The only way I can find anything decent on AO3 is by going on the writers profile and seeing what they've bookmarked. Which is the basic way I find new fics in general as good writers tend to like good stories of the same type that they write.

 

I've found TV Tropes good for promoting potentially well written fics to my attention. Generally the fics with their own Tropes page are of higher quality than the rest. Favorite hopping follows from there.

 

I'm not familiar with TV tropes, is there a way to only browse fics with tropes pages?

 

Yes.

EDIT:
Ah, misunderstood. Still yes. Here.


Old post:


Eg: Harry Potter Recommendations Page

There are links to categories.

A lot of popular fandoms have a FanficRecs subpage such as this one.

Mind that while tvtropes list is better than nothing, it will contain fics you won't want, because, of course, the only prerequisite for the fic to be in the list is for anyone to recommend it.

 

I tend to just type in random key phrases into the fanfiction site until I find something that appeals to me, I also make sure to sort by update date as Abandoned Fics and Fics where the author disappears from the face of the earth gives me depression.

 

I find most of my fics by looking at some of my favorite author's favorites tab. Most of the time they have good recommendations. I also look the more popular C2s.

 

Agreed on checking C2s. the DLP C2 was actually what convinced me to finally register here.

 

Some good authors' favorites tab is a good source for me. I also search for stories with 'Harry P.' and '40K+' tags on, regularly.

 

I've been steadily working my way through the library list as well as recs in the story search, and if I like a story I will check out the author and see if anything else good or check their favorites. After that I will use Scryer to find anything that catches my eye. If that fails I try to wade through FF to find a gem.

 

One per week I check ffnet choosing 1 week Publish Date and sorting by reviews/favourites. If I want to get surprised I check recommendations on hpfanfic subreddit. Sometimes people post fics from other sites, for which I don`t have time to go through.

 

I find fics through the Harry Potter fanfiction reddit.

 

Usually I just filter ffn by Harry P. and various other characters that interest me once or twice a week. Not a particularly sophisticated method, and it misses the untagged new stories, but it is pretty quick and easy. That and checking out the newest fics up for review here get the job done for the most part though.

 

Typically, when I come across an author with quality writing, I can go through his or her recommended authors/stories list to find other good fics. Quality authors tend to recognize stories as well.

 

Usually, I trawl through countless of trash. Then I end up finding a gem.

 

It's getting harder and harder to find good fics suited to my fickle tastes, but I usually browse through other people's favorites as a first option. I occasionally sift through the murky waters of the recently published stories, but that mostly comes out as fruitless. I'll try out some of the new ways you guys have said and cross my fingers.

 

I mostly use ffn search engine with a couple of filters, and have to put up with a lot of trash until I find story with an inviting summary - sadly, those stories are usually not good either. What helps the most, I think, is skimming through a good author's both favourite stories and authors lists once you find a story of theirs as they are likely to have similar tastes and high standards.

 

As I don't like to read dead fics (though I've already accepted it as a form of necessity) I usually go on ffn and filter by: updated within last month, sort by published date, over 40k words, English and filter one of bad pairings (Darco/Harry, Draco/Hermione, Snape/Hermione etc.) and then I look.

This way I can find fics that update often enough to give hope for their completion. Of course there is a lot of shit to wade through, but what can you do?

 

Every couple of weeks filter through ff/HP with 20k+ w/o Snape/Draco/NextGen

 

The C2s are quite helpful. I also sometimes randomly browse FF with the update date posted. A03 is kind of a mess but they occasionally have a good author like Seulo.

 

Yeah I like to go to C2's and sort by reviews. Usually the ones with higher review count correlates to the quality of the fic. But sometimes it could mean that the story hasn't been updated in yeeaaars since I ain't sorting it by 'update date'. Sad feels