You Never See This in Fanfiction... 

Platonic hand holding is more rare than my will to live. Platonic hand holding supremacy

I love reading fanfics where all the characters are just friends and goofy shenanigans ensue, but most of the fics I find have romance as the main focus

Platonic relationships in general. Everything is so romanticized or sexualized that anything someone can do with someone else platonically can be taken as a ship thing. I’m writing a time travel fic with a very deeply devoted platonic friendship between a teenage character and a teenage version of an canonically adult character, and I want them to hold hands, hug, hold each other, but I can’t because people WILL think I ship them (when I don’t and find them as a ship deeply disgusting)

I once wrote a fic where the entire character arc was about the main character platonically saying "I love you" to his friends. That's just the kind of friendship I like to see in fiction and most fanfics that I've read are about romantic love.

Unhealthy obsession in an otherwise healthy relationship. Two people who have a very sweet and wholesome relationship (platonic, romantic, familial, etc) who will literally commit murder if anyone even lays a *finger* on the other person. Just “I care so much about you, i will do anything to protect you” and they mean *anything.*

I just love fics where they explore unlikely friendships. Just pairing up two characters who've never interacted and seeing how it goes. Think it's a good character writing practice cause you'll be writing and thinking "how would this character react to what this character does and say?" Hard though because there's not much to base the relationship off of in canon.

I love the bottomless weapons trope, where they get stopped at like a gate or something and they have to drop off all their weapons, and it just keeps going for like three minutes, and then a long pause, then the gatekeeper says "Is that all?" And then they deposit like two more weapons.

I love when one of the couple attempts to pull the “Push Them Away to Protect Them” trope and the other one is like “I know what you’re doing and I’m not falling for it”. Also, bi, poly and ace characters.

I know it's weird but horseriding... I'm a horse girl and it shows a lot about their compassion, courage, patience. Everything.

Not a fanfic writer, but there ARE rare tropes I want to write about and play with. This includes: -Platonic kissing. Just let characters kiss without it having to be romantic! -Characters living in treehouses(not using it as a house during the day, but rather it being their one true home. Best real literature example is Last Kids on Earth) -Were-creatures that AREN'T werewolves(werebears, weretigers, etc.) -Humans vibing with monsters and eldritch horrors instead of hunting them down or outcasting them(because let's be honest, we WOULD vibe with cryptids like mothman and bigfoot) -Character A trauma dumps like it's something that happens to everyone while character B watches in horror and sorrow -Seasons changing used as symbolism -What-Ifs that are also canon compliant int he fact they're either dreams or visions

100% a sucker for normal-seeming lines with horrific implications a happy au in which one of the characters quotes a canon death scene? beautiful a pre canon with word play on the tragic ending? perfection tagging it would ruin the surprise tho :( the perfect reaction is when it makes you go "That's nice an- oh. *oh no.*"

Villain couples. I just love seeing two people loving being awful together. I wish it was tagged, I need more of it.

Morally grey characters using newly acquired power to be cruel to people they hold a grudge against. That shit is *juicy*

honestly, we need more platonic relationships in general in fanfics. characters are romantically shipped so often that it becomes the standard and you have to specify that it’s platonic, and i don’t really like that, especially if the ship would be problematic if shipped romantically.

My favorite thing to see in fanfictions is when the characters get a bit of a reality check. Sometimes characters can be so out of touch or stuck in their ways that they don't realize when they're in the wrong or doing unethical things. I love seeing them get a wake up call and realize their mistakes, because it's so interesting to see how they react and how they can change.

Nightmare sequences. I love when the author can show a character's worst fears in an abstract way or without clunky dialog. Instead of having a character mention they're scared of heights, show them falling in their nightmares. It can also convey someone's subconscious trying to tell them something that they haven't realised yet, romantic feelings for example.

Fics where the characters are theatre kids and they go through the process of putting on a show

4:05 Tvtropes calls this "Walking Armory" and "Extended Disarming Sequence",I agree it's hilarious.

