FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: > How to save as draft? Since I made this video, the "Save As Draft" button seems to have been removed. If you instead click "Preview" it will automatically save a draft of your fic! > How does posting anonymously work? To make your work anonymous, you can add your work to the "anonymous" collection, under the "Post to Collections / Challenges" option when editing or posting your work. This will hide your username from the work, and anyone viewing the work will see the author listed as "Anonymous". The work will not show up on your profile, and if you reply to comments, your comments will also show as "Anonymous". Note that if you ever remove a work from the anonymous collection, anyone subscribed to you will get an email notification that you posted a "new" work. > How does orphaning work? To orphan a work, click the "Edit Work" button at the top and then choose "Orphan Work" at the top right. When you orphan a work, it will be removed from your profile, and you will no longer have ownership of it. Basically, it will no longer be your work, and you won't be able to edit it, add to it, change any of its tags/collections/series, or do anything else to it. You also won't receive notifications for kudos/comments anymore. This can NOT be reversed, not even if you contact AO3 support. When you orphan a work, you can choose whether or not you want to orphan it anonymously, or keep your username attached to it. If you keep your username attached, the author will be listed as "Your Username (orphan_account)". All your comments on the work will also be orphaned, meaning that you can no longer edit or remove them. If you orphan anonymously, comments will be anonymous as well, otherwise, they will be under "Your Username (orphan_account)". > How to post a podfic? See my quick tutorial here: th-cam.com/video/KRWXfQ0Q0po/w-d-xo.html > How to post in a fandom that doesn't have an existing tag yet? You can add a new fandom tag, and someone at AO3 will categorise it! Make sure the name you type is clear, for example if it's an unknown book, add the author: "Title - Authorfirstname Authorlastname" would be the format. If it's something else, you can add the identifying media type/year/location in parentheses, for example "Title (Web Series)" or "Title (TV 2022)" or "Title (US)". If you're unsure, you can look at examples of existing tags that are similar to the thing you're trying to add. After typing the fandom name, just press enter to add the tag to your work. > How to add more chapters? There will be an "Add Chapter" button at the top of your work, when you open it. Incomplete works will also have the "Add Chapter" button below the work summary on your dashboard (your author page). > How to avoid pressing enter twice in your word processor? You can use "add space after paragraph" in either google docs or word to have visual space without an extra enter. Example screenshot: justangelthings.tumblr.com/post/703520042133929984/use-add-space-after-paragraph-in-either-google
Do I have to post a chapter to write another or can I save the first one without posting and at the same time writing an another one?? Also if there’s self-harm and su!c!de reference, should I rate it as mature??
@@lilianeeli9798 You can save your fic as a draft and add more chapters via the "Add Chapter" button on the draft! :) The rating is up to you. If you think those themes are very heavily present and would be unsuitable for younger readers (for example), you can rate the story mature. If they're only references, you can choose a lower rating. If you're unsure, you can always pick "choose not to rate" :)
@@bumblewynOn another topic: Would adding spaces between paragraphs in a word processor mess up the spacing after pasting into the rich text editor? I've seen works that have excessively long spaces between lines and I'm hoping to avoid it.
@@nerdomatic2489 Yes, you should use "add space after paragraph" in either google docs or word to have visual space without an extra enter to avoid that problem :) (example pic: justangelthings.tumblr.com/post/703520042133929984/use-add-space-after-paragraph-in-either-google)
thank you sm i was so overwhelmed when i saw all the shit i was supposed to type in🕴 and that tip to not add extra spaces is such a pain bc i'm gonna have to delete them manually every time bc i cannot stand no spaces between paragraphs in my drafts😭
You can use "add space after paragraph" in either google docs or word to have visual space without an extra enter :) Example pic: justangelthings.tumblr.com/post/703520042133929984/use-add-space-after-paragraph-in-either-google
4:45 small correction, gen can also be used if you have a relationship in the story, but it is more in the background/minor and is not the focus of the story. Like for example your character has parents that are married, it's not important in the story so there is no reason to tag it as F/F, M/M, F/M etc but they are still allowed to appear in the story and both tell and act like they are married.
Notes for me :D -Put more than two additional tags (mild injury, found family, tell them you don’t know what you’re doing -Side characters somehow? -So summaries and descriptions are different but the same? 12:54 Make format look good -Rich text is easier but paragraphs are hard -Notes are at beginning and end for some reason?? Is not dosing notes an option 14:29 -Gifting is for people with friends -Your work is not inspired by an Ao3, it’s just a fanfic -format? How? What? -Still how paragraph and title?? Figure it out later - 18:38 put ? Bc you don’t know how long it’ll take -ignore skins -Set to rich when pasting!! -if u push enter twice it adds a lot of space, tap enter once for a paragraph 22:04 23:30 -Drafts Are deleted after a month?? *not like Wattpad, if u procrastinate it undoes I will edit and add to these, sorry for using up the comments, but at least it’ll boost the video, thanks!
i have a problem, i am just writing a new story, and it should be a serial killer story, with characters i made up, so i don't know what fandom to put, if anyone could please help me, i'd appreciate it Edit: i found out to just set it as original work, i'll keep the comment for anyone else who couldn't find out what to do
The formatting part of this was super helpful! Up til now I've mostly just posted ficlets and Drabble but I recently wrote something longer and am planning two long term projects and inserting the horizontal line was perfect for separating scenes.
I write and post from my phone and now so much is clearing up 💀 I always thought I was the problem for not being able to type completely new tags, but that's just due to me being on the phone 😭🙌🏻
Thank you! Ive been wanting to move to AO3 because Wattpad cant tag for shiṭ. The struggle i had when all this stuff was thrown at me! You made it all so easy🎉 now i can write!
Happy to help! :D I figured Supernatural was a good example because most people in fandom are familiar with it and the characters at least a liiiiittle bit. (And also I've written some fics myself hehe.)
This somewhat help me a lot actually, thanks! Too bad, I'm still having trouble understanding with creating challenges, prompt forms & tag sets sadly. Do you have any tutorials/tips for that?
