Fic 'n Stuff

Resources, memes and everything in between. Just a writer trying to help other writers.

[griffinsanddragons]

I don’t want to write this extremely specific fanfic of which I am the primary audience, I just want to read it.

[ao3commentoftheday]

No matter how much you plan and plot and research and prepare, you’ll never actually feel ready, so you might as well just jump right in and do the thing.

[ao3commentoftheday]

upon rereading this, I feel like I should specify that I was talking about writing and not murder

[olderthannetfic]

Every year… Every damn year…

[fighterkimburgess]

Tags like this are the reason I tend to donate extra to AO3 when I can afford to.

[olderthannetfic]

Honestly, I don’t even care if people I know donate. AO3 is designed so that a few generous patrons can make a nice thing exist for everyone… But holy shit do I wish tumblr would learn how websites and companies work because it is important to know what motivates them.

On AO3, MORE TRAFFIC IS NOT BETTER HOLYFUCK. That’s only true when traffic = more ad revenue or a better pitch to venture capitalists or something.

[azcrowleyfell]

Ao3 is literally a nonprofit, kids.

[roach-works]

to clarify, rather than scold: The Archive Of Our Own is a nonprofit organization that runs an archive of fanfiction, specifically for the purposes of recording and maintaining all fanfics uploaded to it. it was founded after livejournal and fanfiction.net repeatedly deleted queer and ‘problematic’ fanfics in order to please advertisers and keep getting ad revenue. for decades, fandom was at the mercy of corporations who repeatedly deleted–with little warning and no mercy–whatever platforms were used to host fanfiction, especially dark, queer, kinky, and immoral fanfiction that would annoy corporate interests or scare off investors or offend advertisers.

AO3 is specifically relies on donations, rather than ad revenue, because it is the Archive Of Our Own, and is not answerable to any political agenda other than protecting and maintaining, again, all the fanfiction uploaded to it. there are checks and balances, and there’s a governing board, and they’re all dead serious about making sure that the archive endures any attempts by outside parties to censor or remove its content, no matter how abhorrent that content is.

the archive is an archive, not a social network or a platform. it hosts content and it serves that content to users in an efficient way–hence the phenomenal tag system–but it is meant to safeguard writers and their writing, not to profit from its users. it literally can’t profit off of its users or monetize their interactions in any way, just by virtue of its own structure: all money given to a nonprofit goes towards furthering that organization’s mission.

see, when a company or corporation makes money, it pays for labor and upkeep and then the guys that own the company keep the rest of the money, and that’s profit. when a nonprofit makes money, it pays for labor and upkeep and then if it has extra, it reinvests in various ways, like building new things or improving old things, or it saves the money for future labor and upkeep it might need.

the archive cares that users are able to control their own experiences of it, and filter out the stuff they don’t want to see. they care that users are protected from harassment. but they don’t profit from users’ engagement with the site, so they don’t do anything to encourage traffic the way a for-profit site that’s monetized engagement has.

hopefully this explanation helps someone.

tl;dr, a non-profit archive can’t profit from traffic the way for-profit social networks do, so it doesn’t care about you in a completely different way.

[schizm-deactivated]

reading fanfiction is like. you are misinterpreting this character incorrectly. i am also misinterpreting them but i'm doing it the correct and sexy way. you dont know him like i know him

[vmae]

The worst part about working on original fiction is u gotta wait like 5 years to get a book draft done in order to SHOW YOUR FRIENDS chapters. Ain't like fanfic where you can just....send em. Tis horrid.

[vmae]

like yes i worked incredibly hard on this 10 page chapter. yes in order to understand what the hell it means you need a 15 hour briefing on background lore. i apologize. this sucks for everyone.

[vmae]

support your original writer friends because they lack like, an established fandom to get validation from. encourage them. encourage people who draw fandomless OCs. give em ur lov.

[chaosciara]

To all the original writers out there:

You're doing a fantastic job!

Keep making your little universes come alive.

I'm really really proud of you

Look at all the words you've written, look at all those beautiful characters you've brought to life.

Thank you!

I hope one day I get to read your work and then I'll be part of your fandom too.

[firemoon42]

Ways to un-stick a stuck story

Do an outline, whatever way works best. Get yourself out of the word soup and know where the story is headed.

Conflicts and obstacles. Hurt the protagonist, put things in their way, this keeps the story interesting. An easy journey makes the story boring and boring is hard to write.

Change the POV. Sometimes all it takes to untangle a knotted story is to look at it through different eyes, be it through the sidekick, the antagonist, a minor character, whatever.

Know the characters. You can’t write a story if the characters are strangers to you. Know their likes, dislikes, fears, and most importantly, their motivation. This makes the path clearer.

