How do you keep your readers engaged as the story gets longer?
I've heard from many, and seen it myself, that interaction drops significantly as the chapters accumulate (which I honestly do not even understand...hence why I'm asking this) but I've also seen a lot of writers who have quite lengthy fics where the engagement and excitement seems to stay consistent throughout.
They're receiving asks with comments and questions about the latest chapters, the reblogs are abundant compared to likes, and I'm just curious if there's anything anyone does differently to help maintain this other than just being a great writer 🤣 (which I'm realizing is probably the key thing and that there's nothing to do other than just be able to write a really good story which I'm clearly not haaaaa)
I've tried sharing snippets of upcoming chapters in the past and they've always fallen on their face, I've released chapter playlists, etc so I feel like from a "marketing" standpoint I've done what I can? And also as writers we shouldn't even have to work that hard to "promote" our fics considering people ask to be on taglists and what have you. (This is the site for sharing and ACTIVELY participating in fandom...)
It's been a struggle to keep myself motivated to finish up my series and I'm starting to wonder if there's even a point now that it's been over a month since I've updated (which I realize consistent updates are likely a huge factor as well 🙃 but, you know, life.)
Anyway. Thinking out loud here. Any advice/conversation is welcome! 💗
It’ll Be Fine: It’ll be fine. It didn't have to be bad this time. He could dress as warm as possible, he could start paying to take the tram. It would hurt his wallet but he wouldn't have to be cold for as long. And that was ideal. Anything to stay out of the cold. OR Jayce is terrified of winter. But he has a crush on his lab partner, Viktor. So when Viktor invites him to a winter festival, Jayce decides he can brute force his way through the night, just like he does with everything else.
Moon Knight
When Wrong Feels Normal: Marc has problems and refuses to believe that they are, in fact, problems. So it's up to Steven and a Certain Someone to help him. (15,760 words)
Irondad
Here to Help: Tony Stark finds his intern Peter Parker starving and exhausted in the alleyway by Stark Tower and takes him in, soon learning that things weren't as safe at home as they seemed. Now Tony has to help Peter get back on his feet, though he quickly realizes, he won't be able to help Peter on his own... OR In which Peter Parker pretty much unites the Avengers after Civil War simply by just existing (Ongoing)
Just so Hungry: Peter doesn’t eat all day and Tony is a protective dad. Also there’s a cat. This is just better version of another story I’ve published on AO3 under the same title. I’m not deleting that version so if you wanna go find it for some reason go ahead. But this one is better. (6681 words)
Silly Little Spider: Poor Peter Parker doesn’t have enough money for food (And Tony has to do something about that). Basically a more angsty version of Just so Hungry lol (4015 words)
The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Asra and the Baker: Set back when Asra was young and living in the streets of Vesuvia. This is the story of how Asra met the Baker! Super cute and fluffy, yay. (2106 words)
Fiscal...Whatever - David is the one who comes up with a really reasonable budget for the wedding.
Published: 2020-01-18 Completed: 2020-01-27 Words: 1,704 Chapters: 2/2 Rated: E
Surprised - What if Johnny never inadvertently outed Patrick at the start of Meet the Parents? How would things have gone down?
Published: 2020-01-05 Completed: 2020-03-07 Words: 11,624 Chapters: 4/4 Rated: T
Pieces of Me - Before the wedding, David finds something from his old life that he wants Patrick to have. They both have feelings about it. Set sometime between The Presidential Suite and Start Spreading the News (waves hand at the timey-wimey nature of the show).
Chapter 2 earns the ‘E’ rating.
Published: 2020-04-01 Completed: 2020-04-10 Words: 6,734 Chapters: 2/2 Rated: E
Keep On Falling - The 50 First Dates AU that you never knew you wanted. Patrick is new in town. He sees David one morning at the cafe and sparks fly. But there’s something about David that Patrick doesn’t know. Will it keep them apart? Or will love overcome all obstacles, even when it has to start from scratch every day?
