I don't aim to get comments. That's a recipe for me to be disappointed in my story because not enough people are commenting.
I have to give this a plus one. I write my stories...and my latest gameplay blog, Plain ol' Legacy, for me. Then I share it with others to follow along. I don't expect anyone to follow along. If they do, great. If they don't, no big deal as I'm doing this for me.
When one comments either through my forum's thread or on my WordPress blog pages itself, it's a bonus. I get to see their point of view and constructive criticism. Sometimes the poster even points out things in the screencaps I didn't even pay attention to. And I even had one or two give me ideas for a future chapter.
But it all comes down to doing it for you.
It's okay to ask for feedback on your stories as well. But don't have an expectation that it will happen. Don't give up on your writing and screencapping if that happens. Keep chugging along. There are a lot of silent lurkers out there reading SimLit, trust me.
Thanks for the tips, everyone.
I dont write to get comments, either - but I believe in self-reflection. I think I have to acknowledge an issue if I've been posting since January 2020, with 60+ entries, and 0 comments. It's not that comments by themselves are important but this complete lack of engagement signals something is likely very off with my story... so I would like to figure that out. I comment on others' blogs, so I'm not completely isolated/uninvolved in the community. I asked because I was wondering if I was missing some community aspect, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
ETA: I don't have lurkers, at least definitely not more than 1 or 2 (absolute max would be 5 but I think that's overstating it).
Comments are always nice to get...hit me with that sweet dopamine! But I know people are reading the story even if they don't comment because the hit counter goes up. I do like the feedback part though as it gives me lots to think about in steering the story.
It's been very busy this October so my output is down...I'm also doing a slight alteration to Sim 66 as well: I did it as a strict rotation up until now but from the next chapter onwards I'm going to write chapters more like a soap opera in that a character who's storyline is really progressing will have more time until it starts slowing down and then another character will get highlighted so from now on, the rotation is out of strict sequence. It makes sense if a character has a dramatic chapter that would obviously continue to the next day would have a 2 part chapter instead of waiting 5 or 6 episodes before it's their turn again.
The following day was Winterfest. Emily invited over her father, James. He was enthusiastically welcomed by Clara, who was happy to meet anyone new, and Hazel, who was of course particularly interested in family members.
"Hello!" James said. "Now then, which one are you?"
"My name's Clara," Clara grinned.
"Ah, right," James nodded. "You look very like your mother."
Joshua was in the study, playing chess with Katie, who had inherited her father's cleverness.
"It would help if you were looking at the board, you know," Joshua joked.
"Yeah yeah," Katie replied. "I was just thinking about what presents I might get."
It seemed like Clara's outgoing nature extended to non-humans...
"Ohhh! A bunny rabbit!" she exclaimed. "Let me pet you!"
The rabbit happily flopped onto its back for a few moments, enjoying the petting session.
"Hmm... I think I'll give you a treat," Clara said, mindful of the gift-giving season. "I know, I bet you like carrots."
Emily cooked the traditional Winterfest turkey.
"This is great, Mum!" Clara enthused.
"Thank you, darling," Emily responded.
"Uh... Mum? Are you OK? You seem to have developed a rash!" Hazel exclaimed.
"Oh, it's probably not serious," Emily said reassuringly. "People do tend to get ill during the winter. I'll get some medicine and then I'll be much better."
"Oh, OK," said Hazel, feeling relieved.
As a lover of the outdoors, Lydia enjoyed spending time outside, whatever the weather. Emily had planted a large garden, although it naturally wasn't growing much. Although fully aware that she might come across as weird, Lydia decided to chat with the plants. She didn't even mind that she got no response; sometimes it was best to share your innermost thoughts and feelings with something that would just listen.
Like every child, Katie was eager to open her presents. However...
"A carrot???" she moaned. "Who mistook me for a rabbit?"
It wasn't even that she disliked carrots. It was just a rather lame gift when you'd been expecting a fun new toy you could play with. An edible gift would be much nicer if it was chocolate or sweets, too.
The next day was school as usual. Clara, of course, was eager to make new friends.
