This is the absolute truth here on AFF: If you update often, more people will subscribe and comment on your fic. Let me add a not too often into that, as in not putting up all the chapters to your fic in one day. People are less likely to subscribe to a completed fic. How do I know? Because I did that once.

My very first fic on AFF was already completed when I put all the chapters up and marked it complete. That fic has over 16000 views, about the number of views a featured fic at that time would get. There are at this time only about 40 subscribers. In comparison to this fic which has the updates spanned out more, this fic has about 250 subs as on this chapter and a fourth of the views of my first fic.

If the fic is already completed, the readers have no reason to subscribe to it.

On to how frequently you update. Not updating your fic is a great reason for people to not like it. I know what some of you are thinking, “No, I disagree. If the fic is good enough, I am willing to wait months, maybe even years for an update.” Let me just tell you something, months, maybe, but not years. I have been reading fics for a few years and some fics from two or three years ago are finally getting updated, fics that I had looked forward to at the time. I don’t want to read those anymore. A fic from a year ago, maybe a couple of months, yes, tears of joy, so happy it’s updated, yay. Not years.

I’d say it’s a good idea to update at least once a week, every other week, monthly, try… There are several reasons as to why you need to update often. The most obvious reason is that when you update, it’s pushed up the list and people see it. Not many people spend their time looking through old fics when fresh ones are coming out that very second. If a reader knows a fic is being updated they know the writer has not yet abandoned it and think it is safe to read. If a reader reads that last updated chapter and feels iffy about continuing, a real clincher is if they think the fic is going to be updated or not.

Just to throw it out, there have been times where I rejected a fic every time I saw it. Eventually I would read more than just the first chapter and I actually enjoyed it and was glad I started reading it. I only ever do this if a fic is constantly being updated and always in my face. Not too much, otherwise I think the author is just spitting words onto the page. Word diarrhea…

Another reason, one that isn’t as obvious, is that the more active you are with the story, the more inspiration and understanding you have of the fic. I made this mistake with my last fic, and even the current fic I am on now. The gap between one chapter and the next is too great, and in that time I forget all my little ideas and twists that make the story better. At the same time I forget what has happened previously in the story and waste time looking it up. With my last fic I wanted to updated but I needed to know the freaking season so I had to painstakingly reread the entire fic and I found out it was in late freaking spring.

Trust me, keeping up with your story helps you go through all the kinks. It’s just like reading a fic after many months; you don’t know what the hell happened in the last chapters, so you have no idea how to write the next. Keep thinking about your story, don’t lose your muse.

If you are having a period of intense writers block, which I feel I am in perpetually, try some different inspiring methods to get your creative juices flowing.

1) Prompt Challenges

Hey guys, I know only two of you tried this with me last time, so none of you are aware of how stimulating prompt challenges are. Let’s look at how effective these are. I recently completed a 30 day prompt challenge, meaning I wrote a short drabble every single day for an entire month. My track record says I shouldn’t be able to do this considering I haven’t updated my last fic since New Years Eve.

There were 30 words that my Maria and came up with together and everyday I wrote something about whoever I felt like writing about. These prompts allowed me to escape the confines of my fic’s plot and explore so many possibilities. I wrote a few drabbles about robots, loosely related, ghosts, fairytales, band fics, angsty angst, so many things. It was so fun. It felt good just to write crack about silly things and poke at the fandom.

I’m not saying you have to do a 30 day prompt challenge, or even a legitimate challenge. You can make your own. I clearly made my own up. Some people take a person’s name and a picture off google, others put their ipod on shuffle and base something off the song, maybe only writing for the length of the song. It’s incredible the number of prompt challenges out there.

Restrictions? None, just write.

2) Pictures

Just a few hours ago I was looking at a gif of Yunho talking and I couldn’t help but think his mouth looks weird. Now I really want to write a fic about Yunho and Jaejoong confronting each other about having plastic surgery. Damn, Yunho’s got some collagen in his cheeks.

The internet is so wonderful. There are an infinite number of pictures you can find for your fandom. Having troubles getting ideas? Look at these visuals and let them speak to you. Listen, they’re telling a story. Your story. The person who took that photo/screenshot/edit made a story and you are going to tell the world what it is. Kris’s pink tank top? There’s a story behind that, isn’t there? Hyunseung’s red hair? What does his hair mean? You say B.A.P is posing with bunnies? You better write about those bunnies.

After I update this I am writing my plastic surgery fic, and it’s going to be awesome. You know why? Because I write the best damn crack there ever was. I have no expectations for the things I write during a slump, so I am okay if it sounds like .

3) Music

Music is something that is definitely very inspirational. I have read so many fics based off of songs, and I’ve even written one. The melody, the pace, the pitch, and especially the lyrics can influence your mind in some way and plant a little seed to grow and form new words.

Just take one of your favorite Kpop songs and write a story about it. Match the flow of your words with the flow of the music, and make the song come to life.

Remember, it doesn’t have to sound good, you’re just trying to get inspired

4) Learn some new words

My last update happened while I was in the middle of a two week SAT prep class during summer and that is why I hinted I’d do grammar this time. Jokes on you, I don’t remember anything from those sessions. I do remember that when we were learning new vocabulary words I had really wanted to write some short stories. We had learned a plethora of new vocabulary and with every new word I was trying to remember it in some clever way. From little sayings, wacky sentences, to even incorporating the words into my prompt challenge drabbles, I was opening my eyes to these new words and their meanings.

Just thinking of these words has your mind thinking about unusual situations and your brain is already working at throwing your bias into a pit of vocabulary mishaps. I don’t even care that my vocabulary is terrible right now, it’s after 7 AM and I still haven’t gone to sleep.

Trust me on this. Read a page in the dictionary or something and mark up any words that strike your fancy. Base something off these words or incorporate them into your fic. Hell, if you are stuck at a particular part, new words can define the future of your fic.

5) Base things off of experience

I know for a fact that basing things off of real life really helps. Just today the power at my house went out for an hour and suddenly I knew how I wanted to write the chapter for that one fic I haven’t updated since New Year’s Eve. Power outage! I wouldn’t have thought of that. When I was in vacation I saw all these tall old buildings, because it’s China, I was inspired by that as well. I got home and wrote about how in this futuristic city, the buildings are rusting and too close to each other and the ground smells like piss and vomit. Take inspiration from everything around you.

More examples, okay? During my prompt challenge I had to write about babies that day. No idea what to write about when my sister started talking about palm reading and her baby line. Inspiration can hit you at any time. You should carry around a notebook and something to write with in case you have a sudden of creativity. You will forget it by the time you get access to a computer or whatever you write on.

So many ways to stay inspired. 

Adding some quotes about writing that I hope people enjoy.

"There is nothing to writing. All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

-Ernest Hemingway

"Substitute 'damn' every time you you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and your writing will be just as it should be."

-Mark Twain

"I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done."

-Steven Wright

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."

-W. Somerset Maugham

"I am a drinker with writing problems."

-Brendan Behan

"Action, reaction, motivation, emotion, all have to come from the characters. Writing a love scene requires the same elements from the writers as any other."

-Nora Roberts