Can I ask you if you ever felt discouraged by your work or the lack of feedback it can get? Right now I’m struggling with that, trying to find the reasons as to why it’s happening. Can I ask for some advice? I’m not usually confident, but right now I feel like it’s not even worthy doing things. I don’t find the same pleasure sharing as I did before. Please excuse this random message.

birdsandivory:

Hello, Anon. :>

First of all, let me just say that I am so sorry you feel discouraged and unmotivated! I cannot express how awful it is to not want to share because it’s not as fulfilling as it once was, but let me try and give you the best advice I can for this, because changing my mindset about my writing has really helped me.

The amount of notes you have on a post does not make it good or bad. Thinking negatively of your work because it has less notes than you would like will start sowing a lot of doubts about the abilities you possess; the traffic on Tumblr and its failing algorithm doesn’t help, but it also doesn’t mean you’re doing a bad job. 

The quality of your writing is not measured by the number of people who comment on it. Some people are too shy, some are afraid of how their words might come across, and some might love it and just not be a commenter! This doesn’t mean you should stop writing alltogether. Let me just say, I have stories on AO3 that have gotten no comments and some that have 200 comments. And looking back at both of those works, I feel like they are equally good. However, a lot of times, those 200 comments are the same five, six, seven people over 10 chapters – as opposed to one person commenting on a oneshot. 

Sometimes, it’s all about timing. Honestly, I’ve found that my best time for posting here is around 7PM-9PM EST; I can post something and get 500 notes overnight, but if I post at around 2PM, I might get 4. If traffic is super important to you and your motivation – and you are completely valid if it is – then try implementing a routine for posting.

Somebody loves your work. It might be one person, but know it’s touched them.

Most importantly, all doubts aside, write for YOURSELF. Gosh, I can’t say how much of a people pleaser I used to be, and how much I still am one. But write for you and you only and you’ll enjoy the process so much more. I would rather write this fun KH Crossover that gets maybe 60 views per chapter than a story about a couple everyone loves that’s breaking 10k. You’ll miss out on what you want to write and never get to share what your soul creates. And never rely on other people giving you a thumbs up in order to be happy about your work. The greatest feeling of accomplishment should be that moment when you’ve just finished reading that fiction for the last time  – smiling and happy and pleased with what you’ve done before clicking that share button.

I hope this helps, Anon. Go do great things.