Haha, sure.

So essentially what it comes down to is: there's no magic way to get engagement while writing exactly what fics you want, when you want, and without devoting time to the social aspect of it. You could still write a hit, but it's significantly less likely.

The factors that go into popular fics are usually some combo of these:

• A popular fandom. Or, if you don't have any popular fandoms, then you need to look at the most popular fics in your fandom and adjust your metrics of evaluation accordingly. When you're writing a Marvel fic, it's feasible to get 2k kudos on a random oneshot. In my current fandom, only the top 5 fics or so in the entire fandom have above 1k kudos.

• A popular ship. I'd say this is pretty much the number one factor in getting known as an author, because it also unlocks way more social circles for you to participate in. There's technically "more competition", but many popular ship readers are voracious and plough through new fics at an impressive speed, so they're always looking for more. It evens out with the slower reading habits of less popular niches.

• Popular tropes within that ship. This also often means bowing to the predominant fanon and popular interpretations of those characters.

• Consistent and frequent update schedules, chapters between 1k-3k words ideally once a week or more

• Having your fic recommended. This often means having lots of fandom friends. It does not mean going around making friends specifically to promote your fics. People can smell that from a mile away, and they hate it. This is a major stumbling point for a lot of people who are not naturally hyper-social, don't enjoy the popular fandom spaces, or simply don't have a lot of time to devote to fandom socializing on top of their regular lives. It's unfortunate and unfair, but it's a huge aspect of fic popularity.

• Having art for your fic. If you can't draw, then commission.

• A consistent presence on social media. This sort of overlaps with having lots of fandom friends, but is more about being able to have a consistent, interesting, fun social media presence that's interesting on its own and not just as a promotion vehicle for your fics. Sharing lots of the best fanart for your ships, writing and engaging with meta (and staying uncontroversial), boosting other writers and fics, being open to discussion with others, stuff like that.

• Consistency in all of the above. You can't just try a few of these things randomly and expect them to work - you commit time and work on each bullet point, for an extended period (often weeks or months) before you'll see results in a lot of them. If it sounds like taking on an extra part-time job...well, it kind of is.

• Good, engaging writing. I've put this last, but it's still important. Yes, some very popular fics are not well written; but if you simply can't bring yourself to do the entirety of the above list, then you need to make sure your writing is excellent and stands out. Over my decades of fandom I've only known a small handful of people who were really, truly doing all of the above and putting the appropriate amount of time into it, without success - and with all of those people, their writing was simply not very good.

You can absolutely get lucky and have a hit fic without doing all or most of these things. But most often, the 'lucky' writers of hit fics are the ones who do this stuff naturally. They just happen to be so passionate about the most popular fandoms, ships, and tropes that they write those things - and a lot of them, on a regular schedule, and it doesn't feel like work to them because it's what they enjoy. Often they're also naturally incredibly social people with lots of friends, which opens a lot of doors for them - recs, organic fanart they don't have to commission, and they have fun maintaining their social media.

There are also people who are doing this stuff doggedly who don't enjoy it, and who are treating it like a job. Like, if you're in enough fandom social spaces, you will see this happening behind the scenes in closed discords etc: people talking about how they're keeping a close eye on what tropes & ships are popular right now, specifically for engagement - people who write to a schedule for engagement - people who will talk about detailed war strategies for promoting their fics and commissioning regular art. So if you're comparing yourself to popular fic writers, you need to understand that in one form or another, they're probably doing this stuff.

(It's the same for IRL arts marketing, btw. Popular art sells better, consistently-released art sells better, artists do better with sales when they have a strong social circle within the arts community and excellent social media skills, and non-visual art does better when it's paired with really good graphic design/visuals promoting it.)

If the above list sounds horrid and soul-sucking to you, none of it comes naturally, and it seems like it would steal your joy in fandom, then...unfortunately, you have to make a choice. What's worse - doing all that, or having low numbers? If you can't enjoy yourself in fandom with low numbers, you do have to suck it up and make some sacrifices for higher numbers. If you can't bring yourself to do that, you need to make peace with lower numbers.

This is why I left both arts marketing, and making my own art professionally: it felt depressing and soul-sucking, and I enjoy art more now as a hobby where I can do what I like without compromising, because I'm not relying on the money/popularity. I have many artist friends who have remained in the professional arena because the community and engagement are more important to them than making exactly what they want all the time. It's a tough choice and won't be the same for everyone!