Yeah, I think you're right about the tags. I wondered if I included more tags that revealed more about the subject matter of my stories (like "Cancer" for Curtain Call), would it attract more readers? But then I tried searching by said topics, and there are literally no other BSB stories (or very few, in some cases) with that tag. The best I found was "hospitals" or "medical" - there are 23 and 13 BSB stories for those tags, respectively. I just don't think my kind of drama - or fantasy - or longfics in general - are popular there. And that's okay. At least it allows the few people who do read to leave reviews.
I don't know. We've talked about the spoilery nature of it, so the part of me that doesn't like spoilers says you should not tag it "cancer," but yes, if people were looking for BSB cancer stories, it would be easier to find if it were tagged. Pros and cons.
It seems like these days novel-length fanfics just aren't the norm in general, especially on AO3. And the ones that are there aren't updated regularly. Now I cannot judge people who write novel-length fanfics and don't update regularly as... well, I took a six month hiatus once four chapters from the end, so... that would be the pot calling the kettle black, lol. And I think the last year of updating was spent on twenty chapters where I probably updated twice in once week and then not at all for a month and half, so... Can't judge them at all. Really writing ahead has saved me from my own bad habits, lol. On your "or fantasy" note, I don't know that fantasy is popular in BSB fanfic land anywhere, lol. It's cool. Unlike in the past where I hated being lumped in with Sci-Fi, I'll cozy up to it and we'll have a rad party that you're all invited to with swords, dragons, and mythical tech! lol
It would be interesting to do an experiment with the same story posted twice, once with everything tagged and once with nothing but the bare minimum, and see if there's a drastic difference in the response it gets. But I'm not sure how one would do that without spamming by posting the same story twice.
I think you'd have to make the summary different so people don't notice it's two versions of the same story? That or post a few chapters of SAMS as you would normally tag and track the engagement over a couple weeks or so, then add all the other tags and see if there's a spike in engagement after the tags are added. Happy to make you a spreadsheet, lol.
I did look under Additional Tags in the Sort By box to see what came up, and it looks like the most popular tags among BSB stories are:
Romance (130)
Drama (127)
Alternate Universe (124)
Anal Sex (122)
Angst (112)
Oral Sex (72)
Sex (68)
Hurt/Comfort (66)
Fluff (63)
Slash (52)
That about says it all right there... genres and sex. Lots of sex LOL.
The top three are genres! It's not all sex, lol. There's probably crossover in some of those too and the numbers for "slash" are probably not accurate given the number of "anal sex" tags, lol.
There's a fetish for everything, so maybe some people like being stabbed? When I was researching choppage for Broken back in the day, I learned that there are not only amputee fetishists, but there are also people that want to BE an amputee and will go so far as to beg doctors to cut off limbs or hurt themselves to make it happen. So I guess there could be such a thing as consensual stabbing, crazy as it sounds LOL.
Oh, I know. I did actually start writing that as "I'm wondering if there's consensual stabbing," but then I thought, well sure, there's probably consensual stabbing? And then my bigger question was if the majority of stabbing was non-consensual, like I assumed, or not, lol. I did know that there were amputee fetishists, actually; I've heard some horror stories from a friend. I did not know that people would beg doctors to cut off their limbs though, but I'm hoping that the doctors did not follow through on that request unless it was medically necessary.
LOL! Having written a story about medical fetishes somewhat recently, I'm going to stay far away from that one for now. Also, there are zero BSB fics with the "Medical Kink" tag, so I don't know that that would even help. Maybe I'll just start tagging all my stories with "Anal Sex" instead.
Nothing says you can't have a medical kink
and enjoy anal sex! Really, you'd be doing readers a service if you included and tagged both in this hypothetical Frick/Frack medical kink story, then it would be easier to find.
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I know, it's sad that these young ones didn't get to enjoy Brian at his peak. I could never write Brian as a total dick because I don't see him that way. I just don't see him as a perfect angel anymore either. But that has probably actually been good for my writing because it gives Brian more character flaws and a different perspective from the other boys. In my current story, his belief in God and miracles and the power of prayer has kept him in denial about something that the other guys have accepted, which has caused some tension. But he would probably listen to whatever Guardian Angel Nick says.
