Will you fight? Or will you perish like a dog?

Fanfic only exists to fix canon 

Uhm. No, not quite. Please stop assuming that every fanfic enthusiast has a problem with canon. Please stop assuming that every fanfic enthusiast yearns for pairings that aren’t canon. 

Many of us actually love canon. Many of us read or write canon-compliant fic. Many of us love taking the characters and put them in other places in the wider canon sandbox where they’ll go on canon-compliant adventures. Many of us love the canon pairings and want to see them develop further, many of us don’t ship the popular non-canon pairings. And that should be valid, too. 

We all want to read/write smut 

Actually, we don’t. Well, some don’t. Ace readers and writers often don’t have any interest in smut, lemons, explicit sex, foreplay, romance, you name it. But it’s not just the asexual community, of course. There are many others who prefer reading gen fic, who love a good plotfic, who are there for the worldbuilding, the story-driven AUs, the character backstories, the bromances, the platonic character conversations, whump, h/c, angst, etc.

Please don’t assume everyone is here for the smut. 

Fanfic is only for young people 

While the fanfic community may skew more towards the 20 to 30-year-olds, please don’t assume that people stop reading or writing fanfic beyond their 30s. Yes, some of them may when their life priorities shift, but a lot of people never stop being involved in the hobby. 

There is a large number of people who read and write fanfic who are in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and beyond. Many of them have been founders and pioneers of what you take for granted today. Who do you think founded and still runs platforms like AO3 or long-existing fansites and fandom wikis? 

A lot of those authors who write intricately plotted and well-executed longfics are probably in those age ranges. Many people who write older characters with a level of realistic profoundness and real-life grounding are in those age ranges. That person who wrote your favourite fic may be a mother or a father of three grown-up kids who has greying hair and loves a good cup of tea while they frantically type up their headcanons. Please don’t assume all fanfic authors are college kids in their mid-twenties. 

You’re a bad person if you avoid pet peeve fics 

I see this sentiment all over the place that fanfic enthusiasts need to support any and all writers, irrespective of the quality or experience level of their writing. While that’s a commendable and positive approach, I think it’s not good etiquette to dictate what people should read and support. 

Just keep in mind that everyone’s brain operates differently. There are people who have pet peeves in writing that their brains will just not be able to get past. There are people who cannot get into a story when the formatting is all over the place, when there are blatant errors, when there is headhopping or tense switching or oop characterisation. Please don’t peg these people as bad players. Please let people choose what they wish to read or not read without judgement. 

In fact, it’s overall good behaviour to stop projecting your own feelings and preferences onto other people. No one person is the same. No one person has the same brain chemistry or brain function. What you love, someone else may hate, and vice versa. A good example here is aphantasia. Some people literally can’t see images in their minds. So if you read a story and see it all unravel in your head like a movie, don’t assume it is the same for everyone else. Because it isn’t. 

I think the world would be a much nicer place if we all remembered that a little more often. 

Sincerely, 

a Fandom Grandma