As we work through the logistics of keeping the article pipeline fed, and it's a hungry beast, I thought I'd open a dialog about choosing what we write.
For example, when I started writing for the public, I went to the root of writing FanFiction. Those who immediately scoff, remember that some really prolific authors started out that way, including Mercedes Lackey and Stephanie Meyers. In fact, Mercedes Lackey publishes a yearly anthology. For at least 10 years now, she has short stories written by other authors in her world... you know, FanFictions.
I was interested in Harry Potter. When I started, we were in the drought between books 4 and 5 of the Harry Potter series. There was quite the fertile ground of speculation and tropes that still continues to this day, 20 years later. I just finished a reread of my own unfinished Harry Potter FanFiction novel and restarted editing so I can finally finish it after 20 years. I don't want to turn into George R.R. Martin and never finish the book that's mostly done, after all. (Where are you, Winds of Winter?)
Writing a FanFiction, especially a Harry Potter one, gives you a hungry audience ready to beat you over the skull for mistakes. They are driven to reply. If you thrive on interaction, that is a path. Of course, they can be brutal, too, so that's something to bear in mind.
If you are inclined to follow markets, you can figure out what is popular and write something that scratches that itch. Paranormal Romance was huge some time ago, for example. (It might still be, but I'm not paying attention much to larger outside trends). Quirky teens getting laid seems to usually go over well with the Gay Authors' audience. Teens crossed with giants (at least 1 part) seem to be a regular favorite over at Nifty. You can give yourself a leg up on the audience by feeding the beast.
The other path is more challenging but more rewarding. Write something so compelling that you set the trend. In other words, be you. Write a great story, and it'll get noticed. I am always going to write something other than contemporary. While I will complete my Harry Potter story, I don't plan on writing more in the FanFiction genre (and sharing it) going forward. I'm going to continue to wander off into the lands of speculative fiction, be it Science Fiction or Fantasy.
That's me being me. How do you approach your writing? Has it changed since you started? Is feeding the audience more important? Or writing what you want?
Hi All! This email went out on July 5th. Unfortunately, it has been brought to our attention that not everyone got. Investing the report, I found we were about 1000 people short of what should have sent for reason unknown. I therefore am posting it here so people don't get spammed if we posted it again.
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Attention Everyone!
We have updated how we are handling our profile information in order to handle future personalization, better understand our audience and better enhance privacy. Next time you log onto the site, if you haven't yet, you will be prompted to update your profile information. It is very important that you read the first text and click "Next" or you will be in an endless loop until you do. The only required field is "Age Range". More details can be found in the announcement: Profile Completion Prompts
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We had 31 new stories posted.
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Bossy Nanny by Mrsgnomie
Embers by WolfM
With Pride I Go Forth by Headstall
Trophy Cub by Grumpy Bear
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Tales from the Refuge by Wayne Gray
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Site Admin
As part of the always ongoing site improvements, we are in the process of changing up the blogs. We are taking the opportunity to consolidate blogs now that categories are working again in the blog software. As part of that change, we've designated this blog to be the center of our Writing news. So, Writing Tips is now Writing World.
We encourage all our site authors to follow this blog and to let us know if you want to see something else featured in this blog.
As the schedule currently sits, we are planning on upgrading the forum software to the newest version in the next couple of weeks depending on how the software patching process for the Stories Archive software goes. As part of that roll out, I'll be changing how we handle new member registration as well as the information available in the profile. One of the more visible changes is that we are going to remove the birthday and Age in Years fields and replace it with the Age Range demographic option. Being accurate here is important for safety concerns for our younger members.
I have deployed the updated fields on site already, but I have not updated the "Profile Completion" prompt yet. There will be only one mandatory field, which you can update any time starting today.
If you go to your profile (click your icon on the upper right of the page), then choose edit profile, you'll get this:
Below this is a new section "Demographics and Interests":
More:
How posts appear will be changing as well:
Please note that the "Member Title" field goes away that is currently below the Public Display Name. You can set "Member Title" as your "Topic Display Title" and then stick in whatever title you'd like in the "My Words" field. Or you can choose "Motto", like shown above. There are other options, go check them out.
Hope this helps!
