How to get Featured on FIMfiction.net: A Twilight Sparkle Guide

[MallaJong1 202]

I have no idea where this should go, so please move to appropriate place, moderators. Thank you.

 

Hello, everypony! I've been on FIMfiction.net for less than three weeks, and I've already found a pattern in how stories get featured. In this guide is ONE (The Twilight Sparkle Method) of the sure-fire ways of getting your story onto that coveted Featured Box. We've all seen these Featured Stories attain views by the thousands (followed by hundreds of comments), and while many believe these stories deserved to be featured, there are still those that believe some stories shouldn't have been featured in the first place. Either way, what's done is done, and no matter what type of standard you feel should uphold the "featured" status, personally I am proud of those who make the cut. Because potential is enlivened by opportunity. And opportunity does wonders for both the authors and readers alike.

 

This is the "Twilight Sparkle" guide. I find that any writing piece under the RANDOM genre with a clever situation involving Twilight Sparkle finds itself in the Featured Box.

 

This guide includes two specific guides: The Basic Guide and The Sure-Fire Guide. The Basic Guide provides suggestions everypony should have already been following by now, while the Sure-Fire Guide provides a "guaranteed success" method that will get your story on the Featured Box (with Tweaks added, of course). So let's get started!

 

The Basic Guide:

 

First I must outline the basic rule of thumb: If you're to be featured your piece must be clever.

 

Seems obvious and vague, right? That's the BASIC rule, and a rule accepted among the My Little Pony fanfiction community (moderators and readers). But it seems being clever and random (with an addition of Twilight Sparkle in the mix) is becoming the norm, and inevitably a cliche.

 

Here are a few extra bullet points:

 

Story Cover: You need to have an appealing picture as the cover of your fanfiction. Do you really believe your story is going to get featured without a picture to serve as its front? Posting a picture is sixty percent of the battle to attaining the glorious Box of Feature! It is painfully apparent that there are more views, comments and likes to stories that provide any kind of picture as opposed to those that do not. Why is this so? Because psychologically we, as readers, have a natural propensity to be attracted to physical representations of stories. And most often it is a picture that provides the representation. We tend to feel as if a story is lacking when there is nothing to tell us what to expect (or what not expect) because a simple description is just not enough. Now for fanfiction.net, there are no stories given the option to provide a picture, but for this particular guide I am referring to FIMfiction.net. And when there's an option to provide a picture, POST THAT PICTURE! Because the type of picture you choose to serve as your front cover is going to influence whether readers even take a second glance at your story. It is very similar to a front cover of a book you might run into at a bookstore. "Ah, this looks interesting." Turns over book to read description.

 

Title: Come up with a title that represents your story's theme, plot, character basis, essence, ironic feature or anything that will somehow be related to your story. This is pretty self-explanatory. And the sure-fire way to being featured will be explained in the "Sure-Fire Guide" below.

 

Description:Come up with a description that will have a reader interested in your story. Yes, this is very vague and basic, but this is THE BASIC GUIDE!

 

Story: Write an interesting story devoid of frequent spelling/grammar errors with a well-paced consistency.

 

Now on to the "Sure-Fire Guide"! This what you've been waiting to read, right? Well, let's get Twilight Sparkle added into this little guide, because this method will heavily rely on her involvement.

 

The Sure-Fire Guide:

 

Genre: Put your story under the COMEDY and RANDOM genres. Readers like to laugh, and FIMfiction readers especially like to laugh. We come from an internet society that enjoys comedic memes filled with rainbows and purposeful misspellings! Randomness is our middle name, and we just cannot get enough of something that will make us go "WTF?!". The moderators understand this, and so they've taken it upon themselves to give to the community. "Give em' what they want, eh? Sure-fire way to get some lovin'!" Each day I find myself seeing NUMEROUS fanfictions under the comedy/random genres placed in the "Featured Box", and I also find it to be hilarious how much of a pattern it's become.

