I'm a writer. (18+)
Just casually exploring the internet. Check out my books on Wattpad, or here cause I also post them on here as well! Love and Marriage! Talk to me and share your story if you want!!! Share your work because as much as I love to write, I love to read as well! I share my original content and writing tips that I find to help out anyone struggling with writing! And other writing things that I find relateable!
Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Dabble, a2021 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is an easy-to-use writing tool that lets you organize, plot, and create amazing stories. Today, they’ve teamed up with author and editor Chet Sandberg to bring you some advice for getting the most out of your first draft:
Every year, thousands of first time novelists reach the end of November with +/-50k words and savor the victory of finally finishing something. Perhaps you’ll be one of them!
You take a day, or maybe you take a week, to bathe in the adulation of your fellows, many of whom also completed their manuscripts, along with many who didn’t. Then, you freeze. What’s the next step?
This post is dedicated to helping you get a first draft that, no matter how loosey-goosey or clinical your writing approach, serves as a basis for a great final manuscript.
This is a question I get often, and it’s really difficult to figure out how this works on your own, so here’s a handy little guide!
So in order to figure out how to use tags, we have to know how tagging works on Tumblr.
How tags work on Tumblr
Only the first five tags will show up in tracked tags. (i.e., if you tag your post #writeblr, and I’m following the tag #writeblr, it might pop up on my dashboard even if I’m not following you.)
Only the first twenty tags will show up in tumblr search.
Reblogs will not show up in tracked tags or search.
Hyphens (-) won’t show up in tracked tags.
That’s a lot to remember, are you still with me? The most important thing to remember about tagging your work is thatthe first five tags are the most important. You want to use your biggest, most relevant tags in the first five.
What tags you should use
So you know that the first five are most important, but what tags should you use? What tags are the best?
Here’s what I usually use and though I don’t know if they’re particularly popular or not, but they’ve worked for me just fine.
Tags to use for any writing-related post
#Writeblr and #writing for any writing-related post that you make. These two are the most important tags. I also sometimes include #writblr because some people use that tag instead.
If you have spare room in your first five tags, because you don’t have anything else to tag it with, try using #writers of tumblr, #writeblr community and #writers to maximize your tagging potential. These should only be used in your first five if you have extra space!
Tags to use for your original writing
#creative writing, #amwriting,#original writing, are a fantastic place to start.
Remember to tag your genre as well, like #fantasy, #science fiction, #urban fantasy, #young adult, #YA, depending on what you write for.
Tagging your writing type can also be effective, such as #drabble, #flash fiction, #excerpt, etc., if they are relevant.
Tags like #angst, and #fluff are also really popular, so if either of those apply to your writing, try including that!
If you have some additional space, #WIP, #WIPs,#OC, #OCs also will work, depending on what you’re posting about.
Tags to use for writing advice
#writing advice, #writing help, #writing tips are the most commonly used ones.
You can and probably should specify what your writing advice is about like #description, but that can wait for the tags after the first five.
Tags to use for relatable writing content and memes
#just writer things, #writing memes, #writing meme are the biggest ones in Writeblr, I believe.
#writing problems also work depending on what your post is.
Other tags not specific to the writing community like #memes, #relatable also work, for an even broader audience outside of Writeblr.
Tags to use for writing encouragement and positivity
#writing positivity, #writing encouragement are commonly used.
Other tags not specific to the writing community like #positivity and #encouragement also work, for an even broader audience outside of Writeblr.
Which tags you should use
So that’s a lot of potential tags to use, and only the first five will show up in tracked tags! How in the world are you going to prioritize?
Figure out what type of post you’re making, and don’t get greedy! If it’s not a writing meme, don’t tag it as such. The best way to maximize your tag usage is to use a combination of various tags that are the most relevant to your post. Try mixing and matching and experimenting!
