Too much of a bnf to at least “like” the post you asked for feedback on, and got a whole ass essay about the chapter? ok then, imma snatch my shit right back

Its so hard being a black women who likes fanfiction. Like there is just still so little representation. Even when things are “reader” they are coded for white people.

No one is running their fingers through my silky hair. Or brushing hair out of my eyes behind my ear. I have an afro and when I dont its in twists. Also, black women dont really let people touch or play in their hair.

I dont have pink nipples.

I dont blush. My skin will not turn red no matter how hard Im blushing.

Now I thought it was hard in the Peaky Fandom. But there are some amazing black fic writers here and likely more have emerged since I havent been active in the fandom for a few years.

Trying to read Kpop fan fiction, its even harder to find representation.

If you are in any of the fandoms below, please comment or reblog with your fave black fanfic writers.

Mine are

@btsqualityy

@kimnjss

@panjakes

@laketaj24

@xxdearlybeloved

Personal pet peeve: When a particular character has a lot of paperwork and such associated with their job and it has been established in universe that the work is extremely hard, complicated, and tedious but then in fanfic another character in another job position takes up this character's paperwork and does it perfectly. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.

Paperwork is not some nebulous pile of papers so easy that anyone can just waltz in and fill it up just like that. Paperwork, especially for large organisations, requires specific training and knowledge. A particular situation might have at least ten forms associated with it depending on how it happened, when it happened, who were involved, who were affected, who filed the initial report etc. It could be form A.1, it could be form B8, it could be G3 or D-3.2e, and then it has to be filed away in a specific way under a specific designation. At times it could be completely nonsensical but still necessary and part of proper procedure....all of that requires training and experience. Someone from a totally unconnected role can't just take over this position and do an excellent job at it, unless it has been previously established that they too had prior training and guidance in this.

Example: Cale(KRS) and Basen Henituse in Trash of the Count's Family. Kim Rok Soo before trasmigration into Cale Henituse was a team leader who has experience with important official documentation and paperwork for the Company. Basen Henituse is established to have been send to territory heirship classes and doing well in them. These two people being able to take on the other's paperwork load is not at all farfetched. (Same with Cale and Alberu though the latter would still have to sign and seal his insignia separately in the end.)

So no someone who's untrained can't just take someone else's paperwork and just breeze through them unless they are like supernaturally intelligent to the point of figuratively downloading all the necessary data and information directly into their brain or something.

Let's not even talk about how the character might have a particular way and organisation of doing things and someone else taking over their workload without permission might just mess that order up and their well intended actions might end up doing more harm than good.

Look at MXTX's Shang Qinghua or Ling Wen. As I'm reading SVSSS right now let's take it as an example.

Someone who can conduct and lead an audit: Shang Qinghua, specifically trained as an auditor. Yue Qingyuan- can possibly fill in for a specific kind of audit.

Someone who cannot conduct an audit: Literally every other Peak Lord on Cang Qiong. Not trained for it. Should not be in charge of it.

Someone who can file in medical paperwork: Mu Qingfang, head of medical operations in the sect.

Someone who can't do that: his Peak Lord colleagues. At most they'll be able to file in incident reports and other such forms that guardians of patients will have to fill in at a hospital.

People involved with merchants and associated business transactions: Shang Qinghua(logistics expert-procurement logistics), and for large contracts, Yue Qingyuan(Sect Leader). Other Peak Lords depending on the goods. For example the Zui Xian Peak Lord when they are negotiating prices for the raw materials or equipment for alcohol brewing or Wei Qingwei when they are sourcing metal.

Someone who can handle annual budgeting: Shang Qinghua. Person who allocates the funds according to the final budget- Yue Qingyuan.

Persons who can't do that: His colleagues who are definitely not trained in finances and accounting.

And so on and so on.

Shang Qinghua was invited back to the sect after literal treason because nobody else could do his job. That should tell you that people without specific training can't just take over the paperwork of another person's job unless their own jobs are connected enough to be sufficiently similar that they can handle it.

So no someone like Shen Qingqiu who's a scholar and tactician primarily, can't take the entirety of Shang Qinghua's or Mu Qingfang's or Yue Qingyuan's paperwork and fill it in for them, no matter how intelligent he is. Though I'm sure Yue Qingyuan would let him sect be damned lmao.

