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mooncakesofpan · 1 year

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Chapter 2

The life of a top designer is stressful in itself how much will change when you find 2 glowing eyes peering back at you from your yard.

Poly!Skz x Tall!Nonbinary!Reader

Series Warnings: mention of abuse, hybrid au, omegaverse themes, strong language, suggestive topics, and themes (see individual chapters for specific warnings)

Chapter warnings: unwanted advances, mentions of food, mentions of stress, anxiety, slight angst, mentions of possible neglect, Reader uses they/them. Use of Mx.

Word count: 5.2k

An: I'm so sorry this took so long my life got really crazy and it took me a bit to recover.

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DO NOT STEAL MY WORK

I stir awake only to feel my throat dry, I reach for my water bottle and go to take a sip only to realize the bottle is empty. I stumble out bed and attempt to get out of the tangle of blankets that adorn my bed. Phone and water bottle in hand as I head out my room, using my phone to light my way through the house to accompany the moon light shining through the windows. As I move down the stairs with soft steps trying to keep to keep quite not wanting to wake the two hybrids. I can hear the soft snoring from Felix and Chan’s room. As I step into the hall I notice a figure sitting on the floor next to the slightly cracked door.

Chan.

He's curled up against the wall with his knees firmly pressed to his chest. The light from the moon barely makes his face visible, yet I can still make out the stern gaze glued to the front door further down the hall from his and Felix's room. The furry ears on the top of his head twitch hearing the wood creek under my feet. Though his eyes on the door don’t move one bit.

“Hey you okay?” I sit on the wall opposite of him.

“Oh— uh yeah,” He gives me a tired look from his spot.

“Can’t sleep?”

I see his head shake.

“Something on your mind? I’m all ears if you need someone to listen,” I say fiddling with the bottle in my hands,almost dropping it.

“Just stuff from the past you know, old habits die hard,” He sighs with a false smile shaking his head looking at his hands.

“Wanna talk about it?” I say looking back down at my hands.

“One day, but you should head back to sleep. You said you had an important interview in the morning, right? wouldn't you want to be exhausted in the morning.”

“... yeah I do, I’ll uh— head back to bed,” I say slowly getting up from the floor moving to head to the kitchen.

“I thought you were heading to bed” his voice raises in confusion.

“Oh– I came down to fill my water bottle” I say, shaking the water bottle.

Looking at Chan, it’s obvious that he wants to talk about things. I don’t want to push him, but hopefully one of these days he’ll feel comfortable opening up and talking about it. He seems to have a lot of weight on his shoulders.

I finish filling the water bottle and head back to my room glancing back one last time at the man. Still curled up against the wall, staring at the door. He glances up at me, his eyes soften looking back at mine as I hesitate going up the stairs wishing I could offer him some comfort.

Chan was right, the alarm felt like a rude awakening, I was way too tired to want to deal with anything this morning . The repetitive beep and the fact I didn't want to wake up to to go to this interview anyway is already making me miserable. I trudge out of bed to change into some dark form fitting slacks, a wide brim hat and a suit jacket with nothing under it. If I have to be in front of the cameras I might as well look good while I do it. I look through my drawers to find a simple chain to clip around my neck. The simple loafers picked out to go with my outfit, makes it a little more practical. I carry the shoes to put on at the garage door.

My thumb flicks across my phone screen as I look through my notifications as the sound of the coffee maker feels in my ear and the strong smell of the coffee fills my nose.

A quiet “Oh shit,” fills my ears as I move to the island. I look up worried seeing Felix looking at me having spilled a little coffee on the counter.

“Are You okay?” I say hurrying to grab a paper towel to wipe up the small mess. “You didn't burn yourself right?”

I take his hand in mine double checking that the hot coffee didn't scald it.

“No I’m okay, y-you look nice,” he says looking at my clothes.

“Oh thank you I have that meeting today then I have to meet with some model agencies and higher-ups about the status of that project I told you and Chan, I was working on since we're getting closer to the deadline—,” I start.

My hands run down my face, tired.

“God, today just seems like it's gonna be so long and it hasn't even started,” I say with an awkward chuckle leaving my mouth.

