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Culture June 2, 2017
Your favorite literary and movie characters have never been so sexy...
Are you the ultimate fangirl? Are you tired of the typical literotic sites and erotic short stories you can find for free online? If you said yes to either, you might want to combine your interests and check out Archive of Our Own.
What exactly does this literotica website have to offer? And how do you know if you’ll be Archive of Our Own’s latest fangirl? Here are five fun facts about literotic site Archive of Our Own!
Why did Archive of Our Own launch in the first place? It is apparently run by The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), which was formed by fans in 2007. The OTW strives to preserve and give fans access to different forms of fanworks and fan culture. As they explain on Archive’s website: “We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate. The Archive of Our Own offers a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanworks.”
What does that all mean? Basically, this literotic archive was formed to celebrate and share fans’ creative projects with other fans. Talk about a new meaning of “by the people, for the people.”
Ever wonder what it would be like for Catwoman to date Captain America? What about BBC’s Sherlock Holmes dating the female Watson from NBC’s “Elementary”? Whatever pairing you’re looking for, you can probably find it on Archive of Our Own. As Reddit users point out, sometimes it can be hard to find articles featuring the relationship you want because “everyone tags their stories with every character tag they can think of, in order to increase views.”
However, Archive of Our Own still has one of the most “superior” search features of any literotic site. You can filter articles by Fandom, relationship, characters, length, date published, and several other traits. It also seems like no pairing is off-limits. Even if you think you’re the only one who’s ever dreamed that Hermoine wouldn’t end up with Harry or Ron…Archive will prove that you’re not alone!
Compared to other literotica websites, not every story on Archive of Our Own is sexually explicit. In fact, the ratings include “General Audiences,” “Teen and Up Audiences,” “Mature” and “Explicit.” So, if you’re looking for a website where everything is for adults only, this probably isn’t the literotic site for you.
However, if you’re craving some cuddly romances about the Avengers – or some office-friendly stories to read on your lunch break – you can find those with a few clicks. And if you’re craving some erotic short stories or erotic novels? Well, just follow one Reddit user’s advice: “Filter for ‘explicit,’ maybe by what character pairing you’d like to read about, and have fun.”
If you’re looking for lots of variety in your literotica stories, Archive of Our Own is also a safe bet. It offers literotic stories in a variety of fandoms, ranging from Anime & Manga to Books and Literature to Cartoons & Comics to Celebrities & Real People to Music & Bands. You can even find erotic short stories and erotic novels about video games!
According to Archive fans, the bigger fandoms (like Marvel and TV shows) have the best literotica romance stories. However, if you’ve always wondered what other people think of the characters in your favorite play (including Hamilton or even Les Miserables!), you’ve finally found a literotic website that can answer that question.
What’s better than free literotica? Free access to some of the best erotica available online. Another filter feature in Archive’s search engine is organizing results by hits, kudos (basically “likes”), comments and bookmarks. What’s the good part about that? You can easily find the best written (or at least most popular) literotic stories in your chosen fandom or rating.
As one Reddit user says: “I would pick well-written fanfic on Ao3 (Archive Of Our Own) every single time over mainstream literotica. When people get into their characters they really get into their characters, and good fic can be downright sweltering. Go have a hunt through any big fandom on there and filter by the number of hits and by ‘explicit’…anything that’s at the top of the hits list should be good.”
When you’re looking for well-written erotica online, it may feel like there are too many literotic websites to choose from. However, if you want a site where literotica and fanfiction collide, you may want to check out Archive of Our Own. Literary characters have never been so sexy!
