Expanded version of my AO3 profile
Dec. 2nd, 2024 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neremanthHello there, readers! And welcome!
I'm Neremanth, and I write fanfic. It's mostly Ace Attorney, but there'll be some other stuff here and there too.
Much like with my AO3 account, I've had this account for a while without posting anything myself. In both cases I initially signed up because I wanted to read stuff on the sites. But now I've started writing and posting fic, I thought I'd use this account to share some extra stuff related to that. In this first post I wanted to provide an expanded version of my AO3 profile because the character limit on AO3 itself is a bit restrictive. In future posts, I'm planning to talk in more detail about my history and experiences with fanfic, as a reader and writer, and to do author's commentaries on my fics.
My history with fic: brief version
I started reading fanfic in 2010, starting with Sherlock Holmes (the books), then moving on fairly quickly to Harry Potter. In 2012 I discovered Homestuck, and as soon as I caught up to the latest update I went looking for the fic. That was my main fandom for more than a decade. Then in 2024 I got into Ace Attorney. Before I'd even finished the first game I was hopping onto AO3 browsing Phoenix/Edgeworth fics. (Which wasn't the smartest decision for someone who doesn't like spoilers. I was used to Homestuck where such a large proportion of fics are AUs that spoilers don't come up much.)
I never really expected to write fic myself. Even though I know fanfic is for everyone, and there's no minimum skill level before you're allowed to post, I didn't feel like I could write anything I wouldn't just cringe at. And if you had told me that one day I would end up writing fic, I would definitely have guessed the fandom would be Homestuck.
Then I got to a part in the third Ace Attorney game where I'd been slightly spoilered by reading fic summaries and/or unexpectedly coming on a mention of this plot point in a fic. I didn't know the full details, but I was aware of the incident in general terms. But I was surprised to find that whereas in fics people seemed positive this thing happened, we never actually see it on screen: we only have a character telling us (and the other characters) that they did it. It made more sense to me to imagine that character was lying. I found myself writing the scene in my head from that character's POV. I decided to write it down, and after a bit of editing I actually had something I was pleased with and didn't mind sharing with the world. And that was how my first fic happened.
I wasn't sure to begin with whether I would ever write anything else: possibly that would be my one and only fanfic. But gradually over the next few months the plot bunnies started massing. I've now posted several more fics, and plan to keep them coming.
About my work
As I write this, I have over twenty fics that are somewhere between "I've started writing an outline" and "this just needs a final look over and then it's ready to post", plus over ten more where I've had an idea but not put anything down on paper yet. They're mostly one shots, or mini chaptered fics, likely from around 1K to 10K words, although there are a couple of longer ones in there. So please do subscribe to me on AO3 if you'd like to get notified when those come out!
My stories range from light-hearted crack to some fairly dark stuff, with plenty that falls somewhere between. I'm using my pseuds to separate the darker content that might not be for everyone from the lighter fare, but since you can't subscribe to a pseud, anyone subscribed to me will get notifications for everything. I'll be writing quite a selection of POV characters and ships, and there will be both fics that are about ships and fics where ships may appear but which are about something else. I have some smutty fics planned too although they are the minority of my works. For the most part, my ideas are sparked by pondering gaps or apparent inconsistencies in canon, so there's a lot of canon-compliant fics, missing scenes, character studies and so on. I do also have a few ideas that are AUs or new plots, but it's going to be a while before I get to those.
Although my first fic was in third person, everything I've written since (other than one fic told entirely through text messages) is second person. It's just what I find natural to write in. I have no problem with reading third person, but when I write it feels a little weird. I blame Homestuck. :p I actually do think second person offers the best of all worlds, combining the advantages of first and third person. While I can't see myself drafting in anything else, it's possible I might then convert to third person in editing for some fics. Not all that likely though. If, hypothetically, anyone else wanted to do a "translation" of any of my work into third person, I wouldn't be opposed, provided it was a proper conversion and not just a find-and-replace job (and subject to what I say below regarding all kinds of derivative works based on mine).
Comments
Comments on my fics are welcome! That includes constructive criticism. In particular, I'm British and mainly writing for a fandom where the English localisation is set in the US, so while I am trying to write in US English I'm sure I'm going to slip up with spelling and vocab. I would really appreciate any corrections on that front! Or corrections more generally, if I get something else wrong. Critiques regarding the writing are great too. I want to get better as a writer, and I also want my fics to be the best they can be. Of course this is an area where things can be subjective, so I can't promise I'll make any changes you suggest, but I will definitely give them careful consideration!
