soc_puppet | (no subject)

So I kinda want to make non-smutty versions of my smuttier fics available to folks who don't like to read the sexy parts. (Who just want to get thirsty but don't want to take a drink, if you will.) And here are some options I've considered:

1. Flat out make two different versions on AO3, allow people to click whichever one they prefer.
2. Make two different versions on AO3, but collect the non-smutty versions in a single chaptered fic to reduce my listings.
3. Post only the smutty versions to AO3, link to a Google Doc with the non-smutty versions that links back to the fic end notes at the bottom
4. Dreamwidth only: Post the smut scenes under a nested cut. Problem: Requires people to use Dreamwidth and also use the "expand" arrow for the first cut in order for the nested cut to work.
5. Post only the non-smutty version to AO3, link to a Google Doc (or the Dreamwidth version, come to think of it) with the smut scene that links back to the AO3 end notes at the end for easier Kudos-ing
6. Figure out the AO3 choose-your-own-adventure method
7. Some other method I haven't thought of

If I decide to do any of these, I'm pretty sure it'll be "5 and link to Dreamwidth for the smut", at least for Miraculous Ladybug, but I still have a lot to think about. Hmm.

Edit: Side note, I have Thoughts about how the current trend of referring to smut fics as "sin" plays into Fandom Purity Culture and the reluctance of people to read and/or kudos Explicit-rated fics in my current fandom.

Edit 2: Did some talking on Discord, and Option 1 is probably what I'm going with. I'm still grumpy about it, but desire for kudos trumps grumpiness, apparently.

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I've seen a combination of 2 and 5 where the non-smutty fic is posted on AO3 and the smutty scenes are then posted separately as a "sequel" on the same site.

I also have seen this, and it often works. I am not convinced it would work in the case of the specific thing I think prompted this post, though.

Pretty much what Alex said. The fic that inspired this I posted earlier today; I described the premise to a friend on Discord, and she was super interested in reading it—just not the smutty parts. Since the smut results from Character A walking in on Character B stripping, that makes dividing it into separate fics a little more awkward. It's probably the same for most of my planned smut fics in this fandom, TBH.

This wasn't a problem in Homestuck, dammit! 😭

#5 sounds like a good way to cover all bases, though two versions on AO3 would probably work too - in each version on AO3 you can make a note of the other version (and you can add something like 'with smut' in parentheses to the end of the title or something to distinguish them further.

Never used the choose-your-own-adventure method on AO3. Sounds like it might be a little more complicated, though.

I'm probably going to go with Option 1, after talking it out on Discord. The "clutter" it'll generate still bugs me a little, but in regards to getting feedback, it's probably my best bet.

3, 4, and 5 I dislike on principle, and 4 also has the problems you state. 2 will have the same problem as any other collection of unrelated one-shots. 6 is gonna be lots coding, and 1 has the tremendous advantage over 6 of you can rate the two works differently.

4 would have the full version posted to both AO3 and Dreamwidth, but the smut on the Dreamwidth version only would have a nested cut (since I can't do that on AO3, as far as I'm aware). Sorry for the confusion 😅

As I said in Discord, it's probably gonna be 1, then. My grumpiness < my desire for kudos and comments, apparently.

I'm old-fashioned, so sadly I have no advice on the technical side. When I want to read an explicit fic but I'm not in the mood for smut, I use the scrollbar. :P About as fancy as it gets for me is using AO3's "Mark For Later" feature so I can find it when I am in the mood for smut!

I will add, I've seen people put the sex scene in a chapter by itself, with "skip this chapter if you don't want sex scenes" in the heading notes. It's not a method I really care for (I'm a minimalist when it comes to notes, and especially notes that come across as 'guidance') but it would certainly be the easiest option out of all bar "do nothing." :D

Edited 2020-09-13 03:40 (UTC)

The major problem with this is, folks in my current fandom have a major reluctance to read and/or kudos fics that are rated Explicit, even if it's really easy to skip the smut. And I want kudos, dammit! I work hard on my smut!

Rassa-frassa fandom purity culture and this sudden nonsense of referring to smut fics as "sin"...

Wanting kudos makes sense! And I sympathise. I guess for me, it's stubbornness: if I worked hard on my smut, then I want people to kudos it, not pretend they didn't like it and only kudos the version where I chopped out things I worked hard on.

I have no patience with fandom purity culture whatsoever, though. D:<

I might not either, if I wasn't also motivated by wanting to accommodate a friend. (She was really interested in the premise when I brought it up on Discord, but not interested in reading sex scenes.) If it was just one or the other, I might grump about it and let it go, but since I've got two reasons, and one is a bit more personally important than the other, well. I'm willing to make sacrifices for friends. (And if it results in extra kudos and/or comments, I am very okay with that.)

If it's primarily one person, it might be worth separating it into an extra chapter of its own. Depending on how large the whole fic is, and how conveniently the sex scene placement is, anyway. I guess it'd be awkward if it were three paragraphs in the centre of a very short fic.

Oh! It just occurred to me: can you code the text white, so people can just highlight if they want to read it? (Maybe with the sex scene at the end of the chapter, if it's a multichapter fic, so those who don't highlight can just scroll and hit 'next chapter' to continue?) Obviously won't work if people are using fancy AO3 skins, but I don't know how common that is.

Edited 2020-09-13 05:00 (UTC)

Having already separated it out into its own fic, the sex was apparently a good half the total words, give or take. Without making it into a fade-to-black version, it was a single scene. And again, if it were just one or the other, I might not bother; I copy-pasted the no-sex part into a Google Doc for this person so they wouldn't miss out. But because there's both people missing out (I am willing to believe that there are aces out there who might want to read the stripping part but not the sex part, among others) as well as fewer kudos due at least partly to Purity Culture BS, though, I'm willing to jump through a hoop or two.

Hmm; food for thought for the future! I could also manually enter specific text and background colors, which might even work for site skins. That said, I've already up and made the second version of the fic, so I'm probably not going to reverse it for this particular story 😜

That's handy, then! A sizable chunk, and just one scene, seems like it'd be easier to separate than five sex scenes scattered all through a longfic, or one scene centrally placed in a shortfic that would need a new transition written to replace it.

I'm not savvy enough in AO3 or coding to know for sure, but maybe there's a way to code it as 'make this the background colour' rather than 'make it white, which I hope is the background colour'?

Glad you figured out a way to let your friend in on the fun. :D

Yup! I usually write only oneshots, so I anticipate that following through for my next few planned smut fics.

Sounds like it's a job for Work Skins, actually! Though now that I've been thoroughly convinced of the benefits of my current method, I'm much less likely to put in the work to figuring that out 😜 And I wouldn't be surprised if AO3, like Dreamwidth, uses a just-off-white background rather than pure white, for accessibility reasons.

"make it white" won't work even if white is the background color for most site skins, bc there's site skins that change the background color. most prominently, Reversi, which is effectively putting AO3 in dark mode.

As a reader, 1 is the option I've seen most often, because Two Cakes - there's a version for when I'm in a mood that requires privacy, and there's a version I can read without having to keep kids away from my screen.

That's a helpful way of looking at it for me, thank you!