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[mare]

To me, the point of a banner isn't to tell readers what to picture in their heads while they read.  If I wanted that, I would make a banner for every chapter, like a children's picture book LOL.  A banner serves the same purpose as a book cover - a visual that's meant to catch readers' eyes and attract them to clicking on my story or at least reading the summary instead of scrolling past it.  Also, I have fun making them.  I don't always include a picture of a girl, even if I have a female main character.  I just try to make the banner something that's going to represent the story.

I was talking more along the lines of using the female lol

I do find banners less annoyiong lately but I think it's because my computer isn't freezing on the site anymore because I use my Ipod to go on AC now.

I will never be able to fully comprehend why people spend more time and energy worrying about what their banners look like before the first sentence of their story is even written though. LOL This is where I will always be different from everyone else in fanfic land.

[Sakabelle]

I usually make the banner after the first few chapters are written. There's one banner I have sitting in my folder that has no story attached to it yet, and to be honest it probably never will. But I saw the picture and wanted to make a graphic with it. It was probably more about be wanting to play with the photo than anything else.

I will say that I hate making banners for one-shots. I have some stories with banners on them that are like 1,000 words long. The story took probably an hour to write and the banner took two hours to make. Stupid and a complete waste of time. I am cool with banners for multi-chapter stories but for one-shots they seem completely pointless and a waste of effort for something so short.

[mare]

I give you all credit for making these banners. I don't have the patience to do it lol

[RokofAges75]

I enjoy making banners, but usually don't take the time to make them for one-shots.  The only one I did recently was for Hybrid because, c'mon, killer monkeys from outer space deserve a graphic LOL.

[FrickingKaos]

Half of my stories don't have banners. I am on the fence about them. I like them because sometimes I will click on a story if the banner catches my eye....but I read stuff without one as well. As long as the author's picture isn't on it, they're good

To me they add something to the story....like Julie said, similar to a book cover. I have no idea how to make them, all of the ones I have were made by someone else.

[RokofAges75]

I use Paintshop Pro, but there is a free program you can download called Paint.net that can do a lot of the same things.  You'd have to download it on a computer, though; I don't think you could do it on your phone.

[Sakabelle]

I think it's be really difficult to make a banner using the phone! I'll read stories without banners, it should be the summary that is focused on more than the banner when posting something and trying to entice people to read. The banner is just a fun addition.

[Carter-Orange]

I've not heard of that actress Steph, she's a good choice for Brittany though.  And Julie, I didn't know who the picture was of on your Broken story.

I use Photoshop to make my banners, but they are quite basic and I don't really spend much time making them. 

[Sakabelle]

Thanks Steph! I had a lot of fun making that banner.

Actually, something that was cool on 1Dff was that one girl made a bunch of random banners, then issued a challenge where shed assign out the banner and you bad to write a story based on the banner alone. That was kind of cool, but likely a lot of work for her haha.

[Carter-Orange]

That does sound like fun though! Some people just love making stuff.  I don't use my photoshop that often, but when I do I get carried away and spend hours on there.

[shark_carter]

I figured i'd just start a new thread since we were over 500 posts in the old one.

Here's the question:

Is there any instance when you go back and look at something you've read or written where you tend to be surprised at how good or bad it actually was in retrospect? Meaning the first time you read it, you thought it sucked but on the second reread, suddenly you found it awesome or vice versa?

I've only recently gotten back into fanfic and the first thing I did was read some of the old stories that I had PRINTED OUT and stored in a binder in my book shelf. Honestly, I laughed so hard reading some of them - they were awful!

I remember at the time thinking they were so good but now... I'd be ashamed to let anyone see them. The chapters are like 600 words long lol There'd be one small scene and it would be done. It's no wonder that so many stories "back in the day" had hundreds of chapters.

[Rose]

I need to come in here and answer everything LOL. Banners aren't and shouldn't be the end all of a story. But sometimes it's fun making them, especially as a way to drop hints of what's to come and see if anyone catches it.

[shark_carter]

I give you all credit for making these banners. I don't have the patience to do it lol

I just don't have the talent for it! I like when people have really nice banners that seem clean and professional but I wouldn't  be able to achieve that myself. If someone made me one? Great, I'd totally use it. But I wouldn't try and lure readers in with a banner that looked like an elementary school student made it with their eyes closed haha

[julilly]

I need to come in here and answer everything LOL. Banners aren't and shouldn't be the end all of a story. But sometimes it's fun making them, especially as a way to drop hints of what's to come and see if anyone catches it.

I am perpetually behind in these threads it seems! I was able to keep up for a while and then... Lol I'm sure it doesn't help that most of the discussion happens while I am asleep.

[Sakabelle]

Does no one have a question of the day? I'll ask one!

If the fanfic scene for BSB died out for whatever reason, would you stop writing, would you move to another fandom or would you move to original fiction?

Since I write in a million fandoms I'd probably just go work on more stuff in 1D fandom and pick up writing Avatar: The Last Airbender stuff again.