Plz, there needs to be a video tutorial for that! Myself & a friend of mine is having the same problem & we're no good at understanding in reading written tutorials
I did recently run a gift exchange, but I did find it quite difficult to set up. I can see if I can poke around a bit and put together a tutorial for that!
thank you so much!! I was a bit confused with everything because I never used ao3 in my life (I've just read one or two works a long time ago without knowing it's ao3) and I tried to start using this year
If you add a new fandom, someone at AO3 will categorise it :) Make sure the name you type is clear, for example if it's an unknown book, add the author: "Title - Authorfirstname Authorlastname" would be the format. If it's something else, you can add the identifying media type/year/location in parentheses, for example "Title (Web Series)" or "Title (TV 2022)" or "Title (US)". If you're unsure, you can look at examples of existing tags that are similar to the thing you're trying to add.
it was a great help! thanks for this!! but i would like to know how orphan fanfics works and how some ppl post anonymously too, bc i haven't found a tutorial on it yet.
To orphan a work, click the "Edit Work" button at the top and then choose "Orphan Work" at the top right. When you orphan a work, it will be removed from your profile, and you will no longer have ownership of it. Basically, it will no longer be your work, and you won't be able to edit it, add to it, change any of its tags/collections/series, or do anything else to it. You also won't receive notifications for kudos/comments anymore. This can NOT be reversed, not even if you contact AO3 support. When you orphan a work, you can choose whether or not you want to orphan it anonymously, or keep your username attached to it. If you keep your username attached, the author will be listed as "Your Username (orphan_account)". All your comments on the work will also be orphaned, meaning that you can no longer edit or remove them. If you orphan anonymously, comments will be anonymous as well, otherwise, they will be under "Your Username (orphan_account)". To make your work anonymous, you can add your work to the "anonymous" collection, under the "Post to Collections / Challenges" option when editing or posting your work. This will hide your username from the work, and anyone viewing the work will see the author listed as "Anonymous". The work will not show up on your profile, and if you reply to comments, your comments will also show as "Anonymous". Note that if you ever remove a work from the anonymous collection, anyone subscribed to you will get an email notification that you posted a "new" work.
Hii! That is done via the "Work Skin" function I kind of skipped over. It's a more advanced thing, AO3 has a guide for it here: archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/1370
So you'll need to manually copy and paste them over after you've posted a second chapter. First edit the work to copy them (and remove them there) by clicking "Edit" at the very top of the work and then edit the first chapter (by clicking "Edit" next to the chapter header) to add them there.
As far as I know the only way your works can be anonymous is if you've added them to a collection that is set to anonymous. If that's not the case, try contacting AO3 support (archiveofourown.org/support)
Yes! :) You can use the same trick of typing your summary in the work rich text field and then converting it to HTML, that I showed for the author's notes.
At 13:02 I show how you can easily make a hyperlink (clickable link) with HTML using the Work Text box :) But basically, to make a clickable link with HTML, you need to use the format: TEXT HERE which will display as "TEXT HERE" and then when they click on it it will go to the website you put at "LINKHERE"
Okay, so I'm new to Ao3 as of today. I've never read anything from Ap3 that I know of, I've never wrote anything on Ao3 before... I'm MOVING all of my works from other sites onto Ao3. Currently, I'm marking it in the summary, tags and even the noots via a footer note that they aren't plagiarized, its my own work. Is there anything else I should do, to make it clear that the works are all mine? I'm posting them to Ao3 with editing, in some cases likely to be severe editing, due to the stories having been untouched for years. I intend to also add notes to my profiles on the other two sites I'm on that I'm moving my work...
You don't really have to do anything to say your works aren't plagiarized! I've never seen that be an issue. I think if you add a note to your old profiles that you're moving to AO3, that'll be plenty in terms of an announcement. Should anyone ever comment on it, you can direct them there :) It's pretty common for people to move old works onto AO3 and mention that they're moving to AO3 in the author's notes.
@@bumblewyn Another issue i've stumbled across- I have two projects i'n working on and one is marked as being part of a series due to the fact I hope to eventually make it into a series of stories. However, I'm doing a ton of editing, and 3 out of 4 chapters are still draft. The story doesn't appear under my works page when I look for it,, nor does it appear under the series I created. I have to click into editing my works in order to locate it and it was showing as five different listings- one for every fandom tag I used. I deleted all fandom tags but one, and that fixed the duplication, but why isn't it showing up under my works or its series?
@@bumblewyn nevermind i accidentally deleted it cause i thought it was another duplicate... this site makes so little sense to me after writing on quotev and wattpad for so long 😭
What if you are writing something about a media that no one has written about or knows too well? Is there a browsing section, or do you strictly have to look up fandoms? Also, does Ao3 suggests fics to you based on an algorithm? Other than those questions, this was extremely helpful, thank you sm!
There is no algorithm, if you're looking for similar fics a nice trick is looking at the profiles of people who bookmarked a story you like (you can see bookmarks by clicking on the bookmarks number on a fic). They may have I'm not entirely certain what you mean with your other question. If you're writing for a fandom that doesn't exist yet, you can type it in the box and just press enter to add a new tag. If you want to browse without specifying a fandom, you can look around in tags for tropes you like, or check out author's profiles :)
Yes! :) After posting, your work will have buttons for "Edit" and "Edit Tags". Edit brings you to a page that's basically identical to the page in this video, and allows you to change anything at all about the fic. Edit Tags is a shorter page with only the tags section, where you can quickly and easily add/remove tags. AO3s servers aren't the very fastest so it might take a minute for changes to go through, sometimes, but you can absolutely change anything you want about the fic, even after posting.
i always got confused with the major character death rating bc isn't that technicaly spoiling the work? like you could tell which one of the mc's will die
Some people do see it as a spoiler, which is part of the reason why you can select “Choose Not To Warn”, which indicates your fic MIGHT contain things like MCD, but you’re not saying for sure.
How do I leave the title of the fic below? Whenever I post a story, the title of the chapter is right below the name of the story. I wanted to put it like this when the chapter starts. Help me please!
hello, I’m trying to figure out how to add a specific fandom to my profile, how do I go about that? This video was super helpful now I don’t have to stress trying to understand everything.
The tag will be added to your fic the way you type it (except in cases where it's identical to an existing tag except for capitalisation, your tag will be capitalised according to the existing tag). If you want to add a tag that doesn't exist yet, you can just type it and press enter to add it as you typed it.
Quick question what do I do if it’s a podfic do I put the link to the recording the the url or do I do something else? Cuz u haven’t shed very much light on that
about the tagging, lets say that we do have a fair bit of extra tags, how do we like hide that? I've seen ppl do it by having the option for the reader to click on "show additional tags" and idk how to include that option.
