Right, now we're onto the tech talk portion of this 'WTF am I doing and is anyone even going to read this?!' fanfic-slash-writing-guide. Here, boys and girls, I'll cover some of the tricks and general knowledge I've picked up regarding the actual publishing funstuffs. Hopefully you'll find something here helpful, and a lot of it is just common sense distilled that you can use as a reference if you get stuck at a certain point.

1. where to publish?

For me, there are three main places to publish your shiney new fanfic: , archive of our own, and tumblr. There are other niche places, "social media" (put in air quotes because I abhor it in all forms and can't say much more), and Wattpad. Let's do Wattpad first: I don't like it, and I don't recommend it for fanfiction. It's not really a fanfic repository and you're going to have a very limited audience vs. a whole lot of outspoken naysayers who will hate on your story just because it's fanfic (and they probably won't even read it anyhow, just shit talk it). There also is a frequent problem with IP theft, ie. people there just stealing your shit and claiming it as their own. So really, there's no upside to Wattpad and it should avoided. IMO of course.

Next is Tumblr. Hmm… this is a complicated one. Let's do pros and cons.

Pros:

big, thriving Reylo community

lots of fanfic on there, a good audience

easy to use interface

many good people on there, but also many bad

cons:

massive, ugly fandom wars frequently erupt and many parts of the Tumblr community is profoundly toxic (though again there are many good eggs in the Tumblr basket, just be prepared to wade into it)

not really designed for fanfiction so it's not particularly comfortable to read stories, especially longer stories

lots of random postings all the time so, unless you already have a name for yourself and some fans, you're probably just going to get lost in the shuffle

I'm on tumblr (feel free to say hi to me at lost-inthesunlight !) but I keep a pretty low profile there for the above reasons. I mostly just comment and like other people's stuff, and occasionally post a piece of smutty fanart I've darn, or announce a posting of a new chapter or something like that. Speaking of, here's the promo pic for the story in ch5 of this!

So, Tumblr: mixed bag, definitely not newbie friendly and many authors have had horrible experiences and have sworn off it. Maybe I've just been lucky or maybe because I don't really use it for other than mostly kudos-ing other people.

Archive of our own:

Ah, good old AO3. If you're writing fanfic, you're posting it here period. The biggest audience and the best interface and all around experience. There isn't too much bad I have to say about AO3, but be aware of:

occasional asshole commenters trying to start shit (not a huge problem, but it does happen. Loathe am I to quote Taylor Swift, but shake it off baby)

no PM-ing. This one's a bit of a drag because it would be great to chat with your favorite authors directly but you can't. I suppose this is because AO3 doesn't want to have to monitor private messages too because they have their hands full, but phooey…

Sometimes laggy and glitchy. I've twice had my chapters eaten, so always keep those backups. Also, when you post a fic, the announcement email doesn't go up for anywhere from 30-60 minutes after posting so just be aware of this and don't freak out thinking it's vanished/not posted.

Um… I guess that's about it? Yeah, Ao3, good stuff. Post yo shit here.

Heh, okay, I've got some things to say about oldie . Let's do pros and cons and I know there's going to be way more cons so let me just preface this with saying I DO recommend posting on overall, just be aware of…

PROS

huge fanbase, though smaller than AO3

readers overall seem nicer and you're less likely to encounter an asshat

PM system I place

supposedly there are message boards and sub communities? I've never actually checked

CONS

asinine categorization system

dinosaur of an interface (more on this in a moment)

readers, though nice, seem less likely to comment or give feedback

doesn't accept E fics

need tech help? Well you're just SOL then

older fics hit the cliff and fall off into obscurity much faster than on AO3 (possibly because of 's hard to use search interface)

can't respond/reply to reviews. Not even to thank them for commenting. Now that's just rude. If I'm doing a multichapter fic I'll thank the reviewers in the next chapter but, if you're just doing a 1-shot, ya can't. It sucks.

ca't download fics like you can on ao3 (mobi, epub, etc.)

it's ugly. It really is

no keywords or tagging

So, about that interface:

Ugh. Take a deep sigh. That's step one.

You can either upload your story as a doc (it also accepts .odt) or copy and paste it into this obnoxiously narrow editing box. I find this c&p method often results in weird formatting and lots of strangeness so I prefer to upload as an .odt and fix the random shit they take out or in afterwards.