Later that day, Joshua took the girls to the park. The weather in Oasis Springs was a real contrast to Henford-on-Bagley; although he liked warm weather, Joshua always associated winter with snow rather than sun. After all, Winterfest cards always depicted snowy scenes.
His mind drifted towards his therapy appointment. He was a little nervous; he'd never fully explained to anyone about his childhood. Emily knew bits of it, but he hadn't wanted to worry her with the whole story.
Comments are always nice to get...hit me with that sweet dopamine! But I know people are reading the story even if they don't comment because the hit counter goes up. I do like the feedback part though as it gives me lots to think about in steering the story.
It's been very busy this October so my output is down...I'm also doing a slight alteration to Sim 66 as well: I did it as a strict rotation up until now but from the next chapter onwards I'm going to write chapters more like a soap opera in that a character who's storyline is really progressing will have more time until it starts slowing down and then another character will get highlighted so from now on, the rotation is out of strict sequence. It makes sense if a character has a dramatic chapter that would obviously continue to the next day would have a 2 part chapter instead of waiting 5 or 6 episodes before it's their turn again.
Also, from what I have been reading with Sim66 is that since it is a soap opera type story, the individual stories are intertwined. So you could focus on one character, but essentially another character could share the spotlight together with that one for their own story in the same chapter...if that makes sense.
Also, from what I have been reading with Sim66 is that since it is a soap opera type story, the individual stories are intertwined. So you could focus on one character, but essentially another character could share the spotlight together with that one for their own story in the same chapter...if that makes sense.
Yep, exactly that!
And here it is...the next chapter which follows up on John Action's missing memory.
So little Clara Parker got a text message about how she’d lost someone close to her, offering condolences… from the dead person himself! Oh, Sims logic…
Thanks for the tips, everyone.
I dont write to get comments, either - but I believe in self-reflection. I think I have to acknowledge an issue if I've been posting since January 2020, with 60+ entries, and 0 comments. It's not that comments by themselves are important but this complete lack of engagement signals something is likely very off with my story... so I would like to figure that out. I comment on others' blogs, so I'm not completely isolated/uninvolved in the community. I asked because I was wondering if I was missing some community aspect, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
ETA: I don't have lurkers, at least definitely not more than 1 or 2 (absolute max would be 5 but I think that's overstating it).
Well for one I know I've fallen waaaaaay behind on reading stories since 2019 so it's possible that others are in the same boat. My advice is to keep sharing the links and when people can read and comment they will.
For me personally I often only have a few minutes to quickly read and leave a like. And comments don't always stick in my head long enough to make them. Any new stories I haven't really picked up just cause of timing. So I can say that when I get around to yours I'd be happy to leave comments.
I still have no idea when I will get back to writing, I'm waiting to get a new computer. And the newest problem is my parents say there's the possbility of having someone build it. But I waited, for 6 months already, I don't want to wait two more weeks for it
People will come and go, and unfortunately it doesn’t help that the Creative Corner is rather dead these days. Seems that most of the reason people sometimes comment on my stories is because I sometimes offer them comments on their own (when I have time).
@SnowBnuuy Thanks for the suggestions. I comment on SimLit blogs and have for several months, but I've never gotten a comment on my blog in return. That's okay, though, because I understand people are busy or uninterested or whatever, but I intend to put effort into making things more enticing and easier-to-navigate on my end.
Some fix points in the middle or later may not be a bad idea.
Can you see how many people read your story? Are you just missing the comments? [...]
A lot of writers and readers are on hiatus after all the covid-19 restrictions have been lifted. There is so much to catch up on.
It can suddenly turn around.
The most important thing is that you have fun and that you learn something from your own project
@MonaSolstraale Thanks. I can see stats and it's close to 0... I've been posting since January 2020, so I must be doing something wrong or at least wrong-ish somewhere, and I'm trying to learn/improve because it's been too long for there not to be an issue.
If your story is too linear you risk readers being confused if they start in the middle. But if your story has a few arcs in it you can definitely provide readers with options. You can do this by setting a single page as your home page rather that your blog posts.
