How to be popular on AFF? Check out the top 10 tags and follow the trends!

romance

you

exo

shinee

oneshot

superjunior

angst

infinite

fluff

Go for romance, exo + you or exo  (), preferably one shot and guaranteed, you will have a lot of people clicking on your story, request for a fancy poster (and a trailer), add a catchy title and that’s it. This won’t bring you on the top writer list but is a good start.

Next, check out the top writers, the list changes on daily basis depending on what stories are featured but there are a few people who hang in there regardless. Check their stories, most probably they have many and have been around for quite a while. Most of them are probably not the most amazing writers, some not even decent but some are really good, that’s how I found a few great stories to follow.

What do these top writers write about: school life, romance, exo, friendship, infinite, exo, comedy, , BAP, gangs…

The topics: arranged marriage, nerd transforms into a hottie, arrogant guys and nice girls, love-hate relationship, crossdressing, living with xx band, gangsters in a love triangle, xx band member falls for an ordinary girl, girl takes revenge because some hot guy embarrassed her, bets (I bet I can seduce her/him) etc. And remember it’s a ‘you’ fic.

Wait, wait, hold on. I mentioned ‘catchy titles’ a while ago.

Most  viewed fics top 5 titles (at the time of writing this post):

The Dull One

My Crazy Hot Aliens II: The Invasion

Summer Vacation with a Jerk

Locked with You

No Other Than These Famous Idiots!

Most subscriptions top 5-10 titles:

Maid In Love

My Fat Me, Myself and L

My Bodyguard Princess

Robot Boyfriend: Insanity Level 1000

Crushing on You

Most commented 8-12 titles:

My Crazy Hot Aliens

EXO TRILOGY: Lay's Lover is a Runaway Heiress

Badass Oppas

Between Betrayal and Lust

100000

Featured latest 5 titles:

That Empty Bus Seat

Seducing Mr. Pauper

Then Came You

My Online Boyfriend!

Project Wedding

You catch the flow? It has to be simple down to the business title which tells what kind of fic this is going to be. If I am looking for romcom I click the title which sounds like romcom, I want a story about arrogant guy I click on that kind of titles, arranged marriage, maids, slaves? I click on the title so the title has to catch my attention. If you check out the tags of the most popular stories and fork a title out of them, then, voilá! Now you only have to come up with a story, lol.

Let’s give it a try:

My Fake Marriage with a Jerk

Sharing a House With 6 Idiots.

Gangsters and Vampires

Ex-nerd’s Revenge

In Taemin's Bedroom.

I'm in Love with a Gay?!

Roomamtes With a ert.

Do you get Déjà-vu? I do. But guess what? I’d click on most of these. In fact, what comes to those popular fics mentioned above I am actually subscribed to ‘The Dull One’ and ‘Project Wedding’ simply because I find both stories entertaining (entertaining and good are not exactly the same). In fact, what comes to popular writers I actually like Lambchop a lot.

Well, I am not going to say that all of these titles , in fact they are good for their own purposes, probably suit the stories really well and attract attention of the right kind of audience. These are not mind blowing and pretty usual titles (excluding a few) but so what? So freaking what? This is fan freaking fiction! Let's face is, most of us are here for our biases only, right? 

Example about titles:

One of my stories is titled: ‘Effervescent Ambience’. So? I think the title suits the story but what does it tell you about the story at first sight? Nothing much, so probably most of the people who clicked on it were attracted by the tags: infinite, fluff, romance. What do you think? “ A hipster, wannabe linguist who uses difficult words and thinks she is cool?” Relax, that’s just a simple Cinderella story, nothing more. So maybe "Not Another Cinderella Story" would have made it better. 

Then I have this other story ‘Piano’, the title is dull yeah but it fits the story perfectly, I couldn’t think of anything else. So, 136 views, posted Sep 5, 2011. Then ‘My Day as a Guy’, a lame title yeah but down to the business, 1042 views, posted one month earlier. See the difference?! These both are sort of original character stories and I am planning to change them into Infinite fics because these are one shots and I don’t care. I bet in two months only Piano is gonna get over 200 views thanks to Myungsoo only, well and I’ll think about a better title. Let’s see what happens with this experiment.