When you're making a correction to an existing story or chapter, you have to go to: publish – doc manager – chapter to be changed – edit document – save it – then go to publish – manage stories – name of story – content/chapters – replace/edit chapter – pick new edited document – save- wait 30 -60 minutes for the corrections to go live. Having fun yet?

You're given a much shorter space for a summary than on AO3, resulting in headaches when you forget this and are just trying to post your damned story.

M stories only and their ratings descriptors really doesn't tell you what they consider M or E. However, I've read some pretty strong M rated fics there, so just use your judgment. ffn isn't the place for XXX smut but you can get away with X1/2 smut. Technical talk. Yeah.

You may have to put in special symbols and accents like a horizontal line manually after you upload the doc like:


But, in conclusion, for all it's many shortcomings and outdatedness, I find to be worth the hassle. First off it's not THAT much more work, and I consistently get anywhere from 25-50% of my readers there instead of AO3 (very fandom dependent, but even at he lower end it's well worth it IMO)

2) ratings

Ratings I've pretty much covered above and in ch1 but I should mention that, if you post on Tumblr, it's a haven of porn blogs and the skies the limit explicitness. If you're like me and a raunchy porn gif shows up on your dashboard and you're all 'oh hellz yeah, better pound that ass big boy!' then go forth and be filthy, young padawan. Just be aware.

3) keywords

both AO3 and tumblr use keywords to tag yo shit, doesn't. AO3 has a pretty robust auto-suggest feature as you start typing so I just stick with that and use its suggestion on both AO3 and tumblr too. I'm not sure exactly how much keywords help with your visibility, though. When I first started I experimented around with tagging and didn't really notice a difference

3) caution about outside links

All three sites (AO3, , and tumblr ((see the Oxford comma there? f'ing right)) have rules against outside links. Sort of. Their rules vary tremendously, so it's important you know what is and isn't allowed.

: doesn't support links at all. Not outside, not internal. Like you literally can't link to your own story on through . Deep sigh. I mean, you CAN do that horribly dumb old think of spelling the link out like yourname 'slash' something 'slash' chapter 3 'dot' 'com' but no one's going to type that shit out. Dear fanfiction dot net: this is stupid. Truly.

Tumblr: Tumblr is generally cool about links, outside and internal. For the most part it's all good, BUT they allegedly drop the visibility of your posts if you link to a payment service like ko-fi (like the one I may or may not have on my artwork gallery section of my tumblr), or or whatnot. A while ago I found this post about a possible workaround ( post/177808504825/smols-darklighter-dornisaurio-lycisca-sick), but I don't know if it works or not. Do let me know if it does!

Also, if you're reading this guide of mine on ffn there's a good chance they've auto deleted much of the above paragraphs and links. I'll try to fix them as I can, but seriously ffn overlords, fuck off and just let us link like normal people, mmhmkay?

AO3: Now AO3 is an interesting hybrid and there's a reason I'm mentioning it last. For the most part they allow outside and internal links BUT DO NOT directly post to any pay service ala kofi etc. You can, however, post to your tumblr and have a secondary linking post there per the above instructions, but just remember that AO3 forbids money making (it's a big part of their whole 'fanfiction isn't IP theft creative commons' thing) so just be cool and play by their rules. Don't be a dick, be a dude.

Now onto some tech talk for your actual story:

5) the blurb

Blurns, inherently, suck to write. So much so that there are literally professional services that professional authors hire and pay to write their blurbs for them. But I have a few tips that can hopefully point you in the write direction (pun intended). And, Spokane, if you happen to read this, I sent you a few blurb tips back when you were writing Exploration, let me know if I've missed any of them here, okay?

Tip 1: the JSB method:

James Scott Bell recommends this basic structure to get you through the ordeal of blurbing (or as he refers to it, writing the cover copy ;)

Sentence 1: Character name, job, and opening situation.

S2: the words 'But when' and the opening crisis or turnin point.

S3: 'Now' and what the main character is going to do about the crisis and the stakes at risk.

