ThWIP Thursday (sorry!)

AO3 Stats & Notifications

One (1) person said this would be interesting so here's a post about what AO3 authors can see about their works and what they get notified for.

What authors get notified for:

comment on a fic

EDIT on a comment (some of u edit like 16 times and it is very sweet. I get an email every time)

Response to a comment

Request to join a collection (note: don't do this. collection owners have a lot of power over fic and should only be used for specific reasons and not to create a collection of fic you enjoy. that's what bookmark collections are for)

Gift

Related work notification

Daily kudos email. The daily kudos email shows all the kudos of the previous day in an order that makes sense to the ao3 database and not to human eyes.

The only bit of this that is clickable is the title of the fic. I can click into the profile of a nice user if I navigate to the fic and then go to the bottom where the kudos are displayed.

Things authors do not get notified for:

subscription to a fic or author

ending a subscription

deleting a comment

creating a bookmark

a fic view (if you visit a fic twenty times, no one knows that but your isp and your browser history and you)

Now here's what authors can see about their fic under the cut because more screenshots

The first thing an author can see is something everyone can see, and that's who left a public bookmark

If you click on the number next to bookmarks you can see this. And each username is clickable to see the other things they have bookmarked or written (side note, this is the best way to find other fic to read)

The author can also see the note a reader leaves on a public bookmark.

Please note that authors don't get a notification for this and I don't look at them (screenshot proving me a liar) so you aren't guaranteed to be seen by the author. If you like that last nice user want the author to know it stuck with them, you gotta leave a comment.

But there are also private bookmarks! And private bookmarks are, as the name sounds like, private. However. On the statistics page for each fic the author gets a little more information.

Here is the statistics page:

This can be selected to by year and the numbers will change EXCEPT user subscriptions. User subscriptions shows the current state of subscriptions. And since authors don't get a notification of number go up or down, they won't know when it's changed unless they are tracking it. Additionally there is no way to see who has subscribed. So you can subscribe to whoever you like or unsubscribe at any time and that is between you, the ao3 database, your ISP tracking your history, and your email client. But the author doesn't know. You are released from any social obligation to stay subscribed or any embarrassment you might have. Go forth.

See? Here is 2024 and it has the same number of users.

Also fun fact, the word count shows fic FINISHED in that year. I wrote a 90k fic that straddled 2024 and 2025 and the full word count for that is tracked on the 2025 page.

anyway back to info.

I can scroll down on this and get a bit more information on each fic.

Here I can see the number of people who have subscribed to a fic - but not who they are. I can also see the TOTAL NUMBER of bookmarks including private bookmarks.

Compare contrast:

The public listing shows 47 bookmarks, the statistics page listing shows 127. On average, most fics have about half of their bookmarks private.

I can't see who made those extra bookmarks, just that they exist.

Also on the statistics page the comments are shown as the number of threads instead of the total number. I always reply to comments so the thread count is a more accurate reflection of how many people left a comment.

So to sum up, what authors can see if they investigate:

username on a public bookmark and any note left

the total number of bookmarks

the total number of subscriptions to themselves right now

the number of subscriptions on a fic

hits

WIP Wednesday

2025.05.28 - 2025.06.04

A collection of the WIP fics that have posted in the last week.

Hapless Supernova [M, 13/?] by BBirdy, @theearlgreymage / EarlGreyMage

Rising at Dawn [T, 7/?] by iamwheretheseasleeps

They Get Married. [E, 5/12 ] by @colddeadqueer / colddeadqueer

to be perfectly honest. i don't care if it is cheesy or cliched or idealistic. i like stories where the core of it is about kindness, the warmth we can offer others and the gentleness we receive in return. maybe the moral of the story IS love triumphs. it better fucking be

Bro. Idk how it’s taken me this long to make a Tumblr but I finally did it!

Hi! I’m colddeadqueer (they/them) and I’m 22. I’m AuDHD, a non-binary lesbian, and I write fan fiction! Follow me on AO3!

I’ve been writing for a while just for myself, but I recently decided to get into posting fan fiction. Currently I’m working on a post-canon fic about Baz and Simon getting married because I’m the biggest hopeless romantic in the universe.

