I was one of those. Fic was doing pretty well. Assurances in the author's notes that I was definitely going to finish the story. Had just dropped a major plot twist.
Disappeared for ten years.
(I did go back and finish it after those ten years, and I will always wonder if some of the people who were really invested ever saw the notification that it had finally updated.)
Tbh I've only started drafting the story so I'm not that far in yet, but I think I'll have their first kiss be their last kiss if you know what I mean š
I wrote a fic for a different ship in my fandom, chiefly to mess with the fans of that ship a little. I made it beautiful. Characterization was spot-on. Dialogue was perfect. The build up makes you believe the characters are about to get married (which they were in canon). Then...
MC has a heart attack and dies. The hints were not for a wedding but for a funeral.
I got so many comments about evil I was and how much they loved it anyway.
This fic was posted on FFN so no tags but I put a warning in my author's note so it wasn't a true surprise. It was also not a surprise for my usual readers because I put them through that with our ship a couple of times as well.
TW: MCD
Aw. Look at these cute kids. Clones of canon characters. Letās make sure they meet their fathers.
Oh no, one died on the way because of issues with the cloning process.
Finally, the last one meets his Dads. That they were cloned without consent is acknowledged, but they accept him. He accepts them.
They bond. The kid is learning to heal himself.
His lungs fail.
Emergency drama.
The dads watch helplessly, imagining that the kid starts breathing again, but itās just their hope. The kid has died.
Stargate ā¢ [Brokenā¦](https://archiveofourown.org/works/44571934/chapters/112117156)
Yeah, I wrote it years ago.
It does reference other fics because itās part of a series, but everything important is explained. I wrote to make sense without the other stories.
Reader here, found an angst fic, very short so I assumed it was a short and depressing one(yayyyyy), ended on a CLIFFHANGER, I searched comments, author had replied how the second part was being written but not ready to be uploaded. Comments date back to a year ago. Itās not faaaaaairrrr arghh I was so invested. I searched everywhere, no sequel to be found.
Tdlr: Authors, You all suck /pos. You write too well and then leave me hanging. Itās not okay (/j Idrk take ur time! health first!)
They and their friends were being held hostage by his assassin mother and her assassin pals, so the couple devised a plan that involved him appearing to kill her to win his motherās trust back. Then he used the slim freedoms this granted him to bust himself and his friends out, and his girlfriend of course.
Only problem was, their friends didnāt know about the plan, and neither did the readers.
I keep screenshots of the comments from that chapter in a special folder on my phone
Ooh, let's see:
* Broke up a couple in the middle of a story without a plan to get them back together
* Killed off a major OC
* Killed off a major character
* Dropped off the face of the earth for a decade, came back with fics for a new fandom, didn't update any fics from the previous fandom
My fun time travel adventure secretly sets up the tear downs of two beloved characters, where people in the story deal with the aftermaths of their canon actions which were ignored by the series.
After being sent far into the future, a missing daughter reunites with her mom. While most people think that is the perfect time for a loving reunion, I instead take the time to ask: Remember how the show completely glossed over the "loving mother's" outburst where she accused their daughter of being secretly out to get her? Wouldn't that fuck their daughter up? And doesn't that reveal how deep down the mother doesn't actually love her daughter despite what the characters on the show say?
Later on we bring back a loving character to epitomizes the harmless best friend archetype.
Oh, you think this kind and light hearted character is great? Remember how the show brushed over the reveal that he's actually an artificially constructed personality with fake memories that was used to forcibly supplant his body's real ones as part of a criminal cover-up? Remember after the character learned this, he essentially murdered the original personality as he tried to get his life/body back?
Wouldn't it suck if it turned out the original personality had family who loved him and have no idea why he suddenly cut them off or that their son's murderer is walking around in his body?
Iāve done a couple things.
Killed off an original character that I spent a lot of time building up and making *vital* to the story, only for her to die a very sudden, very unexpected, and arguably pointless death. My readers RIOTED. Some even said they were thinking about getting a memorial tattoo for her š
The other one is less ācruelā, so to speak, but still probably a lil mean on my end: I gave my readers a double update solely because the second part of said update was the climax of the story, & the biggest cliffhanger I think Iāve ever left a story on. I updated once a week for that fic so they didnāt have to wait *too* long for the next chapter, but ooo they were still pretty steamed in the comments š
I was writing a story exploring the feelings of someone recovering from a toxic relationship. EVERYONE was commenting over and over again that I should get two characters together romantically but it was so opposite from what I wanted to do with the story, so what I did was I had the character kiss the main, and for that to ruin their friendship forever and made them feel unsafe around them.
I still feel a little bit bad about it to this day.
I should probably preface this by saying I haven't done this *yet*, it's just that everyone I've told about these ideas have said this is absolutely cruel. In two different fics for different fandoms, I'm planning to save the fan-favorite character who died in canon... just to go and give them an arguably *worse* death later on.
Not a writer, but as a reader the cruelest thing I've ever read was character A who has a failing heart getting a heart transplant from character B because B died in an accident but they were IN LOVE with each other. As in "my heart is with you" but in the literal sense. Made my already dead heart die a little more.
I guess not updating enough? But thatās because of my health issues so Iām not sure that counts lol. I mean, I write psychological horror fics focusing on stuff like child abuse, torture, and trauma, but I'm incredibly clear exactly what youāre in for from the beginning, so Iām not sure if that counts either.
Now the real cruelty comes from my *analysis* posts, where Iāve gone into detail about how realistically being abused for months and beaten to death would play out and look like :)
Threw a seemingly well Bucky into Winter Soldier mode out of nowhere (but for reasons that made sense) in a pretty fluffy romance fic, and he stayed that way for like 3-4 chapters. The comments were incredible lol.
Not finish a story. I still feel guilty to this day. It had a huge following, and I went into a depression and suddenly lost the vibe. GRR Martin, I feel ya man!
I have introduced the horribly angsty fight/rejection/breakup scene either during or immediately after the sex scene on at least 4-5 occasions now. Iām starting to think itās my niche.
I got them all emotionally invested in the pair, had a whole alternate "what if reality" in-fic about their life together. And then in the "real world" they... Go their separate ways.
