I’m feeling a tad bummed that my story didn’t get nearly as much traction as I was expecting. Was wondering if the story just wasn’t good, or if it was just bad luck. The two parts of the big story are my first experience writing fluffy stuff, so if its bad id understand.
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I’ve found that one of the best things you can do is just keep chugging. The more you show up in the new category, the more people will read. Then you start getting follows, and the comments will give you feedback. Traction is something that you get over time.
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personally i more skimmed ur stories but didnt read much 2 see what ur writing is, never saw the stories so i guess i missed them but personally i would have avoided them mostly just do 2 i haaate foal abuse in general and pillowing in general, ur writings good but the content turns me off
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Is like founding a great quality off brand anime that has every fetish that disgust you
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r u stalking me??? i got a notice looking trough some off brand anime and accually found 1 of good quality that had a lot of tags i avoid
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Don’t be discouraged by not getting as much attention as you hoped for, I felt the same way for a time until I found my groove. It’s easy to feel sad when something you worked hard on doesn’t pan out like you wanted. Just have to stay resilient and soldier on. You’ll get there.
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One thing that might help is to put all dialogue on a new paragraph/line. That’ll help the readability quite a bit, which can help folks read/connect with the story.
That said — I think Pt 1 is a bit stronger; in Pt 2, not a lot happens beyond the narrator getting a couple other fluffies; the stuff that does happen—like him knocking the abuser guy over—feels a bit rushed. I think Part 2 could have used a better tie to the first part, along with some sort of heads-up that it’s a different narrator.
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also, to second what other folks said: keep pluggin’ along; best way to grow a following is to just keep being there, not just because story writing is a skill that blossoms with practice like most things, but also because it helps to have a regular presence for people to notice you.
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Just read part one and I liked it. Here are a few thoughts:
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Like @LeroyLettering said, put whenever someone speaks, give that dialogue a new paragraph, even if it’s a single line. Increases readability which is super important when you have fluff speak sprinkled in.
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It’s a touch of a wall of text. Not that you don’t have formatting and it’s all one paragraph. But it is long. I did a word count and it clocks in at over 3000 words. I’ve noticed that for text posts, most people will gloss over anything over ~1200 words, unless it’s an established story that’s been going on for a while. A lot of text can be daunting and can be a turn off if you only wanna read for 5 minutes or so. For example, I think a great break point in part one would be leaving Fireball watching his own delegging. It’s a natural break point and you would have 2 roughly equal sized parts that don’t look huge or intimidating. You could even post both parts at the same time so people aren’t kept waiting. But making the text post look digestible is important. I was initially put off by how long it looked.
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You’re writing style is great. I enjoyed it. It did feel like there was some redundancy where you over-explained the situation, such as:
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“Hey Fireball, daddy’s gonna go out for a couple hours. Don’t go anywhere while I’m gone, 'kay?” You know there’s not a chance in hell he’s going anywhere.
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But overall I like the style. I also liked the content. It’s good to see someone using fluffies as stress-balls with no pretention of “Justifying” the abuse. I also like that you mixed it up with the foals. I was afraid you would pillow them all, having Meatball pillowed, leaving one untouched, and one a huggie-fluff was a good mixup.
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Just keep at it. Once you get more people reading your stories there will be more engagement in the comments section. When I first started posting, I got nada except the occasional courtesy compliment. With your writing style, I think if you think outside the box and avoid common tropes (whiteknighting, amateur breeder story, hellgremlins, finding a valuable foal or breeding fluff out on the street, etc) and come up with some novel ideas on how to abuse fluffies, I def think you’ll gain quite a few followers.
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Also: Put whenever someone speaks, give that dialogue a new paragraph, even if it’s a single line. Increases readability which is super important when you have fluff speak sprinkled in. This is so important that it needs to be said again.
If you continue to show creativity and don’t fall into lazy cliches, I can see you becoming a go-to when I’m in the mood for an abuse textpost. I like how it’s just abuse. No trying to justify or excuse it.
