#data  analytics

And in case you feel overwhelmed by this document, I have provided a summary on what this means for you. I read the whole thing and listed everything they can do with your information in list format for people who TL;DR or felt like the legal jargon was too confusing:

Please, for the love of god, read this. This isn't about "user data" or politics. They are selling your home address, immigration status, mental health conditions, and personal identifiers to your service providers and government authorities.

I am a Serbian shepard living in Australia. I am 777 years old and make 67$ a year. I like to watch videos of bread falling for 10 hours, people beating the world record for most cookies created in 24 hours in Minecraft, and amsr coffee roleplay porn. I have 3 wifes, 24 husbands and 2√5 children.

I live in a mansion on top of Australia's tallest mountain and have 3 kangaroos and 0.5 cats. My deepest darkest secret is that I hate watermelons. I also love pneumonia and selling my data to companies.

Have you ever stayed up until 2 am after publishing a fic that you are damn proud of, refreshing your AO3 page compulsively, only to find an empty inbox? Ever convinced yourself the lack of engagement was due to fandom saturation, only to be tornado-kicked in your ego when another fic gained HUGE engagement within just two months? Ever doubted your skills as a writer, wondering if you missed some secret tricks or magic words?

Good news, this post is just for you! I did a verb frequency analysis on three loudly applauded long fics from the Astarion/Tav tag to have a sneak peek into their success. All three fics were 1) first published this year with over 150,000 words, 2) received hundreds of kudos shortly after release, and 3) written by prodigy writers who, at some point, churned out over 100k words in about two months. (That is 12,500 words per week, no break!)

For a side-by-side comparison, I also ran the analysis on three noob fics—amateur works that received much less engagement over a much longer period. The result is striking. Now, in the spirit of celebrating the unparalleled talents of these prodigy writers, let's delve right into it.

Check out Noob No.1.

Standard, boring verbs in the Top 25, mostly action verbs. Nothing interesting among those that appear more than five times per 10000 words. So, meh. Won't read.

Now let's compare it with the pro No.1's fic.

Would you look at that striking difference? Not just a few, but all top 25 verbs exceed the 5 per 10000 threshold. Incredible! And a lot more fancy verbs. We see curl; we see burn; we see tremble; we see whisper and murmur. Keep in mind, it's a >150k fic. These verbs must be recurring themes to reach the top of the list.

Hmm, intriguing, isn't it? Is this how the pros set themselves apart from the fellow noobs? By repeating verbs often and sticking to certain fancier words? Let's look at more examples.

Another fic from another noob.

Noob No.2 has some verbs exceeding the 5 per 10000 threshold, but they are still pretty standard action words. There's no magic, no… spark, you know? Probably on my DNF list.

Let's see how the Pro handles it.

Wow! Once again, all Top 25 make it past the threshold. A round of applause for our pros, anyone? And check out those fancy verbs; we have some familiar faces there—Curl, burn, tremble, whisper, murmur. Are we onto something? Could these words be the "open sesame" of fic writing?

Let's not waste any time and compare Noob No.3 with Pro No.3.

Once again, only a few verbs go over the threshold, all boring, common words. Now, what about the Pro?

The third time's the charm. ALL top 25 once again surpass the threshold. More familiar faces—Curl, burn, tremble, whisper, murmur. Is this an AO3 magic spell? Clutch your Genie-Powered Talisman, repeat the incantation enough times, and all your writer's wildest wet dreams will come true.

So, what have we learned? What do the pros share in common, and what are their secrets to popularity?

First, you must write fast. Stephen King-level fast. 1,000 words a day is just rookie numbers. Push yourself to at least 2,000 words a day. Churn out those words like a machine.

Second. Absolutely do repeat your verbs. Forget everything your middle school English teachers taught you. Use the same few verbs over and over. Never even attempt to diversify your vocabulary.

And third, the magic words. Everything must curl, and burn. Every line must be whispered and murmured. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. And Voilà! Magic infused. The readers are addicted.

Now you may wonder, 'Hmm, do all popular fics follow the same verb patterns? '

The answer is, surprisingly, no.

I analyzed two of the Top 10 long fics in the Astarion/Tav tag of all time, and here are the results:

No Stephen King-level speed. No over-repetition of verbs. No magic words. Gee! If I didn't know they were from respected writers, I would have mistaken them for noobs! More kudos to our emerging prodigies! You lot have truly found the shortcut to success, haven't you?

I have hidden all the titles since this is a data analysis post, not a fic promotion one. However! If any of you madly talented prodigies recognise your phenomenal masterpiece, please do not hesitate to claim the spotlight! I am forever an ardent student of writing, and I would curl my toes and murmur your names like gospel as the knowledge burns into my tiny, silly brain.

Love and peace. 😘

Little Honey Lady

Well obviously that's a subjective question that I can't actually answer for you, but I can show you who pops up the most!

If you want to look at the full breakdown you can check out this link, but I've simplified it for you here. I used League of Comic Geeks as my source, but I made sure that a comic was only counted once per character (for example if Dick appeared as both Robin and Nightwing in the same issue, it only counts once). If you would like an entire list of the comics and characters I included, you can find it under the cut (it's long).

First up we have a very straightforward count. Who appears in the most Teen Titans and Titans comics between 1966 and October 2025?

In an insane turn of events, Donna and Dick appear in exactly the same amount of comics. Wonder Twins for the win.

However, if you use League of Comic Geeks you'll know that it includes every character who shows up in a a comic, even if they are just in a photo on another character's wall. So, I decided just appearing wasn't enough, and I went through every comic and removed it from the characters total if they were only listed as a cameo:

It doesn't change a lot, but it does allow Donna to pull ahead of Dick.

Now there was also a discussion being had about the inclusion of Team Titans and/or Terror Titans, and well I was planning to make all these different counts for that, it ultimately didn't matter. If you include Team Titans Donna soars above Dick, but of the top ten that's the only thing that changes. In fact, the Top Ten stays the same no matter what element I changed, so instead of running through all the options I'm just going to give you that.

And finally here's a few extra numbers that I found interesting.

Gar's handful of appearances in the original Teen Titans run make him the only character to appear in all of the mainline comic runs, beating out Dick who only missed the 2011 run and Donna who missed 2011 and 2014.

I also want to shout out poor Bette who I feel like is constantly cited as a member of the Titans, but came in 2nd to last with cameo and dead last without them, only having 13 non-cameo appearances.

The point is: going forward Donna better be included in every Titans adaptation. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.