Needs to be said, again and again · 4:44am May 18th, 2013
Wall'a text time, folks. Experienced writers can skip to the end... they already know all this.
So I've got this habit. Many of my recently posted stories have been published one chapter at a time. "The Death of Derring Do" was published as I wrote each chapter, which was an exhilerating experience for me (yay, deadlines!). "An It Harm None" is actually one of the first full fanfictions I ever wrote: it's been sitting idle for well over a year and I only recently built up the courage to edit it properly. Like "Death Of Derring Do," I released it one chapter at a time, though the entire story was finished well in advance.
This habit of regular releases has worked out pretty well for me so far. It ensures that a story will hit the front page multiple times, giving it much more exposure. It also builds up suspense among the readers: the pauses between chapters give you lots of time to wonder and worry, which forges a greater emotional investment and keeps you coming back for more. The downside is that some readers will pass over a story tagged as "incomplete," probably because there's no promise that the author will ever finish it: there's nothing worse than following a good story only to find out there's no conclusion at all, satifsying or otherwise. But even then, I find that regular releases garner a better response from the audience. I'm sure these delays are frustrating for my readers, but I suspect it's that very frustration that hooks their attention so firmly. The three most important elements of maintaining a popular blog or webcomic are just that: Regular updates, regular updates, and regular updates.
Of course, there are other ways to promote a story: I've since learned to make use of "groups," and submitted both of the above stories to as many appropriate groups as I could find. This gave both of them a sizable initial boost in terms of readership (enough to propel "An It harm None" halfway up the featured box for a short while). And of course, it always helps to have built up large audience of Followers just waiting for your next work to show up. This requires a larger investment of time and effort, but it's worth it. I think that after I've become an established writer, I'll have to rely less on the cheap trick of spreading a single story out over a week or so.
My most recent story todate, "Flight of the Magpie," is just about the opposite. It's only three chapters long, it was posted all at once, and there were almost no groups at all that it would qualify for. It didn't even qualify a single one of the main tags: it wasn't Comedy or Random, it wasn't Grim or Dark, it wasn't Adventure or Slice of Life... nothing. It's a crime mystery/psychological thriller based on completely original characters and events. It defied easy categorization, and it immediately vanished off the front page without a whisper. It went almost a week before anyone even commented on it at all... not even an obnoxious "first!" or "cool, bro."
But when I finally did get a comment, it knocked me off my feet. I don't even know why... it was pretty general, and was more of an observation than a complement. But for some reason, it felt honest. Genuine. This was a story I poured my heart into, and it never occurred to me that it would be a difficult product to label or pre-package. I wanted to write something for myself instead of the featured box. For some reason, that comment makes me feel like it worked.
Writers and authors take heed: when people tell you to write for yourself, they mean it. It's the only reward worth having. Give it your all, and work as hard as you can to make it as good as it can be, but do it for yourself. Write the story you would want to read. Eventually, the audience will find you.
My response to this blog: Amen
I have noticed your recent habit of posting updates instead of posting the story completed. I would like to say that I much prefer this method of posting stories. Like you said, spreading out the updates gives the stories more exposure. It is also true that the wait between updates is pleasantly frustrating for me.
Man, I've had dreams regarding the characters in The Death of Daring Do, especially during the wait for the climax. I think one of them involved an extension to the story where the floating city actually gets to Canterlot before it crashes thanks to our heroes. Huge battle above Ponyville, and everything. My point is that forcing me to wait actually stimulates my imagination, yet does not detract from my enjoyment of the story at all.
You say that some readers skip stories which aren't complete, but I say that you're missing TWO obvious points. The first is that all your stories have been completed. No matter if you released them in increments or if you released them completed, you did finish them. Your record is perfect (at least while I've been watching.) These unknowing people who skipped the story simply because it wasn't complete yet aren't worth worrying about if they haven't at least placed your incomplete stories in their Read Later list. They probably had other reasons.
The second point you missed, is that not everybody has the time to go through a long story in one go. Posting a new long completed story is like a repellent to people who simply read casually. It will literally glide through the front page of Fimfiction, passing out of the new story bar with very few likes. Then, lacking the necessary second chances provided by consecutive updates, your completed story will languish. It will then only be seen by those who search Fimfiction's archives. Many people look at a stories number of likes before even clicking a story (sad but true). Your completed stories, having passed by without much attention, then lose those readers as well. A chain reaction.
As an additional point, searching the archives requires search parameters. That means genre tags. That also means Flight of the Magpie is going to fall into an even deeper hole than your other stories for not having them. (Thought it was important that you understand this.)
