Fictional Fans

March Meta Matters

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 06:51:02 GMT

Posted by: ysabetwordsmith

marchmetamatterschallenge is running this month. :D Here is my introductory post. So what is meta? Well, it can be a lot of things ...

( Read more... )

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Strangers Thing fic - plot beta/beta reader?

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 23:03:24 GMT

Posted by: author_by_night

I don't know if this post is allowed, I just wasn't sure where else to ask.

I'm currently working on a Strangers Thing fic. I am very new to the fandom. I'd like someone I can bounce off of, and maybe a beta down the line? It's an AU with a better ending to El's story, giving her what I think she deserved. There might be some Canon Divergence for S4 as well. The fic is Byler, not Mileven, although she and Mike will remain good friends.

Any takers?

Again, Modly Beings, feel free to delete.

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Mood Theme in a Year Returns!

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 01:59:21 GMT

Posted by: soc_puppet

moodthemeinayear is coming back in 2026 with a new twist: Creating a custom mood theme can now earn you Dreamwidth points!

Mood Theme in a Year is a community that takes a laid-back approach to creating a custom mood theme. If you've always wanted to create your own mood theme (those little images that pop up when you select something from the drop-down "Mood" menu when posting), this is a great place to do it! Take your time creating graphics for anywhere between 15 and 132 moods, either following the community's suggested schedule or going at your own pace. (Though you need to make a minimum of 18 graphics to earn any paid time.)

The "official" schedule starts again from the beginning on January 1st, but you can jump in at any time during the year; feel free to challenge yourself as well with Bingo cards or the Mood Theme in a Month calendars! Learn more in the community pinned post or profile.

I hope to see you there!

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EVENT: Be A Goldfish: A Multifandom Multimedia Microbang

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:42:10 GMT

Posted by: devinwolfi

Description: A multifandom, multimedia, make-a-thon! Contributors are encouraged to share multiple works throughout (though not required!), as well as leave many comments on any and all fanworks shared throughout.

There are no sign-ups, check-ins, or discord servers. This is all very low-stakes, go-at-your-own-pace fun. For anyone interested in a bit of structure, there will be a completely optional punch card that you can mark off weekly if you leave a comment on a work or share one of your own. Additionally, we have provided an optional series of weekly prompts in the hopes of inspiring you to experiment creatively and find new fannish heights!

All fandoms are allowed: From megafandoms like Star Trek and Tolkien to that one canceled-too-soon series from the 80s that only you and your closest mutual know about because you're the one who told them about it in the first place, everything that has ever given you that fannish itch is both allowed and highly encouraged (RPF included).

All mediums are allowed: fic, art, meta, web weaves, gifs, playlists, food, fiber or paper crafts, etc. Very multi, very media, very wow!

All text-based entries must be 1,000 words or less, hence the micro aspect of this “bang.” We’re especially encouraging things like drabbles, poetry, ficlets, and of course, non-fic fanworks.

Schedule: 1 January - 28 February 2026
Links: beagoldfish, bag-bang, our 2026 AO3 Collection, and our FAQ

Come join our community and/or drop us a follow on tumblr and, if you feel so inspired, ring in the new year with your fellow fans!

( Our poster! )

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Sat, 15 Nov 2025 20:54:17 GMT

Posted by: author_by_night

Ao3's Sweet Sixteen is today! It was launched November 15th, 2009.

Were you an early adopter, or did it take you a while to start posting? Were you writing fanfic elsewhere at the time, or were you not into fic yet? How has your writing changed since the first fic you posted? Do you even use Ao3 now, or do you post somewhere else?

This post is not sponsored by Ao3. I'm just a dork.

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Private community for storing drafts, templates and symbols

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 01:09:41 GMT

Posted by: g_uava

(cross-posted from newcomers)

Sharing my method for saving unpublished posts on Dreamwidth since I haven't seen it mentioned before:

It's basically just creating a community for yourself with all posts set to private (here's how). That'll serve as a repository for posts only visible to you that you can organise with tags exclusive to the community. I also use my private community to store post templates with code and put in a sticky post a bunch of often used emoji along with other symbols to copy and paste when I'm on my PC.

Does anyone know of any other less known methods for saving drafts on Dreamwidth? ☺️

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1character: a character-focused writing comm

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 09:34:43 GMT

Posted by: orbble

Description: Pick one character as your focus in this fic writing community in the style of 1sentence, choose from 1 of the 6 theme sets, and make your claim - then, write 50 one-sentence fic inspired by the prompts to share on the comm! This is an ongoing activity, open to writers for all fandoms, as well as original characters. Claims are good for three months, and you can get an extension of one month if needed.
Schedule: Ongoing
Links:
On Dreamwidth: 1character

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New Community for Fan Writers!

