, better in threes!!!!

i am absolutely in love w this fic and specifically these designs? so go read it and check out their art!!!!

#my art #antiv3nom's art #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #gojo satoru #geto suguru #better in threes #fanart #god shading will be the DEATH OF ME #and BACKGROUNDS #idk why i chose this scene i hate drawing backgrounds #NEVERMIND BACKGROUNDS W CROWDS? #why do i do this to myself #also im REALLY not doing justice to these designs tbh #the author has their own art theyve made for the fic #THAT shit is AMAZING #anyways thats the end of my rant go read better in threes on ao3

[cadavercowboy]

wishing you a very shit your pants to anyone who leaves rude or negative comments on something someone else created

#imagine looking at art and not liking it and instead of moving on you say something stupid??? #or reading a story and saying well this wasn't for me....better tell the author and let them know what a moron i am! #y'all are fucking weirdos if you do this i'm so sorry but grow up #micky says #psa #this was triggered by a comment in my ao3 inbox i am not going to lie to you lol

[melolem]

my favorite fanfic trope is when the author's note talks about how they have little control of what is written and the characters dictate the story

#fanfic #ao3 #do i tag fandoms? #i found the most recent one in #orv #so i guess im tagging that #but seriously #its so funny to read authors who are just #“this was meant to be whump but its now fluff” #or even better #“i wasnt ready for smut but the characters decided they were”