#because wips are discouraging in terms of number of people reading

[regulusrules]

The journey of writing MBARBYC is truly changing my perspective on a lot of things. I'm simply loving the fact that, for the first time ever, I'm writing a WIP, and how it's fueling me to become consistent, not just in updates but in life as well.

Honestly I have always avoided posting WIPs like a plague, but now? I'm finding it freeing in ways I had no recollection of before. The fact that there is always something to go back home to do - the fact that there are a few handful people reading your fic, waiting for you - and the fact that you're building a little community of friends who are willing to go to the end of its line with you.

Writing stops being about validation or kudos in WIPs, and instead, you're more interested in hearing your readers bash you with invisible maces for what you're doing to their favourite characters, or giving you multi-coloured hearts for healing them. And in these few comments, these few expressions of love, you realise we're all just sides of the same coin, sharing our love for fandom in different manners.

Truly freaking awesome

[tracybirds]

It's New Year's Eve!!

I just wanted to take a little time to reflect on the year and celebrate it and say a ginormous thank you to everyone who has taken the time to drop by around here!! It's been a blast getting to share the Thunderbirds love and I love writing for TAG so much!!

This year had some major highs and lows for me which we're not going to dwell on, because the most important and fun thing is the spreadsheet I set up at the beginning of the year has had it's final update and I have numbers and graphs to happily geek out about!!! Naturally there's some skew - particularly with anything pertaining to AO3 since fics published earlier have had more time in circulation but still, I think it's made for a pretty good overview :D

Numbers and sappy feelings and reflections and things under the cut (there's even some pretty pie charts)

I published 45 separate works this year - many were short ficlets and subsequently gathered into the Thunderbirds Snippets collection which was the "fic" that overall had the most engagement (pretty impressive when you consider the collection only has AO3 stats!). This came to a total of 43,456 published words for complete stories (plus a whole slew for wips! At least another 20,000 is languishing in other documents :D We'll see those come out to play soonish, I'm sure)

As is usual for me, the overwhelming majority of fic this year was short oneshot stories. In fact I didn't finish any multichapter stories this year! Just didn't have the time for that kind of commitment for most of the year :D I also relied a lot on people giving me prompts and I'm endlessly grateful to them (especially @janetm74 and @katblu42 who sent me prompts nearly every time I asked!). I would have spent a lot more time feeling sorry for myself and languishing in writer's block without them bolstering me along <3

As you can see, I did make a fic genre graph, but I'll be honest - this is something I need to tweak for next year because I don't feel the genres well reflect what I actually wrote. This is partially because I only made space for each fic to have one genre, and partially because I dont think the genres I picked well described the writing I did. But looking it over, there's a clear emphasis on family dynamics and the ups and downs that go along with them and I do think that's my favourite part of writing.

When looking over the characters that called to me the most this year - Virgil's our clear winner! Which I think is hilarious because I feel like I wrote with a large Scott emphasis at the start of the year and a large John emphasis towards the end. But the numbers don't lie!! I think partially guiding this is that I wrote a lot more drabbles for Virgil (and Gordon.... lots of them two together!), but Scott and John got more substantial stories on the whole. Maybe. I'd need to check the raw data :D

In terms of people - I am totally blown away by how generous people have been reading my work <3 I see you and it's an absolutely humbling thing to see the same names cropping up over and over again, returning to read my stories which I don't often have a lot of confidence in (fake it 'til you make it, right?). Somehow getting an overview of the whole year only reinforces that and across AO3 and Tumblr I have nearly 4000 thank yous to say; one for every like, kudos, comment, hit, reblog, reply, whatever <3 Many many of which are being given to the same people over and over again, you guys literally rock hardcore and when I think about that number I'm literally so overwhelmed. It's easy to post something that only gets a couple of notes or kudos or whatever and feel discouraged, but when you look at the whole picture? Unreal <3

Now for the fun part; I've gone and taken all that data and figured out what my top 5 most popular fics of the year have been (excluding the snippet/prompt collections :D) so here goes!

Consequences [tumblr] | [AO3]

Cave In [tumblr] | [AO3]

But Not Forgotten [tumblr] | [AO3]

Roommates [tumblr] | [AO3]

The First Time [tumblr] | [AO3] and Hard Places [tumblr] | [AO3] (tied!)

Hey did you know typing [ tumblr ] did that? New things learnt every day lol...