Sun, 20 Jul 2025 01:59:42 GMT

Posted by: g_uava

fan_writers comm - for meta about writing

Come on over to fan_writers geek out about writing! Some posts shared in the comm:
- "Where I Need to Be": A discussion on your preferred writing environment.
- "Links to Writing Meta": Writing meta from AO3 and Dreamwidth.

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2025's Summer of the 69 is now open!

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 02:48:50 GMT

Posted by: soc_puppet

Community: summerofthe69

Event Description: Summer of the 69 is an event focused on creative works about the sexual position, open to all fandoms and to original works, and to all types of creations. Participation is through two means: A comment meme where users can leave and fill prompts, and themes posted weekly to get creative juices flowing.

The 2025 fest has officially opened! If the above description interests you at all, check out the following links:

Community profile
2025's Theme Calendar
2025's Comment Prompt Meme
2025's First Theme: "First Time 69: Everyone has to start somewhere"

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Theme voting open for 2025's Summer of the 69

Sat, 03 May 2025 03:01:02 GMT

Posted by: soc_puppet

The official 2025 theme poll for summerofthe69 is now live! Dedicated to the sexual position (and inspired by the song), this fest runs from June 9th through September 6th, to hit 6/9 in both common date formats. There are themes announced every week to inspire creative projects of all sorts, including recs, as well as a post hosting comment prompts kink meme style.

Themes are decided by vote, which is open to all Dreamwidth users though May 15th; the winning themes will be announced no later than May 18th for potential participants to start planning their works. You do not have to have any intention of creating anything for the fest in order to vote. As long as you're interested in seeing a particular theme or themes be an official part of this year's fest, you can vote in the poll. (There's also an interesting bonus question at the end 👀)

Come help decide which themes will run in this year's fest!

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Theme Suggestions for 2025's Summer of the 69

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 03:50:43 GMT

Posted by: soc_puppet

Theme suggestion for 2025's summerofthe69, a creative fest dedicated to the sexual position, are open for a few more days!

Suggestions will officially close on April 30th; on May 1st, a poll will go up for members to vote on this year's themes. The poll will close on May 15th, and themes will be finalized by May 18th to allow everyone time to plan for the 2025 fest, which will run from June 9th through September 6th, to encompass 6/9 in the two most common date formats.

If you want to suggest a possible theme for 2025's Summer of the 69, go leave one (or more!) in a comment ASAP!

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Mood Theme in a Year

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 01:06:26 GMT

Posted by: soc_puppet

moodthemeinayear, a community dedicated to creating custom mood themes, is starting its next round of the Minimum and Medium Mood Tracks tonight. If you're interested in following along and organizing enough images to min-max a custom mood theme on the Minimum Track, or branching out a little farther on the Medium Track, now is a great time to start! And feel free to join in on the Maximum Track simultaneously, if you want to really diversify your mood theme.

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The West Wing fandom

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 06:28:34 GMT

Posted by: 22degreehalo

So, hi!! :D

Um, funny story: due to personal circumstances entirely unrelated to real-world politics I recently ended up rewatching The West Wing and... kind of completely head over heels fell in love with it, hyperfixation-style. :')

Especially the Josh/Sam ship, which, like: yes, I know that's the Generic Main Two Guys Ship of this fandom, and I do feel unnecessarily self-conscious about that, BUT, I can't say that my propensity for self-consciousness hasn't also been a factor r.e. my enjoyment of a ship which provides such a warm and nurturing home for angst/pining/internalised self-shame and paralysing fear that it may be revealed to the panopticon we all live in today <3

All of which is to say!!! Please please link to me all of your The West Wing and especially Josh/Sam comms et cetera!!! I have been thriving on all the fanfic so far (I just today finished up with the Turning verse and by 'finished' I mean 'reached the end point of what I am capable of emotionally bearing <3)(no regrets <3) but I am starting to get a little bit desperate for more wide-ranging fandom interaction!! Of course I imagine that all the comms are thoroughly dead by now BUT I would highly enjoy wading through the archives and seeing all the buzzing and squeeing when the show was still new-ish :)