Fill in holes. Writing doesn’t have to be linear; you can always go back and fill in plotholes, and add content and context.

Have flashbacks, hallucinations, dream sequences or foreshadowing events. These stir the story up, deviations from the expected course add a feeling of urgency and uncertainty to the narrative.

Introduce a new mystery. If there’s something that just doesn’t add up, a big question mark, the story becomes more compelling. Beware: this can also cause you to sink further into the mire.

Take something from your protagonist. A weapon, asset, ally or loved one. Force him to operate without it, it can reinvigorate a stale story.

Twists and betrayal. Maybe someone isn’t who they say they are or the protagonist is betrayed by someone he thought he could trust. This can shake the story up and get it rolling again.

Secrets. If someone has a deep, dark secret that they’re forced to lie about, it’s a good way to stir up some fresh conflict. New lies to cover up the old ones, the secret being revealed, and all the resulting chaos.

Kill someone. Make a character death that is productive to the plot, but not “just because”. If done well, it affects all the characters, stirs up the story and gets it moving.

Ill-advised character actions. Tension is created when a character we love does something we hate. Identify the thing the readers don’t want to happen, then engineer it so it happens worse than they imagined.

Create cliff-hangers. Keep the readers’ attention by putting the characters into new problems and make them wait for you to write your way out of it. This challenge can really bring out your creativity.

Raise the stakes. Make the consequences of failure worse, make the journey harder. Suddenly the protagonist’s goal is more than he expected, or he has to make an important choice.

Make the hero active. You can’t always wait for external influences on the characters, sometimes you have to make the hero take actions himself. Not necessarily to be successful, but active and complicit in the narrative.

Different threat levels. Make the conflicts on a physical level (“I’m about to be killed by a demon”), an emotional level (“But that demon was my true love”) and a philosophical level (“If I’m forced to kill my true love before they kill me, how can love ever succeed in the face of evil?”).

Figure out an ending. If you know where the story is going to end, it helps get the ball rolling towards that end, even if it’s not the same ending that you actually end up writing.

What if? What if the hero kills the antagonist now, gets captured, or goes insane? When you write down different questions like these, the answer to how to continue the story will present itself.

Start fresh or skip ahead. Delete the last five thousand words and try again. It’s terrifying at first, but frees you up for a fresh start to find a proper path. Or you can skip the part that’s putting you on edge – forget about that fidgety crap, you can do it later – and write the next scene. Whatever was in-between will come with time.

[theinkstainsblog]

*Blinks* I-I’m not the only one to call writer’s block needing to un-stick the story? 

[beanenigma]

I was in dire need of this! Thank you!

[ao3commentoftheday]

[as-water-fills-the-sea]

animal crossing devs: okay, we’ll put tarantulas in the game to encourage kids to not play too much at night :)

unemployed, quarantined millenials frothing at the mouth at the thought of being able to pay off a mortgage: TARANTULA ISLAND TARANTULA ISLAND TARANTULA ISLAND

[pasdecoeur]

all fanfiction is funnier and sexier and vastly better-written when you read it at three in the morning, in the dark, lying on your side, tucked into bed, with screen rotate turned off. that’s just how it works. that’s just facts.

[nifrequerne]

I often wonder what happened to authors of unfinished fanfictions.

[everyoneinspaceisgay]

I hope they’re having a nice life

[ts-virgil-angst]

we absolutely are not and that unfinished fic haunts us to this day

[sensiblereblogifposts]

Reblog if that unfinished fic haunts you to this day

[overworkedunderwhelmed]

Oh… to only have one unfinished fic haunting me…

[wordsnstuff]

Tips On Introducing Characters

This is also available on wordsnstuffblog.com!

– A lot of questions I receive revolve around the introduction of story elements, such as backstory and politics, so I decided to cover character introductions because it’s a good way to ease into all of these other topics. I hope you all find this helpful. Happy writing!

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Find A Suitable Way

The way in which you introduce a character can be a really big subtextual clue as to who they are and how they will function in the story. Some really good ways to introduce them are:

show how a character performs simple actions

let their reputation speak for them in the form of other characters’ interactions about them

Use some backstory that shows the reader their relevance prior to their personality

Don’t Focus Solely On Physical Description

The truth is, when you meet a person in real life, you don’t spend 5 minutes analyzing the flecks of color in their eyes, the intricate patterns in their outfits, or the marks on their skin. Filter in physical description over time, when physical features become relevant to the narrative. First impressions majorly rely on subtext through common associations with actions, appearances, and words. It’s more important that your reader knows information about them than what they look like. The image will come together with time.

