#tldr: i got lucky and worked hard to maintain the luck

[stevie-petey]

Hello! I just wanted to start off by saying I LOVE your Come Home series and your writing with it. It has inspired me in so many ways, and in all honesty, I’ve enjoyed it more than I have actually watching Stranger Things! I cannot wait to see where you take the book, and how you navigate whatever comes with season 5!!!!

I was also wondering, how have you found so much success with this series on Tumblr, and do you have any tips for growing fics in general? It has gained so much popularity and I am so happy to see it because you totally deserve it, your hard work is paying off so good!

Have a great day or night,

Anon 🦋

hi dear !! first of all, thank you so much <333 i appreciate the kind words so much and i adore you for being so supportive :’)

long post ahead !!

as for how come home managed to become what it is now: i truthfully cant really say. it still amazes me that its so popular now, but even then i dont necessarily consider it “popular” in my head lmao shes just my lil story !!

i want to start off by saying i never intended for come home to become such a well loved fic. i uploaded the first chapter simply because i wanted to, i liked what i wrote and hoped someone would like it as well. never did i think “cool ok this fic will def become an overnight sensation”.

honestly, one day i was averaging maybe 60 notes per chapter and then the next day i was suddenly averaging 300-400. the fic quickly took off before i could even really process it, and i want to emphasize that this is rare !! so so so incredibly rare. i got lucky, thats all there really is to it :/ sometimes amazing stories dont get the recognition they deserve and sometimes they do. i have personally written fanfiction for 10 years now and i never once had a fic “blow up” how come home did.

i also want to say how fucking grateful that my story managed to find its own community and become this amazing thing. every day i cannot believe any of it is real and i genuinely love and adore each and every person who reblogs and recommends the fic.

what i CAN say is that tags help !! ive noticed some new authors dont know how to tag their fics, which can really diminish their reach. for tumblr, the first five tags are the most important. these are the ones that show up on dashboards !!! i think what also helped me was having a very clear and concise story structure with pretty frequent updates. im fortunate to be able to write and upload a lot faster than i probably should (it concerns many but i find it funny).

and lastly i also just think its super important to interact with everyone !! answer all the asks, reblog all the responses, reply to every comment. i firmly believe its the least i can do if someone has taken the time to read my story and found time to say a quick praise or simply tell me they laughed :)

at the end of the day, its a game of luck and perseverance if anything else, but the general creator rule of thumb is that you should never create something just for the notes/reblogs/praise. create for yourself, create because you WANT to !!! its a slippery slope keeping track of clicks and hit and whatever. i stopped keeping track of come homes own traction because i simply dont care enough to follow it. im happy where i am and i love how the story has grown :)

hope this helped a bit and that ya enjoyed my rambles <3