Sep 22
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Tuesday, September 22, 2015 in
WritingI posted in Swedish about this too, because I was hoping I could get the opinions of other Swedes, but I realize that I’m not going to get that many replies, simply because there are very few Swedish people, at least on Booklikes. That’s why I’m going to ask in English too. After all, there’s no reason why English-speaking (and other) people shouldn’t have any opinions about this.
For many years now, I’ve had both a Swedish and an English/international version of my homepages. I want that, because I’m an enthusiastic supporter of people’s own languages, in this case my language Swedish. (I also love English, but I’m guessing my support isn’t really needed for that).
When it comes to my fan fiction page, I have chosen to use the exact same setup on the Swedish one as the international one. That is, each fandom has a page in Swedish, where you can also see what the Swedish name of the fandom is. This may be too much info, but Swedes mixing in English words in their Swedish and not taking the trouble to check what the corresponding word/title/name etc in Swedish is can really drive me up the wall.
On my fan fiction page I have very much fewer Swedish and/or Nordic fandom where I have actually written my fanfic/s in Swedish, instead of in English. So one possibility is to make the Swedish homepage much smaller/less extensive, where the fics are only in Swedish. Though I’m guessing that most people would never even visit there.
So my question is: which is most reasonable? Having a homepage of a similar size, where I link directly to the English fanfics most of the time, or a much smaller one where there are only Swedish/Nordic fandoms and just one link to the index page of the international page?
Dec 25
Posted on
Tuesday, December 25, 2007 in
WritingOnce upon a time, not so very long ago, Tonica actually had a beta reader. It was just one, but it does mean a lot to have at least one other person who reads your stories. Best of all is if this person (ok, let’s be honest here, this girl) knows the fandom the story is set in. If it’s an original story, your beta reader can point out spelling and grammar mistakes. Hopefully.
My beta reader (I won’t name her) simply got tired of it. Got tired of my stories, of me, I don’t know, I guess it was something. It feels really sad not to have any audience at all anymore. Sure one or two visitors still drop in now and again, but almost all of those (the few who do come) stay for a few seconds.
Apparently, I’ve failed to reach the audience. Or my writing has deteriorated. Or the readers have tired of what I’m writing. I really don’t know what the problem is. It almost feels unreal to remember that my homepage – Agri Sublunares – former The Sublunar Fields – former Tonica’s World – once used to bring in hundreds of visitors every week.
My fics are mentioned on some of the great fandom sites. Yes, without me first getting in touch to ask them for a link exchange. Of course I linked to them right away, if I wasn’t already doing that, which I mostly did. Two people have used my fics in their theses.
And now no one wants to look at my stories. It feels a little sad, but I guess that’s how it goes. I was going to make a video podcast (a little movie) and put on the site. If it isn’t too late already. Besides, I was going to make this movie with my beta reader and (what do you call them again, oh, right, I remember now) a friend. Right, never mind.
This post might just as well have been called The readers who disappeared, but that’s enough misery for today. Writing still happens to be my very favorite thing to do in the whole world, closely followed by reading, even if it might sound a little insular to be sitting around, reading my own stories.