You can point to the beginning and then to the beginning of each arc.
One good way to get comments is to leave meaningful comments on other player's blogs. I'm more likely to give a story of someone who left me a comment on my story than someone who didn't.
@Seera1024 Thanks for the tips and the example! I will definitely put up a reading guide/table of contents of my site. I also feel like I've put myself in an awkward spot because I like reading others' stories and posts and commenting. So I want to continue that without putting pressure on anyone to return any comments. I'm not willing to try a poll yet, because I'm pretty sure from my stats that I don't have enough readers for that.
Don't give up on your writing and screencapping if that happens. Keep chugging along. There are a lot of silent lurkers out there reading SimLit, trust me.
@LegacySims2017 Thanks and I see what you're saying, but it's been almost 2 years and 50+ posts , so I think there's something concrete I can do to improve while still doing things for me. I don't have a lot of lurkers.
Can I make a recommendation? Maybe add a table of contents for late bloomers to your story? I tend to have to leave off at a chapter and if I am new to reading it and it's already having a bunch of chapters, it can be tedious to find the spot I need to go where I left off.
Maybe a drop down box at the top leading to each chapter or even each Generation?
@haneul
So... you actually want to know how to get more readers? I'm gonna reiterate something I said before: link to forum thread (if I hover over a banner signature and it takes me somewhere external to the forum with no idea what it really is, I likely won't click it). If you have a forum landing page where I can read a bit more background I'm much more likely to be engaged to read. And therefore comment.
That said, I did click your banner and had a browse around your blog and had some immediate ideas.
The home page throws me to the most current post. I don't know how to get to the start (or where you want me to start) and that should be your focus. I clicked on the box on the right that says 'beginning' and got directed to a post from Jan 2020, so I assume that is the start based on what you said above, but that is the only indication. It doesn't help that this post begins by saying "The second child of the fourth generation of Fiers" so I'm left, as a reader, wondering if this actually is the start or if I'm missing 3 generations of the story. If I wasn't researching, I'd probably close the tab at this point, so clearer start points (or like @LegacySims2017 said, an index page.)
Perhaps have your landing/home page be a static 'welcome!' page.
OK so I'm reading... all fine... nothing wrong with your writing, not my cup of tea but you should have more than 5 readers, for sure. So I get to the end... reader thoughts "how do I 'like' the post. Can I like the post? Can I rate it? Is a comment the only way to feedback? That feels like effort/I'm shy/I don't want to structure a response yet, I just want to show appreciation for now."
How do I get to the next post? Oh, there's a teeny link right at the very, very bottom of the page. Can you move that up to under the post? or make it more obvious? Make your blog easy for people to read. The less effort they expend on reading, the more they'll have for feedback.
Also, be considerate of how your page might look on different devices. On my laptop for example, seeing the side bar on your site is easy, so can use this for navigation. On my mobile however, it puts that side bar right at the very bottom underneath the posts and makes navigation even more difficult.
Oh I am not reading through 5500 pages just to be caught up with the conversation here.....Hello, how do you do?. I too like fiction of the Sims variety.
Hi Doodly! Welcome to the lounge 😄 haha, no need to read through 5500 pages - the first 5499 should do just fine (kidding). We're a pretty friendly bunch. On occasion people give out helpful writer's advice too, like the posts above 😊
Hosting D&D sessions on the side. Interested in playing through some fantasy-themed shenanigans? Send me a message 😘
Oh I am not reading through 5500 pages just to be caught up with the conversation here.....Hello, how do you do?. I too like fiction of the Sims variety.
welcome. i'm the only one who has to keep up with the thread. cohost here. cathtea is busy during the week so i try and keep up to send her whatevevers important.
Curious, what is your main method of promoting your simlit? I'm the definition of a lurker reader and read a mix of legacy and story plot. The only reason I hop onto forums is to scout for new stories and I never realised that you had a blog this entire time. 😅
I also always browse forums on mobile so I can't see banners. There are lots of people who disable banners on pc so if thats your main "promo", it isolates a big pool of potential readers.