AH! I WROTE A PLATONIC HAND HOLDING SCENE ONCE AND THEN FELT WEIRD ABOUT IT FOR DAYS AFTER THE FACT, PANICING ABOUT IF PEOPLE WOULD MAKE IT ROMANIC, SO I WENT BACK AND MADE IT LESS OF A THING I FOCUSED ON. Just hearing that this would resonate a tiny bit with at least one person makes me regret not leaving it all in. It was supposed to illustrate how weirdly relaxed and friendly a character was being after getting captured by an antagonistic force. He went on, made fast friends with a goon, holding a soldier's hand like they were childhood friends instead of having to be gripped onto. That was the end of the description in the actual text, but originally, the character from whose POV it was from had an entire "yes, it's very sweet how you're able to make friends everywhere you go, BUT NOW IS NOT THE TIME, WE MIGHT HAVE TO KILL THEM AND-- NO, NO, NO, STOP PLAYING PATTY-CAKE WITH THE ENEMY SOLDIER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU STOP HOLDING THAT GUY'S HAND! YOU'RE NOT BESTIES!" sort of internal thing that built it up more.

I wish there was more fanfics where the narration has its own personality. Like instead of just telling the story it might also tease or goof around a bit.

platonic soulmates, but with soulmarks or other soulmate-identifying characteristics. I've only seen it in a handful of fics so far (all from the same fandom and although written by two separate authors all part of the same AU), but I absolutely love it. It opens up so many more options for pairings beyond just romantic couples. It's just the universe saying 'hey, you guys will get along great', which opens the door for not just romantic pairings (although those are certainly possible), but also inseparable friends, found family (in all the possible positive dynamics you can think of), and even more than 2 people sharing the same soulmark! Just imagine a found family where absolutely none of them are blood-related, but they all have the same soulmark and are so incredibly healthy for eachother after being hurt by others in their lives. You could even have someone with multiple soulmarks, where one is for their best friend and one is for their partner, or two friends they have that tolerate eachother for the sake of the group but would otherwise never get along. So many possible dynamics, and yet I almost never see it used in any of the fandoms I'm in. If someone has found fics like this, please send them my way! RU-vid deletes comments with links, so just tell me the name of the fic, the author, and what fandom it's from. Thank you :D

Outsider POVs. Live for these. I adore “people outside the situation trying to uncover the plot as the in-the-know protagonist engages in outwardly bizarre behavior.” It’s so enjoyable because, if the main protagonist’s actions are consistent with the information I could infer as a fan, I don’t even have to see their POV whatsoever to understand the situation. Just somebody with no idea what they’re seeing watching the plot like “What is WRONG with them????”

The canon compliance is real 😢 pls just let me enjoy the world I fell in love with not everything has to be combined with like four different animes 😭

A and B are both trying to play matchmaker for their friends C and D. A and B fall in love with each other in the process.

For me, I wanna see more 'siblings being wholesome' fics. Ik it's not so rare (atleast in my fandoms they aren't) but like, there's just something abt them that I love so much, especially if it's brothers. And I sadly don't feel like i've seen enough of it

For me it's the the Faking Amnesia trope. I'm obsessed with amnesia tropes but I have a hard time finding fics where the character intentionally fakes amnesia to deceive their enemy. Or that they had amnesia at first, but got it back and are continuing to fake. I was writing a fic once where the latter happened, and it was meant to be a reveal so the character's non-amnesiac skills and mannerisms were sneaking into their act.

The one with one character making a comment that all their friends are horrified by and it leads to a traumatic backstory reveal and (hopefully) comfort and angst is just absolute perfection

Survival fics with a happy ending. Like the character gets trapped in a cave and their hope slowly dwindles but they get through it in the end either through their own merit or a rescue. I have really only been able to find these in minecraft fanfics. Also a relationship where one of the characters realizes that their partner isn't right for them, for whatever reason, and has to deal with navigating that.

I like when fics are written in the same tone and style as the original media, even if the events are all new. I've even read one series of fics that successfully did the near-impossible job of including completely original spontaneous musical numbers (like in the show it was based on) in a written form, in a way where you could almost hear the music in your head while reading.

