Captainswan Cheering Section.

On break from his busy schedule Star of stage, small and big screen Colin O’Donoghue popped in for a chat with Gerry on Late Lunch…

Ok, so ever since The Purge in December, it has been more difficult to get fics seen by potential readers. Here are some tips I have figured out mostly through trial and error but also by talking to other blogs here.

1. No hyperlinks. No links back to your masterlist. No links to previous chapters. No taglists. Any link in your post can potentially hide your fic from the searches. If people can’t find your fic in the searches you can’t build an audience. *edit: You can reblog your story with the taglist so people who want to be notified about it can be. Just don’t do it in the original post.

2. Use hashtags appropriately and use a lot of them. Tag the crap out of your fic. I tag general fandoms, characters, then ship pairs such as character x reader, character x you, etc. If your fandom has an abbreviated name tag both. Ex: GoT and Game of Thrones or Spn and Supernatural. 

3. Use a “keep reading” bar. When you are posting on desktop and hit the enter button a selection of little gray buttons appear. The one that is a grey rectangle with three white dots is the keep reading button. For mobile, you’ll need to google how to do it, but I have heard there is a way. If you have longer chapters, like over 500-600 words or so, you have to use this button if you want people to reblog your story…and you want them to reblog. Most people will not clog their dash or their follower’s dash with a story that will make them scroll excessively. I’ve talked with several other blogs about this and we all agree that no matter how much we love the story, a keep reading button is essential. 

4. Don’t sell your stories short. If an author’s note says “this is crap” “take my trash” “I suck but have a fic anyway” etc. Why would people read it? Most people I know will keep scrolling because 1. you already said it sucks 2. it’s passive aggressive manipulation. Let people decide for themselves. And let them go in with an open mind.

5. Have an easily accessible masterlist. I googled “How to make a masterlist link in bio on Tumblr” and learned how to do it. This is essential. If people like the fic they just read, they are going to want more. If they can’t find it, you may lose a potential reader, follower, and friend. You have to make your masterlist easy to find. 

6. Participate in challenges and events. If you see someone is hosting an event for something, grab a slot. People who host these things typically have already built a good following. This is a way for you to interact more with the community and get your name out there. 

7. After you post your own fic, reblog it. Reblog it with your reader taglist since they can’t go in the original post. Reblog it for timezones, not everyone is on Tumblr at the same time. Don’t be afraid to reblog your own story. 

8. Since reblogs don’t show up in the searches…I make a post with the Title, Characters, Summary, and Warnings with an eye-catching gif and a lot of tags telling people that I have a new story and that they can find my masterlist in my bio. Now, this may sound dumb, but I get a couple new readers every time I do this. 

Ah, there it is.

Honestly, I don’t think the show portrayed them as “great friends” necessarily. I think it portrayed them as forced family where Emma was trying to make the best of it and they were all walking on egg shells, trying to keep Regina from going off and murdering the entire town. Emma sitting there rolling her eyes as Regina railed at her in 5x22 is a great example. They were in New York together, reluctantly, because of Henry, not for a fabulous girls weekend, and the writing didn’t pretend otherwise. The narrative that they were “best friends” and “like sisters” was one put out there by Lana and not necessarily the show. 

However, when looking at the number of episodes we had to sit through with Regina behaving abusively towards Emma, I think there may have been elements to both things you mention at work. 

I refuse to believe that any showrunners would stoop to really catering to online fans, and obviously they didn’t or it would have been a much different show, but I personally thought the Regina/Snow relationship was much more interesting and nuanced than the the one with Emma– 6x01 actually had great scenes that showed this– but the writers often ignored that dynamic in favor of planting a R/E episode in every half season and it does make you wonder if they were influenced in that direction, and away from Regina/Snow by the clamor of those fans.  

As far as everyone being family, I do think they always planned to have Regina integrate into the group, for her enemies to become her friends and that story could have been told, and those two ladies could have become real friends and family, but at the end of the day I think it came off as forced because the writers always wanted to have their cake and eat it to with Regina. They refused to really give her any sort of meaningful redemption, or to have her revert fully evil, so instead we were left with a character who never really took responsibility, was a complete hypocrite, often played the victim and treated those around her like her personal punching bags.

So both Swanqueen and Rumbelle like to “eeeew” at CaptainSwan because Killian is 300 years old.

OK. Yeah. There’s an age difference.

So?

It’s not like Emma is in high school. So comparing CS to that abusive garbage (you know what I’m talking about) perhaps you should do some calculating of your own?

Emma

We know that in S5 only 2/12 to 3 years had passed since S1. Henry was turning 13. S7 curse only effected EF2. Emma was not cursed in S7. Baby Neal looked to only be about 6 or 7. This all fits for what we know of Storybrooke’s timeline. Emma announcing her pregnancy, Neal’s age & Hope’s birth is all consistent to Emma being around 33.

You can’t focus on Robyn’s age to try to fit the pieces in because she’s the odd piece out. Robyn is older but Zelena isn’t? Makes 0 sense. Why? Sex appeal. They wanted her with Falice for some reason & of course they can’t lose Zelena’s hotness by aging her. Same reason they de-aged Fook (that was one strong potion to work in a land without magic!).

Regina

In this post about Regina: Child Bride Debunked we uncovered that Regina is well above 18 years old when she married Snow’s father.

S1: Regina casts a curse that stops time for 28 years. But Regina isn’t cursed so she is aware that time is passing. By the time Emma shows up, Regina is well into her 60s. Both in age & experience. Lots of experience since she’s been raping a man for 28 years.

I don’t understand SQers calling CaptainSwan gross & using age as one of the reasons? They ship Emma with her 60 year old step-granny. A woman who tried to murder Emma when Emma was just an infant. A woman who abused Emma’s mother when her mother was just a child. You’re still shipping Emma with someone old enough to be her mother.

Rumple & Belle

We know Hook is over 300. If Hook is over 300 then Rumple is even older.

Belle was of the marrying age when she met Rumple. She was also cursed for 28 years. She may not feel 60 years old (since time didn’t move for her) but she is still technically 60 years old. She’s a 60 year old married to someone 300+

“Emma is having a kid at 58, I wonder if CY babies as relationship glue…“

RB seems to think that Emma was near 60 when she had Hope. But she wasn’t. She was in her 30s. Belle on the other hand was in her 60s when she had Gideon.

So who is using a baby as relationship glue? Rumple. Belle was trying to get away from him but it was because of Gideon that Belle was stuck with her abusive husband.