 

Character: Two Words. Twilight. Sparkle. While already being a powerhouse character with her involvement in the mane six (and the popularity that comes with such a label), Twilight Sparkle is relatable as a character. Though due to her neuroticism and obsessive compulsive tendencies, she can be put into so many wacky and RANDOM situations there's no surprise how much people enjoy anticipating for their little pony to get into yet another cringe-inducing exploit sprinkled with so many "WTF?!" moments. It's similar to awaiting Ash from Pokemon to stumble upon another adventure. "Oh, I wonder what kind of epic adventure he'll find himself in next!" Twilight Sparkle is the type of character that just makes sense to put into the Comedy/Random genre. Throughout the MLPFIM series, Twilight Sparkle's neuroticism has had us snickering in our seats, so why not search for more of her mental breakdowns on FIMfiction.net?

 

Story Cover: There are many Twilight Sparkle pictures out there on the Internet, and seeing as she is an extremely popular character, even a simple sketch of the pony will have fans ready to click on that link to your story! Though I am finding most often a basic screen shot of Twilight from the series will prove to be "Featured Material". I've also found that these screen shots have Twilight Sparkle reacting to something "sudden". *cough* random...*cough* When a reader looks at your picture of a bewildered/apprehensive/unstable Twilight Sparkle, they will probably be thinking "Hmmm... What's Twilight gotten herself into this time? Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk. Might as well read the description."

 

Title: Come up with a long title that shouts "Look at my TITLE! It's long, and you're going to read the entire title because it's so long!". Very similar to Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy "Dr. Strangelove: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb". A title read by many and understood by few. Though it's a title that catches a reader's attention - enough for a reader to take the extra minute to read the description. As an Internet society that's become accustomed to condensing words and providing spelling/grammar quality derivative of second-drafts, stumbling upon such a long and confusing title just gets us to take that extra peek. We want to know what you're going on about in the first place. "Long title is long. Wtf is this author's deal? Hmm...seems interesting." I've found so many long-titled stories being featured it's just becoming a cliche. Just think of those stories that you find getting a featured. I'm sure a few are up there now.

 

Description: Now this one is a tricky one, because it really depends on the subject. Though since we're in the Comedy/Random genre, we might as well provide a description that gets a reader already smiling wryly even before he/she has read the story. To be "featured" worthy, you need a "featured-worthy" description! Something that just has a reader saying "*snicker* Oh, Twilight, you silly pony, you.". To do this, your description needs to be random on its own. Here are a few suggestions: 1) Break the fourth wall and address your audience in the description. "This story is going to blow your F%#ING mind! READ IT!" (And even if you come off as narcissistic with this example, you'll be sure to have people reading your story just to have a chance to prove you wrong. Until they find your story to actually be amusing.). 2) Short and simple. Like I said, we like short and simple (That's what she said...Does that work?). And providing one or two sentences that give a reader an idea of Twilight Sparkle's exploit will have he/she craving for more. "Twilight Sparkle becomes a tree. Fluttershy stumbles upon this tree, and, boy, is the little Pegasus horny." 3) All-out random. Just type words - in no apparent grammatical order - that somehow relates to your story. Trust me. Random works in all ways. "Twilight Sparkle. Spike. OCD OVERLOAD! WTF is happening?!" In the end, you'll be featured and readers will find themselves sucked in before even clicking the mouse.

 

Story: See "Basic Guide".

 

Now you're on your way to being featured, but the last thing to do is probably the most difficult. Being discovered. Now for one to be discovered, one needs to have already done everything mentioned above and start garnering views, replies and especially "LIKES"! The more "likes" your story obtains, the sooner you'll arrive to that beloved "Feature Box"! Moderators understand that when a story is well-liked among a small community of readers, it will most likely be taken into fondness by many more. And this particular occurrence has become a definitive pattern for featured stories.