Anyway, another story of mine ‘Resurecction’ was also posted Aug. 2011, has 324 views even though it’s also with original characters. But the title is more eye-catching, right? Made it a lot better than 'Piano'

Okay, I admit I with titles. I so bad... 

Titles matter  A LOT.

So, got your story reviewed by one of those workshops and they said your title ? I went through some reviews and now those people made me wonder why ‘Cursed’ got 3/5 and ‘Mercy’ 5/5? ... 

Well anyway, I’ve seen some reviewers mention that “Oh your title suits the story perfectly so I give full points (even if it's not good)” but the others cringe at that and say “such a dull title, too long or too short” they don't even mention if it fits the story or not. But overall, it's all about the tastes of the person if they like your title or not.

You see, most of the reviewers will review your story as a piece of literature, not fanfiction. They are going to take is seriously in the best case and in the worst they are gonna take it emotionally which basically means “I didn’t like it because of personal reasons” and that , really. Because we don’t give a about anyone’s personal reasons. Give us some objective feedback!

I’m not saying fanfiction is not literature, it is but… if you want to be an AFF God something like “Sehun is my Fake Boyfriend” or “Love Contract” is going to earn you more readers than: “Pride and Prejudice” or “Peace and War”.  But I mean, some bestsellers don’t have the best (or shortest) titles either: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Women Are from Venus Men Are from Hell, The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. As well you could go for: "A woman from mars" or "Survivors guide to the EXO M planet"

Here we are again, wondering what is better: to choose a title which will bring us more readers on AFF or a title which is better from more serious point of view? But I mean, titles like “In Love with a Jerk” are good because they show you what kind of story it’s going to be and fall into popular category but viewed from a serious point of view… no, it’s not good.

5 latest recommended stories:

This Life is Yours!

What She Never Knew

Distant Sunrise: Can't Let Go

My Byuntae Butler, Kris!

when the hour hand is up (wtf? I don’t get this title?)

To tell the truth, being popular on AFF is like playing a game, just get the gist of it. I’m not saying you won’t enjoy it, I’m not saying you have to lower your standards either. Many of recommended stories are actually good enough. As long as you enjoy writing about Exo members living with one girl in a huge mansion and she acts as their maid, the title of the story: “Maid for Exo”. Writing is all about enjoying, that's where the originality comes from, that's how your story gets a soul.

But the thing is... heavy and serious stuff won’t make it to the top, getting your English nearly native won’t earn you a trophy, giving up on cliché’s is not how you do it, no, no, no, and once more no! The evidence is right in front of your eyes, the top 5 of all popular fics tell you everything, heck 10 pages of every popularity chart will show you the cruel reality. 

It’s all about “Our fake marriage became a forced marriage, he is a jerk and he got me pregnant and he also has a boy slave on the side, we have once in a while but then the boy slave got pregnant too.  Actually I used to be a nerd and wanted to take a revenge on my husband but then ended up falling in love with him even though he me. Twice.”

So no matter how many reviewers tell you to stop using cliché´s or that your “Maid in love with her master” titles are crappy that’s not going to help in the popularity games, unless readers start to demand for better. But yeah, do you want to develop as a writer or just be popular?

Think about it.

What about grammar?

My theory is that many readers on AFF are not native English speakers and it’s a fact that it’s easier for them to understand non fluent stories or ones with simple English. This is crazy I know, but when I worked as English tutor in South Korea, I am not native, people told me they understood me better than they understood the native speakers.

So if your English is not the best still post your stories, you will develop by writing but more importantly you should read good literature, read more of good English, BOOKS! That is, go to the library and read some BOOKS! I'm serious.

You are probably like: "Yeah go on, I'm listening."