Honestly, I want to see Y/N fics based around platonic or familial relationships. Usually, when I imagine myself being inserted into the worlds of my favorite pieces of media, it's because I want to part of the adventure, not because I want to make out with any of the characters.

Non-Platonic high-fives: affection can be more than just kissing Cuckquean: even my spell check asks if I mean 'cuckold' (no, I emphatically do not) Recognition of the difference between romantic and sexual attraction: yes there is a difference

Don't know this is the same as canon complaince but I love when the story still makes sense in the lore.

It may be a bit messed up, but body horror. I love reading about the buildup to it, and then the body horror itself. Heck- even better is how the characters adapt to what happened to them, and how they cope with it!

I love setting change aus that don't focus as much on romance as they do on fitting canon events into these circumstances. Seeing a complicated high stakes fantasy plot successfully translated into like... High school drama for example? Is really satisfying to me for some reason.

I’ve only found this a few times in the fandoms I read for but when there’s one character both of the characters being shipped together go to for advice and to vent to and they’re both like “but don’t tell them” That one character is so frustrated but keeps it a secret and when they finally confess the character is like “FINALLY GOSH GOODNESS Y’ALL ARE BLIND”. I usually hate miscommunication/not communicating something really important but for some reason in this context I really like stuff like that.

the first one is so real tho. im aroace but very physically affectionate with my friends (when theyre comfortable with it) and family. i wish there were more ‘romantic’ gestures that were normalised as being platonic as well. like?? i’d kiss my besties on the cheek!! i’d cuddle up with them and hug them and hold their hand!!! i do it already. i love holding hands with friends, especially bc sometimes i just desperately need to do something with my hands or hold something and a friend’s hand is really good at making me not go insane from craving physical touch. and i so badly wish that i saw more of it. theres a pairing in my fandom that i read fics for even tho i dont like them as a ship. bc i just genuinely like the idea of them being besties who act like romantic partners in the way i do with MY friends and say “oh no, we’re just friends” without being in denial. i just have to replace the word ‘boyfriend’ with ‘best friend’, but other than that, its fine bc i can genuinely see them doing literally ANYTHING romantic together in a completely platonic manner. and i wish that more people wrote fics intended to be viewed this way !!!! edit: after checking the comments, i am so glad we’re all on the same page rn of craving more platonic relationships in fics

Something I love seeing in fanfic(and any media, really) is a character going through a physical transformation into some kind of Creature or smthn and then just. Having to live their life afterwards. Or like, character studies that go into the mindsets of characters who've had that happen to them in canon(like the Spot or Danny Phantom). I like body horror, I like angst, and I like non-human character designs, so its a big win! Unfortunately there's no real way to tag that because there isn't a concise enough trope name for it, so fics with that premise are difficult to find. Also doesn't help that the fandoms I'm in just don't have a lot of fics that explore those ideas as much as I'd like smh

i once read this australian book, and i really liked how the mc never ended up with either of the love interests at the end because she slowly realized how messed up they were and how messed up they were making her. i also want to be a psychologist but that’s unrelated right!!!!

I once read a Hanahaki fic where the sufferer developed a crush on his best friend, except he was straight up abusing the friend, which ends up costing the relationship, and thus, his life. I loved it because it was so preventable, and the relationship might've worked if he stopped being the worst human alive and apologized. But instead, he didn't, his friend grew a spine and told him no, killing him. A good death that was tragic and utterly deserved. And I don't think I'm ever finding another fic like that (at least not in any of my fandoms) because there are only 34 fanfics on AO3 with the tags "Hanahaki Disease" and "Abusive Relationships" without specifying any other filters. "Poisonous Heart, Wilted Love" by MarisaRaindrops if you're interested, and major spoilers for Your Turn to Die up through chapter 2. You have been warned.

I love being able to visualize everything. I want to hear the rain and smell the smoke and vividly imagine how everything looks and sounds and feels. I want to see more of them environment and location details SO bad.