Amazingly, these didn't line up with MY favourites nearly at all! So I've listed my personal top 5 stories below <3

Capture Comfort [tumblr] | [AO3]

The Scare Floor [tumblr] | [AO3]

Consequences [tumblr] | [AO3]

"Prompt Generator #5" [tumblr] | [AO3]

Different Universes [tumblr] | [AO3]

I'm not much for goal setting; it reminds me too much of school and sitting in stupid form classes with zero ideas as to what to say because apparently writing "I want to do my best and enjoy myself" wasn't a good enough goal. So instead I have some ~~intentions~~ that I'd like to carry into 2023 <3

Get better at replying to comments >///< I don't mean to ignore people and I know most of you know that but I do think replying to comments is! an important aspect of community building in fandom and I've neglected my part in that :P I love you all I swear and there's a lot of people I'd like to get to know better <3

Deep breaths here because this one does scare me - I want to write and finish Where Parallel Lines Meet. The scope of this fic scares me but I do love it and I know that it's going to push me a lot. It's going to be great though <3

ARCHIVE AS I GO LIKE WHY DO I NOT DO THAT (it's the titles rip)

This one isn't writing - I just want to rewatch Thunderbirds :D

Finally I've got some specific people to thank. You've all been amazing and kind to me this year and I'm giving you all the giant-est hug. You're also all incredible storytellers and writers and artists in your own right and I am genuinely so thankful to know you all <3

@gumnut-logic - I know I say this constantly but I LOVE getting to geek out about all sorts of different things and I have to say thank you for reading over so many of my fics and picking me up when I think that they're terrible <3 You're the bestest friend and I'm very lucky to have met you :D

@katblu42 - I love your very cheery chats that we've gotten to have, lots of laughter and fun and you always have such sensible advice it's great. Thank you for diving in and not missing a beat when I get randomly dramatic about whatever I'm writing because even when I've completely failed to explain the context you always seem to know exactly what's what :D

@janetm74 - you've been such an incredible cheerleader and every time (because you've done it multiple times!!) that you go through my AO3 and read stuff and comment in quick succession is always so exciting and overwhelming because what the heck?? Remember those 4000 thank yous I have to give - I'm pretty sure at least a thousand of them are yours <3 Thank you as well for sending me all the fun space things you think I'll enjoy and also for egging me on when I'm spouting off silly ideas in response :D I'll need to give them all a proper go someday!!

@gaviiadastra, @the-original-sineater, @godsliltippy, @mariashades, @amistrio - I've so enjoyed getting to know you all this year - you're all amazing writers and totally inspiring and very kind to boot :D I love how unique you all are and how you all bring such amazing ideas to life and I have to say thank you for both chatting with me but also for sharing all your wonderful work <3

@squiddokiddo thank you for be a very consistent source of encouragement and fountain of kindness when I'm having down days in my personal life. You didn't know me at all but that never stopped you from reaching out and checking in and given that this year was beyond shitty in many various different ways it meant the world in ways that I didn't always know how to express <3

oh and there's so many more people - I've had the good fortune to make some amazing friends and I love you all very much.

I don't think I'll get the current chapter I'm working on done today, so this will likely be my final post of the year (although lol I'm sure I'll still be mucking around on my main) and I KNOW this is sappy and you're not meant to put emotion into the data, but it's pretty damn difficult when the numbers are made up out of friendship and people reaching out from across the globe to say "hey, me too <3"

So see you all in 2023!! I can't wait :D

[pens-swords-stuff]

hello! most of what i've seen on writeblr has been original content, and while it's definitely something i'll get into someday, right now my focus is on fanfiction, and i'm struggling to find a space in the community. do you have any tips on how to structure a wip post for fanfic writers and/or writeblr tips for fanfic writers in general?

Fanfiction exists in a weird place in the Writeblr community. It’s not because it doesn’t belong in the Writeblr community because I believe it definitely does — it’s because you will likely find a greater audience within the fandom side of tumblr rather than the writing side. This isn’t because Writeblr hates fanfiction or looks down upon it; in fact, I’ve seen a ton of love and support for fanfiction in the community. Many of us write fanfiction too! I have several fanfiction WIPs for different fandoms.

It all comes down to your audience. If you write Star Wars fanfiction and post about it in the Star Wars fandom, chances are people there will be more interested in reading it because they’re already huge fans of Star Wars. Everyone in the Star Wars fandom is engaging in it because they love it and are looking for more content! I would guess that most fanfiction writers post about their works within the fandom for this very reason.

On the other hand, if you post Star Wars fanfiction in the writeblr community, you don’t know how many people are Star Wars fans. You will definitely find people who like Star Wars and will want to read it! You will probably find some other people that don’t know much about Star Wars, but are willing to read your fanfiction regardless. But there is also a significant number of people in Writeblr that don’t know or care much about Star Wars, and will be less likely to read fanfiction about it.