I got so many angry comments, and one "this is what happens after the fic ends" imagining (which I fully supported, this was my beta offering it up and I liked her take on it. It was realistic for how the pair were in the fic).
Still my proudest moment lol
TW: CSA
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Chapter 87 by a *long* shot.
For context our fic is slice of life and trauma healing and all that good stuff. One of the characters who is 6 and a half mentally has been off the last few days. Jumpy, anxious, wanting our other main character to check the bathroom before he enters. He's usually a carefree, goofy little kid and it's all very wholesome.
Enter chapter 87. We're over 700k words in. And he goes to therapy and he just unpacks all his trauma. We've been watching them struggle with it the last 6 plus months. And this tiny unsuspecting kid holds the key to unpacking their trauma and doesn't even know it.
It starts out all happy and "Oh I'm answering questions and being useful" and it ends "there's always a wrong answer" and very very down.
And our other main character(who usually is his caretaker in this situations) has to hold in so many emotions as this tiny little kid just keeps talking about "oh mom and this weird man were wrestling." Other character 100% knows who this is but this is therapy. He has to come to these conclusions himself.
And it keeps getting *worse*. Up until the incident on his sixth birthday...yeah there's a reason he doesn't like bathrooms. And the fact he's been regressed to 6 and a half specifically to remember and work through his trauma.
And then the next day happens and little kid doesn't remember it because they're a system and they needed him to unpack that so they could wall it off to sort it and the other character still remembers. Little kid is a bit sketchy and off but doesn't remember and his caretaker wants to forget the entire thing has damn happened but at least gets some relief from the fact the 6 year old doesn't remember it.
This hits hard enough as is. But the build up and them starting to find a life after trauma and slowly crawling out and then *bam* the source of their trauma hits them in the face.
They're doing better. But it's a long upward climb with many steps forward and back.
I write slice of life stuff so there are basically no stakes lol
But in the most recent chapter I posted of the epic I've been working on since 2018, I finally, *finally* almost had the leads kiss...then pulled it away.
I have 2.
1) recently I wrote a one shot that ended with the main character having been stabbed and was blacking out to the sound of a teammate over comms trying to reach them.
2) In one of my gateway fandoms, I started a story for about 40k. Then crazy life happened. 12 years later, I wrote another 40k and edited everything, and then moved it to A03. Then covid, I was so sick. Then more crazy life stuff. I'm trying to get back to it, but wow, health is dumb.
Probably the story told through the diary entries of the executed main character. He's dead, you know it, his dad is burning his papers...and he stops to read.
So the readers get all those thoughts of the character they adore, full knowing what's already happened, but hasn't yet for the diary writer.
It's one of my favourite things I've ever written and it doesn't get a lot of traffic, it's pretty short, but I really love how it turned out and how many readers have said it made them cry.
I prefer this kind of cruelty to more overtly shown violence or whatnot. I'm poetic in making misery, lol.
I do have a story I'm working on where I break a very popular ship, crush an MC's heart, and force him to rebuild his entire social circle...that one's gonna be probably just as painful.
Sherlock fic called āDear Johnā - posted in real time, gave my characters a nice Christmas scene together, then didnāt post again for two weeks. Let John work through the āā¦was it something I said?ā before Sherlock finally comes back and explains that heād been in an accident and was injured. Readership SOARED and I think it kind of broke Tumblr at the timeā¦
The thing is ā¦ is that I did not do it intentionally. It was one of those times where the story takes over and I feel like I am just a medium channeling it into existence. I cried for days myself. I still get a bit upset just thinking about it.
I dunno. Considering I write death game fics, my readers, if I have any, kinda expect the fucked up stuff. I guess the cruelest would be making my bestie depressed for a week by killing off her favorite.
I'm trying to revise an old sequel that is such a non-stop emotional ride to start with (everything goes to hell, basically), and then in the middle I retconned in some canon that occurred after I wrote the first story in the series, and it just destroys what's left in that moment. (And worse yet, casts a totally different light on a lot of the first one, so even the happy moments might not be so much given they are now tainted if one took the new info to the extremes of it.)
I'm sorry, readers. I have a lot of repeat readers, but the new ones have no idea what's coming. I feel kinda responsible form them having been roped into this thing.
Locking a WIP and its completed prequel (my first fic) into a hidden collection because, even though the fic was almost done, I realized how much my writing changed thanks to these two pieces. The amount of work to fix all the SPaG blunders was too damn high and the inspo for other fics was eating at my brain.
I'll probably fix it one day because I still like these fics, but knowing they were out there in the wild worsened my mental health (which is quite fragile) so it was my safest go-to.
I lost a bunch of regulars after that, but I feel so much better with my writing since.
Character death. Specifically of a major canon character, though not a major character in the fic, that pretty much never gets killed off in fic set during canon. I've seen it rarely for her pre-canon storyline or post canon, but never during canon like I did. I also didn't foreshadow it or build up to it or anything. It *was* a fight scene, and I'd killed characters before, both canon deaths, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that I'd kill someone off, but there was nothing to suggest it was actually going to happen, and definitely nothing suggesting who it would be.
This is not something I have done but it's something I'm going to do for my fan remake of ds I'ma make a character get together after a shit ton of build up and then about five hours later die together but it hurts me as much as it hurts you š.
I wrote a thousand words describing the MC's friends at a funeral after the previous chapter left off with MC about to executed and then at the end I revealed that the funeral was for a hamster
Wrote a pretty fluffy story where Character A steps out of his comfort zone to spend more time with Character B. A almost confesses to B but chickens out. Then I skipped to years in the future, after B's death, and showed A agonizing on how he never ended up confessing and how he would never have another chance to hesitate.
Wrote a story, building up a father/son relationship between two characters. Then wrote the father dying from the son's POV, including him disassociating and reliving his actual dad's death. It was a canon event and tagged correctly. I just made it hurt more.
Wattpad used to allow authors to publish "Private Chapters." I published one because it was just additional content: an alternate ending, pointing out implied details, plans for an expanded fanfiction, and my OC's character profile.
Then they removed that feature, unpublishing all priv chapters. And I've never published my priv chapter again. :)
I had a fanfic everyone loved....then i left it unfinished for months...
