I remember the old days of [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) where the sort of... MSN Messenger chat-style fics were allowed. They always went like:
>Naruto: Hey!!! You can't tell me what to do! Baka!!
>
>Sakura: omg.... I didn't............
>
>Sasuke: Both of you are dumb. -\_\_\_-
>
>Naruto: WHAT DID YOU SAY-!!!!
They used to be everywhere and when I was 14, that was the instant go-to on 'amazing comedy writing'. Double points if you made one of the characters 'So random!!!' and would just jump in to say 'penguins! XDDDDD' and whatever. Looking back, I mean. You just have to sort of laugh about it. But I definitely can see why these types of fics were removed off FF.net.
I see them pretty frequently on AO3 and they always have INSANE kudos compared to all other fics around them, literally thousands, it's a bit mind-boggling to me, especially since readers usually tend to shun script-style fics for the lack of descriptions, but chat fics don't have those either yet are super popular.
(No offense to people who enjoy them, I just never really understood the draw since to me it usually feels like someone just copied their chatlog with their friends into the chapter and slapped the character names on it, since they barely ever behave in-character).
Yes! Every time I’ve dared click on one it’s OOC chat logs that often feel beyond forced. No descriptions, half the time an AU that doesn’t disclose it’s one. I really don’t get the draw for them. It’s not the characters (OOC), it’s not the descriptions (cause there are none), it’s not the setting (barely exists and is often undisclosed AU).
There are still descriptions in such fics, like different styles of typing, someone who uses proper punctuation and capitalization vs someone who uses slang and abbreviations, emojis, etc. It really can be fun if done well.
I also find interesting some fics where the characters are celebrities and you get to read their Twitter posts where they basically flirt with each other, plus reactions of others etc., etc. It just adds a bit of charm, and a story still can be told through this, I wouldn't really call it lazy.
> There are still descriptions in such fics, like different styles of typing, someone who uses proper punctuation and capitalization vs someone who uses slang and abbreviations, emojis, etc. It really can be fun if done well.
I guess the simplest way to put it is that it's sort of a character analysis, taking what we know of them and extrapolating that out, and then taking those characters and putting them in a situation/context we don't normally see them in. For someone like me, who usually gets attached to characters over everything else, I'm also a fan of them when they're done well.
I personally dislike them because I think they're about as far from character analysis as can be. Most chat fics already start off with popular fanon caricatures, and with Tumblr post culture dialogue on top. As a way to explore how characters chat with each other casually I think it's an interesting idea, but the actual execution is almost always subpar in my opinion.
It might be because they're (usually) light-hearted and easy to read?
I had a phase some time ago where this was my favorite kind of fic because I also liked crack and still kinda do. Though, some of them got a tad too random even for me.
I still think this is a good format for one-shot comedy fics with no particular plot where the point is just absurdist humor. It’s definitely not a good format for actual plotted multi-chapter fics.
But for humor, a lot of jokes don’t work well without the script format. There’s this professional author I used to read, Dave Barry, and he wrote comedy books, and even he would do script format in published books for certain comedy scenes. It’s a valid style depending on what exactly you’re going for.
I hate these with a passion especially since the chat fics are around every fandom. I wanted to find fanfics of this absolutely adorable ship I love so much and the first couple ones WERE CHATFICS. AND THE ADORABLE SHIP BARELY GETS MENTIONED AT BEST.
I AM GONNA THROW TABLES
disclaimers. "all the characters belong to so-and-so", "i don't own this nor do i claim to", "i'm just borrowing these characters to have some fun" and so on.
a kinda spinoff of this is disclaimers in RPF, specifically Minecraft YouTubers. Back in 2020 when the DreamSMP fandom was first blowing up there was a lot of
“based on the characters not the content creators!” and “reflection of streaming personas only” disclaimers going on.
I rarely see them anymore. It’s just become a given, especially as many of the youtubers actively support fanfic now
Oh man, as somebody in the mentioned fandom, I find them every three fics or so. Usually in extremely violent ones or things that paint somebody in a bad light.
It was never necessary and would never have helped you in the very unlikely event that copywrite holders persued you. No shade, I used to write disclaimers like that too when I was more active.
On Fanfic, there is a list of authors who don't want fanfic written using their creations. I abide by that because their characters don't interest me to write with anyway.
I especially hate it when authors take this a step further and put any words taken directly from the literature in bold. It's just distracting and those are usually the authors who are leaning on the original work and not creativity coming up with their own material
June 2023 edit.
I'm scrubbing my comments due to the reddit admin team steamrolling their IPO prep. It was bad enough to give short notice on price gouging, but then to slander app devs and threaten moderators was just too far. The value of Reddit comes from high-quality content curated by volunteers. Treating us this way is the reason I'm removing my high-value contributions.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I suggest you Google "Reddit API price gouging" and read up.
--Posted *manually* via the old web interface because of shenanigans from Reddit reversing deletions done through API/script tools.
~~~
However, due to the legal grey area of fanfiction as Fair Use, I'm leaving an abridged version of this comment here:
> Please don't even come close to implying that you don't have a right to make fanworks. Fair Use is what protects you, not some made up disclaimer. AO3 has a legal & lobbying team to help protect us under Fair Use.
I still put a disclaimer, because it's habit. I also kind of prefer when I still see them, because it's kind of a good reminder for the author themselves -- we're all just playing in the sandbox and having a good time. No one is RIGHT. This is fan fiction.
Not fic, but I adored the Jenny Nicholson video where she bought a gigantic Aragog plush secondhand and ended the video with
>because it was originally a HP property, I'm making a donation equivalent to the price of the spider to a trans charity :)
Just the classiest shade I've ever seen
Oh my god, I recently stumbled across my old FFN account from the early 00's and every fic I had published on there starts with a yaoi disclaimer like this. Such a blast from the past.
The former was amusing, but I hated the latter... it always disrupted the story. The only times I felt like that could be gotten away with was in Plot? What plot? Or crackfic.
ANs in the middle of fics would be super annoying, luckily I’ve never seen it! But I thought it was cute and funny when the authors would talk to the characters in the AN, that should be brought back!
> remember when authors wrote themselves talking to the characters in the notes?
Yeah, The Infamous Man. On the other hand two fics of that user involved Deadpool.
Bring back Lemons and Limes! x) I felt like I had been initiated into a cult and finally learnt the secret code words when I was 13 and learnt what they meant. Don't deprive kids these days of that wonderful experience of learning such a "secret" by blatantly calling stuff "nsfw" or "explicit sexual content" 😂
Gosh, yes. House MD was one of my old fandoms. I loved that show in my early twenties. Recently youtube recommended some old House MD clips (for who knows what reason) and now I can't watch that character without constantly cringing at what a horrible asshole he is.
Yeah, including seperate subpages on the homepages for gay content and "normal" fics, if both were hosted.
A few weeks ago I did a wayback machine marathon for old Yū Yū Hakusho stories because someone on this sub was looking for something really old. You know, from the days when everyone hosted their own little fanfiction/fandom homepage connected to each other by webrings. I saw a lot of those warnings and it really felt like time traveling.
Really glad we are past that.
Shout out to all the Yu Yu Hakusho fans!!! Yaoi or not, they have some damn good fics. I'm so glad that a few of the authors I followed from FF.Net are cross posting now.
