Requested by: bankstatement
Thanks for requesting!
Shoutout to the person that unfollowed me for the last chapter (you know who you are)!
Truth hurts, I know.
If you're reading this (which you probably are) no hard feelings, man. I'm not one to hold a grudge.
However, I will say I think you're fake, and I don't like fake.
On to the tips.
Recently my girl Violet (who I hope at this point everyone knows without me having to type in her username) did a chapter on self-promotion, and now Quinn (bankstatement) has requested I do one as well.
Here's my take on it . . .
My take is just the same as Violet's, if I'm being honest. Which I am. I'm always honest.
Do any of you want to wake up to see someone self-promote on your wall? No? Neither do I!
Oh my gosh, this drives me crazy. And here's why.
My belief is that these walls were created for our own personal reasons. They were created to spread whatever propaganda we want, inform our friends and followers of what's going on in our lives, and for our friends to leave us sometimes random messages *cough* Quinn *cough*.
Before I truly touch on self-promotion, let us break down the wrong and right way to do the three things above.
1. Propaganda
There are so many types of propaganda: slander, bandwagon, and plenty more that are very evident in the WWE Fandom and can make a lot of people angry.
For example, I understand that people have their favorite wrestlers, which I respect. But what I don't respect is people trash-talking other people's favorites, or forcing their favorites onto other people.
Say there's someone spreading their love for Roman Reigns or Paige on their wall? That's cool. I got no problem with that.
But say this person comes to my wall and posts some of the following:
"Oh my gosh, did you see how fabulous Paige looked in her return match tonight?"
"Roman was the best member of The Shield."
"Don't Paige and Roman look totally shippable?"
Okay. I can tell you right now that there's a few things that are happening in my mind at this point, but let me put another imaginary person on my wall.
This person comes along and posts this:
"Sami Zayn sucks."
"Cesaro has no charisma."
"Kevin Owens is fat."
Any guesses as to which person I respond to?
I bet you guessed wrong.
To answer my own question, the person I respond to is the first person.
Hold on, let me explain.
I respond to the first person by telling them that I like neither Paige nor Roman, and they apologize before happily going on their way.
Or they ask why, which would lead me to telling them that it doesn't matter why. We all have wrestlers we don't like.
This is how I respond to the second person.
Silence, delete their posts, mute, and report for harassment.
Anybody who knows me knows how much I love those three guys I just mentioned, and if anyone wants to attack them on my wall, they aren't worth my time.
Now, about a year ago, I would've went toe-to-toe with them in a verbal argument that would proceed to shut them up for an eternity, but now I've matured and I know that I don't have to defend my favorites to anybody.
"Silence is the best response to a fool."
(Side-note: For real though, if anybody who happens to play FMK kills Kevin, Cesaro, or Sami, I'm coming for you. Meet me in a dark alley, I'll be the one with the baseball bat.)
If you want to spread your propaganda, keep it on your own wall, alright?
And don't do it too much, because that annoys the crap out of me.
2. Informing friends + followers
"My wifi is down, so I can't update."
"I'm sick, so I can't update."
"Screw you guys, I don't want to update."
That's how you inform people. While the last one might be a bit harsh, they have the right to put it up because it's their wall.
There's literally a check box that says "notify your followers" that you can check when posting something. And yes, that means notify, not complain about every little thing that's wrong with the world.
Dude, woe is you, we get it. Focus a little more on the positives, and let the negatives fade off into the background.
I'm not the most positive person, as I'm sat right in the middle between glass half full/empty to the point where I'm just "half". Whatever that is.
What I'm trying to say is that I do find the positives.
When my wifi was out, I typed up things on my notepad to publish them later. That's finding the positive, people!
Woah, stop.
Rewind.
When did I get on a tangent about downers?
And why am I suddenly giving out life lessons?
Anyway, inform your followers about whatever on your wall, but don't grace them with your negativity.
Be a sore loser or whiner to yourself or to a friend in PM.
3. Randomness
If anyone has visited my wall the past few days, you'll see a lot of random things from Quinn. She has become my designated wall-keeper(?) and steadily posts on my wall for hers and my own amusement.
I find it funny.
She's not the only one who likes to post on people's wall.
Some like to have conversations through them, post an inside joke, and a whole bunch of other stuff they do. That's fine, they can do what they want as long as it's okay with the person's wall they are posting on.
If it wasn't okay with me, I probably would've blocked Quinn from her cruel questions and poems that tell me I belong in a zoo, but I don't because I think it's hilarious and I know she's joking around.
I don't belong in a zoo, Quinn!
Another thing is if you want to congratulate your friend on something, say, number of followers (aye, congrats on 900, Violet!) or views on a book. You can post it for everyone to see, so they know how great of a friend you are.
Is there anything more to say about randomness? I don't think so.
Now we're moving on to what you all came to this chapter for: self-promotion.
Let me assure you, self-promotion is NOT a bad thing.
If you have an ongoing book with lots of views, post a little author's note at the bottom of it.
Post how ever much you want on your OWN wall telling people to check out your story.
Look in people's bios, and sometimes it'll say "taking reading requests". Those are the people you want to talk to. They'll read your story and tell you what you think.
I would do that, but I don't really have the time.