And I second Snuffy's comments. Visibility and convenience is important. If a story makes me jump through hoops to read it, I am less likely to. Links, dedicated forum thread, occasional shout out to your chapters will help.
Oh I am not reading through 5500 pages just to be caught up with the conversation here.....Hello, how do you do?. I too like fiction of the Sims variety.
Hi @DoodlyDoofus! I recognise you from your stories in the WHIYGT thread. They're a boatload of fun to read and its great to see you here. 😄
I literally had to explain to my father tonight how packs work with Sims 4. Since he somehow got the impression that the packs didn't go all at once. Since he was determined until Mom already said twice, that I needed more then 16GB of harddrive/RAM. Which is what my current computer is.. and that's not nearly enough space
Rather a sad update this time, aside from the brief Selvadorada visit.
Chapter Three: Happy New Year?
Just a couple of days after Winterfest, it happened to be New Year's Eve. When Joshua and Emily came back from a trip out...
"Hey, Joshua, who's that on the front porch?" Emily asked.
Joshua's eyes widened. He recognised that blue shirt...
"Oh no! Dad!" Joshua exclaimed. "Oh my Plumbob, I can't believe it..."
"Oh, Josh," Emily said sadly.
Then the girls all came home from their Scouts meeting.
"It's Grandpa!" Hazel wailed, immediately cottoning on.
The Grim Reaper was impassive. He was very used to seeing families weeping and wailing over the loss of their loved ones; one became desensitised to it over time.
That evening, Joshua invited over his old nanny, Jessica.
"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry about your dad," she said.
"Yeah, he died right on our front porch," Joshua sighed. "At least he's with my mother now."
Later, the family all gathered in front of the television to watch the New Year countdown. They were a little subdued; it felt odd to be celebrating so soon after a death in the family. Hopefully the coming days and weeks would bring healing.
The following day, Hazel held a meeting of her Kidz Club, which Clara and Katie had recently been accepted into. The younger twins engaged in a Voidcritter battle.
"Ha ha ha! My Wisp is so going to beat your Nymphaea!" Clara cried.
"Oh yeah? Take THAT!" Katie replied, thumping the controls.
To cheer the girls up, Emily and Joshua decided to take them for an overnight stay in Selvadorada. Joshua celebrated his birthday there. The passage of time was starting to hit home after the past week. Hopefully he would stick around long enough to meet his grandchildren... provided the girls wanted to become parents, of course.
"It's fun here in Selvadorada," Lydia said. "It's a shame we're not here longer."
"Yeah, hopefully we can come here again in the future," Clara replied. "It feels weird being off school, too."
"I heard there was loads of cool exploring to do here," Hazel remarked. "Some boy at school was talking about a temple."
"Oooh," Katie said. "I'll look that up when we get home."
Sadly, Death was not yet done with the family. In the days after the family came home, the Grim Reaper came for Cloudy and Clover. Animal-lover Emily was devastated, and immediately purchased a new llama, Curly, and a new cow, Buttercup.
***
Jessica also died, and I was able to get the gravestone as I briefly added her to the household.
Hazel and Lydia are now teens! I haven't got screenshots of them yet.
@haneul To follow up on some of the things @SnuffyBucket said (I only just got time to look at your blog XD) :
- Your blog layout is fine, it's minimal and not cluttered which is great!- some blog layouts I've come across are incredibly disorganised and offputting... ;-; but I think having a static page instead of a blogroll as a landing page is good. It removes all of the time a reader needs to find all of the chapters in one place, and it's something people can bookmark, favourite etc. for quick access. so it's easier to jump right in. IDK how you do it on Wordpress, but on Blogger, you can change your blog's redirect URL so that when you click on the blog link it goes to the relevant post or page, as opposed to a blogroll of posts. (The other problem with SimLit blogs that start with a blogroll from the latest post, is potential spoilers.)