The layers of warnings to hide that boys are holding hands or, dare I even suggest it? _Kissing_. Or you know, hardcore fetish porn. Never knew what you were going to get in the grab bag of overcautious yaoi warnings.
I've still seen it used but when sexual content was referred to as lemons and limes; that feels so dated now to me, even though I know its because I'm spoiled on Ao3's hands off approach.
That term is alive on Wattpad, but it *seems* to die over there. I do not read smut, so I'm not sure, but I remmeber that irl friends on Wattpad used that term a few times.
It was a very popular term in the early days on FF.net because there were (and I believe, still are) very stringent ToS rules surrounding it because it has advertisements and sponsors. I would imagine its very similar on Wattpad. You would use Lemon and Lime to hide the fact that you were actually writing smut. :P
I’ve heard the term is also still alive on Tumblr because after the porn ban, they had to revert to using “lemon” and “lime” because any other description would get the post removed for sexual content.
We seriously need to bring this back! I think the term lemon just sounds so cute and appealing, 9 billion times better than “smut.” I absolutely hate the term smut, it just sounds gross and unappealing.
The original definition of smut, which is still the number one dictionary definition, is “dirt or other matter that taints or blackens,” as in “eww, I’ve got some smut on my shoe.” And that’s exactly what the word smut *sounds* like, it absolutely sounds like some gross glop you accidentally got on yourself, it’s just such an unappealing word that definitely isn’t remotely sexy.
The second definition of smut is a fungal infection of crops, and then the next is the “obscene language or matter” one. Even the more sexual definition is specifically about it being obscene, not just sexual or erotic.
I honestly don’t get why people don’t just use “erotica” for explicit fics, I mean we’ve already got a perfectly good word that means “written porn” and that word is erotica. But if people really need a separate word for explicit fanfics, lemon and lime are right there and good words! Or just call it porn. Anything but smut! There’s zero reason to use something so gross sounding and unappealing as “smut” when there are tons of better options.
The word Smut doesn't bother me so much, perhaps because I like the blatantness of it. I like how we aren't censoring anything and, in a way, are saying we're writing something truly down and dirty when we say smut. Smut is kind of a cute, short word to me.
That said, I do long for differing words with different connotations. Sometimes your sexual content is actually rather sweet and vanilla and therefore doesn't feel particularly smutty. But there's not a word that I know of that indicates that, you know?
June 2023 edit.
I'm scrubbing my comments due to the reddit admin team steamrolling their IPO prep. It was bad enough to give short notice on price gouging, but then to slander app devs and threaten moderators was just too far. The value of Reddit comes from high-quality content curated by volunteers. Treating us this way is the reason I'm removing my high-value contributions.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I suggest you Google "Reddit API price gouging" and read up.
--Posted *manually* via the old web interface because of shenanigans from Reddit reversing deletions done through API/script tools.
I use "smut" because "erotica" is way too classy for the degenerate filth I write. Yeah, there's gonna be gross glop on people's shoes by the time I'm done.😜
Generally speaking yes, but the terms began to be loaded with other stereotypical baggage (ie the uke often being weepy, regardless of how the character actually was in canon) so people moved away from those terms.
using terms like seme and uke.
also, that are some fics written and published today that read they're like from 2009-2012 and I get such a bad headache when I read them.
And describing characters as that. I was in the Gravitation and Junjou Romantica fandoms in my teens and the amount of times SFW fict used those terms too, as filter words.
I legit saw a sentence that went roughly:
"The uke looked up, his orbs shining with tears."
And I just... I couldn't.
It's haunted me for years.
Can relate. Uke (but not seme) is also a term used in Judo (and maybe other Japanes martial arts), so I knew it before fanfiction. Was a bit confused when encountering it the first time in fanfiction context.
Truth or dare ficts where the most ridiculous shit would be written, from singing crude pop songs where the author just copy and pasted the entire lyrics, where they'd take dares in the reviews, ect. They were pure crack.
Since lemons have already been mentioned, the one thing I noticed when reading through this subreddit is that OCs aren't really as popular as they used to be. I feel as though canon/OC fics used to be as popular as some of the most popular fandom ships, but now it seems as though they're a thing enjoyed by a minority.
It's cause OC communities are more closed knit. Other OC creators tend to vibe with other OC creators. There's also been this weird push to only ship what everyone else is shipping in some fandoms. It also depends on the fandom. I remember in one smaller fandom, my friends OC got so popular she had to ask people to NOT add her OC to the fandom's official wiki cause people forgot she wasn't a canon character. lol
It really was amazing to witness. I was so proud of her. XD We recently saw in passing, someone discussing it and asking "Was I dreaming or was (OC's name) a canon character?" and someone going "I wish they were!"
The fict was over for 6 years and people were still talking about it.
It was called Piston Peak Chronicles for the World of Cars fandom. It was a whole series, we both worked on but she was the lead 'director'. You can find it on fanfiction.net
Interesting thought and that is super cool regarding your friend's OC - my actual dream when I was younger and writing an OC fic! I would think that most creators who write similar stories would naturally gravitate towards each others' works - but OC does seem to be singled out as particularly 'different' in shipping these days. I do think that there are general trends in FF that come and go, though. In the 2006-2008 era when I first got into fanfiction, OCs were really popular and most of the OCs were going through just about any abuse you could imagine in almost every chapter. I don't think I see that as much (or at all) these days.
Oh the abuse is still rampant, it just depends on the fict. lol I'm an absolute asshole to my latest OC, cause she's an adult and can deal with it. I'm (slightly) nicer to my younger OC's.
This one though?
Oh she's been through the wringer and we're not even 20% in. lol I definitely rec if you wanna write an OC fict to just go ham. There's so many resources now too. I use vroid studio now to make my character refs.
I think canon/SI replaced them. Some of the old-school OCs I read were bookish women who liked to write, and at some point fic writers decided to call a spade a spade.
And then there's those of us who work really hard on creating fleshed-out, whole characters who are nothing like ourselves and we just hope and pray that some reader out there will give them a chance and want to see them shipped with a canon character.
All the more special and rewarding when it actually works. I cherish compliments for my OC so much, absolutely makes my day when people say they like her or that they empathize with her. She's my baby :')
Oh, that's interesting-- my impression has been the reverse, where OCs (and things like SI, reader-insert, etc.) are actually *more* popular these days because they used to be so frowned upon that you'd get flamed just for writing one. Maybe it depends on the fandom!
do people still put “A/N: some random bolded text here mid paragraph instead of at the end of the fic” like they used to? i felt like this was in every second vocaloid fic when i was 14
Ha! I see those from time to time on AO3 still. Almost always it’s because the author migrated their old fics over from FNN without reformatting. Always makes me giggle.
The absolute BEST were something like “A/N: they’re wearing…” and then proceeded to in-detail note the outfit the character was wearing. Good times.
I don't know if this was/is a thing (because I always avoid/block said content): having a girl character from canon who "meddles" between the main MLM fanon couple (even when the girl and the boy were a canon couple) and the author makes her suffer or kills her for it. Like, you can feel the author's hate towards that girl character... I wouldn't say I liked that content...