Do you see what I mean?

Fanfiction absolutely has a place in Writeblr, and I will fight anyone who says that it doesn’t belong. However, it’s also a numbers thing. If you post your fanfiction in the fandom community, almost 100% of your audience in the fandom are people that are fans of the source material. If you post your fanfiction in the Writeblr community, only a fraction of people in the community are fans of whatever it is you’re writing fanfiction for.

Here’s some of the advice I have for fanfiction writers posting about it in Writeblr:

Engage in both the fandom and writeblr communities

Not every writeblr needs to be a ‘pure’ writeblr where you only post about writing. You could run a hybrid blog, where you post about both writing and fandom content. You could also have a fandom blog and a writeblr blog where you engage in them separately. Find friends both in the fandom community and the writeblr community!

This way, you can maximize your audience. You have some writing friends that you can talk about writing with, and you have some fandom friends that would love to read your fanfiction. Maybe some will overlap, maybe they won’t. But you get support from both communities rather than missing out on one or the other.

Find Writeblrs that are also fans

They are out there! I promise you, there are people who run writeblr blogs that are also fans of whatever it is you’re writing fanfiction for. You do however, have to find them. Chances are, they won’t come to you initially.

This can be as simple as asking around to see if anyone likes it! Find a fellow writeblr fan and you can make friends with them. You might also recommend it to some people and see if you can create new fans. If you have a hybrid blog and you post about the fandom, you might be able to introduce it to some writeblrs and make fans out of them!

Make your fanfiction accessible to people who aren’t fans

If you don’t want to cater your fanfiction to people who aren’t familiar with the source material, you don’t have to. 

But if you are wanting to pull in a large audience from the Writeblr community where not everyone is a fan, you will have a lot more luck if people who have never heard of your fandom can understand and enjoy your project.

What information do non-fans need to know to enjoy your fanfiction? How can you make that information easily digestible? Does it involve spoilers for if they ever want to give the source material a shot? Why should they read it if they don’t care about the source material? These are important questions that you need to be able to answer if you want to pull in some new people.

Part of this might involve adding some more description and information within the actual fanfiction. Original fiction feeds information to the reader to help them understand the world. You can do that for your fanfiction too! 

Another part of it is adding information into your WIP intro.

In your WIP intro, include all the information that intros for original projects do! Title, genres, synopsis are the main important points to hit generally.

Also consider including:

The Fandom: Be upfront about the fact that it’s a fanfiction, and what fandom it’s for.

The type of fanfiction: Is it an AU? Canon-compliant? Fix-it fic? Fluff? One shot? [Insert other fanfiction types here]? This information is important to helping potential readers understand how much information they might need to know. Also keep in mind: not everyone is part of fanfiction communities, so they may not know what common fanfiction terms and genres are.

Information they may need to understand the fanfiction: Do they need to know anything about the source material to enjoy it? If they don’t, say so! If they do, give them a rundown of what they need to know, or point them somewhere where they can get it.

Spoilers: Does it spoil anything? If it does, let them know what it spoils so they can make an informed decision about whether to read it or not.

Tropes, themes, and other points of interests: You are trying to entice people who don’t know the source material into reading your fanfiction. You need to give them a reason to! By talking about the tropes and themes that you’re writing about, it gives people an ‘in’. Maybe they won’t read a fanfiction of something they don’t know, but if they know that their favorite trope is a huge part of it, that might convince them to give it a shot.

Be realistic about your expectations

Not everyone is going to read your fanfiction and not everyone is a fan of the source material. That’s okay!

You will make some writeblr friends that love and support you, but they may not read your fanfiction because they’re not a fan of the source material. That is also okay.

There might be a narrower audience in Writeblr, but it’s absolutely possible to find an audience here! It might involve a lot of luck, persistence and patience, however.

Be kind and patient with yourself

Fanfiction writers absolutely belong in the Writeblr community. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Don’t let yourself tell you otherwise either.

Things won’t always go your way, and you might get really frustrated and discouraged sometimes. That’s okay. Take care of yourself, give yourself the grace and love you need to work through it. Take breaks as needed, and don’t beat yourself up too hard! A lot of writeblr is based upon luck and dedication. You’ll find your audience someday.

As a final reminder: Fanfiction writers are real writers and belong in the writeblr community. It is not a lesser form of writing, it is simply a different form.

Remember, all writing advice is subjective! Don’t take this too seriously. This is just one person’s opinion.