Quite a few of my fics are Trojan horses to express my headcanons and thoughts about the characters and plotting of the original, so if you want to talk about any of that I am very up for that too (and no need to comment directly on the story or say anything about my writing if you don't want to). I'm also very happy to receive comments that just say you enjoyed what I wrote, even if you don't have anything specific to talk about, or that highlight parts you particularly liked, or if you just want to leave an emoji that's cool too! Please don't feel any pressure to leave a comment, though. I enjoy plenty of fics without commenting, so it would be pretty hypocritical to expect other people to comment on mine! While I'd love to hear from you, it's absolutely fine to just read. I'm happy if you enjoyed my work, even if you don't tell me about it.
Derivative works
If you feel inspired by any of my works to create anything of your own, that is awesome! I don't care if you're making art or writing a continuation or an alternative ending, or even if you like the premise but think you could do a better job. (I don't even care if you mention in the summary of your fic or in a comment on mine that you wrote your own version because you thought you could do a better job!) Or if you like the premise and simply want to write your own take on it. That's all good; just use the "Inspired by" feature to let me know; or if it's too much of a tangent/too minor a detail to warrant that, or it's not posted on AO3, feel free to comment instead -- I would really love to hear if something I wrote provided a spark for someone else's creativity.
Similarly, podfics are great, and you don't need to ask my permission beforehand (but please do comment on the fic in question to link the podfic when it's done!). I'm currently not sure how I feel about translations (mostly because I'd have no way to know if they'd faithfully conveyed the original), though I'm leaning towards allowing them. I will probably give this some more thought and update this when I've decided one way or the other, but if you're interested in translating anything of mine before then, feel free to ask and I might well say yes.
The two caveats in regard to work based on mine are:
Thank you!
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my work. I hope you've enjoyed it, but even if you didn't, I'm grateful that you gave it a chance!
I'm Neremanth, and I write fanfic. It's mostly Ace Attorney, but there'll be some other stuff here and there too.
Much like with my AO3 account, I've had this account for a while without posting anything myself. In both cases I initially signed up because I wanted to read stuff on the sites. But now I've started writing and posting fic, I thought I'd use this account to share some extra stuff related to that. In this first post I wanted to provide an expanded version of my AO3 profile because the character limit on AO3 itself is a bit restrictive. In future posts, I'm planning to talk in more detail about my history and experiences with fanfic, as a reader and writer, and to do author's commentaries on my fics.
My history with fic: brief version
I started reading fanfic in 2010, starting with Sherlock Holmes (the books), then moving on fairly quickly to Harry Potter. In 2012 I discovered Homestuck, and as soon as I caught up to the latest update I went looking for the fic. That was my main fandom for more than a decade. Then in 2024 I got into Ace Attorney. Before I'd even finished the first game I was hopping onto AO3 browsing Phoenix/Edgeworth fics. (Which wasn't the smartest decision for someone who doesn't like spoilers. I was used to Homestuck where such a large proportion of fics are AUs that spoilers don't come up much.)
I never really expected to write fic myself. Even though I know fanfic is for everyone, and there's no minimum skill level before you're allowed to post, I didn't feel like I could write anything I wouldn't just cringe at. And if you had told me that one day I would end up writing fic, I would definitely have guessed the fandom would be Homestuck.
Then I got to a part in the third Ace Attorney game where I'd been slightly spoilered by reading fic summaries and/or unexpectedly coming on a mention of this plot point in a fic. I didn't know the full details, but I was aware of the incident in general terms. But I was surprised to find that whereas in fics people seemed positive this thing happened, we never actually see it on screen: we only have a character telling us (and the other characters) that they did it. It made more sense to me to imagine that character was lying. I found myself writing the scene in my head from that character's POV. I decided to write it down, and after a bit of editing I actually had something I was pleased with and didn't mind sharing with the world. And that was how my first fic happened.
I wasn't sure to begin with whether I would ever write anything else: possibly that would be my one and only fanfic. But gradually over the next few months the plot bunnies started massing. I've now posted several more fics, and plan to keep them coming.
About my work
As I write this, I have over twenty fics that are somewhere between "I've started writing an outline" and "this just needs a final look over and then it's ready to post", plus over ten more where I've had an idea but not put anything down on paper yet. They're mostly one shots, or mini chaptered fics, likely from around 1K to 10K words, although there are a couple of longer ones in there. So please do subscribe to me on AO3 if you'd like to get notified when those come out!