You see things like this in many other fandoms as well. Innocuous forms that anyone can fill in are okay but complicated paperwork for auditing, budgeting, logistics, diplomacy, business transactions, internal affairs, etc? No way. That all takes time to familiarize with before even properly filing them let alone actually doing them.

This is of course a personal pet peeve as I mentioned from the beginning. People are free to write what they want, read what they want, like what they want. This is no way an accusation towards particular individuals. It's just that for me it breaks immersion pretty quickly.

IM SO FUCKING TIRED OF PEOPLE CALLING L’S LIPS SUGARY OR SWEET IN FANFICTION. IT FUCKING ISNT.

NEWSFLASH BUDDY, THERE’S AN EMZYME IN YOUR SALIVA THAT IS CALLED AMYLASE (there’s also lipase for proteins but this isnt about that) THAT BREAKS DOWN STARCH AND CARBOHYDRATES INTO SUGARS TO MAKE DIGESTION EASIER!! THERE IS BACTERIA IN YOUR MOUTH THAT FEASTS ON THESE SUGARS, THAT MAKES YOUR MOUTH SOUR!!!!

L wouldnt fucking have a sweet kissable mouth because all of the sugar he eats will feed those bacteria which causes more sourness which makes his mouth very very sour. The only times where your mouth would taste something, would be when you drink coffee or any potent drink/food where the smell lingers on your body which your nose inhales when you’re kissing your partner that makes your brain think that they taste of coffee/any other potent drink. Cake and other sweets arent very potent, so L wouldnt taste of cake either. Also, before anyone says this, sure if your mouth actively contains sugar (like solid sugars) then the kiss would taste sweet just like how when you kiss someone with food in their mouth you’d also taste it. But i dont think that L somehow has sugar in his mouth 24/7. I always see in fanfiction where they describe his kisses as ‘sweet’ or ‘tastes of cake’ when that wouldnt make any fucking sense!!! I learnt this all in year 7, so this should be really really common knowledge but somehow people still write it differently?? Then again its not that big of a deal and that im overreacting but whatever let me be mad for once

small psa to american/non-uk fanfiction writers trying to write dialogue for characters from the uk or europe: stop using pet names

love, pet, duck, sweetheart, babes etc they're all regional pet names you'd probably only encounter in one part of the country, and most of the times the characters using them actually speak queen's english (think the marauder's/ sherlock etc they're upper class characters they're not speaking dialects)

pet names are also really condescending when they're being used by someone of the same age as you - when I'm in the uk I expect to get called love or pet a lot, but only by people my grandparents and parents age who view me as a child, or a creep on the street trying to get overly familiar

I don't know if this is just my personal ick, but it just doesn't sit right in the dialogue for me - think about the dialogue the characters use in the primary content you're writing for, and if they're not speaking in a specific regional dialect/ you can't tell if they are, or they're not a bit of a creep and a flirt, try not to delve into those unspecific pet names

((that is to say if you establish a small pet name between the characters within the fic that would work, or if its a kink related pet name like princess/ baby girl that would probably work too, just not in outside dialogue - we're still pretty stiff upper lip lmao))

If you're new to fanfiction, or perhaps simply have difficulty understanding the appropriate etiquette for commenting, here's a tip!

The comments of a fanfiction are not the place to gripe about things you don't like about the fandom. Or even the story you're reading. The author is a chef making free chocolate cake for whoever wants it and you are standing in the kitchen loudly announcing how much you hate when chefs make chocolate cake with their recipe instead of yours.

Is it just me or is there an influx of people/authors who write x reader fics but seem to hate it?

Like here me out, the I've seen way more fanfic where in the warnings is something like "this is technically an x reader fic but reader is only referred to with a nickname throughout the story." or "This is an x reader fic but there is not use of Y/n."

I'm a little bit more okay with the second one but like, come on, the whole point of x reader fics is the ability to insert yourself into the story, the name is like the most important thing.

I think this is because the conversation around self inserts/x reader fics has kinda negative. Like most people just assume that it's weird even though most fanfic is self-insert to a point, whether you know it or not. It doesn't help that even though cringe culture is pretty dead here on Tumblr, there is still a large amount of people who feel the need to make fun of people who either read or write x reader fanfic.