Avoid Cliche Introductions

Anne R. Allen made a short and simple list that she called the Robinson Crusoe Openings, and the following were on it:

driving alone in a car

sitting on an airplane

waking up and getting ready for the day

out on her morning jog

looking in the mirror

Simply, these put a bad taste in the reader’s mouth because every reader has seen each and every single one of those a million times before. There are more interesting ways to introduce a character to your readers, and there are ways that will suit your character way more.

Make Your Reader Care Early

Don’t jump right into the action without showing the reader multiple reasons why they should care about your character. Introductions are a good way to set up future information about their motivations, struggles, etc. which make your reader invested in what happens to that character.

Relevance = Page Time

What I mean by this is, the impact a character will have on the story and conflict resolution for that story (even in a series) should determine how much time is devoted to describing them. If they aren’t a huge part of the story now, but will come in hot in book 2, leave the meaningful introduction for when the reader actually needs to remember them. If a minor character comes in that isn’t apart of any major subplot or the main conflict, then spend less time describing them to the reader than the main characters. This seems like common sense to a lot of people, but this strategy is often overlooked in practice.

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[gingerly-writing]

write for the audience you want, not the one you’re afraid of

[headspace-hotel]

write to delight the audience you want and piss off the one you’re afraid of

[fireblight-ao3]

Oh I like this. I like the spite.

[ao3commentoftheday]

If you can’t find the story that you’re looking for in canon, homemade is fine.

Keep reading

[rl-biteme]

Also, if a property is underwhelming, extrapolation and going visionary is also fine.

[write-on-world]

[heywriters]

Not every writer wants to post their work online, however there are positives to doing so. If you seek feedback and advice from readers and writers, you might consider posting a draft or two. Even a few chapters or a poem can be uploaded online to get a little audience feedback.

Here are writing sites I’ve explored along with brief reviews of my experience in using them:

Fictionpress | Original fiction only | Covers Opt. — Has a docs feature so you can save works onsite without posting them, plus moderately detailed analytics to show you individual story traffic. With plenty of keen writers/readers willing to learn and help, written feedback is not uncommon here. Quiet and comfortable, but if you don’t update very often readership grows stagnant. It’s also worth noting that you cannot delete reviews or your account. — Adult Material Prohibited.

Major Demographics: All genders, All ages.*

Popular Genres: sci-fi, contemporary, fantasy*

Fanfiction.net | Fanfiction only | Covers Opt. — Sister site to Fictionpress, thus it has all the same features and drawbacks. However, it gets much more traffic than the original fiction site. When it comes to categorizing your story though it can get tricky, and if you have questions or complaints for the administrators, don’t expect a response email soon…or ever. — Adult Material Prohibited.

Major Demographics: Female, All ages.

Popular Genres: epic dramas, fluff, angst, whump

Archive Of Our Own (AO3) | Fanfiction only** | No covers — Invite only, but getting in isn’t hard. High viewership, well organized, and ad-free. Some written feedback, especially if you ask for some, but the “kudos” button is open to the public so anyone can leave their mark of approval. You can also set individual stories to “users only” along with other useful privacy options.

Crossover friendly, so you can finally post that multi-fandom fic and tag each property for search. Ships, subject material, and trigger warnings are also taggable for search (or to weed out in the case of tws). Lets you group individual stories into a series, and has various features for sharing/gifting your work with others. Overall the best place for fanfiction, hands down. — Adult Material Allowed

Major Demographics: Female, All ages.

Popular Genres: smut, epic dramas, fluff/angst, whump

Wattpad | Original & fan fiction | Covers Req. — Wattpad has been steadily improving its features and policies in the five years I’ve been using it. Here, some writers receive tons of feedback and appreciation, but most receive very little. A few authors have gotten published thanks to this site, others have followers in the hundreds of thousands, and still others become site administrators to support the bustling community.

They’ve recently rebranded, and have also introduced a feature to earn writers money. It is currently in beta and being tested with select authors only.

Unlike other sites, this one has very clear international groups and a high ethnic diversity among its writers. There’s an emphasis on supporting foreign authors and their stories in any language. Contests are set up by the site, but also smaller niche ones can be run by individual users.

It’s very fun to use and if the site chooses to feature one of your works you can get a lot of traffic. For the most part however, you have to practice marketing yourself, and/or develop a group of writer friends and read/promote each other’s work. — Adult Material allowed, but along strict guidelines (lots of kids use this site!).

Major Demographics: Female, Teens.

Popular Genres: romance, young adult, supernatural, celeb fic, fantasy

Royal Road | Original & fan fiction | Covers Opt. — This was suggested in the replies, so I did some research. Haven’t used it myself, looks nice, but here are the main points interested writers should know: 

Site does not claim ownership of your work, copyright stays with you.

Popular stories receive much feedback and viewership in the millions.

You cannot remove reviews on your own stories, and you must submit a ticket to remove your story or delete your account.