Published: 2020-01-23 Updated: 2020-04-12 Words: 10,018 Chapters:4/? Rated: T
Grass Stains - David mows the lawn. And Patrick loses his fucking mind. That’s it. That’s the entire story.
Published: 2020-05-23 Completed: 2020-06-04 Words: 4,125 Chapters: 2/2 Rated: E
It’s Okay. It’s Just His Business Partner - Patrick startles. He hadn’t been that obvious had he? Is it weird to gaze longingly at your business partner over a small, intimate table in a small, intimate restaurant, with mood lighting and soft music playing in the background, in an atmosphere that David himself had called “cozy”?
Published: 2020-06-03 Completed: 2020-06-09 Words: 3,413 Chapters: 3/3 Rated: T
I Put a Spell On You - Stripper Patrick collaboration with didipickles, missgeevious, reginahalliwell, ships_to_sail, yourbuttervoicedbeau (kiwiana).
David can feel the crowd shift gears. Conversations halt and bodies still. Up until now the music has been a series of the usual strip club songs with a strong, thumping bass good for high energy dancing and thrusting. This song is different. Patrick is different. He has the entire club’s attention immediately.
Published: 2020-06-07 Updated: 2020-07-06 Words: 10,247 Chapters:2/? Rated: E
Slow Hand - So this one starts out at the end of Season 4 Episode 1 - Dead Guy in Room 4 and ends with their night at Stevie’s in Pregnancy Test. I know the start of their relationship has been done over and over, and done well. But I’d like to add my little voice to the mix.
Published: 2019-09-21 Completed: 2020-07-31 Words: 32,241 Chapters: 12/12 Rated: E
This Bed Wasn’t Built For Our Love - Ohmygod. A voice that sounds a lot like his husband’s echoes in Patrick’s brain. His parents heard them. Heard them having sex. Heard them having sex so rambunctious that they broke the goddam bed.
Published: 2020-09-07 Updated: 2020-09-07 Words: 3,644 Chapters: 2/? Rated: E
The Love Left Behind - Tragedy strikes the Roses. Patrick struggles to be there for David and his family, while giving them—and himself—the freedom to mourn in their own way. A story of grief, resilience, and the healing power of love.
Content Warning for Major Character Death.
Published: 2020-09-18 Completed: 2020-11-26 Words: 52,000 Chapters: 11/11 Rated: M
Don’t Whump With My Heart - Patrick’s plans for romantic hike/picnic go terribly, terribly wrong. Spoilers for 5.13: The Hike.
Published: 2019-10-02 Updated: 2020-12-17 Words: 21,173 Chapters: 13/? Rated: M
Ask Me No Questions, I’ll Tell You No Lies - Marcy overhears Patrick and David having a disagreement. She doesn’t want to get involved, but sometimes her son’s communication issues are too much for her to overlook.
Published: 2020-12-20 Completed: 2021-01-05 Words: 5,111 Chapters: 2/2 Rated: E
Happy Fanfic Writer Friday!!! Can you show us the opening line of one of your WIPs?
Happy Fanfic Writer Friday!
Ummm...
You say this like I have an opening line... XD
The problem is, right now, all of my actual WIPs are multi-chapter fics and/or only in the planning stages, so the opening line has either already been posted somewhere, or it hasn’t been written yet.
Can I cheat and give you the opening line of the next chapter?
Good. Cause that’s what I’m gonna do.
And since you asked so nicely, I’ll give it to you for two fics.
Where Life Begins and Love Never Ends:
“Dude, high school is gonna be impossible.”
The Diamond Girl:
The sounds of the fight get louder as I near the school, but it isn’t until I turn another corner that I’m finally able to survey the full scene.
That’s the best I’ve got. Sorry I couldn’t give you a better answer!
When you think about it, multi-chapter stories are just glorified one-shot collections, and the chapters are interconnected one-shots that share a common theme and plot and characters.
With trembling hands, she opened the blue box that belonged to her mom to look into what's inside. Pretty stationery was sticking out.
Multiple letters.