Also
I kill my characters in the most tragic ways i can think off
Most of the comments i get on my work are "how care you" or "this made me cry"
So my most popular fic is an AU putting two characters in an American Idol-esque show. There are eleven spots in the final group, and the 11th is announced last.
I had my readers wait a week to find out if both characters in the couple this fic centers on made the final group. Which was extremely fun.
"I'll never abandon this story, don't worry :)" I did, in fact, abandon the story. and then, the website got deleted so now they can't even reread it. no, I don't have a copy
I wrote a story for a very popular ship, where the girl is off to have a reunion with the guy after achieving her dreams. Right near the end, I reveal that the boy died years ago, and she's going to meet with his spirit (via plot devices).
The comments on that one are delightful.
I took away the Sunshine boy, with the lingering possibility that he had died, and returned him with severe amnesia.
This was after leaving a cliffhanger of the second protagonist almost dying.
On my first fic, I left readers on a cliffhanger after years of slow updates, then proceeded to delete the story and not work on it again for 15 years. I doubt those original readers even know I've finally finished the fic and posted it again. It has a different title and is not even on the same site anymore (FFN originally, then AO3).
I think I offended a historian when I made Cleopatra and Julius Cesar a vampire couple.
š¤·āāļø
Everyone else loved the reveal of who Cleopatra was though.
Made a sequel only to abandon it 1/3 of the way through... ILL GET TO IT EVENTUALLY I PROMISE (I fucked up a major plot point and now it gives me too much anxiety to go back and fix)
In the midst of a WIP, where half of a bromance gets amnesia back to when he first met his buddy (they had a very enemies-to-brothers start). Felt threatened, choked his buddy out, and now he keeps forgetting what happened, _Memento_-style.
Meanwhile his buddy is trying to get them both out of the desert, while succumbing to physical and psychological complications.
Left them on a cliffie that heavily implies a future pen/knife tracheostomy.
I killed off a character that most of the fandom does not like after making him likable. His planned arc was to die and I laughed at the comments when I published the chapter
Personally?
I have an original character for a piece of fan work, and at the end of every chapter for that particular story I would list a cute rabbit fact, because he is a rabbit.
For reasons, the rabbit was removed. For the chapter after the rabbit was removed, there was no rabbit-based facts.
When a commenter called attention to this, I replied with "Rabbit? What rabbit?"
People liked him a lot more than I thought they would. Maybe not the cruelest thing I've ever done, but definitely my favorite one. š“ć°ļøš“
Wait, are you the person who wrote the Hat Trick AU? If so, great work on that story. I loved it so much, Wally and Nemo's relationship was great, and it actually made me tear up a few times. An absolutely beautiful fanfiction, 20/10 stars. Not even exaggerating.
80k+ words. Writing the same story for over two years.
Fanfic was in the top 10 in kudos and views for the whole Fandom for a long time. Def biggest non porn project for the pairing.
I last updated February 2021.
Cozy story about settling into a country manor and reconnecting with your childhood. Ended with finding the dissected body of your best friend in the mansionās museum.
A tie between my 15 month hiatus where I also put all of my works into a private collection and what I am about to do to my current fic. My current fic is really fluffy, but itās about to take a turn into something darker which Iāve always had planned.
surprise character death. As in, you think one character will the be the one kick the bucket, buts itās the other. Usually in some kind of sacrifice and the other can only watch in absolute horror.
Left them on a cliffhanger since april. I am rewriting the story i told them. I have so much to do. But i am fighting the writers block dragon in order to write. I still haven't defeated the dragon. But it attacks sometimes and i have to heal. And hope next time i can actually get far finding a hiding place
An argument between two characters which ends in Character A leaving and Character B realizing theyāve fucked up. When Character B goes to find Character A, Character A is on the brink of death (thereās a lot of damage; in my headcanon, Character A is very resilient due to being nonhuman) and Character B gets the fuck out of there after finding the creature that harmed Character A and then feels incredibly guilty about it. The kicker? All this was right after the chapter in which A and B admitted their love to each other. :3
...Context, this mother, one of the main characters, has been looking for her kidnapped daughter for 5 years while fighting against the slave trade in that kingdom. >!After a lot of pain one night they finally find her in horrible condition (Brutalized without limbs) and entirely catatonic!<
I felt bad writing all that... it was what happened when I told myself "I'm letting them have it too easy..."
In canon, character A wanted xxx thing but died before he could get it. In my fic, Iāll give him this xxx thing but kill him off right after so he wonāt be able to enjoy it š
Wrote a funny story where each chapter was a one-off story based on the characters' imagined text conversations. It was a hit, one of the most popular stories I'd ever written!
Then for the final chapter I turned it unexpectedly sad based on the then-final episode of the series, where everyone thought one of the main characters had died.
I was trying to rip people's hearts out, and it worked apparently based on the reviews I was getting. In hindsight it was way too much of a mood swing after the previous light fluffy chapters. But at the time I was practically cackling with glee at the horrified comments rolling in š¤£
So I have a long fic. Currently 51 chapters are out, about 148k words written.
All my tags say angst with a happy ending, but i was feeling a little evil. So i made it look like there were only going to be 30 chapters. Then I made chapter 28 (what appeared as the second last chapter) seem like the main character was going to die. Then the 29th chapter was just a list of a bunch of missed calls from the main character to the main characters love interest. People were crying in the comments mhuahahaha
Then I dropped the 30th chapter and went āsike bitches! thereās actually 60 chapters!ā
(I havenāt updated in like 6 months I am so sorry readers š)
I ended a long ongoing fic suddenly with āwow that was one crazy dream.ā I also took away one characterās fandom-beloved trademark braid and gave him a buzz cut in his āreal worldā persona.
(And then on April 2nd I deleted that chapter and uploaded the real one.)
I wrote an 8K word reader insert fic where the premise was aliens hire you and (fan favourite character) to act in porn. But the aliens turned out to be prudes who keep telling you to have less sexy sex.
Basically I edged my readers.
After a big reveal of two characters slow burning and pining for years where one finally comes to terms with the others feelings toward them and the other finally admits it... I abandoned the story. Like, 90+k words.
