Hey, Bex as someone who just started writing I just wanna say you have really inspired me, especially with poly content thank you for making your blog, and if you could give me some tips on how to grow and better writing.
Well hello! I am so glad to hear this, whenever someone feels inspired by my work it makes me very happy, polyam content has to be one of my greatest creative joys, I don't think I will ever stop writing it!
Now, it has been a long time since I have given some writing advice, so let's get in it.
Number one, make sure you tag properly! Not just putting it in the proper tumblr tags that will gain you traffic, but also outlining info people might want to know, characters or ships involved, any warnings, a word count, and most important to me: A read more. If your work is over 1,000 words, a read more is a must, esp if you want people to reblog your work and spread it. I have seen some great fic I would love to reblog, but it is LONG with no read more, and I don't want to clog other people's dash with thousands of words like I have had mine done previously, meaning I don't reblog it.
Number two, write what speaks to YOU personally. What interests you, what you know, and my favourite, more of what you personally want to see in regard to fan works, you'll be shocked how many people you can inspire by doing that (I'm living proof).
Number three, be shameless. Promote yourself, hype yourself and your stuff, be your own biggest fan, reblog your own stuff often and sing its praises! I am always more inclined to read someone's work when they act like they KNOW how good their work is, opposed to someone putting in their author's note, "This sucks-" or some variant.
Number four, inspiration can come from anywhere, I have been inspired by movies, tv shows, songs and books of course, but also by conversations with other people, conversations with MYSELF, a simple trip out to the mall or a day at work. The spark for a story can come from ANYWHERE, so indulge and engage in life itself often.
Number five, push yourself. Write in different tenses, look at a scene from media that speaks to you and replace the characters in question with ones you love and want to write, how would that same scene play out with different people? Do self-indulgent things you have no intention of posting. Explore word choice and dissect dialog, that can go a long way to making your characters SOUND like themselves.
Number six, read. If you want to write well, you need to read, fics AND books, different genres, fiction and non, because reading is what? Fundamental. Look at what you love in other works, the feelings they can invoke, and think on how you can do the same.
Number seven, get a good writing program and a grammar/spell checker. One of my biggest issues is run-on sentences, a lot of my personal editing is refiguring sentences so they don't go on and on and fucking on, I cannot recommend a program or two to assist with this enough.
Number eight, vary your word choice and expand your vocabulary. I recommend OneLook, the reverse dictionary, put in a word, and it pops out similar words to give you that variation.
Number nine, write. It should be obvious, but you need to write. Just like anything, writing takes time, effort, energy and practice to improve, view it like a muscle, it will only get stronger the more you work out, it won't unless you do it, so put that mind to work! Don't get discouraged or down on yourself or your progress, the best way to better your writing is to write.
Number ten, have fun! Write when it is fun, and if it is hard or painful, or not coming, don't force it! You will burn yourself out or rob joy from this wonderful hobby and pass time, I have taken breaks myself as needed and I have ALWAYS been better for it.
Last thoughts, comparison is the thief of joy. Don't look at other people's work and get jealous or in your head because of their comments, hits, or notes, if you view it as a numbers game you will never be happy or satisfied with yourself. Keep in mind, any big writer started off just like you did and had to build themselves up to where you see them now.
Reach out! Reblog other's work, comment, send asks, DMs, try to make friends and build a community, hype other's stuff and other's will want to do the same for you.
And last, if you are posting writing here, make a masterlist and pin it to your blog, trust me, it'll make everything way easier in the long run, try to up keep it and it'll be an invaluable resource.
