I want to write but I'm not sure how to go about it. It's not that I don't think I can write or that I've never written before. I've written a 40 and 90 page story and about a dozen 600 word shorts. But I'm not sure what I should or want to do next. A while back I said to myself that I would focus on writing fan fiction in order to build up an audience. All of my previous works have been original. You see, my shorts and 40 page story gathered little to no attention, but my 90 page story, where I posted a chapter online a couple of times a week over 2 months, garnered a little less than 200 readers by the end of it. And compared to little to no attention, that's a lot. But then I think about how I could get more. And I genuinely believe I could get many more readers in a shorter amount of time if I were to write fan fiction. And it's not as if I can't think of any, (like a story where rick and morty are in a pokemon universe, (yes, I know about the mobile game) where rick is the professor and morty wants to collect gym badges, but rick keeps on taking morty off on adventures where they encounter legendary pokemon and groups like team rocket.) But the idea of using pre-generated characters/settings feels so limiting. I mean, I feel like doing my own stuff at the moment. Like a sci-fi space adventure! Maybe it's because a part of me hates the idea of writing a rick and morty fanfic since the sitcom, oneshot nature of the show feels terrible for the writing medium where things are meant to progress and change. And because the pokemon setting feels so bland. But they're so popular! Maybe if I tried to write a fanfic about something I was more passionate about. But I can't really think of a show or movie or anything I love so much that I would want to write a fanfic about it. I mean, if it was good enough for me to love it, then what's the point in writing a fanfic about it? Maybe I should just give more thought to the idea of which fandom to write. And what if the fandom is too old!? What if people don't care about it anymore!? Should I focus on what I think I should do or what I want to do? I hate the idea of writing for 10 years and having little to no readers. And it's not as if I'll be writing fan fiction for the rest of my life, just until I build an audience. And I know being famous or popular shouldn't be my number one priority while writing, but I'm fairly certain I'm able to write well and write fan fiction at the same time. So why not do it?
Fear of the unknown is a classic fear of many. To boldly go where no man has gone before. All I suggest is that you step up and out. Seize the day. My suggestion is to continue a fiction that was cut to soon. Like for instance~ https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/3972/the-defective-hermit or maybe https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/3599/falling-star-of-evolution
I'm trying to find the middle ground... Something popular + something original? Quick Transmigration of your original MC inside the body of Popular Character in popular character's world? If MC must stay in character, you can show MC's personality by their thoughts or banter with the system If MC can go OOC, how would their interaction be? Maybe MC enter the body of alien or vampire or animal, or how would Popular Character's friends deal with this sudden strage phenomenon? The danger zone in QT is it's usually fixing/explanating plot holes, or "doing things more efficiently" which can be taken as criticism towards the Popular Thing, so beware of raging fans
I wrote fanfic years ago cuz I like it~ da result? worse than your cuz I'm suck~ still I write just for fun hence not really care.... still it embarrassing yet fun memory ideal is good but don't forget being practical do what you want but keep logical on way to achieve it cuz irl you need compromise few thing as long as you make clear about your bottom line and your goal sound simple? go try it cuz for me it is hard that this cat think about this problem
My suggestion is just my opinion and by no means the correct one to follow. I wouldn't go the fan fiction route. You gain fans of the fandom you're writing about, but very few are willing to follow you into your original stories afterwards. They're just there to get their necessary dose of the fandom's characters, because they have withdrawals from the source story. A few are there for the story and will be seduced to look at your original stories. If you're lucky enough, you'll gain a huge following and a publishing firm will convert your fan fiction into an original book a la 50 Shades of Grey or that Wattpad Harry Styles story. They'll only be interested in the story that has the most likes/reviews/recognition. Chances are, it'll sell well, but your reputation as an author will be a joke. In order to gain lots of readership, you'll need to be sensitive to popular trends. Sadly, you can't write what you yourself feel like - that's the literary route that may or may not be appreciated in 50 years or more while you meanwhile live in poverty (or get your money from other jobs). You can also be a trendsetter, but setting a new trend doesn't count on coincidence. Usually, the social setting is just the sort of fertile ground for this new trend and if you're sensitive enough to capture the early signs, you can be one of the firsts to capitalize on it. Not like it's easy though. Also, you say your story got 200 readers, on which platform? Depending on the platform and its popularity, the numbers can change a lot. I'll go and assume you're a male writing male-oriented novels, cause usually it's male authors on fictionpress who get the worst numbers. 