A Call to Answers... er... Something · 12:26am Jul 7th, 2015
Ayo all, Inky here,
I’ve been working with Lapis for a long time now (I hesitate to say two years, but that sounds scarily right) and the both of us have had major success with Two Between, it’s sequel, and a host of other stories. And I couldn’t be more thankful to a be half of the whole that’s crawled from the bottom of the barrel in a time when fanfiction greats were being made and can proudly stand with the Top 50. It’s really more than I could have ever imagined when I started writing for the fandom.
But recently I’ve run into a serious question that’s bugged me more and more, especially with now that my time to do anything not naval nuclear power training related is slim at best. And I am fully aware that what I’m about to ask may at the first seem pretentious, whiny, begg-ish, or any number of associated negative responses. I can understand those reactions, but I want you to all know that I’m just trying to figure out where to go from here.
So my question is actually simple. What is it about my stories that is less appealing than my counterpart’s? Legitimately, I’m curious. Is it our thematic differences? Style? What? And I wouldn’t ask this question save the fact this is fanfiction. As a writer, I’m fully aware and fully receive the joy that comes from writing purely for oneself. But with fanfiction, there is an equal element of finding joy from writing for other people. And I’ll be honest, that element is lacking on my side of our world for reasons I can’t understand (or at least aren’t immediately obvious to me).
Which is why I’m asking you guys. I want to have that joy of writing for others again, so please leave comments and suggestions below as to how I can do that for all of us. Give a guy a hoof, yeah?
Cheers,
Inky
Hey folks, Lapis-Lazuli down here in the comments.
For two years, Inky Jay has been a vital part of the writing process over here in Lapisland. He's not just my chief technical and creative editor, he's also my best friend. I owe Inky a lot when it comes to my improved writing and mechanics, and all of the wonderful projects we've done together.
When I asked him to merge accounts with me, I did so believing that his writing was of an excellent quality that simply hadn't had the fortune to get an audience the same way I did. I brought him on not just because I wanted to collaborate with him, but because I hoped his work would get some more attention so he could grow as a writer. That hasn't happened, much to my dismay.
I am not going to blame or be angry at anyone for choosing to read or not read anything. That's always in the eyes of the reader. But I would deeply appreciate if you guys could take some time out of your busy schedules to give my buddy a chance, or at the very least help him become the kind of writer you want to see.
Thanks for your time, folks.
Inky, it's like I laid out the last time Lapis asked this exact same question.
Lapis writes things with mass appeal. He writes romance stories featuring primary characters. He writes a fair amount of porn. His stories tend to be comedy, slice of life, adventure.
Your stuff on the other hand tends to be sad or dark, or even tragedy. You write a lot of stories with OCs in them. You're writing more niche things, and you fight an uphill battle with that stuff.
There's nothing wrong with that, obviously, but you're going to get a smaller audience with even one of those niche factors working against you. You usually have several of them.
You wanna be popular easily? Write stuff that appeals to large groups. Or keep writing what you like, and realize that you either have to accept a smaller audience or advertise better.
To elaborate, I can prove this with Lapis' stories even. Look at his stories that don't do as well. Great and Magnificent Seven - Gore. Canterlot Bureau - Human. Placement Agency - Dark, OC.
The Twilight War stuff does okay but it's also super long, and updated over a long period of time. Longer fics can work up to an audience. Shorter fics need to appeal to people more quickly.
I read ponies because it makes me happy. I'm willing to try stories with one of [sad/dark/etc], but once it hits two or more, or contains something like [tragedy/gore/etc] or warnings in the summary, I'm probably going to nope out unless it comes highly recommended. It's just not my thing.
A year later and I still agree with the points that JetstreamGW has made. My only recommendation to try to get more exposure is to hopefully find a large scale writing contest that hits EQD which would work with your preferred subjects. Dark, Gore, Human, and OC aren't inherently bad things but unfortunately they are more of an indicator of skippable stories at this point.
Keep in mind that as time passes, the amount of horse-words increases. I'm having trouble keeping up with the number of stories that continue to update, let alone add to the list. I have your most recent story favorite-ed for future reading, but I just haven't gotten to it yet between work and trying to read updates to stories that have been ongoing for months/years.
I know that personally I'm more likely to read a new story if it's a one-shot as I've been burned more than once by stories that start off really well, but fizzle out and never update, or are cancelled as the author loses interest or doesn't turn out the way they wanted. It's the difference between reading a comic book and starting the Song of Ice and Fire, praying that GRRM doesn't croak before he's done. If you need to get a big story out, maybe write a huge chunk of it and publish it all at once or make daily/weekly releases?
That being said, write because you want to write. If it's not fun or fulfilling, find something else do you with your free time that is.
(Bit of a big post, sorry! :P)
I'm going to start this post off by saying that the whole reason that you guys are on my favorites list is the darker, epic stories, and honestly it's one of the main reasons I'm on this site at all.
I do think I'd like to reiterate a fair bit of what Jetstream is saying, though not quite all of it. Darker stories like that are stuff that I know that I (and at least a handful of others here) greatly appreciate. The problem is that stories like that work best when they are long. They don't work well as one-shots or shorter series, unlike comedy and slice of life stories. After all there is a reason why we talk about humor in terms of jokes that last seconds or maybe minutes, but we talk about drama in terms of arcs that might last months or years. Longer shows can work up an audience, and the more they've got the more momentum they pull and hold together, doubly so if they seem like they have at least completed one entire chunk (i.e. stories with sequels, as opposed to stories with multiple parts. Compare the Lines and Webs story by Airstream as the Twilight War series, the fact that each Lines and Webs story stands alone helps to draw new people in because they know that even if the last story isn't finished they will still have at least 1-2 complete ones to read.
It's just gonna be a fact that the fan base of a show that tends to be happy cheery isn't going to work as well with short creepy gore stories, and it's something you are gonna need to recognize and deal with if you want to keep writing shorter stories like that. That said I would like to say once again that writing is something you should do because you want to. I know that I and many of your other dedicated fans would be very sad if you decided to stop, but it's ultimately something that is up to you.
Best of luck, and may you find the right spot that lets you both enjoy your writing to the fullest and brings many admiring readers.
Personally, as a reader who likes a lot of more niche things (like dark tragedies and good OCs, as well as trashy crossovers) I tend to gravitate towards whatever tickles my fancy at the time. That said, I think the both of you are great writers, and while I haven't read everything you both have written, I would be hard pressed to decide which I liked better. More often than not what I like better would depend on the mood I am in, but it would really only be that way because the both of you have different styles, and I have to be in the mood for one or the other.
Regardless, Inky Jay, you fill a more niche group of fans, and tend to be a little less fan-service-y, which is better in many ways to authors that try to write to get the largest following. Not to put down either of you, but it is a matter of quality versus quantity in terms of followings. A smaller niche group tends to be a little bit more devoted to what they are fans of than a larger but less niche group of fans. Like I said, quality versus quantity.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~