The slight pink on Felix's cheeks almost goes unnoticed as I throw the paper towel away.

did he get burned and he didn't tell me?

“Oh uh—Let me know if you guys need anything okay, I might be out late,” I put on my dress shoes and grab my bag giving Felix a hug before he doesn't let go for a minute rubbing his face in my neck a little bit. The motion made my face warm.

I’m about to head out the door wishing I could say bye to Chan but he doesn't seem to be up yet. This seems to be a continuous trend. Waking up a little later than me and Felix

Is it related to him sitting outside the door this morning? Does he do that every night? They've been here for a few weeks. Maybe I should invest in a security system or something? Since he looked like he was watching the front door?

I shrug the idea off to deal with later as I get into my car and head to the address for the interview. Getting escorted into the building and my dressing room. The morning was already chaotic on top of my interview today. It seems today just isn't my day already and its just started.

I had sat down to check my text messages from Felix and Chan on my personal phone. A text from Felix from about 30 minutes reads on my lock screen.

☀️Lixie☀️: Hey we ran out of eggs, sorry I didn’t realize yesterday that there were only few left.

Me: It's okay I’ll pick them up on my way home.

☀️Lixie☀️: K thanks see you when you get home :)

The sound of knocking reaches my ears.

“Come in!” I say looking toward the door.

A young women in her early 20′s with red panda ears adorning the top of her head I almost miss them as they lay against the braids in her hair decorated with beads that knock together in a rhythm as she peaks her head in.

“Hi Zinnia, I'm here for makeup.”

“Oh yeah come in,” I say with a smile.

She looks between me and her bag and pulls out brushes, palettes,powdersand tubes as I sit looking through my work phone.

“So you work with Script right?” she asks, touching up blemishes on my face.

“Yeah I've been working with them for a few years almost straight out of college.”

“That's cool,” she says with focus making sure I won’t be shiny on the camera.

“How long have you been working here?” I mumble, trying not to move too much.

“I think I've been with them for about 4 months. I just got finished with cosmetology school,” her voice let out.

Her soft voice is quiet as the orange and white tail flicked back and forth behind her, I almost missed her nose scrunching up.

”Do you mind if I ask you a question?” She lets out cautiously, putting some of her stuff away.

“Yeah go ahead,” I urged while watching her move around the room.

“Do you have hybrids?” She looks at me curiously.

“Uh, yeah I recently took in some a few weeks ago, how did you know that?” The words spilled out curiously.

“I could smell him on you,” she points to my neck. The same spot that Felix had rubbed against this morning when he hugged me.

“How?!” I asked, a bit with surprise and eyes wide.

The question honestly sounded a little stupid I've been trying to research hybrids but some of it has been hard to find conclusions too. Like, nesting, hierarchical systems, more instinctual stuff I honestly should suck up my pride and embarrassment and just ask Chan and Felix more questions .

“Hybrids have a really good sense of smell, and he scented you,” She pointed to her button nose with a smile.

Scent— I've come across the word but I haven't really been able to come up with a cohesive answer based on all the things online.

“Sorry I've been trying to research about hybrids and stuff since they moved in, what does that mean?” I let out nervously

“Oh, scenting is like trying to mark that someone belongs to someone for a hybrid to scent you; it's typically a sign of trust and a want to stake a claim.” The words left her mouth so casually as she described what it meant.

“We’ll typically scent around chest and neck areas and wrist.”

“So say the hybrid I live with hugs me and like nuzzled into my neck this morning—”

“That would be scenting,” She chuckles.

I nod along listening to her words as she talks about a few hybrid typical things. The conversation eventually moves to interest and I end up offering my phone number so we could keep in touch and talk some more.

“Who’s one of the biggest people you’ve worked with?” she asked, sitting in the chair across from me.

“That’s a hard question, I’ve been brought on a lot of projects but, I’d have to say Rihanna I worked on a project with her. It was a very exciting experience. I was so nervous to mess up. What about you? You’ve been out of beauty school for a few months, who is a celebrity you’ve done work with. ”

“That’s hard, a lot of celebrities have their own make-up teams. I think it might be you,” she gives me a shrug.