Now, your stories are like drugs (I believe there is another persons comment essentially confirming this in The Death of Daring Do.) Once I start any of your stories, I feel like I must finish them. I've got to have the time to do that, since once I start I will be glued to my computer, and I hate being torn away from a story by real life even more than I hate ending on cliffhangers. So in a way it is actually easier on readers to serve us your stories in bite sized chunks, instead of forcing it all down our throats at once.
The purpose of this giant comment is to get you to stay with updating schedules instead of posting stories completed. Simply stating that the story is complete in the story description while maintaining an update schedule is enough to get a readers attention. You did this with An It Harm None. I believe that is a major component to why it got more attention.
Please, take my advice and abandon the view that posting stories completed somehow takes the story to a higher level than the ones which update. Fimfiction is different in this respect from real life publishing companies.
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>Man, I've had dreams regarding the characters in The Death of Daring Do, especially during the wait for the climax.
Wow... that's kinda scary. But in a good way. Further proof that the greatest weapon in the writer's arsenal is always the reader's own imagination. Also, I'd love to see that as an alternate ending! The only trick is to handle it in such a way that the final battle still comes down to Dash and Derring... it's tempting to just have Celestia and Luna sweep in and start kicking ass, wonder-twin style.
>Your record is perfect (at least while I've been watching.)
The Death of Derring Do was listed as incomplete at the time, because I was posting it as I wrote it. If I'd been hit by a bus, it would have been left unfinished. All of my other stories, however, were fully completed before I posted them. This is the one thing I allow myself to take pride in as a writer. As my brother is fond of saying: Good artists are those who deliver.
>The second point you missed, is that *blah blah, incredibly insightful information and significantly salient suggestions, blah blah*
This is encouraging, to say the least. Something tells me that Flight of the Magpie is something of an aberration: Looking back on it, I don't think I could have engineered a story to more quickly drop out of the public eye. An It Harm None ended up being much more popular than I expected, with 792 views and 100 comments. Only Biased and Incomplete comes close, with twice the views and half the comments, and it's been published forever.
>Please, take my advice and abandon the view that posting stories completed somehow takes the story to a higher level than the ones which update. Fimfiction is different in this respect from real life publishing companies.
Consider it taken. As for real-life publishers, though, I must note that my idea for serial updates came from an anecdote I remembered from Stephen King, regarding The Green Mile: a novel released in six segments, each published monthly as an inexpensive paperback. He cited a lot of the same reasons I did (better suspense and stronger emotional investment), and he's a published author. Of course, his publishers let him get away with crap like that because he's Stephen King.
My next major story, "Fear of Success," will most certainly be episodic... as soon as I finishing editing the behemoth. Clocking in at just shy of 150k words, It's a full length novel.
Some day... someday.
Wow, I'm kind of lost at what to say right now... two replies to my comments, a blog post and a PM from Mr. Renard LeB. And you two made me realize something: The comments are like stories on their own. Like, the author provides a story with the characters' content and the reader, in return, provides a story with his feelings and thoughts about it (this only happens when, as my chemistry teacher used to say, ideal conditions of atmospheric pressure and temperature are met
).
Usually, I'm the bad kind of commenter, I'll admit. If the story is bad, I'll go with a "meh" and be done with it. If the story is good, I'll go with a very short description of why I liked it. Now, if the story is excellent, like yours, this is where I need to stop being a dick and compliment the author and tell him what I thought/felt. I honestly need to stop with this dick-ish tendency of mine (I'm working on it) and give some real feedback whether the story is good or not to whichever stories I happen to read. However, I can kind of excuse that toward bad stories because... well, if the story doesn't wrap my attention, then how am I to hold it enough in order to voice my concerns?
Maybe... maybe I should start by that point. Hmmm...
Anywho, I thank you and Mr. Renard for the kind words, but in all honesty, you two should be the ones thanked. For, if not for you two, I wouldn't have anything to comment at all.
So thank you both. I mean it.
PS: Both you and Mr. Renard told me that I didn't focus on the grammatical/"mechanic" aspects of the text. Well, to be honest, I didn't notice them at all. I was so enthralled by the story that I think I automatically disregarded any possible mistakes in there. And it's true; the grammar is important to a degree. Even if the story is flawlessly written, its contents should be what captivate us readers.
PPS: My last test will be on June 7th. After that, I'll devour more of your stories, Mr./Mrs. DuncanR. And I promise to make my comments even more meaningful.
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Some day... someday. Someday I will be reading one of your hardbacks in an easychair by a roaring fire. Tell me when you decide to publish your first Novel. I want to buy a signed copy.