I've never seen anything like that, so I assume they're doing that through either a (custom) work skin or some HTML thing that allows them to hide text. There is no official way of doing that, as far as I'm aware.
@@bumblewyn yea I figured out the reason it’s that way for me is b/c of my user preferences to hide tags lol it just depends on how ppl have their settings
They are now the end notes for the story as a whole, you can move them by editing the fic, copying them and then deleting them, and then editing chapter 1 and adding them as end notes :)
If you have an account you can use a custom site skin (archiveofourown.org/skins/). Otherwise, the best way to read fics in a different font would be to download an EPUB (ebook) and open it on an ebook reader on your phone (Apple Books for iPhone, Google Play Books for Android) where you can customise the font :) For posting your own fic in a different font, I you will need to make a work skin, but I don't really know how that works. There is a page about it here: archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/1370
The work title is for the entire fic. If your fic has more than one chapter, you can enter a title for your first chapter via the "This work has multiple chapters" option (shown at 18:25). (You can also leave this blank.)
@@signofthecrimes1534 Some things to check: 1) could it be that there is something to the right of the image? Text, or perhaps more transparent image? 2) Check the HTML and make sure it says " YOUR_IMAGE " around the image, that's the code that should make it centered. If you want, I'm also happy to help troubleshoot further but it's a little difficult via these comments, you could DM me on Tumblr if you like :) (bumblewyn.tumblr.com/ )
QUestion, how do I change the interface of the story I'm reading? For example, the author made there story an essay form, and I don't want that, I want to remove the indentations, how do I do that for a site skin?
I don't know any way to remove indents, unfortunately, though I imagine it might be possible with a skin or bookmarklet. Maybe there's something on this page that can help: archiveofourown.org/faq/unofficial-browser-tools I use the "Strip Empties" bookmarklet linked on that page to remove extra enters in works, but it doesn't do anything about indents as far as I know.
Thank you! The only issue I'm having is I write in scrivener, so when I'm copying and pasting from Scrivener to a03, for whatever reason, and marks every time I put an enter as just a line break (). So every time I have to go through the chapter and manually space each paragraph so that it's marked as a paragraph. I think the formatting issue might be in scrivener but I was wondering if there's any way to fix that through A03. Also my italics do not go through at all and I have to manually italicize everything.
Hmm, I've never used Scrivener so I'm not sure :( Is there a way to export your text from Scrivener to a .doc or .docx file? Then you could copy it over from Word or Google Docs.
@@bumblewyn Thank you for the prompt reply! I tried something similar to that. I copied what I wanted to post from scrivener and pasted it to a blank Word document. It copied with the correct formatting.Then when I copy/pasted from the word document Ao3 it copied perfectly. Thank you so much this saves me a lot of time!
hi! i'm really slow when it comes to understanding coding, technology and the like....would you know if it is possible to have a song play when someone reads a piece i have written? if so, could you explain that to me (simply please lmaoo)? thank you :)
Hi! Sorry, I missed this comment. There isn't a way for it to play automatically, but you can embed audio or video via HTML so the reader can click play on the fic page. This video goes into how to do that with soundcloud: th-cam.com/video/KRWXfQ0Q0po/w-d-xo.html If you want to embed a TH-cam video, click "Share" under the video and then choose "Embed", where you will get HTML code you can paste into the AO3 HTML (not Rich Text!) editor.
Thanks for the tutorial! How can I mention the parent work (I'm positing the translation on AO3) when this parent work is posted on another website? It gives me an error saying that URL could not be reached 😒
I've never seen that error, so I'm not certain... If you're sure the URL is correct and all the other info (title + author) is filled in and it still doesn't work, it may be best to contact AO3 support via archiveofourown.org/support and ask them :)
Quick question, how do you like check your work on how many kudos it has, how many people have seen it- like i can't figure it out for the life of me 😢
Hello! May i ask if, let's say we posted a work on 10 March, and we added a new chapter to it on 12 March, will the fic show up at the top of the default search area again or not? Not sure if you know what I mean, but ahaha...
What if my story is not revolving around any fictional character, its just made up characters, what tags should i add? Original female character or something?
Original Character tags are fine in that case! If you can't add custom tags on mobile, try another device, or a laptop/desktop? I never post on mobile so I'm not certain how it's different, sorry!
Hi uhm idk if you'll respond but I'm new to ao3 and I'm wondering on how to read fanfictions there, like I'm confused I'm only used to Tumblr and Wattpad mostly😓
Hii! Welcome to AO3 :D I have a video up that explains how to search for stories on AO3, which might help you? To read a story, you just click the title in the search results. Here's the video on how to search (the audio is really quiet, my apologies, there are subtitles available!): th-cam.com/video/MiiaOVv8ENA/w-d-xo.html
You have to click "Preview" at the bottom of the posting page and then you can save the fic as a draft :) I think they might have changed it since I made this video? (It is also automatically saved as draft as soon as you click preview.)
Hello. Thank you for posting this vid. I've been struggling with posting image for the past two hours. Can you help me how I can do it? I followed what you said, but it's unable to do so. :/
Hi! There's a pretty detailed guide here on Tumblr: bumblewyn.tumblr.com/post/638201751270457344/jasontoddiefor-a-helpful-how-to-guide-for If you still have questions, please feel free to ask
@@bumblewyn I did it on a google doc, on computer, so i'm worried that since on computer its shorter the long way that it will be thicker, and the dialogue wont look as neat.
@@jamesfromteamrocketmcduck7288 I'm not entirely sure what you're describing, sorry! 😅 If you write normally and copy it over it should look okay on mobile as well as on a computer! If you're unsure, you can always save it as a draft first and open the draft on your phone to see what it's like :)
There will be an "Add Chapter" button at the top of your work, when you open it. Incomplete works will also have the "Add Chapter" button below the work summary on your dashboard (your author page).
Hi! If you add your fic to the "Anonymous" collection (via collections explained at 14:25) it will be shown as anonymous and will not show up on your profile.