My stories range from light-hearted crack to some fairly dark stuff, with plenty that falls somewhere between. I'm using my pseuds to separate the darker content that might not be for everyone from the lighter fare, but since you can't subscribe to a pseud, anyone subscribed to me will get notifications for everything. I'll be writing quite a selection of POV characters and ships, and there will be both fics that are about ships and fics where ships may appear but which are about something else. I have some smutty fics planned too although they are the minority of my works. For the most part, my ideas are sparked by pondering gaps or apparent inconsistencies in canon, so there's a lot of canon-compliant fics, missing scenes, character studies and so on. I do also have a few ideas that are AUs or new plots, but it's going to be a while before I get to those.
Although my first fic was in third person, everything I've written since (other than one fic told entirely through text messages) is second person. It's just what I find natural to write in. I have no problem with reading third person, but when I write it feels a little weird. I blame Homestuck. :p I actually do think second person offers the best of all worlds, combining the advantages of first and third person. While I can't see myself drafting in anything else, it's possible I might then convert to third person in editing for some fics. Not all that likely though. If, hypothetically, anyone else wanted to do a "translation" of any of my work into third person, I wouldn't be opposed, provided it was a proper conversion and not just a find-and-replace job (and subject to what I say below regarding all kinds of derivative works based on mine).
Comments
Comments on my fics are welcome! That includes constructive criticism. In particular, I'm British and mainly writing for a fandom where the English localisation is set in the US, so while I am trying to write in US English I'm sure I'm going to slip up with spelling and vocab. I would really appreciate any corrections on that front! Or corrections more generally, if I get something else wrong. Critiques regarding the writing are great too. I want to get better as a writer, and I also want my fics to be the best they can be. Of course this is an area where things can be subjective, so I can't promise I'll make any changes you suggest, but I will definitely give them careful consideration!
Quite a few of my fics are Trojan horses to express my headcanons and thoughts about the characters and plotting of the original, so if you want to talk about any of that I am very up for that too (and no need to comment directly on the story or say anything about my writing if you don't want to). I'm also very happy to receive comments that just say you enjoyed what I wrote, even if you don't have anything specific to talk about, or that highlight parts you particularly liked, or if you just want to leave an emoji that's cool too! Please don't feel any pressure to leave a comment, though. I enjoy plenty of fics without commenting, so it would be pretty hypocritical to expect other people to comment on mine! While I'd love to hear from you, it's absolutely fine to just read. I'm happy if you enjoyed my work, even if you don't tell me about it.
Derivative works
If you feel inspired by any of my works to create anything of your own, that is awesome! I don't care if you're making art or writing a continuation or an alternative ending, or even if you like the premise but think you could do a better job. (I don't even care if you mention in the summary of your fic or in a comment on mine that you wrote your own version because you thought you could do a better job!) Or if you like the premise and simply want to write your own take on it. That's all good; just use the "Inspired by" feature to let me know; or if it's too much of a tangent/too minor a detail to warrant that, or it's not posted on AO3, feel free to comment instead -- I would really love to hear if something I wrote provided a spark for someone else's creativity.
Similarly, podfics are great, and you don't need to ask my permission beforehand (but please do comment on the fic in question to link the podfic when it's done!). I'm currently not sure how I feel about translations (mostly because I'd have no way to know if they'd faithfully conveyed the original), though I'm leaning towards allowing them. I will probably give this some more thought and update this when I've decided one way or the other, but if you're interested in translating anything of mine before then, feel free to ask and I might well say yes.
The two caveats in regard to work based on mine are:
- No monetisation. I've worked hard on my fics and I'm not getting any money for them, so it's a bit of a slap in the face if someone else makes money from a derivative work based on them. That means I'm not happy with things being posted anywhere where you receive money for content (e.g. YouTube, Patreon), and ideally I don't even want them anywhere third parties are profiting from ad revenue (e.g. FanFiction.net or Wattpad).
- No AI / machine work. I don't want my work fed to AI in order to produce art or new fic based on it or anything like that. I can choose to do that or not myself if I want, but that should be my decision. (However, something like writing a draft of your fic yourself and then getting an AI to suggest how you could improve it, or running a grammar checker on it, would be ok.) I also don't want any publicly posted machine translations of my work or podfics made using text to speech. (Machine translation or text to speech for your personal use is fine.) The only possible exception would be a podfic where text to speech was used to give each character a different voice. If that was done well, I can see how that could add value compared to what people can get by using text to speech for themself, so I might be ok with that -- but it would be something where you'd need to talk to me about it first.
Thank you!
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my work. I hope you've enjoyed it, but even if you didn't, I'm grateful that you gave it a chance!
