Fanfiction is such a broad community that we’d love to hear about your fandoms! You may even find someone in the comments who travels in the same fandom circles and could have a few amazing recommendations.
I’m not on a current fic kick, but I’ve pulled some from my favorites or “Marked for Later” history on Ao3. Full disclosure: I am Reylo trash and Dramione (DracoxHermione) is my favorite pairing, though we do not support Rowling in this household. I wrote anime fics in high school and wrote a single chapter of a Reylo fic when the itch struck me and then promptly abandoned it.
The Shooting Party (sea_spirit): Pairing is Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones (TV). This is an AU (alternate universe) set in 1920s Scotland during a hunting party. Tropes: Fake dating and friends to lovers.
Starry-Eyed: One Shots and Novellas (NewerConstellations): Pairing is Kylo Ren and Rey from Star Wars. I was introduced to this writer through one of my favorite Reylo fanartists, Elithien. Elithien is the one who did the cover for The Love Hypothesis. These are just a collection of quick fics that I can dip into whenever.
Everything to Prove (crossingwinter): Pairing is Kylo Ren and Rey from Star Wars. I’ve probably mentioned this before on the site, but this is a Great British Bake Off AU, where the characters are contestants on a baking show. Shoutout to Kay for putting this on my radar and it’s been a favorite for ages.
For Dramione fics, I have way too many by Freya_Ishtar and senlinyu to mention individually.
Love In a Time of the Zombie Apocalypse (rizzlewrites): Pairing is Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. Wizard and zombies; what more could you ask for?
The Politician’s Wife (pir8fancier): Pairing is Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure I found this through fanart too. In fact, I find a lot of fics through fanartists I follow. They typically do a great job of citing their inspiration. The description for this is, “Our main characters are Ministry employees, middle-aged, and the majority of them not very happy.” Sounds very dramatic and dishy.
So what are the fandoms you follow? Tell us which fics you’re currently eager to read!
The two I’ve been meaning to read/finish are:
“One Night” by Victoria G on a03 which is a Reinako (Sailor Mars/Sailor Venus) fic
“Marionette, Poppet, Prince” by KaerWrites on a03 is a three part fic about Captive Prince from Laurent’s PoV. I read the first two parts at the end of the year after reading the book series but then I went back to work and time got away from me. I want to read the fic alongside a reread of the series next year.
In terms of fics, I’m following as they release they’re mainly from the My Hero Academia and Dragon Ball Z fandoms.
One I finished recently was a VegeBul fic that was “what if dbz but feudal Japan?”.
It was “Journey to the East” by Nonymos.
There also things I like/am a fan of that I don’t engage with the online fandom for like Good Omens or Doctor Who (with the exception of trying to find good Doctor/Master fic).
For your smut fix on Team Reylo, might I recommend Are You Satisfied?, a modern day Reylo AU where Rey is trying to find excellent sex through a website (BobaFettLife), and finds a Dom, Kylo, who seems to really get her. He disguises his voice and insists that she’s blindfolded though, so all she knows is that he has really big hands – just like her shy co-worker Ben Solo. (Wow, did you just work out the twist already???). This fic is famous for having actually persuaded Sneezy to read Reylo fanfic!
Both my regular bookmarks and “marked for later” are a mess, but “marked for later” is absolute chaos. I just went scrolling through and was truly alarmed at the number of fics I have on there. There’s a lot of Ted/Rebecca from Ted Lasso. FWIW, I’m fine with that fact they didn’t get together, but I still think the Season 3 handled almost everything badly. Plenty of Jaime and Brienne too. I’m excited to hear about The Shooting Party, I haven’t heard of that one. I don’t even watch Game of Thrones and I love this ship. I feel like so many writers in these two fandoms are excellent.
there’s a smattering of other things in there too from ships I loved from way back. Jayne/Kaylee from Firefly. Mulder/Scully (my original OTP) even some Ms. Price/Mr Brown from Bedknobs and Broomsticks (another early influence!)