If you’d like to ask me for advice on writing or running a writeblr, please check out my Ask Guidelines and FAQ first.

Ask Guidelines | FAQ | Advice Masterlist

[darkshrimpemotions]

As a writer the commenting discourse has felt really flouncy to me as well. I bust my back making content and yeah it’s discouraging if you get no engagement but the expectations sometimes get out of wack. I once bailed out of reading or commenting on a WIP with *thousands* kudos AND comments when I got to the last chapter and found the A/N said “I’m not getting enough comments so I’m going to stop posting until I do”. Okay? Their right but I rarely see a quarter of what they called “not enough”

Yeah that's the other thing I usually just don't talk about because there's no way it won't turn into an argument. But it's after midnight and I am at the end of my allotted fucks for the week two full days ahead of schedule, so let's talk about how the people I often see complaining the most about getting too little engagement on their fics have like. Double or more the engagement anything I've written has ever gotten.

Which on the one hand makes me think wow, my fics must REALLY suck if what they're getting is considered "no engagement," and on the other hand kinda makes me quietly start to think of them as a bit whiney and entitled. Which isn't fair perhaps but that's how I feel.

I actually remember going to a friend of mine's page to read some fics and give them some love even though they weren't writing in my fandoms, because they were always talking about how discouraging the lack of engagement was.

Bestie, I shit you not. Every single fic they'd posted had comments in the double digits at LEAST.

Meanwhile, I have fics with zero comments. I have fics that never made it to the double digits in comments OR kudos. I once had a long fic I labored over for weeks that I was SUPER proud of get zero comments for what felt like an eternity. Just. None. And then the first comment I ever got on it was someone asking about when I would update an entirely different fic for another fandom.

So to say I have limited sympathy for people getting consistent engagement across the board and complaining that it's not enough would be a bit of an understatement.

On the more charitable side of my thoughts around this, maybe sometimes people's first encounter with fandom is in a fandom that's super active where they get a ton of attention and they think that's the norm across the board? And get discouraged when they don't see the same level of reaction in subsequent fandoms?

I dunno, when I joined fandom it was considered kinda bratty regardless to withhold new chapters of a WIP or take down fic if it didn't get a certain number of comments or kudos, but I guess that's changing? I don't know if that's a change for the better. I guess it's just weird to me in general when people talk about fic in the same terms as paid content because for me the BEST thing about fic has always been that it isn't paid content and isn't subject to the same concerns and constraints as paid content.

[galacticgraffiti]

2021 fic review!

thank you so much, my darling @cyarbika for the tag! This was so much fun to do and definitely helped me be proud of what I accomplished.

now... alright alright alright buckle in my darlings, this will be a RIDE

total number of completed works: okay so. there are a couple ways to count this. If I count each individual thing I put out (including requests and celebrations) it's something batshit insane, 79 works, which is just crazy to me. total word count: oof. this gave me the motivation i needed to make backups of all my works so i could get the wordcount, so thank you hehe. so I came out to a rough total of 302,563 words not including some WIPs I have not yet published. Almost half of those are just Veman'alor which is just... damn. looking back did you write more, less, or the expected amount of fic this year? I wrote so much more than I ever thought I would. I was not planning on writing at all, actually, and I never thought I would publish anything! It's been a journey, friends.

your own favorite story of this year? By far Veman'alor. I never planned to make that story even half as long as it is now, and I never thought I would get so invested in this little world and its characters, but I am so glad I did. did you take any writing risks this year? I don't know? I think starting to write and publish at all was what felt riskiest to me. I am so glad to have found this, because I am having tons of fun. And it's nice to read that I make people happy, and to feel like I'm giving something back to the community. do you have any fanfic goals for the new year? I don't like setting goals for writing, really, at least not quite so long-term. It puts pressure on myself and I write because I want to, and I need to, and I find great fun and pleasure in it. My only real goal might be to get a bit better at answering requests faster (I'm so sorry to everyone who is still waiting for their request from a month ago to be answered) most popular story of the year? If we're talking multichapter only, it's Veman'alor. But the fic I posted with the most notes is a Boba Oneshot called Talk To Me. story most under-appreciated? I wrote a very yearn-y quick oneshot about growing old with Leia. I almost never write for anyone outside of the TCW/Mandalorian era, but that story is so dear to my heart and barely got any attention. most fun story to write? On the one side, I want to say Veman'alor because I get to dive into all the characters, but that can also be insanely frustrating. So I'm gonna go with Dope & Smoke, a Jango request I got and that was just sooo much fun to write, just flowed out of me. most unintentionally telling story? Probably my most recent Fennec fic. That was very personal to me for many reasons. biggest disappointment? I think aside from seing many creators leave because of anon hate - which, I may add, is never justified - it is that interaction is way down, which is very frustrating. When you pour your heart and soul into something and it barely gets any attention, it gets discouraging very fast. I'd love to write more WLW but those fics, compared to my others, barely get any attention. Also oneshots tend to do much better on here than multichapter works, so as much as I love Veman'alor and Mirde Be Mand'alor, and as much as the longtime readers are dedicated to it, it's just... yeah. Just always a bit disappointing when I post a new chapter and it barely gets interaction compared to my quick oneshots.

