#writing tips | pens-swords-stuff (2024)

Thanks so much! I'm glad that I've been able to help you :)

I'm not really a fanfiction blog that engages in fandom, so I'm not the best person to ask this question to, but I do have several thoughts.

The TL;DR to your question is a very blunt: You really can't do anything that will guarantee to increase the requests that you receive.

One of the really harsh truths of Tumblr, social media, and everything in life is that you can't control other people. No matter what you do, you'll never be able to make someone do something like send in a request, reblog your works, etc. The sooner that you can realize and accept this harsh reality, it becomes easier to not be so affected by a lack of engagement — which you will more than likely experience at various points during your time on Tumblr. There's no magic solution where you do this one thing and all of a sudden everyone is sending you requests. It's a very slow process of networking and carving out your own following. For a lot of people, it can be really frustrating and tedious, and it's very likely that you won't see results immediately.

That being said, there are several things that you can do to make yourself more accessible to requests, and ways to incorporate yourself into your chosen online community to get to where you want to be.

Don't wait for requests; post your writing anyways

People send in requests to writers that they know they like. If you don't have any writing on your blog, how are they going to know that they'll enjoy your writing enough to send in a request?

The best and most important thing that you can do write now, is post your writing a lot. It doesn't matter if people don't request it, all that matters is putting yourself out there, and showcasing examples of what you do.

Every single big fanfiction blog that gets tons of requests all started with no followers. They just posted their own writing, even when no one was reading it. They did that over and over and over again until people took notice.

So don't wait for requests. Start writing, and start posting.

Utilize your tags to their greatest potential

Tagging is an incredibly important way to get your writing on people's radar, even if they don't follow you yet.

I created this tagging guide for the Writeblr community. Since you're asking about requests, you're probably going to be interacting more with the Fandom side of tumblr, rather than Writeblr. (I talk more about why that is on this post). So the actual specific tags that I included in the tagging guide won't apply to you as much, but it still has a lot of really important information about how tags work on Tumblr that will be helpful.

The next thing you should do is find a popular fanfiction blog that you really like, and study what tags they use when posting their fics. I'm not part of the fandom side of tumblr, so they would definitely have a much better understanding of what tags work. Use them, try different combinations, and see what works for you.

Create your own requests

Like I said earlier, you are never going to be able to do anything that guarantees other people will interact with you. You know what you do have control over though? Yourself!

Go on anon and send yourself your own requests! Is it a bit sneaky? Yes. Is it wrong? Not really! People don't have to know that it's you. Just the act of fulfilling/accepting a requests and following through on writing it out can be a huge indicator to people that this is something that you are happy to do.

Another option is if you have some friends that are willing to support you and help out, ask them and see if they are willing to send in a request for you to respond to.

Interact, engage, and network with the community

In order for people to know that you even exist, you have to put yourself out there! This in my opinion, is one of the most important things to do.

Find some people you like in your fanfiction community and introduce yourself to them. Send them asks to chat, reblog their works and comment, DM them and talk about your favorite characters with them, send them requests, participate in their events. People tend to engage more with blogs that they are friendly with, and networking is really important!

A friend or two visiting each other's inboxes and talking and having fun and coming up with headcanons together can be really powerful. Not only are you uplifting yourselves and supporting each other by talking, reblogging and sending each other requests, it can also be really valuable for people looking at your blog, wondering whether you're someone they want to engage and interact with.

I firmly believe that engagement starts with ourselves. Find your community by being brave and interacting with others, and you'll be able to give and receive support with a group of people that you like.

Post regularly

I absolutely notice a huge difference in engagement when I'm actively posting everyday, and when I'm not posting as regularly. Putting yourself on people's dashboards as often as you can by reblogging or posting your own thing is a crucial aspect if you're hoping to help your blog grow.

If this is something that you're hoping to do, I would highly recommend queueing posts so that your blog will be posting on the days that you're not actively on Tumblr. It takes some of the pressure off you, but helps to make sure that people are still seeing your blog on their dash even when you're busy.

Give yourself grace

Everything else is mostly just a combination of persistence, staying postive and some luck. Chances are, it's going to take time for you to become the blog that you're hoping to be and to get the requests that you're hoping for. Every popular blog started with zero followers, and it took a lot of time, patience and effort for them to get as big and famous as they did.

So be kind and forgiving to yourself. Recognize that notes, followers, and number of requests have no bearing on who you are as a person or your writing skills. Take care of yourself by taking breaks when you need it, and not beating yourself up when things aren't going the way you want them to. Celebrate your victories, and give yourself a lot of positive reinforcement.

You can do it. Good luck.

Remember, all advice is subjective! So don’t take this too seriously. This is just one person’s opinion.

If you’d like to ask me for advice on writing or running a writeblr, please check out my Ask Guidelines and FAQ first.