While I do like what 5:45 has to offer, I'd word mine a bit differently: not canon compliance, but canon _friendliness._ You can have a Universe Alteration where things go a little to the left, yet still have everyone behave as they do in canon. I'm writing a Hollow Knight fanfic that's under this umbrella, where it takes place after the events of the Embrace the Void ending, but after reading some meta posts, I realized my initial premise is unlikely to happen because of lore and I need to rethink how I need it structured. Also as a bi person myself, 9:05 hits so hard, I hate the bi erasure in fandom.

It should be more common for fics to have a plotline. Like please, for the love of God, I came to fanfic to indulge in a good story with dramatic plot, multi-faceted characters who act and take control of their story. Where is the stakes? The twists and turns? Every single fanfic I've seen of my ship is about that ship confessing with one another and going from being best friends to lovers, or trying to spend time with one another cuddling or undergo a bunch of emotions I either simply cannot imagine or hits too close to home. Yes, emotional fits have their worth too, but can we write about something else? I don't see a lot of people complaining about this. Maybe some dramatic fics like what I said existed in my fandom and I missed them lol. I came here to scrape some dopamine to cope with my life, not to get hit with another wave of emotional crisis. Maybe there's some in my fandom but my dumbass managed to miss lmaoo. Cuz I see no one complaining this problem doe.

Platonic hand-holding is my favorite thing ever I'm starving for it! I grew up in Japan and most of my girl friends at school liked holding hands and lean on their friend's shoulder and hug eachother tightly, it's very cute and it surely influenced how I write my platonic relationships.

I'd like to see more stuff that's canon divergent but in a way suited to telling a new dramatic story using ideas from the original the original didn't use for whatever reason. Like a piece of the worldbuilding which is actually really messed up but doesn't get explored in the original, or an implication of the magic system which could produce something crazy that didn't happen in the original, or a fic where the villain wins and a new cast has to deal with that. Generally I want fanfic that has the dramatic structure and sensibilities the original usually does rather than focusing on romance or slice of life. I can get the appeal of romance and slice of life, but when I go to fanfic it's because I wanna see ideas from the original get used in new dramatic stories. Oh and also, I would enjoy fanfic with themes and commentary to make.

I mainly read fanfics about found family and close friendships and ive seen platonic handholding maybe twice and i love whenever it happens. Similarly, in those stories characters often cuddle or sleep in the same bed as friends or like siblings. Its really sweet

I love love love outsider POV fics, whether from a minor character or an oc’s perspective. It’s always just so interesting and fun to think of the different ways characters will interpret what’s going on - especially with weirder fandoms. I also like crossover fics for this reason, though they tend to be more hit or miss. You don’t tend to see it super often, since most writers want to focus on the characters the fic is about of course.

Besides fandom specific things, I LOVE slice of life apocalypse/wilderness stories, where the characters just gotta go abotu their daily life surviving. Not the sort where 'man is the true enemy' cynical deals where all the characters are hardened and learing to open up but only to those they can trust (although one or two characters like that if it makes sense for their canon character is good) but just characters living their lives... but its a bit hard due to the circumstances and they gotta do everything themselves with only the kindness of the people they know to support them. Gathering food, scavenging supplies, putting together thing, takign care of one another, utilizing their hyperspecific skillsets... Which falls into my other favourite thing I don't see enough of which is just a fic about a character participating in a niche hobby and using it as a metaphor for their problems and relationships.

im a big fan of crossovers, queerplatonic relationships (bc im in one!!) and things like for example, asta from black clover finally giving up. that genre of angst. i feel alot of fandoms focus too much on pairings so i have a hard time finding all of these things with the specific niches i like is nigh impossible and its painful.

9:07 sometimes I actually worry about doing the opposite since I headcanon most characters as Bi/Pan due to past Het/Queer Relationships they've had in the past (Like: A is male and I headcanon him dating B, another male, but in canon he dated C, a female, so I make him Bi/Pan) and sometimes I worry I've got too many Bi/Pan headcanons and less Gay/Lesbian ones.

