writingquestionsanswered

[writingquestionsanswered]

WQA Site News

Hey, everyone! You may have noticed I've been relatively absent over the past couple of months. I've made the difficult decision to close down the ask box for a while, possibly permanently. This is partly because I needed to shift my priorities back toward my own writing and taking time out for myself. It's also partly because I just couldn't keep up with the inbox. It was rare there was ever less than 30 to 50 asks at any given time, and over the years questions seem to have gravitated away from general writing questions to requests for plot specific advice... which of course comes with lengthy plot rundowns. At the end of the day, those types of questions became the bulk of what was in my inbox. I realized that the needs of the community had shifted from needing general writing advice to personalized writing coaching, and that's just not something I'm able to offer here.

I have loved every single second I've put into this blog, and I am so unbelievably proud of the fact that many of you over the years have messaged me to say that you got a trad book deal or indie published your book, or were on your way to one or the other. That's something I will always hold as part of my tiny legacy on this big blue marble. Thank you, so much, for giving me the opportunity to do it.

The blog will stay up so you can access past posts and the WQA post masterlist. And maybe, periodically, I'll open the ask box up for a short period of time. Or, possibly, I may even open it back up permanently one day. Hard to say for sure. But, in the meantime, wherever you are, may your writing be fruitful, your reading be blissful, and may you stay safe and protected always.

Love,

WQA

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi Happy New Year! I was wondering if books that are set in the real world post 2020 Covid-19 should mention the virus and changes that happened in the world? Or could I choose not to mention it if it doesn't really affect my story or setting?

You can absolutely choose not to mention it if it doesn't affect your story or setting. :)

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi! Love your blog btw!

How long should a novel be? I'm not sure if I should split my story into more than one book or just one that's pretty lengthy

Should Story Be Split Into Two Books?

There is not a "one size fits all" number for book length. Book length depends on the target audience, genre, and other factors. Even within those factors there can be a range. Here are some common ranges for different factors:

Middle Grade novels - 25,000 - 40,000 words Young Adult novels - 45,000 - 80,000 words New Adult: 60,000 - 85,000 words Adult 65,000 - 110,000

Literary novels - 80,000 to 110,000 words Romance novels - 50,000 to 90,000 words Fantasy novels - 70,000 to 150,000 words Sci-Fi novels - 70,000 to 150,000 words Mystery novels - 70,000 to 90,000 words

So, if you've written a 225,000 word fantasy novel, you may want to look into dividing that into two books.

However, your story and its genre play a role, too. While it's common to split bigger sci-fi and fantasy stories into multiple books, you generally wouldn't split a mystery story or contemporary romance story into two or more books. You could write multiple connected stories featuring your mystery or romance protagonist, but each book would typically tell it's own complete story. For example, Sherlock Holmes books follow the same protagonist and main characters through the solving of different mysteries. There are elements that carry over from one story to the next, but the series isn't one big story chopped into smaller pieces.

As for the story itself, take a look at the events of the story. Can you see a possible beginning, middle, and end for each potential story? In other words, can you look at the first say half or third of your story and see a climax and denouement that's followed by a new inciting incident? This would be a clue that you could break this story down into multiple stories. Even if you don't see those things in your story already, you can spend some time considering whether or not you can build them in naturally.

And, one last thing to consider is how far over the top end of the range your story is. For example, if your story fits the other criteria and is about twice the length of the middle or end range for your target audience/genre, that might be a good indicator that this story needs to be split. However, let's say you're only 30k over the top end of the range. This is a situation where you can probably cut down 10-15k through editing and polishing, and then just let it be a little over the top end of the range. It's not that books can never be over the top end of the range, it's just that they typically are.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

Do you have any tips for making my story standing out from another story which I realized it has many similarities with? You talk about how similarities are not always plagiarism, but do you have any specific advice for keeping some similarities but coming up with twists on the concepts and/or other ideas to make the story feel more different, like how Cinder makes Cinderella a cyborg in a sci-fi world?

Make Story Similar but Different from Inspiration

Diversifying a Story That’s Similar to Existing Story

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

I don't know much about writing but I have noticed that I like 3rd person pov more than 1st person. Sometimes I can't even start the 1st person books because they are written in 1st person.

Is there any scientific, philosophical or literature reason for it?

Not a Fan of First-Person POV

There are a lot of reasons why you may not enjoy first-person POV, though I wouldn't say any of the reasons probably qualify as scientific, philosophical, or literary. Like so many things in life, it's just a matter of preference.