 

Time: Yes, the time is included. Oftentimes a "featured" story is a marginally NEW story. And because a new story is placed on the front page for all FIMfiction readers to discover, that's your only time to be "liked" enough to be "featured". You have a very limited amount of time to get as many "likes" as you can, because there are more "New" stories waiting in que behind yours, and they'll be taking up more and more space on the front page until your story disappears into the archives of the "Search" bar. LWhen it comes to being on the front page, you want your story to arrive when many peoples are on the site. The more readers online, the more likely your story is bound to be read. And I am "GUESSTIMATING" that the site hits its peak in FIMfiction visitors from 6pm-11pm Pacific Coast Time. This is purely a "guestimate" that has not been studied much. So do not mark me on this. Now if you want to be on the front page by this timespan, you need to have submitted your story for moderation by "8pm-11pm" Pacific Coast Time the day BEFORE! It takes a while for your story to be passed for moderation, so it's going to wait almost a full day before it's posted. Again, I could be completely wrong on all this speculating, so I'm suggesting you follow the "Time" section with caution.

 

There you are! Your path to becoming featured is before you, so take those steps to fanfiction fame! I hope you enjoyed the guide. Hopefully this guide will be featured, but who knows? I might not have followed my own steps. So go for it!

[Alleviate 342]

I'm so trying this out!

I want to hit featured with my newest shot (Which isn't up yet)

Surprise, surprise - main character Twi! Looking good for gold already.

 

Anyway, I noticed a little something. When you talked about why putting Twi in is a good idea, you need to mention that she's so naive

Naiveness always makes good Twi humor, that, and 'misunderstandings'

 

-Joe-

[MallaJong1 202]

I'm so trying this out!

I want to hit featured with my newest shot (Which isn't up yet)

Surprise, surprise - main character Twi! Looking good for gold already.

 

Anyway, I noticed a little something. When you talked about why putting Twi in is a good idea, you need to mention that she's so naive

Naiveness always makes good Twi humor, that, and 'misunderstandings'

 

-Joe-

 

You can do it, my fellow brony. Go for it! I am sure if all these steps are followed, you'll reach "featured status" in no time. Hopefully you'll be featured! Have a fun time writing. I posted this guide to fimfiction, but I am not quite sure the moderators will accept it. Hahaha.

[Alleviate 342]

You can do it, my fellow brony. Go for it! I am sure if all these steps are followed, you'll reach "featured status" in no time. Hopefully you'll be featured! Have a fun time writing. I posted this guide to fimfiction, but I am not quite sure the moderators will accept it. Hahaha.

 

Good luck with that - The mods hate guides and things now, mainly because of the 'Fluttershy handling' guide.

Ah well, thanks for the guide!

 

-Joe-

[Pinkie D Pie 1,036]

Sure Fire way, right a ship-fic or something about Rainbow Dash and Twilight falling in love. It will work everytime. then you just put something random in it, but as long as Twilight is falling in love with someone, probably RD, then you will get featured. I'm hoping my next fanfic will get featured, but it probably won't as it's not funny, nor is it a shipfic, or random. If you ask me however, the whole getting featured thing is retarded because it is usually not even that good of fics featured. However your guide most likely works, but I'm not even going to follow it as I can't write comedy or random. But yeah this guide would most likely get anyone featured, following all the steps that is.

[MallaJong1 202]

Sure Fire way, right a ship-fic or something about Rainbow Dash and Twilight falling in love. It will work everytime. then you just put something random in it, but as long as Twilight is falling in love with someone, probably RD, then you will get featured. I'm hoping my next fanfic will get featured, but it probably won't as it's not funny, nor is it a shipfic, or random. If you ask me however, the whole getting featured thing is retarded because it is usually not even that good of fics featured. However your guide most likely works, but I'm not even going to follow it as I can't write comedy or random. But yeah this guide would most likely get anyone featured, following all the steps that is.

 

Many fanfiction writers have said the same thing: that true potential for serious fictions are not given much of a chance when in competition to random, comedic fictions. In all truth, though, the majority of readers online produce/read comedies much more often, so that's why the moderators continue to feature such stories. Thanks for your comment. Hopefully your story will be featured! I wrote this guide because of the apparent pattern I've found in featured stories. Twilight and Rainbow Dash shipfic with a bit of randomness is definitely a sure-fire way!