Also!! I know this is a strange place to ask for tumblr followers but if any of y'all were interested in my headcanons/ramblings I'm right over here at 22degreehalo!! Especially if you like the Sam/Josh ship at all. Please. I am reverting to my 15-year-old self as we speak in my unsettlingly sincere crush on this middle-aged white house staffers slash ship and I amf getting a teeny bit desperate for just one person who still also cares about them. :')

For my offerings I have aforementioned headcanons and snippets, plus I have also written a 6k TWW genfic a month ago: Bending Towards Justice, written for a FFFX pinch hit, all about Sam and environmentalism with a somewhat more hopeful ending than the show might typically provide. :) Also, I've read, like, a fuckton of Sam/Josh fic (even outside the Turning Verse) recently so I could hit you with some recs? I'm working on putting together a Rec50 table of 'em once I've got enough, because I am so very much in fact old enough to have enjoyed The West Wing not at its peak but infinitely goddamn closer than right now if not for the fact that I'm a dummy (and also I looked on ao3 and there were like 4 Josh/Joey fics so I got mad and declared the fandom bullshit and left :') ) (sorry Joey but I do regret that one. I do still like you with Josh though :( )

tl;dr: Please send me TWW and/or Sam/Josh comms or other fandom spaces and perhaps follow me on tumblr <333

edit: ALSO dear god if anyone knows of a widely-used tumblr tag for Sam/Josh PLEASE because 'sam x josh' and 'josh x sam' are mostly in use by a ship from the Until Dawn game fandom and I do not want to bother them any more than I already have (and vice versa...)

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Mon, 10 Mar 2025 23:02:38 GMT

Posted by: author_by_night

I was posting this to tumblr, and thought some of you might be able to relate.

It's interesting to me that people can move so quickly from one fandom to the next. Especially when it comes to fanworks.

I was in my last active fandom for seventeen years. I wrote for other fandoms here and there during that time, and a little bit after, but nothing really stuck the way that fandom did. Then I got into my current fandom in 2021, which I still write for, although not with the same frequency.

I still read and write the occasional fic for various shows and books, but I haven't really been grabbed by anything to the same extent as I was the last two fandoms. I do think I may have gotten into one fandom, were it not for the fact that some ship ugliness ensued right around the time I was finally getting into it. That unfortunately killed my interest in even touching said fandom, which is actually a shame. I may give it a second chance, thinking about it.

With regards to my last two fandoms, I do think it helped that in both cases, I started out just wanting more. I wanted future speculation, backstory, then branched out into AUs and the like. I'm not sure I've felt that strongly about the other fandoms I've tried getting into. But I don't think that's all of it. I'm just not sure what else it is.

What about you guys? Do any of you also have long lapses between consuming/creating transformative works for particular fandoms? Do any of you stick to fandoms for a long time? What gets you into transformative works in the first place?

(I'm trying to distinguish between being in a fandom and creating transformative works - in my case, fanfic - because you can be in a fandom without creating transformative works. I worry I now sound very pretentious. I just don't know how else to word it.)

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"Just Here for Godzilla"

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 17:50:18 GMT

Posted by: zenigotchas

TVtropes is a guilty pleasure site for me and recently I stumbled across a very interesting page about a trope they call "Just Here for Godzilla." Quoting the page for a moment to sum up what it is:

[Artists] want to make each new installment bigger and better than the last, adding in new stories and conventions, and just make it a lot more fun than the last title in a series. In short, development.
[...]
Many fans of anything watch movies, or play games, for exactly one reason (generally Rule of Fun) and one reason only. To them, your work has only one purpose: they're Just Here For Godzilla.

It's not meant to be a judgement on anyone who does this cuz I do it too and will continue to do so. Not to mention you CAN learn to understand and enjoy a thing for its deeper side, even if it's not what you originally went in there for. Hell the deeper stuff may be what gives it staying power in your life or becomes the main reason you like it so much.

I am wondering what media is this for you and what is the Godzilla equivalent there (eg. good music or cool outfits)? And what's the deeper meaning in the work? Are you still consuming it just for Godzilla or have you developed an appreciation for its layers now as well? (Also if you have multiple examples feel free to list as many or as little as you want).

Again none of this is meant to be an invitation to judge others and how they consume media, I just thought it was an interesting experience since I'm definitely someone who's discovered a lot of cool (and sometimes multifaceted) media because I originally was Just There For Godzilla.

My main example would be from the Godzilla franchise, funnily enough. I came for King Ghidorah and the cool kaiju combat, but I'm staying for the interesting symbolism (and still King Ghidorah lol).