- I also agree in that giving yourself a dedicated Forum Thread to your story in Stories, Challenges and Legacies works well since people can bookmark that and as well as popping up in your followers on Wordpress's Reader, people can bookmark the stories on the forum so there's another sort of quick way of notifying people. Also feel free to post your new chapters here! I had three separate stories (part of the same universe) on three separate threads so I combined them all into the one so it's all in one spot. Some people prefer commenting on the actual forums than on the blog, for multiple reasons (I used to because Wordpress would always shove me in the spam folder) so it helps to have two places for people to share any thoughts.
- Might be worth following as many WP SimLit blogs as you can, since you might get followbacks and possibly new readers and comments since you'll come up in Reader. A common complaint I get for reasons why people don't follow up on chapters is because I'm not on Wordpress, so nowhere to quickly see any updates.
Hi Doodly! Welcome to the lounge 😄 haha, no need to read through 5500 pages - the first 5499 should do just fine (kidding). We're a pretty friendly bunch. On occasion people give out helpful writer's advice too, like the posts above 😊
sometimes funny things happen if you read enough posts in a thread though. like me and cathtea never even talked or interacted once.but one day we both fwere in the mega thread at the same time and wehave been friends ever since. she actually ghost wrote my first attempt at a legacy which went something lik whats his name married ican't remember. not saying you have to read everything but i have no sisters in rl so cathtea is the closest i get.
I have to give this a plus one. I write my stories...and my latest gameplay blog, Plain ol' Legacy, for me.
i write for me too. comments for me are just a bonus cause i didn't do sim lit before telling cathtea i wanted a lounge. i used to go to the mega thread but it was kind of scry cause i never wrote before.
@SnuffyBucket@LegacySims2017@SnowBnuuy Thanks a lot to each of you for taking the time to look at my blog and share your thoughts. You pointed out some changes that I needed to make.
I changed the landing page to something static with an introduction instead of a rolling blog feed. I added a table of contents, like buttons to posts, and also tried to clean up the pages for individual posts to make them easier to navigate.
I still need to implement more suggestions, but I'll have to do those later when I have more time. I don't have a dedicated thread here because I often post about my legacy in the What Happened in Your Game? thread and like the community there and didn't want to double post, but it seems people really stick to specific areas of the forum without much overlap, so I'm considering how to create a thread without double posting.
Might be worth following as many WP SimLit blogs as you can, since you might get followbacks and possibly new readers and comments since you'll come up in Reader. A common complaint I get for reasons why people don't follow up on chapters is because I'm not on Wordpress, so nowhere to quickly see any updates.
I use wordpress, but I'm on a private server for complete freedom instead of wordpress.com so I don't have the reader options unfortunately and can't follow any blogs.
Thanks again, everyone. I agree that comments aren't necessary, but in this case, asking about it made some of the changes I needed to make apparent. Happy Halloween.
Comments
I have to give this a plus one. I write my stories...and my latest gameplay blog, Plain ol' Legacy, for me. Then I share it with others to follow along. I don't expect anyone to follow along. If they do, great. If they don't, no big deal as I'm doing this for me.
When one comments either through my forum's thread or on my WordPress blog pages itself, it's a bonus. I get to see their point of view and constructive criticism. Sometimes the poster even points out things in the screencaps I didn't even pay attention to. And I even had one or two give me ideas for a future chapter.
But it all comes down to doing it for you.
It's okay to ask for feedback on your stories as well. But don't have an expectation that it will happen. Don't give up on your writing and screencapping if that happens. Keep chugging along. There are a lot of silent lurkers out there reading SimLit, trust me.
I dont write to get comments, either - but I believe in self-reflection. I think I have to acknowledge an issue if I've been posting since January 2020, with 60+ entries, and 0 comments. It's not that comments by themselves are important but this complete lack of engagement signals something is likely very off with my story... so I would like to figure that out. I comment on others' blogs, so I'm not completely isolated/uninvolved in the community. I asked because I was wondering if I was missing some community aspect, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
ETA: I don't have lurkers, at least definitely not more than 1 or 2 (absolute max would be 5 but I think that's overstating it).