“I wouldn’t really consider myself a celebrity though,” there’s honesty in my voice.

I really don’t consider myself a celebrity. As she goes to speak again there’s a knock on the door.

“Mx. L/n you're needed backstage.”

“Okay thank you, it was nice meeting you. let's definitely talk more in the future,” I say, getting up and waving.

The hybrid women waves back as I leave the room and head to the studio where I would be interviewed. The audience of people there Makes me dread coming to interviews and being on talk shows. Discomfort is obvious in the way my hands fiddle with the sleeve of my jacket.

As I'm told to walk on stage I wave to the audience and make my way to the empty seat.

I shake the interviewer's hand before sitting down in the chair. “So Y/n can I call you Y/n, you've been very busy for the past year haven't you,” her words run quickly out of her mouth

I nod and give confirmation that the use of my first name is okay.

“ Yeah this has been a really big project and probably the biggest of my career,”

I don’t even really take in most of the questions mostly on my work and when the Colra x Script line comes to the public. Then things got personal and I’m a very private person I don't like revealing things in my personal life to the public.

“So, got anyone in your life?” The woman sitting across from me says causing my eyes to widen.

“Oh no I don't really publicly date,” I say, nervousness itching its way back to the surface.

“No ones caught your eye recently?” there was a flirty tone in her voice as our chairs sat closely together. The tone in her voice makes me uncomfortable.

“No, I’d prefer to not talk about that aspect of my personal life though,” I say, voice unsteady with nervousness.

She nods, thankfully moving on to a different topic.

“We'll, I think that brings us to the end of today. Thank you for coming on and talking with us!” her voice changed back to the tone before she started asking about my love life.

As she closes out the segment I rush off to my dressing room feeling my discomfort and awkwardness eating away at me and I pack up my stuff and leave the building.

I considered taking the rest of the day off but decide against it knowing that would just move the rest of my meetings to next week.

I sit in my studio, reading through my emails, things people want me to do piling up deadlines, new projects, and clientele. I said I wouldn’t take on another project till the one with Colra gets out to the public, but my boss keeps pushing me to work with other clients when Script has already pushed out so much money. Trying to make sure that the Colra is happy with designs, advertisements making sure they showed proper representation of hybrids and humans alike. Along with how we had to redo everything I need to at least see that this all goes through well.

The knock on the door frame startled me from work in my room. I look up to see a lanky man with light brown wavy hair and a cardigan.

He has a black tie, and seems well put together.

“Uh hi I'm Theo we've been emailing back and forth for a while, and I wanted to look over some promotional material with you being the leader of the team working on this,” he says smiling at me, his British accent filling my ears.

“Oh yeah of course come in,” I wave over to the workbench in the middle of the room.

We stand at the table as he pulls out some of the pictures with the pieces that have been finished. The photos are amazing. The color of the outfits are bright and beautiful, they pop against the background and give a regal feel paired with the elegance of the models in the photos. The soft purples and whites on the models looked graceful and beautiful. Looking through the photos I noticed that the hybrid models we had hired for this campaign were missing from the photos.

“Theo, where are the hybrid models? We were supposed to have a good mix of both in the pictures, modeling the outfits.” I shuffle the photos he placed out the folder double checking I didn't miss it.

The brunette opened the folder sifting through the contents to find the ones with the hybrid models in them too.

“Great I like these too, they all look great. I know these are supposed to be going out to socials soon so if I can suggest something?” I question looking back up from the table to the male around my height.

He nods in response. I point to the 2 photos of a few of the models in a flower field and one with a few other models on white crystal-looking steps. the photo is well-balanced and has a good diversity of the models that we worked with to do the photoshoot.

“I would suggest these two, Script has a wide range of demographics and I think these will do the best with going out first, they really pop as ones that catch my eyes.”

“Yeah you're right those two will work great. I'll go ahead and let the rest of marketing know, thank you again for taking the time out of your day,” he confirms back to me as I smile kindly at him.

“Of course, happy I could help,” I respond to him, excited to finally see some of the advertisements going out as he is putting the contents of the folder. his cheeks a slightly tinged pink.

Maybe he's a bit warm in his sweater vest.

