Recently, I posted a new fic about the Dazzlings (about yesterday to be exact). For the longest time this story has been needling around in my mind and driving me crazy whenever I try to not think about it. Eventually, I manage to sit myself down for than 15 minutes and actually write out something for the story. I finally get the fic to pass submission...only to find that it is barely thriving and hasn't made any success in getting feedback from readers.

I probably should give myself more time for the fic to settle, but I really want some opinions so I can go about fixing and editing the story. I know probably shouldn't look at writing fics that way, but I really don't want to shell out 10,000+ words only to feel like it was all for nothing.

I have hundreds (probably not) of stories that constantly play inside my head bothering me until I get it out on paper, but a lot of the time I'm reluctant to actually post them because I am unsure of its quality and whether or not it's going to spark interest in the eyes of the reader.

In short, I ask the members of the forum one question.

How exactly do you go about writing & promoting a fic, especially a Dazzling centered fic, and should I change tactics for mine?

If anyone is interested in looking at it click here.

4563439

Well, for starters, your story is posted in exactly one group (this one). Might want to fix that first (EDIT: Fixed the link!). No one can read your fic if they don't know it exists. And there are several your story would fit into just taking a glance at the list.

I actually hadn't seen this pop up in any of my feeds. Somehow missed it on this one. Getting it into more groups will be a start.

I haven't seen many Dazzle fics follow the "still bitter and seeking revenge" angle - so that might either work in your favor from a niche perspective, or I could also imagine it having less of an appeal than other lighter/change-of-heart stories.

I went that latter angle with the ones I wrote, and they did quite well, though decreasingly so as more time has passed since RR. This is an observation that Bookish Delight clued me in on, and it makes sense. The hay-day of folks gobbling up every Dazzle fic that comes across the feeds have passed. I still get a trickle of views and favs, but it's definitely slowed down as time has gone on.

I'm not going to stop writing for them though. ;) The three of them and Sunset are my favorite characters to come out of the FiM franchise since Rarity.

Edit: and lolBookish beat me while I was typing this. Heh.

Ooh, I have a bit of experience with this one! The having more ideas than time to write it all out bit, at least. I had spent about a year not publishing things that weren't done yet and accumulated a lot of story by the time I figured that that method sucked. So I polished up what I had and pretty much published everything at once, and people read what they wanted to read. If there's a way to adequately predict what people will be interested in besides clop, I haven't found it yet, but I know what among which ideas of mine are relatively popular and which aren't through view counts, favorites, and comments.

This probably isn't encouraging, but step one should probably be to just write a bit, see if anyone's on board with whatever you've got. You're bound to have at least a few consistent readers no matter what the story, but I imagine we're talking more than that.

I don't know much about promotion, I just add the stories to applicable groups I'm in (ideally not eight times or so to one group, as happens often with Sunset Shimmer stories) and try to publish chapters on a regular basis. (failing miserably for all but one, so far, and even that probably isn't going to last much longer) I was told a schedule, like a new chapter every other Friday or something is handy for readers because they know when to tune in, but that depends on having the time in which to write regularly.

I think that's all I've got. Good luck, and happy writing!

4563439 Really wish that I could help ya kiddo, but I have never really had this problem. Only thing I can suggest is what others are telling you, spread it through some groups, maybe post another chapter. Some people pass by fics that are not at a certain word limit, so adding chapters might help draw them in.
4563461 Good to see ya, ever get around to reading that fic o mine?

4563439 Actually, I can tell you how I go about writing my Dazzling fic. Step 1, get motivated. Step 2, change that little voice in my head to match that of the character I am focusing on, say Sonata. Step 3, go over scenes from the movie, visualizing the characters voice patterns and movements, what words does the character use? How energetic is the character? Step 4, try and maintain that image and write the scene, trying to transfer that image to the page. Step 5, snack break. Step 6, try and have fun writing. Step 7, pray to God that the chapter I just submitted is received well.

And that's my seven step process to writing a Dazzling story. Or anything really. Oh! It's also important to keep in mind the over all tone of the story.

4563622 Along with a few others on my "wanted to read soon" list, this one slipped aside from other art and RL things I was focusing on. With the reminder, I'll have to make it one of my lunch-hour endeavors this week. ;)

4564081 Sweet

I took a simple approach, make it real. Having been homeless and starving in a Minnesota winnter with only my big sister for company it was brutal. So I made it brutal.

I have an entire word document filled with hundreds of thousands of words and several Dazzling, Sunset, or Dazzling Sunset -centered fics. Honestly, the way I go about writing them is to decide first, what I want. What do I want to see that either I haven't seen or have seen but want to do my own way? Do you want to take an idea from another story and put a spin on it? If so, make sure you're interested in the idea (I break this rule a lot cause I start writing down the idea and never finish it). Are you writing something you want to see but hasn't been done yet? Great! Keep going!

Once you've figured out why you're writing, I suggest thinking about how you want to characterize the Dazzlings. So much was left open for writers. We don't know if Aria and Adagio have hidden soft spots, we don't know if they secretly care for Sonata, we don't know if Adagio is a closet dungeon master, the list goes on. So, I think it best to figure out your characterization of them and just roll with it, really. Sometimes that characterization might change depending on the story, and that's fine. As far as we all know, none of us is Meghan McCarthy, so none of us can write the characters as one hundred percent canon. That gives fanfic writers WAY more freedom to do what they want than canon writers.

I don't know anything about promoting on this site, though. Not a clue.