What to do after the first five tags
The first twenty tags will show up in search, and also the organization of your personal blog tags. For example, I use #Undine writes stuff to organize all of my original writing on my blog — chances are, people aren’t following that tag, but it’s important to my writeblr. Your next priority should be your organizational tags for your own blog.
You can also include some tags that you couldn’t fit in the first five! Again, the first twenty will show up in search so if you think someone might search a particular tag, it’s a good idea to include it as well.
And finally, any comments that you want to leave in the tag should be after you get all of your important tags out of the way!
Your personal writeblr tag
So a lot of writeblrs like to use their own url as tags whenever they make an original post, so people can find it easily.
However, if you’re like me and your url has hyphens in it, it will not show up anywhere! So instead of #pens-swords-stuff, I use #pens swords stuff.
This also goes for all of your people tagging other writeblrs in your hashtags — if they have a hyphen in their url, try writing it out without the hyphens so it’ll show up!
Don’t bother trying to use popular tags for reblogs
Your tags won’t show up in any tracked tags or searches if it’s not an original post! When you reblog someone else’s posts, you can forget the first 5 tag rule, and just jump straight into your organizational tags and your tag comments.
If you’d like to ask me for advice on writing or running a writeblr, please check out my Ask Guidelines and FAQ first.
This is a question I get often, and it’s really difficult to figure out how this works on your own, so here’s a handy little guide!
So in order to figure out how to use tags, we have to know how tagging works on Tumblr.
How tags work on Tumblr
Only the first five tags will show up in tracked tags. (i.e., if you tag your post #writeblr, and I’m following the tag #writeblr, it might pop up on my dashboard even if I’m not following you.)
Only the first twenty tags will show up in tumblr search.
Reblogs will not show up in tracked tags or search.
Hyphens (-) won’t show up in tracked tags.
That’s a lot to remember, are you still with me? The most important thing to remember about tagging your work is thatthe first five tags are the most important. You want to use your biggest, most relevant tags in the first five.
What tags you should use
So you know that the first five are most important, but what tags should you use? What tags are the best?
Here’s what I usually use and though I don’t know if they’re particularly popular or not, but they’ve worked for me just fine.
Tags to use for any writing-related post
#Writeblr and #writing for any writing-related post that you make. These two are the most important tags. I also sometimes include #writblr because some people use that tag instead.
If you have spare room in your first five tags, because you don’t have anything else to tag it with, try using #writers of tumblr, #writeblr community and #writers to maximize your tagging potential. These should only be used in your first five if you have extra space!
Tags to use for your original writing
#creative writing, #amwriting,#original writing, are a fantastic place to start.
Remember to tag your genre as well, like #fantasy, #science fiction, #urban fantasy, #young adult, #YA, depending on what you write for.
Tagging your writing type can also be effective, such as #drabble, #flash fiction, #excerpt, etc., if they are relevant.
Tags like #angst, and #fluff are also really popular, so if either of those apply to your writing, try including that!
If you have some additional space, #WIP, #WIPs,#OC, #OCs also will work, depending on what you’re posting about.
Tags to use for writing advice
#writing advice, #writing help, #writing tips are the most commonly used ones.
You can and probably should specify what your writing advice is about like #description, but that can wait for the tags after the first five.
Tags to use for relatable writing content and memes
#just writer things, #writing memes, #writing meme are the biggest ones in Writeblr, I believe.
#writing problems also work depending on what your post is.
Other tags not specific to the writing community like #memes, #relatable also work, for an even broader audience outside of Writeblr.
Tags to use for writing encouragement and positivity
#writing positivity, #writing encouragement are commonly used.
Other tags not specific to the writing community like #positivity and #encouragement also work, for an even broader audience outside of Writeblr.
Which tags you should use
So that’s a lot of potential tags to use, and only the first five will show up in tracked tags! How in the world are you going to prioritize?
Figure out what type of post you’re making, and don’t get greedy! If it’s not a writing meme, don’t tag it as such. The best way to maximize your tag usage is to use a combination of various tags that are the most relevant to your post. Try mixing and matching and experimenting!
