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So, I'm not sure if a lot of you know this, but I didn't start out on Wattpad. I started on fanfiction.net. I was born and raised in ffn and then sort of "immigrated" to Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. And boy, even though I mostly post the same stuff, different platforms have different cultures and end up having different reactions to my stuff. And it's interesting to see.

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FANFICTION.NET is like, the oldest. Most traditional. No links. No pictures. Really dumb upload system. One review per chapter for each user. No kudos, no votes. Because I started out there, I'm arguably the most "popular" there. Like, from the moment I began to post my stuff, I had readers and reviewers. And everyone knows encouragement is important to any budding author/ artist. I still have them. A lot of them may not be the most consistent, but they're there.

Pros: People actually read your stuff. And they actually review your stuff (!!). You have really nice statistics on people of which country reads your stuff. They have a ton of statistics on views, readers, favourites, follows, etc. They show word count. No one cares about book covers, therefore no "judging a book by its cover". Simple layout. They only allow the simplest of texts, including bold, italics, and underline. Easy to read and accessible.

Cons: You can't get links to work. No photos either. No fancy texts like the ones you see elsewhere (especially on Wattpad). Not much flexibility. No one cares about book covers, which is really sad if you have a nice graphic. You can only tag four characters, max. The categories are a bit standard as well. And the upload system with Doc Manager is a nightmare. Songfics are not allowed. Can't directly reply to reviews unlike ao3 and Wattpad. Not much works for real people (unlike both ao3 and Wattpad).

The fanfics there are mostly heterosexual fanfictions from like 2000 to 2010. Expect a lot of Harry Potter, PJO, Twilight, the common YA fantasy books you probably grew up with. The quality is so-so, sometimes you find gems and sometimes you find plain horrific works. Grammar and spelling is usually decent. Usually.

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ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN is Tumblr's best friend. As a Tumblr user, how can I not have an ao3 account? In a lot of ways similar to ffn, but in a lot of ways NOT. Ao3 has (in my opinion) a great balance of being both flexible and professional. You can collab with someone and it'll show up decently. You can add and organize series. You can gift fics to other people. You can put links neatly. You can even add in fanart on your fanfic. I don't post a lot there, but I usually read fanfics on ao3. They're more to my taste.

Pros: Flexibility, as I mentioned. Collabs, gifts, series, etc. More tags. Better quality of fanfictions (subjective opinion). Covers? Do not exist. They literally don't exist. Even ffn has those although no one cares. No more judging by covers. Allows a bit more creativity in layout, although nowhere near Wattpad's "aesthetic". Can use html when uploading. Contains build-in warnings for possibly triggering content. Cute tags that actually appear and categorize fics (looking at you Wattpad). Can post originals. Decent grammar and spelling, usually less cringy than ffn.

Cons: You can step into mature content rather easily. There. Is. A. Lot. Sometimes the search results gets dominated by mega crossover fics with like 50 ships from 20 fandoms. No covers, again sucks for people with nice graphics. Less reviews. Only one kudos per account can be awarded to each fic, which sucks if you wanna give a lot of kudos to a particularly amazing fic. The tagging system gets chaotic sometimes.

A lot of fanfics there feature LGBT+ content and rather mature content (eg. smut, gore, death). AUs are a staple. Ao3 probably has the least heterosexual fanfiction out of the three sites.

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WATTPAD has the loosest regulations out of the three. It's also the most "aesthetic", with people using different graphics, fonts, text symbols etc. Communities are common here. However, and I mean no offense by this, but Wattpad has some really, really crappy fanfiction that I have yet to see elsewhere.

Pros: Extremely flexible in nature, yet not as professional as ao3. Easy to use. You can write whatever you want, which leads to fun stuff like shops and contests!! Few restrictions with layout and genre. Graphics are hella important here, so yay for grabbing attention. Allows a lot of "aesthetic" stuff (even if phones only show boxes or blanks). IN-LINE COMMENTS. Oh boy, in-line comments are a blessing (!!). They capture the current mood of the reader perfectly. "Conversations" allow you to interact more easily with the community and allow you to post little updates of yourself. Reading lists are cool.

Cons: What- what even are tags?! The ranking and categorizing system is extremely stupid and unlike ffn and ao3, sometimes your fic just doesn't show up. The algorithm is really wacky and doesn't reflect the true nature of the fic/ people's thoughts on the fic. I've seen extremely horrid works top the charts and my favourite books getting like 3 votes. Wattpad is not a good place to start out unless you have connections. Sometimes people delete fics and accounts without warning. Sometimes there's rapid change of usernames, which makes it difficult to find someone. If you're not as good with graphics, it may be hard to attract an audience.

I will describe a lot of fanfics I see here: character x reader, character x OC (sometimes the OC is a Mary Sue/ Gary Stu or a self-insert, but sometimes the OC can be incredibly well-written), basically adding OCs in canon material, and crossovers. Maaaaaybe not the best site for your shipping needs (unless you're going for real people).

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Basically:

If you want to go for tradition, rigid order, reviews, heterosexual romance, and actual exposure, go to fanfiction.net.

If you want a community, interaction, gorgeous aesthetics, fun, exploration with OCs and x reader fics, go to Wattpad.

If you want a semi-professional site with clear categorization, LGBT+ and/or mature content, longer reviews, go to Archive of Our Own.

All three sites have their merits and demerits, and that's why I use all three lol.

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