Hashtags boost tweet and post impressions, and on Twitter and Instagram alike, they can help you connect with writers in the #WritingCommunity, and with readers. There are specific hashtags for writing stages, genres, types of writers, promoting books and more. I’ve categorised hashtags by type and purpose to boost your visibility and help you find whatever you’re seeking in Twitter and Instagram’s Writing Community, via hashtag.
Umbrella Writer Hashtags
First up, to find fellow writers to share the journey, share information, exchange beta reads etc, you need your tweets seen by writers. There are some popular, broad-in-purpose hashtags for this, including those below. Unless you’re posting on a niche topic (eg. steam levels in romance), I’d use at least one of these and a couple of specific hashtags (further down) as well.
Instagram Tags
#WritersCommunityOfInstagram
#WritersOfIg
#WritersOfInsta
#WritersSociety
Hashtags To Be Found/ To Find Writers On
Hashtags which say ‘I’m the kind of writer you are/ the writer you like to read’ are more likely to stand out on a Twitter feed and prompt us to read and reply -because they suggest we will relate to your tweet. Hashtags which say ‘I’m feeling your editing/ querying hopes/ agony’ also signal who will relate and invite a response. (If you use a few, well chosen, easy to see tags. For tweeting tips see this post.)
Some hashtags to give these signals with are Writer Type Hashtags, Genre tags and Wip (Work in Progress) Stage tags. I highly recommend the latter -most of the writer’s I’ve made friends and stayed in touch with on twitter are at similar stages of the writing process and tweeting about your wip’s stage on relevant hashtags is a great way to make those connections.
Twitter Tags
Instagram Tags
Writer Type Tags
#IndieAuthor(s)
#6amAusWriters (Aussiewriters)
#WriteLGBTQ
#LGBTQWriters
#WritersOfColour
Genre/ Text Type Tags
#AmWritingScifi/ Fantasy /HistoricalFiction /Romance/ MiddleGrade
#ReadingCommunity
Writer by Type
#writersfindingwriters
#writersofindia
#poetsofindia
#writersofmirakee
(or search your country/ city -a few have tags).
#writersofcolor
#writersandpoets
Genre/ Text Type Tags
#FantasyAuthor/ writer
(Or your genre)
#amwritingfantasy
(Or your genre).
#Poets ( +variations)
#screenplaywriter
#nonfictionwriter
Writers at Same Stage, with Same Hopes/Woes Tags
Twitter Tags
Instagram Tags
#AmWriting
#AmEditing (You can add your genre too).
#Revising
#AmQuerying #AmPublishing
#WritersBlock
#WriterProblems
#WriterLife
Hashtags to Connect with Writers
Some writers tweet regular prompts to which other writers respond on specific hashtags. Mini writer communities can grow up around these, so if you like a prompt, I recommend viewing its feed (by selecting its hashtag) and interacting with other writers tweeting on it, as well as tweeting your prompt responses on the tag. (It’s not a prompt hashtag, but #StrictlyWriting (mainly on Twitter) has a small community talking about writing craft and the writing process on it, so you may like to search and reply to or tweet on it. For its companion tags & Discord Group, see this post).
Twitter Tags
Instagram Tags
Live Chats
(Courtesy of @AndrewRoberts66)
#5amwritersclub Daily EST
#WritersLifeChat Wed 8pm EST
#WriteChat Wed 10pm EST
#WeekNightWriters Fri 12:00 am UK
#StoryCrafter Sun 3pm EST
On Instagram, you don’t tend to get daily (or weekly) regular prompts. Challenges are more common, and they tend to run for set time periods. To find them, try typing #WriterChallenge in Insta’s search bar, and see which challenge hashtags that turns up. Check dates on posts in your search results to see if the challenge is still running.
NB: for more Insta tags see below Twitter Prompt & Twitter Help tags.
Twitter Shorts/ Poetry Piece Prompts
If you enjoy writing shorts or poetry, you’ll find regular prompts and fellow shorts writers and poets on these tags. In this case, appreciating (and perhaps sharing via retweet) each other’s writing is a good way to connect. #WritingPrompts is used by a range of writers for a range of prompts, whereas the tags below have a single host tweeting prompt words on them, sometimes daily, sometimes on a particular day.
