How to Fanfic

[rynling]

I got three notes on the Tumblr post of the new chapter. Granted, all three notes are good notes from good people, but I still cried. Like, a lot. Like, all day long.

I'm still extremely distraught. I'd like to be melodramatic and say something to the effect of "I am a garbage person who only produces shit work and I should just give up," but the truth is that I write compulsively and probably couldn't stop even if I wanted to. If I'm going to keep at this, though, I need to do it in a way that gets more positive attention and doesn't result in me feeling like a poor misunderstood tragic artist.

This is what failure has taught me.

• Sometimes writing is magic, but mostly it's work. You need deadlines and a schedule.
• You need to update frequently and on a fixed timeline. Once a week is good.
• Never post anything in the morning. Tumblr primetime is after 5:00pm.
• The best time to post anything is in the late afternoon or early evening on Sunday.
• 2,500 word chapters are ideal. If a chapter gets much longer than that, split it.
• No one wants to read The Next Great American Novel. Content is important, not style.
• Keep editing the first few chapters as you go along. They need to be perfect.
• Be active and supportive within the fandom, but don't expect anyone to help you.
• Always respond to AO3 comments immediately, and reblog people's comments on Tumblr.
• Commission artists to illustrate your story. There is no better advertisement.

Comments

[renegadefolkhero]

For what it's worth--I was going to respond to your other post but hadn't made the time yet--posting the ending to my last longfic was emotionally brutal. On top of that, I hated myself for feeling so vulnerable, needy, anxious, sad, whatever, because I'm An ARTist And I'm Not Supposed to Care GodDaMNit. It really sucked. I felt like I was dying. You have my condolences.

I convinced myself that already-capricious fanfic readers are even less likely to respond to a final chapter because the story is over and they got what they came for. Whether that's fair or accurate, who knows. That's certainly what it felt like at the time.

That story was written as a genre test but I came to many of the same conclusions in your bullet list regarding online fic readers. The feedback from such readers can be invaluable psychologically, even if they aren't necessarily the audience one aspires to. I'll add that I directly solicited comments at the end of each chapter (e.g. I tried to do x, how did you feel about y) and got solid feedback from a small, dedicated group of readers up until the end.

For what it's worth part 2, I was waiting until this story was finished to download it to my ereader. It's easier for me to read longfic that way, particularly if I'm not overly familiar with the fandom. Basically, if I know the writer is reliable and will actually finish the story I wait, which technically penalizes the writer in some respects but it is what it is.

You may be pleasantly surprised by passive feedback you get down the road. Some of the more rewarding conversations I had occurred after the story was finished when people discovered it and inhaled it months later. I got those comments when I wasn't expecting them and had disengaged from the story, so I was out of that I-think-its-good-but-do-readers-like-it-why-aren't-they-saying-anything-is-there-a-god hellphase, and oddly enough I think that helped me appreciate them more.

[rynling]

Thank you for this, seriously. It meant the world to me.

I spent that entire day alternating between listening to "Shake It Out" on repeat and wondering why I cared so much.

The degree to which this project ate my life is somewhat unsettling. I took my dog out for a walk this morning and was momentarily confused by how cold it was outside. The last thing I remember, it was the middle of May and I was just sitting down to write some stupid story about Zelda.

Everything turned out okay in the end, but if all I had gotten for six months of my life was a first novel that reads like a first novel and a handful of likes on Tumblr then I would have continued to be very upset.

I have no idea how people do this professionally.