A Desperate Ploy for Attention! · 12:57am Nov 4th, 2012
I finally launched into the first chapter of Black Angel on Halloween... and submitted it late, and it ended up going live at about 2 AM on the 1st and then being almost totally ignored. It's a bit frustrating when I posted something I think is pretty good and it barely even makes a ripple in the pond -- especially when stories that seem flawed or trivial pop up and go straight to the feature box and get dozens and comments and vote-ups. And then the self-doubt begins... and I begin to wonder if the effort is even worthwhile.
What's the trick? Are my stories that bad, or do I just fail at writing descriptions?
Anyhow, I've just now done some updating to my favorite story-in-progress, A Very Minty Summer Sun Celebration. This story got sidetracked and delayed for a long time, which is something I regret a lot, but I'm trying to get it back on track now. I revised all three chapters, added a lot to the beginning of chapter three, and added artwork to chapters one and three. And now I'm going to cross my fingers and hold my breath and submit it to EqD! I've only submitted to EqD once before, and the experience was absolutely horrible. It's really taken me a long time to work up the nerve to try again. However, I gather they've improved their pre-reader system and procedures a lot, so it's probably a good idea to give them another chance. Let's see what happens!
^ Pretty much this. I mean, I haven't posted a fic yet, but I know that readers can be pretty picky with the fics they read...I say this because I can be picky. People also often judge a story by it's tags, or the picture used. I know it can be tough to keep writing when you feel like no one pays attention or even cares--sometimes you probably feel like what's the point. Especially when you put a lot of time and care into a fic.
And while the question of whether it's really worth it or not is ultimately up to you, I hope you don't give up. We've all seen the authors who make it "big" with a single fic or two, hitting the feature box on their first try. But there are many (probably more than we think) who post many stories before they hit the feature box even once (in fact I know one such author). I think that for most it takes work and time, and also a lot of disappointment.
If I may ask: how long did you spend on your latest fic, Black Angel, out of curiosity? Here's my guess: A LOT, right?
How long did I spend on Black Angel? erm... It's been in the works for a long time, months and months, but it was on the back burner for a lot of that time. You might say it had a long gestation.
The same is true for The Golden Dawn, which is going to be my Conversion Bureau story. I've wanted to do something in CB for a long time, and I feel like I have a pretty good opening sequence, but I also want to wrap up some of my other stuff (Minty in particular) before launching into that.
Ninety per cent of the stories that end up in the featured box have at least one of the following attributes: clop, shipping, clop, under 5000 words, shipping, clop, clop, and shipping. Writing style, readability, grammatical correctness, continuity, believability, etc. are completely irrelevant.
Did I mention the average reader wants clop?
Judging by what I see on the television during a major election year, my theory is given added weight into what people really want.
P.S. I HATE clop.
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Yeah, that's gotta be tough when you work on something for a real long time, and then it kinda ends up going nowhere. I mean, I've been working on my first fic for months now, and I want to write the whole thing before I begin posting it. So if it falls flat, that'll be all that work for practically nothing. Will not be fun at all.
But it's not all bad. Every new fic you write you gain experience--not just with writing, but also how to attract the audience you want. And though it's hard sometimes to keep writing when you're not getting the recognition you want, once you do get that recognition (say its the feature box), it'll be that much better, knowing how much work you put in to get there. And really, when you think about it, you do have more followers than so many other authors here on the site, who write fics that never get any attention--so that's encouraging, I think.
And I wouldn't say write strictly with the feature box in mind--I'd say first start out be writing the fic you want to write. Otherwise, while you could probably easily churn out something like a clop fic and score The Box, what does that do for you as a writer? Sure, there are certain types of fics which make The Box more commonly than others, but wouldn't it feel better to write a fic that YOU want to write, which doesn't necessarily conform to the usual winners, and then that gets featured, as opposed to just sticking with some kind of feature-box-formula? Will that really mean it was your skill that got you there, or the fact you just wrote what the majority reads?
I mean, if you want to write clop, or a shipping fic, then go for it--but I wouldn't say do it just because you want to get featured. I think you're better than that. But even if you did do that, it wouldn't make you a terrible person/author either. So really, it's up to you.
Besides, while there are many shipping or clop fics that get featured, I've seen pretty much the entire spectrum up there. If it's good and interesting, people will read it--though as you've seen, sometimes luck works against you, and you don't make it, regardless of how good it is.
So try not to think that just because a fic of yours doesn't make a splash, that it wasn't good, or you aren't a good writer. If you're unsure about it, then take a good look at the fics that do make the Box. I'm not talking about their subject here, but rather how they're constructed. Look at how they word the description, and the types of pictures they use, and the titles. Read through the fic and see how well they write the characters, or the kinds of interactions they give them. Basically, think critically about it.
One good thing to do is to just look at the front page, and pay attention to how YOU select or judge fics there. Which ones catch your eye? Which ones do you immediately glance over, maybe without even reading the description? And then ask yourself why they stand out or don't stand out, or seem interesting, or whatever. I mean, everyone has different likes and preferences, but learning how YOU go through the front page will help you to gauge how others might also. And that's very useful information when it comes to trying to get your fic noticed.
Wow...sorry for writing so much, haha.
Anyway, I'm curious--how you made the feature box before?
> Anyway, I'm curious--how you made the feature box before?
Eh what? I've never been in the feature box. (Or if I was, nobody bothered to tell me about it!)
I did notice that my oldest story, The Last Parade, got a sudden surge of attention several weeks ago, and I never really figured out why. I thought maybe because it was added to some group...
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Whoops--Sorry! Missed your response; you gotta hit the reply button at the top right of somepony's comment in order for them to know you responded, haha
Anyway, glad I checked back.
If you added it to a group, or someone else did, then that's probably what happened. Personally, I hear about a lot of stories through the groups I'm in. After all, once it's added, everyone who's a member gets notified about it. Of course all they see is a title and the folder(s) it's been added to, so if they don't like the folder tags they may not click on it. But I still think it helps--perhaps you ought to try it out, if you haven't already. Couldn't hurt, right? Some groups have hundreds of people in them.
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The groups are great, and I think a lot of people don't use them to full advantage. FiMFiction has a lot of tools to help sort through the thousands of stories and find the gems, but sometimes I have a tendency to just be lazy and only look at the feature box and whatever's just been posted.
By the way... It's been more than a week since I submitted A Very Minty Summer Sun Celebration to EqD, and I haven't heard anything. All I know is that they received the submission and it's somewhere in their system. They did post a call for volunteers to become pre-readers, saying they are overwhelmed with submissions -- so I guess they really weren't kidding about that.
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Yeah, being EQD, I imagine they're ALWAYS backed up. Being a prereader is one thing I wouldn't want to do, simply because of the sheer amount I'd have to read, and I just don't have the time for that.
Hopefully they get back to you soon; at least you know that they got it. If they don't after a while, you might have to resend it or ask them about it. But I'm sure they'll get to it.