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yeah part one was definitely stronger, i kinda wanted part 2 to be done so i could get back to the one asshole but now i realized i dont know what to do next for him
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FWIW, since Narrator 2 has Meatball and the gang, I tend to think the ball’s in his court.
Unless, of course, you want to have the asshole use his newfound $200 to invest in some sort of new torture gear.
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Haha, or maybe the asshole is just the world’s unluckiest abuser and keeps losing his stressballs before he can do much to 'em…
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i wanted to switch back and forth between an abusive guy whos just completely normal in every other way and a complete eccentric who loves everything. gives me more variety to work with. but yeah, asshole guy is probably gonna buy some new fluffies. Hell, maybe he’d get one to keep as an actual pet!
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First off, let me say that you will likely never gain the same amount of traction with stories as you would with art. That’s not a reflection on you or your writing. Some people just want to look at pictures or don’t have the time to sit down and read a story. My suggestion would be to keep writing. Sometimes, people miss the part one of a story. If you put out a part two they will likely go back to read part one. Keep writing and you will gain more and more traction.
In terms of writing advice, try to avoid starting sentences with You or a characters name. For example, instead of
You bumped into a strange looking old man. You stand up, looking around.
Try
Suddenly, you bump into a strange looking old man. Standing up, you look around.
Starting each sentence with a characters name makes it read more like a screen play than a story.
But, I for one enjoy the story you’ve written so far.
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I agree with Libra here. I personally love reading stories more than looking at Fluffy art but there’s a few things that make me immediately ignore text posts. Before I go any further I’d like to say that I quite liked your story :^)
If I see a big ass wall of text I immediately click away. I don’t want to sift through it and I’m sure I’m not alone. Your story could do with more spacing.
Also, for the reading crowd, I feel that authors who (subvert expectations) from the Fluffy fandom and move away from cliches get a lot more attention. Unique stuff gets a lot of buzz.
Also as a reader I almost never like posts just because I forget to and I rarely comment on stuff lol, I wouldn’t take a lack of interaction as people ignoring it.
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I thought the series was pretty good overall, and I really liked the closing with the dream sequence. It was original, whereas the torture, through no fault of yours, was somewhat generic, although handled pretty well. I enjoyed (God forgive me) the setup where “Daddy” spoils Fireball for a week or two and then explains, with a big smile, how he’s going to be pillowed for no reason whatsoever.
The reality of the fandom is that art gets far more attention than texts. This wasn’t visible on the Booru, because everything was displayed in the chronological order of posting, but it’s really highlighted on Reddit because of the upvote / downvote system. Even the best texts get buried underneath art that either A) sucks, or B) has been reposted many times.
I just want to say that there are those of us who love text (when it’s good). Don’t stop writing just because your stuff doesn’t get the attention that you and I think it deserves.
I
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oh yeah i abandoned the subreddit, just a bunch of irritating children and reposts of the same wolfram sparks comics over and over. Actual hell dimension
As someone who writes and posts myself, keep plugging and don’t feel discouraged. Do it for you and nobody else.
This is about you getting your voice and vision out, don’t feel pressured and don’t feel the pressure of not getting enough likes to justify putting the story out.
I post in both the sub and here, as someone who started in the sub it’s been hard to let go of it but I post on both because I do enjoy writing.
Best advice I can give to you is to not feel the pressure of posting because you haven’t posted a story in days.
I took an extended break over Xmas and to just keep busy at work and then I put out a story when I was ready.
I’ve accepted myself that fluffies are a pretty visual thing to enjoy and a lot of people do favour the art over stories but for those that enjoy the stories I’ve found can seriously enjoy what you do and you can get as imaginatively gruesome as you’d like it and leave it to the imagination.
But honestly keep plugging and only put stuff out when you’re ready to. Some stuff will sink or swim and some you’ll be very happy with and others you’ll look at and think man that was awful (I literally do that with a few of mine, this is why when I repost my old stuff I revise it).
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