It could be that your earliest exposure to first-person POV stories or books are ones you didn't enjoy, so it automatically put you off that POV. First-person is also tricky... it doesn't work for every genre, story, or character... and not every writer is good at writing it. So, it's possible your exposure to first-person has been situations where it just didn't work or wasn't well done.

Either way, it's not an uncommon preference. And, on the flip-side, there are people who exclusively prefer to read first-person and are put off by third-person. So, to each their own. :)

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hello! I read your post about writing about fictional royal families and felt you would be the best person to ask.

I’ve come up with a secondary AU centred around my OC, a Queen named Eleanor - my main AU takes place in a fictional European nation here on Earth named Ashwarnia where she is monarch.

In this AU, Eleanor is Queen of the United Kingdom instead, as the grandaughter of Prince Albert Victor, who survived pneumonia and ascended the throne as the sole King Albert. Her eldest son, Richard becomes the Prince of Wales and marries Lady Diana Spencer.

But I’m in a dilemma - should I include William and Harry in the AU, given the fact they’re Diana’s sons in our timeline, or create new characters inspired by them, like Prince Nicholas and Prince Frederick from The Royal We, or Prince Philip and Prince Henry from Red, White and Royal Blue?

I’m not sure which plan to use, if I go with William and Harry, I’d feel a sense of familiarity but at the same time confusion because I’m writing about fictional characters with a father and grandparents I made up. If I choose new Princes, I’d be even more confused in real life after being too immersed in this fictional AU.

Creating Fictional Kids for (Mostly) Fictional Royals

Prince William was named after Charles's cousin, Prince William of Gloucester, so without Charles the William moniker doesn't have the same relevance.

Prince Harry's actual name is Henry, which comes from a long line of royals named Henry. So, that one could stay.

However... I think if you name them William and Harry or some other name and Harry, you and your readers are going to picture the current princes with those names rather than the fictional princes you create. So, I think it's not a bad idea to consider other possibilities. But, at the end of the day it's entirely up to you. :)

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

This may be a silly question, but in your personal opinion is it a bad idea to offer up a “bonding” moment early on in an enemies to lovers trope? (Like possibly within the first two chapters)

I don’t want to take away from the tension, but I’m having a hard time picturing one of my MC’s willing to spend any sort of time with this other person if they don’t give them a small something to work with (they’re meant to be brought together by reluctantly teaming up to achieve a mutual goal).

The thing I worry about is ruining the classic movement of a story like that by revealing a little too much about a character too soon. This is my first time writing enemies to lovers and I really want to get this right.

"Glimmer of Humanity" Too Early in Enemies to Lovers

I think rather than making it a "bonding moment," per se, you would want it to simply be a "glimmer of humanity..." something that shows the MC that maybe the enemy isn't ALL bad... that maybe there's a little bit of good in there somewhere. This can be enough of a tipping point between your character choosing to team up with them or not. For example, let's say you have a situation where you have Team Good, Team Bad, and Team Even Worse. If MC's Option A is to fight Team Bad and Team Even Worse alone and almost certainly fail, but Option B is to team up with Team Bad and fight their common enemy of Team Even Worse, having seen that "glimmer of humanity" in Team Bad can be enough to make Option B "the lesser of two evils." At least with Option B they have help and there's a chance (albeit a small one) that Team Bad won't completely screw them in the end.

This way, you're not creating a bonding moment too early or otherwise throwing off the tension between the MC and the enemy. You're just making it believable that they would even consider teaming up with Team Bad, because there's some glimmer of hope that it will turn out okay. More hope, anyway, than fighting both enemies all alone.

I hope that helps!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

I see many people talking about how head-hopping can be bad but there's a thing I still don't understand about omniscient narrators:

Is it bad to write the actions of two or three characters in a single scene or should the external actions be limited to one character too? (Example: Mary grabs the sword and throws it at door as John runs to catch the floating head of Liza before it gets on the way.) If so, is there a a good/better way to depict multiple characters doing different stuff in a fast scene?

Head Hopping vs Omniscient Narrators

Okay... a couple of things...

First, the example you gave isn't "head hopping" because it's all observational. A single POV character can be observing those things taking place. You don't have to be in Mary's head, John's head, or Liza's head in order to know that they're doing those things.

If, instead, the example was: "Mary grabs the sword and throws it at the door, inwardly cringing as she narrowly avoids skewering John. Really fearing for his life now, John considers his next best move and runs to catch Liza's floating head before it gets in the way." That requires us to be in both Mary's head (because we know she inwardly cringes) and John's head (because we know he's afraid without any visual cue indicating fear, and because we know he considers his best move). This wouldn't be a problem if you're using an omniscient narrator. It would only be a problem if either Mary, John, or some other character was the POV character.