What to do after the first five tags
The first twenty tags will show up in search, and also the organization of your personal blog tags. For example, I use #Undine writes stuff to organize all of my original writing on my blog — chances are, people aren’t following that tag, but it’s important to my writeblr. Your next priority should be your organizational tags for your own blog.
You can also include some tags that you couldn’t fit in the first five! Again, the first twenty will show up in search so if you think someone might search a particular tag, it’s a good idea to include it as well.
And finally, any comments that you want to leave in the tag should be after you get all of your important tags out of the way!
Your personal writeblr tag
So a lot of writeblrs like to use their own url as tags whenever they make an original post, so people can find it easily.
However, if you’re like me and your url has hyphens in it, it will not show up anywhere! So instead of #pens-swords-stuff, I use #pens swords stuff.
This also goes for all of your people tagging other writeblrs in your hashtags — if they have a hyphen in their url, try writing it out without the hyphens so it’ll show up!
Don’t bother trying to use popular tags for reblogs
Your tags won’t show up in any tracked tags or searches if it’s not an original post! When you reblog someone else’s posts, you can forget the first 5 tag rule, and just jump straight into your organizational tags and your tag comments.
Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Kahana, a 2021 NaNo sponsor, combines the ability to create split-screen environments with notes and reference materials on one side and documents being written on the other with a simple folder hierarchy and beautiful UI. Today, content writer Gia Marcos shares some tips to break bad writing habits you might not even realize you do:
Writers are such creatures of habit. Whether you’re a planner, plotter, or pantser, your process is any behavioral pattern that has always worked efficiently.
But often, you get attached to these “success” habits—not necessarily the practice itself but the ways in which you maintain them—and gradually kill your creativity. You tend to focus on results instead of enjoying the journey. But hey, it’s human nature and there are ways to get around it.
Here at Kahana, we help writers design healthy and fun processes. We work with an international community of writers who give us insight into their unique processes. As a result, we were able to identify three unwitting habits that are stopping many writers from getting their novels done. And we come bearing tips!
How does one get into the writeblr community? Do I need to know people? Do I need to regularly post writings? Am I overthinking it? Using Tumblr is still difficult for me for some reason and I’m not sure how to engage due to that and just. Being shy lol
Hey there! Don’t be afraid to dive right in! To be a part of the writeblr community, you can:
Share your own writing, if you feel ready to (make sure to use tags like writeblr, writing, amwriting, writers, writers on tumblr, writers of tumblr, creative writing, and so on to reach other writers who follow those tags). You can also make introduction posts for your writing projects (wip intro) or characters (oc intro).
Read other writer’s writing and leave comments/reblog/like. This may help you find some writers whose works you enjoy, and who will probably check out your works as well, if at least out of curiosity.
Participate in weekly writeblr events like Worldbuilding Wednesday (guide by @ren-c-leyn), Storyteller Saturday (guide by @ren-c-leyn), Something Neat Sunday (guide by @ren-c-leyn), Mundane Monday(guide by @hannahs-creations-archived), Truth-Be-Told Tuesday (guide by @ren-c-leyn). These work by finding someone who is participating and dropping a writing-related ask in their inbox, and common writeblr courtesy dictates that they will probably leave an ask in your inbox in return. If you can’t find anyone who is participating, maybe make a post stating that you will be participating and see who might reach out to you (make sure to use the writeblr-related tags like the ones I listed above!)
Participate in monthly or seasonal challenges, like Fictober or Camp NaNo or NaNoWriMo or Writeblr Summerfest (@writeblrsummerfest) or so on.
Play ask games, which usually consist of reblogging a list of writeblr-related asks and asking your followers or mutuals to send you a few Qs from the list (and it’s good etiquette to send at least one ask to the writeblr you reblogged the ask game from). A few that I’ve found just now are: Link 1(by @kjscottwrites) / Link 2(by @razegold) / Link 3(by @kjscottwrites) / Link 4 (by @asriels) New ask games circulate all the time, so you’ll find a lot to participate in if you’re interested.