Some of them were empty, some of them were scribbled all over with her mom's favourite black pen. But that meant the note Boruto found three months ago was real. Sarada couldn't deny evidence she held in her hands. No, she should calm down. It's not like she knows what's written in them, right? For all, she knows the rumours she heard could be baseless, and her mom is a friend of Boruto's father. Their parents seemed to know each other for some reason. All of that could be just her being unnecessarily paranoid.
Dear Naruto
Meet me today at our usual place. Don't let Hinata or anybody know about it, you know what I mean, right? Anyway, I'm counting on you!
Sakura Uchiha
Sarada recognised the words written in the first letter she took out. That was the same one Boruto pulled out three months ago and based their bet on it. She decided to ignore Boruto was peeking out from behind her shoulder since he was an involved party just like her.
Dear Sakura
Got it! I will promise to arrive on time, believe it! Are you sure you're alright without Sasuke around? I can always call him to come back for you, ya know.
Naruto
"Call back for dad? What for?" Sarada wondered out aloud.
"Maybe my dad, your mom and dad formed the love triangle in the past? Wouldn't surprise me, really." Boruto chimed in jokingly.
"Shush. There's more," she said, curious to see the entire exchange.
Dear Naruto
I am sorry Hinata heard those stupid rumours. I went to explain to her everything personally. I cannot blame her for that considering all three of us were in an open-relationship before because I wanted to make my current husband jealous. We all made stupid things when we were teenagers, right?
Thank you for keeping your promise. And no. You don't need to call Sasuke. We're not teenagers anymore focus on your family, okay?
Sakura
"I was right, ya know! In some way. The love triangle part happened with your mom and my parents. Isn't that awkward?"
Sarada was too shocked by obtaining this information behind her mom's back. She expected many things. That maybe her mom had a secret romance with Boruto's father, that maybe there's the hidden reason why she's so upset when she hears about the dream Sarada and her grandma shared. Not that Boruto's parents and her mom were in the poly-relationship as teenagers!
"It is awkward," she responded, still shocked by the things she recently learned about her mother.
Sarada felt incredibly bad for not asking her mom about everything in person and snooping around her stuff. But who could blame her? It wasn't Sarada's fault that her mom had a bad habit of hiding the family past.
It hurt she always needed to discover events hidden from her by herself. Sarada hated her family was so-secretive sometimes. Both mama and papa supposedly did it to spare her feelings, but it had an opposite effect.
Dear Sakura
Guilt-tripping again, eh? We all did stupid things as a teenagers, but I don't think the whole experience was negative. We are where we are because of it, right? Besides, it looks like my son is getting along with your daughter well. Both you and Hinata should meet up and explain everything to each other. I have a feeling we all meet soon considering our children are friends, ya know? We can talk about granny death in detail in person later, got it? I feel bad hiding our small letter exchange from Hinata. I don't want to make her angry.
Naruto
Sarada slid the letters to their respective envelopes and looked at Boruto to relax. "Let's stop reading these letters. I am feeling bad about reading our parents' private correspondence."
"I am shocked about some things written in here too. Mom never mentioned to me anything she did as a teenager, even if I asked her a few times." Boruto added still staring at her small collection of books
"Are you interested in borrowing a book from me?" she questioned him.
"Ahh, no. I just like how neatly those books are put." That was the weakest excuse Sarada heard coming from Boruto. Something was up, and she never had a chance to ask what was bothering him. Consumed by her own feelings, she decided to move that subject for later. However, they were alone in her room now, so that's her only chance to ask him what's up straight up.
"Hey, what's wrong? You space out a lot lately. Are you feeling alright?" She didn't try to sound incredibly worried, but lack-of-communication with other people for so long made it an impossible task.
"It's nothing serious," he paused and directed his gaze at her. "Sarada, you have something you want to do in the future, right? Why you want to pursue that dream?"
"To make my grandma's wish come true. It's the only thing that was left to me after she died. You can think it's stupid, but I've never moved on after her death. I feel like making our dream come true can give me a sense of closure." Granny death has shaken her pretty hard. When Sarada thought about this, it was around that time she stopped talking to other people besides Chō-Chō. She only spoke with her club members and teachers afterwards. Rest of the students were afraid of her, or just not noticed she exist.
