The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge

Welcome to another year of the Fanfic Reading Challenge (FRC)!

I won't bore you with the history of the challenge, this year, but I will welcome you to check out past posts that do explain some of it, as well as include a brief overview of what, exactly, this challenge is, though it does change year to year. (Essentially you read fics to complete goals and win bragging points and an artsy badge.)

This year is especially different, as I had the extreme pleasure of having @noxsoulmate as a partner in crime in keeping me hostage on track to completing this year's FRC. Another valued member of the mod team is @jandjsalmon and speaks for all of us if you need questions answered!

As for the challenge....

This is, indeed, a challenge. Of course.

First of all... you must obviously read fanfiction. As if you don't already!

You also need to download and make your own copy of the spreadsheet, which can be found here, as well as below in the important links section.

To participate in the challenge, you read fics that match the tasks in the challenge. An example of a task can be: "read a fic with a title containing the word purple in it." Should be easy! Of course, there are harder ones.

Which is why there are different modes of challenge to the FRC. These are as follows:

Participation (Complete 1 task)

Regular Mode (Complete 80 tasks)

Hard Mode (Complete 150 tasks)

Extreme Mode (Complete 220 tasks)

Complete (Complete 250 tasks)

The challenge lasts from January 1st, 2025, to December 31st, 2025.

There are badges that go with the modes completed, and even a secret 6th badge that will be fairly obvious if you look at the spreadsheet! Doesn't mean it'll be easy to complete though. *smirks* (Blame Noxy)

Most important of all: this challenge operates on the honour system. We don't check your work, or your reading logs (see below), so I mean, I guess if you want to be slippery with the rules, you do you, and that's on your conscience, but honestly it's so much fun to see how much you can get done by following the letter of the law/tasks! You can be slippery even with following the tasks fully. It's great fun. ;D

I think that's enough for an intro, really, maybe too much.

Important Links and Reading Logs/Trackers

As there is a component of the FRC that includes tracking numbers of words read, most of us use a reading log/tracker to keep count of how many fics we read, including data such as words, of course, chapters, month completed, ship, author, title, fandom, link to the fic, and such. It's a great place to mark what fics you want to read in the future as well!

This year we have FOUR trackers on offer, quite different from one another, so take a look, play around with them and check out their "intros", and choose according to what you think will work best for you!

Fic Tracking Sheets

Juulna's 2025 Reading Log

Noxy's 2025 Reading Log

2025 Jandy's Fic Tracker

Taru's Fic Tracker 2025

Discord

We have a blast on Discord. From general chatter to sharing pet pics to being there for each other during the tough times to forming lasting friendships and making friendships you’d never make in a ship- or fandom-specific Discord, to asking for help ‘rolling the dice’ (pick a number between 1-10!) to choose the next fic to read, to finding some of the really challenging task fills in fandoms people might not have ever read but are willing to try, or finding fandoms someone has never read and is very tentative about stepping out of their box, but they’re being 100% supported and know they don’t need to complete the fic for it to count for the task, stepping out of their comfort zone… we’ve formed a very odd group of, if not friends, then companions (but there are definite friendships that have formed!! Just ask the people who have started watching NHL and NFL together in our off topic channel!).

In any case, our Discord is not necessary, but it is a worthy and tactical element to completing many of the tasks of this challenge. 💙

And.... without further ado....!

The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge! (link)

There is an info/rules page as the first sheet on the spreadsheet that should fill in any further questions you have. It also has more contact info than just this page if you have any further questions and perhaps need a more immediate answer for your needs.

*Occasionally you will run into something that looks like an error, and it may in fact be one! Let us know if you see it. It's hard not to make a mistake on as large a spreadsheet as this.*

Please, first of all, have fun and just read fanfiction that you enjoy! I (Juulna) did that last year and didn't even come close to completing the entire challenge, and I still had a blast because I was enjoying what I was reading and rereading. Others took the challenge right to the completed end. Others forgot about it halfway through but still had fun, and some even went back and filled in the sheet for a really good showing! The challenge is what you make of it, what you want from it. So... just have fun. Read fic. Smile. Enjoy. :)

Second of all... well, we would love if you signal boost this post!!!!

Third of all, we do have our pinned post that includes a link to this page and that will include a link to our Discord and all our trackers as well, including past links for memento and informative purposes.

Since my journey into fanfic is very new, I never thought of keeping track of what I was reading. I just happily read new stories, stored them somewhere in my head and then would go into a sort of frenzy when I wanted to read one again, searching through every authors' Masterlist I could think off.

That's how I lost a few stories I really loved, like that Dieter one-shot where the author mentioned they might turn into a series and I have no way of knowing if this happened or not. (I'm still hoping to come across it one day...)

After a while, I just opened a note on my computer to copy/paste links of fics I wanted to read, was reading and had read, but it wasn't very satisfying.

