overthinking AO3

i’m a long-time fic writer, reader and amateur ao3 anthropologist. i find the social complexities of ao3 both fascinating and massively angst-inducing, and i tend to overthink every aspect of it.

i decided recently that i may as well embrace the overthinking, write these thoughts down and give them a place of their own. it’s been a comfort to discover that there are others for whom these thoughts resonate. apparently there are many fellow overthinkers here.

(if you’d like to share your own ao3 angst or anxieties, please feel free to post them in the postbox via the ask function, anonymously if that’s easier. not sure if i’ll be able to help but i’ll probably definitely be able to commiserate).

A little bit of blog housekeeping:

I don’t generally follow people or reblog. it’s not personal, I just can’t handle Tumblr anxiety on top of ao3 anxiety

I usually post once a day, tops

Anonymous asks are always welcome (although it might take me a few days to reply because I like to overthink consider things properly)

Thursdays are reserved for Hot Take Thursday, where I share one mildly controversial fandom opinion, immediately get nervous about it, and then remind myself that it’s ok to have opinions. other perspectives are always appreciated.

thanks for stopping by.

and suddenly there are two parallel versions of your relationship existing simultaneously:

on ao3 they have just commented on the most emotionally devastating chapter you have written all year

on discord you are sharing cat photos

and i’m never quite sure whether fandom etiquette requires us to acknowledge the existence of the fic outside of ao3,

Hey @sunflowergames23 First of all, congratulations on finishing your first fic! That’s a great achievement 🌟

Thanks for your message. If I’m understanding correctly, you’re asking whether you should go back and rewrite the original story to leave more unresolved problems for the sequel? (Please correct me if I’ve got the wrong end of the stick!)

These are just my thoughts so feel free to take with a pinch of salt… but personally, if you’re already 10 chapters into the sequel (which sounds like a pretty decent amount!) and you’re happy with how it’s going, I probably wouldn’t rewrite the first story.

One thing I’ve realised as a reader is that I experience completed fics differently from works in progress. Once a story is marked complete, I tend to assume that’s the version that will remain. That’s the version I enjoyed and have given kudos and bookmarks and comments to. 

That’s not to say authors can’t edit typos, fix mistakes or make small tweaks. I do that tons. It’s their work and they’re absolutely entitled to do whatever they like with it. I think part of what makes ao3 interesting is that it’s both a publishing platform and an archive. A fic can feel like a living document from the author’s perspective, while feeling like a completed story from the reader’s.

I also think there’s also a difference between editing and rewriting. Fixing typos or smoothing awkward sentences still feels like the same story. Rewriting major scenes, adding new scenes, altering character arcs or the plot etc. can start to feel more like a new edition of the work.

(This happened to one of my favourite fics, and it felt a little bit jarring because I didn’t just read the fic, I also commented on each chapter, kudosed it, and formed memories around it. It was a bit disorientating to come back and find comments discussing scenes that no longer existed or emotional beats that had been substantially rewritten. My favourite line had disappeared 😭 The rewrites continued, and now it feels less like the story has been edited and more like it has been replaced…

maybe I’ll have to write a separate post about this and develop these thoughts more…)

All that to say, if you’re already happy with the original fic, I don’t think you should feel pressured to rewrite it just because you’re worried you’ve tied things up too efficiently. Not every sequel needs to be longer than the first fic. Sometimes the conflict has genuinely been resolved, and that’s a sign the story did what it set out to do.

If you’re enjoying the sequel and it’s heading towards a shorter ending than you expected, I’d trust that instinct. Stories don’t have to justify their length, they just have to tell the story they came to tell.

Hope this helps a bit. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to think more about this, the whole topic is really interesting. Feel free to push back on anything I’ve said.

Hi gentle anon, thanks for sharing this. I’m sure many people will be able to relate. I totally can! 

(i’m going to write some of my thoughts in bullet points if that’s ok because it helps me organise my thoughts better)

what if they do it so much better and I'm discouraged? 

I’ve totally had that feeling where I read someone’s fic and it’s so amazing that I’m just like, “Well, I’m never going to be able to write something that good like ever, so I might as well not even try, and also, why would others even want to read my lesser version when they have something so much better already?”

I think that’s probably a form of imposter syndrome, even famous published authors get it. It seems to be one of those things that a lot of writers experience. 

But here’s the thing: you, gentle person behind this anon, are unique. There is no one else in the whole world like you. No one who notices the same things you notice, cares about the same details you care about, or tells stories in quite the same way.

i thanked them for their kind comment.

but then… they thanked me for replying to their comment and then added an additional kind comment.

when people are mean to you because of how you write,

and when they make you feel small for what you choose to write about,

your best revenge is not to disappear or to stop writing altogether.

no, your best revenge is to Keep Writing

and to write well.

keep making things anyway. honest things. strange things. beautiful things.

am about to reply politely when i see the commenter’s icon

IT IS MY EX-BLORBO FROM AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FANDOM!!!!!!!

become very excited and nostalgic.

but should i mention this in my reply?

or would that be taking too great a liberty?

(after all, this author-reader interaction is based on a shared appreciation of this current fandom. i do not wish to introduce a level of familiarity that has not yet been mutually established)

Character A & Character B (friendship, platonic)

or

Character A / Character B (romantic/sexual)

but what if my fic exists in that third liminal space where there is growing Awareness and attraction between characters who are still technically friends?

How about a third symbol to represent this? Perhaps a tilde could be used.

(this came out of a conversation in the comments on a previous post about an author threatening to stop updating a fic because of lack of engagement)

So there’s this idea that fic writers should write for themselves and not care too much about stats or engagement,

and i totally get the sentiment behind that. if writing becomes entirely about stats and external validation, something important does get lost - creative freedom and joy, conviction in your own writing

but i also think:

“i write for myself, but i post for others.”

because posting fic is not only self-expression. it’s social. ao3 is called an archive, but emotionally it often functions as a community space.

people post for connection, for participation, for others to bear witness to their pain and trauma and grief,

and i don’t think most people are asking to be admired so much as acknowledged. there’s something deeply human about wanting another person to encounter something that mattered to you and go:

“ok, yeah, I see what you were trying to say. I see you.”

especially because fanfic is often people processing very real feelings through fictional characters at a safe distance, one step removed,

and then uploading that deeply personal thing into a shared archive and hoping somebody else might connect with it.

And i think that’s why it hurts so much when you summon up the courage and post a fic into the void and you get nothing back,

and then it’s like,

if you have already written your entire fic, please do not post one chapter a week for 10 consecutive weeks.

fandom time moves faster than real time. 10 weeks is practically a lifetime in fandom terms. by chapter 7 i may belong to another fandom altogether.

and even if i don’t, the human mind was not designed to sustain narrative continuity across these kinds of timescales. i can barely remember my own name from week to week.

so please, gentle author, i entreat you, post the entire fic at once.

have i done this right

will this fic really be anonymous