Example for The Force Awakens:

Rey is an orphaned Scavenger who is just struggling to get by while dreaming of a better future. But when a strange robot crosses her path, she is drawn into a galactic war and swept far away from her humble homeland. Now, with the help of a band of unlikely allies, Rey must find a way to defeat the evil First Order and find out what her true place in the universe really is.

Er, okay, that was one shitacular blurb example. Sorry about that. BUT, maybe you still get the idea? James Scott Bell is a thriller writer, and I feel like his method is more suited to thriller fiction than fanfiction but I just had to include it here anyhow. If you're really stuck, give it a try. What's the worst that could happen? You end up with a mediocre blurb that you can sort of tolerate-ish but it's all you've got so you're going to use it anyhow? Welcome to the club, my friend, you've just entered the writing life.

ps. I think the JSB method can also be used when you're first planning out your story, too, just to test drive an idea and see if it holds water.

Blurb technique 2: (did I call it a tip earlier? I think I did. Eh…)

Use a sneak peek into the story. Find a few of the zestiest lines of either dialogue, internal thoughts, or maybe a little bit of the raunchy action and use THAT as your blurb. The whole idea is to find a really tempting nugget to get readers to sink their teeth into. Example (and forgive me for using my own stories as examples, I feel weird using other people's)

The Path that Moonbeams Make

"Do you know why I chose you, Rey?" Kylo asks. "Why I picked you out of the hundreds of other women my kingdom presented to me?"

Rey narrows her eyes. Glares at the moon peaking through the bars in the window. The land outside calls to her, offering her a life of freedom she has now been denied by this sham of a marriage.

Kylo reaches out to stroke her cheek and she slaps his hand away without thinking about it. Crown Prince of Alderaan or not, Rey wants absolutely nothing to do with her new husband.

"Ah, there it is, Rey," he says lowly, his gaze darting from her eyes to her lips then back. "There's that same look you gave me when I tried to kiss you during our ceremony. Truly you will make a fine wife."

and from Still of the Night

"Oh great, I get the love birds."

To say that Bodhi was displeased about having to share a tent at night with Cassian and Jyn was a great understatement. It could be more difficultly described as 'you two can sleep outside, I'm so over this already'.

blurb technique 3: the thoughtfully crafter cheaters exposition method.

I've gotten on you about not slowing down your story with too much exposition, right? Well here's a way that you can sneak some into the blurb. Think about what's happening right before the story starts and the events that lead up to the first opening sentence, and build your blurb around them. This lets you get your exposition in and have the reader's mind in the right place right from the get go. Now this takes a good bit more effort to get right, but it can be a great tool.

Example from my very first story where I did this exposition reveal in the blurb deliberately:

Shortly after recovering from his injuries, Kylo orders the First Order research staff to make a full investigation into Rey's history. Unfortunately, all his years of terrorizing the crew backfire on him when they turn in a badly incomplete report just to get him off their backs. Naturally Kylo completely misinterprets what the lack of information about her personal life really means.

technique 4: the missing internal monologue

Perry Downing uses this a lot in her blurbs. Have a short paragraph or two showing the reader where the main character's head is at. Again, you gotta make it exciting. Blurb are not the time for ho-humness. Example from Bring the Whole Galaxy to Ruin

For some terribly misguided reason, Rey had thought that it would be a fun idea to tease Kylo, her secret lover.

Surely, if they were in a public place, he would be able to control himself? His own mother was going to be in the same room as them, for kriffssake. And it was a supremely important meeting on top of that. That means that he's going to have to be on his very best behavior, right?

Right?

techniue 5: the final sentence question?

Another popular blurb technique is to end with a lead in question along the lines of 'Setting the scene, but will CHARACTER be able to overcome CHALLENGE or will SOMETHING BAD/SEXY HAPPEN?'

This technique can be a little cheesy, just FYI, but that's fine for a lot of genres. Maybe just don't use this one in a really serious piece.

6) writing strong, unputdownable beginnings

In the world of ebook publishing, the three most important things to nail are (in order): the cover, the blurb, the first paragraph. Then to a lesser extent the first 10% 'look inside' preview. For fanfiction it's your blurb, your first paragraph, and then more distantly your tags.

