#the only thing ur Maybe allowed to do depending on fandom atmosphere is

[une-femme-de-lettres]

Hey, love ur blog, I'm thinking of creating a blog for fics and was wondering if you had any advice for a new writer? xx

First, thank you so much! :)

And second, oh my Gosh, I’ve never been asked thatbefore and I’m kind of new on Tumblr too so I don’t really know what to say butI’m gonna do my best. All these tips and advice are the things I learned from mypersonal experience as a writer on Tumblr

(Future me: okay, it turned out that I actuallyhad a LOT of things to say so sorry in advance for the long-ass reply…)

So first there are two sides to running awriting blog on Tumblr: the writing and the blogging.

Number one and most important is of coursethe writing part and for this I have a few pieces of advice to give. I can’t guaranteeyou that ALL these tips will work for you because it depends on you and the wayyou work, you sometimes have to start from there and figure out what works foryou. But again, these is what I figured out from my personal experience:

First advice: read. Like, when I say ‘read’,I mean ‘read A LOT’. You might already be doing that and keep it up, becausereading is what got me into writing in the first place and what allowed me to builda rich vocabulary and overall develop my writing skills (my literature classhelped me a little with that too…) That may be obvious but reading in thelanguage you want to write in is especially important if it’s not your nativelanguage (for example my native language is French but fanfiction helped meimprove hugely my English and now Ionly write in English.)

Again something that might be obvious butthe key is writing about what you like/love. Whether it’s a show, a book or amovie, if you love its story, characters and universe, it’ll be easier to writeabout it. And it’s very common for people to like a show/book/movie for like ayear and then they’re not so much interested in it anymore. And that’s totallyfine, don’t force yourself, if you don’t like the show/book/movie you’rewriting your fic for anymore, move on and focus on what you like.

Also, if you like a show or a movie forexample, and you want to write about it: watch it and re-watch it. This is howyou’re gonna get to know the characters you’re working with and get the overallfeel and atmosphere of the show/movie. And if it’s a book, reading it severaltimes will help you, unconsciously, replicate the author’s style. My examplehere is Supernatural. I spent two and a half months binge-watching the show andit is so long that I don’t really need to re-watch it. At the end, when I wasready and eager to start writing fics for this show, I had spent so much timewatching its characters (mostly Sam and Dean) that I was able to predict howthey would react to certain events and how they would speak and move during a scene.

That brings me to the next advice, whichis, if you don’t really know how to start writing, start with the dialogs (ifthere are some in your work of course). I’m gonna take my previous examplehere. Now that I’m done with Supernatural, all this character/atmosphere thingis in my head and when I’m writing, I’m literally picturing the scene, thecharacters and the dialogs as if I’m watching an episode. But sometimes you canhave this in mind but still not know how to start. That’s when the dialogs comein handy. When I’m in this situation and I have the whole scene pictured in myhead, I first write the dialogs, with an indication of who is talking, like ascript. Then around that, I start writing literally every character’s actionsand movements, then their feelings and thoughts. You don’t have to break itdown like that because once you’ve started writing something, if you’re feelinggood, you’re not gonna want to stop.

Another advice is just to write your ideasas they come. And when you have an idea, don’t let it go and write in somewhereto remember it. Keep a note book close to you so you can write in it at everymoment, especially when you’re lying in bed at night, trying to sleep. That’swhen most of my ideas and inspiration come so keep something to write your ideaon ‘cause trust me, you won’t remember it the next morning…

Also, regarding this whole idea thing: don’tforce yourself to work on one single thing if it’s not the way you like to work.By doing that you’re keeping yourself from doing what you actually would liketo do. And in the end it will prevent you from actually working on that singlething, because you won’t stop thinking about something else. So don’t be afraidto work on a few projects at a time and when you don’t feel like working onone, work on another one.

BUT, sometimes following this advice andworking on too much things at a time can cause complete chaos with unfinishedseries and barely started one-shots, trust me I know what I’m talking about… Soto help with that, you can set priorities, whether they’re based on thepopularity of a work or the time you started writing it. Telling yourself ‘thisstory is important, I have to work on it’ will either help you getting to actuallywork on it or making you realize you don’t want to work on this one, thuspushing you to write the thing you actually want to write.