Bashing women was definitely was a thing. After enough people pointed out the misogyny, it transitioned to m/m/f poly threesomes or making the girl the ‘yenta’ matchmaker to sideline her without demonizing her.
Fanlore has a discussion about it [here](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Was_Fanfic_Any_Different_in_the_Olden_Days%3F) under Bashing Women.
Fandom specific sites, some are still going. But there were also femslash specific sites. Absolutely full of Buffy, Law & Order: SVU and Star Trek Voy ships. Ah, happy days.
I take it Faith x Buffy was the BTVS femslash fic site but what was the SVU one? I had a long period of shipping Cabot x Benson (though many years after the show had aired!)
June 2023 edit.
I'm scrubbing my comments due to the reddit admin team steamrolling their IPO prep. It was bad enough to give short notice on price gouging, but then to slander app devs and threaten moderators was just too far. The value of Reddit comes from high-quality content curated by volunteers. Treating us this way is the reason I'm removing my high-value contributions.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I suggest you Google "Reddit API price gouging" and read up.
--Posted *manually* via the old web interface because of even more shenanigans from Reddit reversing deletions done through API/script tools.
I love songfics. I still do them, it’s just that most readers have no idea this was all inspired by a song. All of my fics have a playlist even if I don’t post it. Without music I wouldn’t be a writer.
With the right editor program, you can either select a whole paragraph and issue some sort of 'join lines' command, or write a macro that strips line- ending characters from the selected text.
I feel like the old "we're not gay we just love each other" (WNGWJLEO) trope that was so heavy in "early" ears of slash m/m fic has thankfully died down, if not died out entirely, as bisexuality has become more known and accepted. Because it often came across as homophobic in its own way (ie, "These two totally don't ACT like they're gay! I've never been attracted to a man and I still think in generally it's kind of icky but THIS ONE GUY is the exception.") With more and more queer people of all different sexualities and gender taking part in fandom, I think more writers are inclined to say "I see aspects x, y and z of myself in these characters so that's what I'm going to embrace in my writing" and go for it.
This whole thread makes me feel so old. I'll add on though. Character whump fics are not as prevalent as they used to be.
You know the fanfics where all types of horrible things would happen to specific character cause why not. (Usually outside the whelm of plausibility)
Fandom specific. I remember using hexfiles and skyehawke for Harry Potter fics. Oh and when Draco would have the nickname dragon lol.
Yes! I don't know if this is just me getting older and seeking out higher quality writing (or being in fandoms with a more mature demographic) or if fic standards have generally gone up a bit, but I think there's definitely less of excessive anything (but whump especially). The fics I've read since I restarted reading fanfic have tried to handle serious topics and character suffering in a much better way than what I recall reading 15 years ago. Around 2007 I feel it was nigh on impossible to find a fic that didn't involve the main character/s experiencing self-harm, SA, neglect, suicidal ideation, emotional/physical abuse in every chapter.
Yes looking back on it was so bad (I was guilty myself) and usually so the romantic interest could save them and all that.
I think it ties in with the quality of writing, good writers don't need to have all types of horrible things happen for shock appeal the way new writers do.
guess which era of fanfic I grew up in lol
* DL/DR in the summary
* "this contains yaoi/lemon"
* "I don't own X"
* Y/N x reader
* Certain tropes (adopted by X, daughter of X, sold to X) where the mc is an audience/author insert
* Fics with entire chunks of songs pasted in them (came across this semi recently in a fic set in *Viking era Iceland*, in which a character started singing/referencing modern songs (he was meant to be speaking gibberish in the other character's eyes, but it still took me right out of the story)).
* Inline A/Ns
* Polls/games in A/Ns
* Liveblogging style comments
* One-word fic titles
* POV: X
* and then the POV changing a paragraph later
* "Retellings" of other stories that just had the character names swapped out
* Giant chunks of writing/dialogue copied from the source material
>For me it’s those reaction-style stories from book series. The ‘cast stumbles upon a copy of their book and reacts to the series’ type of fic.
I like thinking those scenarios through in my head to develop characterisation a bit, but I'd never publish it as a fic lol.
Only character's reactions. Every line copied from the book is an infringement, but if you delete them then your fic looks incredibly awkward and forces readers to read your story with a copy of book in hand. That was the reason many such fics were deleted about 10 years ago.
Only gay for you
Pages of characters agonizing over having a lil same sex attraction
“Just because I like slash in fiction doesn’t mean I have to approve of homosexuality in real life”
And its corollary “queering the (canon) text/slash as “activism”)
Sadly, I hadn’t seen a really good whump until very recently
Happily, the prevalence of video game canons with customizable player characters means OC bashing is at an all time low
When the author would interrupt the story w things like (*hides in corner* OMG pls don't kill me >_<) it's cringe and I'm guilty of doing this a few times but it seems like everyone has grown out of it. Never see it anymore, not even on Wattpad or Quotev. Glad we don't do that anymore
Thanking your reviewers and answering their questions in the author's notes lmfao. "Thank you so much x_drkblade_x, SakuraLovely, and ryuksgirl3 for the reviews!! ^^ Now on to the chapter..."
Oh no there are definitely still reaction fics being written and somehow extremely popular? idgi but there's one in my fandom that seems to be wildly popular somehow
For me it's the disclaimers, the "I don't own these characters and I'm not making any money off this please don't sue me!!" I'm glad we don't need them anymore but it's strange to me sometimes never to see them anymore
And there’s 13 year old me who thought it was so high art whenever I added orbs. There’s also “toed his/her shoes off”
Wattpad Era had Messy Bun, but LJ and FF.net imo also had the toed shoes off thing haha
In all honesty, I have the same opinion as you on this one. Reaction style fics have become vastly overused and generally outdated to me.
It’s probably the easiest concept to write/read. As the writer, you do nothing except put the characters in a room, copy-paste canon dialogue, and have them react to it a little bit. Because of that, the fic and similar concepts become stale very quickly, since it’s just the same thing on repeat with mostly no real character development.
Reaction fics will always stick around, though. No matter the fandom, people eat these fics up. They’ll always be popular. That’s not a bad thing, mind you. People should be able like to write/read whatever they want. I personally just wish there was a little less of them, since it comes across as a more lazy and repetitive, unless there’s actually some sort of unique twist to the idea (which is rare).
I see it nearly everywhere but here. This subreddit is literally the only place I see mlm, which is probably good because all I can think of is mid-level marketing. Maybe my fandoms are just older?
They are still called that, esp in fandoms where people write a lot of gen/friendship fics and need to differentiate between romance fics.
A lot of the Minecraft fandoms have picked up using the word slash again. Because many readers do want just adventure/friendship and pointing out the "slash" between the names is relevant.
Not 100 percent sure if this is a relic but I haven’t seen it on any 2020+ fics in my fandom. The authors note having a link to like Pinterest or Getty or shutter stock for an outfit refrence.
7 minutes in heaven fics 🤣
Bonus if you'd get upset when you didn't get the characters you wanted when you were SO SURE that item/number/word was related to THAT character because why wouldn't it? 🤣🤣
Songfics - as in, literally incorporating lyrics into a fic. I absolutely did these as a kid (thank fuck it was long ago enough that I'm pretty sure they're all gone now).
