No, really, how do you get people to read your fics?

To draw people to my fics in particular (and I do this only because it works as a draw for myself), is give the story a really weird title. But keep it relavant. I'm more likely to post on a heading that says "Outmanned, But Never Outgunned", becuase it sounds cool and doesn't tell me what the whole story is about. It entices me to find out more. A title like "Blah blah blah-here are the people in my story and what it's all about, yadda yadda yadda" isn't a draw for me.

I know this isn't very positive in terms of helping with your writing, but it might get you closer to getting me to post on your threads.

 

Hey, souderwan, I remember that list. And the list of my violations has become even onger by now. I'm stillworkig on how to manages points 6-8 and sowly get ht eimpression I'll never make it. *sigh*
And I still think you're famous.

 

And you're still wrong.

But thanks anyway.

 

How about infamous?

I have to agree about stories that 'stretch' canon characters too far being bothersome. Now, some AU stories take a canon character and putting them into unusual or extreme circumstances, extrapolate on how they would react or change to that. This can be a very intriguing and entertaining excursion into the character evolving into their new situation.

But when the story starts out with a canon character behaving completely differently from how they do in the movies with the only explanation being that the story is 'AU' then I just can't swallow that as a reader. It just feels like manipulation by the writer. All they have done is written a character and pasted on the canon character's name. If one is going to do that then one might as well be honest about it and write an OC.

One exception to this is if it's done for humor or parody; then it can be fun. Like if Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are written like 'The Odd Couple' with Obi-Wan as the neat finicky one and Qui-Gon as the messy, disgusting one, with their personality quirks blown way out of proportion. That could be be amusing.

 

I like your list, Souderwan!

Why haven't you postedit anywhere in the last February? That way, I wouldn't have messed up points 1, 3, 5, 11 and 13.

As for the original topic, it seems that everyone else has already said everything I had to say. I know how it feels when you feel that no one is reading your story, that people tend to overlook it. Just... be patient and write for the sake of writing. If you have no reviews, this means that you story is too well-written for a review. Sometimes people really don't know what to say becasue the chapter overwhelmed them too much, and they end up saying nothing because they don't like sounding like a broken record by saying 'great update, liked it very much'.

 

Oh, the other thing about long stories?it?s an interesting phenomenon that sometimes fics tend to drop in readership as they progress?not drastically but a little bit. People will show up and then disappear.

That use to bother me?but now I?ve come to a comforting solution: They?re probably still there and just lurking.

 

^^^

No. NO NOOOOOOH.

 

i've broken every rule on your list, but only one of the "RULE BREAKERS" has been posted because the rest would be "R" rating

 

I was surprised to see my name in this thread.

Seriously, I DO read a lot of fics and I try to pay special attention to new writers or ones that haven't developed a huge following YET. That's simply because other established writers did me that favor when I started out here and I'm a firm believe in "what goes around comes around."

Now I've learned to ask for PM updates because otherwise I get lost, especially since I don't post much on the weekends.

I know from experience that it takes a while to get your name out there and find your audience. My best advice would be to keep writing. Even when it hurts.

 

*sniff* it's true believe me, i've been there, (I STILL AM! sorta...)

 

Keep in mind, too, that you may have hundreds of readers who don't respond. I envy those with, say 60, requests for PMs and pages of responses, but that doesn't mean my stories aren't read - they just slip down the pages without being bumped. That does not mean they are not being read.

Sure would be nice to have a "hit counter" for reassurance, though.

 

I totally agree that a hit counter would be a great feature if we could ever do it, but I think that's probably something only zerosleep could arrange on the boards.

Souderwan, I remember that list you posted when you posted awhile back. I have it saved as a word document to remind myself every time I start a new story It was a great article.

 

You'll get readers eventually, dude. You just need to be patient.

 

In the Archives, for every comment I get, I get about 200 hits; same on fanfiction.net. So even if the boards are half that, there are still a lot of lurkers out there. I'd assume they are reading even if they aren't commenting... although comments are always welcome!

 

I've just taken a look at my fics on another site and here are the stats:

2005
3924 hits, 7 reviews
1076 hits, 1 review

2006
1197 hits, 4 reviews
428 hits, 1 review
997 hits, 6 reviews

All of them have poor hit:review ratios, ranging rom 166 (which is bad, but not terrible) to 1076 (EEK!). That could be the nature of the archive, to a point: it's less comment-generating than the JC. There's also a rating feature on the site and the stories got good ratings and generally good comments - just not very many. Review counts are often misleading.

