Hey! I’m new to tumblr and writeblr by extension, and you kinda seem like one of the bigger writeblr accounts, so I thought I could ask you on this one. How do I make a wip page? Do I just tag everything about the wip with a certain tag?
Hey @citruschickadee, welcome to the website and community! I’m so glad you’re here, and I hope you enjoy your stay. I love your username by the way!
First things first: I’m a bigger writeblr?? Really!? Hold on brb screaming aaaaaaaaaa
Anyways. I unfortunately don’t have an example on my blog to show you what a good WIP page is since my blog construction is dreadfully behind and incomplete, but I can definitely tell you how to make one!
You mentioned that you were new to tumblr, so I’m just going to go ahead and give a step-by-step guide for tumblr newbies just in case you don’t quite know how to navigate the website yet. I’m really sorry if it’s unnecessary and you already know how, I’m just trying to cover all the bases!
How to make a good WIP page.
First things first, making the page. So one of the good things about a WIP page is that it can be as simple or as fancy as you want it to be!
If you want it to be simple and easy, you can just make a text post about it! If you do this, be sure to save the link somewhere so you can easily access it, and it won’t get lost in your blog.
However, I personally would recommend going to your blog theme’s customization page and make a new page (Click on the person icon on the upper right hand corner → Click on your writeblr blog → Go the ‘edit appearance’ on the right hand side → Click on ‘edit theme’ → Scroll all the way down on the left hand side → Click ‘add a page’). This allows you to have a simple, clean link that you can name, that’s easy for you and your followers to remember!
Now that you have a page/post for your WIP, you have two options.
Plain text formatting: This is just your standard tumblr post. It’s easy, simple and clean.
WIP page theme: This is fancier and has more options for customization. It is however, more complex and requires you to fiddle with HTML. If you want to have a fancy WIP page theme, I would recommend either checking out this tag at @theme-hunter, or looking through @roleplay-theme-recs to see if you can find anything that works for you.
What to put on your WIP page
Now that you have a page or a post set up for your WIP, you need to write it up! Here are some essential things you need for a good WIP page:
A title: A little self-explanatory and obvious, but important! I would recommend making it big and visible.
Genre: This will make it easier for your followers to get a feel of your WIP at a glance. Personally, I would have a minimum of one genre and a maximum of three or four written here.
Synopsis: What’s your WIP about? What can readers expect from your story? What’s the setting? What’s your plot? This is basically the blurb, or the back cover of the book! This is the most important part — sell your WIP! Hook readers in!
Links: Are you posting your WIP somewhere online so people can read? Be sure to include the links here so people can find them!
Tags: This is where you inform your followers what tags you’ll be using for this WIP. Obviously you’ll have one tag for your WIP that you’ll use, but if you’re planning to have character tags, tags for excerpts, etc be sure to include that here so people will know where to look.
The things listed above are absolutely necessary for a WIP. Now I will list some additional things you could include that are optional.
Character intros: Usually, a synopsis is enough to establish a character, but if you wanted to go a step further and introduce your main characters, this is an option. You might talk a little bit about their personality and significance to the story here.
Images: Relevant images that fit the aesthetics of your WIP are a really great way to catch someone’s eye. Some people make a banner, others might make a moodboard… It’s really just up to you, as long as it looks nice.
Excerpts: If there’s a paragraph that you really feel like it captures what your WIP is about, you can include it here.
Setting: This is another thing usually covered in your synopsis, but maybe it’s special or you want to draw attention to it, or you want to clarify it.
If you’ve decided to go with a WIP theme, you’ll probably have a template to fill out with similar information: Do that! However, if you’re just making your own text post, be sure to format it so it looks nice! No block text, organize the structure, use headers, bold sections, etc. People won’t read something no matter how well it’s written if it’s not easy to read.
If you have multiple WIPs…
If you have multiple WIPs that you want to showcase on your Writeblr, you have two options:
Make one really long post with information about all of your WIPs. You’d basically just have this repeat this guide for however many WIPs you have.
Make a separate WIP masterpost.
Of the two, I would recommend making a WIP masterpost so you don’t overwhelm your readers! Here’s how to make one:
Title and link: When you write your title, embed your link to the individual WIP page in it!
Genres: Just list a couple major ones (i.e., Fantasy and romance).
Short synopsis: A quick and easy way to inform your reader of the plot.
Since you’ll be talking about multiple WIPs here, be sure to keep it short and sweet!
Now that you have your WIP post, now what?
Congratulations! You made your WIP post, what do you do now?
Include it in your main links: Most blog themes will have a space for a few links: be sure to include your WIP post here! As a Writeblr, it is extremely important for it to be visible and obvious since that’s what you’ll be promoting a lot. If you have several WIPs and don’t have space for all of them, definitely include your WIP masterpost in a link!
Post it: If you decided to make a new page for your WIP rather than just a post, it won’t show up on your dashboard — so let people know that it exists! Make a post about your WIPs, reblog it every so often so that new followers can see it.
Tag your posts: Every time you post about your WIP, tag it with its designated tag so when people go to that tag, they can see everything you posted about it.
Navigation page: Add your WIP tag to your navigation/tag page so people poking around your blog can find it easily!
I think that’s all I have to say about the basics of a WIP page. Feel free to ask me if you have any further questions!
I’m so sorry for the long post, but I hope this helps! Thank you so much for asking, and good luck on your Writeblr journey :)
If you’d like to ask me for advice on writing or running a writeblr, please check out my Ask Guidelines and FAQ first.
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