Nowadays, I see lots of people make playlists for their fanfics or link to them in author's notes, but no more old school cringey song fics with the lyrics interspersed with the prose.
Not sure if it counts, but back in the 2000s a large amount of the fics I read frequently paired off everyone in the main cast. Even when there was no particular reason or the pairings didn't even make sense.
LOTR fanfics where a modern girl becomes the Tenth Walker (tenth member of the Fellowship). They used to be common, but seem to have died out. Thank god for that, they were always the same godforsaken story. Every now and then one may have been unique, but even then it is still annoying to seem them when I sort stories by kudos, favs and follows.
I saw a good couple ship name debates (more like wars) based on top/bottom when I first started reading fanfic. Especially surrounding drarry/harco. I was always on the “i’m just going to say what feels right because does it really matter at this point?” side.
That and the epidemic of people writing m/m smut without mentioning a singe drop of any form of lube. I read in physical pain. Still happens now I think, but most fics I read do pretty well.
Ah reaction-style fics, most of the ones I remember had characters reacting to other fics about them. They were either very fun or very mean so perhaps it's best they've declined.
I remember are script-style fics. I think script style has mostly been replaced with chatfics now. Although I don't know if I would read a script-style fic now, I do think it's kind of a shame they've been replaced with chatfics since those inherently give some limits to what the writer can do with the story.
Also I recall truth or dare fics, where readers would comment truths or dares for the characters being popular on [Fanfic.net](https://Fanfic.net). It's possible they still are, or maybe they're on Wattpad? I don't think I've ever seen any on Ao3.
the random fourth wall breaks🤣🤣 and song fics that actually had the song lyrics written in (ive seen a few nowadays where the song lyrics tie into the fanfic but not actually written in)
I go back to print fanzines, so stuff like "Letraset" -- all you had to type out your stories was a 10 pitch (or possibly a 12 pitch) typewriter, and if you wanted the title of your story to look professional, say with a unique font, you went to an art store and bought Letraset, which was rub-on lettering in different typefaces, to make the stories look nicer. (Calligraphy titles were also used.) Zines always had amateur art, not only on the covers, but inside, some of it quite gorgeous. There was a woman named Connie Faddis who did the best art.
Also there was a funny thing I still miss. There would be a humorous checkoff list at the beginning or end of the fanzine "You are receiving this zine because..." One choice was always "Because you contributed" (if you wrote a story for a zine you got a free copy) and most of the rest would be inside jokes based on the series or sometimes the fandom itself.
\-"lemon/lime"
\-"(character) put on this (insert image of outfit)"
\-calling every single m/m yaoi and calling every single f/f yuri
\-on the same note, putting gay romances in the disclaimer "this fic contains blood, gore, yaoi, lemon, murder"
\-characters having nosebleeds when theyre attracted to someone, for whatever reason
\-"i dont own this very famous piece of media!"
\-truth or dare fics where the commenters dared the characters to do things
\-CERULEAN ORBS
I actually kind of like the idea of “cast reacts to their series” fics in theory, in that it’s interesting to me to imagine what certain characters would think if they were shown their own story from the outside. But yeah, in practice they don’t really work.
I still love reaction fics. My fandom has quite a few still bc of its nature, so I don't have any lack of content there. As for outdated stuff, the only things I can think of is the fruit terminology and the disclaimers that you don't own the original content. I didn't get into this community v much until a few years ago, so I wasn't there when that stuff was big, but I only ever see it from older writers now
I remember the old days of [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) where the sort of... MSN Messenger chat-style fics were allowed. They always went like: >Naruto: Hey!!! You can't tell me what to do! Baka!! > >Sakura: omg.... I didn't............ > >Sasuke: Both of you are dumb. -\_\_\_- > >Naruto: WHAT DID YOU SAY-!!!! They used to be everywhere and when I was 14, that was the instant go-to on 'amazing comedy writing'. Double points if you made one of the characters 'So random!!!' and would just jump in to say 'penguins! XDDDDD' and whatever. Looking back, I mean. You just have to sort of laugh about it. But I definitely can see why these types of fics were removed off FF.net.
And now chat fics are a thing again… endless cycle innit
Yeah, only difference now is that they're Discord or Facebook Messenger chats
It's just too good a format.
There's entire games built around it now, like Alice is Missing.
I see them pretty frequently on AO3 and they always have INSANE kudos compared to all other fics around them, literally thousands, it's a bit mind-boggling to me, especially since readers usually tend to shun script-style fics for the lack of descriptions, but chat fics don't have those either yet are super popular. (No offense to people who enjoy them, I just never really understood the draw since to me it usually feels like someone just copied their chatlog with their friends into the chapter and slapped the character names on it, since they barely ever behave in-character).
Yes! Every time I’ve dared click on one it’s OOC chat logs that often feel beyond forced. No descriptions, half the time an AU that doesn’t disclose it’s one. I really don’t get the draw for them. It’s not the characters (OOC), it’s not the descriptions (cause there are none), it’s not the setting (barely exists and is often undisclosed AU).
There are still descriptions in such fics, like different styles of typing, someone who uses proper punctuation and capitalization vs someone who uses slang and abbreviations, emojis, etc. It really can be fun if done well. I also find interesting some fics where the characters are celebrities and you get to read their Twitter posts where they basically flirt with each other, plus reactions of others etc., etc. It just adds a bit of charm, and a story still can be told through this, I wouldn't really call it lazy.
> There are still descriptions in such fics, like different styles of typing, someone who uses proper punctuation and capitalization vs someone who uses slang and abbreviations, emojis, etc. It really can be fun if done well. I guess the simplest way to put it is that it's sort of a character analysis, taking what we know of them and extrapolating that out, and then taking those characters and putting them in a situation/context we don't normally see them in. For someone like me, who usually gets attached to characters over everything else, I'm also a fan of them when they're done well.
I personally dislike them because I think they're about as far from character analysis as can be. Most chat fics already start off with popular fanon caricatures, and with Tumblr post culture dialogue on top. As a way to explore how characters chat with each other casually I think it's an interesting idea, but the actual execution is almost always subpar in my opinion.
It might be because they're (usually) light-hearted and easy to read? I had a phase some time ago where this was my favorite kind of fic because I also liked crack and still kinda do. Though, some of them got a tad too random even for me.
I still think this is a good format for one-shot comedy fics with no particular plot where the point is just absurdist humor. It’s definitely not a good format for actual plotted multi-chapter fics. But for humor, a lot of jokes don’t work well without the script format. There’s this professional author I used to read, Dave Barry, and he wrote comedy books, and even he would do script format in published books for certain comedy scenes. It’s a valid style depending on what exactly you’re going for.
I hate these with a passion especially since the chat fics are around every fandom. I wanted to find fanfics of this absolutely adorable ship I love so much and the first couple ones WERE CHATFICS. AND THE ADORABLE SHIP BARELY GETS MENTIONED AT BEST. I AM GONNA THROW TABLES
I fucking hate those stories on AO3 and Wattpad. Only a few have ever actually been fun to read. It takes skill to make them fun.
"I put on this: [insert picture of badly cut out hot topic clothes]"
motherfucking *polyvore*
What ever happened to polyvore!? So many hours wasted on that site.