Before I continue, I want to say that I was left a really sweet message a few days ago on my wall that complimented my work, and at the end, they asked me to check out their story.
The message felt really genuine, and not like they were trying to kiss my butt, so I'm going to check it out.
That was a one time thing, though, and it's completely different than the "Love your stories, check out mine" comments.
I can't stress this enough. Please, please, please do not self-promote your stories on walls that aren't yours.
It's annoying for a multitude of reasons:
A. You're taking an easy way out
B. People are liars
C. It's desperate
D. You have no patience
E. You can't handle the truth!
A. Work Harder
It took some hard work to get to where I am today in terms of writing and the amount of people who think my stories are worth reading.
I didn't go door-to-door like a freaking Girl Scout, I waited patiently (D) for people to start reading my stories. Patience is something you've gotta have, and if you ain't got it, stick to reading, pal.
You don't think Cesaro wants to be world champion? He very much does, but does he go from Vince day after day asking to be it? I highly doubt it.
He's working his butt off every freaking night, stealing the show (sorry DZ) and waiting patiently for his opportunity to hold the gold, which will be so sweet when he finally does, I can promise you that.
The point I'm making here is get off your lazy butt, and churn out quality chapters, not quality posts that beg people to read your story.
B. Kindness isn't Honesty
If your story sucks, believe me, I will tell you in the nicest way possible, then kindly suggest things you can do to improve it.
What I'll never do is lie to your dang face and tell you how amazing your story is when it's not. That's bull.
People lie because they're being nice, and I get that you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but when you think about it, it's best to tell them the truth. If you don't, you're just setting them up for failure later on down the road.
I can tell you all right now that everyday I stumble upon at least two really bad, overly dramatic books, but people say they're good.
Why?
Because they're liars. Let me rephrase that. They're unintentional liars. They don't know what they're doing, because they're blinded by the person's hope that their story is good, and they don't want to crush their dreams.
I, on the other hand, won't crush your dreams. By telling you the truth, I'm making your dreams more realistically reachable, and for that, you should thank me.
C. And Embarrassing (For You)
The moment you self-promote on someone's wall, you get a label, and that label says "Desperate".
Yeah, go get you one of those "Hello, my name is..." tags.
Since we're on the topic of desperate and embarrassing, let me mention that self-promoting doesn't only happen on walls.
It happens in stories, too.
What? Why would someone self-promote on your story?
I don't know, I ain't a professional. I do this for the kicks, dude.
But if I had to give a theory, I'd say because people would see the comment or because they know you're popular.
The comment will go something like this: "This story is so great. I'm using this couple in my story, would you mind checking it out?"
Quick: If someone has self-promoted on your story before, delete the comment, pronto.
Not only is it rude and disrespectful, but it's also?
Desperate. You got it.
D. Good Things Take Time
You can't publish your first story and expect it to be a success in a day.
Heck, I know when I publish my next story, it's still gonna take a few weeks for it to reach success, if it even does.
Just because I have a certain amount of followers, that doesn't mean I'm owed anything. I gotta be patient and work hard until I've earned what I have.
When you post a story, take a moment to reflect. Think about how hard you worked on it, and remember: you're writing to please yourself first, not anyone else.
If anybody on this site is writing just for the sole purpose to be "well-known" and not because they love writing, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
E. Don't be a Cry Baby
Person to Author: "I think you need to work on your grammar."
Author to Person: "I worked really hard on this and you don't know anything about my story or me. Blocked!"
Why y'all gotta be so over-emotional?
Why can't y'all take criticism?
I loathe these types of people.
The ones who will ask your opinion then, when you leave a comment they don't like on their story, they delete your comment, then proceed to throw shade at you on their wall.
Real mature!
No, I'm not throwing shade about shade throwers. Yes, I don't do shade. It's petty and childish. If you think I'm talking about you, comment or PM and we'll settle things like adults, and I'll tell you to stop your whining and grow up.
And if you still want to throw shade after that:
I just really wanted to use that gif.
That is my take on self-promotion.
I wouldn't even self-promote on my friends' walls, so why self-promote on a stranger's?
I wouldn't post on Ray's wall saying: "Hey, can you please check out my newest story?"
I wouldn't post on Violet's wall saying: "I love what you did with [insert story]! Can you read mine and tell me what you think?"
I wouldn't post on Elena's wall saying: "I absolutely love your videos! Could you check out my story some time?"
I wouldn't post on anybody's wall because that's not how I do things, and from now on, I'm not accepting any self-promotion on my wall.
If you want to post on my wall and say "hey" feel free to say "hey".
If you want someone to talk to after your dog has died, come talk to me and I will console you as best as I possibly can.
If you want to ask me random questions about my likes and dislike, ask away and I will answer them honestly.
But I will no longer tolerate any more self-promotion.
To Suck
Self-promoting on people's wall and constantly doing it.
Not to Suck
Working hard and waiting patiently. The best things come to those who wait. You've all heard the saying.
Coming up:
-Titles
-Foreshadowing
-Starting a story
*Got a request for a topic you're having trouble with? Tell it to me in the comments or, if you want, drop me a PM and I'll leave you anonymous.
I'm here to help, so don't be shy!