It's been very busy this October so my output is down...I'm also doing a slight alteration to Sim 66 as well: I did it as a strict rotation up until now but from the next chapter onwards I'm going to write chapters more like a soap opera in that a character who's storyline is really progressing will have more time until it starts slowing down and then another character will get highlighted so from now on, the rotation is out of strict sequence. It makes sense if a character has a dramatic chapter that would obviously continue to the next day would have a 2 part chapter instead of waiting 5 or 6 episodes before it's their turn again.
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
The following day was Winterfest. Emily invited over her father, James. He was enthusiastically welcomed by Clara, who was happy to meet anyone new, and Hazel, who was of course particularly interested in family members.
"Hello!" James said. "Now then, which one are you?"
"My name's Clara," Clara grinned.
"Ah, right," James nodded. "You look very like your mother."
Joshua was in the study, playing chess with Katie, who had inherited her father's cleverness.
"It would help if you were looking at the board, you know," Joshua joked.
"Yeah yeah," Katie replied. "I was just thinking about what presents I might get."
It seemed like Clara's outgoing nature extended to non-humans...
"Ohhh! A bunny rabbit!" she exclaimed. "Let me pet you!"
The rabbit happily flopped onto its back for a few moments, enjoying the petting session.
"Hmm... I think I'll give you a treat," Clara said, mindful of the gift-giving season. "I know, I bet you like carrots."
Emily cooked the traditional Winterfest turkey.
"This is great, Mum!" Clara enthused.
"Thank you, darling," Emily responded.
"Uh... Mum? Are you OK? You seem to have developed a rash!" Hazel exclaimed.
"Oh, it's probably not serious," Emily said reassuringly. "People do tend to get ill during the winter. I'll get some medicine and then I'll be much better."
"Oh, OK," said Hazel, feeling relieved.
As a lover of the outdoors, Lydia enjoyed spending time outside, whatever the weather. Emily had planted a large garden, although it naturally wasn't growing much. Although fully aware that she might come across as weird, Lydia decided to chat with the plants. She didn't even mind that she got no response; sometimes it was best to share your innermost thoughts and feelings with something that would just listen.
Like every child, Katie was eager to open her presents. However...
"A carrot???" she moaned. "Who mistook me for a rabbit?"
It wasn't even that she disliked carrots. It was just a rather lame gift when you'd been expecting a fun new toy you could play with. An edible gift would be much nicer if it was chocolate or sweets, too.
The next day was school as usual. Clara, of course, was eager to make new friends.
https://imgur.com/zxJ3Qoq
Later that day, Joshua took the girls to the park. The weather in Oasis Springs was a real contrast to Henford-on-Bagley; although he liked warm weather, Joshua always associated winter with snow rather than sun. After all, Winterfest cards always depicted snowy scenes.
His mind drifted towards his therapy appointment. He was a little nervous; he'd never fully explained to anyone about his childhood. Emily knew bits of it, but he hadn't wanted to worry her with the whole story.
Also, from what I have been reading with Sim66 is that since it is a soap opera type story, the individual stories are intertwined. So you could focus on one character, but essentially another character could share the spotlight together with that one for their own story in the same chapter...if that makes sense.
Chapter 14- Sons of Monsters
Yep, exactly that!
And here it is...the next chapter which follows up on John Action's missing memory.
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2021/10/chapter-131-swiss-cheese-memory.html
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
Well for one I know I've fallen waaaaaay behind on reading stories since 2019 so it's possible that others are in the same boat. My advice is to keep sharing the links and when people can read and comment they will.
For me personally I often only have a few minutes to quickly read and leave a like. And comments don't always stick in my head long enough to make them. Any new stories I haven't really picked up just cause of timing. So I can say that when I get around to yours I'd be happy to leave comments.
Year Long Community Challenge
@MonaSolstraale Thanks. I can see stats and it's close to 0...
@Seera1024 Thanks for the tips and the example! I will definitely put up a reading guide/table of contents of my site. I also feel like I've put myself in an awkward spot because I like reading others' stories and posts and commenting. So I want to continue that without putting pressure on anyone to return any comments.