Like if you want to write for an oc/self insert that's fine, but please don't tag it as x reader if it isn't. Yes, this does include if the reader doesn't have an explicit description but is given a nickname. Yes, this does include if the reader is given a description but not a name. Yes, this does include if you're only tagging it as x reader because you want more interactions. It's annoying, and it's just going to get you blocked rather than interacted with.

I don't know if I'm the only one whose been experiencing it, so maybe it's just all in my head, but if any of you have experienced please let me know so I know I'm not crazy.

"...your cheeks flushed bright pink" gOT FUCKING DAMN IT I AM BLACK! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I AM BLACK😭😭😭

IDK man,

does it just kinda put anyone else off when a piece has a giant "IF YOU ARE ___ ALIGNED DO NOT INTERACT" ? Obviously, a writer is entitled completely to their piece and who has access to it, -- but it sometimes just comes off as really hostile. As a man myself, I completely understand how infuriating the lack of m!reader fics is and i'll continue to cry on that hill until the day I die >:(

Still, seeing those few gorgeous m!writers having big 'NO FEM!ALIGNED ALLOWED!!!' signs just make me sad, -- it's not the readers' fault most x reader fics are predominately fem aligned, and it just really only seems to serve to further widen the already big gap between the two kinds of readers-- which is NOT needed. Personally, even if it they aren't the intended audience, -- yet they still wanna read even knowing your work doesn't cater anything to them, -- then I believe people should be able to enjoy every piece of fiction. It always makes me so happy when I get a variety of genders (fem + m + other) enjoying my m! works, knowing that my writing was enough to outweigh the fact that the piece objectively didn't serve any purpose to them as non m! readers.

Goes both ways too, fem! reader fics barring m! aligned readers from reading is the exact same.

I'm a firm believer in creative reading freedom, - if a fem identifying / non-binary reader wants to pretend they have a massive dick, or even just a strap-on, -- then that's fucking awesome, go for them. Normalize people of all groups experimenting and enjoying varied pieces of literature.

And fellow m readers? I see you my brothers and I will continue amping up production of x m!reader fics 😈😈😈 🫶🫶🫶

Having read this post, I have to ask (so this can be the space for it):

What are your fanfic pet peeves?

Oh man.

Well, I suppose the biggest one, and the only one that really matters to me is what I'll call the golden law of fanfiction: do not be boring.

If I'm entertained, even if it's bad, then I'm happy. Even if it has the most bizarre plot twists, even if it's absurdly dumb, so long as it's not boring I will be quite happy and very entertained. To me, the worst is, when the story is reductive, it's just every other story I've seen in a sub-genre of a fandom over again, it doesn't go anywhere, nothing ever happens because the author's allergic to plot, and it's thoroughly mediocre: not entertainingly bad nor in any way good.

To me, that's the stories I can't get through, where I just get tired from reading the thing and have no idea why this story exists when there are a billion like it.

My little Tolkien-fic pet-peeve of the day? Writers calling elves, dwarves, or hobbits men or women in their* narration.

"Pippin shaded his eyes, squinting until the sight of the man walking up the road resolved itself into the familiar form of his cousin Merry..."

Hobbit. Just say Hobbit. You don't need to gender everything. Or if you must, then "Hobbit-lad" or "Hobbit-lass" how's that? Or person! Being! Individual! Literally any word that isn't an inaccurate use of the word "man" for someone who is not a man!

"Gimli looked up at the taller man and scoffed at the sight of Legolas's pointed ears, now drooping with dismay..."

See this one just sounds silly, doesn't it? Silly and also confusing! Because you've just called Legolas a man, but clearly you're talking about an elf or he wouldn't have pointed ears, now would he? And Gimli's a dwarf! So why did you say "man" at all? There are no men here! (Unless Aragorn is playing Third Wheel in the background I suppose, but that's neither here-nor-there right now.)

"Glorfindel turned upon the edge of the fountain and greeted the other man with a smile like a sunrise..."