Absolutely love friendly/well-intentioned platonic oneshots between characters that either don’t interact in canon, don’t interact much in canon, or have a relatively poor relationship in canon. Just gimme 1.2k - 7k words of two characters just existing in the same space and figuring out how that works. No stakes, no huge drama, just pure unadulterated “this is how they might talk to each other” character dynamic goodness ❤

onesided confessions, and onesided in general. the characters reaction to getting rejected can be so fun and the angst is really enjoyable too. most fics are "they think its onesided but its not" and i think actual unreturned love is great and its upsetting that its so rare!

This one isn't as unpopular as some others but mostly that it's never tagged or when it is people don't go enough into it, but I really like internalized homophobia in queer relationships. This is probably a sign of something about myself but, idk it just really makes me feel for the characters and I feel like a lot of the times when it's tagged people don't really utilize it.

A trope I rarely see but I love is when characters get a piercing and they go with a friend or partner. They tend to be sweet.

Totally agree with the person who said established relationships. Also, I really like to see healthy parent-child relationships. Not necessarily perfect ones, but ones where the parent and kid joke around together and genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Friends as well as family, y’know? Also one specific best friend pairing in my main (atm) fandom that I absolutely LOVE but rarely see.

I love when a character finds out something about someone that just... reshapes how they view them. Now, thats pretty broad, and I can find works that scratch this itch under many different trope/genere/tags. For example, something that scratches this itch are "reaction fanfics" where characters react to the canon or AU's about the canon. Another thing that scratches it are "identity reveals" fanfics, but those are only really a thing with superhero/magical girl properties. A scenario I love seeing that scratches the itch, though, is just... characters opening up to each other. Talking about their backstories, or a secret they have... and there's no universal tag for that. It's actually one of the reasons I love time travel fanfic too - a lot them have reveals to other characters that the time traveler is, indeed, a time traveler. I just love those "reaction" or "reveal" type stories where the characters come out from it having a better understanding of each other. Mind reading fics can also scratch this itch, and things similar to it. Hell, that's part of why I like Hanahaki fics too. Just... I love reveals

You know what I don't see enough of? Stories that take full ownership of the fact that the franchise in question is animated. Give me scenes where the characters have the cartoonish qualities they've been known to display during the show, and _not_ just the 'wacky character'. They've _all_ done _something_ wacky, I guarantee you.

Actor AU's where they're doing interviews is so much fun, just seeing opposite sides just hang out is fun

The platonic one is SO true. People literally romanticise anything. Love is not just romance. Love can exist in many forms.

Love language that isn't obvious, at first, to the other person. Like when a person obsessed with building robots leaves a series of increasingly complex alarm clocks for someone that keeps breaking them.

The last of these reminded me of a oneshot I wrote! Also, I feel like there's not enough non-romantic stuff in the fanficosphere. Maybe I just want to see family members, found or biological, care about each other. What about friends? What about a pair that are typically enemies, even?

Characters being frustrated by two characters who are absolutely head over heels for each other but just won’t confess is the best, especially when the character is feeling the same frustration as as a vast majority of the fandom is. It’s just pure gold. FEEL OUR PAIN Also fics that are just about daily life or transitions in life (such as the first semester of college away from home) where there isn’t an antagonist or romance plot, it’s just characters trying to navigate life. Also finding fics that focus on relationships that are typically in the background is hard, but I get so much joy from those.

I'm not one for romance in story for the most part, being ace and all, but I like a good 'boring' ship. Those that present the relationship as not the foundation of conflict for those characters, but where they are just comfortable in their status with each other Not to say I don't like growth or drama in a relationship, those things are necessary and good, and I've seen more than a few divorced couples in fiction that I enjoy. But when the relationship is the only driving factor in these peoples' lives (outside of the romance genre), it falls so flat to me and is not so fun. TL;dr, more backgrounding of the relationships

I love canon compliance! I love spending a little more time in the original story

I love writing established relationship fic where they’re just healthy and the fic doesn’t revolve around there relationship. Just like yeah they’re together it’s no big deal let’s get them into sm silly non romantic antics For ship fics, I like getting them together early on and having the majority of the fic be about the aftermath of the initial getting together. I want to see them meet each others parents and be nervous about it!!!!