@LegacySims2017 Thanks and I see what you're saying, but it's been almost 2 years and 50+ posts
Can I make a recommendation? Maybe add a table of contents for late bloomers to your story? I tend to have to leave off at a chapter and if I am new to reading it and it's already having a bunch of chapters, it can be tedious to find the spot I need to go where I left off.
Maybe a drop down box at the top leading to each chapter or even each Generation?
So... you actually want to know how to get more readers? I'm gonna reiterate something I said before: link to forum thread (if I hover over a banner signature and it takes me somewhere external to the forum with no idea what it really is, I likely won't click it). If you have a forum landing page where I can read a bit more background I'm much more likely to be engaged to read. And therefore comment.
That said, I did click your banner and had a browse around your blog and had some immediate ideas.
The home page throws me to the most current post. I don't know how to get to the start (or where you want me to start) and that should be your focus. I clicked on the box on the right that says 'beginning' and got directed to a post from Jan 2020, so I assume that is the start based on what you said above, but that is the only indication. It doesn't help that this post begins by saying "The second child of the fourth generation of Fiers" so I'm left, as a reader, wondering if this actually is the start or if I'm missing 3 generations of the story. If I wasn't researching, I'd probably close the tab at this point, so clearer start points (or like @LegacySims2017 said, an index page.)
Perhaps have your landing/home page be a static 'welcome!' page.
OK so I'm reading... all fine... nothing wrong with your writing, not my cup of tea but you should have more than 5 readers, for sure. So I get to the end... reader thoughts "how do I 'like' the post. Can I like the post? Can I rate it? Is a comment the only way to feedback? That feels like effort/I'm shy/I don't want to structure a response yet, I just want to show appreciation for now."
How do I get to the next post? Oh, there's a teeny link right at the very, very bottom of the page. Can you move that up to under the post? or make it more obvious? Make your blog easy for people to read. The less effort they expend on reading, the more they'll have for feedback.
Also, be considerate of how your page might look on different devices. On my laptop for example, seeing the side bar on your site is easy, so can use this for navigation. On my mobile however, it puts that side bar right at the very bottom underneath the posts and makes navigation even more difficult.
welcome. i'm the only one who has to keep up with the thread. cohost here. cathtea is busy during the week so i try and keep up to send her whatevevers important.
Curious, what is your main method of promoting your simlit? I'm the definition of a lurker reader and read a mix of legacy and story plot. The only reason I hop onto forums is to scout for new stories and I never realised that you had a blog this entire time. 😅
I also always browse forums on mobile so I can't see banners. There are lots of people who disable banners on pc so if thats your main "promo", it isolates a big pool of potential readers.
And I second Snuffy's comments. Visibility and convenience is important. If a story makes me jump through hoops to read it, I am less likely to. Links, dedicated forum thread, occasional shout out to your chapters will help.
Hi @DoodlyDoofus! I recognise you from your stories in the WHIYGT thread. They're a boatload of fun to read and its great to see you here. 😄
Just a couple of days after Winterfest, it happened to be New Year's Eve. When Joshua and Emily came back from a trip out...
"Hey, Joshua, who's that on the front porch?" Emily asked.
Joshua's eyes widened. He recognised that blue shirt...
"Oh no! Dad!" Joshua exclaimed. "Oh my Plumbob, I can't believe it..."
"Oh, Josh," Emily said sadly.
Then the girls all came home from their Scouts meeting.
"It's Grandpa!" Hazel wailed, immediately cottoning on.
The Grim Reaper was impassive. He was very used to seeing families weeping and wailing over the loss of their loved ones; one became desensitised to it over time.
That evening, Joshua invited over his old nanny, Jessica.
"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry about your dad," she said.
"Yeah, he died right on our front porch," Joshua sighed. "At least he's with my mother now."
Later, the family all gathered in front of the television to watch the New Year countdown. They were a little subdued; it felt odd to be celebrating so soon after a death in the family. Hopefully the coming days and weeks would bring healing.