There are two ways, depending on what you want. a) You can tick the option for "Only show your work to registered users" under Privacy when posting or editing a work (right above the Work Text section). This will hide your work from anyone who isn't logged in to an AO3 account. If someone clicks a link to your work but isn't logged in, they will get a prompt to log in to be able to see the work. If someone views your profile without being logged in on an AO3 account, the work will not show up on your profile. If someone searches AO3 without being logged in (for example looking through tags), they will not see your work. b) You can add your work to the "anonymous" collection, under the "Post to Collections / Challenges" option when editing or posting your work. This will hide your username from the work, and anyone viewing the work will see the author listed as "Anonymous". The work will not show up on your profile, and if you reply to comments, your comments will also show as "Anonymous". Note that if you ever remove a work from the anonymous collection, anyone subscribed to you will get an email notification that you posted a "new" work. Hope that helps!
You can add your work to the "anonymous" collection, under the "Post to Collections / Challenges" option when editing or posting your work. This will hide your username from the work, and anyone viewing the work will see the author listed as "Anonymous". The work will not show up on your profile, and if you reply to comments, your comments will also show as "Anonymous". Note that if you ever remove a work from the anonymous collection, anyone subscribed to you will get an email notification that you posted a "new" work. Hope that helps! :)
Hi! There's a pretty detailed guide about embaedding images here on Tumblr: bumblewyn.tumblr.com/post/638201751270457344/jasontoddiefor-a-helpful-how-to-guide-for If you still have questions, please feel free to ask
The mature rating and tags are for all the work or each individual chapter? For example, if in chapter 1 there's no violence but there is in chapter 2 I should tag it as mature? Or same for tags, if in chapter 1 character A doesn't show up but they appear a few chapters down I should add their tag in advance? I never posted to a fic site or used them before so I appreciate the advice 🥲
The tags and ratings and everything are for the whole story! :) You can tag things that haven't happened yet but you know will happen in advance, but if they don't play a big part in the story (like a background character) it may be better not to tag them because people looking in that tag may not be looking for what is in your story.
Hellooooo I hope you are doing well I just wanted to know how I could do that offprint that they sometimes put in the works summaries, which is basically like a fragment of the fic. I don't really know what it's called or if it has a name but I've seen it in several fics and it's like an indentation and a long line next to the text fragment. I don't know if I explained myself well but I hope someone knows more or less what I'm talking about. tysm 🫶
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
> How to save as draft?
Since I made this video, the "Save As Draft" button seems to have been removed. If you instead click "Preview" it will automatically save a draft of your fic!
> How does posting anonymously work?
To make your work anonymous, you can add your work to the "anonymous" collection, under the "Post to Collections / Challenges" option when editing or posting your work. This will hide your username from the work, and anyone viewing the work will see the author listed as "Anonymous". The work will not show up on your profile, and if you reply to comments, your comments will also show as "Anonymous". Note that if you ever remove a work from the anonymous collection, anyone subscribed to you will get an email notification that you posted a "new" work.
> How does orphaning work?
To orphan a work, click the "Edit Work" button at the top and then choose "Orphan Work" at the top right. When you orphan a work, it will be removed from your profile, and you will no longer have ownership of it. Basically, it will no longer be your work, and you won't be able to edit it, add to it, change any of its tags/collections/series, or do anything else to it. You also won't receive notifications for kudos/comments anymore. This can NOT be reversed, not even if you contact AO3 support. When you orphan a work, you can choose whether or not you want to orphan it anonymously, or keep your username attached to it. If you keep your username attached, the author will be listed as "Your Username (orphan_account)". All your comments on the work will also be orphaned, meaning that you can no longer edit or remove them. If you orphan anonymously, comments will be anonymous as well, otherwise, they will be under "Your Username (orphan_account)".
> How to post a podfic?
See my quick tutorial here: th-cam.com/video/KRWXfQ0Q0po/w-d-xo.html
> How to post in a fandom that doesn't have an existing tag yet?
You can add a new fandom tag, and someone at AO3 will categorise it! Make sure the name you type is clear, for example if it's an unknown book, add the author: "Title - Authorfirstname Authorlastname" would be the format. If it's something else, you can add the identifying media type/year/location in parentheses, for example "Title (Web Series)" or "Title (TV 2022)" or "Title (US)". If you're unsure, you can look at examples of existing tags that are similar to the thing you're trying to add. After typing the fandom name, just press enter to add the tag to your work.
> How to add more chapters?
There will be an "Add Chapter" button at the top of your work, when you open it. Incomplete works will also have the "Add Chapter" button below the work summary on your dashboard (your author page).
> How to avoid pressing enter twice in your word processor?
You can use "add space after paragraph" in either google docs or word to have visual space without an extra enter. Example screenshot: justangelthings.tumblr.com/post/703520042133929984/use-add-space-after-paragraph-in-either-google
Do I have to post a chapter to write another or can I save the first one without posting and at the same time writing an another one?? Also if there’s self-harm and su!c!de reference, should I rate it as mature??
@@lilianeeli9798 You can save your fic as a draft and add more chapters via the "Add Chapter" button on the draft! :)
The rating is up to you. If you think those themes are very heavily present and would be unsuitable for younger readers (for example), you can rate the story mature. If they're only references, you can choose a lower rating. If you're unsure, you can always pick "choose not to rate" :)
@@bumblewynOn another topic: Would adding spaces between paragraphs in a word processor mess up the spacing after pasting into the rich text editor? I've seen works that have excessively long spaces between lines and I'm hoping to avoid it.
@@nerdomatic2489 Yes, you should use "add space after paragraph" in either google docs or word to have visual space without an extra enter to avoid that problem :) (example pic: justangelthings.tumblr.com/post/703520042133929984/use-add-space-after-paragraph-in-either-google)
@@bumblewyn A year later and you still respond with helpful advice. Thank you.
thank you sm i was so overwhelmed when i saw all the shit i was supposed to type in🕴 and that tip to not add extra spaces is such a pain bc i'm gonna have to delete them manually every time bc i cannot stand no spaces between paragraphs in my drafts😭
You can use "add space after paragraph" in either google docs or word to have visual space without an extra enter :) Example pic: justangelthings.tumblr.com/post/703520042133929984/use-add-space-after-paragraph-in-either-google
@@bumblewyn ohhh thank you i wish i saw this reply sooner😭💖
4:45 small correction, gen can also be used if you have a relationship in the story, but it is more in the background/minor and is not the focus of the story. Like for example your character has parents that are married, it's not important in the story so there is no reason to tag it as F/F, M/M, F/M etc but they are still allowed to appear in the story and both tell and act like they are married.