One of my favorite tropes ever is when a character, any character, is turned into a monster- usually literally but sometimes metaphorically too. I don’t see it often at all which is a shame because it is so fun to read haha

I was obsessed with climbing trees when I was a kid. If I saw a tree with branches low enough for climbing, nothing else mattered in that moment. My mom did a lot of running after me when I was younger… 😅

1:41 I honestly should add that to my new book, it makes sense in the setting and the characters are definitely the type to scramble up trees

Siblings that act like siblings I have a huge family, and I wish for more fics with them. They either HATE each other, obsessive or lovey dovey. Siblings aren't like that. Historical details, especially fashion I'm a historical fashion buff and I love when I read in fan fics and even actually books (especially historical romance) accurately dress the characters most importantly men as they are usually thrown to the wayside when it comes to descriptions of dress.

I just today thought about fics where the MCs of a story get to read the story, or fanfics about themselves… but I have no idea what that is tagged as…

4:33 Perrito talking about the sock incident.

Things I’d kill to see mentioned in stories in general: * moving house * renovating houses * marriage of convenience where they end up falling in love * asexuality * good old cozy vibes and feelings * lots of location moving Idk just some thoughts.

I love the dumb trope of "character a thinks they're alone but character b is watching them and sees character a do something cute/weird/upsetting" i usually refer to it as "accidental stalking"

Well-written redemption arcs for villains.

I love slow burn when it takes a while to get to the relationship… and then the rest of the plot still has to happen. I just really like *very* long fics, like 500k and upwards, which have romance as a subplot or a b-plot, without being the *entire* plot

I need more fics with the ship dynamic that I decided to name "The jock who bullies the chess club falls in love with jock who's a member of the chess club but is afraid of confessing", I have only seen it like 3 times.

Ok so maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but a specific type of hurt comfort where someone is ridiculed for a fear when they're young, so they try to hide it. As an adult, their partner finds out, and consoles or 'protects' them (protects in air quotes because I prefer the fear to be semi-irational or not really being something one can protect another from, lime thunder)

I like it when languages other than English are included, anything from a single phrase to multiple lines of dialogue. The author usually does a great job of setting the tone, so even if not everyone understands the characters they know whats going on, it can make the story more immersive or realistic, and its a nice little encouragement to expand a particular vocabulary!

the one thing i absolutely live and die for is crying/comfort stuff. its not as common as one might think! usually when it does happen, there's not enough hugs and cuddles, or there's anger and phyisical distance involved, which is a huge turn-off for me. or sometimes its exactly the way i like it, but it lasts for only like 2 sentences ._. im really not into most comfort fics, because either the characters arent interesting to me, or its about someone who is sick/injured, and personally, if im sick/injured: dont come near me 😂 im a rabid dog, dont touch me, dont bring me soup, get the heckie out 😂😅 ive finally started writing my own fics though, and of course theyre all filled with plenty of comfort! just the way i like it 😌❤

Hard agree on stable relationships being rare. I’m actually in the middle of writing a fic like that right now and like I totally get why they aren’t very common. Every time I’m writing the two lovers doing something sweet together and just being happy with each other the little goblin inside me is like _“but where is the angst?”_ and I have to beat it back with a broom shouting *“LET THEM BE HAPPY!!!!”*

Non-sexual Intimacy. I mean things like kissing all over each other's body, whispering sweet words into their ears, etc. Some way of expressing love, connection, and commitment that isn't just straight up sex. Generally if a fic goes that far it will also go for full smut, but if a fic doesn't want to go for full smut it generally won't want to include Non-sexual Intimacy either, so finding that perfect medium which has a main focus on it is all that more satisfying.

*̾ its a bit angsty, but i personally LOVE when a character is forced to be someone they arent. ive seen this tagged as " forced identity theft " before, but it doesnt have an official ao3 tag

Adopted Characters having positive relationships with, at the very least one member of, their biological family. I have a Ducktales oc that kinda plays off of a Headcannon and she has at the very least a friendly relationship with her bio brother.

I just want more action/adventure fanfics. I want storys where my favorite guys gotta save the world.

