Why The Fuck Does English Have A Word For

how to have a healthier relationship with your stats page

1. Understand what stats can tell you - and what they can’t

AO3 stats tell you whether or not another user clicked something. That’s it. Hits tell you whether a user clicked the title of your fic. Kudos tell you that a user clicked the little ❤ at the bottom of the page. Comments tell you that a user typed something into a box and then hit the comment button. 

Stats do not tell you why a person did any of those things. They also don’t tell you why a person didn’t do them. You know why you do those things yourself, but there are many types of people in the world and we all have our reasons why we do things. You can’t assume that every other user of AO3 uses the site the same way you do. 

Stats are not a reliable way to find out if you’re good at writing. They’re not a way to tell if you are loved. They have nothing to do with the quality of your work or your worth as a person.

2. Don’t compare yourself to others - or yourself

Because stats are not a reliable way to judge quality or skill or the effort you put into a story, comparing your stats against another author will also not tell you which of you is the “better” author or which of you has a “better” story. They can tell you which story was more popular, but popularity itself has very little to do with skill or quality. 

This is also true of your own work. Chances are very real that the story you’re most proud of is not the story with the best stats. Don’t let one story’s relative success or failure affect how you feel about another’s. 

3. Focus on things you can control instead of things you can’t

Once you’ve posted your story, the reaction to it is out of your control. It will get however many hits, kudos, and comments other people decide to give it and you can’t do much about that at all. 

What you can control, however, is the work you put into the story before you post it. Celebrate statistics like word count or time spent writing or the number of WIP you’ve managed to finish. Those are all numbers that are in your control, that you have the power to alter and affect. 

Find something in every story that makes you happy. It doesn’t have to be the whole fic. It could be one particular characterization, a scene, or a line. Maybe you wrote a particularly funny joke or a really moving description or a hot love scene. 

Highlighting positive emotions and being proud of your own work will make you less reliant on the opinions of other people. You’ll develop more confidence, and that will help you avoid the stats spiral in the future. Finding motivations inside of yourself is much more reliable than getting motivation from people who might or might not continue to provide it.

4. If you can’t ignore stats, avoid them

The first time I had an unhealthy relationship with my stats page, I ended up quitting fic entirely for about a year. I still wrote, I just didn’t post anything on AO3. I couldn’t trust myself not to focus on the numbers and make myself crazy, and so I didn’t allow myself to look at them at all. 

The second time I found myself starting down the stats spiral, I knew the signs and I was able to pull myself out of it. I stopped looking at my stats page, but I was able to continue posting work. I still refreshed the page for the first day to see the hits/kudos/comments but after that first day I only returned to the fic in order to post a new chapter or answer another comment. 

There are tools you can use to help you avoid stats. This AO3 skin hides stats entirely. This code hides hits. Here’s one for hiding kudos with additional instructions on how to hide any stats you choose. 

5. Be your own cheerleader

When it comes right down to it, the reason why we focus in on stats is because we’re looking for reassurance. We want to know for sure whether we’re a good writer or not. Unfortunately, our stats are never going to tell us that. 

A lot of us are also told by others that being proud of something we’ve done or liking something that we’ve created is boastful or bragging or other negative personality traits. But there’s a difference between bragging about how good you are and acknowledging your own skills. 

Give yourself permission to like your own work. You might never get that permission from someone else, so you need to take that on yourself. 

Start talking to yourself the way you’d talk to a friend of yours who was working on a fic or a piece of art or doing anything else that requires time and skill. You wouldn’t tear them down, so don’t tear yourself down. Build yourself up. That positive self-talk can be difficult at first, but it’s a habit that pays off over time. 

6. Know that I’m proud of you

It takes courage and strength and determination to have an idea and then to act on it. It’s easy to think. It’s a lot harder to write things down. No matter whether you post your story online or you keep it to yourself. No matter whether you get a thousand hits or a dozen. You’re still amazing, and I’m so glad you took that leap ❤

the fucking "Get premium" block is covering all the goddamn buttons, get that shit off my screen

imma try to ublock that thang

Wish I could Draw this OC better- tbh (changed up things a little before posting). Her name is Kahuna Spade. This would be the first time I posted her, anywhere, (other than one site/app *cough cough*) and tried to share simple designs about her. I have the pose reference somewhere.- but I tried to draw how I would see her. Usually I type down descriptions I can't draw, and while this is close to her original design, I can't draw it like I want to. So this is what I have so far. If you want, I can share more about her. But she's an OC, inspired by two poképastas. And uh- yeah- I guess-

Seven Deadly Skeletons (my wip bad sanses dating sim) does have a discord server that I plan to reopen to yall but im gonna wait until i get a good amount posted here and some more feedback/audience before i release the link again

so stay tuned if you wanna join the community and get cool sneak peeks in the development and talk to me and other cool people WOOHOO

if you wanna help get it out faster you should totally repost my stuff and share it around so we can revive this project again that would be so cool of you oOoo you know you want to🌀🌀🌀

How do you make links to your previous and next posts? I can't seem to find any tutoriels for that. Also here, a cookie 🍪 for troubling you.

Oh well that's easy! ( ´∀｀)

Copy the link to the post you want to use;

Highlight the word in the new post where you want to insert the link;

Click on the link icon and paste! It should become underlined ☆

I hope it'll help! Thank you <3

friends asked me to draw a bee with a binky here you guys can have it too

what is HAPPENING

how to format your story, a crash course

because my writing major soul dies a little bit more every time i see a perfectly good story improperly formatted.

this is a guide specifically for ao3 posting

1. Put A Double Return (Enter) Between Each Paragraph Instead Of An Indentation

fanfic is not academic writing. you don't need an indent at the beginning of each line. for the sake of scrolling it just makes it more organized and easier to read. The double return puts a space between the two paragraphs as seen here:

2. Make A New Paragraph Every Time The Camera Moves Or A New Thought Is Addressed

what the hell does that mean, youre probably asking. allow me to show you.

these are each three separate thoughts. so they each get their own paragraph. think about it like the reader is taking a pause between each thought, where should those pauses go?

3. Put A New Paragraph Every Time A New Person Speaks

do not and i repeat DO NOT write your dialogue like this:

"blah blah blah" he said. "blah blah blah" she said. "blah blah blah" they said. "blah blah blah" he said. "blah blah blah" she said.

it is impossible to read and its confusing and people will click off your story. dialogue should look like this:

see how each time a different person talks there's a new line? there can be not dialogue mixed with the dialogue, but every time the person speaking changes, there would be a new line.

Snom nom nom nom nom

*Unbricks your Tsunamis*

IDK other than seriously tsunamis- that can be controlled by sound waves/radiation waves that come from brain waves- ok now this is just giving me ideas- I can't stop-