No no no stop, they are not men. Neither of them are men. They're elves. That's kind of a big important plot element in fact, that the Firstborn and the Secondborn are distinct and sundered from one another, please don't call elves men it's weird and awkward and often confusing because then I'll think you're talking about "A Man" but no, you mean an elf but you said man and it's just so off-putting...

They're different species, guys! (This drives me nuts in scifi too. Stop with the humanocentricism! You're not the Galactic Empire!) Replace the word "man" with something else and see how silly it sounds. "Elephant," perhaps; or any other species that isn't the one you're actually talking about.

"Gimli looked up at the taller raccoon and scoffed..."

"Glorfindel greeted the other ant-eater with a smile like a sunrise..."

"The sight of the giraffe walking up the road resolved itself into his cousin Merry..."

See? Yeah, that's how inaccurate it feels to me every time I read the word "man" or "woman" when you're talking about somebody who is not a human. It's not something on the level of squick where I'll reverse out of a fic if I see it, no, but it absolutely is jarring enough to throw-off the rhythm and mood of the story, for me.

(And if I see it in the first line or so before I've gotten invested in the story...yeah. That'll get me out of a fic almost as fast as lack of paragraph-breaking.)

Because I'm such a sucker for world building, I suspect, and the fact that these are all different peoples with different cultures and capabilities and outlooks and understanding and history and everything is such an interesting and important aspect of Middle-earth to me...and lumping all these different folks into one thing like that as though gender is the most important and indeed only notable aspect of their identity, and overrides everything else about them is just weird. It doesn't make sense. And I do not like it.

(Exceptions obviously made for when the character's identity is being deliberately obscured or confused, and they are erroneously thought to be a human and then revealed as something else; that sort of thing is on purpose and thus is fine.)

(Also exceptions for folk like Arwen or Elwing or Elladan etc who straddle the line between species.)

Anyway thank you for coming to this session of Tathrin Whines About Little Things To Avoid Doing Productive Writing Today.

*none of these lines are actual examples taken from real fics; I made them up for this post. Please do not attach call-outs to actual fics or authors in the notes. No need to be mean!

But absolutely fell free to gripe along with me if this silly little world building detail bothers you too. Or laugh at me for being a ridiculous spec-fic nerd. I'm fine with that too!

a much too whiny rant about fic icks

I die a little every time pup, cub or Prongslet comes up in a wolfstar raising Harry (together or separately) fic. especially cub - it makes literally no sense????? are you sure it's Remus John Lupin I'm reading about??? it's his evil doppelganger, I'm telling you. I'm not even sure I could stomach that word ironically.

Prongslet is fine in moderation, I guess, but only as an inside joke, only coming from Sirius and only when Harry's a smol bean. but when it's Prisoner of Azkaban compliant I wanna claw my eyes out.

it's even worse when those terms are used not just in dialogue but in Remus or Sirius' internal monologue as if pup and cub are Harry's freaking pronouns or something. my cub, my pup, cub did this, pup did that... just call him boy or kid or his name for god's sake. I once saw sprog pop up and was delighted cuz at least it's actually british slang.

and don't get me started on Hadrian(us) James Orion Potter-Black (which is just... why the fuck would James give his son the name of his best mate's horrible father AND the last name of his horrible family?? and why would Lily agree to that?) who's simultaneously Lord Potter, Black, Peverell and Slytherin (and, sure, I have a visceral reaction to aristocracy wank in general but even ignoring that - the last 3 literally make no sense since "Lord Black" is Sirius until his death; and both Peverell and Slytherin lines bled into other families ages ago. so being a Potter automatically means you're descended from Peverells as well as being a Gaunt - from Slytherin. and the last of those is Tom Riddle Jr. but that wouldn't make any Potters "Lord Peverell"s or any Gaunts/Riddle "Lord Slytherin"s. those last names are dead. smh).

but, uh, this tangent technically has nothing to do with my initial complaints, it's just that at some point I started thinking of this naming stuff in tandem with nonsensical nicknames as they began appearing in fics together. which is a double homicide, truly.

and look, I definitely understand the desire to make Harry's original name something else cuz it fits nicely with POC Potters headcanon and Dursleys being racist dicks about it, but... Hadrian? I mean, it's not really a big deal when the fic mentions it being his full name but both narration and characters still refer to him as Harry for short - that makes total sense. however when after the name reveal Hadrian replaces Harry completely, it feels super weird and uncanny, making it hard to identify Harry's character in the story altogether.

