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Hello, I´d like to share with you and your followers something I got from a writer in my fandom years ago. They left already but their words stuck with me. I´m going to share the wisdom with you in my own words.

Every time you get notes/kudos, imagine real people standing in front of you. Did you get 20 kudos? It might seem like it´s not much but would you fit so many people into your livingroom? It´s 20 REAL PEOPLE who decided to read your work and liked it. Imagine giving each of them a hug!

Did you get 50 kudos? Giving 50 hugs would take some time but you could give them cookies instead. Imagine 50 cookies. It´s a lot!

Did you get 100 kudos? Go to a mall and count 100 people, you´ll see it´s actually a lot more than you thought when you saw the number.

Did you get 500 kudos? 1 000? Well, it starts getting a bit overwhelming when you imagine such a crowd but it´s AMAZING that you made so many people happy with your writing. And you´d need a living room the size of a cncert hall to fit them all in :)

socialanxietyandotherthings

I did this and you’re so right- it helps!!! I was feeling super discouraged and lethargic about my writing and not at all motivated. So I went to my most popular story (which I think has about 600 kudos and that’s a lot- I know it’s a lot but it doesn’t really feel real sometimes) and just googled for pictures of a crowd of six hundred people.

That’s a lot of people- that’s waaay more people than I see regularly- and suddenly I feel really motivated to write again because I mean that many people ???? Liked it??? my writing can’t be that bad if they did ????

driftwooddragons

When fandom was still on LJ, I was writing a story that I released a chapter every week for on Wednesdays. Around 250 people read every chapter on the day it was posted. So, I pictured myself going to a small lecture hall every Wednesday and reading to 250 people, about 20 of which would speak to me after the reading (comments) while the rest of the audience clapped and left, seemingly pleased with what I had written.

It was a great way to motivate myself to get the chapters done. “I have to give a reading on Wednesday! There will be 250 people waiting!”

Sometimes numbers can become just numbers, rather than numbers representing people - but if you can have them be people again, it really puts things in perspective.

thefriendlypigeon

Imagine how long it would take if each one of your “Kudos” or “Likes” shook your hand for a few seconds. THOSE ARE ACTUAL HUMANS LOOKING AT YOUR STUFF. Blows my mind every time. Look how many notes this post has. THAT’S AN ENTIRE CONCERT HALL FILLED WITH PEOPLE.