200 there is pretty good already in these circumstances. I'm not that sure how active royalroad is. I'm not sure how active any of the platforms are to be honest. They were a lot more active 10+ years ago for sure. Now even your common werewolf smut doesn't gather as much of a following as it used to, lol, and still the majority of readers are teenage girls. Going back on the topic of popular trends and reading the climate... What is your target readership? Age, sex and nationality are very important. I don't really want to give any particular suggestions, but you should start from there. Have a goal when you write. I tend to think about the most popular 'recent' books, starting with Harry Potter, some John Greene books, Twilight, Song of Ice and Fire. Each has an element that shot them to popularity, and it's not always the good writing style. One advice I have is, don't exclude female readers, cause they can boost sales a whole lot. As soon as they see a harem in your story, most would stay away as they'll realize they're not even considered a target readership. Unless you place the harem in an ancient palace setting, full of intrigues and scheming women fighting for the top position - and then you basically get the housewives to read your story, lol. I mean, men's perfect idea of a harem doesn't include vicious infighting, the quick death of the prettiest and most favorite member, and it's not even your choice which of your sons survive to adulthood. Okay, I ended up writing an essay again. The main idea is, think whether what you write is of actual interest to your target readership. Also, if you're publishing on a platform where you have like a million male readers (envisioning Chinese Qidian), you can be selective and write exclusively fiction that caters to male aspirations. In the real world, you'd be cutting out half of your potential readership though... https://www.statista.com/statistics/249781/book-reading-population-in-the-us-by-gender/ It's still up to you in the end, you can't force these things. That is, assuming you're male. If you're a female author, haha, you better pick a male pseudonym if you want to tap into that male readership, and avoid writing romances from a female perspective. I can say more on that topic, but I gotta sleep.
I say....let them eat cake! Write for the love of it. ^.^ However, this is not about me but you >_> Important question: Is it your writing or is it where you are posting? They are two different problems. Figure out which it is before you make any decisions. It would be a pity if you stop writing what you like when it's possible you were just not posting in the right place. In that scenario, your work may be pearls before swine.
Less talking more writing. The famous story, Carrie written by Stephen King was thrown in the trash. His wife found and told him to continue and gave the female perspective to help him write believable female characters. Fail with gusto!!!
If it is money that you want to make, you can work in other jobs to pay the bills and write,well, what you love in your other time. You will not have written a book, but you will be exercising your writing skills and building interesting life experiences that can give you creative ideas for stories. I know working like that improved my grammar more than uni ever did.... and I still continue to write what I love, which to me is more important than getting paid for it.
I'm going to write 10 pages for the first chapter of this Pokemon: Rick and Morty fanfiction and see if anyone likes it. If It doesn't catch I'll try other fandoms. I'll write multiple 10 page first chapters of fanfiction just to get a feel for it. I think learning how to write fanfiction will help me become a better author. I definitely feel like it's making me plan better than I usually do. There aren't nearly as many variables to account for when I'm creating the characters and setting on my own compared to when it's already pre-generated, it's a whole different story. And I still have to balance the worldbuilding and plot with the style and atmosphere to still make the story a good read while going through an info dump. Usually I do minimal worldbuilding and plot, but with Pokemon: Rick and Morty, it was mainly only that. I'm definitely improving by changing the way I write. My original way of writing was flawed. I can't just make it up as I go. The atmosphere and style were good, but there wasn't enough complexity in the world or characters. I had the heart but not the mind. With this I have the mind. Or at least I will eventually.