"That's an awesome dream, ya know! Personally, I don't know what to do in the future, or with myself after I graduate. All the talks about plans for the future just makes me feel pressured, and in the end, I am unable to choose the path I want to walk on. The whole too-cool-for school act just paints me as a popular troublemaker, " he sighed, sharing his worries with her as if it was the most natural thing to do.
Sarada wanted to embrace him, tell him it's alright, and she'll help him find the dream he wanted to pursue. That people will stop seeing him as a troublemaker sooner or later. Like she did and has fallen in love with him.
Would he like to hear it from her? Boruto was popular at school, a lot of girls confessed to him daily. There's no way she could compare to them. Although, he's kind Boruto was way out of her league.
"There's some time for you to think before we graduate, or you can always accept the position of my future assistant! I need a lot of help if I want to pursue my dream too," she said. It wasn't what she really wanted to do, but Sarada hoped her words cheered him up. Just like he always did it for her, even without knowing about it.
"Thank you, Sarada," his smile came back, and she drowned in his beautiful blue eyes again. She needed to redo the Uchiha family training from the scratch. Staying composed around Boruto was starting to get harder for her as of lately.
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
Boruto felt like a heavy burden left him. He spent so much on creating his 'cool' persona, so he rarely talked about his worries. Most of the time, people didn't take him for the type that would be serious about the future. That's why being near Sarada was like the breath of the fresh air.
"Glad to help you," Sarada said, the concern still visible on her face. It's probably the first time he was cheered up by a person that wasn't his family member nowadays.
"By the way... Are you sure it's okay for me to be in your room for so long?" Boruto pointed out, feeling suddenly self-conscious of what he was implying.
"Yes? Is there something wrong with my room?" she tilted her head in the way she always did when he said something that was confusing to her.
Sarada was the type of girl that interacted more with books than people. He shouldn't be surprised she didn't catch on his implications, or that he enjoyed teasing her to see how dense she can be. Her reddening cheeks every time he called her 'Lady, Meow, Meow' were adorable to see.
"Not at all, ya know! I like how neatly you lined up the books, but I think I've told you that already?" He needed to distract her somehow and just have fun. Having a fun time with Sarada helped him a lot recently.
"Oh, no, no, no, no! This is a disaster!" she shouted, pointing at the box where the letters they read were inside. They weren't allowed to take this box, not to mention see the content inside.
"Don't panic, Sarada! I have a great idea about what to do with this small issue. You don't have to worry about anything, ya know," he reassured her. His idea wasn't that dangerous.
"I don't like how smug you look right now. I think you came up with the idea I won't like."
"Where is your sense of adventure? Jumping out from the window in your room and hiding the box outside isn't that bad. I'll catch you, kay?" Boruto had too much fun seeing how an expression on Sarada face turned from annoyed to terrified.
"Are you crazy?! There's no way I am jumping out of my window!" she shrieked out. Was he that much of a bully when he liked spending time with his friends? The answer was a resounding 'yes'.
"Don't worry, I am reasonably crazy," he decided to smile, hoping that he can put his plan into action.
Before Sarada had a chance, he ran up to her and snatched her into his arms. He gave her the box with the letters too when he was close to the window. Luckily for him, it was open, so climbing up on the windowsill wasn't that big of a problem. Faster than lighting, he jumped through the window still securely holding Sarada that let out the loudest scream in the entire history of their friendship. Just like Boruto predicted they landed safely nearby some trees. He decided to hold Sarada in his arms longer, considering how pale she was after the sudden jumping.
"See? I told you I am reasonably crazy." Boruto knew he played with fire here. However, it was so amusing to see the new expressions Sarada showed to him lately.
"You are a moron! I thought I will die and you'll drop me down at the last minute!" The tears streamed down her cheeks. Damn. He didn't want for her to cry.