As he leaves I decide to put the final details on one of the last designs that needed to be finished and sent out for photoshoots and to models. Some of the remanding sets got sent out to other people in the company to make to take the pressure off of me. I had found out we had money in the budget too and I had gotten an email right before Theo had come in that the last 2 pieces that had been sent out had been finished and were going to be given to the models for photo shoots tomorrow and I was the last person to send the last piece out, which I need to hem the bottoms and ad a spot for a tail and then it’ll be good to go out. The rest of my afternoon was free aside from finishing the bottoms for the last outfit and which hopefully wouldn't take all night should take maybe an hour. Once the entire line gets sent out things are left in the hands of the stylist for the shoots.

Needless to say, Im glad that the day is almost over, I'm so exhausted. It was 6 and the goal is to finish by 7:30. That way I can still go to the store before it closes to do some light shopping. I get up to move to work on the bottoms for the outfit.

I pin the lace to the cuff of the bottoms and feed them through the sewing machine. The fabric is soft under my fingers. The lace at the bottom is a great final touch. The time spent putting it on with care. The model who was supposed to wear this is a ferret hybrid and has a long tail so a slit is made in the back for his tail. I glance down at my phone just now seeing its 7:20 pm, thankfully I had finally finished everything. I packed up my belongings and grabbed a garment bag and put the completed masterpiece in it. a sigh of relief leaves my mouth, happy that the day is finally over.

My feed carry me through the building as I hold a small smile feeling great about the the line being finished. I'm supposed to come in tomorrow too, which will mean this week I've been in the office a lot. But tomorrow is a Friday and I've had a stacked week. I told the photographer I would sit in on the shoot since I missed the first one. I find the rack for the outfits to go on and place my bag next to the other two black garment bags. I look around to see if anyone is around, of course there is not, I one of few people still here this late. I peek in the bags getting a good look at the Wonderfull work of the other people on my team.

I head to the parking garage to start to head out. The grocery store is my last stop of the night before going home. I slide into the drivers seat and pull out my phone to text Felix.

Me: Was there anything else we needed? im at the store right now

☀️Lixie☀️: we're getting low on coffee. I think we need some more

Me: Okay thanks, I'm gonna grab a bit of other stuff.

Walking through the store I pick up some more meat, chicken, beef, pork, and bacon. The hope of having more time to cook this next week warms my chest. I found some kombucha squash and put it in the cart thinking of finding something to make with it. The line for check out is short but the store closes in an hour. Most people are home this late in the evening. Most people take this time to enjoy time with their family.

I work on dinner deciding to use the squash, taking out the onions, beans, carrots, and ground turkey I got at the store to make some stuffed squash. I cut up onions, and add beans and other vegetables to the ground beef and seasoning while the squash sits in the oven roasting. Felix sits on the counter talking to me about things he watched,some of the recipes he found, and what he got up too toda. My brain wonders to this morning and the conversation about scenting I had with Zinna.

“So they ended up not making it to the finals—”

“Sorry it’s on my mind,— did you scent me this morning?” I interrupt his ramblings, and in that moment Chan walks into the kitchen looking up from his phone.

I probably could have handled it a bit better.

“What?” he looks a bit worried at my question.

Felix Jumps surprised by Chan's voice.

“I was asking if Felix scented me this morning, I was talking to a hybrid this morning and she had asked me about it—I'm not mad I was just asking if it was purposeful,” I speak quickly to try to justify why I asked the question in the first place.

Chan is Stands still in his spot and looks at Felix to answer the question.

”Yeah I did sorry I should of asked.”

”It's fine I just wished you had asked I would have let you if it makes you feel more comfortable,” I shrug it off. If it's a sign he's more comfortable with me I'll take it. Im glad he’s feeling more comfortable around me.

Chan sits down, patting Felix's shoulder.

