I have been writing without a true/clear goal for the longest along with no true audience.
So, I NEED/MUST write not only for me, but for someone out there who is willing to read my fiction and enjoy what I have to offer.
It is so lonely writing for myself and having nobody as an accountability buddy, whether online or in person.
I don’t have a friend who is willing to help me with writing or be my accountability buddy. I also lack an audience to give me some type of hope to push on as I write. I mean yeah, I will come across awful people, but that should make me stop. I would love it if that pushed me harder to show them that they are wrong.
I haven’t post anything fiction wise in years, online. I miss it, but there is no place for my Alagossian novels on any writing sites.
I no longer use Fictionpress.
I refuse to go back to Wattpad.
And Royal Road seems hella weird to me because it is so male-centric and sexist from what I heard.
WackyWriters is new, but it feels like it is less traction.
With everyone trying to get insta famous with their fiction writing, it feels like there is less good websites for people who want to not only write for fun, but to gain decent amount of readers and overall an audience?
Does everyone else notice that too? Am I in the wrong in this?
Things are a bit harder with ADHD, but pushing that aside for a smidge to come up with ways to help me as a writers with my mental health, still lacking.
Also, is there a writing website for Red Reign, for Alagossia, for anything else I write?
I swear, if it comes to me having to build my own website just to post my drafts and everything else writing related there, then is that even a good option for me.
Honestly I’ve been having the same problem. There are no good writing sites to gain an audience. They are all set up with a crappy algorithm that makes it impossible to gain a following or they have other problematic issues, like what you mentioned about Royal Road and Wattpad.
There needs to be a new site that does it right, but honestly, I doubt anyone is going to do that anytime soon, because it takes money and energy/time that most of us just don’t have. I’d love to see a site similarly designed to AO3 with their tagging system, but for original works rather than just fanfiction. But again, it seems that just isn’t going to happen unless someone rich and with too much time on their hands decides to create and fund it.
I’m stuck not knowing where to go either. I miss having a proper writing community to turn to. Wacky Writers is the closest thing I’ve found to that, but even then, there are certain things lacking here as well.
Yeah, it is so heart breaking for me.
I don’t want to sound like some old woman on an never-ending stroll down memory lane, but holy hell, do I miss the old days in some ways.
Like I used to write and post online in the earlier days, but now, that feels like a chore because website with a good/strong writing community are sorely lacking.
At least you were lucky enough to enjoy those old days when it worked better. I came to wattpad late in the game and it was already awful. I only started writing seriously maybe 4 or 5 years ago and by then things were already too convoluted and the communities were already toxic. I’m glad that WackyWriters is at least a smaller community that seems to get along well for the most part. But yeah, it would be nice if there were easier ways to share our writing and get it promoted or gain a following here. We can talk about our works, but it’s still difficult to get anyone to actually beta read for each other and that sort of thing.
Damn, I vaguely remember the story I first posted on Wattpad and that was some unedited short story or probably unfinished novel called Angel Noir. That had to be over a decade ago when Wattpad was just getting popular.
Before that was Fanfiction.net then FictionPress.com. I’ve even tried Inkitt, but that bothered me along with Webnovel too.
Yeah, it is horrible to search for a good writing place/community.
Wattpad is sorely lacking now.
So, is it really necessary to create a personal website to benefit me and me alone with the bit of hope that someone will look at it and gain some followers?
I honestly agree with this. It’s hard to find readers on sites/or a site to write that wont tire me out.
I don’t write in english on wattpad, but I barely get over 10 votes anyways and the community is dry. I want to switch to english books but I just… I doubt I will make it on wattpad, I dont like fiction press, idk how royal road even works? So idk what to do.
If i keep writing in my native language, I will have to float around a dead community, but if I switch to english then I have to start all over in a new community and that makes me so scared to write in english so i just… put it off and stay in the comfort zone of a little dead wattpad community
See, we need a sight that fits not only English speaking writers, but people who speak in foreign languages along with writing those said languages.
