Trying to make a manip of a gif but every way I've tried to write on the gif, my computer makes it a still pic, which is not what I want.
I'm pretty green with this kind of software so I'd appreciate any help!

ezgif.com/add-text

While I appreciate the link, I was hoping for advice on doing it without a generator website

ie: trying to add captions off to the side of the actual gif or just adding other effects on top of the gif/video

Dunno about videos, but for gifs it's fairly simple. GIMP (the software I use) splits gifs so that each frame is on its own layer, and each layer only contains things that have changed from the previous one (everything else gets rendered transparent). To add text you just need to go to the bottom layer, find a spot that doesn't change (or make one yourself by adding a new area off to the side), and so long as nothing on the higher layers overwrite it, the text will remain clearly visible once added.

Once I'm satisfied with my changes, I hit export and the layers are all compiled back into a gif automatically.