I have a question (if you don't mind):
How, exactly, does one go about posting one's original works and getting people enthusiastic about them? Surely it's not as simple as "here's 1k words about original characters you know nothing about in a fictional world you also know nothing about"? Should there be some kind of intro or blurb, or is that not really necessary outside of formal published literature?
(P.S.: I came here from the living weapon blog and I'm a big fan of what you do there <333)
Oh, very good question!! There are a couple ways you could go about it, one being, well. just 'dropping 1k words about original characters nobody knows set in a fictional world nobody knows either, adding some tags and tropes and hoping it'll catch its audience'. It's not like you're going to get 50 people interested in it right away but I would be lying if I was saying it didn't sorta work! I've found some of my all-time favorites like this, with a fic that just stumbled onto my dash and seemed interesting. Something what is kinda funny about finding stories like this is that often we add content warnings at the top of a fic, right, to warn viewers of potential triggers and decide if they want to avoid them, but they can also work as kind of... advertising? One person might find "cw child abuse, drugging and magical torture" upsetting and appreciate the warning beforehand, while somebody else might have these as their favorite tropes and have it pick their interest. It's kind of like a menu, at least the way I see it. You can check for allergens OR for your favorite ingredients :)
So yeah, just doing that is a perfectly feasible way of sharing your story. You don't necessarily need a blurb, although I would advise you to make a masterlist (if you're not familiar with the concept, it's a post with all your fics/chapters linked into one place so it's easier to find them) and have it be easily found, either on your pinned or linked to it
Aside from just doing that, a very common way of doing story introductions around here seems to be blurbs, yes! Specifically, the kind that's more oc-focused, introducing the characters of a story. Something like this post or this post for example. You'll see they mainly have one/a couple images of the characters featured and then a little intro about their lore, that'll tell you what their whump story is about. I think introducing a story like this is way more popular in our circle because whumpblr can be very character/oc-centric! For better or for worse, although I'm biased because I love ocs. I think the most popular way is to add a picrew or drawing at the top to show off their appearence in addition to that
Another thing people (me included) do a lot is a masterlist, like I've mentioned! It's not as much an intro or a blurb as it is just a way to organize things and make it easier for someone find the rest of your story. A masterlist can be as simple as a chapter list, although you can also add character intros or moodboards in it, a little story blurb, or link stuff like art and playlists if you want to. Here is an example with both a blurb and picrews, and here is another example of one with a blurb and also linked asks and art and the like. You can also do something more artsy like this! It's up to you! (It's also common to link back to the masterlist on each individual chapter, so it works like a homepage of sorts, and makes it easier for someone to find the masterlist. If it's serialized, linking the previous and the next chapter in a given chapter is also handy)
Aside from introducting your work I think that if I have any other advice would be to just keep speaking about your story. A lot of the stories I've found over the years were by like, word-of-mouth recommendations, stumbling into them on my dash, and ALSO by hearing people talk about them. Sometimes I follow the person and they start announcing a new wip they're working on, or someone is MY follower and they mention their own ocs or fics they are working on in my notes and I get interested. Don't be worried about being too annoying or lousy, that's how people find you! It isn't a guarantee that if you proudly display your story with your chole chest that the audience will automatically find it, but I think it certainly helps :)
You don't have to do an intricate analysis of your meta and lore or deep dives into the character's psyche (i mean, if you want to do that, it's really cool) but I promise that people would definitely like to know about it. It's very interesting to hear about other people's stories, there are people who will definitely listen, so don't be afraid to talk! "Talking" can just be rambling about them out loud or answering asks or simply posting the writing you already have, don't feel pressured to make 'advertising content' just because you feel like you have to. If you have stuff to say, feel free to say it. Being enthusiastic about your own work is a good way of getting people interested in it too.
So yeah! Tl;dr: you can make a blurb if you want, oc-centered loredumps with character images in particular seem to catch people's attention (at least in whumpblr), you can keep your oc/story intro in your masterlist, you can just dump your chapters and hope it'll find your audience, there's a lot of ways to go about it. But mostly don't be afraid to talk about it! Some people like to phrase it as 'the best way to get people interested in your ocs is by Not Shutting Up About Them' and i have to agree
(and thank youu :] it makes me happy to know people enjoy it <3)