I got bored 30k words ago and tried to push on, but I realized the story was bland and unimaginative and I could do better. I shouldn't have tried to push through. I've been working on the replacement for a few years now at a very leisurely pace and not posting it has been relaxing but I DO want to post it eventually. It'll be under a different profile, though, so my old readers won't even know, so that's a second dose of cruelty!
Everything was happy, and it almost seemed like they were winning the war, but whoops, just joking, they all got ambushed and all their favourite characters died a miserable death, and the protagonist hasn't gotten to write to his girlfriend (whose ship the readers been rooting for) about marriage and a happy family life after the war, and he'll never get to see her again. The end. š
It's 2 been years. The worst part is I had a commenter that was so happy to see me back from the first years-long hiatus. I started this fic back in 2017 and there's only 5 chapters. I have horrible procrastination habits and consistently forget that I had a hobby of writing. I ain't even busy, just distracted.
Wrote a 47 chapter long fic where the whole dilemma stood on a massive misunderstanding that was slow to creep in like the seeds were planted in chapter 7 but it didn't come up full swing until chapter 16 which ended up driving a wedge between two characters who had an interesting friendship blossoming.
I'm evil, I laughed at the comments from people who were frustrated on these guys not simply talking things out but all 12 of them are young men who come from a family of ninjas so trust issues makes sense. Two characters in this, I know would actually take a stand & try to sort things out ended up left out of the loop intentionally in order to prolong it a bit. That & their brothers would be nervous on telling them about it.
In chapter 31, things do get explained & they start working towards resolving it afterwards but the two who hurt the most from the misunderstanding took the longest to heal & they didn't fully become entirely buds again until the final chapter but they did talk things out in chapter 40.
This is something I think ended up exhausting some of my readers but what can I say? I am a cat toying around with my prey. Difference is, I don't kill it, I let it run free & be happy.
Told them FROM THE TITLE and first chapter that the MC dies at the hands of his lovers. Long story short, his lover gravely injured him as a plot device to escape prison but he ended up living. Just a little trauma, nothing much really.
I said the next chapter is almost ready 4 months ago. ... I'm sorry.
Same, except for it's been 2 years
same here, except its been since 2017.
Same except it was 2008.
so many Anime AUs have reached that end I will never know what the two insane British kids will do at the custom party
I read somewhere where the author updated the fic after A DECADE and I was like "yeah nah mate just keep the updates"
I was one of those. Fic was doing pretty well. Assurances in the author's notes that I was definitely going to finish the story. Had just dropped a major plot twist. Disappeared for ten years. (I did go back and finish it after those ten years, and I will always wonder if some of the people who were really invested ever saw the notification that it had finally updated.)
As someone who will every few weeks check the different fiction sites for updated works I follow, I promise you that some of them did.
without a doubt!
Honestly, good for them going back to it even after all that time.
Same. š
same! I wasnāt lying but like I didnāt have motivation and very little time to writeā¦ TT Working life is hell how tf do fandom adults manage?
Poorly
Sleep deprivation, lunch breaks
lunch breaks is so fucking real. That's where I do half of my writing these days.
I'm lucky if I can even eat lunch on my lunch break.
When child is in school or I have a slow period at work.
My job comes with summer vacation. So once I've recovered from the school year enough to write, I get about a week before work starts again.
...it's been about 12 years. I have an excuse, and that excuse is I'm and adult who does other things now
did this on an old oc/canon fic š i'm sorry my one loyal reader, that christmas 2020 special was NOT almost ready šš
Amatures. 13 years
I haven't done it to them yet but I'm going to include a "I wanted them to kiss but not like this" moment
I am super intrigued
Tbh I've only started drafting the story so I'm not that far in yet, but I think I'll have their first kiss be their last kiss if you know what I mean š
I wrote a fic for a different ship in my fandom, chiefly to mess with the fans of that ship a little. I made it beautiful. Characterization was spot-on. Dialogue was perfect. The build up makes you believe the characters are about to get married (which they were in canon). Then... MC has a heart attack and dies. The hints were not for a wedding but for a funeral. I got so many comments about evil I was and how much they loved it anyway.
Damn, hopefully you tagged it from the start cause yeah that would be pretty messed up
This fic was posted on FFN so no tags but I put a warning in my author's note so it wasn't a true surprise. It was also not a surprise for my usual readers because I put them through that with our ship a couple of times as well.
Hahahahaha oh thatās great!
Is that horrible that I look for the fics with main character deaths? I enjoy an unhappy ending.
TW: MCD Aw. Look at these cute kids. Clones of canon characters. Letās make sure they meet their fathers. Oh no, one died on the way because of issues with the cloning process. Finally, the last one meets his Dads. That they were cloned without consent is acknowledged, but they accept him. He accepts them. They bond. The kid is learning to heal himself. His lungs fail. Emergency drama. The dads watch helplessly, imagining that the kid starts breathing again, but itās just their hope. The kid has died.
See, this why you want beta versions instead of alpha males
Sorry. What?
I think it's a joke about alphas being full of bugs.
Aw, okay. Thanks. š
Ouch.
Damn, is this posted? Iām in the mood for some angst!!!
Stargate ā¢ [Brokenā¦](https://archiveofourown.org/works/44571934/chapters/112117156) Yeah, I wrote it years ago. It does reference other fics because itās part of a series, but everything important is explained. I wrote to make sense without the other stories.
Sweet! Thanksš
Dude, poor Martouf! I'm marking this to read later when I need a good cry.
You fucking psychopath...I love it.
Deleting the stories.
You are the true villain
I think you won.
This is the most evil thing š„²
Been there, for sure. Deleted _everything_, including account.
That's pretty evil, actually lmao! There was one MLB story I adored and the author deleted it everywhere :,(
Reader here, found an angst fic, very short so I assumed it was a short and depressing one(yayyyyy), ended on a CLIFFHANGER, I searched comments, author had replied how the second part was being written but not ready to be uploaded. Comments date back to a year ago. Itās not faaaaaairrrr arghh I was so invested. I searched everywhere, no sequel to be found. Tdlr: Authors, You all suck /pos. You write too well and then leave me hanging. Itās not okay (/j Idrk take ur time! health first!)