Second, "head hopping" isn't a problem with an omniscient narrator. The point of an omniscient narrator is they can be in all places at all times, including inside every character's heart and mind.

Head hopping is only a problem if you're writing your story (or any part of it) in first-person or third-person limited, both of which mean that the story (or that part of the story) is being told specifically from that character's POV, meaning the reader can't know anything they don't know.

That said, let's say this is Mary's POV chapter or the whole story is being told from Mary's POV. It would be fine for us to know she inwardly cringes because we're inside her head. But because we're inside her head, we can't know that John is afraid unless Mary observes some external cues (facial expressions, body language) that John is afraid or he says he's afraid out loud. We also can't know that John is considering his next move unless he says so out loud, because we can only be in Mary's head, not John's head. I hope that helps!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

Nightmare as Catalyst

Anonymous asked: Can the onset of PTSD-related nightmares serve as the catalyst for my story?

(Original ask was eaten by Tumblr because Tumblr is a dumpster fire...)

It depends...

If your story is character-driven (characters overcoming their personal/internal problems) rather than plot-driven (characters overcoming an external/world problem), and if the onset of the nightmares drives your character toward a path or course of action that carries them through the story, then yes... it would work as a catalyst.

However, if your story has an external conflict (either primarily or in addition to the external conflict), the catalyst needs to relate to the external conflict and whatever course of action your character is launched into in an effort to resolve the external conflict.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

I'm following some guides but I don't know if I'm doing this right. Can a character starting to have nightmares function as a catalyst? It's relevant to their PTSD. The story is essentially about healing and destruction. Thanks!

Nightmares as Catalyst

It depends...

If your story is character-driven (characters overcoming their personal/internal problems) rather than plot-driven (characters overcoming an external/world problem), and if the onset of the nightmares drives your character toward some sort of path or course of action, then yes... the onset of PTSD-related nightmares could be a catalyst.

However, the two important things are this:

If your story has an external conflict (either primarily or in addition to the internal conflict), the catalyst needs to be related to the external conflict.

If your story is character-driven, the catalyst needs to be related to whatever path or course of action propels your character through the story.

So, if your story's plot is essentially their journey of getting to the bottom of the nightmares, what caused them, and overcoming them (including working through the PTSD or something related to it), then the nightmare onset would be a valid catalyst.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hello!!

I have an OC who speaks several languages. Her native tongue is Arabic, the setting she normally is in speaks Japanese, and the language I'm writing in is English. She speaks more, but these three are the important ones.

I occasionally write a scene in the story from her POV, where she speaks Arabic at home with her grandfather, and Japanese with her friends and strangers. There are also other scenes where she may speak with a friend in Arabic and Japanese (a mix of sorts), and another friend in all three of Arabic English and Japanese, and other scenes where she talks to herself in Arabic in the presence of other characters. As a result I've a number of closely related questions:

How do I indicate that she's changing languages when writing from her point of view?

Is it necessary to? If so, when?

How do I do so organically without having to explicitly "tell" it?

Where does transliteration become necessary?

Arabic is a very God-centric language, where God is often mentioned in the most mundane (though not vain!!!) contexts. English is not so much. How could I "translate" that into the writing when the language POV is Arabic, considering that I'm writing in English?

I appreciate your blog and your answers. Thank you in advance. I hope you have an amazing day :)

Multilingual Character Issues

How do I indicate that she's changing languages when writing from her point of view? Is it necessary to? If so, when? How do I do so organically without having to explicitly "tell" it?

This is one of those situations where it's absolutely fine to "tell" the reader the language that they're speaking. For example...

Grandfather was sitting on a bench enjoying the afternoon breeze. "How are you doing today, Grandfather?" I asked in Arabic.

If you have multiple scenes that have cultural and character cues that will let the reader know where the character is, and therefore what language they'd be speaking, you can potentially highlight those cues and use language cues to "show" the language without a direct tell. Using Spanish as an example, something like this:

My abuela was working in her garden, probably picking fresh ingredients for tonight's pozole. ¡Hola, mi chiquita! she said, looking up with a smile. "I hope you've brought a big appetite for supper."

You can still pepper in the occasional reminder that they are, in fact, speaking Spanish. Again, it's okay to tell when you think it's necessary.

Where does transliteration become necessary?