YOU'RE VOICE IS SO CALMINGGGGGG
Thanks for this video! You explained things more clearly than some other ones I've seen
Notes for me :D
-Put more than two additional tags (mild injury, found family, tell them you don’t know what you’re doing
-Side characters somehow?
-So summaries and descriptions are different but the same?
12:54 Make format look good
-Rich text is easier but paragraphs are hard
-Notes are at beginning and end for some reason?? Is not dosing notes an option 14:29
-Gifting is for people with friends
-Your work is not inspired by an Ao3, it’s just a fanfic
-format? How? What?
-Still how paragraph and title?? Figure it out later
- 18:38 put ? Bc you don’t know how long it’ll take
-ignore skins
-Set to rich when pasting!!
-if u push enter twice it adds a lot of space, tap enter once for a paragraph 22:04
23:30
-Drafts Are deleted after a month?? *not like Wattpad, if u procrastinate it undoes
I will edit and add to these, sorry for using up the comments, but at least it’ll boost the video, thanks!
okay the draft deletion thing is kinda stupid, thanks for warning me beforehand
i have a problem, i am just writing a new story, and it should be a serial killer story, with characters i made up, so i don't know what fandom to put, if anyone could please help me, i'd appreciate it
Edit: i found out to just set it as original work, i'll keep the comment for anyone else who couldn't find out what to do
thank you :D
@@doagii you're welcome
Wasn’t ao3 only made for fanfics ? So it doesn’t really make sense
@@neverland4099 im not sure if it is made especifically for fanfics, but it also holds many original stories as well. so its not limited to fanfics
The formatting part of this was super helpful! Up til now I've mostly just posted ficlets and Drabble but I recently wrote something longer and am planning two long term projects and inserting the horizontal line was perfect for separating scenes.
I wish I'd read this sooner. This is really helpful especially with the Rich Text part.
This is super helpful, I was never in the fanfiction reading space but have been wanting to write a fanfiction for a while. Thank you!!
I write and post from my phone and now so much is clearing up 💀 I always thought I was the problem for not being able to type completely new tags, but that's just due to me being on the phone 😭🙌🏻
Thank you! Ive been wanting to move to AO3 because Wattpad cant tag for shiṭ.
The struggle i had when all this stuff was thrown at me! You made it all so easy🎉 now i can write!
My dear, you are a life saver, i've been struggling with a chapter that has a lot of different formats from Word. Thank you!!
This was really helpful, thank you! Also, I totally freaked out when used Supernatural as an example. Love that show 🧡
Happy to help! :D I figured Supernatural was a good example because most people in fandom are familiar with it and the characters at least a liiiiittle bit. (And also I've written some fics myself hehe.)
thank you!! for helping me understand all this legit been writing for years finally got myself on A03
damn i had no idea relationship tags worked like that, thanks!
I'm still not sure what tags I should add to my fics, but it's still a very useful video! Thank you!
tyy god bless, i can finally upload it without looking like a newbie😊
This somewhat help me a lot actually, thanks!
Too bad, I'm still having trouble understanding with creating challenges, prompt forms & tag sets sadly. Do you have any tutorials/tips for that?
Plz, there needs to be a video tutorial for that! Myself & a friend of mine is having the same problem & we're no good at understanding in reading written tutorials
I did recently run a gift exchange, but I did find it quite difficult to set up. I can see if I can poke around a bit and put together a tutorial for that!
@@bumblewyn Oh thank you, that'll be great help!
@@bumblewyn Thanks! Much appreciated~!😊
thank you so much!! I was a bit confused with everything because I never used ao3 in my life (I've just read one or two works a long time ago without knowing it's ao3) and I tried to start using this year
oh my lord this video is a life saver!! thank you so much, genuinely
This will be really helpful great job. 😁👍
Muito obrigada pelo seu vídeo, ele foi perfeito para o que eu estava precisando ❤ e com legendas em português!!
This is so helpful as a new A03 user thank you so much! :D 💖💖
Question. If I make a fanfic for a fandom that hasn't been added yet, how do I put it in the right category (Books, TV shows, webcomics, ETC)
If you add a new fandom, someone at AO3 will categorise it :)
Make sure the name you type is clear, for example if it's an unknown book, add the author: "Title - Authorfirstname Authorlastname" would be the format. If it's something else, you can add the identifying media type/year/location in parentheses, for example "Title (Web Series)" or "Title (TV 2022)" or "Title (US)".
If you're unsure, you can look at examples of existing tags that are similar to the thing you're trying to add.
YOURE A LIFESAVER OMGGG
I think it's funny because my fanfic I'm posting is this exact ship, perfect video for me lol
Thank you for this video because I'm starting to write on this page.
it was a great help! thanks for this!! but i would like to know how orphan fanfics works and how some ppl post anonymously too, bc i haven't found a tutorial on it yet.
To orphan a work, click the "Edit Work" button at the top and then choose "Orphan Work" at the top right. When you orphan a work, it will be removed from your profile, and you will no longer have ownership of it. Basically, it will no longer be your work, and you won't be able to edit it, add to it, change any of its tags/collections/series, or do anything else to it. You also won't receive notifications for kudos/comments anymore. This can NOT be reversed, not even if you contact AO3 support. When you orphan a work, you can choose whether or not you want to orphan it anonymously, or keep your username attached to it. If you keep your username attached, the author will be listed as "Your Username (orphan_account)". All your comments on the work will also be orphaned, meaning that you can no longer edit or remove them. If you orphan anonymously, comments will be anonymous as well, otherwise, they will be under "Your Username (orphan_account)".
To make your work anonymous, you can add your work to the "anonymous" collection, under the "Post to Collections / Challenges" option when editing or posting your work. This will hide your username from the work, and anyone viewing the work will see the author listed as "Anonymous". The work will not show up on your profile, and if you reply to comments, your comments will also show as "Anonymous". Note that if you ever remove a work from the anonymous collection, anyone subscribed to you will get an email notification that you posted a "new" work.
@bumblewyn thank you for the clear and detailed answer, it was very helpful to me!
@@gabu_gabu Happy to help! ^_^
Amazing video tysm I was so confused ❤
Thank you so much for this detailed explanation.♥
This is very helpful, thank you!
Ive seen fanfics with these special designs for titles and notes like for example “From Square One” by KANESHON, and im wondering how to do it?
