fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4342 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4342 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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03. [SPOILERS for Daredevil season 3]

[Wilson Fisk/Vanessa Mariana]

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04. [SPOILERS for Daredevil season 3]

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05. [SPOILERS for Shameless (US)]

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06. [SPOILERS for Doctor Who season 11, episode 3 - "Rosa"]

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07. [SPOILERS for House of Cards]

[Robin Wright as Claire Underwood]

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08. [WARNING for discussion of non-con]

[Die Hard]

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09. [WARNING for discussion of child/spousal abuse]

[My Hero Academia]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #621.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

literally HOW do BNFs become so... well, popular? Especially when their writing/art is at best mediocre and they always seem to be surrounded by wank?

I think a lot of it is just about posting all the time. Being involved in tons of conversations, talking to tons of people, and being in wank - being in wank probably helps someone become a BNF if anything. Availability is almost as good as quality.

I guess they write and draw the content that lots of people want. People don't care about quality as much as getting their itch scratched.

I'm going to say it's a combo of prolific output, having a finger on the pulse of what the fandom wants right then, and cult of personality. before social media it was much easier to reach BNF without being constantly social, just the right number of posts on a forum and never showing your ass with them. now, idk, I would imagine social media is a much larger contributor, but you still have to be that lucky person that a number of other people have suddenly decided to declare The Authority on a fandom, pairing, what have you, because now when you show your ass on social media, the cult of personality is what keeps you popular rather than a pariah. you need a whiteknight network more than ever before.

It's probably a combination of posting at the right time, having a really popular pairing and/or kink, and being somewhat consistent when updating.

I think it's mostly being very prolific and consistent with your content, but with content that's mostly easily digestible, e.g. frequent but relatively short posts of images, brief meta, or random thoughts, fairly short YouTube videos, lots of short/medium-length fics or posting longer fics chapter-by-chapter but on a very regular basis. That's not to say you can't do anything longer or more involved, but it's likely harder to draw people in when you have nothing bite-sized they can sample. It helps if people know when to expect new stuff, like you always post your episode reactions the next day, or you post new chapters every Friday, or whatever.

Having lots of opinions and being vocal about them is an important factor. Even if all you do is talk about stuff and you don't produce fanworks, having lots of opinions gets you noticed.

Being one of the first people to become active in a fandom helps bring people to you when they first go looking for other fans and for fanworks.

People like humor and shipping/smut, so if you are selling at least one of those things, it helps. Funny episode reviews! Shippy fan art! And so on.

Finally, I think charisma is a big factor, even if only in text format.

Sometimes it's the cult of personality at work. It helps if you can turn out okay fic but authors who have the knack of interacting with readers and fellow fans can gather a much larger following than the quality of the work might otherwise do for them. People who like you will be more inclined to like your work on a subconscious level. People who like you will be more inclined to rec you to others, and word of mouth is one of the most effective ways of publicizing a product.

Of course, writing the right pairing/kink/plot at just the right time helps a lot, too.

They ship the popular pairing in a popular fandom. They get in early, when the fandom is just starting to boom. They're prolific, and they write long fics that are shippy, usually E-rated, and at least decently well written.

I'd say those are the main factors. Beyond that, I think there's something to be said about writers who get in early with their fics and have a read on canon that people just like - so that a lot of the fics that come after are at least a little bit influenced by their fic.

[ SECRET POST #4342 ]

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