"INAOYA!"
I don't see him as a total dick either, just someone with some very different political views from me. And character flaws and different perspectives lead to character growth opportunities for everyone in fictionland (and in real life, I guess), so I think it's better with have a new perspective on Brian's full character. Unless we're Mare. Mare always knew. Ooh, fascinating! I really need to catch up on my fanfic reading, I've just been very focused on finishing PNecklace and not wanting to fall too far astray from it.
I'm having a moment where I can't remember what "INAOYA" is... Help! lol I'd listen to Guardian Angel Nick too, he's got good points and neat tricks!
Yep, I have started doing more of the chapter-by-chapter outline as I go, too. For MBK, I try to plan chapter by chapter a few chapters ahead, and then I just have a list of general ideas and events I want to include later in the story that I add to the chapter-by-chapter outline as they come up.
I usually do at the end, especially now with the divergent plotlines. I saw another picture of Charlie and the strings today with the caption "how I outline" versus "how other people outline" with a picture of an organized document and it hit a little too close to home, lol. I had been following my outline accurately, but I added a scene today and it was 100% worth it.
The most elaborate timeline I ever had was for Curtain Call, in terms of keeping track of a treatment schedule and an entire leg of the This is Us tour.
I'm imaging how difficult that would be for real Nick while on tour! Did he fly back to his regular doctor every time? I can't imagine he'd have one in every city, that would make even less sense. Those frequent flier miles he would rack up!
I was just looking back at some of my old outlines as I was writing this. I keep them all even after I finish the story. I have all of them from BMS on; I lost Broken's outline when my laptop died in college. Anyway, looking back at some of the old ones, I realize they have gotten much more organized over time. My MBK outline is nicely organized with bolded headings and bullet points and even a couple of tables. My BMS outline is a hot mess. It starts with a 19-page list of ideas, which include things like:
Jacuzzi -> sex
Gamecube fun
Nick goes to Cali, meets up with guys – cute parts here
Nick and Aaron part
Then I started keeping track of what happened in each chapter at Chapter 89, and that continues until the end. Then there's a timeline that spans almost five years. Then some random notes about the characters. The whole outline is 30 pages long LOL. My outlining skills have definitely gotten better over the years.
LMAO! I love all of your notes, especially "jacuzzi --> sex" and "cute parts here." This sounds more like how I outline, except I don't think any of it has ever gotten to 30 pages... Though I do keep them in Google Keep with each note labeled about the subject. So it's more like "Character Arcs" then a list of each major character and the overall theme of their arc. And nothing else. I think there's a few times I wrote unrelated ramblings, but they're a couple of sentences at most.
Bolded headings and tables are much more organized than random musings, but I think there's value to random musings too. I say, whatever works for the story. Also BMS was 200 chapters long, so it makes sense that it would have 30 pages of outlining and ideas.
I guess technically this was my second chapter finished this week, since I finished the Nick one I was having a hard time with on Sunday or Monday... I don't even remember now. This latest one went a lot better!
Nope, Friday's my last day, so I'm definitely heading into summer with some momentum. I love that because I usually spend the first week or two of June battling WADD as I try to get back into the writing groove. That shouldn't be a problem for me this year.
One chapter in five or six days! Awesome! Glad it went better than the Nick one! Your sick days really helped out. I love those ones where you're just sick enough where you would be unproductive at work, but you can still do little things around the house. Obviously I'd rather not be sick, but in the scale of being sick, those ones are good.
I wonder how much you'll crank out without WADD. I hope that means you'll be really productive!
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Good! You're so close to the end!! I'm glad you're having fun with it tonight.
I know, it's crazy! It was fun, but my dinner getting delivered derailed me; it's my fault for watching tv while eating.
My Saturdays have been less productive this month and my Sundays have been really productive, so I'm hoping that maybe that means tomorrow will be crazy productive if I already had a good Saturday.