Writing your Fanfic

A series by Lordgriffin

August 31, 2014

GETTING STARTED (Section 1 of 6)

(Part 2 of 8)

If your writing for yourself, why are you posting to a web site / BB ?

            I have frequently contacted writers, to compliment them on their writing, and to make suggestions I think might help their plot, only to be met with “I don’t take requests I just write for myself.” Then in the same breath, that same writer comments, “I don’t know why nobody likes / reads my stuff.”

            Ok, you should ALWAYS write for yourself, write what YOU like, what speaks to you. However, the very act of posting to a public site, means you would like to find others who appreciate YOUR work.  So the next question is, do you prefer the popularity?  Or is this just a “take it or leave it” attitude.  If it’s take it or leave it, you cannot complain that people don’t read or comment negatively on your stories, however if you’re in it because you like having a fan base, you will, once again, need to consider how to write what THEY like in a way that YOU like (This will be covered in depth in Section 6).  Just remember YOU have to enjoy the story, if you don’t, your readers will pick up on it like a heat seeking moisture missile.

            Ok now that you’re writing for YOU, the next step is to decide whether you’re going to write for your fanboys (making you a “Niche” market writer)? Or, are you going to write for the “Silent Majority.”  The simple fact of the matter is, most readers do NOT comment, which is unfortunate because we base our popularity of positive feedback.  However, if you WATCH sites that have counters for the number of “views” of your story, you will see the more sophisticated, well thought out plots, have the number of views in the thousands, where as  “Niche” will have counts in the 10’s to 100’s.  (This is a non-scientific study)

            What is the difference between “Niche” and “Silent Majority”?  I am glad you asked.  The Silent Majority story, deals with actual issues, has a plot and realistic characters that people relate to.  For “Niche” I like to pick on “Dickgirls,” as they are distasteful to me personally.  A “Dickgirl” is an established female character, and rather then write in a male character, she magically has a BIG horking dick stuck on her front.  For a “Niche” writer THAT is their plot, some people just LIKE Dickgirls, put a dick on a girl and we don’t even CARE what else is in there, we will read it.  There are many people out there like that (Dickgirls, Homosexual male, transformation, super heroine, bestiality, sadism, mind control, chloroform…etc.) if you HAVE that element they don’t CARE; you HAVE it they LIKE It!  You won’t have as big a following, but you WILL have a fanbase.