 

Darth_Manion mentioned having a catchy title, and I agree. Something like "Revelations" or "Legacies" or "Deep Thoughts" may tell people what your story's about theme-wise, but a lot of other writers have the same ideas. On the other hand, a title like "The Gods Must Be Crazy" may be more subtle (theme-wise), but it can pique a reader's interest.

A personal example - a couple days ago I saw a fic in Beyond called "Drunk and Disorderly." That's exactly the kind of title I love to see, and I didn't even know who was in the story or what it was about (though I assumed some drunkeness and disorderliness). I really liked it, and I'm really glad the author had a fun title, because I may not have clicked on it if I'd seen "Antics of a Desperate Heart" instead.

 

Now I'm starting to feel bad
I don't write fanfic, but I read quite a lot ... always as a lurker. I guess now that I created this account, only to make finding/following fics easier, I might as well start commenting on the stories I read

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that there's at least one person *points to self* who actually prefers OC stories over the standard A/P, Qui/Obi, etc. ones (in fact I only click on an A/P, etc. story if it comes from someone I already know and trust). So please keep writing them

 

I think the OC writers around here are somewhat passionate about something called La Revolucion, and are in no danger of dying out


Though for all the bad press that OC stories seem to be getting, I have to say that my own experiences have been nothing short of excellent. My very first fic here was an OC-only story (Darth Vader appeared for maybe 2 scenes), and I got waaaay more readers than I expected. Since then I've posted a few more, always OCs-only, and the response just keeps getting better and better.

I think La Revolucion is gathering momentum

(Belated lol's at the Gonzo Fanfic on page 2 !)

 

The bad press OC's get a lot of the time is because there are so many original characters who are just author inserts and they are absolutely terrible. This board is one of the few exceptions to that rule, but it is not the case a lot of the time on fanfiction.net and other places. It's also because some folks only want to read about the more familiar canon characters. I was one of those who used to avoid OC's like the plague because all the ones I saw were poorly written before I joined this board. Now I find myself following more OC stories than canon ones.

 

I am much more likely to click on an OC-based story if it's a one-shot than if it's a long story, unless I'm already familiar with the OCs. I might have to try that with some of my OCs, actually - get them exposed in one-shots and then build a story around them.

 

i just realized one very important truth; even if your fic never gets a single post and is read merely by the lurkers; at least you wont spend six hours every weekend PMing people that you updated your story (One fact i am extremely thankful for) , just cause i only have three people following my story right now doesn't mean there aren't more reading it and complementing my writing, even if i don't hear it (you hear it in a forum?) i read great fics for months (maybe even a year) before i signed up to post my first fic. but its still nice to have 60 replys for each update

 

We've a fantastic support system over here! I've OC dominated stories that haven't had a nibble over at ff.hell.

 

Using an original character to create an author-insert is, of course, completely foolish. You are correct. But the much more popular, and more clever, thing to do is simply turn a canon character into an author-insert. Everyone knows all about them already, so a vast majority of readers will care less if you happen to write Mara/Jaina/Luke/etc wrong, because they intended to fill in the missing details with their own assumptions anyway. And since the character is canon, you automatically get lots of responses no matter how good it is, which is important when you're writing a Mary Sue or Gary Stu, because the whole point is to spread your personal fantasy as far and wide as possible, like a deeply convoluted and niche-oriented personals ad. So in the end it's a win-win.

For instance: if I was planning on writing a story with a Gary Stu, I'd simply write about Han Solo when he was 24 and gettin' all the ladies.

 

on the note of OC's: they are almost essential to fan fiction, why, because how long can you put new wine in old bottles without giving someone food poisoning? Every story i've written is dripping in OC's and my goal is to be a proffesional writer so i need the practice.

But i agree, off the shelf author-inserts drive me insane it mustn't be done i tell you!! If i need an insert i use an existing character rather than make up a clay-pidgeon on the fly, just for it to get shot down (there's a pun in there if you can find it)

and when it gets shot down after you finally like the Character, well, there are things duct tape can't do

 

Actually, it's important to recognize that "author insert" and "Mary Sue/Gary Stu" are not synonymous. Especially if you're working with OCs. *g* It is rather unlikely to turn a canon character into a self-insert of any kind without botching their characterization, unless the character really doesn't have much in the way of an established personality or background in the first place.

But a good self-insert OC will have most of the author's own personality, virtues, strengths, failings, and foibles, suitably adjusted (as with any good AU ) by the interaction with a different background. A Sue/Stu will generally either lack the failings, have them treated by the author as virtues, and/or never see any bad consequences from them -- independent of whether the character is supposed to bear any resemblance to the author or not.

Writing good characterization doesn't actually change that much if you're writing yourself.