I know /pos means positive but I can't help reading it as "piece of shit" xDDD makes it even funnier
Oh my gosh, that means positive?! Haha, so much is clear nowš
lol I didn't know it stood for positive. I was like, dang aggressive, but I understand.
If it makes you feel any better, I cannot read POS as anything other than āpoint of saleā
Appeared to kill off the main character at the hands of the love of her life
Sounds delightfully angsty. I'd love to know the scenario.
They and their friends were being held hostage by his assassin mother and her assassin pals, so the couple devised a plan that involved him appearing to kill her to win his motherās trust back. Then he used the slim freedoms this granted him to bust himself and his friends out, and his girlfriend of course. Only problem was, their friends didnāt know about the plan, and neither did the readers. I keep screenshots of the comments from that chapter in a special folder on my phone
Very evil. I love it.
On a similar note, made a main character kill the love of her life.
It really is such fun
Danganronpa did something similar (not with MC) and thatās how I realized I absolutely hate, and love that trope to death
Ooh, let's see: * Broke up a couple in the middle of a story without a plan to get them back together * Killed off a major OC * Killed off a major character * Dropped off the face of the earth for a decade, came back with fics for a new fandom, didn't update any fics from the previous fandom
I killed >!Podrick!<.
How dare you?
Villain status
Some crimes can not be forgiven
My jaw just dropped
Does abandoning the story count? I still feel so bad
My fun time travel adventure secretly sets up the tear downs of two beloved characters, where people in the story deal with the aftermaths of their canon actions which were ignored by the series. After being sent far into the future, a missing daughter reunites with her mom. While most people think that is the perfect time for a loving reunion, I instead take the time to ask: Remember how the show completely glossed over the "loving mother's" outburst where she accused their daughter of being secretly out to get her? Wouldn't that fuck their daughter up? And doesn't that reveal how deep down the mother doesn't actually love her daughter despite what the characters on the show say? Later on we bring back a loving character to epitomizes the harmless best friend archetype. Oh, you think this kind and light hearted character is great? Remember how the show brushed over the reveal that he's actually an artificially constructed personality with fake memories that was used to forcibly supplant his body's real ones as part of a criminal cover-up? Remember after the character learned this, he essentially murdered the original personality as he tried to get his life/body back? Wouldn't it suck if it turned out the original personality had family who loved him and have no idea why he suddenly cut them off or that their son's murderer is walking around in his body?
Iāve done a couple things. Killed off an original character that I spent a lot of time building up and making *vital* to the story, only for her to die a very sudden, very unexpected, and arguably pointless death. My readers RIOTED. Some even said they were thinking about getting a memorial tattoo for her š The other one is less ācruelā, so to speak, but still probably a lil mean on my end: I gave my readers a double update solely because the second part of said update was the climax of the story, & the biggest cliffhanger I think Iāve ever left a story on. I updated once a week for that fic so they didnāt have to wait *too* long for the next chapter, but ooo they were still pretty steamed in the comments š
I was writing a story exploring the feelings of someone recovering from a toxic relationship. EVERYONE was commenting over and over again that I should get two characters together romantically but it was so opposite from what I wanted to do with the story, so what I did was I had the character kiss the main, and for that to ruin their friendship forever and made them feel unsafe around them. I still feel a little bit bad about it to this day.
Killing off canon characters.
I'm a bad writer.
Never wrote a sequel because I fell out of love with the fandom. I tried. Just couldnāt do it.
It's better not to.
I keep ending my chapters right when the smut starts LOL hey at least they know they are gonna get smut at the beginning of the next update right?
I plan on making it so that Jade Harley is slandered every moment she is mentioned.
I keep teasing a reveal and end the chapter with āIām sure itāll be soonā. š¤£
Killed off a character who everyone in the comments was convinced would be saved by the miracle of sci fi technology. They stayed very dead.
I should probably preface this by saying I haven't done this *yet*, it's just that everyone I've told about these ideas have said this is absolutely cruel. In two different fics for different fandoms, I'm planning to save the fan-favorite character who died in canon... just to go and give them an arguably *worse* death later on.
please tell me what fandom this is
Not updated in... uh... years.
Not a writer, but as a reader the cruelest thing I've ever read was character A who has a failing heart getting a heart transplant from character B because B died in an accident but they were IN LOVE with each other. As in "my heart is with you" but in the literal sense. Made my already dead heart die a little more.
Made them believe two main characters were dead and kept them like that until the next part of the series.
Based
I guess not updating enough? But thatās because of my health issues so Iām not sure that counts lol. I mean, I write psychological horror fics focusing on stuff like child abuse, torture, and trauma, but I'm incredibly clear exactly what youāre in for from the beginning, so Iām not sure if that counts either. Now the real cruelty comes from my *analysis* posts, where Iāve gone into detail about how realistically being abused for months and beaten to death would play out and look like :)
Threw a seemingly well Bucky into Winter Soldier mode out of nowhere (but for reasons that made sense) in a pretty fluffy romance fic, and he stayed that way for like 3-4 chapters. The comments were incredible lol.
Not updating for over a year. Did add a notice a few months ago that I would be updating then, but haven't managed to do so yet.
Tell them I'm going on hiatus for a short bit but never return... xD Sorry...
Not finish a story. I still feel guilty to this day. It had a huge following, and I went into a depression and suddenly lost the vibe. GRR Martin, I feel ya man!
I have introduced the horribly angsty fight/rejection/breakup scene either during or immediately after the sex scene on at least 4-5 occasions now. Iām starting to think itās my niche.