although I guess you should all knock me off my high horse for being the biggest hypocrite ever, cuz I myself have a headcanon for Harry's name, even if it's less elaborate than Hadrian. also less Roman? that's another thing I don't get - if you want to create a better connection between Harry and his roots, why choose a name of a Roman emperor for a desi kid? since he's usually explicitly desi in all the Hadrian fics. so it's not that I have a problem with renaming him, per se, I just don't understand the choice of Hadrian.

for example, I recently read a fic where he was Pakistani and his name was originally Hami, which is a very nice idea, actually, and makes total sense for such headcanon. mine is Hari btw (हरि in Sanskrit), since I headcanon Potters as Indian, but I didn't come up with that name myself - just saw it somewhere a couple years ago and fell in love. I think it's actually a pretty popular hc now? anyway, it's closer to Harry than any other name I've seen and has so many beautiful meanings that resonate with what I think James and Lily felt towards their son. so yeah, I'm one to talk, boo me.

now, I probably should shut up since this rant has been entirely too negative already, but while I'm on the topic of icky names/nicknames I should circle back to wolfstar cuz gods know I'll never be brave enough to talk about this particular pet peeve in its own post.

Siri, Remu and Remy make my blood boil. Siri could be kinda cute when it's a silly childhood nickname from Regulus, but if any marauder or Lily calls Sirius that - immediate death. Si and Re are a teensy bit better in moderation and if used ironically, but still stab me in the chest. a couple times for good measure. the only somewhat acceptable short form of any of their two names for me is Rem, albeit with a stretch and only because it's an actual version of the name Remus in Catalan and Russian. I know I'm being way too dramatic about this (just like with all of my previous points) but I just don't understand the need to shorten their names. at all. they're only 3 and 2 syllables long and so mystical on their own that any shortening just makes them simultaneously more nonsensical and less remarkable.

both characters literally have established quirky nicknames in canon that you can play with and even shorten to Pads and Moons if you want. Sirius is not a digital assistant and Remus is not the main character from Ratatouille. stop this madness.

plus James is right there. his name has a ridiculous amount of diminutives - Jamie, Jimmy, Jim, Jam, Jem, Jay and even Jimbo if you're into that. why strip Remus and Sirius' magical names of their charm if you can have fun with common names? but I digress.

at the end of the day, my pet peeves are mine only and I should live with them in fragile peace. this post is a personal rant first and foremost and if you disagree, I'm genuinely happy that you enjoy the things I can't. fandom is a playground and we can all find some fun in different corners. I'd also like to point out that I'm not trying to take a jab at fic writers who use any of the aforementioned terms, names or diminutives. I'm only one person, so if I stop reading your work because of my petty biases, it's only my loss and not your problem. hundreds of other fans will enjoy it instead. so keep doing what you love and writing those characters however you want, it's your right!

so yeah, writers and readers - don't take it personally and have your fun! don't listen to me being mean! I'm just making my fandom experience way too convoluted for my own good.

if you write something that’s a ‘[character] x oc’ and you tag it as ‘x reader’ i’m trying to blow you up with my mind and i hope you can feel it

Can anyone else not stand when fics make Morgan into this whiny whingey little bitch

Like, GROW UP

mcu and mcu-adjacent writers who acknowledge sleipnir’s backstory but try to spin it so the original myth was ‘a misunderstanding’ or change it into something more palatable are fucking cowards. loki is that horse’s biological mother and if you can’t face that you don’t have what it takes

one of fundamental joys of writing fanfic is grabbing that one character, with all its quirks and rules from canon, and putting them in Situations. And sometimes in order for the situations to continue, I have to sit and think "this character would not act like that at all" and here's where the FUN part begins, because I want and I need you, the reader to believe "oh okay, with this added reasons and motives, then I can see them acting like this", so I have to come up with THOSE.

This is why OOC fanfic doesn't make it tick, not at all. OOC fic sees this character, wants to put them into Situations, but yet... They never do the FUN part which is the "how the hell can I justify the situations" dance.