I hate arranged marriage as a romance trope, but I *love* platonic arranged marriage. Especially, lavender marriage.

i love unreliable narrators. i also love medieval/dark fantasy stories, especially grittier ones that don't focus too much on romance. also mentioned in the video were road trip/journey fics, absolutely adore those

Ive seen fics where the Villain manages to convince the Hero/Hero-in-training to the "dark side" or make them evil, but ive never seen one where the Hero makes the Villain/Villain-in-training good. I need more evil turned hero fics. Preferably where theyre confused and semi reluctant because they thought the Heroes were all against them when really both the Heroes and the Villain have the same goal in mind just the Hero has to make them realize it. Not even like a romantic thing necessarily. Good shit.

Fae family dynamics their so fun to read. Also specific to the Hermitcraft fandom soup group family aus. I like family aus

Wasn't expecting to see social media AUs here, but god they are so right. I love the way characters interact with it and how that affects the world. I love seeing how characters approach their online persona. I love when a stoic character is just really silly online or a fun and flirty character spends all of their time infodumping about trains, and I also love it when a characters social media just reinforces their characterization.

I really like Dragon AUs? Like any sort of dragon stuff-- characters befriending dragons, characters turning into dragons, even characters fighting dragons, I just really like anything with dragons in it and I feel sad that I don't see it too much (at least in my fandoms)

This type of video helps my writing motivation so much, thanks for making this!

Accurate portrayals of father-daughter relationships. Yup, that’s it. that’s the comment. I’m atm having this in my story and one-shot with my oc. The father is quite caring about his daughter and if he sees something’s wrong, he’ll try to ask about it and will stay with the daughter until it’s solved. I wish I could make a scene for them that doesn’t left me hesitant and feeling bad for a selected amount of time. Because for example, if you make a character touch your oc’s horns to clean something and don’t specify they’re their father/daughter, people will immediately skip anything and go straight to shipping…

The things I really like from the video: Platonic handholding, tree climbing/tree houses, best friend road trips, characters testing stuff on their own, healthy villain romances, villains betting on when the heros will admit their feelings, that weapons thing where there's just 10m of setting stuff down followed by one or two more nervous placements, that trauma response thing, characters within fics writing fics, canon compliance, fics where everyone is an OC, fics when characters know each other enough to provide comfort in moments where they're in distress, hero and villain stranded and forced to work together then realizing they would make a good team had the hands dealt them different cards, post apoc fics where it follows the day to day after it all went to crap, the whole subverting expectations by having a guy just teleport up and stab rather than charging some powerful punch, unreliable narrators, content creator/youtube AUs, bi characters in headcanon fanfics, and ship fics where the relationship is pre-established and we just see their day to day beyond that first really tense or lovey phase. Stuff I love that wasn't mentioned: Fics where there are two straight pairings when all four characters are secretly bi and in love with the other's partner, resulting in A and B breaking up, C and D breaking up, and then A and C entering a MLM relationship at the same time as B and D enter a lesbian relationship, and it ends in them all getting a good laugh about how awkward it all began. Fics where the villain is a former hero or vice versa and their former ally still cares deeply about them despite the change in perspective on the one side, leading to surprisingly intimate moments when nobody else is around where the one who's been converted has a quiet conversation with their former ally. Said former ally makes no attempt to convince them to convert back, as they understand it would be pointless to try, but they still understand each other on a fundamental level and even remain tentative friends when the masks are off. Fics where characters get into an amateur/indie music career and the author includes lovingly crafted voice acted MP3s of songs that the characters sang rather than simply linking to the original material. Bonus points if they create original material just for the story that feels like it could actually come from the world the fic is based on. Four things I adore in Undertale fanfics specifically. 1. Adult Frisk and adult Monster Kid being in a ship. I don't really care what gender either of them gets headcanon'd to as long as they're an item. 2. Papyrus and Mettaton being in an actual ship where Papyrus is extremely flustered and finally openly admitting that he didn't really have many friends before going out with him, and Mettaton being like the big protective papa bear to the skeleton, breaking friendships with anyone who's hostile to Papy, behind his back or otherwise. Big caring flamboyantly gay boyfriend who protects a shy and adorable little bean that only has one foot out of the closet is big happy lovey vibes. 3. Sans and Toriel becoming a ship, even if it's purely platonic. I get that they're just really good friends, even in canon, but I absolutely love the trope of an older lady finding love in a younger guy who finds genuine beauty in her despite her age. 4. Literally just any fic where Papyrus accurately picks his favorite food. It's NOT pasta, guys. It's literally oatmeal with dinosaur eggs. Google it. He just likes making dinner for his (potential) friends. (It's also really cool that this is an actual reference to a 90's brand food. It's believed that some of it ended up in Waterfall well beyond it's "best if used by" date and Papyrus loves it anyways. Wholesome as heck, even if slightly nauseating in realizing that the cereal expired over 100 years ago in canon and that it likely got soggy and gross after sitting in Waterfall for at least 12 decades.) Something I love in Deltarune fics: Papyrus just not even being Sans' brother. Don't get me wrong, I don't want Prunsel to exist or anything, but I just adore when fanfics make up an entirely new skeleton OC and has the player soul freak the heck out when seeing that he doesn't exist here, demanding to Sans to know where Papyrus is, only to have him make some kinda joke about an office supply store downtown.

