#hopefully the read more takes you to the sidebar blog because my theme is literal garbage | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vankoya · 7 years

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Welcome to this half-assed guide on how to start up a writing blog! Hopefully, it will manage to provide some important and/or useful information for all of you aspiring fic writing bloggers out there.

Please note that many visual examples have been linked to certain steps. If my explanation is not clear, click on the link provided for a visual example of what I am saying. The whole album of examples is right here.

Without further ado, let’s get to it!

1. THE BLOG

The very first step of our journey, and perhaps, the most important. Your blog is the face of your writing, and the face of you, the writer. And by blog, I mean your desktop theme, your mobile theme, and your master list. This section here will be dedicated to formatting all of those things.

The desktop theme.

Your desktop theme is the layout of your blog as displayed on a computer screen. As a generality, you want your blog to be as readable as possible because that is the main thing people will be doing on your blog. Reading your stories. My main tips for your desktop theme are:

The bigger the font size, the better! Try to avoid anything under 10px, and attempt to go for any theme that has a font customisation of 11-12px. Despite that you can zoom on a desktop page when reading a fic to make the text bigger (ctrl and + on PC, ⌘ and + on Mac), not everyone knows this. The bigger the font size, the more readable your blog is.

Minimalist, single column themes are ideal! Readers can be deterred by cluttered themes, where they go onto your blog to find that it has three columns, the sidebar is so long that half of your links are cut off, etc. You want to keep it simple and easy. Having a sidebar and header is completely fine because it can add some flare to your theme, but a single column is something I stress. It allows the reader to take in one post at a time, and it generally allows for a larger font size, too. Multiple columns can make your blog seem cluttered, especially if your more recent posts are all text-based, which can literally appear like a massive, confronting wall of words. Keep it simple, keep it single.

Visible, easy to access links! Links are super important, as the first thing your reader is likely to do on your blog is search for your master list link. Most themes will have some kind of coding for links, so they are very simple for you to set up. But the more visible your main links (master list, faq, messages) are on your desktop blog, the better. As you can see in this image, my links are one of the first things you see on my blog.

That is pretty much the basics of your desktop theme. Now, for some quality theme makers that I recommend sourcing your themes from: @shythemes / @sorrism / @odeysseus / @acuite / @pohroro / @neonbikethemes / @felinum / @neothm / @theme-hunter (which is a blog that sources loads of themes!)

The mobile theme.

Your mobile theme is the layout of your blog as displayed on the mobile app. The main elements that you can customise here are your header and description. The most important aspect of the mobile theme is your links, so I am going to show you how to make a link for your master list. Please note that you cannot make links on the mobile app, it must all be done in the Edit Appearance section of your desktop blog.

Go onto your blog and click on Edit Appearance.

Under Appearance Options, go to the Description. This is where we will be entering the code for your link.

Copy and paste this code: <a href=“Insert Link Here”>Link Name</a> and alter the bolded sections to be the link to your master list, and whatever you wish for the link name to appear as. ‘Master List’ and ‘m. list’ are the most common, but feel completely free to think out the box! This is what it should look like.

Save the theme. When you go onto your mobile theme, the link should be activated and looking something like this. Test it out by clicking on it, and if it redirects you to your master list, then you have successfully created a link!

This process can be done for all of your links on your mobile theme, such as your FAQ and fic recs. All you have to do is copy and paste that code into the description and alter it as desired. If you wish for the links or any other text in your description to be on a new line, just add <br> to the start of each line of text that you want on a separate line, as seen here.

Important note: If you are wanting to change the header of your mobile theme, make sure you are doing it on desktop, with your desktop theme customisation page open in a different tab. This is because whenever you alter your mobile theme header and save it, all of your link coding will be erased (this is what it will look like on your desktop theme customisation after you save the new header – see how all of your coding is gone?) and your mobile description layout screws up, like this. Having your theme customisation page open in a different tab before you edit your mobile theme allows you to highlight and copy your description code. So, after you save the new mobile theme adjustments, you can refresh (remember to do this, but only after you have saved the mobile theme) your desktop theme customisation page and re-paste that code into the description section and save it so it all looks normal again without having to rewrite it all.

The master list.

The final part of the blog section is setting up your master list. There are many, fancier ways to create a master list, such as a coded page that arranges your stories by filter, etc. But this is going to be the simple, mobile-friendly master list that I use.

Create a new post. If you want to have a header for your master list, make it a photo post. If you do not want to have a header for your master list, make it a text post. For example, mine is a photo post, as I wanted to have a header for my master list.

The layout of your master list depends upon you. Some writers like to section their master list by series, oneshots, and drabbles (like me). Other writers like to section their master list by the members. Some writers like to add a small description of the fic in the master list (like me). Other writers only add the genre of the fic, eg. fluff, angst, a specific AU. Decide how you would like to present yours, but for the sake of this mini tutorial, I am going to section it by member, and only add the genre of the fic.

On your new post, title your master list however you please. Then, begin setting up your preferred layout.

Now, to add the links to your stories. What you will want to do is highlight the title of your story (or whatever text you are wanting to be the link to your story, eg. on my blog, it is the chapter number, or ‘read here’ for my oneshots). When you do that, a row of eight circular icons will appear above the highlighted text. Click the infinity symbol.

