adviceofourown-blog

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Who’s ready for some genre talk

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Hey, are you a fic writer? Do you want more comments?

Here are some tips that might help you with that.

1. Humanize yourself

As with all creative pursuits, the creator is often secondary to the creation. Death of the author and all that.

Sometimes it feels like readers don’t realize An Actual Person is behind writing all this fic, but there are ways to make your presence more apparent. Author’s notes lets you grab a shovel and dig yourself out of that grave. The author lives once more! Try saying a little about yourself, about your thoughts on the fic, about experiences that influenced your fic; that makes the fic less ‘some mysterious manifestation of autonomous words’, and more ‘something that an actual bona-fide person put effort into making’.

Also, it gives your audience something to respond to. One of my friends mentioned something their cat did, and they got several comments that were ‘I love your cat’.

2. Recognize your audience

The main difference between feedback on visual art and feedback on literary art is that, in most cases, it’s WAY easier to leave something small and low-stress on pictures. You can just write ‘nice’ as a comment or you can whisper it in the tags.

Comments on AO3 or FF.Net or wherever you’re posting, those tend to look More Official. They’re more impersonal than a reblog. There’s a text box for crying out loud! That’s like, official form stuff! Not casual blog stuff! Plus, there’s already tons of words there. Someone who read and liked a 1,000 word story might not feel comfortable just leaving ‘nice’ as a comment, but they don’t have the time/energy to organize their thoughts in a way that they would consider ‘meaningful enough’.

If you, personally, are fine with a ‘nice’, be proactive. Think about reasons people may or may not comment, and address those reasons while being positive and encouraging. You can write ‘hey if you liked the story please leave a comment, even just a ‘nice’ would brighten my day!’ You could ask specific questions like ‘let me know how [scene] made you feel’ or ‘I’m curious what you guys think will happen’ to give your readers something specific to talk about. There’s lots of ways to gently encourage engagement.

Transparency, in particular, is good practice. There was one chapter I posted where I flat-out said ‘please appreciate this I put so much effort into research and formatting’, and that chapter actually got the most comments in the fic.

If you really want comments, be upfront about it. As long as you’re doing it in a way that’s not guilt-tripping anyone, or sanctimoniously appealing to some nonexistent moral obligation, people who are on the fence about leaving a comment will, more often than not, end up leaving a comment.

3. Plug social media

Another thing to keep in mind— there’s a good chance that someone picking up one of your fics doesn’t know you at all. All the context they have for you, as a person, comes from the a/n and the fic.

Being on social media humanizes you even more! You can talk about your process in-depth, and if you’re the type, you can take prompts or reblog writer-related ask stuff. Beyond that, it gives your audience a more casual way to contact you. For some people, leaving a comment feels like A Permanent Commitment. An ask— especially if anonymous asks are enabled— can feel more low-stakes.

Also, there are folks who don’t really feel comfortable talking to someone unless they get a sense of what communication styles are preferred. Personally speaking, there are writers I followed for for a little while before feeling confident enough to shoot them a message about how great their fic was. Anxiety! Lots of people have it, but there are workarounds and ways to offer them.

Final note:

Fic, like all art, needs you to market yourself a little if you want to Get Somewhere. You need to understand your audience. Sometimes you can get a Big Break based on the quality of your writing alone, but for real— the most popular fic in any given fandom, the fic with ten billion comments, it’s usually the most popular/commented on because of luck and marketing.

But that’s more of a business-type perspective, and people usually aren’t married to this mindset unless they’re manipulating a fandom audience for profit (which has happened, see Erika L. James and her ascended not-safe-for-work Twilight fanfic)

Let’s look at this from a ‘just here for a good time’-type perspective.

In general, we have a culture that’s kind of weird about engaging with any type of art, and that absolutely applies to fic. A lot of people don’t talk about fic. A lot of people don’t really know how to talk about fic, because they don’t know what you, the writer, would want. Some people have little comments they hold onto because they feel too it’s short. Some people have book reports they hold onto because they feel it’s too long. Some people just hold onto comments because the idea of contacting the writer intimidates them. The best thing is usually to be transparent as a writer, and also, to model the kind of behavior you want to see. Write comments, rec fic, encourage other people to do the same. Be the change you want to see in the world and all that.

Just talk it out. I mean, we’re writers, that’s what we do anyway.

[adviceofourown-blog]

Sorry for the sudden leave, one of us was jetlagged from China and the other had a mouth surgery! But we’re back!

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Also, this podcast is a podcast. Words are words. 

 Disclaimer: Advice of Our Own is not Archive of Our Own (or the OTW).

Hi all! Just a reminder that we take questions (this is not fishing for future episode ideas nope).

Find us on Twitter, also Podomatic!

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The canonical world not good enough for you? Try an AU! But where to start? 

Disclaimer: We are not associated with Archive of Our Own or the OTW.

Hey guys! Turns out that there’s a limit to how much we can upload to soundcloud before they ask us for money! We’re on podomatic now, and tumbler doesn’t support their audio thing....i guess....? but yeah.

The diagrams mentioned in the episode can be found here

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And we're back! Have a long-ish episode about prose and dialogue!

Also we're not associated with Archive of Our Own or the OTW.

Links referenced: ivyblossom.tumblr.com/post/280228612…e-audience-can

obstinaterixatrix.tumblr.com/post/13598…ple-of-not

obstinaterixatrix.tumblr.com/post/16473…your-story

Miss us?

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Episode 4: Trouble with attracting an audience? Look no further! Act NOW and you can learn all about how to make your fic ATTRACTIVE!

Note: We won’t be able to post an episode on the next scheduled Tuesday. Please expect it on 8/29 instead.

Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with Advice of Our Own or the OTW.

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Episode 3:  Some gentle thoughts about the relationship between beta reader and fic writer. Some...gentle....good thoughts........

We love you guys, for serious. Here’s a reminder to subscribe to us on your local smartapp phonemajig store, leave a review. Follow us on the twitts, or soundcloud. Peace.

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Episode 2: To plot or not to plot?

Hi guys! This is a little late due to reasons, but here we are on Tuesday! Like we promised!!! I need! a sleep. zzzzzzz  Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or SoundCloud, or subscribe on your local smartphone podcast thing.

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Episode 1: A quick introduction to this podcast and us sisters, and also some advice about getting started on a fic.

Hey fellas, it’s our first episode! Admittedly short, but we’ll have something more substantial next time now that we’ve introduced ourselves. If you like what we’re peddling so far, subscribe on iTunes or on GooglePlay, or follow us on Twitter or SoundCloud!

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Hello and welcome!

This is the official blog of Advice of Our Own, a fanfiction writing advice podcast. We’ll be updating every two weeks on Tuesdays. You can also find us on Twitter and SoundCloud under the name Advice of Our Own! Please feel free to ask us questions about writing fanfiction, as long as it’s not fandom-specific or about smut. If you’re interested, please subscribe on iTunes!

Oh and as a disclaimer, we are in no way associated with Archive of Our Own or the OTW.