Then I saw this repost by @punkshort of a fanfic tracker. The answer to all of my problems ! I came across some others while perusing through Tumblr and I thought I could share a few things I found that could help people keep track of what they are reading.

I already do that for published books and also love to set up a reading challenge, so why not do it here also and add more stress to my life. Fun !

Anyways, here's what I found :

Original post by @iamasaddie

Another tracker by @burntheedges

A great fanfic reading challenge, you get to brag about your reading achievements, isn't that neat ? @fanfic-reading-challenge

If you are a bit of nerd or into code here's a neat script to help add reading infos in your track spreadsheet by @sixhours

Regardless, I'm really looking forward to this! Thank you all so much for the work you've put in to make this challenge available!!

Hello! No questions are stupid unless they are unasked. Pft!!!

So good to have new participants! Most of us sort of gather on Discord as we have a very friendly community of under 100 and we feel like a nice family of 3 Aunties (admins), a bunch of cousins (veterans of the challenge) and some niblings running around being corralled (or encouraged lol). But we also have a lot of answers and resources and recommendations and spreadsheet help!

So. As for the clarification of the spreadsheet.

With the main 2025 challenge spreadsheet, you need to "make a copy" of the link shared in the posts. This allows YOU to make changes to the sheet, and doesn't allow anyone else to make changes or even to view the sheet. We don't have access to it and can't see it once you make a copy of it, unless you share it with us or someone else (sometimes people do, for help, but they can then block people again). This is to protect your privacy and to allow you to have the most fun with the challenge as possible. It's also because we operate on the honour system for this challenge. Whatever you say you completed at the end of 2025? That's what you completed! Don't care if you're lying; that's between you and god/gods/your parents/you/your conscience/whomever.

But aside from all that, it's a matter of logistics: if we were all working on the same document, someone checking a task off would check it off for another who might not have completed said task! It would be a nightmare!

All thanks (most, fine :P) go to @noxsoulmate for their tremendous work on this year's challenge.

We hope that you enjoy! If you have further questions, don't hesitate to ask! Or, heck, don't hesitate to join the Discord! We love all the people. <3

Hello! Welcome!!

I was on mobile as well so wasn’t quite as specific with which rows to open, so you get the counting spaces lines too hah. I do hope this helps, though! Let me know if there’s an issue.

I was wondering about repeating fics across the sheet to complete multiple tasks, because I have already read some that I think would fit in multiple tasks/categories, and I know a few categories state that you can repeat fics outside of their tasks, but it's not stated universally anywhere, so I was just hoping for some clarification!

Hey, we're excited that you're joining us 😊

So the general rule is that you can use fics as often and for as many tasks as you like - unless it is stated otherwise.

For example, I used some big fics for up to ten tasks last year, so I'm making it my personal challenge for this year to reduce that and use one fic for a max of five tasks or so. But that's my personal challenge. I know of others who try to never double dip and then there are others who don't care and use one fic for even more than ten tasks. It's totally up to you - unless we restrict it in the task 😉

I've seen a few times it says you can use one fanfic for multiple categories, but is there a limit? For example, one fic that I've read hits five different 'title' challenges - can it go in as all five or should I put it in whichever one I want?

Thank you for your time :)

Hello! There are tasks in the challenge that specifically say "this can only be used once for this category/challenge" - but there is no official rule otherwise on how many tasks a fic can be used for. You can use a fic for one or five - if it fits and the specific task/category doesn't say it's exclusive.

Some people choose to challenge themselves by having one fic for one task and that's it. This is not a challenge-wide rule though.

Unless it is stated otherwise (typically in one of the subheaders) like this:

<<Fics used in these tasks cannot be used in any other Tropes task but can be used in the other FRC categories.>>

The fics can be used in all other categories, just not elsewhere in that category. So if you use a fic for a task under that subheader/subcategory, let's say in Content, you can't use it again for any other Content task. But you can use it for any other Category task.

Most people challenge themselves to use one fic per Category anyway, or even one fic per challenge (unless count Fandoms/Ships/Word Counts, etc.) but those are just personal goals they undertake, and not required, though before we did have the former as a requirement. This year it is not required.

2026 Intro post with Rules and FAQ

Discord server and info

2026 Fic Reading Challenge spreadsheet

Jandy's 2026 Tracking Sheet Juulna's 2026 Tracking Sheet Emmie's 2026 Tracking Sheet Taru's 2026 Tracking Sheet Trinket's 2026 Tracking Sheet

2025’s Completion Badges 2024's Completion Badges 2023's Completion Badges 2022’s Completion Badges 2021’s Completion Badges

(Will continue to update this with links as necessary. This will remain the pinned post.)

REC LISTS!

2024's Year-Long Participant's Favourite Fics Part One | Part Two