“I'm still learning about what it's like to live with hybrids, just gotta give me heads up about things,'' I admit,with a soft smile

We eat the quash in silence, the feeling of something that hasn’t been spoken into the air yet lingers. I Scoop one of the last pieces of squash in my mouth. I look back at my bag near the garage door reminding me of the work I had promised to my friend tomorrow. I've been out of the house a lot this week. It's definitely weighing on me but I'm worried that the boys are gonna feel like I'm too absent and like I'm neglecting them. Technically they don't belong to me and I frankly don't like thinking of the gross owner pet implication of having a hybrid but emotionally I know that they rely on me— or at least Felix does, Chan I know still has a hard time being comfortable with me. I don't blame him for that of course I don't know his or Felix's history.

For the past few weeks, I've been worried about them feeling stuck in the house.

“I'm gonna be out the house again tomorrow, hopefully next week won't be as busy. I should hopefully be home early” I let out, pushing around a bean on my plate.

“It's okay, we know this week was big for you” Chan says.

“I know I just feel bad like I'm worried you guys feel stuck here all the time alone—” I take pause

“Do you guys feel stuck here?” I question

“I mean it would be nice to get out” Felix says perking up a bit.

“You’d have to adopt us,” Chan said still eating his food not making eye contact trying to seem more focused on his plate.

“Yeah I wasn't sure how you guys felt about that. I was looking into independent hybrid programs and that tends to require prior adoption for about a year,” I say, nervous about their response.

“it would probably be best if you adopted us. I know I'm fine with it, we trust you enough, you don't seem like you'd abuse that title,” Chan explains, finally looking up to meet my eyes.

“Okay then I'll see how to get the paperwork for it and try to get those filed,” I fidget a little under his gaze. Looking back down at my food to keep eating.

I wash the dishes alone. This is the first time today I can truly relax, and knowing that adopting Felix and Chan would at least be granted a little freedom helps to ease my worries with their adoption. Them being able to go out more should give them some type of freedom.

I got to my room, and open up my laptop to look at what the process to adopt the two hybrids looks like. The page I find belongs to one of the hybrid centers in the city Stating that they help rehome and rehabilitate hybrids and have been rated one of the best in the area;

“Are you open to welcoming hybrids into your home? We’re here to provide you with the knowledge training and help prepare you for a new friend!”

Seem good enough.

“We won’t rehome a hybrid without they’re expressed consent from the hybrid Stating verbally that they would like to go home with you. Knowing that they’re from our own facility we prefer you spend weeks getting to know them and get comfortable with each other, after that we can start the adoption process!”

Bringing in strays or having been aiding hybrids and wanting to adopt them and give them a home will have a similar process! We start with an interview with you and then the hybrid making sure that they are comfortable going home with you! After the interview will be an exam of the hybrid making sure there is anything that needs to be watched or addressed. After The exam we will survey the new home and make sure the place is suitable and livable for your new hybrid! If you’ve made it to this point then you’ll be in the home stretch to fill out paperwork and take your hybrid home! We do checks in 3 weeks 6 weeks 9 weeks and then 6 months and a year check in to make sure everything is going Aye Okay!”

The page was very helpful and it said I can set up an appointment to get things started. I spent the rest of the night filling the form about Felix and Chan filing in the section concerning their situation and pressing send before I closed my laptop for the night.

Today was more casual. I pull white pants and a Blue oversized sweater. It’s a lot more casualI seeing as I'm going to watch a shoot and not spend all my time in the office, I prefer it that way.

I got a text from my friend Johnny on my work phone,who's the photographer .

Johnny : Hey make sure you're here at 10 I wanna go over a few things with you.

Me: sure thing I should be there a little early if anything.

The door to Felix’s and chans room opens right as I hit the last steps of the stairs. Chan's back is to me as he tries to close the door quietly.

“Morning Chan you're up bright and earlier.”

My voice must have startled him because he jumps as he turns to me with a hand over his heart. Seeing it's just me he lets out an awkward chuckle

“Oh yeah– I slept pretty well last night actually,” he smiles softly at me. sleep was still slightly evident in his eyes, but the smile made me feel warm inside and something inside me fluttered slightly.

“I was gonna make something,” I motioned down the hall.

”Yeah you should try and eat before you head out. It's not good to start the day on an empty stomach,” he presses.

7:45

I had a bit of time before I had to go so making something wouldn't hurt. I pulled the milk out of the fridge with some eggs. Before I could pull anything else out the voice of Felix coming down the hall is hurd by both me and Chan as he entered the kitchen phone in hand.