Hii! That is done via the "Work Skin" function I kind of skipped over. It's a more advanced thing, AO3 has a guide for it here: archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/1370
@@bumblewyn thank you!
Can someone explain to me how to move the end notes back to the first chapter? What do I do? Just unclick then re-click it?
So you'll need to manually copy and paste them over after you've posted a second chapter. First edit the work to copy them (and remove them there) by clicking "Edit" at the very top of the work and then edit the first chapter (by clicking "Edit" next to the chapter header) to add them there.
@@bumblewyn Thank You!
My work gets published automathically as Anonymous. There is no Pseuds input, I dont know why
As far as I know the only way your works can be anonymous is if you've added them to a collection that is set to anonymous. If that's not the case, try contacting AO3 support (archiveofourown.org/support)
This was so helpful! Thank you so much :D
Thanks so much for this video!! Super helpful.
Gonna refer to this when I forgor stuff
in the summary, if I wanted to make something italicized, do I have to do the thing?
Yes! :) You can use the same trick of typing your summary in the work rich text field and then converting it to HTML, that I showed for the author's notes.
@@bumblewyn thank u!
This was amazing 🤩 thank you for helping
Thank you very much for each of the information ^^
How do you exactly put an image in your fic because I'm struggling.
Hi! There's a pretty detailed guide here on Tumblr: bumblewyn.tumblr.com/post/638201751270457344/jasontoddiefor-a-helpful-how-to-guide-for
yes, this was very helpful. thanks❤
Can you tell me how do we add twitter link in the notes? Where its just written twitter and when you click it, its their account? Pretty please
At 13:02 I show how you can easily make a hyperlink (clickable link) with HTML using the Work Text box :)
But basically, to make a clickable link with HTML, you need to use the format: TEXT HERE which will display as "TEXT HERE" and then when they click on it it will go to the website you put at "LINKHERE"
@@bumblewyn thank you soo much. 😭😭😭
Okay, so I'm new to Ao3 as of today. I've never read anything from Ap3 that I know of, I've never wrote anything on Ao3 before... I'm MOVING all of my works from other sites onto Ao3. Currently, I'm marking it in the summary, tags and even the noots via a footer note that they aren't plagiarized, its my own work. Is there anything else I should do, to make it clear that the works are all mine?
I'm posting them to Ao3 with editing, in some cases likely to be severe editing, due to the stories having been untouched for years.
I intend to also add notes to my profiles on the other two sites I'm on that I'm moving my work...
You don't really have to do anything to say your works aren't plagiarized! I've never seen that be an issue. I think if you add a note to your old profiles that you're moving to AO3, that'll be plenty in terms of an announcement. Should anyone ever comment on it, you can direct them there :) It's pretty common for people to move old works onto AO3 and mention that they're moving to AO3 in the author's notes.
@@bumblewyn Ok! Thank you so much! I was worried for a moment. 😓 My paranoia knows few bounds, so I'm always worried about upsetting people.
@@bumblewyn Another issue i've stumbled across- I have two projects i'n working on and one is marked as being part of a series due to the fact I hope to eventually make it into a series of stories. However, I'm doing a ton of editing, and 3 out of 4 chapters are still draft.
The story doesn't appear under my works page when I look for it,, nor does it appear under the series I created. I have to click into editing my works in order to locate it and it was showing as five different listings- one for every fandom tag I used. I deleted all fandom tags but one, and that fixed the duplication, but why isn't it showing up under my works or its series?
@@bumblewyn nevermind i accidentally deleted it cause i thought it was another duplicate... this site makes so little sense to me after writing on quotev and wattpad for so long 😭
super helpful. thank you so much!!
This was really helpful Thanks a lot! ♥
What if you are writing something about a media that no one has written about or knows too well? Is there a browsing section, or do you strictly have to look up fandoms? Also, does Ao3 suggests fics to you based on an algorithm? Other than those questions, this was extremely helpful, thank you sm!
There is no algorithm, if you're looking for similar fics a nice trick is looking at the profiles of people who bookmarked a story you like (you can see bookmarks by clicking on the bookmarks number on a fic). They may have
I'm not entirely certain what you mean with your other question. If you're writing for a fandom that doesn't exist yet, you can type it in the box and just press enter to add a new tag. If you want to browse without specifying a fandom, you can look around in tags for tropes you like, or check out author's profiles :)
@@bumblewynSorry if my phrasing was bad, but thank you so much! This helped with a lot ^^
@@TallestLeo No worries at all! I hope I answered your question
can u change archive warnings after u post it? because like what if one of them ends up happening later
Yes! :) After posting, your work will have buttons for "Edit" and "Edit Tags".
Edit brings you to a page that's basically identical to the page in this video, and allows you to change anything at all about the fic.
Edit Tags is a shorter page with only the tags section, where you can quickly and easily add/remove tags.
AO3s servers aren't the very fastest so it might take a minute for changes to go through, sometimes, but you can absolutely change anything you want about the fic, even after posting.
i always got confused with the major character death rating bc isn't that technicaly spoiling the work? like you could tell which one of the mc's will die
Some people do see it as a spoiler, which is part of the reason why you can select “Choose Not To Warn”, which indicates your fic MIGHT contain things like MCD, but you’re not saying for sure.
How do I leave the title of the fic below? Whenever I post a story, the title of the chapter is right below the name of the story.
I wanted to put it like this when the chapter starts. Help me please!
You can't change that, unfortunately, that's how AO3 is laid out.
Thank you this was so helpful.
hello, I’m trying to figure out how to add a specific fandom to my profile, how do I go about that? This video was super helpful now I don’t have to stress trying to understand everything.
Fandoms are automatically added to your author page when you post a work in the fandom tag.
If I wanna add a missing or wrongly named tag for a character to ao3 how do I create one?
The tag will be added to your fic the way you type it (except in cases where it's identical to an existing tag except for capitalisation, your tag will be capitalised according to the existing tag). If you want to add a tag that doesn't exist yet, you can just type it and press enter to add it as you typed it.
Quick question what do I do if it’s a podfic do I put the link to the recording the the url or do I do something else? Cuz u haven’t shed very much light on that
This is a bit trickier to explain via comment so I've made a quick video for you: th-cam.com/video/KRWXfQ0Q0po/w-d-xo.html
Well I guess I gotta cross that off my list my first time being the reason a new video came out on a TH-cam channel that’s not mine
about the tagging, lets say that we do have a fair bit of extra tags, how do we like hide that? I've seen ppl do it by having the option for the reader to click on "show additional tags" and idk how to include that option.