biggest surprise? The growth my blog has experienced within such a short span of time, and the kindness with which other creators have treated me and included me. I was so afraid, felt a bit like the new kid at school standing there with their lunch tray not knowing where to sit, but the responses to my fics have been so overwhelmingly kind and sweet and positive. my favorite part of fandom this year? Definitely meeting other creators and getting to talk about everything from writing to important themes like whitewashing, diversity, trying to be inclusive... And my most favourite part only just started, so I don't know if it can really be counted toward 2021 but I'll mention it still because it makes me so happy - and, of course, it's my collab with my most favourite artist, my cherished love @maygalodon. I'm having so much fun coming up with plot and dialogue and little snippets together with them and then weaving it all into a story, it's just wonderful.

gently tagging @book-of-baba-fett @fivesarctrooper @ahoeformando @maybege and @rowansparrow ♡

[jaemarking]

how to not get discouraged writing a fic you like

but it might not necessarily be popular in your fandom

writing a rare pair? trying out an unpopular trope? writing for a small ficdom? or maybe you’re just a smaller account and writing without feedback is getting difficult — i know the feeling! here are some things that help me not get discouraged when i don’t necessarily see the stats that i want to see on my fics.

disclaimer - what works for me may not work for you! these may not apply to you at all and that’s okay!

1. remember why you started writing it!

this is easier said than done but i like to put up a little sticky note above my desk on my board with the name of my wip and why i want to write it. for example, most of my rare pairs have a small following, which means they are starving for content. thus if you continuously writing the same rare pair, you might find that you’ll gain a substantial amount of subscribers

2. make friends in your ficdom

i’ve found that the easiest way to do this is through twitter. if you’re someone who likes fic fests, many of them will create a group chat or discord server where you can meet new people. or perhaps you’ll get paired up with a beta and make a new friend that way. either way, making friends (especially those that have the same interests in fics) is extremely helpful in a. boosting your self confidence and b. boosting your stats! many fic authors will rt their friends’ fics or at least like/reply to them, causing them to show up on their followers’ timelines.

3. take advantage of promotion accounts!

in larger ficdoms, there are often fic rec accounts that can help promote your fic. dm them, or send your fic to them anonymously, and BOOM free promo! for example, i follow nctficfic on twitter and they help promote many authors big and small based on many different themes, tropes, and categories.

4. change how you view your stats

i won’t tell you to disregard them completely, but changing how you look at them can be very helpful. writing something that isn’t necessarily popular in ficdom means you probably won’t get the numbers you want, especially if you’re a “small writer”. for example, the most popular ship in nct is markhyuck, so that ship tends to get the highest numbers (sometimes it doesn’t, it’s hard to explain).

here are some ways you can change how you look at them:

• don’t compare yourself to other writers, compare to your past self. this is definitely easier said than done, but it can be helpful to take a screenshot of your statistics every month and compare them. you also must keep in mind that there are different things that can affect your stats! for example, your stats will probably be higher during quarantine because more people are reading online. same goes for during summer or holiday breaks.

• look for consistency in comments/kudos! are the same users reading your fics? have you gotten more user subscriptions? that means you probably have a following! this is key, especially when writing for a rare pair. people will “trust” you or depend on you to provide content for their rare pair, so they will constantly return to your profile and probably subscribe to you. they’ll also tell their friends about your fics because they are harder to find.

• quality over quantity! long comments and bookmarks with notes might matter more to you than hits and kudos. rare pairs tend to get you longer comments even if there isn’t too many, as people are more grateful to consume your fics. save the comments that mean the most to you (it might be all of them!) and check back on them when you need them most.

• always use the statistics page rather than looking at your works. why? because the statistics page will show you a complete overview all at once, plus your subscriptions, user subscriptions, and private bookmarks which are things that don’t show up on your works. also, you can change how you view your numbers to see which of your fics are doing the best in terms of hits, kudos, bookmarks, etc.