“Would you mind if I made breakfast?” he smiled, ears twitching on top of his head.

“No not at all, whatcha gonna make?” I ask and move to sit the milk down on the counter and move to the barstools to watch what Felix might be making.

“I found a recipe for pancakes. I wanted to try it,” he continued to check his phone assumingly for ingredients and measurements.

Me and Chan watch him move around the kitchen making the pancakes, the batter being mixed together and fried on a skillet. The pancakes were fluffy and buttery as they pile on the plate .

“Felix this is really good,” Chan says digging into the pancakes

“Yeah you did an amazing job.”

Felix’s face is a bit red seemingly from our compliments. I can see a smile as he mumbles out a thank you while still eating the pancakes. The morning was peaceful, small talk about the food and other recipes Felix wants to try and what I’m up to today. It starts getting close for me to leave. I go to grab my work bag just in case but I plan to come home after the photo shoot. I notice the freckled brunette Felix leaned up against the wall near the door.

“Hey Felix, need something?” I say, making sure I had a jacket just in case it rained.

“—Do you mind if I scent you?” He's standing in front of me with space between the two of us the space being filled with quiet but low sounds of his voice.

“Oh—no, not at all!” I put my stuff down and smile as Felix comes close. He placed his face in the crook of my neck to rub his face against it and moves to rub himself against my clothes. He continues for a minute before he decides in his head that I've been scented enough, but before I move he takes the moment to grab my wrist and rub it against his neck.

“Okay I’ll probably be back earlier. I didn't have plans to really stay after this shoot,” I smile as I start to head out the door.

“Tell Chan I said bye!” I walk out the door.

Today feels nice, the sky is still overcast with the late October weather moving into winter.

Pulling up to the set and getting to see the line together was so satisfying and it made me feel like everything was coming together. Fake sets and lighting stood out, waiting to find Johnny, I started to look around talking to some of the makeup artists thanking them for their help. I start to see some of the models dressed and coming on set, one was sitting in the corner quietly flipping through his phone also seemingly waiting for directions on what to do. He has soft round white ferret ears and a tail that slightly curls to be in his lap and he’s wearing the outfit I finished sewing yesterday.

“Hi I'm L/n Y/n, I'm the top designer on this project. I just want to thank you for working and modeling with us,” I say sticking out my hand.

A soft smile graces his full lips as he reaches his hand to greet mine.

“I’m Hwang Hyunjin.”

Bismuth Taglist :

@fuck-you-im-gae @i-dont-know-me-either @betray-jaes

Don’t forget to reblog and let me know how you like it

#skz x reader #hybrid au #hybrid!skz #poly!skz #poly!reader #poly x reader #bang chan x reader #felix x reader #lee felix x reader #hyunjin x reader #lee know x reader #changbin x reader #han jisung x reader #seungmin x reader #jeongin x reader #a/b/o fanfic #omegaverse #x gn reader #nonbinary reader

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mooncakesofpan · 1 year

Text

So you want to write fanfiction/OC content (and you’ve never written before)

I started thinking about this because it’s not something I’ve seen specific advice for. This is the one-pot recipes of writing advice: stuff I’ve used to write hundreds of thousands of words of fanfic and OC whump which isn’t literary but which gets the characters and stories I love across.

What constitutes good storytelling is a subject which has been discussed since before writing was even invented. You’re going to have to work out what it means for yourself over time.

However, when it comes to whump/fanfiction, I would tentatively say the primary purpose is to get across a story/character idea you have to other people. In this way, “good” is less useful than “effective at communication”. This communication is most effective where it is well-worded, and well-paced - so yes, your story should read well, but that can be geared in service of your vision.

To that end, here’s three sets of basic tips which I’ve found helpful. To some people it might seem obvious but everything here is something I genuinely didn’t know or hadn’t heard put into words when I was starting out.

And of course, if you just want to jump right into it then do!!

Exercises

If jumping straight into writing is daunting/confusing, consider using writing exercises! Try any which look fun to you - here are three I recommend but any will help you start.