If you already have a clear intro in mind, go with your gut. Use that one. If you don't, here are some tried and proven methods that other authors have used:

1. the dialogue intro

Have 2 characters (or up to 3 but more than that is tricky even for veteran authors) and they are in conflict with each other. This doesn't mean they're enemies (though this is Reylo so…), but it could be that they're on the same side but with somewhat opposing goals. For instance, in a Rogue One story, it could be a scene where Cassian and Jyn are planning a heist or something and Cassian wants the safer approach where Jyn insists on her trademark shoot first then shoot some more style. Same goal, conflict over the methods.

Dialogue make a very effective opener becomes it immediately gets things happening right from the very first sentence (the whole goal of the intro paragraph).

2: the sudden disturbance to the equilibrium

"By the time Rey got back, her ATAT was trashed and an unexpected visitor had his boots propped up on he remain of her only table."

"All the legendary Luke Skywalker wanted was to suck some green milk straight out of the MILF Critter's titties, but then he heard the roar of a ship engine breaking atmosphere."

"The Stormtroopers told Hux that Kylo Ren was now their new Supreme Leader."

Right, so, first sentence: something (usually bad) happens that DEMANDS immediate action.

Dean Koontz does this with pretty much every one of his stories and he uses this formula on his first line: a named character, a descriptor, and an immediate or implied immediate threat.

"Janice Capshaw liked to run at night."

"You ever killed something?" (a character named) asks.

(my favorite opener ever)- "Tuesday was a fine California day, full of sunshine and promise, until Harry Lyon had to shoot someone at lunch."

Great stuff. The one with Janice is interesting because it's so powerful and yet concise. We're already on Janice's side from the get go because she's caught out at night in a Dean Koontz book. Chances are Janice is about to have a real hard time, right? Creating empathy with your main characters is crucial in the beginning of your story (though a little less so with fanfiction because we're here reading because we already like the characters).

3: the in medias res

That means in the middle of things, JSYK. Here you have your characters running for their lives from the flesh eating monster who appears on their ship (don't even think about slowing down the action with explaining how it came to be there and how they didn't know about it until blah blah, they're freaking running here, thinking back later!). Or, from At Least He's Hot, Kylo and Rey are already tearing their clothes off and backing up trying to find a sturdy horizontal surface. Do you really care how they got there or do you just want to read about them screwing messily?

4: the quirky opener

From the Postman Always Rings Twice: "They threw me off the haytruck at noon."

or

"The doctor shined the light into (character name's) mouth, held it with first steady then shaking hands, before announcing that "he's never seen that before."

That line's actually from Survivorman, ha!

But if you have a fun/strange/unputdownable opening line use it but remember that it better be followed by immediate action!

One very common mistake to avoid is the first sentence describing how anything looks. I've been guilty of this myself sometimes, but try not to have your story start out with Rey squinting into the desert, her tired eyes gazing across the rolling sand dunes toward the distance wreckage of what had once been a might Empire battleship that is now just a lonesome relic of days gone by. Please. Have Rey in media res, jumping down into the middle of the battleship. She can still feel the heat of the setting desert sun in the metal (all you need to establish the setting, really), but she knows she needs to find something, anything worth scavenging or she'll go hungry tonight. See, better already right?

Start with action. Crisis, action that needs to be taken care of now and not tomorrow morning after you put your boots and fresh socks on, but right damned now or (something horrible) will happen.

7) write HOT

I've touched on this before, but this is probably one of the most helpful technqiues I've read. Write the scene you feel passionate about. Write it will all your heart and don't worry right now about overwriting it and making it cheesy AF. You can fix that later. Some writing guides say 'kill your darlings'. By that they mean, if there's any line or scene that you are just absolutely in love with, chances are it sticks out like a sore thumb and you should take it out. I say fuck that bullshit, write your smitten story the way you want to. Make it as big and dramatic and soap opera-esque as you like. You can fix it later, if you must, but chances are that there's a whole lot of really good stuff in there.

8) about endings

Writing guides talk about 'last page resonance'. This means ending your story with something memorable that sticks with the reader after THE END and, hopefully, compels them to immediately check out the next in your body of work.

Or, in the case of a newbie fanfic author, to press that 'subscribe' button.