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TV Talk Friending Meme

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 21:53:13 GMT

Posted by: yourlibrarian

This Valentine's Day, we're inviting everyone to "join the couch... and the conversation" in our tv_talk friending meme! Are you a binge-watching pro or casual viewer? There's a spot for everybody on our tv_talk couch! Get ready to cozy up and share your love for television.

To join in just subscribe to tv_talk and when the meme is launched, comment with some answers to the prepared prompts. Let us know at our announcement post if you have any questions.

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Proportion of romantic stories for your favourite ships

Sun, 26 Jan 2025 13:10:40 GMT

Posted by: g_uava

How much fic for your ship is romantic in nature? One defintion of romance could be development towards greater emotional and/or physical intimacy.

It seems a no-brainer for most shipfics to be romantic, but for a couple of my OTPs, it's far more common to encounter stories in which one of them grieves over the death of the other half than fics featuring them kissing/hugging/trading love confessions/other stereotypically romantic gesture. I dashed off some thoughts in a journal entry on why that might be the case and wondered about how romantic the fanworks are for other ships/fandoms.

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Sun, 19 Jan 2025 20:12:32 GMT

Posted by: devinwolfi

Hi all! I wrote a meta regarding characterization and voice in fic, using the series Ted Lasso as my primary example. By no means is it a fandom specific meta, I think it applies to loads of other fandoms and all sorts of characters. I've posted it here on my personal journal, but I'll include the sort of internal abstract and another snippet down below-

What I want to talk about here is my feelings on, as you can see from the title, characterization and voice. Characterization is fairly obvious. How these characters are written, both in the source material and by fans, and how these two compare. Voice pulls back a little bit, it refers to the voice of the character, which is part of the characterization, but also the voice of the writer, and the balance between the two. I have opinions about it that I recognize are not shared by everyone. There is plenty of good fic out there that treats voice differently than I would, or than I would prefer to read. This does not make them incorrect, or poorly written, it is just a matter of taste, style, and training.

Two things often happen to our friend Jamie. First, they underwrite him. Homogenize him, making him just vaguely English enough to pass, I guess. Though I see this most often in conjunction with other characters, who have their own distinctive speech patterns. All of them rendered down into a pile of identical and vaguely British-sounding pieces of wood. The second, they overwrite him. They use slang excessively. Which isn’t wrong per se, but the key point is you must know what it means, and the context in which to use it.

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Cri de coeur

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 16:46:48 GMT

Posted by: arcanetrivia

What do you do if you're alone in a fandom? If you can't seem contribute anything that is of actual value to others? If nothing you have to say is ever good enough to provoke genuine spontaneous enthusiastic responses; if you get either nothing at all or maybe forced polite ones at best? If the stuff you’re interested in isn't what most other people, the "real" people, are interested in? If the people who are maybe the closest to your own interests are in a little circle of their own friends that they've been in for a decade or more and they apparently don't ever look at anything made by people outside of it, or if they do, they leave no evidence?

(NB I'm not suggesting I should somehow be let inside that friendship itself. But that feeling of "foregone conclusion that you will never even be considered because you weren't already around at a time when you barely even knew the thing existed"... where the alternative is "yes, they have looked, but it was all so worthless to them they decided to say nothing at all"... well. Unfortunately in this fandom an important part of having "cred" is having become a fan either back in the 1990s when it was new, or if you weren't born yet, then at least when you were a child yourself -- that is, the length of the tenure is important; and I only got into it in late 2021 when I was already in my 40s.)

I know the answer is "git gud; if you were worth paying attention to, people would pay attention to you" but being alone especially when nominally the idea of a fandom is "hey let’s all play together" is seriously just one of the worst feelings ever. "No one wants to play with you." Although normally I would say that in my current fandom "let's all play together" is actually not the underlying assumption and it's way more a meritocracy than I have ever experienced before in other fandoms, but as I wrote this last night, before my eyes I was seeing unfold on Discord a thing of "hang on I've written something pretty much just like this? Why is this good, people saying 'OMG LMAO THIS IS PERFECT', but when I wrote it, it wasn't?"

The fact that this has happened to me more than once means the common factor, and thus the problem, is me; but how do you keep living with the only things you can offer never being good enough, with never acquiring that "man, that was awesome!" back and forth feedback loop that keeps things going?

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TV Talk Rec Fest!

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 18:56:23 GMT

Posted by: yourlibrarian

Have you watched new TV shows or discovered older ones that you really enjoyed in 2024? Let others know about them in tv_talk's Rec Fest, kicking off on January 12.

