#I asked the author and they said they see them as QPR / platonic soulmates but are not at the point where they would know what to call it

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads

The Spider And Her Demons

YA Australian urban fantasy/horror

about a Malaysian-Chinese girl who’s half spider-demon, just trying to keep her head down and survive high school

when she accidentally kills and eats a man in front of the most popular girl at school, they strike up a strange friendship and she starts to learn more about herself and the supernatural world

aroacespec/sapphic ish

[sign-from-god-complex]

Um, so you're like a Tumblr god with writing, so do you have any tips on how to get your stories noticed and out there? Thank you!

ashdgfsdh that’s so!!!! nice!!!!! ty!!! so, to be totally honest, part of my situation is that I got really lucky with one of my fics early on, where it got like,,, a lot of notes and as such I ended up with way more followers but I can still try to give some tips!!!

(this got a little long, so I’m putting it under a cut)

1. Tagging

People (me included) will go through the Sanders Sides or character tags to find stuff to reblog. Only the first five tags you throw in will actually have your work in them (i.e. if you tag ‘1′, ‘2′, ‘3′, ‘4′, ‘5′, ‘6′, the fic will only show up when you search 1-5) and it won’t show up through searches at all if you use certain words (swear words, in particular, I’ve noticed).

Making sure to tag your stuff in a way that people will see definitely helps but also make sure it’s relevant tags. People looking for prinxiety won’t be thrilled to have analogical in the tag they’re searching. You can check my fics for the way I tag them if you want!

And, in relation to a different kind of tagging, use tag lists! I know there’s some general ones online (@the-taglist-repository has a bunch) but sometimes author’s will also just straight up tell you to tag them in stuff (e.g. I love being tagged in aspec or autistic sides content, @/rosesisupposes likes being tagged in superhero AUs, @/sleepless-in-starbucks demands /j to be tagged in all losleep content, etc. etc.).

I would be careful about just tagging people though. I’m, personally, not a fan of being tagged in things that I haven’t asked to be tagged in. It strikes me a little bit as ‘you’re a big blog so I’m just using your followers to try and promote myself’, even if that isn’t the intention.

2. Make content regularly

Now, I get that regularly putting out content is definitely not as easy as just saying you will—life gets in the way sometimes and creativity is stressful—but it definitely helped me when I started writing. I wasn’t doing much else with my time (an unusual circumstance), so I was putting out like,, at least 2 fics a month. In the entirety of last year I wrote 80 fics. But seriously, the more you write, the better your writing will be (practise!) and the more likely people will see it.

You can also try doing writing games like I’ve done for follower milestones in the past. You can find lists of prompts on tumblr, reblog them and ask people to send you a prompt and a ship for you to write a drabble for. There’s also things like Secret Santa (where people trade content for the holidays) and Soulmate September is this month, organised by @tsshipmonth2020! So participating in writing events that you find could also help!

3. Interact with other writers

The biggest thing, I think, personally, to help content creators is for them to work together to lift each other up (sounds kinda cheesy but I’m serious). If you comment on other people’s work telling them how much you enjoyed their fics, I guarantee they’ll be thrilled and you may become friends! (I’ve had,,, several friendships start this way; @/sleepless-in-starbucks and @/max-is-tired, among others).

And you can interact with writers outside of tumblr too! Discord is a super great way to chat with other writers and get your fics out there, I’ve found. There’s even some discord servers dedicated specifically to writing tss fanfics (@potestessemagishomosexualitatis has a great one that I’m in and ik there’s one run by discord user ‘parallelwrites’, though I’m not certain of their tumblr URL).

4. Write what you enjoy!

I guarantee people can tell if you’re writing stuff you’re not enjoying. You don’t have to write only the most popular ships to get notes on your writing (I mean, just look at Lia, who’s basically made their blog on the foundation of losleep). You should write the things you like, even if they’re niche, cause I promise if you want to read it, there’s other people out there who do as well.

I mean, I just read a qpr sleepxiety soulmate AU that the author (@averykedavra) described as ‘self-indulgent’. I’m a huge fan of platonic/queerplatonic sleepxiety but I never see it written! It’s not popular! But Avery wrote it and I loved it. I did not expect so many people to be thrilled about my aroace-Logan coming out story! I wrote it for Me but people really seemed to enjoy it! You never know what people will love.

5. Take care of yourself

This is maybe not so much writing advice as it is a caveat for all the stuff I’ve said here. At the end of the day, writing is fun and getting praise on your stories feels awesome, and I totally get that, but you gotta make sure not to burn yourself out. I went through a period when I started fic writing where I was,,,, a little too dependant on the feedback I got and if I didn’t get what I considered “enough notes” it basically sent me into a downward spiral.

Now, that’s me and I know not everyone will feel that way, but it’s good to remember you have worth outside of what you create. If you can’t manage to write the amount you think you “should” be, that’s okay. If you can’t manage to finish a piece you’ve been working on, that’s okay. If you go for months without writing because of stress, life or simply writer’s block, that’s all okay.

You are the most important thing in your creative endeavours; don’t forget that.