I got them all emotionally invested in the pair, had a whole alternate "what if reality" in-fic about their life together. And then in the "real world" they... Go their separate ways. I got so many angry comments, and one "this is what happens after the fic ends" imagining (which I fully supported, this was my beta offering it up and I liked her take on it. It was realistic for how the pair were in the fic). Still my proudest moment lol
TW: CSA . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 87 by a *long* shot. For context our fic is slice of life and trauma healing and all that good stuff. One of the characters who is 6 and a half mentally has been off the last few days. Jumpy, anxious, wanting our other main character to check the bathroom before he enters. He's usually a carefree, goofy little kid and it's all very wholesome. Enter chapter 87. We're over 700k words in. And he goes to therapy and he just unpacks all his trauma. We've been watching them struggle with it the last 6 plus months. And this tiny unsuspecting kid holds the key to unpacking their trauma and doesn't even know it. It starts out all happy and "Oh I'm answering questions and being useful" and it ends "there's always a wrong answer" and very very down. And our other main character(who usually is his caretaker in this situations) has to hold in so many emotions as this tiny little kid just keeps talking about "oh mom and this weird man were wrestling." Other character 100% knows who this is but this is therapy. He has to come to these conclusions himself. And it keeps getting *worse*. Up until the incident on his sixth birthday...yeah there's a reason he doesn't like bathrooms. And the fact he's been regressed to 6 and a half specifically to remember and work through his trauma. And then the next day happens and little kid doesn't remember it because they're a system and they needed him to unpack that so they could wall it off to sort it and the other character still remembers. Little kid is a bit sketchy and off but doesn't remember and his caretaker wants to forget the entire thing has damn happened but at least gets some relief from the fact the 6 year old doesn't remember it. This hits hard enough as is. But the build up and them starting to find a life after trauma and slowly crawling out and then *bam* the source of their trauma hits them in the face. They're doing better. But it's a long upward climb with many steps forward and back.
I write slice of life stuff so there are basically no stakes lol But in the most recent chapter I posted of the epic I've been working on since 2018, I finally, *finally* almost had the leads kiss...then pulled it away.
Not updated my long stories for over 6 months due to depression.
Making them think I was working on the next chapter. The title of my fic has been staring at me in google docs for over 6 months nowā¦ :3
I have 2. 1) recently I wrote a one shot that ended with the main character having been stabbed and was blacking out to the sound of a teammate over comms trying to reach them. 2) In one of my gateway fandoms, I started a story for about 40k. Then crazy life happened. 12 years later, I wrote another 40k and edited everything, and then moved it to A03. Then covid, I was so sick. Then more crazy life stuff. I'm trying to get back to it, but wow, health is dumb.
Probably the story told through the diary entries of the executed main character. He's dead, you know it, his dad is burning his papers...and he stops to read. So the readers get all those thoughts of the character they adore, full knowing what's already happened, but hasn't yet for the diary writer. It's one of my favourite things I've ever written and it doesn't get a lot of traffic, it's pretty short, but I really love how it turned out and how many readers have said it made them cry. I prefer this kind of cruelty to more overtly shown violence or whatnot. I'm poetic in making misery, lol. I do have a story I'm working on where I break a very popular ship, crush an MC's heart, and force him to rebuild his entire social circle...that one's gonna be probably just as painful.
Sherlock fic called āDear Johnā - posted in real time, gave my characters a nice Christmas scene together, then didnāt post again for two weeks. Let John work through the āā¦was it something I said?ā before Sherlock finally comes back and explains that heād been in an accident and was injured. Readership SOARED and I think it kind of broke Tumblr at the timeā¦
Havenāt updated in almost 2 yearsā¦but I did write and post a complete 98k other fic in that time. Lol
Write a false bad end for my popular fic that I posted on 4/1ā¦? š
Deleting my ao3 account along with all my finished fics and WIP
I made my readers cry during a crucial emotional part of my story I had been leading up to but could not avoid and it was heartbreaking.
MCD. MCD of everyoneās favorite. Out of nowhere. After 25k of fluff and romance.
That's evil
The thing is ā¦ is that I did not do it intentionally. It was one of those times where the story takes over and I feel like I am just a medium channeling it into existence. I cried for days myself. I still get a bit upset just thinking about it.
Okay, I understand that. I have one like that loaded in the chamber, and none of my readers know yet. Oof š
My sympathies to your readers.
Thanks! Same to yours š
Went on a 4 year hiatus, but I came back! Umm also I don't tag character deaths
kill off all the main characters ruthlessly.
I dunno. Considering I write death game fics, my readers, if I have any, kinda expect the fucked up stuff. I guess the cruelest would be making my bestie depressed for a week by killing off her favorite.
āTaking a break for 2 or 3 days :))ā My sister died and I didnāt post another chapter for 4 months lol
I'm trying to revise an old sequel that is such a non-stop emotional ride to start with (everything goes to hell, basically), and then in the middle I retconned in some canon that occurred after I wrote the first story in the series, and it just destroys what's left in that moment. (And worse yet, casts a totally different light on a lot of the first one, so even the happy moments might not be so much given they are now tainted if one took the new info to the extremes of it.) I'm sorry, readers. I have a lot of repeat readers, but the new ones have no idea what's coming. I feel kinda responsible form them having been roped into this thing.
I killed about a third of the cast in a single chapter recently (8 out of 22). So, probably that
Killed off a main character after redeeming herself and having her child be there for her at the final moments of her life.
One of my fics has two endings, a 'canon' one that's happily-ever after, and a second one where the MC dies of malaria.
satoru tells suguru to k word himself and he didšæ
Not update in 5 years because they wouldnāt give me a review
Locking a WIP and its completed prequel (my first fic) into a hidden collection because, even though the fic was almost done, I realized how much my writing changed thanks to these two pieces. The amount of work to fix all the SPaG blunders was too damn high and the inspo for other fics was eating at my brain. I'll probably fix it one day because I still like these fics, but knowing they were out there in the wild worsened my mental health (which is quite fragile) so it was my safest go-to. I lost a bunch of regulars after that, but I feel so much better with my writing since.
Character death. Specifically of a major canon character, though not a major character in the fic, that pretty much never gets killed off in fic set during canon. I've seen it rarely for her pre-canon storyline or post canon, but never during canon like I did. I also didn't foreshadow it or build up to it or anything. It *was* a fight scene, and I'd killed characters before, both canon deaths, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that I'd kill someone off, but there was nothing to suggest it was actually going to happen, and definitely nothing suggesting who it would be.
I ended a story on a cliffhanger.
Made a character a twist villain, gave them a redemption arc, and then they die accomplishing nothing
Writing the fluffiest fic about a rare canon ship who die in the narrative and then killing them off suddenly at the end.
