aww!! thank you!!!

URL - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | DEAN WINCHESTERICON - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | SAM WINCHESTERTHEME - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | THE BUNKERMOBILE - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | THE IMPALACONTENT - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | THE SUBTEXTOVERALL - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | THE WHOLE DAMN SHOWFOLLOWING - no(t yet) | now | TO HELL AND BACK

url

do i get this reference?: yes | no

length: bit short | perfect | a bit long

overall: 8/10

icon

do i get this reference?: yes | no | i guess | aesthetic

content: too bright | perfect | too dark

overall: 8/10

theme

would i use it?: yes | no

is it: too simple | just right | too crowded

overall: 7/10

posts

would i reblog them?: yes | no | some

is the quality: low | medium | high

overall: 8/10

compliment: love the color of your theme background!!

Hey oncemoreforyou,

Size and fangirling should never be an issue when you’re writing fanfic. What you need to ask yourself is: do I still enjoy working on this huge Supernatural fic?

If the answer is yes then you should keep on working on it.

There’s nothing weird about writing your fic chapters out of chronological order. If a particular moment or chapter is easier to write about then another: then write the easier part first.

And I hear ya on previous stories that maybe haven’t gotten any attention before and it’s making you question whether it’s worth the effort. But there are a things you can always improve attention for your fanfics.

I notice on your profile that you say you post your fanfic to places like AO3.

So here’s some advice based on what I do for posting my own fanfics, which seems to help put them in front of people.

Short fic

If a fanfic is a single chapter: I cross the whole post to Tumblr and AO3, including links to AO3 in the Tumblr and Tumblr in the AO3 version.

Long fic

If a fanfic is multiple chapters or feeling quite long: I post a snippet on Tumblr and the whole thing on AO3, linking to the AO3 version on this short Tumblr post. If I am uploading chapters for one fic on a regular basis then I do a new Tumblr post for each chapter and it’s still a snippet.

But for all my fic…

There are a few things that I always include try to include.

AO3

I try to post my fics here first and then use the information I provided for that (like tags, rating, word count) to inform my Tumblr post for the fic.

The tag wranglers at AO3 spend a lot of time maintaining the tags there and with good reason: it makes searching for fanfics and fanworks a lot easier for people.

Things I always include on an AO3 posted fic that are optional, but that people search with:

rating (I never leave a fic without a rating, as they never seem to get many hits without one)

I always choose warnings that apply or pick “No Archive Warnings Apply”

pick a category for relationships featured in the fic (if there’s nothing romantic or sexual then I select Gen)

list relationships using the ones that AO3 suggests when you start typing character names in (if it’s a gen fic, then you should look for relationships like: Sam Winchester & Dean Winchester, rather than the slash equivalet which will have character names and / between them)

list all characters who have a presence in the fic who also drive plot

Summaries

And I always try to have a snappy summary. Summary writing in of itself is a bit of an art, but it plays a huge part in encouraging people to click through.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. If you find one summary isn’t working for a fic after posting: write a different one and see if that works.

Additional Tags

Now, the “Additional Tags” is super important. While people may want to get creative and use their own tags like “I can’t believe I wrote this crazy story because I never wrote anything like this before - OMG”…

Don’t rely on tags like that. Take the time to search for tags that describe things that are happening in your fic and are suggested by AO3.

So if AO3 suggests: “Men of Letters Bunker” when you search “Bunker” and your fic takes place in the Bunker: use that tag. Is your fic a “Case Fic”? Use the tag that comes up when you start searching.

Additional Tags and sex

The same goes for sexual acts that appear in a fic: you’re better off listing the main individual ones, as suggested by AO3 when you start typing them in, then just saying “Sexual Content”, which is a tag, but unhelpful.

Tagging sexual content like this is for two reasons: 1. People search by specific sex acts. 2. Some people don’t like certain sex acts and would like to be forewarned.

And it is always worth, in slash fic, saying who is a top and who is a bottom and pick the suggested tags for these. (Personally, I don’t care about this, but some readers are real picky and get angsty when they’re not forewarned.)

BUT if a tag for something that features heavily in your fic doesn’t already exist: Then just put it as a tag. You never know, the tag wranglers may add it to their suggested ones.

Finishing touches

I like to include notes with my fic on AO3. I may describe any particular difficulties I had while writing.

I always say thanks to any beta readers who helped me and link to their AO3s or Tumblrs. And I encourage people to leave comments and/or Kudos.

Tumblr

In the body of the post I include the fic’s:

title

pairings/relationships/or if it’s gen

story summary

content rating (gen, teen up, mature, explicit…)

warnings and tags for content people might want to know about

Word count

This is at the top of the post, either below the title or after an image.

And then the whole story or snippet (depending on fic size). If it’s something under 600 words, I’ll not put any of it under a “read more”, over and I’ll put in a “read more”.

And then I focus on the tags.

Tagging on Tumblr

It doesn’t need to be as thorough as AO3, but ships, fandoms and the fic’s main characters should always be included.

Tagging on Tumblr can be hard, but it’s really worth it. It means that if someone is searching for particular types of content, like stories around a ship or fandom, then they will be more likely to find your fic.

So if you tag your fic:

spn fanfic

(or)

spn fanfiction

(or)

supernatural fanfiction

(or)

supernatural fanfic

(or all 4 of those)

People looking for those things are more likely to find it.

Remember that Tumblr search only brings content through based on the first 20 tags you use in a post (you don’t have to use 20 tags fyi).

So those tags should always be ones you think other people will be searching for (ships, character x you; whether a character is top or bottom; the fandom; if it’s gen fic; whether it’s smut or fluff and so on).

Tumblr has a handy way of letting you know what a popular tag is when it starts suggesting “featured tags” when you type them in.

Always try to use featured tags over non-featured ones if you can as these are the tags most people are searching for.

BUT also if you are posting a series of chapters on your Tumblr, rather than a whole fic in one go, then tagging those posts with the name of your story will make it easier for people to find it in Tumblr search or searching tags directly on your blog.

Find more Tumblr tagging tips at Union Metrics and searching “tags” at the Tumblr Help Center also brings up a lot of advice.

Finishing touches

Ahead of time it’s always worth asking around if any of your followers want to be tagged in particular types of fanfic. Including these people at the bottom of the fic post will let them know you have something for them to read.

The thing about long fics…

So, going back to the fic that your originally described, here’s how I would go about posting it, following everything I’ve talked about plus:

Post a new chapter once a week (or more if there are lots of chapters)

And post a promotional post for it on Tumblr each time, letting people know it’s available including a link to the new chapter and a link to the start of the story

I would then reblog that Tumblr post a few times before the next chapter goes up

Repeat

Posting a long fic in one go means it gets less attention, because it’s no longer on the top of default views on AO3 (as they’re arranged by date by default before filters are applied) soon after posting. Whenever you update a fic with a new chapter on AO3 it goes up to the top of everything you’ve tagged it with.

With Tumblr: reblogging and new chapter posts means your fic will appear on the dashes of followers who may not  have seen it previously when you originally posted.

(If you’re cross posting between LJ and AO3, I would link those posts to each other too btw.)

It’s not guaranteed that all this will lead to overnight success

But a lot of this is about making your fic more discoverable, So people searching for fic are more likely to find yours.

AND never be afraid to reblog your own fic.

It’s also worth having a master list of fic on your Tumblr or LJ profile that’s a regular text post with links to your fics on either Tumblr, LJ or AO3. In the case of Tumblr, go to “Edit Theme” from your blog homepage and link to that post in your blog description.

I really hope all this helps you @oncemoreforyou and happy writing.