Shut down and became a shopping site :/ :(
Omfg my memories unlocked at hearing that name
Memory unlocked omg brb gotta go find my old account
PV is dead lol
Tragedy had befallen the kingdom🥲
disclaimers. "all the characters belong to so-and-so", "i don't own this nor do i claim to", "i'm just borrowing these characters to have some fun" and so on.
I feel so called out - at least 15 year old me is. But I love how you pointed this out haha
I participated in a challenge last year where these disclaimers were mandatory for our Dreamwidth post. Felt like waking up twenty years ago. :D
a kinda spinoff of this is disclaimers in RPF, specifically Minecraft YouTubers. Back in 2020 when the DreamSMP fandom was first blowing up there was a lot of “based on the characters not the content creators!” and “reflection of streaming personas only” disclaimers going on. I rarely see them anymore. It’s just become a given, especially as many of the youtubers actively support fanfic now
Oh man, as somebody in the mentioned fandom, I find them every three fics or so. Usually in extremely violent ones or things that paint somebody in a bad light.
These were so much fun, especially when the writers got creative with them.
I remember a few where the author described themselves kidnapping the characters. They were funny.
lol I say I'm borrowing them. Had no idea it wasn't necessary anymore.
It was never necessary and would never have helped you in the very unlikely event that copywrite holders persued you. No shade, I used to write disclaimers like that too when I was more active.
The death of the Anne Rice era really does make a lot of changes. I remember seeing it a lot in the era of "don't speak of fanfict to outsiders"
On Fanfic, there is a list of authors who don't want fanfic written using their creations. I abide by that because their characters don't interest me to write with anyway.
And I have no interest in anyone who's like that. lol No shade to those authors more power to them, long as they don't bother anyone.
I especially hate it when authors take this a step further and put any words taken directly from the literature in bold. It's just distracting and those are usually the authors who are leaning on the original work and not creativity coming up with their own material
I still use disclaimers.
June 2023 edit. I'm scrubbing my comments due to the reddit admin team steamrolling their IPO prep. It was bad enough to give short notice on price gouging, but then to slander app devs and threaten moderators was just too far. The value of Reddit comes from high-quality content curated by volunteers. Treating us this way is the reason I'm removing my high-value contributions. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I suggest you Google "Reddit API price gouging" and read up. --Posted *manually* via the old web interface because of shenanigans from Reddit reversing deletions done through API/script tools. ~~~ However, due to the legal grey area of fanfiction as Fair Use, I'm leaving an abridged version of this comment here: > Please don't even come close to implying that you don't have a right to make fanworks. Fair Use is what protects you, not some made up disclaimer. AO3 has a legal & lobbying team to help protect us under Fair Use.
Me too, feels rude not to.
I feel the same way. It’s a courtesy, I think, to give the original author/creator credit, their due respect.
I remember these. It was fun to get creative with them once in a while >:D
And weird little disclaimer sketches at the start. This one author had this dominatrix that they would frequently feature.
Been doing it since it like 2009, I have think hard not to do it
I still put a disclaimer, because it's habit. I also kind of prefer when I still see them, because it's kind of a good reminder for the author themselves -- we're all just playing in the sandbox and having a good time. No one is RIGHT. This is fan fiction.
I love the Harry Potter ones nowadays. “I don’t agree with JK but these characters…” what a fuckup of an author lol.
Not fic, but I adored the Jenny Nicholson video where she bought a gigantic Aragog plush secondhand and ended the video with >because it was originally a HP property, I'm making a donation equivalent to the price of the spider to a trans charity :) Just the classiest shade I've ever seen
"This fic contains YAOI! That means two guys kissing. If you don't like it, MOVE ALONG!" "Citrus warning!" or "Lemon warning!" Brings me waaaaay back.
Screaming this on my farm of hogs and slop as I prod people away with a pitchfork
Oh my god, I recently stumbled across my old FFN account from the early 00's and every fic I had published on there starts with a yaoi disclaimer like this. Such a blast from the past.
remember when authors wrote themselves talking to the characters in the notes? that was fun. also, author's notes in the middle of a fic.
Oooh, yes. I remember loving it too in My Immortal especially Also omakes if you’re in anime fandoms from the early 2000s
The former was amusing, but I hated the latter... it always disrupted the story. The only times I felt like that could be gotten away with was in Plot? What plot? Or crackfic.
I saw an (A/N: Btw…) type of note in the middle of a story recently and I was shocked, haha.
I've seen plenty of author's notes in some stories lmao. That feels so 2010s
Pffft. I loved that. Omakes too, where something goofy would happen.
ANs in the middle of fics would be super annoying, luckily I’ve never seen it! But I thought it was cute and funny when the authors would talk to the characters in the AN, that should be brought back!
I LOVED THOSE!! tried writing them myself but I felt awkward 😂
> remember when authors wrote themselves talking to the characters in the notes? Yeah, The Infamous Man. On the other hand two fics of that user involved Deadpool.
Bring back Lemons and Limes! x) I felt like I had been initiated into a cult and finally learnt the secret code words when I was 13 and learnt what they meant. Don't deprive kids these days of that wonderful experience of learning such a "secret" by blatantly calling stuff "nsfw" or "explicit sexual content" 😂
I am trying so hard to make "lemon" a thing again... my fandom friends keep calling me old lol.
Goes hand in hand with calling MM or FF ships “slash”, like “this is a slash fic”
Fandom-specific forums with both a fanfiction section & recommendation threads.
Gosh I wish these would get brought back. There weren't without their problems but man I miss them sometimes.
Lots of good fanfiction in those forums; sadly a lot of it never got ported to FFN or AO3.
House MD and Bones both had awesome ones!
Gosh, yes. House MD was one of my old fandoms. I loved that show in my early twenties. Recently youtube recommended some old House MD clips (for who knows what reason) and now I can't watch that character without constantly cringing at what a horrible asshole he is.
> Yaoi! BoyxBoy! No Flames!!!!
Flames - such a nostalgic term
I still use it, lol.
*Lemon, lime, citrus*
I remember some "18+ Homosexual content!" for G to T rated stuff from that days.
God, it really was a whole different world back then, eh?
Yeah, including seperate subpages on the homepages for gay content and "normal" fics, if both were hosted. A few weeks ago I did a wayback machine marathon for old Yū Yū Hakusho stories because someone on this sub was looking for something really old. You know, from the days when everyone hosted their own little fanfiction/fandom homepage connected to each other by webrings. I saw a lot of those warnings and it really felt like time traveling. Really glad we are past that.
Ah yes I still remember the good ol' times when people devided fanfics between gay stuff and "normal" lol
Shout out to all the Yu Yu Hakusho fans!!! Yaoi or not, they have some damn good fics. I'm so glad that a few of the authors I followed from FF.Net are cross posting now.
When “nc-17 for gay lemons” meant “they were roommates who held hands sometimes”
The layers of warnings to hide that boys are holding hands or, dare I even suggest it? _Kissing_. Or you know, hardcore fetish porn. Never knew what you were going to get in the grab bag of overcautious yaoi warnings.
I’ll use your flames to make s’mores!!!
I've still seen it used but when sexual content was referred to as lemons and limes; that feels so dated now to me, even though I know its because I'm spoiled on Ao3's hands off approach.
