Well, the beauty of fandom is that nobody’s voice is needed. Fandom doesn’t need my voice, if I stopped writing tomorrow there would be plenty of people to say anything I could have thought of saying, and then some. The nice thing about fandom is that we’re all here because we want to be here, and when we talk it’s because we want to say things.
So I think look at it this way instead: is there a story you need to tell? Is there something you need to say? Or even just want to say? Fandom can be as much about us as it is about the canon we’re writing for. What has always driven me in terms of fandom is that there’s a story in me that wants out, or I have something I want to say about the canon, and there’s no reason not to say it. That’s how I write – out of compulsion and desire. Those aren’t things anyone outside of me can inspire or control.
So I guess I write by making it about me, and not giving a crap whether the canon needs what I have to say. 😀 It takes a healthy ego sometimes, I admit. But that’s how I do it.
legos don’t need you to build a spaceship out of them, you do it because you feel like it. minecraft doesn’t need you to ride a pig. yarn doesn’t need you to turn it into a sweater. birds don’t need you to spot them with binoculars and look them up in the bird book. a hobby is something you don’t have to do, that you do because you feel like it.
is it FUN? i’ve poured hundreds of hours into fics that got maybe six reviews. but i had FUN. write for yourself, write the stories that YOU NEED. then it doesn’t matter if six people like it or if six hundred people like it. fandom should be fun because people deserve to have fun and you, specifically, right now, deserve happiness and satisfaction and to do enjoyable things just for the pleasure of enjoying them.
ahhhhhh technically original works aren’t allowed on ao3!! so be careful there.
WAIT. I KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION.
there is actually an entire Original Work portion of ao3 where original work can be posted! it is very much welcomed and allowed. the caveat is that, due to overall site restrictions, you absolutely cannot advertise patreon, commissions, etc. this can be a problem for people who want to make money off their original work, but if you’re just looking for audience engagement then post away!
i will say that ao3 it a great hosting site in general, but it does have some distinct downsides for original work depending on what genre you’re in:
erotica, as always, does very well. anything that builds off of fan tropes – such as sentinel/guide “original” works – does well. romance in general can do well to middling, and fantasy/paranormal/horror does okay.
this mostly has to do with the way that ao3 prioritizes tagging of specific tropes over genres. it also partially has to do with the audience of the site, who tend to be there for fandom content (especially shippy and kinky content) and are interested in original work that gives them more of that.
other potential sites to post original work include:
fictionpress.com – old, past its prime, but it’s launched a lot of now mainstream authors and you can still get really delightful & thoughtful reader engagement.
wattpad – …look, it’s…it’s a hot mess. the algorithms do not necessarily favor quality, but it’s still probably the best place on the internet right now to get a lot of engagement with your work. and, specifically, a lot of different kinds of engagement, from line comments to overall comments to likes to favorites. also, the audience is explicitly there to binge read a lot of original work.
reddit – if you’re doing horror or sci-fi especially, reddit can be an amazing place to post and receive a lot of audience engagement. be careful which subreddits you choose, but, like, it’s worth a shot?
Adding on to this bc AO3′s policy re: original work has caused confusion recently and there have been stories deleted for not being fanworks–
AO3 does NOT technically allow purely original work, only original work created in a fandom context. (source)
(this is not a thing I knew myself until a few months ago, and I had assumed “Original Work” means…what it sounds like @_@)
It’s…weird, and I haven’t wrapped my head around it completely myself, but I wouldn’t recommend posting original fiction to AO3 outside the categories they name, as there’s a risk of deletion/ account suspension.
As for other places to archive it, those three linked by @akaiikowrites there would be my recs as well! I’d also add that Dreamwidth has a content policy similar to AO3′s (last I checked), and although it’s nowhere near as active as Tumblr, it’s at least got decent formatting/posting options, and you could always use it as a repository and link it elsewhere if you wanted.
Could someone help me out rlly quick and paypal me a little funds, or drop me a ko-fi or 2, I am like dirt poor rn and could rlly use it D: D: please pls, the link to both paypal and ko-fi should be in my sidebar! Thank you so much if you do, and maybe I could sketch or drabble something for you in return? ~
hhh thank you to anyone who is helping, don’t forget to drop in my inbox whenever if you would like something in return!!!
gaylukes 