I’m reading a lot of Bridgerton fanfic right now, mostly Penelope/Colin, but I’ve read Kate/Anthony too. I can’t keep up, so those get throw on the “later” pile as well. I can’t really get into Simon/Daphne (I watched their season on fast forward) but if the right story came along I might. I’ve read all the JQ books, so I suppose I could read something about characters in seasons to come, but I think I want to see their plots develop more first.
I tend to postpone reading really long fic and stuff that is more plotty/gen. I generally come to fanfic for cute quick romance vibes and I love that there are other options available but that’s not what I usually gravitate to. But I want to want to read it so I save it just in case. There’s nothing worse than racking your brain for a story that’s eluding you. I feel like a lot of people here will know what I mean 😉
Man, I have so much I need to do today, unpack, study for a test, clean up after the painters moved everything. But fanfic is calling me now . . .
Attempting to post from my work computer, because I haven’t been able to post from my laptop for several months. No I can’t figure out why. Hmph.
Anyway. I’m still pretty deep into MDZS/The Untamed fanfics. I’ll read pretty much any pairing if the fic sounds interesting, but recently I’ve been gravitating to LWJ/WWX/JC fics, because there are so many interesting directions that tension can go. I also follow some authors that I reliably like so I don’t have to trawl through the archives.
I’m recently getting into a bunch of older kdramas and telenovelas and discovering to my disappointment that they have like 30 fics. What, do I have to do all the work myself???! I haven’t written fics in over a year, since my hospitalization, but I am starting to get the itch back.
I never mark for later, I just end up with an ungodly amount of open tabs.
(ps if you are interested in MDZS fics I’ll plug myself. three_colored_cat on A03.)
I’m a Sherlock(TV) fan and my favourite fanfics are with Greg Lestrade /Mycroft Holmes. I think they’re considered a rare pare since they have only one or two brief scenes on the show. mister Big and Memoranda of Understanding are two older fics. EventHorizon and Mottlemoth are 2 of my favourite writers of Mystrade and there’s an excellent selection of stories on ao3.
I don’t have a fanfic TBR because my fandoms are either very small or on the older side that I can read all the new fics in less than a day.
That said, I’m grateful for all the Hunger Games and Spinning Silver fics and fic writers. You’re all wonderful <3
I keep going back to KhamanV’s excellent SHIELD Codex. It’s GenFic, and an alternative timeline breaking off from Thor: The Dark World and the first half of the first season of Agents of SHIELD The brief for the first arc reads As Loki falls from Asgardian grace one more time, he chances a risky path that takes him directly to the door of SHIELD. At first a cautious enemy, then eventually an odd ally, and then ultimately a friend, Loki has to decide what changing his destiny truly means – and what it will cost.
If you want a good laugh, not in the author’s Codexverse, there is A Punch and Judy Sort of Guy, which is their vision of how “The Tragedy of Loki” we see at the beginning of Thor: Ragnorok comes to be. (Copious amounts of alcohol are involved.)
@Heather M — I feel you on older series with 30 fics. I have more than one of those I keep hoping someone else will write more stories in so I don’t have to. (No, I have other things to write instead of penning a murder mystery for The Story of Yanxi Palace with Wei Yingluo as the detective.)
I discovered fic last year and it saved my life. Dramione consumed me and my favorite god-tier fic is by mightbewriting. It opens with Hermione waking up having lost the last six years’ of her memory, including her entire relationship and marriage to Draco. It’s perfect.
This year, I discovered Drarry and I will never ever be over by eleventy7. Draco’s been missing for three years and Harry is assigned the cold case. He slowly falls in love with the memories of Draco that he collects. It is achingly beautiful.
For the Dramione fans out there, or for all Harry Potter fans for that matter, I’d really like to recommend DMATMOOBIL (Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love). It’s smart, hilarious, and fluffy. The author will be piblishing a “real” book next year and I can’t wait.
I’ve been reading fanfic for 25 years lol but I don’t have any favorite fics so if anyone knows of any…it would be much appreciated.
I was just a Spuffy (BTVS) shipper for like 20 years….now I’m a shipper for so many other fandoms.