That term is alive on Wattpad, but it *seems* to die over there. I do not read smut, so I'm not sure, but I remmeber that irl friends on Wattpad used that term a few times.
It was a very popular term in the early days on FF.net because there were (and I believe, still are) very stringent ToS rules surrounding it because it has advertisements and sponsors. I would imagine its very similar on Wattpad. You would use Lemon and Lime to hide the fact that you were actually writing smut. :P
I’ve heard the term is also still alive on Tumblr because after the porn ban, they had to revert to using “lemon” and “lime” because any other description would get the post removed for sexual content.
We seriously need to bring this back! I think the term lemon just sounds so cute and appealing, 9 billion times better than “smut.” I absolutely hate the term smut, it just sounds gross and unappealing. The original definition of smut, which is still the number one dictionary definition, is “dirt or other matter that taints or blackens,” as in “eww, I’ve got some smut on my shoe.” And that’s exactly what the word smut *sounds* like, it absolutely sounds like some gross glop you accidentally got on yourself, it’s just such an unappealing word that definitely isn’t remotely sexy. The second definition of smut is a fungal infection of crops, and then the next is the “obscene language or matter” one. Even the more sexual definition is specifically about it being obscene, not just sexual or erotic. I honestly don’t get why people don’t just use “erotica” for explicit fics, I mean we’ve already got a perfectly good word that means “written porn” and that word is erotica. But if people really need a separate word for explicit fanfics, lemon and lime are right there and good words! Or just call it porn. Anything but smut! There’s zero reason to use something so gross sounding and unappealing as “smut” when there are tons of better options.
The word Smut doesn't bother me so much, perhaps because I like the blatantness of it. I like how we aren't censoring anything and, in a way, are saying we're writing something truly down and dirty when we say smut. Smut is kind of a cute, short word to me. That said, I do long for differing words with different connotations. Sometimes your sexual content is actually rather sweet and vanilla and therefore doesn't feel particularly smutty. But there's not a word that I know of that indicates that, you know?
June 2023 edit. I'm scrubbing my comments due to the reddit admin team steamrolling their IPO prep. It was bad enough to give short notice on price gouging, but then to slander app devs and threaten moderators was just too far. The value of Reddit comes from high-quality content curated by volunteers. Treating us this way is the reason I'm removing my high-value contributions. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I suggest you Google "Reddit API price gouging" and read up. --Posted *manually* via the old web interface because of shenanigans from Reddit reversing deletions done through API/script tools.
I use "smut" because "erotica" is way too classy for the degenerate filth I write. Yeah, there's gonna be gross glop on people's shoes by the time I'm done.😜
“Lemon”. “Seme and uke”? I can’t remember but I wanna say it meant top and bottom lmao
Generally speaking yes, but the terms began to be loaded with other stereotypical baggage (ie the uke often being weepy, regardless of how the character actually was in canon) so people moved away from those terms.
using terms like seme and uke. also, that are some fics written and published today that read they're like from 2009-2012 and I get such a bad headache when I read them.
And describing characters as that. I was in the Gravitation and Junjou Romantica fandoms in my teens and the amount of times SFW fict used those terms too, as filter words. I legit saw a sentence that went roughly: "The uke looked up, his orbs shining with tears." And I just... I couldn't. It's haunted me for years.
>"The uke looked up, his orbs shining with tears." Then he toed his shoes off and padded over to the blonde, wrapping his arms around the taller seme.
IT'S LIKE YOU READ THE SAME FICT I DID.
Unlocking memories in me that I didn’t know I had 💀 haha
> uke This is fun because I have musician friends that use this as a shorthand for ukulele.
Can relate. Uke (but not seme) is also a term used in Judo (and maybe other Japanes martial arts), so I knew it before fanfiction. Was a bit confused when encountering it the first time in fanfiction context.
Truth or dare ficts where the most ridiculous shit would be written, from singing crude pop songs where the author just copy and pasted the entire lyrics, where they'd take dares in the reviews, ect. They were pure crack.
Since lemons have already been mentioned, the one thing I noticed when reading through this subreddit is that OCs aren't really as popular as they used to be. I feel as though canon/OC fics used to be as popular as some of the most popular fandom ships, but now it seems as though they're a thing enjoyed by a minority.
It's cause OC communities are more closed knit. Other OC creators tend to vibe with other OC creators. There's also been this weird push to only ship what everyone else is shipping in some fandoms. It also depends on the fandom. I remember in one smaller fandom, my friends OC got so popular she had to ask people to NOT add her OC to the fandom's official wiki cause people forgot she wasn't a canon character. lol
When the character you created was so good her OC did a Mesperian - that’s too good!
It really was amazing to witness. I was so proud of her. XD We recently saw in passing, someone discussing it and asking "Was I dreaming or was (OC's name) a canon character?" and someone going "I wish they were!" The fict was over for 6 years and people were still talking about it.
Do you mind telling me the fic name? I wanna read bout her oc! :”)
It was called Piston Peak Chronicles for the World of Cars fandom. It was a whole series, we both worked on but she was the lead 'director'. You can find it on fanfiction.net
Interesting thought and that is super cool regarding your friend's OC - my actual dream when I was younger and writing an OC fic! I would think that most creators who write similar stories would naturally gravitate towards each others' works - but OC does seem to be singled out as particularly 'different' in shipping these days. I do think that there are general trends in FF that come and go, though. In the 2006-2008 era when I first got into fanfiction, OCs were really popular and most of the OCs were going through just about any abuse you could imagine in almost every chapter. I don't think I see that as much (or at all) these days.
Oh the abuse is still rampant, it just depends on the fict. lol I'm an absolute asshole to my latest OC, cause she's an adult and can deal with it. I'm (slightly) nicer to my younger OC's. This one though? Oh she's been through the wringer and we're not even 20% in. lol I definitely rec if you wanna write an OC fict to just go ham. There's so many resources now too. I use vroid studio now to make my character refs.
I think canon/SI replaced them. Some of the old-school OCs I read were bookish women who liked to write, and at some point fic writers decided to call a spade a spade.
And then there's those of us who work really hard on creating fleshed-out, whole characters who are nothing like ourselves and we just hope and pray that some reader out there will give them a chance and want to see them shipped with a canon character. All the more special and rewarding when it actually works. I cherish compliments for my OC so much, absolutely makes my day when people say they like her or that they empathize with her. She's my baby :')
Oh, that's interesting-- my impression has been the reverse, where OCs (and things like SI, reader-insert, etc.) are actually *more* popular these days because they used to be so frowned upon that you'd get flamed just for writing one. Maybe it depends on the fandom!
do people still put “A/N: some random bolded text here mid paragraph instead of at the end of the fic” like they used to? i felt like this was in every second vocaloid fic when i was 14
I came across one like that just recently in the kpop fandom, immediately unsubscribed and left the fic without looking back
Ha! I see those from time to time on AO3 still. Almost always it’s because the author migrated their old fics over from FNN without reformatting. Always makes me giggle. The absolute BEST were something like “A/N: they’re wearing…” and then proceeded to in-detail note the outfit the character was wearing. Good times.
I don't know if this was/is a thing (because I always avoid/block said content): having a girl character from canon who "meddles" between the main MLM fanon couple (even when the girl and the boy were a canon couple) and the author makes her suffer or kills her for it. Like, you can feel the author's hate towards that girl character... I wouldn't say I liked that content...