I’m still getting used to all the terminology & the way this online community works, but I’m excited to meet you all! :)

They Get Married. Chapter 5: The Stag Party.

Summary: Stag Party in Margate! Baz and Simon deal with some of the more realistic parts of sex, Dev’s acting weird, and Baz experiments with fashion.

This chapter was so fun to write, I hope you enjoy it! Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈

Smut-writing Advice

Rebloggable version, since this seems to be so popular ;)

Anonymous asked you: Do you have any advice for writing smut?

Yes. 

1) Be shameless.  Get comfortable writing sentences like “He trailed the tip of his tongue down the length of his lover’s cock, making him shiver and twitch as the heat spread to his tip, turning it purple.”  The more a sentence makes you blush, the better a sentence it is and the more it belongs in your story.  If you’re censoring yourself, if you’re not writing things that are super-hot to you and make you hot as you write, then it’s gonna be a dry, boring smut scene.

2) Be detailed in actions, and more importantly, reactions.  Which is hotter?  “He swirled his tongue around his lover’s nipple, tracing around the areola in a slow circle before closing his lips around the tip.” or “he slowly licked over his lover’s nipple, making her shudder and gasp, arching her back into the warm heat of his mouth.”

The first example is good detail, but includes no reaction, so your reader is probably just going to get bored.  The second sentence has less detail on the action, but more detail on the reaction- and that’s what shows a character is feeling something, how they react.  

Shivers, moans, groans, whimpers, clasping fingers, twitches, eyes closing or opening, faces tilting or turning, toes curling- those are the reactions, the hot stuff, the stuff that says “this character is feeling.”

Put that in, and you don’t have to worry about describing every detail of the actions.

3) Don’t use words that you normally wouldn’t use.  “Ministrations”, “gyrations”, etc.  This words make me want to vomit, they’re so horrible.  No one uses them.  Describe your smut with normal everyday words.  This does not mean use boring words.  There are a hundred ways to describe breathing, for example: gasp, hitch, inhale, pant, sigh, hiss, etc.

4) Watch porn, but with a grain of salt.  It can give you some references for areas you have no personal experience with, but keep in mind that the people are acting and this is scripted. 

5) DETAILS, details, details.  Mention many details and EDIT YOUR STORY to KEEP THEM STRAIGHT.  First, write the scene.  Let it flow the way you want, the way it wants to go, get in the emotion and the character’s reactions.  Then go back and make sure that you have kept track of articles of clothing, the positions people are in, who’s eyes are open, closed, where hands are, etc.  Nothing ruins a smut scene like someone getting a blow job while their pants are still on in the reader’s mind.

6) Make the PACE SLOW.  Writers tend to be embarrassed so they rush through their smut scene.  BUT THIS IS THE PART YOU’VE BEEN BUILDING UP TO, THAT YOUR READER IS WAITING FOR.  So don’t rush it- let it linger!  Most smut scenes feel too long when you write them- and then fly by too quickly when you read them.  Three pages of smut is short.  And I don’t mean make it longer by dragging it out- I mean make sure that the pacing of your writing is slow.  Don’t have everybody stark naked after the first paragraph.  Tension and build are what sex is all about; don’t sell it short.  How do you know if your smut scene is paced correctly?  Same way you tell if the rest of your story is paced correctly.  Reread it, reread it, reread it, edit, edit, edit.

If you haven’t reread your scene at least twice, it’s not done.  That goes for any scene, not just smut.

7) EMOTION.  Show it.  Sex is powerful, regardless of who’s having it. It intensifies everything.  If the character is miserable, they are very miserable; if they are happy, they are very happy.  Show it, describe it on their face, in their actions, in their motions and possibly with words (I like to write smut scenes full of dialogue, but that’s my style, other authors are different).  But connect your reader to how at least one character is feeling, depending on the point of view of your story. 

8) And lastly, did I mention be shameless?  BE SHAMELESS.  If you’re not mortified to show it to your grandma, then you’re not doing it right. (Unless you have one heck of a cool grandma).

Okay, that’s all my advice on smut for today.  Hope this helps! :)

when they get married who cries harder