Please For The Love Of Anything You Worship Learn How To Tag - Tumblr Posts

4 years ago

THIS!

Please please always add a read more and never abuse tags đź’ś

Do you have any fanfic resources you could recommend? I don’t really know the terminology and the last thing I wanna do is bug people but google is giving me some really random answers. And I don’t thinkle drabble is what its telling me...

Hello! I don’t know of any specific fanfic resources, unfortunately. The best advice I can give is to look at well-known fanfic authors, see what they do and then copy their format (format only! lol) until you learn. Unfortunately, I feel like most writers on this site simply learned by trial and error. Some tips to start you off!

Posting on Tumblr:

Add a read more. This is a courtesy to readers and people searching in the tags, so they don’t need to scroll for ten minutes past your giant-ass fic.

Tag your story appropriately (and ONLY with relevant tags!). I.e., if you are posting a Jungkook NSFW story, your tags might be: Jungkook fanfic, BTS fanfic, Jungkook smut, BTS smut, Jungkook one shot, BTS one shot, Jungkook, BTS... and so on. DO NOT tag as “Yoongi” unless Yoongi is a main character of the story. 

Above the read more, include the following: author (your URL), pairing (example: jungkook + reader), rating (NSFW or SFW), relevant warnings (explained further below), genre of writing (example: college!AU, enemies to lovers) and any author’s notes you want the reader to know before reading

Create a masterlist. This is a text post on your blog where you’ll give a brief description each story and link them. Place a link to this masterlist in the bio of your Tumblr page. This will allow readers to find your work more easily.

Create an FAQ. As you grow in followers, I can’t stress the importance of this enough, both to you as a writer and to your readers. Create a text post with frequent asks and answers to these questions! 

Terminology:

Drabble: a drabble is technically 100 words. Or, that’s what it used to be in the beginnings of fanfiction. Now, the term drabble has taken on a mind of it’s own and each writer seems to have their own definition of what it means. I’ve seen works with as high a word count as 5,000 tagging their work as drabble. (rip lol). Overall, a "drabble” means a shorter piece of writing.

One shot: a story posted all at once. All “chapters” are posted within the same text post. A one shot can vary in length (my longest one shot is over 40,000 words). An example would be my fic, The Art of War More.

Series: a story posted in multiple chapters at different times. An example would be my fic, Raise the Barre.

NSFW: Not Suitable For Work. ALWAYS mark a story NSFW if it contains themes which are 18+. Examples are: explicit sex, graphic depictions of violence, extremely sensitive or triggering topics. 

SFW: Suitable For Work. Does not contain the topics listed above. In terms of movie ratings, this would be G/PG/PG-13 rated.

Warnings: this varies depending on the author and can be listed as two different sections (sexual warnings and trigger warnings). Overall, these are intended to give the reader a heads-up on any potentially triggering topics. I.e., character death, self-harm, eating disorders, abuse of power, etc. Sexual warnings are a bit more loosely defined, but they are intended to let the reader know which sexual acts are performed (so they can decide whether or not the fic is to their taste). Examples might be: oral sex (male), withheld orgasm (male), dirty talk, thigh riding, etc.  

AU: Alternate Universe. This is basically any story or concept which is not reality. I.e., if you are writing fanfiction for BTS members, an AU is any story which takes place in a universe where BTS are not BTS. There are hundreds and thousands of AU’s. They can be anything from nurse!AU to college!AU to witch!AU to living Monopoly!AU (lol) 

Canon: the opposite of an AU. A piece of writing within the concepts of current reality. I.e., you are writing the BTS members as BTS members.

Idol-verse: Another (more common within BTS fanfiction) word for canon. This basically means you are writing a member as a k-pop Idol.  

Reader Insert: fanfiction where the main character’s name is either left blank (______), or written as Y/N. The reader is intended to fill in their own name as the main character. These stories are written in second person, using “you” instead of “she/her” or “I.” 

Y/N:  Your Name. Used in reader insert fanfiction instead of the main character. 

MxM: Member + Member (I’ve occasionally seen this referred to as Male + Male, but that’s not really accurate). Fanfiction written about two of the members as love interests, instead of an anonymous reader. 

I would also recommend joining writing networks and/or discord chats re: tumblr writing! There, you can make friends and meet other writers who can answer your questions in real time as they pop up. Best of luck, babe! Happy writing :)


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