Chair (GG)
Dasey (LwD)
Hameron (House)
Polin (Bridgerton book series first and now also the show)
Shirbert (AoGG book/movies with MF first, now also the show)
Shueberry (Glee)
I think that’s it for now. lol
The one fanfic I’ve been following for years now is a Valdemar one, Friends Across Borders by MueraRashaye on AO3, it isn’t romance as such, but there is Ace representation. It is long, up to over 870k words by now, but it is very, very good, good enough that I’ve re-read it more than once, so if you want something with that vibe there is a lot to dive into.
Otherwise I tend to wander in and out of areas with no particular pattern or favourites.
Elithien isn’t the artist who illustrated Ali Hazelwood’s Love Hypothesis. The artist who does Ali’s covers is actually Lilith-saur. Just want to make sure the right artist gets credit!
I followed thr link but I think Freya_Ishtar is on hiatus? 🙁
I love
Murderbot fanfic for the snark, sarcasm and found family,
Vorkosigan Saga for the romance (Aral & Cordelia, sometimes w/Jole) as well as the adventure.
The Saint of Steel is my most recent reading addiction.
Of course, occasionally I wander around here and there, poking around for good stuff.
I mostly read (and write) Ikemen Sengoku fanfic… I would totally recommend “Heart of a Warrior” for anyone looking for M/M longfic. I’m in awe of the writer’s ability to create wonderful action scenes and political intrigue.
Whoops, made another long comment that I think might be caught in the spam filter with all the links, but I realized I forgot to respond to the actual call of the post, my TBR! My fanfic TBR is just as long and chaotic as my book TBR, but since I’ve lately been very into stories with political drama I’ll mention Ásgarðrian Galdr by Valerie_Vancollie on AO3, which I found from the bookmarks of an author I liked. The summary given is: “What if Loki was able to warn his past self, so he did not lose control during his regency and was able to act as he normally would? What if he had been able to remain calm and in control of himself, and the situation?”. There are also some fics by llamallamaduck on AO3, a new favorite author, that I’m waiting on to be complete.
I’m currently most commonly reading fics from Harry Potter, My Hero, and Naruto but my fandom interests wax and wane, and I’ve been known to read fanfic about anything I have even a passing familiarity with if it hooks me and I’m not totally lost.
It also somehow slipped my mind to recommend Observations by jAnon (AKA anon-j-anon), which is an epic-length Kirk/Spock fanfiction that I’ve thought back on ever since I read it over 10 (15?) years ago. It’s available on ffnet, livejournal, and AO3. The author also has ‘annotations’ where they clarify, give translations, and note cultural references, but if you want to read them they’re in separate posts, and I don’t believe anyone has compiled a copy of the story with them included, unfortunately (please tell me if anyone happens to know otherwise).
I second the recommendation of Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love. It awesome the slowest of slow burns but so delicious! It got a 5 star review on Goodreads from Penny Reid. ‘Nuff said!
It’s nice to see fanfic mentioned here.
I’ve been reading and writing fanfic since 1981 (you can’t count the godawful Rat Patrol and Voyage to the Bottom of the sSa stories I wrote as a 12 year old back in 1967, when both shows were in first-run on ABC). I’m still reading and writing in both fandoms, though new stories from other writers are pretty thin on the ground.
I’ve been a SamandJack fan since I first watched Stargate in the late 1990s, and have been looking for new stories featuring this pairing. And my latest love is HouliHawk — Hawkeye Pierce and Margaret Houlihan from M*A*S*H. The fandom seems to be dominated by m/m slash though, which I don’t read in that particular fandom (though I do in others, like Classic Trek The Magnificent Seven – TV version – and Man from UNCLE). Most of the H/M stories tend to be several years old.
Pixileanin on FFN has a lovely Dramione “Hermione: The Outsider (2023 reboot)”. I discovered her when I found “How to Retire in Regency England” a delightful Umbrella Academy fic featuring Five who has unexpectedly started to age (but is glad the coffee houses are good in London). Warning! The email alert system has collapsed again the way it did a few months ago on FFN.
I write mostly SnapeFic, with the name of excessivelyperky, also on FFN.
@Heather M, I LOVE MDZS/The Untamed fanfics ❤️. I have dozen tabs open for on going fics. Another one of my favorite are the fanfics for the Thai series Bad Buddy. I love the young angst and pining.