Hashtags To Find Tips/ Help On Twitter
Whether you’re writing, revising, editing or querying, there are specific hashtags you can search to find tips and practical help. (In Twitter, selecting or pasting any hashtag in the search bar will display a feed of only tweets on that tag. All tags below are linked to those feeds).
To Tweet for Writer Help you’re welcome to use #StrictlyWriting or, if you’re searching for resources, #StrictlyWritingResources. For asking for help or tweeting to writers generally, #WritingCommunity is the best umbrella tag to use, which I tend to use with topic specific tags like genre or writing stage tags. Writers tend to tweet any subject on #WritingCommunity now, but the tag helps your tweets get impressions, so its still worth using.
To seek Critical Readers, you can ask who’s interested by tweeting on the Critical Reader Tags below.
Find Genre Promo Tags
To find you genre, put your it/ your subgenre/ audience age (maybe with the word ‘books’) onto a # in the Twitter search bar, and see which variation of relevant tag is most popular.
More Instagram Hashtags
Writer Community
Hashtags
#WritersCommunity
#WritersSociety
#WritersHelpingWriters
#WriterSociety
#WriterCommunity
#WritersTogether
Tags to talk to
Writers
#WritersOfInstagram
#WritersOnInstagram
#FellowCreativeMinds
#WritersOfig
#WritersOfInsta
#Writers_Den_
#WriterGram
Author Type Tags
#IndieAuthor
#BlackAuthors
#AuthorsOfColour
#Authoress
#AuthorMom
#WattPadAuthor
#Authorpreneur
Talk to Authors
#AuthorLove
#AuthorsOfIg
#AuthorOfInsta
#AuthorOfInstagram
#AuthorsOfInstagram
#AuthorCommunity
#AuthorsCommunity
Tags to Talk About
Writing
#WritingANovel
#WritingABook
#StrictlyWriting
#JustWrite
Tip/ Help Tags
#WritingAdvice
#WritingTips
#AuthorsSupportingAuthors
Blog Promo Tags
#BlogPost
#InstaBlogger
#WriterBlog
#BookBlogging
#InstaBlogging
#BloggingCommunity
Critical Readers
#BetaReader(s)
#CritiquePartner(s)
Author Content Tags
#AuthorGram
#AuthorQuotes
#AuthorMemes
#AuthorLife
Author Activity Tags
#AuthorTalk
#AuthorVisit
#AuthorEvent
#AuthorInterview
#AuthorSigning
Reader Tags
#BookReview
#ReadersOfInsta
#BookCommunity
#IgReads
#BookLovers
Poetry People Tags
#Poetry_Addicts
#PoetryLovers
#PoetrySociety
#PoetryTribe
#PoetryCommunityOfIg
Instagram has many more tags and new ones developing. Searching any of the above tags and seeing which other tags people posting on them are using will turn up more related hashtags.
Related Posts
If You’re New(ish) to Twitter or Instagram’s #WritingCommunity, here’s an Introduction and some tweeting and posting tips.
For Twitter Pitch Party and Mentoring Program Hashtags, details & website links, see this post.
This is crazy helpful! Thanks!
You’re welcome. I’m happy to share what I know with other writers.
Hi Elise, thank you for the info on hashtags. I love the #WritingCommunity on Twitter, it’s so helpful and interactive. I have been doing the #prompts for some time now and I recommend the #prompt tags. Sometimes I am stuck, I stare at my #WIP and nothing happens so I check out the prompts – #vss365 #whistpr and @thewriteprompt for tag lines. If I cannot find any tag words in my WIP I will make something up and this gets my creative juices flowing. It is helpful for editing your WIP as well as you have to put the passage under the microscope and refine it before posting it.
You’re welcome Isabella. I’ve heard that about prompts. Hopefully having having so many listed in one place will help writers trying to overcome writers block.
Elise- This is wonderful! Thanks for taking the time to do it.
You’re welcome Catherine.
Elise this is a rich resource, thank you.
You’re welcome. Though once you’ve got ideas about the sort of writerly hashtags that exist, starting to type them in your post/ the social media’s search bar and seeing which popular ones show up may now be the best way to discover them.