• remember that your statistics for each fic will decrease over time. as more fics are being posted and yours gets lost in the tags, don’t beat yourself up if the numbers slow down. instead, promote your fics! recommend them to authors anonymously, use promotion accounts and rec blogs, send them to your friends, etc. whenever someone replies or quote rts on twitter, make sure to reply back, and it will show up on the timeline again.

• remember that your stats don’t measure the quality of your work — it just measures how many people are reading. low numbers doesn’t automatically make your fic bad. i try to drill this in my head every day and it’s hard, but cherish the amount of feedback you get — chances are if at least one person likes it, it’s good, because nobody is obligated to lie to you.

5. be consistent

find your niche and work with it, and others will find you! this doesn’t mean you have to write the same thing all the time, but if you are more consistent with what you write, then people will have reason to subscribe to you. for example, i write a lot of fic about mark from nct, so people who are fans of mark follow me because they know i will put out content about him. same goes for some of my favourite rare pairings.

don’t be surprised if your first or second fic doesn’t get too much attention, but expect for those numbers to go up steadily as more people discover your work.

6. remember that you are always getting better

with every fic you write, you are getting better. you may not realize it, but you are! have you ever read your old fics and pointed out flaws that you didn’t notice before? that means you’ve gotten better. whether it’s 0.5 times better or 10 times better, you are still improving. so keep writing, and keep getting better!

[whtaft]

Honestly??? I’ve been doing small creative writing exercises, and I wanted to try and start writing an actual story, but I keep getting discouraged? Like, I see all the amazing writers and I’m automatically like “I can’t do this??” Because I’m shit in comparison?? Pls, any advice? (Also ily thanks in advance❤️💞💓)

So, you came to the right person when it comes to combatingself-doubt in writing, because I am just about the least-confident person Iknow, and I am incredibly self-conscious about my writing! To be honest, I’msuper glad that I started writing before I became part of a fandom because Ithink that it is probably really intimidating to dive in now, when there’s alot of really great stuff already out there. But the fact is that there’salways room for more: more voices, more interpretations, more stories. Thatincludes yours.

So this got kind of long, but basically this is mambo’sunpatented advice on how to write despite crippling self-doubt. These arethings I try to practice myself (to varying degrees of success).

Make writing habitual

Practice

Try writing every day, even when you don’t wantto, even when it’s hard, even when you don’t have time. Don’t make unreasonabledemands on yourself (because we all need a break sometimes) but if you make writinga habit then you’ll improve. It’s as simple as that. (Though, don’t expect towrite 3000 words and you’re suddenly Tolstoy. You need to write a lot. A LOT.)

Set goals that are in your control

Setting goals is a great way to get yourself to dosomething. For me, I try to write 1000 or 500 or 300 words a day, depending onmy life/schedule. I track the numbers so I can see my progress over time, whichI find to be really motivating. If word count isn’t your thing, find somethingthat is. You wanna post one chapter a week, or you want to finish one scene aday… Just find the thing that’ll keep you chugging out your writing.

That being said, make sure that your goals aresomething you control. Don’t make things like number of hits or comments ornotes or kudos a goal, because you can’t control what other people do. Don’tput your motivation in the hands of strangers. That’ll only discourage you fromwriting when you don’t hit those goals.

Process

These are things that help me through difficulttimes in my writing process, so they may or may not work for you, but I’vefound them helpful.

Get a hype person

I have a friend (s/o @hakunahistata) who I go towhen I’m feeling discouraged about my writing or confused or whatever. Shereads my stuff, gives me some opinions, and usually tells me that what I’mwriting is much better than I think it is and that I need to chill. I’m someonewho naturally doesn’t want to share unfinished things with people, so it’s veryvulnerable to give an unfinished product to someone else. But I’ve found thatit’s really affirming and nice to have someone you trust who will work thingsout with you when you’re feeling down!

Don’t edit as you go

Nothing bogs me down as much as editing as I gowhen I’m writing something. I try my best to just plug along, get as much as Ican onto the page, and save editing (whether that’s for spelling or plotreasons) until after I have a completed work. Then you go back having alreadyaccomplished a complete draft and you can edit knowing ‘oh I want to add someforeshadowing in here’ or ‘this doesn’t really work with what I did later’. Itjust gives you an overall better sense of what the fic is and where you want togo and doesn’t leave as much room for self-doubt as you go along.

When in doubt, just write dialog                

I don’t know about other people, but I findwriting dialog far more enjoyable than any other part of the writing process.So when I’m stuck in a scene and don’t know where I want it to go, I just writedialog and ignore everything else. Then I can go back later and add in movementand commentary, etc.

