WRITING TIPS

xv. understanding aesthetics

The world of aesthetics is multifaceted and has a lot of different elements to it. There are visual graphics ( gifs, pictures, banners, and headers ), keyboard symbols, fancy fonts, themes, usernames, layouts, and bios. It's a lot and I'm going to break them down for you. 

 All right, so your theme is basically like your opening statement in an essay. It's what captures people's attention and either draws them in or pushes them away. Your theme is also a marking tool, in a sense. Depending on what genre of book you write or what fandom you write about, you want to tailor your profile to fit that demographic. I'm not saying you need anything, but most times people's themes naturally match their stories and what they write about regardless if it's intentional or not. 

Furthermore, your theme is essentially the first impression you give to someone. What they see on your profile is kind of how they'll envision you. So, keep it clean, organized, and consider color schemes. There are tons of themes that you can choose from and create; the possibilities are endless. ( Tip: You can find many ideas on themes on WeHeartIt and on Pinterest. ) 

Some people choose to only use pictures of the same person on the cover of all their books, others choose a color scheme or a filter that they put on each cover, or they choose pictures that have similar backgrounds ( a field of flowers or city backgrounds with a person somewhere in their photo. ) 

My number one tip for themes is to make sure your photos are of high quality and aren't blurry! That turns people off from a book pretty quickly. 

. Everyone is talking about how important it in aesthetics and I'm here to confirm that they are correct. Layout, in my opinion, is the most important part. A concise, organized, neat, and clean layout is key. Those with profiles and books whose layouts are clean, edited,  organized, and managed are watering their garden correctly. You wouldn't want to have your own plant family and leave them out, and not take care of them. You would want to water them and put them in sunlight, make sure they're getting everything they need to thrive and live. 

Think about the layouts in a similar fashion. Don't overwater your plants. In other words, don't allow your books and profile layouts to become too cluttered.

. Creating a unique username is literally the hardest thing ever because anything you think of is most likely taken. It took me literally two-hour to come up with a username for my backup account... and I still hate it. The struggle is real and once you are able to get the username you want, it's nearly impossible to change. ( Such as mine, which is Marinette6566. It's what I'm known by now, I can't really change since I can't remember my password. ) 

In a sense, your username is your brand - what you want people to know you by. So it's best that you find the right one. I suggest you do something short and simple, nothing over the top and ridiculously long. Also, try not to use numbers in your username if you can avoid it. Numbers have this way of making usernames look cluttered, in my opinion. If you do use numbers, don't do something like butterfly5803. That's...not necessary. Maybe use one or two numbers, not all of them.

. Bios

 with nothing but symbols aren't cute. It's cluttered and can be distracting from your stories. To actually craft an "aesthetic bio", use simple symbols and make use of all the headers and borders available online. Keep it minimalistic to a degree and simple. You can share your name, age, pronouns, sexuality, who you stan, favorite foods, or what fandoms you in. Quotes and song lyrics are also cute to add especially with fancy fonts. Perhaps include a list of books at the end that state which is ongoing, on hold, coming soon, or completed. Or maybe include your social media handles if you would like. However, for the sake of your safety, don't get too personal. Don't reveal sensitive information.

For me, I only share my age, nickname, preferred pronouns, likes, and personality type. This isn't overly personal information. No one knows where I live, what school I go to, what I look like, and my full name - nobody needs to know that information. Do you know how many Ari's who are fourteen, identity as she/her? Probably a ton more than I'll ever know. 

Like I said before: keep it minimalistic and simple. Don't over-do it and don't overshare. On w*****d, people are here for stories, not always to meet people or get to know the authors too personally. However, keep in mind that your bio is part of your first impression. Make it unique and your own without cluttering it. 

I hope these were helpful and if you have any questions let me know! ( I really don't know if this was helpful, but we'll see )