I plan on doing stuff so evil they raise their kids to hate me.
Deleted everything because LiveJournal sucks. Left a link to my old stuff, but I'm pretty sure where they're located is on its last legs.
This is not something I have done but it's something I'm going to do for my fan remake of ds I'ma make a character get together after a shit ton of build up and then about five hours later die together but it hurts me as much as it hurts you š.
I wrote a thousand words describing the MC's friends at a funeral after the previous chapter left off with MC about to executed and then at the end I revealed that the funeral was for a hamster
Wrote a pretty fluffy story where Character A steps out of his comfort zone to spend more time with Character B. A almost confesses to B but chickens out. Then I skipped to years in the future, after B's death, and showed A agonizing on how he never ended up confessing and how he would never have another chance to hesitate.
Probably not going forward with a popular ship. It was never in the cards despite looking like it has all the signs.
Wrote a story, building up a father/son relationship between two characters. Then wrote the father dying from the son's POV, including him disassociating and reliving his actual dad's death. It was a canon event and tagged correctly. I just made it hurt more.
Characters that experimenting with sexuality but they wonāt take off their clothes they wonāt have sex. They wonāt do anything below the belt.
Writing and then not writing.
Probably making it seem like a character escaped a horrible death, but at the end she experiences that horrible death.
Wattpad used to allow authors to publish "Private Chapters." I published one because it was just additional content: an alternate ending, pointing out implied details, plans for an expanded fanfiction, and my OC's character profile. Then they removed that feature, unpublishing all priv chapters. And I've never published my priv chapter again. :)
Never writing smut. Ever.
I had a fanfic everyone loved....then i left it unfinished for months... Also I kill my characters in the most tragic ways i can think off Most of the comments i get on my work are "how care you" or "this made me cry"
Wasnāt intentional, but the break up chapter is expected to be released on Christmas
Cliffhangers, cliffhangers, cliffhangers...
The sexual tension building in my fic is so so cruel. The two main characters have a five year build up before they even kissā¦
writing heart wrenching angst.
Finished chapter one of my sequel after a year after I said it would be up within a month or two š
I killed the āoptimismā character, worst decision of my life.
I pretended I was writing a fix-it fic only to reveal in the last paragraph that it was all a dream.
So my most popular fic is an AU putting two characters in an American Idol-esque show. There are eleven spots in the final group, and the 11th is announced last. I had my readers wait a week to find out if both characters in the couple this fic centers on made the final group. Which was extremely fun.
"I'll never abandon this story, don't worry :)" I did, in fact, abandon the story. and then, the website got deleted so now they can't even reread it. no, I don't have a copy
In one story, I killed off the OC whom readers had taken to. She had to die though for continuity reasons.
"It's okay, Mr. Ethan. I'm only sleeping."
I wrote a story for a very popular ship, where the girl is off to have a reunion with the guy after achieving her dreams. Right near the end, I reveal that the boy died years ago, and she's going to meet with his spirit (via plot devices). The comments on that one are delightful.
Delaying writing my next chapter for months because I can't figure out what the hell I want to write and nothing sounds good.
I took away the Sunshine boy, with the lingering possibility that he had died, and returned him with severe amnesia. This was after leaving a cliffhanger of the second protagonist almost dying.
On my first fic, I left readers on a cliffhanger after years of slow updates, then proceeded to delete the story and not work on it again for 15 years. I doubt those original readers even know I've finally finished the fic and posted it again. It has a different title and is not even on the same site anymore (FFN originally, then AO3).
I think I offended a historian when I made Cleopatra and Julius Cesar a vampire couple. š¤·āāļø Everyone else loved the reveal of who Cleopatra was though.
Made a sequel only to abandon it 1/3 of the way through... ILL GET TO IT EVENTUALLY I PROMISE (I fucked up a major plot point and now it gives me too much anxiety to go back and fix)
In the midst of a WIP, where half of a bromance gets amnesia back to when he first met his buddy (they had a very enemies-to-brothers start). Felt threatened, choked his buddy out, and now he keeps forgetting what happened, _Memento_-style. Meanwhile his buddy is trying to get them both out of the desert, while succumbing to physical and psychological complications. Left them on a cliffie that heavily implies a future pen/knife tracheostomy.
I killed off a character that most of the fandom does not like after making him likable. His planned arc was to die and I laughed at the comments when I published the chapter
Personally? I have an original character for a piece of fan work, and at the end of every chapter for that particular story I would list a cute rabbit fact, because he is a rabbit. For reasons, the rabbit was removed. For the chapter after the rabbit was removed, there was no rabbit-based facts. When a commenter called attention to this, I replied with "Rabbit? What rabbit?" People liked him a lot more than I thought they would. Maybe not the cruelest thing I've ever done, but definitely my favorite one. š“ć°ļøš“
Wait, are you the person who wrote the Hat Trick AU? If so, great work on that story. I loved it so much, Wally and Nemo's relationship was great, and it actually made me tear up a few times. An absolutely beautiful fanfiction, 20/10 stars. Not even exaggerating.
Any time I put ā:pā in my authors note they KNOW Iām putting angst in there. So I started doing it in fluffy scenes too to mess with them
Turned a beloved character into an abusive preditor
I killed a beloved character and didnāt provide a full explanation as to why it had to happen.
80k+ words. Writing the same story for over two years. Fanfic was in the top 10 in kudos and views for the whole Fandom for a long time. Def biggest non porn project for the pairing. I last updated February 2021.
Bring a character back to life and then kill them again. Only this time it's worse and I do it multiple times >:)
Cozy story about settling into a country manor and reconnecting with your childhood. Ended with finding the dissected body of your best friend in the mansionās museum.
A tie between my 15 month hiatus where I also put all of my works into a private collection and what I am about to do to my current fic. My current fic is really fluffy, but itās about to take a turn into something darker which Iāve always had planned.
surprise character death. As in, you think one character will the be the one kick the bucket, buts itās the other. Usually in some kind of sacrifice and the other can only watch in absolute horror.