"I am sorry. But isn't this whole experience valuable? Now we know that when we're jumping through the windows, I won't ever let you down!" he said, gently putting Sarada on the ground and giving her a head pat to calm her down.
"Let's hide the box somewhere. I didn't survive this whole ordeal for it to turn out to be useless!" Uh-oh, he made her angry, or maybe not? Maybe she likes him more than she admits and his words made her embarrassed. Ha! In his dreams.
"Yeah, let's hide it."
And so they did, the box that gained the nickname of 'I cannot believe we jumped through my window' from pretty shook Sarada because of Boruto executing his crazy idea.
"I don't understand why you have fangirls with that type of character," Sarada muttered, the night sky reflecting her beauty.
"Because I am great. Though, I don't care about fangirls opinions that much." Boruto cared just about the opinion of people that were close to him, he just left it unsaid unable to tell her such cheesy words.
"I thought so before too. That I don't care about the opinion of strangers, but by meeting you, I very soon discovered I lied to myself." Sarada's confessing something so personal wasn't a usual occurrence.
Boruto strangely didn't feel surprised by her sudden talkative mood. They both put it aside but were equally shocked by their parents hiding so many things written in those letters. Sliding into friendship mode they had, delayed the matters they had eventually face head-on. Like having an honest conversation with the family members, finding something he wants to do in the future, supporting Sarada, overcoming his fears towards the commitments in romantic relationships... All of this was honestly overwhelming and tiring.
Maybe that's why he wanted for Sarada to open-up to him so badly. He needed a person he can freely open up to without consuming him fear that his trust will be betrayed. Boruto knew his friends had his back, but his friendship with Shikadai and the rest of the group didn't feel the same after his break-up with Asami. Well, an exception was Mitsuki that joined the club after those events.
He was hopeless, wasn't he? Allowing for this irrational fear to get in the way of his friendship with Sarada. How could she open-up and trust him when he couldn't do it in return? Running away from his problems by jumping through the window together with Sarada cannot solve anything. She was right, he really was a moron.
"You lied to yourself? Really? What made you realise you were lying to yourself?" he asked, hiding his own inner struggle.
"Boruto, you know? Once I asked myself about the meaning of feelings." Sarada hands were shaking when she averted her eyes from him. "I was thinking it wasn't worth it. Acting on something unreliable as emotions... But I-I...," her sudden outburst didn't finish yet.
She looked preoccupied to convey what she means to him without lying. Boruto couldn't help but feel glad about it. That she wanted to be honest with him of all people in her life.
At the same time, a pang of guilt hit him when listening to her words. Isn't that something he wanted? For her to open up to him and not holding any punches? But what if she bottled so many things inside he wasn't aware of until now? What if she hates him for being a bad friend? Does Sarada really think her personal feelings won't matter to him, or anyone else?
His heart ached.
"I was taught by you to be honest with how I really feel and to act based on those emotions. Stop lying to myself I don't feel them. Being straightforward is something I admire about you." Her smile was like a wave that washed away all of his worries.
"Hey, Sarada?" Boruto longed to say these words to her for a long time. His cheeks heated up, hearing she admired him for being reckless. Gathering the courage to say something so cheesy wasn't like him at all!
"Yes?"
"Can we stand next to each other a little longer? I am glad out of all the people I've met you're my friend." Just a little while longer he wanted to savour the moment, where the feeling of peacefulness, remained in his heart.
"Sure, I am glad out of all the people I've met you ended up as my friend too."
Sarada's answer filled him with an unknown source of happiness. He didn't mind they will probably get a solid scolding from everything they did today from their parents. He wanted to stay here with her just a little longer, since having her by his side felt like he could face anything he worried about head-on. That feeling of blissfulness was the reason he realised he wanted to protect her.
This realisation made that peaceful moment more special to him. God, he really was an idiot. But that's a secret he doesn't plan to tell anyone anytime soon.
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
AN: Hello, everyone!
This chapter is dedicated to all of my readers. ;) I cannot believe we're on the chapter nineteen. Soon we enter the round number of twenty! Thank you for your support now and in the future.