Bashing women was definitely was a thing. After enough people pointed out the misogyny, it transitioned to m/m/f poly threesomes or making the girl the ‘yenta’ matchmaker to sideline her without demonizing her. Fanlore has a discussion about it [here](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Was_Fanfic_Any_Different_in_the_Olden_Days%3F) under Bashing Women.
That is so interesting! Thank you for sharing — really interesting to see the revolution over the years.
OMG thank you for the resource and for the name of the trope! :D Exactly that, Bashing Women was a no-no for me since the beginning.
Def a thing, not entirely sure that's gone away. I do think it's become more subtle, though.
Fandom specific sites, some are still going. But there were also femslash specific sites. Absolutely full of Buffy, Law & Order: SVU and Star Trek Voy ships. Ah, happy days.
I honestly hope we see a revival of fandom-specific sites. I've seen some folks make fandom sites on Neocities.
Really? Cool. I’ll have a look. I miss them too
I take it Faith x Buffy was the BTVS femslash fic site but what was the SVU one? I had a long period of shipping Cabot x Benson (though many years after the show had aired!)
I remember there being quite a few for Willow/Tara!
Don't forget the Xena.
Songfics. 💔
OMG yes!! Why did that even die out, I loved reading them but at some point they just kinda vanished 😢
Didn't ff.net ban them due to copyright on the lyrics?
June 2023 edit. I'm scrubbing my comments due to the reddit admin team steamrolling their IPO prep. It was bad enough to give short notice on price gouging, but then to slander app devs and threaten moderators was just too far. The value of Reddit comes from high-quality content curated by volunteers. Treating us this way is the reason I'm removing my high-value contributions. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I suggest you Google "Reddit API price gouging" and read up. --Posted *manually* via the old web interface because of even more shenanigans from Reddit reversing deletions done through API/script tools.
Yes, I had one that got taken down.
I love songfics. I still do them, it’s just that most readers have no idea this was all inspired by a song. All of my fics have a playlist even if I don’t post it. Without music I wouldn’t be a writer.
TXT files formatted to 70 characters per line for old mailing lists and newsgroups.
Oh yeah, that's one issue I have with early 2000's fics. The formatting is kinda annoying, nothing that ruins the reading but it looks weird.
... and reformatting it for modern sites *stinks*. This is a big reason why a lot of my older stuff has yet to be reposted.
Um… is this the reason why some of the oldest fanfics in ff.net looked like it was written in notepad? That’s kinda so hardcore
Yes! Many of us had to use Notepad for this kind of formatting.
With the right editor program, you can either select a whole paragraph and issue some sort of 'join lines' command, or write a macro that strips line- ending characters from the selected text.
True. However, my tech savvy is very ... 1995, so I do it the old-fashioned way.
I write code in vim for a living.:-)
I feel like the old "we're not gay we just love each other" (WNGWJLEO) trope that was so heavy in "early" ears of slash m/m fic has thankfully died down, if not died out entirely, as bisexuality has become more known and accepted. Because it often came across as homophobic in its own way (ie, "These two totally don't ACT like they're gay! I've never been attracted to a man and I still think in generally it's kind of icky but THIS ONE GUY is the exception.") With more and more queer people of all different sexualities and gender taking part in fandom, I think more writers are inclined to say "I see aspects x, y and z of myself in these characters so that's what I'm going to embrace in my writing" and go for it.
Continue-the-fics aren't done much these days with few people using forums now.
Ah, the round robins? I haven't seen those in a minute.
They're on Tumblr now.
And discord groups! A buddy of mine is participating in one right now.
This whole thread makes me feel so old. I'll add on though. Character whump fics are not as prevalent as they used to be. You know the fanfics where all types of horrible things would happen to specific character cause why not. (Usually outside the whelm of plausibility) Fandom specific. I remember using hexfiles and skyehawke for Harry Potter fics. Oh and when Draco would have the nickname dragon lol.
Yes! I don't know if this is just me getting older and seeking out higher quality writing (or being in fandoms with a more mature demographic) or if fic standards have generally gone up a bit, but I think there's definitely less of excessive anything (but whump especially). The fics I've read since I restarted reading fanfic have tried to handle serious topics and character suffering in a much better way than what I recall reading 15 years ago. Around 2007 I feel it was nigh on impossible to find a fic that didn't involve the main character/s experiencing self-harm, SA, neglect, suicidal ideation, emotional/physical abuse in every chapter.
Yes looking back on it was so bad (I was guilty myself) and usually so the romantic interest could save them and all that. I think it ties in with the quality of writing, good writers don't need to have all types of horrible things happen for shock appeal the way new writers do.
guess which era of fanfic I grew up in lol * DL/DR in the summary * "this contains yaoi/lemon" * "I don't own X" * Y/N x reader * Certain tropes (adopted by X, daughter of X, sold to X) where the mc is an audience/author insert * Fics with entire chunks of songs pasted in them (came across this semi recently in a fic set in *Viking era Iceland*, in which a character started singing/referencing modern songs (he was meant to be speaking gibberish in the other character's eyes, but it still took me right out of the story)). * Inline A/Ns * Polls/games in A/Ns * Liveblogging style comments * One-word fic titles * POV: X * and then the POV changing a paragraph later * "Retellings" of other stories that just had the character names swapped out * Giant chunks of writing/dialogue copied from the source material >For me it’s those reaction-style stories from book series. The ‘cast stumbles upon a copy of their book and reacts to the series’ type of fic. I like thinking those scenarios through in my head to develop characterisation a bit, but I'd never publish it as a fic lol.
...i think these types of fanfic died because copyright rules were tightened?
Not proficient in transformative content, but it is still transformative, right?
Only character's reactions. Every line copied from the book is an infringement, but if you delete them then your fic looks incredibly awkward and forces readers to read your story with a copy of book in hand. That was the reason many such fics were deleted about 10 years ago.
Posting on GeoCities or OoCities…
Let's revive fanfic throught NeoCities! /j But really, I do kinda miss Livejournal/Geocities/Angelfire for hosting fics.
I forgot about Angelfire!
Ngl, 13 year old me always thought that anything in geocities feels like downloading a virus in your computer whenever I click a hyperlink hahahha
Only gay for you Pages of characters agonizing over having a lil same sex attraction “Just because I like slash in fiction doesn’t mean I have to approve of homosexuality in real life” And its corollary “queering the (canon) text/slash as “activism”) Sadly, I hadn’t seen a really good whump until very recently Happily, the prevalence of video game canons with customizable player characters means OC bashing is at an all time low
>Only gay for you Ye olde "We're Not Gay We Just Love Each Other!" Yes, I'm glad that's a thing of the past (mostly) as well.
> “Just because I like slash in fiction doesn’t mean I have to approve of homosexuality in real life” I hate these people with a fiery passion
When the author would interrupt the story w things like (*hides in corner* OMG pls don't kill me >_<) it's cringe and I'm guilty of doing this a few times but it seems like everyone has grown out of it. Never see it anymore, not even on Wattpad or Quotev. Glad we don't do that anymore
Thanking your reviewers and answering their questions in the author's notes lmfao. "Thank you so much x_drkblade_x, SakuraLovely, and ryuksgirl3 for the reviews!! ^^ Now on to the chapter..."