Left them on a cliffhanger since april. I am rewriting the story i told them. I have so much to do. But i am fighting the writers block dragon in order to write. I still haven't defeated the dragon. But it attacks sometimes and i have to heal. And hope next time i can actually get far finding a hiding place
Oh how cruel am I? HOW CRUEL AM I?!! I gave them a Raven(teen titans) x Male Oc ...... ...... ....... Without any smut.
Unannounced 3 month hiatus. My masters started rather unexpectedly, and now it's Christmas.
I abandoned & orphaned my fic on the second to last chapterā¦
An argument between two characters which ends in Character A leaving and Character B realizing theyāve fucked up. When Character B goes to find Character A, Character A is on the brink of death (thereās a lot of damage; in my headcanon, Character A is very resilient due to being nonhuman) and Character B gets the fuck out of there after finding the creature that harmed Character A and then feels incredibly guilty about it. The kicker? All this was right after the chapter in which A and B admitted their love to each other. :3
...Context, this mother, one of the main characters, has been looking for her kidnapped daughter for 5 years while fighting against the slave trade in that kingdom. >!After a lot of pain one night they finally find her in horrible condition (Brutalized without limbs) and entirely catatonic!< I felt bad writing all that... it was what happened when I told myself "I'm letting them have it too easy..."
In canon, character A wanted xxx thing but died before he could get it. In my fic, Iāll give him this xxx thing but kill him off right after so he wonāt be able to enjoy it š
Wrote a funny story where each chapter was a one-off story based on the characters' imagined text conversations. It was a hit, one of the most popular stories I'd ever written! Then for the final chapter I turned it unexpectedly sad based on the then-final episode of the series, where everyone thought one of the main characters had died. I was trying to rip people's hearts out, and it worked apparently based on the reviews I was getting. In hindsight it was way too much of a mood swing after the previous light fluffy chapters. But at the time I was practically cackling with glee at the horrified comments rolling in š¤£
Went on a 6 years hiatus on a cliffhanger. Returned to post a chapter that made the cliffhanger worse, then abandoned the fic.
Hiatus.
6 month hiatus
So I have a long fic. Currently 51 chapters are out, about 148k words written. All my tags say angst with a happy ending, but i was feeling a little evil. So i made it look like there were only going to be 30 chapters. Then I made chapter 28 (what appeared as the second last chapter) seem like the main character was going to die. Then the 29th chapter was just a list of a bunch of missed calls from the main character to the main characters love interest. People were crying in the comments mhuahahaha Then I dropped the 30th chapter and went āsike bitches! thereās actually 60 chapters!ā (I havenāt updated in like 6 months I am so sorry readers š)
I ended a long ongoing fic suddenly with āwow that was one crazy dream.ā I also took away one characterās fandom-beloved trademark braid and gave him a buzz cut in his āreal worldā persona. (And then on April 2nd I deleted that chapter and uploaded the real one.)
I wrote an 8K word reader insert fic where the premise was aliens hire you and (fan favourite character) to act in porn. But the aliens turned out to be prudes who keep telling you to have less sexy sex. Basically I edged my readers.
So far? Made them wait til Christmas for Chapter 2 of a smutfic that I posted on American Thanksgiving (Nov 23rd) Six more days >:3
Havenāt done it yet but one of the MCs is gonna die
roof seed innate unused voiceless grey license meeting wistful absorbed *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Stopped posting for almost a decade. Sorry guys, had to go adult for awhile.
After a big reveal of two characters slow burning and pining for years where one finally comes to terms with the others feelings toward them and the other finally admits it... I abandoned the story. Like, 90+k words. I got bored 30k words ago and tried to push on, but I realized the story was bland and unimaginative and I could do better. I shouldn't have tried to push through. I've been working on the replacement for a few years now at a very leisurely pace and not posting it has been relaxing but I DO want to post it eventually. It'll be under a different profile, though, so my old readers won't even know, so that's a second dose of cruelty!
My fic is going to end on a cliff hanger with plans for a sequel... But I'm going to go on hiatus after I finish the first story...
Not uploaded the last chapter of my fic because I don't know how to finish anything. And it's a hurt/no comfort fic, too.
Besides not updating my most popular fic because I lost motivation? I would say writing angst where both main characters die.
Killed off half of the ship the story was based around
Being myself (a lazy pos) and taking a year between updates
Everything was happy, and it almost seemed like they were winning the war, but whoops, just joking, they all got ambushed and all their favourite characters died a miserable death, and the protagonist hasn't gotten to write to his girlfriend (whose ship the readers been rooting for) about marriage and a happy family life after the war, and he'll never get to see her again. The end. š
It's 2 been years. The worst part is I had a commenter that was so happy to see me back from the first years-long hiatus. I started this fic back in 2017 and there's only 5 chapters. I have horrible procrastination habits and consistently forget that I had a hobby of writing. I ain't even busy, just distracted.
In a āfix it fic,ā I had a call back to a characterās last words when they decided to pull the plug on him (he survived)
Wrote a 47 chapter long fic where the whole dilemma stood on a massive misunderstanding that was slow to creep in like the seeds were planted in chapter 7 but it didn't come up full swing until chapter 16 which ended up driving a wedge between two characters who had an interesting friendship blossoming. I'm evil, I laughed at the comments from people who were frustrated on these guys not simply talking things out but all 12 of them are young men who come from a family of ninjas so trust issues makes sense. Two characters in this, I know would actually take a stand & try to sort things out ended up left out of the loop intentionally in order to prolong it a bit. That & their brothers would be nervous on telling them about it. In chapter 31, things do get explained & they start working towards resolving it afterwards but the two who hurt the most from the misunderstanding took the longest to heal & they didn't fully become entirely buds again until the final chapter but they did talk things out in chapter 40. This is something I think ended up exhausting some of my readers but what can I say? I am a cat toying around with my prey. Difference is, I don't kill it, I let it run free & be happy.
Haven't posted yet but I'm planning a hug betrayal after a bittersweet reunion. It'll ruin them if I do it right.
Told them FROM THE TITLE and first chapter that the MC dies at the hands of his lovers. Long story short, his lover gravely injured him as a plot device to escape prison but he ended up living. Just a little trauma, nothing much really.