The Body (Text)
Right, so let’s make up the body of our shrine. What are we going to write here?
Well, if we look back at the profile we wrote up, we have some interesting things we can look for! Let’s say we want to start with a character (and maybe you’re just making a character shrine). This may be where you’re hit with “ugh but I feel so many things about them” – that’s why you’re reading this.
Let’s go to wherever you talk about them most. That may be Twitter (formerly known as X), Bluesky, Mastodon, Tumblr, Text Messages, Voice Memos, Podcast You Started Making And Abandoned, Partner Who Hasn’t Interacted With The Source Material But Can Repeat Everything You’ve Said About Blorbo Verbatim, Forest Warlock, or Discord. If there’s a search function, we’re going to search our profiles for any mention of them.
I can not tell you how to search the Forest Warlock (please speak to any guides about relevant runes) but for the ones I can help with;
Twitter:
- In the search bar: [blorbo] (from:[username])
Mastodon and Bluesky:
- In the search bar: from:me [blorbo]
- Please note, mastodon may differ by forks and if you have search visibility toggled
Bluesky (Alternative):
- Go to your profile
- Click the hamburger menu beside “Edit Profile”
- Click “Search Posts”
- In the search bar: [blorbo]
Tumblr:
- In the address bar: [tumblr url].tumblr.com/search/[blorbo]
- OR In the address bar: www.tumblr.com/[tumblr url]/search/[blorbo]
Discord:
- Go to server where you regularly post about blorbo
- In search bar, in:channel if it is there.
- In search bar: from:[username] blorbo
Square brackets ([]) shouldn’t be typed, they’re just so you know what words you can change!
Now that we have all these…
We’ll copy paste them.
Verbatim.
Why not? This is what you have to say about them and how you regularly do it! You can go back and edit it later, but for now, just put them in as you left them.
One thing I will suggest though is putting them in <div></div> - this will help for styling them later on. It will also help if you assign them a class (the same one for all you want to use the standard stylisation) so that if you use divs anywhere else, they won’t be targeted.
Now, rinse and repeat for anything else relevant to your shrine: thoughts on the series as a whole; ships; medium; fandom interactions; your favourite fan creations; what you’ve made. Whatever is relevant to your interests, pick it out and add it to the pile.
Though maybe try and sort them into categories.
OPTIONAL: Clean Up Duty
Tip: You can do this segment in services like Obsidian that allow you to tag notes! Find what works best for your workflow!
When you’re going through these, you may find you talk about ideas that are actually connected. You might talk about how the symbology used in the music videos work into the characters’ narratives, or all the ways you’ve diagnosed that one scene of your OTP interacting.
Take all those posts and start by putting them beside each other.
Now try taking them all and forming them into a paragraph. You can do this as basically as just having them all in one paragraph, one after another. If you want to step it up, you can add some phrases to join them together and try and show how the connection between these different ideas formed in your brain. What made you think these were all things that could go together?
If you’re struggling, don’t worry about it. This is your shrine and it can be as informal as you like. Slap sentences in their own paragraph if you can’t work out how they fit in.
Before You Start Getting Silly With It…
While you still have a fairly plain text version, let’s make one decision about your webshrine.
How accessible do you want it to be?
One thing with webshrines is they’re a form of self-expression. They can be a piece of art. You can try to put how this thing is stored in your brain onto the canvas with html and css.
But it might not be accessible in this form. It might not work on mobile.
But there’s disabled and/or mobile-bound people that want to read your thoughts to.
Make a copy of all you’ve stored on this page. Save the copy as a plain text version that you can link to on whatever page links to the main webshrine. Offer it as an accessible alternative for all who need it. It’s not ideal, but at least it’s an option and you can still provide your artistic vision.