[Pinkie D Pie 1,036]

Many fanfiction writers have said the same thing: that true potential for serious fictions are not given much of a chance when in competition to random, comedic fictions. In all truth, though, the majority of readers online produce/read comedies much more often, so that's why the moderators continue to feature such stories. Thanks for your comment. Hopefully your story will be featured! I wrote this guide because of the apparent pattern I've found in featured stories. Twilight and Rainbow Dash shipfic with a bit of randomness is definitely a sure-fire way!

 

Since you seem to have been studying what has been featured, I was wondering if you could tell me how my chances are. The first three chapters are done and here on the forums, http://mlpforums.com/topic/25972-the-new-sparkle-empire-my-second-fanfic/ and I plan to upload it to FIMfiction once I get a cover image. So not trying to do self advertising, I was just wondering.

[MallaJong1 202]

Well, one of the mane six (and Twilight Sparkle for that matter) is the protagonist, so that's a definite A-OKAY. The story is interesting enough to spark attention, and you already seem to have fans asking for more, on mlpforums no less (which I have found to have MUCH less in quantity of online fanfiction readers/writers). These are good signs. The title is also catchy, so you would just need an amazing picture to represent the EPIC that is your story. I would not say your chances are slim, because they are better than the majority of stories I see being posted on the site daily. I see a green light! Hopefully it works out for you! You just need to get as many "likes" as you can get the moment your story hits the front page. But even if it doesn't get featured right off the bat, don't worry too much. Because if you keep up with updates and attention to your readers, a moderator is bound to find your story worth "featuring". Have fun!

[NavelColt 22,883]

Both my stories, 'My Sister, Loyalty' and 'Like Sisters' got featured, both separately, then again in a same day, and there's only two components that went into that fact.

-They're both cute, adorable stories

-They're well-written, or so says the tons of comments on both

[MallaJong1 202]

Just posted this review to FIMfiction with the following picture:

 

Serves as example. I also included a bit of fanfiction service by having Twilight discover the guide then freak out at Spike (who actually authored it.), so maybe it ends up counting as a fanfiction.

 

 

Both my stories, 'My Sister, Loyalty' and 'Like Sisters' got featured, both separately, then again in a same day, and there's only two components that went into that fact.

-They're both cute, adorable stories

-They're well-written, or so says the tons of comments on both

 

Awesome stuff! This guide provides a "Sure-Fire" method to becoming featured (not the ONLY way). I always find myself excited when a story that deviates from this cliche receives a "Featured" status.

Edited August 4, 2012 by MallaJong1

[NavelColt 22,883]

Just posted this review to FIMfiction with the falling picture:

 

Serves as example. I also included a bit of fanfiction service by having Twilight discover the guide then freak out at Spike (who actually authored it.), so maybe it ends up counting as a fanfiction.

 

 

 

 

Awesome stuff! This guide provides a "Sure-Fire" guide to becoming featured (not the ONLY way). I always find myself excited when a story that deviates from this cliche receives a "Featured" status.

 

An interesting thing I was informed about was, if an author continually uses the 'Unpublish/Publish' button as a way to edit their story, which can be an honest mistake a lot of the time, if they don't notice the save button, then that is how they believe they edit chapters, that actually makes it far more likely for their story to make it up into the featured box, especially if it's been in it before.

Edited August 4, 2012 by ~Chaotic Discord~

[Ethan Pow 333]

I can honestly can careless if my story never gets featured, but I am happy if my readers still enjoy my story and like how its going, giving me reviews that improve my ability as a writer and someday expand to make new fan factions in the future.

 

If people don't like it and the interest isn't growing and it shows then I might end it with a bang. Start another story taking what I learned and doing another one that's more successful.

[MallaJong1 202]

An interesting thing I was informed about was, if an author continually uses the 'Unpublish/Publish' button as a way to edit their story, which can be an honest mistake a lot of the time, if they don't notice the save button, then that is how they believe they edit chapters, that actually makes it far more likely for their story to make it up into the featured box, especially if it's been in it before.