Description

Describe where you are right now. Don’t feel any need to be poetic, just try to get across what it is like. 5 senses, where things are all, nothing complicated. It can be as short as you like - try for at least 100 words.

It also helps keep description grounded - you might notice you go from the entire scene down to smaller details, or you’re going left-to-right. Trying applying the same sense of space/direction to fictional descriptions will keep them feeling more realistic.

Reread your description and notice what jumps out.

What does your description of this place say about you? Again, this doesn’t have to be deep - “I really like this coffee shop” or “I can name the flowers in this park because my dad taught me”.

Now, imagine your character in this normal setting you’re in right now. How would they describe it? They’ll probably notice the same basics as you - the smell of coffee or the sun shining over the park. But maybe they’ll notice different details, like where the doors are in the coffee shop since they’re used to scanning for threats. Or maybe they won’t know the names of even common flowers, because they’re from a secret lab.

I really like this exercise because it helps to ground writing, and as someone who does watch a lot of TV/film, it switches me into the mode of interiority which writing is so fun to explore.

Balance

I personally split my writing into narration, dialogue, description and vibes, based on Maggie Stiefvater. Everyone has different ways of splitting things up to understand them, but I think at least working with narration and description (Stephen King) is important. When it feels like something is missing, all too often it’s just a little more description.

I recommend taking a piece of writing you love, picking a colour for each writing part, and highlighting away. If you want to get extra fancy with it, do it for a few different moments and genres.

This way, you can get a good balance of different elements to round out your story.

Character

Before you write your first piece, you’ll want to think about how to introduce your character. What’s unique about them compared to other OCs? What’s your take on a pre-existing character you love?

How are they going to grow over your story?

You want to put in the broad strokes in first, what are the most important things about them (alongside the details which are more fun to include).

I think a good way to think about it can be a “but”. Try to make this about within the character rather than their external circumstances.

Trying to get these “but” sentences across in your first story helps to show how your character is unique, that they have depth, and room to grow.

Sometimes you’ll want to hide the big “but”, or the event which will give them pause is coming up. In that case, you still want to establish why that event will be so important.

Eg. My character Maud’s “but” is triggered by disobeying an order to kill a spider due to her empathy, but her kindness and belief in the kindness of even those who are cruel to her is established in her first piece - that belief just doesn’t have an outlet yet.

It’s a process

Every time I see a writer sincerely say their first draft is terrible, a single hair on my head turns white.

Plan! Plan, even if it’s three bullet points. Just the process of getting your idea down will help.

Then draft. Follow your flow. Anything which is stuck goes in brackets.

[Cost of a gun in Switzerland]

[That thing hotels put over the duvet as a colourful stripe thing]

[Beat]

[Describe the car - it’s red and sporty]

I personally love writing just my dialogue first and then filling in around it to add pacing and nuance to the conversation.

Artists sketch; writers draft.

Go over your draft, fill in details and edit. Find a process which works for you.

Troubleshooting

Other quick tips when it feels stuck-

Don’t start all your sentences with nouns! Get some variety in there

Vary sentence length

For action, match sentence lengths to the action. “He stabbed.” - short and punchy. “Whirling her axe above her head, Darla ran into the fray without so much as a scream, mouth set in silent fury.” - shows a long, clear motion

Read aloud - everyone hates this (me included) but it works

Put it down for a few days and come back with fresh eyes

Show, then tell. Often it’s enough to just give a “Her fists clenched and she looked down.”, but when you want more detail and interiority, following that up with, “Shame was a foreign emotion to her. She hated the reminder she could still feel it.” tells us more about her and her history.

Cut out filler words. No just, no proceeded to, no slightly, no it happened to be.

Mix up sense words. Let a touch whisper or a laugh twinkle.

If it still feels like it isn’t good, then showing someone else can help. Outside pointers make a huge difference.

Using some of all the other writing advice out there might make that specific thing which isn’t working unstick.

And if it really still doesn’t feel good…

Post it anyway!

Who’s going to tell you not to?

If it shares your idea and is the best you can do, get it out there. You’ve done what you set out to do, and communicated the idea you wanted to as best you can.

Then you can write something new and it will be better.

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