And finally, there’s the problem of notknowing what to write and just not ‘wanting’ to write. If really your brain issaying ‘nah, I don’t wanna write, I just wanna stare at the blank page and theblinking cursor for the rest of the day’ but your heart is actually saying ‘butI want to write, I have so many good ideas.’ In that case, you have to forceyourself a little, because the hardest part is getting started. To fight this,set yourself a writing goal, like writing at least 500 words a day (that’s whatI do), I don’t guarantee it’ll work but it’s worth the try.

Okay, that was the –long-ass- first andmost important part, now it’s time to tackle the number two: blogging part. Inthat part, I’ll give you some tips to get known on Tumblr and build an audience.Once again, I’m not guaranteeing you that you’ll become famous by following thesebecause the biggest part of building and keeping your audience is your work (ifpeople like it, they’ll keep coming back for more).

With that out of the way, my first adviceis having an accessible blog. What I mean by that is that if people can easilynavigate through your blog and find your work, they’ll be more likely to wantto say and read more. Hence the critical importance of having a functioning Masterlist,for both desktop AND mobile (a good part of people is using Tumblr mobile toread). On desktop, you can make your Masterlist by creating a page that willshow under your description text on your blog. But that doesn’t work on the mobileapp so what you will want to do is create a Masterpost, which is basically atext post with your Masterlist in it. With this though you’ll have to reblog itregularly so it shows up on your feed and is quickly findable and accessible.

Your Masterlist will have to feature everyone of your works and also make people that are new on your blog want to readthese works. To do that, you Masterlist must be clear and organized. You cancategorize your works, list them in different and well-defined categories tohelp the read spot what stories they’re interested in.

When you list a work, you must first writeits title and put a link to its corresponding post (you can use the title andmake it clickable so it will bring the reader to this specific work). You alsohave to make it easy for the reader to identify what the story will be about,so that they can decide whether or not they want to read it. To do that, youcan write a quick summary next to the title and even add a few tags that detailfor example the pairing featured in the work, the genre of the work (is itangsty, fluffy, smutty?) or the its length (is it part of a series, is it aone-shot?) you can also indicate the approximate word count. And of mostimportantly you can specify the warnings, if there are any (graphic violence,explicit sexual content?) so the reader knows what to expect and if it’ssomething they don’t want to read, they don’t have to click the link and waitfor the page to charge to find out.

Talking about tags, you can and have to usethe tagging system on your posts so that your works are easily sortable andaccessible through the search function. That way, the reader can pick and find exactlywhat they want to read. Keep in mind that the more accessible your work is, thequicker readers will be able to find what they want and the more they’ll wantto read.

So now, the main issue is getting people toactually come to your blog. You can always rely on the Tumblr recommendationsbut I don’t think many people actually see/take time to go through them. So myadvice for that is like reading to write: follow to be followed. The more blogsyou follow, the better (to a certain extant). Let’s take an example, if youwrite for the Supernatural fandom, you certainly already follow Supernaturalthemed blogs. Not everyone does that but I do: when someone follows me, and ifI see in their description that they write, I’m gonna want to go and see whatthey have and if I like their work, I’m gonna follow them and maybe reblog afew of their works and my audience will maybe want to read more and follow themas well, and so on.

There is also a few blogs on Tumblr thatsometimes ask for more blogs to follow. The more blog you follow yourself, themore you’re likely to encounter this type of posts. Then you have to seize theopportunity. Don’t be ashamed to self-promote if your blog corresponds to theirarea of interest (they asked for it after all LOL…). You won’t be botheringthem if you reblog the post and link them to your Masterlist, that’s actuallywhat they want, and again, if your work is easy to find and they like it, they’llfollow…

By now, you may have got it, the key togetting known on Tumblr is interaction with other people. And the last advice I’llgive you is related to challenges. Writing challenges are a big thing on Tumblrand it allows writers to share their work on a larger scale, as many biggerblogs do these kind of challenges. So it’s another great way to get people tonotice you and it’s also a really fun thing to do.

To conclude I’d say that you have to bepatient, don’t be too greedy and don’t expect too many people to express theirlove and enjoyment, at least at first. They don’t always let you know, but ifpeople like your work and if you put effort into it, your audience will grow byitself and you will eventually get the recognition you deserve.

And most importantly, enjoy yourself. Iknow it can be frustrating working for hours on something, posting it and notgetting any feedback. But don’t forget that, first and foremost, you write foryourself, because you enjoy it and because you love sharing your ideas withother people. And remember that, in the end, your most fervent supporter isyourself.