The infinity symbol will open up into a bar where you can enter a link. Copy and paste the link to your story here, and then click done.

Now, your story will be hyperlinked to that text! Rinse and repeat this process for all of your stories in your master list. Save and post, and your master list is complete! The end result will look like this in the post, and will look something like this on your blog.

With every new story that you post, all you have to do is go back and edit your master list post to add in the new story. You can do this by opening up your master list post and then clicking the edit symbol in the top right corner, which will take you to the post editing screen.

Note: The link that is created when you post your master list is the one that you will copy and paste into the coding for the master list link we created back in the mobile theme section!

2. THE POSTS

Our second step gets down to the marrow of all this. Posting your stories. The layout/format of your story post depends upon you, though there are a few general guidelines that I recommend following, as all of us fic writers do it too.

The story post.

Make sure your layout is readable! A good, clear format is what draws a reader in; it encourages them to give your story a chance. One that is vague, or extremely cluttered and nonsensical will deter a reader. You know those general guidelines I just mentioned? They are including the pairing involved, the genre of the story, the word count, and a brief, yet intriguing description the details what the story is about (like a blurb). Warnings are also important to list, if there are any that you think may heavily affect certain readers (eg. character death, or dealing with tough topics like suicide). If it is a series, it is recommended to link your already posted chapters to every chapter post, too. It saves the reader from having to constantly go back to your master list to find the next chapter.

Create a header (optional)! It has become common over the past year to add a header/banner to your story. Doing so adds a bit of colour to your story post, and somewhat acts in the same way a book cover does. Here is a tutorial on how to make a header with Photoshop. If you decide to do headers, then I suggest making it unique to you! Creative, original headers are what catch the eye of the reader.

Tag your story appropriately! The process of tagging your story is what makes your story appear in the search results whenever someone looks up that particular tag. It is really important to tag your story appropriately, as in, do not tag your story with ‘bts smut’ if there is literally no smut at all in the story. Here is where you tag your stories and what the tags look like after you have entered them (separate each tag by using the comma button).

Use ‘keep reading’ links! This is mainly for stories that are over 450 words. The ‘keep reading’ or ‘read more’ separator makes it so that the reader has to click on the link to open up the rest of your story post in order to read it. The purpose of this is so that your entire story does not clutter up the dashboard, and make your followers have to scroll past thousands of words just to get to the next post. They keep everything tidy! Place this separator anywhere after your genre/pairing/word count/warnings format, as those details will still need to be visible for your reader on the dashboard.

Licensing your stories.

After many incidents of plagiarism, it has become common to clearly copyright your stories. Since everything you post online is technically copyrighted to you (as long as what you are posting is your own original content), all you need to do is state: All Rights Reserved © [Your Blog Name]. For example, mine is: All Rights Reserved © Vankoya. I copy and paste this license after the author’s note at the bottom of all my story posts.

3. EXTRA NOTES

Now that all of the technical stuff is out of the way, I am going to mention a few things here that all new fic bloggers should keep in mind when starting out.

Be patient when it comes to receiving feedback, followers, and notes! It is very rare for a new writer to receive plentiful of the above straight off the bat. Yes, there are certainly a few who manage to dive into the fic writing community and have their stories receive loads of notes and messages within their first month of blogging, but as I said, that is a very rare case. To put it in perspective, on my first fic writing blog, I had nearly twenty oneshots posted by the time I breached my first thousand followers, and started getting more than 50-100 notes on my stories. It can take time. Just remember that everyone started with nothing. Even those that receive daily messages, who have 500+ notes on their stories, and thousands of followers. Besides, how popular your stories are within the community does not define whether your writing is good or not. Trust me!

On that note, try not to channel all of your focus on popularity! Do not let the reason why you started writing and posting your stories in the first place get away from you. This has been a pretty big thing within the fic writing community lately, where an unnecessary divide has been created between writers who receive more recognition, and those who receive less. Please, do not let popularity define the reason why you write, because it will only eat at you until your passion/hobby becomes something that you resent. Please, do not play in this current game of blaming more recognised writers for ‘stealing’ the spotlight from everyone else, because that is not true. As a reader myself, it takes a lot for me to stray from a writer that I am familiar with (especially when I barely have enough time to read their writing as it is), so I recommend keeping that in mind if you are ever wondering why you may not have tons of readers. It just takes the right reader to stray out of their limits one day and discover you!

Taking requests for your first month or two can help a lot! Readers love requesting ideas, and that is something that I did a lot in my first two or three months of writing on my first blog. It draws in an audience who can take part in what you are creating, and you will be able to get an idea for what it is that the readers are desiring to read. My main points with requesting are you do not have to write every single request you receive, and you do not have to write a request that does not inspire you, or involves a topic that makes you uncomfortable. These requests do not have to be full-blown oneshots (unless you wish for them to be), they can be simple drabble requests for some fun, and can act as a break in-between you writing your own original stories. From my own experience, most of my audience was gained this way on my first blog. Though it is not necessary for you to do, especially if you are mainly writing for your own enjoyment, and not for consistent feedback.

Well, that’s about it! I hope this guide can help you out in some way. If there is anything further you feel like I can add to this, please send me a message and I will look into it.

Good luck with your new endeavour. Enjoy writing!

#fic writing #writing tips #bts fics #writing tutorial #vankoya #/ long post

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