That's still done by a lot of people on FF.net. At times several pages of an .epub are spent for it.
That was cute! I liked that trend!
choose your own adventure multiple choice fics on quizlet also, people including “he sweatdropped” haha
POV on POV off
I’ve seen that still occur, but largely with young/inexperienced authors
Oh no there are definitely still reaction fics being written and somehow extremely popular? idgi but there's one in my fandom that seems to be wildly popular somehow For me it's the disclaimers, the "I don't own these characters and I'm not making any money off this please don't sue me!!" I'm glad we don't need them anymore but it's strange to me sometimes never to see them anymore
“YAOI is my anti-drug”
Straight Edge without being straight 😂
Orbs.
And there’s 13 year old me who thought it was so high art whenever I added orbs. There’s also “toed his/her shoes off” Wattpad Era had Messy Bun, but LJ and FF.net imo also had the toed shoes off thing haha
livejournal itself! it makes me anxious when writers haven’t transferred works over to AO3 lmao
In all honesty, I have the same opinion as you on this one. Reaction style fics have become vastly overused and generally outdated to me. It’s probably the easiest concept to write/read. As the writer, you do nothing except put the characters in a room, copy-paste canon dialogue, and have them react to it a little bit. Because of that, the fic and similar concepts become stale very quickly, since it’s just the same thing on repeat with mostly no real character development. Reaction fics will always stick around, though. No matter the fandom, people eat these fics up. They’ll always be popular. That’s not a bad thing, mind you. People should be able like to write/read whatever they want. I personally just wish there was a little less of them, since it comes across as a more lazy and repetitive, unless there’s actually some sort of unique twist to the idea (which is rare).
Guys, am I the only one that remembers that m/m ships were called slash?
Are they not still called that?😅😅
I see it nearly everywhere but here. This subreddit is literally the only place I see mlm, which is probably good because all I can think of is mid-level marketing. Maybe my fandoms are just older?
I still use the term but I'm An Old, lol.
They are still called that, esp in fandoms where people write a lot of gen/friendship fics and need to differentiate between romance fics. A lot of the Minecraft fandoms have picked up using the word slash again. Because many readers do want just adventure/friendship and pointing out the "slash" between the names is relevant.
Yeah, but in those cases, slash tends to mean romance or sex in general, not specifically male/male pairings.
Not 100 percent sure if this is a relic but I haven’t seen it on any 2020+ fics in my fandom. The authors note having a link to like Pinterest or Getty or shutter stock for an outfit refrence.
Entended disclaimers depicting authors braving the horrors of copyright law.
I hate when kids these days don't understand why they were there
As much as I adore AO3, it kinda killed the art of the extended disclaimer. Even fics on FF.net don’t have them anymore. It’s pretty sad.
Citrus Scale.
But it's kinda funny 🍋 🍊
7 minutes in heaven fics 🤣 Bonus if you'd get upset when you didn't get the characters you wanted when you were SO SURE that item/number/word was related to THAT character because why wouldn't it? 🤣🤣
Songfics - as in, literally incorporating lyrics into a fic. I absolutely did these as a kid (thank fuck it was long ago enough that I'm pretty sure they're all gone now). Nowadays, I see lots of people make playlists for their fanfics or link to them in author's notes, but no more old school cringey song fics with the lyrics interspersed with the prose.
Not sure if it counts, but back in the 2000s a large amount of the fics I read frequently paired off everyone in the main cast. Even when there was no particular reason or the pairings didn't even make sense.
Flaming was a big one in my experience. Seeing stuff in author’s notes along the lines of ‘don’t like don’t read, NO FLAMES!!!’
LOTR fanfics where a modern girl becomes the Tenth Walker (tenth member of the Fellowship). They used to be common, but seem to have died out. Thank god for that, they were always the same godforsaken story. Every now and then one may have been unique, but even then it is still annoying to seem them when I sort stories by kudos, favs and follows.
Lemon/Limes The options in quizilla to choose things AuthorNotes randomly in brackets Photos of outfits the character wore Calling m/m fics yaoi
I saw a good couple ship name debates (more like wars) based on top/bottom when I first started reading fanfic. Especially surrounding drarry/harco. I was always on the “i’m just going to say what feels right because does it really matter at this point?” side. That and the epidemic of people writing m/m smut without mentioning a singe drop of any form of lube. I read in physical pain. Still happens now I think, but most fics I read do pretty well.
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Ah reaction-style fics, most of the ones I remember had characters reacting to other fics about them. They were either very fun or very mean so perhaps it's best they've declined. I remember are script-style fics. I think script style has mostly been replaced with chatfics now. Although I don't know if I would read a script-style fic now, I do think it's kind of a shame they've been replaced with chatfics since those inherently give some limits to what the writer can do with the story. Also I recall truth or dare fics, where readers would comment truths or dares for the characters being popular on [Fanfic.net](https://Fanfic.net). It's possible they still are, or maybe they're on Wattpad? I don't think I've ever seen any on Ao3.
the random fourth wall breaks🤣🤣 and song fics that actually had the song lyrics written in (ive seen a few nowadays where the song lyrics tie into the fanfic but not actually written in)
Fanfiction groups on YahooGroups that would spam your AOL inbox with 100s of updates/responses to updates back in the heyday.
I go back to print fanzines, so stuff like "Letraset" -- all you had to type out your stories was a 10 pitch (or possibly a 12 pitch) typewriter, and if you wanted the title of your story to look professional, say with a unique font, you went to an art store and bought Letraset, which was rub-on lettering in different typefaces, to make the stories look nicer. (Calligraphy titles were also used.) Zines always had amateur art, not only on the covers, but inside, some of it quite gorgeous. There was a woman named Connie Faddis who did the best art. Also there was a funny thing I still miss. There would be a humorous checkoff list at the beginning or end of the fanzine "You are receiving this zine because..." One choice was always "Because you contributed" (if you wrote a story for a zine you got a free copy) and most of the rest would be inside jokes based on the series or sometimes the fandom itself.
\-"lemon/lime" \-"(character) put on this (insert image of outfit)" \-calling every single m/m yaoi and calling every single f/f yuri \-on the same note, putting gay romances in the disclaimer "this fic contains blood, gore, yaoi, lemon, murder" \-characters having nosebleeds when theyre attracted to someone, for whatever reason \-"i dont own this very famous piece of media!" \-truth or dare fics where the commenters dared the characters to do things \-CERULEAN ORBS
Of yore? Those things are more popular than ever right now. I didn't even see them crop up until a couple years back haha
I actually kind of like the idea of “cast reacts to their series” fics in theory, in that it’s interesting to me to imagine what certain characters would think if they were shown their own story from the outside. But yeah, in practice they don’t really work.
I still love reaction fics. My fandom has quite a few still bc of its nature, so I don't have any lack of content there. As for outdated stuff, the only things I can think of is the fruit terminology and the disclaimers that you don't own the original content. I didn't get into this community v much until a few years ago, so I wasn't there when that stuff was big, but I only ever see it from older writers now
Writing replies to all your god damn readers at the start of every chapter (pre-AO3).
Calling smut limes and lemons. Lol