i think the names of chapters are UNBEARABLY IMPORTANT. okay, maybe not, but i really enjoy reading a cool chapter title and i really enjoy coming up with a cool chapter title, or at least a cool chapter theme. i think that the lack of chapter names in most published books are actually a real letdown. like. hey! this is another chance to be creative, to highlight important things, to have fun! trust i will always read your chapter titles lol.
My mom always used to make fun of the fanfiction I was reading (admittedly, I was in middle school and I was not that picky) and how it was full of errors and teaching me incorrect grammar and how it wasn't on the same level as a book from a store. She wasn't trying to be mean but it affected my outlook. To hear someone equate my little fan works to publishable material is just... so nice. :)
I want to respond to this specifically because it's important to me on a lot of levels but I am going to ramble and I'm sorry about it. Sort of.
To begin: as a someone who got her first degree in literature and her second degree in counseling (so, various biases there), I think that the most important part of reading fiction is not as a method of learning grammar and punctuation and linguistic rules that frankly change every decade or so. I think the most important part of reading fiction is that we know it increases peoples' capacity and practice of empathy. And that is not something that you lose with incorrect grammar.
Subsequently (I would argue), at its core, all fiction has value. When you're writing, it's an exercise in understanding characters, communicating ideas and feelings, and hopefully understanding your readers as well. In most cases, a writer also carves off important parts of themselves and incorporates those into the story too. They process things through it. And when you're reading, it's still an exercise in understanding characters, in interpreting communication, and maybe understanding the author as well. In a lot of ways, fanfiction is uniquely suited for this empathy-building because it's so often a community-based experience. I refuse to call Mary-Sue self-insert fanfiction written by 13-year-olds "bad", no matter how generous they are with their commas. Because at its most basic level, I believe that even "unrefined" fiction is important.
Bringing this back down to the microcosmic level, your writing is refined. You not only evoke emotions in the reader, but they're nuanced and layered and complicated emotions, while still being transparent and understandable and relatable to the audience. Your action sequences are engaging, your mysteries are enticing, and every sentence feels meaningful. And on top of all that, your writing style itself is beautiful. Sometimes, you read an author's prose, and you think - "oh. they're actually a poet." That's you. You're the poet.
For god's sake, do you know how much better your story is than fucking Ant-Man: Quantumania? In literally every way? Yes, you deserve to be published if you want to be. Yes, I believe in you. Yes, I'd be greedy to read whatever you wrote.
Speaking of Quantumania... (bear with me). I appreciate your mom was trying to make sure you had a sound academic background in the works you were consuming as a kiddo. But... it also sounds like she has fallen victim to some common misconceptions about fanfiction. Poor mom! Publication is not a good threshold for identifying quality writing (see again: Quantumania). In addition to that, like 50% of what we consume in media is fanfiction (and the remaining 50% is probably some form of self-insert writing). To be very very clear, marvel movies are just fanfiction of marvel comics. Hell, half of marvel comics are just fanfiction of marvel comics. Every version of Sherlock Holmes is fanfiction of the original, and every new doctor in Doctor Who is fanfiction of the doctor before. Every new iteration of Star Trek, and every CW show that spawned as a side-story to its predecessor is - you guessed it - fanfiction. Hell, every new movie or book series or TV show about "the rapture" is just fanfiction of Thessalonians or Corinthians or whatever in the bible.
I know I'm mentioning a lot of different mediums here and not all of them are to be read, but my point remains. The only thing that makes something canon is its budget, babe.
All this to say that I believe that your story is deserving of a larger budget than it has lol, and by extension, I trust that anything else you write would be similarly deserving of praise, publication, and more. (And also, your middle school reading choices were valid lol.)
That is enough of my soapbox today. I look forward to coming back and reading onward. Thank you so much for sharing this story, my friend, and for sharing your time, talent, skill, and insight. I love what you're creating.
I loved reading this and all you had to say about it ^.^ No apology for rambling necessary.
You are so incredibly right about all fiction having value. And in my experience, everything you've said has been so extremely true. As a person, I've grown so much through writing fanfics. Studying characters has given me so much more empathy and understanding of others, while studying my own writing has given me a better understanding of myself. I think one of the things that helped me get more from my own writing was asking myself the why behind the events of a story and going deeper into the character's reasoning.
My ma did encourage me to read good literature, but that's not all there is in the world. I enjoyed 1600-1800s literature like Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Edgar Allen Poe, Khalil Gibran, Shakespeare, and more recently, H.P. Lovecraft. Reading those things did help me grow and become the writer I am today, but so did fanfiction. I never thought of the IPs you mentioned as fanficition before, but you are not wrong!
You're welcome to your soapbox in my comments anytime, my friend! I enjoy reading your thoughts. Especially now as we move into the more serious angst >:)
I'm so glad you're enjoying the story still ^^ I can't wait to hear from you again, as you are always a delight! ♡♡♡
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raccoonfallsharder on Chapter 6 Tue 29 Jul 2025 05:11PM UTC
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penguinpasta on Chapter 6 Sat 02 Aug 2025 10:20AM UTC
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