Write responses to prompt posts, since you can use this as a way to showcase your writing and can also help you develop your story. Check out @deepwaterwritingprompts (one of my all-time faves), @writingprompts365, @yourocsbackstory, and so many more out there.
Participate in tag games! These are really big. Some writeblrs leave their tag games open, so feel free to jump in if you want to try one out.
I’ve linked all the appropriate blogs for all of the events and ask games, so I hope you can explore them and find something that works for you!
To start off and try to find writeblrs to connect with, you can try one of three things:
participate in above events and interact with other writers, check out different writeblrs and their works, leave comments and reblog work you enjoy, etc. (basically what I have listed above)
make a post as a new writeblr seeking other writeblrs; we’re all very happy to see new peeps in the community, so those posts tend to get picked up and shared a lot
check out writeblr blogs that serve as a hub or network point, like @welcometowriteblr
meet other new writeblrs through the ‘new writeblr’ or ‘writeblr intro’ tags
peruse the ‘writeblr’ tag to find writers whose work you’d like to check out or who you’d like to maybe connect with
Slowly but surely, you will find other writeblrs in the community that will become your network. Finally, when it comes to writeblr etiquette, there’s a great set of guides by Undine over at @pens-swords-stuff.
This is a really quick intro post, but there are some amazing ones out there that are really detailed and helpful. (Hopefully, someone will have their links so they can share them with you?) Hope that helps! ^^ If you have any Qs, don’t hesitate to let me know.
anyway most writing advice is frequently contradictory to other writing advice you might receive from people who have just as much/more writing ~expertise~ and a lot of writing advice is just flat-out terrible even if it’s coming from an ~expert~ so if you’re a writer consider this post a reminder that
writing advice that comes up on your dash should be looked at as tips you can choose to follow or discard as it suits you, not hardline rules you MUST abide by or else you’re a ‘bad writer’
you’re allowed to look at a piece of writing advice and say, “wow, that’s a shit idea and i don’t want write like that” and forget about it – even if the post has thousands of notes full of other people agreeing with it
there is no One True Right Way to write, your writing does not have to be just like everyone else’s – if all stories were written the same way and with the same style, reading would be a much more boring thing to do
if you try to write in a way that pleases everyone, you will fail because pleasing everyone is not possible – your own satisfaction with your work, your own desire to write a story, and your own enjoyment of writing are more important than that
Most of these, I use my current WIPs The Secret Portal and School of the Legends as examples to what I have done, and I include videos that helped me with these problems.
I update my blog daily, so I will be back with more advice later down the road!
It makes me so sad when fanfiction writers come to me for writing advice, and they say something along the lines of "I write fanfic (and I'm trying to get into real writing too)", "I'm a fanfiction writer and I plan to write original fiction someday but now is just not the right time for me", or "I'm not a real writer but I write fanfic"
babes you don't have to justify writing fanfiction to me. you also don't need to tell me your plans to eventually write original fiction to be worthy of asking for writing advice.
Writing original fiction is not inherently better than writing fanfiction. Writing fanfiction is real writing. If you want to write original fiction too, great! If writing fanfiction is all you want to do, that is wonderful as well.
Do what makes you happy and be proud in the knowledge that writing isn't easy, and you're actually doing it!
Have you ever looked up “how to write” on Google, only to go cross-eyed at the amount of writing advice out there?
But what does a good writing process look like FOR YOU?
Following the methods of other writers might be inspiring and interesting for a while, but if it leaves you burned out, unfulfilled, and frustrated, your writing could screech to a halt.
So how do you wade through all the writing advice on the world wide web and develop a sustainable writing process for yourself?
Some old writing advice from my personal social media about four years ago! This is what really helped changed the game for me, and helped me get further than three complete chapters in my writing. A shift in perception can do your work wonders!