If you're using mostly English to convey the other language, relying on telling and contextual clues to illustrate that it is the other language, I'm not sure when transliteration would be necessary. But, using my Spanish example above... I do not think it would be necessary to either transliterate or translate "pozole" or "chiquita." The general meaning of both are relatively clear via context. If she's gathering fresh ingredients for tonight's pozole, and later asks her granddaughter if she brought her appetite, it's pretty clear that pozole is a food. If you wanted to add more context for exactly the type of food, you could have the character muse about other preparations she's likely to have already made for other ingredients, or imagine tasting the hominy and meat-based stew. Transliteration... conveying how a word is pronounced... isn't necessary, especially when you have a story that's potentially going to contain a lot of words in other languages. Transliterating all or even some of them would bog down the story.

Arabic is a very God-centric language, where God is often mentioned in the most mundane (though not vain!!!) contexts. English is not so much. How could I "translate" that into the writing when the language POV is Arabic, considering that I'm writing in English?

Well, first of all, I don't think that's true about English at all. English-speakers often weave God into everyday/mundane language in much the same way as Arabic speakers, and not in vain. Some examples:

-- God willing, we'll have good weather for the game tomorrow. -- Praise God, the line is finally moving! -- As God as my witness, I will ground you if you're a second late. -- Oh, thank God my paycheck came in a little early this week! -- God bless, she is just the sweetest creature alive!

And, at the end of the day, even if you're using English to write what is supposed to be spoken Arabic, the context isn't English. So, when it makes sense, just be direct. But sometimes it doesn't make sense to be direct... using Spanish as an example again, someone might say, "Hoy voy a echar la flojera en casa," which basically means "I'm going to be lazy at home today," but the literal translation is, "today I am going to throw laziness at home." This is one of those cases where it just wouldn't make sense to be literal. It would be better to just have the character say, "I'm going to be lazy at home today," because as writers, our ultimate goal is clarity. We never want to sacrifice clarity for ambience or anything else.

I hope this makes sense, and please keep an eye on the comments in case any Arabic or Spanish speakers have anything they want to add, or in case I got something wrong.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

I'm trying to write a fist fight. Like illegal boxing type deal. Like gashes to the face from the knuckles kinda thing. I wanna make it brutal, but I don't really know how to. What's some words or like action that you would use? I have some ideas, and how to describe it but I don't wanna use boring words. Tysm.

Fight Scenes and Action Scenes with Impact Giving Fight Scenes More Impact

You can also follow @howtofightwrite

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

How to write a good fighting scene

Also if you’ve already answered this question then you can just tag me in it lol

Fight Scenes and Action Scenes with Impact Giving Fight Scenes More Impact

I would also recommend following @howtofightwrite

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

What do you do when you have dozens upon dozens of wips/ideas? How can I finish more stuff when I have so much in my head - and I'm still coming up with new stuff lmao. I can I get more done?

Productivity When Dealing with a Rush of Ideas

The key is accepting that you don't have to write every idea as soon as it comes to you. Part of being successful as a writer is learning to catalogue ideas and let them simmer while you work on other things. Many writers utilize a notebook, file folder, word document, etc. as a place to store the various ideas that come to them. I have one on my computer with sub-folders for plot ideas, character ideas, world ideas, scene ideas, title ideas, name ideas, etc. When I get an idea, I note it down in a text file and save it to the appropriate folder. With practice, this becomes a ritual for getting it out of my head so I can get back to what I was doing. By learning to set aside new ideas for later, you can put your energy and effort into finishing your current projects. With each current project you finish, you'll get better and better at finishing projects, which will help you get faster at finishing projects, too.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

I'm writing a story where a childhood friend comes back into the protagonist's life after a few years and there are some lingering romantic feelings between them, but the protagonist is in a relationship, although it's a casual relationship that he feels more seriously about than the other person involved. Both relationships are developing through the story, but I'm having trouble showing the contrasts between the two relationships. What are things I could add to show how differently they both know the protagonist?

Illustrating Differences Between Two Relationships

If you haven't already, go ahead and flesh out what both of these relationships were like. What were the strengths of each relationship? What were the weaknesses? What was the most romantic moment? What was the least romantic moment? What was the average date night like? What was the average "time spent together" session like? What three memories would the protagonist highlight as their favorites of the relationship? What three memories would they highlight as their least favorite?

Once you've fleshed out what the relationships were like, you can use the following methods to illustrate them for the reader. You can provide contrast by illustrating them in close proximity. For example, maybe the current love interest does something romantic, which makes the character think of the most romantic thing the previous love interest did.