This is a reason I wish I had money to make a dream reality. It’s getting lonelier and far more annoying to write without sharing and finding cool people who I can befriend or get inspired by.
I’ve never tried fiction press, but I tried Inkitt and got absolutely nothing there. It sucks when it’s a “writing community” site, but there’s no forums or sense of community at all. It’s just post your book and pray for the best. Which never happens.
Honestly, if you made your own site, what would you do with it? Would it be just for your own book or would it be for other people to post their works and discuss writing too? Because I’ve thought of doing both for myself as well, but I don’t have the money to run a site like either of those. If you do, and know how to run a website, I’d say you might be better off doing that. But if you don’t have the experience and money to run a website, it might not turn out as well as you hoped.
I’m currently taking an SEO (search engine optimization) course online that is teaching me basically how to create a website that ranks well in search engines on google, and it’s a lot more complicated than people think to get people to even find your website. Just making a website and waiting for people to come to it won’t work. You’ve got to structure the site right and you’ve got to create content on it that is relevant, and you’ve got to have keywords that rank in a search engine, and you’ve got to have links that aren’t broken and that link outside of your own site as well as within it, you’ve got to basically market it on social media, etc… there’s a lot that goes into maintaining and running a successful website.
At first it would be for me, but now I think I would LOVE to make a writing website for ME and EVERYONE regardless of their age and what type of fiction writing they enjoy.
I lack experience to make that dream reality. I see there are websites like Squarespace and more that is to help in that regard, but is it all that it cracked up to be?
I’d love to see a site that works for everyone, but that would take a lot of work to make sure it doesn’t turn into just another wattpad or any of the other sites that seem to use the same formatting.
Honestly, I’ve never tried anything like squarespace, so I can’t say for sure. but even that takes money. I’m not sure how much, but I did a quick google search of it and it said you can get a 14 day free trial, which implies that it costs money after that. I used wix for a while, which is similar, but the free version was severely lacking, so I don’t recommend it.
So, what is a person like me to do in this situation? Like I want to share and find a great community fit for writers who barely get noticed for the type of writing they do.
I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to that, because it’s been something I’ve been asking myself to no avail either. I just don’t know. It is incredibly frustrating though. I feel your pain.
Yup, it’s all about a good search engine that helps readers find what they want to read. And of course, writers must accurately tag their books with the proper keywords so that the search engine can bring up the correct results. Sadly, I don’t know of any sites anywhere that have those two things. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
It IS possible, though, that there are Discord communities that operate like Wattpad book clubs, where writers read one another’s work and then give feedback. You’d have to post your work on some mutually agreed site, I imagine. I don’t belong to any Discord groups, but maybe someone else here is…? Good luck! ( ˆ◡ˆ)۶ ٩(˘◡˘ )
I am curious, though, why you think Wattpad isn’t a good site for your genre. Your genre is fantasy, isn’t it? That seems to be the most popular category on Wattpad, so you’d probably do better there than anywhere else. ☜(ˆ▿ˆc)
Honestly? If you write something cliche, people will find it and flock to it like flies. But jokes aside, you are right. There is no one good website to gain a decent amount of readers/audience. Wattpad used to be alright before they screwed up the algorithm, and before it became monetized.
Never tried RoyalRoad for real, so I dunno what it’s like.
Scribblehub can get you some views and feedback, but I dunno if Fantasy is big on it.
I think that you should stick to the website that your genre is the biggest on (i.e. Romance, teenfic and fantasy seems to be big on Wattpad. Historic fictional as well).
RoyalRoad AFAIK is Fantasy/SciFi based.
You need to experiment and find what works for you, from that point of view. It may take a bit of time, but you will find a niche. I write insanity, and some people still read it, Even I can find an audience.
But jokes aside, you are right. There is no one good website to gain a decent amount of readers/audience. Wattpad used to be alright before they screwed up the algorithm, and before it became monetized.