I've never seen anything like that, so I assume they're doing that through either a (custom) work skin or some HTML thing that allows them to hide text. There is no official way of doing that, as far as I'm aware.
@@bumblewyn yea I figured out the reason it’s that way for me is b/c of my user preferences to hide tags lol it just depends on how ppl have their settings
OK, how the heck do I use bold or italics in my fic? I can't get clear answer so if you could make a video about it? That'd be helpful
📌📌📌The end notes i wrote in the 1st chapter is again coming back in 2nd chapter with the new end notes. Can you please help me
They are now the end notes for the story as a whole, you can move them by editing the fic, copying them and then deleting them, and then editing chapter 1 and adding them as end notes :)
Hello, I'm kinda struggling with getting an url so i can translate a fic, I've been struggling for a month, can you help?
Hi! What exactly is the problem? :)
@@bumblewyn I can't figure out how to get the url from a fic and just writing the author and fic name Dosent work
@@KatiesTeaCup You can copy the URL from your browser bar when you're on the fic page :)
@@bumblewyn thx and I totally wasn't sleeping then so I replied late
is there any way to change the font in ao3? if there is, I would like to know how to do it 😞😞😞
If you have an account you can use a custom site skin (archiveofourown.org/skins/). Otherwise, the best way to read fics in a different font would be to download an EPUB (ebook) and open it on an ebook reader on your phone (Apple Books for iPhone, Google Play Books for Android) where you can customise the font :)
For posting your own fic in a different font, I you will need to make a work skin, but I don't really know how that works. There is a page about it here: archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/1370
Umm... ive posted a work on ao3 but its showing anonymous (0-0)
How can i change that?
Did you add the work to any collections? Collections can be set to anonymous, meaning that all works in it show as anonymous.
@bumblewyn actually no.. but I've solved the issue somehow..
Although thanks... I love the video
this helps sm, ty😭😭
one question though, is the work title for your entire fic, or is it for the chapter?
The work title is for the entire fic. If your fic has more than one chapter, you can enter a title for your first chapter via the "This work has multiple chapters" option (shown at 18:25). (You can also leave this blank.)
@@bumblewyn AAA, TYSSMMM!! this helps a lot!!
how do i put a block note in the summary?
Do you mean blockquote? You can use in HTML :)
@@bumblewyn thank you !!
for some reason the image isn't centering properly and im on the brink of tears
Have you tried selecting it in the Rich Text Editor and setting it to be centered (like you would center text)? That's how I do it :)
@bumblewyn I did and it doesn't work 😭😭 it just keeps shifting like one cm from the margin line
@@signofthecrimes1534 Some things to check: 1) could it be that there is something to the right of the image? Text, or perhaps more transparent image? 2) Check the HTML and make sure it says " YOUR_IMAGE " around the image, that's the code that should make it centered.
If you want, I'm also happy to help troubleshoot further but it's a little difficult via these comments, you could DM me on Tumblr if you like :) (bumblewyn.tumblr.com/ )
@bumblewyn I did the second one with the html option and it worked! Somehow it doesn't work in the rich text but I got it! Thank you!
QUestion, how do I change the interface of the story I'm reading? For example, the author made there story an essay form, and I don't want that, I want to remove the indentations, how do I do that for a site skin?
for a css custom skin to be exact, cause i tried "#chapters {text-indent: 0px;}" it did not work
I don't know any way to remove indents, unfortunately, though I imagine it might be possible with a skin or bookmarklet. Maybe there's something on this page that can help: archiveofourown.org/faq/unofficial-browser-tools
I use the "Strip Empties" bookmarklet linked on that page to remove extra enters in works, but it doesn't do anything about indents as far as I know.
@@bumblewyn Awww it's ok! Still this is helpful! Thank you very much!
Thank you! The only issue I'm having is I write in scrivener, so when I'm copying and pasting from Scrivener to a03, for whatever reason, and marks every time I put an enter as just a line break (). So every time I have to go through the chapter and manually space each paragraph so that it's marked as a paragraph. I think the formatting issue might be in scrivener but I was wondering if there's any way to fix that through A03. Also my italics do not go through at all and I have to manually italicize everything.
Hmm, I've never used Scrivener so I'm not sure :( Is there a way to export your text from Scrivener to a .doc or .docx file? Then you could copy it over from Word or Google Docs.
@@bumblewyn Thank you for the prompt reply! I tried something similar to that. I copied what I wanted to post from scrivener and pasted it to a blank Word document. It copied with the correct formatting.Then when I copy/pasted from the word document Ao3 it copied perfectly. Thank you so much this saves me a lot of time!
@@lulabell4385 I'm glad you found a solution! ^_^
hi! i'm really slow when it comes to understanding coding, technology and the like....would you know if it is possible to have a song play when someone reads a piece i have written? if so, could you explain that to me (simply please lmaoo)? thank you :)
Hi! Sorry, I missed this comment. There isn't a way for it to play automatically, but you can embed audio or video via HTML so the reader can click play on the fic page. This video goes into how to do that with soundcloud: th-cam.com/video/KRWXfQ0Q0po/w-d-xo.html
If you want to embed a TH-cam video, click "Share" under the video and then choose "Embed", where you will get HTML code you can paste into the AO3 HTML (not Rich Text!) editor.
Thanks for the tutorial! How can I mention the parent work (I'm positing the translation on AO3) when this parent work is posted on another website?
It gives me an error saying that URL could not be reached 😒
I've never seen that error, so I'm not certain... If you're sure the URL is correct and all the other info (title + author) is filled in and it still doesn't work, it may be best to contact AO3 support via archiveofourown.org/support and ask them :)
Is there any way to add dividers using HTML code?
The dividers that you can add via the Rich Text Editor are converted into "" HTML, so you could type that into the HTML editor instead :)
Quick question, how do you like check your work on how many kudos it has, how many people have seen it- like i can't figure it out for the life of me 😢
You can see it on the work page! It'll say how many hits and kudos it has :)
Hello! May i ask if, let's say we posted a work on 10 March, and we added a new chapter to it on 12 March, will the fic show up at the top of the default search area again or not? Not sure if you know what I mean, but ahaha...
Yes! The default search is based on when a work was last updated, so new chapters will bring it back to the front.