The following day, Hazel held a meeting of her Kidz Club, which Clara and Katie had recently been accepted into. The younger twins engaged in a Voidcritter battle.
"Ha ha ha! My Wisp is so going to beat your Nymphaea!" Clara cried.
"Oh yeah? Take THAT!" Katie replied, thumping the controls.
To cheer the girls up, Emily and Joshua decided to take them for an overnight stay in Selvadorada. Joshua celebrated his birthday there. The passage of time was starting to hit home after the past week. Hopefully he would stick around long enough to meet his grandchildren... provided the girls wanted to become parents, of course.
"It's fun here in Selvadorada," Lydia said. "It's a shame we're not here longer."
"Yeah, hopefully we can come here again in the future," Clara replied. "It feels weird being off school, too."
"I heard there was loads of cool exploring to do here," Hazel remarked. "Some boy at school was talking about a temple."
"Oooh," Katie said. "I'll look that up when we get home."
Sadly, Death was not yet done with the family. In the days after the family came home, the Grim Reaper came for Cloudy and Clover. Animal-lover Emily was devastated, and immediately purchased a new llama, Curly, and a new cow, Buttercup.
***
Jessica also died, and I was able to get the gravestone as I briefly added her to the household.
Hazel and Lydia are now teens! I haven't got screenshots of them yet.
Check out my SimLit blog here: https://ageekylegacy.wordpress.com/
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Origin ID: divanthesimmer
- Your blog layout is fine, it's minimal and not cluttered which is great!- some blog layouts I've come across are incredibly disorganised and offputting... ;-; but I think having a static page instead of a blogroll as a landing page is good. It removes all of the time a reader needs to find all of the chapters in one place, and it's something people can bookmark, favourite etc. for quick access. so it's easier to jump right in. IDK how you do it on Wordpress, but on Blogger, you can change your blog's redirect URL so that when you click on the blog link it goes to the relevant post or page, as opposed to a blogroll of posts. (The other problem with SimLit blogs that start with a blogroll from the latest post, is potential spoilers.)
- I also agree in that giving yourself a dedicated Forum Thread to your story in Stories, Challenges and Legacies works well since people can bookmark that and as well as popping up in your followers on Wordpress's Reader, people can bookmark the stories on the forum so there's another sort of quick way of notifying people. Also feel free to post your new chapters here! I had three separate stories (part of the same universe) on three separate threads so I combined them all into the one so it's all in one spot. Some people prefer commenting on the actual forums than on the blog, for multiple reasons (I used to because Wordpress would always shove me in the spam folder) so it helps to have two places for people to share any thoughts.
- Might be worth following as many WP SimLit blogs as you can, since you might get followbacks and possibly new readers and comments since you'll come up in Reader. A common complaint I get for reasons why people don't follow up on chapters is because I'm not on Wordpress, so nowhere to quickly see any updates.
sometimes funny things happen if you read enough posts in a thread though. like me and cathtea never even talked or interacted once.but one day we both fwere in the mega thread at the same time and wehave been friends ever since. she actually ghost wrote my first attempt at a legacy which went something lik whats his name married ican't remember. not saying you have to read everything but i have no sisters in rl so cathtea is the closest i get.
i write for me too. comments for me are just a bonus cause i didn't do sim lit before telling cathtea i wanted a lounge. i used to go to the mega thread but it was kind of scry cause i never wrote before.
I changed the landing page to something static with an introduction instead of a rolling blog feed. I added a table of contents, like buttons to posts, and also tried to clean up the pages for individual posts to make them easier to navigate.
I still need to implement more suggestions, but I'll have to do those later when I have more time. I don't have a dedicated thread here because I often post about my legacy in the What Happened in Your Game? thread and like the community there and didn't want to double post, but it seems people really stick to specific areas of the forum without much overlap, so I'm considering how to create a thread without double posting.
I use wordpress, but I'm on a private server for complete freedom instead of wordpress.com so I don't have the reader options unfortunately and can't follow any blogs.
Thanks again, everyone. I agree that comments aren't necessary, but in this case, asking about it made some of the changes I needed to make apparent.