Have multiple things going on

At any given time, I have between two and seven “long”WIPs that I’m working on. I get frustrated with one? I work on another. I getfrustrated with two? I work on a third. It makes me slow down on all of my works,and allows me to return to them with fresh eyes and ideas. It also means that Idon’t pressure myself to work on things I don’t want to work on (unless it’sfor a fandom event). If something stops being fun, I move on. No harm, no foul.

I also do the short Tumblr prompts for the samereason. They’re little writing exercises (like you do!) that let me explorethings in a low-pressure, short-term way. They’re also just fun to write!

Fandom

So, this is less ‘advice from someone who knowswhat they’re doing’ and more ‘stuff that I, personally, struggle with but tryto practice but not always’. Just know that you’re not alone in feelingself-doubt when it comes to fandom and comparison. It’s something that a lot ofpeople struggle with, myself included.

There is a place for your work

As I said before, there is room for everyone.Don’t sell yourself short by thinking that since there are already many storiesout there, you can’t include yours. You have a unique perspective, stories totell, and a desire to share. That in of itself is important and get you far!

Try, try, try, try, try, try, try not to compareyourself to others

This is the big one and the hardest one. It’seasy to compare yourself to others when there are so many talented people whoparticipate in fandom. Try not to. Enjoy the work of people you appreciate, butunderstand that they have their own voice and that doesn’t take away fromyours. Just try to appreciate that they’re putting themselves out there and arejust hoping for the best in the same way you are. Learn from them, but don’tcompare yourself. This’ll just put undue pressure on yourself in an alreadyvulnerable position.

Don’t talk shit about yourself

I’m so guilty of this, but try not to talk shitabout yourself. Even if you’re joking, every time you say “I’m such a badwriter” it reinforces that notion just a little bit more in your mind. Try yourbest to turn things around from “I’m not as good as they are” to “I writethings differently than they do, and that’s okay”; or, “this fic sucks” to “thisfic is a first draft and there are a lot of good ideas there, but I need topolish up some of the writing and clean up some plot holes”.

Play to your strengths

I know I have a niche in fandom. I write fluffy,cute AUs that will (hopefully) make people happy. Would I like to write 250,000word long epic alternative-canon fics that fix everything wrong with canon andinclude large-scale fights and medical scenes? Yes. Of course I would! Thosestories are awesome. But will I? Probably not. Don’t not challenge yourself,but also… just understand who you are, what you want to write, and understandthe importance of having your story out there. It’ll find an audience. Don’t beatyourself up for writing the ‘wrong’ kind of fic, or for writing fic that’s too ‘insert-adjective-here’.Your story will find its audience and mean something to them. What’s mostimportant is that you enjoyed writing it and the story means something to you.

Don’t put your happiness in other people’s hands

This goes back to numbers again. It’s easy toquantify success in fandom based on hits, kudos, notes, and comments. There areso many factors that are out of your control here and it can drive you crazy.This is why I’ve wanted to stop writing fics several times and it’s probablywhat I (a person cursed with being both incredibly sensitive and naturallycompetitive) struggle with the most here. I don’t have great advice for notdoing it, but I can tell you from firsthand experience that it’s not healthy. Tryyour best to ignore the numbers and to appreciate every good thing that comesyour way.

Celebrate your victories

When you reach a goal, celebrate. When you getover a hurdle that you’ve been struggling with, celebrate. When someone tellsyou that your writing touched them, celebrate. Writing can be really tough,isolating, and discouraging. Make sure that you take time to be proud of whatyou’re doing. Even if you don’t share it, even if you don’t reach your goals,know that what you’re doing is making you a stronger writer and that, at theend of the day, you’re doing it for yourself.

To write and to share work with people puts you in a reallyvulnerable position. I’m proud of you for starting and I’m proud of you fortrying. And I’m sorry I wrote 1,500 words about this. I’m just sensitive andhave a lot of feelings on this topic. This is actually a trimmed-down versionof this essay. You’re welcome for not including the rest.

[scriptstructure]

An Update:

A while ago I made a post responding to some questions about my personal projects, and I figured I’d make an update post. Here are the things I was working on at the time of posting (16th Feb), and I’ll mark up with what’s happened since then.