What if my story is not revolving around any fictional character, its just made up characters, what tags should i add? Original female character or something?
And I'm not able to add additional taxs like you said that Tumblr thingy, I'm not able to do that, I'm not able to enter it and yes I'm using my phone
Tags*
Original Character tags are fine in that case! If you can't add custom tags on mobile, try another device, or a laptop/desktop? I never post on mobile so I'm not certain how it's different, sorry!
@@bumblewyn okay thank you, i don't have a laptop, but those already Tumblr used tags help me out too!!
Hi uhm idk if you'll respond but I'm new to ao3 and I'm wondering on how to read fanfictions there, like I'm confused I'm only used to Tumblr and Wattpad mostly😓
Hii! Welcome to AO3 :D I have a video up that explains how to search for stories on AO3, which might help you? To read a story, you just click the title in the search results. Here's the video on how to search (the audio is really quiet, my apologies, there are subtitles available!): th-cam.com/video/MiiaOVv8ENA/w-d-xo.html
@@bumblewyn omg tysm lol
heyy this was really helpful however it doesn't give me the option to save to drafts for some reason? do you know how i can fix this?
You have to click "Preview" at the bottom of the posting page and then you can save the fic as a draft :) I think they might have changed it since I made this video? (It is also automatically saved as draft as soon as you click preview.)
@@bumblewyn ohh omg thanks so much
thanks writing a short fic rn
Hello. Thank you for posting this vid. I've been struggling with posting image for the past two hours. Can you help me how I can do it? I followed what you said, but it's unable to do so. :/
Hi! There's a pretty detailed guide here on Tumblr: bumblewyn.tumblr.com/post/638201751270457344/jasontoddiefor-a-helpful-how-to-guide-for
If you still have questions, please feel free to ask
Hi! I was wondering, how do you format it so that it looks nice on mobile?
What exactly are you looking to format? Normal text should look good on mobile :)
@@bumblewyn I did it on a google doc, on computer, so i'm worried that since on computer its shorter the long way that it will be thicker, and the dialogue wont look as neat.
@@jamesfromteamrocketmcduck7288 I'm not entirely sure what you're describing, sorry! 😅
If you write normally and copy it over it should look okay on mobile as well as on a computer! If you're unsure, you can always save it as a draft first and open the draft on your phone to see what it's like :)
How to you continue to make more chapters?
There will be an "Add Chapter" button at the top of your work, when you open it. Incomplete works will also have the "Add Chapter" button below the work summary on your dashboard (your author page).
thank you really helped me
Spent 8 months writing a fic for a dead fandom, post work, no kudos: profit 🙂👌
Hey there! Can I ask you how to create a new tag on mobile?
The same way as on PC, just type the tag and press enter (or whatever equivalent on your phone keyboard, I believe it's "go" on iPhone).
honest question, i’m still not aware of how to make other chapters so if anyone could help me then i’d appreciate it 😭
If you go to the story, there should be an "Add Chapter" button at the top, to the left of "Edit" :)
max of 75 tags, i wonder why, hmmmmmmmm (lol if ya know, ya know, cuz i definitely know thanks to coleydoesthings making a vid about it
THANK YOU
Thank you!
hai. can u explain how to post fanfict as anonymous creator ?
Hi! If you add your fic to the "Anonymous" collection (via collections explained at 14:25) it will be shown as anonymous and will not show up on your profile.
@@bumblewyn thank u so much.
How do you made a work private?
There are two ways, depending on what you want.
a) You can tick the option for "Only show your work to registered users" under Privacy when posting or editing a work (right above the Work Text section). This will hide your work from anyone who isn't logged in to an AO3 account. If someone clicks a link to your work but isn't logged in, they will get a prompt to log in to be able to see the work. If someone views your profile without being logged in on an AO3 account, the work will not show up on your profile. If someone searches AO3 without being logged in (for example looking through tags), they will not see your work.
b) You can add your work to the "anonymous" collection, under the "Post to Collections / Challenges" option when editing or posting your work. This will hide your username from the work, and anyone viewing the work will see the author listed as "Anonymous". The work will not show up on your profile, and if you reply to comments, your comments will also show as "Anonymous". Note that if you ever remove a work from the anonymous collection, anyone subscribed to you will get an email notification that you posted a "new" work.
Hope that helps!
@@bumblewyn thank youuuu
Thanks but how do I write as Anonymous?
You can add your work to the "anonymous" collection, under the "Post to Collections / Challenges" option when editing or posting your work. This will hide your username from the work, and anyone viewing the work will see the author listed as "Anonymous". The work will not show up on your profile, and if you reply to comments, your comments will also show as "Anonymous". Note that if you ever remove a work from the anonymous collection, anyone subscribed to you will get an email notification that you posted a "new" work.
Hope that helps! :)
Thank you!!
how I post anonymously?
In the field for collections, type "anoynmous" and press enter, that's the name for the official anonymous collection :)
How do we add image moodboard
Hi! There's a pretty detailed guide about embaedding images here on Tumblr: bumblewyn.tumblr.com/post/638201751270457344/jasontoddiefor-a-helpful-how-to-guide-for
If you still have questions, please feel free to ask
@@bumblewyn this video is 9 month old thankyou For help
What is Multi?
In Categories, Multi is anything with more than two people, for example F/F/F or F/M/M would be Multi.
I love you so much 😭🫂
hf;dsafadi this was so helpful, thank you so much!!!
The mature rating and tags are for all the work or each individual chapter? For example, if in chapter 1 there's no violence but there is in chapter 2 I should tag it as mature? Or same for tags, if in chapter 1 character A doesn't show up but they appear a few chapters down I should add their tag in advance?
I never posted to a fic site or used them before so I appreciate the advice 🥲
The tags and ratings and everything are for the whole story! :) You can tag things that haven't happened yet but you know will happen in advance, but if they don't play a big part in the story (like a background character) it may be better not to tag them because people looking in that tag may not be looking for what is in your story.
Hellooooo I hope you are doing well I just wanted to know how I could do that offprint that they sometimes put in the works summaries, which is basically like a fragment of the fic. I don't really know what it's called or if it has a name but I've seen it in several fics and it's like an indentation and a long line next to the text fragment. I don't know if I explained myself well but I hope someone knows more or less what I'm talking about.
tysm 🫶
You can do that using the html around the text! ^_^