 

Can you elaborate on this? Is it because once the story chapter is "Published" again it counts as an entirely new story, therefore it is discovered yet again?

[NavelColt 22,883]

Can you elaborate on this? Is it because once the story chapter is "Published" again it counts as an entirely new story, therefore it is discovered yet again?

 

Something along those lines, I assume. I don't know the exact reason. The featured box is automated, and isn't run by the staff, so I assume it being published 'again' results in it bumping up in the que unfairly.

[MallaJong1 202]

Something along those lines, I assume. I don't know the exact reason. The featured box is automated, and isn't run by the staff, so I assume it being published 'again' results in it bumping up in the que unfairly.

 

That is very interesting indeed. Thanks for the heads up. I had always assumed the staff did have control, because I rarely find horribly-written fanfictions in the Featured Box. Because, let's face it, there are many horribly-written ones out there (spelling/grammar wise).

[NavelColt 22,883]

That is very interesting indeed. Thanks for the heads up. I had always assumed the staff did have control, because I rarely find horribly-written fanfictions in the Featured Box. Because, let's face it, there are many horribly-written ones out there (spelling/grammar wise).

 

Well, it's automated, but it runs off of how many likes the story has in comparison to dislikes, how many comments, how much views it has, the date it was last published, etc. But still, it's apparently automated.

[Alleviate 342]

Doing the whole 'unpublish,Publish ' thing is fine an' all - but I think there may be a rule on that now.

I'm pretty sure the mods got sick of people unpublishing their stuff then sticking it back up again to bump it up.

 

I'll have to check at some point as my fics never get any attention, which, in turn, means very few reviews so I can't improve easily.

 

Ah well, Good luck on featured anyone who tries for it. (Best shot is EQD'ing it from what I've seen.)

 

-Joe-

[MallaJong1 202]

Doing the whole 'unpublish,Publish ' thing is fine an' all - but I think there may be a rule on that now.

I'm pretty sure the mods got sick of people unpublishing their stuff then sticking it back up again to bump it up.

 

I'll have to check at some point as my fics never get any attention, which, in turn, means very few reviews so I can't improve easily.

 

Ah well, Good luck on featured anyone who tries for it. (Best shot is EQD'ing it from what I've seen.)

 

-Joe-

 

I was under the impression EQD was much more difficult to get into.

[Alleviate 342]

I was under the impression EQD was much more difficult to get into.

 

Yeah...It's supposed to be nigh-on impossible to get onto BUT once you do get on, you WILL get featured (more than once usually)

AND it's a huge achievement to get on EQD....So, umm....Yeah...Stuff! Etwas! Etwas! Etwas!

I still wanna go for featured then finish up (FinallY) and go for EQD.

[Harmony Spark 265]

Hey great guide! However I have a problem. My fanfic has an Alicorn OC in it and of course, it's only got 7 likes. I submitted it to Equestria Daily and already they're being racist bastards to thin that JUST because my OC is in it and it's an alicorn, they AUTOMATICALLY think that my work is bad. What am I going to do?!!!

[Commissar Alexer 763]

You know....you could also just write a clopfic.

[Batbrony 16,057]

Seems like you got a lot of the basics down for a story that more than likely will get featured.  I mean, general rule of thumb any featured story should just be well-written in the first place.  But me, I prefer a challenge.  My one story's a crossover, quite long as it is, got funny and cute moments but wouldn't qualify as "Random" or "Comedy", stars a background pony (Derpy), and probably a long shot for a feature, unless it all comes together quite nicely down the road as it develops.  More important than any feature are two things: (1) writing the best story that you can, and (2) writing the story that you truly want to, not just pandering to popular demand (although if your readers have legitimate suggestions or critiques, then that's something else).

 

If anybody wants to check out my fic, Batmare Begins, just click on the link below:

 

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/79481/batmare-begins

 

@@MallaJong1, before I go, just wanted to commend you again for putting this together.  Good on you for trying to give some nice pointers to aspiring writers, especially any beginners.