Writing a story with the cannon character with good quality: Featured

Writing a story with non-cannon character with good quality: Barely noticed

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Does anyone else feel like this happens almost all the time?

4117501
Yes but getting featured is all about having the right story in the right place at the right time. It's something you can't really predict unless you've already gotten into the featurebox. As long as you like your story and willing to toll for it, it might get featured in the bottom three slots.

4117501

Writing a story with the cannon character with good quality: Featured

That's not even close to being true.

I know a ton of authors that write good stories with canon characters (regardless of being mane 6 or not), and they're quite far away of being featured.

Write crap clop, throw it into 64,371,211 clop groups (because there are never enough of those) and presto! Featured!

cannon

It's canon. Unless you're thinking of this:

~Twi

4117503 True.

It just feels a bit tiring when all but two stories in the featured box includes one of the main six, one a cannon character and one will, in rare occasions be OC only.

I've even considered creating an alt-account where I post one story with a cannon character just to see how much easier it is to get noticed with it

4117507 Currently, two out of ten stories in the featured box are clop. All of the stories contains at least one cannon character.

4117515
Game.
Set.
Match.

~Twi

4117518 Okay... ?

4117501 write garbage bin clop stories and foalcon: featured.

Life's a bitch.

4117526

Life's a bitch

Life has been a bitch to me since birth, I think I've noticed xD

4117510
Experiment, my friend! I wrote a dozen Twilight Sparkle fics and compared the audience reaction of my weirder fics. The Twilight fics won every time. I think it's only because people were looking for Twilight because she's a character they already know and easier for them to read without wasting the time in getting invested. I say this as a reader, there better be something distinctive about a OC that makes go, 'oh you' and I'd stick around to see what they get themselves into.

Being featured really has to do with people reading it than the author. (At least, before your featured twice) It comes, it goes... But I really think you should make that alt-account to stretch your fingers and get some of the kinks out.

4117501
If you just wanna be featured for mediocre work write clop. There is always clop in the first seven slots.

If you want more coherent work noticed — share your story with group folders and update frequently. Soon, you'll amass a small audience which will be eager to see the next chapter of your story. Then when you publish a chapter, your fans will generate a spike in the system that'll secure you a decent shot at a slot on the bottom three.

4117501 It's the nature of fan fiction. Most come here looking for stories (be they clop to adventure stories) about the main characters from the show they like. Maybe one in twenty will look at stories that feature original characters. The key to getting stories like this more attention is to join groups, ask for reviews, and get to know the regular users on the site. When you become fairly well established and make friends, people will give OC stories at least a try. If they end up liking it, they might promote to their followers and then it might get more attention. It will be your job to make sure that the story is of good quality and an enjoyable read, other wise they will feel they wasted their time taking the risk reading a story with original characters.

Even with that, you can't expect OC characters to do better than established characters. It's just the nature of the beast. If you enjoy your stories, you will be happy with whatever attention they get.

4117501

Writing a story with non-cannon character with good quality: Barely noticed

I'm going to start blaming my lack of artillery-based characters for my inability to get featured.

But seriously, I get what you mean. It's just simply not true. If it was, the feature box would be rotating out fics far more often than it does, and none of the featured fics would suck. I'm not saying it doesn't happen ever, because it does. It's just not as simple as "Add canon characters and double your views!"

OCs do have a lesser shot at getting views, likes, and all that, but that's because people come here to read about the show characters. If we wanted OCs, we'd go to Wattpad or fanfiction.net. That's not to say people won't read it, or even that it can't be featured. It's just not nearly as likely. Especially if OCs are the stars, rather than just playing an important supporting role or something.

4117676

and none of the featured fics would suck

Pffffffft. Optimist.

~Twi

4117707
Well, he did say good fics.

4117773 zhe... I think that should be gender neutrual. (Of s/he)

4117501

Well, to be fair, people come to this site to read about their favorite characters. That's sort of the whole point of fanfiction.

4118297 There's 17.7K stories with Twilight, out of about... 79K ._.

Don't you Think we've enough Twilight?

4118309

Not really. I like Twilight, and I know for a fact that I enjoy reading stories about her if they are written well. I may not read all Twilight stories that comes along, but that's okay because people aren't just going to stop writing about her. On the other hand, I have no idea if I'll enjoy a story about an OC that I'm going to have to get to know and learn to connect with. It's just a harder sell.

Not saying OC stories are worse than those featuring canon characters, of course. I'm just saying that it's natural for fans to want to read fanfiction about characters they are fans of.

4118348 I guess we all just have a different view on things.

I actually enjoy OC stories more because I get to know the character. It just adds more fun to it, I guess