Hi Hi Hi Hi

Fun Story to Share.

I got my (now 18-year-old) daughter into Ao3 back in 2021. I taught her she should always comment - even if the fic looks old or abandoned or whatever. She did.

Well - she got this email this morning:

The fic was written in 2014 and essentially abandoned.

Bethy read and reviewed in 2021 (and was actually the only person who had commented at all).

Today in 2025 - the final chapter was posted by the author and this was her reply to Bethy’s comment.

———

Never question whether a fic is too old to comment on.

Something something about love something about denial something about uchihan gods and religion headcanons something about the weight on Madaras shoulders and about his intrinsic belief to never know peace.

I hate that thing some people do where it's like. "I left my wallet on the table to see if you'd say anything" or "I wanted to see if you'd wash the car if I stopped doing it"

Cause like

I dont know about anyone else

But I am perpetually hovering three inches above the strong subconscious belief that everyone knows what they're doing at all times except me, so if you change your normal patterns and I notice, then I will assume it is an intentional choice with a thought-out plan behind it and I will avoid interfering

And if I don't notice, because I won't, because why would I, because not much bothers me and if you don't say anything to indicate you are bothered then how would I KNOW

Comment on fanfics

A few days back on AO3 I found an unfinished, two chapter spideypool fanfic that was cute and had lots of potential and was also last updated two years ago. Two whole years! And it had only three comments, all of which on chapter one, none on chapter two. I enjoyed the fanfic, despite it being far, FAR from being finished and the chance of it ever updating again anytime soon was just about zero. So you know what I did?

I wrote a damn comment. On chapter two.

And I made sure that fucker was long and had a small theory of where I think the author would take the fanfic in the future. I let the person behind the fic know that I friggin LOVED the two chapters I got to read! That I would LOVE to see more! That I’d jump out of my skin in happiness and virtually hug them half to death if I saw that they updated it.

Let me remind you this fic wasn’t updated in two YEARS! I was the first to comment on it in a year. And the first to comment on chapter two! And you know what happened today?

I got a reply.

From the author of the fanfic. And the author said how I gave them life for a project they had loved (still did) and that they were now working on a third chapter. After two YEARS of not updating. Of not writing. And it makes me so friggin happy seeing what I did. What I caused.

With a single. Damn. Comment.

All that it took for me was to think a bit about what I wanted to tell the author and the comment it. All it took was one comment. And suddenly this person was inspired to continue a fanfic they had abandoned for TWO YEARS!!

I couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t be more proud.

Comment on people’s fanfics. No matter how few chapters there are. No matter how many years have passed since their last update. Comment. You like a fanfic? Comment on it. It’s that easy.

But it does.

You've got so much to learn

"You don't know me. I'm not the same person anymore."

"That's okay. I'll get to know you again."

part two!!

Sighs.

Im back

Au where ford actually kept track of Stan a little bit more than in canon. I’m talking the man would cast spells and ask the mail box “is my brother alive” or “where is my brother”

But of course because I love myself some angst, Fords questions were worded in such a way that he ONLY knew his brother was alive—but being alive doesn’t equal being okay. He gets his brothers location, but being realistic do you think Ford would think that he’s traveling so much because he’s running away or because he’s successful and LIKES to travel. “Oh look Stanley’s taking a vacation in Colombia. Although that’s a long vacations it’s been months… he must be pretty rich thanks to his products!” (Because remember ford had seen Stan’s commercials, so ford follows his line of logic to be that Stan is pretty successful.)

Of course one day Ford finally asks a slightly different question, one that crumples the narrative he created in his mind, “How is Stanley doing?”

And that’s when he learns that his brother is currently being transported to a hospital. That his brother is on the verge of death due to malnutrition, hypothermia, and because of an infected untreated wound. That his brother hasn’t been okay the last few years.

He learns that he asked all the wrong questions.

If you outline your fics, how do you go about it? Or do you just write it out without a specific plan?

God I wish I could just START writing my fics, but no I am nothing if not a well planned bitch

First, I write stuff out on paper. This makes it’s easier to go back and look at my own writing, but also paper has? Less high stakes for me? If I type something it feels like I HAVE to go in that direction, but when I write on paper I can just scribble it out or turn to the next page. This step is where I’ll write whatever comes to mind that I might want to add, usually out of order. I guess you could call this brainstorming? But I don’t usually cause to me brainstorming is JUST in my head, and this is on paper. That’s another thing, GET THE IDEA OUT ON PAPER because youll be super excited about a certain dialogue line or plot line, and if you don’t write it out you will forget. So step one is filling pages and pages of my favorite, designated ‘Brain Dump’ notebook (mine has mushrooms on it :) )

Then, actual outline. This is also on paper for me, where I’ll write out any big plot lines or bits I’ve come up with in the first step, and try to fit them in an order that makes sense. This is simultaneously the easiest part and the hardest, because I’m someone who wants smoothness in my writing in terms of how stuff flows together, so I’m ver particular about what stuff goes where. If I’m doing an outline for a WHOLE fic, each little line is most likely a chapter, or important chapter moments however, and this is important, I make up an outline for every chapter I write. That way I can go into detail with what dialogue goes where, the blocking of how the characters are, etc

Then it’s first draft time!! This parts fun. This is where I write BADLY. I basically just throw everything at my poor google docs until it sticks, and I try not to stop, so there’s no going back and spell checking, or finding a better word. If I write “says” or “he shivered” eight times in the same paragraph it DOES NOT MATTER. I’ll be back later. This draft is the shittiest possible version of what I want to write.

Step two of first draft is when I’m DONE, I have the bare bones of my draft, and this is where I go back and ask myself if I really deserve to know how to type. I’ll sew up any glaring plot holes, spell checking, rewrite verbs and whatnot to not repeat, stuff like that. If I read the whole thing and decide I don’t like this particular part, I’ll delete it and rewrite it.

Then it’s onto my favorite part, draft two. This is REWRITE TIME. not edit, rewrite. Thats the best writing advice I’ve ever gotten and I can ever give. I pull up two screens, slap my draft 1 on the the first screen and open a new doc, and rewrite the entire thing. Why? Because as im retyping this is when I add prose, and fix the flow, and add more angst in or better word choice or whatever. This is where the LENGTH of whatever I’m writing comes in, I’ll usually double whatever I have for the first draft, on sheer added prose and grace notes alone. This part is immensely satisfying, and it takes the longest by far. I do this for every single chapter of things I post on Ao3

Draft three is usually my final draft. I copy and paste draft 2 in another document, and I’ll read through again for any typos and mistakes and fix those. This is PROOFREADING, plain and simple, and it’s so important. I usually don’t fix much in this stage, but I do read it outloud (quietly to myself or maybe my dog) to see if it sounds right.

And thats it! Usually, at least with Abandon My Eulogy each chapter takes about two weeks, and by two week I mean I spend a week thinking about it not actually writing and then outline, first draft and correct that in three days. Draft two takes. So long, but it’s worth it

‘Sorry I went off on a ramble there