From their FAQ: “All new submissions are manually checked for appropriate tagging and plagiarism, so expect it to take 12-24 hrs for a submission to be approved.” Also, stories with low-quality spelling and grammar will be removed by moderators.

Keeping a steady update schedule of “polished” drafts seems to be mandatory, and reviewers sound entitled.

One-shots seem to be out of the question, this is a site for novels.

Premium and free options exist for both readers and writers.

Site is affilated with Amazon, has been running for six years, and is based in Israel.

Fantasy, supernatural, epic dramas.

Adult Material Allowed

Smashbook and Livejournal are sites I am aware of, but have too little knowledge of to review. Likewise Wordpress, Blogger, or right here on Tumblr you can regularly post stories or novels and receive feedback. However, for those sites you do have to figure out a blogging system for yourself.

While researching good sites for this post, I found this user’s comments insightful. She suggested Writer’s Digest and Absolute Write as good places to seek professional feedback on your work. They don’t appear to be sites where you post work, but rather they provide tips and resources to help improve your work.

There are dozens of other places online where you can post your original fiction, non-fiction, and fan fiction. Things to keep in mind when site shopping:

READ THEIR SUBMISSION POLICIES & GUIDELINES FIRST

Search for reviews of the site by individuals who’ve actually used the site and are not affilated with the site.

See what the site’s policy is on deleting works & accounts. You don’t want to get your name and work trapped on a site with a bad reputation.

If “popular” stories have very little feedback on them, this means the majority of stories on that site get none.

If most users haven’t updated in months/years, this means the site is practically dead and may soon shut down. RED FLAG: the site does not date anything.

If the “feedback” on users’ pages and stories are “Like my work!” or “Read for read?” and other self-promotional messages, don’t sign up.

If a site looks cool to you but you’re still unsure, make an account with a junk email and post something you don’t care too much about just to test the waters. Good/bad doesn’t matter much right now, what’s important is figuring out how traffic works and what readers there are interested in. 

Sites to AVOID due to spam, scams, and shifty behavior:

Inkitt—spam/shifty; claims it’s the #1 site for online publishing, but this is misleading. Their idea of getting users is to send copy/paste “invitations” to pre-existing online accounts (often dead accounts), and lie about how good one’s writing is even though they’ve never read it. Signing up with them also gets you endless emails about their pathetic contests.

Dreame—spam/scam; similar deceptive invitation tactic, except they are relentless (they’ve “invited” me five six times on two different sites). Their gimmick is to offer you pennies for 5yr rights to your work (and their site is trashy with very little reader feedback).

FicFun—same as Dreame, both are owned by their Singaporean parent company Stary PTE Ltd. (who personally sent me my 5th “invite”).

+ If you have a question, please review my Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you!

+ If you benefit from my updates and replies, please consider sending a little thank you and Buy Me A Coffee! 

+ HEY, Writers! other social media: Wattpad - AO3 - Pinterest - Goodreads

—

*Based on what I see as receiving the most traffic and feedback on each site. These are not accurate statistics, merely observations.

** “Is AO3 really just for fanfic?” (tl;dr—YES)

[heywriters]

@the-empty-disarray

[valmoxium]

[autistichalfblood]

nocturnenebula‌:

EDIT: This post is inclusive to ALL art forms.

Likes can only go so far for artists. Artists may exclusively upload their artwork to tumblr, or don’t have the time to use other sites and prefer tumblr over deviantART due to its simplicity, but the tagging system can make it harder to navigate. Many artists on tumblr tag with high-traffic tags or use their own tags to prevent tag clogging which eventually become lost. That’s why it’s very important to reblog an artist’s work. 

I’m not trying to push you to ruin your blog’s aesthetic or something, nor am I saying that “you must absolutely reblog your favourite artist’s work or you’re trash”, all I’m saying is if you truly want to support your favourite artist, instead of just liking their posts, try to reblog them once in a while. The more reblogs they receive, the more exposure/notes/followers they may receive, and it’s just one of the easiest ways to show you care about them.

*This does not mean to reblog unsourced artwork or works reuploaded to another person’s blog without permission (re:stolen). Nor does this mean to reblog artworks without the artist’s consent, even if this case is slim.

[foxthebeekeeper]

A neighbor called and said she saw a swarm on a fire hydrant so I grabbed my bucket and ran there as fast as I could. I dabbed some lemongrass oil on the bottom of it and they walked in. After about 5 minutes I just scooped the rest in and bam! Free bees!

I got the queen on the first scoop too though. Apparently she was a new one because she was piping in there really loudly. This is my first personal swarm catch so honestly I’m not sure if that was supposed to happen or not.

[droct0]

What other website am i going to see posts where the op talks about “bam! Free bees!”

[aces-and-anime]