Since we're dealing with one-shots here, I frankly wouldn't worry too much about resonance. Have a final line that's not a limp noodle of boredom and think more about how the third act of your story will bring everything together. One-shots probably won't ave a lot of loose ends for you to worry about. I'm also not too crazy about downer endings (or downer stories in general, but that's really my own preference so write what you want to!). A safe (and by safe I mean guaranteed to get 'er done) ending is one that shows the characters have finished the scene but aren't finished with each other yet.

For instance, in a smut, a surefire crowd pleaser ending is one where the characters post coital cuddle then start revving up for round two then curtain drop. Just let the readers know there's more fun to be had off screen. Boom. Done.

The thing about endings are that they're very individualized to each story. There aren't any hard and fast rules, but the 5 main types are:

a happy ending = objective is gained

unhappy ending = objective isn't gained

tragic ending = objective gained but at a high cost

sacrifice ending = the hero gives up hios objective so that someone else's objective can be gained

open ended ending = the story ends in a draw or unknown, though it should go witout saying that you should probably only use this if there IS going to be a second part!

There's also the twist ending, ala classic murder mysteries when you think the killer is dead but oops, someone else was the real killer the whole time. This is a fun but more advanced technique and it lends itself more to longer works than the 1 shot from this challenge. Still, something to keep in mind.

9) responding to feedback, reviews, comments

Why are you writing fanfiction? Why does anyone write fanfiction? Because you want attention to be given to it. Some naysayers say that you should only write for the sake of writing and feel completely indifferent if no one reads or comments on your story. Fuck the fuck off, please. If that was the case, then no one would bother wrestling with interfaces and tagging and all the uploading hassles and their stories would never be published because all the validation they need is coming from them self to themselves. I think there might ave been a grammar error in there, btw.

Anyhow, what was I even saying? Um, yeah. We all want feedback. I want feedback. I know I want someone here to read this monstrosity of a writing guide I've just spent my time on. Hopefully they get something out of it. Hopefully this inspires someone to write their first fic or write a new fic or just plain write anything. And if it has, do please let me know. I need sustenance and I've got a lot of doubts about why I even thought this project was a good idea to begin with.

So review other peoples work, kindly, and hopefully you'll get reviews and feedback of your own.

What about negative reviews? There's a chance you'll get some, though I didn't get my first one until quite a ways down my writing journey. Sites like Tumblr are definitely more prone to negativity and sometimes all-out aggression.

I like to reply to every review (more on that in a minute!), even the negative ones. Sometimes not replying just causes it to escalate, so it's best to address them and get on with your day. A tip to remember: your story is fabulous and the person who doesn't like it is an idiot. Taylor Swift time again. For negative reviews or messages, I usually say something like "Sorry to hear that (you didn't like it), but thanks for taking the time to let me know your concerns!" The end. Don't engage. I stole that boilerplate response from a Dell customer service rep I used to know (ps. don't buy Dells, I've got stories) and it acknowledges the reviewers complaint concisely. That last word is very important. Do. Not. Engage.

And ABSOLUTELY DO NOT DEFEND YOUR WORK. Acknowledge their feedback, mentally and completely silently flip them the bird, and proceed on with your day. Brushing off negative comments is part of the writing game, unfortunately, but not a really huge part. ALSO, you are absolutely, totally, and categorically (Oxford!) FORBIDDEN from using the word "but" in your reply. But is a defensive word and we don't do that. You're forbidden. There's forbidding going on right now.

So what about positive reviews? 99% of the time that's what you're going to get (or 100% guaranteed if you follow my advice, oh but of course!) and I like to respond to each one in a similar manner to how it was sent. A lot of people say they have no idea what to write in a review, so I recommend just saying something like 'loved this! Enjoyed reading this! Great story!' etc. 2 words will do ya. To these I usually respond with a thanks so much for commenting! Sometimes I'll add in a 'glad you liked it' or similar. Show your appreciation for the reader taking the time to review. They liked your story and you love them for it, so much happiness shared on both sides n matter how long or short the exchange is. It's also just good manners, IMO.

Longer reviews also merit longer replies, but I'll leave that up to you. Throw some personality in there and let them know they've made your day :)

10) missing something?

I've read probably 100+ writing guides over the years and I'm sure I've left something basic out. Let me know in the comments (cue review begging!) if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them there or maybe in a future update to this guide!