What's your best experience being a writer?

[Rei19]

Whoa.... holy moly those stats My main series on AO3 has 17k hits but it has 18 chapters so omg
And that last line of yours... yessss, definitely. In the past, I was never much of a romance writer, but when I got discouraged from seeing so little attention on my fics, I decided to test it by posting a really cheesy oneshot that's borderline intimate, and... yeah, that got a lot of attention. It was a bit discouraging.

[nostalgicroxas]

Fanfic + Explicit Sexual content = ALL THE VIEWS AND KUDOS AND SDKHSDLHSD

So... annoying. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I speak from experience that it's really easy to let that kind of thing discourage you and get the better of you, and really stop motivating you to do anything.
That's why it's important to write things you'll enjoy on two fronts

1. Do you like reading your own story?
2. Do you like writing your own story?

You can't have just one to get past the low number threshold. That's why a lot of people make more stories, lots of characters, buy commissions of their characters, and world build - do everything you can to motivate yourself into not abandoning it!

Also for the above stats, time matters. I broke 3k in the first few months the story was up on Ao3
Here's the 4 noragami fanfics that I have with date submitted and information. Also, I'm one of the few writers on the site that has Yato in the seme role - and there's very little NC17+ fanfics of Noragami in general on the site, and less so of BL/yaoi.

Looks like you need to click to see the full list.

[Rei19]

Loving that epic table flip (≧▽≦)/~┴┴

Yep, I definitely agree! I myself really enjoy writing my stories (reading them gives me mixed feelings, but that's a different issue; and I just hope people aren't discouraged too much from doing what they love to do just because of the low stats.

Whoa, kudos to those numbers! I think you might just be good at writing them, lol. Those hits are really great though. It's a bit sad that it has to take explicit sexual content just to achieve them though;;; (I'm never good at those stuff and they're not really my interest)

[nostalgicroxas]

Hard smut like that isn't my interest - all of those were written as exercises. If you can write a good clear sex scene, you can write a good battle scene. So instead of screwing up where the swords, flips, backflips, lances, and what not with my actual characters, it's easy to take a quick 30-60min out of my day to write a pervy thing where knowing where things are is just as important. OTL Not a bad exercise. Another test, besides sex, is writing a physical game: soccer, football, or baseball. It's just those are larger scales of playing field where most sword fights aren't done 30ft away from each other lol

Maybe I am good at writing them? I'd like to think so, today. But when I first saw that I got really irritated that random crap I wrote gets more attention than stuff I'm actually invested in. It's the same as artists getting mad that people like their quick nonsense doodles instead of the work that took them several days.

[Rei19]

Ahaha, I can sort of relate with that. Since I'm writing a fantasy novel myself, I'm still learning how to describe sword swings, self-defense techniques, all that stuff. I clearly see your point about writing those scenes as exercises; they can be sort of an ice-breaker in a way, especially when getting away from heavy writing, or something like that

I think you are good at writing them Even if they're random, one's writing style can really enhance the experience, lol. But yeah, you're right there. I often find that people appreciate quick sketches or doodles rather than those artworks artists put a lot of time and effort in.

[nostalgicroxas]

It's refreshing to take a break and write something else. I chose fanfics (which I'd sworn off writing for like 15 years lol since I started writing my own fantasy stuff) because I don't have to think about "is this accurate?" "is this how the world I built is?" and other stuff. I can just go "I WANT YATO AND YUKINE TO SCREW ALREADY THEY'RE SO ADORABLE DAMMIT" and do it. Usually they're weird sex ideas are things I think of that won't work for any of my characters, but I want to try writing it, so I subject them to it hahahaha They're fun in their own way - and it's funny cause I almost never go back to read them. If I pop them open to read, I'm specifically looking for how I phrased the relation of actions of how one moves to another something like

he was knocked off balance by george's foot hitting the back of his ankle, causing him to fall like a sack of potatoes backwards into the dirt

Gotta not be afraid to be a violent turd to your characters in battle! It helped me write a scene recently where Crow is sliding on wet rocks and getting cut up in the dark. Poor Crow! All soaked, running from a forest fire, and right by a river. gigglesnort

But really! Try writing something silly that requires movement! I have a few weird shorts of characters doing weird stuff - like "shooting a sandwich out of a t-shirt merchandise gun", or "hiding under a bed and grabbing the ankle of a character to prank them"

[Rei19]

Yesss I choose fanfics while taking a break, too. They're fun and you can create all sorts of scenes you want without being totally restricted. And I can relate -- I mostly never read them again (except when I'm skimming through it to check for errors).

Pfftt poor Crow! That sounds like a tough day for him, lol.
Haha! Maybe I should try it out! I've never done something like that before; maybe it'll help me write more freely instead of unconsciously correcting my grammar as I go

[azzy-m]

Not entirely sure if this counts, but one time I was on a game and I mentioned I started a comic, and I kid you not the person I was talking to read it and asked me if I'd draw porn in that comic, and I quote "PLEASE I WANT SOME GAY PORN"

Once I said that I wasn't feeling very comfortable writing and drawing explicit content (and also the fact most of the characters are 17 and below, I neglected to mention that.) they just said okay.

I'm not even mad. I was just highly amused. Add on the fact that that person is literally the same age as me.