![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pyrosgfAttention Adam fanfic writers on my friends list who post almost daily. This post is for you.
Hi. First off I want to say this entry is not meant to hurt your feelings or anything I just want to offer some advice to you. Having at one time been one of those writers that was so full of ideas that I was always posting something new I learned a few things.
As far as how I learned them, I made the avid mistake of searching my livejournal address on twitter and found a conversation someone was having about my fics. I've been writing in the fandom since June 2009 and back then I had a lot to learn. This persons tweets really pissed me off and hurt my feelings to begin with, but in the end they made me a better writer.
Tip 1: If you are posting multiple fics in a day in your livejournal and then into communities think about something for a minute. A lot of fanfic readers follow multiple communities and have decent sized friends list. So say you post to your livejournal and then post to three communities. That's up to four times you could appear on one persons friends list for just one fic. Then if you're also posting other fics just imagine how other people feel when all they can see on their friends list is you. I can't speak for everyone, but I know I generally avoid writers who post multiple fics a day because they appear on my friends list so much. Lesson #1 it's not about quantity it's about quality. If you insist on posting often and more than one fic a day do people a favor and combine multiple fic descriptions in one post for communities with links back to the fics on your livejournal. If you don't know how to do this, please ask me or anyone who's been in the fandom for any length of time.
Tip 2: A beta is a must. Not just any beta, but a good beta, and even two betas wouldn't be pushing it. You need a beta who can ream your ass on things that are wrong, look for inconsistencies in your stories, and have a general feel for the English language. What you don't need is someone who is going to kiss your ass and tell you that everything is wonderful. I've been writing for a long time and still my beta truly makes everything come together in my fics.
Tip 3: I'm seeing a lot of WIPs right now from people posting updates almost daily. Most of you are working on more than one WIP at a time. I'm not saying you can't do that, but I will say that you generally should probably focus on one WIP at a time. Also with WIPs it's good to post maybe three times a week at most. I generally will read a WIP that's updated weekly over one that is updated every other day.
Tip 4: If your WIP updates are less than a thousand words long you might want to make your updates longer. Longer updates means less chapters. A lot of readers who look at a page and see chapter twenty-eight will be less likely to read your fic because it has short updates and will likely go on forever. There are exceptions to every rule I'm merely giving advice.
Tip 5: This is a biggie, use livejournal cuts even on your livejournal if you're posting fic. Nothing turns me off more than having to scroll all the way down a page just to get past a fic that vomited on my friends list.
Tip 6: If there's descriptive sex the rating should be NC-17. If you rate something NC-17 and there's no descriptive sex or hardcore violence/other elements for the rating it just makes you look like you don't know what you're doing.
Tip 7: Proper spacing. Livejournal doesn't allow tabs so you will want to double space between paragraphs so your fic doesn't look like one big clump.
I'm sure there are many things I'm leaving out, but those are the ones that have been driving me nuts with the overload of new writers in the fandom. Please take this for what it is and don't think I'm trying to discourage you from what you love, just be considerate of people on your friends lists. If you like this please leave me a comment. If there's anything I'm missing please add to this in the comments. And to anyone I've offended feel free to unfriend me. Otherwise, pass it around.
Hi. First off I want to say this entry is not meant to hurt your feelings or anything I just want to offer some advice to you. Having at one time been one of those writers that was so full of ideas that I was always posting something new I learned a few things.
As far as how I learned them, I made the avid mistake of searching my livejournal address on twitter and found a conversation someone was having about my fics. I've been writing in the fandom since June 2009 and back then I had a lot to learn. This persons tweets really pissed me off and hurt my feelings to begin with, but in the end they made me a better writer.
Tip 1: If you are posting multiple fics in a day in your livejournal and then into communities think about something for a minute. A lot of fanfic readers follow multiple communities and have decent sized friends list. So say you post to your livejournal and then post to three communities. That's up to four times you could appear on one persons friends list for just one fic. Then if you're also posting other fics just imagine how other people feel when all they can see on their friends list is you. I can't speak for everyone, but I know I generally avoid writers who post multiple fics a day because they appear on my friends list so much. Lesson #1 it's not about quantity it's about quality. If you insist on posting often and more than one fic a day do people a favor and combine multiple fic descriptions in one post for communities with links back to the fics on your livejournal. If you don't know how to do this, please ask me or anyone who's been in the fandom for any length of time.
Tip 2: A beta is a must. Not just any beta, but a good beta, and even two betas wouldn't be pushing it. You need a beta who can ream your ass on things that are wrong, look for inconsistencies in your stories, and have a general feel for the English language. What you don't need is someone who is going to kiss your ass and tell you that everything is wonderful. I've been writing for a long time and still my beta truly makes everything come together in my fics.
Tip 3: I'm seeing a lot of WIPs right now from people posting updates almost daily. Most of you are working on more than one WIP at a time. I'm not saying you can't do that, but I will say that you generally should probably focus on one WIP at a time. Also with WIPs it's good to post maybe three times a week at most. I generally will read a WIP that's updated weekly over one that is updated every other day.
Tip 4: If your WIP updates are less than a thousand words long you might want to make your updates longer. Longer updates means less chapters. A lot of readers who look at a page and see chapter twenty-eight will be less likely to read your fic because it has short updates and will likely go on forever. There are exceptions to every rule I'm merely giving advice.
Tip 5: This is a biggie, use livejournal cuts even on your livejournal if you're posting fic. Nothing turns me off more than having to scroll all the way down a page just to get past a fic that vomited on my friends list.
Tip 6: If there's descriptive sex the rating should be NC-17. If you rate something NC-17 and there's no descriptive sex or hardcore violence/other elements for the rating it just makes you look like you don't know what you're doing.
Tip 7: Proper spacing. Livejournal doesn't allow tabs so you will want to double space between paragraphs so your fic doesn't look like one big clump.
I'm sure there are many things I'm leaving out, but those are the ones that have been driving me nuts with the overload of new writers in the fandom. Please take this for what it is and don't think I'm trying to discourage you from what you love, just be considerate of people on your friends lists. If you like this please leave me a comment. If there's anything I'm missing please add to this in the comments. And to anyone I've offended feel free to unfriend me. Otherwise, pass it around.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-10 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 05:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 06:02 pm (UTC)