Ways to illustrate the relationships for the reader:

-- have the protagonist recall past relationship memories either via the narrative or via dialogue; find a way to relate this recollection with something parallel in the current relationship

-- use a current relationship moment/situation to lead into a flashback where the protagonist relives a similar/better/worse moment in the past relationship

-- use internal monologue to have the protagonist mentally process differences in the relationship

-- use dialogue with another character to have the protagonist discuss differences in the relationships. You can also have the other character make observations about differences in the relationships.

-- have the protagonist notice differences triggered by things like photographs, old e-mails or letters, mementos or gifts, etc.

Some other things to keep in mind:

-- illustrate differences in how the love interests reacted to similar situations/moments/events

-- illustrate differences in protagonist's emotional state during similar interactions with each love interest

-- highlight commonalities and differences between the protagonist and the love interests

-- illustrate differences in emotional and physical chemistry

Hopefully this will get you on your way to illustrating and examining key differences between your protagonist and their current/previous love interests. Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi!

Firstly, thank you so much for all you do, it’s much appreciated 🥹 secondly, I’m not sure if this is something you’ve answered already so apologies in advance if it is, tumblr’s search function is not exemplary 😅

I was hoping you’d have some alternatives for “my throat tightens” or “I swallow hard” to use in difficult, emotional moments? I feel like I’m using them way too much and I’m drawing a blank. When I try to search for it I’m just getting results for dysphagia 😂

Thank you! 🖤

Cues for Difficult/Emotional moments

There are only so many ways to describe a tightening throat, and no matter how you word it ("my throat tightens," "I swallow hard," or "a lump formed in my throat"), it's still repetitive. You're over relying on the internal cues in one part of the body (the throat) rather than the many, many others that give us emotional cues.

For example...

Lungs: - "my breath hitched" - "I felt a rush of heat to my cheeks" - "my breaths became shallow" - "I let out a long, shaky exhale" - "I drew a deep breath through my nose" - "My chest felt tight"

Chest/Heart - "my heart pounded" - "my heart sunk" - "my heartbeat turned to a panicked flutter" - "my heart thudded in my chest" - "I was too aware of my beating heart" - "My chest swelled with fury" Stomach/Core - "My stomach churned" - "A queasy feeling settled in my gut" - "A fresh wave of panic made my stomach tighten" - "My insides churned like a turbulent sea" - "My insides felt hollow, filled only with sadness"

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Take a moment to take stock of where you feel emotion in moments like the one you want to describe. It's not just something you feel in your throat. :)

If you have a little cash to spend or can put it on a gift list, I highly recommend picking up a copy (in print or e-book) of The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. Even as a seasoned writer, I still find this resource to be incredibly helpful when I'm stuck on what internal or external cue would be perfect for what I'm trying to convey.

If nothing else, you can also Google "internal cues to indicate anger" or "external cues to show sadness" and see if any good suggestions come up.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writingquestionsanswered]

Is there any blog platform you recommend for online posting? I really want to share online the short stories I write but at the same time I want to create a little "space" for it. Wattpad and similar options are not exactly what I'm looking for and I don't know if blogger is still an active site. I stopped using it years ago :( I feel really trapped and anxious right now. Sorry for my English.

Blog for Sharing Writing

If you're planning on promoting your work via social media, in-person events, etc., I think you could use just about any blogging platform that suits you. But if you don't plan on bringing an outside audience to your blog, you need a blogging platform with a built-in and active community of writers and readers. In other words, active writing and reading-related tags that people use and follow.

I don't know anything about reading and writing communities on other blog platforms, but they seem to be reasonably solid still here on Tumblr. So, I think a good bet would be to make a Tumblr side blog for your writing. Then, start posting there using the relevant reading and writing tags. In other words, things like #shortstories, #shortfiction, #shortfictionwriter, #shortfictionreader. Those aren't recommended tags, necessarily (I just winged those), but you can use Google to find up-to-date and relevant writing and reading-related tags.

Once you have a bunch of tags you can use, be sure to follow them so you're seeing the posts of readers and writers who follow those same tags. This is a great way to find friends to follow and interact with. Ultimately, interacting with other writers and readers is the key to gaining traction. If you don't follow others, they won't follow you. If you don't read and like their posts, they won't read and like yours. Interaction and reciprocation makes all the difference. And, you can start bringing in outside readers, too, using word of mouth or social media posts to promote your writing if you choose to.

Good luck with your blog!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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