There will be posts made each day from the 12th through the 18th, each day a different genre with the 18th for any ones we didn't cover earlier in the week. Help others find new things to watch!

For more details and if you have any questions, visit our announcement post.

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Mood Theme in a Year

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 03:26:20 GMT

Posted by: soc_puppet

Mood Theme in a Year is gearing up for its second full run!

Once a week starting in January, the community mod will make a post with three mood themes. Those are the suggested moods to work on for that week. In those posts, you can talk with other community members, brainstorm, encourage each other, make suggestions, and generally cheer one another on. You are welcome to post any mood images you make to the community as you go, and you are welcome to join or leave the community at any point in the schedule.

Despite the name, there are three main schedules for this community:

The Maximum Mood Theme Track, which begins on January 1st and continues through the year with regular breaks

The Minimum Mood Theme track, which starts seven times a year and goes for six weeks at a time

The Medium Mood Theme track, which starts three times a year and goes for fifteen weeks at a time, with one break in the middle

Mood prompt posting will begin on January 1st and continue through the year. The Maximum track will include all 132 moods; the Minimum Track will include the bare minimum 15 moods for a complete mood theme, plus an optional three moods that will give you the greatest image variety in your mood theme for the fewest actual images; the Medium Track includes all 34 higher-level moods that other moods inherit images from.

While Dreamwidth requires a paid account to use a custom mood theme, you do not need a paid account or even to want to use a custom mood theme to participate in this community! If you're intrigued by the idea of creating a custom mood theme, or just watching along and potentially cheering on others as they do so, you are welcome to join in the fun to the extent you feel comfortable. (There's also the secret hidden option of creating a mood theme with completely original/copyright-free images and submitting it to Dreamwidth to be a possible site-supported mood theme 👀)

To find out more, check out Mood Theme in a Year's profile.

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Resource for fanwork creators: Japanese Seasons & Academic Calendar

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 10:28:09 GMT

Posted by: g_uava

For anyone creating school stories and university AUs set in Japan, I've compiled some information on phases of the academic year for Japanese high schools and universities. I've added the corresponding season and what the weather would be like for brainstorming clothes/activities/etc.

Link: Seasons & Academic Calendar - Japan

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Small Web September!

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 01:10:33 GMT

Posted by: kalloway

Hi all! smallweb is going to be hosting Small Web September, which is a low-commitment challenge to work on a smallweb project of choice during the month of September.

This could be editing personal archive/shrine, setting up a fediverse instance, checking out geminispace, or anything else that fits into the wide definition of "small web".

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Essay "Fandom can do a little gatekeeping. As a treat."

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 10:58:08 GMT

Posted by: mekare

A very interesting essay on the increased visibility of fandom spaces nowadays and the people who come into these spaces without knowing the culture.

ETA: Due to my ignorance of certain terms, be warned now that this essay uses (by accident or design I truly cannot tell) an offensive term that I was unaware of. It also tries to make a point about gatekeeping in the sense of keeping fanworks protected from people who want to make money of it, but conflates this issue with several others. See the comments below for more details. Also, if anyone knows of any other meta talking about these issues separately, please do let me know!

Essay by caelum-in-the-avatarverse

So I finally decided to archive-lock my fics on AO3 last night. I’ve been considering it since the AI scrape last year, but the tipping point was this whole lore.fm debacle, coupled with some thoughts I’ve been thinking regarding Fandom These Days in general and Fandom As A Community in particular. So I wanna explain why I waited so long, why I locked my stuff up now, and why I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a-okay with making it harder for people to see my stories.[…]

Personally, I‘ve been waffling back and forth on this issue which is being complicated by me posting my art on several platforms. So, for now it is not possible to lock down my stuff completely without also sacrificing visibility in the spaces that are most suited to the display of fanart.

What are your thoughts on this? Either for your own works, or as a fellow fan wanting to read/look at other people‘s fanworks?

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Summer of the 69: Theme Poll

Thu, 09 May 2024 02:32:03 GMT

Posted by: soc_puppet

The poll to decide this year's themes at summerofthe69, a smut fest dedicated to the sexual position, is now up! ~~And has been for a week, shhh, ignore that.~~ It runs through May 15th, and there's a bunch of really interesting new options to pick from, in addition to old favorites.

Themes will be finalized between the closing of the poll and May 18th, so potential participants can have time to plan what they might want to do before the event formally opens on June 9th.

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