#like obviously it's a balance bc the main characters' problems ARE going to take center stage and should

[lesbeet]

so i finally got my hands on a copy of the anatomy of story by john truby and genuinely it’s changing the way i look at stories and at writing particularly

i’m like 30k into this fic i’ve been working on and i’ve already made a lot of big changes plot-wise (which for me is a big deal since i’m notoriously horrible at killing my darlings); and i just recently decided to try and like. write an entire first draft before going through and actually um. you know. editing it, instead of spending half an hour on a single paragraph hating myself the entire way bc i can’t get it to sound perfect

so i was ready to just like word vomit the rest of the story so i actually had pieces to work with, since i do actually enjoy the editing process a lot anyway and a bunch of author bloggers made the really good point that there’s no use spending all of that time fine-tuning scenes or sentences that might end up getting cut

so i’ve been like ! ok cool i’m gonna start with a giant block of marble and gouge out big chunks of it to make the rough shape of the thing, then with each new pass i’ll just refine it more and more until i get to the level where everything is the way i want it story-wise so i can focus on the style without worrying about the rest

HOWEVER i’ve almost finished the anatomy of story even though i just got it yesterday and i’m like. completely reevaluating my entire plot basically? like not really, a lot of what i’ve written is still (hopefully) usable so it’s not like i have to toss 30k words and start entirely from scratch or anything, but now i’m just like.

i don’t wanna go into too much detail bc i really haven’t told anyone much about this fic and i want to keep it that way AT LEAST until the first draft + initial revision are done bc sharing a WIP is a surefire way for me to become paralyzed by self-doubt and stop working on the thing forever

but basically i’m like.

there are 2 pretty distinct sections of my plot (obviously connected), and i guess right now i’m trying to figure out what the proper balance is between the two of them. one section is the development of harry and draco’s relationship from “enemies” to lovers (i say “enemies” bc true to form theyre really the only ones who actually think they’re enemies. everyone else is like uh huh sure! whatever you say!) and the other is related to the overarching plot not solely focused on h/d as a romantic relationship

and i guess that’s probably a struggle a lot of ship fic writers have? like especially for fics that have plots that reach beyond the development of the relationship. like i think if this were an original work and everything were the same except the character names and the wizarding world setting, the relationship would be a subplot almost for sure, but since it’s a fic it’s like. do i want to relegate the reason i’m writing the fic in the first place to just being a subplot? do h/d fic readers WANT to read a story where the relationship isn’t the main plot?

not to say it’s never been done bc it totally has, but the way i’m thinking my story would probably work best (if i DON’T center it so heavily around the relationship) wouldn’t allow me to get as in-depth about the relationship as i would want in order to like. satisfy me as a drarry fic writer.

it’s very much like. i want to go where the story wants to go, and i can’t figure out if the story is taking me somewhere that would compromise the development of the relationship as it is or if i just haven’t thought it through enough and can make it work (or if i’m creating problems where there aren’t any, which i also have been known to do)

and the various options  include making decisions like adding or cutting characters, deciding between chronological order and not, etc, and i think i can at least solve the latter problem by just writing it in chronological order and then deciding how to organize it later, but

god idk i’m grateful for the new insight like this book is really making me think about things in a new way—not because it’s introducing concepts with which i was unfamiliar, but because it asks the reader to think about these familiar concepts in a way that really appeals to the particular way my own mind works, especially when creating, ESPECIALLY when writing

i’m not even really asking for advice i guess because i gave such little detail about the issue (and what i did say was probably confusing skdjflsd) but like. if anyone has thoughts i  would be happy to consider some new angles on this!