I just got to the stage where my fiction subdomain is getting becoming functional. The keyword is “functional”, but it is far from finished/polished and the content quality there is. erm, lacking at the moment. Of course, it is purely for testing ideas and functionality, so it will eventually be wiped.
It is not currently behind a “maintenance mode” wall, so if you want to see how the Fictioneer WordPress template demos on my site, you can check it out at fiction.ravensweald.com.
Fictioneer theme features
There is a lot under the hood on this theme and good, well though-out reasons for that functionality having been changed from what you think of as normally being a WordPress theme. It does mean that I’ll have to change some of my thinking, but this theme is the first one that I’ve discovered over the many years of blogging that really leans into the concept of writing an online novel. Many themes out there that say they are designed for novelists typically lack the necessary functionality, or want to have it both ways (appeal to bloggers only, or novelists kind of). Fictioneer is a theme that is novelist-first (rather than an afterthought), readership second, with blogging somewhere down the line beyond those two audiences. You can use it to blog, but you’re probably going to find something more suitable and easier to wrangle if that is your primary focus.
Without going too far into the weeds, the theme offers for authors:
- Books/Stories, which can be further divided into chapters and groups (Part I, for example, of a 2-part book).
- Taxonomies and genres
- Assign age groups (and gate those pages if you are so inclined)
- Have public and paid books and chapters with password-expiring posts (think Ko-Fi and Patreon first-access)
- Use shortcodes to highlight specific (or random) works you want to highlight in multiple different ways
- And probably quite a few other features I am forgetting at the moment
For the reader (who are often neglected when it comes to things like this):
- Various tweaks to presentation and an embedded focused reading mode
- Chapter lists, jump to top/bottom of chapter, chapter read/unread (with cookies)
- Day/night mode reading embedded
- Bookmarks (with cookies)
- New chapter notifications (email sign up)
- Sensible navigation within a given story (next, last, story chapter list, reorder of chapter lists)
- Reading time and word counts
- Trigger warnings (for those authors who prefer to employ them), with canned language describing the reason for the warning
- And probably more things I will discover
What might annoy people
Not everyone visiting is going to like this theme, however — namely because of the commenting and other interactivity elements.
I’m going with the flow on this theme and using their comment system, rather than trying to jimmy Jetpack into behaving correctly. First off, I think commenting as currently envisioned is not really the best utilization of the tool for longer fiction. Rather than a Facebook-style back and forth banter, fiction tends to lean more towards single-comment/single-response in nature. Blogs need something more responsive, fiction seems less needy in that respect.
So, while people are able to log on with gravitar (WP’s multiple-site login), I am not convinced that Jetpack is the best method for integrating comments/responses. Being able to get notifications to you specific comment via email seems perfectly acceptable where banter is not the focus. Besides, I like the idea of having spoiler tags and easy formatting options for the commentor.
My recent experience with Jetpack integration has left a sour taste in my mouth and, while I finally got it working for this blog, I am now interested in exploring other options for interaction as a result. So, while you can follow via Reader, the commenting system will not be integrated as part of the Jetpack ecosphere.
Additionally, I have decided against enabling “likes” or ratings for the various posts. First, it is easiest with Jetpack, which I will not be using as a plugin, but I have long-wondered at the actual value of “likes” when a good chunk of them seem to be spam accounts or people who have not read my posts who are trying to get me to read their site to shower them with stars. You know they are spam stars when twenty or more likes show up in the course of two minutes. These people are not reading my content. I thought about “rate my chapter/story” plugins, but in the course of doing so, saw a comment that questioned the value the same as I have, additionally mentioning the problematic elements of homogeny in reading collectives, or directing a writer’s focus by “rewarding” material they favor over material that might be less desirable because it isn’t similar enough to the last story.
So, some people will probably be annoyed with that element missing as well.
Conclusions
Overall, however, it is the very theme and ecosphere I’ve been hoping to find for years now. Like I said, you can do this with standard themes to some extent, but not nearly as well as when you “break” the themes as they were intended to be to get to something more functional for certain users and their readers. Folks like Ted (Ted’s Desk of 1000 Voices) would probably really very much groove on having some of these functionalities, in fact — if he could live without the social functions (and he could have those if he gave up on the better-designed functions).
I’m also letting this experiences inform my approach here at the Ravensweald blog. In my recent spat with Jetpack and Akismet (spam filtering packed with Jetpack) and their trying to leverage money because I had the audacity to list my small book of poetry while using a free account (until I removed that reference), I decided it was time to look into other options for spam filters and statistics so that I am not dependent upon their goodwill for functionality that I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars for just because I wrote a book that I have not made enough to buy a new keyboard for my desktop, let alone absurd amounts of money for basic features. So I am looking hard at how to run a clean and tight ship and it might reflect here as well in terms of plugins and functionalities.
I’m also thinking about forking off my music efforts as a subdomain, as I think I can probably find a theme that supports bandcamp-like functionality.
All that remains, then, is bringing Sceadugenga over to this host and refining that to focus on more esoteric stuff (like runes and ogam).