Believable in character dialogue. I’m not kidding, I’ve read like a few fanfics, most of them and my start came from Zootopia simply because I was heavily impressed with how dedicated the fandom became only a few years after a single movie,not a franchise or something people are nestogic for not even having any spin offs at the time, for single movie that just came out and had to see what was going on with those little heads of theirs. There were some cute ones, I didn’t really care what genre they were in because I was closer to an alien overseeing a planet and trying to figure out their behaviors. but for me I enjoy the original movie because I understood both main characters perfectly, knowing elements from people I was familiar with and understanding how both them drew their conclusions to things, and going through it, its almost like people we’re familiar with one of them but not the other, there was no common denominator either. It took me out of the story because that’s kinda why the movie worked, less the plot and more how they conflicted and worked like two puzzle pieces fitting together off each other’s personality. I don’t read fanfics anymore, although I say that like I read a bunch I unfortunately didn’t otherwise I might have learnt something, because I’m busy with life and trying to write my own stories that are based in my own universe, so I would have to go back, find my old kindle fire (and charge it), figured out which ones did the best at that, not reading new ones any time soon, my show back burner is overflowing already.

Original Story fanfics. So many people nowadays make AUs where it’s “Insert Series but X Thing is different”, and they often just aren’t an interesting enough difference or the writer doesn’t explore that difference in enough detail. I love seeing characters react to new situations and seeing new events unfold before me, not something I’ve already seen.

When a fanfic has a plot that expands on/interprets an aspect that was heavily underutilized idea from the original work. I’m talking everything from a relationship to world breaking plot points. Not even sure how that would be tagged but I always love seeing how people would write stuff like this it’s so fascinating.

I seldom read a story where the descriptions of a building are so complete and natural that when I do, it's like my minds eye hits pure ecstacy.

Characters who are truly Bi/Pan, instead of just "Oh yeah, I dated a woman(man) once, but only show interest in men(women) now!" Friendships between characters, especially a Male and a Female character. Sometimes, I just want to read about them hanging around and talking about life, instead of trying to get into each other's pants. Non-sexual intimacy, like massages, cuddling, hugging, bathing, etc. I only read a few stories in all my Fandoms involving this, and I want more.

I absolutely love the "characters watch their show/movie" fics. They are soo fun but i useually dont see them too often but i eat them up when i do

6:16 Uhm... Maybe the original work tag on AO3? Or you can put it on the search so that it always include OCs, if you're trying to find a pure OC fanfic that's set in the universe of some media.

Canon compliant fics are my holy grail. Give me prologues, epilogues, a retelling of the story from the perspective of a different character! I love it all! Also it’s not specific but I feel like I’m the only person writing for a specific fandom and I feel like I’m waiting for a party that no one showed up to. So…. More fics from that fandom please.