A horror/ romance contemporary novel, I’m about 5k in and going pretty well, I think I put that story on the back burner and I’ve been working on a different horror/ romance contemporary novel, which I started on the 16th of March, and I’m now 52k into a projected 60-70k novel. When it’s done I intend to go back and keep working on the other story I started

Rewriting a horror/ weird fiction novella that I wrote last year. It’s just under 10k and as soon as I finished the first draft I realised that I had to rethink the protagonist’s motivation entirely. I get the feeling it might gain about 5k in rewrites -- I’ve done precisely 0% of this editing work, partly because I’ve been working daily on a different manuscript and partly because I’ve been busy with my day job and other things

Prepping for a horror writing competition that I’ve applied for – if I’m accepted I’ll be writing a lot of fiction pretty quickly, and it’ll be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it! (IF I’m accepted! Fingers crossed, though!) My application for this contest was rejected, which wasn’t a massive surprise, to be honest.

Proposal for a conference paper on Ecohorror and Ecogothic in fiction. If I get it done and it’s accepted then I’ll have to work out how to get to Dublin in November. But that’s a long way off, proposal first, worry about everything else later! Just received a rejection note for this one, too, though considering the costs involved in doing it that’s a slight relief

Contemplating a PhD application. Possibly applying to study 2018 or 2019, though the subject and which university I’d do it at are all up in the air -- I recently spoke to a few of my university professors and I’ve been looking at texts in the area that I’d be writing about. This is still a little way off, but I want to be prepared.

Other things I’ve done since that post:

I joined a writing group with some other writers from my local area. It’s a mixed group including some folks who are more connected to theatre, with a diverse talent range from people who’ve never written before joining to folks who have a degree or three on the subject. We aim to create a new piece of writing for each meet-up, and so far I’ve done two short stories that I’ve been very pleased with.

Received an invite to propose a paper about the Hannibal Lecter series in adaptation, I have until the 26th of May to submit my proposal and if it’s accepted it’ll be a 6000 word paper that will then go through the peer review process.

Read, like, a lot of books. I’m actually surprised and pleased at how much I’ve been reading, it’s a really refreshing feeling.

Submitted a story to two fiction journals and had it rejected, submitted it to a writing contest still awaiting a reply.

Things I’m planning to do:

Finish the current WIP and get through a rough second draft before sending it to beta readers, so that I can continue editing it with an eye toward shopping it to publishers.

Work on the academic writing I keep telling myself I’ll get around to later -- I intend to write my papers on EcoGothic even without the conference, because I’ve had a couple of folks interested in reading them, and I have a number of papers about horror in pop culture that I keep thinking about and should put on paper.

Continue a short story series I’ve started in my writing group, and look at putting together an anthology of stories.

Putting together a little secret project for all you kind folks here ...

Now why am I sharing all this?

Mainly, because I was thinking about how easy it could be to get discouraged by rejections, or by things moving slowly. It’s very easy to get a form letter saying very sorry but due to the volume of entries your work cannot be included ... and feel like it’s a personal slight against you. Generally it really isn’t, maybe the piece just didn’t fit with what they wanted, or maybe there were just that many people who were vaguely more in tune with what the editor wanted. Maybe the editor just personally didn’t really jive with your story.

But something that’s really important in writing is perseverance. Not only in actually getting that first draft done (which is a massive endeavour in its own right), and not only in working through the editing and feedback process (it’s hard! It’s tiring! It can be frustrating!), but then also sending stuff out in the world through a process of trial and error to find where it might fit! And often finding a lot of places where it won’t fit before you find one where it does!

The other thing I want to say is that with all of this effort, it really can be a risk that you might burn out your enthusiasm. Sometimes you do need a break -- this year is a big year for me in terms of trying to do the work and get it out there and get my fingers in as many pies as possible. Last year, however, I did almost nothing (a single conference and a single paper, and 25k of a MS that desperately needs to be redone because it was awful tbh), but I was coming off the back of doing a thesis and a whole lot of personal stress and had a lot of other things going on in my life.

I guess, like everything, it’s about balance. Do what you can do and keep putting it out there, but be mindful of yourself and your needs, and don’t push yourself if it’s going to hurt you or kill your enthusiasm. Maybe you do need a day to stay in bed and watch Netflix, maybe you do need to ditch your current project for a while and run off with the bright idea that has just burst into your head.

You’re the only one that can decide what you and your writing most need. And when I say that, I mean you can’t work to your full potential if you’re always chasing after other people’s expectations. Do what you can do, and don’t flagellate yourself for not ‘keeping up’ with what the person beside you is doing, trust me, I used to waste so much time feeling inadequate because I had my eyes on everyone else’s efforts rather than on my own.

Most importantly: Be kind to yourself, be kind to your work. Try to have fun.