This will still be my poetry/blog site, but I want to make sure that I have some separation between efforts in order to improve overall functionality of all of my endeavors.
17 responses to “Storytime”
Glad to hear that you’re finding a theme/layout that works for you. It’s all a bit technical for me, so I’m in awe. Well done you. 😊
It can be a bit technical. I’m learning on the fly, but it all follows logic I am familiar with, even if it sometimes gets into jargon I am unfamiliar with. Still, it keeps the juices flowing in the noggin. Hopefully I will avoid getting feeble as a result, even if no one visits such endeavors LOL.
Respect for all your efforts. I shall try to follow! 😂
I wish I was a little more tech savoy. I’m sure where you’re headed will be cool.
We’ll have to see if it is a cool as it feels at first blush. Sometimes things wear out their welcome fast when they are not following standard protocols, but the author seems to be aware of the pitfalls. We’ll have to see.
Good luck!
Blimey, a lot of effort by the sound of things. Let’s hope it all works as you plan!
Yes, in agreement regarding the like (and even rating) options.
Hopefully I’ll be able to pass comment successfully!
Not really other than learning the systems. The documentation is extensive, but it’s different than standard WP logic. I just need to change my mindset.
No worries on comments. You are not required to sign in with anything other than email. And you don’t even have to do that.
Following merely requires that you add the site manually to Reader instead of clicking to follow.
I’m still exploring. But I generally prefer it for sharing fiction. It’s like a private Wattpad in many respects.
All of this seems very interesting, Michael. I’ve tried to make my site as easy to navigate as I can, but it is still clearly a blog site and not a site designed for reading longer pieces like a novel. I love WordPress, but it’s not ideal for a book experience as we think of it, and it’s never going to be that, exactly. It’s too much “you’re only as good as your last post.”
What I’ve found best about WP is the people on it. I love the idea that there’s people reading what I’m creating, almost as I’m creating it. I agree that the banter style comments are not maybe the best for fiction, however, some comments I’ve received have been very special to me and my biggest gripe with my site is not being able to save them to the chapters I eventually combine to make it ‘more like a book’. At least, not without paying WP a small fortune.
What you’re doing seems to address some of these issues, and I appreciate you doing the legwork, for sure.
The problem, I think for all of us in the arts, is drawing interest in this time of limited attention spans and influencers. I read a couple posts yesterday on this subject. One from someone in my age group said that younger folks just don’t want anything but stupid celebrities doing stupid things, because it makes them feel better about themselves. A second one said that we older folks need to get on the bandwagon before it gets too late. I don’t know which one is right. Probably neither.
But there is traffic directed at my site on WordPress, and I’ve found some readers. That means so much to me. I think that will be the primary challenge for your site. How do you get people to go look at it, when they can go to their Kindle or just ignore it completely in a time of so much overload? It has to be about quality and appreciation of that quality. I hope that’s a thing. We’re trying to make it a thing.
As I really dig into this theme, I like it more and more. Are there quirks? Oh, hell yeah. But it has a strong underbelly and covers so many of my QoL concerns about online novels that I’m willing to deal with those quirks.
And, I think you’d love it, honestly. Just wait until I get some chapter’d content up before you judge it. The placeholder FlashFict from ancient history is just to give me something to “see” as I make modifications, and it doesn’t employ some of the tools that make this theme strong.
I think the people we find on WP, if they like our writing will follow and give word of mouth. I might try doing absolute minimum Jetpack to see if I can integrate, but the comments will be site-only visible and “likes” gone. I will probably do comments on the chapter level, but what’s nice is that they show up on the book level as well.
As far as getting on the bandwagon, I think that road is a pathed path to hell. Again, there is a need to disrupt the social media bubble we live in.
How will I get people to look at it?
I will be notifying folks here about updates. That way, if you don’t want another feed, you can just watch this space. I am a firm believer in “if you build it, they will come”, with the caveat that it has to have some kind of appeal or be interesting to others. If you can’t write something compelling, no one will likely come or stay. (I may have just spoken my own judgment). If people like it, they will add it to their Reader (which is a glorified RSS feed reader anyway). If not… well, I never had a high level of confidence in my abilities. If they read their Kindle Unlimited instead, well, that is their right. They might be missing out on something different, which is going to be my primary goal with the subdomain.
Sounds great. I definitely agree that the bubble needs to be broken, also that there’s a better way, a new way that I hope will become apparent if we’re just patient. Maybe a brand new way we’ll experience and consume altogether.
Oooh! Gimme a blurb for Chivalry. And permission to use the cover image.
You can definitely use the cover image-that’s my photo. I’ll try out working on a blurb-I’m one of those authors who really struggles with that-everything I try sounds wrong. I’m more in the Flannery O’Connor mode-if you can sum it up easily, it’s not much of a story🤓But I’ll send you something
Short and sweet, but covers everything without revealing anything. LOL
😉
And thanks for the “nod”, Michael😜🕴
No problemo! Nil perspiration.