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An event dedicated to giving fanfic writers some attention and appreciation. Send some requests/prompts about what you want writers to share about their fanfics.
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Can bookmarked fanfics be added to the collection?
Yes! If you want to share a fic that you have in your bookmarks on ao3, you can definitely add it to the collection!
Here's the link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/FWAE_Rec_list
Hi! I just want to ask about the different terms used in social media aus like drabbles, ficlets, one shot, etc. and how they work/what word count is appropriate for each? I still get confused. Thanks!
Hello! The answer to this may vary from writer to writer or fandom to fandom. Typically a drabble is a couple hundred words. A ficlet is between 500 to 1.5k words. One shots are fics that are completed in one chapter; an example would be smut fics which are most of the time just one chapter and limited in plot. However, an idea with plot can be a one shot, too. There's not really a word count that's a cut off, but if you want a subjective cut off from one of the mods we would typically say no more than 12k words. Again, this can vary. Drabbles are super short, ficlets are a bit longer, and then the length of one shots can vary.
Hope this helps!
How do readers participate in this exactly?
Share your favorite writers! Share your favorite fics! Make posts about the fics your reading or fics you read in the past that you still think about! Make a rec list! Leave comments! Let writers know that you love them!
How do I add a previously existing fanfic/AU to the collection on ao3?
Hello! If it's your own fic: click edit and scroll down to "post to collections", type FWAE_Rec_list (it will say no suggestions found but it's okay, you can still add it.) Then go ahead and post.
If you are wanting to add someone else's fic: if a writer allows others to add to a collection there will be a "add to collections" button that you can click which will send a notification to the writer to approve or deny (type FWAE_Rec_list into the collections box. It will say no suggestions found but its okay, just add a comment or press enter to add it).
Hope this helped!
Hi, writer here! Is it alright if we start adding our first day fics to the colllection or will the mods be adding them at the end of the day? Sorry if I sound weird 😞
Hello! Anyone can begin adding fics to the ao3 collection. The mods will just have to approve the fics (really no reason to be denied tbh, we just want to monitor).
Hey there, thank you for your hard work! Could I ask you to add ALT text to the Retrospring.net screenshots you post on Twitter? White on yellow makes it hard to read what's written in the pictures, especially from mobile when a text is shared as a long strip instead and you have to zoom in to read. Thank you anyway for you attention.
Hello! Yes we can add alt text when the screenshot has the white on gold text. We'll also remember to use the black text on pink background when we take a screenshot. Thank you!
What is the most comical/funniest line or paragraph you have written in your fic? I want to see what everyone thinks is funny! I personally enjoy using memes as references for moments in my fics and I get ecstatic when people say they can picture the expression as the meme I described. I think that's hilarious! Show your funny side
I'm more of a writer, but a question for other writers. What's one practical tip you like? Be it for writing, editing, posting, promoting yourself, anything. As long as it's quick to explain, learn, and apply. Mine is, in the editing stage, "Ctrl + F"-ing the words I know I repeat a lot. So it's easier to spot and replace. Share away!
What kind of comments are best for readers to write on fanfics? We all heard of shy readers who get afraid that a writer might think we're annoying... what's a good comment to say we like something? Thank you for the responses everyone!
I have a question for writers if that's okay! I want to know how you start writing a fic. What's your process for getting started?
I'd like to suggest maybe a discord that writers can join for more streamlined ability to access other people's posts? It seems like you'll have a LOT of retweets & reblogs going during the month and it's not really easy to sort/filter/mark unread on twitter and tumblr, whereas on discord you can have sfw/nsfw channels or a channel/thread for each day/prompt, and each person can just link their own post if they want? and then you can scroll through them and even use the mark unread function so you can go back to where you left off
Hello! Thank you for the suggestion! The mods have discuss incorporating a discord and decided that we are unable to give the time commitment to make a discord server specifically for the event. Making the different channels and being online to moderate everything that is going in the channels to make sure everyone is following the rules and being respectful of others does require a lot of time and effort that we unfortunately cannot give at this time.
However, we will be working on tags that can be used during the event that can be used to filter out posts or mute content that you're not interested in. We will also encourage tagging nsfw+ dead dove content, especially using a spoiler on images of snippets put in a tweet and using the read more function on tumblr. We will try to have a rules page updated on the carrd with that information (pls have patience with us).
ALSO (shameless plug), the ao3 collections for the event is open! If you would love to share any and all of your works as a rec list for everyone, please go ahead and add your fic. We would love to see a massive library of fanfics that we can go through.
We hope this will be helpful towards efficiency during the event.
Hey! Thanks for running the event, it looks very cool for fic writers! I finished reading the carrd and I now understood the event will be for 1. Writers, to highlight their own work; 2. Readers, to rec their favorite fics / writers and to comment; 3. Artist, to show love to fan writers with their art. Is that right? If so, please know that it’s not immediate from just looking at the tumblr / twitter / carrd. The carrd would benefit having a page called “Rules” or similar (with what I see now in the prompt page), and the description of the event everywhere would be clearer with a little specification of who is supposed to actively participate and how (like, “writers and readers come together to highlight their favorite works”). (Stress on “readers”, because they’re usually, um, silent.) Also please add a text-only list of the prompts! (Accessibility but also easier on the eye from mobile etc). I hope it’s ok I wrote this, I’d love the event to succeed! Thanks again.
Hello! Your three points are absolutely correct, and the mods will work on making sure that it's clear those are the goals of the event! We will also add a text only list of the prompts! Please allow the mods some time to make these changes, we will try to have them done by the time the event starts!
Thank you for the feedback!
Hi! Quick question about one of the prompts: for July 25, does the WIP need to be from a collab, or could we share/talk about any WIP?
The main theme for that day is a collab wip. However, YES you can share/talk about ANY wip that you want on that day as well!
We will also provide other opportunities to discuss your wips, too!
Thanks for putting this together!
Thank you for participating!
Hi I think a tumblr is a great idea! and you can combine the prompts you’ve posted on Twitter into one of those reblog memes where people answer questions and tag others to encourage them to do the questions too, in a low pressure way ofc
The Twitter prompts so far are great, if you want more ideas for other commenting prompts (“comment on a fic by someone who’s given you a comment or kudos…”) I think this might be of interest https://comment-bingo.dreamwidth.org/602.html
We will continue to consider adding a tumblr event page in the near future! If the demand for Tumblr is high enough, we will definitely do it!
And thank you for the prompt links! We'll be sure to add these as well to hopefully encourage people to comment more on fanfics!
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